Swedish RPG publisher Fria Ligan’s Symbaroum is one of today’s most popular dark fantasy RPGs, and they are now making it available to D&D 5e players with Ruins of Symbaroum: The Promised Land, now free at Drive Thru RPG.
Like the original Symbaroum quickstart (my review here), this PDF is more an abridged core rulebook than a typical quickstart. It has an adventure plus several pre-made PCs; new rules to give 5e the Symbaroum flavor; combat rules; and abbreviated spell information. That is, complete–as far as I can tell–lists for the first 3 spell levels plus a complete description of a new spell.
What’s missing? Only two of the six races (Goblins and Humans) and one or two Approaches for each Class are covered. Approaches are roughly analogous to the 5e Ranger Archetypes, Cleric Domains, etc. that you select at Level 3 in D&D, but are taken at creation in 5e Symbaroum. Some familiar D&D Classes are Symbaroum Approaches. Wizard and Theurg (Cleric) are both Mystic Class Approaches, for example, and are included in the quickstart. The other two included Class/Approach combos are Scoundrel/Explorer and Warrior/Knight.
Fria Ligan set out to make Symbaroum accessible to RPGers who are interested in the setting–which is an intriguing one with depth–but who just don’t want to learn a new rules system. And I think they succeeded. The mechanics for the quickstart’s 2 Races and 4 Classes are written up like the standard D&D ones, and the Symbaroum flavor comes through. Of course, it’s partly through the fluff, but the mechanics show it too.
What has been imported and translated from Symbaroum to Symbaroum 5e? Some are minor, such as the option to take your Hit Points and Hit Dice from your Class (D&D style) instead of from your Race (Symbaroum style). Corruption mechanics, however, seems to be the Number 1 import, because it is integral to the setting. It represents how evil influences; spell casting; and the many afflictions that cause psychic and moral decay, as well as physical, will affect a PC–for the worse. Corruption is handled very similar to the original.
There are some changes to spells related to Corruption. All spellcasting, yes even the divine casting taught by the state religion Sun Church, causes the caster to take temporary Corruption points. Your Wizard, Theurg, or other Mystic PC each have a set number of Favored Spells, which have a considerably lower temporary Corruption, for them alone. But beware, some spells cannot be Favored…
Maybe you thought for years that Symbaroum sounds really cool, but didn’t want to learn yet another system–or your friends didn’t. That is a legit concern. It can be hard to switch gears to other systems, even between two or three very familiar systems. (Just ask anyone in my longtime online group, where we switch among Fantasy Flight Star Wars, 5e, and Mutants & Masterminds.) But now, you can experience the darkly wondrous world of Symbaroum through familiar mechanics with only easy to pick up tweaks.
And after your visit, don’t just tell me and the Gamer Nation about it. Tell Fria Ligan/Free League. On the PDF’s Drive Thru RPG page, linked above, they are asking for feedback.
Linda Whitson
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