Author: Paul Kidd
Category: game
Company/Publisher: Pharos Press
Line: Lace and Steel
Cost: $30
Page count: 174
Playtest Review by Trey Palmer on 07/15/99.
Genre tags: Fantasy
Historical
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Lace and Steel | ||
Author: Paul Kidd
Category: game Company/Publisher: Pharos Press Line: Lace and Steel Cost: $30 Page count: 174 Playtest Review by Trey Palmer on 07/15/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Historical |
This is a great little game, originally published by The Australia Games Group back in the eighties, re-printed by Pharos Press (http://pharospress.galstar.com/). And boy, am I glad to see this one back in print.
What's to like? First, it was possibly the first published game (before Castle Falkenstein) to actively set out to capture the look and feel of swashbuckling books and movies. It does this with a rules light dice system for the skills and a card system for magic and swordplay. While its odd to use 3 different internal systems, it does work. The world setting is nice too. The Mittelmarch is recognizably based on 1640's Europe (and says as much), but with north and south reversed. The major kingdoms are detailed as well as their rulers, and they all get at least a thumbnail sketch. Enough to hang an adventure on at the least. Also, this setting has non-humans, not elves or dwarves, but halfling/pixies, harpies, satyrs and half-horses (do NOT call them centaurs, they don't like it) as player races. Also lurking around the margins are goblins, ogres and giants. Merfolk can be found in the oceans and the Sidhe (Seelie and Unseelie) still walk the world indulging their whims as they see fit. Finally, another reason to like this game: Donna Barr's art! Its beautifully detailed black and white drawings wonderfully capture the detail and spirit of the game. Its well done and it helps the GM and players understand the world and their characters. What's not to like? Random character creation. This is an artifact of the time it was created, but Stefan O'Sullivan has a point based character creation system that can be found at http://www.io.com/~sos/rpg/lacestl.html. The card based aspects of it require special cards, two separate kinds of cards for sorcery and for combat. While the game does come with them, they aren't very high quality, like business cards. Still, if Pharos Press is interested in selling them separately, or a disk with the necessary graphics, it shouldn't present a problem (HINT, HINT). Also in the reprinted edition, the wonderful Donna Barr art is smaller (still crisp though) and there is less of it (some of the 2 page spreads in the original game were gorgeous!). The new publishers also cut the map of the Mittelmarch which helped give a sense of place and who was fighting who. A final quibble (or nit-pick if you prefer) is the absence of some very handy charts from the first printing of the game. They included character sheet, difficulty and die roll calculator, prompts and hints for the combat and magic system, and equipment costs. Not overwhelmingly difficult to overcome, but they would have been handy nonetheless. The only major problem I see is the lack of support for the game. I don't expect too many supplements to come out, but this can be a blessing for GM's to take the game and run with it where they want to. Also, since this game was designed before story arcs came out, you won't have tot worry about that interfering with your campaigns and ideas. Final recommendation, is to buy it. It is a worthwhile and enjoyable game. It may lack support, but I think it would inspire hours of enjoyment as it is. And BTW, comments and criticisms are welcome, just keep them civil, OK?
Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
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