Ravenous Role Playing

I stopped by my FLGS yesterday with about 8,000 pounds (ok, maybe a little less than that) of Vampire: Dark Ages books to offload. I desperately needed the space on my shelves and I didn’t see ever playing that game again. I loved the game while I played it and have some fond memories of running the game and reading the books, but I just don’t see it again in my future. I traded in the books on Dragon Age: Set 1, the Dragon Age: GM’s Kit/Screen and a few Palladium books (Fantasy Role Playing and The Book of Magic.) I also ended up with a little left over as store credit. All-in-all, I’m happy with the exchange.

I must say that if Green Ronin hadn’t done a Free RPG Day offering of Dragon Age, I would have never given it a second glance. After running through the Free RPG Day offering, I was interested enough to spend some of my hard-earned store credit on the box set and screen. Will I invest in Set 2 for the more advanced players and characters? Not sure yet. I’m going to see if I can get a group together for a few sessions of Dragon Age based off Set 1 and see what happens. From what I’ve seen of the Free RPG Day offering and what little I’ve glanced at the Set 1 books, I think it’ll be a hit.

Oh. The box set also comes with a map with lots of opportunities to expand upon and personalize. There appears to be quite a bit of “unexplored” space on the map, which will leave me free to write my own adventures for the game. That’s a plus and a minus, but I consider it more of a plus. It allows for more personal freedom in the game because it’ll be harder to stomp all over the canon that is provided in the computer games and by Green Ronin.

If I end up convincing my group (or a new group) to play in the game, I’ll let you know how things go.

Before I start in on this review, I want to send a notice to every other Free RPG Day entrant in the future: This is the way to do a freebie.

Ok. With that out of the way, let’s dive into the review.

The first ten pages of the book detail the basic rules of Arcanis. This includes everything you need to play the game. Action rolls, adjustments to those rolls, combat, initiative (we’ll come back to this later,) defenses, armor, combat modifiers, movement, combat actions, casting spells, injuries, death and fate points are all covered within these first ten pages. It’s an in-depth look at the system, but remains basic enough to be comprehensible to someone without access to the full book.

The most interesting aspect of the entire system is the use of a “clock” for initiative. Instead of everything happening in rounds where everyone gets a turn during the round, combat is chopped up into “ticks of the clock.” Each person starts at their initiative order (with the lowest number going first) and each action has a speed. Let’s say you start at tick number three and perform an action with a speed of four. After you resolve your action, you won’t go again until tick number seven (3+4=7) and so on. When the clock reaches 12, it resets to 1. I’m really not too clear on what happens at each clock reset. The fast play rules provided don’t reveal that information, but I’m assuming it’s in the full rule book. I don’t know if a new initiative order is rolled with each reset, or if a player that goes over 12 for their next tick “wraps” around to a lower number on the clock.

Following the rules is a six-page adventure that is very well written and looks fun to play. It comes complete with stat blocks for the bad guys and two maps that very clearly lay everything out for the GM, or Chronicler as this role is called in the game. I really like this adventure because it’s free form and involves a good mix of role playing and combat.

After the brief adventure, there are five pregenerated characters to play with. Each character has two pages dedicated to it to allow the player to have all of the information they need about powers, talents, spells, skills, equipment and background. This part of the book is as well done as the rest of the pages.

Next comes two pages that have a sampling of the spells that you’ll find in the full book. There is a wide variety of spells in just the two pages and gives me hope for a broad range of spell-like abilities in the full book.

The very back of the book contains a double-sided, blank character sheet for use with the game (even though there are no character creation rules provided in the book.) This is a little strange, but a nice additive to the overall flavor and gives you the idea that these people are serious about their role playing and styles.

The main disappointing part of the whole book came at the end. I was just getting ready to put the book down, hit the Internet and order the main book when I noticed that the next-to-last page stated at the bottom in large, bold text, “Coming August 2011.” Damn. I guess I’ll have to wait a month or so to order this one or get my FLGS to order it for me.

One of the most interesting parts of the game, as far as wounds go, is that most damage is caused to stamina and only the most severe of attacks will cause wounds. If a person drops to zero stamina, then they are considered “vanquished” and out of the fight unless healed up. This very much reminds me of Champions where most damage is “stun” and very little is “body” damage. There’s a quote from the Arcanis book that I feel should be shared with every GM. The sentence is, “Heroes shouldn’t die hollow and meaningless deaths.” I love this sentiment. Having said that, there is still a chance for death in every combat due to the fact that critical hits can occur, though they are more rare than in other systems.

Grade: A+ / How could I give it anything else? Great job by Paradigm Concepts!

I looked around the book and the workmanship put into the graphics on the cover (inside and out) and the back cover (inside and out) was promising. It appeared to me that the insides book was laid out with color printing in mind, but to save money (Hey! It’s a freebie, after all) the inside pages were printed in black and white. Not a big deal, and I do appreciate the maps and counters that were provided. The first page gave an overview of the system, and it really piqued my interest. I liked what I saw up to this point.

The next page introduced role playing in general as well as some advice for GMs and players alike. I found that odd in an Free RPG Day offering since not many people that don’t already role play will be picking it up. However, it was a nice introduction to role playing, so I give them a thumbs up for their efforts here. Next came an overview of the system that took up four pages. This is where my interest waned because it really reminded me of 4e D&D quite a bit, but with the role playing being replaced by mental/social “attacks” that devolved the game into a roll playing system. I understand that not all players are as pithy or eloquent as the characters and some adjustments should be made for this, but reducing every social interaction into initiative where people talk in turn and “attack” each other with their mental and social skills destroys pretty much any opportunity to role play a character or an NPC. I’m not a fan of Aspect because of this.

The adventure that followed (6 pages worth) was very well written and laid out in paragraphs where the GM can jump from numbered paragraph to numbered paragraph based off of the player’s actions and reactions. This was well done because most Free RPG Day adventures are very linear in nature. Of course, the linear parts of these writings are usually out of necessity because of the limited space provided. I applaud the folks at Stone Tablet Games for providing a measure of freedom within the adventure. The adventure also came complete with stat blocks for the NPCs and monsters that were easy to read and easy to follow. However, they were formatted just like the 4e D&D stat blocks that you’ll find in any WotC production. This isn’t a knock, just some information. If you like the 4e D&D style of stat blocks, then this layout is for you.

Between the adventure and the pregenerated characters came an appendix which provided some more rules and some clarifications for the GM and players. I think this should have been dropped before the adventure and renamed to “Additional Rules” instead of making it an appendix since the information is really needed to smoothly run the adventure portion that preceded it.

Lastly there were eight pregenerated characters for the players to choose from. With a full page dedicated to each character, it appears to be quite easy to pick up the sheet and run the character in the style it was intended. Great work on this section as well, guys.

Overall, I like the layout and provided materials. It’s just the role playing aspect of the game that really turns me off. If these rules were yanked (or toned down) to allow for the true playing of a character’s mental and social capabilities, then I might run out and pick up the game.

Grade: B- / I just can’t overlook the mental/social “combat” that is part of the system. I wish I could, but it’s just not in my role playing bones to do that.

Another fine Free RPG Day submission from the folks at Exile Game Studio. They did a great job last year, and I believe the year before was a good submission.

The rule explanations on the first three pages were just right for running the adventure as a stand-alone book. No other purchases and requirements (other than dice and people to play with) exist. It may seem like three pages couldn’t possibly cover a complete role playing system with any adequacy, but it does. Trust me.

Following the rules run-down, there’s a well written adventure that consumes seven pages of the book. The adventure’s storyline starts off strong and then opens up into a miniature sandbox in which the players can do whatever they want. There are some very obvious choices about what the PCs should do, and the book covers all of those aspects. If the players really run amok in Hollow Earth, then GM will have to flex his creativity and roll with the punches.

The last six pages of the book contain three characters that can be used to play in the adventure. I wish there had been at least one more pregenerated character, but three should suffice. A good GM with more than three players (and without the main Hollow Earth book(s)) should be able to create some new characters based off of what he sees in the examples.

Grade: A+ / A strong explanation of rules combined with three characters being run through a well-written adventure that can be completed in a night make for a fantastic submission by Exile Game Studio.

This 14 page book (the last two pages are advertisements, so I don’t count them) provides for a sandbox style adventure setting based on the new “Shadowfell” game environment for 4e D&D. After reading through the 14 pages, I’m reminded of how the 2e AD&D Ravenloft setting was broken down into different domains with masters running those domains. This has a similar flavor, but without the truly dark stylings and ominous overtones of Ravenloft. If I were going to throw my players into a dark and dreadful arena of despair, hatred and hopelessness, I’d go with Ravenloft for sure.

Two pages give the reader the history of the domain and how it came to be like it is. Following this is half a page of how the land looks today as opposed to its more peaceful and glorious times.

Three pages of inhabitants and their statistics follow this. I’ll admit that I’ve never been a fan of 4e D&D. I have the core books (and then some) and I’ve played in a couple of campaigns (which will be my last with this system.) When looking at the stat blocks of the creatures and NPCs, I’m amazed at how powerful the “low level” stuff really is. It seems to me that something with a mere 8 levels would have 89 HP without being a fighter of some type (this particular example is drawn from a druid NPC.)

The four and a half page (or so) detail different locations within the domain and give a hook to go with each one. The hooks are nice, but they don’t seem to be strong enough to really hook a good adventuring group into the story line that is unfolding around them.

The remainder of the book talks about events and how the NPCs act within those events. There really isn’t much to go with the PCs, so the GM really has to work hard to hook in the PCs to get them to become part of the story.

That rounds out the book. Can you guys and gals see what’s missing? Rules. Pre-generated characters. Spells. Powers.

This is not playable as a stand-alone book. You have to have at least the three core books and probably the new Shadowfell box set to go with it.

Grade: C- / Not enough content here to be usable without a $100+ dollar layout. Not a good freebie. It doesn’t entice me to pick up any of the 4e D&D stuff that I don’t already have. It also doesn’t make me want to dust off the 4e D&D books that I have and put them to use.

Today’s review covers Broken Chains, which is a taster adventure for the Black Crusade campaign game by Games Workshop. Like much of what GW does, the adventure is set in their vast Warhammer 40k world of the Imperium, Chaos, Eldar, Tyranids and such. This particular adventure focuses on the efforts of the Imperium vs. Chaos with the players taking the role of Heretics. At first glance, this seems like the PCs are “evil” and “against the law” and such. This makes for a very hard time of creating a cohesive group because it always devolves into who is making more money and who is trying to backstab whom. It’s rarely a good thing (from my personal experience) to have a group of “evil” characters.

However, the premise behind this adventure is that the characters made some hard choices and ended up on the side of Chaos. Thus, they were captured, imprisoned on a ship and headed to summary interrogation and execution. This is where things go sideways for the ship and 200 years later the PCs awake from stasis aboard the Inquisition’s prison ship. Great premise and it works well for the one shot adventure. The end of the adventure leaves things open for further actions by the characters if the group chooses to continue, but I just don’t see the game being sustainable over the long run because of the fact that the PCs are “bad guys.” Just my opinion, though.

The book itself is made up of four pages of pre-generated characters complete with backstory. The inclusion of the backstory is a great thing. It really helps set the scene and allows the players to latch on to the characters that are handed to them.

The next eight pages are the rules summary. Like the past few years of freebies from Games Workshop, they do a great job of summarizing a fairly complex game system into a mere eight pages. It’s usable. It’s understandable. It’s extensible. All good things in a rules summary. There are a few places where I thought the rules were “light” in description or options, but they do mention that more things are available in the full-sized version of the game. This made me happy.

Five more pages are dedicated to detailing (but not mapping!) the Chains of Judgment, which is the ship that the adventure takes place on. I really, really, really wish a map had been included with the descriptions. It took me several passes of reading to fully grasp the layout and key places of the ship and how they relate to each other. I’m not expecting full on battle map locations in a Free RPG Day submission, but a half page of maps of how the different decks relate to one another would be nice for the GM to have.

Following the detail of the ship, eight pages detail the flow of the adventure. Everything from waking up from stasis through the various combats and encounters and on to the final battle are detailed. The flow is very well thought out, very well detailed and a great read. It all makes sense, even without the missing maps that I mentioned above. One thing that surprised me (for an RPG based on a tabletop battle game) is that not all encounters have to be resolved via fighting. This was a pleasant and refreshing twist on the encounters. As a matter of fact, two of the three key encounters can be resolved without a single shot being fired. Very good stuff.

Lastly, the book rounds out with three pages of creature/monster/NPC stats. If I were more comfortable with the system, the stats blocks would make plenty of sense to me. As it stands, I had to study the stat blocks to make sure I really got what they were telling me. This is more of a lack of experience with the game on my part than any shortfalling of the book.

Grade: A- / The grade would have been higher had there been a map or three to help the GM out. Even though the grade is high, I’m not enticed to buy the game. I haven’t looked at the price of it, but Games Workshop always seems to overcharge for their books. I doubt I could pick up the book and its supplements and not break the bank.

When I first cracked the cover of this book, the first thing I read was the fact that this RPG is based off of a computer/console game by the same name. I knew I had recognized the name before, but didn’t put two and two together until I hit those words. This made me very leery of the quality of this work. Most of the time, a derivative work is not as good as the original. Books turned into movies generally suck. Movies turned into movies almost always suck. Computer games turning into RPGs? Well. Maybe it’ll work.

In this case, it worked, and worked well.

This freebie was a fantastic product for hooking someone into the game. Everything the group needs to run the adventure is provided within the covers of the book. Rules, spells, pregenerated characters, adventures, monsters, bad guys, good guys, world flavor and a rockin’ map are all packed within the 32 pages of the book.

The Quickstart Guide opens up with a beautiful full-color map of Ferelden on the inside cover and credits on the opposing page. Then they quickly jump into what you’ll need to game with, what role playing is (been a long time since I’ve seen a section like that) and what the character sheet is all about. Following this page are two more that detail the remainder of the character stats and a pared down equipment list. In the middle is a one-pager (with permission to photocopy) about the Kingdom of Ferelden and what it’s all about. The fact that they included details about the world that Dragon Age is set in was a fantastic addition.

Then came five pages about the system, combat, stunts, actions and the like to give everyone a chance to learn the basics of the system. I really like the idea of having “Dragon Die” that affects how things come out, but it’s still included in the base roll. This really helps speed things up quite a bit, especially during combat. It’s a brilliant idea that I wish I had thought of first!

The largest section of the book is the 14 pages that composes the adventure that the GM will run the PCs through. It’s a well thought out adventure with combat, skill checks, intrigue, decision making and packed full of dark and wonderful role playing opportunities. If this is a taste of how the rest of the game is written, produced and edited, then I may put it on my wish list of things for my up coming birthday.

Lastly, are five pregenerated characters that give you all of the stats and details necessary to play the characters effectively.

Even though the insides of the book were black and white, I really like the layout, font, design and B&W artwork that was included. I’m hoping that the main book is full color inside because of the incredible artwork of the creatures that were provided in the Free RPG Day book.

Grade: A+ / Strong writing, mixed with a good system, mixed with an intriguing world all make for a great RPG system. If the price is right (I haven’t checked yet,) I’ll be picking this up at my FLGS.

I ran through the Tunnels & Trolls Free RPG Day submission while out at lunch. I got so engrossed in the solitaire adventure that I lost track of time and almost ran over the time allotted for my break.

The opening of the book starts with five pages (out of 14) on how to create a character and how the rules apply to the character once it’s created. While it’s not the full T&T rule set or all of the options on how to make a character, I could comfortably run the scenario included in the booklet with nothing more to go on. That’s high quality and incredibly compact writing for a freebie.

The next five pages was a “Choose Your Own Adventure” style of writing (broken down over the course of 40 paragraphs as options) in which different choices and different results on the die rolls leading to the various outcomes. I ran through the solitaire adventure three times and found myself dying each time. No. The game system isn’t that harsh, nor is the adventure. I just had a string of bad die rolls and a poor choice on my part. Such is the gaming life.

The rest of the book (4 pages) outlines a series of encounters across an “adventure” that are designed to show off the combat system and bartering system within T&T. It does a very good job at allowing a fresh T&T GM to experience his/her side of things and for the players to become comfortable with the system.

My only complaint about the book is that it won’t last. It was printed with a laser printer on glossy paper. From past experience, these types of things don’t last. With a little heat, pressure and humidity, the fused toner on the paper will detach and then adhere to the opposing pages. Next time the book is opened the toner will “tear loose” and trash the print on the paper. That’s OK. This is not something I purchased and not something that I’ll sell on eBay 20 years from now for huge sums of money. It only needs to last me long enough to write this review and maybe run a friend or three through the adventure.

Grade: A / This is a well-written book, but it still doesn’t entice me to play the game. This is not the fault of the freebie, but of the core mechanics. The numbers involved with T&T can grow to become quite large and there’s lots of math involved with each round of combat. From personal experience, this either leads to lots of calculator use, lots of slow down or lots of errors in the results.

Here’s the first review of Free RPG Day 2011 items. I’m not planning on doing them in any particular order. I’m just grabbing a book off the top of the pile and diving into the reading and reviewing.

The first review is of Paizo’s Pathfinder module entitled, “We Be Goblins!”

This module is a mix of Paranoia-style humor and fantasy role playing at its best. It pulls the players out of their comfort zones of being the standard fantasy fare heroes and turns them into potential champions of a small goblin tribe in the Brinestump Marsh just outside Sandpoint. With even a halfway decent GM, this short adventure (I’m guess that the run time would be 2-4 hours depending on how quickly combats are resolved) should be a hilarious endeavor.

The artwork is well done, but the map could have been a little more clear on how to gain access from one level of the shipwreck to another. Like most Free RPG Day stuff, the adventure is pretty linear, but enough of the immediate area is described to allow for a little sandboxing to occur.

The thing I like best about this module is the four pregenerated characters. They’re well done with great descriptions and funny little songs that go with them.

The thing I like least about this module is that I cannot pick it up and run it by its lonesome. If I were to be handed this book, I’d also need the Pathfinder Core book and the Pathfinder Bestiary to complete the adventure. Sure, I could “wing it,” but to run the module properly, I need the supporting material. Many other Free RPG Day books at least give us enough to go on for rules and character stats and such to allow the book to stand alone. Of course, I said this about last year’s Paizo efforts. I guess they’re not listening to me. Honestly, if they had included the full stat block of each creature in the module, then this complaint would vanish.

Grade: A- / The module is hilarious, well written and engaging. The monster stat blocks missing drops the grade a bit.

I hit the road this morning and stopped by one of my FLGSs to pick up all of the Free RPG Day goodies. When I got there, I spotted a sign that said, “One book per person.” Somehow, I read that to be “One of each book per person.” When I had the third book in my hands, the manager of the store stopped me and told me to pick just one. Ugh. Not wanting to cause a scene, I offered to pimp his web site here on my blog in exchange for allowing me to pick up one of each item to review.

He refused.

Damn.

So, I picked up one of the books and headed to the next FLGS in town that I knew was participating in the event. They were still unpacking the books and what-not and, like the first store, offered me one book and that was it. I made them the same deal I made the first FLGS, but they refused. They said that they were reserving most of the books for people gaming at the store, not people that were just popping in for freebies. I pointed out to them that I had three books in hand that I was ready to purchase. This didn’t sway them.

Damn.

After two stores, I only had two books to review for this blog, and I was really worried that I wouldn’t be able to get my hands on everything.

However, I knew of a third FLGS that was participating that I had never been to. I decided to drop by and try my luck. I was even willing to make a deal with the owner to advertise his store on my site. I didn’t even have to make that effort. I walked in, spotted the table of freebies and the owner caught me halfway to the display.

He was nice. He was friendly. He had snacks for the players. Free snacks. He welcomed me to his store, and I’ll definitely be back there. He also told me to take as much of the Free RPG Day stuff as I wanted. I was ecstatic! Oh. The name of the store? Petrie’s Family Games. If you live in the Colorado Springs, CO area, I highly recommend the store.

While at FLGS store #1, I bought nothing. They just changed ownership and all of the RPG stuff they had was old, used, beaten and battered. Plus the selection was limited to things that either hold no interest for me, or stuff that I already have.

While at FLGS store #2, I bought the following:

• Pathfinder Setting: Undead Revisited by Paizo.
• GURPS 4e, Mass Combat by Steve Jackson Games
• (Used) Central Casting: Dungeons by Task Force Games

While at FLGS store #3, I bought the following:

• Hawkmoon, The Roleplaying Game by Mongoose Publishing
• Elric, The Roleplaying Game by Mongoose Publishing

I probably didn’t need both Hawkmoon and Elric, but I love both of those characters from when I read the entire Eternal Champions series by Moorcock back in high school. I wanted to see how they were treated in an RPG setting.

The Free RPG Day stuff that I picked up includes:

• Free RPG Day branded d6
• Two resin “coins” with the same symbol on both sides and a strangely marked d10 by Q-workshop. They look nice, but I’m not sure what I’ll use them for other than put them on display in my office.
• Pathfinder: We Be Goblins by Paizo
• Dragon Age Quickstart Guide by Green Ronin
• Black Crusade: Broken Chains by Games Workshop
• D&D: Domain of Dread: Histaven by WotC
• Hollow Earth Expedition: Free RPG Day Adventure 2011 by Exile Game Studio
• Aspect: Here There be Demons by Stone Tablet Games
• Arcanis: Fast Play by Paradigm Concepts
• The Waking Dead by Eden Studios
• Castles & Crusades: 2011 Quick Start Rules by Troll Lord Games
• A Nightmare at Hill Manor by White Wolf
• Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: A Day Late, A Shilling Short by Games Workshop
• Prime Directive: Starship ALDO by Amarillo Design Bureau
• Dungeon Crawl Classics: Adventure Started by Goodman Games
• Deathwatch: Final Sanction by Games Workshop
• Exalted: Under the Rose by White Wolf
• Tunnels and Trolls: Rescue Mission by Flying Buffalo

I think I got everything from Free RPG Day. I haven’t had a chance to check my list against the official list on Free RPG Day’s web site. There were some items on the tables that I visited that were one-page advertisements for some games or such. I looked at them long enough to realize that they didn’t interest me nor my readers because they were not products, but advertisements.

Now… time for me to dig into the 16 books that I picked up. Wow. I plan on doing reviews on Monday and Wednesday for the next 8 weeks. I may not start them this upcoming week. It depends on how much time I can steal away from the family in order to get started.

Update: I just finished scanning all of the covers of the 16 books. This means that as I finish reading them, I can write the review and post it without having to wait to get home to do the scanning. This means that I should be able to hit my target of two books a week for the next eight weeks.