Already a fan of Hank's work with ICRPG. This is another example on how the author just understands D&D.

This book is in my opinion just filled with great ideas. Some ideas, from an OSR player are simple, like 3D6 down the line and dead at -10 HP. Other ideas are genious on their own like Zymer's candle, spells by level, or zone based combat.

Very few ideas I'm iffy about.

Only shame is that I would still love to see PDF bookmarks for such a relative small PDF, and clickable index.

Even if you don't want to make 5e more "hardcore" there are just so many breaths of fresh air here that it's worth the purchase for anyone that is playing or has played 5e.

Honestly, if I ever run 5e again, this is the only way I would run it. I wished WotC just allowed free reign of the D&D license to Hank for 6e. Never gonna happen but one can dream.

Honestly, I like some/many of the ideas in this book but it does have shortcommings.

The core "exploding dice" mechanic is very fun but then the Hero Dice, Karma and special Magick rules make it feel quite complecated for a game that market it'self as easy. Some mechanics allow you to turn that 1 into something else but others don't and it takes some time for new players at the table to remember the details. Weird for a game that should be so good for a oneshot.

I also feel like too many terms were changed for the sake of being diffrent, "Rabble Rouser" for the GM, "Pushers & Shovers" for PCs, "Boon & Bane" for advantage and disadvantage, "Hero Path" for class, "Species" for race, "inclinations" for traits, etc. I understand why some games might want to change up some names for the sake of emphasising certain things. But here things were changed just for the hell of it. Again, for a game that should work really well for one-shots that's just makes it more difficult.

One of my biggest complaints is the "encumbrence" rules. Here the rules essentially say, if the GM thinks a player carries too much, the GM should make the tests harder. This looks like a simple rule but it's not. It makes things way more complicated. Now I have to track (mentally) what my PCs are carrying, decide how much is too many, then remember to make tests harder for those players that I decided are carrying too much but then I have to decide how much harder I should make the test. Compared to a simple Item Slot system, this is way moor complicated. It's like the game wants to avoid using numbers as much as possible but sometimes

Another point where numbers are needlesly avoided is the Wealth Level mechanic. Instead of players keeping track of a simple currency, the GM sets the level of wealth for PCs between 6 settings. In my mind that just makes things harder. I never had an issue with a basic currency, but now I have to decide as a GM when my players wealth level should go up, or should go down, and what they can afford at each level.

PDF also doens't have Bookmarks or a clickable index. And honestly that's the biggest crime here. It really doesn't take that much effort to create PDF bookmarks. PDFs over 20 pages should no longer be sold without PDF bookmarks.

Things I like, the general Magick/spell casting rules, the exploding dice mechanics, the simplicity of not having core stats but instead broad "boons" for tasks your character gets a bonus on, the general classes are just a bit intresting and different enough, the armor saving throw for attacks and other damage and the monster stats that give you a lot to go on.

All in all, some intresting ideas but too many decisions that just don't make sense to me. I will steel from this, but I doubt it will ever see my table again.