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Now Available In Print! Over War Softcover

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It is the year 1472 Dracos Domini and the land of Ballark is bathed in unrest.

The armies of the Over Night have descended from their floating islands to ravage the countryside, leaving disease, famine, and the byproducts of their cruel alchemical experiments in their wake.

You are a person of some minor authority. Whether you were born to this station or crawled into it, you now have control of a small band of combatants.

The nations of Ballark may have broken before the conquerors from the clouds, but you are determined that you will not fall. You will reclaim what they have taken.

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Over War is a 47 page strategy TTRPG about gothic high fantasy warfare.

Players draft units, unlock characters, roll skill checks, and try to reclaim territory from a powerful empire.

Inspirations include Fire Emblem, Langrisser, Yggdra Union, Symphony Of War, and various works by Yasumi Matsuno.

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Over War Expansions:

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Updates:

  • As of 9.15.22, clarified Adepts, Skill Up, and drafting Units.
  • As of 10.1.22, clarified Heal targeting, recovery during Downtime, clarified Repute penalty for siding with Garrast
  • As of 2.18.23, clarified Hostile Settlements
StatusReleased
CategoryPhysical game
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(9 total ratings)
Authorkumada1
GenreRole Playing, Strategy
Tagsover-war, srpg, Tabletop, tactics, trpg, Tabletop role-playing game

Purchase

Buy Now$5.00 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Over War The Night Comes Down 2.18.23a.pdf 2 MB

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Comments

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(+1)

The game looks and feels very much like Tactics Orge that I used to play on SNES. I have a question about Blessing (under Provisions) it says heal all characters on *both sides* by 1 HP, may only be used in combat.  So in order to use "blessing" two units have to be engaged and when I use it both sides gain 1 HP?  I wonder what's the convention behind it? Why also opposing side?  Thanks

(+1)

Thanks! A bunch of works by Yasumi Matsuno, including the Ogre Battle series, were part of the inspiration mix for this game!

For Blessing, its good if you get forced into a combat while injured. If the other unit is at full HP, there's no downside.

Like Goblin Ball and some of the Divination Cards it is a bit circumstantial, and some characters and formations will benefit from it more than others.

(+1)

This game reads amazingly, as someone who’s played Kreigsspiel, Adventure Conquer King, mausritter and other games like it. I feel like these kinds of systems best reflect a combat between large groups.  Specifically games where you have to plan ahead and not rely on fate as much, lots of characters coming in and dying off, and an impact on the world. 

When I get paid I’m definitely going to buy a copy.  It’s nice to see that there’s a community for wargamer/trpgs, as I’ve been working  to make a lancer mass combat strategic war game rpg for some time using something kind of similar. Would it be all right if I add you to my list of inspired sources? And could I ask for some advice for writing? 

Of course! You can list me as a source, and I'm glad you enjoyed the game!

I am definitely not a wargames or rpgs expert, but I'd be happy to provide advice too.

(+1)

Wow. I gotta say this may be the best simplified ttrpg war/skirmish game I've seen yet.

For years I've been trying to find some way to play out commanding a troop of units or how to run a battle with a lot of units without having to keep track and move every single one without the game turning into a massive slog.

For years, I've had players complain about the methods I would try and use to simplify the process and in the end I just run it as an Abstract thing where multiple units just acted as a blob of hit points and dealt damage depending on how many hit points are left.

I have no idea when I'll use this game or even if I'll ever use it, but I gotta say it again, this is hands down the best low number, low maintenance war/skrimish game I've seen and I've collected a lot of mass combat rules just to figure out how to actually run it.

Whoah, thank you!

The design DNA here honestly comes from Golden Sky Stories. I played it a decade ago, and it got me thinking about what happens if a game just says yes to stuff: attacks just hit, actions succeed without the dice intervening, etc.

I'm really happy this approach also worked for a small scale wargame!

Admittedly, the Skill system in Over War is very conventional, and there's a lot of other large influences on the design, so I guess what I'm trying to say is you can cut most of the dice clog out of a system by also cutting out the dice.

(+1)

Interesting little number right here.

The control of multiple characters, all with their own names and personalities gives it a very different feel to your standard 1to1 rpg, teetering more perhaps into something like Necromunda or Battle Brothers which is certainly a tick in its favour for me.

I get a bit of sense of that Battle Brothers or Hard West overworld too, with your desperate little company marching across the countryside gathering up resources for a final showdown.

Choosing what troops you have available at the start can be a quick and dirty little faction game, which I like. 

I'm getting a lot of video game references in this, but it's no bad thing. Sort of boardgames that feeling, which I think is great. Nowhere near grokking all the synergies myself yet, but keen to give it a try.

(+1)

Thank you for the review! Hard West is a favorite of mine, so I might've been channeling it unintentionally. 

As for the synergies, I have an expansion planned that's...probably going to be about the same size as the core book. So if you like the variety of characters, more options for synergy and counterplay are planned.

(+1)

I'm excited to try this. It feels like OSR 4th Edition, if that makes sense. Blogosphere-OSR-reimagines-Chainmail. 

Dumb questions: Can unreliable characters target themselves? Does a side lose if all the unreliables are actively unreliable in a turn? (I'd assume No and Yes)

(+1)

Yeah, it definitely felt a little bit like I was re-evolving Chainmail while I was working on it.

For Unreliable characters, yes they can target themselves. Whether they do or not depends on where they're placed and who else is in the Unit. Likewise, if they all betray you, it isn't a guarantee that you'll lose the fight. It depends on which characters you have and how they're configured, although it does tend to tip the odds.

I think the first sentence in the description should have a period in the middle!

Er, after Domini?

(+1)

Maybe it's just me but I read it as "It is the year 1472 Dracos Domini, and the land of Ballark is bathed in unrest."

So maybe a comma? Could just be me.

Oh, I went back and forth over putting a comma there half a dozen times during editing.

There was one originally, but I removed it so the line would read all in one breath.

I slightly prefer it as is, but it's also totally fair to prefer a comma there.