The D20 Trademark License means that Wizards of the Coast has to compete with John Tynes, Chris Pramas, John Nephew, and a half dozen design studios. Can they do it? Of course they can.

Review Originally Published December 29th, 2000

Writing a low-level adventure for D&D is a thankless and difficult task: The most interesting monsters in the game don’t become available until the characters start hitting the mid-range levels. The challenges you do concoct must be kept simple. Nor can you effectively spice things up with intrigue, because low-level characters are assumed to be low on society’s totem pole.

With The Sunless Citadel, however, Bruce Cordell has put together an extremely impressive introductory package for WotC’s first generic module for the third edition game. Not only has he taken the usual suspects of goblins and kobolds and done something interesting with them, he’s also designed a dynamic environment with the assumption that the PCs will be gaining experience and power as they go. The result is something I haven’t really seen since the heyday of the 1st edition classics: A module with some real heft to it – with a lot of potential to leave your play group with epic stories. And, unlike its 1st edition predecessors, The Sunless Citadel doesn’t suffer from an unbelievable scenario and nonexistent plotting – quite the contrary.

The fact that Cordell has pulled this off in 32 pages designed for 1st level characters is extremely impressive.

PLOT

Warning: This review will contain spoilers for The Sunless Citadel. Players who may end up playing in this module are encouraged to stop reading now. Proceed at your own risk.

The structure which is now known as the Sunless Citadel was a “once-proud fortress that fell into the earth in an age long past”. Three important things have occurred in the long years which have passed since: First, a vampire was killed deep in the core of the citadel. The stake which pierced his heart was green, however, and took root. The tree which grew – known as the Gulthias Tree – is a thing of unspeakable evil. Twice each year the Gulthias Tree gives forth a single fruit: At Midsummer a ruby-red apple capable of granting health, vigor, and life; at Midwinter an albino apple which takes the same. There is a catch to this, however: The seeds of either fruit, if planted, will grow into a tree – which will then transform itself into a hideous and mischievous creature known as a twig blight. The Gulthias Tree is currently tended by an evil druid by the name of Belak, who has hatched a plan to infect the world with these twig blights.

Second, the citadel became the home of a roving goblin tribe – who have allied with Belak (largely because Belak and the strange Gulthias Tree frighten them).

Third, and most recently, a group of kobolds – seeking to worship the dragon gods of the citadel, have also moved in (coming into conflict with the goblins). The kobolds brought with them a young dragon hatchling (showing the flexibility of the third edition – allowing even first level characters to effectively tangle with dragons) – who has recently been kidnapped by the goblins.

The module is location-based: The PCs need to move through the sections of the dungeon controlled by the kobolds, then the goblins, and finally into the lower levels which are dominated by the Gulthias Tree. There is also a section of the citadel which has remained sealed since it sunk beneath the earth – giving a total of four different adventuring environments for the PCs. (There is also an entrance to the Underdark, which can be used at the GM’s discretion.) However, the module also has its dynamic components: For example, if the PCs keep their heads about them they can negotiate with the kobolds and use them as allies to punch through the goblin-controlled territory.

Cordell also does a nice job of planting a couple of seeds (pardon the pun) for future adventures: For example, the twig blights which have been released on the surface are still running around – and the PCs may end up running into them again.

WEAKNESSES

All right, I think the case has been sufficiently made for why you should pick up The Sunless Citadel, so let me now spend a couple of quick minutes analyzing its faults:

First, the adventuring hooks are fairly weak. The only one with real potential, in my opinion, involves the heroes being hired to discover what happened to another adventuring party which disappeared after going out to the Citadel (this is developed nicely in the module itself – the only weakness being that there’s really no explanation for why this other adventuring party decided to head to the Citadel in the first place).

Second, there’s no EL chart for this adventure. Dungeon Magazine has them. The third party developers have them. One should be here – particularly considering the probable desire for DMs to do on-the-fly adjustments to EL levels.

Third, there’s one whopping inconsistency at the adventure’s conclusion: Two of the missing adventurers have been captured by Belak, who has used the Gulthias Tree to transform them into helpless supplicants. The primary adventure text claims that, if the Gulthias Tree is cut down, the supplicants will become mindless and bestial. A sidebar specifically designed to explain the supplicants, however, claims that, if the Gulthias Tree is cut down, the supplicants will immediately die.

Fourth, Cordell does a really excellent job of making the Sunless Citadel a dungeon that makes sense… almost. There are a couple of key flaws here, both of which involve the goblins: First, it makes sense for Belak to be here (this is where the Gulthias Tree is). It also makes sense for the kobolds to be here (they’re worshipping the dragon idols of the Citadel). Unfortunately, the goblins aren’t given a similarly compelling reason for deciding to live here: Why don’t they go up to the surface and farm the vast expanses of empty land which the adventure text tells us surround the citadel?

The other key flaw is far more disturbing to the adventure’s essential structure: Belak uses the goblins to sell the magical fruit of the Gulthias Tree to the nearby villagers (who plant the fruit, furthering the spread of the twig blights across the surface world). Unfortunately, Cordell has designed a dungeon in which the goblins have been completely cut off from the surface world by the kobolds. Whoops.

The only other major problem I have with The Sunless Citadel is this: Dungeon Magazine has a lower price, more pages, and higher production values. Something doesn’t quite add up there.

But my rave review of Dungeon is for another time. Suffice it to say, for now, that The Sunless Citadel is a bargain at ten bucks: Although its only thirty-two pages long, there’s enough material here to fuel your game for at least two weeks and possibly as much as month. Great stuff.

Style: 4
Substance: 4

Title: The Sunless Citadel
Authors: Bruce R. Cordell
Company: Wizards of the Coast
Line: Dungeons & Dragons
Price: $9.95
ISBN: 0-7869-1640-0
Production Code: TSR11640
Pages: 32

Phew! Thank goodness this module has such great plotting, right? (Oof.)

As I’ve mentioned in a few previous commentary on these older reviews, Justin the Younger was still operating under the Plot is Adventure/Adventure is Plot paradigm even as I was beginning to figure out the pitfalls of that paradigm. This sometimes produced cringe-worthy results; sometimes just ones that are a little incoherent to my modern eyes.

Also feels like I was aggressively nitpicky in trying to find “weaknesses” in the module. The only criticism I actually have of the module today is that its dungeon design is a little over-linear, but fortunately it’s not particularly difficult to xander it up. The truth is my esteem for The Sunless Citadel has only grown over the years: I’ve run it three or four times now, and almost certainly will again. The lore is cool, the factions compelling, the upper level fun to explore, and the lower level creepy as hell.

The Sunless Citadel is also the birthplace of the twig blights. And I love those little bastards.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

A solid supplement for the Usagi Yojimbo Roleplaying Game. Dungeons & Dragons GMs may also want to check this one out.

Review Originally Published December 28th, 2000

Usagi Yojimbo: Monsters! is, obviously, the monsters supplement for the Usagi Yojimbo Roleplaying Game – adapting fourteen supernatural creatures from the Usagi comic book for use.

Although there are only fourteen creatures in this slim little pamphlet (making the total cost only slightly less than a buck a monster), the value is here: Each monster receives a two to three page write-up, including behavior, special powers, a summary of their appearances in Usagi comics, and an adventure seed. Although the adventure seeds are often simplistic, and occasionally nothing more than fodder for a single encounter (rather than a full-fledged adventure), this is still rather nice.

The other thing I like about this product is the opening introduction – which gives the background on Japanese monsters and how this is interpreted in the Usagi universe (providing a consistent, underlying mythos to the rest of the material).

There are three really annoying things about this product:

Annoying Thing #1: A half dozen pages are taken up by a completely random section of rules which should’ve been included in the core rulebook. We know they should’ve been included in the core rulebook for two reasons: First, whenever you get a random selection of miscellaneous rules in the very first supplement released for a game, you know that those pages were cut from the main rulebook. Second, one of the things included in this book is the Goat species – which was actually used in the core rulebook to describe an NPC. Whoops.

Annoying Thing #2: Conversion notes are included for FUDGE and D20. That isn’t the annoying thing (I’ll discuss these a more in a second), though. The annoying thing is this: Stats are included in these conversions for the kitsune. Unfortunately, the kitsune is not one of the monsters included in this product – we are informed that the kitsune was a special promotional monster which was published in an unnamed magazine. The kitsune should’ve been in this book. The fact it isn’t, is annoying.

Annoying Thing #3: The book was obviously rushed through the editorial process – typos and grammatical errors abound. The most egregious one I found was this: “Sutras can be written to render a person invisible to spirits and supernatural monsters or they can be written to render the object or person invisible to them.” Since that’s a rule, I’m more than a little annoyed. Very sloppy.

Back to the conversion notes: These are actually very nice, transforming what would otherwise be a fairly narrow supplement into a broadly useful one. I heartily recommend that D&D GMs, in particular, pick this book up: The monsters are well done and come with a lot of support, and should add some nice spice to your campaign.

Usagi Yojimbo GMs would, I think, be remiss in giving this product a pass. The price is a little steep, but the material is fairly solid solid.

Style: 3
Substance: 3

Grade: B

Title: Usagi Yojimbo: Monsters!
Authors: Jared Smith
Company: Gold Rush Games
Line: Usagi Yojimbo
Price: $12.00
ISBN: 1-890305-09-X
Production Code: U101
Pages: 48

I’ve always been disappointed in this review. I didn’t do a good enough job explaining WHY I liked the stuff that I liked about it, which creates a lopsided and overly negative impression. I can’t properly fix that at the moment because it’s been 20+ years since I used this book, but I will say that I was sincere when I recommended it. It’s a slim volume, but filled with meaty, useful material.

Is it weird that this one review still bugs me even after all these years? I don’t think so. Creators grow from their mistakes. This was a miss, but one that serves as a touchstone that has made the reviews I’ve written since better.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

S. & B. ask:

In the Dragon Heist Remix, what should I do if the PCs head to the Brandath Crypts and find the secret door leading to the vault doors early? My players found the references to the Cassalanters being interested in the Brandath Crypts at the converted windmill, went to check it out, and found the secret door. If they find the Vault this way, couldn’t they figure out how to open it without ever getting the Stone of Golorr and skip straight to the end of the campaign?

Converted Windmill → Crypt isn’t even the speed run of Dragon Heist. My players jumped directly from “the Zhentarim are interested in his mom’s necklace” → “we should check out his mom’s crypt” before they’d even gone to Trollskull Manor. They actually missed the check to find the secret passage in Lady Alethea’s Crypt by one point.

This created a huge payoff when they came back to the crypt at the end of the campaign: “Wait… we were standing right on top of it?!”

One thing you may notice is that the Brandath Crypts in the Alexandrian Remix of Dragon Heist are much more elaborate than those in the original adventure.

Here’s the original map:

And the revised map:

This is partly for lore reasons (demonstrating the long history of the Brandaths), but also because it places the Vault under ablative shielding. The PCs will

• Need to figure out the Crypt is involved.
• Need to find the secret door.
• Once through the secret door, find the opened secret compartment from which the Cassalanters took the Eye. (This is a red herring that can cause groups to stop looking, particularly if they come from the converted windmill: “Oh. This is where they found what they came here for.”)
• Need to find the second hidden passage behind the illusion.
• Need to figure out how to open the Vault. (Without direct access to a legend lore spell through the Stone of Golorr, so they’ll either need to call in a favor or get clever.)

You know how you use the Three Clue Rule to create robust connections? This is basically the exact opposite of that: We’re deliberately designing a chain of fragile connections, with the high expectation that at least one of these chains will break, turning the PCs away (but also rewarding them later with the cool, “We were so close!” reveal).

Okay, but what if the chain doesn’t break, the PCs do all of those things, and they get into the Vault “early”?

100% let it happen. And then play to find out.

First, your players are going to think this is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to them at the gaming table. I guarantee it. Plus, they’re going to trust you implicitly as a GM for the rest of eternity. On top of that, just think about the story they’re going to have to tell other D&D players?

In my opinion, even if you had to throw out the rest of the campaign, it would still be worth it.

It’ll be like my players telling the story of how they beat the Tomb of Horrors by casting locate object on their stolen stuff, drilling a hole through the wall, and using gaseous form to loot the treasury. Except on steroids.

If you’ve ever wanted to run a campaign that your player will remember forever, this is how you do it. My wife still talks about another campaign where she convinced the rest of her group to unexpectedly double back, confront the secret villainess, and completely derailed the Epic Quest™ the PCs were supposed to be embarking on.

But also, if you’re running the Dragon Heist Remix, you won’t have to throw out the rest of the campaign, because, second, the rest of the campaign is still in motion.

One of the great things about prepping situations instead of plots and then actively playing those situations is that, even when those situations go in a completely unexpected direction… you can just keep playing.

You’ve found the money. What do you do with it? How do you get it out of the Vault? These questions are often trivialized at the end of a Dragon Heist campaign because the PCs have taken some factions off the board and made alliances with others. But if they breach the vault early, all of these factions will still be fully active and likely mysterious to the PCs.

To take an easy example, the Cassalanters still need this money to save their kids. Just because the money isn’t in the Vault any more doesn’t mean that the Cassalanters aren’t still going to be trying to get their hands on it.

The Stone of Golorr is still in play. Even if the Stone is no longer required to find Neverember’s stolen money, it’s still a pretty big deal in its own right. It’s a powerful artifact filled with secrets and capable of incredible things. Most or all of the people who were looking for it will still be looking for it!

In other words, the Grand Game is still very much in play. And there can be some absolutely fascinating stuff that comes out of the PCs suddenly being flush with a small fortune while still pursuing the Stone of Golorr:

• How does their wealth change their relationship with the various factions?
• What resources can they purchase to further their goals?
• If they use the money for unrelated purchases, what are the consequences?

Flow with what’s happening and keep actively playing the situation. The Remix gives you the tools you need to keep reacting and keep playing.

In “How the Remix Works,” for example, there’s a simple checklist for the GM to follow as a default option:

1. Are the PCs looking for a lead to one of the Eyes? If yes, pick a Faction Outpost and point them at it.

2. Did the PCs just piss off one of the Factions? If yes, pick a Faction Response Team and have them target the PCs.

3. Are the PCs floundering and don’t know what to do next? If yes, pick a Faction Response Team and have them targe the PCs. (If you’re not sure how they might target the PCs, just have them show up and try to kill them.)

Repeat until the campaign is done.

What’s notable is that even with a huge curveball like “they opened the Vault at the beginning of the campaign,” this checklist still just… works.

Here’s a few key questions to think about, though:

• Who knows that the PCs have the money / know the location of the Vault? (This includes both “friendly” and villainous factions.)
• What do they do about that? (Try to steal it? Ask for a donation? Recommend that they return it to the city government?)
• As the PCs spend the money, what happens as a result of their purchases?

The other thing to think about is how the instigating action / scenario hook for the Grand Game might shift as a result of the PCs’ altered trajectory.

In the campaign as written, the assumption is that the PCs are known for rescuing Renaer and are also known to operate out of Trollskull Manor. Therefore, Dalakhar goes looking for them at Trollskull Manor and gets blown up in the fireball.

If the PCs are instead known to have somehow gotten access to the Vault, then maybe Dalakhar is actually coming to Trollskull Manor with a message from Neverember about the money. The message could actually be found on his body after the explosion. (This could result in Neverember being more directly active in the Grand Game, an option we’ve previously discussed.)

You might also have one or more factions (e.g., the Gralhunds) assume that if the PCs got access to the Vault, it must mean that they have the Stone of Golorr! Maybe the PCs find themselves under nimblewright surveillance! Maybe Emmek Frewn and his wererats get recruited to help keep tabs on them.

If you were running a prepped plot, then the PCs skipping to the end would break all your prep. But the Dragon Heist Remix reorganized the plot into a toybox. The Vault and the treasure inside it are positioned as a natural goal for the campaign, but they’re ultimately still positioned as toys: If the PCs pull them out and starting playing with them a little “early,” it doesn’t stop you – or them! – from continuing to play with all of the other toys!

Go to Ask the Alexandrian #1

Although it’s a little over fifty years old now, the roleplaying game is an incredibly new medium in the grand scale of things. Even compared to film, it’s just a little baby that’s only just barely coming into its maturity. This is particularly true because roleplaying games are radically different from all previous mediums.

This is true of all mediums, of course, but the notable thing about every pre-RPG medium is that the audience was fundamentally a passive recipient: The creator(s) created a story, painting, or film and then the audience in some way observed what had been created. Exceptions to this division between creator and audience were not unknown, but were extremely limited.

In an RPG, of course, the players are both creators AND audience at the same time. It’s just a fundamentally different activity to anything that had come before. So if you met someone who had never seen a comic book or a film before before you might say, “Well, it’s like reading a book with pictures” or “It’s like watching a play, but the actors’ performances are recorded.” But if someone asks, “A roleplaying game? What’s that?” people often find themselves struggling to really explain what it is we’re actually doing on a Friday night. There’s no easy analog to something people are already familiar with. If you’ve never played an RPG, then you’ve never done anything like it.

So we could begin with a technical definition:

A roleplaying game is a game in which the mechanical decisions made by the player are directly associated to the decisions of the character they’re playing, such that playing the game is inherently making decisions as if you were your character (i.e., roleplaying).

But while this definition might be useful in clearly distinguishing an RPG from a board game or storytelling game or graphic novel, it’s probably not very illuminating to someone just trying to figure out the basic concept.

A ROLEPLAYING GAME IS…

So let’s instead look at some practical answers to, “A roleplaying game? What’s what?”

The shortest effective description I’ve found is:

“It’s like an improvised audio book drama, with each player pretending to be a character and one player, the Game Master, describing the world. You can say that your character is going to try to do anything you can imagine, and then you and the Game Master will use the rules of the game to figure out what happens.”

I used to say “radio drama,” which I believe I got from John Tynes and Greg Stolze. But recently I’ve found most people have no idea what a “radio drama” is, so it’s pretty easy to get detoured into a completely separate explanation of what those are (and the end result still doesn’t give them a clear picture of what an RPG is).

Even with  the swap to “audio book drama,” though, this explanation may not land with everyone. So another approach might be:

“Video game RPGs like Elder Scrolls or Final Fantasy were actually based on tabletop roleplaying games. The two big differences are that you play entirely in your imagination and there’s a Game Master who describes the world and uses the rules to figure out what happens next. The cool thing is that this means you can have your character go almost anywhere and try to do anything you can imagine: You’re not limited to what the game programmers predetermined you could or should do.”

There’s an almost limitless number of metaphors you can extrapolate from, and the one that works best will really depend on who you’re talking to, what they’re already familiar with, and what they’re most passionate about.

Of course, we could also attempt a more direct approach with a more literal description of what actually happens at the gaming table:

When a group is playing a roleplaying game, they are imagining a fictional scene: That might be the bridge of a starcruiser, the dungeons of a vampire lord, or the neon-soaked alleys of Hong Kong in the 1980’s. One of the players is the Game Master. They describe the fictional scene: The red alert alarm klaxons on the bridge; the flickering torchlight illuminating the dungeon; or the Triad gang members who’ve just blocked the alley exit.

Each of the other players has a character that they’re playing in this scene. They might be a space smuggler trying to bluff her way past Imperial cruisers; a heroic knight trying to rescue the princess; or an honest cop stuck in a corrupt department.

Once the Game Master describes what their characters see, the players announce what they want their characters to do. The Game Master can then use the rules of the game to figure out what happens: If the cop wants to punch one of the Triads in the face, can he land the blow? And, if so, what happens to the Triad? How do the other Triads react?

The only way to find out is by playing the game!

Of course, there are a bunch of RPGs that won’t fit this “traditional” mold. Solo RPGs without GMs, for example. If it’s relevant to the conversation, use a description that matches the game you’re trying to explain. But, generally speaking, if you’re trying to explain to someone what a motion picture is, you don’t need to immediately try to make them understand the differences between feature films, syndicated sitcoms, mini-series, and made for TV movies.

Speaking of film, one of the great things about joining the hobby today is that you don’t need to actually play an RPG to see what it looks like. So you’re final option for explaining to someone what an RPG to say:

Here’s a link to the middle of an episode of a Critical Role/ Dimension 20 / whatever actual play seems best. Watch five to fifteen minutes and you’ll have a pretty good idea what we’re going to be doing Friday night.

(I recommend not just linking to the beginning of an episode because there’s often a bunch of introductory folderol that isn’t actually playing the game. Try to give them a timestamp to some meaty examples of play, ideally featuring a healthy dose of the rules actually being used / dice being rolled.)

The point, of course, is that there’s no One True way of explaining what an RPG is, any more than there’s One True Way of playing them.

An excellent adaptation of its source material which, unfortunately, doesn’t offer much to anyone who isn’t already a fan of the comic book.

Review Originally Published December 28th, 2000

Usagi Yojimbo is a truly excellent comic book created by Stan Sakai. The title character is an anthropomorphized version of the historical Miyamoto Musashi. In other words: Usagi Yojimbo is a humanoid rabbit whose fictional exploits draw a sizable portion of their inspiration from the life of a 17th century Japanese samurai.

The Usagi Yojimbo Roleplaying Game, authored by Greg Stolze (a game designer whose past credits – including Unknown Armies – speak for themselves), is an adaptation of Usagi’s world for all of us gaming fanatics.

SYSTEM

The system used for Usagi Yojimbo is a modified version of the generic Fuzion engine – also used in Sengoku (also published by Gold Rush Games), Bubblegum Crisis, Armored Trooper Votoms, and Champions: New Millennium (among others). You can learn more about the basic Fuzion system from the Fuzion Labs website.

There are two significant changes to the basic system in Usagi, both of which are carried out very nicely:

First, the character creation process has been boiled down to a simple, three step process – with each step modifying a set of basic attributes and skills which are given to each character:

1. Pick a Species (bat, cat, rabbit, mole, etc. – anthropomorphic, remember?).

2. Pick a Job (bounty hunter, bodyguard, gambler, retainer, etc.).

3. Divide 10 extra points among skills in order to customize your character.

This Job/Species system could easily be mistaken for a traditional, D&D-style Class/Race system – but you shouldn’t do that. The system in Usagi is not a class system, but rather an archetype system. Unlike the rigid definitions of a class system, an archetype system is loose and open: The goal of a class system is to protect the niche of each character (a wizard has a very different role than a fighter); whereas the goal of an archetype system is nothing more than to simplify the character creation process. Instead of figuring out which skills you need to be an effective messenger, the system designer has done the work for you.

The other major modification to the system is in the combat mechanics. Stolze has designed an elegant combat system designed to convey the feel and spirit of a samurai duel.

As in almost any other combat game you care to name, initiative determines who goes first. This person chooses a target. At this point, though, something a little different happens – because in Usagi Yojimbo it is not just the attacker, but also the defender, who gets to take an action.

It works like this: Both combatants secretly choose one of three strategies – Total Attack, Cautious Attack, or Total Defense. Both combatants then reveal their choice of strategy simultaneously (Stolze suggests using standard playing cards to do this effectively). Now, depending on which strategies were chosen, combat can go one of several ways. For example, if both combatants chose Total Attack, then they both roll their combat roles (Combat + Weapon Skill + roll of dice), but whoever succeeds does double the normal damage.

The only restriction to this is that the person who initiated the attack cannot choose Total Defense as a strategy (since that would mean they weren’t initiating the attack). Other than that, both attacker and defender behave identically – a rather radical change from the normal methodology in combat system design (in which the roles of attacker and defender are very distinct), which provides a unique – and highly worthwhile – dynamic to the system.

There are a few more twists to it, including an optional system for handling unarmed combat which is similarly unique in its approach, but that’s the core of it.

In practice this process really shines – giving a feel to the mechanics which does a very nice job of mirroring the feel of samurai duels in fiction (including, of course, Usagi Yojimbo).

STRENGTHS

The primary strength of Usagi has already been discussed at length: Stolze has adapted the Fuzion engine to give the game an extremely simple, yet also extremely attractive, system. Both character creation and combat are not only dynamic systems, but simple ones. Excellent stuff all around.

A couple of other things are worth mentioning, though: First, a one page system reference chart is included. I love these things, and wish more games had them. This one, in particular, is extremely effective – summarizing every last element of the game system. Far too often you’ll get “reference charts” – usually on GM screens – which reference every knick-knack in the game except the rules you actually use on a regular basis. Usagi avoids this nicely.

Second, the book contains a number of appendices – which, as a general rule, contain extremely useful information: A timeline for the Usagi universe; a character index for the comic; one of the best “gamer’s glossaries” for Japanese I’ve seen (largely helped, no doubt, by the fact it’s based in the Japanese which occasionally crops up in the Usagi comic; and, finally, a FUDGE conversion for the game system.

Finally, the book is rounded out by a short Usagi story by Stan Sakai, “Hebi”. Nice stuff.

WEAKNESSES

Unfortunately, there are two major flaws with the Usagi Yojimbo game – and they both take their toll on what would otherwise be an exceptional game.

First, the layout leaves much to be desired. Although the book’s illustrations are helped greatly in quality by the fact they are drawn from the Usagi comic book, they also come complete with word balloons. The effect, along with some other questionable lay-out choices, give the entire book a cluttered, inaccessible feel – which is, at the same time, scattered in its focus. One of the worst moments of this layout comes in a chart which lays out the major samurai clans in Usagi’s world – which, unfortunately, looks like it was designed to be a butterfly ballot in Florida.

Second, and far more troubling, is the fundamental lack of world reference material to be found in the book. It is essentially constrained to a timeline (which is not generally useful in any sense of the word) and a chapter discussing the major characters which have appeared in the Usagi comic (which is further flawed in that it doesn’t provide coverage of several usual suspects). The GM is basically left on their own when it comes to filling in the actual gaming environment of ancient Japan.

CONCLUSION

The Usagi Yojimbo Roleplaying Game is an excellent adaptation of its source material. Unfortunately, its varied weaknesses mean that it isn’t going to do anything for anyone who isn’t already a fan of the source material. The lack of any serious world reference material is particularly distressing – particularly when contrasted against the wealth of what would be essentially identical material in Gold Rush’s Sengoku game.

In short: Fans of Usagi Yojimbo might want to flip through this one to see if it offers them anything of interest. Anybody else should definitely give it a pass.

Actually, let me modify that conclusion in one way: System nuts might want to check this one out just to take a look at the combat system which Stolze has set up. The strategy system – which gives the system a true claim to fame – is almost a cap-system: It would be easy to pop it off of Fuzion and onto any standard combat system in the industry. If you’re tired of just rolling dice during combat, this might be worth your time.

Style: 4
Substance: 3

Grade: B

Title: Usagi Yojimbo Roleplaying Game
Authors: Greg Stolze
Company: Gold Rush Games
Line: Usagi Yojimbo
Price: $16.00
ISBN: 1-890305-02-2
Production Code: U100
Pages: 96

Originally Posted: 2000/12/28

I’m old enough that when someone says “furry” what I think of is stuff like Usagi Yojimbo and Cerebus. It’s interesting how a fetish-driven fanbase has really driven the whole anthropomorphic genre into a niche of a niche.

Conversely, it’s remarkable the degree to which D&D 3rd Edition rehabilitated the whole concept of class-based RPGs. Used to be everyone who left D&D to play other RPGs would collectively sigh with relief at never needing to play a class-based system with all of its silly limitations again. Now classes clearly rule the roost.

Review: Usagi Yojimbo – Monsters!

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.