Firemartials of Dölmar is a very exhaustive game about magical firefighters in a fantasy metropolis. Reading through this massive book made me think of Eberron. I think the layout, design and bits of art are very well done. I wish the beautiful character art was peppered throughout the 50+ pages to alleviate the reading and evoke the world a bit more!
Speaking of the world, this book is extensively descriptive of every single aspect of play, to a point where, for me, it becomes tedious, not fun. I see a lot of faux pas where it comes to modern TTRPG design and most of them come from a lack of editing. Writing a game vs. writing a book boils down to letting go of every aspect of the world and characters, because in a game, you don't really get to write the main characters or even how the story truly unfolds. I think most people play TTRPGs to create at the table and to fill in the gaps, which this game does not have.
Don't get me wrong, it's a super interesting world, with great lore and characters! But, for me at least, I wouldn't run this game as written because as a GM, everything to the single detail has been plotted out.
In any form of media, I believe editing is key for moments, lore, stories, characters, etc. to have an impact.
Having players’ stats directly linked to the contributions that they must make to specific objectives accentuates this point of removing players and GMs’ agency to ensure that any game of Firemartials of Dölmar remains balanced as imagined by the authors, and goes down as imagined by the authors.
This game is great for first time GMs, and utilizes the simplicity of the HAVOC engine well.
I want to reiterate that the world IS super interesting: the characters, the scenes, the lore, etc. But when you write out every single detail, you paint yourself in a corner where it's expected to have thought of every single outcome and interrogation beforehand, like you would in a fixed media (book, movie, etc.). This is so hermetic that my first thought was " Why would Mages need firefighters to put out fires?"
Little point also: the map shows numbered locations of different numbered places, which was confusing.
Thank you for this submission!
Ed from JoyJoi Games