The Inside Scoop on Gaming

DarkUrthe Legends is a high fantasy game, with a pleasantly dark setting. That is dark without getting cynical. Dark without everyone being selfish, evil sociopaths (though there is ample room for that if you so choose).

DarkUrthe combines a great game system with a really good setting. Creating characters takes only a few minutes and allow for a great deal of flexability. Bassically a character rolls their stats, chooses a race, adds in modifiers. Then they are ready to choose a profession and spend skill points. Players can choose from standard fantasy classes such as spell casters, fighters, thieves and sages. They can even make up their own. But if a character is good enough they can become special classes.

A character can become a half elf assassin known as a Deathmask. Or a Steward of Thale, whoose job is to maintain law and order where ever they go. These classes usually have more perks and abilities, but they also have a great deal more responsibility that normal classes do not have.

The combat system is a nice combination of cinematic and realistic stylings. Criticals and fumbles are wholly up to the GM to figure out and make them relevant to the situation rather than just consulting a chart. It is quick and furious. There are a few different combat stylings. The duelist style yields more attacks with less damage, but the wearer can not be encombered with haevy armor. Regular combat yields fewer attacks, but more damage and of course the ability to wear lots of armor. Martial arts yields more atatcks, but with little damage per attack (hence special combat moves). To add to this, characters can create special combat moves as a skill.

Magic is where DarkUrthe excels in my opinion. Magic is freeform in the fact that there are no manditory lists of spells. Characters create and research their own spells. They simply choose the effects for the spell and then create it it (using character points and lots of time). Literally there are thousands upon thousands of spells to create.

The setting for DarkUrthe is truely great. The authors wrote the setting well before they wrote the game. It has shades of Tolken or McKiernan but its own twists that make it a great deal of fun.

The only knock against the game is it is not for lazy GM's or players who are not creative or like everythign laid out for them. DarkUrthe has a great outline for its setting and parts of its mechanics and leaves the rest up to the GM to determine. This could be abused or done poorly.

This game is out of print, but can still be found pretty regularly. The "new" owners of Black Dragon Press do not appear to be interested in going for a second edition and supplements, even after owning the title for a few years now. Too bad, its a great game. Pick it up if you find it and like what you have read.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 3 (Average)

DarkUrthe Legends
Author: Colin Murcray, Matt Yarrow Category: Company/Publisher: Black Dragon Press Cost: 19.95 Page count: 200 Capsule Review by Wes Johnson on 10/08/98. Genre tags: Fantasy	DarkUrthe Legends is a high fantasy game, with a pleasantly dark setting. That is dark without getting cynical. Dark without everyone being selfish, evil sociopaths (though there is ample room for that if you so choose). DarkUrthe combines a great game system with a really good setting. Creating characters takes only a few minutes and allow for a great deal of flexability. Bassically a character rolls their stats, chooses a race, adds in modifiers. Then they are ready to choose a profession and spend skill points. Players can choose from standard fantasy classes such as spell casters, fighters, thieves and sages. They can even make up their own. But if a character is good enough they can become special classes. A character can become a half elf assassin known as a Deathmask. Or a Steward of Thale, whoose job is to maintain law and order where ever they go. These classes usually have more perks and abilities, but they also have a great deal more responsibility that normal classes do not have. The combat system is a nice combination of cinematic and realistic stylings. Criticals and fumbles are wholly up to the GM to figure out and make them relevant to the situation rather than just consulting a chart. It is quick and furious. There are a few different combat stylings. The duelist style yields more attacks with less damage, but the wearer can not be encombered with haevy armor. Regular combat yields fewer attacks, but more damage and of course the ability to wear lots of armor. Martial arts yields more atatcks, but with little damage per attack (hence special combat moves). To add to this, characters can create special combat moves as a skill. Magic is where DarkUrthe excels in my opinion. Magic is freeform in the fact that there are no manditory lists of spells. Characters create and research their own spells. They simply choose the effects for the spell and then create it it (using character points and lots of time). Literally there are thousands upon thousands of spells to create. The setting for DarkUrthe is truely great. The authors wrote the setting well before they wrote the game. It has shades of Tolken or McKiernan but its own twists that make it a great deal of fun. The only knock against the game is it is not for lazy GM's or players who are not creative or like everythign laid out for them. DarkUrthe has a great outline for its setting and parts of its mechanics and leaves the rest up to the GM to determine. This could be abused or done poorly. This game is out of print, but can still be found pretty regularly. The "new" owners of Black Dragon Press do not appear to be interested in going for a second edition and supplements, even after owning the title for a few years now. Too bad, its a great game. Pick it up if you find it and like what you have read. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 3 (Average)