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Legends of Kralis
(Prerelease Play
Test Copy)
Review by C. Demetrius Morgan
Synopsis
This is a review and overview of the PDF for the play test copy of
the core rulebook for the as yet officially announced for release
Legends
of Kralis role-playing game from Fantasy
Makers Industries using the Talarius RPS. The
Talarius CSD can be found here.
Target Audience: “Anyone that enjoys fantastic
stories involving great heroics, odd heroes and mystical abilities.
In addition we feel that everyone from new players that have never
played an RPG as well as old veterans will enjoy this game and be
able to play it.” -Levi Davis
Rating: I give Legends of Kralis seven (7) and a half juicy
red apples out of ten (10) juicy red apples. But given enough time to
ripe those apples should be golden soon enough.
Initial
Impressions top
To be perfectly honest when I first scanned this file the phrase
“play test copy” did not spring to mind, the document is
just that well laid out. My main qualm was with the attributes, eight
just seems like too many core attributes, especially since the game
makes use of many secondary attributes. For instance why do we need
core attributes of Strength and Stamina in addition to secondary
attributes like Health and Fatigue? At first glance it all just seems
overdone. At second glance it reminded me- well not really but for
the sake of moving this review along let’s pretend it did okay-
of a old set of FRGP rules that I started back in the day and, from
time to time over the years, brush off in a vainglorious attempt to
finish what is sure to be the definitive FRPG game of all time.
(Snort. Yeah, right.) Anyhow this is important because I also went
overboard on attributes, but if a reviewer castigated me for that I,
as game designer, would point out that these multifaceted attributes
exist to flesh out the game by providing the necessary stats to
simulate a fuller feel and more internally realistic style
of play. Heck at one point I even had a Fatigue system in place,
probably still do, so I can understand how the design process might
have led to this myriad number of attributes. Looking at the
character sheet I can also say that, did I not know better, I’d
almost swear someone got hold of a copy of those aforementioned rules
and put out a game based on it. Save for the fact I don’t
really fully understand what is going on here. These are “at a
glance” similarities. Even so to see a game that, on the
surface, reminds one of AD&D here and Stormbringer there (or
rather BRPS) with a character sheet that looks like it could almost
be used for a game system one wrote years ago really is intriguing.
Also makes me wish I had this in book form. I know, it’s the
21st century and PDFs are all the rage, probably the wave
of the future, but there is something edifying about the tactile
nature of a book. Like the ability to highlight sentences and
bookmark sections for later reference.
Summary
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Legends of Kralis has an definite old school feel. Portions of the
game system, especially the character creation process, had me
wracking my brain trying to remember what RPG I used to have that
might-have-sort-of been similar. My initial reflection was it might
be an old Avalon Hill game, perhaps James Bond 007, but then
again it could also be something like a distant cousin of M.E.R.P. or
perhaps styled after the Dr. Who role-playing game or who
the heck knows. Odd as it may sound Legends of Kralis kept
dislodging memory fragments of old games I haven’t seen or
played in ages, and pretty much had forgotten about, the further into
the document I ventured. For instance in some ways the Talarius
system underpinning LoK had me thinking about Stormbringer and
M.E.R.P., the latter of which was based off of the old Rolemaster
rules. Sadly I never played Rolemaster, so I don’t know if
that’s just misfire of fading memory or not. Still the sense of
déjà vu was hard to shake. Too, I would venture a guess
that the early Chaosium and TSR role-playing games might have been
major influences here, if not directly then certainly on overall
style of the system and game world. However once you scratch the
surface the core system reveals itself to be neither directly related
to any one system or another, at least so far as I could discern. But
that could also mean that the authors were influenced by later games
that I never encountered or played. One thing is certain: Whatever
the influences that guided the authors might have been the system
underlying Legends of Kralis does not look to be a direct hack
off the D20 SRD.
The Setting: Legends of Kralis bills
itself as a “high fantasy roleplaying game tailored for
medieval-style fantasy worlds” designed to simulate the
magical mystery of the “late Renaissance period”.
However the character races are perhaps best described as a mixtures
of the standard Tolkein types peppered with one or two unique beings.
For instance movies like Willow and novelists such as Edgar
Rice Burroughs appear to have had more than a passing influence. For
instance four armed Acires are superficially reminiscent of the Thark
warriors often portrayed on covers of A Princess of Mars (sans
tusks and more human than reptoid) and if the Aelwyn are not a more
extroverted version of the Elwin from Willow then they are an
amazingly similar attempt to disguise Hobbits under a name other than
Halfing. Or are they?
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The Game World: The world of Kralis is
an intersection of fantasy and myth, a melting pot of diverse
character races coexisting on a world that could easily be the
alternate prime of Faerûn (AKA Toril AKA the Forgotten
Realms), the Atlantean world outlined in Bard Games old Atlantean
Trilogy (released c. 1984), the world of Palladium Fantasy
or, yes, even Middle Earth. However the game world and
underlying system, while bearing many surface similarities to extant
role-playing games, is not quite a knock-off clone. Kralis presents
some sixteen odd character races. There are the four armed Acires, so
human like yet not human at all; the diminutive Aelwyn, curious
beings fond of drink and song; the ferret like Ba-Liyan, a furry race
of natural psionisicts; the noble Centaurs, who need no introduction;
the stereotypical Dwarf, who would be at home in any standard fantasy
campaign; the quiet and aloof Elves, who are yet aren’t similar
to their Tolkien inspired counterparts; the mighty Firbogs, a race of
humanoid giants equivalent with the Fir Bolg of myth and legend;
those ever tinkering Gnomes, who would be at home on Krynn or
flitting about in a Spelljammer; the felinoid Jakara, a furry
race of alien refugees; the aggressive and arrogant Kanus, a furry
race of caninoids; the mysterious Manax, being a furry race of
humanoid mice; Minotaurs, who like Centaurs need no introduction;
Orcs, in every way the archetypal brutish menace found in D&D;
Sprite-kin, covering both sprites and pixies; the ever repugnant
Trolls, who here are a mutant hybrid of human and ram; and last, but
not least, the ever important Humans. Races that are dispersed upon
the three continental landmasses that make up the world of Kralis.
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System Mechanics: Legends of Kralis uses
d100 (2d10). The d100 system is the core of the conflict resolution
mechanic used for all skill checks. This core mechanic assesses
success based on a factor of 10, meaning that for every 10 points a
player rolls it equates to 1 success for their character. Skill
checks are an opposed roll. Characters, in addition to their 8 core
attributes, have a number of secondary attributes that directly
impact play. For instance there are Piety and Action points in
addition to Heroic Luck, Reputation, Insanity, and Philosophy
(Alignment by any other name). My initial thoughts were that
the number of attributes are a bit of overkill. Redundant even. Then
again there are gamers who like a lot of detail, even if that means
involved bookkeeping and number crunching, and to be fair this never
claimed to be a rules lite system.
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Character Creation: Characters in LoK have
8 core attributes as follows: Strength, Stamina, Agility, Perception,
Intelligence, Wits, Willpower, and Charisma. Based on the information
on page 5 I initially concluded that stats are generated by a
combination of racial template (“To the Base Attribute
Scores you are able to add in 200 Spending Attribute Points.”)
and point distribution system. However, a quick skip to the races
section showed very AD&D like modifiers. For instance the entry
for the Aelwyn lists +5 Wits, +5 Agility under racial
features. Now if this was D&D I’d know exactly what to do
with those modifiers, but the impression I initially got was Legends
of Kralis was going to be nothing at all like the D&D system.
Right? Ok, so that forced me to do a Boolean search on character
creation. My initial reaction: Gah! Then I realized what was going on
here. When the text said “Base Attribute Scores” I
immediately assumed that meant “racial”, so I went to the
section on races, but it apparently didn‘t mean that at all.
Instead what it means is you have to consult a table that gives you a
set of base scores based on Size, to which you apparently then add
the racial modifiers, and distributed 200 points on top of that. I
don’t like this. I’d prefer to have each individual race
have their own unique set of Base Attribute Scores that you can find
by going to the section on races. I mean why should a Gnome and a
Dwarf, which would both be small creatures, have identical base
scores? Obviously they should not. And, technically, they don’t.
But I can just see players asking questions like that because they
have to first consult a generic chart. Remove the chart and you’ll
remove those asinine questions from the gaming table, one hopes. Also
having players have to first consult a chart (which it would have
been nice to mention you need to do) then go to the section on races,
find the racial modifiers, add them together, and. . . Already the
player in me is shouting FORK THAT DUDE! All that page turning (and
Boolean searching) smacks of over complication. Which is not to say
the system is bad, just that it needs to be refined and distilled
into something simpler, in my opinion. Liked the section on character
customization though.
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Addendum: After a brief e-mail exchange with
the author it was brought to my attention there actually is an “Quick
Character Generation” appendix. Granted this is nearly to the
back of the document, around page 327 (PDF page count) or so, but it
does help. Of course it would have helped even more had there been a
contents page or index to point to the fact this existed. Especially
since there is a much simpler character sheet here that has a lot of
the modifiers and such laid out on it. However I still find it hard
to believe that a Gnome and a Sprite are classed as “Small”,
thus having the same beginning Base Attribute Scores. That said. . .
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Galiel: Galiel is the character I
decided to create. She is, obviously, female and, not so-obviously, a
Sprite. Yes, you read right, I decided to create a female sprite. Got
a problem with that? Didn’t think so. The summarize: Sprites
are ranked as “Small”, which means I have to consult the
“Base Attribute Scores” chart, then write down these base
scores. Now, on the quick character generation sheet provided on page
316 there are six columns next to the core attributes labeled: Race,
Base, Attribute Points, Focus, Total, Attribute Modifier. Not really
sure what the Race and Base are there for as it seems only one column
should be needed. (A wrong initial conclusion.) I recorded the base
attribute scores under “Race” distributed the 200 points
all characters get, based on my own person whim, which was rather
fun, under “Attribute Points” then put in the two racial
modifiers sprites receive under “Atribute Modifier”
(wrong again!) and went off to Boolean search the document for Focus
to refresh my memory on what that‘s for. No help, the word
focus occurs with too much frequency. I had to go page by page.
(What, no sympathy? heh) The long and the short of it: All players
have to choose one of four Focuses for their character. These can be
either Combat, Knowledge, Stealth, or Social. Focuses provide
modifiers to two attributes and may affect skills. I picked
Knowledge. If I did this all correctly that should give be a
character with starting attributes of: STR 60, STA 60, AGI 90, PER
80, INT 75, WIT 90, WIL 75, CHA 80 sans the racial and attribute
modifiers. Obviously the column for “Race” should be for
“Racial Modifiers”, I have now adjusted the sheet to
reflect this. This will now change two of my scores above as follows:
INT 80, WIT 95. Attributes of 57-60 gain no modifiers, according to
the provided chart, so now I have to go in and figure out what
modifiers my character has. The end result are the following
attribute scores: STR 60, STA 60, AGI 98, PER 85, INT 85, WIT 104,
WIL 79, CHA 85. In the immortal words of Spock, “Fascinating”.
I have to admit the scratch character sheet does make the process
flow a lot easier than when I was using the other character sheet. Of
course this is just a overview of the beginning of the process. There
is still a lot to do, from figuring out Heath and Fatigue to
determining what Skills and Equipment your character has. But I that
provides a the bare bones basics of the initial steps of character
creation.
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Interview With the Author
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Kester: What sets Legends of Kralis apart from other
fantasy role-playing games on the market today?
Levi: Everything! However, to be a bit more realistic and
serious ... A few of the things are: Infinite character growth, Use
of Heroic Luck, Action Points in combat, different ways of looking at
how magic, the gods and psionics works. Again, the devil is in the
details. As you begin your experience with not only Legends, but all
FMI games, you will find things opening up in great ways. It is a
very detailed game, yet at the same time it is very much a quick
game.
Kester: What were some of the main influences that helped
shape Legends of Kralis?
Levi: Influences. Influences. Influences. This is hard to
say, without sounding cliché and trite. We all grew up with
D&D, reading Tolkien, Vance, Howards, and a number of early
fantasy writers whose names now fail me. But it was also influenced
by modern day action movies, Jackie Chan and the host of bad Martial
Arts flicks that we grew up watching. Overall, it was influenced by
the legends and myths of our world.
Kester: Does FMI (Fantasy Makers Industries) have any long
term plans for developing Legends of Kralis further?
Levi: Legends of Kralis is going to be a stand alone genre
game. It is a high powered fantasy game, that while incorporates
(sic) information from the World of Kralis Guidebook, is a stand
alone game that can be used with a gamer's favorite fantasy world or
campaign.
Kester: What can gamers expect from FMI in the future?
Levi: As gamers ourselves, other gamers can expect a
plethora of support for starts. In addition, we have worked hard to
make sure that the rules for all our games are internally consistent,
can expect that our rules and games will allow players to be able to
create whatever character you wish without over-restrictive rules,
concepts or design.
Kester: How will Legends of Kralis be made available for
purchase when the play test period is complete?
Levi: Legends of Kralis will be available in both a PDF
Version, Hardback and SoftBack. It will be available from our site,
and other rpg sites that sell games. In addition, it will be
available to and from Local Game Stores.
Kester: Are there any plans for third party support
(modules, release of an SRD, &tc)?
Levi: Yes. There is already a CSD (Core System Documents)
that is ready to be downloaded. As things progress this will be
updated as needed. We will be releasing modules both as "web
enhancements" and as purchasable modules. Our first is going to
be the Maze of the Lizard King.
Kester: What do you foresee the future holding for FMI?
Levi: Like all small publishers and small game companies
that begin in the back office of the house, I am hoping to see
Fantasy Makers Industries, make a small but effect difference in the
gaming world. We are planning on having a number of Genre Games,
ranging from Comic Super Heroes, to Wild Wild West genres, abstract
world of Cyberpunk, Space Opera Genre, as well as a Board Game and a
Card Game based on the same mechanics that Legends of Kralis will be
using. We also hope that … we can anchor ourselves in [the
industry] as an alternative to d20.
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Appraisal
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For this review I received an exceptionally well laid out and
neatly formatted PDF. A fact that is even more amazing considering
this is for a currently closed play test cycle. (I had to have an
account created and a password sent to me via e-mail just to access
the file!) Though, as with too many PDF endeavors that cross my desk,
the font is a bit small for onscreen reading. Then again this is a
334 page rulebook, so I can understand the need to squeeze as much as
possible into the document, and that means lowering the font size.
That said, as you begin to read, the text informs you that Legends of
Kralis is built upon something called the Talarius System. And
what’s that? According to the introduction it’s a
“d100-based game” in other words, it’s some form of
a percentile system(?). I have fond memories of playing and, on the
odd occasion, running Chaosium games, which were based on a
percentile system, which left me with many questions wrapped around
hopeful anticipation of what is to follow. However, by the time I
really started to sit down to look at the game system I was feeling
depressed. In some minor ways this does seem very much like the game
system I was working on, once upon a time, and abandoned around the
time it became apparent D20 was going to be the de facto FRPG system
of choice for some time to come. To be honest seeing a system with
surface similarities to something that I once really thought was
going to be the next big thing does kind of get me down, but it’s
also nice to see that someone out there is still actually taking the
time to tackle designing game systems rather than just latching onto
the generic universal OGL flavor of the month. Can’t ride those
coattails forever.
Combat: Pretty standard. There’s
an initiative segment, critical hits and successes, and of course
health points. There’s also an entire chapter on defending and
one on using miniatures. However combat is supplemented-or powered,
depending on which paragraph you are reading, and these conflicting
impressions had me initially confused- by an “Action Point”
system that is used to (more or less) determine who gets to do what
and when, based on a variety of factors, most especially Size. Size?
That’s what the rules said. So does that mean that the more
logical choice of tying actions into Agility was ignored
altogether? Sadly it seems so. Just don’t me ask why a Giant
should have more AP over a Sprite in any given situation where the
two races might face each other in combat because I couldn’t
tell you. Obviously the system could use some tweaking so that it
takes situational modifiers into account. Why? Because it should be
obvious that any Sprite is going to fly circles around a lumbering
Giant, and not just because I say so, that’s an expectation of
the genre. It is possible that this oddment betrays an attempt to
consciously design a system different to that found in it’s
spiritual predecessor (Chaosium’s BRPS) but that of course it a
guess and assumes Kralis has some roots there. On the surface the
combat rules look to cover a lot of ground at a mad cap run. There
are sections on how one should conduct a chase, deal with
concealment, environmental conditions, fighting invisible opponents,
impaling foes, throwing things, pushing, charging, and the typical
rules fare one would expect to find in the combat section. However
the section also droned on and on and on to the point that I had to
just throw my hands up and say enough is enough. The weakness here is
an overload of information and a failure to provide the bare bones
basics with immediacy upfront. Yes, it is partially there and veteran
role-players should have no problems filling in the gaps, but I would
have liked to see this section written to be more accessible to the
newbie as opposed to attempting to cover every conceivable situation.
Seriously, at some point gamers are going to have to learn to rely on
their own best judgment and think on their feet for themselves!
Strangely that was the one circumstance the authors didn’t seem
to cover. Which is too bad as that would probably have saved the
author weeks of writing rules for minutia. Conversely, no complaints
about a lack of crunch here.
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Magic System: Actually the chapter
covering magic is titled “Magic and Psionics”, which
could mean that these are similar systems, that one is a hybrid of
the other, or that the rules are just very short so they were placed
in the same chapter. So which is it? From the rules: “Spellcasting
is a spoken or subvocalized formula which is intended to cause a
supernatural effect.” In addition to this magic is
essentially broken down into two categories: Wizard magic,
which is further sub-divided into Static and Elemental spellcraft;
and Divine magic; which again is further sub-divided into
Vested and Bestowed powers. So what does that mean? The rules state
“like all magic, casting spells requires a Spellcraft check”
whereas Divine powers seem to be more foci based (a character has to
have or hold their deities holy symbol) and function
automatically(?). Well automatically if a character fails to save
verses their Divine Defense Score(!), otherwise so long as a
character is in good standing with their Deity it appears their
powers just work(?). All magic costs the character Fatigue. Given the
substantial number of rules clarifications in the section on combat
adding a Piety system keyed to Manna would seem to of been a logical
progression and outgrowth here, alas we are to believe that the
powers of both priests and wizards drain Fatigue? Maybe. But somehow
the system seems to be, not unconvincing, but perhaps a bit of a
disappointment. Especially after perusing the aforementioned Combat
rules, which went on ad nauseum ad infinitim. And what about the
Psionic system? Even worse of a let down in some regards I’m
afraid. The first few paragraphs set the stage rather unconvincingly.
For instance there’s a sentence or two about how rare Psionics
are, which is then amazingly followed up by an “it is
assumed” characters with psicraft have passed some rigorous
and ominous sounding (yet unexplained) “ritual of the mind”.
. . either that or maybe they were just born with psionics. What?
That is a bit too brusque and rather vague, making the section
inimical to suspension of disbelief. As to the mechanics, it appears
that, as with Divine Powers, Psionic attacks just work so long as no
one makes their defense rolls(?). Or something. Say what you want
about 1st ED AD&D, but at least it had psionic rules
that established a solid rationale. Hopefully these sections will see
further development. Otherwise magic seems to be functional. Sadly
not a lot of flavor text to tie this into the game world, then again
there’s not a lot about the game world for that matter provided
either. Would be nice to have read what the game world a rationale
for all this, as I know there must be one. (Did I miss that section?)
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Negatives: From a PDF standpoint there
were no bookmarks, contents page, or index provided. For a 334 page
document that can pose quite the problem, especially for Game Masters
who may be wanting to run the game while consulting the document from
a laptop, and most especially for reviewers who need to get to
specific sections to answer questions that pop into their mind on the
spur of the moment. A minor sniggle, but an annoying one. The rules,
to be clichéd, have their strengths and weaknesses. Obviously
a lot of time has been invested developing the combat rules. Perhaps
too much as, by comparison, the section on magic seems as if it was
almost an after thought. Were it not for the fact I have my own
unpublished system (don’t we all) I would probably dismiss the
entire section as a really bad quickie write-up. Especially where the
psionics rules are concerned. I do not believe this to be so. Alas
the average gamer who picks this game up and reads it at a glance may
come away with that impression nonetheless. Speaking of which Kralis
takes it for granted that the reader is a veteran gamer capable of
flipping back and forth through various pages to find what they need,
which means it may not be very accessible to the non-gamer newbie or
the fair weather gamer who merely wants to sit down and play. In my
opinion this potential lack of accessibility represents a major flaw.
You can only attract so many flies with eye candy, once those flies
have your game book in hand you need to make it easy for them to
figure out what the game is about. For instance in the introduction
we are told, in a rather round about manner, what the basics of the
system are. Yet we are being talked at, not to, and
thus rather than coming away feeling informed one has a mild sense of
confusion. For instance under “Defenses” it is stated
there are four types of defenses, then four modes of attack are
mentioned in passing. So what does that mean? Damned if I knew the
first time I read that as this section did not inform me what
those four defenses are. Fumble. Also, for a game calling itself
Legends of Kralis, I found a woeful lack of setting detail or
background detail provided. Where is the section dedicated to
explaining what the world of Kralis is and what goes on there? In
essence what the PDF I received was is one large core rule book, sort
of like what you might get if you edited together the DMG and PHB,
and little more. No monsters mentioned, much less detailed. No
detailed background provided, much less an explanation of the titular
setting. Is Kralis the world, as I assume? Or is it a free city? A
continent? There really should be a separate section providing an
overview about the world and how the various characters and races fit
into it. Stormbringer does this rather well, as did Greyhawk and
Forgotten Realms, and I was expecting something similar here. Even so
this definitely has plenty of wow factor where the rules are
concerned. Keeping in mind this is a playtest document I will
assume the setting portion is either forthcoming or to be released
separately and rate this on a curve accordingly.
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Positives: What a PDF! There’s
character sheets, all manner of little graphical boxes containing
blurbs, illustrations (one of which looks like the Crocodile Hunter
done up as a ninja), and simply more to read than I’ve seen in
some published role-playing games. That said, despite my
comments about the magic system above, to see Wizard magic and Divine
magic essentially using the same meta-mechanic AND to then see this
extended to Psionics is, to say the least, interesting. Many will
like this because the similarities lend it a streamlined feel. Alas
many probably wont like it because they will view such a design
choice as a rules cop-out. Assuming anyone reads anything into the
system at all! Either way the system should be easy to follow for
veteran gamers. That said, I foresee gamers either liking or loathing
Legends of Kralis. It has crunch, the rules have a nostalgic feel
that may rub some wrong, and many may feel there’s not nearly
enough flavor text. Which isn’t to say there isn’t any,
but it’s pretty much spread out in the various sections as
blurbs and fluffy padding.
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Contact Information
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There are official Forums for
discussing Fantasy Makers Industries game products here.
Those interested in learning more about the game or company can contact FMI via snail mail at:
Fantasy Makers
Industries, LLC
Levi Davis,
President/Owner
8208 S. Placita Juan
Tabo
Tucson, AZ 85747
“These
creatures eat fruit and herbs and nuts as well as meat, but they do
not thrive well upon these things exclusively.” -The Moon
Maid, Edgar Rice Burroughs
Copyright © 2004 C. Demetrius Morgan
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