Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Review: Strip D&D by Andrew Shields

Okay, so here's a very short review of a very short set of rules.  Last month Andrew Shields over at Fictive Fantasies posted a "new and improved" version of his Strip D&D rules.  No, it is not a D&D version of strip poker.  As he explains "This game is based on the much less provocatively titled “Searchers of the Unknown.” The root idea is, “What if the characters in D&D did not need more information than a monster’s stat block?” "

The basic rules fit on exactly one page, the five classes spread over four pages.  It is indeed a mega-stripped down version of D&D.  I think it is an entirely usable set of super-simple rules.  I'm not really excited about it as something I'd like to play, but it achieves it's design goals.  The main difference between Strip D&D and what you'd expect in a super-simple version of D&D comes in the classes:

Fighter (simplified, and the simplest—the default)
Thirster (weak-blooded vampire)
Wizard (with a whole new magic system)
Martial Artist (not necessarily a monk)
Lightbringer (mortals with a touch of divine blood)

The obvious differences are the addition of the Thirster (which has almost a full page of abilities/limitations), the Lightbringer (a sort of aasimar/paladin/cleric, but with few special abilities), and the lack of a specific thief class.

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