With Two Hands...UP!

The ENnies are the awards at GenCon given to outstanding products in the hobby. Voting is now open and we members of our hobby may go to the ENnies website and vote for our favorites.  Being an avid fan of the Old School style products and play, I am pretty please once again to see several OSR products among the nominees for the best our hobby produces. Zweihander is one of those products and it is up for both Best Game and Product of the Year! Not bad for a kickstarter funded labor of love in a year with several other outstanding products in the competition.

Zweihander: Grim & Perilous RPG, by Grim and Perilous Studios' Daniel Fox, is 691 pages of beautiful thematic artwork by Dejan Mandic and grimdark inspired design. This big tome oozes setting atmosphere. Its on every page. For a fan of the grimdark sub-genre like me it is sweet music...in a haunting flat key of course. Zweihander is old school, but not D&D. Rather it draws its inspiration from Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play 1st Ed.
There is no mention of GW's Old World in Zweihander and I think it is the better because of it. The original Warhammer FRPG is still available (at least in digital format) for those who desire it. What Zweihander offers is release from the proprietary setting and freedom to explore grim and perilous worlds of our own creation...even better than the original in the thinking of this fan of DIY.
Daniel Fox offers us a very detailed and well explained game. In his own way he addresses some of the quirks and questions encountered in the original, which may suit some fans of the original, or may not. Personally, I like. Did I mention the game is detailed? Mr. Fox seems to spare no ink in this love letter to what has to be his favorite game and Zweihander has many examples and lengthy explanations in an effort to make the system easier to understand. If I have a criticism of Zweihander it is length. There are a lot of words here and I am generally a fan of the rules lite approach. Regardless, Zweihander is awesome and to me deserves to not only be nominated for Best Game and Product of the Year, but to win those honors.