Watch Well Games #64
GRIT Fantasy RPG review. Art from our upcoming zine The Quintessential Curios.
Welcome to our community newsletter👋 I’m K.J. I’ve been busy making art for a new RPG Quick Start that Watch Well Games plan to release soon and also promotional and marketing tasks for the creators coalition zine The Quintessential Curios. I posted some sneak peeks on the substack Notes (here, here, and here) and over on Bluesky. Follow along and join in the conversations if you’d like.
Because of all that, today’s newsletter is shorter. Enjoy Wazza’s review of GRIT Fantasy RPG. The art looks fun and the layout appears super clean. I’m looking forward to playing it soon myself!
GRIT Fantasy RPG: A Review by Wazza
Want a rules-lite fantasy TTRPG that’s perfect for one shots and short campaigns? Then why not check out the GRIT Fantasy RPG by GnomeBot Studios who kindly provided me with a review copy. What we have here is a quirky all-in-one fantasy game which GMs and players can pick up and learn in no time. You can download a digital copy from DTRPG for $9.99 for a 138-page black-and-white rules book, extremely well laid-out and easy to digest. The cover art has Toad from Mario Kart angrier cousin spoiling for a fight and is indicative of the art style used throughout, eye-catching and imaginative. And guess what? The D12 is the primary die used throughout. I can’t remember the last time I rolled one, so it’s nice to see it receiving some love.
The core rules are only 13 pages long with players making checks on a D12 adding a D4, D6 or a D8 focus die to beat a static difficulty number from 3-12 or an opposed roll made by a NPC or monster. GRIT uses five aspects which apply either a positive or negative modifier to the D12 roll, known as Might, Valor, Prowess, Insight, and Command. Players also have an extra resource in the form of focus dice. At the beginning of every game session you have a D4, a D6, and a D8 which can be used to add to the D12 roll. Use them wisely however as once they’re gone they won’t return until the next session. To cut down on gear accumulation and troublesome encumbrance rules GRIT uses a simple ten-slot system where each piece of gear takes up one slot.
Combat is quick and round based with attacks made against either a static target number or an opposed roll. Roll higher than the target number or your opponent and whatever the difference is that’s the amount of damage you deal or get dealt. GRIT is also the term given for Hit Points with a maximum of 10, run out and you can choose to go out in a blaze of glory or stave off the grim reaper by reducing your GRIT to 5. Armor and Shields have SOAK values which reduce damage by a fixed amount. A short section provides rules for brawling, disarming, grappling, hunkering down, improvised weapons, paired weapons, shield bashing, surprise attacks, and an informative single page combat example.
So with the rules out of the way we come to creating your hero in five simple steps. Choose a lineage from the usual Dwarves, Elves, and Humans to the unusual in the form of Frooms (fun-guys), Ruckwors (rock-hard), and Wildern (cute anthropomorphic woodland creatures). Next add up to +4 between three strong aspects and -2 for the remaining weak ones. Select one unique piece of gear, your basic gear in the form of weapons, armor and all the other stuff, choose a name and you’re ready to play. And that’s the players section done.
The GM’s guide provides advice on target numbers, combat, and monsters. And once you’re comfortable with the basics there’s a slew of optional rules to try out such as criticals, dawdle breaking (players, you know who you are), and limiting the looting of dead PC’s (players, you really know who you are). What follows are numerous tables for story building by choosing or randomly rolling the elements of plot, terrain, location, detail, and event. Then expanded with an encounter builder for monsters and NPCs. And for dessert magical effects and traps.
Monsters, we all need them and GRIT doesn’t disappoint. Classified into mooks, goons, bosses you can turn any monster into a seven stone weakling or a 500 pound gorilla. So think twice the next time you pick on that poor goblin. There are forty listed from the standard fantasy varieties to GRIT critters like the Gloopgore and the Nafflenook. Subsequently we have a 3-page build-your-own-monster kit. The game ends on loot, whether it’s gear, consumables or artifacts, GRIT has you covered. The final page is a character sheet and we’re done.
So GRIT is fun and that comes through in the writing and presentation. This game has a sense of humor but nothing overt. You can choose to play it straight or inject the humorous stuff without spoiling anything. I found this to be a refreshing take on the fantasy genre with an effective and well-thought out system. Take a look.
That’s a wrap! Remember:
We’re still accepting submissions for the WWG Non-Awards🗳️ Leave a comment, DM, or email kj@watchwellgames.com. We’ll feature them in the next 5th Friday newsletter (Oct. 31st).
Hedgehogs come from the order Eulipotyphla, and the name’s derivation is “truly fat and blind.”
You can pick up a copy of GRIT Fantasy RPG on DriveThruRPG here (affiliate link): https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/484167/grit-fantasy-rpg?affiliate_id=1885026