Time Tunnel Thursday: Armchair Reviews... er, Review (Expanded)

I've done this before -- should probably make this a standard page and put the link in one of the sidebars. Also: some of the products reviewed area apparently no longer available...

 DOCTOR WHO: Adventures In Time And Space

• The First Doctor
• The Second Doctor
• The Third Doctor
• The Fourth Doctor
• The Fifth Doctor
• The Ninth Doctor
• The Time Traveller's Companion

Night's Black Agents

• Night's Black Agents
• Zalozhniy Quartet

The Laundry RPG

• The Laundry RPG
• The Laundry Files: Agent's Handbook
• The Laundry: Mythos Dossiers

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

• Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game
• MHR - Civil War Event
• MHR - Civil War (50 State Initiative)

Various RPGs

• Runequest 6th Edition
• Leverage the RPG [Cortex System]
• Mystic Empyrean RPG
• Eldritch Skies [Unisystem]
• Yggdrasil
• The Rocket Age [Vortex System]
• Fading Suns Player's Guide (Revised Edition)
• Clockwork & Chivalry
• Devil's Gulch [BRP System]

 Various RPG Sourcebooks

• The Book of the Empress [Champions / Hero System]
• NeoExodus [Setting for Pathfinder]
• Asuang: Shapechanging Horrors [D&D 4E]
• Cursed Chateau [1st edition, OSR adventure]
• Carcosa [OSR setting]
• Isle of the Unknown [OSR setting]
• The RetConQuest [ICONS adventure]
• Weird Adventures [system-agnostic setting]
• The War of Horus & Set [general info, system agnostic]
• The Nazi Occult [general info, system agnostic]

Armchair Reviews: DWAITAS -- The Ninth Doctor Sourcebook

I approached the review of this sourcebook with some trepidation. After all, the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space (DWAITAS) series of sourcebooks had been solid entries every time – with the Doctor series churning out astoundingly consistent source material in the tone and spirit of each of the eras, despite the volume (or paucity thereof) of actual episodes during that Doctor’s era.

However, this one was the incarnation of the Doctor that revived the franchise on TV -- and one that had eight sourcebooks preceding it. Was it going to live up to expectations? Or might it lapse into a boring re-tread of what had gone before?

A Solid Framework

Dedicated collectors and followers of this particular series of sourcebooks would, I’m sure, agree that some aspects of repetition are actually the strength of this series.

I’m very fond of the presence of the initial chapter of each of these books that give an overview of the peculiarities and strengths of this particular Doctor’s personality, and the character of the adventures during this era.

The roll call of protagonists and antagonists (statted out, with descriptions and explorations of their role during this era, of course) is also a given. But it’s unarguably essential to a sourcebook like this. It’s also very well done: character sheets for each with a great selection of iconic imagery for each. As always, I love that the TARDIS has its own writeup.

Perhaps that’ll be my next campaign idea: a Doctorless campaign with “companions” recruited by the TARDISes of various incarntations. Hm, a Storm of TARDISes has a nice ring to it.

Unique Challenges

This era only saw one Season / Series, meaning a quite a bit less source material in terms of episodes (we’ll come back to the Eight Doctor’s sourcebook as soon as I pick it up), but these episodes – in conjunction with the section tackling handling adventures in this era in greater detail – really give players a lot of options in running Doctor-y or Doctorless campaigns with the mix of personal drama, neo-pulpish adventure, and witty banter.

I really have to say that these synopses are well-written – and have been over this series of because. Concise, but filled with easy-to-follow details (useful for the GM who hasn’t quite reviewed every single episode in the given era, and may not have the time to do so). They also always raise concerns regarding continuity (that some sharp-minded GMs and Players will likely tackle in or out of play.

There’s also great notes on running your players through the episode as an adventure – fantastic I’m sure for the fans who’ve always wanted a chance to be a real companion of The Doctor.

Furthermore, the smaller pool of adventures does give the writing team an opportunity to really go in-depth and all-out in mining and milking these episodes for (a) adventures; (b) spin-off adventures; (c) motifs and leitmotifs of the Doctor’s adventures to reinforce the feel; (d) ideas on using location and enemies in different or expanded ways.

For the Fans

There is some added benefit here for me as a fan – some of my favorite episodes can be found here (“The End of the World, Dalek, Father’s Day, and The Parting of Ways), along with the first appearances of some enigmatic continuing characters. Much of the analysis and extrapolation here helps feed that fan prediliction for speculation, and is a rich source for both theories, and possible adventuring in the continuum of Time & Space that the Doctor inhabits.

Highly recommended.

Time Tunnel Thursday: Armchair Review Archives

DOCTOR WHO: Adventures In Time And Space

• The First Doctor
• The Second Doctor
• The Third Doctor
• The Fourth Doctor
• The Fifth Doctor
• The Time Traveller's Companion

 NIGHT'S BLACK AGENTS

• Night's Black Agents
• Zalozhniy Quartet

THE LAUNDRY RPG

• The Laundry RPG
• The Laundry Files: Agent's Handbook
• The Laundry: Mythos Dossiers

Yep, some of the past Armchair Reviews. I have some more one-offs, but I need to get caught up.

Armchair Reviews: DWAITAS -- The Fifth Doctor Sourcebook

With the release of the Fifth Doctor's Sourcebook for the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG, we have the opportunity to run our own version of the classic episode The Five Doctors, for gaming groups that have really wanted to all play not just Time Lords, but The Doctor!

Again, like the other sourcebooks in the series, this one provides the predictable crunch (new traits, character sheets for the Doctor / Companions / acquaintances / enemies) and fluff (series and episode synposes), and provides some thematic explorations and comparisons to the episodes and themes from prior incarnations.

Of note are the plot motifs that keep repeating in this season: betrayals, surrogate parenthood, (relatively) large adventuring groups in the TARDIS, and so on.

By this fifth book, it's great to compare the growth of the Doctor and the selection of Companions throughout his career. I also noticed how often the Master figured into this season's adventures.

For a hard-core canon fan, there are many adventure seeds suggested that deal with inconsistencies or contradictions found in the season as compared to prior episodes or seasons. That alone may be enough to start an entire campaign. Clara's Commandos, anyone? She can't save the Doctor all alone, you know...

Armchair Review: DWAITAS -- The 4th Doctor Sourcebook

And the next installment of the DWAITAS Doctor
Sourcebooks is out. It's the 4th Doctor -- portrayed by Tom Baker -- the longest running of all the Doctors so far, and arguably the most popular of the original series sequence.

Like the prior installments in this excellent series, DWAITAS - Fourth Doctor Sourcebook not only provides the predictable crunch (new traits, character sheets for the Doctor / Companions / acquaintances / enemies) and fluff (series and episode synposes), but also provides some thematic explorations and comparisons to the episodes and themes from prior incarnations. It even includes a synopsis of the lost episode "Shada", a must-have for die-hard Whovians.

I say, doesn't Skarga's sphere remind you of Rover, from The Prisoner?

Chapter One: Playing in the Fourth Doctor Era

Some really interesting insights here, as I'm used to thinking of the Doctor's older shows in episodic form, rather than as the grand sweep of a campaign arc. While many would cite the change in characterization as the most obvious change, I'd missed the fact that the Far Future of humanity is mapped out in this cycle of stories. Also, as pointed out in "The Demystification of the Time Lords", it's true that the mysterious Time Lords and Gallifrey are not only fleshed out more, they're also taken down a peg and portrayed as a decadent and decaying culture that possesses a great deal of power and influence in the multiverse -- a theme certainly worth exploring.

Chapter Two: The Fourth Doctor and Companions

The Two Companions that really jumped out at me here are -- surprise -- Romana and Romana. The first incarnation was not only beautiful, but had a distant and aloof aspect to her beauty; the second incarnation was more sweet and approachable in seeming, perhaps indicating the change in her personality after having been influenced by the traveling Doctor's ways (or maybe she just like Princess Astra's looks, just like she said). Of course, Leela and Sarah Jane Smith are also memorable, but the counterpoint of an equal Time Lord to the Doctor really shifted the dynamic for me in this era.

Chapter Three: The Fourth Doctor's Adventures + Shada in the Appendix

For those interested in canon, the complete run of the 4th Doctor's adventures, and adventure hooks and NPCs, opponents, and gadgets aplenty -- this section is a treasure trove of gaming delights.


The next installment can't come soon enough for me!

Armchair Review: The Nazi Occult

The book The Nazi Occult (from Osprey Publishing) is packed solid with adventure hooks and telling details on the occult in Nazi Germany during WWII.

Here's my review as it appears on RPGNow:

It should be pointed out that this book is written as an 'alternate history', detailing a richly imagined and meticulously researched tapestry of Nazi plans, activities, artifacts and personas. 

With that out of the way, this is a must-have for GMs who are planning to run games (or are already running ones) that are set in WWII with a touch of mystical / magical elements, weird science hints, or even Cthulhoid intrusions. It's also a treasure trove of origin hooks for superheroes or supervillains from the WWII / post-WWII era of comic book gaming.

Even a cursory read will clue you into names major and minor in the network of allied and opposed occult factions; a close read will give you a rundown of a multitude of Ahnenerbe activities around the world, major artifacts that passed through Nazi Occult hands like the Spear of Destiny, the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant (with a tip of the hat to our favorite adventuring archaeologist), Nazi mystical rites with occult significance with their exact dates in the timeline, and ties to locations like Agartha and to technologies like the Vril-powered Bell.

If you want to freak your players out with fantastic and horrific adventure elements strongly grounded in history, this is the book for you.

I strongly recommend you pick it up, and read it with notebook or digital recorded in hand -- to capture all the ideas that will be triggered on a page-by-page read of this tome. And, if you're already familiar with the subject matter, you may find inclusions of well-known and lesser known characters from pop culture and gaming culture added into the mix.

Armchair Review: The Time Traveller's Companion

If there's one sourcebook you should get for your Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space (DWAITAS for short) RPG to really play in the mythology of the Whoniverse, it's DWAITAS: The Time Traveller's Companion.

The title might mislead you into thinking it's about companions -- no, it's really about being a time traveller in the universe of Doctor Who.

It tackles the history of the universe from the point of view of the Gallifreyans, sheds some light on how the Daleks first resolved to take out their planet and race in a Time War, explains the social and political classes of the Time Lord world, and why they initially came up with their non-intervention stance.

Rassilon -- who created the Rassilon Imprimatur -- facing down the
Doctor as he tries to break Gallifrey out of the time lock.

The book also gives a lot of options in playing people from Gallifrey beyond a single racial package -- there are options based on caste, and role in society. There's also a section on the different types of TARDISes available to renegade Time Lords who may or may not be working for the Celestial Intervention Agency (CIA), a shadowy organization that is historically significant to both the Doctor, and to all of Gallifrey.

There's a great amount of explanation and recapping of the temporal mechanics that have arisen in the course of the 50 year old TV series, and a respectable set of adventure ideas that arise out of those mind-twisting possibilities. There are weapons, gear, and feared artifacts from the luminaries of Gallifrey, and a joyous celebration of the many NPCs from that planet that have appeared in the show.

To top it all off, there's a TARDIS sheet that will help you understand how to craft your own TARDIS, and pilot it based on the control panel -- and what happens when key items are damaged or destroyed while travelling!

Pick it up if you're serious about a time & space romp campaign!

Armchair Review: The Third Doctor Sourcebook

And the Third Doctor Sourcebook is out. And I am once again that young Filipino boy in the 70s and early 80s of the Philippines who would excitedly find a book about a TV show that I liked from the U.S. or U.K. in local bookstores normally dominated by non-SF/Fantasy stuff.

The Third Doctor, played by Pertwee, is the earliest doctor that I've been able to watch during those PBS pledge nights for KTEH in the California Bay Area -- so I'm especially stoked!

This sourcebook once again underscores the key elements of the featured doctor's personality, how it differs from prior incarnations, how it affected the stories and adventures of the Doctor and his Companions.

Here's an excerpt:

By contrast, the Third Doctor is less a renewal and more of a reboot. He is an active crusader against evil, utilising not only his wits but his martial skills as well. Neither of his previous incarnations took the fight to his enemies so directly. The Third Doctor also has a flair for fashion and a love of gadgets, particularly vehicles. He is not a reluctant hero or an underestimated schemer; he’s an action hero.

Another benefit of this concisely-written, well-laid out book in the series is an example of how initial ideas in revamping an ongoing campaign (especially a Doctor Who campaign) can impact future adventures. There's also a lot of material concerning U.N.I.T. campaigns, making this a great companion sourcebook to the DWAITAS U.N.I.T. Sourcebook.

Finally, fans of the series: will get writeups and history on The Third Doctor, the Brigadier, insights on how to craft a campaign with (most) adventures set on earth, the treatment of earth as a prison for a normally time-and-space spanning campaign, episode synopses with lots of adventure ideas and crunchy bits for villains and NPCs! A must-have for Doctor Who and DWAITAS fans.

Armchair Review: Rocket Age

Rocket Age a love-letter to the era of pulp planetary romances. Radium-powered rocket ships are zooming humanity (and other alien races in the solar system) all around, with 1930s versions of the U.S.A., Britain, and France coming into conflict with the proto-Axis versions of Germany, Italy, and Japan. Aliens from Mars and Venus, and a rich tapestry of rocket age technology, expansionist policies, and interplanetary politics provide a fantastic backdrop for your planet-hopping adventures.

The Vortex system, which captured the neo-pulp feel of the newer adventures of Doctor Who (also by Cubicle 7), really reinforces the swiftness of action and the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants tone of the genre.

An example of the interior art -- a stylized map of the Rocket Age solar system.

I really enjoyed the meatiness of this book: the black & white art, which somehow gave modern era weight and gravitas to the classic alien and rocketship imagery from this well-known genre; the tour of the solar system, which gives the broad strokes of each planet as a mini-setting, along with locations and characters of note, and loads of plot hooks; the clearly laid out tables, the illustrations of planets and aliens to help GMs and players visualize the setting -- the love of the genre and the project is quite evident in the density of material in the Rocket Age RPG.

All in all, a fine RPG to add to the library of this pulp subgenre.

Armchair Review: DWAITAS -- The Second Doctor Sourcebook

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space -- The Second Doctor Sourcebook is a must-have for Doctor Who
completists. But it is also a wonderful resource for any DWAITAS campaign, because of the detailed stats for different Cybermen incarnations, Daleks from this era, and the Ice Warriors of Mars -- this is, after all, when The Doctor began leading the charge as a hero, instead of being a more manipulative mastermind (as in his prior incarnation).

Book Breakdown

Once again, a lot of black & white pictures from the series to help give a visual grasp of this era of The Doctor. The Doctor and his Companions are statted out, along with his villains in the era:

• Cybermen (Marks 2 through 4, Cybermat, Cyber-Controller, Partial Cyberman, etc.)
• Daleks (Black, Humanised, Emperor, etc.)
• The Great Intelligence (Robotic Servents, Yetis Mark I and II)
• Ice Warriors

Lots of tips and tricks to capture the feel and themes of this era as well.

And of course, synopses and adventure hooks for the episodes of The Second Doctor. It's a great look into the resonant themes of this era in British Science Fiction -- and a great source of RPG ideas for our modern times.

Armchair Review: The Zalozhniy Quartet

I posted my review of this Night's Black Agents adventure earlier in the year on RPGNow, but forgot to put it here:

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Once you've settled in to your regularly Night's Black Agents sessions, I highly recommend The Zalozhniy Quartet.

Set in post-Cold War Europe, agents must unearth the nature of the conspiracy from clues, and a tangled web of allies, foils, and enemies.

I liken it to a shorter Masks of Nyarlathotep, wherein the campaign is best run when the Director (GM) has read through all the materials, has prepared and understood where all the events, clues, NPCs, and linkages are in advance so as to maximize the enjoyment and reward of the players when (if?) they overcome this slew of antagonists and difficulties.

Unlike Masks, the author has gone out of his way to enable running the four segments of the campaign in any order! This means that there are options for each segment to be modified if it is played 2nd, 3rd or last (and therefore a climactic ending) in the campaign.

As a resource for a supernaturally touched post-Cold War Europe, it also has a lot of material to mine and reuse in future campaigns.

I'm a bit daunted by the modern day espionage campaign; perhaps I always was. But when I remind myself that a campaign can be grounded in cinematic versions of espionage, then I can probably try my hand at it.

There is a certain level of commitment to this type of campaign, certainly. And my old GM muscles want me to actually insert it into an ongoing campaign. But I think it actually might work as is, sort of a tip of the hat to British TV series -- a complete season in one go.

Armchair Review: The War of Horus and Set

Reference books on history, mythology, and warfare hold a special place in the gamer's heart -- they provide inspiration for many a character or game.

How wonderful therefore that Osprey Publishing's The War of Horus and Set delivers on all three!

Here's my review as it appears on RPGNow:

First off, please note that this version is in ePub format and not in PDF.

With that out of the way -- this is a fantastic resource for RPG gamers. The writing has a nice balance between providing succinct summaries of the history and general flow of the myth and history of this particular focus area in Egyptian myth and in providing telling details about the variants and nuances of these conflated stories to provide a lot of game inspiration and adventure hooks for GMs. 

The Chapter titled "Gods and Their Realm" gives a good grounding in the cosmology of Egyptian gods and a list of the major players in the pantheon.
In "The Jealous Brother", there is an sympathetic portrayal of Set before the troubles between him and his brother, Osiris, began the inexorable slide into generational family feuding and tragedy. Of particular interest is the scene where Osiris is tricked into a deadly trap in full view of an audience. 

"The Vengeful Nephew", focuses on the war between Horus and Set from the revelation of what Set had done to Horus's father, through the various clashes overseen by the gods, right up to their final conflict. It is not bits and pieces of myth, but a fully described, flowing narrative. 

The Chapter titled "History and Warfare" peels back the curtain behind the narrative to discuss the often contradictory sources and variants of the myths that have been woven together for this book, to elaborate on real world warfare that paralleled the unfolding myths, and to detail aspects of Egyptian warmaking. 

"Enduring Legacy" talks about how these myths have influenced the modern day, crossing over into other religions or are echoed in other modern stories. 

All in all a rich source of material for a GM and her playing group.

Usage in Mystara

Given the existence of the Nithian culture in Mystara, it's hard not to want to use this resource as a way to twist and fill in the histories there with material from this book. I like the references here to Osiris as the First Mummy and to Geb as the source of the reanimating spell as a basis for that culture's resurrection spell. I love the references to the challenges between the gods Horus and Set (who may also be Seth or Sutek), and the way that the rulers of the land and the gods interact and ally.

I also like how they talked about Osiris's powers as lord of the Underworld and the ability to unleash chaos-spawned beings as a possible source of magics.

Also, given my past posts on the merging of gods (with Pflarr perhaps an echo of Hermanubis), there's no reason why this can't be an ongoing struggle between their allies and offspring.

Armchair Review: DWAITAS -- The First Doctor Sourcebook

I recommend Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space -- The First Doctor Sourcebook for two target audiences. The first audience: the fans of Doctor Who who want to get more material on the first incarnation of The Doctor; the second audience: any RPG GM looking to set up a campaign similar to Doctor Who but without the Doctor constantly saving the day.

Wait, what?

Let me explain. This incarnation of The Doctor is delightfully illuminated by these two quotes:

" Back when I first started, at the very beginning, I was always trying to be old and grumpy and important, like you do when you're young."

-- and this one --

" Later incarnations of the Doctor invite interesting people to travel with them on the TARDIS, to see the galaxy to their young eyes and to feel young again. The First Doctor appearsold, but he's by far the youngest of the Doctors... he doesn't want companions for that... In this era, arguments and disagreements between the TARDIS travelers could be much more bitter and long-lasting than in later years. One side or the other often has to be dragged into the adventure... This Doctor is also physically frail. While he does occasionally demonstrate superhuman endurance or strength, he is easily winded and has to rest frequently. He often relies on Susan or another companion for support. "

This Doctor is knowledgeable, but that knowledge may not necessarily be shared with you or for your benefit. This Doctor can be just as responsible for getting you into the adventurous situation that you're in, as he could be instrumental in getting you out of it. He's new at this heroic adventuring thing, and is for the most part an explorer who is driven by curiosity and superiority and an alien sense of righteousness and possibly  a thousand other emotions that are passingly similar to human ones. Thank goodness his granddaughter is so nice.

Book Breakdown

I don't think I like this horned look for
Vikings. Perhaps I shall rewrite it...

It has a lot of black & white pictures from the series which help add to the classic feel of this period of the series. Most of the material is more geared toward setting up the campaign feel, the campaign elements, and a handful of write-ups and rules-related material to help run the game using the DWAITAS system (easily translatable to other systems).

Chapter One really focuses on the overview and setting the tone for a First Doctor era or First Doctor-esque campaign. Really useful for planning key elements and themes of what is essentially a romp through various mini-settings and genres.

Chapters Two through Ten are a set of synopses plus game mechanics and character write-ups for twenty-eight First Doctor adventures, with pictures from the episodes. And it takes us from the beginning of the First Doctor's documented career to the end. We are introduced to well-known villains like the Daleks and the Cybermen as they first appeared, along with some less popular but important characters like WOTAN, a Timelord known as the Meddling Monk, and The Celestial Toymaker.

Recommendation
Buy this book if you're a compleatist fan of Doctor Who, or want to run a First Doctor campaign, or really want to do your own take on a new Timelord exploring his corners of the galaxy, out from under the shadow of the Doctor!

Armchair Review: Night's Black Agents

Click the pic to see the RPGNow page.

This little gem from Kenneth Hite and Pelgrane Press comes at a really good time for me. Of course, I've written about my fascination for the Cold War era espionage genre, as well as the more action-packed Top Secret type of game, and other subgenres of the modern spy story before. But I think that with modern TV shows like Homeland and Rubicon, my interest in modern espionage has resurfaced.

Unfortunately, I'm just not up to keeping track of all the various socio-political alliances, tensions and betrayals all around the world for such a campaign. And I'm envious of those who can. I'd been thinking of creating an international evil spy / paramilitary organization, sort of a cross between S.P.E.C.T.R.E., T.H.R.U.S.H., and the WEB from Top Secret / S.I. when I heard about this RPG in development and decided to wait.

Here's the blurb from RPGNow:

The Cold War is over. Bush’s War is winding down.

You were a shadowy soldier in those fights, trained to move through the secret world: deniable and deadly. 

Then you got out, or you got shut out, or you got burned out. You didn’t come in from the cold. Instead, you found your own entrances into Europe’s clandestine networks of power and crime. You did a few ops, and you asked even fewer questions. Who gave you that job in Prague? Who paid for your silence in that Swiss account? You told yourself it didn’t matter. 

It turned out to matter a lot. Because it turned out you were working for vampires.
Vampires exist. What can they do? Who do they own? Where is safe? You don’t know those answers yet. So you’d better start asking questions. You have to trace the bloodsuckers’ operations, penetrate their networks, follow their trail, and target their weak points. Because if you don’t hunt them, they will hunt you. And they will kill you. 

Or worse.

Fantastic internal illustration from the book.

Now that Night's Black Agents is finally out, I've gotten ahold of a copy and haven't been disappointed. Here's my shortish review:

There is much to love about this RPG. First, it extends the already interesting Gumshoe game system used for such games as Ashen Stars, Trail of Cthulhu, Esoterrorists and Mutant City Blues. I've been itching to try out the investigation mechanics for Gumshoe, and this recent incarnation and extension of the ruleset affords me such additional rules the combat and cinematic chase rules to support the espionage/thriller genre. 

Next, it also provides rule options to help emulate and support various subgenres of the spy thriller. There are rules for the interestingly-named subgenres: Burn ("psychological damage and the cost of heroism"), Dust ("gritty, lo-fi espionage"), Mirror ("hidden agendas and shifting alliances"), and Stakes ("higher purposes than mere survival or 'getting the job done'"). In addition to the Drives and Sources of Stability that we've seen in other flavors of Gumshoe, the Trust / Betrayal mechanics are particularly interesting and volatile in a espionage game (reminds me of Cold City / Hot War)! 

Gunplay and cinematic chase rules look good from the emulation space, though I'd be remiss if I didn't say that proper playtesting should be done on my part before I can say if it's to my taste. 

As for the vampire aspect -- great latitude is given to the GM and the players is choosing the type of vampires they're fighting (which is good to keep the surprises coming in a thriller), and the organization creation rules married with the classic genre pattern of starting at the bottom of the conspiracy pyramid and moving up through the ranks until dealing with the Big Bad (to borrow some Buffy terminology here) has really ratcheted up my desire to play this game as soon as possible! That's made easier by the sample vampires and their various minions also included in the book. 

Well done, Pelgrane Press -- I look forward to future releases in this line!

So I've started up character creation for a PBEM game with some friends, and hope to put this thing through its paces. I'm already thinking of how the Vampire: The Masquerade elements might be reformed into some kind of more criminal, espionage, world domination-y spin.

Armchair Reviews: Fading Suns Player's Guide (Revised Edition)

Any time I talk about Fading Suns, I tend to rattle off many, many, many things. There's just something about the setting that fires the imagination and resonates with my inner GM. So, I'm going to try to keep this short for once:

1. if you've ever wanted to game in a science fantasy setting that is the Dark Ages in space by way of Dune and Hyperion, this is the RPG for you;
2. if you're a follower of the Fading Suns brand from a prior edition, this is the confusingly named Fading Suns Player's Guide (Revised Edition), which is different from the prior edition of this RPG -- Fading Suns Revised Second Edition.
3. if you're an owner of the aforementioned Fading Suns Revised Second Edition, here are the new things that you can expect to see:
• Timeline advanced to 5002 -- some interesting tidbits for longtime followers
• Incorporates information on Minor Noble Houses -- some interesting stuff for longtime followers
• Victory Point System tuned for simpler calculation of VPs -- good
• Removed high fail/fumble factor from previous edition -- great
• Spirit characteristics replace opposed Passion traits -- must playtest before deciding
• Lifepath System streamlined and more flexible -- liked it before, seems improved
• Number of Skills reduced -- good
• Traits updated and Fighting Styles added -- must playtest before deciding
• Psi and Theurgy refined for Spirit characteristic changes -- good
• Combat system overhauled for faster play -- good
• Cybernetics updated -- good
• Expanded Technology and Transport chapters -- great
• More weapon and armor options in the Armory -- good
• Guidelines for player activity on Starships -- good
• More sample Starships -- great
• Lots of optional rules and sidebars -- good
• Comprehensive Contents and Index -- great
• (PDF) Fully bookmarked and hyperlinked throughout -- fantastic if you've got a digital copy
4. Surprisingly, the list above doesn't highlight a lot of the moderate changes to the Theurgical rules that really make the feel of Theurgy more plausible and 'lived in' for a very religious culture in the future. This will probably be the focus of a future blog post on.

Armchair Review: MHRP Civil War - Fifty State Initiative

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying's Event Supplement, titled Civil War - Fifty State Initiative, is a pretty good expansion of the Civil War event, allowing players to sort of round out the corners of their own version of the Marvel Universe.

Overview

This book hold two main sections: The Event Supplement and the Datafiles.

In the Event Supplement, we get some idea of other elements of Marvel's Civil War that can be played out, including:

The Initiative

This tackles the drive to get a sanctioned super-hero team in every state, with details on

• Camp Hammond: where newbie heroes go to train
• two action scenes geared toward the Initiative
• several sanctioned teams: The Great Lakes Champions, the Liberteens, Omega Flight, The Order, Psionex, The Rangers, and the Shadow Initiative.

While I'm okay with a lot of the content for rounding out knowledge of the event, the only elements that really grabbed me for play opportunities were the Action Scenes and the The Order. The former really sets up a good sort of mini-scenario, while The Order comes the closest to detailing -- much as the comic book did -- how a State-sanctioned team might be set up. And this is really what I was expecting from the book, perhaps unfairly: a way for the event to allow a group of player characters to become the de facto go-to government team for a state, and how it might be supported and monitored.

On the other hand, the book is better maximized (in my opinion) if the gaming group plays a rebel team and encounters one or more of these superteams in the course of their rebellion.

The Thunderbolts

As a change of pace mini-campaign, this has a pretty good setup. Villains get recruited into serving the government as sanctioned heroes (and with some nasty, some might say fatal, ways of being controlled by their handlers), and quickly learn that there are some villains already in charge.

It also plays well in an existing campaign as a set of tough opponents for a rebel superteam.

Heroes for Hire

If your players choose to play ball with the government, but retain some kind of autonomy, they can go the mercenary -- er, government contractor route of Heroes for Hire. Some nice datafiles and a rationale that puts the PCs in a sort of rivalry/conflict with superteams on both sides of the Civil War fence (essentially being tasked to actively hunt down and capture Anti-Registration supers.

Datafiles

These are always welcome (and you get a fair number of them in the prior section already), and in this case the standouts are the core membership of NextWave, the Thunderbolts, and Heroes for Hire.

All in all, I think that it wasn't as stellar in my mind as the other Event book. It comes across as a supplement to a supplement, and not a superstar in its own right, if that makes any sense. However, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Civil War - Fifty State Initiative does have some interesting counter-campaign options for a change of pace or different point of view for this mega-event, and is still a must-have for the die-hard Marvel enthusiast.

Armchair Reviews: On the Docket for September 2012

What do I have to crank out this month?

Well, aside from the long-delayed Gods of Gondwane (which I have read already, and curse vehemently for its Vivid system that has me thinking of shifting away from the work I've done for WaRP + Weird Adventures), there are a number of other books:

• Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Event: Civil War -- The Initiative
• Fading Suns Revised (also known by me as Fading Suns 2.5)
• Blue Planet Revised (can't believe I'm reading this, as I have the older version and never played it)
• Worlds Apart (Traveller rules for a Fantasy RPG? Interesting.)
• Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition
• Doomed Slayers (a campaign premise & setting)
• and, of course, Shaintar for Savage Worlds

Good god, why does the industry keep cranking out interesting stuff?

Armchair Reviews: Yggdrasill Core Rulebook

The Yggdrasill RPG grabbed my interest for two reasons: the movie The Thirteenth Warrior and GAZ 7 -- The Northern Reaches.

Both opened my eyes to a very different culture that featured fearless warriors, swords, shields, armor, bloody colors, an deep and unfamiliar mythology (especially jarring due to my four-colored introduction to Norse mythology by Marvel Comics and the somewhat stat-filled counterpoint in Deities and Demigods), and a mix of dangerous, snow-covered, wild lands.

Here's my review:

Yggdrasill is a fantastic combination of sourcebook and RPG. While it does choose to portray a view of Scandia that is more inclined toward a setting fitting for fantasy heroics, it does so in such a way to remain true to the history, culture, and source material.

As a sourcebook, Yggdrasill is a treasure trove of material:

• The chapter titled In the Shadow of Yggrdasill gives us a stunningly concise, yet evocative understanding of the Norse cosmology and its cults and rituals.
• The chapter titled Scandia gives us a rundown of the setting's kingdoms, rulers, geography & environment, settlements, organization, and major players.
• The chapter titled Daily Life gives a welcome idea about what the settlements and social hierarchy would be like in these kingdoms, driving home how the landscape, the environment, and the beliefs all play in shaping the people and its heroes and villains.
• The chapter titled Archetypes, while ostensibly part of the game system, further gives us an insight into the type of people that would go out and involve themselves in adventures and heroics, and shares with us a different view on magic that the people of Scandia have.
• The chapter of Magic is another eye-opener that builds on the Archetypes, explaining the three different types of magic (trance magic, incantation magic, and sacred writings) and how humans and the spirits and gods themselves use them.

Along the way, it also torpedoes several myths and misconceptions about: the term 'viking', horned helmets, drinking from human skulls, and the term 'drakkar'.

As an RPG, Yggdrasill provides not only rules on character creation, task resolution, combat, magic, and dealing with the runes of your fate, it also provides a mini-campaign that establishes the kind of epic adventure stories that the game is geared toward telling: dangers of travel, dangers of the wild, the price of fulfilling (or trying to escape) one's fate, magic and the gods, politics, and infighting among the jarls of Scandia.

I highly recommend this RPG if you've a penchant for a different type of fantasy role-playing in mind, or have always wanted a stab at adventuring in heroic Norse waters.

It reminded me of a Norse version of Sengoku, and gave me insights into how an RPG for a Filipino RPG might be put together (particularly a pre-colonial setting with warring and allied kingdoms scattered across an archipelago whose islands have treacherous and unconquered interior lands).

I particularly enjoyed little bits of telling detail like the three different types of souls each person had, the differentiations between the types of berserkers, and the varying methods of magic that were available to the gifted (or cursed).

Armchair Reviews: Asuang -- Shapechanging Horrors

This is an 18-page sourcebook for D&D 4e that deals with a fair number of well-known and lesser known Filipino monsters. Being an absolute 4E noob, I cannot comment on the ruleset realization of the creatures. However, on other matters...

Asuang: Shapechanging Horrors is a good sourcebook if you want to introduce a change-of-pace set of monsters into your campaign, especially if your players are intimately familiar with the Monster Manual and the 'acceptable variants'.

The asuang are akin to vampires (viscera-sucking rather than blood-sucking), werewolves (monsters by night, human-looking by day), and doppelgangers (not human, no matter what you might think), but have a mythology and logic and flavor of their own that can be quite dangerous if players assume they're dealing with the more common monsters.

I think that the statement early on really brings out the strength of these creatures:

Rather, people fear the asuangs because when the sun rises, an asuang can wear the face of a perfectly normal person: a merchant, priest, friend or neighbor... When a loved one is revealed as an asuang, it means that at one point, he or she was consumed painfully and replaced by the monster.

Of course, even that rule isn't closely followed by all of them. And that variety (within certain thematic similarities) makes them truly horrible foes.

I like the format, organization, and informational density of the sourcebook. It starts off by establishing the asuang in broad strokes, touching on what people think about them, what they think about themselves, and suggestions about how they might fit into a DM's preferred setting. I particularly like the rumor that "asuangs are otherworldly reflections found in the world: busaos and sigbins are reflections or lycanthropes; manananggals are distortions of shapechanging vampires".

Each monster has the following informational elements, in addition to the various monster stat blocks for a given asuang and its variants:

• monster name, general description, and behavior
• monster tactics -- how they monster fights when acting alone, as a mob, or as part of a mixed group
• monster mythos -- what lorekeepers believe about the creature, its beliefs, its origins, its motivations and its occasional variants

Some of my favorite bits in the book:

• the Balbal -- a version of the Mananaggal (an asuang that, at night, separates from her lower half and sprouts bat wing before going off to hunt viscera from humans) that has lost its lower half and has gone even more feral and vicious;
• the Tianak -- the undead creature created from infants and the unborn; a terrible creature to inflict on the more noble members of the party because of its tendency to appear as a child in need as a trap;
• the Tiktik -- the evil elemental demon spirit that the pre-Mananaggals must join with in a ritual to become fully asuang.

I heartily recommend picking up this sourcebook to spice up the encounters of a complacent, know-it-all adventuring party.

Armchair Reviews: Eldritch Skies

I already posted my review for Eldritch Skies on RPGNow / DriveThruRPG, and I really wanted to give it a 5-star rating. Unfortunately, my preferences in terms of organization, structure, information architecture, and layout really came out and I had to downgrade by one star.

Here's the review as it appears:

First the negative: this book is not really laid out (or organized) to my tastes. It's done in a competent manner, but there are certain slips that, in my opinion should be addressed to make the book stronger and easier not only to read, but also to use a as a reference book. In general, I do agree with the ordering of the material, but I feel strongly about trimming the 'game fiction for flavor', a more refined layout from the two column approach, and a more detailed table of contents.

Next, the positive: this is, surprisingly, a different take on the Lovecraftian mythology. It goes purist in that it ignores a lot of the post-Lovecraft additions to the Mythos, but allows for both the pessimistic and optimistic Lovecraftian play. And it takes the characters into space, allows characters to play with sorcery, forces characters to deal with the various races on Earth and beyond, and exposes characters to Hyperspatial radiation.

The games you play here could easily echo a Twilight Zone episode or Bradbury's Mars tales, your games can inject a sense of exploring the unknown, pushing the limits, and taking mankind beyond its cradle into a dangerous universe that could easily kill him or, strangely enough, king him. Not all endings need to result in the deaths of the protagonists -- some might survive, or even thrive as Randolph Carter did in the Dreamlands.

The juxtaposition of the open secret of hyperdimensional travel with the strange dangers of the mythos-filled universe is interesting for me. The actions of world governments and individuals in the timeline feel plausible and interesting to me, and the opportunities for a different type of space adventure / horror / exploration campaign are very appealing.

I also like (though I've not playtested) the unfolding of the cinematic Unisystem ruleset to allow for fast play. The character templates give a broad spectrum of recognizable archetypes, the character creation rules and gear give enough twists to optimize and ready your character for adventure.

I would like to add several things however:

This is a densely detailed, finely crafted setting. It provides standard kits for different types of military and scientific teams. It details a wide variety of realms and worlds that humanity has gone to or can go to. It provides a ready kit of well-known (and lesser known) creatures and dangers to threaten the PCs with. And it manages to maintain a Science Fiction feel despite the presence of the Lovecraftian elements. You don't get that overwhelming 'small band of heroes against a government conspiracy' feel that you do in Delta Green (which I love); in Eldritch Skies you get a 'humanity with all its strengths and foibles against the sea of unknowable terror and wonder that is the universe' vibe.

There's potential here to celebrate exploration of the universe, to celebrate the human spirit that seeks to push farther and delve further into cosmic mysteries than it has any right to, to celebrate cooperation and conflict and courage. There's also potential to expose all the ugly sides of the human condition -- greed, pride, and a lust for personal power at the cost of other peoples' lives and loves.

It reminds me of the potential of shows like the early season(s) of X-files and Earth: Final Conflict, and of (as mentioned above) the Twilight Zone episodes about space exploration and the Bradbury Mars Chronicles -- a wonderfully dark merging of science and weirdness that somehow avoids becoming science fantasy (which it technically is) and somehow avoids being merely horror in space.

If this is your kind of thing, give Eldritch Skies a shot.