Micro RPG
2016
Complexity: 3
Yes, I am back again after a longer hiatus and ready to review more obscure role-playing games, which, as previously stated, is the general theme of this blog.
Today I will be reviewing Barbarians of the Gothic Waste, a rules-lite pulp barbarian themed sword and sorcery game; or alternatively, one of those random games that you find for free on DriveThruRPG and think “meh I guess I’ll check it out.”
It’s probably worth noting that this is one of only three games published by Micro RPG, all of which were released from March to May 2016. And since that time all traces of Micro RPG and it’s parent publisher WitchWorks Magazine Ltd. seem to have mysteriously disappeared from the internet.
It’s also worth noting that this review is extremely harsh. Like I actually feel a little bad about it. So please remember that these are just my opinions and I have very strong opinions on certain things. Objectively the game is not as bad as I may make it seem.
Setting: 1/3 [−]
Barbarians of the Gothic Waste—okay I’m just going to call it BGW from this point onward—take place in, well, the Gothic Waste, a “harsh and unwelcome landscape” filled with savage barbarians, tyrannical nobles, dinosaurs, and for some reason dragons. Aside from a brief overview of the difference between cities, villages, and wilderness there isn’t really much written on the setting. Of course given that this is intended to be a simple rules-lite game, a deeply fleshed out setting is far from necessary, and BGW does provide more-or-less enough of a basic framework to make playing in the world possible.
Character Creation: 2/5
Characters have four attributes: Strength, Agility, Charisma, and Intelligence. Attributes are generated by rolling 2d6 and taking the higher result, or taking the top four out of five d12 rolls divided by two, or by drawing cards from a deck, or by a point buy system. Players then choose a class and occupation, each of which grant a bonus to one attribute.
Well, I’m just going to say it, that’s too damn many options, and this is definitely something you’ll be hearing more about later.
Mechanics: 2/5
The basics of the game system are simple, a player generates a number and if that number is equal to or less than their associated attribute, the action is a success. Additionally, in certain situations—only even mentioned in crafting and combat— a difficulty modifier may also be subtracted from the attribute. One thing I do quite like is the use of player-only combat checks— i.e. the player makes a check to attack an enemy and makes a check to avoid an enemy attack—as I feel this does lessen the GMs work and gives players a feeling of more agency.
Now you may have noticed I said “generates a number,” that’s because once again you’re given the option of rolling 2d6, 1d12, or one of two different systems of card drawing, and the game never really mentions how each option has different probability. But I’m some weirdo on the Internet, and I will mention it.
As you can see from my chart, not only do I put too much effort into these reviews, but the differences in probability are far from negligible. It’s worth noting that the highest starting attribute—without bonuses from class or profession—is 6, and also that the probability on drawing a card only reflect the first draw from a shuffled deck.
Writing and Presentation: 2/5
The book is competently written, it was obviously written by someone who knows how to write. Sure there are some things that irk me, use of the word “mulligan” and “he/she”—because there is no legitimate reason not to use the singular “they” when referring to a person on unknown gender—but those are things I can tolerate—okay maybe not the “he/she” thing. But what I can’t tolerate is laziness. This book has all the sloppy page breaks, widows, and bad spacing that I’ve come to expect from self-published games—an try to not let affect my ratings—but it also has serious errors. Things are mentioned before ever being explained—or just never are—which makes it seem like the order of chapters was changed at some point without any revision. Also, there’s placeholder text reading “Used in cooking” as the descriptions of five of the magic potions, because apparently proofreading is below the author. In short, all the errors are ones made not because the writer was bad, but because they didn’t care enough to fix them. And that’s the thing that I can’t stand, thinking that your customers aren’t worth putting in the minimal amount of effort required to fix these kinds of obvious errors.
Okay, let me just say that I don’t have anything against 3D modeling as an art form, or against the sexy art. That being said, this book if full or uncomfortably sexy 3D models that would be more at home in Hot Chicks: The Roleplaying Game—a game that I have yet to be able to bring myself to write a scathing review of. The only saving grace is that the art is consistent and not over or under used. Also there is one image of a woman riding a dinosaur.
Content: 2/3 [•]
While I kinda just want to keep tearing into this thing, It actually has a decent amount of content. There’s a good selection of weapons, armor, magic runes, and potions—excluding of course the ones used exclusively for cooking. There’s also a decent selection of enemies, not a whole lot, but definitely enough to run a few games.
Final Remarks
Barbarians of the Gothic Waste is a game that set a fairly reasonable goal but managed to come up too far and too short. The need to repeatedly offer multiple versions of the mechanics—without much mention of how each option affects the game—doesn’t really fit with the idea being a simple “micro RPG” and the fact that incredibly obvious errors were never corrected make it seem like the creator just did not care.
That all being said, once you pick a play style and disregard the errors this is a completely payable game that you very well may enjoy.
Base Points: 6
Character Creation: 2/5, Mechanics: 2/5, Presentation: 2/5
Adjustments: −1
Setting: −1, Writing: +0, Content: +0
Overall Score 33% (5/15 Points
Too much, too little, but maybe still worth playing.
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