Disclosure: I backed D6xD6 on Kickstarter.

I grew up playing AD&D, Gamma World, Traveller, Twilight: 2000, Shadowrun, Star Wars, Call of Cthulhu (all-time favorite!), and other RPGs. As a player I have come to dislike memorizing voluminous complex rules, drawing intricate plans for spaceships/tank platoons/etc on graph paper, and the "stat monster" approach which encourages players to obsess about experience points needed to reach the next character level or obtaining some magical item that will incrementally up their armor class.

What I value is storytelling, camaraderie, and any game that shares those goals. I'm happy to say D6xD6 is a such a game. The game's primary mechanism of "Focus" is unique, elegant, and deceptively simple. It makes for rich decisions during the quick character creation phase...do you want to be an incredible expert in one or two areas, a jack-of-all-trades, or something in-between? It feels equally rich when attempting tasks during gameplay. The dice rolling aspect is quick, fun, and suspenseful. While some reviewers commented it was a bit complex, I found it easier than adding up a laundry list of modifiers to my attack (for instance) while my opponent does the same with their defense modifiers, and then comparing results, calculating ripostes, etc etc. D6xD6 gameplay is fast, fun, and keeps the focus on the story.

Some RPGs lean heavily on the tone of their genre/fictional world to carry a player's interest, counting on that to plaster over mediocre game mechanics. D6xD6 is the opposite; at its heart is an excellent set of well-constructed rules that enable players to explore any genre or world setting they choose. I really like this approach and appreciate the variety of Worlds in the Core Book (with many more from famous fiction authors apparently on the way!).

One final thought for those of you reading these reviews while considering a purchase. It is impossible to fully understand and appreciate any game without playing it. You've probably found this in your own gaming experiences. Perhaps you've been surprised that a game sounded really cool but didn't feel right during play. Or maybe you thought the rules seemed a little complex but made so much sense during gameplay. Good game designers are familiar with this effect, too. It's why they don't just write a bunch of rules and chuck it out into the marketplace. They conduct extensive playtesting with real players, make adjustments to the rules, and do it all again.

Some reviewers have not played D6xD6, much less read the entire set of rules, but are sharing lots of opinions. Other reviewers like me have actually played the game multiple times and really enjoyed it. You decide which approach is right for you.

I have actually played this system a few times at the most recent Gamehole Con in Madison Wisconsin. I have no read every single word of the rules. I've read entire sections and then skimmed the rest. This systems claims 3 things at the outset:

• Five-minute character creation.

Verdict: True. We made characters for both games I played in. It was fairly simple and easy to understand.

• Quick-and-easy tactical combat rules.

Verdict: True. They do read as described. perhaps more importantly, when I had them described to me verbally in the games I played, I understood what I was told immediately and didn't need a full combat to figure out how things worked.

• Endless setting possibilities.

Verdict: True. They've already got a ton and after you've played it once, you can see how easily this system can be used pretty much anywhere. Magic adds a bit of thinking to it, but nothing insurmountable.

Likes: Lester has delivered on his promises. With one exception I'll note below, the writing is clear and concise. D6xD6 is a fine system and worth your time.

A few nitpicks:

The section "Dice: An Aside". I understand why it's in the book, but it doesn't read very well. There is A LOT of information crammed into 9 paragraphs.

I've looked at this PDF on my 3 work PC screens, my home laptop, my iPad, and my wife's Chrome book and the D6xD6 results (page 7) chart looks like it had colored shadow figures around the bars. It looks pretty awful, but I can easily read the chart.

The majority of the art is fine, although anything with blood added or 'zombified' is a bit weak, but doesn't hurt the rules at all.

Reading these reviews, I am concerned at how many say “I haven’t played but here is my review…” How can you review a game you haven’t played? A lot of these reviews are very critical of the art direction. I have to agree, the art direction could be better. Unlike these other reviewers I have played the game and let me tell you, it was an amazing experience.

Being a long time roleplayer, the major challenge I have is time. I never have the time to play as many games as I want. When I sat down with D6xD6 the first time I had only glanced over the book and wasn’t sure what to expect, but in 15 min I had a unique character that I built and I was invested in. Over the next 2 hours I was taken on the journey of my warehouse worker turning into a flattened ghost, discovering his new ghostly powers, teaming up with other ghosts as unique as he was, and doing everything in their power to save a bus full of children. I have had full D&D campaigns less memorable than that one session.

D6xD6 is a diamond in the rough. It is a simple system with surprising depth. The art doesn’t do the system justice but try it. It is well worth the small amount of your time.

P.S. I got angry and used my ghost powers to flip a bus. Enough said.

I really want to love this book. I am a kickstarter backer, and the author asked for an honest review.

I'm not particularly impressed with the layout, the fonts, or the art content. The photos don't follow any discernible theme, some are badly photoshopped, and add little to the content of the book. The nudity, while not offensive, seems out of place and unnecessary.

I've not run the system yet, so I can't really comment on that, other than to say it looks simple enough and is probably reasonably fun.

I (like many others) am a Kickstarter backer for this product.

The character generation system is quick - a big plus point for some people.

The skill system requires you to add (or subtract) the modifiers to the highest D6 and then multiply the result by the second dice roll - which I have discovered takes some people a lot longer than just adding them together. For some people this makes every game feel like a maths test at school, even if you give them a "cheat sheet" with the per-calculated results on. When you keep having to work out "what is 5 x 4 with a DM of 2 for a focused skill?" you find it interrupts the flow of action. The answer is 28.

But I did not buy d6xd6 primarily for the rule system, I bought it for the many Settings. There are four in the core book (so, less than $1 for each setting), and many more are planned - as Lester says on p34 of the book, you can visit d6xd6.com for an ongoing list. For me the setting are inspirations for characters, plots and a "little bit of something unusual" to sprinkle throughout my Traveller campaign. While I could use some of the settings in a D&D-type game it would be harder, but for me I find that many of the Settings can be used to inspire a evening (or two) of interesting play. And if a particular setting "clicks" with your group, then you can develop more of it on your own.

If you are like me, and find the Settings are where your interest lies, also check out the Protocol games. These use a story-telling game mechanism (no dice rolls at all) that some gearheads find hard at first - a bit more $ per setting than d6xd6, but each one one offers multiple play opportunities. So far, Joan of Arc is my favorite by a long way.

But, back to the d6xd6 core book. No d6xd6 setting has the detail needed to present the epic scope of a campaign spanning 50 play sessions - that will require the DM to put in lots of effort. Instead, consider d6xd6 the RPG equivalent of one of those card games that you spent $20 on and play occasionally when your regular DM fails to turn up. When you put it like that, $3 is a good price.

[I was a Kickstarter backer, but I have not read the rules before today. Honestly, I didn't have the time and have plenty of other systems to go through. But, the author asked for honest reviews so I sat down to have a look.]

My overall impression is that this is a VERY good deal at only $2.99. It's rules-lite, but not overly simplistic, and covers all of the critical stuff an RPG needs to cover. It keeps it's promise of a system easily adaptable to any setting and one in which characters can be generated within ten minutes. The interior artwork ranges from excellent to adequate; the layout and fonts are easy to read and understand. The book was very easy to read through and get the rules, first time. There is room for improvement, which will probably come in another edition, but nothing that spoiled the product. The inclusion of four well thought out settings, with more promised, was the primary reason I backed this project in the first place.

Here are my detailed notes from my first read through:

• The PDF is 68 pages, though that includes cover art and such, so the highest page number is 62.
• The format is 8.5" x 11", portrait, two column, full color with wide dark margins.
• The cover art is very good and quite evocative.
• The table of contents is hyper-linked to referenced page numbers, which is a nice feature of PDF's that often gets overlooked.
• Pages 1 & 2 are the preface, including the story how the game came to be.
• Page 3 is the introduction, and a nice half page of text on "What is an RPG."
• It's very refreshing not to see a lot of column inches going to this, just a couple of paragraphs to introduce the topic.
• Page 4 begins the section, Dice and Tactics.
• The system, like the name suggests, uses two d6's multiplied together.
• There is only one number, namely 'Focus'.
• Focus is based on the number of skills chosen.
• The more skills, the higher the Focus.
• For "Focused" skills, you need to roll over your Focus score
• For "Unfocused" and "Unfamiliar" skills, you need to roll under your Focus score
• This leads to an easy to understand balance between having many Unfocused and only a few Focused skills
• But this does lead to the odd situation in which positive and negative modifiers have to be sometimes subtracted from the highest die and sometimes added to the highest die. The best way to remember which is to realize what would help or harm the success of the roll. If this is a Difficulty Rating, then it's meant to make things harder on the hero, so it should be subtracted when rolling a Focused skill (reducing the chance that the player will roll over their Focus) and added when rolling an Unfocused skill (reducing the chance that they'll roll under their Focus).
• There is a Benny / yum-yum / fate chip mechanic called "Drama Points"
• At the start of each session, each player gets six (6) Drama Points
• They may spend up to three (3) on any one action, increasing or decreasing one of the rolled dice, to aid or interfere with the results of a roll
• They may spend them on themselves (as expected) but they may also spend them on (or against) someone else. That's interesting! It allows a direct aid-other so that one PC can directly help another make their roll. Or, it allows them to interfere with a PC's roll, in the case that there is PC/PC antagonism.
• Pages 6 & 7 have an aside on dice and statistics, with a nice breakdown of the odds of various Focus scores.
• I'm not sure I would have put this in the rules section, it should have been an appendix. Even so, it's easy enough to skip over.
• Page 8 contains the entire Character Creation rules!
• The usual: Name, Gender, Age
• Four attributes: Brawn, Grace, Will, Wits
• They don't get scores, they get tagged as Unfocused, Focused, and Unfamiliar - just like skills
• They are typically used for passive rolls, like checking to see if the PC spots an exit or dodges the poison dart
• The PC gets one occupation, which is like a "skill bundle" or a primary trait in FATE
• The rest of the PC is the set of skills, up to nine (9) total
• Three can be Unfocused, but the rest must be Focused
• The Focus score is derived from the number of skills plus one for the Occupation, for a maximum Focus of 10
• The character can easily fit on the back of a business card and should take ten or fewer minutes to generate
• The official character sheet is, in fact, business card sized!
• Page 9 & 10 is a sample list of occupations, and these are good examples.
• Occupations seem much like classes in other systems.
• Examples include: Artisan, Scholar, Outcast
• Page 11 & 12 is Basic Skills, which are generic enough for any modern settings.
• Each setting is expected to have it's own list of 15 to 20 skills
• Examples include: Athletics, Lock-picking, Shooting
• Page 13 through 16 is Conflict and Damage
• Game Host determines enemy action
• Each player is asked what their PC will do
• Everyone rolls their dice simultaneously, with the Game Host assigning enemy dice as needed
• Initiative is determined from highest roll to lowest
• This means that the dice roll not only determines if an action is successful, but how successful (via success levels) and the order the actions take place in
• Focused actions tend to happen first, followed by Unfocused, then Unfamiliar - but, this follows naturally from the roll-under vs roll-over rules
• There are five ranges from Brawling (within 2 meters) to 'Lost' (greater than 2 Km)
• There is an annoying note that in areas that still use English distances, namely America, Liberia, and Myanmar, these should be converted to yards instead of meters. What's the point of this? Rubbing it in, that three countries haven't switched to metric? Insulting the players that they can't figure out what a meter is?
• Damage is ranked in one of six ratings from Graze to Kill, each with greater negative impact on the injured character
• The damage an attack does is determined by the kind of attack, with fists doing Graze and pistols doing Hit, and how many level of successes are rolled. So a punch does Graze, but a +1 success level brings it up to Graze +1, which makes it harder to defend
• If a character receives damage equal to their current damage rank, it goes up one rank. This means you could be killed, eventually, by being repeatedly punched
• If the character receives damage of a rank higher than their current rank, then their current rank is brought up to the rank of the damage done. In other words, a character at Graze who is shot, is now at Hit, bypassing the level of Stun in between
• Defenses are static, a single number reducing the damage rating done
• Reactive defenses would include skills (if they are Focused) such as dodge or athletics or martial arts, and reduce damage one rating (i.e. Stun down to Graze)
• Passive Defenses are things like armor, and they operate instead of reactive defenses (not cumulative), and reduce the damage rating between 1 and 3 levels. Of course, heavier armor makes success less likely by reducing the total dice results.
• Players may spend Drama Points to reduce damage ratings, one-for-one
• Page 17 is for Optional Rules
• These include Second Wind, Held Actions, Combat Team's, and the like
• Page 18 is Rest and Healing
• Page 19 is Character Growth
• At the end of a session, each 3 unspent Drama Points becomes one Experience Point
• Up to 2 Drama Points can be carried over to the next session
• This section introduces the concept of "plussing a skill" which adds an automatic level of success on a successful role
• The cost of changing skills from Unfocused to Focused or back, and for plussing skills are covered
• Pages 20 through 33 are a set of notes for the Game Host
• Choosing a setting, plot, enemies
• Planning acts I, II, and III
• Presenting a threat for the PC's to encounter
• A set of sample beasts are provided
• A set of sample Lieutenants are provided
• A set of sample monsters are provided
• A discussion of vehicles, their use in the plot, and vehicle combat
• A set of sample vehicles from "on foot" to star-fighter
• Rules for determining vehicle chases
• Suggestions for running a session and a campaign
• Page 34 is Settings, as in how to define and create one
• Pages 35 through 40 is a sample setting, Blood Type
• A blood born virus ravages earth, this is a post-apocalyptic setting with both zombies and vampires, reminiscent of Resident Evil
• Pages 41 through 46 is a sample setting, Ghost of a Chance
• The characters are ghosts of recently deceased, which unfinished business among the living
• With elements of Sixth Sense and Ghostbusters, but written in a serious tone
• Includes rules for dealing with supernatural abilities
• Pages 47 through 52 is a sample setting, The World of Esfah
• Play in the TSR Dragon Dice setting of Esfah
• Very D&D-esque fantasy world
• This setting has rules for playing different fantasy races: Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, and the like
• This setting has rules for playing with magic
• Pages 53 through 58 is a sample setting, The World of Zero
• A dystopia world of humans-as-ants-in-a-hive, with an immortal body hopping queen at the center
• Reminiscent of the 1974 movie Phase IV (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070531/), which could be the prelude for World of Zero
• This setting is a detailed sci-fi dystopia with psychic powers and cybernetics, which means rules for dealing with both are included
• Pages 56 through 62 is a set of bonus characters generated by Kickstarter backers of a sufficient contribution level
• They make excellent example PC's, NPC's, or enemies as needed
• ... and that's the end!
• There is no index at the end of the book or an ending graphic or back cover. I suppose it's not needed in a PDF, but it felt odd not to have something!

The art is not the best I have seen (and by far not the worst, there are some nice images here), but this isn't an art book, and look at the price tag - looks real good for the price. And four 'worlds' are included; this is a 'universal' system, so the artwork should be diverse. And speaking of price, you get your money's worth with the book the first time you play. It is a fast system, it is quick and simple without being shallow. The character sheet is the size of a business card, and contains an entire being. The d6xd6 system is clever as can be. Once the light bulb goes on about why you can pick as many skills as you want, but won't want to, you'll understand the elegance of how this thing works. One mechanic, sometimes used high, sometimes used low, to make everything work. Slicker than snot. A reviewer rated the game very low and yet admitted not understanding focus . . . that is like rating a meal after sticking the food in your ear. Understanding the focus is key, and it really isn't complicated. If you need to, make a quick character and try some examples, you will quickly see how the numbers work. I'm a fan of bang for my buck, and that makes me a fan of d6xd6.

Full disclosure I am a backer.

I have not played the system yet, but have read through the book and find it really a very light version of the D&D/Pathfinder end of the RPG universe. It would be really useful for someone's homebrew system. It is more than worth the $2.99 price point.

Les is a longtime pal of mine, and I'm writing a bit to go with this game for him. Why? Because my eldest son, one of my nephews, and I played the game with Les at Nexus Game Fair last summer, and we loved it. That crew of players ran from people like me with decades of experience to my nephew who'd never been to a gaming convention before, and the game worked well for every one of us.

The rules are simple and precise, with just enough depth to encourage players to think about their characters and flesh them out in fun and intriguing ways. The character sheet fits on one side of a business card. And the D6xD6 mechanic adds a deft touch of risk and reward as well.

As a product? It's under $3 for a fresh game from a master designer. Skip your next coffee and let this wake you up instead. :)

Disclosure, I was/am a Kickstarter Backer, but for the price, why wouldn't any gamer have jumped at this? I usually DM for my group, and have played a range of games from White Wolf to D&D/AD&D, Fantasy Flight Games to FATE, and also have a lot of miniature wargaming experience.

My first impression of the book and game is that (as others have said) this is a game for people who like 'rules light' games and want to be creative and don't mind not having all the rules, classes, and skills and occupations pre-spelled out for them. (and it is odd to me that the games classifies it self as "somewhere in the middle of the rules heavy vs rules light genre"...) Some people may not like that, and I agree for a "new" system there may have been a reason to do a single more fleshed out setting as an example... it is hard to convey "what could be" from just a collection of options. But, that said, after a short read through and re-reading the Focus and Dice Mechanics it becomes a very elegant system. And I appreciate getting a complete game and setting suggestions in such a small package... fleshing out to much, or adding too many examples would just bloat the book up and mean removing other bits including settings and other options... although I feel like there might be room for a few examples about Focus and Successes at the beginning just to give people a better intro to the system.

I have very little issue with the layout, although I feel like the Dice & Focus Mechanic and discussion of # of successes based on your Focus Number should precede the discussions about Occupations & Task Difficulties and that the "the higher your Focus then less likely you are to succeed" should be spelled out more clearly. There are a lot of "(refer to chapters X & Y)" early on in the rules which I understand it hard to avoid but does make it seem more complicated than it is.

I do have a bit of an issue with the topless art portrayed on page 9... I am personally not offended, but I find it very out of context and potentially offensive to some people... as others have said, the artwork is a bit random and runs the gauntlet from colorful or realistic art to just pictures of miniatures to computer generated pics and photoshopped images... but that fits with the variety of campaign types and settings so I'm fine with it even if it's not cohesive, although I'd recommend a different art piece for page 9.

This is a great if simple system for gamers and DMs that want to try it out and make it their own. At this price point, you get way more than any other game I know and I'm looking forward to playing it, reading more settings for it, and expanding it to make it my own.

Quick and simple story focused rules; LOTS of settings and some really interesting ideas. Great for a short campaign. Very flexible and more settings on the way.

I'll say up front that I've yet to run D6xD6 yet, but I fully intend to. At heart this is a rules-light system designed to be flexible enough to cover pretty much any campaign setting. The system itself is straightforward enough to learn in a couple of minutes, while character generation should only take a few minutes for anyone with a little experience of roleplaying games. I designed my first character in about 10 minutes and found the rules for character creation were perfectly flexible and really act as a support system for the players, rather than any kind of restriction. In essense, with common sense and imagination I can see almost any type of character could be created, without unbalancing the game. Essentially, if you want to pile on shedloads of skills and abilities, the Focus attribute (the essential stat for task resolution) becomes more limited. If the character has a narrow range of abilities, then the Focus attribute is higher. You can be great at a few things or the proverbial 'Jack of all trades'. I confess, I thoroughly enjoyed the character generation and think anyone who isn't looking for a narrow 'race/class/level' kind of system may also enjoy it.

Additionally, the core book includes 4 campaign settings, along with character suggestions and sample adventures. While it would be easy enough to run adventures in a home-grown setting with these rules the inclusion of this extra support material is very welcome.

Frankly, for $2.99 this is an absolute bargain; it can see it becoming a go-to system for house settings and I'll be keen to see what campaign support Popcorn Press release in the future. At the price it's well worth buying just for a read through to see if it's to your taste. As it stands, I see it as a great system for people who aren't looking for rules-heavy 'crunchy' system. Good job!

I hate to disagree with first reviewer, but I don't think it is so bad they wrote. Curious enough, the main point of that review is seemingly horrible layout of the book, but I didn't see anything like that there. I'm not saying that layout is great, because it is the weakest point of the product, but it can be ignored, especially when you're not a typography geek, but gamer who look for something to play.

Unfortunately, I'm both, so I can't say that book is laid out perfectly, personally I think that for such a short and compact set of rules, one-column layout, like that used i Fate Accelerated would be much better. I also prefer that sort of rules presentation - with "meat" put in main text and some explanation in sidebars. Two-column is good for text-heavy rulebooks with hundreds of pages, and even then sidebars help (but I saw books like that laid out in one column, like Apocalypse World and followers, and it worked too). I personally don't like title font too, but I don't think that personal tastes are good basis for reviewing anything.

Artwork is ok, although it is on nearly-homeopathic level, and I have a strange feeling, that setting graphics for Blood Types setting bleed out into universal rules part. Basic artwork is well, basic, nothing more, I don't think that they're good or bad, but it is a pain of most universal systems. Blood Types graphic is better, but it is only one minimalistic setting from many, so it shouldn't be so many artworks for that (especially when for example Ghost of a Chance has almost none of it). Again, I understand people who hate photoshops, but I wouldn't call things I don't like "trash", only "it is not my style".

Thing that this book rules is its content. Rules are short and concise, easy to understand and implement. Of course, adding some more text to explain better some things (like focus, which is perfectly logical to me, but I met some people who had problem with understanding how it works) would be nice. But it is playable even now, and it short form can be considered a form of art too.

Idea, that setting can be put into 2500 words with introductory scenario could seem insane at start, but authors managed to do that, with better or worse results. Ghost of a Chance and Blood Types managed to do that, but it was not so hard, because these are real world-based settings, so describing many things was not necessary. World of Zero shines there, because setting is quite weird and alien, and yet author managed to put it into required word count. World of Esfah is not so good case, because it mostly references outside work, and it is hard to be used without that (mostly free) material. Also, I personally don't like that one setting at all, but I'm not a fan of "classic fantasy", so maybe I'm not a right person to review any such setting.

I can't agree with somewhat harsh descriptions like "trash", "garbage" and such, personally I don't think that any system should be described with these words, and I saw many bad systems here, some priced much higher than these three bucks, and some not deserving even one star. Personally, I'd not to set a price for that book, leaving it to "pay what you want" level, and use feedback to improve product before giving print versions. But it is cheap, playable and looking not so bad. So I give four stars - mostly as encouragement for creators, because otherwise I'd like to set to three.

I've been a retail store owner for 28 years, and have been playing RPGs for 40 years. As such, I bring a bit of experience to the table when looking at a game that, well, others may lack.

My experience in RPGs: Started in 1974. To give you some idea, I have played OD&D, AD&D, Traveller, Mega Traveller, Traveller New Era, Traveller:2300, Twilight:2000, Hackmaster, DND 2nd Ed, 3 and 3.5. As well as Space 1889, Warhammer RPG, a couple White Wolf games, and a slew of others. I have seen a lot of character generation methods, including some that would KILL your character AS you generated it (I am looking at you, Traveller!!!!) I've played Gammaworld with Jim Ward, D&D with Gary Gygax and Serenity with Margaret Weis and Jamie Chambers. I've been doing this a while. Not my first time reading an RPG book.

Here is my review of the D6xD6 RPG Core Book: A-

Cover Art: Well, I am extremely picky when it comes to cover art. I consider Larry Elmore art to be the minimum standard when it comes to any RPG. You know, I am an old guy, I care what the book or product LOOKs like. I love this cover art. From the sand-blasted look of the cover character, to the steampunky-techno/magic apparatus she is wearing, it looks gritty. It draws you in.

Layout: This is my first purchased “pdf”. (Told ya I'm an old gamer). The table of contents is well organized and easy to read. You know how some fonts hurt your eyes? Well, this one is giving my old eyes an optical massage as I read it. Ummmmmm. However, if you can't tell the difference between the PAGE COUNT on the pdf (numbers at bottom of pages) from the page count OF your pdf (the page assigned by your computer for each page) you are going to think this is a mess. It's not, but you have to have at least a double digit IQ to recognize this. If you are smarter than your toothbrush, this should not be an issue for you. (it took me a minute, but even I got it pretty quick). Interior Art: Okay. I mean, it's a PDF, it's my FIRST pdf, and my only points of comparison are printed books. And, over the past 40 years, RPG books have really gotten to be slick. But, the artwork seemed to be well thought out, and I liked several pieces, especially the “two motorcycle chariots” on page 23. Lets get real, okay? The new DnD 5.0 book coasts $50. This pdf cost $2.99. What do you expect for less than the cost of a Big Mac? I was satisfied, and then some. Having been in the game industry a while, I know that artwork is often the highest cost in publishing a game. So, when buying a pdf for less than the cost of a Grande Latte, you might want to keep that in mind. Grade B

Character Creation in D6xD6: Uncomplicated.
Have you ever sat down to a nice night of AD&D or Traveller and spent 4 hours on party creation? Well, that won't be necessary here. I made three characters and took no more than 8 minutes on any one. It was easy and fun, simple, yet felt adequately fleshed out due to the system. B+

Game Play: You will get out of this game more than its cost, for certain. But, game play is 90% the DM/GM (Game Host in this RPG), and 9% the other players. It is about 1% the system you are using. Too few gamers understand this. But, the book here is thorough, and easily understood. A

What really matters: Inspiration! Reading this book today I am inspired to game again. Whether I play this system, or just incorporate some of it into my game (I have been Dming AD&D since before 2nd Ed was even though ot), matters little. I am inspired by the writings of Lester Smith to game more. A+

Key Ideas I got from this read: Setting Specific Rules (page 56) within the game that change for specific worlds or campaign settings. Nice!

What you get for $2.99 A nice 60+ pages of creation. That is less than a nickle a page. Intro to Role Playing. Quick easy character creation (one page). Character Occupations, and other attributes are later explained.
Solid rules explanation of what D6xD6 is (which I have already decided to use in my AD&D Game for using non weapon proficiencies). About a third of the book is dedicated to the PLAYERS.

Then approximately 20 paged dedicated to the GM, and 20 to game settings and such. A very quick, yet extremely informative rulebook.

As a first time PDF buyer: I am surprised at the depth and usefulness of the product. This is the first PDF I have ever bought. It will not be the last. I will likely buy another today, in fact. In fact, I will change my grade from A- to a solid A. Anything you buy that makes you want to buy similar products is a solid A product, and good for gaming as a whole.

This game is innovative and fresh in a scene that, let's be honest, doesn't need any new systems. And yet, it got my attention enough for me to invest in it as a Backer. The basic mechanic is one I wish I'd thought of because it's simple and yet very flexible.

Some comment on the layout. Well, I don't claim to be an expert but there is a reason the book is 68 pages long: it doesn't NEED to be any longer. This is a good budget game for people tired of handing over $30+ for a pretty but not-really-anything-different game. This game is to the point and gives you what you need to play.

As for the content, it's a full core game system and then a collection of settings. At least half the page-count is setting suggestions to get your creative juices flowing. BUT BE WARNED! Lester Smith is Old School as far as he designed a game that is meant to be built upon by you. If you've not got the imagination or patience to build adventure with a simple rules set to support you, then go buy the $30+ pretty books with other people's ideas all ready to go.

This game stopped me in my tracks in its elegance of design. Not layout design, game design. It's a game. Yes, I hope that Lester's team will one day expand the basic book to something more sprawling... but only because I enjoy reading and stealing from all the cool settings that we didn't get to fund first time around.

Simple, fun, elegant and modern RPG, anyone? This is just that. Go on, buy it!