It's exactly what I wanted to get out of Magic Realm, but without the added complexity and fiddlyness. It's still complex and fiddly, but an order of magnitude less so than MR.
My biggest gripe about MR is that it lacks any great goal. It just feels so petty.
The second is the overly deterministic nature of some combats.
I think a much simpler game could do better.
MR's potential wasn't fulfilled. Some of the larger campaigns (like 'War') were never really fleshed out (I think they had an expansion in mind).
Combat is weird in MR, for sure. Very rock, scissors, paper.
Still, from what little I've toodled around with it on RealmSpeak, I can see its appeal. There's a very dynamic aspect to the game. Magic items can allow some very surprising things to happen on occasion.
But, really, Mage Knight plays muuuuuuch better and gives me my fix for a dynamic fantasy wilderness campaign game (much less constrained than, say, Runebound).
