17th Century Minimalist: simple excellence | Review

The 17th Century Minimalist is a slender rpg about wanderers in the 17th century, and for me it is a little masterpiece. For once, a logorroic like me (lover of tomes and great systems) has been conquered by something simple, of few words – even including “minimalist” in the title. All minimal, except the value of this product.

We receiver acopy of the bundle 17th Century Minimalist from Games Omnivorous to evaluate, a game publishing house that I believe breaks every brevity record in the description of itself:

We publish minimalist and bizarre games.
Most are OSR. Some aren’t.
All printed in Portugal.

Games Omnivorous

17th Century Minimalist is the first entry of the Minimalist RPG series. We have already written a review of The feast on Titanhead from this same publisher.

Quality and art of 17th Century Minimalist

Looking from afar 17th Century Minimalist seemed to me a simple book with strange colors. The closer I got, the more I was enraptured by the beauty and quality of what I held in my hands. A small 40 page manual in black, white and two elegant colors – sangria red and powder blue – bound with a strand of the same red. It is accompanied by a cardboard folder of the same style, with 5 adventures inside each consisting of a cardboard cover with two or three pages inside. Although it is only paper and cardboard, the quality of the materials is easily perceived by touch, a preview of a level that is maintained throughout the graphic treatment of the product.

In the maps present in the adventures the art is impeccable. The illustrations, made by Offworld Bogil Initiative, have a unique and particular style, a mixture of pencil and watercolor that blends perfectly with the chromatic ensemble of the product and the minimalist approach. Rich and detailed drawings with precise and refined lines would have made no sense.

A great work of pagination

The layout of 17th Century Minimalist is the result of careful work, which aims at both clarity and elegance. The manual is composed almost entirely in the classic two column format, well-accompanied by easy-to-read titles, subtitles and lists. But the real beauty lies in the adventures. Each of these is different in layout, in style and in visual impact, based on the type of story being told.

Where needed, the map of a city dominates. When the story takes place in a single inn, instead, there is a precise map. If the tale focuses on the characters, instead, you get full-page dramatis personae lists.

If I have to find fault, the lists of characters just mentioned have been crammed into a small space, and in two colors they are a bit difficult to read and difficult to navigate. But we’re talking about the only flaw I found in the whole bundle!

The core of 17th Century Minimalist

You are right, we have not yet reached the central point of this review, which is the role-playing game. I find that the most fitting description is in the back of the manual:

Welcome to the 17th century minimalist. This is a fast-paced and highly-deadly game with a pinch of black humor that puts characters as wanderers in 17th century Europe. You will play as tricksters, thieves, former soldiers, bankrupt swashbucklers, and petty physicians, roaming the Old Continent in search of coin and glory. The system is designed to allow fast character creation, compatibility with other games (mostly in the OSR community) and a reckless style of play.

Andre Novoa

Following are some highlights that describe and distinguish this product best, again taken from the back of the manual:

All rules are simplified and compressed to their essence. It assumes a historical, low-fantasy setting in the 17th century and has firearms with flintlocks. It does not have magic. Combat is faster, deadlier and scarier. Why? Because characters do not gain more HP in higher levels. It has novel mechanics for experience and reputation. The two together offer opportunities for a more narrative style of play.

Andre Novoa

If you wonder how 17th Century Minimalist was born, it is simply a home-brew system that gave the author Andre Novoa good results. Fortunately for us, he decided to put it in a nice form (nice is reductive) and to publish it .

A closer look at the system

Declared influencing fonts are The Black Hack, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Troika!, Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Motherships. It is an inverse d20 system, with the aim of rolling low on the die. It is truly minimalist and you can imagine the succession of paragraphs titled Initiative, Damage, Equipment, and so on.

In addition to the peculiarities that make the game dangerous and deadly, which we will see later, there are many details that differentiate 17th Century Minimalist different from the classic medieval fantasy. The firearms, powerful but risky, among which the axe-pistol and the duck-foot pistol – a pistol with 4 barrels that (in theory) shoot all four with each shot- stand out for boldness.

Then there are simple but complete rules that focus on surviving in a real and difficult world. Diseases, effects of drugs and alcohol, shortage of goods due to wars or other problems.

The game gives its best in small campaigns, so there is a simple advancement system, which allows you to get to the fifth level. A reputation score also gives greater depth to the stories. Although structured from 1 to 12, it would make more sense to consider it from -6 to +6, taking into account the fact that the extremes are equally impacting, in negative and positive.

When the game gets tough, play tougher!

It is worth dwelling on some details that give the idea of ​​how this game is characterized by a fast pace and a deadly fight. The basic concept is “life is hard, make a reason for it”. Let’s see some examples.

Initiative. A different die is put in a bag for each player, one for the opponents and one neutral die. The initiative is the order in which the dice are pulled out. If the neutral die is pulled out, the turn ends. Oh, your die hasn’t been pulled out? Sorry, hope for the next round.

Fumbles. Did you roll a 20? You injure yourself or injure an ally. If it is not possible, the weapon becomes unusable.

Armor. Each armor point is worth 1d6 to absorb damage. Once used, that d6 can no longer be rolled until a long rest, during which the armor must be repaired. If you can’t fix it? Simple, you throw it away.

It must be said that the classes are simple, but well structured, with skills that have an important impact in the game and, although belonging to the usual known categories, they are fun to play.

The mini adventures of the 17th Century Minimalist bundle

I know that soon you will think that I don’t want to do my reviewer job, but what should I tell you? The best way to present the mini-adventures contained in the cardstock folder is to quote the synopsis found in the product itself!

Wild Witch Chase plays with moral and religious beliefs. It is horrible and players should feel extremely guilty, if they play the module as intended.

Ticking Time Bomb is a parody of mercantile wars. These were common, for instance, in Italy, divided into several conflicting city-states.

Black Plague Now throws players into the horrors of 17th century plague. The 1348 Black Death remains unrivalled, but the 1600s saw some nasty cases.

Hedge Death Maze hints at the lavish, baroque, wasteful and arrogant nobility, on the brink of being exceeded by a rising bourgeoisie.

Cluster Fuck Inn flirts with secret societies, complots, alchemy and science, typical of the 1600s. It is also a tribute to one of my favourite books: Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco.

The adventures are composed of a few paragraphs, so the GM must transform those few words containing brilliant information into a complete and engaging narrative. But the core of each of them is there and it is nice and damn bright.

Last thoughts about 17th Century Minimalist

I have spent a lot of words here on a game that ultimately consisted of not even 40 pages of information, lovely irony, but it deserves even more. It is a very straightforward product, it says immediately what it is and how it is made. Simple and direct. If you like the setting and you are comfortable with the fast and streamlined rules, saying that I recommend this product is an understatement. I turned my session calendar upside down to include at least a couple of the proposed mini adventures.

Both the manual and the adventure folder are available on the Games Omnivorous website at a price of €20 each. Then there is the bundle offer that allows the purchase of both products for €35. For those who do not have a ready story to tell, I highly recommend the bundle, because the adventures are valid, varied and give excellent input to start developing their own stories.

In short, why did I like it so much? Because it is a simple and hard game, made with elegance and sympathy. And I can’t resist those who have humor, elegance and do something coherent and homogeneous with such great attention to detail.

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