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by EDG

Elemental

December 13, 1999 in Reviews

I jump at a chance to review microgames and microgame-like products; there’s a certain Zen-like beauty in a game that is complete unto itself, done in a small format. Element is a boardgame done in that sort of format; published by the same folks who brought us Knights of the Dinner Table. For your investment, you receive a 11×17 map, which requires, the edges to be snipped off to make formation charts that demonstrate the killer moves. You also receive a double-sided cardstock insert, part of which is the (rather simple) rules and the rest a sheet and a half of double sided counters that you have to cut out. The counters represent Elements& from the medieval alchemist’s point of view that is: Air Earth, Fire and Water. The board is a simple grid, depicted almost like a Go board.

How it Plays

As you can guess from what I’ve already said, this is a game about Elements and how they interact. Each player (up to 4) chooses an Element for his side. Players should only choose 1 element to play, but may have to double up if they are shorthanded. Players then alternate placing Elements on the board, trying to create killer formations that will decimate the opponents’ ranks. The Victory Condition is to create a large diamond like formation called the Rose (this is pretty hard to do). If you can’t arrive at the Rose, the next best thing is to have the most elements on the board wins (by when, the rules did not say).

Creating Formations

The game is all about creating killer formations that will effect the other pieces on the board. There’s a big hint of Go here:


  • The Mountain is a group of 4 identical elements arranged in roughly a square shape. The Mountain’s strength lies in being immutable. Other formations cannot effect a Mountain.
  • The Tidal Wave is an S-shaped formation of identical counters. The tidal wave moves in any direction, once per turn, until the formation is broken up, meets a Mountain, or meets the edge of the board.
  • The Winds of Change has an Othello-like quality to it. The formation is deployed by placing two sets of two identical counters in a straight line with all the formation pieces the same kind of element. If an enemy piece is placed between the two sets of two, it changes into whatever element makes the Winds.
  • Fireball is a destructive 3-piece formation shaped like a triangle. Any point of the triangle can send out an imaginary “fireball” that can obliterate other pieces.

You’re noticing the elemental nature of these fighting formations at this point, I’m guessing.

These formations are the heart of the game and really, how the players attack each other. Combinations can exist that combine the effects of different formations& for instance, a volcano is a combination of fireball and mountain. A Death Star is a double sided fireball& shaped like a small diamond. Deathstars can fire up or down, right or left.

The Verdict

There’s some additional chrome (such as the erosion rules), but I’ve covered the waterfront on the basic game. I’ve played this game at least three times for this review, and kept thinking of games it reminded me of already. Go, certainly. Othello, as well. Also Pente. These familiar touches enhance enjoyment with the game, and (I dare say) might make the player a little better in the long run. I enjoyed this game, and will play it again. I would advise the folks at Kenzer NOT to change anything, because I plan to play it again soon. I rate this 4 out of 5.

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Gemini: The Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Game

December 8, 1999 in Reviews

One of the most unexpected recent entries to the well-worn category of
classic fantasy games is Gemini, a very dark fantasy game from Stockholm,
Sweden. It’s a fascinating study–on one hand, it’s a D+D retread game
without much to comment upon, but at the same time it subverts your
expectations again and again with some very interesting variations on
classic themes.

First, do not purchase the book unless your are willing to cut the authors
some slack for haveing to translate into their non-native tongue. Given the
state of most RPG editing, where extremely bad editing slips through from
people who are ostensibly natives, I don’t find this difficult. If you’re
sensitive to it you may wish to reconsider your purchase, or read some of
the book first to be certain it’s your thing.

The book itself is gorgeous. If you are one of those people who buys RPGs
for the art and art alone (and I can hear you breathing, so I know you’re
out there) then this is something you should pick up. The book is filled
with tortured, Scandinavian looking souls in glossy full-color plates and
ornately filigreed edgework for each page, proving that the Swedes have a
handle on darkness that the White Wolf kids would give their eyeteeth for.
Thematically, the book has Dark Ages written all over it, and the consistent
tone was a delight–even with the loopy grammatical constructions, it’s an
easier read than a lot of stuff written by native English speakers on the
market. Whether this is a sad statement on the RPG industry or not I leave
as an exercise for the reader.

The world of Gemini fits the book’s form– the Dark, Dark Ages, like the
We-all-suffer-and-God-has-abandoned-his-Faithful Darkness that makes a great
gothic novel. You have a monotheistic church that hold the only hope of
salvation, evil Inquisitors, a seeping corruption and (one of my favorites)
magic being definitely tied to the deviltry and darkness camp. In fact, in
Gemini all magic slowly warps and darkens you until you are a festering
pustule on the face of humanity. The metaplot ties directly into this, with
a rather elaborate story about the Great Seal being broken and the dark one
rising up to conquer the world. The refreshing change is that in Gemini,
due to the formal and ornate writing, the evil really does seem
overpowering–far more than the second rate evils in WitchCraft or many TSR
supplements.

A lot of this is due to the system constraints placed on piety. Gemini
closely maps your ‘goodness’, and as you fall from grace you become prey to
more and more of the filth of the world…even contact with the unnatural
will erode you. It’s a pleasant whiff of Cthulhu mixed with the kind of
controls that should have been In Nomine–you can be any way you like, but
being good is hard and being evil is ultimately a very bad idea.

The rest of the game’s system is by far its weakest quality. Although the
magic system is a notch more engaging, the resolution systems are ununified
and clunky…just figuring out how to conduct a combat round was an
extremely onerous exercise, made more difficult by how simplistic the
results were. Aside from a roughly sketched out skill system, this game’s
system is mired in late 70′s D+D mechanics–most GMs will want to tear out
the guts of this wholesale and convert to something more fluid, or at least
consistent.

The best element of the game is its take on demihumans. Dwarves are
dwarves, but they gain strength and blessings through the augmentation of
their body by piercing–the images in the book of Dwarves with horrendous
body piercings attacking the enemy are provocative, and the tales of the
dwarven race’s downfall and the horrifying Curse that many of its members
suffer from really differentiated them from other game depictions.

Likewise with the elves, who in Gemini are an artifact race created by
now-extinct masters. All elves are male, except for the Queen–who is the
giver of all life, and the bearer of every elf born. Different temperaments
and subraces of elves are generated depending on which consort the Queen
took to bed to create you. Furthermore, the elves have varying levels of
sentience depending on how much ‘caelum’ they are given by the Queen–so
elven society very much resembles an ant society, with a queen, workers,
drones and warriors. Very interesting stuff.

The Verdict

Gemini is an interesting exercise, and if you have any interest in running a
dark fantasy game with a very Catholic feel to it you should certainly get
ahold of a copy. Overall I think it’s more useful as a piecemeal
sourcebook–the poor system and choppily translated writing is compensated
by the great race and Church descriptions. Very dark and very Swedish.

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by EDG

Exposé: Aberrant

November 30, 1999 in Reviews

In a time when I find myself disenchanted with many of the directions
that tabletop RPGs have been taking in terms of production values, I
have found the White Wolf Updates for both Trinity and Aberrant a
breath of fresh air. The idea is simple: small, pamphlet-sized books
made on the cheap that detail areas of a game universe that otherwise
wouldn’t get any play. With Exposé: ABERRANTS we see the very best
and worst of this production style.

Aberrants are novas (the ABERRANT version of a supernormal) who are
part of a conspiracy against Project Utopia, a seemingly civic-minded
group claiming to be dedicated to improving life for all humans.
Things are not as they seem, of course, and Exposé: ABERRANT wades
hip-deep into the central mystery of the entire ABERRANT metaplot.

So we have a 24-page book, of which the first 11 pages are flavor text.
Now, we all like flavor text on occasion…hell, some of us may have
even smoked the stuff in college. But nearly 45% of this book is
flavor text, which lends it the quality of an advertisement or news
magazine in the “Entertainment Tonight” style. I’d be incensed if
this was a $25 hardback, but in a $5 pamphlet it fits–except that
this critically injures efforts to describe who the Aberrants are as
an organization.

Greg Stolze has an impossible task, and he does a reasonably good job
at it. The place he shines are the NPCs who populate the book–a man
with no subconscious, an ancient torch singer turned young again by her
eruption–but we never really get much of a feeling for the
organization. There simply isn’t time in this thin book to cover the
topic assigned, and it certainly doesn’t show how the Aberrants should
relate to other organizations in a day-to-day fashion.

White Wolf scored a hit with the Trinity pamphlet supplements, which
focused on psionic law, Oceania and other tertiary areas that could
use development. By shifting their focus in ABERRANT to doing Exposés
on major plot points and organizations, these pamphlets become a
must-have source of information that their small size can’t fulfill.

Finally, a quibble: there are two pictures of Novas who are obviously
overweight (Renaissance Man and The Living Wreck) which the main
Aberrant rulebook goes to great pains to explain is impossible, as
Novas burn all their calories. I always thought this was a dumb idea,
but lets have some consistency, people–one or the other, please.

The Verdict

A fun read, but so light you can skim it at your local game
store and have done with it. This is material that should have seen
light as part of a larger sourcebook on conspiracies in ABERRANT.

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by EDG

Ultima Thule: Mythic Scandinavia

November 18, 1999 in Reviews

Ultima Thule: Mythic Scandinavia is the sourcebook of Norway, Sweden,
Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland in a mythic version 13th century for the ARS
MAGICA game. The ad copy for the game states, “Any roleplayer with an
interest in Mythic Scandinavia should have Ultima Thule!”, which begs the
question, “Am I interested in Scandanavia?”

Frankly, I’m not. That’s just the honest truth. When THE DRAGON AND THE
BEAR, detailing the Novgorod (Russian) tribunal came out earlier this year,
it caught my attention by finally filling in lost facts on the Order of Odin
and other long-held mysteries of ARS MAGICA. With the game still lacking an
English or French sourcebooks, the decision to go again to the north for two
sourcebooks in a row seemed strange–do you really need to know that much
about the area?

Well, yes and no. Historically the northern lands are very important for
the people we know as Vikings–their attacks on the rest of western Europe
during the Dark Ages played a pivotal role in the development of feudalism
and the spread of red hair throughout Europe. By 1220 (the year this
supplement is set in) their time and power is waning as Christianity has
begun to change the fundamental forces at work in their societies. This
part of the book is quite fascinating, and useful as text and for game
background.

What keeps the book from excelling is tense. Unlike all other Ars Magica
sourcebooks to date, ULTIMA THULE is written entirely in the past
tense…which makes all of the material in it feel fixed and unchangeable.
It also takes away the great strength of ARS MAGICA, which is leveraging the
use of real history against a possibly changing future–using 13th century
history, told as current events, to provide excellent plot hooks from which
GMs can create their own sagas. By placing all of the book in the past
tense it comes off as a too-brief, too-shallow history book…an effect to
be avoided in historical supplements at all costs.

The additional magical systems are nice, with the Finnish wind wizards being
a particularly sharp touch– they show off the versatillity of the Ars
Magica system to accomodate new traditions without stretching or breaking
rules. The vitkir (Norse rune masters) have some great thought behind them,
and so I would certainly recommend the book…if you are already campaigning
in the distant North now.

Verdict

A mild dissapointment, though ULTIMA THULE is still an order of
magnitude better than comparable sourcebooks from White Wolf or Palladium.
If you’re a completist, or you have ideas for a saga that will take you up
past the Arctic Circle you’ll want to buy it.

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by Lost to the Ages

All Flesh Must Be Eaten

November 14, 1999 in Reviews

Halloween has just passed, so I thought I’d drop a line into the good people at Eden Studios and see if I could find out more about their upcoming game All Flesh Must Be Eaten. The first thing I found out is that Flesh will likely be in your local gaming store by the end of November. Originally, the release was set for October 31, but Murphy’s Law took effect right on queue in the form of artist troubles. Translation – a short delay until the new artist can produce.

Going into this, I really only had a few basic questions. Like anyone else, they generally centered around wanting to know what Flesh was about, and why I, as a gamer, should be interested. All I knew was that it is a game about Zombies. Well, that’s a no-brainer, right? In the words of Alex Jurkat, Eden’s editor-in-chief:

“…the game can be whatever you want it to be. There are eleven possible story backgrounds (rationales for the zombies and the world) and several ways to approach each of them. That’s essentially what the last quarter of the book is all about. There are three general themes to a zombie story… .

The first is learning about the rise of the zombies, fighting them, surviving them, and learning something about them (mostly the best way to stop them — say, shoot them in the head). That’s heavy hack and slash, fight-fest usually.

The second is discovering how the zombies came about, and how to defeat them. That’s more investigative and sneaky. It may include combat elements, but you have to avoid some of that. There’s just too many to fight them all. When zombies go down, there are always more. When the protagonists go down, they are just one less (and the zombies may be one more).

These two may be sufficient for most stories. The third part complicates the other two – intraparty conflict. That’s where the stress of fighting zombies causes people to crack and turn on each other. Obviously, this is the best way for the zombies to win, or at least significantly winnow the party. We put in a short discussion of this aspect of zombie stories, with plenty of warnings about how dangerous it was for party survival. Some may see that as the best way to tell a zombie story, however. So, if the group is mature enough to handle it without hard feelings (this is supposed to be fun gaming session, right) — go for it.

…(A)nyone who is a zombie fanatic (and there seem to be a great deal of them) should play this game. They can play out all their favorite zombie stories, and do things as they would like to have seen the characters do. It breaks ground by placing zombies at the forefront of the game. Lots of games have zombies, but few focus on them. The game is different than most these days because we do not try to present one specific, detailed uberplotline. Gamers need not worry about fitting their sessions into an overarching storyline where certain events are set in stone. We provide suggestions, … but the games are really for the GMs (we call them Zombie Masters) and players to script.”

There is a lot of info in there. All I could picture now was the Night of the Living Dead movies. BRAINS!!! As it turns out, these movies, and others like them are at the core of the inspiration behind Flesh. I like that, but is it enough to make this game stand out from the rest? When I thought of it, I couldn’t think of any other true zombie games. The only thing that comes close is GURPS Undead, and it’s a supplement, not a stand-alone game. So who’s idea was this anyway? When I was Eden’s webmaster a few years ago, I remember that Flesh was already an idea being bandied about. In George’s words, this is how it all happened:

“Well, I was playing Resident Evil 2 last October and I said to myself this would make a nice Conspiracy X adventure if you changed the bad guys and story around a little. I called Christopher Shy late that night and we talked about the game. As we talked about Resident Evil and Con X, the conversation slowly turned into a conversation about zombie RPGs and why the industry really doesn’t have one that just deals with the zombie genre. So at first we discussed doing it as a Conspiracy X alternate world setting but as the night went on it took on a life of its own. I remember Chris jokingly saying “why don’t we make a separate game and call it All Flesh Must Be Eaten”. I laughed for like 10 minutes. The name was great. Over the next few days, we fleshed out some concepts while watching all 3 of the Romero Dead movies for inspiration. That’s when I decided the game can’t be like most traditional RPGs and have a set storyline and history. There was just too many cool zombie genres I would want players to be able to play in. If we gave it one storyline, we would have to ignore too much cool stuff — and we would be imposing our concept of zombies stories on the players. So the game took on a life of having multiple “deadworld” campaign settings to choose from. Then over the following months I contacted Richard Dakan and told him our vision of the game and he began writing the various world backgrounds.”

George Vasilakos and Christopher Shy did the original creative work, defining the scope, direction, feel and focus of the project. George also put together the intro text on the zombie/survival horror genre. The core charters, which include such things as how to create a zombie and the eleven world backgrounds were written by Richard “Ricko” Dakan. Ricko has worked on many previous Eden projects, including many of books in the Conspiracy X RPG line – as well as done work on Deadlands, Star Trek, Dune, Kult and Mutant Chronicles. Al Bruno, an inspiring horror writer and long-time friend of George, wrote the fiction and archetype personalities. Lastly, Shane “Deadlands” Hensley graced All Flesh with an excellent forward about Zombies. Alex Jurkat did the editing, proofing, some game design, writing where needed, and a bunch of other development work. He pulled all the work of all the various authors together and smoothed it all out. Alex has been Creative Director for Eden since the beginning and has overseen the text side of things for all of Eden’s product.

On the art side, the cover art is done by Christopher Shy, who has graced Eden with his gorgeous covers in the past. Christopher also did a fair chunk of the interior art as well. He has done work for White Wolf, Propaganda Publishing, Gold Rush Games and The Apophis Consortium. Mike Osadciw of Battlelords RPG fame has been working with Eden for a few books now and added some gorgeous art as well to the project. A newcomer to Eden is Brad Quigley, whom George met at GenCon and says his portfolio “blew me away. So I put him on Flesh as a test and now he’s working on the Flesh supplement and various WitchCraft projects. A very nice style.” George did the layout, graphic design and a bunch of illustrations as well, not to mention a bit of writing which is a first for him.

I wanted to know more though, so it’s on to the system. From visiting the official website [ http://www.allflesh.com/ ] I did find out that Flesh will be using the Unisystem, developed by CJ Carella, who has written for Steve Jackson Games as well as a ton of material for Palladium. For anyone who has played the WitchCraft or Armageddon RPGs, this means that you won’t have to learn something new in order to enjoy Flesh. That’s a nice plus. When asked if he could say anything more about the game mechanics, Alex replied:

“The Unisystem is pretty straight-forward. CJ’s design philosophy for game mechanics is to be as unintrusive as possible. After the first couple of sessions, the mechanics should become second nature and fade into the background. He likes the focus to be on the story, not the rules. As for content, the most innovative thing to me is the Anatomy of a Zombie chapter. It allows Zombie Masters to pick and choose zombie powers and create their own unique nasties to through at players. Ricko ran through many aspects of a zombie, from its weak spot to its strength to its diet to its sense, etc. I then went through and added in game stats and a power level, so different features could be compared. In the end, you add up all the power levels and you get an idea of how serious a threat the zombie is. It’s a way for Zombie Master to keep their players on their toes. We then used that zombie creation system when running through the stats of the zombies in each world background. It came out very nicely.”

Something I didn’t find out on the site was whether Flesh will be supported beyond the main rulebook or whether it is a ‘one-shot’ sourcebook. Fortunately for all you zombie lovers out there, it is the former. There will be supplements. The first is Enter the Zombie, combining high action martial arts and the walking dead. The second under consideration is a magic supplement, focusing on zombies and different magic traditions, from ancient world to dark future. Another under consideration addresses Nazis, 1930-40s pulp and the undead, following up and expanding on the Mien Zombie background presented in the main book.

One more nifty thing – anyone who orders their copy direct from Eden will receive an All Flesh Must Be Eaten chocolate bar. Where’d they come up with that one?

“George was surfing websites for merchandising stuff (and) found a candy bar maker… All of a sudden it came to us – All Flesh Must Be Eaten candy bar. We were laughing about fleshy chocolate with a crunch all day after that. We did some pricing and talked to some distributors and everyone agreed it was a great idea. We were so psyched we didn’t even realize that the (then) planned Halloween release fit perfectly with the candy bar until one of our distributors mentioned it. That basically cemented the promotion.”

So, there you have it. That about wraps it up. For anyone interested, Flesh will be released as a 232 page, hardback, in a 7.5″ x 9.5″ format – the same size as Eden’s other Unisystem books, but with the added feature of hard cover.

One last note. I have not seen the manuscript for Flesh, and by extension have not played it. Hopefully, that will change soon. As soon as the game is released, look for a review right here on GO.

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Venus: Bauhaus Forces of War

November 1, 1999 in Reviews

The many universes of the varied role playing games have led to
proliferation of detailed supplements to provide the gamer with background
information on the lands traversed by the player characters. This need for
source material quickly found an audience in the miniature figure wargames
with each new rule set being published with supplemental material. For a
fantasy or science fiction wargame rules set centered in a world (or worlds)
different from our own, these source books provide a means of enhancing the
game by giving a colorful background and purpose for the battles fought on
the table top.

I have had little or no experience with the Warzone system prior to
receiving several items for review. Now, I’m seriously rubbing my chin and
contemplating making an investment in the system, as my wife despairs. In
truth, I have little patience with BSMSs (Big Shoulderpad Miniature
Systems), but there’s a depth to the Warzone milieu that I find jaunty and
stylish.

Venus: Bauhaus Forces of War is the first supplement to the Warzone second
edition rules. As the title states, this supplement provides the details on
the planet Venus in the Warzone universe and of the Corporation of Bauhaus,
one of the five major corporations. Venus is a terraformed, jungle planet
cursed with a day of rotation longer than its yearly orbit around the Sun
leading to a Venus day that is 117 Earth days long. Bauhaus, whose roots
harken to an imperial Germany, is the dominant corporation of Venus.
Through this supplement, players will find a rich new world to fight over
and detailed information on the armed forces of Bauhaus.

Okay, so what do you get for your hard-earned shekels? The book contains
nearly 100 pages of information. After a brief introduction, the book gives
30 pages of maps and short graphic vignettes, which introduce the six
campaigns covered in the book. These vignettes provide campaign maps and
visual glimpses into the continual fighting on the jungle world. Next come
detailed sections on Venus, the Bauhaus Corporation, and the four ruling
Duke Electors. The six Venusian campaigns are outlined, allowing for combat
between Bauhaus and any of the other four Corporations or the forces of the
Dark Legion. Several new rules for Warzone follow. Among these are rules
for night fighting, including concealment, tracer rounds and flares, and for
the hazardous jungle, which can be as deadly as the enemy. The final third
of the book deals with the Bauhaus Armed forces, giving information on
various troop types, special units, heroes, weapons, vehicles, and a
thousand point army list for each of the four Duke Electors. The book also
includes two pages of punch out templates and counters for use with the new
rules. My only gripe with the book is the total lack of a table of contents
or index, making it hard to quickly locate specific information.

The supplement is visually striking with illustrations or photographs of
Warzone miniatures on every page. The graphics portray the terrain of Venus
and spark the imagination. Photo vignettes of miniatures offer inspiration
and ideas for jungle terrain for the game table. The visuals distinctly
evoke the Target Games style. In the army section, each troop type is
illustrated at least once and those types with miniatures available have
photos of the figures. The different uniforms and camouflage patterns along
with the differences in helmet types are clearly shown.

The Verdict

My overall impression is that Target has a winner. The background material
is rich and allows the reader to easily imagine the savage fighting in the
dark jungles of Venus. The Bauhaus troop types and army lists provide a
variety of units, which can be tailored for fighting on any part of the
planet and will forma basis for Bauhaus forces elsewhere in the solar
system. The supplement covers the subject and I await reading the next one
on Mars and the forces of the Capitol Corporation.

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by EDG

Imagine Player’s Guide

October 11, 1999 in Reviews

Well, I just finished working my way through the IMAGINE PLAYER’S GUIDE,
and it feels like I’m being punished because now I have to review it.

If you dropped copies of the old-school Keep on The Borderlands and the
movie Dragonheart into a blender with a dash of Rolemaster supplements,
you’d end up with IMAGINE.

Yes. It’s really that bad. And the real shame is that the book has
very high publication values–very nice binding, very good cover and
excellent paper stock. The editing is passable, which is to say I only
ran into spelling and grammatical errors every few pages and not
paragraphs.

What escapes me is what Imagine Role Playing, Inc., the company who has
created the IMAGINE PLAYER’S GUIDE, thinks they are going to accomplish
with this tome other than creating a doorstop. Luckily, I have a copy
of their press kit, where they quote the CEO as saying, “We are giving
gamers what they have always wanted; a fun, flexible, creative system.
Not only do players have the ability to try anything they want in a
game, but they also have the mechanics to back it up. It marks a new
day for role playing games.”

Intrigued? Imagine also says it will “…(raise) the bar for other
companies in the gaming industry. Imagine will lead the role playing
game industry into the new millennium with a new and greater degree of
excellence.”

Now, I will quote the entirety of their entry on Dark Elves, a major
race that characters can select to play. This is *all* of the material
in the 300+ page book:

“Dark Elves are cruel and enjoy watching the downfall and pain of
others. Their haunting songs proclaim the deeds of a sullen and somber
race. They like to play mind games and dark tricks whenever they can
get away with them. Long outcast from the other Elven cultures, Dark
Elves prefer any home which hides them from the sun. They are known for
their strong innate magical abilities and their favor (sic) of slinking
about at night.

The Dark Elves are hated and despised by most other races, including
their Elven cousins. The Dark Dwarves are the exception and deal with
these Elves on occasion. These Elves shun contact with most other races
except to plunder and take slaves. As a race they tend to be of any
evil alignment.”

A Dark Elf is also illustrated next to this expansive description, who
is black and looks remarkably similar to Drow from TSR products.

I’m now going to abandon the review format entirely and just appeal to
Imagine Role Playing, Inc. Please take the huge amounts of money you
must have on hand to put out such a well-bound book and create something
worthwhile. It is the late 90′s–advertising that a game is great
because it has 12 attributes, 18 races, 26 classes, 340 skills and 450
spells is simply not enough. Rolemaster did this schtick already, and
I.C.E. still went bankrupt–IMAGINE’s 4 page index of rule charts is not
going to save it.

Players are looking for two things–shockingly cool ideas and rules that
let them best feel those ideas close to the skin. IMAGINE is all about
modeling all possible situations that could arise in dungeon crawls, and
the industry has known that doesn’t work for at least a decade. I’m
pro-dungeons, but no one needs this book–it’s all been said before.

The Verdict

I’ll cut to the chase. Don’t buy it, don’t play it, don’t encourage
this to continue. Even a munchkin game like Synnibar encourages an
interesting setting and inventiveness of some sort, and IMAGINE does
nothing. If you like your dwarves stubborn, your elves secretive and
your treasure in gold pieces, play Dungeons and Dragons or GURPS
Fantasy. Don’t play IMAGINE.

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by EDG

The Way of War

September 27, 1999 in Reviews

Essentially, The Way of War (TWIW) promotes
itself as being a “universal miniatures system” but upon playing it a bit with
some generic figures I’ve come to the conclusion that this might be a grandiose
statement. TWIW is serviceable for small scale actions, say, of company
level or lower. In this framework, TWIW is perfect serviceable, albeit
somewhat bland and very complicated for the level of conflict being
simulated. I’ve seen attempts at universal miniatures rules before, the
most notable being Piquet, which requires
the purchase of historical modules to replicate any given period using the basic
mechanics as an overlay. TWIW dispenses with a modular approach and allows
for truly polyglot concept; lasers fight swords, arrows fight giant
robots. In this respect, TWIW might be a victim of its setting. The
authors are obviously charmed with the idea of a gaming universe where,
literally, ANYTHING can happen, and have written rules to that effect. The
setting of TWIW actually promotes such lopsided encounters as giant intelligent
bugs fighting cybernetic knights, fighting insane clowns, fighting Napoleonic
Legions… The setting promotes a real “Oh Gee Whiz” attitude on behalf of the
players, as well as a healthy suspension of disbelief.

And such a setting. Combine a healthy main course of Philip Jose Farmer’s
RIVERWORLD with Jerry Pournelle’s JANNISSARIES, throw in a soupcon
of Fortschen’s THE LOST REGIMENT and Turtledove’s VIDESSOS series,
and you might have an inkling of where this game takes place. Essentially the
setting takes place along a giant highway, called “The Way.” The Way is
sometimes described as being a mud track, sometimes a superhighway. The setting
changes with the groups encountered along the way. The Way is more or less a
giant rift between different universes and times, where small groups of people
wander in from time to time. These are the “armies” (though that might be an
over-exaggerated term for what is, essentially, company level elements). These
small groups of people form settlements on either side of the Way, which has
arable lands on either side for roughly 1000 miles or so. There’s a convenient
impassable mountain range up North and an equally convenient trackless ocean
down South. What you end up with (and this is what the designers intended,
I’m sure) is a setting where ANYbody could fight ANYbody. In the basic rulebook,
the following races are described:


  • The 312th Armored infantry: a futuristic African infantry unit.
  • The Anthropod order: a gang of intelligent insects.
  • The Aztecs
  • The Church of Personality: a weird group of characters that “channel”
    famous dead celebrities, such as Marilyn Monroe, Richard Nixon, and, of
    course, Elvis.
  • The Circus of Terror: A travelling circus of crime and savage violence,
    presided over by the villainous Kount Klown and the Ringmaster (The Cabal’s
    first miniatures release is of the Circus of Terror).
  • The Crawling: Creatures of Myth, Magic and Horror fiction, everything from
    the Wolfman, to Centaurs, to Count Dracula.
  • Demons of Springfield: A warped vision of 1950s America, with Demons
    instead of humans.
  • The Grangers: Cybernetic Cowboys riding robot horses.
  • Homelanders: A multi-tribal Indian homeland.
  • The Horde: Descendants of the various hordes that overrun Rome in the Dark
    Ages.
  • The House of War: Descendants of Arab Desert Warrirors
  • Knights of Wodenburg: Teutonic Knights subtly altered by crude cybernetic
    enhancements (parenthetical note:
    the illustration of one of the knights shows a character with a cyber-shovel
    grafted on in place of an arm. Ever wonder how these guys with weapons
    instead of arms take care of… er… basic hygiene
    requirements    ? They still eat, don’t they?)

  • The Logical Revolution: a race of robots and androids that have made a
    proselytizing religion out of pure logic.
  • Monotremes: Intelligent, upright platypuses… or is it platypi?
  • Nueva Roma: The Roman Empire reborn… sort of.
  • Quebec Guard: A loose amalgam of Napoleon’s Grande Armee (remnants), Dutch
    Traders, and Iriquois Indians.
  • Terrapins: Warlike giant turtle pirates? Gotta throw that in too.
  • Tiger’s Paw: Samurai and Ashigaru.
  • Verdun Victors: Apparently, a large chunk of a Franco-American force
    lifted from the Trenches during WWI.
  • Wastelanders: This universe’s barbarians… they dwell on the rims of
    habitable civilization.

How it Plays

SLOWLY! Having about 200+ painted cowboys and a big stinkin’ lot of
classic horror creatures painted up, I attempted to have a small scale skirmish
with a design-my-own army of cowboys vs. The Crawling (described above).
Even using the Quick Rules (pages 6-7), I was in for a slog. I tried
creating a small force of mounted cowboys led by a model called Zeke, the Trail
Boss. I ran into snags creating their weapons (six shooters and rifles),
as described by the create a weapon rules. First of all, you need to plug data
into this equation:

(Range in inches/3)(4*Damage
+8*Attack)
________________________________

(Actions/2)

to create a new weapon type. The design approach was NOT to create a
series of archetypes from which you can extrapolate your weapons (as I often do
with GURPS), but to have the algorithms available for the player to create his
own. That’s definitely a “universal” approach but not one that I have
patience for. If I need a calculator to figure out a game, I start to
glaze, big time. Each figure (model) needs individual stats for the game
to work. These are:





























Initiative The Model’s Reaction Rating
Movement Range of Movement, in inches
Personal Personal Combat Rating
Range Ranged Combat Value
Speed Number of ACTIONS
Defense Defensive Rating
Damage Damage this Model can Inflict
Soldiery A “Quality” Rating
Unnatural All-inclusive term for Magickal Stuff

Keep in mind that units can be individual characters or units.
Characters equate to single man leaders or special troops. Units
equate to Squads. See why I think the term “Army” might be a tad
excessive?

Weapons also have their own stats:














Range Range of the weapon
Damage How much damage it does
Actions How many actions it takes to wield it
Attack Attack Modifiers

Every stat has a point cost, which goes up the more proficient you would like
a model to be. I couldn’t find a table or information anywhere about
relative size of battles crossindexed to point cost budgets, which would have
been useful. I’d like to have a pretty good idea of just what 500 build
pts. would buy me vs. 1000.

Due to my confusion and a need to get something done, I bailed on creating
cowboys and just called them “Cyber Cowboys” and used the stats from the
Grangers, above. Works for me. I could (roughly) figure out the
character creation process but didn’t have the time or desire to do it.

The Game turn sequence was (in my opinion) reasonable enough:

Army Initiative: Roll 1D10 to see which side goes first per turn.

Movement: Move Forces, Init Roll winner first (half of his guys), Init Roll
Loser next (half of his guys), then the Winner again, then the Loser, until
everyone who can (or is desired to) has moved this turn.

Personal Combat: Any models within 1″ of each other on opposing sides may
attack. Init roll winner first.

Range Combat: Any distant combat (guns, arrows, throwing rocks, etc.) takes
place in this segment.

Unusual Combat: Aka “unnatural” combat… the weird things like magick spells
get thrown here.

Soldiery: Basically, a morale and cohesion check.

The main concepts of TWOW conflict are relatively simple: combine the
relative statistic (personal or range) + 1d10 + and modfiers, and compare it to
the target defense attribute + 1d10 + any applicable modifiers. If the
Attack is higher, the attacker wins. If the Defense is higher, the defense
wins. There’s a ton of chrome, of course, but that’s essentially it.

In my sample game, the Cyber Cowboys dismembered the Crawling in nothing
flat.

Concluding

My impressions are a little negative. There’s a good tactical game in
here somewhere, but it’s so laden down with exceptions to the rules, special
circumstances and most important, POOR RULES EDITING. I had a tremendously
hard time figuring this game out. It’s not as if the rules I needed
weren’t in the text, it’s just that aren’t presented in a very coherent manner.
A really decent index will help this game tremendously, as well as some
decent rules summary charts in the center of the book presented as handouts.
I genuinely like the notion and setting of TWOW, it’s just that I don’t
think the Cabil really thought this one through sufficiently to have the forces
presented to be even remotely balanced– and the designers seem to place a great
deal of importance to the notion of balacing forces against each other for a
fair fight . Given, the world isn’t balanced and is never fair,
it’s not so unlikely that a low tech group would fight a higher tech group (see
ZULU if you want a historical example) — you just shouldn’t expect anything but
a foregone conclusion. The designer spend so much time trying to create
an artificial medium between high and low tech armies that it gets tedious.
Such is the problem with “universal” rules… you have to be
universal with them. I sincerely hope the Cabil considers doing a
second edition, or at least starting a giant FAQ file to clarify this mess.

The Verdict

Slow, Poorly Edited but containing some interesting chrome and a half decent
combat system. NOT recommended for large scale enagemeents.

A line of miniatures has been released with TWOW; they will be reviewed next
week.

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Avatar of EDG

by EDG

Rolemaster Revised Edition

September 1, 1999 in Reviews

Iron Crown Enterprises has been a warhorse of the RPG field, managing to eke
out a living while most RPG companies wither and fade…while I might
personally prefer R. Talsorian’s design aesthetic to ICE’s in-house
ROLEMASTER system, it’s hard to argue with the persistence of vision this
company has had. Long derided for being the “rollmaster” game (because of
the number of charts and dice needed) ICE has decided to give their
ROLEMASTER line a complete facelift. The results are interesting, but not
necessarily compelling.

This hardcover volume certainly excels in readability–compared with past
ICE products, this is a quantum leap ahead. Gone are unreadable typefaces,
impossible indexing and art that serves no purpose–the core ROLEMASTER book
is readable, cleanly laid out and a bit plain. Folks who have been weaned
on White Wolf production values will find it rather dull, but the
improvement in clarity and brevity is noticeable.

Yes, brevity: a word not often used with ICE products. ROLEMASTER touts
itself as being complete in one volume, but expandable for unparalleled
depth of rule system with their ARMS LAW, SPELL LAW, CREATURES AND MONSTERS
and other expansion books. The basic book does a great job of capturing
this huge library of material in one book, so that the game really is
playable without selling your house–a great improvement over their last
edition.

ICE owns the licenses for the Tolkein RPGs, and ROLEMASTER shows this
influence. Unfortunately, ROLEMASTER is a generic game, and so the Tolkein
becomes very watered down–you can see where their Middle Earth game ideas
used to be, and the voids that have been left by their removal. Not much in
the way of detail is provided, which runs counter to current gaming trends
where a huge amount of background material informs the game system. Instead
these are blank canvases–which might help a new GM design their own world,
but shows the weaknesses in the inflexible and unexplained game rules.

The game rules? Very arcane. If you use ROLEMASTER for a while, you may
grow to enjoy it, but nothing has been truly simplified–combats still take
forever, their is no unified resolution chart and there is a lot of critical
hit resolution tables.

Like a classic, ROLEMASTER appeals to a specific audience–if you’d like a
game system with no real world that covers generic fantasy in very
rule-oriented detail, this is your game.

The Verdict

If you loved or hated it before, nothing much will have changed for
you. If you do use ROLEMASTER now, I’d advise looking the book over and
getting it if the new clarity will help you run your games. I can’t
recommend it to anyone not already playing the system–you’d be better of
having someone introduce you to the game than buying it on your own.

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Avatar of EDG

by EDG

Sidekick Sourcebook

August 26, 1999 in Reviews

The Sidekick Sourcebook is the companion book to the Blood of Heroes RPG. In it, you’ll find updates to previous rules, new powers, skills, drawbacks, combat rules, and more. There’s also new characters that can be used for exisiting campaigns, and a starter scenario for those first-time BoH players.

A Little Bit of Trivia History

The Sidekick Sourcebook, as stated on the back cover, is the result of over four years of improvement. If memory recalls, it was originally intended to clairify a certain superhero RPG that is known as the DC Heroes 3rd Edition. The author (Joshua Marquart) and a host of others on the DC RPG mailing list compiled many revisions for the powers, skills, and rules. The author then compiled them all into the book, and would have released it over the Internet, if it weren’t for the announcement that Pulsar Games bought the rights for the system of the DC Heroes RPG, and released it as the Blood of Heroes RPG. Josh submitted it (with the permission of those vital to the Sidekick’s creation) to Pulsar, and the company was smart enough to pick it up. The rest is history.

The Book

Almost at the very beginning, there is the list of the skills, powers, advantages, drawbacks, bonuses and limitations that have been revised and/or replaced. It then goes straight into the action with the “A Word About Creating More- or Less- Powerful Characters”–excellent advice for those who want to create Cosmic Characters. New Advantages like “Omni-Scholar”, “Local Hero”, and “Ultra Luck” are well done, and the Drawbacks like “Cannot Heal”and “Oblivious” are just mean enough to delight any devious GM.

The Powers Section of the Sidekick Sourcebook has new powers like “Alert” and “Defenseive Adaptation”, while older powers like “Neutralize” and “Superspeed” are either replaced or clarified. Of course, you can’t go wrong with powers like “Dismember”

Chapters 9 and 10 deal with the rules, particularly game physics, combat, environmental situations, and game situations. Pay special attention to the “Rolling Infinite Doubles”, because how many of us have rolled a score of 105 thanks to doubles?

The new characters kick off with the introduction of the Guardians, a hero group formed during WWII, and was reestablished in the 90s. Some good characters, even though some may look familiar to comic readers. The villains are, well, villains! There is Subplots chapter which makes it very easy for the GM to use these heroes, so no excuses!

Finally, we get to the scenario located at the end of the book, entitled “The Game Within A Game”. Yes, there are rules for Live Action Roleplaying using the BoH rules (fans of LARPing should read this section!), and if you are one of those types who hate LARPing, then you should definitely read this section, as the Atomic Soul Suck power is a must for anyone’s roster of LARP powers.

As for the the main plot of the scenario, the setting is at a gaming convention, so why are the heroes there? Seems a celebrity was killed at another con, and an anonymous caller said “He was the first”. Can your heroes discover who’s behind this before the killer strikes again?

The Verdict

If you want the Sidekick Sourcebook for the art, don’t bother–it’s “OK” at best. Otherwise, it’s just plain awful. Some of the art looks unfinished, while others have no such excuse. At the time, they are in the process of adding some new talent, so good luck.

The new layout of the Sidekick Sourcebook is a step above the old format found the Bloof of Heroes. It’s easier to read, and just looks better. However, there are a few mistakes that can be found, which could interrupt your reading.

Overall, if you’re a fan of Blood of Heroes, then pick up the Sidekick Sourcebook. It’s got solid writing, and the information is something you just can’t do without. The Sourcebook is also completely compatible with the DC Heroes 3rd Edition, a fact that one should primarily consider when deciding to purchase this book.

Oh, and the author advises against drinking milk or soda while reading the adventure found in the Sidekick Sourcebook. Seems that it could be forced out of your nose. You have been warned.

For those interested in joining the DC Mailing List, the URL is http://w3.one.net/~joshdm/dch.html

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