Long overdue, this is what most people has been wanting from an OSR system, at least for the last five years. Nothing groundbreaking, just what's needed with a great presentation.

D6 pool systems and aspect and free form magic systems are in fashion right now. EZD6 has the typical issues of those.

The difficulty of a roll can be both regulated by changing the target number or by adding boon/banes (extra rolls). Even if the former is favored it is not always clear which one to use and sometimes it is advised one or the other, without considering probabilities. In a section, the author even suggests using the critical exploding system.

When creating a character, Aspects may easily overlap with inclinations or even classes. Magic also requires tuning spell effects, number of dice, etc. It is not a system for new players, much less new DMs. There are two meta-currencies to track, karma and hero dice. Each with its own particular rules and a magic variant, spellburn.

Finally combat is not simpler or faster than basic d&d. Both the attacker and receiver have to do one roll (with numbers that vary depending on class and monster) so we are at the same or more complexity. The author even acknowledges this by making combat asymmetrical, monsters don't roll for defense/armor. Instead the DM just adds strike/wounds for harder foes. This is quite a mental overhead for a system promoted as simple.

Playing this game requires extensive experience with d&d and even narrative systems. Something the author does not see probably because of his own expertise, but the book fails to explain many things clearly.

Five stars for the 2019 version: auto cleave, +2 for shields, good skill system, flavourful spell list, beautiful bestiary and spaceships. This is one of my top three games. Four stars for the latest version.

After so many years, this is still the "go to" RPG book.

It will teach you how to role play and how to DM. No need for narrative crutches nor skills. Just use attributes and your imagination properly. Time tracking and maps together with some chances rolls witll give you a campaign going.

This is based in the Whitehack, probably the best adjacent OSR there is, at least numerically (Black hack is more random, Into the Odd may too simple for some people).

But I recommend using this one because it is much better defined and explained and it has a pdf, unlike the current versions of Whitehack (2e).

The game seems to be done to complement the use of existing extensive Elric manuals.

It has good ideas to use in any game but everything is explained half-way. Which is a problem since the game has half a dozen sub-systems:spells, demon pacts, spirit pacts, rune weapons, weird science, cosmic gifts and finally, the action economy, which seems to be taken from brp and not from black hack.

For reference I've read both black hack editions and DMed Sharp Swords and SSpells, a black hack clone.

Nice starting setting and supplement for Warpath! with focus in the warp and remote exploration, some equipment and all you need to quick start a campaign.

Cool adventure with plenty of elements to add to any random session.