RPGPundit Reviews: Ancient Odysseys: Treasure Awaits

This is a review of the Ancient Odysseys introductory RPG by Precis Intermedia. The game comes in a box-set format, smaller than the typical RPG box set (similar in size to an old VHS tape, more or less, just slightly taller). The cover of the box is a nice, full-colour image of some adventurers fighting what I assume to be an Ogre.

In the box set you get the following: Three booklets, a fourth small "reference" booklet, a number of blank character sheets, two rather plain-looking numbered (not pip) D6, and a "what's in this box?" reference sheet listing everything I just mentioned.

According to that latter sheet, the box set is part of a series of RPGs, entitled Ancient Odysseys, which "focus on the core of fantasy adventure: Dungeon Crawling".  Apparently this particular version of the Ancient Odysseys game, "Treasure Awaits", is an introductory game meant for beginners, that "even supports solitaire play".

Ancient Odysseys is clearly an attempt to hearken back to the Old School: box sets, dungeon crawling, slightly crappy dice, all the awesome components are there. But its not directly based on any old RPG, which means that the OSR-people out there will probably end up ignoring it completely. I don't know if the author will really mind, since it very clearly seems that, unlike the OSR "clone" games, Treasure Awaits is very clearly REALLY meant to be directed to the beginner. The first few pages of the basic book start right at the very beginning with an "intro to roleplaying" that goes to great pains to attempt to communicate with some theoretical reader who hasn't got a damn clue what an RPG actually is. There's even a "what's it like" section with a little story about adventurers entering the Ogre Caverns, which reads like one of those old TSR D&D ads you saw in the back of comic books. This is all very archetypal stuff.

So are the basic rules, really. The four races are human, elf, dwarf, and hobling (obviously halflings); each is described in the most stereotypical fantasy-archetype way possible. There are three "vocations" (classes):  Rogues, Warriors and Wizards.
There are only three abilities: Fitness, Awareness, and Reasoning (which each range from 1-5 in value); fitness seems to cover strength and constitution, while awareness is not only perception but also aim (governing ranged missile attacks or sneaking attempts, for example).  There are about 15 skills, weapons are divided into 6 types (ranged, thrown, axes, knives, "melee", and swords; "melee" being any blunt or improvised weapon, apparently), and five types of armour (leather, brigandine, chain, scale, and plate, plus shields).
You make a character by choosing or rolling randomly for race and vocation; then roll on a table (based on vocation) to get a random set of three numbers to assign (in order) into abilities (elves, dwarves, and hoblings get some slight modifiers to their abilities). Then you get a list of skills for your vocation, and roll on a table to see what level you get in each skill (1-3 is the range).  You choose a combination of weapons and roll randomly for your type of armour (based on vocation).

Wizards start the game with 1-5 spells, from a list of 10 starting spells (with names like "abate damage", "purify", "armored skin", "inflame" or "Magic Punch").  Even sample names are provided for characters, based on race.

I could build a character in under a minute. Seriously, literally less than 60 seconds. I timed it.
So at the very least, Treasure Awaits passes my first test of the "good introductory game" checklist: character creation is fast, easy, and ridiculously straightforward.
It was entertaining too. In my 60-second character creation bout, I made a Dwarven Rogue (named Bladeson), with fairly average stats (except awareness, which was 4), decent knifefighting and very good lockpicking skills. I chose to have "two knives" as my weapons, given the 2-point Knifefighting, and rolled up leather armour. Right away this got my creativity going; I don't think I've ever played a Dwarven Rogue in my life!

Anyways, task resolution seems to be equally simple. You roll 1d6, add your ability, and add your level in the skill you're using. Its done versus a difficulty number (the default being 7 for a standard task). If you roll over the difficulty, you succeed, and the number you make the roll by is descriptively entitled "Overkill" (thus far, the best term in the game, others were less than inspiring; most of the other terms seemed to be based on the need to substitute more common terms... "vocations" instead of class, "pursuits" instead of "skills", etc).

Did I mention the rules are very well written in terms of talking to beginners? How many RPGs these days see something IN THE ACTUAL RULES that says "every time you enter a new room the marching order of the group must be decided".  That's a rule for people who are just starting in RPGs, and I think its great that its included not in some descriptive GM section, but in the actual rules themselves.

Rules are also provided for dealing with traps. For combat, the positioning is handled with a "conflict action map" (one of the plain black & white sheets provided in the box set, but a simple enough diagram to copy). The sheet creates abstract zones of position (like "closest", "farthest", "sneaking", "the enemy", and "behind") where you put tokens of some kind (not provided in the box) to note where each character is; whether they're on the front line of the fight, further behind, sneaking toward the enemy, etc.

Ranged combat is handled by a standard check, where the difficulty is based on the size of the target (Hoblings count as being "small", making them a little harder to be hit ranged.  Simple increases in the difficulty are presented for firing into melee, shooting at a flying target, or shooting at someone from behind a door/other room.  Melee combat is done by rolling against 3+opponent's fitness + the applicable skill the opponent is using. Some simple options are also provided, like deferring your attack, spending time aiming, intentional blocking or dodging, running away, etc.

Casting spells requires a check for success, either against the fixed difficulty of 7 or against a difficulty based on the opponent's reasoning+spellcasting ability/skill if it is directed at a target creature. Failure in the spellcasting attempt requires a roll to avoid taking injury from spell feedback. Spellcasting characters can also attempt a "counterspell" if a spell-casting opponent casts a spell at them or an ally.

Damage is handled by rolling a number of dice equal to a weapon's damage rating (usually 1 or 2 dice), which are rolled against the victim's armor rating (ranging from 0-5), each hit that is higher than the victim's armor rating scores one point of injury. If a character has more than 3 points of injury, his actions are penalized; if he reaches 6 or more points of injury, he dies. This is potentially a high-mortality game.
Certain attacks, like poison, are rolled against a character's fitness rating, rather than his armor rating.

Miscellaneous rules are given for various typical dungeoncrawling activities like opening locks, searching for hidden treasure or secret doors, reading writing, drinking potions, attempting to analyze potions (or poison), etc.
General modifiers are provided for things like darkness, armor bulk (penalties for untrained armor-wearers), injury penalties, and cramped spaces.

The basic booklet also details things like traps, scrolls, potions, and spells (up to 3rd level spells, 10 spells are listed for each level, so 30 in total).

The rules for creatures detail reactions; creatures are divided into timid, aggressive, territorial, or unpredictable. The first and last of these categories roll randomly to determine if they will attack, run away, or allow passage to the characters. Aggressive and territorial creatures will always attack characters, but the latter will not pursue past their areas of the dungeon. When half the group of monsters are killed, they make a morale check to determine if they continue to fight, attempt to run, or surrender. Random tables are provided for number of monsters encountered. In the basic booklet, there are no actual monsters listed, only the guidelines for how to run them.

Experience is determined whenever leaving the dungeon. Values are calculated for "performance" (based on how successful the dungeon crawl went), and "negligence" (mistakes made).  Each character rolls a number of dice equal to his performance, and for each die that has a value higher than the negligence score, the character gains an experience rating point. These points can be used to purchase higher abilities, new pursuits, new spells, to establish a specific signature weapon, signature spell, or to increase his total number of injury points.

This was all in the 35 pages of Booklet One. Booklet Two is "the Dungeon". It contains a sample adventure: "In search of the lost child", where the PCs are entering the dungeon in search of a young elven girl who has been kidnapped by a group of Goblins. The team is accompanied by a captured goblin who is serving as their guide in exchange for his life.
The adventure is presented in a room-by-room format, with each room described, and having reference numbers for traps, creatures, loot, and food; the actual lists of these four criteria being detailed later on (in case the adventure is being played solo, so that the solo player can attempt to search for these four items without automatically knowing if he'll find anything).
Stats for the creatures encountered are presented in the second half of the booklet, presenting a small monster list of goblins, giant beetles, rats, blood puddles (a kind of ooze), green tangles (a living carnivorous plant), giant serpents, skeleton warriors, carrion worms,poisonous snakes, and goblin chieftains and priests. A map of the dungeon is presented toward the end, along with a statblock for the party's goblin guide.

The adventure is very straightforward as a dungeon crawl, and this booklet is 23 pages long.

Booklet 3 is "further adventures". It provides a few optional rules, advice for the GM on how to run a game, and a set of dungeon-construction mechanics. The latter is fairly good, though I'd dare to say not as complete as the one in my own RPG, Forward... to Adventure! (though that is on the whole a larger project, and this simpler structure here might be more straightforward for a beginner GM).

In this booklet lists of traps and creatures are provided, adding a few more monsters to the list available in the game, like the baboon, cave bear, cave drake, crazed barbarian, dragon, gargoyle, guardian statue, jelly cube, killkor (a kind of hydra), kobold, lava beast, midnight wolf, minotaur, nayome (a kind of naga), Ogre, Retik (a kind of pixie), sabretooth tiger, savage orc, and spectre.  Also, there's the evil Gnome Reaver, which I can only imagine is a tribute to my own Gnomemurdered RPG, and a bold statement of standing up for the truth about this dangerous menace.
A short list of random treasure tables are also provided at the back.

Book 3 is 23 pages long.

The reference booklet is only 2 pages long, and has a collection of some of the most important tables used in actual play.

On the whole, this is an excellent product; one could only dream of it being available in general venues like bookstores or toy stores, it would serve as an excellent intro to the RPG.  For more experienced gamers, aside from serving as a great gift to give someone young to RPGs, its also a great pick-up game for really fast play if you are bored of basic D&D and want to try something slightly simpler and very much on the gritty end of the spectrum. I strongly recommend it.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Mastro de Paja bent apple + Altadis' Fox & Hound

Great review. I bought a copy during the 666 sale to give to a friend's kid.

The box didn't include dice even though the insert said they'd be provided. I wonder if that was the reason for the sale?

Thanks for the review.

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;385410Great review. I bought a copy during the 666 sale to give to a friend's kid. The box didn't include dice even though the insert said they'd be provided. I wonder if that was the reason for the sale?

The 666 special included everything but dice (LINK).

Quote from: brettmb;385423Thanks for the review.

The 666 special included everything but dice (LINK).

Cool, that's what I figured. The last thing in the world I need are more dice anyway.

As usual, I can't even see what was supposed to be wrong with the sale books. They seem in perfect condition to me.

They weren't cut to the right size and may have had other minor issues that the average person wouldn't notice, but I do. Also, the boxes were a little sub-par.

Brett, what's your gameplan to get this cool sounding intro game into the hands of teens across the planet?

I figured that I'd talk to the man downstairs about some sort of trade. Barring that, I've got a few other ideas to explore.