This month I review Conjured Outcasts by Kitsunefourtail (@Kitsunefourtail). Its a setting agnostic rpg system packed full of creative parts representing a large array of different systems and pieces to fit the exact setting you create.
I want to apologize for the lack of posts these last 2 months, life got in the way, if you follow my other works, you’ll know why. This month I reviewed Conjured Outcasts and I am finally getting around to posting my thoughts. This is my first setting agnostic system to review so I am excited to be able to apply a bit of what I learned when making C22. For those of you who have been following along with my reviews, Kitsunefourtail requested that I review this system as if I was a player looking at it for the first time.
I started by reading the major sections, character creation, combat, and skill checks, though admittedly I missed the skill check section the first time through. Once I made my first pass through the book to determine what it was about, I was not particularly sure. I felt like the game is about delving into dungeons and fighting things but for some reason, the items in my bedroom matter. So, let us start this review where the book starts, in the bedroom.
Character creation’s goal was to be simple and quick, so you as a player think about your bedroom and pick two things, which give you different bonuses. For example, Door grants you the ability to leave combat without taking the disengage action. The Window ability gives you +30 perception. I’ll admit, it is an interesting mechanic and it is fast. Here is my problem with the system and its implementation in the game. This system sets my frame of mind to the real world, to my person, so now I am thinking modern day setting and low power; the rest of this book feels high power fantasy. So now there is a mismatch between what I am expecting and what I am reading. This is the very first thing I see as a reader, so it sets me off on the wrong foot from the get-go. Speaking of the first thing I see, that is where my second problem lies. The very first abilities listed are, in order: Wall, Window, Door, Some form of communication, Books. So, if I grab the first two things I see in my room and on the list, I am making a very boring character, based on the common structural components of my room. Instead, I suggested that the game focuses on a forcing the unique and push the reader to “think of the two most unique items in their room and find the closest representations on the list. This would make the characters and players feel more closely aligned. A character built from a photo of the reader with grandma in Paris and ice skates would be more unique than a character built from a wall and a door.” I left a few more suggestions for this section that might make my above suggestion unnecessary, but no need to cover the nitty gritty here.
I found, as a reader, the book is filled with creative ideas, but finding the right information to understand how to use the ideas is a chore. So, I focused this review on structuring the document and tying everything together. While I have done this for books in the past, this book is a bit different, so I suggested a different structure for the game.
Since Conjured Outcasts is a setting-agnostic game at its core, but filled with many different setting specific systems, the structure I envision that would work best would be a core with branches that connect to the various systems that can be used in various settings. This is similar to how a system has a core rule book and then splat books or setting books to tell specific stories. The difference here is we want to advise systems that work well together or in different settings to ease players into the game but once they have a game’s worth of experience, they can mix systems to create interesting games and settings.
The first step in this is the same first step I suggest everyone takes with their game, write a table of contents, it does not need to be for the reader, it is for you. This is to help you visualize everything in the game. If you are writing your own system or homebrew, feel free to follow along and see how this differs from your system’s structuring process.
Second, separate everything that needs to be in every game, a.k.a., create the core. In this game I expect the core to be rather small: Character Creation and progression, Skills Checks, Character Statuses. This is, incidentally, what would be included in a quick start along with an adventure.
Thirdly, streamline the core into an order that slowly introduces more and more information, but the reader will either understand the new terms and concepts as presented, immediately learn about them after, or know where they will learn more about them. This is standard writing practices, but with new concepts like those introduced and taught in tabletop roleplaying games. You will want to find problem points where people do not understand and find out how to explain them. Sometimes you do not need to explain something in detail at first, just enough to continue reading.
When a book has a slightly different setup like this, I think a section is necessary at the beginning just to talk about how to use the book most effectively. Covering how the core rules are necessary and then how the reader will construct their game with the systems you provide.
Once the core is done, for this particular book we can start working on the connecting structure. To help readers understand, do a beginning section for the optional systems talking about different combinations or giving a quick sentence or two selling each system and why and when you should use it. Then same as step three, apply the same process to each system to streamline the information, working from more general to more specific and from more basic to more technical as the reader learns more and more.
I think writing a clear tabletop roleplaying game book is a hard thing to do and you will always run into a player that just does not understand something. Our goals as writers is to reduce this confusion the best we can by trying to put ourselves in the mindset of the reader. Another way to help with this is to have a friend read through the book a first time and mark every point they were confused about something. Processes like this can get you a new perspective. I am by no means a expert of words or technical writing, just someone who wants everyone to be able to make the games they envision. If you have any other suggestions for clear writing let me know in the comments below.
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