The Inside Scoop on Gaming

First, a word of warning: I have a fondness for little bitty RPGs. You know, the kind that come in ziplock baggies or are run off on Kinko's copiers and cost less than a meal at Micky D's or the B.K. Lounge. In my perfect world, no RPG would ever devote more than 20 pages to rules ... but that's my hang up.

That having been said, at Gen Con this year I picked up a few interesting little games (and I'll endeavor to review them all here in the coming weeks). Far and away the one that I was most excited about was LEGENDS & LOOT.

Why?

Well, because it's just so darned cool! L&L is a game designed to be played in the car, on the bus, at the beach, while hiking, in an airplane, at the cafeteria table, or anywhere else that you usually can't play because of lack of space and impracticality of surroundings.

The game consists of a strange plastic contraption, one 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, and a cloth sack.

The plastic contraption is the cool thing ... it is the game engine, randomizer, and reference screen all rolled into one package about the size of a pocket calculator. I'm not even sure I can adequately describe it here, but I'm going to try. Side A of the clear plastic thingy bears the Universal Result Table along with several smaller charts to help you resolve actions ... and a cut out space. Side B has all the charts you need for character creation, twelve tiny black disks that look like magnets, and a plastic divider creating a space big enough for only two of the disks (this space corresponds with the cut out space on Side A). The disks, it turns out, each bear one face of a six-sided die ... two disks for each face. Do you see where this is leading? Shake the plastic thingy so that two disks go into the space, look at Side A, and you'll have a result of 2d6 (well ... the statistics are slightly wonky ... but it's a $5 game!). Refer to the Universal Result Table, and you get an effect for the action your character just attempted.

When I bought L&L, I must have spent 15 minutes just goofing around with the plastic thingy ... I was hypnotized. It was a cool little RPG toy! Why would you use it instead of just carrying 2d6 with you everywhere ... I can't think of one sensible reason! But I was blown away by the utter COOLNESS of this RPG-in-a-bag, and that in itself made me want to play with it!

The double-sided page of rules, when I finally got around to reading them, left me cold. After making such a unique and simple mechanism to base the game around, the designers then decided to "game it up" by making the rules convaluted, difficult to read (which is some feat for a 2 page set of rules), and overly complex. Add to that the fact that they look like they were "typset" on an electric typewriter (pretty odd considering that Wintertree is usually a software company ... you'd think they'd be able to find some layout program to make the sheet presentable), and I almost didn't even bother finish reading them.

The cloth bag: cheap but a nice touch.

My final analysis ... if I ever use this game, I'll make up my own rules to go with it ... it's primed for use with any 2d6-based game system. So why buy it? Again, even after the rules fiasco, and realizing that the odds are slightly skewed, and playing with the furschlugurner thing for a few days ... I STILL think it is just cool beyond words. Maybe I'm easily impressed. Maybe I spent too many hours running demos at Gen Con. But I LIKE the package, and will use it the next time I'm traveling with a bunch of gamers.

If your local game store doesn't carry it (and I bet it won't), visit Wintertree's website (www.wtsoft.com) and see if you can order it direct from them.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Legends & Loot
Author: unknown Category: game Company/Publisher: Wintertree Cost: $5 Page count: n/a Capsule Review by Stan! on 08/20/98. Genre tags: none	First, a word of warning: I have a fondness for little bitty RPGs. You know, the kind that come in ziplock baggies or are run off on Kinko's copiers and cost less than a meal at Micky D's or the B.K. Lounge. In my perfect world, no RPG would ever devote more than 20 pages to rules ... but that's my hang up. That having been said, at Gen Con this year I picked up a few interesting little games (and I'll endeavor to review them all here in the coming weeks). Far and away the one that I was most excited about was LEGENDS & LOOT. Why? Well, because it's just so darned cool! L&L is a game designed to be played in the car, on the bus, at the beach, while hiking, in an airplane, at the cafeteria table, or anywhere else that you usually can't play because of lack of space and impracticality of surroundings. The game consists of a strange plastic contraption, one 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, and a cloth sack. The plastic contraption is the cool thing ... it is the game engine, randomizer, and reference screen all rolled into one package about the size of a pocket calculator. I'm not even sure I can adequately describe it here, but I'm going to try. Side A of the clear plastic thingy bears the Universal Result Table along with several smaller charts to help you resolve actions ... and a cut out space. Side B has all the charts you need for character creation, twelve tiny black disks that look like magnets, and a plastic divider creating a space big enough for only two of the disks (this space corresponds with the cut out space on Side A). The disks, it turns out, each bear one face of a six-sided die ... two disks for each face. Do you see where this is leading? Shake the plastic thingy so that two disks go into the space, look at Side A, and you'll have a result of 2d6 (well ... the statistics are slightly wonky ... but it's a $5 game!). Refer to the Universal Result Table, and you get an effect for the action your character just attempted. When I bought L&L, I must have spent 15 minutes just goofing around with the plastic thingy ... I was hypnotized. It was a cool little RPG toy! Why would you use it instead of just carrying 2d6 with you everywhere ... I can't think of one sensible reason! But I was blown away by the utter COOLNESS of this RPG-in-a-bag, and that in itself made me want to play with it! The double-sided page of rules, when I finally got around to reading them, left me cold. After making such a unique and simple mechanism to base the game around, the designers then decided to "game it up" by making the rules convaluted, difficult to read (which is some feat for a 2 page set of rules), and overly complex. Add to that the fact that they look like they were "typset" on an electric typewriter (pretty odd considering that Wintertree is usually a software company ... you'd think they'd be able to find some layout program to make the sheet presentable), and I almost didn't even bother finish reading them. The cloth bag: cheap but a nice touch. My final analysis ... if I ever use this game, I'll make up my own rules to go with it ... it's primed for use with any 2d6-based game system. So why buy it? Again, even after the rules fiasco, and realizing that the odds are slightly skewed, and playing with the furschlugurner thing for a few days ... I STILL think it is just cool beyond words. Maybe I'm easily impressed. Maybe I spent too many hours running demos at Gen Con. But I LIKE the package, and will use it the next time I'm traveling with a bunch of gamers. If your local game store doesn't carry it (and I bet it won't), visit Wintertree's website (www.wtsoft.com) and see if you can order it direct from them. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Legends & Loot