Silent Legions (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/145769/Silent-Legions) is the latest RPG book from Sine Nomine.
I bought the PDF about a week ago (there is a Hard copy + PDF bundle, but I didn't think I'd be interested in getting a hard copy) and have been reading this through a few times.
For those who don't know, Sine Nomine (Kevin Crawford) has produced several RPGs in different Genres.
I have:
Stars Without Number: (Scifi in the style of Traveller)
Other Dust: (Post Apocalyptic)
Scarlet heroes: ( A one DM/player fantasy RPG set in the Red tide world).
I have the hard covers of SWN and Other Dust.
I ordered the hardcover for Silent Legions last night to add to my collection and it'll look very nice next to SWN and OD.
These RPGs are all OSR based rules set and very compatible with each other. They're all designed to be run using a Sandbox style gaming.
Silent Legions is done in a very similar way, but with a horror theme.
It looks and kind of feels a lot like "Call of Cthulhu" in mood, although it has advice to for running many styles of Horror RPGs.
As usual it has lots and LOTS of various tables for generating plots, campaigns, monsters, factions, events and all sorts of things.
The character gen is VERY simple and the game mechanics are in general very simple.
There IS a magic system, which is horror appropriate. nothing that over the top, but interesting.
As well as optional disciplines and abilities like that.
The combat is the most deadly of all of his RPGs, with an added element of "Slaughter dice"
which means most attacks you roll an additional dice with (the dice type varies) and if you roll 6 or greater, the damage is tripled, although it often doesn't work on monsters in the game.
This means combat is the most deadly of all his RPGs.
I would certainly not be using this mechanic for SWN or OD, as it's a truly deadly addition to the combat, but as this is a Horror RPG set in our times, it's more investigation, RP based than pure adventuring you might see in a SCIFI or Fantasy RPG.
In SL, getting stabbed with a knife is truly something to be feared, especially at lower levels.
and really, in RL getting stabbed with a knife is a very bad thing, which is how it's portrayed in this game
I probably won't be running this at a tabletop, as I'm currently running 5E and playing CoC and a Rifts campaign using the Champions rules set.
But I will be running it at some stage soonish on rpol.net , as the simple/fast rules are very suitable for forum based RP.
Anyway, if you're looking for a horror based OSR, deadly, Sandbox RPG, this is really good.
It's worth getting just for the various horror based content tables even if you're not going to run the game itself and use something else (such as CoC).
If you just get the PDF, it's well worth it. It has a decent index and the index contents are all hyperlinked internally to the appropriate sections.
There's a very useful bookmark set up as well.
I wanted the Hard copy as well, as I like to have a hard copy of an RPG if I actually intend to run it.
The whole point of Silent Legions is to create "Lovecraftian" style Horror Games that don't rely upon any existing mythos what so ever. The game is all about giving tools for making up your own alien pantheons and races, along with your own cults and blashempous texts, without relying upon anything that came before.
In this day and age, where Cthulu is a household name, this type of game is wonderful for actually surprising your players again, and making them work to figure things out, rather than falling back on common knowledge.
It's good stuff, and I'm really happy I backed it.
It's a fantastic resource for generating your own Mythos nasties for ANY rpg, really. It's a super valuable book for any Game Master out there who likes to include sinister cults, evil aliens and Great Old Ones that don't rely on clichés.
I've already used it for cult generation in D&D and I've prepared new creatures for CoC or Dark Heresy- er, once I actually get around to running either system again.
I picked it up just for the scenario and setting generation resources. I intend to use it with CoC, like I used SWN with Mongoose Traveller. If Kevin Crawford is writing, I'm buying.
Yeah it's a great read and I'm itching to run it.
I reckon my CoC GM will like this book too to use for his CoC7 th Ed campaign I'm playing in.
I'm definitely glad I backed this KS, which, alas, I can't say for all the KS campaigns:).
Also, I'm running a game set in modern Russia with it. My treatment of the setting and its mythic creatures is likely to give fits to some people I know;).
I want to run something on rpol.net, but not sure where I will base the campaign.
I'm tempted to run it set in a Middle Eastern country or Mediterranean perhaps.
Setting it roughly now in Istanbul would be interesting.
Lots of interesting ruins and stuff to use. I especially like the idea of using those underground cities in Turkey.
But I've only been to Turkey a few times and not an expert with it geographically or historically.
Alternatively, setting it in a modern period in London and the UK in general would be nice and I know it well and lots of history there to work with.
For those who are interested, I've set up a Silent Legions rpol.net campaign here:
http://rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=64107&date=1436283237
I've run Stars Without Numbers once...I've used the book for dozens of games. After reading through Silent Legions, I imagine SL will be a go-to resource for many, many future games.
My hope is to run a SWN vs. SL in the future! AKA, OSR Dark Heresy!
I just read through the preview. It sounds cool. Most of my Cthulhu type play has been very scenario driven while this game talks about a sandbox approach. How is that idea developed in the full game?
It sounds extremely interesting.
Someday, but not anytime soon, I might get around to making an Occult RPG.
It seems like Kevin has done it again. I wonder how much he is making this year on rpg sales? I recall he did very well in 2013 or 2014.
Good on him for being successful!
Quote from: Teazia;840622It seems like Kevin has done it again. I wonder how much he is making this year on rpg sales? I recall he did very well in 2013 or 2014.
Good on him for being successful!
Yes. I don't do too bad, but I bet I'd love to make as much off my RPGs as he does.
I think Kevin has a pretty loyal customer base.
For me I've bought most of his rpg material that he sells. .
He has a nice range of RPGs now that are compatible with each other and they're great for running online or just at short notice at the tabletop, as the rules are really easy.
It Does help that he publishes a lot of free stuff as well. As it means his products are well supported and it feels more like a living product.
He also stays in touch on the various social media sites and answers questions.
I think making the sandbox style rpg material with all the various tables has been an advantage for him, as it can be used for other rpgs, so people might buy his rpgs just for the tables, even if they don't actually run it.
Oh, and if I u buy the hard copy, you always get the pdf thrown in for free, which is really nice and often is the difference for me between buying something and not.
Silent Legions is the first ever OSR product I became sufficiently interested in to actually get it. I backed the Kickstarter and think it's an absolutely excellent game. And this is coming from someone who until very recently never played D&D. So yeah, I suggest anyone remotely interested in the game's premise to pick it up.
I've also become somewhat intrigued by Spears of the Dawn, but I'd rather have a slightly less fantastical and more historical African-based fantasy setting, like what Pundit did with Arrows of Indra.
Quote from: danskmacabre;840881I think making the sandbox style rpg material with all the various tables has been an advantage for him, as it can be used for other rpgs, so people might buy his rpgs just for the tables, even if they don't actually run it.
Aiming for utility for everyone, even people who don't have any use for the system, is crucial to a small indie publisher like me. Without attachment to a major system like D&D, Pathfinder, or Fate, any product that isn't cross-compatible with a lot of other material is going to be fighting tooth and nail to get any attention.
Whenever somebody looks at a book, they have to be able to tell themselves a story of how they're going to use it. They have to be able to envision how this book is actually going to do something for them. It's easy to tell a story like "I'll use this book to generate Lovecraftiana for Call of Cthulhu or to spice up my D&D game." It's very hard to tell a story like "I'll stop playing my favorite games so I can use this specific book." Casting your net widely as a publisher costs you something in the kind of intricate effects you can get from a tightly-coupled rule system, but intricate effects that all of eight people experience isn't much of a trade for the hope of wider enthusiasm.
Quote from: RPGPundit;840605It sounds extremely interesting.
Ask Kevin for a review copy! :)
Silent Legions is good stuff. He's taken apart the CoC Mythos into its component parts, looked at what made what tick and created new options so when you roll up your own pantheon, there's both fresh originality, random weirdness and a strong Lovecraftian flavor.
Also, Kevin has a great sense of story elements. He gets how a GM can use broad strokes and cool bits, tailor them to the individual GM's story, setting and world and whammo! The players get a something fresh, but strongly connected to the genre.
I was reading SL again this afternoon, musing about how to combine it with SWN and whether or not I use the SWN/SL system or just use Traveller, either way my next Dark Heresy campaign will be far better for me having SineNomine's works as GM reference.
Quote from: danskmacabre;840001Stars Without Number: (Scifi in the style of Traveller)
Other Dust: (Post Apocalyptic)
Scarlet heroes: ( A one DM/player fantasy RPG set in the Red tide world).
How inter-compatible are they? I thought Stars without Number was a very good science fiction game (a genre that I love but never gets anywhere as much love as fantasy). Can you use the other books to enhance SWN?
While I haven't tested it in actual play, they are all, with the exception of Scarlet Heroes, intended to be directly compatible with one another. Scarlet Heroes has a different skill system, and few other small differences aside from rules that allow for it to be used to run a one player game.
Also most of the other games will at least devote some paragraphs to how to use that game with SWN, and other games.
Quote from: AxesnOrcs;841195While I haven't tested it in actual play, they are all, with the exception of Scarlet Heroes, intended to be directly compatible with one another. Scarlet Heroes has a different skill system, and few other small differences aside from rules that allow for it to be used to run a one player game.
Also most of the other games will at least devote some paragraphs to how to use that game with SWN, and other games.
Thanks. This may be worth a closer look, then.
Quote from: Votan;841194How inter-compatible are they? I thought Stars without Number was a very good science fiction game (a genre that I love but never gets anywhere as much love as fantasy). Can you use the other books to enhance SWN?
Yeah SWN is the most supported of the games and it's very good.
The game mechanics are very simple, but there's a hell of a lot of supporting expanded material for it.
All the main mechanics work together absolutely fine, although each has their own stuff as well.
For example, Other Dust has the addition of Mutations, but you could just use them with SWN or Silent legions if you really wanted to.
Other Dust has a few supplements, but far less than SWN and SL, as it's new has only the core rules.
Silent legions has a madness mechanic, which you could easily just slot into OD or SWN, there's even guidelines in SL to do so.
SL also has an addition to combat called "Slaughter dice" which you roll on and if you hit a certain target, you do triple damage, but that's specific to SL , as it's horror based and I think it's there to make combat far more deadly, which is it.
But then in SL, as in Call of Cthulhu, you don't want to get into combat, as the monsters in will be very nasty.
Also, all the various RPGs for these systems have lots of Sandbox random determination for factions, quests, events and many many other things, which COULD be used with each other, depending on your campaign style.
For example, if you wanted to run a Horror style SWN, then importing madness into SWN is very easy and you might want to use some of the SL tables for horror stuff.
If you like the level, class based type RPG where damage is all done with HPs damage and doesn't have hit locations and so on and want LOTS of support for sandbox gaming then this is your game.
If you like super detailed and realistic descriptive combat (think Rolemaster critical tables, or Runequest combat maneuvers and all that), then it's not for you.
Still, even if you don't use the core systems, it's worth it just for the sandbox random tables.
I personally DO like Rolemaster, Runequest (Legend etc) for what they are, but they're very unwieldy for online play or just bringing people into RPGs.
And really, you can get the PDFs for the price of a pizza, so for me, it's a bargain.
These days I find RM and RQ just too much to remember, so I like these systems as you CAN extrapolate a a sort of realism with combat damage and the circumstances of the damage..
I thought about getting the pdf, but when i saw the price (IMO too high compared to the other games) at drivethru i changed my mind given the fact i have got CoC as well as Realms of Cthulhu on the shelves already.
Quote from: Phantom Black;841229I thought about getting the pdf, but when i saw the price (IMO too high compared to the other games) at drivethru i changed my mind given the fact i have got CoC as well as Realms of Cthulhu on the shelves already.
The Sine Nomine games have been on a few Humble bundles in the past.
I expect they'll appear again sometime. It's certainly a lot cheaper that way.
Quote from: danskmacabre;841310The Sine Nomine games have been on a few Humble bundles in the past.
I expect they'll appear again sometime. It's certainly a lot cheaper that way.
Not to mention that we're probably only a week or two away from DriveThruRPG's annual Christmas in July sale.
Quote from: Spinachcat;841159Ask Kevin for a review copy! :)
I figure he'll get around to sending me one, since he's pretty regularly sent me his stuff.
Quote from: Armchair Gamer;841311Not to mention that we're probably only a week or two away from DriveThruRPG's annual Christmas in July sale.
Hmm. Hope that coincides with the Dark Albion PoD showing up on DTRPG.