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-The fluff got me more interested in Age of Sigmar lore than actually playing Age of Sigmar did.
-The punchiest review I can give is that many modern 5e players would rather play Soulbound and they don't realize it.
--The sticking point for some people might be that the power level of characters in this game is quite high and resources aren't limited enough, but the average modern D&D player seems to start at Level 3 or higher, have one or two encounters per Long Rest, and consider character death or failure to be a personal attack by the DM, so isn't a high-powered system with fast-paced combat that gets you right back to roleplaying your cool OC exactly what people want these days? (It's not like combat is a joke though; both PCs and enemies hit pretty hard, so careless players or overzealous GMs can still find characters in real danger.)
-Despite just comparing it to 5e, the so-called "c7d6" system might be this game's biggest highlight for me. The number you need on the d6 and the amount of d6s that need to reach that number are both part of a skill check (Test), representing "difficulty" and "complexity," respectively. It gives the GM some interesting flexibility, and throwing 7 or 8 d6s for a thing your character is particularly good at is perfect for something based on Warhammer.
-I love the character creation. You start with an "Archetype," each meant to represent a particular variety of Character model from the AoS wargame, but that's not the same thing as a "class" in other games or a "career" in WFRP. The choices within a given archetype are relatively limited, but once that character hits the table and starts earning XP, you can spend that XP on whatever you want. Your melee brawler saved up XP and wants to learn magic after getting hit with a nasty spell last fight? Go ahead! No multiclassing required, it's your character, learn some magic! (But probably start worrying about your Mind stat and Channeling proficiency). I guess this might feel like the Soulsborne games to some people? (If you want to get spicy you can also build a character from scratch with XP buy.) A new player can flip through the pictures, pick the one they like, and build a character in a few minutes, but at the same time you can really make your character yours.
-In terms of the book itself, the first several Chapters are dedicated to walking you through the process of building your character while introducing you to the world that character will explore. While it makes it harder than it could be to simply throw a character together, it's great for ensuring that a prospective new player understands the process and is invested in their character. The players I've had who actually read through it rather than trusting my handouts to give them the gist ended up the most excited for my games. After that is the Rules section, which itself is well laid-out even if having it in the middle of the book might be counterintuitive to some. (But this is a pdf version, so no physical tabbing required!)
-It's a somewhat rules lite system, but only in the sense that fans of extremely crunchy D&D 3.5/Pf1e/Cyberpunk games might find themselves having to make more on-the-fly rulings than they're used to, and combat is managed by Zones instead of feet (optional rules for grid combat exist). It's very easy to jump in and start rolling dice, but for something that leans toward the fluffier side in many ways, the rulebook is actually pretty robust and there's plenty to do on your turn - readied actions, shoves, grapples, defending an ally, called shots; most of the things fantasy RPG players know and love are present.
-As a very minor gripe, weapon damage types, dual wielding, etc don't really do anything without taking the appropriate Talent (think Feat).
-As a warning/additional minor complaint, "The Ladder" is going to confuse your players. I've run this game for three groups and all of them got tripped up on specifically that while otherwise settling into the game rapidly. Characters' points in Melee, Accuracy, and Defence are tallied up and assigned a rating from Poor to Extraordinary, and attacks succeed on a number between 2-6 depending on how those compare (2+ below, 1 below, same, 1 above, 2+ above). It feels very much like looking at Strength/Toughness in Warhammer 40K, but people who haven't played that game or experienced a similar mechanic WILL get tripped up on The Ladder. On the very positive side, though, this contributes to speeding up combat - the pile of dice is rolled all at once and then damage is calculated based on how many succeeded and the character's weapon.
-I do wish there was some detailed encounter balancing advice in the GM section. The Bestiary does include that, but it's based on the tier of enemy (Minion, Warrior, Champion, Chosen), and not all enemies of the same tier are created equal. (The writers themselves have said that roughly double the total Toughness of the party can be used as a budget for building an encounter.)
-My biggest complaint is that Cubicle7 seems to be prioritizing their 40K lines and an aggressive lineup of new titles over this game. I prefer 40K as a book/wargame setting, but I find Soulbound to be C7's best RPG offering, personally, and at the moment they're suddenly making games set in The Old World and The Horus Heresy to join another Warhammer Fantasy game and two other 40K games, while also releasing The Laundry 2e and working on their sudden OSR project.
--If you browse around you'll see that the Soulbound line is plenty deep, though, with three full books of additional player options, two books full of loot featuring Crafting and Magic, two campaign books, a setting/campaign book for grittier rules, a book of one shots, and a few one-shots/splatbook-style pdfs. There's enough content past this excellent Core book to run multiple full-length campaigns, so I'd hate for someone to run away from a hidden gem just because the developer isn't pushing it as hard.
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