Review: Barbaric! 1st Edition

 

"Barbarians! Civilized men huddle behind tall stone walls, trembling at the thought. The soldiers of civilization tighten their shield walls against the oncoming onslaught. And then they come. Savage men and women, screaming at the top of their lungs, oblivious to fear, frothing at the mouth from rage and lust for war. Wave after wave, they storm shields and fortifications. Many die; the Pagan Gods bless their souls. But eventually mail and castle fail. Then, the flames of barbarism will sweep the land, leaving no stone upturned."

Swords and Sorcery has always been one of my favorite settings and I know the stories of Conan and Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are to blame. I am always on the lookout for games of this genre and I was excited to come across Barbaric! So, lets dig in and see what this is all about.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided me a Physical/PDF copy for review and demo purposes. 

Presentation: Barbaric! is presented in an A5 softcover format with single column formatting. The font and headers are easy to read. There are tables that use grey scale to keep everything organized and the book has about 13 black and white pieces of art that come from various stock art sources. This creates a book that is easy to read and quick to reference. 

Character Creation: This follows a quick series a steps to create your character:

1. Roll 2d6 and the total is your Endurance, which is an indication of tough you are. 
2. Roll 4d6 and the total is your Lifeblood, a measure of how well you resist injury. 
3. Distribute 5 points among the 7 skills. No skill can start with more then three points. The seven skills are Combat, Craft, Lore, Physical, Social. Sorcery, and Stealth. 
4. Pick one Trait. 
5. Start the game with food and water for three days, a backpack, a water skin, a knife, and 3d6x10 worth of gold to buy starting gear.
6. If you have the Sorcery skill, you start with two spells of your choice plus two random spells per point of the sorcery skill you have. 

Character creation is simple and straight forward. The information regarding the traits, Endurance, Lifeblood, and Equipment are found in the subsequent chapters.  

Resolution: The core resolution mechanic (that handles most rolls) is "Throw 2D" (roll 2d6) + Related Skill and compare to a target number. The target numbers are as follows:

Easy: 4+

Average: 6+

Difficult: 8+

Formidable: 10+ 

Combat uses the above core mechanic with a few nuances added. If one side can be surprised (or both) a Stealth 6+ roll is called for and there is a bonus to the roll if one side is setting up an ambush and a penalty to the roll if one side has a large group or other factors. After surprise is determined combat follows these guidelines: 

• At the beginning of a combat each character throws 2D and adds their Combat skill to acquire their initiative score. Characters act in the order of highest to lowest and the Referee rolls of the opponents. This order is kept throughout the same combat sequence. 
• Combat is broken up into rounds where rounds are about 6 seconds and a character can attack and move 10 meters or move 20 meters in a single round. 
• To successful hit an opponent, the players throws Combat 8+ for melee or ranged if the target is in the proper range, if not then it becomes Combat 10+. Apply half (round down) of the targets Combat Skill to the aggressors die roll as a penalty. 
• If a character drops a foe, the character can move 2 meters and attack another opponent in the same round. 
• On a natural 12 (box cars) or if the target number is exceeded by 6 more a critical hit is caused. This critical hit causes maximum damage plus additional affects on the various critical hit tables that are provided. 
• When a successful hit occurs, roll damage dice and subject the targets armor rating from the damage total. Then subtract the remaining total from the targets Endurance and if Endurance reaches zero, the target is considered wounded and suffers a -1 to all rolls. After Endurance is depleted, any further or leftover damage is subtracted form Life Blood. If the target loses more then half of their life blood, they are considered severely wounded and are out of combat. If Lifeblood reaches zero, a throw 2D + Physical must be made. Then consult the total with this table: 2-6: The character dies, 7-9 the character is maimed, 10+ the character loses consciousness and wakes up 1D rounds later but is still severely wounded. 
• Characters recover all Endurance after a 10 minute break and severe wounds recover at 1 Life Blood per day.
  

Now, with that being said, there are two things that alter the core mechanic. The first one being are about the thirty traits that can give the character special abilities or allow the a roll with advantage where the player rolls 3d6 and picks the two highest dice. The second aspect that modifies the core mechanic are Combat Maneuvers. Players can choose one of these in lieu of a trait if their combat skill is high enough. The choice of these traits start at Combat Skill 2 and scale from there. These maneuvers provide from clever and tactical options or show how the character has superior training. 

Finally, characters with the Sorcery skill are able to Read and Sense magic with a Sorcery 8+ throw. Now there are no hard limits in how many "spells" a sorcerer can cast per day but casting is guided by the following factors:

• Each spell has a difficulty and range requirement.
• Spells take one turn (10 minutes) to cast.
• Spells can be cast in a combat round by using a prepared Foci (it turns to ash) before casting or casting hastily at a -2 difficulty. 
• If double ones are rolled, it is considered a critical failure and the spell fails plus the Sorcerer rolls on a d66 spell mishap table. 

Final Thoughts: Barbaric! Also provides options and information for non human characters (Anunaki, Apefolk, Dwarf, Elf, Geckofolk, and Lizardfolk), Fatigue, Equipment, Optional Rule for Encumbrance, Morale, Exploration, Getting Lost, Camping, Foraging, Underground Movement, Critical Hit Tables (As previously mentioned), Light and Darkness, d66 Spells, Reaction Rolls, a Small Bestiary, Treasure, and Hero Points. 

Out of these additional procedures, rules, or what have you I think the Hero Points, Morale/Reaction rolls are my favorite. Each player starts with two personal hero points and there is a communal hero point pool equal to the total number of players. Each time a player succeeds in a Throw of at least 8+ or surpasses the target number by 6 or more an additional hero point is added to the communal pool. All pools reset at the beginning of the session and do not carry over. A character may use their personal Hero point or a point form the communal pool with the other player's consent. They can be spent for the following effects:

• Reroll any single die throw (including damage) - may take better result. 
• Force the referee to reroll any NPC's die throw (including damage). The second result stands. 
• Reroll a throw on a mortal wounds or sorcerer mishap roll. They may take the better result. 

Moral checks provides a realism to combat encounters and reaction checks are always just gold and creates so much flavor and higher chances for non combat encounters. The reaction table uses a classic 2d6 result but characters do not get to add their Social skill to the initial roll. Though, the character or is the lead in the interaction can throw Social 6+ (with some convincing role playing) to increase the result of the reaction roll by one step. I really like this change to the classic reaction roll system as it provides an additional opportunity for role play a chance to help save a poor first impression. 

All in all, Barbaric! provides a tight, lite, and concise system with an implied setting for the genre of Sword and Sorcery. I think it rivals or exceeds any of the other Sword and Sorcery game out there and you cannot go wrong with 2d6. 

Though, I know the games system is based off of Classic Traveler but in this game and what it is based off of the weapon damage can get high and goes up to 4d6. Even though armor provides armor reduction and there are some Talents and Combat Maneuvers assist with the effectiveness of armor in various ways the damage still can be high and take out a character rather quickly. The best advice as it currently stands is not to get hit and make sure you have unfair advantages over the opponents. 

I would have also like to have have seen some regenerated characters and maybe an intro adventure. 

Stellagamma Publishing has recently ran a successful Kickstarter for Barbaric! 2nd Edition. The PDF has been released and the Publisher is waiting on proofs before releasing the POD option. With the release of Barbaric! Second Edition, the First Edition has been taken down except for the Spanish Version.  People who have initially purchased the First Edition will still have access to it without issue. 

You can find the game and the publisher here:

• Barbaric! 2nd Edition 
• Facebook 
• Youtube 
• Patreon