Excellent, excellent title! I knew it sounded familiar, until it clicked: it's a Hobbes' Leviathan reverence! "No arts, no letters, no society; and what is worst of all continual fear and danger of violent death. And the life of man: solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short [long]." Or at least it goes something like that, it's been ages since I first memories that line. Love how it challenges those Hobbesian ideas in a subtle way without directly spelling it out.
This game has one of the best flufftext intros I've ever read (page 1 of the PDF). It presents so many great hooks ("the witches have returned from the woods", etc.), it immediately set gears turning in my head.
The set dressing that unfolds over the subsequent pages is also well-done, communicating very well the tone and place of the game. Importantly, it leaves lots of gaps for the imagination.
I think this is one of the strengths of the whole system: character creation, too, leads to a character sheet filled with potential hooks, touching upon the PC's past and characterization in a very clear, concise way. Altogether the game delivers potential stories very well. It guides with a light hand.
Nasty, Brutish, and Long is an incredibly unique game in the TTRPG space. By focusing on a very specific fantasy - revolutionaries in a fantastical world - it creates a fascinating free-form structure.
The book looks great, with excellent layout and font choices. The words are snappy and to the point, and almost every page reinforces the themes. A streamlined version of the Forged in the Dark ruleset makes the game cover huge amounts of time willed with player-driven drama. Incredibly evocative stuff!
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Community copies please?
Hi there!
I add community copies when folks make a purchase. If there are none available please email me at michael @ notwriting . net and I can help you out.
Excellent, excellent title! I knew it sounded familiar, until it clicked: it's a Hobbes' Leviathan reverence! "No arts, no letters, no society; and what is worst of all continual fear and danger of violent death. And the life of man: solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and
short[long]." Or at least it goes something like that, it's been ages since I first memories that line. Love how it challenges those Hobbesian ideas in a subtle way without directly spelling it out.Heh, this very reference made me confuse it with:
https://exstasisgames.itch.io/nasty-brutish-short
----
In other things, not gonna avail myself of the Community Copy 'lest my payment actually go through, but in Actions, it's "ley( )line", not "lay line".
...
Mmm, Classes. Gonna get this to see what I can do with LitRPG-s...
This game has one of the best flufftext intros I've ever read (page 1 of the PDF). It presents so many great hooks ("the witches have returned from the woods", etc.), it immediately set gears turning in my head.
The set dressing that unfolds over the subsequent pages is also well-done, communicating very well the tone and place of the game. Importantly, it leaves lots of gaps for the imagination.
I think this is one of the strengths of the whole system: character creation, too, leads to a character sheet filled with potential hooks, touching upon the PC's past and characterization in a very clear, concise way. Altogether the game delivers potential stories very well. It guides with a light hand.
Nasty, Brutish, and Long is an incredibly unique game in the TTRPG space. By focusing on a very specific fantasy - revolutionaries in a fantastical world - it creates a fascinating free-form structure.
The book looks great, with excellent layout and font choices. The words are snappy and to the point, and almost every page reinforces the themes. A streamlined version of the Forged in the Dark ruleset makes the game cover huge amounts of time willed with player-driven drama. Incredibly evocative stuff!