Peryton FRPG by Christina Lea. I bought this for two reasons. First because Alejandro Gutierrez Franco did the cover. Second because it is an example of a complete game in a fairly small package (144 pages), which I like.
I didn't realize this was a 3x OGL clone until I got it in the mail. That's fine, but I was hoping for an original system. I probably didn't read the description fully.
The layout is clear, fonts are big enough, and the art is ok throughout. The cover is great, of course. So overall the book itself is about an average product.
The system is stripped down 3.5. Simplified nicely into a tight package. I noticed that it has an XP system I have toyed with myself. Basically you earn and spend XP to level up 1:1. So getting level 5, for example, costs 5 XP. However, the text says you earn XP for doing amazing things such as winning an epic battle or solving a tricky puzzle. It seems to me that if you give XP for each successful challenge the party would be hitting new levels very quickly. Perhaps that is by design. A GM could slow that down if they wanted a longer campaign or keep it as-is for more rapid advancement.
Overall, I'm not disappointed with the book though I'm also not blown away. It's good. It's tight. If you want a simple and complete modern D&D style rules set that is inexpensive this will do the trick.
I think Peryton is an under appreciated OGL game. It has some great ideas in it.
ReplyDeleteYou may be correct. After writing this short review I realized the whole Knacks mechanic was in there, which I really liked. And again...144 pages is all you need. With monsters too.
DeleteOne thing that I was a bit let down about was that this didn't have a setting. The idea of the peryton monster playing a big role fostered a desire to see a little setting detail. Of course there may be other books to this that I'm not aware of. I just know of this one book.