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Best Middle Earth RPG to date. Simple and elegant rules that capture the feel of Tolkien's work better than anything that has come before it. Everything about this game is outstanding.
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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An excellent product that builds on the simple but creative Victoriana system. It has a wealth of source and atmosphere material and presents a well-rounded world that really engages gamers. Thoroughly worth while!
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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originally published at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2011/10/11/tabletop-review-de-prof
undis-second-edition-2/
Overview
This is De Profundis, a role-playing game where the players write more than they roll dice, where they think more than they talk, and where they imagine more than is really there… or is all that is imagined really there and more? The book was written and conceived by Polish game designer Michal Oracz, whom board game players might know from his popular Neuroshima Hex!, a quick, tactical war game. De Profundis is loosely set in the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft, an ever-popular source of setting material for a number of games, especially in the last ten years. The reason I say “loosely” is because the game is more about imitating the feel of Lovecraft’s stories, and not about using the specific terminology of the Lovecraft universe.
The Lovecraft mythos has seen some love in recent days and has received a lot of different treatments. The gaming community has seen everything from the grandiose Arkham Horror and Mansions of Madness, to the cheesy Cthulhu themes slapped onto basic dice and card games. Then of course, there is the grandpappy of Lovecraft RPGs: Call of Cthulhu. Well, this is totally different from all of them.
Gameplay and Feel
De Profundis is a game about communicating your imagined experiences. Whether you do this with a large group of people (called a Society or Network), one other person, or just yourself, the goal is to create a narrative through a series of writings. Before you start writing, you have to choose who you are going to be. You can simply be yourself in the current time, or you can be a person in the 1920s, or you can be a specific character from one of Lovecraft’s stories.
Later in the book there is some equivocating as to whether this is a hard and fast rule, and it seems that you are free to be anyone in any time period as long as you are experiencing strange occurrences in the style of Lovecraft’s stories. This brings up one of my only complaints with this book: that there are multiple writers for the various “supplemental” chapters, and some of what they write seems to slightly expand upon (or maybe even contradict a little) what was written by Michal Oracz in the introduction and three “books” (sections) that comprise the main concepts of the game.
For example, in the “On Conventions” section of the first supplemental chapter it reads: “The possibilities for role-playing by letter-writing are practically limitless, defined only by the nature and character of the Society writing them rather than by any specific rules in De Profundis itself”. After reading 52 pages of what the game was about and how it was played, here the book is saying the specific rules don’t really matter! Well, being the open-minded role-player that I am, this does not bother me all that much, except for the general contradiction itself. However, it makes me think twice about the cohesiveness of the game if part of the core book is telling me that it is fine to disregard the rules and do what I want.
Well, what are those specific rules that I can ignore if I want to? Um…well you have to write letters and…basically be interesting and creepy. Heck, there really aren’t any specific rules in De Profundis aside from guidelines like time (a person in 1925 can’t be writing letters to a person in 1887 for example…unless you decide to ignore those guidelines), the whole game is about creating an atmosphere, a feel. This is key to getting into the game, and possibly one aspect that will make some people not call it a game at all. Instead of accomplishing a specific goal that is set by the game or the GM (did I tell you this is primarily a GM-less game? It is.), the goal is more abstract. How do I write a good narrative? Well, that is one of the things that the book does, it gives you some hints on how to create your story in a Lovecraftian way; it instructs you to hint instead of tell, to feel instead of know. I should also note that you don’t even have to write letters if you don’t want to, you can just take pictures or record yourself speaking. I’ll just push these guidelines out a little further…
Anyway, back to characters. Ideally, players in a Society (a group of people playing De Profundis) will choose their identity and begin writing to each other as those identities. For instance, if I choose to be Dr. Fernsbury, a small-town physician in 1927, I will expect letters addressed to me with “Dear Dr. Fernsbury” or some such greeting. I will expect the letter to be written with a dip pen, fountain pen or a typewriter, and on paper that bears a little resemblance to paper technology back then. I will write letters to my confidante (fellow player), and if their identity is a Madame Du Feuilles I will address my letters accordingly. You see, the world created in the letter exchange is the game world, and the game world is special in that while it is shaped by each player individually, it is supposed to be shared universally. As an illustration, imagine a small group of people sitting around a table holding up signs saying what they are feeling, or Tarot cards, or masks, but not having much say in what other people decide to reveal. In this sense the game is about creating a shared experience that is not necessarily cooperative, but shared nonetheless.
Players in a Society will also choose a convention, or a specific theme and style of the game you wish to run. An example convention might be a Victorian era theme and aristocratic style, another might be current-day Illuminati theme and a formal political style, yet another might be a London street urchin theme with a barely-literate-pauper style. It’s all up to you and the Society in which you play in.
Now, here is another guideline that is emphasized in the book: if you want to play a specialist in a particular field of knowledge like, say, a physician in 1927, you should be knowledgeable about that subject. Logical, eh? You should write about how you treated a patient with abnormal reflexes and a pallid complexion who happened to have eerily long canines, and in real life take yourself to the library or Wikipedia and research basic medical terms and language so that your letters can be as authentic as possible. Are you going to play a map-maker from the Colonial era? Better study your 18th century maps. How about a Civil War soldier who deserted and got lost in the woods? Find a regiment and an army to belong to, as well as a town to be from. These kinds of ideas are guidelines I can get behind. These are the guidelines that you ignore to the detriment of your game!
Other General Thoughts
I don’t want to give too much away about what the De Profundis book says to the reader and the great ideas that are contained inside, but I will talk a little more about what the book as a whole is like and some of my thoughts on it.
As someone who collects RPGs and often wonders what changes the authors make from one edition to the next, I was of course curious to see if I could find out what the first edition of De Profundis contained. Unfortunately I was unable to find a copy easily and instead could only surmise based on the page count information I could dig up, which put the first edition (in Polish, this may have been a very early edition) at 28 pages, while the second edition is 110 pages. Wow! If that information is correct, that is quite a jump in content. If there are any first edition owners reading this, I can only say that it might be worth your while to pick up the second edition, you might be pleasantly surprised. Of course, the original edition seems to have been written in the late 90’s and was published in 2001, so it’s not surprising that several years later a substantial update would be in order.
Another aspect of the book that I really enjoy is the style it is written in. The three main sections of the book (and one of the supplemental sections) are written like letters. I love that. The author begins each “chapter” like a new letter in a series of letters, which takes away the normally dry core rulebook format and instead immerses you in a hot bath of theme. The author demonstrates the feel of the game right in the rules.
There are about 49 pages of those letter-chapters that comprise the main thrust of the game, and then the following sections are updates or supplemental materials presented in a more conventional style (except for the section on e-mails). These additional sections are excellent in the way that they expand upon and clarify the intentions of the game (with the few exceptions of small contradictions that I noted earlier). There are sections on Society play, where groups of people form what is essentially a campaign group that plays De Profundis; a section on an example campaign with commentary; a section of using De Profundis with Call of Cthulhu or other RPGs; and even more to help get your games going.
One more thing about actually playing De Profundis: it’s harder than it sounds. I couldn’t find anyone to play with me on short notice so I tried writing some solo material, and capturing the subtlety and creepiness required to make it interesting was really hard. Much like writing a good story, so much of the challenge is how to make it interesting.
Conclusion
This book made me very excited about role-playing, and I like the possibilities that spring up in my mind when I read this book. The concept of psychodrama, not as a psychological therapy tool but as a sort of self-imposed, paranoia-inducing state of mind, is an idea that really appeals to me as a gamer and as a writer. You might also think of it as attuning your perceptions to Lovecraft and his idea of horror, putting yourself in a Lovecraft story. I want to sit down on a rainy evening with a lit candle and scratch out a letter about strange faces in the windows after reading this book, and that is cool.
As far as playing the game, I worry that an exchange of letters would just be a few people writing to each other about weird stuff without any provocation. What I mean is, I don’t see how a game could carry on if players are just trying to write about their creepy experiences without asking the other players questions relating to their experiences. Basically, I worry about selfish playing. With a game so dependent upon individual effort, I can see some folks writing their narrative continuously without engaging the narratives of other players and I would implore any of you to consider that if and when you play the game.
If you like role-playing, getting a little creeped out, and especially if you like the feel of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories and want to take a crack at recreating that, definitely check out De Profundis, you will not be disappointed.
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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The Basics: Excellent construction, very good interior art, quick and simple system gets you started right away without a lot of pain.
The Setting: Well thought out and interesting. The setting is clearly designed to leave room for a series of supplements/chapbooks. Some essential questions are left unanswered, such as "What really happens to someone who is thrown into a Change Cage?" Or, what happened to drop a functioning time machine into a steampunk band's naughty , naughty little hands?
Overall: This game is an enjoyable read and should be fun to play. (I haven't yet, but will soon.) There is a very interesting set of creation tables for airships and sky cities that looks to be exactly what I was personally looking for in this system. The section on how to get into trouble with a time machine was well thought out and clever, though it is optional if your table isn't into the time travel aspects of the game.
| Puntuación: | | [4 de 5 estrellas!] |
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Originally Posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2011/10/10/tabletop-review-clockwo
rk-chivalry-divers-sundry/
What Is It?
A collection of miscellaneous material for the Clockwork & Chivalry roleplaying game.
Overview
Divers & Sundry lives up to its name. I’m used to game lines producing secondary general sourcebooks- Player Guides or Storyteller Handbooks. I expect new character options, equipment, magic and maneuvers for players and, for the gamemaster, world background, enemies, rules options and campaign frameworks. Instead, Divers and Sundry collects together an unrelated assortment of material for Clockwork & Chivalry campaigns, some of it published previously in Signs & Portents or in the adventure Thou Shalt Not Suffer, but much of it new. That’s an interesting choice; the only other books for the line besides the core book has been the linked modules of the “Kingdom & Commonwealth Campaign”. While D&S offers some unique material, this volume as a whole feels tacked together.
The Book Itself
Divers & Sundry has five chapters, plus a brief appendix. At a 180 pages, this is substantial supplement. However it falls into the trap of many of these books- combining player and GM material. That isn’t a problem for the GM, but for the player it means that a little under half of the book isn’t really useful. Some will be out of bounds; the last third presents “…a number of tales…set forth only for the eyes of the Master of the Gaming table.” In an era of pdf distribution, there ought to be an option available to buy a reduced player’s version. I understand wanting to fill out the page count to make an attractive product, but combining this material makes it less useful for both halves of a group. I suspect GM’s will copy the early pages or lend their book to players.
D&S has the same simple, clean and useful text design as the original core book. It doesn’t wow you, but it is easy to read and locate information. It can get a little dense when presenting stats and numbers, but it usually works. Unlike the main book, Divers & Sundry has no index. That would have been useful given the varied material – at the very least a more detailed table of contents would have been nice. The illustrations here fit with the period and design- and are consistent throughout. In short it is a decent and good looking book.
Characters
This chapter will be the most useful to C&C players. It opens with seven new Professions. Since professions offer only modest mechanical differences (skill bonuses and advanced skills) most of the material here focuses on background. The authors do a good job presenting the place and worldview of these roles. Three of them focus on the criminal side of life in C&C England: Ruffian, Rook, and Highwayman. These last two can come from any social class- offering very different approaches for the same profession. Three of the professions- Cunning Man/Wise Woman, Devil’s Horseman, and Witch/Warlock fit with the Witchcraft rules given later in the chapter. The Iconoclast, a man with a hammer and a faith, rounds out the set. Oddly, the text suggests some of the professions are specific to Scotland (covered in a later chapter) but only one actually fits that bill. The choices expand nicely those available in the core book, but will require GM approval to make sure they fit with the campaign. I imagine any of the Witchcraft-based professions being both cool and a potential problem in play.
Seven new factions follow- some more or less playable. The Adamites, for example, believe in nudity, dissolving law, the absence of sin and marriage as an unnatural institution. That radical an outlook could be a major group disruption. Likewise two of the factions relate to Witchcraft- Satanists and the Horseman’s Word- offering additional depth to the professions mentioned earlier. All three will make interesting NPC groups and opponents or for a very strange campaign. Two factions come from Scotland: Clans and Covenanters. The tensions between England and Scotland on a number of fronts make these a challenging background. Two religious factions, Deist and Friends of Truth, round out the selections. As with the professions, the material here offers both game options and new insights on the C&C setting.
The chapter ends with twelve pages on Witchcraft. The material here mixes a more modern take on the idea with conceptions from the ECW era. Witches come in three flavors- Satanic Cultists, Satanic Witches and Unaligned Witches. These last two offer more power, but require the character to renounce God and so on. While rules and options for handling these two appear, they feel much more like NPCs. The book, however, does not explicitly make those distinctions. Actually, I’m a little surprised that D&S doesn’t take the time to talk about the considerations for a GM working these kinds of characters into a campaign. It does from a practical level- suggesting that if a GM has a Witch in the party, they need to offer opportunities for the players to learn spells. But a discussion of the possible strains these choices may place upon a party, and how a GM might deal with those, is notably absent.
I suspect most players who wish to take advantage of these rules will choose the Unaligned Witch track. Here the player has some knowledge and access to spells, but not to more potent magics or the new Manipulation skill. Witchcraft follows the Sorcery rules from Runequest II with a few differences. Unlike C&C Alchemists, Witches pay no Magick Points for casting spells. The limiting factor here is time, ritual and the need for ingredients. Witches have access to 29 spells modified from Runequest II, plus ten new ones presented here. The rules seem fairly easy and comprehensive. It should be noted that these materials appeared previously in the Thou Shalt Not Suffer adventure and it’s unclear how much this version differs.
Arms and Armies
While the original core book offered some equipment lists, D&S ups the ante- beginning with thirteen pages describing the arms and armor of the ECW period. Most of the material offers color, rather than rules. Many items do get a few additional mechanical notes, but most describe the items and their use in the setting. Basic illustrations complement many items. The arms tables only cover the details of the new weapons, even though others are discussed. If your players enjoy the crunch of weapons and outfitting then they’ll like this section. Oddly chapter sticks to historical pieces and equipment, with a few mentions of more fantastic uses. For example, the classic ammunition bandolier gets repurposed for potions. But I expected more clockwork or alchemical devices here- utilizing the unique nature of the setting.
The next section delves a little into that, as it looks at all of the armies of the period. The first part presents various kinds of “common soldiery” from Dragoons to Harqubusiers, Musketeers to Pikemen. D&S gives covers the role and mechanics of these seven professions. Each can be used to replace the standard Solder profession from the core book- with distinct Common and Advanced Skill details. Next, the material covers Specialist troops in the same fashion. Some of these have real world analogues (Artillery Gunner, Matross, Chirurgeon, Chirurgeon’s Assistant, Engineer, Musician, Pioneer, and Sharpshooter). But they also offer roles unique to the setting (Battle Alchemist, Clockwork Dragoon & Soldier, and War Machinist). The section wraps up with a look at foreign armies, and nine different professions from those (Highland Skirmisher, Hussar, Reiter and so on). For GMs focusing on a more military campaign, all of this could be useful. Military history buff players may enjoy the expanded variety of solider options. But I suspect the material given- despite its depth- will only be really useful for a narrow set of campaigns.
The chapter ends with a look at sieges- a common occurrence during the period. There’s a nice discussion of the general techniques of crafting a siege. A GM can draw some interesting ideas for how players might interact with a besieged city, either trying to escape or break in. Other real world details- such as conditions in a siege, how negotiations are handled and the rules of conduct get covered. It also presents a few ideas on how Clockwork and Alchemy might change the nature of a siege. Finally it wraps up with some specific ideas for GMs on siege-based adventures, including random siege events. I like this last part especially- I would like to see more of this kind of discussion. C&C could benefit from stopping off from time to time to offer the GM advice on how to integrate the deep background it presents with actual play at the table.
Scotland
Scotland received only a light gloss over in the core book- unusual given the Scot’s role in inciting and reigniting the English Civil Wars. It’s difficult to overestimate their importance. D&S aims to rectify that oversight with this sixteen page chapter (complimented by earlier Scottish-related professions, factions and army discussions). Scotland offers a distinct and dangerous place. While relatively close by, the religious and cultural differences mean a border crossing into an uncertain land. The chapter details the most recent history of the Scottish people- including the important figures of Mary Queen of Scotts and James VI. A little over half this chapter covers history, political structures and highly-placed persons.
The chapter only briefly discusses why a party might go to Scotland. It’s a great setting, but the authors could have talked more about different campaign types and how to make a Scottish episode work. Four brief sections cover the regions of Scotland- each with a d6 worth of random encounter seeds for the areas. While I’m glad to see Scotland fleshed out for C&C, it’s a missed opportunity. I would like to see more playable material and help for the GM. The section mixes together player and GM material. If someone wants to play a Scot, the GM will want to have them read this, but will also have to remove or not use the random area encounters. Overall this chapter, in combination with the earlier material, could be used to run a foray into Scotland, but won’t be as helpful for a long arc or campaign set there.
Random Tables
This chapter presents 29 random tables, broken into eight groups. They’re a nice set of GM inspirations and aids. Some are more useful than others. The Wandering NPC Encounters, for example, could be used to come up with an incident on the fly. Likewise, the Inn Tables offer the fun of both a “Foul and Lewd Inn Name” and a “Sensible Inn Name” table. Some of the sections, such as the Farm, Inn, Town and Manor tables, offer adventure seeds. I would have preferred some lists with some more fleshed out material and ideas, but the tables will assist pick up play.
Adventures and Appendix
Divers & Sundry closes with a set of three adventures, one useful as a light introduction and the other two offering more depth. “The Naked and the Dead” presents players with a mystery and a dangerous monster hunt. It has some nice twists and could be easily fit into most campaigns. “The Dragon of Naseby” is a convention scenario, complete with pre-made characters with their own secrets related to the adventure. GM’s looking for a good one-shot to try out the setting will like this. It ties into the key event in the C&C history, the Battle of Naseby, and offers encounters with both the Clockwork and magic. Finally “The Mad Monk of the Moss” is written for Royalist adventurers. It is fairly straightforward and the ideas could be reworked for other campaigns. This adventure also comes with pre-made characters, although not tied to the specifics of the adventure. The book ends with six additional pre-generated characters, to give GMs some options for pick-up games.
Overall
I’m not completely sold on the idea of bundling all of this material together. There’s a great deal to like in D&S, especially for gamemasters. It adds rich material for a couple of narrow niches- armies and Scotland. Much of book hews close to the real world. It could be easily mistaken for a game about a non-fantastical ECW. Readers expecting or hoping for expansions to clockwork or alchemy will be disappointed. That’s not a knock at the book- but at my own expectations for a sourcebook like this. There’s great stuff here, but it feels like a series of pdfs tacked together.
While the book’s aimed at GMs, with random event tables and adventures, it really isn’t a GM’s companion. That would offer more advice on framing a campaign, kinds of adventures, and keys for selling the game to a group. You do get some fascinating historical detail here, but the GMs will have to work to shape that for players. As much as anything, Divers & Sundry feels like an old-school rpg annual. Given that Cakebread & Walton will be redoing C&C next month with the Renaissance system, I’ll be curious how they’ll approach the material from D&S. Will some of it be folded into the main book? Or will it be reissued as is? I think there’s a great opportunity for the authors to split this into two books and expand both, to create stronger separate player and GM sourcebooks.
Portability
If you’ve already decided to use C&C with another system, covering the material of D&S should be easy. The Witchcraft rules might take some tweaking for balance. In the other direction, I’d say there’s not so much to be borrowed from D&S for other campaigns, unless you’re running one set in or around this era.
| Puntuación: | | [3 de 5 estrellas!] |
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This is a fantastic setting of a future-past steampunk world. It allows time travel although a seperate book will be produced to handle it thouroughly. By itself, however, it is a journey into a world of villians,heroes and pirates--who may be either or both!
It uses what I call the bucket'o dice gaming system where you are rolling multiple dice looking for successes. If also has a method for altering outcomes, sometimes dramatically! This is best used by game groups who are very mature and ready to accept outcomes that are hard to predict. Game Masters be warned - thinking on your feet will be an absolute must if you use all the aspects of the game!
It has an interesting mass combat system where entire crews are treated as a single NPC with the quality of the crew impacting the results. Used with the system it looks very workable. As with any game system, you should probably try a few games, preferably with someone who has grasped the intracacies, and then decide what you can live with.
It rounds out with some creatures and villians, explaining what is going on. The adventure is reasonable with a decent amount of dering do and political manuevering before the big clash. As these are supposed to be novice characters many of the options may need to be explained to the players if they are unfamiliar with expectations.
Overall a great setting with a good foundation but rules that will need a good read through and testing to ensure they work for your group. Of coures the music that it is based off of would be a plus in any steampunk setting!
| Puntuación: | | [4 de 5 estrellas!] |
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Dirigibles. Cannons. Rum _and_ gin. Steam guitars. Clockwork police and prostitutes. Chrononautilii. Awesome, full-color artwork. Gutter punks and hob-nobbing elite. Flying cities and roaming tribes. Abney Park.
As would be expected of Captain Robert and crew, there is an amazing story, stringing together the works of Abney Park into an amazing game.
The rules are simple enough to encourage role playing rather than roll playing, even when involved in mass combat between ships.
The time travel rules are excellent, and cover many of the typical paradoxes (often by stating that those time traveling are protected from said paradoxes as they create a new timeline). Even more fun is the fact that, in the long run, players are encouraged to mess with the timeline, to see how the gamemaster will determine things have changed.
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2011/10/03/tabletop-review-clockwo
rk-chivalry/
What is it?
An alternate history rpg setting combining the English Civil War, alchemical magic, and revolutionary Clockpunk.
I’m Sorry, What?
I hope at least one person reading that last sentence thought “At last- a game where I can play a Leveller Roundhead Pamphleteer!”. Clockwork & Chivalry has a great premise, but as a historical game it has to fight for an audience. History-based rpgs have a bad reputation among our group- with most players worrying about having to possess some arcane lore to play effectively. Even something like Call of Cthulhu’s light 1920’s backdrop gets regarded with suspicion. I imagine detailed knowledge of the English Civil War varies widely. A British audience has a leg up on the material- able to catch references and fill in gaps. But even if this covered the American Civil War many might be put off. That’s too bad- because the material and ideas presented here are very cool. They offer a campaign about building and sustaining communities and relationships in the face of a chaotic time.
The History of History
The English Civil Wars period in our world runs from about 1637 to 1649. It began with a clash between King and Parliament and rapidly expanded from there. After a series of massive upheavals, it ended with the execution of the King. Alexander Dumas actually features that execution in his sequel to The Three Musketeers; in Twenty Years After the Musketeers attempt to stop the beheading. The ECW period is an absolute mess. It has difficult to untangle power groups and factions, an explosion of religious and social thinking, and a major social revolution crushed under the bootheels of the victors. Clockwork & Chivalry’s authors, Ken Walton & Peter Cakebread, do an amazing job of reducing that complexity and crafting a playable fantasy setting from it.
In this world, the clash between Royalists and Parliamentarian forces come to a head at the Battle of Nasby. The Royalists represent the privilege of the nobility and the rights of the King. But they’re also dedicated to stability and turning back radical innovation, especially in the Church. In this world they bring to bear the forces of magic, in the form of alchemy. Against them stands the Parliament, also known as Roundheads, an amalgam of legalists, Puritans, religious minorities, social radicals and the like. They have harnessed the power of Clockwork devices and war-machines, crafted and managed by Mechanic Preachers. Both sides find themselves forced into alliances with old enemies. At Nasby, the horrific battle ends with the execution of the King and a sea change in the nature of society. Clockwork & Chivalry begins six months after those events. The players can work to make the world a better place or plunge it further into chaos.
The Book Itself
Clockwork and Chivalry takes up 194 pages in pdf format; it is also available in softcover. The layout’s simple and clean- two column for most of the rules sections with full page text for some of the historical documents. The authors do a good job of starting sections with key information in bulleted lists and the headings nicely break up what could be a seriously dense rule book. The illustrations have simple lines and work because they’re consistent for the first half of the book. They have an archaic feel- and remind me of first edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. There’s a strange split midway to public-domain images for later chapters that’s jarring. Overall it could use more illustrations- it lacks any images of the Clockworks themselves, for example. The book has an index, something which should always be pointed out and given credit in an rpg book.
Rules & Mechanics
Clockwork and Chivalry uses the Runequest II system from Mongoose Publishing- which echoes the old classic Basic Role Playing from Chaosium. You’ll need a copy of the RQ II corebook to play. C&C offers several changes from standard RQ II. Mostly this concerns minor aspects of character creation (Social Classes instead of Character Backgrounds for example). A greater change comes with the reworking of RQ II’s magic into a C&C’s Alchemy system. As well, the rules introduce some novel systems such as Clockwork constructs and devices. However, Mongoose has recently given up the Runequest license- which means they will discontinue publication in November. To make up for this, Cakebread and Walton will be releasing a new version of C&C using a new system called Renaissance,
“Renaissance is the new D100 game system behind Clockwork & Chivalry 2nd Edition, and will form the bedrock of future fantasy and historical games from Cakebread & Walton. Built on OpenQuest and Mongoose RuneQuest I, and with added rules from Clockwork & Chivalry, the system features a fast and dirty new combat system which minimises book-keeping while still simulating the brutal age of black powder weapons.”
Characters
C&C opens with a note warning readers that many liberties having been taken with the history- some to accommodate the alternate fantasy setting and some to simplify the complex issues of the age. The introduction offers a solid but not overwhelming introduction to the background. That’s complemented by a narrative piece outlining the momentous Battle of Nasby which saw the first great clash of Alchemy vs. Clockwork. That devastation and the memory of it hangs over the setting. It serves as motivation for characters in the game. With some of the history laid out, the book moves to the nuts and bolts of playing.
The character creation chapter offers an extensive and dense set of choices. After generating the basics (attributes, characteristics, common skills), players build their Adventurers based on previous experiences. This consists of choices of Social Class, Profession and Faction. Notably, C&C removes skill restrictions, allowing adventurers to develop in any direction in play. Social Class obviously has a significant impact on the adventurer’s personality and restricts later choices of profession. The five different classes each offer different skill bonuses, advanced skills, and combat styles. As you’d expect these aren’t exactly balanced but if you’re playing a game like this that’s a secondary concern. Professions offer additional background, more skill bonuses and more advanced skills.
Each of the 30+ professions gets a rich and substantive discussion of role, worldview and options. The authors use this section to really lay out what the world of C&C looks like. Among the entries, they offer boxed historical tidbits as well. The game has a fantastic mix- making choosing between an Alchemist, a Camp Follower, a Lord or a Mercenary more difficult than you’d think. An equally difficult decision for the players lies in factions- which aren’t treated in the character creation section, but in the following one. Players gain additional benefits from these and then finish up with the last touches (free points, connections, contacts, etc).
This 44 page chapter ends with a section that might have been better placed earlier. Reading the rules, I kept wondering what a campaign would look like. The background suggested a harsh choice between Royalist or Roundhead. The professions descriptions also suggested a game where the players would be deep in one side or battling the other. Would campaigns be purely military or espionage? At the end of the chapter, the authors suggest a mixed group from both sides- and published adventures will assume that. They make an interesting case. The setting has suffered massive devastation- something players don’t want to see happen again, regardless of faction and interest. That desire, combined with the trumping bonds of community and friendship, ought to keep the players aligned and on the same track. RQ II offers mechanics and benefits based on community which can help keep this in line. Historically, the divisions between the various factions were fluid. That’s an interesting idea- but a GM will have to carefully judge their table. Having the seeds for inter-party strife built into the game so early could present a problem for some groups.
Factions
Much of that conflict arises from adventurers’ membership in factions- a topic covered in chapter two. The English Civil War presents a difficult time to map out- with groups arrayed and aligned based on very different issues- some social, some political, some religious. The authors do an excellent job of offering accessible options in this. They provide background without overwhelming with the minutiae. Instead each faction- along with the various bonuses- gets a nice clear set of precepts to follow. Adventurers also possess Righteousness Points (RP) measuring their passion for their faction. Players may attempt to debate NPCs to change their RP, they may gain or lose RP based on actions, or have that change based on adventure results. It weirdly reminds me of Sanity from Call of Cthulhu, with consequences for high and low ratings. From Anabaptists to Laudians, Clubmen to the Invisible College, C&C presents 17 factions over the 32 pages of this chapter, each with an explanation of their philosophy as well as a sample NPC from that faction.
Alchemy vs. Clockwork
After a chapter of miscellany- covering everything from new skills, to black powder weapons, to illness to creatures of the realm, we get to magic. As mentioned earlier, the C&C system differs in many ways from standard RQ II. Alchemy requires certain arts and practices- and instead of having personal Magic Points to power their spells, alchemists must use points stored in a Philosopher’s Stone. They must also learn skills of different elemental casting types and run the risk of spell fumbles. The material is pretty evocative- taking a more generic system and adding enough constraints and details to make it feel different. The common RQ II spells get broken into the four elements, and the book adds seventeen more to that. The chapter also offers rules for elemental summoning, familiars and spell creation.
The obvious counterpart to magic follows next, with the chapter on Clockwork in the game. After a fairly light history and discussion of the concept, the chapter lays out rules for the creation of Clockwork devices. Characters with the necessary skills can create new ones. The mechanics and factors have some depth but aren’t off-putting. A casual player could come up with something and figure out the stats and costs. They might have a harder time actually assembling it- given the Construction Mishaps and Industrial Injuries tables (“Lose 1D4+1 digits from either hand (roll randomly for hand and fingers.)”). Clockworks also require winding, resulting in the development of Winding Stations across the countryside. The chapter does a great job of combining the rules and colorful details like this. Several kinds of Clockwork are presented: Iron Horses, Leviathan war machines, Striding Suits, Bible Page Turners and the like. I especially like this section- it has a great deal of flavor but gives players an open-ended system to work with.
Last Details
The densest section, presenting the history and philosophy of the period in detail follows. The authors trace the conflict back to the Reformation and give quick biographies of the main players in the events (living and dead). The chapter also goes over a number of other setting details: fashion, philosophy, economics, and places of note, for example. They throw a lot of material at the reader here, walking a difficult line here. On the one hand you want a product which appeals to a wide audience- perhaps those RQ II players interested in a novel setting or RPG players lured by the cool concept of Clockwork. On the other hand, you want to appeal to gamers coming to the setting for the historical connection. I think C&C does a pretty good job of maintaining that balance, but more often than not errs on the side of the history buff. The book ends with a sixteen page starting adventure and a surprisingly brief list of recommended reading.
Overall
I’m a fan of historical games and enjoyed reading Clockwork & Chivalry. That being said, I think the likelihood of getting to table for my history-adverse players will be pretty low. You can sell it based on Clockwork and Magic, but eventually the players will come up against the historical details they’ll need to have a handle on. You could ignore or hand wave that away, but I think you’d lose a great deal of what makes this setting interesting. You don’t have to know the history to play this game, but you probably do to run it. And having a grasp on the period will definitely make any gameplay experience deeper and richer.
Clockwork and Chivalry is a well-crafted, readable and interesting alternate historical setting, but presents some challenges to players not versed in the history.
Portability
C&C isn’t particularly dense with rules. The setting could be fairly easily ported over to another light system (Savage Worlds, FATE, GURPS). The main work necessary would be retooling the benefits from the background options, fitting alchemy into the magic system, and seeing how the Clockwork rules fit with any item creation system the game has. If you like the setting, but have a favored system, consider picking this up. In the other direction, some of the ideas- particularly alchemy and Clockwork could be borrowed for other campaigns or genres. The rules aren’t particularly deep so you would just be lifting the basic concepts. A great deal of the material is related to the specifics of the setting, so if you’re less interested in that, you might take a pass.
| Puntuación: | | [4 de 5 estrellas!] |
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The One Ring is an attractive and well-written product that attempts to capture the feel of Tolkien's Middle Earth which is no small feat. I think it does an admirable job - not perfect but certainly excellent and definitely playable. In particular I really like the maps that are included, one for the players detailing the basic lay of the lands and the other for the GM which has a great deal more detail on it. Overall, I think the One Ring meets its original design objectives although for me the sheer weight of the canon and expectations surround Middle Earth do not make it a particularly compelling setting to play within in. For Tolkien fans though this clearly is worth checking out.
| Puntuación: | | [4 de 5 estrellas!] |
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Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2011/09/26/tabletop-review-abney-p
arks-airship-pirates/
With a crew of drunken pilots,
We’re the only airship pirates,
We’re full of hot air and we’re starting to rise,
We’re the terror of the skies but a danger to ourselves.
-Abney Park “Airship Pirate”
I used to start all of my ‘A Thumb to the Eye’ columns and some of my video game reviews with song lyrics. Music is a great way to set a mood and the best lyrics read almost as musically as they sound when sung. This is a habit I picked up from the White Wolf World of Darkness books, particularly Mage: the Ascension. Looking back at my old writings, this habit seems a bit silly, a folly my youth and inexperience allowed me to make. In the case of Abney Park’s Airship Pirates, I can think of no better way for the proceeding to be commenced. Using song lyrics to open chapters and even specific entries does a paramount job of getting across the feel of Abney Park’s Airship Pirates, a mischievous, puckish soul wrapped in a steampunk aesthetic.
For the uninitiated, as I was before my preview of this very game, Abney Park is a steampunk influenced rock band. I am not a music critic, but I find their sea chantey meets early 80s Goth musical aesthetic to be quite endearing. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can check them out on iTunes or Spotify to see if you like their brand of steampunk tomfoolery. That said, I feel like Airship Pirates stands up even when divorced from its source of inspiration.
The concept is simple: Abney Park’s airplane crashed into a zeppelin, some wibbley wobbley timey wimey stuff happened, and now the future is a steampunk dystopia. Upon hearing this high concept, I imagined a mash-up of Kidd Video and Final Fantasy VI. If you are going to make me fall in love with a role playing game, there are worse places to start.
When the book arrived, the first thing that struck me was the size of the thing. Next to my Ambush Alley Games hardcovers, which I thought were fairly huge, Abney Park’s Airship Pirates is simply gigantic. Like Necronomicon big. The cover is thick and weighty, and the whole book has a heft to it. Cracked open, the pages lie flat, a sure sign of quality construction. The cover is glossy and the dark brown with gold lettering makes it look classic. The paper is thick and matte, with a tasteful border. While this is not the first Cubicle 7 product I have reviewed, it is the first physical copy I have held in hand and I must say it is an impressive thing to behold.
Opening a book with flavor text is a gambit. When done poorly, there is nothing more likely to make readers lose interest in a game. Done correctly, and Airship Pirates does it correctly, flavor text is the best way to draw a reader into the game world. The Trials of Admiral Villiers does a capitol job of introducing the world and giving an example of what sort of trouble the players will likely be causing. That Airship Pirates wants to put the “punk” back into “steampunk” is very apparent from this first chapter.
With one potential bomb diffused, Airship Pirates merrily juggles a second with the Introduction chapter. These sorts of things are, by definition, a bore for anyone who is not playing an RPG for the first time. I was prepared to give Airship Pirates a pass on having a pedantic Introduction chapter, since the connection to Abney Park could conceivably bring in new readers who are completely new to the concept of RPGs. Then I read it. What Cakebread and Walton, who have the perfect names for mad scientists, have done with the Introduction, is quite an accomplishment. The sidebar introducing the concept of a role playing game to non-believers is the best I have yet encountered and does a great job spelling out the design philosophy behind the game. Another sidebar introduces the band, to those who have wandered in from the other direction, and points them in the right direction. A third sidebar answers a couple of questions I had about the compatibility of Airship Pirates with Victoriana and Dark Harvest. Short answer: they are completely compatible, which adds extra value to all three.
Character Creation is where the majority of players will spend their time with a book. Airship Pirates, being a very modern RPG, starts at the top of the character sheet and works its way down. Instead of starting with die rolls, the players are encouraged to come up with a concept for their character and, in a twist, the concept for the crew as a whole. This is the second time, the first being in the introduction, that the idea of Airship Pirates being run like a weekly TV show is floated. Giving the party a reason to be, well, a party from the very beginning is both a novel and completely obvious idea. For the sake of honesty, I have to admit that I will be stealing this from now on.
As Matt detailed some of this in his Victoriana review, which was a big help as I tried to get a grasp on the Heresy Engine rules these games share. Character creation is a delight. Airship Pirates has fewer character races, err Cultures, than Victoriana, though compatibility means you can always move things from one game to the other. The Cultures in Airship Pirates are more evocative than most RPGs. The Neobedouins are, as you would imagine, nomads and vagabonds who wander the wilderness. Neovictorians inhabit the land cities of a mad emperor. Automatons are humanoid robots built by the Neovictorians. The Misbegotten are the unfortunates who are mutated by the spill-off from Neovictorian factories. The Skyfolk live in massive floating cities that drift across America.
Culture in hand, the next step is determining character statistics. The six attributes, Strength, Dexterity, Fortitude, Presence, Wits, and Resolve are largely self-explanatory. The range is -3 to 9, with 0 being average. Characters start with 1 in each, modified by their Culture. The player gets 3 points to distribute as they will, with the limitation being that they cannot add all 3 to one attribute. As well, up to two points may be subtracted from attributes, either 1 point from 2 attributes or 2 points from 1 attribute, and added to others. This is a pretty elegant way to generate attributes and it makes balancing a party fairly easy.
Picking a Background comes next. Backgrounds are as close as Airship Pirates comes to character classes, though they are much less restrictive. A Background represents what a character did before being a Pirate. These past lives range from decidedly violent and adventurous careers like being a Mercenary to intriguingly non-martial vocations like Musician to the hilariously inept Dilettante. When coupled with the character’s culture, Background spells out where a character comes from. When you say your character was an Automaton Factory Worker or a Misbegotten Prostitute, I am instantly transported to the world of Airship Pirates and I can picture your character vividly. Beyond adding character to the player characters, Backgrounds provide the Skills for each character. This leads to Character Points.
Character Points are the currency of Skill and Talent acquisition. The recommendation is that each character start with 30 and spend 20 of those on Skills, though it is explicitly stated that these numbers are at the Game Master’s discretion. Additional Character Points can be acquired by taking Complications, which are a boon for GMs since Complications make great story hooks. Since characters are expected to be functional members of an airship crew, being Airship Pirates and all, it is suggested that they take three Airship Skills. Once again, fun character quirks are easily added from this little suggestion. A character who is useless when aboard the ship makes for great comic relief. A character who is otherwise a putz but has deadeye aim with the deck guns can become a hero in a boarding attempt.
Just as much personality is present in the Shticks. Each pirate crew is encouraged to have a shtick, a cover persona for when they come to port or encounter the authorities. This ties into the Crew Concept and is a pretty fun way to create esprit de corps amongst the crew. A ship full of pirates is one thing, a ship full of pirates who pretend to be traveling mummers is another. Between Background, Airship, and Shtick Skills, characters should be pretty much fully formed by this point.
The remaining Character Points can be spent on Talents. Skills are like basic football plays and Talents are more like gadget plays. Less useful in general, Talents are valuable in very specific circumstances. The last major element of character creation is selecting Complications, which are largely optional. Complications are one of my favorite parts of character creation, as it makes characters much more interesting. I do appreciate the dedication to the game’s piratical theme, as many Complications are of a decidedly pirate bent.
There is a full crew of pre-generated Airship Pirates, which is fantastic. This kills a couple of birds with one big stone. Pre-created characters provide players with a solid template to work from, and these characters are good enough to inspire new characters. Additionally, they make it easier for the GM to tweak the power levels of early adventures, since this crew is a good example of what a starting party might look like. I guess you could even use them as player characters if you are in a rush to get right to it.
Combat is the first of three chapters which spell out the rules that Airship Pirates runs on. Battles are intended to play in a very wild, swashbuckling manner and the rules provide for it. I am a big fan of dice pool systems, being raised on a steady diet of Shadowrun and World of Darkness games. The basic mechanic is an opposed die roll. The player and GM both roll a number of d6s equal to the characters’ Dexterity combined with their weapon skill. 1s and 6s are successes, and 6s can be rerolled for additional successes. The winning side lands their blow. The margin of successes over the losing character determines the damage dealt. It is as easy as that.
The second chapter in the trilogy covers Dramatic Systems, aka the stuff besides swinging a sword and shooting a gun. Rules covering things as diverse as Drinking and Feats of Strength cover all the bases and leave the GM with a go to chapter. That these rules are as logical as they are, while still being thrilling and fun in practice, is a small feat. Not as much of a feat as not wrecking your liver in Tortuga, but a notable one nonetheless.
The final chapter of the core rules section is the Airships, Vehicles, and Beasts chapter. The rules for customizing airships are quite spectacular. Creating custom airships means that parties never have to run into the same dirigible twice. I was so taken with it that I took it for a test drive and made a Final Fantasy IV style airship. It took about five minutes and the ship was exactly what I wanted. Ship to ship combat works enough like person to person combat that it is easy to pick up and run with.
The Equipment chapter is pretty self-explanatory, but thoroughly enjoyable. Any equipment list that includes Heliotropes and Difference Engines is a winner in my book. There is a certain verve to the items included that I find quite charming. Just make sure you don’t use the Heat Ray and Wheel-Skates at the same time.
The setting is laid out in the next three chapters. Chapters on the History, Geography, and Cultures of Airship Pirates are a real boon. Rare is the licensed game that doesn’t have any other book sources for the setting, so it was essential that this book included enough of the world to enable play with a minimum of GM work. While the scope is limited to North America, the breadth and depth of the content here is enormous. While it is not labeled as GM only, I am of the mind that the players should know as little as possible. I can count on one hand the settings that are as evocative as this.
Then there is the GM section. The same thoughtfulness and care that has gone into the rest of the book carries on here. Twenty or so pre-generated NPCs, stats only, are the sort of thing a GM wants but is seldom given by RPG authors. The GM material here is top-notch. Even better, it feels like the designers are taking you aside and telling how to recreate their vision on the tabletop. This sort of material being as good as it is does the setting of Airship Pirates quite a service. For a setting pieced together from songs and bits and pieces of lore, Airship Pirates feels quite rich.
Time Travel is the next chapter and it is a doozy. I have covered games with Time Travel before (I’m looking at you Doctor Who), but this is the best system for traversing time and space I have ever seen. With six Golden Rules (Time Travel is Uncommon, Time Travel is Difficult, Time Travel is Infrequent, Screwing Up the Timeline is Difficult, There’s Only One Timeline So Look After It, and a Time Traveller’s Personal Past Cannot Be Changed), Time Travel in Airship Pirates is equal parts mysterious and exhilarating, which suits the setting quite well. I love the idea of taking Pirates in a blimp and sending them to some random point in time. I might be strange, though.
A Bestiary follows. At first glance, there is not much to look at. I mean, there is an entry for Alligators and an entry for Giant Alligators. A little scrutiny reveals that mammoths and sabre-toothed cats have returned and there are strange giant condors called teratorns. While it might not be the Monster Manual, I suspect that was never the intention. Airship Pirates, being a bit grittier than most steampunk, doesn’t have room for goofy beasts, though there are some solid critters here.
The Tribulations of Scabby Jack is the included adventure for beginning parties and I think it serves its purpose quite well. The hardest part of a first adventure is getting a party together without the stereotypical, “Everyone meets at a bar” scene. Since the character creation system eschews that, things can kick off with a bang. It is nice to see so much care given to an introductory adventure.
The two page Artists of Airship Pirates spread is a nice touch, one I would love to see other RPG books adapt. Under each artist’s name is a list of pages on which their art appears and an email address at which to contact them. Giving the artists who make this book so gorgeous to flip through in such a manner is quite nice. The remainder of the appendixes are equally keen, providing character sheets, though those are better printed from the Internet than scanned from here, maps, and a one page discography for Abney Park. Once again, the authors have gone out of their way to make Airship Pirates a complete experience.
Abney Park’s Airship Pirates is a couple of things. It is a big, impressive, beautiful book. It is a vivid, fun, solid role playing game. It is also a challenge. If you are a fan of the band Abney Park, you have likely already purchased this. For those on the fence, I can only say that, as an outsider to their milieu, I cannot imagine this book being a more perfect representation of their world. If you are a steampunk fan looking for an RPG to run, this is a pretty good one. If you are a fan of Victoriana or Dark Harvest, this is a fantastic alternative setting and sourcebook. More than anything, though, Airship Pirates is a labor of love. “Captain” Robert Brown, lead singer of Abney Park, provided art for the book, including the cover, and is credited with the layout, design, and typography of the book. Such passion is evident throughout Abney Park’s Airship Pirates. Yes, $50 is a lot of money, but I honestly feel like Abney Park’s Airship Pirates is worth it.
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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You can read my full review here: http://www.stargazersworld.com/2011/09/21/review-abney-parks
-airship-pirates/
Abney Park’s Airship Pirates is not your regular Steampunk game. The setting is original and full of fun ideas. And even if you don’t want to use the post-apocalyptic world of 2150 you will still get your money’s worth out of that game. Especially the time travel rules set the game apart from the majority of its competition. The Heresy Engine – especially in the streamlined version – used in Airship Pirates is easy to learn and the compatibility with Victoriana 2nd Edition and Dark Harvest opens up a lot of additional possibilities. You can easily use material from those games in Airship Pirates or vice versa.
If you are even remotely interested in the genre and if you want to pick up just one steampunk game, make sure it’s Abney Park’s Airship Pirates.
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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Being a resident Scot myself, Cthulhu Britannica and, especially, Shadows over Scotland were always going to be of interest and appeal to me. The first section of the book is a look at 1920's Scotland and the mood of the people, recent history including the role of the great war, what life is like for the different classes, politics of the period while also taking care to look at the positives of the time like in creative arts such as the works of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the success of J.M. Barrie and other literary works. Neatly, there are also sidebars for pre-decimalisation money (though oddly it doesn't specifically say it was 240p to the pound, the closest it gets is saying it was 12p to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound) and some common Scots lexicon/lingo (with pronunciation guides for things like ceilidh and the sgian dubh) to help add a more authentic edge to dialogue.
Next we come to the Keeper's History of Scotland, covering Scotland's history in about 10 pages from the prehistoric and stone age, moving onto the ages of bronze and iron, Roman invasion of Britain (including a possible Mythos explanation for the disappearance of the Ninth Hispanic Legion) before moving to the rest of the first Millennium – Picts, Celts, Vikings, Angles and the conflicts between Mythos and Christianity. We then take a look at 1000-1500; the unification of Scotland under one rule and Edward I's attempt to claim sovereignty over Scotland and the Declaration of Arbroath. Next is 1500-1750 covering Mary Queen of Scots, her exile, religious reformation and Union of Parliaments, Jacobite rebellion (and a sidebar on the Glencoe Massacre), Industrial Revolution and Early 20th Century. And all this before we even get to the Mythos Timeline! The mythos timeline covers the whole period from Pangaea to 1920, giving the key events of Scotland in order with some of the non-Mythos events to help us piece it all together more easily and Shadows over Scotland then introduces us to about half a dozen notable figures of the 1920s including Alexander Fleming, Arthur Conan Doyle and also has a list of suggested further reading for more information on modern Scotland, the history and people that have made it up.
With the scenarios provided, there's a lot of interesting different ideas – some classic figures of Scottish history converted into Mythos beasties that'll still be around in the 1920s and possibly later still, some classic beings used in others and across a wide range of locations in Scotland. I've only ran one of the scenarios - The Forbidden Isle, set on the island of Rum – and reading through it I was excited. A fairly straight forward scenario that should work well for a group that was made up of players who had played Cthulhu several times before and others who had never touched it. It looked interesting and taking a quick look on google for extra research it seemed to be a well researched adventure and well laid out. Reading through it, there were some details I wish I'd paid more attention to when it came to running the adventure; red herrings that distracted the party and details they did notice (and some they didn't) that I simply didn't have an explanation for even after the scenario was finished (such as missed footprints in the dust in the attic that lead to a pile of clothing implied to belong to the victims – how did it get there? Was it the enthralled servant of the Mythos creature, was it a member of the household, was it coincidentally similar? I still don't know and I'm glad the party missed two sets of spot hidden rolls so I didn't have to explain that or have the party become more convinced it was some sort of inside job). It left me disappointed in the end, something I hate to say about an otherwise fantastic book.
Overall I'd say the book is solid – excellent background and characters. It could practically be an engaging, well written textbook for the information it has on Scotland and it's history. I've only ran or played one scenario, so I hope it's one of the lesser scenarios as it left me a little disappointed but there are still fantastic ideas for games and scenarios. I'd rate the book 5/5 – the information could possibly rival an academic book on Scotland and it has lots of good ideas but I feel the scenarios are disappointing without a lot of careful reading and note-taking to find out what are genuine clues, red herrings and how the red herrings can be explained if discovered after the scenario is over.
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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Not Played any of the adventures yet but its another solid product from Cubicle 7 the artwork and handouts are up to the usual high standard and the quirky humor has managed to stay as well. If you want a good set of adventures in unusual settings to run your team of underpaid and overworked Investigators through then you really do need to check this out. Also kudos to Drivethru as the scans are clear and crisp.
| Puntuación: | | [5 de 5 estrellas!] |
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Originally Posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2011/09/16/review-cthulhu-britanni
ca-shadows-over-scotland/
When I reviewed Cthulhu Britannica back in late August, I gave it a thumbs in the middle as I liked two adventures, disliked two and found one to be merely okay. In retrospect I think I was a bit hard on it, especially after wading through two horrible Cthulhu adventures since then. Both Open Design LLC’s Red Eye of Azathoth and Trail of Cthulhu: The Repairer of Reputations were not only some of the worst Cthulhu related adventures I’ve had to look at, but they were some of the worst published adventures out of any system EVER that I’ve had the misfortune of coming across. Now however I’m back with Cubicle 7 and their third Cthulhu Britannica release. Shadows over Scotland differs from the original Cthulhu Britannica in that it is a sourcebook for running a campaign in Scotland as opposed to simply being a collection of adventures. Now the book contains six scenarios in addition to the source book info, which means all you need is this and a Call of Cthulhu handbook and you’re ready to roll. So how does Shadows Over Scotland stack up? It’s time to find out.
The sourcebook part of Shadows Over Scotland is roughly 135 pages. It is divided into four sections: “An Introduction to 1920s Scotland,” “The Lowlands,” “The Highlands,” and finally, “The Islands.” I love that the book gives you maps of the area and even url links to highly detailed maps of the regions for Keepers who want to really go in-depth. It also gives you information on what living in Scotland during the 1920s would be like based on your occupation and class. There is a lot of talk about the Great War and life after it. With over one MILLION Scots dying or being injured in the war, it’s easy to paint the region as a place that is both hopeful and downright depressing during this era. The sourcebook is a wonderful source for actual Scottish history and lore, with some fictional Mythos bits thrown in to pepper things up. I loves reading about the history of Scotland during this time, even while it made me really sad to think of the squalor and poverty than ran rampart in the country. There are quotes from actual historical texts about the time period, which not only helps the whole thing to come alive, but also provides those with a non-fiction bent (such as myself) with titles to look for should they wish to learn more. You get slang, currency conversions, timelines and more. This is a Keeper’s dream come true right here.
As you might imagine, Shadows Over Scotland blends actual Scottish folklore with the Cthulhu Mythos throughout. The book touches on Skara Brae, the Loch Ness Monster, standing stones, Hadrian’s Wall and more. But then you’ll get something like a factoid about William of Orange feeding the MacDonald to a Shoggoth to remind you this is a RPG sourcebook after all. I have to admit seeing people like Lady Macbeath getting a Cthulhoid twist made my day. Each section gives a “Mythos Threat”breakdown for the region should you be inclined to create your own adventures. For example in “The Lowlands,” you get the Serpent People and Sawney Bean while in “The Highlands,” you’ll find Mi-Go and The Floating Horror of Glen Affric (my personal favorite beastie in the book). You’ll also get detailed information on specific Scottish cities to give you some ground work for when your players travel there.
Then there are the six adventures. First up is “Death and Horror Incorporated.” This first adventure is a murder mystery that takes place in Glasgow. What I really like about this adventure is that it is open ended instead of divided into scenes set in a linear fashion like most published adventures for RPGs tend to be these days. There are a lot of red herrings and it tests the mental mettle of the Investigators. Those are my favorite adventures to run, regardless of systems so I was quite pleased with this. My favorite part of this particular adventure is pretty much for Keeper eyes only, but I loved the frank look at the trials and tribulations of a ghoul society. The players will be working for the Lord Provost in an attempt to solve a plethora or connected murders which they will inevitably find linked to the aforementioned ghouls along with some unexpected human allies. This is a great adventure to introduce players to a Scottish campaign but also as an introduction to Call of Cthulhu itself as there won’t be any Great Old Ones to deal with. There’s also room for the Keeper to play the ghouls as good or evil, depending on how they want to interpret the story and the end ghoul they are searching for. When I did this adventure, I ran the ghouls more as a metaphor for the suffering and poverty the Scots were going through during this time period and that the Ghouls turned to murder and theft due to starvation, just like humans are wont to do when in dire straits. This threw the Players for a loop as it put them in an ethical/moral discussion more than once, making for great roleplaying. A really great adventure and well worth experiencing.
The second adventure is, “The Hand of Abyzou,” and it takes players to the city of Edinburgh. This adventure involves a friend of the investigators being committed to an insane asylum and an encounter with the serpent people. Like the previous adventure, there is a lot of detective work and critical thinking involved. Unlike the previous one, there’s no way you can shape the antagonists into something remotely sympathetic. The serpent people do want to subjugate humanity to their rule after all. The hook here is on how you play the friend of the players who has been deemed mad. If you play him too straight, the entire adventure is solved by an NPC and the players don’t do much of anything. If you play him like a gibbering lunatic, there won’t be enough of a hook to begin investigations. So the opening moments of how you present the adventure determine how much the Investigators will have to work for their success. Of course, by success I mean, “figure out what is happening.” Even when they do that, they still have to deal with an entire cult of zealous humans, a horde of serpent people and prevent both groups from awakening “the sleepers,” which are basically a vast quantity of serpent people in suspended animation. The downside to this adventure is the sheer amount of combat in it, which Call of Cthulhu characters simply aren’t built for. Because of the number of serpent people and the sheer power of the mages (they know EVERY spell in CoC!), it’s all but impossible for a party to triumph here unless the Keeper fudges some die rolls or the characters are Call of Cthulhu veterans with a lot of magic (and thus little sanity) behind them. A bad keeper will let this adventure devolve into a dungeon crawl full of hack and slash while a good one while make it a mix of survival horror and stealth.
The third adventure is “Uisge Beatha ,” or, “The Water of Life.” Unlike the previous adventures which took place in large cities, this one occurs in a rural area in the northeast of Scotland. Here players will get to investigate a spooky old castle and encounter an entire town that will remind diehard Mythos fans of Innsmouth in more ways than one. I had a few problems with this adventure if only because of the potential of too many monsters. In this case, it’s the fact an underwater city of 50,000+ (You read that number correctly) Deep Ones is only five miles from the town where this scenario takes place. The key to a quality CoC adventure is not to overwhelm the Investigators with Mythos creatures lest they become mundane. Obviously, that isn’t happening here. There’s also several problems with the adventure as a whole such as whiskey tainted with water that turn people and/or their offspring into Deep Ones (many reasons why this wouldn’t work and was found to be far-fetched, even in a RPG. ) The problem here basically comes down to the fact that the Deep Ones are basically treated like supervillains out of a Marvel or DC comic book here and things lack the subtlety of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.” This requires the Investigators to be played as superheroes thwarting a huge conspiracy, and with the CoC system and general characters, that’s all but impossible to do unless you’ve been running a Cthulhu version of a Monty Haul campaign. It’s also written is such a way that it feels like the writers tried to create an adventure where the players are set up to lose from the get-go. This adventure is a little too over the top and grandiose for me to recommend and due to the sheer number of Mythos creatures in it, I can’t see it being very much fun for players.
The fourth adventure in Shadows Over Scotland is “Heed the Kraken’s Call” and we get the token “Loch Ness” adventure with this one. Because of the location, players will probably jump to conclusions from the second they learn where this takes places. That’s actually a good thing as the adventure throws in a few red herrings and you never get an actual answer as to whether there IS a Loch Ness Monster – at least in the way we tend to think of one. Instead you’re getting a murder mystery, an encounter with the undead, the Scottish equivalent of hermitic hillbillies and a Great Old One. I won’t spoil anything further, but the particular Great Old One that shows up in this adventure is my second favorite one (Nyogtha is my #1). It’s rarely used and I have a soft spot for it, so I broke out in a big smile to see it here.
Like all Cubicle 7 penned COC adventures, there are a lot more Mythos creatures that your Investigators will have to deal with than normal, so make sure this is an adventurer your players have the experience to deal with. The good news is there are far less than in the previous four scenarios and they are far easier to deal with. The adventure is very loosely constructed, so a lot of it is left up to the Keeper in terms of the order of events and how the Investigators proceed. The adventure still gives you plenty of handouts, points of interests and story pieces, so there’s enough structure to keep things flowing while enough room for a Keeper to make this scenario his or her own. The adventure does end with a pretty large combat scene. Again, this is typical for a Cubicle 7 CoC scenario, but it might be jarring to both keepers and players who aren’t used to Call of Cthulhu being combat heavy.
The fifth adventure, “The Forbidden Isle” takes place on The Isle of Rum, so expect a lot of jokes about the location’s name. It’s a short adventure compared to the previous four, but it’s a neat location and it’s very fast paced. This adventure feels more like a thriller than all of the other adventures. On the Isle of Rum, a set of sinister disappearances has occurred and as the Investigators will discover, this isn’t the first time such an event has happened there. It’s up to them to stop the disappearances before they are next. The adventure features a lot of Mythos tomes. The cause of the disappearances was very creative and really makes “The Forbidden Isle” the spookiest adventure in the collection. If your players are Call of Cthulhu traditionalists, this will be the one they like best.
Now we come to the final adventure in the collection – “Star Seed.” This is another short adventure and one the book states is geared for novice Call of Cthulhu players. Folklore and history buffs will be excited to see Skara Brae. Miskatonic University will be referenced for the first time in the book as the players assist a professor from there named John McNamara who needs their help to protect the Island of Orkney from the Colours Out of Space. Again, this is a little more Dungeons & Dragons or action oriented than Call of Cthulhu tends to be, as well as pretty in your face with taking on a Mythos creature, but it’s also an introduction to the system for newcomers, so it needs to highlight combat mechanics along with the detective work. It even features a trip to the Dreamlands. The end result is a fun little adventure that gives newcomers a taste of everything Call of Cthulhu has to offer.
Across the board, Cthulhu Britannica: Shadows over Scotland is a wonderful addition to any Call of Cthulhu collection. For twenty dollars, you get an incredible detailed sourcebook and six adventures . About the only criticism I can levy at this piece are that the adventures are a little too prolific with Mythos creatures which can sometimes lead to the feeling of being too combat oriented for a Call of Cthulhu piece. Still, a good Keeper/GM knows how to balance these things and I’d happily recommend all but “Uisge Beatha” to people who want to try and run a campaign in Scotland. Again, the sourcebook itself is of the highest quality. Even if there weren’t any adventures to go along with it, it would be still be a great purchase. With the inclusion of half a dozen adventures, this is a wonderful deal that few Call of Cthulhu fans should pass up. Truly, each Cthulhu Britannica piece is better than the last.
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Very nice system, set in a previously unexplored time in the Middle Earth history.
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