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I bought the Vampire: The Dark Ages book and indeed the companion some years ago but have never had a chance to play it. That in itself is not a big deal – like many people, lifestyle and personal preferences limit my ability to play with others but I can buy books occasionally and play an occasional solitaire adventure. However, I have never successfully got around to doing this with the Dark Ages and have not come across a podcast of actual play. Consequently, I am really not sure what kind of experience people expect when playing the game – is it all the slightly effete social wrangling that it has been described as or is it, in reality, a variant of D&D with more powerful characters? I have heard various games being played via the wonderful RPGMP3 website but never vampires. So, I looked for what was available and came across Fountains of Bright Crimson, among others, and thought I would give it a go. If it was inspiring, I could use it as the basis of a solitaire adventure and, if not, at least I would have a better idea of what the experience would be like – and since it was just 32 odd pages fro five dollars, what could possibly go wrong?
Well, let me begin with the form and presentation. This is a pdf of course when the original was intended for print so that does make a difference. Print formats require compression of all content within a specific publishing space and that is evident here with the somewhat squashed appearance of the text – quite a lot is placed on a single page, that is, when a not insignificant amount of that space is occupied by margin art and by illustrations. The publishers (White Wolf) have been terrifically successful within the context of what might be achieved in this sector and clearly the majority of customers prefer this style or else they would have changed: people, self excluded, like a lot of pictures and illustrations and they get a reasonable amount here. Their playing experience is further supported by the presentation of NPCs – each of the dozen individuals here has a description measuring the best part of a quarter of a page or more. NPC descriptions include not just basic stats but appearance and demeanour. The descriptions range in level of subtlety but presumably a GM and players can use these descriptions to the extent that they want interaction. I was initially a little skeptical about this approach but have changed my mind (which is one reason why I try not to do reviews straight away) – a principal part of the game session satisfaction is, it would seem, the interaction with other creatures which are of substance in their own right. The clan nature of the setting dictates that creatures are of moment even if they can be brushed aside and destroyed as the D&D player in me would suggest. Working out the best way of dealing with them is part of play, therefore.
On the other hand, I was a little surprised by the tone and content of the adventure. Fountains of Bright Crimson is set in Jerusalem in the wake of the First Crusade, which took place a century earlier (there is a brief summary for those who do not know the history). The player characters are to be involved in the bloody aftermath of events then and drawn into the deep and dark secrets that partially shaped events. This is all well and good – who can resist running around as a vampire in Dark Ages Jerusalem? I visited a number of years ago and was certainly struck by the oppressive nature of the territory and archaeology, which of course lies like a nightmare on the brains of the living.
Yet I was somewhat surprised by the repeated injunctions of author Ree Soesbee to keep the players on a vehicle that is suspiciously like a train. I personally do not object to being railroaded – players taking part in a game universe created by others for their enjoyment (whether or not on a commercial basis) has a duty of politeness to follow the plot more or less, in my opinion. Yet I had expected something different from a Vampire game. Perhaps players are expected to enjoy the shackles of the clan setting to the extent that they justify going along with the flow, especially since the logic dictates that the GM can conjure out of thin air enormously powerful forms of the Deus ex Machina when required? Well, those who do stick with the plot will find themselves well rewarded, in my opinion, with the revelations to be found deep in the dungeons beneath Jerusalem.
On the whole, this is great fun – the more I have thought about it and tackled it, the more I like it. I would certainly recommend it and would look out for more work by the Soesbee.
| Puntuación: | | [4 de 5 estrellas!] |
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Thornguard is a small solitaire adventure for Tunnels and Trolls, the still splendid fantasy RPG system from Flying Buffalo – I am old enough to have bought the first edition with the black cover more years ago than I care to acknowledge. Tunnels and Trolls was distinctive for the names of its spells (who can resist a Take That, You Fiend!) and general atmosphere as well as its support for solitaire, choose-your-own style adventures. Buffalo Castle, Deathtrap Equalizer, The Labyrinth – great stuff. Pleasingly, the company has made many of these products available still, has added to them and has also been happy for other authors to write adventures, whether on an amateur or a professional basis. Thornguard is a welcome addition to this set of games. It is a small adventure of only 50 paragraphs and aimed at starting characters with just a few combat adds. It is written by Scott Malthouse who runs the estimable Trollish Delver blog.
I will start with a couple of caveats: there is no explanation of how to use the book (many readers will be familiar with the beginning pages of solitaire adventures when we are instructed not to read ahead but only where directed, do not cheat and so forth) and the starting paragraph is not specified (or at least I did not see it). For a couple of dollars at RPGNow, this is not a problem because people liable to come across the adventure are very likely to know exactly what it is and what to do with it. However, I note that there is a printed version available at US%6.50 and this price seems to cross a threshold of what would be expected. Perhaps I am wrong but it would not have taken very long to add the few extra paragraphs (more editing would perhaps have assisted).
The good points of the adventure are the ‘job boards’ contained at the end. In a style that reminds me of Fabled Lands, the adventurer can join an organisation such as the City Guard or the Thieves’ Guild and then roll endlessly on the requisite job board to extend the adventure. Each board consists of a table with three or more columns, each of which is selected by rolling 2D6. This provides a name or title for the quest (thieves steal things, merchants sell things, the city guard bashes them), the saving roll to be used and the possible reward. This is a nice idea and one which can easily be adapted to other games and settings. Some people will look at this and see just three 2d6 rolls and wonder what the fuss is: solitaire gamers will at once let the imagination run loose.
This is an enjoyable adventure from an author who deserves to be supported – I am looking forward to seeing more from.
| Puntuación: | | [4 de 5 estrellas!] |
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The Campaign Guide is, in my opinion, a lot of fun – it offers a long series of tables and suggestions for how to create a campaign (or a scenario or some other shorter section of action) by rolling on as many tables as might be desired. So, one might roll for a life event, then a patron roll, then a space flight event, then a planetary roll, a return spaceflight event, a home planet event and so forth. In each case, the roll provides an option which can then be implemented by the referee according to the specific makeup of the party.
Of course, this will not suit everyone: some people do not want tables of this sort but would prefer to use their own ideas; others will complain if this or that table or this or that result is not quite what the people involved want them to be. This is normal enough – I myself thought some of the events were a little too cinematic for the experience I want to have (e.g. passengers on a ship turn out to be devil-worshippers who aim to capture and eat everyone; characters suddenly taken over by alien parasites and so forth) but in that case I would simply roll again or substitute results of my own.
The best way to use this guide, then, is probably to use it either as a spur to invention or else, as the Guide itself recommends, as a means of generating automatic or semi-automatic campaigns. In that context, referees can choose some or all of the tables to help define events. It is not as if we are unfamiliar with looking up things in tables when playing Traveller and then interpreting the results.
I did not find the mistakes and errors pointed out by a previous reviewer.
The Guide occupies a halfway position between normal play and the solo supplement that we have had dangled before our eyes by Mongoose schedule for release some time later this year. The experience of Traveller, especially for the solo player, involves pursuing a number of sub-systems and it should be quite possible to link these together in some sort of coherent way. Players with imagination and time can do this for themselves in any case; those lacking either or both would welcome some guidelines that would link (for example), character generation with the finding of a merc ticket and then resolving the military action involved. I remember a story from Baxter’s Xeelee sequence (if memory serves) in which generations of young people are born on a moon on which they are destined to be thrown into the war and almost certainly slaughtered in scenes reminiscent of the worst excesses of the First World War. That would be a setting that could be used to support solo play: as characters are generated, they are tested out for different parts of the military service (through participating in missions) and build up to the big one when they go over the top. That would provide several hours of entertainment and, for me, that would be practical and well worth playing.
| Puntuación: | | [4 de 5 estrellas!] |
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