I've been reading through Free League's Symbaroum RPG. I bought a PDF bundle a while back which included all the main books and the first four books of a six-part epic campaign. Now that books five and six are both available I have gone back to actually read the PDFs.
I love the art and atmosphere of Symbaroum. The game focuses on a refugee nation which fled it's homeland a few decades ago. Now they struggle with each other and the barbarian clans whose lands they claimed and desperate treasure hunters venture into the immense Davokar Forest which occupies three quarters of the map. Within the forest lies the many ruins of Symbaroum, the old powerful and fully destroyed human empire, but the creepy elves and worse of the forest don't want anyone digging up any of it. It is a great set up for a fantasy RPG, but it is very one-note. Every NPC is dour and fully dedicated to whichever cause they have aligned with. I don't think there is a single joke in the eight books I own. But that's fine, the PCs can bring the variety and there is a lot of useful content here to fill out the world.
The system is very much Nothing Special. It's basically 8 stats to roll under to do anything and feats to make your character different. The Feats are very dull though.
"When you attack with big axe and miss you can attack again with the haft for d4 damage."
"When you attack with a light weapon you can attack again with your offhand weapon for d4 damage"
"When you attack and hit you can attack again for d4 damage"
"You are tough, roll an extra d4 to resist damage"
There are a few feats (They aren't called feats, they are called traits or something, but you know the drill, little bits of rules to build your character) which give your PC access to spells and some which help in specific social situations but none got me excited. I had the same issue with Forbidden Lands which uses a similar process. It's like being told to build a Lego space ship and being given ten 2x4 bricks. I think the worst thing about these feats is that they don't open up new options in play, they just make the numbers a bit bigger. Actually, there are a few combos which make your character indestructible so maybe that's the worst thing.
The adventures are what I was really interested in though, and they a mixed bag. The overall arc of the campaign is great. Proper large scale world shaking stuff but in a world where politics and a well placed dagger can really make a difference. It's not just about who gets the magic sword first. The individual components of the campaign though vary from intriguing sandboxes to pointless busy work with nonsense fights. They are full of factions too, with four main power blocks and 2-4 sub factions within each of those, so it's a lot to keep track of. That said, half of each campaign book is setting details and it's all quality stuff, so I think there is still potential here.
Overall, I wouldn't run Symbaroum or it's campaign as written, but I would like to take the setting and use it as a big sandbox with all the bits of the campaign that I like playing out either in the background or with the involvement of the PCs. I think it would be great with Old School Essentials or Whitehack. I'm also wondering if it would work as a continuation of the campaign in Band of Blades. The two settings line up quite closely and the mercenary company set up of Band of Blades would probably interface with the scale of Symbaroum better than a team of five adventurers would.
I have the core rulebook (PDF) for this, for some reason - maybe the same bundle? - but never got round to reading it.
I generally don't get along very well with very detailed settings - I'm much more of a "make it up and fill things out as I go" kind of GM, but I'm not averse to stealing ideas from other places - maybe I'll take a look.
After reading Symbaroum I decided it was time to give Coriolis another look. This one uses the MYZ system and is described as Arabian Nights in space. I've actually run a couple of adventures in Coriolis before, and I enjoyed it, but that was a while ago and I've not had a proper look at the published campaign.
I only own book 1 of 3 of the Icons campaign, but I liked what I read enough that I immediately checked if Free League had a black Friday sale on and promptly bought books 2 and 3.
I have a Star Wars campaign I've wanted to run since seeing Rogue One, I'm now thinking of running it in Coriolis instead, ideally after the events in the three book campaign. It should only take a few years…
My other new Free League acquisition is the Blade Runner RPG. I hadn't planned to buy it, but a friend of mine wants to play it so he bought it for me. I think his plan is going to work. It's a good game! I'm not sure it's Blade Runner good, but it is good
It uses the Year Zero Engine which has now been through eight or nine iterations. Alien simplified it. Twilight 2000 replaced the big d6 dice pools with a tidier dice step mechanism. Blade Runner then takes that and trims it down to just the essentials.
As you would expect the book looks great. It reads well, maybe a little dry, unemotional, but that's not inappropriate. I'm not sure the Blade Runner setting really holds up to this level of scrutiny (especially the gaps which 2049 tried to fill…) but I'm happy to retcon or add to the lore as required as we play.
I'm looking forward to it and hoping to get the chance to run it early in the new year.
There's a big bundle of Free League stuff just gone live.
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/YearZero
I expect it's not a great deal for anyone here though as we each probably already own half of it.
I think I already own all of it, except maybe Twilight 2000. I'm supposed to be running Vaesen at some point soonish, though scheduling it's been tricky.
I have a PDF of The Third Horizon kicking about somewhere, but haven't read much of it. It seems like as much if not more a setting book than a rulebook? I'm always a bit hesitant about that kind of thing; it feels like playing in someone else's homebrew world.
I'll happily plan stuff for established settings like Alien, Dishonored, or The One Ring, though - dunno quite what the line there is. I guess existing familiarity with the universe? Maybe I'm just cagey about buying into a setting I don't have a frame of reference for (even if it does sound cool).
EDIT: Just realised I posted basically this exact reply up-thread. At least I'm consistent… 
Yeah, that sounds like a crazy line to set for yourself. Coriolis Third Horizon is great. It's Arabian Nights in space. PCs are trouble shooters or traders or mercenaries or pilgrims. Whatever. The setting is very open. There are many factions each with their own goals, characters and territory within the 36 systems of the third horizon, so there's plenty going on. It was all conceived by the guy who wrote Symbaroum and they have the same artist. The art throughout is incredible. Religion plays a big part of the game which is unusual for a SF RPG. There are god-like Icons which the PCs, and everyone pray to. They have Emissaries which are tied into the campaign. There are also djinn and ifrits and things. Spaceships all have temples and some have arboretums. It's great. It's different.
But that's the old game.
Coriolis The Great Dark is all about the explorers venturing out in their greatships to find new horizons. They have replaced the Arabian Nights with 1900s arctic explorers vibes.
Yeah, it definitely sounds awesome - I'll just have to read more of it.
I agree that playing an RPG in a world you're familiar with from another medium – TV shows like Avatar or The Expanse, a movie series like Alien or Blade Runner – is easier than one from an RPG book.
I think it's largely to do with how the information is presented, or maybe how I absorb it. There's a lot of stuff implied by movies, TV and novels but never made explicit, where RPG books (or the ones I've read) tend to be quite… prescriptive? in their worldbuilding. It might also be a result of narrative elements that feed into the mechanics; 13th Age's relationships require a certain amount of narrative investment, or Scum & Villainy's factions that underpin a lot of even the fairly loose structure of its world(s) and mission design. And those are games I've run, and enjoyed!
Meanwhile, the narrative elements in licensed games like Avatar or Alien feel a step removed from the "canon" (even when it is canon), so my homebrew changes or stuff I just leave out doesn't feel like I might be excising something necessary.
It's a common worry about running detailed campaigns. The general advise is don't sweat it. Change what you like, make up what you don't know. Your Glorantha may vary. You probably won't make up anything with contradicts anything in the books, if you do there is a good chance it will never come up and if it does you will be able t fix it by making something else up.
There's also a little more work required to set up or explain everything for the players (because not everyone is going to read the book). Reading Coriolis, I'll likely need to explain the relevant history, up to thirty planets, ten factions, and nine Icons before we even get to the mechanics. When we played Alien, even though nobody but me had seen any of the movies, there was an existing cultural familiarity with the xenomorph as a creature, and "working class folks crushed by the gears of corporate greed" doesn't take a lot to imagine.
And to be clear, I'm not saying it's not worth doing that legwork - but it's a little daunting.
It's really not that bad. Choose your intro adventure carefully and all you need to tell them is the situation in front of them, then add in details of the broader setting as they become relevant. Coriolis also has a great pile of art which helps a lot.
Wrapped up Blade Runner last night. Well, for now. We all know the odds of returning to a game but I have more I would like to do with this RPG and our arc. I wasn't planning to finish up last night, but we had had three weeks off so I restarted with a clear statement of where the RDU officers (Blade Runners) were in their vague investigation and a bit of time pressure in the form of a warning that Wallace Corp were intending to recall the replicant PC.
So despite the extensive pre-game natter the session was fast and brutal. The bulk of the session was a brutal running gunfight through a residential block, leaving on PC very dead and the other two fleeing the city. Joe said it felt like a good break point and I agreed. It's an appropriately downbeat ending if we don't return and an easy place to pick up from if we do.
I had a great time running it. The book could do with more details on the city but what is there is good. The system is a really nice tight itteration of the Year Zero Engine, I particularly like they way it handles pushing rolls and damage and crits. Recommended.
