WEGS is a fantasy RPG that is built to be played and set up quickly. But be sure to pay attention to your odds. There’s a bit of Vegas in it too.

Description and Quick Review of WEGS:
WEGS is a full blown RPG system. You need to provide your own miniatures, poker chips and battle mat. But the details of character creation and the combat system are in the book. It all revolves around four dice, two six-siders and two ten-siders.

Characters in WEGS are called Arks, short for arketypes. Your options for classes include warrior, ranger, thief, sage and mage. Ark creation is super straightforward and takes very little time. You cannot min max stats except to put your best roll into your prime stat (which is based on class). This helps keep the dice in control and streamlines the creation process.

There are two main components when you enter an encounter, skills and actions. Skills are abilities your class has that can help them in the battle. For example warriors charge, thieves can hide and backstab and sages and mages can call upon energies to cast spells.

There are seven actions you can take, move, aim, fire, cast, blast, ready and attack. You only get one action per inning (the game’s term for round or turn). So you cannot move and attack, aim and shoot or gain magic energy and cast in the same turn. Some skills to allow you to do more than one action but that depends on your class.

Most skills and actions require rolls to succeed. You roll your two ten-sided dice to get a percentage result. You must roll under your success mark to succeed with a few added twists. First you can always up your odds by spending spoints. Spoints are a limited resource that add 10% to your success mark per spoint spent. There are several good shots. Any doubles you roll, except 99, that are under your success mark are considered good shots. These rolls will be even more successful or powerful than normal. There are also rolls that equate to bad shots. Any roll ending in 0, except for 00, is a bad shot and thus less effective. You can even have wicked good or bad scores which extenuate your success or failure even more. Wicked success rolls are 01, 02 and 03 and wicked failures are 97, 98, 99, and 00.

Your success mark is determined by the type of roll you are making. Some let you add spoints and others cannot be boosted. One you figure out your success mark though you just roll and compare.

Encounters are easy to set up for the Gamemaster as monsters have a level between one and eight. A monster’s level determines its stats and a level four monster with a warrior class has a prime stat of 44%. Some monsters have skills and some even have spoints.

Tracking a monster’s health in WEGS is easy and involves no pen and paper. Monsters have a number of poker chips under them equal to their level. For every ten hits inflicted on a monster (rounding up on fives), the monster loses one chip.

The WEGS role-playing system has a lot going for it. I really like the casino feel it has. Spoints are a fun way to help your odds and good and bad shots loom with every roll. The game can be swingy as the dice will determine your fate. There is a lot of fun built into the system and the anticipation of seeing players roll their dice or throw in their spoints.

WEGS is not perfect and there is a learning curve. It will take a few sessions until everyone is familiar with the intricacies of the rules and terminology. If you do stick with the system though it does run smoother and move quicker.

If you are looking for an RPG with a lot of chaos, where the dice control the action and you must do your best to survive, check out WEGS. The Gamewick Games website is full of adventures and resources to help you get started.