[Blue Seraph]

Excellent review for an excellent game (disclaimer: I bought the PDF, but haven't played it yet.)

Actually, I wish Passages had deviated more from standard d20, using ability bonuses rather than scores, and scrapping more of the D20 artifacts like touch attacks, flat-footed, convoluted grappling rules, dying and stabilizing, the conditions list, etc. My guess is that fans of Passages are probably going to use the "7th Sea" philosophy that characters don't die (they just get knocked out or captured.)

Dan, I am curious why you like Dex as the governing skill for all combat. Generally, I think it makes Dex an uber-Stat. In the case of Passages, you can buy the "Combat Finesse" advantage which allows you to swap your Dex mod for your Str mod for determining damage. If I ran this, I would expect to see "Dex monsters" from the min-maxers.

But I think the main drawback to Passages is the organization. It's impossible for me to find anything quickly, maybe because the chapter headings have curious quotes like "The Arthur Guiness Compendium of Remarkable Abilities and Tricky Tavern Wagers." That's the heading for Chapter 4 (Advantages). While I appreciate the creativity, I can't quickly parse "Advantages" from a something about tavern wagers. Also, I would have preferred the game in three sections: Rules, Victorian life, and specifics of the Passages universe. That way I could read sections 2 and 3, but limit my in-game reference to Section 1.