Symbaroum?

Anyone had a look at this? There's a kickstarter up for the next part of some campaign book so I started reading up on the lore. Best way I found to describe it is as fantasy STALKER.

So has anyone had any experience with this? Especially with the system I'm curious on how lethal it actually is.

jarnringen.com/symbaroum/

Link to their site for more info on it.

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Yeah, it looks neat. From what I've seen, it seems like it would do gritty/low dark fantasy fairly well. Its magic system, with corruption built in, interests me particularly.
I have yet to actually find anyone to play it with, though. :(

I'm mainly a fan of how the lore is handled. Hardly anything is said in full detail which lends itself well for the specifics to be changed between groups.

The High Chieftain of the barbarians might be a puppet of the witches or he might actually be a powerful leader in his own right.

userscloud.com/t29loe5oofj5

Link to the CRB from Da Archive

Played a one shot.
Quite funny. It's a more gritty version of dungeon crawling without the crawling but more atmosphere.
Problem is that bosses are demystified very quickly since its modifier are revealed very quickly.

By few people seem to have actually played it, but most of us want to.

Maybe if I could hunker down and read the book I'll give it a shot.

Anybody know how it compares to anima?

Modifier? I have yet to dig into the actual crunch.

The gm doesn't roll dices. Only the player do, while the enemies give boni/mali according to their attributes.

Easy system to get into, great lore, great atmosphere, cool setting.

Protip: don't fuck with the elves. Neither literally or figurativly.

Do all elves follow the "Don't fuck with the ruins" schtick? Or are there like more sociable ones.

The elves follow the "Don't fuck with the forest" mostly, due to the Iron Pact.

You.. You didn't break the Iron Pact did you? I hope you didn't.

Been playing this for like close to 12 4 hour sessions. The only thing I feel weak about the whole thing is ogres as they are so ill defined. Everything else I absolutely love. My gm does an amazing job.

They actually have different life stages and their personalities can change inbetween. Spring Elves are essentially trickster faeries. Summer Elves are the most personable, but they can still be hot-blooded and hate Humans. Autumn Elves have seen a lot of shit and are pretty much over Humans unless it means using them to protect Symbaroum. Winter Elves are not to be fucked with since these Elves have seen some shit and have survived long enough to be final boss material, if they aren't already irrevocably damned by the time they make it to the winter of their lives.

But, when it gets down to it, Elves in Symbaroum are born for one purpose: to keep Symbaroum sleeping and to kill anything that might awaken from it. A Spring Elf awakening into its summer is a mournful occasion because it's then that they're taught that they are basically born to die fighting Symbaroum and those who would unsettle its slumbering evil. That's their primary purpose and motivator.

Still, they sometimes take Human auxiliaries to bolster their ranks because there's fewer and fewer Elves surviving their subsequent metamorphosis, and those that do are dying at an increased rate. The current debate the Elves are having in lore is whether or not they can work with Humans and bring them into the Iron Pact or if they should go full-scale war against them to keep Symbaroum asleep and prevent a second Dark Lords scenario in a world ill-prepared to organize against something of that scale.

Also Elves do have a native homeland, but Symbaroum isn't it. The Elves in Symbaroum are born to serve the Iron Pact, while their primary civilization is cut off from them, though rumored to exist beyond the ocean to Symbaroum's West.

Ogres are Goblins that have entered the Troll stage but something's gone wrong during the process, leaving them stuck in a "deformed" state. Trolls themselves don't necessarily view Ogres as such, although they do feel a kinship to them since they do belong to Troll blood and are worth at least some nod or recognition of that fact.

Humans vaguely trust Ogres since they are generally dependable creatures and useful for their strength and bulk. To Humans they're much like Dwarves and Goblins; useful creatures to have around, though never quite trustworthy.

Yes, I'm running it.
I'd say the system is moderately lethal, a newly created character will rarely die in a single round of combat; but a high xp character will still die from a few lucky hits.

The main strengths of the system is that the players roll for everything and a lot of my pet peeve boxes are checked (class-less, armor is dr, magic is available to everyone, but always scary, starting equipment is mostly narrative...).

The art is also great and the prewritten adventures are suprisingly decent.

Never forget

>is it-
>IT IS

Now the big question:

To use them, or not to use them.

Yes
But as a oneshot
On only a single day
You know which one

What's the 30 second brief on the setting

The Ambrian Empire is a few years or decades (I forget how long) through with a war against the "Dark Lords," and it basically destroyed their empire, as well as a few other empires of their allies and enemies. The old Ambrian lands are now ravaged by magical storms, deadly corruption, horrifying beasts, and a rise of undead.

The Ambrian Empire has relocated its capital to outside Symbaroum, an ancient but dangerous forest that cut off from the undead by impassable mountains. Those displaced by the wars and corruption are now seeking life and possible fortune in the forests of Symbaroum, but there's the ruins of an ancient empire buried under the forest and while there is a good deal of treasure to be found in these places, there are also a great deal of things that would be better to have left lie.

and why are elves killing things that might "awaken" the forest?

The elves belong to a collective known as The Iron Pact. Basically the elves say that in ancient times a treaty was made with humans to keep the forest from waking up. That was a long ass time ago and most of the humans don't give a shit about it, very few even think it a possibility.

The logic behind The Iron Pact is that any time you fuck with Nature the horrible byproduct (corruption) fucks up everything for everybody. It will destroy everything it touches, people, plants, animals, even gods. So The Iron Pact is trying to keep the forest from "waking up" which is generally understood to be some release of a ridiculous amount of corruption as more and more people fuck with ruins.

It should also be said that The Iron Pact is not one cohesive unit. They operate in several independent cells, all with the same end goal of stemming the tide of corruption. Some sells are more liberal with others, seeing hope for Ambrians to help fight corruption while others see them as only enemies.

How does this corruption work

Loosely interpreting this from the core rulebook.

Corruption occurs when nature is exploited or violated. Since mystics (the setting's name for mages) bend nature according to their will they are constantly threatened by corruption. Each mystical tradition has different views and ways of dealing with corruption as well.

Mechanics wise their are two types of corruption. Temporary and Permanent. Temporary corruption sticks around for a while, usually when exposed to some horrible artifact or corrupted abomination. Permanent corruption leaves a lasting effect on the character's inner being, usually when performing rituals that have gone wrong or when binding yourself to an artifact to gain its powers.

Corruption can manifest both physically or on a more spiritual level. It is common to see corrupted beings with all manner of physical mutations: festering boils, black blood, necrosis. But it can also corrupt your Shadow (basically your spiritual reflection on the world. Everyone's shadow is different, with civilized folk usually having copper or silver colors and more natural folks having green or orange. Corrupted folks have black stains upon their Shadows.