In the interest of full disclosure, I should let the audience know that I have done a bit of work for Precis Intermedia in the past. I am also well known as a fan of Brett & Co.'s products. In the case of this product, I've purchased it myself and am reviewing it simply to get more practice in writing (reviews especially). So hopefully everyone will consider this a pretty honest review. I know I do.

  The idea behind Ancient Oddyseys is it's an easy to play, easy to learn, beginner roleplaying game in the tradition of the original D&D white-box. I'm personally not familiar at all with the D&D white box so I cannot comment on how close it is 'in spirit' to that product of a bygone age. As far as the similarities I know, it uses 3 booklets and is a fantasy roleplaying game. It's also supposed to be able to handle GM-less play(Group as well as solo) and traditional GMed play.

To put these claims to the test I assembled a group of mixed RPG experience. JR is an experienced player, NB had never played an RPG before in her life and ZO had played a few games here and there over the last decade. I was a player as well and I've played a lot of RPGs over the course of a long time.

In the box are 3 booklets, mentioned above: Basic Play is the basic rules of the game including character creation, traps, spells, monsters etc.. The Dungeon is just what is says it is: a dungeon adventure which can be played GMed, GMless and Solo. You also get Further Adventures, which has optional rules, dungeon generators and a well done, concise how to GM section.

     First of all came one of my favorite parts of the game: Character creation. The whole group took about 5 minutes total to have new characters completely statted up, geared up and ready to go. It works on a series of d6 rolls. First you choose (or roll) one of four classic fantasy races: Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Hoblings. Next choose (or roll) one of three classes: Fighter, Rogue and Mage. Next is a d6 roll to determine your stats (one D6 roll determines your entire statline). Pick four Pursuits (skills, more or less) and roll a D6 for each to set their level. Pick your weapons, roll for your armor, pick a piece of gear...and away you go. It's really painless, easy and fun.

Each class has it's own distinct 'flavor' with a bit of crossover between them. Warriors are the only class who get access to the Axefighting, Swordfighting, Brawling and Battlewear pursuits. Mages are the only ones with Spellcasting, Literacy and Alchemy. Finally rogues have exclusive access to Knifefighting, Gearworking, Lockbreaking and Pilfering. With 6 other pusuits that corssover over between 2 or all classes, each class feels unique and fill their niche well with enough variety that two Warriors could have completely different pursuit sets.

The basic system is similar to Traveller or GenreDiversion 3 except you roll a single D6. You add your relative attribute and pursuit to the roll vs. a target number. The target number can also be modified by situational penalties and bonuses. Pretty standard stuff. We all grasped the basics of the system pretty quickly. There are also a lot of optional system additions in the Further adventures booklet like critical hits and misses to help customize the game to your liking. As with all Precis Intermedia games, the ruleset is easy to see how everything works and your own customizations, changes and judgments are a snap to implement.

  Play happens in turns and every time the players enter a new room, they make a reaction roll (initiative). Players decide actions, one at a time, in order of their reaction roll. You are only allowed the first round to check for and disable traps. After that, the traps go off and you suffer the effects. At the same time monsters will probably be attacking you, so you have to strategize which players are going to spend their time looking for traps and which are fighting during the first round as the players who do search for traps will be easier to hit for the monsters. After combat (or during if they so choose) they spend turns looking for loot and secret doors. If you spend too many combatless rounds in the same room, you risk another encounter with monsters.
 
 I was suprised with how much combat had going on in it for what was considered a basic game. Combat rolls are similar to other skill checks, it's ability+pusuit+roll vs ability+defensive pusuit(if applicable)+3. Ranged attacks are vs a specific target number based on the size of the target. Combat is tracked on an abstract combat tracking sheet, saying where players are relative to the monsters. It's definitely not a minis required type scenario, but having individual counters of some sort to track players and monsters on the sheet definitely helps. Combat would be be no trouble to play without it, but it is an appreciated tool to help keep track of things.

The Dungeon module included is basically a choose your own adventure except using the full system of the game. We attempted it GM less which wasn't too hard to figure out for the vets at the table, but the overall organization was occasionally difficult to navigate, which slowed our games down. Also, by the book, there was a ton of combat. Combat flows pretty quickly, but we hit Diablo 2 level kill counts do to constantly having random encounters(although this was caused by admittedly bad luck on the die rolls). The dungeon design itself (or what I saw of it) had some very interesting set pieces and traps and some fun monster mechanics, especially regarding the Goblin guide who joins the party at the beginning. I think the dungeon would have been much better if it was run by a dedicated GM, but it was certainly manageable (if a little clumsy) without one.

Further adventure has a good amount of options and tools for GMs. Dungeon generators, a short bestiary, treasure tables etc. All the rules a laid bare and it's easy to see how to sow the game with your own seasonings to make it your own. There is one glaring omission however: there is no price list for gear and other items. After a group gets out of the Dungeon, the books themselves provide nothing for them to spend their money and wealth on. Crafty GM's could just borrow an item list from some other game, but beginners may not be aware of such a thing. Anything you consider missing may end up appearing on the Collaborative on the PIG website (I believe a Cleric class is already up there) so this may be rectified by a download later.

As far as complaints go, my least experienced players had a bit of trouble grasping the combat rules. As I stated above, for a basic game combat is a bit complicated. Defense appeared especially complicated (for my newer players) with different weapons being defended against from different pursuits and a totally different ability+pursuits to defend against magic attacks and a static number vs. ranged attacks. Because of this, I think the standard character sheet could have used a few more listings for commonly combined stats and players defenses vs. specific attacks.. It took both of my new players about 2 games (9 hours) before they were completely acclimated to the basic combat rules. My only other complaint is just the lack of item list mentioned above.

Overall, Ancient Odysseys is a very clever, back to basics RPG. The learning curve, although not very steep, could benefit from a bit better organization. I can definitely recommend this game wholeheartedly to anyone interested in a back to basics RPG with a bit more structure than Tunnels & Trolls. With the fast combat, endless tinkerability and a good GM this game would be an absolute blast to play. Just find yourself an item list.

Thanks for the review. If you have an equipment list, I'll gladly add it to the collaborative.

My pleasure. It's a very fun game. I'm working on a 'stuff to do in town' type thing for Ancient Odysseys for the collaborative as we speak. Or at least as before I just typed this response...

Hopefully I'll have it done before my work week starts again...

Nice review. I playtested the game with my group (who range from grognards to newbies) and we had a lot of fun with it. I plan to add a review of my own very soon.

Oh yeah, here's a nice article with pricing and gear, courtesy of KrakaJak. :hatsoff:

Why does everyone drop Clerics? (T&T, this game, Warrior, Rogue, and Mage)

Probably because they are often the same as wizards. Here's the optional cleric vocation.

Quote from: brettmb;400756Probably because they are often the same as wizards. Here's the optional cleric vocation.

Cool! Thanks. (Now to get the print game. Next month hurry.)

thanks for the review