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Player's Guide
- GenresRole Playing Games
225 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2021
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13 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 3, 2022
I have been interested in the Symbaroum setting for some time, but was not interested in investing in another game system because I already have too many (though I believe Free League makes some great stuff and I have several of their games), so I pretty much fed my interest in listening to actual plays (the Symbaroum series on the YouTube channel “Telling Tales” was one of my favorites) and reading lore and game system information online. Fast-forward to when Free League announced their Ruins of Symbaroum 5e adaptation to Kickstarter, and I was happily onboard because my gaming group was on a D&D 5e kick for the past year, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to start my Symbaroum (5e) collection and to entice the members of my gaming group to a different, but intriguing setting, with the familiarity of the 5e system.
This is the Player’s Guide for the Symbaroum setting and it offers player focused setting/lore information and the unique character options available. To sum up what can be found, I have provided the summary of the book as described by the publisher:
* A player facing introduction to the lore, settlements and factions of the game setting.
* Setting specific rules on travelling, rests, social challenges, and the blight of corruption.
* Nine player character origins with custom backgrounds.
* Five new character classes with a total of 32 new approaches (sub-classes).
* New equipment in the form of weapons, armour, alchemical elixirs, mystical artifacts, and more.
* Spell lists for the mystical traditions sorcerer, theurg, troll singer, witch and wizard, including 24 new spells.
There is a lot of great information in here and a lot of good ideas that make this a unique setting atypical of most fantasy game genres. But as I read through the book, I felt that many of the game mechanics didn’t seem to play to the narrative description they were trying to represent. For example, Corruption and Blight are stressed at being this great danger with a need to be mindful of using magic and interacting with certain dangers, but the game mechanics didn’t seem to support this. The mechanics seemed “weak” in my opinion and not much of a deterrent to pushing the envelope with magic. I understand the interest in not wanting to break characters, especially if they are of classes that are expected to regularly use their powers to contribute to the game, but the amount of time and power use to obtain any real detrimental blight/corruption seems so extended as to not really be a concern.
Another section that I really wanted more out of was the different class and sub-classes. Some of them did not seem to shine or be unique enough in their own right to be different class/sub-classes (there were even a couple that had the same abilities). I was a bit torn in this because I like the idea of having different sub-classes to express some of the various roles/occupations that could be found in the setting, but I wonder if this might have been better for some by reducing the number of class/sub-class options and just offering up some more unique backgrounds instead.
Having read the book, I still liked what I saw and am interested in giving this a go as written to see how it plays out.
This is the Player’s Guide for the Symbaroum setting and it offers player focused setting/lore information and the unique character options available. To sum up what can be found, I have provided the summary of the book as described by the publisher:
* A player facing introduction to the lore, settlements and factions of the game setting.
* Setting specific rules on travelling, rests, social challenges, and the blight of corruption.
* Nine player character origins with custom backgrounds.
* Five new character classes with a total of 32 new approaches (sub-classes).
* New equipment in the form of weapons, armour, alchemical elixirs, mystical artifacts, and more.
* Spell lists for the mystical traditions sorcerer, theurg, troll singer, witch and wizard, including 24 new spells.
There is a lot of great information in here and a lot of good ideas that make this a unique setting atypical of most fantasy game genres. But as I read through the book, I felt that many of the game mechanics didn’t seem to play to the narrative description they were trying to represent. For example, Corruption and Blight are stressed at being this great danger with a need to be mindful of using magic and interacting with certain dangers, but the game mechanics didn’t seem to support this. The mechanics seemed “weak” in my opinion and not much of a deterrent to pushing the envelope with magic. I understand the interest in not wanting to break characters, especially if they are of classes that are expected to regularly use their powers to contribute to the game, but the amount of time and power use to obtain any real detrimental blight/corruption seems so extended as to not really be a concern.
Another section that I really wanted more out of was the different class and sub-classes. Some of them did not seem to shine or be unique enough in their own right to be different class/sub-classes (there were even a couple that had the same abilities). I was a bit torn in this because I like the idea of having different sub-classes to express some of the various roles/occupations that could be found in the setting, but I wonder if this might have been better for some by reducing the number of class/sub-class options and just offering up some more unique backgrounds instead.
Having read the book, I still liked what I saw and am interested in giving this a go as written to see how it plays out.
November 19, 2022
Faithful to the acclaimed original Symbaroum game system, this excellent 5E adaptation brings their dark, dangerous, richly detailed fantasy system to the masses. There’s not just a new setting here, which is a notable achievement on its own, but also new origins, classes, and a magic system based on the concept of corruption, an "insidious force that twists the mind and sours the spirit.” It’s D&D with a decidedly darker, deadlier twist. Once again, Martin Grip’s illustrations and the overall visual design of the book is beautiful, evocative, and inspiring. Check out the accompanying Gamemaster's Guide and Bestiary too! An adventure compendium is coming in early 2023.
I’ve read both versions of Symbaroum, and think the original system edges out this 5E adaptation, but the latter has the undeniable advantage of using a core game system most of us are already familiar with. I don’t think you can go wrong with either.
I’ve read both versions of Symbaroum, and think the original system edges out this 5E adaptation, but the latter has the undeniable advantage of using a core game system most of us are already familiar with. I don’t think you can go wrong with either.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews