It really bothered me that there are no reviews for this fine product so I have decided to step out of habit and make one.
I must admit I have really liked the Army Ants RPG Legacy Edition. It structure and layout is very clear and the writing is easy to follow and understand. No outstanding art though, but I am a content person anyway.
The setting is very unique in style, and basically you are playing a “humanoid” ant soldier or other insect such as beetle, Cricket, ladybug or Potato Bug (in some sense you can call it your “race”) in a fight against the evil wasp empire. Now, this is definitely not your standard everyday fantasy, sci-fi or steampunk setting but it is fresh and exciting.
The rules are simple yet give a rich, satisfying and elegant feeling (I must admit I am all in for light and simple systems nowadays). It is based on a combination of Level, Attributes and Traits using a point-buy method for character generation and development (each level you get Character Points to spend). There are only 4 Attributes covering all character activities – Body, Mind, Prowess and Spirit, with each Attribute assigned a dice rating in a scaling order (D4, D6, D8, etc. the higher the better). Traits are a mix of skills and talents and are rated with a flat bonus from +1 to +6. Some of the Traits rules, such as Moxy, Munitions, Mentalism, and Mysticism, are used in a very nice way giving a great flavor to the game. To perform an action you roll your Attribute dice and add the Trait bonus. The result is compared against an opposed roll or a difficulty target.
The rules are pretty extensive covering anything I could have thought about including all the regular RPG stuff, Vehicles, mass combat and even simplified cybernetics (yes, cybernetics for ants!). I have encountered with several dice scaling style systems but this one has put everything together most smoothly. The only thing I would have change is the use of levels and the level based Attributes feat rolls, making it a pure skill-based system (by the way, the system could be very easily adjusted and be adapted to fit any standard RPG setting. I myself have found it easily used for my favorite Mutant Chronicles dark techno-fantasy setting).
All in all this is a very good and interesting product, I have bought it at the original price and now that it is at such a low cost it is more than worth it for anyone looking for a fresh setting or a cool simple rule system.
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