Publisher Blurb:
IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE MAN MEETS MACHINE AND MAGIC... IN A DUNGEON
Everyone loves a near-future cyberpunk dystopia with wizards and dragons, but for some reason, it's hard to find a ruleset for such a world that's conducive to actually getting things done. You may be a chromed out samurai, or a shaman controlling a spirit of the sky, but what do you actually do with that? Umbral Flare has the answer to this all-important question.
As the first in the Dungeon Crawler from Mars planned trilogy of games, Umbral Flare introduces methods for quickly dealing with all of the tedious busywork, to return focus back where it belongs: on the dungeon. There's no homework to do between sessions, and no more than a single die roll to speed through your recovery or shopping for the week, before it's right back into the action. The ultimate goal of this design is that you can get through an entire dungeon, with half a dozen to a dozen rooms and multiple combat encounters, all within a three or four hour session of play.
Healing may be extremely limited, but it's not just a meat grinder, either. Innovations in battle mechanics allow our heroes to overcome major threats, capable of inflicting serious damage, by coordinating to take them down swiftly. Getting shot or stabbed is no laughing matter, but if you keep your cool, and scan for weak points, you might just survive to complete your mission.
In this book, you will find:
Five sub-species of humanity, including Orks and Trolls.
Six classes of hero, from the dual-wielding Operative to the street-fighting Monk.
Combat hacking, requiring no more fuss than firing a gun.
An innovative 2d20 mechanic, utilizing a form of bounded accuracy, where missing entirely is highly improbable.
Multiple options for grinding down foes with small amounts of guaranteed damage, in case you still don't trust your luck.
A new-yet-familiar system of casting spells and summoning spirits, where the only limit is how much you risk draining yourself in the process.
102 weapons, 52 sets of armor, 9 configurations of HackerDeck, 18 magical talismans (not counting custom enchantments), 28 cybernetic augmentations, 18 magical spells, 18 summonable spirits (if you count the same element at different Force levels), 39 unique enemies (with 38 more variants), across 10 levels of play.
5 damage types, 8 standard status conditions, 3 combat phases per round.
Ten appendices, which are kind of neat, even if you never use them. I'm particularly proud of the gazpacho soup story.
If you're still reading, then you should know by now whether or not Umbral Flare is right for you. This may not be the first attempt at applying OSR ideas to a cyberpunk setting, or the one with the highest production values, but I hope it offers something unique and worthwhile to everyone who reads it. And remember, even if you never end up playing this game, you can still mine it for ideas to use in your own heartbreaker! (Feel free to take the images, too! Those things have no legal protection.)