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Disclaimer: I originally reviewed this on Twitter months ago,and have decided to put it all together here in support of this game I love.

SUMMARY:

It's a fantasy heartbreaker. It has 4 archetypes (Cleric, Mage, Rogue & Warrior) and familiar fantasy ancestries (Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, and Human). It has dungeons, dragons, & themes that will surprise nobody. But it's the approach to game mechanics I've been enjoying.

The core mechanic is d20+Stat vs 12. The catch is that stats are rated in dice, from d4 to d12. There also "Boosts" and "Setbacks" that add or subtract d6s to the total. The system is player facing, with some fun twists.

For example: on successful attack rolls, the value of the Stat Die determines the amount of damage dealt to the target. On unsuccessful defense rolls, your Stat die determines how much damage is soaked (on successful defense rolls, you dodge completely). Enemies have flat damage values -- this is all one roll and go.

Character Creation is fun and flexible. It doesn't inundate a newcomer with too many choices, but it gives a lot of room to build on a theme. Your choice of ancestry and archetype provides starting Edges, and you can choose to gain extras by taking on Hindrances.

Edges & Hindrances are pretty straight forward. They give boosts (or setbacks), raise (or lower) a Stat Die in a situation, or establish a factoid feature or flaw in the narrative. These are all interesting choices, and not "build theory" number tweaks like feats in DND.

I should also note here: there's only 4 stats (Brawn, Agility, Intellect, Presence) and some derivatives (Hit Points, Armor, Initiative & Movement). Oh, and there's HERO POINTS! (Your luck/cool point meta-currency that lets you re-roll or do cool things).

Then there's Backgrounds. Your Background actually functions as your "skill" set -- any non-combat roll associated with it gets a Boost.

Let's talk a bit about what there's not -- NO LEVELS! At least, not proper (there are "tiers" of characters). At the end of every adventure, you get Advancement points. You spend these to raise stats, buy off hindrances or acquire edges. The character progression is pretty open.  

One of my players was an Ugly Dwarf Pirate, whose punching attacks deal lethal damage. His companion is a Half-Elf Warrior Poet, who can shapeshift into small animals. Tell me that doesn't sound badass out the gate!

The game also has a pretty complete bestiary of traditional fantasy game monsters, although it skimps details and expects you to already be familiar with them from other games. But hey: stat blocks for them fit on a notecard, which is my most desired aspect as a GM!

I should mention that every monster is listed with a "Threat Number" -- this is the penalty to actions opposing them. You have two choices: add the Threat to the base 12 target number or subtract it from a player's roll instead (whichever is easier).

Now let's talk POWERS -- aka magic. Powers are spells, and once you learn one you keep it. You roll dice when you cast; should you fail you have the option to either take damage OR "burn" the spell to cast it (can't cast it again until you rest).

There's a good list of Powers here, but not a crazy tome like other fantasy games have. Most are utility, with a few combat-based ones. Your token Area of Effect spell "Blast" is dangerous -- it targets EVERYTHING in an area. Fire it off in a mine you risk a cave in.

Blast and other spells also have consequences should you roll 1's on both the d20 and your Stat Die. In this case: your caster *literally explodes and dies* while also harming nearby people. Thankfully not all powers are this risky!

Anyway, plenty of treasure and magical items provided in these rules as well. Anyone can pick up a scroll or potion as a single-use power. There's your usual magical arms and armor, rings that do cool things like teleport you, grant 3 wishes, command elementals etc.  

Finally, the rules come with a sample setting and adventure. The setting is a free city on the borderlands between warring nations, with ruins and monsters about. Again, not breaking any molds, but it's pretty cool and has a lot of loose hooks to build a campaign on.

What’s The Deal?

First off, the size: 16 pages, including a character sheet and the OGL. It’s the perfect zine-sized rules, and it covers quite a bit. It’s surprisingly detailed, albeit compact. It doesn’t bog you down with fluff or tutorials — it assumes you know the type of game it is, and jumps right into it.

Character creation is the standard rolling 3d6 for the six attributes we all know, with modifiers ranging from -2 to +2. Four races (Human, Elf, Dwarf & Halfling) and three classes (Fighter, Rogue, Magic-User). Every race and class gives you two talents. You also choose a Background (in a 1-sentence description) and then choose four of 6 skills: alertness, communication, lore, manipulation, stealth and survival.

The skills presented here are an interesting twist — modern players of d20/3e and newer will probably scoff at how few there are. OSR types may scoff they’re even in there. Their execution in the rules is even more intriguing: it’s not Stat+Skill, instead they’re chosen over an attribute. On top of that, attribute scores remain static (at least in terms of character advancement) while skills improve over time. The creators stated that they felt experience is more important than attributes, which I can’t really argue with that presentation.

You may have noticed that there’s no Cleric class. There are two reasons for this: First, it’s a game with an implied sword & sorcery vibe — magic is dangerous, and the gods are pretty absent. The other reason is because of the magic system itself. It’s a freeform system, inspired by Whitehack, with a pretty simple-yet-effective guideline attached to it. In short: the Magic-User has a number of Magic Points available per level. When they cast a spell, they must “name it” to give it form. You then haggle with the GM about how many points the effect will cost. The guideline mentioned is 1 Point = 1d6 Damage or Healing, or a level of effect. For bigger effects the GM may also put in other sacrifices: health, money, stats, etc. Matter of fact it should be noted that a Magic-User can sacrifice 3 Hit Points for 1 point of Magic.

Running the Game

The mechanics of the game are roll high on a d20, adding modifiers, usually against a difficulty number. The lowest difficulty is 11+, for standard or hurried tasks (if it’s easy, the game asks, why roll?). After that the difficulty escalates by 3 (14, 17, and 20+). There is a 5e “Advantage/Disadvantage” system present as well.

Combat uses rolls against an ascending Defense score, modified by ability scores and an attack bonus by level. “Saving Throws” here are rolled vs Difficulty using a combined bonus of Ability Modifiers and an “Instincts” score. I would love to point out that Wisdom functions as a “Sanity” score in this system, and there are even times to make a Charisma roll in this system! (Primarily for attuning magical items.)

On tasks, as I’ve mentioned, the player uses either an ability score or a skill. If their Background would offer experience in dealing with the task, they get a +2. If it’s deeply connected to their Background, they get to roll with Advantage. I LOVE THIS. At first I was worried the skills and attribute modifiers were too small, but working within your background concept offsets the odds and makes even simple Level 1 characters playable and somewhat competent.

Monsters are short, sweet little stat blocks. Their Level determines their Hit Dice, Attack Bonus, and their Instincts score. This makes it incredibly easy to arbitrate NPCs and new monsters on the fly. Should also be pretty easy to convert most OSR stat blocks by just focusing on their level and any important attacks or features.

Magical items are pretty straight forward — anyone can use potions, magic-users and thieves can read magic scrolls. Enchanted items, however, are sought after but also risky — especially since most of these items are considered to be intelligent (we have an example of a sentient sword that will fight on its own, but if its own avoids combat it may turn on them!)

Characters level at the same rates, and the game is presented on a B/X-style scale of 1-14. At level 6 you acquire a third talent for your class (Fighters get a better crit range, MUs get a familiar, and Rogues can use magic scrolls.) At 10th level, you get a new background, but this one is tied to a title of importance — Baron of a Region, Leader of the Thieves Guild, Archmage of the Tower, etc.

The XP system itself is swift: Every session the GM awards 1-3 XP. At 10 XP, you level. It’s easy, it allows the GM to set the pace or the rewards, it’s not dependent on slaying monsters or acquiring treasure, and it’s a bit more detailed than leveling up after every adventure or milestone arbitrated by the GM.

My Take Aways

As time goes on, I realize just how elegant and thought out the rules are. It’s a very nice middle ground of old-school and modern gaming ideas. Where I was initially concerned that it was too simple, and that characters would play too similarly, I realize there’s plenty of wiggle room for players and DMs to tinker without having to really add new rules.

The free-form casting may be tricky for some players or GMs but I find it pretty liberating, especially since it’ll still play nice with most OSR content. I’ve actually printed Maze Rats spell generation tables, as well as Knave’s 100 Level-less spells to keep for inspiration and ideas (and also to randomly produces scrolls for players to find.)

While I tend to groove the options and “fullness” of games like D&D Rules Cyclopedia or Swords & Wizardry Complete, VE hits all the right notes for me — it has enough familiar mechanics that players of both old-school and modern can pick up. The number ranges are easy to track, and monster stat blocks can fit on a post-it note. The generalized skills and Background mechanics make it easy to make a variety of characters. The free-form magic system is simple, infinite but reeled-in. Easy to add on to and plays nice with other OSR games. And, most importantly: I can pack this whole game up and take it anywhere no problem!

FIND VIEJA ESCUELA HERE:

Vieja Escuela main zine site (in Spanish)

English Translation of the Game

Lulu POD Copy

That’s it. You can glance at that, have an idea of what the character does, and maybe dismiss the fact that there’s no stats (Karma and Resolve are point pools, which I’ll explain in a bit.)

That first statement is your archetype, which includes a trait (Agile, Brawny or Crafty) and a concept. Your archetype will help determine if you’re rolling two or three dice (or 1 if it has nothing in common with the action being performed). Your Perks establish special qualities, powers, abilities or unique equipment. Often you can spend a Karma point to use a perk significantly in an action (such as lowering the difficulty). Quirks, likewise, can hinder the character. A player can actively choose to work their Quirk into the narrative, taking a penalty but in doing so restores 1 Karma.

So, if you haven’t guessed yet, Karma is the luck/fortune/power pool that lets the players do cool things. Resolve is the stress/health/endurance pool for every character. When a character hits 0 resolve, they’re taken out of the conflict, and the victor (either PC or GM) gets to narrate what happens. When this happens to player characters, they return next scene, their Resolve restored but now with an Affliction — usually a temporary quirk, but sometimes these can become more serious. Character death isn’t off the table as long as GM and Players agree to the arbitration.

Running things on the GM side is pretty easy-peasy. Most challenges are static pass-or-fail; more elaborate obstacles or tasks are assigned a pool of Effort tokens (where each successful die roll against it removes a token). Combat encounters can track multiple foes separately or you can just say “a horde of goblins” and track a single pool of effort tokens.

There’s a lot more going on — the game covers some quick ground on genre rules, like handling cybernetics, fear, magic & psionics, varying power levels, superheroes and vehicles. For the most part, all of these are just common-sense guides for arbitrating things based on context. This may be the deal breaker for some — this is a game system where players and the GM should be comfortable going back and forth making their own judgment calls on how things go down. It’s pretty much “Roll the dice, and if you succeed — narrate what happens.” It was a system originally designed with kids in mind, but obviously it has appeal to older gamers as well.

I love the damn thing. I’ve played solo games with it, and even made a pocketfold game based on it.