Wretched Bastards Review

After being interviewed by The Red Room awhile back, I offered to review some of their stuff. I keep spacing on The Sisters of the Seven Sins (which I picked solely due the cover), only in part due to the fact that I'm completely unfamiliar with the system and genre. Hopefully I can atone with this review, which is for a type of system and genre that I am intimately familiar with.

Wretched Bastards is billed as a low-magic role-playing game that utilizes for the most part an old school chassis, set in a bleak, sleazy world (Venger would approve, I'm sure, and I'd be interested to see what they could come up with together), where you are assumed to be playing some sort of greedy, cruel, violent scoundrel.

A wretched bastard, as it were.

Starting with the overall look, layout-wise it’s fine, though I would like to see proper tables, ideally with alternate row-highlighting. Right now it’s clear some things were put into tables, but without any borders or lines. Some sections would also be easier done as tables, such as failed magic saves (which would also look better with at least indents for each entry).

Some things could have been spread out a bit, and both bullet points and horizontal rules would break things up, make some parts easier to read (and in many cases would not require adjusting the book's layout at all). Miguel has stated that the book is a work in progress, so let him know if you come across any issues, or have any suggestions.

The art is a mixture of stuff the wife and I have done (including some pieces that are definitely showing their age), Jonathan Torres (who is more accomplished than I), and some Adobe Stock (not a fan of 3d stuff). I should note that Miguel and Silvia are looking for additional stock art producers to add more variety and options, so hit them up if you have a portfolio or know of a stock art producer.

Not game related at all, but near the start there is a filmography that was mined for inspiration, which I think is great because, while it includes stuff I’ve already seen, there’s a bunch I have not, so now I have a backlog of quality/non-woke entertainment to watch, instead of the current crop of crap inundating theatres nowadays.

As for the actual game, as mentioned at the start Wretched Bastards utilizes an old school framework: you've got ability score requirements for choosing a class (also race), hit points at levels 10 and up being a small, static value (with Constitution no longer applicable), and varied XP tables (instead of a universal amount, as seen in 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons and up).

Of course there are some differences: among other things, level only goes up to 14 (though this can be easily expanded if you want), Armor Class is replaced by Defense (which also ascends), and the skill system reminds me of 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons, which I find preferable to how every other edition handled skills.

For the most part, races are at least thematically what you'd expect, less so mechanically: for example, elves have infravision, gain a +2 bonus to perception, and don't risk insanity when using spells (which I'll touch on later). The downside is that they suffer a -2 penalty on all social interactions with humans.

I suppose that's an easy way to handle humans distrusting other races (and I might use this for my game), though I'm somewhat surprised there's no penalty for interacting with dwarves. But, then, perhaps they don't distrust each other?

Or it could be because humans were apparently created by aliens, something I wish the book elaborated on more: either in the monster section, high tech alien gizmos to purchase or find, psionics, something related to however they created humans.

I'm guessing it'll be in another book, but it would have been nice to see something in the core rules that more overtly foreshadowed or hinted at their presence, appearance, behavior, goals, etc. Some sort of engineered monster(s) would be easiest, or a kind of machine. Would help it stand out even more from other OSRish games.

Maybe we'll get a sleazy Expedition to the Barrier Peaks?

Moving on to classes, while there is a fighter and rogue, as well as a type of wizard, clerics are completely absent, which means a lack of healing magic and anything resembling raise dead. So, barring some sort of artifact or effect the GM cooks up, once you're dead, you're dead.

Classes range from very simple to incredibly simple, having a Hit Die, skill points, and perhaps something like a baked in +1 bonus to one or two skills gained at specific levels: assassins and rogues are virtually identical, except the former gets a Disguise bonus, and the latter gets a Stealth bonus, fighters are just the toughest of the bunch (packing a d8 Hit Die), performers gain a scaling bonus to Charm, and Savants get a scaling bonus to Academics or Science.

The only class with any real complexity is the Conjurer, and that's because he has access to spells.

This is going to be a turnoff for people that want more meat to their characters, and admittedly I think it's too barebones for me, but it only took a minute to figure out what I'd tweak to make it work (give the fighter a scaling bonus to weapon skills, sneak attack for the assassin and rogue, etc), and as it stands at least each class has something going for it.

An upside is that it will be exceedingly easy to jump right back in when you die, and with the exception of the Conjurer I think even the most casual player will quickly memorize what each class gets.

Skills are similar to how they worked in 3rd Edition D&D: you get skill points and spend them on skills, but the bonus caps at +5. I want to mention that none of the classes gain an auto-scaling attack bonus, THAC0, or similar mechanic. Instead you’ll need to invest in the Archery, Brawler, Crossbow, Martial Arts, and Melee skills. 

It's an interesting idea, and allows even conjurers to get better at fighting, assuming they would want to invest their skills points in such an endeavor. This is also why I would give fighters some sort of weapon skill bonus: there are five such skills to choose from, and barring an Intelligence bonus he only gets one skill point at levels 2 and up.

Combat reminds me of I think Rules Cyclopedia, where things happen in phases: missile fire and spells happen first, then melee attacks. I like this, and was thinking of doing this in my game, but it would go back and forth between both sides. As in, one side makes ranged attacks, then the other, then the first side makes melee attacks, then the other, etc.

Healing is randomized, which is a neat idea: you get 1d6 back every day, unless you were reduced to 0 or less, in which case you only regain 1 per day, and that's assuming you rest the entire time.

One odd thing I noticed was using skills to restore lost hit points: you get 1d4 or 1d6 depending on whether you use Healing or Medicine, but there doesn't seem to be any limit or penalties for failure. I think there needs to either be a limit, or some consequence for failure, otherwise I don't see any reason why you wouldn't just keep rolling until everyone is fully healed.

Having to use up healing supplies would be the easiest method, but you could also have it where a failure inflicts damage. Or limit it to a once a day thing: you check assumes treatment over the course of the day, and after resting roll to see how many additional hit points they recover.

Equipment is pretty standard, with the addition of prostitutes. They vary in quality, and there's an additional charge for "unusual practices", heh (I know Venger has some prostitute tables he might be willing to share). The one thing I didn't like was the inclusion of leather armor (which was either very rare or didn't even exist but certainly existed in some capacity, but really gambesons are superior) and calling plate armor plate mail.

You can get helmets, which grant +1 Defense. So, hey there's an incentive to wear one.

In addition to a lack of clerical magic, the game is fairly low-magic overall: spells only go up to 6th-level, and there are only 28 spells in total. For the most part these are D&D classics, though some are renamed (ie, Let There Be Light instead of Light, and Great Ball of Fire instead of Fireball) and the effects can differ.

For example, Invisibility is permanent until you make a vigorous action, and objects only become visible when touched by something alive.

Another interesting mechanic is potentially going insane when using magic. Each time you cast a spell you have to make a Wisdom save, which is penalized if the spell is 2nd-level or higher (starts at -1, increases by one for each additional level, up to -5). If you fail there's a 1d6 table to roll on, which can cause you to be effectively stunned for a round or more, or lose Wisdom points and add derangements to your character.

There are eight derangements to choose from, and some can be pretty brutal. For example, catatonia can cause you to go into a catatonic state for 1d6 hours each time you roll a natural 1, while delusion imposes a -1 penalty on all social skill rolls (not just humans). I would definitely expand on this if at all possible, as I'd imagine conjurers will rack up derangements pretty quickly.

It might seem like a steep downside, but it helps reinforce the dangers and rarity of magic. Conjurers will be more careful when and how they use their spells, and at higher levels it gets pretty powerful: if you can hold out to 7th-level, Create Confusion can confuse every creature with 1-2 HD within 10 meters, and odds are they'll stand there so you can slaughter them, or even attack each other.

You'll need to wait until 9th-level for Animate Dead, but it animates all corpses within 20 meters, is permanent, and there's no limit to how many undead you can have animated. Stun is a 6th-level spell that auto-stuns a single creature with 60 hit points or less for a random duration.

I think all of these changes up to this point are sufficient to justify the game's existence. It's a concise OSR package with some tweaks that I like, and would be incredibly easy to further tweak to get it where I think it needs to be. It's not just a random D&D edition with one or two house rules bolted on, if that, nor is it a woefully incomplete game with terrible ideas chaotically wrapped around equally atrocious art.

That said it has a few extra features that mechanically reinforce the concept of you being the bad guy to some degree, which is key because otherwise you could run any old D&D game and just tell the players they have to be bad guys.

The first are the Wretched Commandments, a collection of ten activities you can engage in to gain a hefty chunk of XP each time. Examples are acting selfishly, seducing someone beautiful, betraying NPCs (friend or foe), and corrupting others. Most are worth 50 or more XP, which even using 2nd Edition XP tables can add up pretty quickly.

Mind you, you don’t have to do these things. You can be a more or less good person, but there is no reward for that: to get ahead far more quickly in this world, you need to be a wretched bastard.

There’s also a wanted level mechanic, though I’m not sure if it’s directly tied to character level (it goes up to 14, which is also where character level caps at). I’d prefer it to be tied to character action (as well as who might witness your behavior). Otherwise, at 3rd-level, no matter what you’ve done (and how well you’ve covered your tracks), you’ll be notorious in a town and not welcomed by most.

You're also supposed to choose a sin at character creation. This doesn't have any mechanical effect (correction: it does, you gain bonus XP and a free re-roll), but feels more like a spin on Alignment. Except there is no Good option. I would like to see a way for acting upon a sin to grant XP or something. Either a unique way, or builds on what one of the Wretched Commandments does (so, lust would grant bonus XP for seducing someone).

It's refreshing to read a game where it seems like the creators gave a shit. Yes, the concept is straightforward: D&D, but you must be evil to some degree (or at least are heavily incentivized), but I've seen game-like things where untalented hacks clearly did not care from the start, or got burned out after a dozen pages or so.

Yes, it could use some polishing, and the bestiary could use some more entries (seriously, add in some of that alien stuff, as well as some monsters that feed off of sin, or try to instill some good in the world), but you get a solid enough framework to play with, build on, and modify. You aren't just wondering what the fuck you're supposed to do. You don't need to grab one or more official D&D rulebooks in order to get going.

I think it will be great for those that like pretty basic OSR games (though it will vary from person to person whether it's an adequate replacement), and if you don't want to be bad guys you can ignore the sins and commandments without affecting anything else. Conversely, if you like those mechanics but not the simplicity, you could also port them into any other game.

At $4.50 for nearly 60 content-packed pages it's a pretty safe buy (and you'll be supporting non-woke folk that don't hate you), and while I imagine you could run older D&D adventures using this (less prep time to get going), they creators have already released their first adventure, which I'll be reviewing next.