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Torchbearer RPG
A dungeon crawl roleplaying game and love letter to Basic D&D. Torchbearer is a riff on the early model of fantasy roleplaying games. In it, you take on the role of an adventurer seeking his or her fortune. To earn that fortune, you must explore forlorn ruins, brave terrible monsters and retrieve forgotten treasures.
200 pages, Hardcover
Published September 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 8, 2021
I read it and re-read it, listened to APs, and ran several sessions. My play group and I found the mechanics intrusive, unintuitive, and deeply unsatisfying. Great cover art, though.
April 7, 2016
This game is poetic in its mechanics. They are complex, and not too well organized. There are general rules with many exceptions, i.e. for example when can you help your fellow dungeon crawlers using a wise? And using your nature? Having a table specifically for that would have helped. Instead I have to browse between the chapter that explains rolls and how help works, and between the chapter that explains wises and the one that explains nature.
This is by no means a flaw in the game, just in how it's exposed. And it's about the only real flaw I can see in this game.
The game is merciless and quite hard. It gives you a sense of the urgency of survival in harsh conditions, makes dungeon crawling exciting and challenging and turns it into a resource management experience where you try to keep bad conditions away while trying to keep track of how many torches and how many rations of food you consume.
To me, this is the ultimate dungeon crawling experience, and exactly what I want to experience when delving in the deep and facing monsters. It's also why I love videogames like Darkest Dungeon and Legend of Grimrock. Finally a tabletop rpg that does it right!
This is by no means a flaw in the game, just in how it's exposed. And it's about the only real flaw I can see in this game.
The game is merciless and quite hard. It gives you a sense of the urgency of survival in harsh conditions, makes dungeon crawling exciting and challenging and turns it into a resource management experience where you try to keep bad conditions away while trying to keep track of how many torches and how many rations of food you consume.
To me, this is the ultimate dungeon crawling experience, and exactly what I want to experience when delving in the deep and facing monsters. It's also why I love videogames like Darkest Dungeon and Legend of Grimrock. Finally a tabletop rpg that does it right!
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June 4, 2015I picked this up precisely because it is a fantasy version of the Mouse Guard rules, adapted for fantasy gaming. That's both it's greatest strength & biggest flaw; in the latter case because a lot of the clever mechanics & rules I've already seen before, in the Mouse Guard RPG. In the former case, because they ARE neat ideas & bring good innovations in how people think about rules "crunch." -- MK
June 13, 2016
Evocative of old RPGs in tone, setting, artwork, with a somewhat streamlined ruleset focused on the grind of dungeon delving. A stunning and beautifully crafted book full of excellent adventuring ideas to ignite your imagination.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews