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Unfortunately, while Ramlar has a lot of information and wonderful art it still doesn’t measure up to other RPGs currently on the market. The system is unnecessarily involved, and at times I can’t tell if it’s striving for realism or the fantastic. While the class-focused aspect of the game will reinforce niche play, which is a good thing, a lot of people will feel restricted and unable to build the character they desire. The monsters section does not offer enough lower level challenges. The biggest problem here, for me, is that the book feels like a big jumble of information. It’s time consuming to sift through it all. While the product does maintain a sort of Lord of the Rings feel where the world is fantastic and there are no great and powerful empires, many of the setting details are vague and uninteresting.
The Physical Thing
This 356 page black and white softcover showcases below average production values for its $35.00 price tag. Let me be very clear here: the art ranges from average to amazing, and I have nothing but respect for the artists that worked on Ramlar. However, the layout tends to be very plain. The editing is quite good, and I noticed few errors. It would have been nice if the book could have broken up the very large blocks of text – several pages of densely formatting text is difficult to work through. Fortunately, most folk will be consuming this product in small doses and are unlikely to have a problem.I am concerned that the cover of this product will begin to “peel” through use as the lamination feels like it’s pulling away from the book.
Ramlar has an excellent Table of Contents and Index that make the product easy to navigate.
The Ideas
Some people will call Ramlar a “fantasy heartbreaker” because it’s very derivative of past fantasy works and games, and they’re right. The gods are plain and unimaginative, the cities and monuments tend to be typical fantasy fare, and the classes and spells are the same sort we’ve seen in fantasy RPGs for more than 20 years. This is what makes Ramlar so great. There’s no steam punk here, no magic as technology, just good old classic fantasy waiting to be explored.Ramlar provides a fantastic world of wizards, dragon slayers, assassins, and pious devotees to powerful but understandable gods. Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, and Humans inhabit the world, undead rise from the graves to haunt remote villages, and evil overlords send their minions on quests to capture ancient artifacts. Unfortunately, there’s not much else to say. Think of Ramlar as a generic composite of all your favorite fantasy novels and you’re doing good.
Under the Cover
Chapter One Introduction 2 pages.This very brief introduction lays out the very basics of the game, noting things such as that Ramlar uses a percentile system, hit locations, and a class/level system.
Chapter Two Founding 5 pages.
Ramlar, the great and first god, created the Alari (Elder Gods) and bade them to shape and populate the raw world he created before them. The Alari created the Eleri (Lesser Gods) to serve them. Each was limited to three, but one – Gabrun – created more. The world was a grand and wonderful place, populated first with Elves and then with other races. Throughout the time of the Alari’s toil Ramlar slept. When the great god finally awakened, he immediately knew one of the Alari had defied his wishes. Gabrun admitted that he had defied the god’s wishes. In response, Ramlar cursed Gabrun, his wife, and their progeny (Eleri) to darkness. They became gods of demons, death, the night, and other sinister things.
Ramlar then told his children to create their own realms (the Planes) to enjoy, but to largely leave the world below alone. Time passed, and today the great gods no longer walk the world. Their influence is felt through their worshippers, who are often granted great visions and miracles to guide their efforts.
Chapter Three Races 27 pages.
Ramlar presents a total of five races for play. The Humans are split up into four sub-races, each with its own stats. Wise humans, desert dwelling humans, cold dwelling barbarians, and downright evil humans that worship an evil god are all options. The Dwarves are split into two sub-races. One group, the Hethmarkn, are dedicated to the gathering of knowledge and maintain a great, secret repository of all the lore they have gathered. The Kasmarkn are dwarven warriors, closer to those depicted in popular fantasy.
Elves are split into four sub-races, which encompass all the traditional fantasy groups plus a bit more. Dark elves, high elves, wood elves, and plains elves are all provided. Halflings are a simpler folk, with no sub-races to speak of. They’re more similar to the Halflings depicted in fantasy roleplaying games than Hobbits. Finally, the Spirinari are spirit worshiping humanoids who craft great structures out of the powerful and mystical “spirit bone.”
The races here are very predictable in their presentation. This is a good thing, as it makes it easy for someone familiar with fantasy literature to jump right into this game without needing to learn strange facts about “these elves.” I was also happy to see that Elves are called Elves and Dwarves called Dwarves.
Chapter Four Attributes 4 pages.
Ramlar uses eight Attributes: Charisma (Cha), Endurance (End), Intelligence (Int), Nimbleness (Nim), Perception (Per), Strength (Str), Tenacity (Ten), and Wisdom(Wis). Attributes and Skills are percentage based in this game, and so run from 1 to 100 in value.
Primary Attributes are determined either through rolling, point buy, or a combination of the two. Once Primary Attributes are determined, Skill Points and Secondary Attributes are calculated. A character has a number of Skill Points equal to the total of all their Attributes. So, if you’re rolling for Attributes then high rolls are rewarded both in high Attributes and in a lot more Skill Points. Secondary Attributes include Life Points, Mana Points, Attack Rating, Defense Rating, Contact Rating (if you’re a spellcaster), Subterfuge Rating (if you’re a Rogue). All Ratings are calculated by adding three appropriate Attributes and dividing by 20.
Time to build a character! The character will be updated over several segments of the review, and the final values will be listed below.
Example: I love playing priests and clerics, so I intend to build a Sevar (Cleric, see below). I’m going to build a Kasmarkn Dwarf girl named Kasal. Being Kasmarkn gives her +10 End, +5 Ten, and -5 Cha. I have 500 points to spend among eight Attributes. I choose to put 40 into Int and 70 into Per along with 85 into Ten. She’s always aware of the world around her, and is extraordinarily courageous, but has missed opportunities for education. I have 305 points left for 5 Attributes. Wis gets 50 while Str and Nim get 60 points each. She’s just not as focused on martial combat as her brothers and sisters, but she may learn over time. Charisma gets a 45 and Endurance gets 90.
Time to calculate Secondary Attributes. Attack Rating = (Str+Nim+Wis / 20), Defense Rating = (Nim+Per+Ten / 20), and Contact Rating = (Int+Per+Ten / 20). If my character was on the Rogue Path I would also calculate a Subterfuge Rating of (Int+Nim+Per / 20). Life Points are equal to (End / 10) for every Hit Location, but Torso LP is doubled and Neck LP is halved (drop fractions). Finally, spellcasters like Kasal begin with Mana points equal to their End.
Chapter Five Path 6 pages.
Paths correspond to character classes in other games. They’re packaged groups of abilities and, ultimately, determine what Talents a character can buy and which Skills are cheaper. Think of it as a way to encourage players to build characters to type. There is still some flex room, however, especially in the form of skills. Characters can multi-class as they level up, and it seems easy to take just one or two levels in a Path and get some nice abilities from it. Leveling results in additional Talents, Attributes, and Skills.
The Merthwarg Path is a nature based magic user, very similar to a Druid, and it gains access to animal allies, nature spells, and beast-oriented abilities. The Path is good for characters focused around being elemental spellcasters or nature oriented warriors. The Rogue Path is a stealth using character who specializes in lock picking, theft, and assassination. This is a good choice for characters based around the underworld.
The Sevar would be known as a Cleric or Priest in other games, and is a person dedicated to a specific god. The Sevar gains powerful divine magic. The Warrior Path and Wizard Path are self explanatory, gaining access to powerful martial Talents and strong magic respectively.
Magic is performed through access to Talents, and a dedicated spellcaster is going to have a lot more spells and more powerful spells than a dabbler. Nevertheless, being a dabbler in magic is much easier in Ramlar than in other fantasy games and I would be very tempted to give a Rogue or Warrior a single level in a spell casting class just to pick up some basic magic.
Example: As a Sevar, my character has to choose a Deity. I choose to have her serve Tela, God of the Sun. Additionally, she has Path Skills which she gets 20 free points in. The Skills are Discipline, Healing, Language, Lore: Religion, Meditation, and all Wisdom and Charisma Skills. I go ahead and drop 20 points into Healing. Later, I’ll be able to buy Path Skills at a 1:1 Skill cost instead of 2:1 for non-Path skills.
Chapter Six Talents 17 pages.
There are a lot of Talents to choose from here. Players may always choose to purchase Core Talents, but may only by Path Talents of the Path they are currently involved in. Most Talents offer middling to powerful abilities, from granting access to spells to providing significant bonuses to skills and combat. Dual Wielding, sleeping in armor, Luck, and all the other classic abilities are included here. My only concern is that some of them seem quite strong. Hard to Kill, for example, provides +3 Life Points to all locations – that’s a substantial bonus. All characters begin with two Talents.
Example: I need to pick up spell casting ability. Additionally, there are a lot of Talents based around worship of a particular god. I’d like to have one of those, too, to reflect her devotion to Tela. I buy Divine Spell Proficiency, which gives me (Ten / 10) or 8 spells from 1st to 10th level. I also buy Divine Boon: Tela. I get +2 SV (Success Value, see below) to everything I do in full sunlight. It also grants me Night into Day which allows me to amplify the light from any star to be the equivalent of the sun for one scene, turning night into day across the world. Not a bad power for a level 1 character.
Chapter Seven Skills 4 pages.
The Skill list here is thorough and not particularly large. A few more specific Skills in other games are represented by broader Skills here, such as Stealth, but the reverse is also true. A character skilled in diplomacy will want Empathy, Negotiation, and Persuasion, for example.
Example: My character was built on 500 Attribute points, but with racial modifiers the total is 510. I have 510 points to spend on Skills, which can range from 1 to 100. For character creation none can be higher than Attribute + 10. I start by putting 30 points into Healing, 95 into Discipline, 40 into Lore: Religion, 100 into Meditation, 50 into Negotiation, 50 into Empathy, 50 into Persuasion, 50 into Animal Handling, and 45 into Theatrics.
Chapter Eight Demeanor/Theme 4 pages.
This is a really neat idea, and the most innovative part of the game. At its core, the D/T system involves filling in 10 dots to meet a goal. XP in the game is based off the Participation D/T. Every time you fill in 10 dots you get a level, and dots are filled in for showing up, roleplaying, overcoming major challenges, and other things of that nature. This is an abstract, easily managed advancement system and it’s quite nice.
It gets better. In addition to Participation every player may have four additional D/Ts. One could be Getting Stronger, for example, and as the character does things towards this goal – lifts weights, performs an exercise routine, trains in the arena – they fill in dots. When the 10th one is filled in that D/T is complete and the character gets an increase to their Strength Attribute. This way characters can advance their capabilities through training outside of the level system, which is a wonderful way to handle things. Additionally, devout followers of a god gain special powers in this game. The D/T system is used to measure faith and gaining those powers. Finally, the D/T system is used to move up to the Master classes. Want your Wizard to become a Necromancer? Start a Necromancer D/T. As long as you have the other requirements, once the 10th dot is filled you can begin taking levels in Necromancer. Neat stuff.
Example: Kasal has the Participation D/T just like everyone else, and it can’t be changed. It really measures me, the player, and doesn’t involve the character. I’m going to start her out with the Worship of Tela, Strength, Healer, and Paladin D/Ts as well. It may be a long time before she can become a Paladin, so I want to start her off on that journey at an early point in the character’s life.
Chapter Nine Outfitting Your Hero 16 pages.
This is a simple equipment list covering all the basics, from short swords to great axes. Weapons deal damage from 1d4 to 2d10, modified by Strength. Armor adds or subtracts from Defense Value while providing ablative Life Point protection. This means that armor tends to get very beaten up through absorbing damage, and that repairing armor is a common necessity. Armor is tracked by hit location, so a person with a plate breastplate and leather cap will have significantly different protection in those two areas. An Encumbrance Value rating for every piece of equipment must be tracked to determine how burdened your character currently is.
Since the neck has fewer Life Points than other parts of the body and will result in Death if dropped to 0 LP, and since an attack is equally likely to hit a person in the neck as the torso (roll 1d12 for hit location), a steel gorget would be a fine (and very cost effective) armor choice for the wise fighter. I think this is strange. The gorget, neck armor, is actually better armor to have than a breastplate. It’s cheaper, absorbs the same amount of damage as a breastplate, provides a better Defense Value modifier, and protects the area most vulnerable to attack.
Chapter Ten Bringing Ashurlyn To Life 2 pages.
This chapter provides a full character creation to help guide folk through creating their own Ramlar character. It’s very clear, easy to follow, and is a welcome example.
Here’s my final character:
Example: Kasal, female Kasmarkn Dwarf and Priestess of Tela. Sevar 1.
Attributes: Cha 40, End 100, Int 40, Nim 60, Per 70, Str 60, Ten 90, Wis 50.
Secondary Values: Attack Rating 8, Defense Rating 11, Contact Rating 10. Life Points 10 per location, 5 in Neck, 20 in Torso. Mana: 100
Skills: Healing 50, Discipline 95, Lore: Religion 40, Meditation 100, Negotiation 50, Empathy 50, Persuasion 50, Animal Handling 50, Theatrics 45.
Talents: Divine Boon: Tela, Divine Spell Proficiency (8 spells of my choice, 1st to 10th level).
D/T: Participation, Worship of Tela, Strength, Healer, and Paladin.
Chapter Eleven Action & Combat 10 pages.
All non-Skill actions in the game – Combat, Spellcasting, and Rogue abilities – rolls must reference a specific resolution chart to determine success. The chart isn’t too difficult to work with, but the book should have at least shaded the columns or rows in alternating gray. One big mass of numbers can be difficult to navigate.
Take your value (Attack, Subterfuge, Contact) and the opposing value (almost always Defense) and consult the Difficulty Rating chart. The chart will give you a value you must roll under in order to succeed. Roll percentiles. You want to get as high a value as possible without going over the number on the chart. If you go over, you fail. If you go under, you succeed. The closer you are without going over results in a greater degree of success.
Example: My character is trying to punch an enemy with Defense Value of 8. My character has an Attack Value of 8, so according to that chart I need to roll a 49 or less to succeed.
There’s more to it than just this. To determine the Success Value divide the rolled amount by 10. If the rolled amount has a zero in the tens place double the Success Value. Skill success works the same way, there just is no need to consult a chart. The GM sets the Success Value required to succeed at a task, and spell casting is done by hitting the required Success Value. Finally, a player may choose to reduce the chance to succeed by 5% to gain a +1 SV if they do succeed as many times as they like. This reflects putting a lot more force behind an attempt and helps highly skilled characters gain higher SV more consistently.
Example I roll a 30. It’s under 49, so I hit the enemy. My Success Value is normally 3 (30/10) but since there’s a zero in the ones place it’s doubled to 6. Later, my character Meditates. Since she has 100 in Meditation I decide to reduce her skill by 20% to gain +4 SV if I succeed. I roll a 15, well under my 80% chance. This would normally be a SV of 1, but because of my gamble it’s a SV of 5. This is an incredible success.
That is the core of the system, trying to roll as high as possible without going over and then calculating the Success Value. Combat gets a little more involved, but not very. The Success Value doesn’t add to damage, what it does is give the player a pool of “Momentum” points they may spend before the next turn. Momentum can provide re-rolls, extra attacks, bonuses to defense, and other values. It applies to both mundane attacks and spell casting. This results in spell casters having an incentive to cast their most powerful spells after being very successful at something else, as they can turn that Momentum into a re-roll.
Other than Momentum, combat involves rolling for hit location, calculating damage, subtracting armor, and then applying damage. A d12 is rolled to determine hit location, which unfortunately means an enemy warriors is equally likely to hit your character in the neck or crotch as the torso. Finally, all the standard special moves you would expect – dual wielding, called shots, sneak attacks, etc. – are provided as well.
Chapter Twelve Magic 10 pages.
Characters can have a number of spells in memory equal to their Intelligence divided by ten at a time. These can be swapped out during a short rest. All spells use up Mana equal to their level, and to regain mana characters need to either rest for a short time or Meditate. While characters can’t cast spells constantly all day long, they can come close to that and magic is quite powerful in this game. To cast a spell a character makes a check using their Contact Rating against the Difficulty Level of a spell, consulting the same chart used in Combat and for Rogue abilities. While players may not create their own spells, they may make modifications to casting time, area of effect, duration, and other variables by taking a penalty on their Contact roll.
Example: Kasal casts Cure Poison, a level 8 spell she knows, outside of combat. Her Contact Rating is 10, so according to the chart I need to roll a 52 or less. I roll a 50, a success. Success Value isn’t important here, but if I was in Combat (perhaps curing someone bitten by a giant serpent) I could use that 10 Success Value for my next round of battle. I lose 8 Mana for casting this spell.
A variety of magical items are included here as well.
Chapter Thirteen Spells 50 pages.
The spells list is comprehensive and covers all the classic high fantasy spells. Healing magic, lightning bolts, invisibility, summon spells, planar travel, and other similar spells are all provided. They’re split up between Nature, Divine, and Arcane magic which is used by Merthwargs, Sevars, and Wizards respectively. Even split between all of these, there are plenty of spells here and it’s simple to modify elements (acid bolt becomes fire bolt) and the like to create new ones.
Chapter Fourteen Elite & Master Paths 31 pages.
Elite and Master Paths are more powerful and specialized than the five core Paths. By joining one of these a character gains access to different Path Skills and special Talents available only to that Elite or Master Path. Other than fulfilling a Demeanor/Theme, most of the Paths have a requirement involving skills at a certain level. Generally, all of these Paths are relatively easy to acquire and even players who were not building towards one could start doing so and qualify within a few levels.
The Elite Paths have lower requirements than the Master Paths. The Elite Paths here are: Animal Master, Forest Guardian, Ranger, Assassin, Pirate, Spy, Faith Keeper, Inquisitor, Life Giver, Archer, Berserker, Weapon Adept, Channeler, Sage, and Summoner.
The Master Paths are: Beast Shifter, Elementalist, Nature Master, Arcane Gypsy, Deathbringer, Shadow Master, Death Knight, Demonbane, Paladin, Blood Dragoon, Dragonslayer, Sky Knight, Necromancer, Plane Lord, and War Mage.
Chapter Fifteen Life in Eranon 6 pages.
Eranon, the name of the world in The Chronicles of Ramlar, fortunately operates on a 24 hour day. Unfortunately, it also operates on a 10 day week, 12 month 480 day year, and 5 seasons (two springs). The days, months, and seasons all have nifty fantasy names. While I appreciate this is an attempt to add flavor to the product, I would have been quite happy with a normal calendar. At the very least, a 7 day week would be nice. As it is I don’t find any flavor here, just extra work to keep track of it all if I choose to use it.
Information on the climate and cosmology of Eranon is also provided.
Chapter Sixteen Marks of Eranon 61 pages.
Eranon is divided into four regions, called Marks. This chapter presents information on a lot of the cities and major locations within each mark. Every city entry includes information on the economy, military, underworld, interesting sites, and plots and rumors attached to that area. Regional points of interest, such as unusual locations, are also included. There’s a ton of information here, and every location has a sort of high fantasy feel to it that reminds me of the sort of legendary places characters in fantasy novels whisper about. Unfortunately, the setting generally is very bland. The large blocks of text tend to blend together, and the material is uninspiring.
Chapter Seventeen The Pantheon of Ramlar 17 pages.
The 10 major gods, the Alari, each get about a half page write up along with a portrait and picture of their holy symbol. The gods are exactly what you would expect, ranging from the Lord of Evil to the god of Dwarves, Strength, and the Earth. A large variety of lesser gods, the Eleri, get the same amount of discussion but without accompanying art. This is very standard fantasy fare, with little inspiration, and it may be difficult to get excited about these deities.
Chapter Eighteen Dragons of Ramlar 16 pages.
This should really be considered a part o the monster section. It presents seven species of dragon, each with it’s own temperament and special powers. All dragons in Eranon breathe fire, and all but one fly and exhibit a powerful intelligence. Dragons are really neat here, in part, because of the flavor text and abilities of the Dragonslayer Master Path. I found the dragons to be one of the more interesting parts of the setting, even though there’s nothing unique or particularly interesting about them, largely because the idea of playing a game involving dragon slayers seems like fun. Ramlar constantly encourages folk towards classic high fantasy roleplaying.
Chapter Nineteen Bestiary of Ramlar 39 pages.
While the classics, such as goblins, orcs, and skeletons, are represented here most of the monsters are unique to Eranon. This surprised me, as the product otherwise provides a lot of classic fantasy material. I would describe it as something of a weakness, actually, as a lot of the monsters will be unfamiliar to players and not provide the sort of high fantasy battles they’re looking for. Additionally, a lot of the monsters are surprisingly strong. The orcs, for instance, are level 12 and quite tough. While this is a welcome change, it does result in a strange power curve from low to higher level adventures.
My Take
The Chronicles of Ramlar just didn’t excite me. The map at the front of the product excited me, as did many of the pieces of art, but the world and system leave me cold. I do think the system is generally good. The hit location problem, if you consider it a problem, could be solved just by renumbering the locations and using 2d6 and placing the most common results on the torso. The D/T system is great, and I may carry it over to other games I’m involved in. Unfortunately, everything about the game and world is just so plain and vanilla it’s difficult to really get into it. Some snazzy formatting and some sort of nifty theme to the world could have really helped this product.If you’re a fan of fantasy games but don’t care for what’s currently on the market, especially if you enjoy hit locations and lots of mechanical detail but without tactical combat, then consider giving The Chronicles of Ramlar a try.
