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Monsters & Magic Roleplaying Game
 
$10.35 $10.10
Average Rating:4.2 / 5
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Monsters & Magic Roleplaying Game
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Monsters & Magic Roleplaying Game
Publisher: Mindjammer Press
by James B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/21/2022 20:35:15

The first game produced by the Old School Revival that really caught my attention, Monsters & Magic combines an old-school D&D sensibility with more modern narrative-focused mechanics. The core system, called the Effect Engine, features a ton of innovations that make it one of the most interesting variations on D&D I've ever seen.

Its best ideas include character-related traits that can be applied to checks; certain degrees of success allowing you to add narrative effects to the results; mental hit points, used in social combat and other forms of mental stress; and alignment focus and drift, allowing you to better define what alignment means for your character as well as what tempts them towards other alignments. This is also one of the few RPGs I'm aware of that makes a serious effort to integrate large-scale play into the core rules, through a concept called Constructs - allowing characters to plausibly affect everything from gangs and armies to cities, nations, and even worlds. (Usually, this is treated as a separate subsystem.)

This is such a great system that I wish it wasn't trying to be compatible with old-school D&D... because I think that's seriously holding it back. While they try their best with new takes on concepts like Treasure Types, it still feels like certain aspects of classic D&D should have been abandoned to make a better, standalone fantasy RPG. Perhaps we'll see something like that in a future evolution of the system?

Speaking of old-school compatibility, my other major complaint is the limited amount of monsters, spells, and magic items described in the book. They expect you to use existing D&D sourcebooks for additions, but I would have appreciated more conversions, to better compare this system to its relatives.

All in all, though, this is a very cool and inspirational system, and I look forward to using it! (Originally posted on Goodreads)



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Monsters & Magic Roleplaying Game
Publisher: Mindjammer Press
by Mauno J. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/15/2017 10:39:57

This game was such a disappointment. I tried to run a Basic D&D adventure (Sword and Shield) converted to the Monsters & Magic rules according to the guidelines given in the M&M rulebook. The adventure was designed for a single 1st-level player character, but it was just too difficult for two ordinary 1st-level M&M characters and we had to quit the game because the players were not having fun. So if you are looking for a more modern ruleset to run old D&D adventures with, I don't advise picking up this game.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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Monsters & Magic Roleplaying Game
Publisher: Mindjammer Press
by Douglas B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/04/2016 23:56:12

A staggering achievement; in Monsters & Magic, designer Sarah Newton has given us a rules-light game which runs off of D&D/AD&D stats, but uses its own 3d6 roll-high mechanic and narrative-style traits and consequences to use those stats in a completely new system. With that description, you might expect the game to be a horrible mess, or a fantasy heartbreaker ("let me just fix these minor issues in the most successful RPG of all time"); instead, it's an elegant, lean, fantastic reinvention which brings its own strengths to the party without throwing out any essential D&D-ness.

Here's a simple mechanics example which floored me on my first flip through the rules: instead of characters having movement scores of 12" or 9" as in AD&D (or 120 or 90 feet, as in D&D), they have Movement attributes of 12 or 9, rated on the same scale as Strength, Dexterity, etc. This means they have Movement bonuses or penalties that can be applied to action rolls where movement speed is important. Want to run a chase between a human with Movement 12 (+1 bonus) and a dwarf with Movement 9 (-1 penalty)? Simple! Pursuer and pursued make opposed action rolls using their Movement modifiers every round; the winner of the round's contest accumulates "effect points" equal to their margin of success, and this continues until one of them reaches a total of 10 effect points and escapes (pursued) or catches their quarry (pursuer). But this isn't a special set of chase rules, as seen in many games; it's just a straightforward and logical application of the game's basic action-effect and contest rules, which can be applied to handle almost any situation that arises.

Effects and consequences are the basis for the system; you use them to inflict damage in a fight, but that's the least of it. You can apply effects to disarm your foes, give them penalties (or yourself bonuses), move them, or pretty much anything else you want; it's a simple, open-ended concept with lots of good examples. My favourite thing so far is using an extreme effect (15 or more points of margin) to disable one of the special attacks or abilities of the monster you're fighting: you cut off the stinger with the poison, blind the eyes of the gaze-attacker, cut the vocal chords of the creature with the fear-inducing howl, etc. I can't convey just how brilliant an idea I think this is.

There are plenty of other changes. On top of D&D-esque physical combat, M&M adds a mental combat system (with its own initiative, hit points, effects, etc.) which covers everything from fear and shock to seduction or intimidation attempts. Characters have freeform traits (along the lines of Fate's aspects) and a very simple mechanism for their use; if you have a trait which is applicable to a contest, you add your level as a bonus to that roll (+1 for each additional applicable trait). Like many of the narrative-oriented elements of the system, the trait rules are optional, and easy enough to lift out of the game if you don't want to use them; that said, I think they're a great addition, and I'm eager to try them out.

This game came out in 2013, but I've only just discovered it. And I'm glad I did. If you like any kind of D&D-esque game and want to try a well-designed, flexible system that gives you that D&D experience deepened and enriched with more characterization and narrative interest, I strongly encourage you to check out Monsters & Magic.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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