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Review of Symbaroum: Monsters and Traits
Blurbs from the publisher: 'Easier, faster, and more fun! The two decks in this box feature all 56 monstrous traits which characterize the predators, monsters and abominations in the world of Symbaroum. Adding to this are 63 creature cards, complete with stats and tactics, and divided into the categories Bright Davokar, Dark Davokar, Corrupt Davokar and Wilderness. The cards are primarily designed to be used by the Game Master, for easy access to the values and abilities of various creatures, but they may also be used to randomly make up thrilling encounters in the woods and mountains, or on the rivers. However you choose to use them, we hope that these cards will make playing Symbaroum even more of a joy!'
What you get: Your EUR 19,02 or equivalent will buy you Symbaroum: Monsters & Traits, a deck of cards with 56 Monstrous Traits and 63 Creatures for your Symbaroum game. This is the second deck of cards of the line that we are examining together. The previous one was Symbaroum: Abilities & Powers.
Contents: The cards have a size of 63 x 88 cm with rounded corners, something that puts them in the 'standard US size' category. The two types of cards have different backs. All pieces of backside art have been encountered before; as an example, the Monstrous Traits cards' back utilizes the cover art from the Symbaroum Monster Codex. An accompanying card contains suggestions for use by the players and the game master.
The Monstrous Traits are taken from two different Symbaroum products, namely the Symbaroum Core Rulebook which included 19 Monstrous Traits and the Symbaroum Monster Codex which contained the remaining 37. The Monstrous Traits are not a copy paste from the Core Rulebook. They contain the three levels of each Trait, yet the phrasing has been altered. Category I now usually contains a part of the text of the intro from each Trait, slightly altered.
The Creature cards contain beasts and monsters taken from the relevant chapter of the Monster Codex. They only contain each creature's stats, while mentioning its traits, its abilities, weapons, shadow, and tactics. They do not contain the creature's description and introduction.
The strong points: Be it as a GM or as a player, I am always in favour of having cards in front of me instead of notes on loose leafs or constantly page-flipping an enormous tome that another player also needs. Monsters & Traits' goal is to facilitate the game master and allow the players to construct random encounters for themselves in the world of Symbaroum. I didn't think of Symbaroum as a game that would have opted for such an orientation, that in itself however is not bad.
The backs of the creature cards are different depending on where a creature can be encountered. Clever; it makes sorting the cards much easier at the end of a session. It would have been better if the location was also evident on the front of the deck, that is not however the case.
The weak points: If there was a lesson to be learned from the extremely poor Abilities & Powers, the current Monsters & Traits deck apparently skipped class. Not a single thing has been improved.
Abridged versions of the rules, new phrasings where there is ample space to include the original ones and all that weirdness are not the way to go. If you want inconsistencies, differing interpretations, and overall rules-related frustration about a game that is strongly about theme, then this is spot on. There is a serious issue when not even the creatures' names are reproduced the way they were registered in the previous product. Easy example: in the Monster Coder there is a a Jakaar, Battle-trained, and a Jakaar, Wild. The only Jakaar card in the deck reads 'Jakaar'. Skimming through it one understands that it is the latter variety, yet why should I even need to do that? What is the logic in this?
Incredible as this might sound, not all monsters and creatures are on the deck, something that is not obvious at all. Starting from Bright Davokar already, the Blight-Born Fairy, the Darak and many more have been purged. Let me understand this; the deck's idea about helping the GM construct encounters and stories is to take out some of the options that are provided in the rulebook? This doesn't make sense. I should either get all options in the deck, or a deck shouldn't exist.
Just like its brother deck, the present one addresses itself to brain surgeons and fighter jet pilots, with fonts that are substantially smaller than any human can read without aid in a standard-lit room. Why not make the cards bigger, and include everything on them, including the intro to the Trait, keeping the initial descriptions as stated in the rulebooks?
The deck fails miserably as a reference tool. Even though there is ample space even on the busiest cards, neither book nor page are referenced either for the creatures nor for the monstrous traits. It might have been laziness or lack of oversight the first time, this time however it is more than both. The whole idea is to provide a seamless experience to the GM and his players so that they spend less time on the rules and more on the adventure and the excitement it brings. What does Symbaroum aim for here? Does it try to imitate a hexcrawl or Diablo?
The cards are bland, full stop. There is no imagery whatsoever, even on the monster cards. If anything, Symbaroum is all about the darkness, the mood, the iconic aesthetics... and this deck turns it into a standard random encounter hackfest, without any fluff to sweeten the experience. The product is in total misalignment with the achievements and evident aspirations of the line so far. It resembles its equally poor brother deck so much that it is painful to watch. It is as if the line manager for the decks and for the books is not the same person, and none understands what the other is trying to achieve.
Products like this are a picture of the time they were published (which is one more reason to properly reference their source material by page). One can count on that they will get outdated, either through the issuance of errata, or through the publication of adventures, accessories and splatbooks that greatly expand upon the lists of powers and abilities. This deck is outdated already, seeing how it doesn't include all the monsters but a selection of monsters, yet I have covered this already.
Should you decide to sleeve the cards, they will no longer fit in the box. I don't know why publishers are as short-sighted about this. Gamers like to protect their material. Why not give them a chance to keep the cards sleeved inside the original box, without the need to invest in a new one?
This isn't anywhere near the right price for this deck. If it had gotten everything right, somewhere around EUR 10 - 12 would have been acceptable. At EUR 20 and with such a poor support, it looks like a rather bad deal.
After all this I would be probably nitpicking if I wrote that something went wrong with the graphics on the back cover of a single monstrous trait card which, in addition to the art, reads 'Monstruösa särdrag' in Swedish. This product needed a lot more editorial love, both on the concept as well as the details. This is the least of its problems.
Conclusion: Monsters & Traits does not deliver. It learned nothing from the mistakes of its predecessor and repeated all of them wholesale (abridged texts, no references, no art, impossible to read fonts, out-of-tune with the rest of the game), while adding an even more disturbing one on its own (it doesn't cover all the creatures but only a selection of them). Very disappointing.
For more info on Symbaroum: Monsters & Traits and Symbaroum overall, visit Free League Publishing at https://frialigan.se.
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