Torchbearer. Über den Herausgeber Luke Crane (Burning Wheel, Burning Empires, Mouse Guard) muss man Rollenspielkennern nicht mehr viel erzählen.
Die Old School-Bewegung bringt immer wieder rührige Dungeons & Dragons-Hommagen an die Frau und den Mann. Thor Olavsruds, Lukes langjähriger Editor, Genreinterpretation liegt damit voll im Trend. Sogar die Online-Ausgabe des Forbes-Magazins widmet dem Dungeoncrawler eine zweiteilige Artikelreihe.
Bei der Produktvorgeschichte war nichts anderes zu erwarten, aber Torchbearer wird nach eigenen Aussagen nicht regelleicht, stattdessen gilt „it’s Basic D&D on Hard mode“!
„A dungeon crawl roleplaying game and love letter to Basic D&D.
Torchbearer is a riff on the early model of fantasy roleplaying games. In it, you take on the role of an adventurer seeking his or her fortune. To earn that fortune, you must explore fornlorn ruins, brave terrible monsters and retreive forgotten treasures. However, this game is not about being a hero. It is not about fighting for what you believe. This game is about exploration and survival. You may become a hero. You might have to fight for your ideals. But to do either of those things, you must prove yourself in the wilds. Because there are no jobs, no inheritance, no other opportunities for our deadbeat adventurers. This life is their only hope to prosper in this world.
Torchbearer is part of the brand of games Burning Wheel HQ has been producing for over ten years. So like all of our other games, this is a game about making difficult choices while exploring the world and your character through the game rules and systems. And like all of our games, the heart of the experience is about how your character changes when faced with adversity.
This is a hard game, not a simple one. There are many moving parts and it’s not possible to experience the whole game in one or even two sessions. But if you’re ready to sink your teeth into a good game that will reward you for mastering the system over 10 or 20 sessions, this is the game for you.
The Game
Torchbearer was designed by Thor Olavsrud, our long-suffering editor. It’s based on our 2008 game Mouse Guard. It shares the same core system and concepts, but it adds a layer of complexity in the form of resource management, turn structure and conflict.
In the spectrum of BWHQ games, Torchbearer is advanced Mouse Guard. It’s not as complex as Burning Wheel or Burning Empires, but it’s certainly more involved than Mouse Guard or even FreeMarket. From a broader perspective, it’s Basic D&D on Hard mode.
The Book
The book itself is a 200-page letter-sized hard cover with a four color cover and black and white interiors. We’re breaking away from our traditional digest-sized book as a bit of an experiment. We want to see what it feels like to publish a big ol‘ RPG book. And of course it’s an homage to all those great AD&D hardcovers.“
– Torchbearer product description
Weder für D&D noch für die sogenannte Old School Renaissance mit diesen ganzen „überflüssigen“ Retroklonen begeistere ich mich sonderlich. Gleichzeitig stehe ich ganz eindeutig und klar auf der Seite der einfachen Rollenspielregelsysteme. Torchbearer dürfte somit nichts für mich sein, aber andererseits beinhalten alle Spiele von Luke Crane faszinierende Aspekte und Ideen. Schwierige Entschedung.
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