Mini Zines
2020
Complexity: basically unplayable
I realized that it’s been 2020 for almost a whole month now and I haven't used a 202X tag yet. So I went to DrivethruRPG and searched for the newest free core rulebooks, and eventually found something that actually was a core rulebook—fun fact: most of the products in the “core rulebook” section are not core rulebooks, because unscrupulous publishes just tag all their products with it so they’ll show up in more searches, and there is no system in place to report publishers who are doing shady stuff like that. Anyway, so I should reasonably be able to review any product in that section as if it were in fact a core rulebook, and would be fair in doing so, which I will now proceed to do.
Setting: N/A
Okay, I’m going to start of 2020 by being incredibly generous and not giving this game a 0/3 for its lack of setting. It is apparently supposed to compatible with “Any OSR source books” so I’ll assume that it’s intended to be played in any setting. Although I kinda doubt the original claim here.
Character Creation: 2/5
Being an “OSR” game it's the usual roll 3d6 for each attribute, although in this case the functions of Constitution have been rolled into Strength, and those of Wisdom into Intelligence. Players than choose a class, which provides an armor class, damage, and a list of abilities. Also characters get two traits which can just be kinda whatever. Overall, it feels like a system made by someone who thought the character creation system in The Black Hack was too complicated.
Mechanics: 2/5
Combat rolls are made by rolling a d20 and adding a character’s level with results equal to or higher than the opponents armor class being a success. Damage is always rolled on a d6, but with an advantage/disadvantage system where you roll twice and take the higher or lower result because this game was released after 2014. All other tests are a little more interesting, and by interesting I mean stupid. Basically, you subtract the relevant attribute from 20, then try to roll equal to or over that value on a d20 to succeed. Now you might be thinking “hold on, why would I subtract an attribute from 20 then try to roll over that value when it’s mathematically identical to just rolling under the attribute?” Well that's because in Just Quest “the players always try to roll high.” Like, that is literally a point made in the introduction. As far as I can tell this entire game exists because someone couldn’t wrap their head around the concept that a low roll can be good.
Content: 0/3 [−] [−]
Just Quest is technically playable with the included materials, provided you only fight player-class NPCs and don’t use any spells or class abilities. That’s my extra sassy way of saying that it’s basically unplayable. Classes are given a list of abilities, o skills maybe, honestly I’m not sure, because it is just a list with no explanation. For example, the rogue has
“Detect traps. Pick locks. Bardic inspiration. Sleight of hand. Story telling. Climb walls. Pick pocket.”
not a single one of those things is defined nor is there any implication that they fall into a single category that provides a specified boon. Same with spells, it is implied that there are spells, but aside from the few listed, there are no spells given, and absolutely no spell descriptions. Also as implied earlier, there are no monsters or… well anything beyond a list of things characters can hypothetically do. And yes, this is intended for use with “any OSR source book” that could only provide spells and monsters, doing nothing for the random list of undefined abilities.
Writing: 1/3 [−]
This game seems to be written with the understanding that you already know all the rules that aren't included, and also aren’t specified… basically it’s written assuming you’re the author because nobody else would be able to suss something functional out of this. It’s yet another one of those games that’s written so minimally and seemingly stream-of-consciousness that it reads like someone overly-excitedly trying to tell you about their “great idea” for a game that they haven’t actually put any serious thought into. And as such a game, everything is explained either incredibly minimally, or not at all. One example: hit points gained at each level are determined by 1d6, with a specified minimum for different classes. It is never specified how that minimum is enforced. Does a minimum of 3 mean you re-roll any result under 3, does it mean any result under 3 is treated as a 3, or does it mean you add 2 to the roll? I realize I’m making a really big deal here out of something fairly minor, but it’s also something that any author should have looked at and noticed that it wasn’t explained.
Presentation: 1/5
Just Quest is formatted into one of those mini zines where you fold a single page into a little eight-page booklet. However, it also seems like it was just raw text from a word document dumped into a template and then haphazardly cut down until it fit. It’s basically just one long stream of text with bolded section headings, but nothing in the way of space between sections or any attempt really at intentional breaks. Yes, I realize there was severely-limited space, but the format feels more like an afterthought than something that the game was intended to fit into. Also, on that note the booklet has a back cover with stock art and “go to my stupid website” text on it, so there is an entire page of this thing that is wasted because i guess making it look like “a real book was more important than be comprehensive.
The only real plus to this thing is that they provided it in the printable booklet format, and in a screen-readable format. Although that format is just the two sides of the booklet version cut into two pages, rather than individual pages or a reformatted version for screen reading. Which would be extremely simple things to do unless the extent of your layout ability was dumping text into a template.
Final Remarks
As bad as it is, it would be unfair to say Just Quest is the worst RPG of 2020, not because we’re only one month in, but because I genuinely believe that there will be lots of way worse games to come. So here’s to a 2020 filled with horrible, lazily made, unfinished games!
Base Points: 5
Character Creation: 2/5, Mechanics: 2/5, Presentation: 1/5
Adjustments: −3
Setting: N/A, Writing: −1, Content: −2
Overall Score: 13% (2/15 Points)
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