This is a simple but clever Mass skirmish game for medieval warfare. Something sort of unique about it is you don't get into equipping troops. Just general unit types, like Light, Shield, Charger, Missile. Makes list building a breeze.

The dice system is pretty simple too. Usually your rolling 2d6 in order to detirmine outcomes, and if you fail once something bad happens. Fail twice something worse happens.

This is my favorite game for running my Fantasy armies quickly and easily without getting out for a full mass battle. Can't wait for the fantasy supplement coming out which should be a huge book of goodies.

Full disclosure I have been in contact with the author on development of this game. Ivan is a stand out dude, and loves to continue support for his games based on input from fans of his games.

This game is quite a bit of fun. Easy and logical solo play rules, you can string together multiple scenarios for campaigns. Fun, fast gameplay.

A well written scenario for Five Leagues from the Borderlands. It's laid out in 7 Chapters, and you can progress without reading the next part, keeping the surprise levels interesting. There aren't any punitive choices during the scenario (e.g. if you did X in Chapter 2, suffer Y in Chapter 5), rather going with the flow of the rolled events.
In my playthrough I got really stuck during the first chapter due a LOT of bad dice rolls, but thankfully, some skills in my party helped alleviate that a little. It has variety in it's encounters (terrain, enemy) and variety in addressing the situations at hand. It is meant for a new warband, so there are times where my battle hardened party (~7 sessions in) had it too easy and with some good dice rolls, after the first Chapter, it was mostly a walk in the park. The associated loot also is quite nice. It gave me many solo play sessions to deal with.

Recommended!

Low fantasy... check. Warband management with advancement elements... check. Skirmish wargaming...check. Solo player focused...check.

Five Leagues from the Borderlands succeeds at all the above and even more. This is a choose your own miniatures skirmish wargame with careful balance and some innovative mechanics.

It's low fantasy. The implied setting is medieval western Europe, where magic and monsters are rare. Elves, dwarves, orcs, undead exist in the game at just the right dose to make it interesting. Don't expect wizards riding dragons, shooting fireballs against laser shooting smilodons. It's poverty and ignorance. This is the middle ages, spanning from dark ages to rennaiscance.

It has warband management and you advance each and every one of your members. Rags to riches. Gutter urchin to warlord. You chose their unique gear, armor, weapons. The campaign turn reminded me heavily of old school computer games. They have just enough stats to be interesting and varied without becoming cluttered. There is a clear Follower and Hero distinction and you really want your members to advance to Hero status. Though as the publisher states, you make the game your own.

The skirmish part is very well designed. The average battle plays with around 15 figures for both sides, touching the upper solo limit capacity for me. I had a couple of battles at around 18 figures, which started as cumbersome, until first blood. The game plays really fast, and I always managed to finish a combat session in one seating, 1-2 hours at most, but I also take photographs and notes while playing for my blog reports, which severely increase game time.
The melee exchanges system is just brilliant. It gives an ebb and flow to the combat, with many different results and interesting outcomes.

The solo aspect is what really sealed the deal. The initiative mechanic is so easy to implement that I never looked back. Of course it wouldn't be a solo game without tables. All solo rpg players seek them out, and Five Leagues has them plenty. Tables for encounters, tables for random events, tables for backgrounds. Wherever you need a table, there is one.
Resolutions happen on the spot. There is only minimal notes for future reference.

Five Leagues won't win any stars on artwork or layout. There is just enough pictures to make things distinct. The rules are clearly laid out, and any rules interpretation confusion is usually minor, and usually hunted down on the regular updates. Bookmarking is at the bare minimum. There is a table of contents, with hyperlinks, but that's all there is. I'd like to see some pdf navigation bookmarks and an index at the end. This is a game which wins at gameplay, not at presentation. Though I must admit I've seen improvements over previous versions.

Coming at the game updates. I've followed Five Leagues for the past year. The updates are regular, and there is slight rules tinkering and extra content. The rules changes are either an improvement, or an 'one or the other' case. I haven't found a rule change that got me disappointed.

This is a skirmish wargame with rpg elements, not the other way around, and it's excellent at it. Grab your fantasy miniatures, grab your dice set and go hunt some outlaws ravaging the farms around the village.

5/5 Highly recommended!

A very simple and light game to learn but with a wealth of things to do that will keep you occupied for a long time including a full campaign system. It may not suit players looking for a more mechanically demanding game but is very much worth a look for most and would probably be a great introductory game to new players as well as narrative driven ones. Also worth noting is although written as a medieval setting it also works just as well for the Arthurian through Viking age.

There's a lot to like about Ballad of the Longbow, it's a fun little indie title that sits at a crossroads between wargame, OSR and PBTA and offers a refreshingly unique blend of the three as it tries to specifically tell the story of a band of gray-area outlaws taking on corrupt officials looking to enrich themselves at the expense of the people.

The system itself is a roll-under D20 with a skill list, 15 in total, available to all characters. They are pretty general but fit pretty well with the default setting, including things like Religion, Education and Etiquette, beyond the usual fight skills. Character Types in Longbow are more like PBTA playbooks in that they are strong archetypes from the type of story the game emulates. No generic fighters, instead you have Knights, Beggars, Yeomen and Outlaws. 11 in total, the Character Types are largely differentiated by their starting equipment list and their 'Abilities', which are actions characters can take without rolling. Some Abilities add combat mechanics, while others add narrative flair to things that could be otherwise be solved with a skill roll. Sure you could make a stealth check to try to eavesdrop on guards, but the Beggar could simply plop down in the square and Loiter.

Combat has an interesting fast/slow phase mechanic borrowed from the FiveCore games instead of traditional initiative. It shows its wargame roots, a successful strike doesn't always wound, but even two wounds are fatal. It's robust enough to use with or without miniatures and has reasonable tactical depth without being a slog. Barring extra bad dice, combat should go quick. One combat move I especially like is 'Bravado', a catch-all for anything fun in combat like kicking someone over a railing or leaping off an extra tall building.

For GMs, the advice is relatively sparse. It assumes a GM who's done it before. Still, it adds some fun ideas. The game has specific opinions on how to play a big bad. Villains (capital V) and Allies also have evocative Abilities like PCs, "Fueled by Malice" and "It was a Trap!". The setting itself is not explicitly detailed beyond "Robin Hood, you know, like in the stories" although some of the mechanics take care of that. Anyone playing this is probably not looking for hyper-detailed organizational structures of medieval serfdoms. Knowing a local magistrate with a hilariously petty goal and a bunch of willing goons of varying strength is probably enough.

All told, Ballad of the Longbow is a good system for medium length campaigns that don't want to get too bogged down in tedious combat while still keeping tactical combat entertaining. Another excellent entry from Nordic Weasel Games.

This game is a great entry point if you are looking to get someone started in wargaming like a child or a friend. It is accessible to play a single game and it is fast paced. Playing a game should come to a satisfactory conclusion after just five rounds. The campaign does add rules, and they do help generate a narrative as you play.

These rules are great for what they are. They are an affordable set of easy to learn and quick to play rules. If you already have a large collection of rules, then you might want to pass on this one. There is one disclaimer to this though; the scenario generator is simple, yet it can help you come up with a quick story on the fly. It could be worth printing out and keeping near your table for when you need a narrative for your game.

A full review and battle report is available here.

As a solo gamer, Nordic Weasel is my go-to producer of great rule sets designed for my particular gaming preference. The beauty is that games designed as solo experiences translate WAY easier to cooperative or opposed play than the other way around. For games meant to be played against an opponent, there is usually an "empty" feel to a set of solo play rules. Overly simplified AI, enemies that simply run full speed across the table like a pack of mindless zombies, and other oddities can make the enemy feel less "thinking" and lean towards random behavior.

I really appreciate that there is some ongoing support and development for this game as well, with the third expansion just being released. Expansions have created new enemy types, new locations, and (most important) new loot.

I'd give this 6-stars if I could.

Medieval mass skirmish! That’s what it says on the cover!

If you are looking for an eloquent multiplayer rule set that enables fun skirmish situations from earlier eras of warfare then this rule system will suit you wonderfully.
The mechanics are easy, but not too simple. Based on d6 rolling higher than a target number. The basic rules get out of the way of the fun, and are simple enough to learn fast. However there is enough intricacy to keep it fresh, without becoming dive into hardcore simulation.

A basic game can easily be played with a handful of foot or mounted figures (typically 3 or 6 of each type per unit), and a couple of lone figures to represent individuals that are a cut above the rank and file. Worry not though, the rules can handle much larger scenarios and figure counts the only thing that will be affected is the game duration. You will find that there is nuance to the different types of unit classes that make for interesting strategic and tactical options. The terrain and environment handling is simple, but meaningful. I have personally tested the game at smaller engagement and figure scales (15mm) on a 2’ foot square play area, and it works just wonderfully. My personal preference is to have a few different types of markers on hand for the little bit of visual bookkeeping, although not required. You can easily get by with offboard tracking on paper.

Included inside are basic rules for battlefield situations. A nice simple, yet modular, point based force building system will allow you to get to the table quick. The author has added fun sections on bringing the battlefield to life with items like weather charts, persistent campaign play rules, and unit development. Much more is included also. Everything past the basic rules is optional. I WILL POINT OUT IN BOLD THAT THIS NORDIC WEASEL OFFERING DOESN’T HAVE AN INTRINSIC SOLO RULE SECTION. It is designed as is for multiplayer.

The layout is easy to read, and print. I personally sent it out to be printed and bound. It works well at my table. Maybe the weakest point might be the layout, although I prefer simple and easy to read, some may find the this book to be a little too light in the art and layout department. It’s not all text wall and such. Nice line art of weapons and other appropriate accoutrement are in there. Your mileage may vary in that aspect. I prefer it. Using the PDF on a tablet or laptop would work well too.

If you are looking for a good uncomplicated medieval skirmish game then this is it. The price is right. The rules are the right balance of crunchy and “out of the way”. The whole package is very easy to understand. As a bonus the author is receptive to rules questions (I know I bugged him a few times to clarify). GO get it!

First I love the cover. Really sets the mood. Second it's a skirmish cyberpunk game. RPGs can be really complex and some of the cyberpunk games on Wargame Vault too. This is an interesting fast playing game. The scenarios are the Classic rpg cyberpunk scenarios but playable in a few hours. The campaign mod is simple. There is no solitare option. You can play in meatspace or on the net and by that I mean this is a face to face game, not playable on the real net. Your cyberpunks versus the Corporation or 'punks vs 'punks. And for a big game with lots of stuff corp vs corp.

The book internal graphics are excellent. Organizatiion moves you along showing you how combat works, then how the net works and what edges are available. Edges are all the cool options you can add to your character.

It's all there and inexpensive. Why wait, go get it

I bought this (at the writers recommendation no less!) as an add-on for No Stars in Sight - and it works just fine. It's mostly an array of additional game mechanics usable with No End in Sight that are equally usable with NSIS. They inlude rules variants, expansions and system add-ons to expand and increase detail. Some are of more limited use than others, but many can be uased at will - as a useful hint the writer provides comments on each new rule that explain what changes the new rule will have on the players game. This is a useful and eimple expansion, and is (like NSIS) simply & clearly written and quite useful.

I read throught he entire book last night. This game is intended for small unit actions...up to a few squads, witht he chance for some supporting fire or vehicles. The suggested starting force has six figures per side, on a small table. I used a 2x3 foot board, witha small village in the center. The first try saw the Germans and americans approch from opposite directions. dice are rolled by each side to determine the number of actions, and which actions, the soldiers are allowed. Not everyonne will be able to act(but just might get to react). As the americans moved into cover on their side of town, one German fired his rifle, missing, but disrupting his target. One the German turn they too tried to get cover from the buildings. Two americans were hit and went down, while one German did so. On the rally phase, one of the Americans was found to be alright, while the other was dead. As the firefight continued, the US sergeant had a chance to spray down the street, and put another german 'out of action'. Right right flank rifleman took out another German, and the remaining Germans picked up their wounded and left. (The practice scenario goes to the first side to inflict three 'out of actions'.

No Stars in Sight is aimed at the sub-company level game, with players taking a platoon or two of infantry, with perhaps a vehicle or two in support. However, larger games are easily playable with these rules. Although the rules are intended for a near future hard sci-fi game setting, the rules also include full options for sc-fant & space opera games. As well as these optional rules NSiS also includes rules covering several types of alien races ... The Swarm, Warriors, The Many to name but a few. The basic rules are very simple and quick to grasp, but once more options and variant troop types become involved NSiS becomes a much more in-depth game, although care must be taken to make sure you know how your soldiers will 'work' in the rules - playing a few games will soon result in you knowing what (and how) to 'work' with them!

The infantry combat rules take a little getting used to if you're used to the idea that your little lead soldiers will do what you want each & every turn, no questions asked - in NSiS they'll quickly begin to lose effectiveness as a fight progresses; this means that each game can become increasingly tense as your soldiers get pinned own just short of their objectives, or as that horde of melee focussed bug warriors appears over the hill crest. Teamwork & proper use of all available cover is absolutely vital - trying an uncordinated mad dash across open ground, or the traditional line 'em up & march 'em forwards across that field approach, will quickly result in a hail of reaction fire and casualties galore that will stop your troops (dead) in their tracks ... As befits a smaller level game focussed on platoons & squads what happens to your wounded troopers matters (unless you're playing a swarm of uncaring alien beasties, that is).

The inluded vehicle rules are neat and tidy and work well within the rules without the (normal) problem inherent to smaller level games, that being the vehicles used in small scale games overpowering & dominating the infantry action - NSiS is very much an infantry platoons & squads game.

The rules themselves are clearly & neatly written & presented, with the occasional piece of artwork not detracting from or overwhelming the presentation - printed in greyscale & spiral bound with a laminated cover, it makes a nice little rulebook for a very reasonable price.

No Stars in Sight is a very impressive ruleset, a worthy compatriot to SG II, and way superior to Gruntz in almost all respects. Nuff sed ...

I have had this RPG for so long and only recently (okay a few months ago) finally got around to playing it. But now that I have seen it live up to expectations, I wanted to share my impressions/feelings about it.

As usual, I start with the things that are not so good or may be a problem for people.

First of all, the explanation of the story mode character creation system is incomplete/misleading. It is not a big deal as it is easy to deduct that there should be traits handed out during the steps that have nothing listed. It is still inconvenient.

Secondly, I don't see the reason why advantages/disadvantages are limited to combat. Having advantages with normal skill checks as well would offer potential invitations to not simply try something but rather set up the thing to improve your chances, especially since there are no numerical modifiers.

Third, as a personal note, I don't really believe in the default system of using traits. You have six traits. Each positive trait can be used once before it needs to be replenished either by sleeping (which replenishes a single trait) or by suffering the consequences of a negative trait (which also restores a single trait). So, traits are extremely valuable but rare. In the default system, you have to decide whether you invest a trait into a roll beforehand. Which means investing a lot and the possible outcomes do not change thanks to the trait usage for it means that you roll two sets of dice and pick the one you like for your result. The so-called easy mode sounds more reasonable as traits are used to get re-rolls; so you roll first and then decide whether you invest to get a second chance.

Fourth, this combines with third; combat, on the other hand, does not use the default system but rather always easy mode, which kind of runs counter to the idea of a default mode for the game.

Fifth, details like whether you can use multiple traits on a single roll are not dealt with. Similarly, it seems as if there should be a limitation that you can not use normal traits or normal conviction burning to re-roll a result of gruesome death; otherwise the rules for avoiding it would become meaningless.

Sixth, there are tons of random tables, but there are no solo rules for it. Why?

There are a few things that Usurper does not include or that do not work well with it.

Classic dungeon crawls with lots of monsters do not work for the rules. Usurper is designed to have risky combat and the trait system described above means that resources are quite limited. A dungeon full of monsters could probably deal even with experienced pcs as they eventually run out of traits and convictions and are left at the mercy of the dice.

The default setting does not have any spells and no arcane magic users at all. If you are a loyal servant of a god, you may pray for a miracle, but that is left to the fancy of a table to determine in its outcome. Magic in general is nothing for mortals to wield.

That last point may be seen as a positive by people and it is for me. Usurper does not come with a default world you play in, but it comes with the tools of (randomly) generating your own iteration of their default setting of a medieval world of fantasy and horror. As mentioned above, magic is not the providence of men but of gods - and the underdark. The underworld of Usurper is not merely dark and home to monsters, it is a place of madness and chaos and it changes whatever is in it, including adventurers braving it. Monsters are individuals rather than races, although the rules do support non-human pcs and so you could have demihumans or goblinoid races. But things like dragons are supposed to be unique (and can be created randomly).

Add to this the balancing of the system. While player characters are supposed to be competent people with many skills, combat is supposed to be a risky, deadly affair. No matter how experienced your character is, any combat can end with their death. There are also rules for mental trauma, which should be applied in stressful situations which may include the first combat of a character or encountering a new monster. GMs are adviced to play NPCs accordingly, having them flee combant or surrender instead of fighting to the death - until the real monsters appear and break that rule.

The system itself is a narrative system that doesn't feel like it. At its core, you declare your intended action and then roll 1d100 against a table of some 15 possible outcomes including also interruption by a random event. That one table is used for all basic actions except for dealing with gods or combat. You swim across a river, roll on that table. You try to bribe a guard (that's the example), roll on that table. You try to charm a lady, roll on that table. You try to defeat a monster in combat, roll on the combat table. The basic table also has an evil brother, the heroic deed table. It is for cases where your character tries something beyond human power, stretching beyond their limit. While the basic table has a good chance of success, failure is quite likely for a heroic deed and it can be fatal. This is a great tool for improvising high risk actions.

The above may raise two questions:

What about your foes, how do they act? The game is player-facing, that is, only the players roll dice. Their characters either act or react to the actions of others and roll their dice. The GM does not roll dice in task resolution or combat.

What about modifiers? There are none. The game is truely statless having not even fake stats like some non-numerical games have. You have traits and convictions, and you may burn them for re-rolls, that's it. Opponents may have traits that force you to re-roll a good roll and in combat at least, you can get a temporary trait of advantage or disadvantage depending on the situation and on the combatants. That's all there is as far as mechanisms are concerned. While it sounds like a lot of hand-waving, the fact that you are bound to the result of the table makes it rather strict again. You roll (and maybe re-roll) and then you know what happens. While the table describes things in general terms, each entry is quite clear about its message and how you should interpret it for your situation. And the results go beyond simple failure or success giving you a clear direction of where the narration is going now.

It is really interesting as it requires you to think differently about roleplaying and how to evaluate a situation. You have to take a strictly narrative standpoint and examine whether an action is reasonable rather than figuring out which attribute to add to which skill or whatever.

There are also no hit points or sanity points (the game does have rules for mental trauma and insanity); if you goof up in combat, you may get bruised, injured, killed or suffer a gruesome death (which has its own table with interesting results, the most extreme being "So unspeakable that onlookers must roll for Mental Trauma" - and blood and gore everywhere is another entry).

Traits and convictions only give you that powerful special advantage of the re-roll. They are part of what your character is, but they do not limit your character. Even if a character does not have a trait that fits a situation, the character can try to act if it seems plausible, the narration here informs the rules. Because of that, the rules do not have a long list of traits but rather have you freely design your own for your character concept. And since there are no prescribed traits, you are not limited by not having chosen a certain trait, unlike in classic games where lacking a skill means inability or handicap in doing things dependent on that skill. Instead, your character can try anything that your character can reasonably be expected to be able to try (or do a heroic deed going beyond the possible).

The system is extremely elegant and efficient. And it is actually generic. While the random content generators are clearly tuned into the default setting, the core rules, including the tables for combat and task resolution as well as character creation can easily be used for any genre or type of game. Of course, some tables need to be interpreted rather freely and some tables for specific things like damage to spaceships are missing, but the basic core can be used as is. But as I said before, it does not work well with scenarios where resources are used up quickly like dungeon crawls.

In order to try out a tool for creating Cthulhu type stories, I created a modern character using the default story mode character creation system and it worked without any modifications necessary. Unfortunately the tool I tried to use did not live up to expectations, so I didn't get to apply the task resolution or combat rules of Usurper, but they are flexible enough that I would have been able to use them without modification as well.

In addition, it comes with a ton of random tables for generating the world, NPCs (rolling up their aims rather than their looks), cities and their factions, trade goods, dungeon features, monsters, followers, and lots more. There is also an adventure tool for simulating an opposing faction the PCs have to weaken and which may (randomly) strike at them, attacking them or the things dear to them. Of course, there are also tables for personal, local, and regional random events. For those interested in solo play, this game is a perfect fit, and it is surprising that it lacks a GME. And rules for domain play.

So, if you want to play Your character and like a narrative game that still has a solid skeleton while giving you great freedom, I really think you should give this game a try. It is a real gem.

I have been looking for a good solo engine for awhile now and nothing has fully stuck with me. But this one is proving to be an interesting exception. I have decided to use it to model a super-hero game. So far I have created a team of four heroes who have been patrolling. I am using the "Oracle" for some of the narrative beats and a hodge-podge of "Super Hero Mission Generators" from around the web that I am adapting for use with this game. I am four days (a dozen patrols) into my quartet's adventures, and so far they've saved a villain (unknown to the general populace) from a vengeful new hero (in a very close battle indeed!), thwarted a robbery, and saved an airliner (carrying the very same as-yet-unknown villain) from a vandalism-caused crash! The battles and the rescue have been generally close, and I have been using minions or bystanders to fill out the teams- in the case of the latter, they don't fight, but they do sometimes take hits that might otherwise have struck down a hero or bad-guy. The system is working pretty well for me so far! My only complaint, really, is that there's a -lot- of wasted space on many pages- it probably takes a third more paper to print than it should based on the content. All in all, this has been fun and is inspiring some great solo play!