|
|
 |
Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/04/02/tabletop-review-quest-o
f-the-wizards/
The following is from the description of Quest of the Wizards on the above link:
“Quest of the Wizards is a game about playing Wizards. Squishy, fragile, “killed by a house cat” wizards, but at the same time; all-powerful, Wish casting, Fireball slinging, ”wizard-supremacy” Wizards. These Wizards seek out secret, forbidden knowledge found in forgotten dusty tomes in deep dungeons.
This is a poorly designed game, based on a poorly designed idea that I had. I was probably drunk. I had some people playtest it. It didn’t go so well. I think I changed some things, but I can’t really remember.
It has all of the old school charm of an old school. The kind with asbestos everywhere and rusty lockers, and showers with what you hope is mold growing on the floor. It has all the new school sensibilities of a new school, that is, I don’t know, sensible or something. My dad did the art. He does some pretty sweet tattoos.”
When I read that, I knew I had to see the whole book. It just sounded too funny to not be interesting. As it turns out, as fun as that description is, the game is actually quite serious, though it makes pains to keep things relatively simple while offering a rich game experience.
qotw1QofW has players playing as Wizards. That much is clear. However, it’s not all about learning new spells and using them. Instead, what really makes the game tick is the use of lackeys. A wizard spends gold to hire lackeys to that player’s specifications. You can hire specific levels, specific races, and specific abilities. The goal of each battle is to keep your wizard from being hit, and to use your lackeys to turn the battle in your favor. In essence, the game is a tactical RPG, but one revolving around keeping your main character alive. It’s interesting.
None of this is to say your wizard is unimportant. Rather, they are a key component to your strategy. Choosing what spells to learn, when to implement them, and when to move is incredibly important. Movement in battle relates to various “arcs” around the wizard, and changing your spot on the board can open up a slew of different spells and abilities. The options become interesting. Do you choose offensive magic and use your lackeys for defense? Do you hire a few strong lackeys or several weak ones? Do you take spells that enhance your lackeys, or focus mainly on yourself? There is room here for experimentation and differentiation. It’s nice.
The game keeps its rules quite simple. You only need d20′s and d6′s. In order for an attack to hit, it must overcome the opponent’s defense, and there are few modifiers to make things tricky. Two charts keep leveling simple and straightforward. You’ll always know how you’ll progress, and you don’t need to write too much down. Leveling is done whenever the GM feels its appropriate, as there is no experience points to dole out.
The rules of the game are so concise, they take up less than half of the book. The rest of it is dedicated to a sample campaign, complete with a couple of maps to help players learn the game and see how things can work out. The campaign has numerous encounters to help players get the hang of the arc system and how to use the lackeys effectively.
qotw2Where the game stumbles is in its lack of material. A GM is going to need to come up with pretty much everything here. There’s no list of monsters to pull from, so trying to create a balanced encounter could be difficult. The spell lists only go up to level three, so it becomes necessary to create new spells if the player character goes any higher. This is especially odd since the level tables go up to ten. There’s no system in place for equipment, and how that could effect some things. Some players may find this freeing, as it leaves creative people room to experiment, but this game is definitely not for those unwilling to spend the time to prepare for it.
The game also gets better the fewer players there are. More players means more and more dice rolls and more time spent figuring out where everyone is in relative to each other. This makes the game ideal for a intimate one on one session, but a pain for anything bigger than a few players. In the end, this is an interesting game with some nifty ideas. The combat system alone is worth a look for those searching for a more tactical experience. Just be warned that the game does not provide much, and that you’ll need to use some creativity in order to get the most out of it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originally published at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/03/11/tabletop-review-mummy-t
he-curse/
I’ve always been a huge fan of the various Mummy products White Wolf has put out over the years. The original supplement for First Edition World of Darkness was something I used a lot over the years, and I was thrilled when my favorite version of the undead got their own full core rulebook in Mummy: The Resurrection. Then White Wolf killed off the Old World of Darkness and replaced it with the new version. I’ll admit I strongly prefer the oWoD, but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying products put out for the NWoD like Left Hand Path and Blood Sorcery (Winner of Diehard GameFAN’s Best Sourcebook Award in our 2012 Tabletop Gaming Awards!). Still, something has always been missing from the New World of Darkness, and that was Mummies. That is… until now.
Back at the tail end of 2012, White Wolf and Onyx Path Publishing did a Kickstarter for Mummy: The Curse, which would be the first NWoD core rulebook release since 2009 and the first appearance of Mummies in that setting. I admit, I wasn’t impressed with how the first two White Wolf oriented Kickstarters were handled, nor was I impressed with either of the end products. Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition Companion was flat out disappointing, while Children of the Revolution was merely mediocre (but had some great art). However, Onyx Path’s third Kickstarter, for Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition (Which I’m currently going through) was a vast improvement in the way they did things, so I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and joined with 1,766 other Kickstarter backers to fund Mummy: The Curse. The campaign was not only successful, but it raised 350% of the funds Onyx Path Publishing was looking for, ensuring several more releases for the new Mummy line would be forth coming.
So I’ve had Mummy: The Curse for a month and a half now and I’m just now writing the review. This is for three reasons. The first is that at nearly three hundred pages, this is a huge tome of text to wade through and make sure I understood all the important details before critiquing the product. The second is that I wanted to re-read the core World of Darkness manual and flip through all three oWoD versions of Mummy for comparison and contrast reasons, which meant even more time spent reading and researching before writing. The third is that because Mummy: The Curse is such a esoteric game, it took me a while to figure out what I was going to say… and more importantly, how to say it. In the end, though, I can sum up my feelings on Mummy: The Curse is one sentence: Mummy: The Curse is by far the best core rulebook for the New World of Darkness line in all aspects, but it’s also the hardest to recommend simply because it’s going to take a very specific group of gamers AND a pretty methodical Storyteller to make a one-shot, much less a Chronicle, work. Intrigued? Then read on my friends…
The thing about Mummy: The Curse is that it’s probably too esoteric for a lot of gamers, no matter how wonderful the design of the overall package. That’s because, more than nearly every other tabletop RPG that I can think of, players give up huge chunks of their character to the Storyteller. In some ways, it’s like a lot of old video game RPGs in which you can customize the character, but in the end you’re still following a path laid out by the developers (or in this case, Storyteller) with very little room for deviation. Unlike most games, the Storyteller will actually be responsible for at least one of your Mummy (called Arisen in the same way a vampire is a Kindred or werewolf is a Garou)’s powers. As well, much of your character’s history, back story and very existence is decided by the Storyteller rather than the player. All the players involved in a Chronicle need to be comfortable with the idea that what they are mainly providing is an aspect of the character they are playing, rather than the fully fleshed out being they would normally play in an RPG. This is a bit daunting of an idea, and I can totally see how some gamers will instantly be turned off by this concept, especially those that dislike playing pre-generated characters in an adventure. Most gamers want to create a character from scratch rather than play a character that is handed to them, and I totally understand that point of view. In that same vein, some players don’t want to give up control of their character to the person running the game, even slightly. If either of those sound like you , Mummy: The Curse is not for you. In some ways, you are a passive participant in the character’s eternal existence, and this is a DESIGN CHOICE that you have to be aware of going into the game, lest you sit unhappy or worse, make the game miserable for your fellow players.
On a parallel level, the sheer control the Storyteller has over the PCs thoughts, dreams, hopes, personality and history means they need to be exceptionally good at running a game. Mummy: The Curse is NOT a game for a person running a tabletop title for the first time, nor is it even for someone who casually runs a game now and then. A Mummy Storyteller needs to be exceptionally organized, have an end game in mind from the very beginning that he or she pushes players to, but they also need to make it feel like the players have a lot more control over where the game is going and how they get to that end point than they actually do. The game offers a lot of rules and mechanics that could easily be abused by a bad GM to force players into a very linear adventure, where all they are really doing is rolling dice rather than acting out or breathing life into a character. Again, these mechanics are a design choice, and in the hands of a good Storyteller, they will add to the overall tone and feel of a Mummy chronicle, but in the hands of a bad Storyteller, these same mechanics will come off as (or purposely be used to say), “Play this adventure exactly how I want you to or you will be punished.” Again, all these things are why I say you need a very specific makeup of people to let Mummy: The Curse play as it is meant to. You need players who are willing to give up a larger chunk of their character than they ever have before in exchange for a unique experience that may really let them grow as a roleplayer, in addition to a Storyteller that can craft an intricate adventure without abusing the mechanics of the system OR the trust players have to put in him or her to make this game work. If you have all the people lined up correctly, Mummy: The Curse promises to be one of the most fantastic and original RPG experiences you’ll encounter. For everyone else though, Mummy: The Curse is best left read rather than played.
So let’s talk about the core concept of Mummy:The Curse so I can better illustrate what I’ve been talking about. Each player usually takes on the role of a Mummy. Now this can vary. Perhaps one plays a Mummy, while another plays a servant of the Mummy, and a few others play cultists devoted to it. Because Mummies are so rare, as well as arguably the most powerful creatures in the New World of Darkness, a triad or more of Mummies might be akin to say, oh, a Technocracy convention in town where the guest speakers are Caine and the Wyrm. Okay, maybe not that bad, but I’m trying to make a point that Mummies are amazingly powerful, from being able to hurtle a gross of meteors from the heavens at their enemies to being able to bring the dead back to life. However, this nigh unstoppable power is tempered by the fact they are awake and walking around the earth too often. For long stretches of time, Mummies lie dormant in their tomb (or Judges forbid, a British museum) until they are awakened. Various ways to awaken a mummy include despoiling their tomb, trying to damage their physical form, being summoned by their cult which is in need of their aid, or a Storyteller device known as the Sothic Turn, which is a time every X number of years (purposely leaving out the number for spoiler reasons) where Mummies arise without a specific reason. Once awake, Mummies are at their most monstrous and powerful, able to tear apart even some of the most powerful creatures of the NWoD without thought or hesitation. The catch is that, indeed, when they first wake up, Mummies really aren’t capable of thought or hesitation. They are little more than death dealing automatons until their memories catch up with them. Some Mummies, however have lost much of who they are to the ravages of time and the constant phasing between Lifeless and Deathless cycles. Others, however, retain a decent amount of recall regarding who and what they once were – but not all of it. This concept of memory and what makes a being him or herself is the primary focus of Mummy: The Curse.
Memory is somewhat, but not really, diametrically opposed to the Sekhem trait. Memory replaces morality/humanity/what have you in Mummy. A character starts off with three dots (out of a possible ten), but you can purchase more in the character creation process. However, when first awakened, Memory is at zero, and it slowly climbs to your starting level. Memory can be raised or lowered through the course of play. The higher the Memory, the more the character remembers about themselves and all of their previous awakening. The lower the Memory, the more the Mummy is an automaton, going about the mission it was resurrected for and little else. Sekhem, on the other hand, is the pure magical energy animating the Mummy. You start off with a full ten points of Sekhem, which slowly dissipates throughout the adventure/campaign/Chronicle. The lower the Sekhem, the lower the characters abilities and powers get. Once Sekhem hits zero, it’s time to go back to sleep until the next summons. With ten full points of Sekhem, a Mummy is at its most powerful, but it’s also when the Mummy’s Memory is at its lowest, making it a potential mindless killing machine bent only on its mission – if it is even aware of that at first.
Now a Mummy can slow his Sekhem loss by staying true to the reason he was raised. Staying on course slows the process, while taking time to explore the world they have awoken to, or rediscovering who they are (say, raising memory) speeds the process of Sekhem loss up. So how closely does one follow the path laid out for them? Do they plow forward with the mission? Do they abandon their quest in order to figure out who they are? Do they see how far they can stretch out their time on this plane to accomplish goals of their own in addition to the one that raised them? These are all questions the player must answer, knowing all the while the Storyteller can call for a Sekhem roll on them based on their actions, or more importantly, inaction.
Hopefully, with all this in mind, you can begin to understand why so much of the PCs background and history are given over to the Storyteller rather than the player. As a good deal of Mummy: The Curse revolves around self-discovery, if the player has every tiny detail of the PCs back story determined before the first scene ever begins, then much of the very reason one plays Mummy is lost. There’s also the inevitability of player knowledge bleeding into character knowledge. I know not everyone is guilty of exploiting this, but it does happen to some extent. As well, in the case of Mummy: The Curse, knowing everything, or even a huge chunk about your character’s back story, robs the player of the thrill of discovery or shocking twists that may occur as the Mummy regains some of its lost memories. So as you can see, Mummy: The Curse not only requires some pretty skilled players to make it work, but also a very strong sense of trust between players and Storytellers. Players need to be able to trust that they can hand off what is usually a big chunk of the player domain to the person running the game. Storytellers, meanwhile, need to be able to craft an intricate story while making sure the back stories they have planned or want to use jibe with the rough personality guidelines the players come up with. You don’t want to slam a player with things that are completely alien to the core concept of the character. Unless you’re Vince Russo, but even then Mummy: The Curse isn’t late 1990s WCW.
So that, my friends is a snapshot of one of the most important aspects of Mummy: The Curse and why it is one of the most awesome and innovative ideas for a tabletop RPG I’ve seen in some time, though that same originality is what will no doubt bar the game from being anything more than a very niche product. Still, while the vast majority reading this probably aren’t the audience for playing Mummy: The Curse, I can’t recommend READING the book enough to see just how outside the box the game is while still holding true to traditional RPG trappings and White Wolf style mechanics. There’s still so much more to the game I haven’t covered, but seeing as we’re 2,500 words in already, let’s give a quick overview of what you’ll find in the core rulebook, save for the above concepts we’ve already discussed.
Mummy: The Curse is actually two books in one. The first half of the book is the “Player’s Guide” while the second half is the “Storyteller’s Handbook.” If you’re familiar with most White Wolf games, you’re used to these being two separate purchases. Part of me is quite skeptical about having both in the same book, if only because you KNOW whoever picks this up is going to read both sections and get spoilers a plenty. I’ve yet to meet a gamer who, when given a similarly laid out book, hasn’t at least snuck a peek at what they shouldn’t have read. So while I like that you’re getting both books for the price of one, I do worry about the fact the World of Darkness game with the most locked in metaplot and a game heavily based on secrets offers that almost irresistible temptation to those that would play it. Again, this harkens back to my repeated comments that it takes a very special type of gamer to “get” Mummy, much less play it.
Chapter One is “The Arisen World” and it is here the book discusses how different Mummy is from other Storyteller products. I do find it interesting that both here and in the Kickstarter video that the Old World of Darkness version of Mummy is brought up, and how that game featured the most heroic characters in that system, while Mummy: The Curse does not. I beg to disagree, because I find the Mummies of Mummy: The Curse to have just as much heroic potential, if not more. After all, a hero puts the mission before their own personal desires and needs. They’re selfless and self-sacrificing, which in many ways are traits the Arisen hold. As well, it takes a very different kind of hero (but one no less heroic) to stand in the face of everything they have been told is how they are supposed to act, what they are supposed to do and how things are supposed to work and say, “No, you are wrong,” drawing a line even in the face of madness and physical torment. This is another thing many Arisen will have to deal with. So no, I disagree with the creators that the Arisen are less heroic than their oWoD counterparts. Closer to any other NWoD “race,” the Arisen have the most potential for heroic deeds and noble actions – it’s just up to the player to get their character to that point.
Chapter One also covers the back story of the Mummies in this world. You’ll learn about the culture they came from, the land of Lost Irem, who made the Mummies and why, along with the reasons for how the Arisen are the only true immortals in the New World of Darkness, and the awesomeness and horror that comes with that powerful gift. Chapter One is all the rich information about the setting and the characters that inhabit it that is needed in order to understand the core concept of Mummies, as well as the options open for character creation.
Instead of character classes, clans, and the like, a Mummy in The Curse is a multi-faceted creature with many options to choose from. You’ll first have to pick between one of the five guilds that Mummies come from. First there is the Maa-Kep, who are the middle management caste in the era when Irem was still known to the world. They are the masters of amulets and tend to be modest, hard workers. The Mesen-Nebu are the Alchemists, the Sesha-Hebsu are the scribes, the Su-Menent are the priests and the Tef-Aahbi are the masters of idols and effigies. Picking a sect (the one that best fits the character) nets you that Guild Affinity – a multi-faceted power that the Mummy can use regardless of Sekhem or Pillar ratings.
From there, the player picks from a list of forty-two Judges. The Judge is basically the specific godlike being the Mummy serves, directly and indirectly. Choosing the Judge determines the Mummy’s defining Pillar and gives them another Affinity. As you can see, there are a LOT of options laid out for character building in Chapter One, and it’s not even the chapter devoted to the concept!
Chapter Two is “The Modeler” and this IS the actual character creation area. Here’s where you do the usual World of Darkness stuff like choose your Attributes and Skills, but also your specific Mummy oriented stuff. I’ve mentioned Pillars briefly, and these are categories comprise an Arisen’s five-faceted soul. The defining Pillar is the core aspect of the Mummy and it’s the most powerful. The five Pillars are Ab (heart), Ba (Spirit), Ka (Essence) Ren (Name) and Shuet (Shadow. The defining Pillar also gives your character another category to belong to, similar to the earlier guilds. You have the passionate and instinctive Lion-headed for the Ab, the Falcon-headed adventurers for the Ba, the strong willed Bull-headed for the Ka, the studious and knowledge seeking Serpent-Headed for the Ren and the contemplative Jackal-Headed for the Shuet. So you can have a Jackal-Headed Tef-Aahbi, but also a Serpent-Headed Tef-Aahbi. It’s a combination of things, similar to birth form and moon cycle combinations back in Werewolf: The Apocalypse.
After that, you get your Affinities and Utterances, which are the two types of powers Mummies get. Affinities are related to a specific Pillar, while Utterances require mastery of two or three Pillars. You get three affinities – one for your Judge, one for your Guild and a third one that the Player or Storyteller picks out. You then get one or two Utterances. You get two if you have at least one dot in each of the five Pillars. So it’s up to the player to get an extra magical ability by having a little in all areas, or only one Utterance, but a higher level in less pillars, which will give them access to the upper tiers of the Utterance. Personally, I’d take the two Utterances because a) I like well rounded characters, b) extra crazy awesome power and c) Utterances cost a lot more than Pillars in the beginning of the game.
Finally, you do the merits, willpower and then the character is given between 20 and 125 experience points right off the bat to spend. Hey, Mummies are the oldest and most powerful creature in the NWoD. It’s like the Elder trait from the old Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand book in a way. The chapter follows the character building process, with detailed descriptions of all the new stats that are unique to Mummy: The Curse and how they work, along with new merits and the personalities of the five “heads” you can choose from. Personally, I’d have preferred to see all of this BEFORE you launch into character building, as that flows better and lets a player know his options first before having to choose them, and thus flip through the book looking for descriptions and a better understanding of what you just read. You don’t throw algebraic equations at a kid without first explaining what algebra (or an equation) is, do you?
In fact, my only real complaint about Mummy: The Curse is the layout of the book. So much could be positioned in a different order to improve both the flow and absorption of the material itself. Things just aren’t laid out in a smooth manner, meaning you’ll have to flip through the book constantly to look for something or for clarification. For example, I’d have put the description of the five heads right after the description of the guilds. That way, you get both set of options clarified and discussed in depth before you have to go into character creation. I’d also completely rearrange how affinities are listed in the book. There are a lot of affinities – eleven and a half pages worth. Mummy: The Curse chooses to list them in alphabetical order in the name of the Affinity. This is okay, but it is not search friendly. What the editors should have done is laid out the Affinities first in alphabetical order of the prerequisite and then based on the level of the Pillar needed. So for example, instead of powers being listed ABCDE, it would be by AB, BA, KA, REN, SHEUT – each with their own bold face imprint, so the reader knows which Pillar they are under, and then under that heading (or sub-heading) you would have the powers arranged by, say, AB *, then AB **, and so on. God, this would have made searching for powers so much easier, ESPECIALLY during character and NPC creation. Now, Utterances make sense to be strictly in alphabetical order by power name, because each Utterance has three levels, each of which requires a different Pillar (again, why you want to diversify in Pillars), but man, they could have definitely done a better job with organization in this book. Things just seem slapped together without any real sense of cohesiveness. That doesn’t lessen the quality of the game or its mechanics, but it does make the book feel clunky and neither reader nor player friendly. I will end this negative Nellie section with one last note – the PDF for Mummy: The Curse is kind of poorly made. You’ll find it has loading problems regularly, be it on a gaming style computer or e-reader. It’s just not layered well and, often times, if you try to change the size, part of the page simply won’t load up so you’ll have to move forward or back a page, then come back to the page you were reading, try to resize and hope you don’t have to repeat. This was especially painful on a Kindle Fire and/or iPad, but PCs seem to handle the PDF better. Still, if you’ve worked in the printing industry or made a lot of PDFs in your time, you’ll be able to spot some noticeable design flaws in how the PDF was made almost instantly. The good news is that none of these issues are major, merely annoying, and that they certainly won’t plague the physical copy of Mummy: The Curse. As well, while these issues plague the first and second version of the PDF given out to Kickstarter backers, there is a very good chance the final version that will be sold on DriveThruRPG.com will get these errors cleaned up. After all, last year the PDF version of Cthulhu By Gaslight was horrendous when it first came out, but Chaosium cleaned that up. I have no doubt Onyx Path Publishing will do the same, but just in case – here’s your warning.
The final chapter in the “Player’s Guide” section is “The Inhuman Condition.” This chapter is a combination of more information about the Arisen and the culture that spawned them, along with mechanics like how they heal, Sybaris (the reaction that a Mummy causes in other creatures), how a Mummy is resurrected after being “killed” in combat and more. It’s a nice, informative section with lots of helpful stuff to play a Mummy, both roleplaying and roll-playing wise, and a good way to end this half of the book.
The second half of the book is the aforementioned “Storyteller’s Handbook” and because so much of Mummy: The Curse rests on discovering secrets, be it about oneself of the world around them, I don’t want to go into too much detail here because it could potentially lessen the effect the game has on you. So let’s just lightly touch on it.
Chapter Four, “The Scroll of Ages,” gives the Storyteller a lot more information about how Mummies came to be, Lost Irem, the realm of Durat and other things players will have to discover as they go through the game. Chapter Five, “Faces of Undeath,” gives the Storyteller information on various NPCs and antagonists to fill little his or her Chronicle with. It also talks about how different Mummies will treat common things, like their cult or their tomb, quite differently. It’s quite clear that even though all Mummies have a compulsion to finish the task they were awakened for, they will all go about it in quite different ways. Chapter Six, “Vessels of Power,” talks about the artifacts Mummies are often compelled to seek out and how they work. It also talks about the potential powers and curses associated with them. Chapter Seven, “Framing Immortality,” is a chapter on how to properly run a game of Mummy: The Curse, and due to the nature of the game, it’s arguably the most important in the book. Anyone thinking of running this game needs to read this chapter several times over to prevent their Chronicle from turning into a game where the players are just kind of there, rolling dice and acting as Automatons while the Storyteller dictates everything via Sekhem drop rolls. There is a massive amount of behind the scenes and metaplot information in this chapter, ranging from locations to drop your Chronicle in to how to come up with a story that makes sense, where multiple Mummies are active at the same time AND working together.
Finally we have the Appendix, “Eve of Judgment,” which is a full length adventure for players and Storytellers to try set in Rio De Janeiro. It’s a pretty straightforward affair, but it captures the heart of what Mummy: The Curse is all about, constantly asking philosophical questions and making you question not only who you are (as a character) but what is the right action to take as a Mummy, as a sentient being, and as a servant of the Judges.
Okay, I need to stop. I’m at 5,000 words and I feel like I could write another 5,000 about the game because there is so much I want to talk about and praise the book for doing. Instead, let’s just leave it at “BUY THIS WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE TO ALL” and call it a day. For those that already have it, we can always go even further(!) in depth in the comments section.
All in all Mummy: The Curse is simply an amazing core rulebook, and page for page, it’s the best game set in the New World of Darkness yet. Mummy thrills me because it’s such an introspective game, even while your characters wield insane amounts of power. Yet, for a Mummy, the ability to say, scorch miles of earth with but a thought or raise an army of zombies with the flick of his or her wrist is nothing compared to the mental and spiritual aspects of the game. All this power, yet the focus will rarely be on combat. This is so beautifully done and balanced out that I am chomping at the bit to see the other upcoming releases for the game. I can’t strongly recommend reading Mummy: The Curse enough, but I do have to again reiterate that this is not a game for everyone. You’re going to need a very specific dynamic between the players and Storyteller for it to work. This is not a game I’d run with random strangers at a convention, for example. If you can find the right group to play Mummy: The Curse with, you will be rewarded with one of the most unique and philosophical tabletop games ever released. Sure, Mummy: The Curse will inevitably be a very niche game that only a small cross section of tabletop gamers will be able to play and enjoy the way it was meant to be played, but just because the game is a very niche one doesn’t make it any less awesome.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originally Published at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/03/11/tabletop-review-mummy-t
he-curse/
I’ve always been a huge fan of the various Mummy products White Wolf has put out over the years. The original supplement for First Edition World of Darkness was something I used a lot over the years, and I was thrilled when my favorite version of the undead got their own full core rulebook in Mummy: The Resurrection. Then White Wolf killed off the Old World of Darkness and replaced it with the new version. I’ll admit I strongly prefer the oWoD, but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying products put out for the NWoD like Left Hand Path and Blood Sorcery (Winner of Diehard GameFAN’s Best Sourcebook Award in our 2012 Tabletop Gaming Awards!). Still, something has always been missing from the New World of Darkness, and that was Mummies. That is… until now.
Back at the tail end of 2012, White Wolf and Onyx Path Publishing did a Kickstarter for Mummy: The Curse, which would be the first NWoD core rulebook release since 2009 and the first appearance of Mummies in that setting. I admit, I wasn’t impressed with how the first two White Wolf oriented Kickstarters were handled, nor was I impressed with either of the end products. Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition Companion was flat out disappointing, while Children of the Revolution was merely mediocre (but had some great art). However, Onyx Path’s third Kickstarter, for Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition (Which I’m currently going through) was a vast improvement in the way they did things, so I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and joined with 1,766 other Kickstarter backers to fund Mummy: The Curse. The campaign was not only successful, but it raised 350% of the funds Onyx Path Publishing was looking for, ensuring several more releases for the new Mummy line would be forth coming.
So I’ve had Mummy: The Curse for a month and a half now and I’m just now writing the review. This is for three reasons. The first is that at nearly three hundred pages, this is a huge tome of text to wade through and make sure I understood all the important details before critiquing the product. The second is that I wanted to re-read the core World of Darkness manual and flip through all three oWoD versions of Mummy for comparison and contrast reasons, which meant even more time spent reading and researching before writing. The third is that because Mummy: The Curseis such a esoteric game, it took me a while to figure out what I was going to say… and more importantly, how to say it. In the end, though, I can sum up my feelings on Mummy: The Curseis one sentence: Mummy: The Curse is by far the best core rulebook for the New World of Darkness line in all aspects, but it’s also the hardest to recommend simply because it’s going to take a very specific group of gamers AND a pretty methodical Storyteller to make a one-shot, much less a Chronicle, work. Intrigued? Then read on my friends…
The thing about Mummy: The Curse is that it’s probably too esoteric for a lot of gamers, no matter how wonderful the design of the overall package. That’s because, more than nearly every other tabletop RPG that I can think of, players give up huge chunks of their character to the Storyteller. In some ways, it’s like a lot of old video game RPGs in which you can customize the character, but in the end you’re still following a path laid out by the developers (or in this case, Storyteller) with very little room for deviation. Unlike most games, the Storyteller will actually be responsible for at least one of your Mummy (called Arisen in the same way a vampire is a Kindred or werewolf is a Garou)’s powers. As well, much of your character’s history, back story and very existence is decided by the Storyteller rather than the player. All the players involved in a Chronicle need to be comfortable with the idea that what they are mainly providing is an aspect of the character they are playing, rather than the fully fleshed out being they would normally play in an RPG. This is a bit daunting of an idea, and I can totally see how some gamers will instantly be turned off by this concept, especially those that dislike playing pre-generated characters in an adventure. Most gamers want to create a character from scratch rather than play a character that is handed to them, and I totally understand that point of view. In that same vein, some players don’t want to give up control of their character to the person running the game, even slightly. If either of those sound like you , Mummy: The Curse is not for you. In some ways, you are a passive participant in the character’s eternal existence, and this is a DESIGN CHOICE that you have to be aware of going into the game, lest you sit unhappy or worse, make the game miserable for your fellow players.
On a parallel level, the sheer control the Storyteller has over the PCs thoughts, dreams, hopes, personality and history means they need to be exceptionally good at running a game. Mummy: The Curse is NOT a game for a person running a tabletop title for the first time, nor is it even for someone who casually runs a game now and then. A Mummy Storyteller needs to be exceptionally organized, have an end game in mind from the very beginning that he or she pushes players to, but they also need to make it feel like the players have a lot more control over where the game is going and how they get to that end point than they actually do. The game offers a lot of rules and mechanics that could easily be abused by a bad GM to force players into a very linear adventure, where all they are really doing is rolling dice rather than acting out or breathing life into a character. Again, these mechanics are a design choice, and in the hands of a good Storyteller, they will add to the overall tone and feel of a Mummy chronicle, but in the hands of a bad Storyteller, these same mechanics will come off as (or purposely be used to say), “Play this adventure exactly how I want you to or you will be punished.” Again, all these things are why I say you need a very specific makeup of people to let Mummy: The Curse play as it is meant to. You need players who are willing to give up a larger chunk of their character than they ever have before in exchange for a unique experience that may really let them grow as a roleplayer, in addition to a Storyteller that can craft an intricate adventure without abusing the mechanics of the system OR the trust players have to put in him or her to make this game work. If you have all the people lined up correctly, Mummy: The Curse promises to be one of the most fantastic and original RPG experiences you’ll encounter. For everyone else though, Mummy: The Curse is best left read rather than played.
So let’s talk about the core concept of Mummy:The Curse so I can better illustrate what I’ve been talking about. Each player usually takes on the role of a Mummy. Now this can vary. Perhaps one plays a Mummy, while another plays a servant of the Mummy, and a few others play cultists devoted to it. Because Mummies are so rare, as well as arguably the most powerful creatures in the New World of Darkness, a triad or more of Mummies might be akin to say, oh, a Technocracy convention in town where the guest speakers are Caine and the Wyrm. Okay, maybe not that bad, but I’m trying to make a point that Mummies are amazingly powerful, from being able to hurtle a gross of meteors from the heavens at their enemies to being able to bring the dead back to life. However, this nigh unstoppable power is tempered by the fact they are awake and walking around the earth too often. For long stretches of time, Mummies lie dormant in their tomb (or Judges forbid, a British museum) until they are awakened. Various ways to awaken a mummy include despoiling their tomb, trying to damage their physical form, being summoned by their cult which is in need of their aid, or a Storyteller device known as the Sothic Turn, which is a time every X number of years (purposely leaving out the number for spoiler reasons) where Mummies arise without a specific reason. Once awake, Mummies are at their most monstrous and powerful, able to tear apart even some of the most powerful creatures of the NWoD without thought or hesitation. The catch is that, indeed, when they first wake up, Mummies really aren’t capable of thought or hesitation. They are little more than death dealing automatons until their memories catch up with them. Some Mummies, however have lost much of who they are to the ravages of time and the constant phasing between Lifeless and Deathless cycles. Others, however, retain a decent amount of recall regarding who and what they once were – but not all of it. This concept of memory and what makes a being him or herself is the primary focus of Mummy: The Curse.
Memory is somewhat, but not really, diametrically opposed to the Sekhem trait. Memory replaces morality/humanity/what have you in Mummy. A character starts off with three dots (out of a possible ten), but you can purchase more in the character creation process. However, when first awakened, Memory is at zero, and it slowly climbs to your starting level. Memory can be raised or lowered through the course of play. The higher the Memory, the more the character remembers about themselves and all of their previous awakening. The lower the Memory, the more the Mummy is an automaton, going about the mission it was resurrected for and little else. Sekhem, on the other hand, is the pure magical energy animating the Mummy. You start off with a full ten points of Sekhem, which slowly dissipates throughout the adventure/campaign/Chronicle. The lower the Sekhem, the lower the characters abilities and powers get. Once Sekhem hits zero, it’s time to go back to sleep until the next summons. With ten full points of Sekhem, a Mummy is at its most powerful, but it’s also when the Mummy’s Memory is at its lowest, making it a potential mindless killing machine bent only on its mission – if it is even aware of that at first.
Now a Mummy can slow his Sekhem loss by staying true to the reason he was raised. Staying on course slows the process, while taking time to explore the world they have awoken to, or rediscovering who they are (say, raising memory) speeds the process of Sekhem loss up. So how closely does one follow the path laid out for them? Do they plow forward with the mission? Do they abandon their quest in order to figure out who they are? Do they see how far they can stretch out their time on this plane to accomplish goals of their own in addition to the one that raised them? These are all questions the player must answer, knowing all the while the Storyteller can call for a Sekhem roll on them based on their actions, or more importantly, inaction.
Hopefully, with all this in mind, you can begin to understand why so much of the PCs background and history are given over to the Storyteller rather than the player. As a good deal of Mummy: The Curse revolves around self-discovery, if the player has every tiny detail of the PCs back story determined before the first scene ever begins, then much of the very reason one plays Mummy is lost. There’s also the inevitability of player knowledge bleeding into character knowledge. I know not everyone is guilty of exploiting this, but it does happen to some extent. As well, in the case of Mummy: The Curse, knowing everything, or even a huge chunk about your character’s back story, robs the player of the thrill of discovery or shocking twists that may occur as the Mummy regains some of its lost memories. So as you can see, Mummy: The Curse not only requires some pretty skilled players to make it work, but also a very strong sense of trust between players and Storytellers. Players need to be able to trust that they can hand off what is usually a big chunk of the player domain to the person running the game. Storytellers, meanwhile, need to be able to craft an intricate story while making sure the back stories they have planned or want to use jibe with the rough personality guidelines the players come up with. You don’t want to slam a player with things that are completely alien to the core concept of the character. Unless you’re Vince Russo, but even then Mummy: The Curse isn’t late 1990s WCW.
So that, my friends is a snapshot of one of the most important aspects of Mummy: The Curse and why it is one of the most awesome and innovative ideas for a tabletop RPG I’ve seen in some time, though that same originality is what will no doubt bar the game from being anything more than a very niche product. Still, while the vast majority reading this probably aren’t the audience for playing Mummy: The Curse, I can’t recommend READING the book enough to see just how outside the box the game is while still holding true to traditional RPG trappings and White Wolf style mechanics. There’s still so much more to the game I haven’t covered, but seeing as we’re 2,500 words in already, let’s give a quick overview of what you’ll find in the core rulebook, save for the above concepts we’ve already discussed.
Mummy: The Curse is actually two books in one. The first half of the book is the “Player’s Guide” while the second half is the “Storyteller’s Handbook.” If you’re familiar with most White Wolf games, you’re used to these being two separate purchases. Part of me is quite skeptical about having both in the same book, if only because you KNOW whoever picks this up is going to read both sections and get spoilers a plenty. I’ve yet to meet a gamer who, when given a similarly laid out book, hasn’t at least snuck a peek at what they shouldn’t have read. So while I like that you’re getting both books for the price of one, I do worry about the fact the World of Darkness game with the most locked in metaplot and a game heavily based on secrets offers that almost irresistible temptation to those that would play it. Again, this harkens back to my repeated comments that it takes a very special type of gamer to “get” Mummy, much less play it.
Chapter One is “The Arisen World” and it is here the book discusses how different Mummy is from other Storyteller products. I do find it interesting that both here and in the Kickstarter video that the Old World of Darkness version of Mummy is brought up, and how that game featured the most heroic characters in that system, while Mummy: The Curse does not. I beg to disagree, because I find the Mummies of Mummy: The Curse to have just as much heroic potential, if not more. After all, a hero puts the mission before their own personal desires and needs. They’re selfless and self-sacrificing, which in many ways are traits the Arisen hold. As well, it takes a very different kind of hero (but one no less heroic) to stand in the face of everything they have been told is how they are supposed to act, what they are supposed to do and how things are supposed to work and say, “No, you are wrong,” drawing a line even in the face of madness and physical torment. This is another thing many Arisen will have to deal with. So no, I disagree with the creators that the Arisen are less heroic than their oWoD counterparts. Closer to any other NWoD “race,” the Arisen have the most potential for heroic deeds and noble actions – it’s just up to the player to get their character to that point.
Chapter One also covers the back story of the Mummies in this world. You’ll learn about the culture they came from, the land of Lost Irem, who made the Mummies and why, along with the reasons for how the Arisen are the only true immortals in the New World of Darkness, and the awesomeness and horror that comes with that powerful gift. Chapter One is all the rich information about the setting and the characters that inhabit it that is needed in order to understand the core concept of Mummies, as well as the options open for character creation.
Instead of character classes, clans, and the like, a Mummy in The Curse is a multi-faceted creature with many options to choose from. You’ll first have to pick between one of the five guilds that Mummies come from. First there is the Maa-Kep, who are the middle management caste in the era when Irem was still known to the world. They are the masters of amulets and tend to be modest, hard workers. The Mesen-Nebu are the Alchemists, the Sesha-Hebsu are the scribes, the Su-Menent are the priests and the Tef-Aahbi are the masters of idols and effigies. Picking a sect (the one that best fits the character) nets you that Guild Affinity – a multi-faceted power that the Mummy can use regardless of Sekhem or Pillar ratings.
From there, the player picks from a list of forty-two Judges. The Judge is basically the specific godlike being the Mummy serves, directly and indirectly. Choosing the Judge determines the Mummy’s defining Pillar and gives them another Affinity. As you can see, there are a LOT of options laid out for character building in Chapter One, and it’s not even the chapter devoted to the concept!
Chapter Two is “The Modeler” and this IS the actual character creation area. Here’s where you do the usual World of Darkness stuff like choose your Attributes and Skills, but also your specific Mummy oriented stuff. I’ve mentioned Pillars briefly, and these are categories comprise an Arisen’s five-faceted soul. The defining Pillar is the core aspect of the Mummy and it’s the most powerful. The five Pillars are Ab (heart), Ba (Spirit), Ka (Essence) Ren (Name) and Shuet (Shadow. The defining Pillar also gives your character another category to belong to, similar to the earlier guilds. You have the passionate and instinctive Lion-headed for the Ab, the Falcon-headed adventurers for the Ba, the strong willed Bull-headed for the Ka, the studious and knowledge seeking Serpent-Headed for the Ren and the contemplative Jackal-Headed for the Shuet. So you can have a Jackal-Headed Tef-Aahbi, but also a Serpent-Headed Tef-Aahbi. It’s a combination of things, similar to birth form and moon cycle combinations back in Werewolf: The Apocalypse.
After that, you get your Affinities and Utterances, which are the two types of powers Mummies get. Affinities are related to a specific Pillar, while Utterances require mastery of two or three Pillars. You get three affinities – one for your Judge, one for your Guild and a third one that the Player or Storyteller picks out. You then get one or two Utterances. You get two if you have at least one dot in each of the five Pillars. So it’s up to the player to get an extra magical ability by having a little in all areas, or only one Utterance, but a higher level in less pillars, which will give them access to the upper tiers of the Utterance. Personally, I’d take the two Utterances because a) I like well rounded characters, b) extra crazy awesome power and c) Utterances cost a lot more than Pillars in the beginning of the game.
Finally, you do the merits, willpower and then the character is given between 20 and 125 experience points right off the bat to spend. Hey, Mummies are the oldest and most powerful creature in the NWoD. It’s like the Elder trait from the old Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand book in a way. The chapter follows the character building process, with detailed descriptions of all the new stats that are unique to Mummy: The Curse and how they work, along with new merits and the personalities of the five “heads” you can choose from. Personally, I’d have preferred to see all of this BEFORE you launch into character building, as that flows better and lets a player know his options first before having to choose them, and thus flip through the book looking for descriptions and a better understanding of what you just read. You don’t throw algebraic equations at a kid without first explaining what algebra (or an equation) is, do you?
In fact, my only real complaint about Mummy: The Curse is the layout of the book. So much could be positioned in a different order to improve both the flow and absorption of the material itself. Things just aren’t laid out in a smooth manner, meaning you’ll have to flip through the book constantly to look for something or for clarification. For example, I’d have put the description of the five heads right after the description of the guilds. That way, you get both set of options clarified and discussed in depth before you have to go into character creation. I’d also completely rearrange how affinities are listed in the book. There are a lot of affinities – eleven and a half pages worth. Mummy: The Curse chooses to list them in alphabetical order in the name of the Affinity. This is okay, but it is not search friendly. What the editors should have done is laid out the Affinities first in alphabetical order of the prerequisite and then based on the level of the Pillar needed. So for example, instead of powers being listed ABCDE, it would be by AB, BA, KA, REN, SHEUT – each with their own bold face imprint, so the reader knows which Pillar they are under, and then under that heading (or sub-heading) you would have the powers arranged by, say, AB *, then AB **, and so on. God, this would have made searching for powers so much easier, ESPECIALLY during character and NPC creation. Now, Utterances make sense to be strictly in alphabetical order by power name, because each Utterance has three levels, each of which requires a different Pillar (again, why you want to diversify in Pillars), but man, they could have definitely done a better job with organization in this book. Things just seem slapped together without any real sense of cohesiveness. That doesn’t lessen the quality of the game or its mechanics, but it does make the book feel clunky and neither reader nor player friendly. I will end this negative Nellie section with one last note – the PDF for Mummy: The Curse is kind of poorly made. You’ll find it has loading problems regularly, be it on a gaming style computer or e-reader. It’s just not layered well and, often times, if you try to change the size, part of the page simply won’t load up so you’ll have to move forward or back a page, then come back to the page you were reading, try to resize and hope you don’t have to repeat. This was especially painful on a Kindle Fire and/or iPad, but PCs seem to handle the PDF better. Still, if you’ve worked in the printing industry or made a lot of PDFs in your time, you’ll be able to spot some noticeable design flaws in how the PDF was made almost instantly. The good news is that none of these issues are major, merely annoying, and that they certainly won’t plague the physical copy of Mummy: The Curse. As well, while these issues plague the first and second version of the PDF given out to Kickstarter backers, there is a very good chance the final version that will be sold on DriveThruRPG.com will get these errors cleaned up. After all, last year the PDF version of Cthulhu By Gaslight was horrendous when it first came out, but Chaosium cleaned that up. I have no doubt Onyx Path Publishing will do the same, but just in case – here’s your warning.
The final chapter in the “Player’s Guide” section is “The Inhuman Condition.” This chapter is a combination of more information about the Arisen and the culture that spawned them, along with mechanics like how they heal, Sybaris (the reaction that a Mummy causes in other creatures), how a Mummy is resurrected after being “killed” in combat and more. It’s a nice, informative section with lots of helpful stuff to play a Mummy, both roleplaying and roll-playing wise, and a good way to end this half of the book.
The second half of the book is the aforementioned “Storyteller’s Handbook” and because so much of Mummy: The Curse rests on discovering secrets, be it about oneself of the world around them, I don’t want to go into too much detail here because it could potentially lessen the effect the game has on you. So let’s just lightly touch on it.
Chapter Four, “The Scroll of Ages,” gives the Storyteller a lot more information about how Mummies came to be, Lost Irem, the realm of Durat and other things players will have to discover as they go through the game. Chapter Five, “Faces of Undeath,” gives the Storyteller information on various NPCs and antagonists to fill little his or her Chronicle with. It also talks about how different Mummies will treat common things, like their cult or their tomb, quite differently. It’s quite clear that even though all Mummies have a compulsion to finish the task they were awakened for, they will all go about it in quite different ways. Chapter Six, “Vessels of Power,” talks about the artifacts Mummies are often compelled to seek out and how they work. It also talks about the potential powers and curses associated with them. Chapter Seven, “Framing Immortality,” is a chapter on how to properly run a game of Mummy: The Curse, and due to the nature of the game, it’s arguably the most important in the book. Anyone thinking of running this game needs to read this chapter several times over to prevent their Chronicle from turning into a game where the players are just kind of there, rolling dice and acting as Automatons while the Storyteller dictates everything via Sekhem drop rolls. There is a massive amount of behind the scenes and metaplot information in this chapter, ranging from locations to drop your Chronicle in to how to come up with a story that makes sense, where multiple Mummies are active at the same time AND working together.
Finally we have the Appendix, “Eve of Judgment,” which is a full length adventure for players and Storytellers to try set in Rio De Janeiro. It’s a pretty straightforward affair, but it captures the heart of what Mummy: The Curse is all about, constantly asking philosophical questions and making you question not only who you are (as a character) but what is the right action to take as a Mummy, as a sentient being, and as a servant of the Judges.
Okay, I need to stop. I’m at 5,000 words and I feel like I could write another 5,000 about the game because there is so much I want to talk about and praise the book for doing. Instead, let’s just leave it at “BUY THIS WHEN IT IS AVAILABLE TO ALL” and call it a day. For those that already have it, we can always go even further(!) in depth in the comments section.
All in all Mummy: The Curse is simply an amazing core rulebook, and page for page, it’s the best game set in the New World of Darkness yet. Mummy thrills me because it’s such an introspective game, even while your characters wield insane amounts of power. Yet, for a Mummy, the ability to say, scorch miles of earth with but a thought or raise an army of zombies with the flick of his or her wrist is nothing compared to the mental and spiritual aspects of the game. All this power, yet the focus will rarely be on combat. This is so beautifully done and balanced out that I am chomping at the bit to see the other upcoming releases for the game. I can’t strongly recommend reading Mummy: The Curse enough, but I do have to again reiterate that this is not a game for everyone. You’re going to need a very specific dynamic between the players and Storyteller for it to work. This is not a game I’d run with random strangers at a convention, for example. If you can find the right group to play Mummy: The Curse with, you will be rewarded with one of the most unique and philosophical tabletop games ever released. Sure, Mummy: The Curse will inevitably be a very niche game that only a small cross section of tabletop gamers will be able to play and enjoy the way it was meant to be played, but just because the game is a very niche one doesn’t make it any less awesome.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2012/10/23/tabletop-review-appendi
x-n-adventure-toolkit-1-the-ruins-of-ramat-dungeon-crawl-cla
ssics/\
If you’ve been reading this site for a while, then you know I really enjoy the new Dungeon Crawl Classics system Goodman Games released earlier this year. So when I saw a Kickstarter back in June where a company was going to try and release their first DCC adventure, I happily threw money at it. Well, that Kickstarter exploded to where there are now seven or eight products in the works being funded by the money it raised – most of which are Dungeon Crawl Classics adventures. You won’t hear me complaining about that. Now, Brave Halfling has run into a few problems along the way. One of his artists and the slipcover creator both massively raised their rates post-Kickstarter which left him with a financial shortfall and some publishing delays. It happens. Kickstarter is Venture Capitalism, not Amazon, after all. Personally, I’m just happy the first adventure is finally out with the promise of more to come.
The Ruins of Ramat is a twenty page adventure. Of those twenty pages, one is the OGL, two pages are the covers, two thirds of a page is introduction, one page is back story for the adventure, one page is an encounter table and the hook for the PCs, five and a half pages are the actual adventure itself, six and four-fifths pages are exceptionally awesome artwork, one page is an appendix for expanding the adventure with three unconnected and very different situations, and one page (page 2) is inexplicably blank. The PDF version of The Ruins of Ramat also comes with a second two-page PDF. It contains the full map drawn in the usual Dungeon Crawl Classics style, along with two half page versions of the handouts that are in the core adventure PDF. I’m not sure why we’d need or want both, but extra pages are extra pages, I guess.
The actual adventure is a pretty interesting one. As it involves Level 0 characters, there should be a lot of PC death occurring. Of course, that’s one of the whole points to a Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure, which is why the game’s core rulebook suggests everyone play two or three PCs EACH when doing one of these. This particular adventure suggests eight to twelve characters, which means three to six actual gamers playing. The adventure is a pretty big one, containing seventeen rooms and four big encounters that range from a crab spider to a demon with an instant death attack. Ouch. There aren’t a lot of monsters to encounter, but again, that’s because these are Level 0 characters. I think the adventure is balanced enough that a few of the characters will make it out alive, and that’s to be expected. DCC has a mortality rate almost as high as Call of Cthulhu after all.
The back story for the adventure is an incredibly good one and it revolves around the Church of Ramat, a Lawful Good deity (well, just Lawful as this is DCC) splintering into two factions and eventually destroying itself in a violent civil war that has left the religion and its God forgotten for thousands of years. It’s just too bad that much of the back story will never be encountered by the characters that play through it, but at least it’s there for gamers to read and enjoy after the fact. The weakest part of the story is the player hook. A little girl has her dog kidnapped by a giant monster (which never appears in the adventure oddly enough) and the PCs all journey into an until now undiscovered pit in their hometown which then leads into forgotten old ruins. I can’t see too many cheese-makers or basket-weavers thinking this is a good plan of action. I mean, I love animals more than people, but if I was a Level 0 human in the world of Dungeon Crawl Classics, where a horrible death by a foul beastie is more likely than a stroke or clogged artery, I’d be more inclined to buy the child three puppies instead.
All in all, The Ruins of Ramat is not only a great adventure, it’s better than some of the “official” Dungeon Crawl Classics adventures I’ve seen put out. The art is fantastic, the story is a very interesting one and I like the idea of optional expansions for the adventure. The storyline also gives a great explanation for why one (or more) of the Level 0 characters becomes a cleric. It’s practically built in. The Ruins of Ramat impressed me greatly and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on a physical copy of the adventure to see how it holds up in digest form. Even more though, I’m looking forward to the rest of the adventures that will be released in the months to come
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/03/20/tabletop-review-the-lau
ndry-god-game-black/
God Game Black is a sourcebook for The Laundry RPG primarily based on material found in The Apocalypse Codex, another novel in the literary series the game is based on by author Charles Stross. This sourcebook has a little bit of everything: Laundry personnel, adventures, expanded setting information, monsters, flavor fiction, and more. I really enjoyed reading this, the material is just so fun to read and captures that Lovecraft flavor excellently, plus it is presented excellently for game masters to use. Let’s take a look.
Creepy Dreams and The Sleeper
I feel like I’m at a bit of a disadvantage because I have not read the novels related to the game, and the fact that this sourcebook draws on a lot of the material “revealed” in The Apocalypse Codex did leave me feeling a bit in the dark about a lot of details. Still, the way that the book reads is so engaging and well-written that it made me want to read the book, like immediately. What I gathered, and what one major portion of the book centers around, is this thing called “The Sleeper” who resides in some pyramid building on the Plateau of the Sleeper. In the core book, the code phrase “CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN” comes up a lot, and it basically references a scenario where an Old One awakens and humanity must defend itself or be destroyed. Well, The Sleeper awakening is some sort of herald or signal that things are in motion to move the scenario closer to actually happening. There is a major section in the book and one of the adventures that centers around this other plane of existence and the history and activity surrounding The Sleeper. The premise and the ideas surrounding this part of the book are fascinating, I really enjoyed reading it. It feels very much like a Lovecraft creation, with plenty of mysterious strangeness and murky occurrences that give you a taste of horror without revealing what is actually happening.
The book also contains some info that might be considered updates or additions to the core book in terms of characters. There are now rules for characters or other entities that are classified as “external assets”. These are essentially resources that The Laundry can’t officially have on the payroll for whatever reason. An external asset can be anything from some hired gun the organization keeps on call in the Amazon to a monster that is somehow useful to the department but can’t otherwise be kept around. External assets are particularly useful for one thing: conducting unofficial (read: illicit) missions that The Laundry can’t be directly associated with. Players can play a campaign or one-shot after having made characters specifically as external assets. Since they often undertake dangerous missions, being one of these hired guns can be a lucrative but short career, unless you’re really good. This can be a good alternative to the play style put forward in the core book where characters are part of the department and have to deal with bureaucracy and procedures etc., instead your group can roll up external assets characters and immediately jump into their mission which can be as action-packed or full of subterfuge as you want. Again, might be great for conventions or one-shots.
Made in America
So, you’ve got The Laundry looking out for British interests…what about the other side of the pond? In God Game Black, the American counterpart is explored in detail. This entity is known as “The Black Chamber”, and is rather infamous for having taken its own path in regards to the occult and its relationship with the Old Ones. Basically, instead of strictly watching and keeping the occult forces in check, The Black Chamber has a much more open attitude toward the powers of darkness, looking for ways to harness the occult for power. For some reason, entities within this organization have names or descriptions drawn from Tolkien: Dark Lords, The Nazgul, and “The Unblinking, Red-Rimmed Eye” (which is the description of Control); maybe it is some sort of jab at British-American relations in Stross’ view. People working for The Black Chamber might not even know who their overseers are, the B.C. tends to appropriate non-assuming organizations for itself, redirecting the activities of the group toward other ends, those more useful for boosting U.S. control and power. This section is another example of the wonderfully engrossing reading in this book, The Black Chamber is wild and crazy, and makes a great sometimes-friend to The Laundry. And guess what? Playing a character or group working for the B.C. provides yet another option for The Laundry RPG games.
In keeping with the mish-mash (as wonderful as it is) of stuff found in this book, there are a few pages about the history of British occult management from about the Renaissance period on. However, this material is rather sparse, and while the book suggests that you can play a historical campaign using this information, I don’t think it would be feasible without making a lot of stuff up. There are literally five pages of historical information covering history up to about the 1930s, I just don’t think it received enough coverage to be a ready-made setting for a Laundry campaign.
Toward the end of book you have two adventures. These both seem really well thought out and well-written. The first one involves (surprise) occult activity behind the shiny veneer of an educational institution, and the second one involves The Sleeper as described earlier in the book. The adventures are not outlines; they contain notes on playing the NPCs, documents that you can print out and hand to the players, contingencies for the ways the scenario can go, it’s just great. Really good stuff here.
Dog Dame Smack
This sourcebook is a great addition to the core book. It gives you a little bit of everything, and expands the setting for The Laundry RPG in excellent and interesting ways. The entire book is well-presented, well-written, and thorough in most places. There were a few typos here and there, but no glaring errors or anything. Not only does the book have lots of great information, it is really fun to read. I keep saying that about the books for this game, but the material is just really engrossing. It’s got more of all the stuff that makes this game thematically great: conspiracies, thrills, horrors, humor…did I mention conspiracies? If you like The Laundry RPG, I think this book should definitely be in your collection or on your buy list.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/03/18/tabletop-review-deadlan
ds-noir-companion-savage-worlds/
I’ve really been enjoying Deadlands Noir so far. It’s a nice mix of horror and detective work. It’s Call of Cthulhu, but with more mundane horrors and an emphasis on pulp action rather than antiquarian studies. I loved the core rulebook, I enjoyed the first adventure for the system, The Old Absinthe House Blues, and even found the two short stories (Tenement Men and Blood and Roses) to be fun little diversions. With four straight solid releases for the Deadlands Noir franchise, I had to wonder how long they could keep the streak of quality alive. Unfortunately, the streak ends here, with the Deadlands Noir Companion. While not a terrible release by any means, it’s definitely a turn for the worse, as it does a lot of things wrong and kind of sucked my enjoyment of Deadlands Noir out with one fell swoop, thanks to the multitude of bad decisions made here.
Let’s start with the first and most obvious one. When your PDF costs twenty dollars, it better be a weighty tome indeed. After all, Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition clocks in at over five hundred pages, and it’s $29.99. Deadlands Noir is less than half the size, and only ten bucks less. Now Pinnacle does overprice their PDFs, so this is really no surprise here, but it’s also a big no-no when the companion for a setting or system costs more than the core book. Deadlands Noir is only $14.99, so the companion, regardless of size, should be roughly the same cost. Anytime a companion is more than the core book, a red flag is being waved.
The second big issue is that the Deadlands Noir Companion commits the cardinal sin of being all over the place with dates and locations, thus locking in the metaplot in too tightly. This sort of thing is what the aforementioned V:TM did back around Third Edition, and it’s sad to see Pinnacle making the same huge mistake less than half a year into the spin-off’s release. Even worse is that where Deadlands Noir was mostly hands off from things like other Deadlands, spin-offs such as Hell on Earth, the Deadlands Noir Companion locks Hell on Earth into rigid metaplot continuity meaning, that it is GOING to happen instead of being a possible future for the setting. Whenever a metaplot is forced this heavily on players, they become passive participants in their own game unless they jettison the metaplot completely. I hate to keep bringing up White Wolf as an example, but the parallels are too eerie here. All the complaints about Third Edition, where PCs took a back seat to the metaplot and published adventure NPCs is ringing all too true here, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. A good metaplot is written in such a way that players feel they can affect it. A bad one leaves them going, “What’s the point? Everything is already determined.” Where Deadlands Noir was in the former, the Companion is unfortunately in the latter.
The problems compounds further when you see exactly what you get in the Deadlands Noir Companion. There are four distinct locations, which is a great idea, because Deadlands Noir only provided information for New Orleans. However, things quickly go to pot when you realize these four cities are all in different decades, and none are in the same time frame as New Orleans in Deadlands Noir, which is set in 1935. This means you can’t string even TWO of these locations together without advancing time in some way, and there’s no real way to, say, pick up and move from one location to the next in the same time frame without a serious amount of work on the GM’s part. This means the vast majority of people playing a Deadlands Noir campaign will find the Companion interesting, but ultimately unusable. That’s extremely bad, and you have to wonder what the guys at Pinnacle were thinking when they ever considered going down this road, as it is neither smart nor accessible.
So here’s a list of what you get. There’s Chicago circa 1927, Shan Fan (San Francisco) circa 1939, Lost Angels (Los Angeles) circa 1946 and The City of Gloom (Salt Lake City) circa 1950. Again, due to the gaps in the time line, you can’t really use any of these locations in conjunction with each other OR New Orleans, unless you move up your campaign several years each time you want to change locations. This is just a terrible design idea in practically every way possible. We could look at things in a positive light and say that we now have five small locations to run campaigns in instead of one – but we’re still stuck to specific time periods for each. What the Companion should have done is list all four locations and how they are in 1935, so as to be compatible with Deadlands Noir‘s default time period and locale, OR it should have been one big timeline running from the 20s to the early 50s, which would then allow far more creative freedom in regards to where you set you campaign and allow for travel between locations.
So is there anything actually positive to say about the Deadlands Noir Companion? Well, about half of the collection is extremely well written. I enjoyed the Chicago and Shan Fan sections, and there is a lot to work with in either location. The Chicago section is really the only one in the book that actually has a Noir feel to it, while the Shan Fan locale is highly unique and offers some really interesting situations and characters for people new to the Deadlands universe, while longtime players of the Weird West version will enjoy seeing how things have changed in Ghost Rock Central. Lost Angels is… okay. Movie Town is well done, but the division and contrast between that and The Holy City kind of shreds the Noir feel, and the entire section falls completely apart by the end, leaving you to wonder why it was even written in the first place. See, so much of the Lost Angels section revolves around Sister Judith. She is the focal point of the location, the mood, the theme and the city itself. Everything written to let you effectively use the location of Lost Angels revolves around what she had done and is currently doing. In this aspect, everything is solid, cohesive and really well done. In fact, I would have said seventy-five percent of the book is well written, but the big long multi-chapter adventure at the end completely destroys all the quality work that was done here. Why? Because Sister Judith DIES AT THE END. This is truly terrible, because it pretty much renders the entire Lost Angels section moot. It’s one thing to have a portion of a supplement or sourcebook because unusable or incompatible as a product line goes on, but this is honestly the first time I’ve ever seen it happen in the SAME BOOK. Who is running quality control over at Pinnacle? This wouldn’t be so terrible if somewhere in the section gave GMs information on what the city will be like or run like after Judith’s death, but no, the adventure just ends and it’s off to The City of Gloom. This is so ill thought out, it’s hard to believe this Companion is written and edited by the same great team that did Deadlands Noir, but it is in fact so. Effectively, the Lost Angels section is little more than a series of adventure seeds where the others allow you to re-use the settings even after you play the adventures contained within. This wouldn’t be so bad if the adventure seeds weren’t the majority of the section, but they are. The actual description of Lost Angels is twenty pages, and the seeds and mini-chronicle take up thirty-seven. OUCH.
The City of Gloom gets even worse because there is no Noir at all, even though, you know, this is part of the Deadlands Noir line. Instead, you have a section that has far more in common with the bad atomic age sci-fi/B-horror movies of the 50s. This is obviously what the writing team was going for here, and that’s fine, but when I pick up a product that has NOIR in the title, I guess I expect NOIR, and not something that would have been great MST3K fodder. When the entire section, and even the final core adventure, revolves around one of the big bads from The Weird West, who has since died and been reborn into a giant robotoic body housing his undulating brain in glass tubing, well, that just defenestrates even the slightest facet of Noir that you could hope for. As well, this section, more than any other really, slaps the GM and players with the feeling of “Screw your campaign, this is OUR game and you will have it unfold the way we want it to,” right down to locking in certain characters as unkillable or untouchable because they show up in Hell on Earth. Look, a well written RPG book is meant to guide or suggest things to a GM and let them formulate their own ideas and scenarios. It’s meant to let them make the game all their own. Unfortunately, Deadlands Noir Companion does the exactly opposite, ESPECIALLY with The City of Gloom. I can’t tell you how much I hated the constant references to a future that they are saying IS going to happen, when it should be written in a way that suggests this could happen, but the GM doesn’t HAVE to go that route if he or she doesn’t want to. Add in the fact the section is a mix of bad sci-fi and even worse Cold War espionage adventures and you have a combination that soured me on the whole affair.
The thing is, Pinnacle would have been better off selling these four locations as separate PDFs that players could pick and choose from. They would feel a lot more flexible and optional that way. Unfortunately, the whole is actually less than the sum of the parts here, and all four sections combine to give the feeling of a rigid, inflexible campaign setting, where it doesn’t matter what the PCs do as everything is already predetermined in the end and players are just along for the ride. The Companion feels so completely alien and opposite to the core Deadlands Noir book, it’s not even funny. There you were, just given suggestions and occasional allusions to what happened in other Deadlands settings with no attempt to make you feel like you needed to be familiar with AND own said variants. The Companion, however, goes for a hard sell that these other Deadlands settings are not just recommended, but almost needed, which is in poor taste.
For twenty bucks you are getting an expensive PDF that will do far more to turn you off to Deadlands Noir than anything else. Only one of the sections is actual Noir infused, and another is a weird Noir/morality play hybrid that completely destroys itself by the end. Another is a well done 20s Kung Fu-esque piece, and the fourth is just terrible in pretty much all aspects unless Noir somehow means to you Cold War Era shenanigans and terrible sci-fi bits that neither you nor your players will be able to take seriously. It’s unfortunate, because there are some quality adventures and/or writing in this collection, but taken as a whole, the Deadlands Noir Companion just does too much harm to the campaign setting and to push players away – which is exactly what a setting companion SHOULDN’T DO. It should accentuate, not destroy, what was already built. If you’re fine dealing with locations where everything is laid out for you and your players, to the point where you will feel like you are merely rolling dice instead of actually role-playing, you might have a more positive outlook on this book, but for me, the Deadlands Noir Companion is pretty much a bunch of my pet peeves rolled into one big mess.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/03/18/tabletop-review-shadowr
un-sim-dreams-nightmares/
I have to admit, five bucks for only seventeen pages of content is a little bit exorbitant, especially for a throwaway fluff piece like Sim Dreams & Nightmares. That alone would generally prevent me from giving something a recommendation, but three things saved the latest PDF supplement for Shadowrun. The first is that the piece is extremely well written. Sim Dreams & Nightmares is a fun read, and highlights an aspect of the Sixth World we don’t always think about – Sim abuse. The second is that the piece has some very nice full colour art attached to it, which is part of the high price tag. The third is that, although only eighteen percent of the PDF is actual game mechanics, what’s here can be really helpful if you have anyone in your troupe that wants to play a drug addict.
Sim Dreams & Nightmares contains two one page pieces of fiction that highlight how real Sims can be and the trouble they can cause. Poor, poor Bull. The bulk of the PDF, however, is a Jackpoint discussion on Simsense, BTL, skillwires, Personafixes and the like that a Metahuman can become addicted to with time. Case in point is Turbo Bunny, who leads this Jackpoint discussion. We all know she hops on and off the wagon like her vehicle of choice is an Awakened pogo stick, but it was nice to see a frank discussion of this side of the Sixth World led by someone who knows it all too well.
Although discussing drug abuse is undoubtedly a very dark topic, Sim Dreams & Nightmares is a surprisingly amusing piece, complete with running gags like Ecotrope having a massive (deserved) beef with Turbo Bunny, or /dev/grrl’s obsession with a sheep comment. It’s good to inject some humour into this piece, but it’s also good that it never becomes a total farce.
Mechanics-wise, you get three and a half pages on how to run addiction via dice rolling instead of just role-playing it out. There are five new negative qualities you get pick up for your character, along with a single positive quality. These qualities range from a generic addition to various drugs to no longer being able to feel a specific emotion, or even losing your original personality due to massive BTL/Sim/etc usage. A good roleplayer can definitely make use of these, although amnesiac protagonist is one of the biggest clichés there is in RPGs. The optional rules for addiction and how to get clean are quite interesting and well written, but I’m not quite sure how much use they will get. This is partly because you don’t see a lot of gamers who play addicts, and partly because the rules are in a throwaway PDF when we’re only a few months off from a completely new edition of Shadowrun. So the chance of these rules seeing play in too many campaigns isn’t very good, unless they end up doing a Shadowrun Missions where one of the PC’s gets addicted to something temporarily. Even then, the new season of Shadowrun Missions will be using the new edition rule set, so again, it’s not bloody likely these addiction and withdrawal/staying clean rules will see the light of day after this PDF.
Finally, the PDF gives you a full page of various drugs along with their new Addiction Rating and Addiction Threshold for easy access, along with half a page of prices and availability for Sim related products. Again, this is a fine idea, but it’s a bit odd to release new rules supplements so close to the release of 5e. Still, only a portion of fans move over to a new edition once it is released, so for those planning to stick to Fourth Edition/20AE, it’s good to know Catalyst is still supporting the system even in its last days.
All in all, Sim Dreams and Nightmares is well written, but it’s definitely overpriced for what you get. The good news is that if you do decide to pick it up, you get a smattering of great fiction set in the Sixth World, along with some potentially useful mechanics for addiction. The bad news is that if you’re planning to jettison 4e for the upcoming Fifth Edition of Shadowrun, what’s here won’t be of any use to you, unless you’re looking for an highly overpriced set of three short stories and some potentially outdated mechanics.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originally Posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/03/12/tabletop-review-appendi
x-n-adventure-toolkit-3-the-treacherous-cobtraps-dungeon-cra
wl-classics/
I’ve really enjoyed the Appendix N Adventure Toolkits. They are short adventures that fit the Dungeon Crawl Classics line perfectly. I absolutely adored The Ruins of Ramat, and found The Vile Worm to be fun, albeit expensive in terms of the page count to dollar amount ratio. The Treacherous Cobtraps is no different. Three dollars is a lot for a twelve page adventure, especially when you consider that the covers, two full page pieces of art and the OGL contribute to that page count. That means there are only seven pages of content, which may dismay some readers of this review. Take heart though, as The Treacherous Cobtraps is a fine little adventure, and it boasts some incredible artwork by people like Steve Zieser, Andy Taylor, Mark Allen and Reece Ambrose. About the only thing missing, art-wise, are the awesome maps you usually find in first party (Goodman Games published) Dungeon Crawl Classics adventures. Instead of being included in the core PDF, it’s attached as a separate one. I’m not sure why Brave Halfling decided to go this route, as it’s far less convenient to have to go back and forth between two PDFS, especially on a tablet or e-reader, than it is to have just included this extra page in the core adventure PDF.
In The Treacherous Cobtraps, a team of eight to twelve Level 2 characters are hired by the town of Brandy Hollow to cleanse a forest of a strange race of giant malevolent spiders known as Stygian Orb Weavers. The adventuring party sets out, and what follows is a pretty simple hack and slash dungeon crawl. DCC does tend to put roll-playing before role-playing, and this adventure is no exception. It’s exceptionally light on story and the first sentence of the paragraph covered all there really is. Your players go into the woods, deal with three encounter locations rife with Stygian Orb Weavers, and if they make it out alive, they might be able to find some treasure and survivors from the spiders’ recent conquests.
Combat is surprisingly light for a Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure too. As mentioned, there are only three locations in this adventure, and while each one has you slaying spiders, the amount of enemies is quite small for the massive size of the party. In most Dungeon Crawl Classics adventurers, the party size is so large because death is exceedingly common and players end up playing two or three characters each. Here it feels like you could go through the adventure with a party half the size of the suggested one. As well, you should be able to finish this adventure in one sitting, as it’s quite short, even compared to other Appendix N Adventure Toolkits. For a real DCC experience, you may want to increase the amount of monsters, as most players will find this adventure to be a cakewalk. Without a map or any real detailed description of the forest, it’s almost as if this is a Fourth Edition Dungeons & Dragons adventure rather than a Dungeon Crawl Classics one.
Now you would think that, since the adventure is so short and slightly on the easy side, that I’d be giving this a thumb’s down, but that’s not the case. Unlike the previous two Appendix N Adventure Toolkits, The Treacherous Cobtraps comes with a lot of extra stuff. There is a system neutral version of the adventure in case you would like to run the Toolkit in something other than DCC. Say you want to try it in 4e or Swords & Wizardry – you have that option. It’s also art free, which is a bit of a bummer though, because the art really sells the piece. You also get an art-free variant of the DCC which is supposed to be for tablets, but the colour covers and the art didn’t bother my Kindle Fire at all, so I can’t see when or why I’d ever use this one. Still, it’s nice to have the option if, say, you only had a regular e-reader. There’s also a “Letter Text” version which has things laid out in a different format and font size, and is also missing the covers. Again, I’m not sure why they did this variant, but it’s nice to have four options open. Finally, there’s the map PDF I mentioned at the very beginning of the review. Again, it really should have been part of the adventure PDF(s) instead of a separate one, but at least the map is really gorgeous looking. Well, as gorgeous as art of a spooky forest filled with vile beasties trying to kill you can be.
All in all, for three dollars, you’re getting a decent short adventure along with four different versions of said adventure and a fifth PDF that is a map of the encounter areas. Once again, Brave Halfling Publishing does a nice job giving us a third party Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure for about the same cost of a comic book. The adventure isn’t going to wow any gamer that plays it, but it’s nice for a short hack and slash fest when you and your friends don’t have time for a longer or more detailed adventure.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originally published at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/03/11/tabletop-review-the-lau
ndry-rpg/
The Laundry is a role-playing game based on a series of novels by Charles Stross, called The Laundry Files, which are about a former IT guy who becomes a field agent for a covert British organization specializing in supernatural and occult phenomena. Stross is still writing books in this series, in case you’re interested by my snappy abstract. For this game, Cubicle 7 got authorization from Stross for the setting and authorization from Chaosium for use of their Basic Roleplaying System, seen most prominently in the Call of Cthulhu RPG. The system’s main feature is its use of percentile dice (AKA d100) for resolution. So, based on your skills and attributes, you might have a 43% chance of tagging a bear with a tranquilizer dart, then if you roll the percentile dice (which has a possible result ranging from 1 to 100) and roll equal to or below 43, you succeed. I like using the percentile dice, because it gives a really wide range of possible values to roll against, and at the same time, it gives you a probability to work with. It feels a little more game-like to me, and it’s not a d6!
Her Majesty’s Shoggoth Wrangler
The first thing I must point out is that, in the obligatory “What is a role-playing game?” section that apparently must be in every core rulebook, there is possibly the funniest description of what a role-playing game is, and an amazing hypothetical exchange between a player and a game master. Okay, that aside, the setting of this game is heavily influenced by the Lovecraft mythos, and so the Call of Cthulhu connection is also strong here. One new and fun magical aspect of the world is the existence of “computational sorcery,” essentially bringing rituals and spells into the 21st century by using technology to eliminate mistakes and tedious routines during preparation. So anyway, what is The Laundry? It’s a covert British department that other departments snicker about until a tentacled horror appears from a subway tunnel, memories need erasing and beasts need unsummoning. It’s highly bureaucratic, with one page dedicated to a chart of the administrative structure that will both make you laugh and cry, with departments like “Arcana Analysis” and “Enchant & Production” alongside Catering and I.T. That’s only the beginning of the fun there, because there is a whole section detailing each department! Seriously, it’s a great read. The organization is fleshed out, it feels alive and dysfunctioning. By the way, the Archives is mostly staffed with zombies.
Character creation is fairly normal, except for the fact that you roll six-sided dice for your attributes. Usually I would think this is best left to retro-gaming or uninformed and ill-fated game design, but it kind of makes sense in a Men In Black way, where things are a little tongue-in-cheek and the denizens of The Laundry come in all shapes, sizes, and capabilities. Still, I must ask why, in the age of role-playing enlightenment, there must exist die-roll attributes for a game like this. Other concerns in character creation include a set of personality types that you choose from, in addition to a profession you held prior to service, both of which give you bonuses in certain skills, then on top of that you choose (or roll for) an assignment within the department, which will give you further bonuses in skills. You haven’t even started applying skill points yet, yeesh. It does, however, force you to make a character that has both a past and present, instead of making a character in the present and then just making up whatever details about his or her past you want.
So, your character is probably going to be sent out to investigate the occult, which will probably involve some sort of horrible monster or cult or possession. Basically, you’re going to end up having to protect yourself and learn how to shoot or swing some deadly object around, and for that, you will need the all-important combat rules. Combat is pretty simple. Combatants act in order of their Dexterity skill and take one action per round, probably an attack. If you are attacked in a round, you can dodge or parry, with the difficulty of doing that successfully going up each time you try. It’s going to be very basic, there isn’t a lot of tactical maneuvering or special abilities or things like that (unless your character is unusual in having special powers). In the combat section there is something I really like: “spot” rules for specific situations. It’s great to have these all lined up and accessible in one section where you can find them easily, I feel like I’ve read whole rule books where all they were, were spot rules for situations. If you’re going to be traveling into danger while working for The Laundry, it’s probably best to carry some sort of firearm or magical item, because with the straightforward combat you want to take your opponent out before they have a chance to hit you.
The Royal Pains and Grimoires
Like in Call of Cthulhu, characters can lose sanity and suffer various ill effects. There’s a table dedicated to examples where a character would lose sanity and how much for specific situations. There are also different types of insanity; are you going temporarily insane or shall we prepare a more permanent bed in the psych ward? There are tables for short and long temporary insanity and the possible effects of each depending on the die roll. Come to think of it, there are a lot of tables in this book. I like tables. Ah yes, there is also permanent insanity, just in case your sanity score happens to hit zero. Probably undesirable. Consequences of going insane in one form or another can range from addiction to becoming completely catatonic, you can also relapse!
Oh, by the way, before you go out and face that thing that may or may not make you gibberingly insane, would you like to know what equipment is available to aid you in your quest? It’s almost like you’re reading through Paranoia in the section about equipment, because there are rules and tables for requisitioning things. That’s right, bring that grenade launcher back all dinged-up or covered in some ectoplasm, and good luck getting another one buddy! Also, if you don’t possess the requisite skills you’re probably not going to get a piece of gear associated with it. Things like firearms require you to have a certain amount of firearm skill before they’ll think about handing you a gun for use out in the wild. Requisitions aren’t only for gear, they are also for other Laundry personnel, like Baggers, Cleaners, and Plumbers, who more or less have self-descriptive job titles… as long as you think of them in terms of occult clean-up and containment, and use your imagination.
Speaking of other personnel, there is a ton of material on other groups engaged in the same type of stuff The Laundry is, and on both sides of it. By that I mean there are groups in other countries who investigate/battle the forces of darkness and madness, and there are also powerful groups or individuals who cultivate them. This book is really big, even for a core book, and a lot of it is dedicated to setting information and general information about the feel of the game. Whether it be sections on organizations inside and outside Laundry itself, similar organizations from other countries, an employee handbook, notes on game mastering and playing, whatever. There is just tons of stuff in here to read, and I think any fan of the books would enjoy it immensely.
Seal the Gate Already
Okay, so is the game interesting or not? I think if you have found the concept intriguing thus far, you will definitely enjoy this game. It’s a little bit of a departure from other Cubicle 7 games I’ve come to enjoy, but it retains the quality and depth of attention of any other games in their catalogue. It’s got it’s own unique flavor: a strange mix of tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic wit, and horror. I get the feeling that Simon Pegg would fit perfectly in this game world as a Laundry agent. Also, if you are a fan of conspiracies, I think this game has a lot to offer. The discussions of the various organizations and how they interact constantly references real world history and claim that this or that shady group or supernatural force was behind it. It’s a lot of fun to read, I can’t say that enough.
There are some great tables and charts, even ones for rolling up your own missions, using charts like the “Dramatic Situation” and “Bureaucratic Meddling” charts, including generating your own codewords like “BLACK ARCHER AXIOM THUMBSCREW” or your own tome names like “Thrice-Great Bargain of the Forgotten”. This game has the potential to have such an interesting atmosphere at the table, as moments of horror and moments of outright ridiculousness seem like they could burst forth at any moment. Overall, this game seems like a lot of just plain fun. I’m not too thrilled about the combat or anything, and I sense that there is a bit of a rub between the heroism of The Laundry (as a fictional, protagonist-driven story) and the sort of anti-heroic Lovecraft mythos that may cause some strangeness in long-term play. Nonetheless, I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who likes the concept, and definitely if you are into dark humor, British humor, crime drama, conspiracies, Lovecraft, and zombies. How could you not? It’s like not liking chocolate.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/03/04/tabletop-review-shadowr
un-missions-showcase/
I was actually kind of surprised to see a new Shadowrun Missions, honestly. I thought the season had wrapped up nicely with Election Day, and so I wasn’t really expecting any more until the new edition of Shadowrun comes out later this year. Still, you’ll never hear me complain about a new one. After all, Shadowrun Missions is the best deal in gaming adventure-wise. For less than the cost of a comic book, you get roughly three dozen full colour pages, along with all the aids and information you need to run the adventure and hopefully complete it in a single session. I say “hopefully” because we all know how off tangent a game can go. Shadowrun Missions even lets you track faction stats as you run through each adventure in this season. That doesn’t mean you HAVE to pick them all up; they’re each designed to be played as a one-shot, but you do get the most value out of the collection when you run them as an interconnected campaign.
Where Election Day wrapped up the political intrigue storyline of this season’s Shadowrun Missions, Showcase wraps up the “artifact hunt” side of things. For a few years now, a lot of Shadowrun adventures (Missions or otherwise) have focused on collecting magical artifacts, even though that have no discernible use. In fact, roughly half of the adventures in this set of Shadowrun Missions had you artifact collecting. Well, here is the payoff. Many of the artifacts you collected this season, along with several others, are on display at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Science. If you’re a long time Shadowrun fan, you can pretty much see what is coming. If not, well, the museum gets looted by shadowrunners and both the Atlantean and Draco Foundations, who each had artifacts on display in the showcase, are accusing the other of taking their otherworldly possessions. It’s up to your players to figure out who is behind the crime. In the midst of your research, you’ll discover that more than one party tried to steal the collection on the same night, which led to a comedy of errors. The only problem is figuring out which team of runners actually got away with the goods.
Along the way, your players will get offers from not one, but two, great dragons (through their representatives) to turn over the artifacts to them rather than their rightful owners in exchange for money and aid in procuring the objects. You’ll also run into elven archaeologist Fiona Craig as well as “Street Legend” Kellan Colt… unless, of course, your team let her die in a previous Shadowrun Missions adventure because, like a lot of Shadowrun fans, they hate the character and her novels, considering them one of the lowest points in the franchise. Whoops. Anyway, the adventure climaxes with a massive battle between the players (and any help they picked up along the way) vs. the people who stole the artifacts. It really is a huge battle and even though Shadowrun Missions is designed to help even the most inexperienced GM run a Shadowrun game, I would strongly suggest that you be extremely well versed in Shadowrun rules before attempting this thing. Hell, there’s even a sidebar about how to run a battle this large, which is probably daunting for less experienced GMs. Between the sheer scope of the combat and the fact that the adventure pretty much promises some PCs will bite it during the affair, you might want to think twice about running Showcase, even though it’s well written – simply because of the sheer amount of work you’ll have to put into the climax, coupled with the potential for the less mature members of your party to freak out when their character dies rather horribly. This is almost Call of Cthulhu guaranteed level dying here.
After the battle, expect betrayal from all allies. There is a very strong chance that even if the PCs win the battle, they will lose the war (meaning the artifacts, and thus their payoff) as their allies turn on them, taking the artifacts for themselves. Again, this adventure feels designed more to frustrate players (or kill their characters off) and have the season end on a dour note, which really isn’t cool in my opinion. Again, Showcase is a well written adventure, but it definitely feels like a big middle finger to all the players who went through some, or even every, adventure in this set. In this respect, I really wish this season ended with Election Day, as that was a great payoff to the season, where Showcase is just… anticlimactic and screws the players over big time in nearly all respects. Like I said, it’s just not the way you want to end a collection of interlocking adventures. A campaign needs to end on a high note… or with everyone dead, not leaving the players feeling like the entire adventure was a waste of time, money, and life. My suggestion is to flip-flop the order of the two. Run Showcase first and then Election Day.
If it helps, our team ended up getting a list of who owned what artifact, and then contacted both Foundations offering them one object from the other’s collection OF THEIR CHOICE in exchange for some slight aid. They also contacted Ares, since they were contracted to guard the artifacts, and got some help there. Ares got to prevent a PR disaster and get some revenge. Since Colt was dead by way of their previous choices, they didn’t have to worry about her, and both sides got five artifacts each (four of their originals and a trade!), and with Ares and the PCs there to play middlemen, neither foundation could risk a betrayal and everything went neatly back to the museum for the remainder of the show – with massively increased security. It was a win-win for all parties, but everyone who played was extremely experience in Shadowrun, so they knew all the possible angles without bleeding player knowledge into character knowledge.
Overall, Showcase could have been a bit more PC friendly (player character, not political correctness), as it really does seem to go out of its way to be mean to them. At the same time it’s well written and it really does weave all of the threads from the artifact hunt into one cohesive final story. Unlike most Shadowrun Missions though, this adventure is not for the inexperienced or casual Shadowrun GM. You really have to know the setting and system inside and out to make this flow smoothly. Finally, the adventure will more likely than not end on a down note, which is realistic, but unsatisfying, so you may want to just skip this and have your campaign end with Election Day. It’s your call. Thumbs up or a thumbs in the middle depending on the quality and experience of whoever is running this adventure. Either way though, it’s less than four dollars and a fun read, so Shadowrun fans will probably still want to pick this up to read, even if it never gets played.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originally published at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/03/04/tabletop-review-gygax-m
agazine-1/
Wow, let me just start off by saying how honored and humbled I am to review this piece. I think a lot of folks would agree with me in saying that this issue is a symbol of many things about our hobby: one, that we remember those that came before and celebrate them; two, that the love for the hobby causes it to go on and renew itself through the efforts of its proponents; three, that we hope Gygax magazine will be something that we can look back to years from now and say “yeah, I was around when that first came out, those were good times”. Seeing the cover of this issue is like seeing an old friend you thought you never would see again, it’s like rediscovering a bit of magic in a box out of the closet, and maybe it’s like that bit of trepidation when you see one of your favorite performing artists on stage for the first time, thinking “I hope they don’t suck live”. Maybe I’m waxing a bit heroic with my similes here, but you have to admit, the publication of a print magazine with “Gygax” emblazoned on the cover takes some Vorpal +4 Balls of Polished Steel in a world moving toward the digital. Even the foreword makes the point that it is amazing that you have purchased a print item in this day and age, even if you just bought the PDF or some other digital version.
However, the foreword doesn’t really talk about how amazing this publication really is. First off, Gary Gygax’s sons Luke and Ernest (Gary Gygax Jr.) are involved with the magazine. What exactly “involved” means is kind of murky, although they will be writing articles for the magazine on a regular basis, so it seems. Second, a new company named TSR Games Inc. has been founded by Jayson Elliott, who is apparently just a cool gamer guy who likes to start interesting projects, like magazines for niche subjects. So, TSR is back, but it’s completely different from the old one, except for the name and involvement of various Gygaxes. Third, Jayson and crew gathered up industry veterans, writers for The Dragon magazine and TSR staff from bygone days, and various other persons of note to write articles for this issue (and subsequent issues?). Let’s take a look at what exactly is in this thing.
A Galaxy of Opinion, a Lot of Memories
The first article, “The Cosmology of Role-Playing Games”, is really interesting. Basically James Carpio, a freelance author and proprietor of Chapter 13 Press if I did my Googling correctly, puts together this admittedly rough illustration of the history of role-playing games, with Dungeons & Dragons as the shining nexus of origin. Included is this incredible graphic I wish I could hang on a wall somewhere of a universe with concentric rings loosely distinguishing different eras of role-playing games and planets for the games that were pointed to as markers. It looks really cool. He outlines some defining periods when popular or influential role-playing games were developed, pushing the hobby in different directions. Like a Big Bang, James contends that role-playing games have more or less careened outward from D&D, splitting off and becoming different and more innovative until you get to today, where we have games using all kinds of mechanisms and themes. As for myself, just thinking of games like Kingdom of Nothing and The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game makes it clear to me how the RPGs on my shelf from the early 80s are so much different from the ones next to them from the 2000s. Also, since I am fascinated by the history of role-playing games, this article had me hooked right off the bat.
Next in the lineup were two old-school guys, one who had worked for Gary at the original TSR, and another that had been involved in helping write and edit rules for TSR, as well as writing for The Dragon: Tim Kask and Len Lakofka, respectively. It’s just amazing to me that these guys were asked and able to contribute to this magazine. Tim’s article, “Still Playing After All These Years”, is a collection of stories about being a Game Master and a bit about working for TSR. You get the sense that he’s got a lot of stories to tell. Len’s article is a bit obtuse, talking about the mathematics behind choosing a weapon that is +1 to hit vs. +1 to damage. Before that, he tells a few short stories about what he’s been up to all this time, his experience proofreading and editing the rules for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and how he had an influence on the project, being one who often made up his own rules to add realism or flavor to the game. When he begins talking about the +1 weapon I was a bit perplexed, thinking, “He does know Dungeons & Dragons doesn’t use THAC0 anymore, right?” Be that as it may, it adds to the old-school flavor of the magazine in general. In these first articles especially, there is a lot of nostalgia, and rightfully so perhaps, given the namesake of the magazine.
The two articles by Gary Gygax’s sons, Luke and Ernie, are definitely interesting to read. I don’t know about you, but I have not heard a peep from these guys until this magazine, and I didn’t even know their names. Luke’s article is roughly about seeking an issue of The Dragon so he could share a story or adventure he enjoyed in it with his family. He doesn’t really reminisce much about Gary or TSR or anything like that. The article is very much in the present moment, as though he is just talking about something funny that happened to him yesterday, not looking back and summing up any feelings or experiences. I hope to hear more from Luke in coming issues, and I am interested in what his articles will be like, because he strikes me as being somewhat ambivalent about role-playing games. Ernie Gygax’s article is much different. In it, he remembers fondly how Gary Sr. would tell bedtime stories and how he played with the different kids in the family (there are sisters too!). Ernie is much more open about his father, and what made him special. I tell you, if any article was going to make me tear up a little bit, it was this one, as this is a great read and a nice little window into the Gygax household of yore.
Looking at Role-playing in General
There are a slew of articles in this magazine. I can’t believe they have so many, and I will be surprised if there are the same number in future issues. Of course, it is a quarterly magazine, so they have more time to get all that stuff together, so we’ll see. There were a few I didn’t read because they just didn’t interest me, and they seemed to be for specific games or on very specific subjects, like banshees or powers for ICONS. One article I did enjoy was called “Keeping Magic Magical” by Dennis Sustare, as he had a lot of good things to say about magic that I agreed with. Right away he points out the time-honored tactic of casting a sleep spell on a group of opponents, then resting to cast the spell on the next hapless aggressors, and he acknowledges how lame it is. Another example he gives is using a “create water” spell to drown enemies, or do various other things the spell was probably not intended for in the first place. Basically, he gives some examples of poor and unimaginative use of magic, then proceeds to give several ways that magic can be treated so that it does not become rote and crutch-like. He suggests using cards from Magic: The Gathering, treating magic ability like a special power that requires more energy to be more effective, essentially offering ideas for limiting the simplistic “you know this spell, you pretty much cast it whenever” way of handling magic. I really appreciated this article, as it was well-written, offered lots of varied examples, and was focused. While this may be one of those articles where seasoned and savvy GMs figured this out ages ago, some GMs with less experience might welcome some ideas on limiting the efficacy of magic-users they find are overpowered. Obviously Dennis was not writing about low-level D&D mages, because there ain’t nothin’ overpowered about that!
I was a little surprised to find an author here whose name I recognized from a book I had randomly picked up: Ethan Gilsdorf (a perfect fantasy RPG name if I ever heard one!). I have read his book Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks, and I found it to be a rather aimless and tepid look at geek culture. At the end of the book I was left wondering: “is this former geek still a geek, or is he sort of bi/curious about the whole thing?” I mean, I love being a geek, and if you are going to write a whole book about it, I would expect an enthusiastic voice! Nonetheless, I thought his article here in Gygax was good. It is entitled, rather definitively, “The Future of Tabletop Gaming”. He gives an account of the 70s when he began to have a social life by getting involved with Dungeons & Dragons, meeting up with a band of other newly minted role-players. From nostalgic recollections, he explains the effect of the rise of technology on gaming and how, in the 80s, there were more and more alternatives to sitting at a table for several hours rolling dice and drawing maps. He remarks heroically about how much D&D taught him, and how it has affected so many people who are creative minds and big names in the entertainment industry today. Overall, the article is a nice blend of nostalgia and personal thoughts on the hobby, but it is so focused on D&D you might wish he would try some other games. At least I did. Mr. Gilsdorf can’t seem to help himself, making platitudes here and there and otherwise sweeping statements about this or that aspect of role-playing and role-players in general, and that’s fine, as I think I have the same tendencies. However, you have to remind yourself when reading the article that this is just his view, and while he tends to write more authoritatively and empirically, a critical eye will reduce each statement down with the simple qualifier: “so says you”. I may have bashed him a little, but this is a good and entertaining read.
Everyone Has Ads
Ads, this magazine has them. From full-page color ads down to little black-and-white space fillers, everything from conventions to tabletop games to gaming accessories are advertised here. I honestly did not mind them, and I liked looking at the different products and layouts. It reminded me of the short period of my life when I read comics, and it reminded me of when I didn’t keep track of games through podcasts and websites, but more by going to the game store and perusing shelves or flipping through some issue of SCRYE or Nintendo Power. Okay, okay, I’m just going to go ahead and say I really liked the ads, they brought me back to some good times. I don’t know if their novelty value will wear off with future issues, but if they keep the circulation fresh with new ads, then I think it’ll be fine. The other non-article material in the magazine consists of comics. Fun! Even better than that, they are comics about gaming. Phil Foglio is among the crew of comic artists/writers, and each one I read was genuinely humorous and well-done.
Gosh, what else is there to say? I thought this was an excellent first issue. I will be curious to see how much treatment Dungeons & Dragons will receive in relation to other RPGs, and hopefully there will be some more branching out and more articles for indie games. In relation to system-specific magazines like The Rifter for Palladium and Pyramid for Steve Jackson Games (GURPS), I can see Gygax having a great chance of success covering a broader scope of the hobby, and I hope it does. While I have not yet received my print copy (*ahem!*), the PDF looked great. The layout looks very professional and the style is very clean. I will complain a bit about cutting Ernie Gygax’s article in half and making me scroll to the end of the magazine to read it… it was such a good article, how could it get the “continued on page blah blah” treatment? Gygax Jr. gets the hook, but an article about super-talents in Godlike during WWII is just fine to interrupt it with? I don’t get it. Also, Ernie’s article should have been earlier in the magazine, in line with the other old-timers and nostalgia feelings. That said, I definitely recommend getting this magazine, even if just the PDF version, to read through and enjoy. It’s got a little something for everyone, and I think even non-roleplayers would enjoy reading some of the non-technical articles. A piece of role-playing history for five bucks? Just do it already. Support Jayson Elliot and Gygax magazine, maybe ten years from now we will all be glad you did.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/03/01/tabletop-review-shadowr
un-10-mercs/
2013 may have been touted as “The Year of Shadowrun” by Catalyst game Labs, but it hasn’t had a very good start so far. The Way of the Samurai was insipid at best and panned by most critics (including me) and Sprawl Sites: High Society and Low Life was a good idea but executed terribly as it was crawling out for a print release. Things are starting to take a turn for the better though, with the release of 10 Mercs.
10 Mercs isn’t about ten specific mercenaries, otherwise it would basically be an addendum to Street Legends. It does however list some specific Mercs by name and give their stat lists though, if that is what you are looking for. Instead, 10 Mercs is a comprehensive look ten mercenary companies/platoons/legions/etc. Not only does it give the history of each group and the stats of key players, it gives you more than enough information to use any of these groups as possible allies, antagonists or even an organization one or all of your PCs can be members of. Consider running a full Bogotá oriented campaign where each player is a member of the same merc squad instead of the usual shadowrunning rigmarole. In this respect, 10 Mercs is exactly what Magical Societies should have been.
The only real major problem plaguing 10 Mercs is who would use this and how. Most of these merc bands aren’t ones you’ll see doing corporate espionage or going for small bounties on little known runners. (Note the use of the word MOST though…) This means if you are going to use one as an ally or the organization your runners are united through, you’re going to have to come up with some pretty intense missions. Most published adventures aren’t designed for organizations of this scope, power or price tag, Those that are tend to be for the Amazonia/Aztlan conflict and there’s only so much you can do with that before players get bored. So if you want to make regular use of any of these bands, you’re really going to have to hunker down and make some pretty out there affairs for your players. Your other option is to use the organizations in here sparingly or for the climax of a long running storyline or even the campaign itself. That means you won’t get much actual use out of the book playing wise, so it’s a good thing that it’s fun to read and highly entertaining even if it ends up being something you pick up for fiction reading.
So let’s do a quick rundown of the ten merc groups you’ll find within 10 Mercs
58th Battle Brigade. This once great unit has fallen on hard times since the death of its founder. It’s currently locked in a subtle civil war between the founder’s two warring kids – one of which is quality and the other is a drug addled dupe of a triad. There’s lots that can be done with these guys, from cannon fodder opponents, to runners being hired by one brother to eliminate the other.
180th Independent Air Regiment. This is a drone heavy unit and a good squad to use for an adventure featuring air combat or the importance of riggers.
77th Independent Rangers. This is the squad of Jackpoint regular Picador and it is an odd mix of merc troop and D&D lawful good style paladins. It’s a little generic, but you do have a lot of story potential here and it gives your players a chance to interact with a Street Legend. Fans of Picador will be happy to see her stats here.
Bravo Company. The squad with the best logo and second most interesting history. Bravo Company has a bone to pick with Aztechnology and thus is a great choice to use in the Bogota conflict. It also feels like the best unit to use if you want to run a campaign where all the PCs are members of a merc unit. Rifleman seems like a fun leader to use with your players and the whole naming convention is sure to be good for moments of light comedy in-between (or even during) battles.
Free Marine Corps. They’re friends of Kane. What more do you need to know about them? Seriously though, they’re an independent marine unit with ties to houngans and they too have a bone to pick with Aztlan. It’s also the biggest and most powerful of the ten groups in this supplement so it will be easy to use the FMC if you want to run some lower key adventures instead of big ass battles.
Iron Cavalry. Centaurs, Fomori and Ogres, oh my. I always wanted to play a centaur in Shadowrun and this would let me do so, if only as GM. This is a platoon made up mostly of centaurs and other non PC races, so players won’t get a chance to play as members of this squad, unless the new version of Shadowrun adds some of these races in. These guys are pretty bad ass and unfortunately, they also have the power of Saeder-Krupp behind them. Ouch. This is my favorite team in the book and about the only thing they could have done better with the Iron Cavalry is if it had been named Shining Force because hey, everyone knows that’s what you call an army of centaurs.
New Assets. This is Quicksilver’s, “Save the Drakes” unit. This section also talks about how New Assets has become more proactive as of late due to the Dragon civil war of sorts going on in the metaplot. This section is pretty short compared to the other nine organizations, mainly because as the Jackpoint crew themselves note, a lot of the stuff relevant to New Assets has already been covered in The Clutch of Dragons.
Task Force Magus. A legion of assholes that all happen to be Awakened. Their power is only overshadowed by their complete and utter disregard for anything that isn’t Task Force Magus. Basically a group of complete sociopaths that get paid to kill and have a lot of magic backing them up. This is probably not a group you’ll want to have your PCs members of, but being force to ally with them in a conflict or even take them on will probably lead to some fun (or at least memorable) events in your campaign.
Team Zero. A group of dicks that no one at JackPoint seems to like, from Plan 9 to Hard Exit (man, that’s an odd alliance, isn’t it?). Basically it’s a group of disgruntled SEALs and Navy members that left to form their own frat boy merc squad. There are only twelve members, so it’s a good team to pit against your own runners. Plus you won’t feel bad about killing any of them (or the whole squad) off.
Thunder Corps. This is both the most amusing and unique merc group I the book. Basically it’s to show how powerful money and skillsofts can be in the Sixth World. The Thunder Corps is basically made up of rich corporate types that make up for their lack of skill with a shit load of money and cyberware to give them an edge. It does, but all the power in the world doesn’t make up for a lack of experience and common sense. They also have quite a trid following.
So there you go. The use one might get out of 10 Mercs may be limited depending on what you want out of a Shadowrun game, but it’s a highly entertaining read and offers you a lot of potentials allies and antagonists. It’s the best release for Shadowrun in 2013 so far but honestly, that’s not a hard title to claim.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originally published at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/02/28/tabletop-review-ravenlo
ft-children-of-the-night-werebeasts-advanced-dungeons-dragon
s/
It’s been a month or so, but I’m finally getting around to reviewing Children of the Night: Werebeasts, one of the four Ravenloft themed releases currently on DNDClassics.com. I’ll admit right out that the three Children of the Night books and the adventure entitled, The Created are not the best offerings the Ravenloft campaign setting has to offer, but it’s all we have (legally) available in electronic format right now. DNDClassics is putting up new stuff regularly, but so far, Ravenloft fans are getting the short end of the stick in terms of both quality and quantity. I really did want to review this though, especially after doing the Vampires CotN and found it to be better than its infamous reputation, which shied me away from picking it up when it originally came out in the late 1990s. Since I never picked up this (or the Ghosts) version back in the day, what better way to return to Second Edition Ravenloft (my favorite D&D setting of all time) than with the only releases I never purchased?
Werebeasts follows the same of Children of the Night: Vampires. You have thirteen creatures, each with their own section, which is then followed by an adventure that highlights the creature in question. We’re going to now do a quick run through of all twenty-six sections and see if Werebeasts is worth your $9.99.
Andre de Sang: This is a pirate wererat. Pirate lycanthropes have been done before, even in Ravenloft – just look at the lord of Arkandale. However, Andre is a really interesting one as he is definitely a fall from grace character. He started off with noble and good intentions and along the way became everything he ever hated – all for the love of his mother. This is a really fun character that could make a great recurring antagonist, especially if your Ravenloft campaign spends a lot of time on the Sea of Sorrows or the Islands of Terror. 1 for 1.
Feast of the Rats: This is a fun swashbuckling adventure where players have to deal with a port town plagued by a ghost ship that…isn’t actually filled with ghosts. It’s not a Scooby-Do type affair, but it is filled with twists and heel turns a plenty. This is definitely an adventure that will take players by surprise and teach them a hard lesson about the true nature of Ravenloft. 2 for 2.
Angel Pajaro: This is your typical elven/half-elven werefox backstory. What sets Angel apart is the fact she is an opera singer and thus has a town of NPCs to work with and a degree of fame, meaning she can’t be the typical “seduce and eat” were-elf. Nice twist on an old trope. 3 for 3.
A Night at the Opera: This adventure if a bit of a riff on Phantom of the Opera. It’s by no means an exact carbon copy, but you can definitely tell it was inspired by it, even if the text itself didn’t admit this upfront. This is a really fun adventure that will keep players guessing, especially if they assume that it will unfold exactly like Phantom. Thankfully it veers off pretty drastically and will be a memorable affair for all involved. 4 for 4.
Radiff Chandor: This is where things start to go south and you begin to have an inkling that Werebeasts is mostly crap pulled out of a hat. Radiff Chandor is a weretiger, which is fine. However, he’s an evil weretiger, as are those that made him, which is unusual for D&D. As well, Radiff doesn’t have a hybrid form according to his stats and the text. This is fine…except the book’s artwork shows in only in a Hybrid Man-Tiger form. Whoops. Just not very well done. 4 for 5.
Hunter and Hunted. This is an odd adventure where there are three sides, all of which are dicks and the PCs end up siding with one, only to eventually jump ship to one of the others or just try and kill the other two. It’s an oddly done affair to be sure and it doesn’t help that the players are expected to be part of a tiger hunt (Which because it involves a weretiger, goes spectacularly awry). Unfortunately most good aligned players wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) want to take part in the hunt and if your gaming team has a Ranger and/or Druid, this adventure is basically a non-starter. It’s just not very well done. There are some interesting ideas, but it’s poorly written and just doesn’t leave room for PC deviation which is almost sure to occur. 4 for 6.
Vladimir Nobriskov – This is an interesting werebat who masquerades as a foppish playboy. It’s a very different take on the Werebat and oddly enough, Borca owes Dr. Van Richten for letting loose this monster on them. Whoops. 5 for 7.
The Scarlet Prince – I really enjoyed this adventure. It involves the players discovering an acquaintance of theirs is losing blood via two small holes in her neck. Obviously it is a vampire, right? No, it’s the werebat leaving a false trail of vampire like clues to throw people off. Better yet, he’s even got a perfect patsy to take the fall as the suspected vampire, leaving him in the clear. Can players discover that the actual killer isn’t undead but a lycanthrope? A lot of fun to be had here. 6 for 8.
Meeka. Meeka is a cat-were. She’s a housecat infected by lycanthrophy and thus can take a short statured human form or a cat-woman hybrid. It’s an interesting concept and one we don’t normally see, especially in D&D. 7 for 9.
A Cat’s Revenge. This is kind of a disgusting adventure, partly because it is disturbing, partly because this is the third adventure in the collection that advocates animal cruelty as acceptable behavior but that hurting a human is reprehensible no matter what and because the writer somehow thinks players will solidly get behind someone who has no problem drowning kittens and extols said character’s virtues and passes this off again, as an acceptable act. The crux of the adventure is that because she was a black kitten, Meeka’s human owner tied her up in a sack and threw her into a river because hey, black cats are bad luck. Disgusting. Then, years later when she is back for revenge, the author of this adventure thinks that good aligned PCs will automatically side against her because humans > cats. Ick. Seriously, in this case of this adventure even Paladins would be siding with the werecat after what the human did to her as a kitten. You have to wonder how this adventure passed editorial, much less didn’t get anyone’s ire up when it was originally published. This is just awful no matter how you look at it. 7 for 10.
Abu Al Mir – A werejackal of stunted growth and power. He’s listed as neutral evil, but his bio pretty much makes him true neutral. He’s not evil, just weasely and trying to survive, because even as a lycanthrope, he’s pretty pathetic. An interesting character but there’s not much you can do with him as he won’t make an effective antagonist and it’s hard to have a werecreature in your party as a NPC or henchman. 7 for 11.
Darkness and Secrets – This adventure puts the players smack dab in the middle of the aforementioned werejackal and a Greater Mummy out to destroy it. They adventure is interesting until things hit the climax as the PCs are supposed to be completely dominated by the Greater Mummy and will end up either being forced to take the Abu Al Mir in as a temporary (or permanent) ally or risk a Powers Check by leaving him to fend for himself and more than likely die horribly. Again, this is an interesting concept, but unless you really want to have a chronicle with a werejackal or a series of adventures set in Har’ Akir, you can’t do much with this one. 7 for 12.
Sheneya – This is a werecobra. Yes, they’re really starting to beat a dead horse here. Notice there isn’t a werewolf yet. There won’t be either. Anyway, Sheneya is more a half-bree Yuan-Ti by her background description than a lycanthrope. This book really starts to stretch the concept of a werecreature with this one, not just by the concept of a werecobra, but how and why Sheneya comes out. Not good. 7 for 13.
Kiss of the Serpent Woman – this is basically a dungeon crawl very reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark‘s opening, just with more snakes. A lot more. Sheneya has only a small role to play and there’s never a chance of combat with her, so she’s really not even necessary to the plot and can be removed entirely with little editing by the DM. Fun adventure though and probably the only way you can really use the werecobra. 8 for 14.
Professor Arcanus – Okay, this is another one where you can not only see TSR was desperate for something other than a werewolf, but that whoever was writing this had some strange ideas about good and evil. For example, Professor Arcanus is a weregorilla. What? Not only is this extremely stupid, but it makes no sense. There are no gorillas anywhere around the area where Arcanus is changed and yet that’s his curse? The form doesn’t even relate to his actual crime. What was his crime? Attempted Vistani rape. Yep, Arcanus is a rapist. Then when he was caught and prevented from his act, he said it wasn’t his fault because he was drunk. What a class act. Yet, somehow his alignment is Chaotic GOOD. Yes, because most rapists wouldn’t be spotted by Detect Evil. I’m just flabbergasted rape isn’t a Powers Check or alignment modifier, but a weretiger who wants revenge on a dark cult for brutally murdering his family and causing him to be infected with lycanthropy is chaotic evil. This is just such a messed up collection. 8 for 15.
Missing Bones – Professor Arcanus accidentally causes Duke Gundar, one time Darklord of Gundarak to be resurrected. Okay, first of all when a Darklord dies as decisively as Gundar – LEAVE HIM DEAD, don’t give him an out, especially when his land was absorbed. Thank god Third Edition Ravenloft ignored this adventure even existed. Second, what is the point of bringing a Darklord back for a single adventure without a) giving his stats and b) making the adventure about trying to kill the resurrected nosferatu? A Darklord shouldn’t be dispatched in a throwaway adventure – that’s just insane. WHY would someone even think this is a good idea? 8 for 16.
Mother Fury – this is the closest Werebeasts gets to a classic werewolf, but it’s the Loup-Garou Ravenloft variant meaning, gold, not silver is needed to slay the beast. I always found that to be a neat but potentially TPK twist. Mother Fury is especially interesting as she’s a doomsday cult leader. This was a pretty unique idea back in 1998. Mother Fury is an unrepentant killing machine and definitely makes for a great recurring villain. 9 for 17.
The Howling Clan – This adventure pits the adventurers against the Mother Fury’s cult. A good friend (or perhaps even a PC) has been indoctrinated into the cult and infected with lycanthropy. Can the PC’s save them? It’s a pretty cut and dry adventure flow-wise, but it’s very well done and to the point. There’s even modifications listed for making this a solo character affair, which is quite awesome. 10 for 18.
Henri Milton – Evil wereboar painter. Yes, that’s what this antagonist really is. He’s not even really developed personality wise. Instead he’s a backdrop to a magical paint set that turns its owner into a chaotic evil wereboar. Why a boar? Who knows! TSR just needed yet another werespecies. Just stupid. 10 for 19.
A Bloody Canvas – The PCs are caught between two wereboars fighting over the magical painting palette of doom. Another one for the “just stupid” file. 10 for 20.
Dr. Vjorn Horstman – Oh my. This is another “what the hell were they thinking” character. Vjorn isn’t a werebeast at all. Rather he’s a mad scientist who has figured out how to make a temporary lycanthropy serum. This is pretty interesting as mad scientists are always fun and the applications for a temporary one hour lycanthropy potion are numerous. However, the writer ends up ruining it by giving Vjorn the stats block of a Level 7 Wizard but the first line of his text is, “Although Dr. Horstman is classed as a wizard, he is not actually a spellcaster.” THEN WHY GIVE HIM WIZARD STATS? This is why we have NPC classes. Holy crap. Again, just a major sign that Werebeasts was slapped together without any real thought or editing. 10 for 21.
The Unnatural – This is a really fun adventure that highlights how depraved Falkovnia is, along with the horror of the PRIMAL SERUM. It’s a pretty creepy affair and is a great showcase of how dark Ravenloft is supposed to be. 11 for 22.
Sandover – Sandover is a werecrocodile who gained his hybrid and animal forms through the worship of a Loa. A group of primitive reptile men worship him as the Avatar of their god and he’s not really evil, content to live with his people and occasionally eat human babies or children. Okay, so he is evil, but they had me looking at him as actually neutral until they hamfisted the baby eating aspect onto Sandor. Still a neat character. 12 for 23.
The Viper’s Grasp – a terrible name considering this is about a crocodile lycanthrope, not a snake one. Still, I have a soft spot for the island of Souragne and the combination of voodoo and a cult of lizard men is just oozing with potential. One of the more interesting adventures in the book. 13 for 24.
Hilde Borganov – A were-manta ray. Yes, truly the last werebeast in Werebeasts is the stupidest one. Basically this is the wife of a burgomaster (shouldn’t it be burgomeister?) who has infected most of her humble home with her strain of lycanthropy. Yes, a city of half-men, half-rays. Oh, the terror!Q It also doesn’t help that the hybrid design makes you want to laugh as soon as you see it. They look like Chunk from The Goonies with filed down teeth. Just terrible. 13 for 25.
The Forgotten Ones – As you can imagine, this adventure is about the PCs innocently finding themselves in the town of were-rays. The adventure ends up being a second rate Escape from Innsmouth and it’s just hard to take seriously from beginning to end. Stupid concept, stupid adventure. 13 for 26.
Hmm. So as you can see, a thumb’s in the middle is a pretty accurate descriptor for Children of the Night: Werebeasts as it only has a fifty percent quality rating. TSR was trying too hard to come up with as many lycanthropic variants as they could instead of focusing on quality. There’s also a lot of strange decisions made here in terms of alignment and storytelling that some will no doubt find offensive. As bad a reputation as the Vampires edition of Children of the Night has garnered over the years, Werebeasts is a far worse product. I really wish I knew who was in charge of vetting what Ravenloft products were going live on DNDClassics.com because I’d really love to talk with them about their choices.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/02/25/tabletop-review-the-uns
peakable-oath-issue-22-call-of-cthulhu-trail-of-cthulhu-cthu
lhu-dark-delta-green/
Well, although The Unspeakable Oath isn’t back to a quarterly schedule, the gap between this issue and #21 (seven months) is noticeably smaller than the one between #21 and #20 (thirteen months). With a little luck, we might actually get to have more than one issue this year. Here’s hoping things get back on track for Arc Dream’s wonderful little periodical.
If you’re new to the concept of The Unspeakable Oath, it’s a magazine devoted to Cthulhu based roleplaying games. Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green, Trail of Cthulhu, Cthulhu Dark, Shadows of Cthulhu, Realms of Cthulhu Cthulhupunk and so on. If it’s a pen and paper system based on Lovecraftian beasties, they will try and cover it. The vast majority of content tends to be Call oriented, but this issue and the previous one have seen an increase in Trail of Cthulhu coverage. ToC isn’t my cup of tea, but I’m glad to see it get some coverage for those that like it. This issue contains fifteen different articles, so we’ll take a look at each one, then see if the overall package is worth you five to ten dollars (depending on the format you purchase it in).
The Dread Page of Azathoth – This issue Shane Ively takes a break from writing this, so Ken Hite can do a guest column lamenting the loss of Lynn Willis, one of the biggest names in the industry and the creator of so many great products, many of which were Cthulhu oriented. Just a really classy column and the loss of Willis is a loss for tabletop gaming as a whole.
Mysterious Manuscript: The Saffron Book – This is a short, one page article about a new tome for use with Call of Cthulhu. It’s a cute idea where the book can only be read while dreaming. Keepers who make extensive use of the Dreamlands will really like this one. It might be a bit hard for an inexperienced gamer to fit into an adventure or campaign without shoehorning it in though.
The Eye of Light and Darkness – As always, this is my least favorite section in the magazine. It’s eight pages of reviews, broken up into two areas in the magazine. I’m a not a fan of when any publication divides an article like that, and I also don’t like that they look at older products. Now, I’ve worked in the publishing industry since I was seventeen and I know the flow of magazines and the time it takes to go from concept to print, but the reviews are of products that are years old instead of more recent releases like Terror From the Skies, Cthulhu Britannica: Folklore or The Phantom of Wilson Creek. I wouldn’t ask them to get a review of Atomic Age Cthulhu in, but I do know that TUO is in good standing with every Cthulhuoid publisher out there and that, if they asked, they could get review copies of more recent products to publish in the issue. Even better, these eight pages could be used for previews or chapter samples of upcoming Cthulhu products like Arc Dream’s own The Sense of Sleight of Hand Man or Miskatonic River Press’ Punktown. Either way, it would be a better use of this section, which is nearly an eighth of the magazine, and the talents of Beck, Pook and Simmons. Hey, if any of those three would like review copies, I know a website that is always looking for more tabletop gaming reviewers…
Arcane Artifact: Malyutin’s Nightmare Matryoshkas – I’ve always had a soft spot for stacking dolls, which you probably knew if you read my reviews of Stacking and The Lost Hobo King. These particular dolls are very similar in theme and design to the recent “artifact hunt” that could be found in Shadowrun adventures back in 2011. I’m sure it’s a coincidence because a) those weren’t dolls but seemingly random things and b) while both disperse in similar fashion after a time, you can’t go insane from the Shadowrun version. These dolls are nicely creepy, and besides the Shadowrun comparison, I keep thinking they would have been excellent in an episode of the old Friday the 13th TV series. This is another fun little idea that an enterprising Keeper could make good use of.
China Dolls: Children of Madame Yi – This is a new Lesser Servitor Race for use with Call of Cthulhu. This is a pretty creepy monster, as it’s a mix of Body Snatchers with, well… a mask. No doubt seeing a close friend or relative of an Investigator can be both dramatic and horrific if/when it occurs in a story. The Children of Madame Yi aren’t just a creature you can randomly throw in for shock value, so be sure to craft an adventure that spotlights these nasty beasties.
Die High – This is one of the two adventures in this issue, and it’s a pretty innovative one, not just because it’s designed for Call of Cthulhu, Trail of Cthulhu and Cthulhu Dark. This is the second issue in a row to have an adventure geared for multiple systems, and I love that TUO is doing this, as it maximizes the potential for being used. After all, everyone prefers different systems, and the fact that the work for converting to one’s system preference has been taken care of just makes it all the more attractive. Besides the multi-system offering, “Die High” is a fabulous idea for an adventure, especially if you do it as a one shot, because you can highlight a lot of unusual professions that neither Keepers nor players tend to think of during character creation. As well, the creature spotlighted in this adventure is highly unique and definitely memorable, especially with its preferred method of “attack.” I had a lot of fun flipping through this, and I can’t wait to try it out on some of my friends. “Die High” is roughly a fourth of the issue, so expect to spend the bulk of your reading right here.
Tale of Terror: The Found Phone. This is a one page adventure seed that gives you three possible options for a cell phone containing a grisly video. Personally, I preferred option three as it’s the most shocking to play on an Investigator, but it also doesn’t make for much of an adventure. Still, all three have potential and it’s a cute article.
Tale of Terror: St. Michael’s Gate. This is another three pronged adventure seed where you can pick which option you want to run your Investigators against. What’s nice about this one is that “St. Michael’s Gate” is for Cthulhu Dark Ages, which doesn’t get nearly enough love in my opinion. Here, a religious order has cut off access to the water supply of a village, and it is up to the players to figure out why. Another nice job.
Starting Your Call of Cthulhu Campaign – This is an eight page article in which, unsurprisingly, is contained a guide to starting a Call of Cthulhu campaign. While this is a very well written article, it’s the weakest inclusion in the issue, and I personally wouldn’t have put it in an issue of The Unspeakable Oath. Why? Because nearly every single person that picks this magazine up is a Call of Cthulhu veteran that knows all the tips and tricks included herein. It would be like me writing an article for Pokemon Collector entitled “What are Pokemon?” It might be exceptionally well written, but it’s an article that doesn’t need to exist because the core audience doesn’t need that. That said, this would have been great as an inclusion in a more all encompassing magazine, like the old Kobold Quarterly or Gygax Magazine. Maybe even something for the Chaosium home page. It’s just kind of lost on the majority of people who pick this up.
Tale of Terror: Bargain Hunter – The third adventure seed is also the weakest. Here the Investigators get into a bidding war with another clutch of people over an object of occult importance. The seed gives you three options as to the motivations behind the other group. It’s not bad, but out of the three options, the only one I cared for was the first.
Mysterious Manuscript: Atlas of Arkham 1911 (Annotated) – This is an odd little book, and I’m still not sure if I like the idea of the book or not. Basically it’s a typical atlas of Arkham, MA, but with handwritten commentary by an unknown owner. It’s a neat idea, but one we’ve seen dozens of times throughout the history of Call of Cthulhu. As well, the handwritten notes can be a hard thing to pull off properly, simply because of handwriting issues. The nature of this specific book also makes it too easy for some Keepers to use as a catch-all or Dues Ex Machina for when players get stumped. I didn’t find any of the story seeds that interesting either. I’m sure someone will make use of this however, just not me.
Remember, Remember – This is a Trail of Cthulhu adventure set in modern times on Bonfire Night, meaning non English Keepers may have to do a bit of research to better understand this unique little holiday. I like the setting and location, but I’m not a fan of the story and the flow of the piece. It’s a little too heavy on Mythos creatures for my liking, and like too many ToC published adventures, it reads like the Keeper is holding the hand of the Investigators more than I like. I realize the latter complaint is actually why some people enjoy Trail of Cthulhu, but I like my players to think for themselves instead of being led like a 16-bit JRPG. It’s not a bad adventure, don’t get me wrong. It’s just not my cup of tea, though I can appreciate a lot of the ideas and effort put into this piece.
Tale of Terror: The Smedley House – This is a two page adventure seed and I found it to be a really fascinating one. All three of the options here are well worth pursuing and it’s hard to pick which I would do if I was going to turn this into a full fledged adventure for my friends. Basically, the vacant lot across the street from an Investigator’s house now contains a house, and a friendly neighbor that knows a little too much about them. The question is, where did this come from and why? Again, all three options are extremely well done and I only wish you could do all three!
Directives From A-Cell – It wouldn’t be an issue of The Unspeakable Oath without a fun Delta Green column from Adam Scott Glancy. In this case, we’re given a Delta Green take on “Rogers’ Rules for Ranging” entitled “Alphonse’s Axioms for Agents.” This is a set of forty-four rules for agents to keep in mind as they investigate otherworldly horrors. It’s a lot of fun and very well done. I’m always happy to see new Delta Green articles and TUO is really the only place to get them.
Message In a Bottle: The Thing in the Box – As always, The Unspeakable Oath ends with a piece of short fiction. I’m generally not a fan of the fiction they print in this mag, but this one was interesting. It’s just so weird, I ended up reading it two or three times to see if there was anything “between the lines” so to speak.
So, out of fifteen articles, I can give a thumb’s up to two-thirds of the magazine. Even then, some of the things I wasn’t happy with or fond of was more personal tastes than a lack of quality. As always, The Unspeakable Oath is, pound for pound, the best gaming magazine today and it’s well worth spending five to ten dollars on. If Arc Dream could only keep a consistent publishing schedule going, it could win out “Best Gaming Magazine” award one of these years. My fingers are crossed that 2013 is the year where we get two or more issues of The Unspeakable Oath, as it’s too good not to have a regular publishing schedule.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2013/02/21/tabletop-review-qin-the
-art-of-war/
Qin: The Art of War is the latest supplement for Qin: The Warring States, a role-playing game set in a mystical, ancient, and tumultuous China. This is the first supplement for Qin in almost a year, and only the fourth one even though the core book has been out (in English) since 2006. However, it is a welcome addition to the collection. Let’s jump in and see what the book has to offer.
Insert Any One-Liner About War Here
“War, what is it good for?” or “War, war never changes”, something like that would be appropriate here because this book is all about war. I don’t think there are many games where war is featured or focused on (well, except for Only War of course), and less where all aspects of war in the game get treatment in a comprehensive supplement book. This book is 144 pages packed with information about waging war in the Warring States (makes sense, eh?).
There are three major sections to the book, followed by a few smaller sections. The first is a roughly 40-page discourse on all aspects of war from troop recruitment to soldier life to sieges and tactics. It’s fascinating, and the information is well-presented with an ongoing narrative of flavor fiction throughout. This section is light on stats and rules, but explains a lot about the vagaries of war and covers many different topics, even fighting on the sea.
The next section is roughly the same size as the first and covers the forces for each of the seven states individually: Qin, Qi, Zhao, Chu, Yan, Wei, and Han. Again, all of the information is very interesting and I feel that this section, more than the core book or any of the other supplements, fleshes out the other states of the Zhongguo and gives the reader an idea of what these states’ political goals are as well as some hints of geography and social structure. Each state gets a breakdown of forces like infantry, cavalry, archers, engineers, commanders, and so on. There are also a few special characters given that are generally powerful leaders or high-ranking officers. One cool thing about this section is that there are descriptions of elite units and/or special units for each state like spies, alchemists, and saboteurs.
The third section is about 25 pages and contains the bulk of the actual rules pertaining to mass combat and the various activities surrounding battles and sieges. According to these rules, battles will occur via a series of “battle turns” where each general gives orders to his troops. These orders are as simple as attack, retreat, hold, and fire. What spices these up is that the general can attach “battle techniques” to these commands according to their “art of war” skill. These techniques are attached to a basic technique (move, attack, etc.) and command the unit to do something special like feint, concentrate fire, encircle, and a plethora of other special maneuvers. This is, in a word, awesome. I have never seen a book tackle mass combat like this in a role-playing game. I’m not saying it isn’t out there, I just can’t think of a book where I’ve seen it done. I was very impressed by this whole section.
Battlefield Advice and Adventures
The last three sections of the book are small and consist of game master advice and a few adventures. The advice consists of ways that the characters can be involved in an army and how they can perform some sort of task or service according to a rank they hold within the army. Armies have spaces for all kinds of characters besides strictly martial ones, they need alchemists, engineers, diplomats, and even magicians. This section goes over what the different components of an army would do during each stage of a battle, and how each tier of leadership functions during those periods of time. There are also several different types of missions suggested for army troops like disaster relief, escorting, and guarding.
Next up are two adventures, one dealing with barbarians in a desert region of the Zhongguo and the other has the players commanding a small Qin force to hold a southern border region. Both are well-written and thought out, providing some excellent material to get players familiar with the combat rules. The last few pages of the book are some excellent reference tables, an army sheet (like a character sheet for an army), and an index.
This Book is Awesome
I can’t hide my feelings about this book, it’s awesome. Not only is it well-written and presented, just about everything in it is useful and interesting. I have often considered how fun it would be to have players take part in a large-scale battle instead of the skirmishes that are so commonplace in role-playing games most of the time. This book seems to put forward simple but engaging mass combat rules, and tons of information on experiencing army life from all levels of leadership. For me, this book could be useful outside of Qin as well, I would definitely look to these sensible rules for mass combat in other low-technology games I might run, like just about any fantasy game. The adventures included are icing on the cake, as I would greatly enjoy the rest of the supplement even without those.
Qin seems to have gotten some nice attention in the last two years, but I think the core book is long overdue for a second edition. I hope that the continual release of quality material such as Qin: Art of War will signal further support for the game and (I hope I’m not the only one thinking this) a revised or second-edition rulebook. Here’s to Cubicle 7 and the crew for another great product!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Log In 
