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"OG" a game of prehistoric caveman comedy
By MICHAEL ERB
www.newsandsentinel.com
merb101@gmail.com
PARKERSBURG - Before the advent of recorded history, there were some pretty funny times.
Oh sure, being a caveman wasn't all fun and games. You were always trying to find things to eat and hoping they didn't eat you. Most problems could either be solved by running away or hitting something with a big rock or stick, but even that didn't always guarantee you with success. Sometimes things hit first, and a lot harder than you.
"OG: Unearthed Edition," written by Robin D. Laws and published by Firefly Games, is a role-playing game of those early days of caveman history. As the game quickly points out, you aren't one of those smart cavemen, the ones who invented fire and the wheel. No, you play one of the other guys. The ones who struggle to find the words for "run away." The ones who get stepped on by dinosaurs.
Players choose from one of seven classes, most of which are defined by the thing you do well. For example, a Fast Caveman is really good at running away from things. A Tough Caveman is a little harder to hurt. A Grunting Caveman is kind of like a shaman, and can sometimes cause crazy things to happen just by doing arcane gestures and dances.
One of the main gimmicks of the game and an incredibly fun aspect is language. You only have 18 words to choose from in caveman speech, with such notable gems as "go," "bang," "smelly" and "rock." But the real trick is, you don't have all 18 words. Oh no, that would make you an Einstein among cavemen. Most have only a handful of words, about 3-8, they can use. A few cavemen have more, and some are even intelligent enough to invent new words, but in a world where language equals power, they aren't likely to share those new words anytime soon. Not with you, anyway.
Anytime a player wants to communicate with another player during the game, they are limited to hand gestures, sounds and whatever words their characters know. So if a saber-tooth tiger were about to spring on your unaware companion, you might only be able to point, gesture wildly and scream out "Hairy thing go!" Assuming you know those three words, that is.
There also is a rather limited selection of skills, which, considering the intelligence of the average caveman, is rather easy to understand. Most help you to do one thing, like run away, hit stuff, build a fire or learn new words.
Combat, like most of the game mechanics, is relatively simple. Characters and animals alike have four simple stats: Attack, Evade, Damage and Unggghh. Attack is how easily you can hit something, while Evade makes you or your target harder to hit. Damage is how hard you hit.
Unggghh is the sound you make when you take damage, and represents how much damage you can take. Take too much Unggghh and you become helpless. Shortly after, you become dead.
There is no coming back in OG. History is littered with cavemen who didn't make it and other cavemen who never noticed.
Animals, including predators and dinosaurs, use the same basic stats, but also have a Food Value which shows how days worth of meals each beast is worth. If it's made of meat, you can eat it.
There are more advanced rules for creating items, creating words, and how cavemen learn and grow, provided they live long enough to do so. The entire book is only 48 pages though, so don't expect a lot of depth to the gameplay or the rules.
Most adventures revolve around finding food and not getting killed in the process, dealing with rival tribes and not getting killed in the process, or finding a mate and not getting killed in the process. The entire book is written with a tongue-in-cheek tone, and some of the historical sidebars are absolutely hilarious. This is a very quick game to learn and play, so a group of players could sit down, create characters and run an adventure or two in the course of the evening without missing a beat.
"OG: Unearthed Edition" is a revision of the original "OG" game and does a lot to expand on the fun and humor of the original. "OG: UE" really is a simple but incredibly fun game, and should appeal to players of all ages and interests.
For more information on "OG: Unearthed Edition" or any of Firefly Games other products, visit www.firefly-games.com. For more game reviews and discussion, visit my blog at http://merb101.livejournal.com.
