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Troika! Numinous Edition Hardcover – January 1, 2019

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 205 ratings

Troika! Numinous Edition is the new edition of our popular Troika! RPG, a complete science-fantasy RPG full of critically acclaimed writing, built-in wonder and room for everyone at the table to go wild!

Inside the book you will find; a full automated character creation system that generates exciting starting points for players to build upon; weighty lists of spells and enemies to encounter; a baked-in plane-hoping setting which draws you into the world and allows you space to build upon its sturdy foundations.

Lavishly illustrated by Jeremy Duncan, Dirk Detweiler Leicthy, Sam Mameli, and ENnie award winning Andrew Walter
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Melsonian Arts Council (January 1, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 112 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0995756724
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0995756724
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.9 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.55 x 6.06 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 205 ratings

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
205 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find Troika! an enjoyable game for both new and experienced players. They appreciate the beautiful art and creative backgrounds. The simple, elegant mechanics are easy to learn and understand. The world is fascinating and evocative, revealing nuances throughout the book. Character creation is simple, with bizarre background options that give characters personalities and incentive to roleplay monsters.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

13 customers mention "Playability"11 positive2 negative

Customers enjoy the game and book. They find it easy to play and read, suitable for both new and experienced players. The first adventure at the Blancmange & Thistle is entertaining, and the OSR style of play is appealing.

"...Play this game if you like an OSR style of play, roll-under mechanics, unpredictable combat, and skills that advance through use...." Read more

"...As a game, Troika! is a blast to play. As a book, it's a blast to read. As a design space, I'm addicted. You owe it to yourself to check this out." Read more

"The book is nice. It has a nice feel in hand, as do the pages...." Read more

"This book is very good for two or three session games, if you like home brewing and short storytelling it is perfect...." Read more

10 customers mention "Art quality"10 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's art quality. They find the backgrounds beautiful and the character creation simple. The book is creative and has cool sheets available through briefs.

"...book I don't like are the character sheets, but there are some very cool sheets available through some brief googling. Layout: 4.5/5...." Read more

"Troika! is just a delightful game. The art is fantastic and weird; really setting the tone for what to expect...." Read more

"...Art is all super something, the implied setting of Troika!..." Read more

"...MORE, PLEASE? EXCELLENT BOOK, BEAUTIFUL ART, NEAT RULES!" Read more

5 customers mention "Ease of use"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's mechanics and rules easy to learn and understand. They appreciate the simple, elegant system that allows for flexible play. The rules emphasize predictable skills but allow for unpredictable combat. The game is easy for beginners to pick up and play, with straightforward rules for creating own backgrounds.

"...The system is flexible, simple, and elegant. The rules emphasize predictable skills but HIGHLY unpredictable combat...." Read more

"...The rest of the rules are straightforward and easy to pick, creating an easily hacked and homebrewed foundation...." Read more

"...It's very easy for new players to dive right in. Character creation is super easy. The world is just utterly fascinating...." Read more

"...THIS ONE DOES NOT! Rules lite makes it very easy to play for anyone who can read quickly and grasp very basic concepts...." Read more

5 customers mention "Imagination"5 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's imagination. They find the world fascinating, and the writing evocative and whimsical. The book reveals nuances of the Troika world throughout the book.

"...Art: 5/5. What really gets me about the art is how it gets your imagination going...." Read more

"This game is marvelously written, revealing nuances of the Troika! world throughout the book instead of in a dedicated "setting" section...." Read more

"...I LOVE the way that a number of bizarre places are eluded to, and even given small details, but the fleshing out is left to the Gm and the players...." Read more

"In the mystical and far out sphere of Razzmatazz, anything can happen! Your imagination is the limit!..." Read more

3 customers mention "Character creation"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the character creation easy and short. They appreciate the bizarre background and classes, which provide a personality and incentive to roleplay monsters.

"...This gives some easy personality and some incentive to roleplay monsters beyond existing merely to be stabbed and looted." Read more

"...It's low-key on information overload for the players, keeping character creation fairly short and dodging the tropes that come with current day RPG's..." Read more

"...It's very easy for new players to dive right in. Character creation is super easy. The world is just utterly fascinating...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2019
    In general: the book is beautiful and well organized. The system is flexible, simple, and elegant. The rules emphasize predictable skills but HIGHLY unpredictable combat. Play this game if you like an OSR style of play, roll-under mechanics, unpredictable combat, and skills that advance through use.

    Art: 5/5. What really gets me about the art is how it gets your imagination going. The only aesthetic part of the book I don't like are the character sheets, but there are some very cool sheets available through some brief googling.

    Layout: 4.5/5. The structure of the book is simple and generally easy to navigate. The use of different colored pages makes use at the table a lot easier too. My only real complaint is that an index would be helpful (though I realize that they suck to make, and the book is small enough that an index isn't strictly necessary).

    Mechanics: 5/5. The mechanics are simple and elegant.

    Unopposed checks: 2d6 roll-under Target Number (= General Skill lvl + Advanced Skill lvl).

    Opposed check (e.g. melee combat): both contestants roll 2d6 + Advanced Skill lvl. High roll wins. Luck points can be used to break ties. This means combat is dangerous because someone is almost always going to get hit.

    Initiative: Probably the most unique mechanic, you determine initiative by drawing tokens out of a bag. Each player puts in two tokens. Then you put in tokens for the enemies/NPCs. And finally you put in an "End Round" token. You draw a token, and the corresponding character takes an action. Repeat until the End Round token is drawn. Then put all the tokens back in the bag and repeat until combat ends.

    Backgrounds: Backgrounds determine your basic stats, skills, and equipment. They are imaginative and evocative--but also very whimsical. If those aren't your thing, there are easy rules for creating your own backgrounds.

    Advanced Skills and Improvement: These come from an inchoate list--the list isn't exhaustive and you're incouraged to create your own as needed. You improve skills through use, like in Mythras or Call of Cthulhu. When you succeed at an Advanced Skill (like tracking), you put a tick mark next to it. At the end of the session, roll 2d6 for each skill with a tick. If the roll is higher than your skill level, you increase the skill by 1.

    Bestiary: For the size of the book, you get a very nice number of monsters. Stating monsters is very easy in Troika. The best part is that each monster comes with a 1d6 chart that provides it's demeanor/attitude when encountered. This gives some easy personality and some incentive to roleplay monsters beyond existing merely to be stabbed and looted.
    16 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2019
    Troika! is just a delightful game. The art is fantastic and weird; really setting the tone for what to expect. The physical book itself of great quality, it feel like it's going to last for a long time compared to say, books from what may or may not be the world's most popular tabletop role playing game.

    The highlight of the system are easily the backgrounds, they provide just enough setting or story information to get you hooked but are wide open enough to tweak and explore on your own. The rest of the rules are straightforward and easy to pick, creating an easily hacked and homebrewed foundation. It is explicitly stated in the rules that there is an expectation for players and MC to add extra rules as they need during play, and after running the game I can say that this is *very* easy to do. The initiative system is fantastically weird, but does actually work (this is the part of the game that might require the most practice to really get down, but there's some great fan-made resources out there to help).

    As a game, Troika! is a blast to play. As a book, it's a blast to read. As a design space, I'm addicted. You owe it to yourself to check this out.
    19 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2019
    The book is nice. It has a nice feel in hand, as do the pages. Endpapers being used for reference is always a plus and more books need to be doing this.
    The cover art is nice. There does appear to some kind of border artifacting on some of the images but that could be a stylistic choice as it is more of the even faded border rather than some awful image compressions.
    Art is all super something, the implied setting of Troika! is great, even better if you mosey over to Daniel Sell's blog and read up on his Troika and see all the stuff he didn't include. He gives you a setting, but not wholly his setting. There is plenty of space to make it your own setting, something the space demands imo.

    So some complaints.
    The lack of pricing for the equipment that is in the book, but that's also probably super intentional and I'd have probably ignored it anyways. And it is clear my priorities are elsewhere.
    Funny things. Section 13 Items has its subsections labeled 14.x instead of 13.x. The monster entries do not have a consistent line-spacing, and the khaibit lists its stats Stamina, Skill, Armour, Initiative, instead of the usual Stamina, Skill, Initiative, Armour.

    Good things.
    I wouldn't even call this advice, but this:
    "If a Skill isn't listed here then make it up. Anything can be a skill from Jousting to Eating. Skills are primarily used as flavour..."
    Dan Sell tells the players that they are not beholden to only what he has written in this game.
    And then a followup in the sample adventure showing how and when you might want to add a new advanced skill.

    Conclusions? (For Now <ominous music>)
    4/5
    Not perfect but definitely not a purchase I regret.
    10 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2024
    This book is very good for two or three session games, if you like home brewing and short storytelling it is perfect. I don't think it will run a very long-term campaign, and it's surreal nature may not be to everyone's taste, but if your at a table you like out of the box adventures, and general strangeness it is an amazing little book. I had a first time ttrpg player at my table, and he absolutely loved some of the abilities that I made up and gave him.
    The mechanics in the game are not very tight, so the game master has to kind of do a little bit of the work of it on their own. It is also very high mortality, I had to put in quite a few guardrails to keep my players from just dying over and over, but that's just my play style and not a fault of the game.

Top reviews from other countries

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  • Guillermo Bayón del Oso
    5.0 out of 5 stars Perfecto
    Reviewed in Spain on February 8, 2022
    Está perfecto, no parece de segunda mano. Muchas gracias.
  • Diego M.
    5.0 out of 5 stars TROIKA ROCKS!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2021
    book arrived in time, perfect shipment. Extremely hi quality materials and binding. The game is ORS but it's totally NOT D&D, which may be good or bad, but you have to know.
    Read carefully to avoid the "same ole same ole" pitfalls, and immerse yourself in a setting defined step by step, by the character classes, skills and equipment, not by a ton of less then useful background dropped in the first 70/100 pages of -any generic RPG-. Extremely good community supporto and additional material.
  • Ross Kingston
    5.0 out of 5 stars THIS BOOK IS BEAUTIFUL
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2020
    the production quality is lush. it feels lovely.
    the heavy grain paper, different colours for different sections of the book, make it truly stand out. the pseudo monochromatic art is evocative and lush.
    the game itself is a bonkers gonzo hybrid of moorcock meets douglas adams meets flash gordon meets pendleton ward, and it has so many sublimely innovative and subtly wonderous mechanisms its ... well.

    a worthy addition to any gamer's shelves.
  • Tom Slade
    5.0 out of 5 stars Weird and wonderful fun!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 17, 2019
    This is a great game. The writing is magical and funny, the rules are simple but thoughtful, and the art is fantastic and confusing in equal measure! It's genuinely fun to GM for this game - the weirdness of the world almost writes itself.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Thomas Rosin
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent RPG
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 5, 2020
    Excellent game but if you want a pdf copy too buy direct from publisher.