From: sltxh@cc.usu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: RE: DarkUrthe review (IMHO)
Date: 10 Sep 92 01:56:48 MDT
Organization: Utah State University

Disclaimer... I wish to announce that all the spelling errors in thid post
are the fault of my editor... unfortunately, I do have to claim some of them
sorry for the garble, but my editor has a serious bug. Thanks in advance for
overlooking that :) 

    I have been involved in the playtesting of Darkurthe LEgends from the 
Alpha testing stage, and therefore feel somewhat informed, as I've witnes-
sed its evolution. 
   
    TO answer some of your questions... drum roll please....

(!) COMBAT SYSTEM: The combat sytem in Darkurthe Legends (DL) is 
fairly simple, but seems to reflect reality. I.E. It is quick and 
can be quite deadly. This follows the original concept of trying 
to make combat flow, and add the story telling / role playing 
aspects desired in the game, and it works. However, if you like 
real fine detail (like a chart to tell you exactly how much damage 
your little finger took) this is'nt that type of a system, A lot is 
left up (purposely) to the G.M. to decidde, as fitting to the blow. 
     Also, you get experience for roleplaying, creativity, and stuff
k like that, rather than simply killing things. So there is (Decidely
I believe) a focus on role playing, as aposed to "Hack-n'-Slash". 
(Although the game lends itself weel to that, since combat goes qutie,
that's quite, quickly!) IMHO the combat system works well. I like it.

(2) ChARACTER GENERATION: This is somewhere in the Medium castergory,
as far as timein creation. It orignally was QUTIE rapid, but the des-
igners felt that people were'nt putting enough "personality" (if you 
will) into the characters, so they added some things, changed some 
things, and made it so that you can now spend a little more time 
getting to know the character. The stats are somewhat typical. There
are five : Strength, Intellect, Agility, willpoewer, and POerson. 
(sorry that 's person) . Each of the attribute has a REAL GAME effect.
This they seem to have handled really well. The actuall generation is 
half (of each individual stat) is rolled randomly, and half comes from 
a point pool. I like it, since there's still the randomness of "where
did nature put me?" and the ability to customixe to some extent. 
     So, It's realtively fast, (compared to a lot of games I've seem
where one wishes to use the computer to keep track, of the four sheets)
And gives you time to gett into your character for better role-play.
[One thing I REALLY liked about the playtest manuals, is that most 
of the info was right there, for generation. I have one game (CHILL 
one of my personal faves... except for that aspect!) where the items
needed for generation are scattered throughout the entire books, and some
I did'nt know I needed until well into the game :( ] [I hope they do this
when they actully publish.]
 
     
SLI::
SKILLS: As with the rest of the game, they have tried, (and mostly suceeded)
in keeping math to a minimum, and simple where neccisary. Here, skills are
based in relation to your INTellect. Aside from initial generation, you 
buy skill levelsx with your (For lack of a better word at thid time) 
experience points. It is somewhat easier to learn skills, with a higher 
INT, and this is reflected. I'm not sure exactly how this works now, but
they were working on it, and I've heard that they finished it, but the 
time I played it, with colin (the designer) it worked rather well. There
are of course only so many skills, but if there isn't one, I believe that 
there will be a note in there to work with the G.M. to come up with one 
that will work in the campaign. (AT least most of the other sections, I
KNOW have such sections... SEE NEAT STUFF I LIKED BELOW>)

NEAT STUFF IL LIKED :)
    
     WORL/MOOD: The entire continent of DARKURTHE, (complete in the 
manual) Is weell thought out, and has a dark, GOthis... that's 
gothic feeling about it. But for a twist, a lot of the race orders
(groups, political, to which only memebers of certain races usually 
join.) are more akin to high fatasy. The entire world has a nice 
sense of history. All of the racexs have an accompaning history, to
help the player understand the character (s)he's playing more fully.
It's kind of like a twist cone. (or an OREAO) High fanasy in a Dark 
world... I like it :)

     CREATIONS IN GENERAL: 
           Throughout, they have tried to almost force you to use your
imagination. Therefore, they explain how you and your G.M. can come up
with spells (a complete spell creation chart is in there!) magis items,
skills, ... anything. It makes things more unique. They even ivite the 
G.M. to al...omly use the monster stats provided for a guideline of 
the Average for the creature. I like this, cos' I HATE campaigns when
I KNOW exactly how to kill each monster I see, and what its weaknesses 
are. 

     MAGIC SPELL DIFFICULTY: Ther is NO spell LEVEL. THe spells are 
assigned a difficulty level (that matches the speell creation chart :))
Which is sreduced by the characters ability in that form of magic (
Magic use is a skill, not a class) and rolled against a chart, minus the
difficulty. Therefore, you can attempt any spell no matter how difficult!
The downer is that if you try something you're not ready for yet, youre
fried...or woerse. This also really works well.

      I could go on and on. For what it's wotrth, I've not heard ANY
(NO JOKE!) negative comments about the game. Everyone I know who'se 
looked at it , ws exicited. The artwork is great! (Done by MAtt Yarrow,
The other designer, who used to do stroy boards for hollywood, He's 
great, I'm Tellin' ya :) ) 

   Summary:
        The game is flexible, but works believabley. It lends itself well
to creativity, by focusing less on details, but more on how to create 
things that work in the world. Their overoall focus was on ROEL...
That's ROLE-playing instead of ROLL playing, so that one dice roll 
is'nt the determining factor at the end of a long campaign. 
 This is (trust me) not easy for G.M. ing, since a lot of the outcome
you're expected to come up with on the spot, in accordance with what 
the stroyy wants to happen. But it's the way I've always G.Med, and 
IMHO the Only way to G>M>. There's enought about the world (at least
in the playtesters manual I have... I presume that the final manual
will havre even more.) that you have a pretty good fel for the way
it works, so "Winging it" is'nt too much of a problem. People who 
have played it, r tend to naturally Role-play their characters, more
than I've seen in most games. SO it has been an Very enjoyable experience
for me, to play test.

                            Joel M. Poppleton

P.s. I hope that answered your questions, and maybe gave you an idea
of what the game is about. It really is a good game, and I've already
placed my order at th store., AND ONCE AGAIN, sotrry for the garbeled 
nature of this post. The people hwho gave me thsi commo package, WILL
be sacked :)