Further Afield is hands down the best "how to set up a campaign" sourcebook I have seen.

Building off the life-path character generation system in Beyond the Wall Further Afield ensures that every character is tied into the campaign world and that every player is invested in its development.

This supplement also includes four major campaign nemeses that can be used to provide background and overarching plot hooks if desired.

Combining this with Beyond the Wall it should be possible to roll up characters, create a campaign world, and just maybe even play the first adventure in a single long play session.

If your gaming groups focus is character driven and shared world building then this is the perfect game. The concept of play books and scenario packs is a genius idea that more rpg's should consider in their support products. I'm looking forward to any future products that will be released for this system!

What do you need to know?

Beyond the Wall And Other Adventures is an old school roleplaying game in the style of D&D. Another retroclone? Yep. But the premise is a bit different. The authors took inspiration from the stories of Ursula K. LeGuin, Lloyed Alexander and Susan Cooper. So this is a game where you play coming-of-age stories with childhood friends in a low-fantasy world.

So, what makes Beyond the Wall (BtW) different? First, the tone and second, the scenario-driven play. BtW has playbooks and scenario packs. These are pre-made randomized situations which you can plug into play. Those who know Apocalypse World and other Powered-by-the-Apocalypse-games (PtbA) will be immediately familiar with the concept of playbooks. Old school gamers might know them from the excellent free game Old School Hack by Kirin Robinson (please take a look). Basically, you have a ready-made character sheet and choose (or roll) options instead of creating your character from scratch. The playbooks often use archetypes. Characters are more specialized because they have unique abilities which other classes can’t choose.

Let’s take a look at character creation!

Character Creation

The game offers standard character creation as an alternative method: there are three base classes: Warrior, Mage and Rogue. Apart from the usual aspects (Warriors can wear any type of armor, Mages have fewest hit points) every class has special class abilities. Warrios have Weapon Specialization and Knacks (i.e. Defensive Fighter (+1 AC) or Resilience (+1 to all Saving Throws). Rogues are the skill monkeys and get Highly Skilled and Fortunes Favor (more luck points, explained later). Mages can do Spell Casting and Sense Magic. There are also rules for multiclassing.

The playbooks handle character generation a bit differently. You collaboratively go through different stages of your character’s childhood and adolescence. Each stage has a table where you have to roll on. (I like the idea of random tables, it’s something which I find very old-school.) The outcome gives you background story, bonds to other characters and mechanical bonuses. You are encouraged to elaborate on the results instead of simply rolling and moving on. For example from The Young Woodsmann:

What was your childhood like? (roll 1d12) […] 5: Your father was the local smith and taught you both hammer and bellows. Gain: +2 Str, +1 Dex, +1 Cha, Skill: Smithing

So, the advantage of this system is that you get a well-rounded character with his own niche, background story and character relationships. Your alter-ego is not a blank slate but already a “character”. Furthermore, the character creation is done together at the table. One entry deliberately ties PCs together, that makes working together as a party easier.

The disadvantage I can see is that customization is limited. The playbooks both are unique but also act as a limit to what you can do. Well, you always have the option of using the alternative rules and roll a character from sratch. Additionally, there are only three base classes. The distinction between different characters will most likely come from the base class and then background and flavor which the playbooks easily convey.

Character Advancement

In D&D-fashion you gain experience by leveling up, for example for defeating monsters. As a nod to more modern games you also gain experience points for finishing stories, solving mysteries and attaining goals.

The Rules

Basics

Let me put this up front: It’s an old school D&D retroclone so most of the time you’ll get what you expect. There are the classic five attributes (Strength, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom) and a level-based class-system. Everyone is human but optional rules for elves, dwarves and halflings exist. Alignment uses the 3-fold-alignment-system: lawful, chaotic and neutral.

Generally, the authors emphasize easy and clear rules. The text is very accessible and beginner-friendly. Although the designers assume some familiarity with roleplaying games there is advice and guidance for gamemastering and a basic explanation of terminology.

Interestingly, Initiative uses a fixed Dexterity-derived score so the order of combat is not very dynamic. BtW has ascending armor class. I really like that, it’s more intuitive for me than descending armor class. An unarmored human has AC 10. Hitpoints depend on your chosen class. For instance, Warriors have a d10. Kudos to the authors for explaining how they see the Hitpoint mechanic: damage up till 0 HP means scratches and near misses. If you fall under 0 HP you suffer serious damage and are unconscious. A PC loses 1 HP each round, at -10 HP he is dead.

Saving Throws: Poison, Breath Weapon, Polymorph, Spell and Magic Item. If you come from D&D 3e there are alternative rules for Fortitude, Reflex and Will.

Let’s get to an original mechanic (in regards to D&D not rpgs in general): Fortune Points. What’s that? Basically, they are Bennies (you know Savage Worlds, right?). It’s a meta-gaming currency which gives the players control over the game world. By spending a FP you can avoid death, re-roll a die roll or help out a friend even though you don’t have an applicable skill.

Finally, BtW has a rudimentary skill system. Although there is no list with default skills there are still suggestions like Stealth, Acrobatics, Cooking etc.

Keep rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ ….

I’m a friend of unified task resolution systems. BtW doesn’t deliver me that but luckily, there are only two systems in place. Ability Score Checks and thus Skill Checks are roll-under (or equal). If you have an applicable skill your target number increases by +2. So if you’ve got a DEX of 14 and want to sneak, you need to roll under or equal 14 and if you are skilled in Stealth it’s 16. Saving Throws and Attack Rolls are roll-over (or equal).

Collaboration and helping each other is stressed. Mechanically, you are only allowed to help another PC if you have a suitable skill. Alternatively, you can spend a Fortune Point.

What I really like is that the authors explain how group efforts is handled. Does everyone roll, does just one PC roll with the help of another or does perhaps just the weakest character roll? They also offer advice for reaction rolls, charisma checks, skill rolls, perception and searching etc.

All in all, I really like this chapter. The tips are solid and especially useful for newer game-masters or people not used to D&D. After reading this chapter I feel well prepared for a game as the most common situations are covered. It’s nicely explained with a friendly tone.

Fight!

If you know D&D there’s no surprise here which I count as a good thing. Armor Class is ascending so making an attack means you need to roll equal or over your opponent’s AC. In melee, you add your Strength modifier, ranged uses +Dex. Coming from 3e, everything feels familiar. The obvious difference to other D&D games is that Initiative has a fixed value. If you don’t like that you can easily house-rule it. Damage depends on your chosen weapon. Natural healing is 1 HP each night. If your reach -10 HP you’re dead. Fortune Points reset at the beginning of each adventure.

Beyond Fighting: True Names & Magic

These chapters really show how BtW differs in tone from the standard fantasy heroic assumption of D&D. Creatures like spirits and demons have a True Name. Knowing the name gives you power over such a creature.

Now, magic. BtW is supposed to be low-fantasy and the magic rules cleverly represent that but still are true to the D&D-mechanics. On the one hand, some spells are the usual (Magic Missile). On the other hand, other entries are flavored towards the setting. That means there are spells like Sense Nature or Pass Without Trace. Spells have three groups: Cantrips, Spells and Rituals. Cantrips are familiar. You need to make an ability score check (either Wisdom or Intelligence) but you can cast them as often as you like. They only have minor effects but failure should result in some complication. A beginner character has one or two cantrips at his disposal. Spells also work as expected, they have a level, a range and a duration keyword and some allow the affected creature to make a Saving Throw. A mage can only cast a number of spells equal to his level. You can learn new spells by spending one week for studying (and making an Intelligence test). The ingenious thing about BtW’s magic system is that more powerful spells are categorized as Rituals. It isn’t easy to cast Fireball or Invisibility. Rituals are powerful magic and they require a lot of time (1 hour per spell level), special ingredients and an ability check to cast successfully. Moreover, a caster can only cast Rituals equal to his caster level. Learning new Rituals is equally difficult.

BtW’s magic is potentially powerful but it requires a lot of effort to use. This fits well into the low-fantasy world. A Mage character can’t rely on spellcasting alone to be effective. While I find this approach very appealing and it fits well into the game designer’s intent it might not be for everyone.

So, what’s more? There are rules for magic items. This section explains how to create them and also has some sample items. For example:

Love A staple of every witch’s repertoire, the love potion’s strength will vary by maker. Our local wise woman’s brew made me fall in love with the next woman I saw; it took the work of another three witches to free my heart. The drinker is affected as though the target cast the False Friend spell.

Someone needs to be the GM…

… and he could do worse than Beyond the Wall. As you’ve already seen the rules are straight-forward and easy, especially for someone already familiar with D&D. The rules are explained well and the GM chapter is no exception.

The topic features some advice on how to utilize BtW’s unique feature, the use of playbooks and scenario packs. How do you guide your players through character creation and how do you make the most out of the scenario packs? How do you build the characters’ village? I find this information very useful. The book is very encouraging towards newer Game Masters.

BtW lends itself to collaborative world building but might be a bit more forgiving than PbtA-games. The scenario packs and the random tables give you a bit more structure than the slightly more freeform nature of PbtA-games. This lowers the entry threshold and might be useful for players who are not familiar with having influence over the game world in this regard. The playbooks have special symbols which tell you where you can add a location or a character to the village.

Plus, this section of the book offers general game-mastering tips like “Make it personal” or “Keep Things Moving.”

There is a Bestiary as well and it features some appropriate monsters. There is a Faerie Lord, Merfolk, Kranken and ordinary monsters like Goblins, Skeletons and more. It’s a good mixture. If you want to have Demons in your game, the book got you covered, too. Demons have True Names and those are pretty important.

Playbooks & Scenario Packs

The book has six playbooks: – The Self-Taught Mage – The Untested Thief – The Village Hero – The Witch’s Prentice – The Would-Be Knight – The Young Woodsman

An optional playbook for demihumans is also provided: The Elven Highborn. Other playbooks are available as separate downloads for free (see below). Also included are two scenario packs, The Angered Fae and The Hidden Cult. Both look very interesting and especially the Fae one conveys BtW’s tone very well. The scenario packs come with a list of suggested monsters and a list of names. I can see myself running these scenarios with (almost) zero prep. (I would read the scenario pack beforehand to get a feel for the game.)

Appearance

The PDF weighs in with 153 pages total and has digital bookmarks. It has a classic, easy to read two-column-style layout and makes good use of boxed text. The cover art by Jon Hodgson is simply amazing. Some opinion on having a premium color hardcover: The book looks sweet and the higher paper quality avoids color bleeding. However, most of the artwork is black and white. It looks good but I feel it’s a bit wasted for a color book. The text would look as good in black and white as the layout and typography is simple. The boxed text uses a subtle green but grey would work as well. The print version costs USD $35.74 plus shipping & handling. For me a softcover version with black and white text would be nice to have. It will look almost as good and will be cheaper.

Additional material

Just recently Further Afield was released. I didn’t read it yet so I can’t give you my opinion. The supplement expands the rules to campaign play.

There are also new playbooks and another scenario (free): DTRPG link.

The publisher’s website has some more freebies, i.e. a bestiary: Freebies (link).

Further discussion and fan-generated material can be found in the G+ community (link).

The Verdict

What do I like? The authors wanted to create a game that models the coming-of-age stories and literature of Earthsea or Chronicles of Prydain and requires minimal prep. Goal achieved! BtW is a clear and concise D&D ruleset which is well written. The game mechanics are familiar but the playbooks and scenario packs give it an own spin. For me the game marries two things I like: old school gaming and some modern concepts (the playbooks). The game would be very well suited for introducing younger players to roleplaying. It’s fairly kid-friendly and especially teenagers will like the focus on young heroes growing up.

What would I’ve liked to see? More advice on generating playbooks. Look at the Dungeon World community: people are always coming up with new character ideas. The six pregens get you started and you could use the alternate character rules to make a multiclass but I would have liked to see a bit more material on this topic. The same goes for creating scenario packs. As already mentioned, I think it would be a good idea to offer a softcover black & white print option as a cheaper alternative to the premium hardcover.

Final thoughts: I own a lot of old school D&D games, perhaps too many. They are very similar. So do I really need another game? Probably not but I like Beyond the Wall. I’m really glad I bought it. It’s unique enough to merit a look at it. It uses a setting idea and tone that’s different. It takes ideas from newer games and incorporates it into D&D. At the end of the day, it’s a niche within a niche and you must decide if you’re interested in such a game.

This is a real gold nugget! The lifepath system to generate characters from the BtW (fast and rich) is here expanded to create a whole campaign. The creation process is kept as short and focused and with simple and inspiring tools and mechanisms for the GM to expand and run with the players ideas. These small products gives me more ideas and inspiration than hundred of pages from other companies! The rules are in the spirit of light OSR but is a piece of cake to transform into any rulessystem.

This system addresses one of the main complaints my players have of my OSR adventures, that their characters are sometimes not well suited for adventuring and lack much background or connection with the other player characters. The playbook system included in this is pretty amazing, it is not really an OSR way to create characters because you get to pick your class/archetype first and then roll to build up the background and suitable stats for that character. The playbooks are really quick to run though, and I like that I can hand out self-directed playbooks to players so that everyone can create their characters in parallel. The generation process looks like it creates easier characters, not quite as hard-core as classic roll 3d6 for stats and deal with the early demise of several characters in even a novice adventure.

The book claims to do a complete adventure, from scratch, in 4-5 hours. If this is true, this seems like a rather good system to run at a con. Especially given that the overall system will be familiar to most players, who can help assist new players.

I plan to run this system in my next adventure. And that it has mostly classic rules makes it highly compatible with other supplements (I'm a big Swords & Wizardry fan)

The biggest flaw is that there isn't a lot of direction given for a DM to construct a playbook. But there are about 19 playbooks available already to use as examples, so perhaps as I become more familiar with the technique it will seem less daunting.

Overall: A tremendous value.

Super cool! The OSR rules are pretty straight forward, but the game's Playbooks and Scenarios are totally inspiring and awesome!

A rare treasure. Based on the familar rules mechanics of the early editions of D&D, this is not a retro-clone. It truly does something different. Lloyd Alexander, Ursula LeGuin and JRR Tolkien in his lighter moments shine through. "Farmer Giles of Ham" could be a scenario pack for this game. I would add the Princess Bride, Ladyhawke, the Beastmaster and a healthy dollop of folklore to the inspirations.

Beyond the Wall does an excellent job of building characters who are real people with a reason to adventure together. The Village is built along with the characters in a fluid manner. There are hints of a deeper and broader world scattered through the game, "The Endless Pit of the West", the "Sunken City", the deserts of the East. None of these recieve any more fleshing out besides the name, but the names evoke a sense of adventuring possibilities.

This would be an excellent game to introduce new players to RPGing with. I think it would also shine as a convention game. Instead of being handed pregenerated characters with potted backgrounds the players can quickly build their own characters and backgrounds.

Fantastic game. Had an adventure up and running within 30 minutes of the gang showing up. From scratch!

Yet another welcome addition to this already excellent RPG. This expansion includes rules for introducing goblins, the wicked fae, into your game. (These aren't exactly Tolkienesque goblins. Just as the dwarves and elves in the previous expansion, these goblins are more in line with the low fantasy of LeGuin and Alexander). Details on goblin magic, templates for various goblin-kinds, traits to add variety and depth to your goblin creations, and instructions on designing your own goblin-infested warrens for your adventurers to explore are all provided.

In addition, you're provided with an excellent scenario pack that allows you to quickly roll up any number of goblin-infested adventures for your young heroes. As with the previous scenario pack, the various generators let you up and running in no time (the cave generator is particularly fun).

For the price of FREE, Flatland Games continues to provide excellent material, worthy of greater critical attention from the RPG community.

This product hits all the right notes: its simple to grasp, simple to run, infinitely inspiring, and endlessly enjoyable.

It is based around a 3 class system, Warrior, Rogue, and Mage a common enough system; what makes it shine, though, is its use of life-path style "playbooks" used to generate characters. These playbooks combine the classes in interesting ways while providing tidbits of background that help to create "real" histories as well as providing common bonds between the characters. It is possible to create characters without using the playbook but what fun is that?

While the players are creating characters the GM is busy monitoring the results of the players rolls in the playbook and making notes. At certain points in the character generation process players create places and NPC's that occupy the starting town. This is a neat mini-game that gets everyone involved in the game from the get-go. To me this seems to imply that new characters are created for each adventure yet the core rules contain XP charts that take characters all the way up to level 10 so I am not sure how the elements of scenario packs get filled in if the same characters are used adventure to adventure.

There is a simple skill system; having a skill provides a +2 bonus when making a check. While there is no official set list of skills, in play a characters could learn just about anything, the skills granted during character generation by the playbooks give a nice idea of how general/specific skills should be.

The magic system is a thing of beauty. It breaks magic up into 3 types:

1. Cantrips, which are simple acts of magic that can be cast multiple times a day using an attribute check, at the Mages whim,
2. Spells, which are more powerful acts of magic which can be cast at a moments notice. A Mage can cast a number of spells per day equal to his level,
3. and Rituals; the most powerful acts of magic with expensive components and long casting times.

Instead of adventures Beyond the Wall uses the idea of scenario packs; essentially the barebones of an adventure with some random elements and elements that tie into the participating characters backgrounds. It is a neat idea and I think it will work well but I have not had the chance to run a game yet.

The description doesn't state it but the zip file also includes a Bestiary that covers a wide range of creatures useful for many different types of adventures.

I have never read the works of Lloyd Alexander but I would say that Beyond the Wall definitely exudes the feeling of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea novels. For those that haven't read either of the mentioned authors I have a hard time putting a name to the type of fantasy this game is meant to represent, its not High Fantasy in the AD&D sense of Wizards throwing Fireballs around but it isn't Low Magic either; magic is a force to be reckoned with, but in a way that I might call "gentle".

The game falls on the low end of the rules complexity scale, but the upside to this is it easy to run and makes it very easy to house rule. I find the game is very inspiring making it much easier to prepare material as there are so many little nuggets built into the system.

Summary: If you are looking for a simple game that is easy to pick up and run, something modern and new yet still very much based on the old school, I highly recommend checking out Beyond the Wall.

A welcome addition to this already excellent RPG. This expansion includes six new playbooks for fae characters, four of which are multi-class:

Dwarven Adventurer Dwarven Rune Caster (multiclass) Elven Highborn (multiclass) Elven Ranger (multiclass) Halfling Outrider (multiclass) Halfling Vagabond

You also get new fae-themed spells available to any mage, and a bevy of additional NPC's, from tiny pixies to mighty faery lords, to incorporate in your campaigns.

A nice addition to the core rules. Not only does this product double the number of playbooks available it also creates multiclassed characters. In addition this expansion gives write-ups for NPCs commonly found in castles.

Beyond the Wall is a real gem. The core rules are easily picked up by anyone with any familiarity with rpgs, and probably by those new to rpgs. The magic system is very flavorful and a nice variation on the old standard D&D "fire and forget". The selection of magic items, while small are very flavorful and descriptive. The monsters are pretty standard fare for the most part, but there are special sections on creating demons, dragons and goblins.

By far my favorite part of the game is the class playbooks, which are used in creating characters from the three core classes (Mage, Rogue and Fighter). With a few rolls using the playbooks, a player generates his characters ability scores, a general background complete with skills and a connection to the other characters, plus NPCs and plot hooks for the GM. In my 25+ years of gaming this is the most fun I have had creating a character.

Beyond the Wall & Other Adventures is a very charming and well designed game. I bought it without a second thought after reading that Lloyd Alexander was one of the major inspirations! Life long fan of his after all. Thankfully it did not disappoint! It is well laid out and easy to read and understand, anyone with a bit of old school D&D history will be right at home here.

I believe they did what they intended here, a game you can just sit down and play "out of the box". Not everyone will be interested in this style of game, but am itching to give it a run. Specific things to point out would be the inclusion of the more modern style saving throws as an optional system for those that dislike the older edition ones and a very nice section on crafting adversaries. My only real complaint would be that there is only one Scenario Book included. While it is a good one and does have replay value, it would have been nice to have a second one or at least available elsewhere. Not that it would be hard to write one up, just that more modules would go a long way in helping the out of the box goal.

Overall, I am really very pleased with Beyond the Wall & Other Adventures and would highly recommend it.