Quick review. A little lack luster. Less emphasis on skills and social situations than even a lot of other barebones rpg's have. Might be more fun to run the miniatures game as an rpg with an alternate set of skills/stats for social situation. Not sure what there is offered in this rpg that's now wholly unique except the setting and the combat.

Looks to be an all right system. It uses all of the dice from a D2 to a D20. The system isn't too complicated - which is the goal of the designers. It relies a bit on lists and examples for skills but specifies combat down to a collection of actions. I do like their skill list, and how the skills should work. I'm not really that curious about their magic as list magic is only as interesting as the diversity of the lists. But the rules will eventually include poison and alchemy which is not something that every system has.

Any GM familiar with the role should be able to recognize the advantages of this system for introducing young or even friends to roleplaying as an activity. It includes enough examples to get you started. I don't see any plans for a starter adventure to get the GM and the players scripted a bit to master some of the commonly use mechanics which is always a nice thing to have in a core rules package or book.

Without the full rules I'm not ready to give it a higher score. I don't mind the lack of art. Some examples of how mechanics would be used on the table would be nice.

Some interesting ideas here. A collection of adventure seeds. The religion generator is original and well thought out. So too were some of the spells, Candy Wall being both amusing and the fluff text made me laugh. It's very light on explanation and extrapolation, which might turn a few people away. The example of play helped clear up some of my confusion. But when I saw the cut out and fold up cards for easy reference I was a little impressed. While the first few pages suggest a setting, there are no notes of cities, city-states, or countries.

On the whole it's a great collection of original ideas worth reading through. Some great stuff here.

On page 19 there is an inserted image which over laps a list of 8 character classes, but you can figure out the list with a little deductive thought. On the whole the presence of the images wasn't much of a distraction.

The rule book is clear and well annotated. I enjoy the system as given. Would be a great way to introduce players to role playing for the first time. The sample adventures were unique, but lacked good situations for non-combat trait use.

There is a depth to skills that is character dependent, the more skilled you are, the more likely to roll under your characters target number - much like Gurps. Where there is an automatic fail in 5x5, fails which are not automatic (a roll of the same number on both D6) can be overcome with Karma - which is generated by rolling an automatic fail.

They then flip this for skills your character is grossly unskilled (or handicapped at), rolling a double is the only way to succeed and you get a karma for making it. "[Tr] Trouble: This is something that other people seem to be able to do without much difficulty. But not you. This always gives you trouble." This strikes me as a nice way to round out a character, a hydrophobic air-man character for example, really shouldn't be attempting to swim. A vegetarian might have Trouble eating meals with any meat in them.

I enjoy the combat system, it's got a depth to it that I find missing in many role playing systems which rely on attack vs AC or another relevant static number. "The Combat Traits are: Interrupt (act before the enemy,) Attack (successfully hit the enemy,) Defend (negate the attacks of an enemy,) and Resist (shake off the effects of damage to keep fighting.)" Armor only reduces the likely hood of critical damage. However characters are not massive wound tanks as depicted in some role playing games, in 5x5 combat is harmful and threatening. Despite the simplifications and low hit points, with some of the examples presented in the game the rules provide a good format for experimentation and customization. However the rules as stated are probably best used in tightly focused scenes with a limited number of opponents rather than large amalgamations of opponents.

The magic system was a bit of a disappointment, after having enjoyed the combat section so much. Some better examples or even two samples of combat magic would have been appreciated for scope and reference. If I used this system I would think long and hard about allowing magic, perhaps adapting a more familiar setting. Attaching target numbers to a short list of spells which are supported by a few general traits comes to mind.

One detail that was over looked.

Page 13. Task Rolls has a line regarding rolls for actions without traits, which is clarified in the section Rolling Unskilled. However this section does not exist, as written. It is covered on the top of page 14 in the section All Other Tasks. But not with the exact phrasing giving on page 13.

I'm glad this comic has been created. But I think I won't enjoy how long the scope of this plot will take. It was interesting to learn a bit more about each of the artifacts, and maybe I'll check out a few of their earlier comics.

A well rounded system with a straightforwardness I like. Through listing of character options, environmental modifiers and combat options which would make it easy to balance cinematic situations with mechanics creating scenes with tension for the players. The magic system is complicated enough that no two magic users will look a lot a like (unless the players want them to).