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In Short

What can I say about Og, the latest creation of Robin Laws and Firefly Games? Shiny. Small. Shiny. Thing. In Og players take on the roles of cavemen with very limited vocabularies who must solve their problems through violence, sneakiness, and generally poor communication. Most definitely a comedy game, Og’s artwork, witty text, and simple system come together for a game meant to bring the mayhem and silliness to the forefront of the roleplay experience. If you’re looking for a short, simple game to get silly with then read on!

The Good: The artwork does an excellent job of communicating the general silliness of the game. The system is simple and intuitive but also makes different types of cavemen play a little differently. The use of a very limited vocabulary to make the game more entertaining is a clever and fun idea.

The Bad: Og really needs a 1 page rules summary, as hunting through the text for special exceptions (such as the individual powers of each cave man) isn’t ideal for quick play.

The Physical Thing

This 48 page 6x9 softcover showcases good production values for its $12.95 price tag. The book is well written and edited, but it’s the art that really brings it to life. Cute and silly pictures of cavemen performing various inspirational activities litter the pages and do a lot to maintain the comical mood throughout the book.

Under the Cover

You’re a caveman. There are dinosaurs, and big carnivorous things, and other cavemen, and other things. You want to avoid or kill and eat most of these things. That, in a nutshell, is the basis of the game. If you’ve ever seen the movie Caveman or played a comedy game before you’ll very quickly pick up on what Robin Laws was shooting for with this gem. If not, just imagine the silliest modern depiction of caveman that you can think up and this is it.

Similar to Faery’s Tale in that the mechanics are simple but players still have a variety of important options from the get go, Og kicks off by asking you to decide what kind of caveman you are. Eloquent, Strong, Banging, Learned, Fast, Tough, and Grunting caveman makeup the initial options available to a player, and each has a unique bonus that makes it a fun and distinct option. Eloquent cavemen, example, get more words while Fast cavemen are better at evading attacks and running away.

Let’s build a character real quick!

Example: I make Gog. Gog Fast Caveman.

All players start the game with 1d6+2 words selected from a list of 18 simple caveman words. During the game you can use these words or gestures to communicate with other players, but that’s it. Some really awesome cavemen can also draw in the dirt, so if you’re one of those you may also be sporting a dry erase board or paper/pen to try and communicate with.

Example: Gog get five words (d6 roll = 3, +2). Gog gets You, Me, Go, Bang, Hairy.

Characters roll for Ugggh points (hit points), determine attack value (5), damage value(1), evade value (0), and special abilities (3). The classes modify these in various intuitive ways.

Example: Gog Fast Caveman, has Evade (1).

The system here is very simple. Want to do something? Roll a d6. If you don’t have the ability then you succeed on a 5 or 6. If you do have a relevant ability then you succeed on a 3,4,5,6. 1s are always disastrous, usually as humorously as possible. 1s often mean you completely forget how to do something as well – you’re just that dumb.

The ability list isn’t long and it encompasses everything you could want your caveman to do. Some abilities are simple physical feats, like Swim and Climb, while others reflect slightly more out there abilities like Build and Draw. They’re all very useful, since they vastly increase your caveman’s chance of success.

Example: Gog get Run Away for free like all cavemen. Gog take Explore, Forage, and Tiptoe.

Combat is very straightforward. Roll initiative, make an attack roll (roll 1d6 and get above your attack value), inflict damage (usually 1) on their Ugggh, and repeat. A few special maneuvers are provided, though they seem really unnecessary. Disarming is a classic combat maneuver found in many RPGs, but it just doesn’t fit right in Og. Nevertheless, it’s nice to have the options here if you want to make use of them.

But what’s combat unless you’ve got something to fight? Og does an excellent job of including a solid bestiary in such a short product. Sabertooth Tigers, mammoths, and dinosaurs of every type are all included here along with short stat blocks that make them easy to include in a game. What’s even more fun is that every creature has a name composed of the 18 words cavemen know. Stegosaurus, for example, is Big Rock Thing while Giant Leech is Smelly Water Thing. Overall the creatures, just like the rest of the product, are easy to use and humorous in execution.

Og wraps up with discussion of how to run the game and what sorts of adventures the cavemen are likely to have. While none of this is ground breaking, it does do a good job of suggesting useful ideas to a GM who might otherwise not know where to start with this comedy game.

My Take

I kept looking for flaws when I wrote this review. Something about Og made me want to say it isn’t a 5/5. It lacks a rules summary for quickly jumping into play, which is a definite flaw. But… that’s all I could come up with. I think Og is a wonderful comedy game, and for the small price tag this is a few sessions of fun waiting to happen.

If you’re looking for a good comedy game, an RPG well adjusted to folk who don’t always like RPGs, or just something to fill those empty sessions with then this is an excellent choice.