Magic World Quick Start
Free from Chaosium
http://www.chaosium.com/magic-world-quick-start-pdf/

Magic World is the explitly fantasy implementation of Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying System which powers and has powered games such as RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu, ElfQuest, Ringworld and notably Stormbringer. The main book is an implementation of the system that essentially recreates the last Chaosium version of a Moorcock based rpg (SB5). It does this well IMHO and also adds a default fantasy setting which is has a rather medievalist fantasy feel that nods it's cap to Lyonesse and faery tale in general, whilst also adapting the allegiance system into a moral battle between Light and Shadow rather than Law and Chaos.

This is a quick start booklet, free, and intended to allow people to pick up and try out the game system and setting with little or no prep. It's a nice piece based around a naid, her daughter, a nasty if weak ogre, some fishermen and some lawful villagers. It provides a good simple overview of what is a simplegame system, whilst at the same time allowing for some magic, fighting but also encouragement of roleplaying and non violent resolution of conflict (yeah, right..)

Does it do what a good quick start should do? Well yes, it gives a quick overview of a system, enough rules to play the scenario, it is designed to run in 2 hours 30 minutes and it explictly gives advice to the GM on how to pace the adventure, it provides clear maps and player handouts. It then leaves a hook to the next adventure and provides a glossary of NPCs. The artwork, as MW itself, is a collection of stuff from all over, and apart from a dreadful picture of the dreadful ogre, is fine. The only thing I was disappointed with was that the PC characters are spread in a list over several pages rather than on neatly filled in character sheets one per page, which is a shame since they include a blank sheet in the pdf!

But all in all, if you want to see what BRP is like, what Magic World is like or fancy lifting the adventure to play with another d100 system this is fine.

It's a pdf, I really did mean to click pdf.

A friend emailed me and said that the Magic World Quick Start PDF was out. With excitement I downloaded a copy and flipped through it – imagine my surprise at seeing the dreadful picture of the dreadful ogre! I had written and illustrated the Fishsinger's Daughter about two years ago – originally I was going to post it on BRP Central, but then we decided to add it to the Quick Start rules. At that time there was talk about a small art budget for the project and I added the sketch of the ogre as a placeholder where I thought a professionally drawn picture of an ogre should go... (I did think the maps were drawn well enough that they would make the final product.) While imagine my surprise at the dreadful picture of the dreadful ogre – there is probably a lesson in there, but I am not sure what.

To me the ogre is fine... added bonus that he's got a slight resemblance to Keanu Reeves. The illustrations in the adventure are actually the sort of cheerfully basic game art I like and the hand-drawn maps are much more my taste than the computer generated (Illustrator) stuff I sometimes see.

Yes, the ogre is quite basic as a piece of art, but actually it's good enough especially for a quick start. It was the one piece that made me think "really"?

But more importantly, well done on a jolly nice starter adventure.