Into the Odd was published in 2014. I first encountered the rule system in its later incarnation Electric Bastionland and the features I discuss here will be applicable to both.
This is not going to be an exhaustive review. I am just going to highlight my favourite aspects, which have most influenced my own approach to RPGs.
Combat in Into the Odd
The boldest feature of ItO is something I had originally found hard to swallow; damage in ItO is rolled directly in combat, without any rolls to hit. If you tend to get invested in your characters, this can feel pretty brutal. Once the swords were flying, my character was going to get hurt. With low Hit Points, they could quickly be dead too.
Luckily, enough of ItO clicked for me to reflect on my first impressions. In D&D, it seemed like I had more opportunity to intervene in the outcome of combat. ItO felt more “What? No? I’m hurt already”. What dawned on me was that these interventions in D&D mostly amounted to another dice roll – the outcome of which I equally had no control over.
I came to realise that the part of my brain that wanted more dice rolls is something I might be best letting go of. That is, the illusion of player agency, as it exists in the part of combat which is essentially the grinding out of dice rolls.
In D&D, there is a version of control at the point d20 “to hit” rolls are made. Through knowledge of the system, I might know a +2 AC buff, which means the blow misses. But all this really does is penalise players who are not rules lawyers. If you want to be rewarded for system mastery of this kind, you are really better off switching on a games console. Tabletop RPGs don’t offer the kind of strictly defined parameters you can truly master.
Theoretically, the outcome of RPG combat could be boiled down further, to a single dice roll. But this skips over legitimate decisions and interventions which are often desirable in combat. There is the point the likely winner becomes clear, when one party might decide to retreat. Combat should also allow creative inventions, such as tipping over a brazier of fire. This is exactly the kind of game play ItO is designed to facilitate.
Combat in ItO normally lasts about three or four rounds. Do players really need more windows to intervene than this? D&D combat gives you far more opportunities as the dice rolls grind out. But is the decision to retreat really very different between being on 27 HP one round and 21 the next?
Hit Points in ItO, I should point out, are not quite like D&D. They regenerate automatically after a quick rest and sip of water. This dispenses with resource management of healing spells and encourages more guerrilla tactics. But once damage penetrates to your STR attribute, the implications for your character are more serious and long term.
For me, combat in ItO hits the sweet spot between efficiency and interaction. Taking the emphasis away from dice rolls also encourages imaginative responses to situations. If combat can feel like an endless slog in D&D, ItO is an alternative you should try.
Objects in Into the Odd
In the eyes of my gamer friends, one thing that makes a computer game “an RPG” is the ability to customise your character through different paths of advancement. It is a feature computer game designers have drawn from tabletop RPGs. ItO flips this relationship on its head.
As designer Chris McDowell explains in his Youtube channel, ItO is a tabletop RPG heavily influenced by computer games. And I don’t mean computer RPGs, we are talking things like platform games with little or no role-playing element.
Character advancement, where players choose from a range of abilities with which they can influence the world, is notably absent in ItO. Instead, it is the game world and the items in it that shape the character. This reversal feels significant, enough that I am going to give it the name basic materialism.
Basic materialism is evident in ItO’s treatment of magic as something grounded within the game world. Characters can only access the power to wield magic through objects they encounter called Arcana. Equally, ItO does not have warriors gaining extra damage and attacks as they go up levels. You become better in combat through the weapons and armour you acquire.
Arcana are the greatest source of power for characters. By power, I mean the ability to influence the world and shape the outcome of the story. But the characters are at the mercy of the world in terms of accessing this power. Interaction with the game world is a necessity to obtain Arcana. Even then, players might not get the type of Arcana they want, if these rare objects are present at all.
Acquiring an Arcana in ItO is the equivalent of a wizard levelling up in D&D and gaining the ability to cast a new spell. Except it is fundamentally different too. The characters are not on an automatic path to gaining new powers, which in 5e they get to pick from a shopping list. The availability of Arcana is contingent on the world.
What I have called basic materialism is also evident in games influenced by ItO. Ben Milton’s Knave is a classless system where “A PC’s role in the party is determined largely by the equipment they carry”. Spells can be cast by any character, so long as they possess its specific spell book. Similarly in Yochai Gal’s Cairn: “A character’s role or skills are not limited by a single class. Instead, the equipment they carry and their experiences defines their specialty.”
Characters in Into the Odd
It doesn’t necessarily feel like it when you play ItO, but the influence of platform games is clear on reflection. In platformers, your character is normally preconstructed. You explore an environment, collecting “power up” items, often expended after a few uses.
Much like a platform game, your character in ItO is largely preconstructed. The few stats you roll neatly cross reference against a table of starting equipment. Again, it is objects that define your character. This is both in terms of the power they give your character, but also through the context and background they evoke. I’m going to lift a quote from the Kickstarter page which sums it up nicely.
Grant Howitt (Spire, Heart, Honey Heist): "My randomly-generated character had an eyepatch, a whip and a packet of cigars and I've never felt more immediately interested in a protagonist."
Electric Bastionland takes this principle even further. Here, you start with a failed career. But it is the objects attached to the career that really flesh it out, at the same time illuminating features of the game world. The “Muddled Mixologist” starts with a bottle of fancy spirit, a bottle of rotgut and an excellent bow tie. The “Disinherited Socialite” might start with ancestral plate armour or a trunk of luxurious clothes.
Pre-equipping your character also makes them ready to plug and play with minimal preparation. There are no abstract decisions to be made around tailoring your character’s starting package. This better enables you to plunge straight into making grounded decisions within the game world.
Summary
It seems strange to be talking in grandiose terms about such a seemingly simple little game. I’ve put forward ItO as an important RPG in terms of its basic materialism. Others more knowledgeable in RPG history might correct me on whether it is an innovator in this respect, but its approach certainly feels unique and refreshing.
If you prefer playing games to philosophising about them, ItO is a game I would recommend trying. Electric Bastionland provides a more defined, expanded game world. ItO is more like a chassis, which you can build your own context around. And I haven’t even mentioned the excellent world generation tables in the appendix, which are a major selling point in their own right.
This is not going to be an exhaustive review. I am just going to highlight my favourite aspects, which have most influenced my own approach to RPGs.
Combat in Into the Odd
The boldest feature of ItO is something I had originally found hard to swallow; damage in ItO is rolled directly in combat, without any rolls to hit. If you tend to get invested in your characters, this can feel pretty brutal. Once the swords were flying, my character was going to get hurt. With low Hit Points, they could quickly be dead too.
Luckily, enough of ItO clicked for me to reflect on my first impressions. In D&D, it seemed like I had more opportunity to intervene in the outcome of combat. ItO felt more “What? No? I’m hurt already”. What dawned on me was that these interventions in D&D mostly amounted to another dice roll – the outcome of which I equally had no control over.
I came to realise that the part of my brain that wanted more dice rolls is something I might be best letting go of. That is, the illusion of player agency, as it exists in the part of combat which is essentially the grinding out of dice rolls.
In D&D, there is a version of control at the point d20 “to hit” rolls are made. Through knowledge of the system, I might know a +2 AC buff, which means the blow misses. But all this really does is penalise players who are not rules lawyers. If you want to be rewarded for system mastery of this kind, you are really better off switching on a games console. Tabletop RPGs don’t offer the kind of strictly defined parameters you can truly master.
Theoretically, the outcome of RPG combat could be boiled down further, to a single dice roll. But this skips over legitimate decisions and interventions which are often desirable in combat. There is the point the likely winner becomes clear, when one party might decide to retreat. Combat should also allow creative inventions, such as tipping over a brazier of fire. This is exactly the kind of game play ItO is designed to facilitate.
Combat in ItO normally lasts about three or four rounds. Do players really need more windows to intervene than this? D&D combat gives you far more opportunities as the dice rolls grind out. But is the decision to retreat really very different between being on 27 HP one round and 21 the next?
Hit Points in ItO, I should point out, are not quite like D&D. They regenerate automatically after a quick rest and sip of water. This dispenses with resource management of healing spells and encourages more guerrilla tactics. But once damage penetrates to your STR attribute, the implications for your character are more serious and long term.
For me, combat in ItO hits the sweet spot between efficiency and interaction. Taking the emphasis away from dice rolls also encourages imaginative responses to situations. If combat can feel like an endless slog in D&D, ItO is an alternative you should try.
Objects in Into the Odd
In the eyes of my gamer friends, one thing that makes a computer game “an RPG” is the ability to customise your character through different paths of advancement. It is a feature computer game designers have drawn from tabletop RPGs. ItO flips this relationship on its head.
As designer Chris McDowell explains in his Youtube channel, ItO is a tabletop RPG heavily influenced by computer games. And I don’t mean computer RPGs, we are talking things like platform games with little or no role-playing element.
Character advancement, where players choose from a range of abilities with which they can influence the world, is notably absent in ItO. Instead, it is the game world and the items in it that shape the character. This reversal feels significant, enough that I am going to give it the name basic materialism.
Basic materialism is evident in ItO’s treatment of magic as something grounded within the game world. Characters can only access the power to wield magic through objects they encounter called Arcana. Equally, ItO does not have warriors gaining extra damage and attacks as they go up levels. You become better in combat through the weapons and armour you acquire.
Arcana are the greatest source of power for characters. By power, I mean the ability to influence the world and shape the outcome of the story. But the characters are at the mercy of the world in terms of accessing this power. Interaction with the game world is a necessity to obtain Arcana. Even then, players might not get the type of Arcana they want, if these rare objects are present at all.
Acquiring an Arcana in ItO is the equivalent of a wizard levelling up in D&D and gaining the ability to cast a new spell. Except it is fundamentally different too. The characters are not on an automatic path to gaining new powers, which in 5e they get to pick from a shopping list. The availability of Arcana is contingent on the world.
What I have called basic materialism is also evident in games influenced by ItO. Ben Milton’s Knave is a classless system where “A PC’s role in the party is determined largely by the equipment they carry”. Spells can be cast by any character, so long as they possess its specific spell book. Similarly in Yochai Gal’s Cairn: “A character’s role or skills are not limited by a single class. Instead, the equipment they carry and their experiences defines their specialty.”
Characters in Into the Odd
It doesn’t necessarily feel like it when you play ItO, but the influence of platform games is clear on reflection. In platformers, your character is normally preconstructed. You explore an environment, collecting “power up” items, often expended after a few uses.
Much like a platform game, your character in ItO is largely preconstructed. The few stats you roll neatly cross reference against a table of starting equipment. Again, it is objects that define your character. This is both in terms of the power they give your character, but also through the context and background they evoke. I’m going to lift a quote from the Kickstarter page which sums it up nicely.
Grant Howitt (Spire, Heart, Honey Heist): "My randomly-generated character had an eyepatch, a whip and a packet of cigars and I've never felt more immediately interested in a protagonist."
Electric Bastionland takes this principle even further. Here, you start with a failed career. But it is the objects attached to the career that really flesh it out, at the same time illuminating features of the game world. The “Muddled Mixologist” starts with a bottle of fancy spirit, a bottle of rotgut and an excellent bow tie. The “Disinherited Socialite” might start with ancestral plate armour or a trunk of luxurious clothes.
Pre-equipping your character also makes them ready to plug and play with minimal preparation. There are no abstract decisions to be made around tailoring your character’s starting package. This better enables you to plunge straight into making grounded decisions within the game world.
Summary
It seems strange to be talking in grandiose terms about such a seemingly simple little game. I’ve put forward ItO as an important RPG in terms of its basic materialism. Others more knowledgeable in RPG history might correct me on whether it is an innovator in this respect, but its approach certainly feels unique and refreshing.
If you prefer playing games to philosophising about them, ItO is a game I would recommend trying. Electric Bastionland provides a more defined, expanded game world. ItO is more like a chassis, which you can build your own context around. And I haven’t even mentioned the excellent world generation tables in the appendix, which are a major selling point in their own right.
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