Angel's Citadel just reviewed this title. You can check it out here: https://angelscitadel.com/2021/02/05/review-stranded/

I paid big money for this KS. What I received wasn't a bad product, though the paper was a little low quality, the RPG itself was fairly decent.

What I am disappointed by is the book. The limited edition, KS exclusive cover was a sleek affair, what we received was a poor image on stark white hardback with red text, it looks shoddy and disappointing for the money paid.

So try the RPG, avoid the books.

You awaken on a beach surrounded by the debris from a wrecked ship, exhausted and with little more than the shirts on your back. Welcome to the island of Cragbarren. Welcome to Delve 2e.

As the game’s title suggests, dungeon-crawling plays a prominent part in the game. But there’s a very real reason for it in Delve: the players are on a resource-poor island, and indeed start with nothing save that which they were washed ashore with, so dungeon-crawling is about acquiring means of survival and betterment. The theme of the game is survival and exploration, so the setting leans toward a gritty and dark tone.

Mechanically, Delve2e is more sophisticated that AD&D but less complex than 3e, with a system that’s almost a love child between AD&D and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. I like both games, so I found the system appealing.

Character generation is somewhat narrative in that part of it unfolds during initial gameplay. After selecting race and class, followed by determining ability scores and skills through a point-buy system, characters find themselves in media res on a ship breaking apart in the surf off a dangerous island. Why where they aboard ship? Decide now. As for trappings, they only have a few randomly items in their pockets upon washing ashore and that which can be salvaged from a shipwreck. It’s a fun way to begin.

Delve 2e boasts a number of refreshing and noteworthy mechanics. Armour, for example, not only grants an AC bonus but also has its own hit points that can soak the damage. Eventually, armour will be degraded and eventually become useless. Ominously, with the lack of smiths on Cragbarren, armour is hard to come by.

Also adding to the gritty feel is a random timer mechanic used to determine when a light source – candle, torch, or lantern - goes out, and as a result PCs will never know exactly when they will be left in the dark. That adds to the drama and challenge of dungeon-crawling. Nice!

Bartering plays an important role in the game. As there is no civilzation to speak of, coins have little value on Cragbarren, save as a source of metal. Instead, objects have a barter index score based on how useful it is for survivors. Fuel and food, for example, are far more valuable than even the rarest gemstone. For the same reason, crafting and tinkering is more important in Delve 2e than in most FRPGs.

Cragbarren is a compelling setting: a rugged island at the edge of a sea lane used by sailors to avoid a frightening Eldritch Mist. Save for a village of shipwreck survivors, Wreck Haven, the island has no civilization to speak of. What it does have is lots of monsters, ruins, and a compelling backstory that can be uncovered through exploration.

Delve 2e clearly emphasizes low-level play focused on survival, and yet Delve 2e’s greatest weakness is the lack of fully fleshed-out introductory adventure to get one started and assist gamemasters in evoking the theme of the game and its rules. And there was a perfect opportunity to do just that, as shipwrecked characters have to find their way off the beach through a series of caves. Instead, the game presents the journey through the cave complex as a prose tutorial for gamemasters. Its a missed opportunity. Curiously, there is a short adventure in the tome, The City of Stench, but it’s a high-level, campaign capping piece. The lack of introductory scenario is not a gamebreaker by any stretch, and resources are available from the publisher to overcome this challenge, but it is something of an oversight.

In a similar vein, while the bestiary is pretty complete with several dozen monsters, you’ll note that monsters suitable for low-level characters are under-represented. You can make do with what’s there, and certainly the system is easy enough to allow a gamemaster to whip up his own challenges, but again it appears as something of an oversight.

Formatting and layout are well done, and the artwork employed is consistently nice. Delve 2e is a professional-appearing, visually appealing product. Unfortunately, editing is lacking in some areas, and some rule subsets – notably armour degradation through combat – needs to be clearer.

All in all, FeralGamersInc. delivers with Delve2e an enjoyable game that’s full of imaginative ideas and gaming potential. There’s much about the game that I genuinely enjoyed. It feels fresh, with a rule system boasting pared down magic and mechanics to make a survival story practical and a setting that begs for adventure.

If you want to play a fantasy game where survival comes before the heroics, Delve 2e may well be for you.

Ruins of Windtorn Manor is a solid adventure that doesn't disappoint. A few important notes to take into account: Our group is made up of 3 players and 1 GM.
The PC's were all level 3 at the begining of the adventure. The plot hook I used was that the group was assisting a devout follower make a pilgramage, but many plot hooks can be used/created to get the group to the manor. The module was completed in 2 sessions.

This is an edit of a longer review of this product on my website here: https://deathtrap-games.blogspot.com/2020/04/game-review-delve-2e.html

I have updated this review to reflect changes to the product .

Overview

Delve 2e appeared in my "recommended for you" section of DrivethruRPG back in in the middle 2019 and caught my interest thanks to its sales pitch:

You awaken on a beach surrounded by the debris from a wrecked ship, you are not alone as others seem to be also awakening from their ordeal. You had no time to pack and all you have is what is in your pockets or what you can find amongst the wreckage. This begins your adventures on the island of Cragbarren.

It advertised itself as being quick and easy to learn: both high priorities for me.

The Delve 2e is a fantasy game that is a hybrid system between Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer Fantasy. I would say that mechanically it is pretty solid in design, more importantly it has a lot of hackable mechanics that can be hacked into other games.

The theme of the game is survival end exploration, and the setting has a dark tone with a bit of a British Punk aesthetic subtly woven in. Characters start with nothing but a few randomly chosen items in their pockets and salvaged from a shipwreck, and must build or salvage what they need, or barter with NPCs using a system that focuses on the value of an object for survival.

The game reminds me a lot in aesthetic, theme, setting, and art of the video game Path of Exile. Fans of POE will likely find a lot to love about Delve 2e.

Good Points

There are three mechanics in particular in Delve 2e that I found really praiseworthy: Light, Armour and Barter. I am also impressed with the setting.

Light Delve uses a semi-random timer mechanic to detetmine when the lights go out. Lanterns can last anywhere from 40-200 minutes and candles and torches 40-120, and PCs never know exactly when they will be left in the dark. Magical light sources are resource intensive, and no one starts with the ability to see in the dark. The game has a detailed discussion about the problems of using candles as a light source in a way I had not considered before.

I use this tool in almost every game I currently run.

Armour Armour not only grants an AC bonus, but has its own hit points. When characters take damage, they can offload it to their armour, causing the armour to degrade and eventually become useless. This allows characters to make a devil's bargain: "I can avoid getting hurt now, but it will be easier to hurt me later, and repairs will be costly."

I have used this as an inspiration for a houserule in my DCC RPG game.

Barter The survival theme carries over into the game's economics. In the Delve's setting, most of the population are focused on survival in a harsh environment. They don't care about coins, save as a source of metal. Instead of a coin value, most objects have a barter index based on how useful it is for survivors. Oil, fuel, cloth, and rope are far more valuable than a gemstone or jewelled object. The barter system is tied to the crafting and tinkering system in the game. Resources such as wood, bone, stone, hide, cloth, and metal also have a raw value in trade as well as being used in the crafting system.

Setting Cragbarren is a compelling setting: a rugged island at the edge of a sea lane used by sailors to avoid a frightening Eldritch Mist. Having little in valuable resources, surrounded in perilous shoals, and infested by monsters, no larger civilisation has colonized Cragbarren in centuries. Shipwrecks are common enough that a village, Wreck Haven has formed near the island's most perilous beach, but does not signal its presence for fear that orcs or pirates might find it. Survivors have to make their way through a dangerous cave complex to reach the village's lookout.

Once in Wreck Haven, PCs must struggle to make a place for themselves. Dangerous monsters prowl the island, even making it to the last surviving town of the island's native population is a heroic feat. Earning the resources to have the gear necessary for such a trip can last several adventures.

Previously, Delve was bundled with a document entitled The Castaway's Guide to Cragbarren. This book also appears in game as a gift to the PCs, and is meant to be most of the lore available to the inhabitants of Wreck Haven. I am hoping to be able to review it seperately later. Material in the 'Guide is referenced in the Delve 2e Corebook, leaving the reader of the Corebook only feeling like they haven't got the full picture.

Growth Points

Delve is stuffed full to the gills with creativity. From acronymous stat names, to cool art, to a narrative intro to the system unlike anything I've seen elsewhere, to a setting that, even in the small glimpses you get in the core book seems like a fun, punk-rock take on D&D. Unfortunately, Delve 2e's virtues are also its vices. The places where it is most inventive and original are often inconsistently executed, poorly edited, or difficult to use.

File Quality Delve 2e's art is colour and fairly high quality (if sparse) in a style reminiscent of Pathfinder or a video game like Path of Exile. It uses an attractive page template as well. Unfortunately, the file is not well compressed, which makes the otherwise attractive layout a liability. It does not load quickly and often takes a minute or two to load new pages in Adobe Reader for Android. This means turning over more than a few pages at a time leads to long waits. Without a detailed file bookmark system, finding specific material in the book can take ages.

UPDATE Delve 2e has been updated with a printer-friendly version that addresses this complaint. It comes bundled with the purchase

Inconsistent Introductory Experience The book opens strong with compelling fiction that leads into character generation. You read about washing up on the shores of Cragbarren, then use random tables embedded in the narrative to search your pockets for possessions, and salvage goods on the beach.

From there we enter into character generation. The game offers two character creation methods, but walks you partway through one generation method using a point buy system before offering you the option to use a quick creation system that uses rolled attributes instead. The character generation section also has conflicting information about the percentage number for each attribute. Given that the two methods could create radically different power levels of PC, that makes a certain sense, but whether that was intended, rather than a typo, it is unclear.

Once through character generation, the narrative continues, with the PCs as a band of castaways trying to leave the beach and the wreck behind by exploring some caves. This would be a perfect opportunity to teach players the rules of the game by doing. As a built-in tutorial adventure like in the Mentzer boxed set I started playing D&D with, or as an introductory module for new players and GMs alike. Instead, the journey through the cave complex is an example of play with PCs completely unrelated to the PC who was just generated as part of the narrative.

Once the sample characters escape the caves, the narrative returns to the viewpoint of the PC, as if they had just completed the same cave adventure. This is both a confusing shift of perspective and player engagement - and an opportunity lost.

I think that combining a tutorial, character generation, and the introduction of new rules into the game in this narrative fashion has great potential. It could be an exciting and immersive experience. Changing perspectives, switching to passive reading during the first possible action, and switching between PCs and sample characters makes it into a confusing jumble that instead makes for a frustrating read.

Equipment Degradation Because Delve is focused entirely on survival in a place with few resources, it makes sense to have clear rules about equipment being worn, damaged, and degraded over time. However these rules are a mish-mash of mechanics from armour having hit points to weapons having a modifier based on repair, to gear having quality tags. All of which means there are a lot of different moving parts to keep track of, many of which only show up when the player elects for them to, or critical hits or fumbles appear. This needs unification.

Lack of Sample Adventure Delve 2e clearly emphasizes low-level play focused on survival. However, the only fleshed-out adventure location is The City of Stench, which is intended for high-level characters. The manual even suggests that low-level parties will likely experience a TPK while trying to enter the city. The City appears to be a sort of endgame scenario presented as the place PCs will go to find piles of gold and jewels once based in a city that values such things.

Conclusion

Delve 2e is a work of incredible creativity, and does a great job at paring down D&D's magic and mechanics to make a survival story possible, while adding enough to make that survival story viable, and presenting itself with a setting that makes that style of play engaging.

If you want to run a game where the PCs start with nothing, build, salvage and steal everything they have, and where starvation and getting lost in the dark are as lethal enemies as monsters, there are some incredible resources here.

The problem is that this book was an army of one project from a passionate creative mind. Where the ideas are coolest and most original, the game desperately needed some extra eyes and helpful feedback to live up to its full potential. We are rarely critical enough of our own most exciting ideas.

With a little work, I believe Delve could step out from the crowd and shine, especially with sone retooling of the way the game is introduced.

A military game written by authors who don't know the difference betwee a clip and a magazine, as can be noted in the response below!

OK, rant over. A very decent set of rules with terrible editting and a worse layout. Information is scattered around, repeated several times for no good reason, and stats are scattered between multiple charts.

The rules, while good, have an odd video game feel because operators are limited to a certain number of magazines without exception; there's no tracked encumrance worth mentiioning, either in the core rules or in the optional rules, ammunition consumption is abstrated, and your load-out is very limited. If you're looking to play out larger or longer fights, prepare to house rule, because you're limited to three magazines.

Apparently to compensate for the low ammo cap, there is a lot of attention paid to unarmed combat. Because apparently after spending 1.5 million dollars to train a sniper for long-range, you want him to be able to katate-chop the enemy as well. Again, a very superfical first-person-shooter feel to this effort.

Ignore the page count, because while the format is very easy on the eyes, it has very few words per page, lots of blank pages, and quite a few pages of art by people who apparently have only a vague idea of what a firearm looks like.

The setting concept is pretty thin (First World governments are OK with outside military forces killing their citizens within their borders? Silly), but the setting has zero impact on the rules.

If you're not afraid of doing some cutting and pasting, and filling in the rules gap with house rules, this will be a handy book for any setting from WW1 to near-future.

This game has an incredibly cool conceptual idea: the plagues of the 17th and 18th centuries were brought about and documented by the development of Necronomicon and the release of a horrible series of events in Europe and the Middle East. The rich created walled cities and residences to protect themselves while the commoners died. Awesome idea, which is why my rating is two bullets and not one. Then things go really, really bad.

This is one of the most poorly edited and organized games I've had the unfortunate experience to read.

The game begins with a description as a "percentile-dice" driven game and then jumps immediately into using d4, d6, and d8s, with no explanation as to why.

Character development is based on three archetypes, where you have a 80% chance of rolling a Peasant (updated), which makes it very, very unlikely you'll be playing anything but. There are values to be assigned to certain attributes and skills, but nowhere does it explain how or why you'd do this. Ever. (12/31/19 update: There are methods for assignment for each class but they're not easily understood as to how this is done. I stand corrected. The technique to do so still makes little sense.)

There is no example of play included, so understanding how to develop a character, build a story, run an adventure, or understand which dice to use when are completely missing. The game feels as though the developer wrote it for themselves, and most of how to play needs to be put on paper. Simply horrible.

I bought the PDF + softcover copy. I wish there was a way to get my money back. I've returned to Dead of Night, which has a very nicely organized character development system as well as a simple action mechanic that makes Tension an integral part of the game.

Truly unfortunate.

12/31/19 update: I received a reply to my review, appreciate the speediness, but this particularly struck me: "I'm sorry you did not like the game but you can't expect to like everything and this is the nature of small Indie press titles we often don't have the money or resources of big companies like Paizo and WoTC."

No, I certainly cannot expect to enjoy "everything" or every game or game system. I can, though, expect a Preview on DTRPG that gives me more than a timeline (which it does not as of this writing), expect an example of character creation, and expect a simple and/or rough game play example to tie the overall game mechanics together. Shame on me for blowing $30 on a timeline.

As for the excuse that "this is the nature of small Indie press titles we often don't have the money or resources of big companies like Paizo and WoTC"...just stop. Outside of the grammar in that sentence fragment, which is similar to the numerous inconsistencies, misspellings and grammar issues that litter the game text, you DO and SHOULD have or make time for a copy editor and/or series of people to make your text understandable. For example, the timeline has so many interesting events but they're marred by errors that reduce interest and/or comprehensibility.

If your answer to these previous statements is "we don't have the money" or "nobody cares that much about grammar and spelling" then you've lost at least one customer, and I will guess many others. The text on which your system is described is all anyone has to decipher your game. When it's riddled with spelling and grammar errors some will believe the system itself is as sloppy as the language.

As an example of the types of issues that pervade the game text, which is it? FeralGames or FeralGamersInc? Your logo to the left of my review says one thing but your Publishers reference says another. Enthusiasm isn't a substitute for consistency.

I'm not really a fan of the mixing of mechanics and meta-concept (playing as lost souls) here. I think each element would be stronger if it were stand-alone. But each element does still have merits. For someone really willing to commit to both this could be an excellent product.

Let me start off by saying that I love the content of this book. I think the concept is fantastic and I love how the original six stats were changed to fit more to the theme of the genre. That being said, I have never, EVER, seen a book so poorly written. Spelling, punctuation, grammar, layout, it is all offensively bad for a book that has a cost attached to it. This is currently (as of 9.2.2019) in a state that should be Pay What You Want because to charge for it is nearly criminal. I made the unfortunate mistake of buying a physical copy and I went through it with a highlighter and found over 180 (OVER 180!) highlighted spots that are either spelled wrong, have the wrong grammar, wrong (or no) punctuation, or oddly vague rules that are not explained well. An insane amount of sentences that start with lower case letters, no periods, commas where periods should be (and vice versa), etc. There are TWO pages in my copy (not counting full page art pieces) that do not have a highlighter mark on them. I kid you not.

All that being said, if this file got a proper proofreading and update, I would easily bump this up to FOUR STARS. Because it's cool as hell and I love what they've done with the OSR here. It really is a cool game, and I hope the developers take this as a plea to fix the game, not as me saying it's a terrible game. It's not a terrible game, it's a terribly written and un-edited book. I think FeralGamers has a potentially fantastic product on their hands here that with a little word of mouth could catch on quite well to the OSR community, and if this file gets properly fixed I will be spreading the word myself. If you don't mind bad proofreading and just want to play a cool Special OPS-Style OSR game, give this a shot (at pdf level until it gets fixed), and I can imagine people having a LOT of fun with this one!

EDIT - I am bumping this to 3 stars because the publisher got back to me and are actively working on updating this file. That is good customer service!!

I backed this on Kickstarter and printed out and bound the pdf shortly after it was released. I also recently received my hard cover copy. I decided to run Delve at my local game club and just tonight finished my first session. Delve is a wonderful game with lots of possibilities for adventure. I rate a game as a GM and a Player and this one managed to entertain and provide fun for all of us. I had four players and I decided to randomly roll the characters as they woke up on the beach. I used the rules and built up character Attribute generation and skills and spell generation as the characters had their memories return and so therefore the character creation process had weight, meaning and consequence. Some had their Attribute rolls betray them as they did not quite get what they needed to supplement their randomly rolled class choice. I am blessed with a group that roleplayed this all out and to hilarious and tense solutions. Delve, at its heart is not a game made for long term campaigns unless a lot of work is put into it. Does that make it a bad game? Absolutely not! It does exactly what it should and gives rules to cover most everything, and yet it isn't a game you have to have 10 books to play or reference. It seems to encourage that "seat of the pants, in game rules surrender to roleplay" framework, which a lot of games and gamers have lost these days. I am of course a person who has been running and playing for many decades and therefore the dropping of 200 bucks on game books is something I am kind of tired of. Delve is minimal and yet heavy. It provides a set of rules, a setting, magic and bestiary in a small footprint, some 120+ pages. It is full color mostly and the art is very good. In closing I must say that tonight's session went well and it is because this is an easy to learn and deeply immersive game that brings out the best in the right players. Is it for everyone? Of course it isn't, but what is. As far as the feel of Delve, it is kind of Grimdark. The fashion of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Zweihander feels like this, though of course much more detailed in every way. This is survival fantasy and it is done well. Players must struggle to discover who they are, where they are and how they will live after day one. All in all, a pretty amazing place to live and tell stories in. Keep it coming, fellas.

Danny Crisp

This package has everything a busy GM needs to run a session of Wraith Recon at an unbeatable price. It consistently captures the feel of what a group of special operators would look like in a fantasy setting. If you like the idea of an elven ranger in a ghillie suit calling in an airstrike on an orc encampment, this is the setting for you. It needs a strong editor to clean up grammatical errors and trim system fat, but overall this is a solid product and I'm eager to see what comes next.

Excellent system! Finally, a military game that strikes a great balance between beefy simulation and fast-paced, narrative-oriented play. If I had to summarize it quickly, I'd say it's a great amalgamation. It mixes some of the better concepts from various systems to create a unique engine that's well-suited to its task. In essence, you might say it's the love child of the Cypher system (Numenera), FATE (FUDGE, more specifically), and a game I played a while back called In Harm's Way: Wild Blue. It's got a nice, sleek system, plenty of source material to get you rolling, and more in supplementary content.

My only personal complaint is a nitpick in that at times it feels, especially with the art, like it leans more towards Tom Clancy or Call of Duty-style operations than I'd prefer, but leaning more towards realism is as easy as playing it that way. Nothing about the engine itself or the various special forces backgrounds you can draw from say "action movie" more than "simulation", so in that regard, it's actually a good thing. If your table enjoys more romanticized action, it can do that. If your table prefers a more procedural simulation style of play, it's absolutely equipped for that. Aside from that, the book isn't extremely pretty, but it does its job and that's all you really need. I don't really have any other major complaints!

Excellent buy, not disappointed. Something I've been searching for across the past couple of years, and finally, Ghost Ops delivers.

The original Wraith Recon was an intriguing idea---a special forces unit in a fantasy setting---married to an adequate gaming system. Savage Worlds would seem, with it's emphasis on fast, furious, and fun gaming, to be a far more suitable fit for the concept.

It must be stressed that this is a short taster of the full game. There's not enough detail here for a full campaign or much world building. A GM would have to put a lot of work in to stretch this over more than a couple of missions. But considering the low cost that is not what this is about. It's simply to give potential GMs and players a sense of what the setting is about, and in that it succeeds admirably. Several new Edges and Hinderances add to the environment, and a short mission provides a taste of the sort of adventure members of the elite Wraith Recon teams will carry out.

To summerise, it's short and lacking in details. However it does what it sets out to do very well, and as it's Pay What You Want, the price can not be complained about.

If you want a fantasy game with a different feel to it, it's well worth a look.

Disclaimer: I've been following this project for some time, and have made a number of suggestions to the publishers. I have no financial interest in this however.

Hey, the SW rules are off to a great start and there is a lot to work with to get a spy/black ops game started. There are a few rules advertised that are not present in the rules. such as operatives from different countries, and hearts and minds missions. Likewise, there seems to be a few rules missing that the rules themselves seem to touch on in parts but are not wholey in the rules, such as the rewards for complete missions, and the uses for these rewards. The sample mission has types of rewards for various things the players can accomplish, and aside from the Cash reward, there is no other elaboration of there points uses. The core rules have some very useful tools, and make a great jumping off point. But they are not quite as expected.

If you are not playing GHOST OPS why not? if you like CALL of DUTY etc you will enjoy this game the 2nd Expansion added agencies like the CIA and MI5 so you have the option of playing spies vice special ops The guys at Feral do good work so please show them some love