If you’re a nerd, you almost certainly know Terry Pratchett. You may have read his work when you were younger, or perhaps yesterday. May I recommend tomorrow as a good time to start a Pratchett novel? If you’ve never read a Discworld story, never fear. The fine folx at Modiphius are experts at bringing worlds to life, and based on this QuickStart, Adventures in Anhk-Morpork will be the same. In just a few pages, they do a wonderful job of bringing the pages of Discworld to… well, to different pages.
I don’t want to reiterate something here. This review is based solely on the short digital QuickStart of Adventures in Anhk-Morpork, not the full rulebook. While I almost never review something like this, it just happens that I have the time and availability to make this happen. It also happens that pre-orders for the game are nearing their completion, so that’s good timing as well. I should also point out the VERY obvious point that I’m no Terry Pratchett. While I may have a casual tone, my wordsmithyness is embarrassingly subpar by comparison. Sorry to inflict that on you. Good luck, dear reader.
“In a distant and second-hand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part…
See…
Great A’Tuin the Turtle comes, swimming slowly through the interstellar gulf, hydrogen frost on his ponderous limbs, his huge and ancient shell pocked with meteor craters. Through sea-sized eyes that are crusted with rheum and asteroid dust. He stares fixedly at the Destination.
In a brain bigger than a city, with geological slowness, He thinks only of the Weight.
Most of the weight is of course accounted for by Berilia, Tubul, Great T’Phon and Jerakeen, the four giant elephants upon whose broad and star-tanned shoulders the disc of the World rests, garlanded by the long waterfall at its vast circumference and domed by the baby-blue vault of Heaven.”
– The Colour of Magic
THAT is Terry Pratchett, describing the Discworld upon which the players shall inflict the sort of roleplaying chaos that only players can inflict. That is also how this quickstart opens: With quick wit and an introduction to Discworld and the giant city of Ankh-Morpork, where the majority of play will take place.
Then, after the obligatory “What is a Roleplaying Game”, we just get straight into the system. The system powering the game was custom-built for Discworld, and consists of two core premises:
- The Disc has a story to tell, and left alone will spin on much as is always has done.
- The players want to change this story to one more to their liking.
Somewhere in the volumes of Pratchett’s tales, top research wizards discovered the element that makes Discworld what it is: Narrativium. This narratively named element is represented by the GM and is what players will need to contend with in their adventures. Whenever the players take an action that could fail, the GM determines how hard that action would be according to the character’s traits. The character will roll a die between a d4 and a d12, and the GM will roll the Narrativium Die, a d8. If the characters roll above the GM, they succeed. If they fail to outroll them, they obviously fail.
One of the most interesting features of the system is how it handles traits. Everything is a trait. Your name is a trait. Your background is a trait. That note about that itchy bug bite is a trait. In determining what die players will roll, they have to convince the GM of how they can use a trait in that test. Maybe the merchant you are haggling with knows your family, and your name will help you find a wizard. Maybe that crazy wizard likes a challenge, and he’ll take care of your itch with an experimental salve. You might turn green, but he’ll be grateful to you. Maybe your new green complexion will help you hide in the forest from those creatures. Maybe your green complexion makes you look a bit creature-like, and you get captured by the Watch.
Wordplay is vital to Adventures in Anhk-Morpork. Having a good knowledge of the source material is not required, however, it helps. The Characters and Traits section mentions offhand that Trolls are smarter in the cold. This is something I assume one would know from reading more Terry Pratchett, and/or that may be included in the full rules. But it’s a detail I didn’t know, so I wouldn’t have been able to leverage it in a test. Although, if you can convince the GM of a fake fact, good for you.
The second half of the quickstart is a mystery adventure called Up in Smoke. The players each select one of the pregenerated characters, all of whom are members of the Ankh-Morpork police force, the Watch. They have been asked to investigate a break-in at Lady Rankin’s Sunshine Sanctuary for Sick Dragons. If you are a player and were hoping that I might spill the magic beans about some detail that will help you, sorry. No spoilers here. Just the mention that it exists, and it looks like a ton of fun.
To wrap things up, Discworld Adventures in Ankh-Morpork looks to be a fantastic way to get yourself into the Discworld if you’re not already a fan of Pratchett, and an even more fantastic way to delve even deeper into the legendary world he created if you already are a fan. As I write this, preorders for Adventures in Ankh-Morpork are still open, but not for much longer.
You can find more great Star Trek games, and more, by visiting Modiphius Entertainment online at modiphius.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/Modiphius.
