 Goto [ Index ] |
Frank Sronce, the author, is selling the book through this site: http://www.kizandjenn.com/hmice/ . Go on. Head over there and take a look. I'll wait. Honestly.
All right. Now that the group is all back together, I'm sure you saw that you can get the book electronically or as a soft cover book. Okay, now that's out of the way, let's get back to more insights on the game itself.
If you’re worried that you would need a bunch of expansions to play, don’t be. While expansions would be nothing to fight off, HM provides a complete roleplaying package from where I’m standing. The completeness and overall feel reminds me of all the good things about Tunnels & Trolls, old red box Basic D&D and even Alternity Gamma World (style is different obviously in each case but feeling of completeness is what I‘m talking about).
With this book, two d6s (and apparently at least one d4 for some weapons figuring), pencils, paper and friends, you should be up and playing in minimal time. Although this is a non-playtest review, I really want to play this game. It provides exactly the level of rules, background and inspirational stuff to make you want to start phoning up some friends and clearing your calendar.
The setting is interesting and blends a lot of cool ideas---and I‘m not normally an animals as the only option for PCs kind of guy. Conan & The Secret of NIMH is a cross specifically mentioned by the author but I also made comparisons with Red Wall, what little I’ve read of Mouse Guard, LOTR and a bunch of other cool fantasy stuff I’ve sampled over the years.
Without giving too much away, the rodents once were part of the Titan’s world. The ancestors of the current rodents were created, enslaved and escaped from the Titans to establish their kingdoms in the Fallows set in a small river valley . Now barbarian rats loom at the gate and kingdoms struggle against other kingdoms and with internal challenges as well.
I looked and looked but found no ‘What’s an RPG?’ section in the book. No matter as the game reads plainly enough that even a veteran gamer should be able to read it. Frank explains the general concept of HM as an RPG of “grim Swords & Sorcery action…as portrayed by talking rodents.” Hyperborean Mice rings of Watership Down, Red Wall, Lord of the Rings, Mouse Guard, Red Box D&D and more----all in a good way and in my opinion a nice new angle on an all animal PC cast game.
The character sheet is a double-sider at the back of the book and is functional and well organized. The front of the sheet has all your need-to-know-it-yesterday information and the back is all those notes on great deeds, adventures past, etc. (except for weapons being back there, too---which you probably need to have handy during combat). In my opinion, there’s enough information to be useful without going overkill.
Characters are rated in Agility, Brawn, Cleverness, Perception and Magic. Combat Ratings reflect combinations of the other traits. For example, your courage reflects your Brawn plus Cleverness. Without dwarfs and elves, the natural races to rely on in such troubled times are rodents, of course. Players can be upper crust Royal Mice; White Mice; Common Mice; Jumping Mice (apparently natives up-lifted by the originating rodents); White Rats (also likely up-lifted); Common Rats and Wild Rats. Wild Rats make me think of the old 1st Edition AD&D Half Orcs for some reason.
At character creation, you get points to buy Powers, which help make your character better in some way. You might be a light sleeper or have an empathy with small creatures (yes, there are creatures smaller than mice in the game). You can also get points back by taking Flaws. You might have hay fever or some other malady to make your character both more interesting and more wealthy in points to buy good stuff on the powers side. Skills are bought to suit the character design also using a set amount for each character you build. Hero points also are present and let you re-roll dice, trigger critical successes and some other similar benefits.
All of these conventions are similar to ones you’ve probably run into in other games. They are useful and match the setting well from what I’ve read. Characters have enough numbers and flaws, powers, skills, etc. to make them interesting without drowning you in detail.
The dice used are 2d6 for just about everything. Typically you roll 2d6 and then add a stat plus a skill (combat ratings already have stat plus skill added) to the result. You then compare your result to a target number. The harder the task, the higher the target. Beat the number and it’s success. You could also tie, which is not considered failure or success. Beat the target by a multiple of 5 and you start adding up critical successes. Fail to at least tie and you have either failure or critical failure if it was 5 or more points that you failed by (failure does not have multiples of 5 below to get worse---thankfully).
Focus is one option a character can use if he has the time and/or really needs a boost in the chances of success. If a character takes the game time to gain Focus, the character can add +1 to a roll after it’s been rolled to make it a tie (at least) or a success if it’s a tie. Fatigue is kind of like your fuel tank. You can use it to become instantly focused but if you use to much fatigue during your adventure, you’ll start suffering ill effects until you’re restored.
Magic centers around six basic spells. Not every character has the innate ability to use magic either. The six basic spells break down into influencing (sort of Jedi mindtricky but not exactly), illusory powers, light/flame, telekinesis and telepathy. Later, as a character develops in their mouse sorcery they may be able to access high sorceries, a step up in power for each of the basic spell areas. That said, something I like is the author’s statement that “Mousy magic is small.” It helps keep the setting consistent and fits with what mice should be able to manipulate if mice were able to do that sort of thing.
Magic use is similar to skill use. The ‘levels’ are trivial (similar to cantrips), small magicks, large magicks and the previously mentioned high sorceries for the amazing results (that are consistent with small mousy magic). Generally, the larger the scale, the harder it is to pull off. Spells can often be maintained (actively) and range also has its effects in increasing the difficulty or even possibility of a spell being useable.
Combat. What would a Conan-y sort of game be without combat? We’ll quickly look at melee as an example. To attack, I use my melee combat skill (adding Agility + Brawn) and add 2d6. My target gets to roll 2d6 and his Dodge (Agility + Cleverness) or his Melee Combat (Agility + Brawn). If his total beats me, I failed and nothing happens. If we tie, as the attacker I get to make an immediate follow up attack and he has to change his method of avoiding damage; that is, if he Dodged the first blow, he has to Parry the second.
If I succeed by beating his score, then I deal damage. Damage is a die type for the weapon plus a listed appropriate stat (some weapons let you pick your highest of Agility or Brawn for example). This is the only place I noticed non-d6 use and it was only d3s and d4s listed for some of the lesser weapons. The target gets to subtract any armor from that total. Anything not negated by armor goes through to hit points.
My take is combat is functional and peppered with variety. There are options for advanced combat stuff going all Wolverine or Spiderman with all out attacks and acrobatic dodge-type maneuvers. You can fight unarmed or team up to put the hurt on an opponent, too. I particularly like that stronger characters potentially cause more damage in melee. It makes sense without being too complicated. The armor mechanic is simple but gets the job done. I’m sure some trauma surgeon expert could explain why a breastplate wouldn’t soak up all the damage from that blade but then, we are talking about role-playing sentient mice, right?
The bestiary is great. Interior art shows a female courtier mouse ‘walking’ her pet bumblebee on a leash while another picture shows a mouse adventurer riding a beetle. Both creatures plus dragonflies, foxes, crows, hawks, frogs, owls, pigeons and other less civilized rodent races are included. Very original ideas and extensions from similar mouse-based fantasy settings are included (I.e., foxes make sense as a source of enmity for mice regardless of who is writing the setting). Shrews are one of my favorite as are Ghuls, sort of zombie shrews, included in the horror and demon section. Again, really neat use of classic biological and literary ‘monsters’ to provide opposition to the characters.
There’s a brief history to explain how the setting came to be. You also learn that the original escaped rodents who settled here ascended to god status and are worshipped as such. The gods are included in a section of their own to compliment the bestiary mentioned above. Back to setting, a map of the Fallows is provided showing the various parts of the territories including The Forbidden Lands, presumably a laboratory or something entirely different where giant two-legged creatures dwell.
You have the traditional XP section explaining a couple of different options for awarding XP. XP can be used to improve social status, improve skills, buying off flaws, and the ever favored improving combat abilities and stats. Several excellent adventure seeds are included, too. I really don’t want to spoil these but they have good mousy takes on the tropes you’ve come to know and love. I did not see anything about an old man wishing to to meet the party in a tavern, though J
Prisoners of Skzentic is the example starter adventure. It provides good interaction with NPCs, combat and exploration. The party hires on to rescue some kidnapped children and find, as usual for adventure RPGs, that they signed on for more than they bargained for. The adventure includes a nice map of some stuff to explore and really good NPC information and recommendations on interacting with the characters. It’s only six pages long but I think it provides a good introduction to the spirit of the rules and the setting.
From start to finish, you can tell that this is an RPG written by an RPG expert and developed with RPG experts’ input. The product has high quality art, organization, mechanics and a well laid out setting with a proper bestiary, history, a very nicely done bit on esoteric equipment and stuff (Whisperwood has a nice ring to it) and even a small scale first adventure. If I like a game or supplement, I am not shy about saying so and I think Hyperborean Mice is one of the better options you’ve got for fantasy gaming right now.
Hyperborean Mice gets top marks. Quality product at an exceptionally reasonable price. Very extremely highly recommended :)
Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.
