A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Barbaric!

Barbaric! by Omer Golan-Joel is a role playing game supplement published by Stellagama Publishing. This is the core book for a fantasy game based on Cepheus Engine; as such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.

The supplement is available as a 57-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $3.99 but was purchased at a reduced price during a sale. One page is the front cover, two the front matter, one the Table of Contents and four pages Legal Information including the Barbaric! compatibility license and Open Game License.

The Introduction talks about how barbarians are both different and the same as civilised men, but sometimes they overrun civilisation, and that this game is designed to make it possible to play a sword & sorcery campaign.

Basic Rules and Characters explains the game uses a d6 and how the dice modifier is used. The base mechanic is roll 2d6, alter for skills, or lack of such, and compare to the difficulty level. Higher is a success; lower is a failure. 12 is an automatic success and 2 an automatic failure. Skills, of which there are seven, with combat and sorcery both being skills too, are given a brief paragraph to describe them. Character creation is equally simple. Characters have Endurance, how tough they are, and Lifeblood, how well they resit injury, 5 points to distribute amongst the skills, one trait, some equipment and money and spells if they have the Sorcery skill. Fatigue has a penalty on actions and speed. Non-humans, for settings that permit them, are briefly described; these include some familiar species.

Traits are things that grant a character an advantage to rolls, and include things such as merchant, assassin and mystic aura.

Combat Moves can be chosen by characters with a high Combat skill instead of a Trait; different moves require different levels and they grant different advantages. These include things such as archery and two weapon fighting.

Experience explains that characters gain 1 XP per adventure. Every 5 XP they increase in Rank, with there being five in total. Each Rank increase they can gain a new Trait, increase Endurance or Lifeblood or gain one skill point. An optional rule for faster advancement is 1 XP per session.

Hero Points can be spent to reroll a single dice throw, force an NPC to reroll a single throw or reroll on mortal wounds or sorcerous mishap. The better result is chosen expect for the NPC, where the second roll stands. Characters start a session with 2 Hero Points, and the group also has a pool, which can be increased. These reset every session.

Equipment has armour, divided into light, medium, heavy and shields, a wider range of weapons and then general equipment. Encumbrance is an optional rule.

Combat covers this. It has normal features, such as surprise and initiative and simple rolls to attach which are modified by skill and defences. Critical hits and mortal wounds are possible, and how Endurance and Lifeblood are recovered is dealt with. Monsters and NPCs will rarely fight to the death. There are 2d6 critical hit tables for slashing, crushing and piercing, with permanently crippling injuries and death possible.

Exploration starts with overland movement, forced marches to increase speed, the chances of getting lost, again altered by terrain, camping and foraging. It then looks at moving underground and the need for light.

Sorcery! explains that any character can attempt to learn spells, even those lacking the Sorcery skill, and likewise any character can attempt to cast a spell. Having the Sorcery skill and foci improve the chances of success, and critical failures have a d66 table of spellcasting mishaps. Following this is a d66 table of spells.

Monsters starts with a table for determining the initial reactions of intelligent NPCs when encountered; characters may attempt to improve these. How monster stat blocks are laid out is next. These are quite simple, with Endurance/Lifeblood, Movement, Armour, attack, skills and special abilities. These special abilities are covered next, which is a brief list. Finally, there is a fairly extensive range of monsters and common NPCs.

Treasure explains how a magical item can be identified, then has a series of tables for generating the treasures, then more tables of different magic items, with ten potions, eleven weapons, two tables for generating armour and 36 miscellaneous magic items.

Barbaric! in Review

The PDF is bookmarked, but not as deeply as it could be. The Table of Contents only covers the major sections and is hyperlinked. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a single column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a variety of black and white illustrations, up to full page in size, both stock and public domain. Presentation is okay.

This is essentially a comparatively rules-lite OSR fantasy RPG, with many elements that are familiar to anyone who has played such games and more recent versions. The difference is that this is built on a Cepheus Engine base, not D&D. Essentially, the mechanics are different – and 2d6 is simpler – but the game is perfectly recognisable. Barbaric! is rather more dangerous than many modern games, especially when it comes to spellcasting. There is always a chance of something going badly wrong when casting a spell, and this is not a forgiving game for things going wrong. This is a different type of OSR game, given that it has roots in Traveller, but is easy to learn and understand; it functions as an alternative to the D&D-based games otherwise common in fantasy. Barbaric! can be found by clicking here.