RPG Review: Conflict Roleplaying Rulebook

I was sent a free review copy of the Conflict Roleplaying Rulebook recently by Conflict Roleplaying, and have perused it.
Conflict is a roleplaying game supplement by Mark M. Scott for the Pathfinder and OGL d20 rule systems, allowing for a group of players to play PVP combat while making sure the game is balanced for any rules the players may be using from any supplement.
The book is 120 pages of gaming goodness, providing some very interesting ways of dealing with arena type campaigns where your sole goal is to wipe your enemy off the map.
The book details types of matches, map elements, feats, and some pre-generated characters.
This almost completely redesigns how character creation is done. You aren’t trying to create a compelling character, you’re creating a battlefield terror, intent only on destroying your enemies. The cover of the book is a well painted piece of art detailing two knights in combat (as you can see on the right) and the rest of the book is in greyscale, with decent art throughout.
This book looks like it took a lot of time and a lot of playtesting to pull off.
The idea of the Battlepoints system is that, based on your level, you are given a certain number of battlepoints to spend on your class, magical and non-magical items, as well as different battlefield conditions. The DM plays the role of the referee, which allows for secret movement and orders by the players through sheets called “passcards” which let the players write out their plans on them, including what attacks they’ll make, what square they’ll be moving into, and any other condition the DM needs to know.
There are many different game types, including “Ambush,” “Kill of the Hill,” “Hellbreak,” “Regicide,” and “Brother’s Keeper.” Each one has specific win conditions that must be met in order for one team or the other to win. Within each type of game, there are other variants, so you aren’t likely to run out of options any time soon.
Conflict Laws are special rules the DM can apply to nearly any game, adding even more options, such as Dead Lands, which cancels out all magic in the battle, or Fog of War, which makes it more difficult to attack the enemy with range attacks.
There are 15 team feats presented, which allow you to benefit not only yourself, but others on your side. Mostly involving distracting an opponent so the other can move in for a hit, or holding the enemy while another lands blows on him.
There’s also a pair of hefty guides within, once for the DM, the other for players, and gives some good tips on different conflicts and how they can be run.
In the game Bridget and I tried, we had a blast, pounding the snot out of each other across the excellent map provided. It was pretty awesome.
Overall, this is a very solid product, with some great options for a game group who is tired of the standard grind and wants to take their aggression out on one another. It’s definitely a book I would recommend to any Pathfinder and 3.5 players out there.