Review: ‘Planet Of The Apes The Role-Playing Game’ Rises!

Welcome to the table,

As a kid, it was normal for me to be up well past the midnight hour. Why a child of 12 or under was up well past normal kids’ bedtimes is a story for another time. It’s safe to say while existing unsupervised in those early morning hours, I had the opportunity to watch quite a bit of classic horror and science fiction movies. While monsters are still a favorite of mine, and I love space and all the frontiers that are there to be explored, the Sword & Sorcery stories always spoke to me.

The concept of something ancient that had come before, of worlds that had risen, fallen, been forgotten, and then whole new worlds had come along to inhabit them, and that sense of there being so much more before the “now” of it all really excited me. There was Conan and Excalibur, Kull and Beastmaster, and while some may not consider it such, one of my absolute favorites was, and still is, Planet of the Apes.

My love for this strange world where talking apes, mutants, and men from beyond the stars were wandering the world, ages past the fall of mankind was instant. It was pulpy and weird with a heavy-handed lesson about equality and a strange landscape that was alien and unknown, and yet the world I called home. When I got news of a Planet of the Apes role-playing game from MO-based Magnetic Press Play, an Imprint of the publishing house Magnetic Press, I had to know more.

What appealed to me was that while I adore the modern Planet of the Apes movies (Even the newest one is not without its merit and was for the most part enjoyable if you are looking for a movie with sentient apes fighting in the ruins of a fallen world), the fact that this TTRPG was set in the classic 1960’s world was an exciting development for me.

In a world of D20 games, it was unexpected to see the West End Games D6 system being attached to this one. I had not really played with the West End system in years. When I was a kid I lucked into a stack of well-worn Star Wars TTRPG books that West End had put out so diving into this Planet of the Apes game that made use of a revised and updated version of it was a fun proposition.

For those unfamiliar with the system, essentially The West End D6 system uses D6 for all its rolls. The players roll a number of dice determined by their character’s skills or attributes, in an attempt to meet or exceed a target number set by the storyteller running the game. Successes are counted to determine the outcome of actions, with higher rolls indicating better results and lower rolls leaning into the failure of the action the character is trying to take.

There is also a special “wild die” that is included in the dice pool, which can cause critical successes or failures depending on the situation. This adds a really fun element of unpredictability to the game and for Planet of the Apes, this die is apparently transparent green with the Omega symbol, a seemingly fun little nod to the Alpha-Omega Bomb from Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

The player character options also feel very true to the Planet of the Apes setting, providing options to play Chimpanzees, Gorillas, and Orangutans from among the sentient Apes seen in the movies and books. You can also play as a few variants of humans, and there are even options to dive into taking on the role of a mutant with all the benefits and setbacks that come with being one who lives underground and worships in the irradiated temples of the bomb from before the fall.

While there were not a lot of really strange mutated creatures and monsters inhabiting the world that was set up by the films and filled out a bit by this quick start guide, it seems that sentient plants, mutated animals, and more will be coming with the full release of the game currently backing on Kickstarter.

After spending time reading through the Quick Start guide I was provided and letting my imagination run away from me, I can see how the Planet of the Apes TTRPG can really offer a fun experience at the table. As someone who runs a weekly game that is mostly set in the high-fantasy Sword & Sorcery landscape full of elves, dwarves, and goblins, the Planet of the Apes set provides compelling character builds, a fun and easy-to-grasp rule set, and, more than anything, a lot of room to grow and explore a landscape where apes have become the dominate species on a long fallen Earth.

Until next time, if you want to jump onto the Kickstarter you can check it out at this link. And remember “Apes together strong.”