<Famous musical chords from the 80's cartoon>
He fights for freedom where ever there's trouble, G.I. Joe is there! He never gives up, he stays 'til the fights won, G.I. Joe will dare!
<More dramatic chords>
As a child of the 80's, this was my jam! I loved G.I. Joe from the cartoon, to the toy line, to the merch, and beyond. When a special gift giving day came, you could count on me getting G.I. Joe! I honestly wish I still had it all, as I had so, so much. I would stage weeks long campaigns between the Joes and Cobra; an evil terrorist organization determined to rule the world!
Therefore, when I saw this was coming out I knew I wanted it. I saw it in my
LGS but held off. I did some research on the game, watched some actual plays, and looked through the book. However, I waited about a year before I finally let my mag-pie nature get the best of me. I caved in and bought a copy. My inner-child said, "This I command!"
To get started, the books seems to focus around the "hey-day" of the G.I. Joes from the 80's with a cast of familiar faces. However, they seem to focus on the period of the TV show, but before the G.I. Joe Movie and Cobra-la. There is no mention of G.I. Joe: Extreme, Sigma 6, or Renegades.... which is just fine by me. The game leaves it open on whether you want to play the more light hearted 80's style cartoon for kids, a more gritty/realistic campaign ala the comic books, or something else. Therefore, you have Duke, Scarlet, Snake Eyes, but the scope seems to go all the way up to Slaughter's Marauders but not into the Iron Grenadiers or Serpentor. Those "in the know" will understand what all that gibberish means, and knowing is half the battle.
So, let's get into this...... YOOOOOOO, JOOOOOOE!
Of course, you can read all about it on my blog, but I put a few bullet points below:
https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2023/08/rpg-review-gi-joe-role-playing-game.html
This game uses Renegade Studios Essence 20 system. This is you use four basic stats, that then that gives you some points you can spend for extra dice in some skills. The core mechanics are
D20 +some other dice looking for a Target Number to succeed. In addtion, the game uses a class, leveling, and FEAT style system.
Things I Liked
- Essence system is easy to grasp
- Robust character creation, including some personality pieces too
- Exploration rules
- Defeat does not equal dead
- Looks really cool
Things I Did Not Like
- Not a big fan of using
D20 for this genre
- Lots of special and situational rules of questionable value
- Way too crunchy for a Saturday Morning Cartoon game
- Social is an after-thought with rules scattered in the Combat section
- Weak
GM section
Meh and Other Uncertainties
- Online QRS and Character Sheets available
- This game covers a LOT of kit from weapons, equipment, vehicles, drones, and animal companions
- There is a basic Meta-Currency called Story Points
- Has a simple starting adventure for 4-5 Joes that takes about 4 hours to play
There are my thoughts in a nutshell.
This is not the way I would have approached the property, but I don't have a house system I need to use. This is way too crunchy for a Saturday Morning Adventure Cartoon game, or a Nostalgia game, and feels like it is just a re-skin of D&D 5E. That is to its detriment. The Class and Leveling system just does not fit that well. Specialists make sense so a form of "class" but the levels do not work very well. There is a lot of stuff going on in this game, and it seems way to complex for a casual game; and who is going to run a super serious game of G.I. Joe? I think the shackle of the Essence 20 system led them down the wrong path, and this game really needs to be more "Narrative" driven and casual. However, if you love Crunchy systems, than this could be your jam!
