The game is great. The overall print quality is fine. read the POD options carefully and open all windows, because the standard color is not color- it’s black and white with substandard art. Had this been an actual color print as the listing implies I would have given a better rating.

The Story is a solid one. It can be played in one session (depending as always on the crazy ideas of your players). The Adventure could be used for any other cyberpunk system and is very easy to adapt (change magic against high tech). The npc are cool and each of them feel different with a little story. The maps (each map is printed two times. one with and one without numbers) are bought maps. The chance is high you know them and have used them before (if you google maps or are a patreon of some of the few good cyber/scifi map makers). The only thing i really dislike and that feels bad, are the artificial page boosters. There are six pages with pregens (the same you can donwload seperatley here in DTRPG and that are put into all of the Lowlife 2090 adventures!). Two pages are a Lexicon (the same words from the core rulebook)... 1 page for the OGL and a front and back cover...so from the 29 pages only 18 are "the adventure". But nonetheless a good adventure with a low investment in money and prep time!

Indeed it improved since LFG and I like the system, though it has some defects. I'm not writing a full review, just some comments:

Great Features (I like):

• Great monster stat blocks: WHY didn't anyone think of including monster-specific reaction rolls? Brilliant. Also, the statblocks are short and consise, superior for ease of use.

• PC creation tells right away what the player needs to do and most stuff is rolled for (far better than tell the player to chose like in the new school). Seem fast to create a new PC, predominantly randomized (you only choose class basically) and with the obligatory standard class equipment (having to waste time buying trash and choosing PC stuff in creation is BULLSH1T)

• 66 backgrounds that give a skill, attribute bonus and item. Randomly roll and not cringe, this kind of resource should be standard for RPG because it prevents and kills that long cringy backstory storygame crap.

• PCs roll for party bonds. Very useful to solve the legendary question of why a party is together, share money and roughly trust each other.

• Trauma on nat 19 atk: Divided by dmg type. Better than the old LFG weapon natural 19 effects (tho these were already brilliant). It requires constantly consulting the Trauma Tables, but it is worth it. This makes monsters very interesting since they obviously have it too (and the roll is modified such as 1d8+6): a Cyclops has quite the chance of causing brain swelling on a blunt hit.

• Standard distances (adjacent, close, far, etc) with references for their numeric value, sugesting play w/o having explicit numbers unnecessarily.

• There are random encounter tables (50 for settlements, d20 per biome). They give enought detail, not being only a blank monster entry.

Other features and some defects:

• LUCK: The system uses Luck as a visceral part of it, making it not worth it to trhy to use it ruling it out. This will require the GM to have Luck as a real semi-palpable thing it the Setting, which is not bad by itself. Pcs using Luck for martial exploits or skill rerolls is ok if interpreted as something they do IN-GAME, such as spending extra effort in something (which is a finite resource).

The semi-inherent problem with this it that PCs can spend Luck ro reroll Luck rolls, to avoid dying in the Dying condition, among some other similar usage, with are non-diegetic abilities since PCs cannot do this kind of thing (only the player uses, NOT the PC) because it would be impossible to justify it in-game. This harms immersion greatly, therefore is it objectively bad (I plan to use the system modified to not have anything non-diegetic).

• Dark and Dangerous Magic Table: Magic-user spells have an inherent chance of causing chaotic effects, some omnious, some weird or gonzoish (if you want a setting w/o gonzo elements such as the classic tentacle beards a number of table results have to be ignored).

• The Death Save Rule is just gimmicky nonsense, it is trash (The Wounded rule is good tho). A fallen PC only rolls to discover if they're dead after the battle, when the party checks him, therefore you can't determine or check if he's dead mid-battle (which is quite a basic thing). Similarly you can't see if he suffered other injuries because INJURIES & SEtBACKS are rolled after the Death Save. It makes no hell of a sense and destroys the verisimilitude of the world, also shattering immersion. This rule also has the effect of: 1 - Informing PCs they can wait as long as they want to save the fallen PC, because he would only die if executed by an enemy, having no chance of death by time, so there's no real time-limit. 2 - There being NO chance of being insta-killed by normal attacks (which is damm ludicrous, specially for a combat system with good granularity otherwise) The Death Save rule is the worst rule of the game, which harms the reaity of the game greatly . Playing it RAW would be pretty bad for that.

• Optional rules: they seem ok, but few are interesting besides "Str for Thrown Weapon Damage".

• Excellent character sheet.
• Plenty of space for info.
• Easy to read, not cluttered.
• Nice artwork.

Really an awesome game, I have tried it (v4) and I’m sold ! I liked it so much that I backed it first day when it came out on kickstarter. It’s what I have always looked for on combats; quick, deadly, and the exploits mechanic let you be creative and cinematic with a rule system to frame it. The roll under rule on skill test to make every point count is also nice.

Love the direction this is heading: fast, brutal combat in a grim world where magic feels dangerous and mysterious.

Can't wait to see the final version!

The new edition looks fantastic! Improves on many elements of the previous game and brings some new ideas. The magic revamp is fantastic.

Tales of Argosa is the perfect game if you want something between OSR and 5e, with less magic and a lot of aids to help the DM run things easily.

The change of name is, in my opinion, a necessary change (the previous edition was called Low Fantasy Gaming, and the acronym is LFG, so it would mess up any search);

Very excited about this, looking forward to the final version coming out!

I have to begin with the negative, only because the product promised "less magic". I do want some magic spells and blessings, but I thought they promised that on the cover where it actually says, "less magic, more grit". But wow! It's so far high magic that it is one of the highest magic system in any other system! Every time a spell or prayer is cast there must be a 1d20 roll and if the result is a 1 there then must be a roll on the "Dark & Dangerous Magic" chart. A few of results: "You grow a beard of tentacles which cannot control and will shrivel up and drop off after 1d3 days"., "Your skin oozes a foul-smelling mucus", "Your surface flesh begins to rot and fades away after 1d6 MONTHS". Less magic??? A roll every time a spell is cast?? The reminder of the product has about 80% amazing stuff. One of the best layouts of interiors compared to other games. Tons of art and charts which can be used. 284 pages. Very well written. Here they do provide a somewhat gritty atmosphere with combat and injuries & healing. Once I rip the "Dark & Dangerous Magic" chart out of the book the magic becomes somewhat I'd been looking for. Chapters: Creating a Character, Attributes, Races, Classes, Unique Features, Skills, Party Bonds, Equipment, How to Use Skills, Combat, Injuries & Healing, Magic, Advancement, GM TOOLS, Exploration, Hirelings, Madness, Mass Battle, Monsters, Morale/NPC Reactions, Rival Adventurers, Tavern Brawls, Traps, Treasure, and various stuff.

If Pathfinder was too magical, gamey, or rigid.

If OSE was too simplified and featureless.

If WFRP was too crunchy and anti-combat.

If DCC, 5 Torches Deep, Shadowdark, and Morkborg felt as though they were missing complexity beyond the dungeon delve or character progression.

If Forbidden Lands or Savage Worlds was too different and you missed the d20 feeling.

And if you liked 5e but wished it was grounded, gritty, versatile, and didn't render DMing an experience of suffering.

Then this is it. Because I played all the above in search of a system that supported character customisability, narrative combat support, emergent gameplay, hexcrawls, dungeon crawls, gritty combat, domain play, and out of the box capability for both historical and high fantasy settings.

LFG fulfilled all of these without driving me nuts like Mythras or depressed by GURPs infinite splatbooks.

Easy to pick up for new players, fast character creation, and a concise framework that supports adaptibility. LFG treads the line of OSR so it's great for solo-play, system conversion, homebrew, and setting neutral gameplay.

It secures a blend for GMs like myself who desire a lower magical setting with OSR philosophy but without sacrificing modern conveniences and retaining [GMs choice!] 5e style feats or subclasses. All the while preventing 5e and Pathfinder video game syndrome below:

Level 1 Fighter - 'As I attack with my maul I swing it into the orc's leg to trip him!'

DM - 'You hit! But you're not a level 3 Battlemaster with the Trip Manoeuvre! So he takes 5 damage and nothing else happens!'

Thanks to the developer's community support, the condensed free Basic guide, the Deluxe manual, and the Companion or Trade Winds supplements. LFG makes for a great newbie casual delve or your next hardcore granular campaign spanning into domain-play that's as light as a fully-fledged OSR or crunchier than 5e.

And even if you're not interested in playing or GMing LFG, this book is chockful of useful tables and mechanics to rip for other systems!

“Extra, extra, read all about it! Aliens are real!” The headline on The Sun Newspaper – the year 1970. Recently, I soloed my way through Adventure Framework 67: Sky Tower of Belk Xos (19 pages) a fun adventure for Low Fantasy Gaming. The RPG system that I used to play it was Moon’s Haunted (13 pages, free/pay what you want at DriveThruRPG). I used The Dungeon Oracle (Paul Bimler) as the solo engine. The adventure started with the five Marines and one Navy guy walking across the moon on the dark side of the moon looking for missing astronauts. They were expecting trouble so they were armed with shields and swords. They discovered the Sky Tower and managed to get inside it from the bottom.

The tower had fresh air, so they took off their spacesuits. They used the Gravity Chute to go up. On the first level they found a med pod with a Verrg in it. It came out blasting with its ray gun. The PCs killed it and acquired the ray gun. On the second level they killed a Chak Chak and two more Verrgs. They acquired two more ray guns, but Charles was shot and killed by ray gun damage. At this point, they went down to where their spacesuits were located and Mark the Marine put one on (to increase his armor class). On the third level, they found a homing map sphere, a suitcase, two kinds of oil, and paper, followed by bad air.

On the fourth level, they encountered an ooze and Thomas the Marine took damage from an acid tendril. The PCs escape by going up the Gravity Chute. On the fifth level, they found data crystals, a displacer field amulet, and a jet pack. Next, they explored part of level six and then headed back down to the med pod. Thomas took a point of damage when it did not work properly. They went back up to the sixth level and discovered a spectre. They were terrified. They ran away and exited the tower. They did make it back to earth with alien artifacts and a story to tell. Charles was given a proper burial and he was the subject of many speeches.

Give this adventure a try!

LFG is an interesting, more swords & sorcery take on D&D 5e or Pathfinder. While it labels itself "low fantasy", and it is indeed more deadly than 3.0 and later editions of D&D, it is more grim than gritty, with lots of room for heroics, including explicit rules for doing rule-of-cool stuff in combat, and explicit retreat mechanics. It also uses a Luck attribute, similar to Fighting Fantasy and Warlock!, rather than classical saving throws.

If youre looking for a lower power but still heroic rule set a 5e table would be comfortable transitioning to, this fits the bill.

i game mastered 2 games using low fantasy gaming and i have the following opinions.

i love a lot about this game and ill just list what i liked and think are improvements over the base d20 model for fantasy games.

• less classes (though frankly barbarian could have just been a fighter weapon style)
• the skill system (how i interpret it at aleast)
• reroll pool
• the luck system acting for saving throws
• exploits are cool
• level 3, 6, 9. 12 unique abilities are awesome
• i like injurys and dark and dangerous magic
• chases (in concept, didint get to use these much)
• weapons having unique crit effects

my problems are that the game is not very clear as to how skill checks work exactly, whether having a skill adds +1 to ability checks for each ability a characters skills are attributed to or if its only target attribute +1. also its not clear if untrained skilled gain this benefit or not. my group sort of just relied on the roll20 character sheet to answer this question.

skill contests didint make a lot of sense to me at first and could be simplified to saying "both creatures roll a skill or attribute check, then the winner is the creature who exceeds the target number the most, when neither succeed the winner is the closest to the target number.

initiative makes sense on paper but we ran into a problem using the roll20 character sheet because the character sheet treats initiative the way it would a skill check rolling against a target number (no idea which number) when that is not how it works in the book.

there are no rules for rising from prone when a character is knocked prone, we just decided that you spend a move action for it, however if a character is knocked prone by an attack and the attacker cant make a second attack then the character being prone has no effect on combat unless another enemy attacks them afterword. id recommend rising from prone provoking an attack from adjacent enemies

while i like the chase rules they are a bit in-flexible outside its most obvious application, for instance i thought it was a good idea for a rolling boulder trap to act like a chase, but this created many problems. 3d6 legs of a chase are far to many, inanimate objects dont have con scores, but i settled on it having a con score of 10, and a lot of the chase events didint fit the situation players were in. this isint so much bad as it means id need to remake the table to tailor the situation better, but i believe that for the situation the rules were designed for they are great. however, id change the number of legs a chase lasts to being 1d6 per player character participating.

weapons having unique crits is interesting but monsters using weapons require you to memorize how each weapons crit works

While you won’t lose anything if you download this supplement, I won’t say there’s anything really important to get out of this. When my gaming group got the book, it left us with disappointment (with one of us saying “this is stupid”). What we want most was new class abilities, new spells, expanded rules and possibly an errata to rectify various rule issues and oversights the game has. Instead, we get expanded tables for starting cybernetics and starting contacts (both of which I hated in the base game and I hate here), new guns (all in categories that have enough guns already), new cybernetics (most unnecessary, two laughably ridiculous, and one a DM’s nightmare to implement) and new drones (which are okay but nothing necessary).

I would say, if you want to add some silly weapons, cybernetics, and drones, you mind as well check this out. If you want new additions that truly expand on the game and make it more overall enjoyable, then you can skip it. In all honesty, what I want most in the next supplement is rules expansions, errata, and possibly new class abilities and spells.

I picked this up on recommendation from a friend of mine. I really like what's going on here. I'm a die hard 3rd edition grognard and ideas put forward here could really spice up the game play.

This is a solid game but not really "Low fantasy". This is a quickstart free version of an AD&D 1e retroclone through and through.

Magic is handled nearly the same as 1e so low magic it is not. Magic is generally Vancian spells and work like AD&D 1e but with more evocative titles and potential danger on casting failures. Spells are all assumed to be movement and verbal commands without spell components. It's a fine OSR 1e clone but only brings a few new cool things to the table.

The coolest bits are around trying cinematic extra actions during combat. It is also nice in that the main book also includes a dungeon creation table, a list of spell miscasting dangers, chase obstacles table, and couple other nice tables. Meanwhile, this book (nor the original full version) include any encumbrance rules at all. That's in the second book. Buying equipment is otherwise oversimplified.

In addition, about half of this quickstart is a monster encyclopedia with bland entries. I'm not sure I see enough here to get excited about. I already own and am fairly familiar with AD&D 1e.

If you want AD&D 1e with less rules, this is a winner since there are about 90 pages of rules here. On the other hand, once you get the full version, it may be pretty close to the original in size. Then, if you add on the companion rules book, it would no longer be much lighter.

Maybe the complete version would be worth the purchase? I'm not sure. I'm leaning towards Old School Essentials instead as the presentation looks much clearer and the rules changes there are generally to reconcile rules that never made sense in the first place.