Untold, a CBRPG!

As my few friends are well aware, I have a small (okay, maybe small isn’t the right word) obsession with role-playing games. Or, more specifically, RPG systems. I like to try them all. I’ve played D&D 4e, Savage Worlds, Fate, M&M 2e, etc. I’ve got a rather large number of systems accumulated that I haven’t yet tried but really, really want to try someday (including Cortex, GUMSHOE, Ubiquity, One Roll, CODA, Inverted D20, Alpha Omega, Thousand Suns, Apocalypse Prevention, Inc, Aces & Eights, Burning Wheel, PTA, etc… yeah… small problem). I listen to podcasts that are rather heavy in Actual Play sessions, just to hear other folks play other systems that I don’t have the time to try.

What do all of these systems have in common? Books. Some have a lot of books. Some have only one. Some of the books are large, some are small. Some books are even going electronic, while others are staying in the good ol’ pulp era. But, they’re still all books. Books you have to read. Books you have to carry around. Books, especially if you’re a GM, that you need close to hand in case a dreaded Rules Lawyer shows up at a game.

Now, don’t mis-understand, I love books. I like to hold them and smell them. I like to crack them open and feel the pages. I like flipping through them and generate a small breeze to ruffle my beard… Oh, uh, perhaps too much info?

Anyway, books.

But there’s a new game on the scene that doesn’t have any books! No, books?! Nope. Nary a one. And, get this, you don’t even need a character sheet?

But, Goose, come on. How can you play without books? Easy. You use cards!

Cards?! Yes, cards.

Untold is a new game and game system coming out from our good friends, The Wandering Men.

“Untold is a revolutionary new role-playing game (RPG) from Wandering Men Studios designed to combine all the best elements of Role Playing Games (RPG’s) and Collectible Card Games (CCG’s) but leave out all the crap. Untold is a CBRPG™: Card-Based Role Playing Game. It is exactly the same as any other RPG, but the primary physical “tools” of the game are different. Instead of rulebooks and character sheets, the only “tools” you need in Untold are cards!”

I was fortunate enough to have been in contact with these good folks and was invited to play during the beta test. While I did sign the NDA with every intention of running my oldest goslings through an adventure or two, the opportunity did not arise. However, the Men had many a beta tester and so did not lack for support. And they’ve put out a very good product.

Your attributes and skills and everything else that defines your character can be found on cards. You lay them out before you and voila, time to game. I won’t get into the mechanics in this post, but suffice it to say they are easy to grasp in a rather short time (shorter, even, than it took me to get M&M 2e under my prodigious belt). The one mechanic I will mention here that I found most intriguing was damage. Hit points, you say? Nay! As you take damage, you start losing cards. For the most part, you get to say what cards or points you lose, but this is a unique way of having damage directly affect your character. Rather than using a number system, wittling away with each punch or stab, while your character otherwise shows no effects until it drops dead when it gets to zero, the PC finds himself losing power and/or effects with each heavy hit.

And that, my friends, is awesome.

On top of it all, they have great artwork to give you a hint of the kinds of characters you can play as well as a world that is well-written and fleshed-out to the point that you can immerse yourself for a good evening of gaming.

Untold, the CBRPG™ that is Full of Awesome Sauce™!

So, on my not-yet-patented Suck-O-Meter: This game Really, Really Doesn’t Suck!