Brighter Worlds RPG review based on actual play

There’s a million RPG systems out there, why this one?

Author David Lombardo pitches the free Brighter Worlds play test as an “attempt to bridge the gap between GMs (and players) who want minimal rules in fast, lightweight systems with players who want a more involved character creation, and fiddly rules to muck around with.”

That described my situation just about perfectly. As a GM I’d fallen in love with Into The Odd’s lightweight mechanics. I saw it as a near perfect system. My players, however, wanted more character options and mechanical advancement. Brighter Worlds is a hack of ItO bridges that gap by providing a unique set of classes that provide additional character abilities and customization options, without going overboard with additional rules. Lombardo describes it as “modular crunch”: Each player only needs to worry about the additional mechanics of their own character, and the GM only needs to know the additional mechanics of the classes in play. Also, as evocative as the implied setting of ItO is, it can be hard to work more traditional OSR fantasy adventures into. Brighter Worlds has a very particular vibe, but it’s one that I think can accommodate a lot of more modern OSR scenarios, like those from Brad Kerr (Temple of 1,000 Swords, Wyvern Songs etc.) or the first-party Old School Essentials modules (The Incandescent Grottoes, Hole in the Oak, etc.) more easily than ItO. And while ItO doesn’t have a spellcasting system and relies instead of magical items, Brighter Worlds has a full magic system with a list and descriptions of 50 spells and 50 longer-to-cast rituals.

Other games like Cairn and Spellburn and Battlescars also address some of these issues, but I was drawn to Evlyn Moreau’s art and Lombardo’s spins on traditional classes, particularly for the first scenario I ran with it, which was Stirring the Hornets Nest at Het Thamsya. It’s a breath of fresh air after playing a bunch of Mork Borg where it it seemed like every character description was basically “You smell like farts and no one likes you.”

Tell me more about the base mechanics

One thing that separates Brighter Worlds from other ItO based games is its step dice system, which is more like Savage Worlds or Jason Tocci’s 24XX games. Like Into the Odd, Brighter Worlds has just three stats: Strength, Dexterity, and Will. Will is essentially Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma rolled into one. These stats are rated anywhere from d4 to d12. In Ito, you roll under your stat to succeed at various saves and tests. In Brighter Worlds, you need to roll higher than 4 on your stat’s die. So if you want to dodge some falling debris and you have a Dexterity of d6, you roll a d6 and hope to get a 4 or better.

In combat, you only roll your weapon’s damage. There is no “to hit” roll. Instead you have “Grit” points that serve as your ability to avoid damage (ItO calls these “Hit Points” and many newer ItO-based games call the concept “Hit Protection”). An attacker rolls damage, and that amount is subtracted from your Grit. When your Grit is depleted, you start taking actual damage. In ItO, you start losing points off your Strength stat. In Brighter Worlds, you roll your Strength die and try to beat the damage. If you fail, you take your Strength down a step. If you pass, you’re fine. So, for example, let’s say you’re at Grit 0 and you have a d8 Strength. and an opponent rolls a 3. If you roll a 4 or better, you’re fine. If you roll a 3 or lower, your Strength drops to a D6. Next time it will drop to D4. If you fail your [[Damage save]] when you have only a d4 Strength, you have to save versus death. More on that in the next section.

Grit regenerates completely after a short (10 minute) break. Attribute loss take a night’s rest to restore by one step. So let’s say you have a maximum of 4 Grit and you start combat with a d8 strength. You lost all your grit then got taken all the way down to a d4. After 10 minutes, you have all 4 of your Grit back. You make camp and sleep for a night. Now you’re back to a d6 Strength. But it’ll be another day before you can get back to D8.

The combat sounds a little clunky but it’s actually very smooth once you get the hang of it. Edit: Actually, now that we’ve played a few more sessions, the combat system is getting more clunky. It works well for unbalanced encounters, but can become a grind in more balanced encounters when both sides keep passing saving throws and not taking Wounds.

Edit 2: Lombardo suggested a new rule to address this:

## Exhaustion

Starting on the 4th round of combat, all participants (player and NPC) make their Direct Damage Saves *impaired*.

Additionally all NPCs make a Morale Save before they act. Failure works as usual, but success means they make more desperate, reckless attacks to try and finish things.

What’s great about it?

The classes, called “Callings” in Brighter Worlds are awesome. There’s the Sneaky Bastard, which is like a thief, but has the ability to create an clones of themselves. Thieves are a notoriously difficult class to get right, so this really creates a new and interesting dimension for them. Then there’s the Bag of Bones, an an animated skeleton with some fun abilities, like the ability to retain control over a detached limb or to add bones from other creatures to your body in order to gain their abilities.

I appreciated the way Lombardo laid the Callings out with a brief on who might want to play each class. The Blessed of Water (a water elementalist) has a note: “For players who like free- form effects, or want to play a water bender,” while the Crystal Wizard is for “For players who like to prepare magic before casting it, like to read through lists of magic, or want to focus on rituals over spells.”

Advancement is handled in a really fun way: At the end of each session you add one or more entries to the “Epitaph” section of your character sheet. “These moments can be heroic deeds, desperate acts, cunning plans, or even comical gaffs.” You get one XP for each one. When your character dies, the other players will take turns reading your Epitaph.

I also like the way random gear is assigned. There’s a table that corresponds to each stat. You roll your die for each stat against that table. The higher the number on the table, the “better” the item is. So if you only have a d4 Strength, the highest you can roll on the table is 4, so you’re not going to have access to the more powerful weapons. Similarly, characters with a low starting Will won’t be able to start with any spell scrolls. You also roll for a “flair” for each item (for example: “Heirloom,” “Concealable,” or “Self-cleaning”). Likewise, the higher you roll the better the flair.

To be honest, I would have preferred it if Brighter Worlds had stuck to ItO’s more traditional roll-under mechanics instead of the step dice system. But the step dice system works well and the group liked it. We used to play a lot of Savage Worlds, so it was familiar, but a nice departure from the d6 and d20 games we’ve been playing lately. Plus the step dice system makes conversion from other systems very easy. Is this monster really powerful? D12 Strength. Just cannon fodder? D4. Easy peasy. Oh, and the neat random gear thing wouldn’t work as well without the step dice system.

The step dice system opens up some possibilities, like using an attribute die as an “effort” die for non-combat scenarios, similar to Index Card RPG or the ItO hack Maximum Recursion Depth. In ICRPG, “Effort” replaces “Damage.” So when you strike an opponent your roll “Weapon Effort” instead of damage. When you’re trying to decipher some runes on the wall of a tomb, there are other types of effort you can roll like “Basic Effort” or “Magical Effort.” Any task will have the the mechanical equivalent of hit points (“Hearts”) that you’ll need to wear down to succeed. That way, a GM or designer can create tasks with a similar stakes as combat, and that require a team effort instead of a single check by a single player, to complete. Similarly, Maximum Recursion Depth has items and character abilities that can be used for things like social conflict where, for example, you wear down the equivalent of a character’s Will or Charisma points instead of their Strength points. I don’t think Brighter Worlds has a similar mechanic described, but you could easily do, say, woll your WIS die as a damage die during a heated debate. The defender would roll their WIS die and try to beat your roll. If the defender loses, they step their WIS die down. Now the defender can either counter with their own argument by rolling their WIS die, or if there are multiple people involved, another person can take a turn. I guess what I’m getting at is that the step dice system makes for an even more unified resolution system than a “roll-under-stat” or “roll-high, add stat system.”

What needs work?

We’ve come across a few things, that are really more like playtest feedback than real issues with the game/system:

• The Animal Companion’s animal might be a bit overpowered. They start with a d6 in every stat, then get to choose 3 “Perks,” each of which potentially ratchets up their stats a bit more. And that’s before the player buys up any advancements.
• The spell list has no levels, which gives PCs access to very powerful spells like Chain Lightning at Level 1. The GM can control which spells a PC finds through play, but some classes start with random spell or, in the case of the Grimblade, get to pick some spells.
• One of the Animal’s Companion perks, “Tricky,” gives the animal “+2 Grit and a special skill.” The “special skill” part feels too vague.
• The Sneaky Bastard’s “Pick Pocket” Advanced Ability is oddly specific in its application. Seems like it could come in handy, but how often?

Edit: As noted above, combat can be a grind if both sides keep passing their saving throws to avoid taking Wounds.

In conclusion

Don’t sleep on this game! The play test is free, so you have nothing to lose.