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Into the Odd Remastered
A revised edition of the RPG originally released in 2014, Into the Odd Remastered is a 136 page book featuring plenty of new artwork and graphic design, as well as one or two new additions. The changes featured in the remastered version are almost entirely centred around adding new content, rather than making any modifications—with the gameplay system remaining largely the same.
The additions included within Into the Odd Remastered are a greater selection of Arcana - or various strange devices that enable the user to achieve unnatural and otherworldly things - more content within the Oddpendium section of the book, which covers the multitude of weird creatures and stuff that populate the world of the RPG, and an expanded version of the Return to the Iron Coral adventure that now takes place over three whole levels with several mini-dungeons.
Into the Odd is a roleplaying game set within an industrial world containing all sorts of cosmic entities and dangerously powerful artifacts. As explorers of this world, the player characters seek only to find and gather Arcana, from the tiniest piece of jewelry to entire constructions of strange origin. Amongst all this oddity, the players must attempt to avoid being swept away and losing themselves for good. The world is spread across various different areas, from the city of Bastion to the uncharted Golden Lands, with the GM guiding the players throughout a one-shot or campaign.
The RPG features a quick character creation system that allows players to apparently make characters in minutes, as well as a minimalist ruleset to provide players with a more rules-light roleplaying game experience wherein combat is decisive and every move counts. The players spend the majority of the game exploring its world in search of Arcana, which will provide them with unique abilities that can be used at various points in the game to produce strange, and sometimes helpful, effects.
Into the Odd Remastered was created by Chris McDowal—the designer behind the original RPG and it’s follow-up Electric Bastionland, which uses the same gameplay system—with the artwork and graphic design by Joan Nohr, who is known for their work on the doom metal RPG Mörk Borg.
The additions included within Into the Odd Remastered are a greater selection of Arcana - or various strange devices that enable the user to achieve unnatural and otherworldly things - more content within the Oddpendium section of the book, which covers the multitude of weird creatures and stuff that populate the world of the RPG, and an expanded version of the Return to the Iron Coral adventure that now takes place over three whole levels with several mini-dungeons.
Into the Odd is a roleplaying game set within an industrial world containing all sorts of cosmic entities and dangerously powerful artifacts. As explorers of this world, the player characters seek only to find and gather Arcana, from the tiniest piece of jewelry to entire constructions of strange origin. Amongst all this oddity, the players must attempt to avoid being swept away and losing themselves for good. The world is spread across various different areas, from the city of Bastion to the uncharted Golden Lands, with the GM guiding the players throughout a one-shot or campaign.
The RPG features a quick character creation system that allows players to apparently make characters in minutes, as well as a minimalist ruleset to provide players with a more rules-light roleplaying game experience wherein combat is decisive and every move counts. The players spend the majority of the game exploring its world in search of Arcana, which will provide them with unique abilities that can be used at various points in the game to produce strange, and sometimes helpful, effects.
Into the Odd Remastered was created by Chris McDowal—the designer behind the original RPG and it’s follow-up Electric Bastionland, which uses the same gameplay system—with the artwork and graphic design by Joan Nohr, who is known for their work on the doom metal RPG Mörk Borg.
136 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2022
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140 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 14, 2023
Rating: 5 stars.
A revised, hardcover edition of one of the most important RPGs of the last ten years. Creating a rules-light environment for old-school play, the original release of Into the Odd went on to influence countless games (some of which, like Cairn, influenced many more games again). The game's rules are simple but incredibly effective, and its playstyle promotes a stance that player characters' are competent and usually automatically successful at their attempted actions, rolling instead to avoid risks and dangers that arise from the fiction.
Into the Odd's rules are brief enough that the majority of this revised edition is given over to the inclusion of many full-page spreads of art, as well as a three-level dungeon, a hex crawl with three additional, smaller dungeons, a town write-up, and a bunch of random idea tables at the back.
Into the Odd Remastered is a fantastic product, both visually and rules-wise, which makes it a must-have addition to any gaming shelf.
A revised, hardcover edition of one of the most important RPGs of the last ten years. Creating a rules-light environment for old-school play, the original release of Into the Odd went on to influence countless games (some of which, like Cairn, influenced many more games again). The game's rules are simple but incredibly effective, and its playstyle promotes a stance that player characters' are competent and usually automatically successful at their attempted actions, rolling instead to avoid risks and dangers that arise from the fiction.
Into the Odd's rules are brief enough that the majority of this revised edition is given over to the inclusion of many full-page spreads of art, as well as a three-level dungeon, a hex crawl with three additional, smaller dungeons, a town write-up, and a bunch of random idea tables at the back.
Into the Odd Remastered is a fantastic product, both visually and rules-wise, which makes it a must-have addition to any gaming shelf.
August 12, 2023
Najpiękniej wydany podręcznik do rpga jaki zdarzyło mi się czytać. Sam system daje dużą swobodę MG i graczom. Autor skupił się na zarysowaniu klimatu świata i zostawił dużo niedopowiedzianej przestrzeni dla wyobraźni grających. Po przeczytaniu całego podręcznika nadal nie wiem wiele o dziwnych krainach otaczających miasto Bastion jak i o samym mieście. Z jednej strony mi się to podoba - inicjatywa w wymyślaniu jest po mojej stronie, a świat przedstawiony pozwala się łatwo zapełnić różnymi pomysłami. Z drugiej mógłbym dostać troszkę więcej opisów i prostych faktów na temat lore’u. Niemniej podoba mi się styl autora i grafika i nie mogę się doczekać, aż przetestuję system w praktyce.
July 25, 2023
Review Summary: A landmark of the "new/old-school zine RPGs", Into the Odd gets this remastered update featuring some expanded content, better design, and wondrous graphics from Johan Nohr. Recommend for those who like design in their game design or for those who might be truly curious about how much game you can play with so little.
Doug's Notes: the dates of "reading" are madness. I've actually read through this twice in the past couple of week while prepping for playing some and just to enjoy. I remember once saying I wanted to get into more review of Roleplaying Game books as books so figured starting here could be a good place.
== Review ==
Among a certain type of tabletop roleplayers, Chris McDowall's Into the Odd is a watershed. It deconstructs many of the principle of older roleplaying into a very small handful of rolls: saves for when your character attempts something dangerous, damage for when your characters hits or gets hit, and luck for when nothing else quite makes sense. Damage is automatic, fights are quick and often deadly, and long-equipment lists are boiled to basics. You can make a character and learn the basics within minutes (and then watch the character die horribly the first time you walk blindly into a fight and then start over with a better grasp of the mechanics).
One of the biggest differences is that it updates the sense of dice rolls as a pacing economy. With many RPGs, it is inherent that luck at rolling dice will generally outline the physics and physicality of the game world. Generally the new games are, the more safety mechanisms are in place that allows the players to give their characters extra chances to succeed. One thing Into the Odd does is make it so most actions are essentially automatic successes as long as they fit the fiction and sometimes the fiction, driven by character agency, deems there a risk or danger involved. Then you might roll a saving throw so your character can avoid the danger while doing the action.
The player decides the character's actions and the dice are largely used to find out what sort of bad things happen (or are avoided) while doing these actions (picking the lock might eat up too much, leading to a character get caught or triggering some trap, etc).
A paradox of this book, which is well laid out and flows well from place to place without wasting many words, is that it also seems to be perfectly valid that someone reading through this could be a bit lost. Some of it is the fluff — there are around twelve to fifteen white-space-ful pages that contain the bulk of gameplay elements and the majority of the rules could reasonable be formatted down to a single page if you sacrificed some art and words — and some of it is the simplicity of play. "How far do you move? How much can you carry? What do you do to tame a dragon for your mount?" and the broad answer is "yes". Make it make sense at your table for your particular session. In actual play, it is easy to see how little these questions ultimately matter, but there are some growing pains.*
The inclusion of a dungeon and hexcrawl (which actually could add up to be its own mini-campaign with several "quests", extra materials, and broad area building) goes a long way with helping to give a proper vibe check for the system. The "oddpendium" in the back gives a stack of tables and alternatives for those who want to try out some different modes or for GMs having to create a noodle seller out of nowhere because everyone really, really wants to roleplay buying some noodles.
And the Johan Nohr art gives the book a very distinctive feel.
Final verdict is that this is a five star and foundational game for me, but I appreciate that some will not jive to the mindset.
=== Notes ===
* It is perfectly easy to homebrew a few rules that are consistent to the mechanics as given. A character, say, can carry as many items as their current STR, bulky counts as two items and 100 coins per item slot. Other games have done this. Maybe you can move your DEX in yards/meters per round. Easy peasy. But also, not really necessary for a lot of adventures.
Doug's Notes: the dates of "reading" are madness. I've actually read through this twice in the past couple of week while prepping for playing some and just to enjoy. I remember once saying I wanted to get into more review of Roleplaying Game books as books so figured starting here could be a good place.
== Review ==
Among a certain type of tabletop roleplayers, Chris McDowall's Into the Odd is a watershed. It deconstructs many of the principle of older roleplaying into a very small handful of rolls: saves for when your character attempts something dangerous, damage for when your characters hits or gets hit, and luck for when nothing else quite makes sense. Damage is automatic, fights are quick and often deadly, and long-equipment lists are boiled to basics. You can make a character and learn the basics within minutes (and then watch the character die horribly the first time you walk blindly into a fight and then start over with a better grasp of the mechanics).
One of the biggest differences is that it updates the sense of dice rolls as a pacing economy. With many RPGs, it is inherent that luck at rolling dice will generally outline the physics and physicality of the game world. Generally the new games are, the more safety mechanisms are in place that allows the players to give their characters extra chances to succeed. One thing Into the Odd does is make it so most actions are essentially automatic successes as long as they fit the fiction and sometimes the fiction, driven by character agency, deems there a risk or danger involved. Then you might roll a saving throw so your character can avoid the danger while doing the action.
The player decides the character's actions and the dice are largely used to find out what sort of bad things happen (or are avoided) while doing these actions (picking the lock might eat up too much, leading to a character get caught or triggering some trap, etc).
A paradox of this book, which is well laid out and flows well from place to place without wasting many words, is that it also seems to be perfectly valid that someone reading through this could be a bit lost. Some of it is the fluff — there are around twelve to fifteen white-space-ful pages that contain the bulk of gameplay elements and the majority of the rules could reasonable be formatted down to a single page if you sacrificed some art and words — and some of it is the simplicity of play. "How far do you move? How much can you carry? What do you do to tame a dragon for your mount?" and the broad answer is "yes". Make it make sense at your table for your particular session. In actual play, it is easy to see how little these questions ultimately matter, but there are some growing pains.*
The inclusion of a dungeon and hexcrawl (which actually could add up to be its own mini-campaign with several "quests", extra materials, and broad area building) goes a long way with helping to give a proper vibe check for the system. The "oddpendium" in the back gives a stack of tables and alternatives for those who want to try out some different modes or for GMs having to create a noodle seller out of nowhere because everyone really, really wants to roleplay buying some noodles.
And the Johan Nohr art gives the book a very distinctive feel.
Final verdict is that this is a five star and foundational game for me, but I appreciate that some will not jive to the mindset.
=== Notes ===
* It is perfectly easy to homebrew a few rules that are consistent to the mechanics as given. A character, say, can carry as many items as their current STR, bulky counts as two items and 100 coins per item slot. Other games have done this. Maybe you can move your DEX in yards/meters per round. Easy peasy. But also, not really necessary for a lot of adventures.
August 16, 2022
Of all the new revival RPGs this is the most charming and sincere I would say. Something just feels right holding this book. Is there a charm upon these pages? The system itself appears to be simple and elegant, covering everything from single adventures to mass combat to entrepreneurial business ventures. Despite the somewhat exotic setting, a whimsical kind of steampunk, I find it to be better grounded than Troika, and less dark than Mork Borg or the much dreaded Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Also this edition of Into the Odd is packed with useful and unusual information that adds to the world building such as random creature generator so you are getting something for your money beyond just a rule set, equipment lists and world flavor. I admit the only thing absent from such a stripped down system is character classes or even any fragments that might individualize characters to greater degree than rolled stats. There are only 3 rolled stats though the designer lumps together certain traits - so the stat “Willpower” for example is described as “confidence, discipline and charisma”. This makes the game easier to learn and easier to get up and running, but again, if you are used to creating more detailed characters in other RPGs, you might miss that detail here. Not that this would bother me much to take this game out for a test drive.
Read
March 2, 2024Much shorter to get through that it initially seems from its pagecount--lots of white space, lots of incredible art and design by Johan Nohr, and most of the back half is taken up by supplementary tables (great), a sizeable dungeon and swampy hexcrawl and more smaller locations (skimmed these but seem pretty good and weird!).
What is here is a structure I was familiar with from Cairn, but in its original form, wedded to a more industrial victoriana-like setting that inevitably seems fresh by merit of not being about some more goddamn elves. Bonus points for anything that reminds me of China Mieville, so imagine I'm wading in bonus points up to my waist or something.
Rock-solid simple rules (three stats, no roll to-hit, characters defined by equipment packages rather than species/class), clear presentation, cool weird magic items--honestly might prefer this to Cairn just because this is choosing a more interesting setting. Wish I had the physical copy so I could ooh and ah more appropriately over the art.
What is here is a structure I was familiar with from Cairn, but in its original form, wedded to a more industrial victoriana-like setting that inevitably seems fresh by merit of not being about some more goddamn elves. Bonus points for anything that reminds me of China Mieville, so imagine I'm wading in bonus points up to my waist or something.
Rock-solid simple rules (three stats, no roll to-hit, characters defined by equipment packages rather than species/class), clear presentation, cool weird magic items--honestly might prefer this to Cairn just because this is choosing a more interesting setting. Wish I had the physical copy so I could ooh and ah more appropriately over the art.
May 11, 2024
The older I get the more I like simple, minimalistic even, roleplaying games, and this is one of them. It's great as an introduction for new players, and as a relaxing change for more experienced ones.
The mechanics are simple, making for a fast-paced style, but nicely balanced with story-telling, as the book keeps reminding the referee (GM) to be flexible. The world is described just enough - with beautiful illustrations - to leave a lot to your imagination, so that it can be molded specifically to your group's tastes. The magic system is based mostly on artifacts (arcana), owing to the post-apocalyptic urban setting, but I see it as just a beginning to build on, or a mystery, to be solved and further developed - again, it seems perfect for those who don't want to be constrained.
The book also contains the obligatory starter adventure covering quite a lot of locations and encounters. Finally, there's the Oddpedium, a really funny way of fleshing out random world events, NPC backstories, arcana items and more. It really is a tiny (150+ pages) complete package.
The mechanics are simple, making for a fast-paced style, but nicely balanced with story-telling, as the book keeps reminding the referee (GM) to be flexible. The world is described just enough - with beautiful illustrations - to leave a lot to your imagination, so that it can be molded specifically to your group's tastes. The magic system is based mostly on artifacts (arcana), owing to the post-apocalyptic urban setting, but I see it as just a beginning to build on, or a mystery, to be solved and further developed - again, it seems perfect for those who don't want to be constrained.
The book also contains the obligatory starter adventure covering quite a lot of locations and encounters. Finally, there's the Oddpedium, a really funny way of fleshing out random world events, NPC backstories, arcana items and more. It really is a tiny (150+ pages) complete package.
January 2, 2024
This is a beautiful book that captures probably one of my favorite ttrpg games ever made. Chris McDowall is brilliant. Gorgeous layout, no nonsense rule wording, simple yet clever game design, ultra fast character creation and gameplay, with enough weirdness to get your creative juices flowing yet open enough to easily make it your own.
If you want to play a fantasy game with a bit of weirdness, and other games have rules that bog you down? Do your players get frustrated by complicated character generation?
Into the Odd is the answer to your prayers.
I cannot overstate how much I love this game.
This book takes the original and highly influential Into the Odd, updates the rules a tad (including with some ideas from Electric Bastionland), and wraps them in a fantastically designed little book.
Also, follow Chris's Bastionland Press blog, he constantly publishes superbly insightful gaming advice that will enrich your table experience.
If you want to play a fantasy game with a bit of weirdness, and other games have rules that bog you down? Do your players get frustrated by complicated character generation?
Into the Odd is the answer to your prayers.
I cannot overstate how much I love this game.
This book takes the original and highly influential Into the Odd, updates the rules a tad (including with some ideas from Electric Bastionland), and wraps them in a fantastically designed little book.
Also, follow Chris's Bastionland Press blog, he constantly publishes superbly insightful gaming advice that will enrich your table experience.
September 18, 2022
ItO (with its derivatives) is my go-to system for running games with old school sensibilities. This new edition is a thoughtfully-produced distillation of the original text, with emphasis on Chris McDowall's philosophy for running games. The older edition was fine, but I also appreciate that this is an unusual and eye-catching book that I can put in front of a new player to get them excited to play. The most-used section for me is the Oddpendium. I'm unlikely to run the expanded starter adventure and hexcrawl, although the small dungeons from the hexcrawl could be useful in a pinch.
March 5, 2023
Easily my favorite of these lightweight RPGs so far. Honestly, this feels like what the Numenera/Cypher system wanted to be: A lightweight system with a built in focus on magic items being varied and oft swapped out. The only thing I'm not fully on board with is not rolling to hit, which while I understand it helps keep the system lightweight and dangerous (and that the concept of HP was changed to support this), it still feels a little bit too streamlined. It's the only place I feel like that though, the rest is wonderful (especially the art omg)
September 10, 2022
The system is well exposed and streamlined for what it tries to do (which is pure OSR). The edition is beautiful. The setting however is bizarre in a mildly disappointing way. When it’s not completely random it is silly as in “I’d be ok with this if I was 12”. The oddpendium at the end seems useful also for other games (basically a bunch of random tables). Overall a curiosity, but definitely not a must have.
October 8, 2022
Simple little system, and has enough meat on its bones to help make the world of Bastion come to life. The second half of the book is a stellar example of how you can quickly and easily set up a hex crawl or point crawl adventure for your players to explore. Worth the price of admission and look forward to taking it to the table.
August 29, 2023
An interesting OSR about industrialism mixed with the general weird. As you can expect, there are a lot of tables and very colorful and succint descriptions. Very good for one-shots. However, it lack context a lot, and it would have been nice to have a little bit more of background about the setting and the origin of Arcanum and the odd in the setting. Too much blank space.
December 12, 2022
Great little RPG book. Rules light, and very quick to read. The included adventure seems to be extremely quick to start playing. Johan Nohr did an amazing job with the design and layout. The clean layout complements the succinct writing while the art conveys the 'oddness' very efficiently.
April 19, 2023
Another set of RPG rules. Interesting concept whereas characters live in a city surrounded by gloom and nightmarish creatures. Characters are searching for "arcana" devices which will help them combat the nasties.
February 8, 2023
A revolutionary game!
February 18, 2023
Looking forward to throwing my dice at this. Another great addition to my OSR collection.
March 4, 2023
An extraordinarily creative roleplaying game that should be accessible to both veteran and newer players.
May 25, 2023
Beautiful book and amazing system
August 23, 2023
Very sparse.
The art and presentation is brilliant.
There is just enough information here to set up a decent dungeon crawl.
The system and light rules seem well thought out.
The art and presentation is brilliant.
There is just enough information here to set up a decent dungeon crawl.
The system and light rules seem well thought out.
October 25, 2024
What can I say. Very simple yet so brilliant. I usually sell rpgs which I don’t use. This one stays as a reminder what an excellent rpg looks and feels like.
November 19, 2024
Krásná, rychlá, stručná a přehledná pravidla. Místy bych ocenil trochu více flavour textu a systém budu moci ohodnotit až po skutečné hře. Ale na první přečtení zní rozumně.
May 24, 2025
Buy this for the game, and some of the best randomised tables out there.
November 16, 2025
Primera lectura rápida del manual. Muy top
November 28, 2025
rules light, scavenger/exploration and contact/combat
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews