The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I should preface this review with two disclaimers:

1) This product was included as a bonus with a review copy of Murphy's World; which is to say, it's not something that I would have likely purchased for myself. 2) I'm not a minatures gamer, so my insights into the usefulness of this product should be taken with a big honkin' salt lick.

Now, with that out of the way, here's my review of Adventure Areas.

This is a quirky little product nicely packaged in an 8-1/2" x 11" resealable baggie. It has two parts: ten cardstock pages of game surfaces depicting interior floor sections divided into 1" grids, and a ten-page booklet containing rules for the basic version of GRIT, Peregrine's system for miniatures gaming.

The grids are designed to be cut up and assembled into rooms, hallways, or whatever you'd like. (No doubt that baggie will come in handy!) Half of the pages are simply representations of floors of various designs and textures; the other half are various combinations of doors, staircases, pits, streams, and other features of interior terrain. The former are useful only as an attractive way to mark off increments of distance. The latter could come in handy but are inherently limited: if you want more than one ladder or a river more than six squares long in your layout, for example, you're out of luck. (For obvious reasons, Peregrine requests that the sheets not be photocopied.) All things considered, I have to say that the sheets fall into the "frill" category - nice, but by no means necessary.

Now, on to GRIT. The rules largely seem to be a stripped-down version of Peregrine's excellent house roleplaying system, "Weapons and Wonder" (see Murphy's World). Characters have six stats: Action Points (AP), Body Value (BOD), Mind Value (MND), Mystic Value (MYS), Health Points (HP), and Race (RCE). Characters must have at least one of the 30 allotted Stat Points (SP) in each of these stats, with an upper limit of nine for BOD, MND, and MYS.

Players roll a d10 and succeed if they roll under the appropriate stat: BOD for physical actions, MND for mental, and MYS for magical. Ones are automatic successes, tens are fumbles. Initiative is determined by the total of the characters' BOD and MND. All but the simplest actions have an AP cost per round, and characters may continue to act, in initiative order, so long as they have AP left to spend.

The system's abridged format works well enough for strictly mundane conflicts, but little else - there are no rules for magic, psionics, or the like, nor are there rules for nonhumans. This renders the MYS and RCE stats totally useless, and begs the question of why the sample characters even have these stats at all.

Conversely, I found that the AP stat was disproportionately important in the trial combat I ran between two of these sample characters, the "Physical Warrior" and the "Lucky Fighter". The fight was over in one round: P.W. spent four of his seven APs on a swing of his huge halberd, which L.F. dodged; L.F., also with seven AP, responded with three swings with his long sword (AP cost: 2) and cut P.W. to ribbons. Now, upon re-reading the weapons tables, I noticed that unarmed attacks have an AP cost of zero, so I suppose poor P.W. could have fought back with an infinite number of kicks. That seems a bit silly, though…

Overall, I'd have to say that this product is, at best, a stocking stuffer for an avid gamer or miniatures enthusiast. The floor sheets could be a nice alternative to hand-drawn grids, although I'd think keeping all of those little squares together would be a pain. And the miniatures rules, while fundamentally sound, seem a bit like the downloadable samples that a company might have on its web site to entice customers to buy the complete game.

Again, not being up on miniatures gaming myself, I'd encourage those who are to at least give this product a look.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Adventure Areas
Author: none given Category: miniature Company/Publisher: Peregrine Line: GRIT Cost: $9.95 Page count: 7-page rulebook 10 floor sheets SKU: PGN 3101 Playtest Review by Dan Davenport on 08/07/99. Genre tags: Generic	I should preface this review with two disclaimers: 1) This product was included as a bonus with a review copy of Murphy's World; which is to say, it's not something that I would have likely purchased for myself. 2) I'm not a minatures gamer, so my insights into the usefulness of this product should be taken with a big honkin' salt lick. Now, with that out of the way, here's my review of Adventure Areas. This is a quirky little product nicely packaged in an 8-1/2" x 11" resealable baggie. It has two parts: ten cardstock pages of game surfaces depicting interior floor sections divided into 1" grids, and a ten-page booklet containing rules for the basic version of GRIT, Peregrine's system for miniatures gaming. The grids are designed to be cut up and assembled into rooms, hallways, or whatever you'd like. (No doubt that baggie will come in handy!) Half of the pages are simply representations of floors of various designs and textures; the other half are various combinations of doors, staircases, pits, streams, and other features of interior terrain. The former are useful only as an attractive way to mark off increments of distance. The latter could come in handy but are inherently limited: if you want more than one ladder or a river more than six squares long in your layout, for example, you're out of luck. (For obvious reasons, Peregrine requests that the sheets not be photocopied.) All things considered, I have to say that the sheets fall into the "frill" category - nice, but by no means necessary. Now, on to GRIT. The rules largely seem to be a stripped-down version of Peregrine's excellent house roleplaying system, "Weapons and Wonder" (see Murphy's World). Characters have six stats: Action Points (AP), Body Value (BOD), Mind Value (MND), Mystic Value (MYS), Health Points (HP), and Race (RCE). Characters must have at least one of the 30 allotted Stat Points (SP) in each of these stats, with an upper limit of nine for BOD, MND, and MYS. Players roll a d10 and succeed if they roll under the appropriate stat: BOD for physical actions, MND for mental, and MYS for magical. Ones are automatic successes, tens are fumbles. Initiative is determined by the total of the characters' BOD and MND. All but the simplest actions have an AP cost per round, and characters may continue to act, in initiative order, so long as they have AP left to spend. The system's abridged format works well enough for strictly mundane conflicts, but little else - there are no rules for magic, psionics, or the like, nor are there rules for nonhumans. This renders the MYS and RCE stats totally useless, and begs the question of why the sample characters even have these stats at all. Conversely, I found that the AP stat was disproportionately important in the trial combat I ran between two of these sample characters, the "Physical Warrior" and the "Lucky Fighter". The fight was over in one round: P.W. spent four of his seven APs on a swing of his huge halberd, which L.F. dodged; L.F., also with seven AP, responded with three swings with his long sword (AP cost: 2) and cut P.W. to ribbons. Now, upon re-reading the weapons tables, I noticed that unarmed attacks have an AP cost of zero, so I suppose poor P.W. could have fought back with an infinite number of kicks. That seems a bit silly, though… Overall, I'd have to say that this product is, at best, a stocking stuffer for an avid gamer or miniatures enthusiast. The floor sheets could be a nice alternative to hand-drawn grids, although I'd think keeping all of those little squares together would be a pain. And the miniatures rules, while fundamentally sound, seem a bit like the downloadable samples that a company might have on its web site to entice customers to buy the complete game. Again, not being up on miniatures gaming myself, I'd encourage those who are to at least give this product a look. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 3 (Average)