Troika! (21-03-21)

I picked this up as I kept seeing references to it via various OSR peeps, then spotted a review on Amazon saying that the book itself was a beautiful artifact and that was the clincher. It is a pretty enough book, smaller than I imagined, but a solid, well presented little hard back. It is a lot like Electric Bastionland which i suspect it predates, in fact it seems even more hardcore than Bastionland; there are no passages presenting lore at all, the setting is entirely evoked in specific content, which kind of reminds me of UVG too - you play to find out (as Apocalypse World would have it), the GM is flying by the seat of their pants, past golden sky barges piloted by robotic mandrills (why do all trippy games feature monkeys!).


The rule system is very light, in fact its basically Fighting Fantasy - you roll Skill, Stamina and Luck, then a d66 to decide one of 36 character Backgrounds which provide some unique flavour, skills and maybe some equipment. The range is fairly nuts, from Chaos Champion to Sceptical Lamassu. 

Skill tests are roll under (on 2d6, everything is done with d6), though roll highest versus tests are used for combat, rolling on individual weapon based look-up tables for damage. Luck tests can be made to get damage bonuses or avoid death in combat and is reduced by one every time it is tested. 

The most striking mechanic is its initiative system - each character has a number of initiative tokens (usually 2), these are drawn at random from a bag to decide who goes when, with the inclusion of an end round token adding more random drama to the mix. When i first read this I thought it a case of being different from the sake of it, but then I heard Blythy on the Grognard Files podcast praising the way it brought tension and simplicity (no comparing numbers or having to remember order) to every combat round.

The book is split between Rules, Character Backgrounds, Enemies, Spells and a starting adventure. The enemies provided (about 40 in all) are almost as exotic as the character backgrounds and each features it's own d6 Mien table to set its attitude when encountered which is a great way of making enemies distinct at the table.

The starting adventure sees the characters arrive in the city of Troika and go check in to the Blancmange & Thistle hotel, but there is some big party event in progress so only one room is available and that's right by the party on the top floor and the players have to travel up via stairs or elevator. I suppose it's a deconstructed dungeon of sorts with trippy encounters all the way to the top rather than the bottom.

It is a lovely book and much as I admire the whole - there's just exactly what you need to know and no more. I would find it intimidating to run as each of the character classes and enemies is so unique it would difficult to develop a holistic grasp; everything would need to be handled on the fly and there's nowhere near the number of helpful tables as in UVG. It does feel very much like an art house rpg or proper indie comic book even though the system itself is fairly conventional.

It can be purchased on Amazon, but also directly from the publisher's website.