Troika! Numinous Edition

 

Troika! Numinous Edition by Daniel Sell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had ordered this book quite some time ago, but with the state of the mail system from the UK to the US, it arrived literally two days before I was to play in my first game of Troika! at the Gameholecon RPG convention. I crammed as much as I could, but it wasn't until I was at the table and saw the game in situ, if you will, that I saw, firsthand, just how innovative it is.

I've respected Daniel Sell's work for quite some time. With a blog entitled "What Would Conan Do?" how can you possibly go wrong by following his advice, let alone playing in a system that he created? I'd been following Daniel's blog for many years and learned a fair amount from it - and I am a very experienced gamer, so it takes some practical and stylistic fireworks to impress me on the gaming front - so I knew that Troika! would be something special. At least that was my expectation.

And my expectations were exceeded.

This isn't a D&D clone. It's an altogether different system, as if D&D had been created in another dimension where psilocybin spores fill the air, the sky is pink and cream, and anatomy doesn't behave like it does in our universe. That said, the system is incredibly light and simple. In places, most notably in its treatment of initiative, in the simplicity and broad implications of spells, and in the non-standard monsters (each replete with their own "mien" table to determine the mood of a specific being encountered at the time of the encounter), the system is downright innovative.

Simple, innovative, and incredibly quirky - what's not to like?

Like I said, I've been doing this RPG thing for a long time (since 1979, to be exact), and I've seen a lot of systems come and go. Having read through the book and played a session of Troika!, I have a strong feeling that this one is going to become a favorite of mine (ranked up there with AD&D, DCCRPG, Call of Cthulhu, and Traveller).

As with the aforementioned RPGs, it's the mix of system and setting that I enjoy. There are no maps, but the implied setting reads something like the cross between a Michael Moorcock novel, a Hawkwind album (well, this one in particular), and a really, really cool acid trip. I'm thinking that The Ultraviolet Grasslands and The Black City might be the ultimate campaign setting for this game. Oh, my. Now I really, REALLY want to run a campaign of this! Where are my six-siders? I'm ready to roll . . . er, role . . . I mean . . . you know.

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