Tabletop RPG design studio Son of Oak has had great success with City of Mist, a game that combines superhero action with a noirish atmosphere and mythical magic-infused setting. In fact, the game is so full of cool ideas that I put it on my list of the best alternatives to D&D.

As it turns out, the game was so well received that the company decided to produce a spin-off called "Legend in the Mist." This game is a fantasy game that allows players to choose any setting they like from the core book, but also provides a detailed original setting in a separate expansion book called Hearts of Ravendale.

It seems a bit odd that the creators of the most distinctive setting would make a generic fantasy RPG, but Son of Oak says it is "not a clone of tactical fantasy D&D" and certainly seems to put its own stamp on the genre.

Mechanically, it follows in the footsteps of City of Mist. That is, instead of numbers, characters are created with tags, or words and phrases that reflect who they are. One of them might be something like "master of fire magic," but equally it might be something like "wide-eyed farmer."

One of the advantages of this approach is that characters with vastly different strengths in fiction can be on equal footing in the system. The tone of the game takes its cue from "The Lord of the Rings," where the humble hobbit character drives the story as much as the far more skilled Gandalf or Aragorn. The central theme is that of an unlikely hero becoming a hero from scratch, and characters grow and change dramatically depending on whether they are committed to the Origin or Greatness tag (similar to the conflict between embracing humanity or the supernatural in "The City of Mists" (similar to the conflict between embracing humanity and embracing the supernatural in "City of Fog").

As a result, Son of Oak calls it a "rustic fantasy" and hopes to create "the feel of an old fireside tale" during play; Legend in the Mist, which launches on Kickstarter in February, is hoping to stand out from the myriad other fantasy TTRPGs. We'll just have to wait and see if it's enough.