Here is my video review of Glory Road Roleplay.

[video]https://www.bitchute.com/video/GYWc7GfAphP3/[/youtube]

EDIT: It appears that bitchute videos cannot be shown using the insert video option.

Going on with the full review then.

Glory Road Roleplay is a game made by William Reich that allows you to play your character in a fantasy setting that your GM has created.  It uses a complex system that suppose to bring about realism into the game.  Well as much as it can be possible.  That means for the most part character creation is going to be slow, but once every thing is done the game should be faster than GURPs.  I ask the creator about this and he assured me as much.  Looking over the system I can certainly testify that it is indeed complex and as I am one for light systems that are easy to understand...  Well it isn't my cup of tea.  Still I won't let my biases get in the way.

System wise the main mechanics are attack and skill.  Attack is d20 + many things to consider = any result higher than 20 is a success.  If you get up to 31 it is a strong success.  If you reach 41 it is a critical success.  With skills it is dice pool system in which you figure out the TN.  TN being the average of your attributes that skill is using + 4(Level of your character if you have the skill).  If your TN is higher than 80% then you get more rolls added to the challenge.  Now this gets interesting is that difficulty is based on how many dice you roll.  A fairly easy task is seven dice while a near impossible task is two dice.  This game is assuming your TN is going to be low and the more dice you roll the higher your chances of success.  Obviously you keep rolling till you run out of dice, or you finally get a success.

Character creation takes a while, but once you got that done the system is good enough for you to keep going.  If you have every thing written down and all the math done right.

Now for the things that actually made me concern...

This pdf is absolutely boring to read.  I literally struggled to make it to the first hundred pages not because of the complexity, but from the great difficulty of trying to stay up.  I read tech books more entertaining than this.  There is nothing to inspire you to play this game at all and that is problem when you got GURPS and other rpgs that are just as complex and can do fantasy just as well.  I mentioned to the creator in email that I honestly think his PDF is doomed to failure which is a shame because the guy is really nice.  I really don't want to give a bad review, but I have to be honest.  So if your reading this please forgive me.  I am sorry.

He needs to hire and artist for one thing.  Some of the public domain art isn't bad.  Mostly the authentic medieval drawings and paintings are pretty great.  It is just the real life photos, 3D art, and others that just really mess with me.  There is no consistency in this pdf and it detracts from the experience.  He needs to hire a artist.

Secondly the layout is not up there.  I know the creator said it was done by a professional, but he also told me that the professional only does novels.  A Tabletop RPG is not a novel and it shows.  I really don't want to detract points from this layout as I am certain the editor did her best given her field, but again novels are not Tabletop RPG books.  You need to find some one that does editing for Tabletop RPGs and hire him/her.  

So what is good about the game?  None because the good aspect about it is in another book named Manager.  This guy can write short stories and it will draw in your attention.  They are actually entertaining.  One story caught my attention about a goblin who serves a air mage and has to go through the air mage's wacky adventure to collect rare seal pelts.  Of course the goblin is gripping along the way because even he knows this is stupid.  Any one who has shitty bosses can relate to this goblin.  Yet you find none of that in the Glory Road Roleplay core rules which is all dry and flavorless.  This man's strongest suit is not being used at all.

I cannot recommend this book.  Which I feel bad because this man was nice and giving me a free copy to look at it.  I REALLY DO NOT WANT TO GIVE HIM A BAD REVIEW.  Yet I have to.  So my verdict is give this PDF a pass.

Thanks for the review. It was your honest opinion, so no hard feelings.

Glory Road was also a Heinlein novel and if the game has nothing to do with it, then that is already a non-starter.

It is inspired by it if that helps.

Quote from: jeff37923;1116158Glory Road was also a Heinlein novel and if the game has nothing to do with it, then that is already a non-starter.

The title was suggested by the novel and it was ok with Virginia Heinlein. It has more to do with the road of glory, common to adventure fiction and now to gaming. Robert was gone by then but there were several conversations about the name on alt.fan.heinlein and Mrs. Heinlein was involved. I did run scenarios involving the Horned Ghosts and other things from the novel but I ran those from written notes years ago.