The game Over the Edge
has been converted to a 28-page OGL rulebook called the Wanton Role-Playing
System. Huzzah!
In case you’ve been living under a rock, Over the Edge is one of those games that
hipster RPers like me love to talk about as though we played it for hours and
hours, each moment revealing new secrets of the depths of our inner Being like unfolding lyric poetry. Truth is, I’ve never played a game, not really. But the system is badass, and
if you ever want to get a grip on what the whole ‘indie RPG’ community is all
about, it’s a good place to start.
I think that we D&D players have a lot to learn from
this little booklet. It might not have d20s and to-hit bonuses and classes and
Vance, but it’s got speed, style and inventiveness as its core tenets. It
revolves around the classic rule, ‘if you don’t know the outcome of an action,
make up a number on a die and roll for it.’
I hope that we get a chance to see a lot of stuff being
produced for this system, just like the stuff the OSR is putting out now. In
fact, if you want to try splicing some OtE
goodness into your old-school game, check out this cool hack. It’s for
Tunnels & Trolls, but we know how this goes. Splice it, dice it, hack it ‘til
it works.
Just in case you haven't seen it, there is a venerable (in the internet sense) authorized adaptation of Over the Edge to Thundarr the Barbarian here.
ReplyDeleteAh, never saw that one! Quite cool, and thank you.
DeleteI knew that Atlas had announced this a while back, but I failed to see the SRD had been released. I really love the Over the Edge system, and played it a handful of times back in the day. I think it was way ahead of its time, and went over the heads of most of us back then. Thanks for sharing the news and link!
ReplyDelete