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Cryptomancer: A Fantasy Role Playing Game About Hacking
Unknown Binding
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March 31, 2018
I think it's safe to say there is no other tabletop RPG like Cryptomancer. The idea of blending (mostly) traditional fantasy with real-world principles of information security and cryptography sounds crazy, but I think it's brilliant. The author is an infosec professional, so he knows what he's talking about. And having read this book, I think I might understand those principles better than I ever have before. This game could be a great tool for teaching.
The author frequently downplays the originality of the setting, but I think it's more interesting than it claims. It's intentionally based on familiar fantasy tropes, so as to be easy for people to get into, but the elves, dwarves, and humans in the world of Cryptomancer are quite a bit different from what we usually see. The Risk Eaters are an awesome idea as well. There's a huge potential for interesting stories here.
One aspect of this game that might be controversial, but which I actually like, is the fact that the party is all but guaranteed to fail eventually. They may succeed at various missions and become more powerful along the way, but as they do so, they build up their risk factor, and there is no way to bring that back down. Once the risk gets to a certain level, the Risk Eaters rear their ugly heads as an unstoppable force of intervention. The party will be destroyed at some point. Some people might hate that, but I think it's a bold and fascinating choice.
I don't think I have the chops to run a Cryptomancer campaign quite yet, but I hope I get the chance to play it at some point. Although it unapologetically uses some gameplay concepts from traditional RPGs that I'm not crazy about, the game is so unique that I just have to try it at least once.
The author frequently downplays the originality of the setting, but I think it's more interesting than it claims. It's intentionally based on familiar fantasy tropes, so as to be easy for people to get into, but the elves, dwarves, and humans in the world of Cryptomancer are quite a bit different from what we usually see. The Risk Eaters are an awesome idea as well. There's a huge potential for interesting stories here.
One aspect of this game that might be controversial, but which I actually like, is the fact that the party is all but guaranteed to fail eventually. They may succeed at various missions and become more powerful along the way, but as they do so, they build up their risk factor, and there is no way to bring that back down. Once the risk gets to a certain level, the Risk Eaters rear their ugly heads as an unstoppable force of intervention. The party will be destroyed at some point. Some people might hate that, but I think it's a bold and fascinating choice.
I don't think I have the chops to run a Cryptomancer campaign quite yet, but I hope I get the chance to play it at some point. Although it unapologetically uses some gameplay concepts from traditional RPGs that I'm not crazy about, the game is so unique that I just have to try it at least once.
Displaying 1 of 1 review