Outré Realms: a sort-of review
Outré Realms is a lean, rules-light, OSRish game. It’s a whopping twelve pages, so when I say lean, I mean it!
What I Like
- It’s classless, which is something I appreciate in an OSRish game. Instead, you’ve got Fighter, Intercessor, Sorcerer, and Thief abilities. Mix and match however you want!
- The system is dead simple: roll xd6, count 5s and 6s. It’s sorta like Shadowrun in that regard, which I dig. It’s also unlike Shadowrun in that it’s actually simple. Also: if anyone has made a Shadowrun hack for this, please let me know. Because I want it.
- Armor is ablative, which is awesome. I prefer armor as damage mitigation over armor as to-hit modifier.
- There’s social combat with actual mechanical heft! I like this a lot.
- Have I mentioned it’s only twelve pages long? Wow.
What I’m Not So Hot About
- The monsters have stats that work similarly to PC stats, but are named differently. I get that the developer was going for a specific vibe, but having to keep the names of two distinct-but-functionally-identical stats in my head is a little convoluted.
- Similarly, the monster writeups themselves feel a little underdeveloped. In particular, I’m having a hard time with the Misanthropic stat. I’m assuming it’s used as counter to the PC Intercessor stat for social combat, and maybe for divine acts, but the rules don’t mention it.
- There’s some errata in the book, but it’s situated at the end, not integrated into the text. I wish it were the latter, although that might cause layout issues.
The Bottom Line
Outré Realms is a neat little package. It’s got that classic old-school feel, despite not being a d20-six-stat game. It’s got a few minor issues, but on the whole, it’s worth checking out.
Also: it’s twelve pages. Just incredible.
Disclaimer: the author comped me a copy.