Beasts, Gods & Men is another entry in that popular sport of the early days of RPG sport: fixing D&D. Bill Underwood lays it out in the brief introduction that he was aiming to create a set of rules that lent play a plausibility that was lacking elsewhere. Plausible, not realistic. I get the distinction, but it seems to be one of little concern when it comes to the weight of the rules — realistic ones and plausible ones are both a bit much for me.

There are neat ideas though. There are nine statistics (too many!) and several of them are synergized, so that your Strength and your Constitution are both in a plausible range. That’s neat! But also kind of more complex than I want to worry about. There is Belief Rating, which is like armor for your brain, which I really like in concept (though the calculation of which not so much). There’s Determination Points, which are spent on self-improvement and other long-term projects, which is a perfect example of creating a mechanic to solve a problem that doesn’t really exist. Combat is about as complicated as you are probably imagining, with crits and special events and speed pips to track in order to simulate loss of energy over the course of battle. There is nothing egregious or wrong with any of it. It is all logical and sound. But like most of this sort of old school RPG, it feels like too much investment for not enough payoff.

I will say, of all the various D&D fix-it games I have encountered, this is probably my favorite. Underwood’s tone is chipper and chirpy throughout. You get the sense that he enjoys his rules and genuinely wants people to experiment with them (contrast this to the arrogance of Fantasy Wargaming or Arduin’s so hardcore tone). I particularly like the amateurish art, much of which is provided by Underwood himself.

If you’re interested, I believe the book was recently reissued through POD. It’s a fun flip through!