This is my review of the RPG "The Bone Age" by Bill Edmunds.

At 146 pages, this game has a lot to offer in both setting and play style.

The setting is so robust and packed with role-play potential. A future world with survival and civil war at its heart, this game has everything needed to set up a great campaign. In my humble opinion, it feels like Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" set on a distant planet with post-apocalyptic themes throughout. The living planet theme is also incredible and creates a great setting for a robust campaign.

The game mechanics are pretty simple and straight forward. It seems like a variation on the D20 mechanics with many of the broken features fixed in a simple and effective way. The style of play seems like it will flow easily for veteran players, yet won't put off new players due to complexity. The system is rather intuitive and very refreshing.

Character development is directly related to your character's role in the world. It is very focused, yet has optional characteristics that will allow players to flesh out meaningful and playable characters.

The section describing game play is focused and easy to manage. Various rules that plague other systems are easy to understand here and the simplicity of the rule set is one of the many reasons this game is so elegant.

The creatures and mutations in this game are simply amazing in their uniqueness and application. Players and gamemasters alike will find this addition of "thematic NPC terror" very enjoyable, depending on what side of the table you are on.

The section for gamemasters is well-written and provides many examples on how to create a campaign. This includes suggestions for gameplay as well as adventure seed ideas.

The end of the book contains a fully-fleshed out, low-level adventure. The "twisted apocalyptic ecology" theme is brought to life in this adventure and will easily provide quite a few sessions of great roleplay and an introduction to the world.

New RPGs tend to be very trite as to variations on a theme that have been done over and over again with very few that stand out. This game was a pleasant surprise and I can't wait to run a game.