A Barbaric Sunday Salutation

Tod here this week. I always help write and edit the blog posts. But this week, I’m the head writer.

(And as such he is going to talk about Role Playing Games, and today specifically about Barbaric! 2e. I thought I would let him lead since he is more the nuts-and-bolts type of RPGer, has been a player, a game master (GM), and designs his own games too. I get to sit back and add snarky comments today. – Anna)

But we do have a question for everyone, do you have any RPG systems you like for one-shots? Anna is going to be GMing her first game soon and is looking for something simple and fun. (AHH! Shhh! Don’t remind them!)

We’re currently considering Monster of the Week PbtA, since the system is set up for solving mysteries, theoretically making being GM simpler. Also, because Anna liked the set up and how character relations and group building were part of the system.

But without further Ado, Barbaric! 2e and RPG Testing!

Recently, our online Traveller RPG group took a session off to do a one-shot to play test an updated game from Stellagama Publishing. The game was Barbaric! 2e which had a Kickstarter beginning June 29th.

The game design and setup are a lot of fun. The setting in the game is relatively barebones but is designed to do sword-and-sorcery style adventures where a good blow with a sword or axe can cost you an arm, an arrow can take out an eye, and magic is slow and dangerous on both ends. Making magic slow and allowing it to bite you back is a nice way to prevent magic users from being overpowered and the solution to every problem. The exact setting our GM used was big, brutal, violent, and dark. The setting includes a handful of cool non-human races, including two kinds of lizard-like races, which adds depth, color, and humor to an otherwise intense setting.

The resolution mechanism, the way you determine if you succeed or fail at something, for the game is based on 2d6 plus a skill level against a target difficulty. Basically, you have to roll at or above an eight for most things. The ruleset is very simple and Stellagama calls it the Quantum Engine, to differentiate it from their more complex rules. The game is basically a much simpler, faster to learn and run, version of Traveller. Perfect for one-shots and GMs with bad memories like me.

The rules use six skills and an archetype that represents profession and training that adds abilities beyond the basic skills. That means you select how good you are at things everyone can do, like combat, or making or knowing stuff. And then you get to add cool abilities that most people can’t do, like running faster or doing more damage with your bare hands.

We had a bunch of different characters in our party. I played a Geckofolk, who could climb walls. Anna played a berserker with a pet dog. (A small black rat terrier with just a splash of white, I thought it would make a good dog for sneaking in places because it was hard to spot. That plan backfired on me badly. -Anna)

The session was dark, intense, and ended in a total party kill. This was in part planned, between having morally grey characters bent on betraying the party, extreme monsters, and literal dark in the sense that it was a nighttime setting chosen by the GM. He set it basically in a Nordic Winter with no daylight.

The total party kill started with Anna and was self-inflicted. This started off a chain of unfortunate events. Her character sketch said the only thing her berserker cared about and had left of her life before her exile was her dog. During combat, the berserker thought she accidentally killed her dog during a berserk rage. And killed herself. This surprised the GM quite a bit. (Yes, I tend to play the character, not what is always best for the party. It is also now decided that I shall not play characters with pets. -Anna)

It went downhill, in a fun way, from there. (The dog ended up out lasting everyone. Yay, puppy. Yay, my game group deciding to all rescue the puppy, even using magic to heal him. -Anna)

The Kickstarter for Barbaric! 2e is still underway and includes options to get a bundle of Stellagama Publishing’s wonderfully written and organized, and very reasonably priced, products.

The Kickstarter is at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/482738549/barbaric-2e-w-stellagama-publishing

Tod (and Anna)

PS – You can thank Anna for making my stodgy book report on Barbaric! 2e into something entertaining!