[RPG]: Shades of Fantasy, reviewed by wljohnso (3/3)

[RPGnet Reviews]

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9910.phtml

Wes Johnson's Summary:

Shades of Fantasy is a good example of the small press games that came out in the early 1990's. Shades of Fantasy suffers from some of the foibles of that type of production, but also has many sophisticated aspects belie its origins.

Go to the full review (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9910.phtml) for more information.

[bshay]

I just have to offer a comment on this one:

Yes, there are similarities to D20. This become even more interesting when you consider it was published in 1993, a full seven years before D20 went on the market.

Honestly, I think someone got a hold of this game and lifted its basic mechanics for the D20 project!

Personally, I find SoF has the charm of older games like OD&D, AD&D, Arduin and Tunnels and Trolls, but with more streamlined and well thought out mechanics like some of the more contemporary games. This is a good one for me; there are just enough rules without anything extraneous or nit-picky.

Clearly, the author was attempting to establish a world-setting more Old English or perhaps Scandanavian in its flavor as opposed to more generic high fantasy. For me, that part works and it doesn't; some things are a welcome change, others (most especially, the selection of races, most of whom I'd never want to play) just don't hold much appeal. But that is minor -- it's an easy system to add additional races, classes, skills etc. to.

In particular, I really like the exorcist class and the way spirit combat is handled. Also, the magic system is quite well balanced, workable and playable. Another nice addition are the 'adventurer' professions -- that is to say, normal occupations, normal people who happen to get caught up in a life of adventure for one reason and the next, as so frequently happens in folklore, mythology and fantasy fiction. Such characters get a luck attribute to compensate for not having more robust class abilities and, as well, each of these professions has one or more of the more powerful character classes it can advance to after the adventurer gains sufficient experience.

All of my gaming is done online, these days, and I often want a system that is detailed enough yet doesn't eclipse the story with excessive rules and minutia. SoF makes a good underlying engine in that regard. For the ten bucks I paid for it on Amazon, it was more than worth the price of purchase.