A Quick Look at a Big Book: Troika!

I have read another book, and return to blog about it. This time, I did a re-read of Troika!, published by Melsonian Arts Council, and written by Daniel Sell. The version I am reading is my physical Numinous Edition, with art by Jeremy Duncan, Dirk Detweiler Leichty, Sam Mameli, and Andrew Walter. The layout is relatively simple, with delightfully interesting illustrations, and at least in the Numinous Edition, colour-coded pages for easy navigation when looking something up. The book describes Troika! as a science fantasy RPG. I might go as far as to describe it as Gonzo. In some ways, the book feels like a Precursor to Mythic Bastionland (which I reviewed last year), and to an extent the second edition of Cairn. Namely, a significant fraction of the book (36 pages of the 120 total) are made up of Backgrounds, to be used in character creation, each presented on its own page with an evokative illustration, leaning much more towards symbolism than realism. This fits well with the theme…