For the last few days, I have soloed my way through All Hallow’s Eve from BAM! Basic Action Magazine #1 (25 pages, free at DriveThruRPG). The system that I used to play it was Bash! Basic Action Super Heroes (Original Edition). I used SoloCutz (same place) as the solo engine. I did use the six characters that are included in the RPG rules.

So, the first scene was investigation (crime scene). The second scene was combat. Things really got interesting with the third scene. The P.C.s were up against a litch-lord. My White Witch cast a magical duel arena spell. The litch cast wizard tower. The end result – both teams ended up in the White Mausoleum. The White Witch was still with Baby Face, but all of the other characters were on their own. This could have ended badly if they ran into the lich too soon. They did have a chance to explore 21 rooms full of challenges, tests, and a combat. They did find the lich’s weakness (a coin from a sorority house). They used it to incapacitate the lich, they tossed him through the black portal, they found the exit, and arrived back to their home city. The final scene is where the sorority girls find their lives getting back to normal after the coin disappeared from the necklace around the sorority president’s neck. The White Witch took the most damage, so she is ready for some R&R to recover from her wounds.

Give this exciting game a try!

For the last few days, I have soloed my way through All Hallow’s Eve from BAM! Basic Action Magazine #1. The system that I used to play it was Bash! Basic Action Super Heroes (Original Edition). I used SoloCutz (DriveThruRPG) as the solo engine. I did use the six characters that are included in the RPG rules.

So, the first scene was investigation (crime scene). The second scene was combat. Things really got interesting with the third scene. The P.C.s were up against a litch-lord. My White Witch cast a magical duel arena spell. The litch cast wizard tower. The end result – both teams ended up in the White Mausoleum. The White Witch was still with Baby Face, but all of the other characters were on their own. This could have ended badly if they ran into the lich too soon. They did have a chance to explore 21 rooms full of challenges, tests, and a combat. They did find the lich’s weakness (a coin from a sorority house). They used it to incapacitate the lich, they tossed him through the black portal, they found the exit, and arrived back to their home city. The final scene is where the sorority girls find their lives getting back to normal after the coin disappeared from the necklace around the sorority president’s neck. The White Witch took the most damage, so she is ready for some R&R to recover from her wounds.

Give this exciting adventure a try!

Probably one of the best swashbuckler rpg there is, definitely the best I've seen.

Honor + Intrigue takes the core engine of Barbarians of Lemuria and adds stuff on top of it that makes it even better, while keeping the game simple and fast to learn. Combat has a bit more meat to it, adding maneuvers and dueling styles that add a lot of fun and make different characters actually feel different in play. The strong guy uses brute force, the charismatic guy makes flashy moves, and the smart guy brings a gun to a swordfight.

The game is well balanced, with every trait being useful in combat. One problem I had with Barbarians of Lemuria was that every character had to have at least one or two points in agility if you want to make them a decent fighter; Honor + Intrigue doesn't do that. Instead, every character can contribute to the fight.

There are some fun ways the system enforces the swashbuckling tropes: one is the use of Stunts to take out multiple pawns (the nameless mooks), which has the player come up with a way to take out a group of people by using the attribute they want. For example, you could pull a carpet from under a group of guards to sweep them off their feet and knock them out, or shoot that chandelier above them that seems to always be there whenever there's a big fight.

Also, using Advantage is a fun way to replicate combat where neither side hits the other, but one yields ground until they're at their opponent's mercy. Think of Dread Pirate Roberts against Inigo Montoya: nobody is actually hurt during the whole fight, but the victor is clear.

One more and I stop: I liked that the list of Boons and Flaws is more than just "You get a bonus dice at doing that thing, you get a penalty dice at the other thing" but some are more narrative bonuses/hindrances, like being part of a Dueling School or having an Incompetent Servant, and they give you a little bonus whenever they give you big problems.

The biggest flaw I can think of for Honor + Intrigue is the art. The oil paintings are fine, but the original art is a bit ugly (as you can see in the cover art). It didn't detract from my enjoyement of the game, but then I don't personally care much for the art in general.

Overall, completely recommended, whether you want a campaign with Musketeers, Pirates, 17th century occult hunters or more.

After the thorough diappointment that was 7th Seas Second Edition, I went searching for a set of rules that would give me and others the swashbuckling fun we wanted. We thought about homebrewed DnD5e but it wasn't exactly the kind of environment for that in the game's resume. I read a few Reddit threads mentioning using Honor + Intrigue's system in 7th Sea's world and decided to peek at it.

The system itself is pretty simplistic at first but broadens out. Unlike most systems where you're working from a broad list of stats and narrowing it down to skills, you're doing the inverse where stats are narrow but the skills are broad. The career system basically takes traditional rules and says they're more like guidelines really. Instead of a hard and fast skill system, you have a career where you can make an argument to the GM that your character would know how to do some basic smithing because you were a farm boy and sometimes farmboys have to know how to make and shoe a horse. If you successfully argue your position you can then use the career points to add towards the roll. If you don't have a crafting career at all though, you're likely not going to be able to justify your character being able to make a blackpowder rifle out of no where.

The GM is encouraged to work with the players in the rules which is a nice additive. I can say without a doubt there will be rule lawyers who fight this method but it will be an uphill battle for them.

The combat seems clunky at first, and the initiative system I feel could be handled better with just a traditional roll order, but ultimately I'm fine with it as is and just use RAW methods.

The 2d6 system keeps the flow simple and math light. Two base stats + 2d6 to equal 9 or more. Its that simple. Combat is two relevant stats versus 9 as well. If the enemy has a defense stat of 1, then that just gets added to the base 'versus' and it becomes 10 you have to beat. Most everything is like this.

Where I find things get interesting is the Advantage system where you can win a battle without either side ever drawing blood. The moments where the good guy manages to keep the enemy pushed back and back until they're on their butt with a sword at their throat? You can recreate that easily here and can give plenty of GM narrative opportunities and give players plenty of space to role play.

Some of the wording in the book gets a little confusing and it took me a few read-throughs to fully understand combat but once I did it was easy enough to explain to my players.

One spark of criticsm that I'm not sure is really criticsm is that I wish there was more content. I'm hoping for either an expansion or Honor + Intrigue 2 of sorts where it has a more fleshed out fantastical element, where there are magical pieces that could be suited. As it stands the book leaves a lot of that up to GM imagination. Its easy enough to have a Pirates of the Caribbean style epic but beyond that you're wandering into waters not yet charted. Even if its just another expansion, please give us more.

Ultimately its a great pick up and play game with lots of pirating fun to be had. Solid foundation with unique mechanics in the Advantage system. If the Dueling styles interest you, definitely check out the add-on Duelist's Guide where they go more in depth with each style and give more of a draw to them. Full package runs you about 24 dollars which for a good pirate feel, its done well at that price.

Simply the best swashbuckling RPG you'll ever play. One of the best RPGs I've ever played at all, let alone in genre. Highly recommend.

Hello,

This review is based on reading only. I have not yet played the game.

Bash does not seems to be a complicated RPG. The basic book contains all what is needed to play and run the game : character creation with small and not overwhelming budget, easy rules to play (if you know multiplications), a lot of powers to choose, good advice for the game master, a setting chapter who describes 10 of the most used comics settings and how to implement them in play and a lot of already made heroes and villains for all power levels covered by the game.

It is a game I could run somehow in the future. My only small gripes are : Hit Points, I don’t think Hit Points is a good thing in a superhero RPG and the tactical aspect of the game which, I think is playable without a battlegrid but seems to requires one anyway.

I love using this supplement. Whether I need a character on-the-fly or I have an idea for one, I can easily find the class's basic description and quickly flesh him/her out. And the idea of the "Classic Combo" suggestions is a good way to recreate characters from other media. There are even a couple of classes I hadn't considered before! This is a great modular add-on for the fun BASH: Fantasy or BASH: Legends of Steel games.

I'm a fan of swashbuckling style and I've ran a entire campaing in this genre (2 years), but with a homemade system. It worked well, but I didn´t have time to write and test the designed rules, so I decided to find a system to emulate all funny things like, battle ships, heroic combats, social intrigues and some magic, and finally I found Honor + Intrigue. It´s an amazing book, really great job! In a single book we can do everything we need in my group! It is unbelievable how we think similar about the rules (my homemade system and yours), but Honor+Intrigue is far better. I can see a large research and effort in development of this book!! Next month we will play again but using Honor + Intrigue. Thanks for this great job!!

In my group, the Crew is very important, because we play like Pirates, so the fame, resources, and influence, became good points in my campaing as managing the loyalty and moral of the crew. The crew sometimes did important missions while the PC's was doing another quests in paralell. So my suggestion is to created a mini system to manage this, for example: If I want to pick some pirates to invade a Fort (as my own pawns to help me in combat)? If I pick some pirates to spy someone, how they succeed? And about the loyalty (never miss the Rum)? And how to rule the fame, influence and the resources of the Crew (Oh! You are a pirate from The Undertaker's Ship! It´s better think twice before betrayal you).

This is a must have for BASH Fantasy if you want a structured or more spell casting options than the base book provides. Using the system provided you can create a dedicated sorcerer using 1 area of magic or a general mage that doesn't specialize in any school of magic but could have a wider variety of magic to choose from. Alot of new enhancements and limitations along with different ideas of how you could use magic or how easy/difficult it is to cast expand on the base book which did not offer any form of real magic system. A multitued of spells for each school will give you a great base should you decide that you might want even more spells or just to tinker with a spell already presented. The best part is this system could be used in any setting or even another game engine to provide a great magic system.

GIving this book a 4/5 only because it is not an absolute must have. It does however add alot of races and can make any racial interactions easier and just by adjusting some stats, talents, or powers you can create any new race or sub species. The fact you can also use the races in any setting or any BASH product is a bonus. A couple of the new powers, advantages presented are naturals for a sci fi setting or even a supers settings. I guess every race could have used an illistration as some names do not directly conjure the right vision. the descriptions do however do a great job. this more of my preference than a slight on the functionality of this book.

I would given a rating of 5/5 but the grimoire was so darn good that it makes this book seem not complete. Which it does actually mention in the book that magic is rare and that the focus is on swashbuckling, adventuring and similiar things but not on being a dedicated spell caster.( I did give a 4/5 though) That said it does go into some detail on using special powers as spells and could easily be enough for most people to design a pure spell caster and enjoy the game as is. Other powers whether they be background or talent will allow you to design any kind or character in a low tech setting. With a little work on the users part you could also make characters for other setting as well(super, cyberpunk, modern, etc.). by applying the same rules you would design a fireball,lightning bolt or ice blast you can apply a gadget limitation and create a blaster, super power or any other form. I am actually upset that I bought the old Bash UE before purchasing this book as the rules are slightly different for some things but can make a huge impact on the game(how you soak damage and if enough wounds damage is taken at 1 time you can suffer dice roll penaties). Plus it is easier to adjust a game to a supers campaign set in a similiar world to ours from a low tech setting than vice versa. I am also starting to design for a sci fi setting as adding tech weapons are not that hard and making a sailing vessel into a startship is just as easy as adding a a couple of vehicle enhancements. As a long time player of DnD I like the general setting presented in the book but with the simpler rules and fast action of the BASH system I am a convert to the BASH engine of RPGs for other genres as well.

An excellent supplement that resembles the Awesome Powers supplements for BASH! UE and is fully compatible with them. There's an extensive list of Enhancements and Limitations, many drawn from various issues of Awesome Powers but brought together here under a single fantasy-themed umbrella. Whether you're running a fantasy campaign or a supers campaign featuring magical characters, I think this book will be great addition. Or if you're running a supers game with elemental-themed characters and you didn't pick up Awesome Powers #1, you can grab this for the general use Enhancements and Limitations as well as suggested write-ups for elemental powers to get your creative juices flowing. Last but not least, there are random tables for reincarnation, and a Vancian magic alternative casting system if you're itching for an OSR feel in your BASH Fantasy games. Plenty of goodness for any BASH fan.

BASH is a great, simple system. The rules are clear. Characters are easy to build. Essentially BASH is designed for super heroes, but the powers translate well enough into the SF realm. There is alwsys a scaling problem when a super system is used for other genres but SF fits in pretty well with the armour and weapons. This hasn't been updated to match the latest edition of BASH, so keep that in mind. I do recommend this. The system is simple and fun to play. Character gen is pretty quick.

Great swashbuckling game. It takes the Barbarians of Lemuria rules and makes them better. Great additions for the genre. I did not feel anything was missing, quiet the contrary. There is so much here I could not decide If I wanted to do Pirates, Musketeers or anything else in between. But not only the rules are fantastic, there are also copious amounts of background information and plot ideas for the whole world. I mean that. Fictitious history, but still close enough to get you a good idea on how to run things in any particular area. There is even information on how to run a bit more fantastical campaign like Pirates of the Caribbean or Regime Diabolique. This is not only a rulebook, but a swashbuckling toolkit. Heartily recommended, my favorite swashbuckling game, such a fantastic work.

I like the BASH! system and in general this is a good game, but I've lowered the score for two significant reasons. The PDF is not bookmarked, this is a massive strike against the functionality of a PDF at the gaming table. The second reason is that the game is missing information. The Control X, Master X, and Summon X powers are referenced several times in the product, notably in the spell schools and item creation rules, but those powers were left out of the book. Why neither of these issues have been fixed I can't imagine.