Paolo Garelli
In this review we will talk about Blood Engine Lite, an OSR-style role-playing game that will put the lives of our adventurers to the test. Before we start, I want to thank Nicola Santagostino for sending us a physical copy, thus allowing us to talk to you about the game.
Blood Engine is a role-playing game, but also an idea that is based on six fundamental principles:
The answer is not in your card; reason and think outside the box.
If you roll the dice you have already lost; the die roll represents an uncertainty, it is better to think of a solution that does not require it.
Risk makes everything more interesting, but it must be known; clarity between masters and players is the basis of this game; every risk must be well explained.
You are adventurers, not epic heroes; this is the basis; your first thought is to survive, not to become a legend.
Fighting is the worst solution, always; you are not spotless and fearless heroes, an alternative path can be found.
Play to discover; explore and have adventures letting the stories emerge accordingly.
The idea behind it is very interesting and borrows heavily from the principles of OSR. The most interesting thing is that to learn more about this role-playing game all you have to do is download it for free. You got it right, here you can find the digital version of Blood Engine Lite complete with editable character sheets.
Blood Engine Lite Aesthetics Review
As I told you, this is currently only the Lite version of the finished product. We still don’t know when the final product will be released, but if these are the premises, we can’t wait for it to arrive. We are faced with a 66-page manual in A5 format. Inside there are a good number of wonderful black and white illustrations by Simone Tammetta which expertly create the atmosphere by transporting us into this world of dark tones.
Blood Engine Lite provides you with everything you need to start playing. In its pages you will find character creation, an explanation of the system, equipment and even a bestiary to use to test your players. The game world is certainly a fantasy world set between 1500 and 1600. Apart from these few indications, the narrators are left full freedom on where to set the stories.
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Character Creation
Character creation in Blood Engine Lite will take at least ten minutes, especially if you follow the gods of chaos and leave some choices to the dice roll.
Adventurers in Blood Engine lite their survival on three characteristics:
- Vigor: the physical prowess that applies whenever strength and endurance come into play.
- Instinct: the character’s awareness, his intuition and his sixth sense.
- Acumen: Your adventurer’s intelligence and social skills.
During creation we will roll 4 dice of 6 and add the three highest results and then divide them as dice points into the three characteristics. To make everything clearer, I’ll give you a simple example. We start by rolling the dice getting 4,5,1,3. If we add the highest results we will obtain 12 dice points which we can now divide into the three characteristics. In this way we can have a 4 die in each characteristic or a 4 and an 8 die leaving a characteristic without dice.
Once the characteristics have been marked, all that remains is to define the role. Blood Engine Lite provides 36 roles that can be chosen after careful evaluation or leaving everything to chance. The roles range from simple explorer, to grave robber, through cooks, cultists and mouse catchers. Each role will have a particular skill and special equipment. Finally, all that remains is to define your hit points called Blood Points which will be generated by rolling 2 dice of 6 and adding the result to your characteristic points.
The Mechanics of Blood Engine Lite
After a quick creation, here we are explaining a simple system for managing challenges and combat.
We talked about dice points divided into the three characteristics; now all we have to do to the chosen die is add a 4-sided die called the base die. This die can increase by one size if the challenge is inherent to our character’s role. For example, if we had to pick a lock. A grave robber will use a basic die of 4 while a thief will use a die of 6. To these two dice (base and characteristic) we also add, if present, a die of 4 called the tool die. Let’s imagine we want to pick the famous lock with our thief who has a 6 in acumen and instinct. In our case we will roll a 6 die as the base die, a 6 die for our characteristic and finally a 4 die because we have the lock picks.
The standard difficulty of a test is 4 and this means that at least one of our dice will have to roll 4 or more. As you can imagine this makes the tests very difficult to pass, but fortunately the system comes to our aid by inserting the possibility to dare or support. Daring allows you to reroll all the dice you want by paying a blood point; the support instead allows, in case of help, to increase the basic die by one size while sharing any failures.
Magic and Counters
The counters in Blood Engine Lite are the master’s way of keeping track of time passing. For example using a torch to explore a dungeon will last 4 meters. All activities of a certain importance (such as combat or actions in a fairly large area) consume a segment, thus reducing the group’s resources. Obviously the counters are not to be used only for mere resource management, but also to signal to the group the consequences of their actions. Continuously attacking goblin tribes, for example, could open a counter called Goblin Revenge which will advance based on the number of attacks.
Another use of counters is in learning magic, based on Intent. In understanding an Intent we try to deepen our knowledge through study and affinity. This will start a meter of eight segments which can be filled during rest periods through Insight checks. Understanding an Intent allows you to use it in spell formulation. Understanding the intent of fire, for example, will allow us to control it by heating objects and generating flames.
Final Considerations
Blood Engine Lite is a brutal game with very simple mechanics. For OSR lovers it is certainly a game worth trying, also because in this Lite version it is free and any games will provide the creator with material to modify and further improve his work.
I therefore recommend Blood Engine Lite to all those who want to test their group of adventurers in a dark and brutal world in which I remind you that the dice roll and combat are always the worst choices.
