Tommy's Take on Civil War Event Book Essentials Edition

Psst...the good guys aren't teamed with Venom.

Civil War was one of those mixed-bag kinda stories. Great concept, some great stories within the event...horrible execution. It's also the first Event Book for the Marvel Heroic RPG.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: This review covers the Civil War Essentials Event Book...the difference between that and the Premium version is about 10 bucks in print and 6 in PDF, and the Premium version includes the Operations Manual from the Marvel Heroic rules (that is, the rules to the game, just not the Breakout Event), meaning a difference of about 136 pages. Essentially, no pun intended, Margaret Weis Productions is all about options. When looking at the cover (featuring Pro Registration forces squaring off with Anti Registration forces), you can tell the good guys from the bad guys because one side has Spider-Man and Captain America and the other side has Venom. As in, the psychotic Max Gargan Venom. But I digress.

Mike Selinker does the intro, bragging - and rightfully so - about how he made Captain America the best character in Marvel SAGA (and he really is, or he's very close) because of the Edge mechanic (and about how he got to brag about this to Joe Simon, who co-created Cap with Jack Kirby). From there, it dives right into the event.

First off, I want to note something: Pretty much any time there's a page reference, you can click it and go there. That's in addition to the bookmarks, table of contents and index. That deserves some kudos right there. The Preparing for the Event chapter does a breakdown of the event, as well as recommended number of players (4-6) and some optional rules (like Troupe Play, so your group can cover all the major players of the Pro or Anti Registration sides...or even both sides, if the group wants to cover ALL sides). There's also rules suggestions on making Scene Distictions more dynamic, by adding extra features that people can use by spending Plot Points. Advice is also given for covering Watcher-Controlled Support Characters, addressing multiple characters getting unwieldy (something that was never really addressed in Marvel SAGA aside from hand waving it).

And then...the Civil War Sourcebook itself. The first thing it tackles is the Superhuman Registration Act, as well as making the Pro and Con arguments for it. It also tackles what's at stake for each side, as well as a sidebar on people playing characters who choose different sides (depending on the interpretation, you could easily flip Captain America and Iron Man, especially Ultimate Cap and Movie Iron Man). Lastly, there are bullet points for what can happen if the Act passes or fails, and the consequences thereof. A full dozen new Milestones are included, all event specific, such as Evil For Justice (recruiting Supervillains to your side), My Ally, My Enemy (where you and a close friend wind up on opposite sides of the conflict), or Convert the Enemy (where you become focused on swaying heroes to your side). There are also a number of Factions, with advice on playing Civil War from their perspective (complete with their own Unlockables), like Atlantis (including Unlocking Namor, with a number of implications as to what that means), Wakanda (would you like the blessing of the Panther God?), AIM, Hydra, SHIELD, The Media and even The Illuminati (the behind the scenes power players like Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Professor X and Dr. Strange). I should note that there are tons of major and minor datafiles all over this thing, from Hydra Agents to J. Jonah Jameson to Man-Ape. The section ends with a number of important locations involved in Civil War, complete with Scene Distinctions for them (like Artifacts From Avengers History in the Avengers Mansion Ruins and the Statue of Liberty serving as a Beacon of Hope).

When it's time for the Event to begin, it's all broken down into Scenes. Buildup Scenes include Titanium Man attacking Washington and Thor's Hammer crashing to Earth (and Doom trying to retrieve it). This includes datafiles for Doom, Titanium Man, Doombots, Thor's Hammer...and options like crazy. Like, say, allowing a hero to pick up Thor's Hammer and just what all that MEANS...with options for it both being a temporary measure to fend off Doom or a permanent one! To prove that it's not all slugfests, one of the Buildup Scenes even takes place with a hero appearing before Congress. The event proper begins with the aftermath of the Stamford explosion and covers a number of Scenes which could become whole sessions in and of themselves, like hunting Nitro (believed to be the sole survivor of the Stamford incident), appearing before the Commission on Superhuman Activities (complete with a chance to actually flip Henry Peter Gyrich to the Anti-Registration side, if they so choose). Act One ends with a roleplaying scene involving numerous heroes gathering to discuss the SHRA.

In Act Two, the SHRA has passed, because there's no Event without it. The Scenes get even more flexible here, as the PCs could be on either (or both!) sides of the Act. The Spider-Man unmasking scene is presented with more options, with Spidey only being used as an example, and even a suggestion for an underhanded twist like a Life Model Decoy being used to unmask in the hero's place! Other Scenes include hunting/eluding friends, the wedding of Storm and Black Panther (complete with Storm datafile), investigating Atlantean sleeper agents, culminating in an epic Superhero Battle Royal involving Thor's clone (though there are other options provided,  like the Sentry and a Hulk Robot).

In Act Three, the pro-Registration forces are running across the moral Event Horizon, with supervillains being actively recruited to hunt anti-Registration heroes, captive anti-Registration forces being locked up in the Negative Zone and more good stuff. This adds a slew of new datafiles, like Songbird, Moonstone, Venom and Bullseye. The Thunderbolts debut scene includes options like making pro-Registration PCs "ride along" with them, or anti-Registration PCs injected with the same nanotech to work alongside them. Other Scenes include negotiating with Atlantis (and hopefully getting Namor and his resources on your side), busting AIM or Hydra (complete with Nick Fury datafile), getting to the truth of Norman Osborn's actions in Civil War (complete with a variety of options again, such as him being under control of Namor, who is using Osborn's attacks on Atlanteans as an excuse for war, or maybe it was Chameleon all along, and not Osborn), both sides of a Negative Zone Prison Raid (busting heroes out or stopping a break in), complete with a second epic brawl between both sets of forces that spill onto the streets of New York. The last scene also ups the lethality, assuming people will die. Act Three ends with a number of options for wrapping things up, no matter which side wins and includig a Third Option where the heroes band together against a villainous force (my favorite option, which isn't listed in the book, involves Nova crash landing on earth with the dire warning that "The Annihilation Wave is coming!").

A sidebar details the three books coming to supplement this event: Fifty State Initiative (which covers what happens in the aftermath of Civil War), Young Avengers/Runaways (which covers the teen heroes, including the New Warriors) and the X-Men (which covers the X-Mansion's residents and the Sentinels sequestering them).

Friends and Foes includes a crap ton more datafiles, starting with Ant Man (Erin O'Grady), the obscure Bantam, the Serpent Society, Doc Samson, the Kingpin, Sentry (complete with a d12 strength), Vision and more.

And THEN we get FULL datafiles for 32 heroes, including Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Wolverine, as well as folks like Cable, Punisher, Moon Knight and Goliath...oh, and Deadpool. Each with bios and two sets of character specific milestones.

The book ends with a glossary, a clickable index of datafiles and a bibliography.

WHAT WORKS: Well...there's a crap ton of new datafiles, including Dr. Doom (held up alongside Magneto as an inexcusable omission from the rulebook). There's a LOT of leeway and options given for playing out Civil War with your own twists. New optional rules like Troupe Play and handling multiple support characters is great. Oh, there's a table of contents, an index, bookmarks and EVERYTHING IS CLICKABLE. Except links to the Operations Manual, but I would bet those are included in the Premium Version.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: No Baron Zemo. No Winter Soldier. What? I can't complain about MY favorites not being included? The art is really pixelated a lot of the time, but I am assuming that's a digital only artifact and hopefully they'll fix that for the print versions. If you absolutely hated Marvel Heroic, I don't think this is going to convince you otherwise. For a pre-written adventure (essentially), it'll get steadily harder to run straight out of the book as the twists and turns mount (though that certainly has it's own pluses, as it's not really a railroad at all).

CONCLUSION: An incredibly promising start to the Event Book formula, as there's a huge amount of options included to customize it yourself. The pixelated art doesn't bother me in the digital book, but I would be annoyed to have it present in a print book. Just a huge amount of information, including new datafiles, and while having many of them mixed around the book could annoy some, if you're working from the PDF this thing is so user friendly to navigate that it's not a big deal. Heck, maybe someone wants to play one of the characters not included as a full datafile (with Milestones) here (like Ant Man or Patriot)...just slap on a pair of Civil War milestones that make sense and run with it. If you didn't care for Marvel Heroic, I don't think this is going to sway you...but if you're a fan of it, there's a lot to like from this product.

Tommy's Take on The Dark Woods

The Game Arts Guild were responsible for the interesting RPG Squawk a while back...now they've released The Dark Woods, which is a very specific RPG, straddling the line between board game, RPG and story game. The most important question, however, is "is it good"?

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: The PDF is only $4.99 at RPGNow, but you can order the softcover for $7.99 and a bundle for $9.99. The game is built for 4-8 players, but doesn't use a GM. The book is pretty small, only 37 pages (inclduing covers). The premise is that The Dark Woods are ruled by a dragon sorcerer and his minions, and the PCs form teams to fight past each other and take on the dragon sorcerer. There's no GM, so each each side alternates between playing their sorcerers and playing the enemies the other side is fighting.

The Dark Woods are filled with denizens from boggarts to dryads to dragons to nagas to humans (who almost always become corrupted and wind up transforming into something else) to varana (humans who have turned into lizard men) and more. Pretty much all of these have pictures accompanying them to help you out.

The rules are given next, using a single d20 and adding modifiers in order to beat a difficulty number. Each character has three defenses, which are derived from various abilities and include Agility, Intelligence and Strength. In addition, they have a Toughness ability which helps determine Hit Points.

Next are the breakdown of abilities, with pretty much everything having Toughness. Next are Attack abilities, which include Shooting, Knockout and Wrestling. Stalking Abilities are Stealth and Detection. Movement Abilities cover Acrobatics, Flying and Swimming. Support Abilites are things like Healing and Command. A 1 page rules summary follows, with a combat example following that.

From there we get to character creation, with abilities purchased by spending 24 character points. Toughness is the most expensive, and the one that everyone must have. A handful of sample characters are provided, including a dragon sorcerer not unlike the Big Bad, a human big game hunter and a Morlock necromancer. Once PCs are created and paired off, each team has to pick an association to belong to, with options including Necromancers and Rangers, and each faction having special rules in place for when they encounter certain types of creatures in the woods (like Necromancers that encounter undead immediately forcing them to attack the other team instead).

A map is included, and the teams move around the map, encountering enemies along the way (sometimes set for the map space and sometimes based on a random roll). As you beat enemies, you can drain their essence and gain more power. Stat blocks are listed for everything you can encounter.

Rules are provided for extending the game, which basically just entails whoever overthrows the Dragon Sorcerer becoming the bad guy for the next game, as well as six sided die and card variants for people who don't own - or hate - d20s. A short story is included for flavor, as is an index.

WHAT WORKS: A nice mix of stock fantasy elements combined with some new and/or relatively rare fantasy components. Simple system with easy enough character generation, good for a pick-up game. A ton of art for a tiny book, it never gets in the way and especially does a nice job of depicting the more uncommon elements.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Honestly, the book feels like it was almost laid out backwards. I'm used to flavor fiction at the beginning of the book and not the end, and I almost always prefer character generation before rules.

CONCLUSION: I'm not sure I'd call it an RPG aside from the character generation, and I'd be hard pressed to call it a story game. It's really almost a board game in a book, but given how easy the map is to print, and the low price point, I don't think that's a bad thing. If the physical book is laid out the same as the PDF is, I'd recommend getting the PDF over the book and just printing out the map, since the map is almost smack in the middle, then using some kind of tokens or figures to track movement around it. Definitely has the potential for a fun beer and pretzels type game.

Tragic News

I'm only mentioning this since the news has gone public now among the Savage community, but Kevin Rohan of Silver Gryphon Games recently suffered the most stunning a tragic loss imaginable when his 6 year old son  Michael passed away after an accident at a public pool.

There are no words to express how horrible this is, and even though I have only dealt with Kevin in a Publisher-Reviewer capacity, the news brought me to tears. My heart and my prayers go out to Kevin, his family and everyone affected by this tragedy.

For those who have the means and the inclination, the Rohan family has set up a memorial fund in Michael's memory. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to the Michael Rohan Memorial Fund, mail a check to: State Bank of Spencer, 728 Grand Avenue, Spencer, IA 51301, Memo: Michael Rohan Memorial Fund. Any questions call Mike at State Bank: 877-551-6580.


Thank you for reading this, and keep the Rohans and their family, extended and immediate, in your hearts in this trying time that no one should ever have to endure.


Tommy

Tommy's Take on Streets of Bedlam

Jason L Blair, of Little Fears fame, recently released his first Savage Setting: Streets of Bedlam, which intentionally shortens to SoB. I like Savage Worlds, I like Blair's work, and I backed this on Kickstarter.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: The PDF is 255 pages and currently available on RPGnow...still lacking a few finishing touches before it'll get sent to the printers, where it'll seemingly retail for $30. The book is in black and white, fittingly, and drawn by Shawn Gaston. It also has much saltier language than your average Savage Worlds book.

The book is divided into five chapters plus an introduction, and requires some version of Savage Worlds (though it was written for Deluxe, but there's not a lot of hard work moving from edition to edition).

The Introduction provides an overview to the feel of the setting, citing things like Sin City, Boondock Saints and Assault on Precinct 13, and Mr. Blair also said in a chat that emulation of movies like Payback and Four Brothers was certainly possible. Again, this chapter is just a broad overview of the inspirations and source material, as well as a brief breakdown of Bedlam, which is actually two cities (Bedford and Lamrose, the former being the money of the city, the latter being the wrecked out remnants of a blue collar city). The chapter serves as a nice, brisk introduction to what Streets of Bedlam is all about.

Chapter one dives into the city itself, a neo-noirish Gotham that is split in two distinct halves by the Artifice River. In Lamrose, the prostitutes rule Bricktown, the Lamrose side of the river is dotted with crack houses, we have casinos under various management, a Little Italy and a Chinatown. On the other side of the river, Bedford is where the rich and the righteous live, with fake swamps, theatres, cathedrals and a pair of pro ball teams (football and baseball). A handy list of local slang is provided, and it's not so long or dense as to become distracting. There are Italiant, Irish and Polish, and Triad mobs in town, and the cops are little protection. A handy quick-list of businesses and street names are provided, with shoutouts to authors like Elmore Leonard and Ed Brubaker.

Chapter 2 is character creation, which is standard Savage Worlds creation...with a little twist. For one thing, you start an Archetype, a pretty specific foundation for your character (with the option of a Citizen, who is essentially a blank slate). The Archetypes have required skills, as well as free Edges and Hindrances, and then you customize from there. I rather like the descriptions for this game, being three sentences: A physical description, a social one and a mental one. An example of an Archetype is a Badge, catch-all for the cops. This one gets extra Reputation for certain actions, but you also get to choose whether you are straight or dirty, with the former giving you an enemy for crossing the wrong person and the latter providing extra money...but meaning you're in the pocket of someone. Others include Boss (as in gang bosses), Valkyries (the now militant hookers), Drifters, Hitters (Hitmen) and even Marv-like monsters, each with their own customization point even before you buy your skills and Edges.

Chapter 3 gets into the rules changes, providing suggestions for Setting Rules and adding in new Skills, Edges and Hindrances. Some of the Skills are expected, like Interrogation, and others are interesting, but odd, like Eyes of G*d, which allows you to tell whether or not someone is a very bad guy. Edges include things like Street Cred and Sucker-Proof, which provide well explained bonuses, as well as one (Heart on Your Sleeve) that reads like it should be a Hindrance and a couple of Edges that are described, but either have no - or poorly explained - mechanical benefits (like Protected or Entourage). Hindrances include Infamous, Priors (you have a record) and Trigger Happy (where guns are your first solution). Rep is explained here, a stat similar to Charisma, which can fall under three spheres: Public, Underworld and Authority. Interrogation rules are present, as well as an interesting system for Investigations, using card draws to determine the crime, the clean-up and the escape, complete with an example. There's also a Dramatic Damage table, which is basically just flavor, and a system for Roles, which include things like Hero, Sidekick, Love Interest and Plot Device, and can change each session. Each role gains a couple of new effects it can spend bennies on (like Sidekicks pumping a hero's ego up). There's also a bit of a GM section here, pushing for you to jump into the middle of the action and keep it hot, before providing a selection of common story/mission/adventure types (like the ever famous Man on a Mission).

Chapter four is a huge listing of NPCs, made up primarly of Kickstarter backers, like intrepid reporter Shane Hensley, Underworld icon Gareth-Michael Skarka, and drug pusher Nathan Reed. The first 14 of these are tied directly to the archetypes to serve an iconic function. The rest of the Kickstarter backers are named, with mini bios, to fill out the city, with a nice selection of attribute arrays and skill sets provided to mix and match stock NPC stats on the fly.

Chapter 5 gets into the GMing proper, starting with an outline for neo-noir adventures for folks to follow. This leads into an interesting variation on the Plot Point Campaign, with the characters starting off at the scene of a murder, and allowing them to follow up on the clues and plot threads they choose, directing you to scenes in an almost Choose Your Own Adventure-like manner, rather than the more structured Plot Point Campaign set-up. In true Neo-Noir fashion, the whole thing takes many twists and turns and has the potential to end in a way that burns the characters even as they deal with the murderer. Interesting arrangement for the PPC, and not in a bad way. A handful of "Orphan Stories" follow, essentially overgrown plot seeds.

The PDF ends with a note from the author, a placeholder where the index will be, a quick reference sheet, an Episode tracker sheet, an Investigation sheet and a character sheet.

WHAT WORKS: The writing is very crisp without getting at all cute. Nothing is hard to read here. The art sets the scene incredibly well. I love the Archetypes set-up for character creation, especially since there's still so much room for flexibility, and the Plot Point Campaign structure is a welcome change of pace. The city is a wonderful mish-mash of Neo-Noir tropes, giving you everything you need to play around, providing landmarks without roadmaps so everything is where you need it to be.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Heart on Your Sleeve is either the worst Edge ever, or a misplaced Hindrance. Entourage and Protected could also use mechanical support. Bookmarks in a PDF are always great, and they don't exist here. I'm one of the few Kickstarter members who isn't a character in the city, because I'm not a fan of "vanity rewards". It takes me out of the setting seeing Shane Hensley or Gareth-Michael Skarka as NPCs in the setting, though I understand why vanity awards are present in KIckstarters.

CONCLUSION: I think Jason L. Blair has done a fantastic job of crafting a unique Savage Worlds experience while retaining the Fast, Furious, Fun feel the game exudes. Great new additions to the rules, a big sandbox to play around in and promises of more to come. Streets of Bedlam is the "over the top" cousin to Wellstone City, serving a similar niche in an ultraviolent and extreme manner. My biggest disappointment is that I didn't have the extra at the time to kick in for the print copy. Recommended if you love Sin City or crazy Mel Gibson revenge movies, and I love both.

My fellow blogger Darren G. Miller, who is present in the game as an NPC, offered up his thoughts over at Geekcentricity.

Tommy's Take on Castle Ravenloft

I'm a pretty big fan of Ravenloft. Even as I've decided I don't really care about every trying to run D&D again, I still love some of the settings, with Ravenloft the foremost among them. I also don't really care for D&D4e at all...but I did get the Castle Ravenloft board game by Wizards of the Coast, which does a hefty combination of the two.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: This is a high end board game, with lots of minis (unpainted D&D minis), map tiles and so forth. It retails for $64.99, but you can usually get it for around $20 less at Amazon.com.(And buying from Amazon through that link helps support this blog). It's recommended for ages 12 and up, but my eight year old and I have played multiple cooperative games together. It supports anywhere from 1 to 5 players.

The "story" of the board game boils Ravenloft down to its basic elemements: Strahd and his nefarious evils are lording over the village of Barovia until a handful of heroes move in to stop him.

The system uses a streamlined 4e...streamlined to the point that the heroes are distilled down to Armor Class, Hit Points, Speed, Surge Value and Powers. Yep, Healing Surges are present here (the default being each group having two), with characters who are reduced to 0 health coming back at half strength.

The game is played without a GM, with each monster and villain have a list of tactics that pretty much govern everything they do (move closer to hero, what attacks they use in which situation, etc). The game board is made as you go, using a series of map tiles that range from big, open rooms and hallways to Von Zarovich family tombs, laboratories and magic circles.

Each turn is simple: Each turn you can Move and Attack, Attack and Move or Move Twice. If you end your turn at the edge of a tile, you flip over a new one (which guarantees the arrival of a monster). Every player's turn has a Villain Phase, in which the "Boss" of the adventure, if active, takes his turn, followed by every monster whose card you control taking a turn. Additionally, there are Encounter Cards which are played if you draw tiles featuring black arrows, and these are almost always Very Bad (and are also drawn if you fail to explore on a turn).

Combat is simple: Roll d20, add your attack bonus (based on the attack you are using and any relevant magic items), compare to Armor Class and apply damage. Most non-bosses only have 1-2 HP. You get a magic item for killing them and add their card to the XP pile, which you can use to block Encounter cards or level up to level 2 if have enough XP when you roll a 20 during gameplay (granting you an extra Daily Power, boosting your stats and giving a Critical Hit bonus).

Each Adventure has its own goals, and usually additional rules, giving a sense of variety even though the gameplay is pretty basic. Usually you have a boss fight of some sort to deal with, and occassionally a secondary goal.

The Daily, Utility and At-Will Powers - as well as each character's unique ability - make the characters feel different as well.

Hero options include a Human Ranger (who can "Explore" tiles she's not next to, and has lots of ranged attacks, as well as powers that allow her to either put space between her and the bad guys to open up her ranged attacks), a Dragonborn Fighter (who can breath fire, give an AC bonus to any ally on the same tile, and force monsters into combat even if they aren't adjacent to him), a Dwarf Cleric (who can heal himself and others, and has a few Powers like Bless and Flame Strike which'll be familiar to long time D&D fans), an Eladrin Wizard (who gives his allies bonuses to hit due to his knowledge of monsters, the ability to make a short range teleportation and some classic Wizard Powers like Magic Missile, Dispel Magic and Shield) and a Human Rogue (who gets a bonus to disarm traps, and has a lot of sneaky, high-probability, low damage attack options).

Most of the monsters feel very "Ravenloft", with Zombies, Ghouls, Skeletons, Gargoyles and Wraiths, as well as more esoteric choices like Burning Skeletons. Wolves, Spiders and Rat Swarms also feel at home, though I probably would have left Kobolds out.

The Villains include a Kobold Sorcerer named Klak, a Howling Hag, a Werewolf, a Flesh Golem, a Zombie Dragon, a Dracolich named Gravestorm and Strahd himself.

Treasures you can find include items like Thieves' Tools, Magic Swords, Holy Avengers (which provide an extra bonus against the undead), Crystal Balls and Potions of Healing, as well as Blessings that let you move faster for a turn, heal a hit point or even regain a spent Power.

The Encounter Cards are very flavorful, including things like Animated Armor attacking you, bat swarms filling the Castle to provide penalties to ranged attacks, Strahd getting into your head and forcing you to make an attack against an ally, and even a few Encounters that can go either way, like a movement in the corner of your eye that can either be a sneak attack or a friendly spirit who restores one of your powers.

The game includes 13 adventures (I've played 11 of them), from a solo scenario in which you have to escape Strahd's tomb before he wakes up, to an escort mission in which you have to lead a villager to the Dark Fountain before he transforms into a vampire, to a seek and destroy mission in which you play each of the five heroes (one after the other) taking out as many of Strahd's followers as possible in a blaze of glory, to a two-part mission in which you attempt to finally hunt down and destroy Strahd himself.

Additionally, Wizards of the Coast provides a few free adventures, and this game is also compatible with its sister games Wrath of Ashardalon and The Legend of Drizzt (and you can make your own scenarios, of course).

WHAT WORKS: The minis are great, and will see play in games outside of just this, I'm sure of it. Gravestorm is a particularly impressive centerpiece, although the Flesh Golem is amazing as well. The Heroes all feel unique with their various abilities, and the theme feels about as close to Ravenloft as you can get in a hack and slash dungeon crawler.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: It's HARD. Like, almost TOO hard. I think that we have only won once, defeating the Kobold Sorcerer. It is a meatgrinder, in part because so many of the monsters and encounters inflict a point of damage even if they miss (as opposed to 2 or 3 if they hit). The rulebooks really needed tighter editing, and it is REALLY easy to overthink the rules sometimes (Tip: Whatever the card, rule, etc, is, read it literally. That's usually the right answer).

CONCLUSION: If I got to roleplay more, the game would have been worth the price of admission for the minis alone. That said, the production values are fantastic and the gameplay is fun, if very difficult. I've had a blast playing with my son, in part because he takes it upon himself to roleplay his character, talking in character as we adventure through the castle, which usually sparks me into doing the same. It would just be nice to actually WIN sometime. Now I know how everyone that played in my Ravenloft games felt. Still, I don't regret the purchase at all. Probably not the best "gateway game", though, given the Meatgrinder effect.

Half-Dozen Heroes: Solomon Kane

Got a pretty decent response for the Half-Dozen Heroes for Caladon Falls...and I had my Solomon Kane book sitting right here when it was requested for the follow-up...so here goes!

Everything on this page was created soley using the Savage World of Solomon Kane book.

Thomas Serpentbane was a family man and mediocre farmer until his family was attacked by poisonous snakes one hot summer day. Thomas grabbed his sword, and old family heirloom he had recently inherited, and killed the snakes. The next day, snakes attacked again, and this time Thomas wasn't so quick. Given the vicious, multiple attacks by snakes, he became convinced that there was something more to their activity...like a larger force was controlling them. Soon, he became convinced that snakes were all part of a larger conspiracy, and when he encountered his first Snake Man, it settled his delusions into his skull.

What Thomas has never figured out is that his sword is the very reason serpents react in a malicious manner, be they garden snakes, giant serpents or snake men. Attor, a Snake Man priest, has been tasked by his vile Gods with killing Thomas and destroying his sword before it can slay any more snakes...so maybe he's not completely crazy after all.

Thomas Serpentbane
Seasoned
Agility d8
Smarts d6
Spirit d8
Strength d6
Vigor d6

Fighting d10
Guts d8
Investigation d6
Knowledge (Serpents) d4
Notice d6
Riding d4
Survival d6
Throwing d4
Tracking d6

Charisma: 0
Pace: 6"
Parry: 7
Toughness: 5

Hindrance
Delusional: "All snakes are part of an ophidian conspiracy" (Minor)
Vow: End the Ophidian Nightmare (Minor)
Enemy: Attor, the Snake Priest (Major)

Edges
Alertness (+2 to Notice)
Danger Sense
First Strike (free attack when an enemy moved adjacent)
Hard to Kill (Ignore Wound Penalties for Knockout tables)
Quick (Redraw cards lower than 5)
Trademark Weapon (Venom)

Gear
"Venom" Short Sword Artifact: Str+d6 damage, +8 damage vs serpents (including Snake Men), wielder is immune to poisons, all serpents within 12" can sense the blade's presence. Throwing axe (Str+d6)

Tenzan is an honorable samurai warrior who could have been a great general for the Empire...until he was set upon by undead fiends and nearly killed. The pilgrim Solomon Kane saved him, Tenzan's code of honor demanded that he walk Kane's Path instead, and Kane offered one demand: Protect the children of the Winthorpe family, whose parents had recently died. Tenzan now travels as the bodyguards of the twins, the boy secretly a sorcerer and the girl a swordsman who is capturing the samurai's heart.

Tenzan
Seasoned
Agility d6
Smarts d6
Spirit d8
Strength d8
Vigor d8

Fighting d8
Guts d8
Intimidation d8
Knowledge (Battle) d6
Notice d6
Riding d6

Charisma: 0
Pace: 6"
Parry: 8
Toughness: 9(3)

Hindrances
Code of Honor
Phobia (Minor): Undead
Vow (Major): Protect the Winthorpe Siblings

Edges
Block (+1 Parry)
Combat Reflexes (+2 to Shaken Rolls)
Command (+1 to Troops' Shaken rolls)
Sweep (Attack everyone adjacent with -2 penalty)

Gear
Katana (str+d8), Armor 3

Anthony Wyndham traveled in very dark circles, and for all his bluster, his heart grew cold when he came face to face with one of the dark forces that seek the worship of sorcerers. Wyndham tried to steer his allies from their path, but was rejected and set up to appear as a devil worshipper. Horribly branded as such, Wyndham was ultimately able to escape, but now he uses has arcane powers - and pistol - to fight back the darkness...and destroy his old circle.

Anthony Wyndham
Veteran
Agility d6
Smarts d12
Spirit d8
Strength d4
Vigor d6

Driving d4
Fighting d4
Guts d8
Healing d4
Intimidation d6
Investigation d6
Magick d10
Notice d4
Shooting d6
Taunt d6

Charisma: -2
Pace: 6"
Parry: 4
Toughness: 5

Hindrances
Arrogant
Branded (-2 Charisma)
Death Wish (Break up his old circle)

Edges
Arcane Background (Sorcery)
Dirty Fighter (+2 on Tricks)
Jack-of-All-Trades (+2 on Smarts based skill rolls)
Marksman (+2 on Shooting)
New Power (x3)
Strong Willed (+2 on Taunt/Intimidation)

Powers
Deflection
Fear
Grave Speak
Puppet
Shape Change

Gear
Two-Barrel Pistol (2d6+1)

Gwandoya is an escaped slave, paranoid that he's being hunted, so rarely staying in one place. Gwandoya has dreams telling him where to go, and the giant man does so, sticking to the fringes of society and helping people as best he can. Gwandoya does not believe he has a greater destiny before him, even as he's unwittingly used as an instrument for good.

Gwandoya
Novice
Agility d6
Smarts d4
Spirit d6
Strength d10
Vigor d6

Climbing d8
Fighting d6
Guts d6
Intimidation d8
Survival d6
Swimming d6

Charisma: 0
Pace: 8"
Parry: 5
Toughness: 6

Hindrances
Clueless (-2 Common Knowledge)
Glass Jaw (-2 Soak)
Illiterate

Edges
Brawny
Fleet-Footed

Gear
Club (str+d4)

Nicodemus Dowling is an inquisitor who roots out evil wherever it can be found...with "evil" defined as "having differing beliefs". Nicodemus is an adept leader and ample combatant who can prove terrifying if he's allowed to corner a foe. Nicodemus believes fully in his cause, which gives him frightening power at times...luckily, he can usually identify the larger threat in a given situation, so he and his men often target the darker fringes of society, though they have occasionally focused on the well-meaning instead.

Nicodemus Dowling
Heroic
Agility d6
Smarts d8
Spirit d10
Strength d6
Vigor d8

Fighting d6
Guts d6
Intimidation d10
Persuasion d10
Riding d6
Shooting d6
Taunt d8
Tracking d8

Charisma: +2
Pace: 6"
Parry: 5
Toughness: 6

Hindrances
Code of Honor
Jingoistic (Minor)
Vow (Uncover and destroy the witches)

Edges
Command
Connections
Conviction
Fanaticism
Fervor
Inspire
Marksman
Noble
Strong Willed

Is Basil Flynn the greatest swordsman who ever lived? He would tell you yes. An absolute beast with a blade, Flynn can strike you when you move near, strike you before you move near, strike you if you fail to strike him, hold off multiple combatants at once, and one of his favorite tactics is to dig in close, hook your arm and dig into you stomach with his dagger.

Basil Flynn
Legendary
Agility d12
Smarts d6
Spirit d8
Strength d6
Vigor d8

Fighting d12+2
Gambling d6
Guts d8
Lockpicking d10
Notice d6
Persuasion d8
Streetwise d6

Charisma: 0
Pace: 6"
Parry: 11
Toughness: 6

Hindrances
Big Mouth
Overconfident
Cocky

Edges
Close Fighting
  Improved Close Fighting
Dirty Fighter
Entangle
First Strike
Florentine
Lunge
Mighty Blow
Professional (Fighting)
  Expert (Fighting)
Quick
Riposte
  Improved Riposte
Trademark Weapon
  Improved Trademark Weapon
Weapon Master
  Master of Arms
Wall of Steel
Two-Fisted

I nearly made a pirate and a blind swordsman, but I ditched the latter because I couldn't figure out how to make him work without him being horribly penalized to the point of unplayable. Of the six, I think I would most like to play Gwandoya in a game, even though Thomas Serpentbane is loosely based off my real experiences!

Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments!

Tommy's Take on Dark Harvest: Resistance

Last week I reviewed Dark Harvest: The Legacy of Frankenstein, an interesting alternate history set in the closed-borders country of Promethea, better known to you and I as Romania. Now, I've been given the opportunity to review the Resistance supplement in advance of its release.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: The cover lists a retail price of $29.99, but you can buy the PDF at RPGNow for $16.99. The core was about 216 pages in PDF, this one is about 177. The art in this line is typically gorgeous, and the cover of Resistance, showing a Frankenstein-ish creature being shot in the back as it carries a woman to safety (at least, that's how I saw it), is no exception.

The book opens with a couple of foreword type pieces before launching into a comic which didn't really hold up the quality of the fiction or art in the first book.

The first major section of the book is an essay covering the Resistance, where we find out that they occasionally spread propaganda that may be exaggerated in order to draw extra ire against the government. Personally, I think this is at least somewhat forgiveable, given the horrific abuses present in the government. This chapter goes into detail on their methods as well, including how they generally strive to strike targets in ways that aren't immediate threats to innocents, and how sometimes two secret cells occasionally clash without realizing they are techically on the same side. It's not an easy life, with "retirement" usually involving meeting an accident and Resistance members often working with a depressing lack of equipment. Some helpful advice is given on running the Resistance, noting that they often times have to get their hands very dirty and that they are very much up against the wall.

Next up are the Promethean authorities. Here we get it reiterated that Victor Frankenstein's country is partially the result of people abusing the advances he brought them and not entirely the end result of his goals. Road to Hell, good intentions, all that. In fact, it establishes that Frankenstein has become more and more consumed with his work, leaving the actual running of Promethea in the hands of others, which has contributed to the more vile excesses of the nation. We also get a sidebar that perfectly exemplifies the paranoia of Frankenstein, revealing that he completed the first anti-aircraft weapons while zepplins and airplanes were on the drawing boards in order to ensure that the Promethean borders remained protected. We also learn that the idea put forth in the core rules that the military are nothing more than mindless footsoldiers of Frankenstein is an exaggeration. While some augmentation has been used to control some soldiers, most are lockstep with him due to his treatment and promotion of the military. Some tips are provided on playing as military instead of Resistance.

The next chapter talks about the more subtle forms of resistance going on, like the pamphlet spelling out the moral case against Frankenstein, which nearly drew him into an open debate with his detractors. There is also the group known as The Will of Frankenstein, complete zealots who hang on his every word...and act on them with brutal efficiency.

A slew of map layouts for military bases are also provided.

Like with the first book, this one also includes three pieces of short fiction, including a very important story detailing the first encounter between Frankenstein and the Creature since the Resistance began.

All the setting stuff out of the way, we move onto rules material, starting with an overhaul of the money system, placing everything in the currency of Promethean leis. A broader selection of weapons are also provided, ranging from melee weapons to a variety of firearms, from derringers to machine guns. Even a list of vehicles, from canoes to cars.

New rules include combining effort on actions, various weapon effects (like using suppressive fire), and new augmentations like Small Hands (for finer manipulation) and quadruped adaptation, allowing you to run on all fours! A step by step example of character creation is also provided.

More NPCs are also provided, with a mix of generic stat blocks (presented in the same manner as the core, with plot hooks for each) as well as fully fleshed out NPCs with names, personalities and art.

An introductory adventure is provided, using five characters kidnapped from a circus, augmented, and set loose to be hunted. Unlike a lot of intro adventures assuming a certain amount of characters, instructions are provided up front for scaling the adventure down if you have less than five. Outside of the introductory scene and the end scene, the rest of the adventure can be played in any order, the hunters are some unique...and horrifying...adversaries. Especially The Hound. I'm somewhat glad no art was provided for him. If the PCs succeed, tips are provided on how to continue the adventure into a full fledged campaign.

The book concludes with an appendix (full of useful links for research), an index, full credits for everyone involved, and an ad for The Fires of Promethea, coming soon.

WHAT WORKS: Again, another book just jam packed full of material. It does a great job of showing the dark side of the Resistance and the noble intentions of Frankenstein and his military, establishing the shades of grey world. More augmentations are always nice, and I again love how the present the NPC stat blocks. The hunters in the introductory adventure are absolutely terrifying, in a great way. The fiction again does a nice job of bringing you into the world of Promethea.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: I could never use the introductory adventure as a campaign launcher, because of the incredibly specific start (the PCs are circus performers) and it would be difficult to replace the pregens with home made characters. That said, I think it would, in fact, make a fantastic convention scenario. The comic short at the beginning didn't really feel like it added anything to the book (though it was hardly a huge strike against it, either).

CONCLUSION: You certainly don't NEED this book to run Dark Harvest, but it does alleviate some things that were missing from the first book (like a character creation example)...but if you LIKE Dark Harvest, there's a lot to like in this book, from a setting standpoint (the fiction, the essays on the Resistance and the Military) and from a game standpoint (the extra augmentations and NPCs, especially). I am very much intrigued to see what is coming in Fires of Promethea now.

Tommy's Take on Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein

This is the first of two reviews I'll be doing for Dark Harvest: The Legacy of Frankenstein, starting with the core rules (makes sense, right?).

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Published by Cubicle 7, the PDF is a surprisingly thick 216 pages (formatting makes it appear to be 110 in PDF readers) and is currently $19.99. The PDF I have lacks bookmarks or clickable links in the table of contents, which does hurt utility a bit.

Compatible with the Victoriana RPG (which I'm not familiar with), Dark Harvest is an alternate history RPG in which Victor Frankenstein, posing as "Prince Baden", has taken over Romania and replaced it with Promethea, a country-sized monument to his insane creations. The game is set in 1910, and the world has convinced itself that the Frankenstein in question must be a grandson or something, for Victor Frankenstein should either be dead or much older than he appears to be.

The heavily industrialized Promethea is a feudal society devoted to beauty and protection (as Frankenstein sees it), to the extent that the upper strata can order that the lower class can be forced into The Harvest, in which their better "parts" can be removed and added onto the wealthy in order to keep them alive and healthy. However, Promethea is wracked with civil war as The Resistance wages war with Frankenstein's upper class...The Resistance led by The Creature (Frankenstein's original monster). The lower class also have "scar gangs", which damage those with physical beauty, in order to keep the wealthy from harvesting them.

The first two chapters cover the history of Promethea and the current situations, including the processes of Augmentation and Evisceration (in which a person is basically torn apart...and kept alive and conscious for it far behind normal human limits) in excruciating detail. For instance, by law, the dead are turned over to the state for Harvesting, and the poor will often attempt to delay the certification of their dead in order to prevent harvesting...or even cripple and scar their own children in order to do so.

The book includes a gazetteer that breaks down all 41 counties in Promethea, ranging from a short paragraph to half a page, depending on size and importance, as well as a listing of "generic locations" like military bases and augmentation facilities. The details about the fortifications on each border are included as well, from the staffing and barriers to the time it took to close the borders.

If that doesn't give you enough of a feel for the setting (and there's a lot of information in the first few chapters), then there's also an anthology of short stories included that take you into life in Promethea through the eyes of citizens. After all of that...we get into the rules themselves.

Dark Harvest uses the Victoriana rules (modified), which I am not familiar with, but everything required for the game is included in this book. It's a d6 dice pool system, using an attribute and a skill to build your pool, and any 1s or 6s are counted as successes, with any 6s being re-rolled for the possibility of more successes. Essentially a 1 in 3 chance of a success for every die you roll, and the success chart doesn't count a "full" success until you've gotten two or more. However, if you are making a particularly contested roll, you have to roll a number of Black Dice, whose successes can cancel your own.

Damage is a bit odd, until you see the character sheet. There are a number of "dice" printed on it with 2 pips each, and whenever a damage roll is made, each success rolled on the damage roll is a pip of health. Every two pips of damage taken, you add a Black Die to future rolls. There are four shaded dice, and when those are covered, you pass out and are in danger of death.

Character creation is point buy. You start off selecting your concept and social class (the top tier isn't open to PCs), and then you assign six attribute points among three physical attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Fortitude) and mental (Presence, Wits, Resolve). You then get 50 points with which to buy Skills, Talents, Privilegs, Contacts, Assets and Augmentations.

The skill list has about 27 common skills (firearms, improvised weapons, streetwise), and you can also purchase specialities like Demolitions, Engineer, Lip Reading, etc.

Talents include the likes of Acute Sense, Backstabber, Deadly Shot, Drinks Like A Fish and Speed Reader.

Privileges include things like Military Commission and Society Friends, while Assets are things like Shops, Trained Pets, Legendary Reputations.

You can get more points with Complications, like Illiterate, Bad Reputation, Mute and Shy. You might need those if you want your own twisted augmentations like claws, gills, night vision and tails.

Each and every listing is detailed, with specialities, mechanics and the like.

Rules are provided for Augmentation in-game, influenced by a number of factors, including including the social class of the character. If things go badly, there arae complications, like drug dependency or even permanent flammability.

A lot of games allow for additional manipulation by the players, and Dark Harvest has Fate Dice and Scripting Dice. Fate Dice can be used to add successes to actions and reduce damage, while Scripting Dice (gained by spending 6 Fate Dice) can allowing for re-rolls, saving characters from death (mortal wounds are now very bad, but not lethal, wounds, etc). Rounding out the character stuff is Reputation, gained largely by Assets, which allow you to influence people around you.

A listing of stock NPC stats are provided, but it's really quite nice, as each stock type gets a paragraph, following by the streamlined NPC statblock, an example (character wise) of an NPC of that type, and a plot hook for that NPC type (from Priests to Servants to Socialites). Then we get into Promethean Creatures, which start with basic stuff like horses, monkeys and wolves and get into augmented bears and Promethean dire wolves.

The book rounds out with fairly detailed adventure hooks, a good sized bibliography, an index and a character sheet.

WHAT WORKS: The presentation is fantastic. There's a lot of information in here, but it never feels overbearing. The art is well-done and well-placed, never dominating the book but adding appropriate flavor. The setting is quite disturbing, with the wealthy preying off of the poor in a most unique manner, and the horrors of Frankenstein's machinations revealed in excruciating detail. The sealed off nature of Promethea also allows for extra intensity in setting that might not be there in a more "open" environment.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: The health system seems unnecessarily complicated. I probably would have liked more Talents, but with Augmentations, Assets, Privileges and Contacts, there are more options there than it appears on the surface. Perhaps my biggest gripe with the setting is that, as cool as it is, it seems to be building to a Frankenstein vs Creature encounter (okay, it says so a few times), and that seems like it would exclude the PCs from playing the major role in the future of Promethea.

CONCLUSION: A top-notch product with an inventive spin on alternate history and the Frankenstein mythos. Certainly not the first product I've seen to place the Creature in the role of the hero and Frankenstein in the role of megalomaniacal madman (Dean Koontz' series did it as well), but it still has its own spin on it that feels quite cool in its own right. Not sure I'm 100% sold on the system, as it has a few parts that feel unnecessarily complicated (like Health dice), but that may just be unfamiliarity with the system shining through. The setting alone places it on the higher end of alternate history games I've read.

Deadlands Noir, or Take My Money, Please

So Pinnacle had been teasing a new setting by John Goff recently, and when they pulled the trigger on it, it was bigger than I had thought: Deadlands Noir. The Deadlands timeline moved up to 1935 and, presumably, wearing the trappings of both the Weird West and hard-boiled noir. Even more impressively, the Kickstarter has almost doubled the goal in less than a day.

I am a Deadlands fanboy. I dig noir. Needless to say, I am absolutely pumped. With pledge goals that include PDFs ($20), hardcovers ($50), a special deck of cards ($75), unique bennies ($125) and a retailer package that includes copies of Deadlands Noir, Savage Worlds, maps and more, there are plenty of options, and yes, I plan on pledging (trying to figure out if I can budget in the deck of cards). Very awesome, and very unexpected, announcement from Pinnacle.

May RPG Deals at RPGNow

Hey folks...been crazy busy with multiple projects, but I did want to take the moment to drop a line and point out that you can get a slew of PDFs at RPGNow for 20% off using the code DriveThruApril (yes, they have been told that it is, in fact, May). These offers are good until June 14th.

Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion [Pinnacle Entertainment] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/64257/Savage-Worlds-Fantasy-Companion&affiliate_id=15975)

Realms of Cthulhu [Reality Blurs] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/77953/Realms-of-Cthulhu&affiliate_id=15975)

Karma Roleplaying System Core [Bards and Sages] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/58683/Karma-Roleplaying-System-Core-Rules-Book&affiliate_id=15975)

FantasyCraft [Crafty Games] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/63884/Fantasy-Craft-Second-Printing&affiliate_id=15975)

Fat Dragon's Dragonshire Deluxe [Fat Dragon Games] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/64254/DRAGONSHIRE%3A-Deluxe-Edition&affiliate_id=15975)

Paths of Power (Pathfinder System) [4 Winds Fantasy] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/65792/%5BPFRPG%5D-Paths-of-Power&affiliate_id=15975)

Spycraft: Real American H.E.R.O.es [Crafty Games] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/65785/Real-American-H.E.R.O.es&affiliate_id=15975)

Fellowship of the White Star Campaign Book [Thenodrin Presents] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/59997/Fellowship-of-the-White-Star-campaign-book&affiliate_id=15975)

Ninja Burger RPG (2nd Edition) [aetherial FORGE] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/11881/Ninja-Burger%3A-The-RPG-2nd-Edition)

Heavy Gear Blitz! Locked & Loaded [Dream Pod 9] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/12646/Heavy-Gear-Blitz%21-Rulebook&affiliate_id=15975)

Hero's Handbook: Dragonborn [Goodman Games] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/59034/Hero%27s-Handbook%3A-Dragonborn&affiliate_id=15975)

Splicers RPG [Palladium Books] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/64205/Splicers&affiliate_id=15975)

Noir Knights (Savage Worlds) [Savage Mojo] (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/80633/Noir-Knights-%28Savage-Worlds%29&affiliate_id=15975)

I particularly recommend Noir Knights, Realms of Cthulhu and the Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion.

Working on some new reviews to share with you over the next week, so look for those!