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Lots of good stuff, lots of bad stuff. It pretty much balances out to an average product.
Multiple well-detailed cultures are included, but they're all tied to a unified cosmology which, unfortunately, is not as well written as any of the individual cultures. So each culture has at least a small element of bad writing attached. If you can take the time to remove the cosmology and rewrite it this product will appeal to you more, the cultures themselves are pretty strong.
The art is excellent throughout, full colour paintings of the highest quality.
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Overall I felt the rules were extremely good, seemingly very simple at first but in fact they are much more elegant than they first appear. They turned out to run a very gritty combat style as promised which makes a person skilled in a dagger to be more lethal than a simple man armed with a greatsword. The setting I feel is as unique as Game Of Thrones Westeros, whilst showing small similarities to GOT. I urge everyone to get a copy of the setting and have a good read, then if you are impressed either buy the Pdf of the fullbook or at least the Kickstarter and check out.
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Though it could stand to have more content (considering the price, it is a perfectly acceptable amount), I feel that this is a great resource to have, and can give a good foundation for those who want to make a more authentic thief experience.
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I like GRIN and I reviewed it.
Torchlight gives chips to players in the form of matches to spend instead of making a draw and risking dying.
And you light a candle in front of you and extinguish it when your character dies if you have no more matches to crack.
So you have extra lives.
Well, sorry, but there was enough space in the Grin DL to add this...
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Grin |
by Goran E. [Verified Purchaser]
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Date Added: 02/16/2018 13:13:38 |
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I like one-page rpg and i've modestly reviewed a few and this one is nice.
The system is its great strength:
It uses cards
No character generation
You draw cards to make a test, the more cards you draw, the harder the test
If you draw a joker you fail
If you draw a face card you drw another card
If you draw an ace you get an hero point card for later use
In all other cases you succeed.
Simple, easy
But I only gave it three stars because the system is its greatest flaw:
No character generation
No tests rules apart what's above
Too simple, too easy
I really need more "meat" to glue to this basic skeleton. I wo ndered a lot between 3 and 4 stars.
However I realize that for a horror story, or a faery tale or a children game it's a really nice shot.
So I'll give it 4 stars bec ause it's a very nice appetizer that makes me drool for more.
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Heart of the game/setting: 4/5, PDF presentation 3/5, 2/5 for the price (12.47€).
Plus:
- A really gritty system and very simple and narrative.
- An immersive setting.
- Beautiful arts
- Enought page, 90p is a good deal to play as soon as you want.
- Content to play long campaign!
Minus:
- The price is very high to get a 90 pages'pdf
- The lo-res image make this pdf very cheap.
- The fact that NPC's stat blocks are lo-res pictures... (it's not profesionnal)
- It's not a professionnal layout to me, it's too expansive for that, a 5€ pdf justified this.
- No links to point is the section in the summary!
So, the game it's a very good deal when i take it (it was for sale at 3€), but today it's too expansive.
Otherwise, if you bet more on the content than the "skin", you may be very attract by this very sinfulf, gritty and dark world of Ossura!
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I just read through Blood and Bone and thought I would give my first impressions
Pros:
- The book is small, easily read, and beautifully illustrated. The tone and graphic design are perfectly matched.
- The setting is very interesting and there are some really smart and unique mechanics such as armor and apothecary.
- The character creation mechanics are solid and varied.
- There are some nice variant mechanics that offer new ways to play the game.
Cons:
- The editing and proofreading are pretty bad. There are numerous typos, editing inconsitincies, and mismatched page numbers. Lists (like Traits) are not alphabetized.
- Character progression is pretty limited and Traits take up the bulk of character progression and makes it feel a little bland.
- The skills selection is very meager, with Strength only having one skill (and it's shared with Dexterity). The Savage Worlds-esque step dice also don't win me over.
- Alacrity is a horrible name for initiative.
- The NPC examples are not actually text but images, at a terrible quality, and it makes them unsearchable. They also have a "CMW" stat I couldn't find explained anywhere in the book.
- The game is explained as having no magic, but there is the Blooded ability which functions like a school of magic. There is no explanation of how it's different from magic.
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Great game for a low-magic low fantasy style d20 game. One of the best things about the system is the campaign setting. Very well thought out and it was great how the author really involved Blood (the magic system) in the various cultures depicted. My personal favorite part of the system is the Apothecary section, which outlines various herbs and drugs characters can make. Only qualm is that there was no rules for social interaction/political intrigue included. Would describe it best as D&D meets Vikings/Last Kingdom.
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Nice art, but marginally useful because the images are only 72 dpi. Three Stars.
EDIT: Note that the same day I left my review, Arcana Games updated this product with huge, beautiful 300 dpi images. I recommend this product. Five stars!
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Blood and Bone is a cool-looking system with a minimal amount of magic andsimple, intuitive combat and character creation systems. I hope to play it one day!
Notes from someone who's used to World of Darkness and DnD 5e:
- Takes place in a Dark Sun-esue world where there are no gods and much of the world is savage desert (or similarly extreme environments).
- Simplified skill system, characters don't start out terribly above average-person level as they do in DnD.
- Character creation requires you to flesh out your character with traits and beliefs in a way that lends itself to roleplay instead of just combat.
- Skill checks can have advantage and disadvantage, similar to DnD 5e.
- Traits can be taken at character creation, similar to World of Darkness.
- Delayed actions in combat similar to DnD 5e.
- Combat has surprise rounds.
- One action per combat round, in a much firmer way than DnD 5e's many ways to get around that with bonus actions / action surge / Haste, etc.
- Wound system of injury, as opposed to general HP pool.
- Detailed descriptions of weapons and armor.
- Magic in the system is being "Blooded" (a trait) and is mostly necromancy and ability enhancements.
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Full Review at https://dieheart.net/blood-and-bone-review/.
Blood and Bone (BnB) spouts "Game of Thrones meets Dungeons and Dragons" as its tagline. It is a dark and gritty new fantasy RPG with interesting mechanics and a vibrant setting.
The core mechanics are streamlined and easy to learn. But they are still complicated enough to make gameplay and character advancement engaging. BnB is a classless and skill-based system.
It smells like D&D 5e in a "give me the same - but different" vein. Mechanics lean towards combat and giving characters enough options to shine in such situations. It features a classic distribution of narrative rights.
The world appeals with a dark tone and flavorful descriptions. Player characters can have supernatural Blood powers, although the game claims to be without magic.
The artwork is amazing. It also includes strong female characters (no chain-mail bikinis) and a few people of color.
The look and layout remind of D&D 5e. The background looks like cream-colored paper. Printing this out will be a pain.
The PDF offers a complete game and setting at 89 pages. But it has no digital bookmarks and no hyperlinks.
Thoughts:
- BnB has a streamlined system with no classes. The customization options for the player characters and the game system look like they will make a fun experience
- I like how one combat roll informs you about a successful hit, incorporates the armor rating and how many wounds you have inflicted. Combat is fast.
- The skill system looks workable, e.g., you need to broaden out to increase your skill ratings - one-trick ponies are not possible. I like how Thievery encapsulates sleight of hand and pickpocketing. So everyone can disarm traps or listen on doors. But dungeoneering doesn't seem to feature strongly in this game anyway.
- Character creation is front-loaded. You need to create a detailed background with Beliefs etc. That is not so good for emergent play but offers hooks for the Game Master.
- The authors used plenty of examples to clarify rules except for Healing. It is intentionally open to accommodate different playing styles. Is it too vague to be a useful guideline?
- It has some ideas from story games. For example Tenacity: a meta-currency as a dissociated mechanism, rewarded when you play according to your Beliefs or Complications.
- There are still "superpowers" in the game, although the authors don't call it magic.
- Tere is a "Saga variant": players create several PCs but only play one per session.
- NPCs look quite detailed, so I'm not sure how much work it is for the Game Master to come up with them. NPCs have traits like PCs, that means I need to learn all the Traits as a GM or write them down on the NPC sheet.
- The game supports the standard fantasy play style. While the game says you can create "Court of Scheming Nobles" as a campaign premise, there are no game mechanisms for intrigue or social conflicts. I wonder how that fits into the promise that it is like Game of Thrones?
- I appreciate how dark the setting is: you gain Blooded power when others die, you can use poison and Apothecary, the Tarn use undead servants and soldiers, etc.
- Kudos for including an example adventure.
https://dieheart.net/blood-and-bone-review/
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A very dark and gritty setting, very well written and yet not so long. It is so good it needs a POD !
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I just would like to give a shout out to the publisher who helped me out with an order issue.
Great custmoer service along with a great campaign setting.
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Great low magic system and intriguing campaign world.
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