Q & A: Whips and Chains
What follows is a couple of recently asked questions about Symbaroum’s tangled mechanics, where I’ve come back with a solid response (though I’m not claiming […]
Rules
Assistance & Failure
A question was posed on Reddit about tests: In a Vigilant test for searching tracks or Cunning to remember something, if an ally wants to […]
Accurate Is My Dump Stat
It seems to be a clarion call for the existing Symbaroum players to call out this much maligned Attribute. You have to assign a score […]
Embracing Symbaroum
In gaming, as with so many other hobbies and pastimes, there are different views and perspectives of what works, what doesn’t, what’s right, what’s unhelpful. […]
Calculating Defense
It’s one of those challenges. While all the books come with the details of your antagonists laid out, you still feel the need to wonder […]
Deep Connections
Those more used to games that service party building through mechanical reward or for which association comes through engineering selection, assigning members of the group […]
Herbal Cures
Alchemists and masters of herbal arts prepare cures to many and varied recipes, none ever alike. All come in the form of a soft, moist […]
Words of Power
Information can be everything and nothing, depending on how you look at it. Perhaps, in some unintentional way, the use of the word Cunning is […]
Davokar in minimald6
I find that tinkering with ideas can be a wellspring for creative thought, so I read the short text of Thronelands with interest. And then […]
Trust in a Promised Land
Introductory adventure The Promised Land, from the Core Book, offers an interesting opportunity to deal with the themes and environment that make up Symbaroum’s world. […]
Experience Points
You won’t get your players to spend their experience on anything during a session if it isn’t burning a hole in the table right in […]
More Monstrous Boons
When the Monster Codex arrives in the middle of next year, Symbaroum will have more than enough beasts and monsters on offer to throw at […]
The Taint of Corruption – part 4
The Advanced Player’s Guide introduces further Mystical Traditions to lend further depth and variety to the study of the arcane in Symbaroum. The continuation of […]
The Taint of Corruption – part 3
The treatise on matters of corruption and the debilitating burden of the magic arts continues, with an account of Independent Mystics and the lingering malignancy […]
The Taint of Corruption – part 2
Continuing the treatise upon the manifestations and management of corrupting energies by the Traditions of Ambria and beyond – see Part 1 for matters concerning […]
Symbaroum on the Cards
I’ve touched on the business of the Zero Level character before and the pleasures to be had in the process of taking players through the […]
The Taint of Corruption – part 1
The stain of Corruption is a reality for any practitioner of the mystic arts, or for those braving artefacts or locations where magic invites the […]
Arms of Quality
Mechanics don’t necessarily need to make perfect sense, but when they don’t a game can often descend into a much less satisfying experience. When a […]
The Lies That Bind
The PCs come to a settlement where many of the population have gathered in the centre to listen to the words of a rough clad […]
Arrows and Quivers
The business of arrows and quivers in Symbaroum doesn’t seem ready to slink into the background. In a Reddit discussion about Symbaroum archers being overpowered, […]
L is for Long Doors
The rules aren’t the same wherever you go; the world just doesn’t work that way and will throw you a curve ball when you least […]
I is for Identity Magic
The act of stealing the identity of another can only come from violence. The assumption of the physical appearance of someone else demands payment of […]
G is for Gaoian Mysticism
Witches of the barbarian tribes embrace the traditions of the Old Gods, discounted or blasted as heretical by the church of Ambria. The witches know the […]
D is for Despair and Dismay
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown The stress and […]
B is for Boons and Burdens
The nicest thing about Boons and Burdens, introduced in the Advanced Player’s Guide, has to be that they have a much less obvious connection to […]
No Unpleasant Surprises
Newcomers to any game have a lot of questions to ask and I hope those who already play those games can offer some good advice. A new […]
What’s a Scene?
The basis of an adventure in Symbaroum, a Scene stands as a means to determine the ‘value’ of an adventure — or just a session […]
