Review: Five Torches Deep

This game recently has gotten a lot of hype and has been on the drivethrurpg best seller list for some time now. What really peaked my interest about this game was two things. The first on being that it uses Dungeons and Dragons 5e as the skeleton that is filled in with the meat of the OSR. The other thing was a discussion I came across regarding Five Torches Deep which discussed its equipment/encumbrance rules and a few other aspects of it. 

As a disclaimer, PDF and physical copies were provided by the author. 

Presentation: Five Torches deep presents in a clean three to two column layout that is adorned with color coded tables and full colored art. Some of the art is full page and spans across two pages. The physical book itself is an odd size as it is put together in a landscape format. The PDF is formatted just as nice and has multiple layout options but Five Torches Deep goes a step further with its digital formatting and officers an additional digital file that is specifically formatted for a smart phone or tablet (which is pretty awesome).

Here is a screen shot from the mobile pdf taken with a smart phone:

Character Creation: I found character creation to be really enjoyable and as you are creating your character you can really start to feel the OSR soul in this game. So, let us follow the bouncy ball...

1. Pick Race (The options are Human, Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling)
2. Roll Abilities (Each race has certain static abilities and certain abilities you roll 3d6 or 2d6+3. The interesting thing here is that class restriction is based on race and if that race ends up with the minimum attributes to enter desired class)
3. Pick Class (The options are Warrior, Thief, Zealot, and Mage)
4. Define or Pick Equipment
5. Decide in Supple (SUP) carried
6. Determine Total Load
7. Pick Spells if Applicable
8. Fill out your Character Sheet

Resolution System: Even though the game has a 5e skeleton, it takes a lot of cues from the OSR movement in terms of simplicity and player agency. The core mechanic is 1d20 + modifiers compared against the actions Difficulty Class (DC). The game states pretty explicitly that the default DC for everything should be of DC of 11 (but may range between 5 and 20). The modifiers that can be added to the d20 roll is the characters proficiency bonus and their ability bonus (each modifier source is added once per roll). Combat is handled in the with the same type of roll but it is vs the targets AC and yes, the Five Torches Deep uses ascending armor. Some other resolution highlights include:

• Skills have been reduced and simplified 
• Proficiency bonus applies within stricter guidelines 
• Magic system has been retooled and flattened with magical mishaps 
• Advantage/Disadvantage
• Slower and Weaker healing/rest
• Equipment can be broken
• Retainers, morale,, and reactions 

The most innovative thing about Five Torches deep is its equipment rules and its encumbrance rules. Players can have a Supply rating and it allows the player to resupply the things they run out of like torches, arrows, etc. It cannot create new items but things the characters would carry in their backpacks. There are also rules of how characters can forage for SUP. All of this is blended in with equipment breaking and needed to be repaired really creates a focus on resource management and how prepared the party is when they go on their adventures.

Another important highlight of the game is there is no dump stats. All stats are important and contribute to various aspects of the character.

• STR: melee attacks and carry capacity
• DEX: ranged attacks, initiative, and AC
• CON: HP and how many hours you can stay awake/travel/fight
• INT: some spells, and how much Supply you can carry.
• WIS: some spells, and perception, morale
• CHA: hirelings, number of magic items, social interaction

Crunch: There really is not a lot of complicated rules or math. The math itself is semi compatible with B/X and 5e. Five Torches Deep has its own monster generator and other GM tools so I campaign can be played and ran with just this book. I think at first glance the Supply rules seem complicated but are actually simple in practice so new players have some issues implementing them effectively. I have spoken to author and he said veteran Five Torches Deep Players actually take zero to little SUP on adventures and just stock up on the gear they need (because SUP takes up encumbrance slots), which allows them to forage for SUP during the adventure as needed. 

One of the more interesting areas where crunch was reduced was in the Races. The races are basically for flavor and aesthetics. They don't have any special abilities and what differences them is their class restrictions and how ability points are determined. I think this is really clever because it stops players from trying to pick the best class/race combo or choose race based on its special abilities. This also opens the door to easy race creation and the GM really does not have to worry about balance or any complicated math.

Another section where the crunch was reduced is in class bloat. There are four classes but at certain levels the classes gain abilities and when they gain these abilities they pick from an archetype to progress in. You get abilities at levels 3 and 7 then at level 9 the proficiency bonus from your Archetype doubles. 

• Warriors can progress as Fighters, Barbarians, and Rangers
• The Thief can progress as Assassins, Rogues, or Bards
• Zealots can progress as Clerics, Druids, or Paladins
• Mages can progress as Sorcerers, Warlocks, or Wizards

Final Thoughts: I have seen a lot of attempts to turn a lot of innovations from 5e into a rules light OSR style game. Some of the more rules light versions out there have done a really good job but Five Torches Deep has taken the middle ground and created something that captures the feel of the OSR with resource management and simple yet elegant resolution mechanics. I think people can really get a lot of miles out of this game and it does what it set out to do very well and very elegantly.

Five Torches Deep does do something that I am not a fan of. In its design to push deadliness it ramped up weapon and monster damage while keeping HP/healing/recovery low. Basic Weapons are d6 (clubs and daggers) and all other weapons range from d8 to d12 where most of them falling into the d10/d12 range. If you do not want to roll for monster damage, they do an average of total hit dice +4. This triple threat approach would seem to end up as a death funnel for early levels.

You can find Five Torches Deep on PDF and Print on Demand here.  The successful Kickstarter campaign can also be reviewed here.

It also has a very clean character sheet and I tend to consider the quality of a games character sheet a big positive or negative.