Premise
Described by its authors as a “Grim Punk” setting. The government has redacted much of the world’s history, but has recently allowed study of ancient history. It turns out the world’s history is filled with some very, VERY weird things. Reminiscent of an interesting fusion of Dungeons and Dragons and Call of Cthulhu, but set in its own world that’s reminiscent of 1930’s North America.
Core Mechanics
Most rolls are 1d20+Modifiers.
Critical Successes and Failures are natural 20 and 1, OR succeeded or failing by 10.
Criticals of either kind add either a positive or negative additional detail to the situation. E.g. A locked door slides open without a sound, or your lock picks get stuck inside the door.
Quick and Dirty Character Creation
Very similar to D&D, with some notable divergences.
Pick Race and Pedigree. Determine Attributes (Roll 4d6, drop lowest / Array / Point Buy).
Choose Primary and Secondary Attributes. These determine Skill Points and Ability Costs.
Gain Character points for buying Merits, Attribute Increases, or Abilities. (Flaws give back points.)
Assign Skill Ranks. (Based on Primary and Secondary Attributes)
Determine Sanity Saves vs Violence, Moral Outrage, and Supernatural. (13, 10, 7. Lower is better.)
Determine Character’s Background. (Pick a skill. This is their job and their rank determines how much money they would reasonably have.)
What It Does Well or Interestingly
Takes a familiar structures, but makes enough changes to create a meaningfully different experience. i.e. There’s no classes, and sanity is has plenty of its own details.
Potential Pitfalls
The core book is 600 pages long; which can be an intimidating read. Pedigrees require some knowledge of the game’s setting. Even if you’re well versed in Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder, there’s ample things it does differently from any editions of those games that knowledge of one will not necessarily guarantee you know Acheron.
Sections to Pay Attention To
The Sanity system gives weight to character actions, as well as a potentially non-violent way of handling enemies. (Discover what bothers them, hound them with that phenomenon till they lose their mind. Use their fear as leverage.)
Abilities list is long, but is where a bulk of a character’s defining actions will come in. Akin to “Feats” from D&D 3.5 or Pathfinder.
Status Conditions are mentioned in many different spells and Abilities.
Final Thoughts
Recommended for Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder players who want a game that’s different from the typical high fantasy dungeon crawl setup, but still uses some familiar ideas.
