Mano Sinistra – NecroBriscola | Review

First of all, I want to thank Hollow Press, Ignoranza Eroica and Iacopo Frigerio for giving us a review copy of Mano Sinistra – NecroBriscola. It is a very original roleplaying game, which uses as a core mechanic (and the cornerstone of the lore) the Italian Briscola card game; this is enhanced by the setting of the Four Pastures, a hellish netherworld populated by demonic and realistic elements that coexist in a ruthless and original apocalyptic panorama.

If the review intrigues you and you decide to buy Mano Sinistra – NecroBriscola, know that you can find it for only 29 euros on the official Hollow Press store, including also the official and personalized cards by Dal Negro and a map of the setting.

A Damn Fascinating Setting

Given the strong link between the setting and the game system, I think it is essential to present the first better to also be able to understand the second.

The events take place in the Four Pastures, a hellish netherworld inhabited by Inhumans (damned people, or ended up here certainly against their will) and Devils. The only true divinity, the dark and perverse figure feared by anyone, responds to the name of Doom Goddess. She is also known as a generator of apocalypses and everyone knows her limitless power, even the Four Kings. They control the Four Pastures but, like any other relationship in this place, they don’t do it healthily or peacefully. They represent the four suits of the Italian Briscola (Swords, Wands, Coins and Cups) and reign following the capital sins; moreover, in each age one of them becomes the dominant suit and the others try, with every subterfuge or violence, to snatch this role. In their defence they have armies whose ranks are represented, again, by the cards of the Italian Briscola.

The characters are Inhumans known by the name Doomlich, whose purpose is higher (but equally blasphemous) than that of the other inhabitants. They are looking for the Fragments of the Suits, powerful artifacts that, when gathered, will satisfy the Doom Goddess who will thank them with an Orgeal and with the birth of new diabolical progeny, the so-called Sowing; this will be followed by an apocalypse and a new cycle, in which the Doom Goddess will become dormant. However, the Doomlichs are not obliged to satisfy its will but, through diabolical and other tricks, they can decide to try to prevent the next apocalypse or simply enjoy the “life”, for how much this is possible in the Four Pastures.

An Overview of the Four Pastures

What never changes in this world is the division into the Four Pastures, obviously also linked to the suits of the Italian Briscola. Each territory has its specific characteristics and a corrupt river that crosses it. As you can see in this review, the whole Mano Sinistra – NecroBriscola setting has a strong symbolic value.

• Superbatro (Swords): volcanic peaks, melted lead, incredible bonfires, rains of needles, ruthless assassins, wind of nails and eternal wars; the ruthless and superb sovereign reigns through terror and torture from his impregnable fort.
• Iraco (Wands): ecstasy of the torture, love for pain, tribulations, infested forests of primitive beasts. The wrathful sovereign is used to inflict suffering to itself and others.
• Avidecca (Coins): tricks and deception, golden illusions, clear skies like a gem, dunes devastated by storms and dangerous commercial contracts. The greedy sovereign is a symbol of deception and corruption.
• Invideo (Cups): poisonous marshes, rains of acid sewage, toxic fumes, mould and chemical traps. The sovereign resides in Organotronfio, surrounded by unitors and necromancers.

At the centre of the Four Pastures there is a place of dark veneration where the Doom Goddess rests. Where the four rivers meet the city of Uteria stands; it is a place forbidden to the devils and the house of the cult of the goddess pending her return.

Darkness is light here, and death is life.

Review of the Characters of Mano Sinistra – NecroBriscola

When a common Inhuman becomes a Doomlich, they must choose a name that effectively expresses who they are now.

The creation process then revolves around the drawing and assignment of seven cards. The first four must be given to the four basic Ability Scores which, once again, represent the four suits; these values indicate how easy it is to pass tests based on each of them:

• Mastery (Swords): warfare and knowledge of the military world.
• Vigor (Wands): physical strength that also affects Pain, or the “life points” of the character that also represent their carrying capacity; I find the mechanics very smart and so, by losing life, they also lose transported objects.
• Insight (Coins): cunning and ability to influence others with their own words.
• Faith (Cups): mental health, ability to cast spells and torture resistance. It also indicates how many spells the character starts.

The next card must instead be assigned to a Vow; by consulting another table, it turns out which “guardian devil” watches over the character. This concerns mechanics to influence the results of some tests and the career of the Doomlich. Mano Sinistra – NecroBriscola does not provide a class system, but this assignment allows you to choose your career; it determines some specializations and their initial Arsenal.

The last two cards of the seven must finally be compared with two further tables to decree the Obsession and the Putrescence of the Doomlich. They represent a behavioural disorder and a physical defect respectively, which will have mechanical consequences during narration.

If you want to define other descriptive aspects of your character, other cards can be extracted and used with the Narrative Traits table.

Pacts with Devils and Magic

In this setting, the Pacts with Devils have great importance. They can guarantee favours of various types since the cunning of the devils pushes them to tighten agreements to preserve themselves. From the pacts with these creatures, also Magic comes; Their Giblets (combined with special formulas and seals) allow exceptional effects, whose power increases directly proportionally with that of the devil that grants it. Obviously, nothing is simple in the Four Pastures and the price to pay should never be underestimated; it depends, just like the type of enchantment, on the type of devil with which a pact is tightened:

• Necromancies, Conjurations and Evil-eyes (granted by Cups devils): they channel the malicious energy of this land and, through arcane formulas, influence the souls of its inhabitants. This is the only category provided with a classic list of spells to consult.
• Illusions and Divinations (granted by the Coins devils): they deeply deceive the mind of the targets or provide looks on the future, true or false that they are.
• Manipulations (granted by the Swords and Wands devils): they temporarily enhance the physique, providing advantages for both combat and other circumstances.

Magic can be harnessed in two ways. The Grimoires are rare tomes that contain the formulas of powerful arcane rituals with devastating effects but which require the right application of content. The Relics are objects (often consumable or rechargeable) that provide decidedly useful benefits but must be used at the right time.

Review of the Mechanics of Mano Sinistra – NecroBriscola

A premise: the manual recommends giving greater weight to common sense and narration, rather than rules and their strict application. After all, the game system is already considerably lethal and the important thing is to create an interesting story. For the same reasons, the detailed preparation of the sessions is rejected, preferring a more free approach; the setting and its depth will provide interesting elements regardless of the choices of the protagonists.

As it transpires widely from this review, the Italian Briscola card game plays a fundamental role in Mano Sinistra – NecroBriscola. For this reason, it is important to know what it is and which cards (from the lowest to the highest value) are used: 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, Page, Knight, King, Three, and Ace. The result necessary to overcome a test depends on its value of the relative Ability Score (Mastery, Vigor, Insight, Faith), which determines the success threshold. With particular results, it is also possible to achieve greater successes and greater failures.

The tests of this game (which take the name of Saving Draws) are the situations in which the outcome of an action is uncertain or dangerous. The narrator (called Dealer) can also decide when it makes sense to extract and when the outcome is already written. In cases Saving Draw is needed, all players at the table can bring into play elements that can facilitate or make tests more difficult; they can be the Assignment, the Arsenal or some circumstances. In both cases three cards are extracted; in the event of Advantage, the Doomlich chooses which to keep, while the Disadvantage offers the benefit of the decision to the Dealer.

The Influences of the Game World

The basic mechanics are very simple to learn and apply; fortunately, there are also deeper aspects of the ruleset which, in addition to being mechanically fun, make the show the Four Pastures weight.

The Exhausted condition, for example, is acquired in various circumstances; it can take place when primary needs are missing (such as food or rest) when greater failures are obtained when wearing armour while being weakened to support them and to ignore the disadvantage to some tests. After accumulating enough, it will be more complicated to achieve successes and damage will be suffered every time it will be at stake again.

The Oppression is also very interesting when the character is crushed by a negative shadow that prevents them from having greater successes or advantages, as well as risking leading them to Fits of Madness that give the control of the character to the Dealer. It also accumulates in very particular circumstances, such as the use of the Vow to avoid bad results in the tests, the repression of an obsession and some particularly unfavourable environmental conditions.

To remedy these malus and in general to recover lost Pain, the characters simply rest. The duration varies according to the conditions and not all the places are suitable, if you want to survive. However, there are also some arcane remedies to facilitate the process, but nothing is easily accessible.

Review of the Combats of Mano Sinistra – NecroBriscola

Many adverse conditions and the need to heal are consequences of a very important element of this TTRPG: combat. And the basic structure of a fight is quite classic; initiative establishes the order in which the characters act, in each turn, they can move and carry out an action (such as attacking, manoeuvring and casting spells) and a consumption of resources (mainly Pain, Oppression and Exhaustion) puts out of combat the participants.

What makes this aspect of Mano Sinistra-NecroBriscola unique is the use of Italian Briscola to verify the outcome of the actions. At the beginning of the round, three cards are distributed by the player; the Dealer, on the other hand, divides the opponents into attack groups (which follow the same rules as Doomlichs). The cards can be chosen between six in case of advantage or disadvantage; obviously, in one case the decision belongs to the player and in the other to the narrator. Each action then requires the use of a card, which must be themed with what it is decided to do; Swords cards are excellent for attacks and maneuvers, while Coins and Cups are suitable for certain types of spells.

So one of the two sides will be defeated. Doomlichs can always decide whether to stun or definitively eliminate their opponents. When a character arrives at 0 of Pain, their body melts and nothing remains but their Arsenal and a Fetish; it is a significant object that contains its soul, since the body is nothing more than a simulacrum. It is then up to their companions to decide whether to bring the Fetish to a temple and to pay for a new body for the unfortunate or not.

The Purpose of the Conflict

As anticipated at the beginning of this review, Mano Sinistra – NecroBriscola is a lethal roleplaying game. For this reason, conflict should be the last choice, something to appeal to when a situation degenerates to the point of not being resolved in any other way. To confirm this, the Doomlichs do not increase their skills by breaking down opponents but completing Devilish Hunts (important missions for their destiny). When this happens, the Dealer must evaluate whether what they live corresponds to greater knowledge and awareness of the game world and its inhabitants. However, this should not be evaluated individually for every character, but as a group; once again the value of a Doomlich Coven and the emphasis that this tabletop RPG puts on teamwork is clear.

In case of an affirmative response, you can proceed with the Advancement mechanics. I appreciated the fact that it also includes a disadvantage, the worsening of the degree of Obsession or Putrescence; after all, the more time you pass through the Four Pastures the more trauma increases. Fortunately, however, there are also advantages, selectable in a list in order to be able to narratively direct the development of the Doomlich. In detail, the player draws three cards and spends them choosing among:

• Improve one of the four Ability Scores
• Lower the level of Putrescence or that of Obsession
• Improve or replace Vow and Assignment
• Increase money (the Obols) in their possession
• Learn a new spell
• Acquire Giblets

Obviously each option has specific conditions, but it is clear how this system without classes gives great freedom in the development of the character.

Other Tools for the Dealer

In the event that the Coven survives a conflict (or exploration), the minimum that may seek is a reward in which to drown their malaise. The manual provides a table which, based on the situation and thematic categories, provides the right treasures.

In full OSR style, many other elements are left to chance. The section of the manual called Fortune Tellings includes a wide range of tables, useful for generating narrative elements when no other section of the manual comes to our rescue. Among them there are, for example, those relating to Devilish Hunts, traps, settlements, encounters and much more. There are also some tips to correctly interpret the results; after all, even here the extraction takes place through the Italian Briscola cards.

Obviously the world must be populated with the right nefarines and for this reason a Bestiary could not be missing. The imagination in the creation of the monsters is commendable and we can find, for example, the Satanduck, the Belzebull, the Volcan-dog, the Devilfox, the Rooster-Dragon and many others. At the end of this section, the authors provide us with the right tips to create our original NPCs and monsters.

For the Dealers who sin of acedia, I also point out the presence of Carnyrdom, a pre-made adventure. I find it extremely useful as this roleplaying game has very original tones and an example of adventure is very precious to understand how to set the sessions. In fact it can easily becoming a short campaign and offering a dozen game sessions. Without spoilers, I can anticipate that each Doomlich will receive an invitation letter for a tournament in which they cannot refuse to participate; at stake, after all, there will be a very coveted Fragment of Suit.

Review of Aesthetics of Mano Sinistra – NecroBriscola

The last page of the manual (before the summary) contains the character sheet; it is in full old-school style and contains everything you need to keep track of the evolution of the character.

The style is unmistakable and is themed with that of each illustration within the manual. You can find some examples of the art of David Genchi within this review, for the rest I can only advise you to browse Mano Sinistra – NecroBriscola and be struck by it. Very colourful figures in very “comic” style are, at the same time, creepy and fun; the dark edges and the wealth of details makes each image (even the black and white ones) a dark delight for the eyes. The map of the Four Pastures is particularly interesting, also available in large format and separated from the manual to be able to appreciate the details even more.

For the rest, the manual has a very classic structure and layout. It is a manual 17 cm x 24 cm with a flexible cover and about 130 pages. The font is simple and classic, sometimes black and sometimes red (always on a white background); the layout varies from one to two columns, but always remains very clean and contributes to excellent readability.

As if all this were not enough, the game also includes a deck of official Italian Briscola cards with personalized graphics. In addition to being visually perfectly themed with the manual, they are also qualitatively amazing; after all, they were produced by Dal Negro, synonymous with quality for Italian playing cards.

Conclusions of the Review of Mano Sinistra – NecroBriscola

Now I can conclude this review by saying that Mano Sinistra – NecroBriscola satisfied me from every point of view. It offers a game experience whose mechanics differ a lot from those of most roleplaying games. The use of Italian Briscola is as simple as it is effective; the setting, also thanks to a refined and never cloying lexicon, conquers and intrigues.

For these reasons (and for its excellent quality/price ratio) I think it is an excellent product for both the new and expert players. Like any good OSR, it leaves a lot of space for the fantasy of the narrator; for this reason, I recommend to each Dealer to carefully read the parts dedicated to the setting so as to never feel lost. At the same time, this feature further increases the replayability, making it a manual that it can potentially be enjoyed for years.

The only ones I recommend being away from this manual are the weak heart; the Four Pastures are not an land for weak and the Doom Goddess does not know pity!

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