Into the Odd is a masterwork of simplified game design. Ideas like rolling damage in attacks are revolutionary. The GM section likewise contains great advice that ports to any game. Into the Odd in turn powers Mark of the Odd, inspiring a bunch of the most popular indie scene RPGs like Mousritter, Carine, Knave, Liminal Horror, and so on.

Great simple ruleset that has a high degree of flexibility. Easy to hack and modify to meet your needs, but come's out of the box as a fun system to run. The built in setting has a lot of quirky charm. Well worth the look.

The setting for Into the Odd is a surreal, industrial dystopia. The characters are explorers searching for riches and Arcana: strange, magical artifacts. The largest city is called Bastion and below that is a vast network of tunnels, sewers, and ancient caverns for the characters to explore. There is a Lovecraftian element hinted at behind the scenes. The book mentions star-beings and cultists who are trying to bring about a cosmic invasion, but its only mentioned, not fleshed out.

I would consider Into the Odd as very light on setting. A few paragraphs are all that is provided but the sparse words are evocative and the art goes a long way to give the reader the feel of the world, even if its not spelled out in any detail.

No map of the world is provided, nor for the great, dirty metropolis of Bastion. Based on the example of gameplay provided, and the adventures included in the book, Into the Odd is expected to play as an old-fashioned dungeon crawl with the characters simply content to explore the dark places put in front of them. Conclusion: Into the Odd Remastered contains a complete rules-light and setting-light game. The setting is a surreal, industrial dystopia with strange magical artifacts buried in catacombs beneath the city of Bastion. This book is for you if you want to run old-school dungeon crawls with a super light rules system and lightning-fast character creation. More detailed discussion of the game mechanics and other goodies included (adventures, for example) at the link below: https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/19/19108.phtml

TThe original Into the Odd was an excellent book, and the elegant minimalist design of the rules still blows me away. This is a gorgeous update with some minor rules changes (which first appeared in technically the Into the Odd update Electric Bastionland [also amazing].)

Being personally asucker for good graphic design, this book hits the spot, having been done by another RPG celeb Johan Nohr. The vaguely apocalyptic/cosmic horror/dying earth setting is just detailed enough to start playing, and pliable enough to mess around with if wanted.

I cannot recommend this book, its advice and the graphic design enough.Take

As odd as it gets - a Mephisto review

Into the Odd is another old-school role-playing game set in a bizarre fantasy world that has entered the industrial age. Most importantly, it is a role-playing game with very lightweight rules: Characters have only three statistics, Strength, Dexterity, and Willpower, as well as Hit Protection (HP). In fights, the damage is simply rolled, and the armor is subtracted. The remaining damage first decimates the Hit Protection and then the Strength attribute of the target. Once characters lose Strength points, they are considered wounded and must now roll to take critical damage that will incapacitate them.

Character creation takes only a few seconds: attributes are determined quickly by die rolls. Then, depending on the game stats and health points, the characters get a starter package that contains the more or better things, the worse their stats are. An essential element of the game are the so-called Arcana, which are magical items with sometimes very unusual effects. Arcana can be small handy items, as well as pieces of furniture or larger objects. They usually have an extraordinary power that their owners can use – if they know about it. Accordingly, the book also provides a d66 of Arcana right away. 

If the information about the gameplay is still vague so far, a short playing example quickly shows in which direction this role-playing game should go. Here, the reader gets to experience a role-playing group that explores a labyrinth and is willing to try out wild things – even without considering the corresponding risks (and with the expected consequences). 

The other rules revolve around how further levels of experience are achieved. Player characters must fulfill certain conditions and then receive additional hit protection and the possibility to increase their stats, which, however, is also decided by a die roll. In addition, there are rules for how to make extra money with an enterprise, hire assistants, and command troops and lead them into battle. 

The game master is also encouraged to simply roll out random encounters by dice. There are some notes about chance encounters, traps, and other obstacles, the rule here being that unless the player characters are entirely inattentive, they always have a chance to notice such dangers beforehand. The players should be able to make a conscious decision to deal with the risk. 

The monsters are defined by brief game stats, motivation and description, and the game provides some examples. A brief introduction of the game world follows, but it remains only very roughly described. First, there is the great city of Bastion, humanity's largest metropolis, and beneath it lies the Underground, a network of tunnels, where both valuable treasures are hidden and great dangers lurk. Beyond the city, the world is relatively sparse in population and also dangerous.

To provide the players with a starting point, the book presents The Iron Coral as an introductory scenario, where the players search for the eponymous iron coral. This is a typical dungeon, where the individual rooms are described in an extremely short format and are characterized by bizarre encounters and peculiarities. Beyond the Iron Coral, the Fallen Marsh is a setting for wilderness adventure (in classic hex style). In addition, another scenario presents the small town of Hopesend. Thus, the book provides a typical dungeon adventure, a wilderness exploration, and a minimal town setting that can be played together.

The role-playing game lives up to its name, as the game world is bizarre. Although industrialized and featuring firearms, it is reminiscent of a typical old-school fantasy setting. The rule mechanisms are minimal, and the setting should be suitably deadly. The odd style of the game is also reflected in the illustrations, which are often collages of images from various styles, conveying an alien atmosphere. 

The book concludes with short expansion rules in case the players would rather not play characters on Bastion, but mutants or other creatures, so the character creation rules are minimally adapted. In addition, a considerable arsenal of random tables is supplied in the form of the Oddpedium, which can be used to quickly roll dice for encounters, locations, and the like. 

Into the Odd is a role-playing game for spontaneous play, fighting your way through bizarre dungeons and recovering treasures in the form of Arcana (or dying trying to do so). Even though the rules expand the prospects for individual characters with the systems for units and enterprises, the whole setting focuses heavily on typical dungeon adventures. 

Ultimately, rating this game is difficult: Into the Odd is a highly bizarre scenario, which probably will not appeal to many players. In addition, the rules are extremely reduced and simple, reminiscent of the early days of role-playing. Those who expect a complex rules system or story-oriented adventures here should rather flee this oddity. However, if you are looking for a simple, functional and unique role-playing game that allows you to quickly and spontaneously assemble a group and experience adventures, you can definitely get your money's worth here – as long as you accept that characters will probably die as quickly as they are created. As for my personal opinion, I really enjoyed the idea of the book, but I am also convinced, that I will never play it.

(Björn Lippold)