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Belly of the Beast RPG
by W. A. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/09/2023 09:56:00

The game gets 3 Stars just from the concept, which is very imaginative. The system isn't offensive but doesn't do anything especially well or poorly - it does what it needs to and otherwise stays out of the way. The main shortfall is that it could have used more detail about specific locations and movements in the Belly but most of that is left up to the GM to generate on their own. Definitely a unique premise, though, and for that alone it deserves a place on my shelf.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Belly of the Beast RPG
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Five Torches Deep
by Konrad Z. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/09/2023 19:03:50

I like the system a lot. It is simple streamlined and very easy to write content for. That said the presentation is aweful. The landscape format is awkward and genrally unweildy. Having the same in a two colomn format with 50% more pages and a normal page orientation would be inifintly better.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Five Torches Deep
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Cornerstone RPG - Basic
by Jonathan R. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/26/2023 08:46:36

While I was hopefull, the Fate style of game just isn't for me. But, if you like Fate, you might like this.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Cornerstone RPG - Basic
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Five Torches Deep
by Jonathan R. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/26/2023 08:39:01

Great little game! Does a lot in very little space.

I'm not a fan of the format. I'd prefer to see this in an A5 format.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Five Torches Deep
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Belly of the Beast RPG
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/21/2022 16:32:58

Once I actually got this to the table, I had to revise my opinion considerably. Here's the thing: this game's aesthetic is on point. It's perfect. But that's about the only appeal.

The setting is extremely underdeveloped. Oh, I can tell you all about the walls of The Devourer, but there aren't, like, locations. Just ideas for describing your own with the author's set of adjectives. Also, the gameplay is basically nothing. Scavenge, sell, repeat. I understand that's all there is to be done in a doomed world, but it doesn't go anywhere. The doom is perpetually encroaching, but we know it will never actually arrive, so it loses its teeth.

The system, which I first misunderstood to be very close to Lasers & Feelings, is both needlessly complex for determining the values of things, and extremely sparse when it comes to game results. The metacurrency caps at 10, but it seems like one should be getting about 5-10 from any interesting scene, so there's no reason not to spend the max five on every roll. The idea of a single difficulty number for an entire scene is interesting, because it opens the door to flexibility in your approach, but it feels like you're rolling either 1 die or 10, so any scene using the suggested difficulties either takes forever or is over in an instant.

Also, that's just my best guess. The system segments of this text are arcane. It feels actively resistant to interpretation. I can't seem to put my finger on exactly what's going on--I think the information is just presented in a really counterintuitive order? I had to go read a bit of the other games using the same engine to establish, mostly by contrast, what was going on with this one.

I can see how this could be useful inspiration when attempting to do something that looks like this, but it's less a GM sourcebook and more just a worldbuilding idea with a game strapped on. I'm giving it two stars because, as I said, the aesthetic is truly on point, and also because the artwork in the game is solid (but ultimately too sparse for a third star).



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Belly of the Beast RPG
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Five Torches Deep: Origins
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/09/2022 15:57:52

So I was thinking about writing an academic article about various things in RPGs and while perusing the "Red List" I saw that they listed this product's essay on bioessentialism as reason enough to never support the publisher. So, I bought it, and read the article. As I suspected, it's pretty good. Thanks!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Five Torches Deep: Origins
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Five Torches Deep
by Michael I. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/05/2022 15:53:10

I LOVE the concept but find the implementation lacking. If you do not know D&D 5e well enough, there is no way you are going to understand this game on it's own merits. It's more like a hardmode + how to make your game more narrative supplement than a different game.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Five Torches Deep
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Five Torches Deep
by Jonathan H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/27/2022 09:19:56

This title was highly recommended by the Dungeon Craft channel, and so I snagged it as I got back into RPGs after a decades-long hiatus. It has everything I needed, and this system actually explains many aspects of D&D I always had trouble with, like knowing how to track time and supplies (the Resilience and Exhaustion aspects are helpful too). It makes use of all the PC stats and attributes in clever ways -- in fact, each major attribute on the character sheet is tied directly to useful game mechanics -- and it keeps the rules light and succinct. The way it deals with spells and race/class is straightforward yet offers subclasses as PCs advance (my only criticism is that the THIEF class ought to be called the ROGUE class with THIEF as a subclass, since other subclasses include Bard or Assassin, and to me the umbrella term for all would be Rogue). I wanted a dungeon crawl system that got me back at the table quickly, and this one does that but it's well written, well conceived, and has great artwork.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Five Torches Deep
by John B. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/09/2022 12:08:44

Five Torches Deep is a rules-light, D20 system. It requires both players and GM to use their imaginations to interpret the rules and make them their own both before and during play. This is not a game where you find answers to what happens in play so much as it points you in certain directions. For some people this might be a drawback, but I found running it very easy. My players found playing it to be easy, too. They just talked about what they'd like to do in the game based on their character's abilities, I assign a difficulty to it, they rolled their d20 and add the attribute and any proficiences and items they have and that's it. Monster and NPC creation are likewise very easy. The game says that it borrows a lot from OSR and 5E, but I think there is a lot of Dungeon World/PBTA also in the mix as much of the game is based around simple tags for characters and NPCs. Everything is stripped down to the absolute essentials needed and no more. The rest is up to you. Great!

Using this ruleset, I ran my group through the wonderful dungeon, A Litany of Scratches. Among other things, I modified the, in my opinion, too strict death and magic rules and added other house rules to make it more to my liking. Very easy to do. Advantage here, disadvantage there, etc. Everyone in the reviews who is complaining about a rule in the system, there's a simple answer-- don't use it, or modify it! It couldn't be easier.

In short, I think think 5TD is a good system that many will enjoy.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Five Torches Deep
by Kailan M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 01/24/2022 08:24:03

I'm going to be up-front and preface this by saying I don't like D&D 5th much, and my single experience playing Five Torches Deep with a group was a miserable ardious affair that I don't blame the publisher for at all. So if I sound a little bitter and harsh, it may be flavoured by that.

Five Torches Deep is a brief and short book, trying to bring D&D 5th rules back to the old early AD&D days when the Satanic Panic was running rampant, Miami Vice was still showing Bruce Willis on TV for the first time with a full head of hair and the keytar was still performed in front of live audiences. I'm not personally familiar with those days, as someone born in the 90s, but, I've heard the wild stories. Based on the bardic-like tales I've heard, the style and the rules delivered seem to really seem to align and I highly recommend the system for those hoping to have a taste of those old days.

Just be aware that my copy that I got was printed in landscape which I've personally found deeply awkward to both read and store on the shelf. I would have preferred it in portrait style, and I hope future copies reflect this. This was my only main issue with the book.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thanks for your feedback! The book was intentionally designed to be printed in landscape which makes it easier to lay down flat on a table. The three column style also fits nicely on most digital screens, and individual pages can be printed on standard US letter paper. But fully understand it is an unusual aspect ratio! Thanks again!
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Five Torches Deep
by Gabriel R. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 01/03/2022 11:21:56

What I liked: FTD adopts a lot of the best ideas from other OSR games, but at a deep structural level it's 5e. In many ways it prioritizes simplicity. d20 resolution for everything. The class system is essentially a streamlined version of the 2e PHB class system reconceptualized as the 5e class/archetype system (eg, a bard is a thief archetype). Encumberance and supply are both simple enough to be used and supply reminds me of Gumshoe preparedness (a great mechanic). Ascending AC and highly abstracted armor (light vs heavy) and weapons (one-hand vs 2-hand and simple vs martial). In addition to the various simplicity angles, it has several great ideas (some of them presumably borrowed from other OSR games). Like LotFP, the FTD thief is a TSR-style infilitration specialist, not a WotC-style glass cannon. Races are just alternate rules for ability score generation and no race has darkvision. The magic system is a simplified version of DCC's brilliant but overly crunchy weird magic system. (Though note that the odds of a mishap are much higher than in DCC).

What I didn't like: Five Torches Deep is not a playable game that grafts the best OSR ideas onto 5e but an overly terse set of notes on how to do so. As written, it is unplayable. You need the 5e PHB and a lot of work to adapt it. For instance, if you play a warrior with the ranger archetype, you can choose a feat of "adv to track or hunt." What are the rules for tracking? A wisdom roll? FTD doesn't tell us so the DM needs to make it up or look it up in 5e PHB. Another example, healer kits are mentioned several times but we never learn what they do. (In 5e a healer kit stabilizes a character at 0 hp but in FTD you simply die at 0 hp which leaves one wondering why FTD makes a presumably useless piece of equipment a standard part of the warrior and zealot loadout). There are a lot of cases like this. A bit like how little brown books OD&D didn't make sense unless you were an experienced wargamer, FTD won't make sense unless you are an experienced 5e player and even then you'll have to make up a lot on the fly. This is especially disappointing as there's a 5e SRD so there's no legal reason FTD couldn't be written to be playable. FTD has great layout and art so obviously the authors weren't too lazy to make it playable. I suspect the authors deliberately prioritized making it short and sweet but unfortunately there's such a thing as excessive terseness. Inshallah, just as OD&D was unplayable until Moldvay and Holmes rewrote it to be comprehensible for people who weren't experienced wargamers, there will someday be an edition of FTD that is willing to have a slightly higher word count but actually makes sense. On that day I suspect it will be my top pick for OSR, or even F20 in general.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Five Torches Deep: Homesteads
by James C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/04/2021 22:08:28

I enjoyed Homesteads. The use of the coloured cubes to generate a region and town was innovative. FTD: Homesteads is a nice choice to create a starting town and region and let the characters run amok. Personally, I generated nine regions using the coloured cubes to get an overall idea of what the region was like and used that to inform how the town functioned.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Five Torches Deep: Homesteads
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Five Torches Deep: Origins
by James C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/04/2021 21:59:32

HUGE nope for FTD Origins. The Origins detract so far from FTD that it seems this was some weird appeal to the community. Then you get to the final blurb which totally distracts from the OSR. Colonialism? Seriously? Where do you think monsters get their treasure? Heroes aren't gallavanting through the cosmos and spreading colonialism. Heroes are retaking territories claimed by EVIL ENTITIES. It's cyclical mythology. What... should goblins just keep whatever treasure THEY STOLE because of colonialism? This book is terrible. Heritages? Bad. Lineages? Bad. Just... bad.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Five Torches Deep: Origins
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Five Torches Deep
by James C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/04/2021 21:54:51

FTD is alright. It's far from rules complete, and that is always my go to with an RPG. I understand the design standpoint, but, let's be real, if you need FTD then X then Y then the other to complete a setting? Why? Why should I need another resource to generate a treasure hoard when there is a rule segment for a treasure hoard? It feels incomplete (which is not always a bad thing) and ... just ... I always feel like I'm looking for something outside of FTD. So, FTD is ok, but it is not at all feature complete.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Five Torches Deep
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Five Torches Deep
by John M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 10/14/2021 03:22:19

A great system for a great set up. Dungeon delving has never been so much fun and quick! Just note it isn't an adventure module per say(Basically a modified rule system for 5E). I built a campaign around this idea though and it almost feels like a throwback to heroquest or warhammer quest.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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