Le Vastemonde by John Grümph
To say that John Grümph is a prolific RPG author would be an understatement, but Vastemonde feels a lot like his magnus opus. It draws from many previous projects both in terms of world design and in terms of system. Vastemonde is an OSR inspired variation on the dungeonverse, but definitely not one that feels like it's been done before. The world is a collection of "bubbles" connected by portals, bathing in an Astral realm above and an Abyssal realm below. Dragons rule the Astral, Demons rule the Abyssal, and the people of the Vastemonde are stuck somewhere in between. The game is poetic, epic in many ways even though the system doesn't generate super kickass characters. There's a definite sense (and not just from the title) that the world is bigger than any character can apprehend. The book ends with one adventure, two mini sandboxes and a megadungeon, more than enough to satisfy a GM excited by the contents. I like it a lot. My only minor gripe is that I would have liked to get a sense of direction, of where the world is going (or at least options for that.)
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