Review of W.H.A.T.? Customizable Role Playing Game

W.H.A.T.? is another one of those hokey little home-brewed RPGs, it consists of 5 sheets of letter paper folded and stapled in half. So far so good. Some of you out there may remember that I am quite enamored of such games, and I had great hopes for W.H.A.T.? ... sadly, these were dashed.

The game suffers from the one thing that I detest most in a game (particularly one where the words "easy to learn and play" are used on page one) ... it tries to account for every conceivable situation with a specific rule. To make it worse, it's written in the stilted "legal-ese" game language that I hoped I'd never see in another game I actually paid money for. It's sad, really, because the mechanics themselves are pretty simple ... it's all 1d6 with an upward cascade on rolls of 6 tied to a basic difficulty number mechanic.

However, when this basic game is tied to separate (and slightly convaluted) initiative, dodge, and "attack level" systems ... I begin to flinch. When the game then goes on to take two full pages to detail seven races, NONE of which have any impact on game rules, I begin to wonder if the game is worth the money.

W.H.A.T.? also has a skill system, entries for spell casting, weapon mastery, and magical weapon smithing, and rules for immortal and deity characters. All crammed into 16 pages. None of it dealt with anywhere near clearly enough. Add onto this the fact that several of the illustrations are shameless copies of famous paintings (I don't mind bad art, but I abhor plagiarized art!), and I lost all hope of haveing ANYTHING good to say about this product. In the end, we don't even find out what the acronym W.H.A.T.? stands for!!

The author says that W.H.A.T.? costs you less than what you'd pay for lunch ... do yourself a favor and eat.

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)