Dawn of Legends Review Up

Well, my Dawn of Legends review is up at RPG.net.

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/14/14312.phtml

I know there will be some backlash. The makers of the game frequent the forums after all. Still, I had to call it as I see it- a system without balance or innovation is not a good system, the tools provided are weak, and the setting is awful.

It does make me wonder what criteria people use for games sometimes? Fun is the obvious one, but if it's like patching up a leaky rowboat to get there, to the point the system almost ends up ignored, whats the point of using THAT system? If I have to go places to get extra supplements and errata and other nonsense to make it work, then it really isn't a complete game.

I know a few older systems I have some tender feelings towards that I can't entirely defend. Call of Cthulhu is fairly archaic, martial arts putting punches through people like paper at times, more dangerous than guns, using old school hit points for unrealistic wounds, but I LOVE the insanity system so much I can ignore those big glaring flaws for a horror game: Cthulhu is fun. The old Marvel Saga game is there too, with it's weird card system and unbalanced powers; AD&D, a system so ancient I felt free to add and subtract whatever I wanted, a homebrew haven; Fuzion, my first introduction to Champions. Still, when I get past the nostalgia, I can see that each of these systems has glaring flaws and errors that can't just be handwaved cause I like it- they are bad systems, with great settings.

Ah well. It's not easy making good games. I've put together some homebrew systems, good and bad (mostly bad) and I can't say it's easy to make a system that makes everyone happy and everything fair. Just a little more effort is all I ask from anyone asking for money for their work.