This holiday season, I’m going to review a different module, game or supplement every day. I haven’t sought any of them out, they’ve been sent to me, so it’s all surprises, all the way. I haven’t planned or allocated time for this, so while I’m endeavouring to bring the same attention to these reviews, it might provide a challenge, but at least, I’ll be bringing attention to some cool stuff!

Dawn of the Orcs is a 29 page GM-less game by Lyme and Plasmophage. In it, you play a coalition of (evil?) wizards building armies of genetically modified creatures (orcs) to together save your homeland from attack. It’s the first offer a I’ve had for Critique Navidad that has a live crowdfunding campaign going, and admittedly it was already on my radar — if this review compels you, go check it out!

Dawn of the Orcs is played on a series of worksheets called the Chronicle of the Orcs, while you pass the main book between each other to narrate each chapter. I love this structure — I’ve spoken before of how I loved the episodic, semi-predetermined season in the Adventures of Gonan, and this has a similar structure, with unique play sheets for different chapters, and hence an overall narrative arc. The main criticism I hear with this kind of structure I see is a lack of replayability, but I’m not even a little convinced this is a real concern: No two 5e tables games of Horde of the Dragon Queen are the same, so why would we assume that one tables’ second play would be the same? Irregardless, there’s a solution provided here: A bunch of more difficult, replacement chapters, that mean your future plays of the game will come out completely different, at least twice with no repetitions, although there are a lot more combinations possible.

The other exciting thing about this structure is that rules are rolled out as they are needed. Each chapter doesn’t quite consist a minigame, as they are chronological, but small tweaks to the rules and new introductions occur in a way that feels organic and reflective of the world as it evolves. Now, it’s hard to talk about latter chapters without spoiling things, which the rules say is fine, but that’s not my choice to make for you. Suffice to say, it gets really interesting by the end, and develops the story in an interesting and compelling direction, exploring the themes thoroughly and well. I really like that your orcs slowly develop customs over time, gaining their own identity, although I’d like for those customs to be a little more supported, perhaps through an optional table of suggestions. I love the changes that can happen to your orcs over the years (“shifts” and “warps”). I love that they develop beliefs about the world. The orcs become pretty rapidly a character in and of themselves, designed by a committee of petty powermongers.

I played through this solo (because I could and I got really excited and also I read it on a Saturday so I had time), but playing through solo is only part of the experience: This game is mainly, I when played in a larger group, a parlour larp. While each member of the Council of Sages wants to win the war, they all have ulterior motives, implied preferences in terms of what they want the orcs to turn out like, and so a huge part of the game is the discussion between arrogant wizards who don’t want to compromise, and secret alliances and betrayals. The very fun framework that informs and surrounds this discussion is a lot of fun, and super solid and well thought out, but it’s only half of the game.

That framework, while about perfect in my opinion, might be too slight for some tastes, though: You pick a pair of scores to use as your strategy, and that combination can never be used again. Then you roll against a difficulty score specific to your chapter. That’s it. It’s enough, in my opinion, because the juice of this isn’t the battle, but rather the council and the changing nature of the orcs themselves. But I can imagine people wanting a bit more board game in their TTRPG in this particular spot. It would be fun, to be honest, to have a little board game, but I think it would distract from the real juice of the game.

Briefly, the layout and art is genuinely great here. There is so much art — custom banners on most chapters, every page has something unique. It’s well spaced, and clearly labelled. It’s chronological, so being scannable isn’t a concern here, except in the alternate chapters at the end — these could be clearer, to be honest, just because you’ll be clicking a little more to and fro. The play sheets are clear and perfect, and come form-fillable. I don’t have much criticism however the smart information design shortcuts a lot of need for complex layout decisions. When I talk about game design, layout and information design all bring one and the same, this is what I mean.

If you love having a story slowly unfold before your eyes, if you love playing the rich and powerful bickering in desperation but still manipulating for their own goals, and if you love emergent world building, Dawn of the Orcs is a shockingly unique and excellent game. What it’s not is a wargame, and nor is it a reverse dungeon crawler: This is a parlour larp with TTRPG set dressing, in the best possible tradition of games like Seco Creek Vigilance Committee. If anything in this review made your orc-ears prick up, I’d get on the train before it leaves the station.

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