As well as being able to fight, and maybe cast spells or thieve, characters have skills pertaining to whatever occupation they had before they started on the road to fame, fortune or an early grave as an adventurer. each has its own section explaining what they can do, the abilities and resources on which they can draw as their career progresses. The 'occupation' table includes demi-human races, and in this game those who survive long enough to get a character class will find that their class is Dwarf or Elf or Halfling, rather than Wizard, Warrior, Cleric or Thief. This new-spawned character is supplied with a random occupation (the trade he plied before some whim sent him adventuring) complete with appropriate trade goods and a weapon that he's learned to use, at least well enough to be more of a menace to monsters than to his friends. but maybe he'll be a legendary sword-swinger or spell-caster before you are done with him. Or not, this Level 0 fellow may not have a long life. Game balance? Character concept? Pah! Roll your bones and live with what you get. These basic characters are described by their ability scores that represent their Strength, Agility, Stamina, Personality, Intelligence and Luck all rolled in that order with 3d6. It's different, it sets the style of a game in which it is less important what awesome stats or cool gear you have than it matters what you do with it, an acknowledgement of the staple of fantasy fiction where some gawky unprepared farmboy or alley rat finds himself thrust into epic adventures and makes good.

Those that survive are rewarded with a proper character class and all the other stuff that most of us reckon belongs on a character sheet and, armed already with tales of the overwhelming odds that they have overcome, they'll be ready for the real adventures to begin.

Herein is the first novel concept, the 'Character Creation Funnel' where instead of labouring over a finely-honed character long before you get to adventuring, you create a handful of completely random Level 0 characters for each player, and run the whole lot through an adventure or two, unprepared as they are. That one page pretty much sets you up, the remaining hundreds supply the fine detail, the meat for the bones. Then on to the Introduction, where the core mechanic of a single d20 roll is explained with sections detailing the differences and similarities depending on which rules systems you already know. or at least an admonitory page that lists what you are expected to bring to a reading of this tome, along with a large fire-breathing dragon to deal with those who come unprepared! The opening pages include myriad armies of humanoids bearing the credits aloft on banners, passing a list of playtesters and even some photos of early games on their way to the introduction. and yet, this isn't merely another retro-clone, it is a coherent game in its own right, bringing its own freshness and elegance to the core of fantasy role-playing: the small band of adventurers battling enormous odds and terrifying monsters in search of awesome magics and heaps of treasure. The whole style, the artwork, the words, are redolent of those early books that soon found their way onto my bookshelves alongside the botany textbooks. Opening this work takes me back to the sheer wonders and excitement that followed. Back in the mists of time, I wandered into a meeting of the university's then wargames club and over the sound of jawbones hitting the floor at the sight of a woman, a lanky fellow asked 'Would you like to play D&D?'

Spellcaster university dungeon