Tommy's Take on On Her Majesty's Arcane Service

Note: This review is actually several months old, but a) I'm getting CRUSHED under paying work, which is why I haven't started the Savage Worlds series and b) I eventually want all of my reviews available on this blog if possible anyway.

On Her Majesty’s Arcane Service is a new RPG released by Clash Bowley and Flying Mice Games, based off of his Blood Games II setting. Rather than the more modern horror approach of Blood Games II, On Her Majesty’s Arcane Service is more of a historical horror game, set specifically in 16th century England. I have both the PDF and a the POD version of the game. The PDF is available from RPGnow.com for $10, and the POD version is available from Lulu for $22.71. 


PDF vs POD
The PDF is full color and bookmarked. Clash has filled his RPG with clipart, but the vibrant colors of the PDF make much of the art stand out in a very good way. The art doesn’t look as impressive in the black and white tones of the POD version. As well, the formatting clearly wasn’t designed with POD in mind, as part of the back cover blurb is covered by the UPC code. Just speaking aesthetically, unless you have a hatred for PDFs, I would recommend the PDF over the hardcopy, as the PDF just looks better, top to bottom.


Table of Contents
We do get a Table of Contents, with chapter headings. Always a good sign. I can get around a lack of index in RPG books, but when they don’t even bother with a table of contents, that’s just annoying.


Introduction
Before I begin breaking down the chapters, I do want to comment here: I love Clash’s layout. He does a single column of text on the pages, and on the side he has little headings relating to the subject matter. I loved that in Blood Games II and that continues here. Anyway, the introduction begins with the history of this earth, up through the 16th century. It begins by talking about Homo Sapiens being hunted and stalked by Vampires, Lycanthropes and Demons. Enoch is sent to earth bequeaths both civilization and magic to humans. Humans beat back the darkness, but Demons find new ways to counter the advancements of humans and return in force. The battle has waged back and forth, slowing the advancement of humans. It is now the 16th century, Elizabeth has just become queen, and forced Catholics to the fringes.
Dr. John Dee, at the orders of Queen Elizabeth, has headed up Her Majesty’s Arcane Service, a secret force designed to protect England from mystical attack. Dee is a devoutly religious man, guided by angels to find his agents, PC and NPC alike.


The game is designed with a pretty clear focus, spelled out as the book discusses PCs. Namely, PCs are assumed to be agents of Dee’s, and assumed to be some denomination of Christian (any other religions need some work by the GM and player to make sense).


A section follows on group set-up, with PCs being Path (magical) characters or Non-Path (non magical) characters. What follows is a paragraph on each character type, and their typical role in the party, from Hunters and Templars to completely unskilled parties. Blood Games II included a similar section and it is a helpful read.


Creating Your Association
The group begins by creating their own branch of Her Majesty’s Arcane Service. The GM can decide how much starting “capital” the organization has, or they can roll 1d20 on the included chart. From there, you determine what kind of organization this is, once again determined by random roll or selection, and including entries such as Witch Hunters, a trading company, military, government diplomats or even simply an extended family. The book provides a helpful, short description of each entry.


Now, the group selects their home base, and a two page chart follows showing various entries, and their cost depending on their placement (broken down to “In London and out of London”). These range from palaces to working farms to derelict castles to pubs, warships and even pocket universes! A very nice selection covering all “levels” of games.
The group next needs to fund Areas of Interest, defined as Guards and Security, Espionage, Warships, Transport, Medical, Arcane Library, Training, Cartography, Mercenaries, Artificers and Device Development, and Logistics and Maintenance. This section expands on each entry, detailing costs of pikemen, details on tomes and libraries, costs of mercenaries and more. The chapter ends with a helpful worksheet designed to keep the numbers straight.
I like this system, but the downside seems to be that it is geared towards something of an in-group “game” where each side haggles for what they think is appropriate. As I often GM for only one or two players at a time, a lot of that would be lost. A little crunchier than, say, the Angel RPG organization rules, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.


Creating A Character
Character creation is handled via a Lifepath system. You start at 10 years old and age through Apprentice and Journeyman stages before seeking out professional life. Come up with a basic, short concept and decide if you are making a Path character or a Non-Path character. You have two choices for character generation: Point Buy, which gives you 44 points for physical attributes (Strength, Coordination, Agility and Endurance) and 180 points for mental attributes (Intelligence, IQ, Magic, Lifestyle and Charisma), or a random roll method in which you use 2d6 for your physical attributes and percentile die for your mental. Next, take four “Mother’s Milk” skill ranks – that is, skills you would have had before the age of 10. Find an Apprenticeship that suits you. If you meet the prerequisites for it, you’re fine…if not, you can make a waiver roll on a d20 to bypass those requirements. This grants you 9 skill ranks/attribute increases. Next comes Journeyman, which is handled the same way. From this point on, you can decide if you want to take a Path or not. If so, that opens up new skill and attribute opportunities, as well as special abilities. Then, you begin selecting professions. You take one increase per year spent in the profession with an additional increase for every six years in the profession, and you can change at any time. This persists until the character is “aged” appropriately. Every two years in the profession, you have an opportunity for advancement, which can increase your Lifestyle. For finishing touches, add 7 levels of Traits, which can be taken from a sample list, or defined by you. One example from the Traits section featured a character using his 2 ranks of “Goad” on a guard. You calculate your Constitution score from your physical attributes, select starting gear and you’re finished.


The chapter continues with a brief note on die mechanics. The Starpool system which powers On Her Majesty’s Arcane Service uses a d20 die pool with every roll under the target number counting as a success. Also, like BGII before it, a character only advances once a year, and is assumed to have approximately one major adventure a year.


I do love Lifepath systems. I generally find them to be much fun. I am a tad different in that I largely prefer a slightly more random element to my lifepaths, but I have long thought that the Starpool lifepath system to be a very solid system.
After the outline of character creation mentioned above, the book goes into much deeper detail, including discussion of Deterioration, which becomes a reality as characters enter their mid 30s.


Next we get a listing of Apprenticeships. Each listing has Prerequisites, Waiver Rolls, Lifestyle and Skills Available. You can take an apprenticeship as a Thief, Warrior, Hunter (not to be confused with the magical character type), Priest and more. From there is the listing of Journeyman entries, which has the same detail and includes being a Thug, Soldier, Sailor, Trapper, Squire and more. Finally, we get listings of professions, such as Pirate, Artist, Explorer, Engineer, Priest, Lord, Spy and much more.


A sample character, Sir Edmund Teague, is created for our perusal. Teague is a point buy soldier turned Esotericist.


Character Options
Half-Angels are just as they sound, but with a twist: While not born of a union between humans and angels, they are born of a lineage in which an angel has previously bred, and they have a latent gene which has activated. Half-Angels are always twins, one with light coloring ad wings and one with dark coloring and wings. Normal humans are incapable of perceiving Half-Angels for what they are. As in BGII, Half-Angels are so rare that if there are two in a party, the book STRONGLY recommends that they are twins. Half-Angels can fly, heal, make flaming weapons, and communicate telepathically. Once they have declared allegiance to the light or dark, they gain access to a few more powers, such as Auras of Light or Darkness, or emitting pure Awe or Menace.


Immortals have a destiny that MUST be fulfilled before they can die. Once they die their “first death” they become trapped 
in that form for the rest of their existence. They can’t even learn new skills, though they can “forget” ranks of skills and reassign those ranks to new skills. Only when they accomplish what they were fated to accomplish can death take them.


Changelings come in two varieties: fairies who have been left in the place of human babies, and human babies who have grown up in Faery. Fairy Changelings can access some oof the more magical Paths of Power, while Human Changelings are just like humans, physically, except they always exude just a bit of that fairy magic on them. They can learn some fairy magic, but can never take a Path of Power.


Hunters are kind of like the setting’s answer to Slayers, except gender neutral. They are humans enhanced by magic to fight the darkness, and are capable of low-end wire-fu type combat.


The Esotericists are scholars devoted to learning the secrets of the supernatural world, and combine all manner of mystical, scientific and religious study to that purpose. They can cast spells, create relics and have magical Grimoires that house their knowledge.


The Magus are followers of the Archangels, and the ones that imbue Hunters with their power. Each Magus follows a single Archangel, who grants them power over the areas that the Archangel lords over.
Templars are Holy Warriors. Once called, their creation also releases a Demon from Hell. The Templar knows its name and some of its personality, and is tasked with sending it back. Templars are also granted a small selection of Miracles they can use on their adversaries.


The Savant is basically a magical scientist, using logic to master mysticism. Savants can create Wards, read Astrological charts, Commune with spirits, create dimensional pockets, and more.


A Warlock’s main schtick is summoning spirits. They can call them, anchor them and even clothe the spirits in flesh. Warlocks have a very bad reputation, but aren’t inherently evil.


Cunning Folk use “folk magic” to achieve their ends, but neither they, nor their targets, realize that they aren’t actually using magic, but merely reinforcing their target’s belief in the desired effect.


Minstrels are similar to the classic Bards from Dungeons & Dragon, using their music to achieve effects bordering (and sometimes crossing that border) on magical. They can boost or lower a listener’s attributes, and even affect their memories.


The book shifts to normal humans and how they view the types of magic that they are even aware of. As well, it provides for an otherwise unpowered human to have developed some manner of “gift” from their contact with the supernatural: a talent that isn’t normal and can’t really be controlled.


OHMAS Skills and Traits


Skills give you extra dice to roll when attempting a task. If you are riding a horse and have Riding +3, you roll 4 dice (you always get one) and try to roll under your target number. For every five levels in a skill that you have, that’s a Level of Mastery, and that grants you a reroll if you fail. Simple and effective.


The skill list itself takes up four and a half pages, and that’s a bit larger than I tend to like for a skill list. However, the less than crippling penalties for not having a skill makes that slightly less annoying.
Next, we cover traits, which I went over above. Just short descriptors to flesh out the characters.
Finally, we get a look at unarmed fighting styles…specifically, Boxing, Brawling and Wrestling.


Religion
This chapter plunges headlong into the Seven Sacraments of the Church: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Unction, Matrimony, Holy Orders and Penance, as well as a fairly detailed description of each. Then the book moves into the differences between the Roman Church and Church of England. This section also touches on Calvinists and Puritans.
The chapter rounds out with Tests of Faith for confronting Demons and Vampires and the like, Tests of Will for the less devout to fend off Demonic Influences and rules for Possessions.


Adventure Generator
Yes! I love adventure generators! This one is pretty straightforward. Get a d20 and roll on the tables, or move through them picking for inspiration. You start with a rumor, move to a place, a table for finding out what is behind the rumor, how much the association stands to gain from the adventure and “sweeteners”. Then the book helpfully provides a list of adventures made with the generator.
Finally, there are bounties which can be tacked onto the adventures and up the PCs overall standard of living.


Non-Player Characters
Another fine chapter after my own heart: Need to generate an NPC and don’t want to put a ton of work into it? A series of tables that let you roll up on NPC, including quick rolls for attributes, personality hook, skill levels and more. As well, the book also provides a handy list of pre-made mercs, thugs and mooks to be used, hired and dealt with as need be.


Magic
We get a quick overview of how Magic works in BGII, namely using a characters MAG points as placeholders for magic effects. The chapter explicitly points out that no Magic is permanent, even magic used to empower items. Magi and Minstrels use MAG points differently, using them up in a session, with them returning at the next one. This chapter includes the Laws of Correspondence, the rules which govern the use of magic in the setting.
The chapter concludes with a list of very common spells, common spells, uncommon spells and rare spells.


Starpool Dice Mechanic
An in-depth chapter detailing just how the dice mechanic works, from basic d20 rolls to Quality of Success (every ten points of success is an additional level of Quality of Success). As well, the book provides a fairly common sense guideline of what attributes a given action should fall under.
Initiative is handled like everything else: Roll a d20 and lowest roll is best. However, you can move up or down the initiative chain by adding or subtracting resolution dice. That is, if you roll a 10 and want to move faster, you can give up one of the dice you will roll for your action and drop to a 7 on the initiative chart. If you are convinced you can succeed and don’t need to go quickly, you can add an additional die to your action but move your initiative to a 13. Armor modifies the target number to hit someone, and combat has a bit of a death spiral where you take penalties as you lose Constitution points to damage.


In combat, Levels of Mastery grant you additional attacks, whether or not you succeed on the initial attack. This chapter also discusses Healing, magical and otherwise, as well as bits like splitting dice pools for actions (pretty much as simple as it sounds).


Creatures and the Spirit World
This is pretty much the bestiary of the book. It begins with a discussion of the Spirit World, the inhabitants therein and how to enter the Spirit World. The Spirit World presented here is a lot like the Astral Plane in a good deal of other sources, with the silver cord tethering the traveler to their body. It also details spirits crossing over into the physical world, such as by following the severed string of a now deceased traveler in the Spirit World.
A large list of spirit creatures are present, from the fire-based salamanders, to hags, demons, nymphs, ghosts, devils (these are the fallen angels of Christian lore) and djinn (and much more). The book then moves into other creatures like zombies, lycanthropes, and even skeptics, normal people whose skepticism can disrupt magical powers. One glaring omission is vampires, who are mentioned at the beginning of the book as being enemies of humankind, and from whom the whole Blood Games title comes from.
Next is a detailed discussion of fairies, all of whom are born the same and later grow into a different kind of fairy depending on how they live their lives. A few, like elves, can pass for human and live among humans, often in leadership roles. Other fairies include ogres, trolls and redcaps on the darker end, and brownies and piskies on the nicer end.


Weapons and Equipment
Pretty much what you expect: A sprawling list of weapons, armor and equipment available in 16th century England. The neatest part is the discussion of the importance of equipment, such as how important clothing was to 16th century England. 
While there is no chapter break here, I’m sure there was probably meant to be one, but we move into the counties of England. Very helpfully done, this lays out the 39 counties of England with about a paragraph on each and a URL for a map of each county. This ends with an overview of the counties, which should probably have gone first.


Government and Politics
This provides some insight into the political structure of England in the 16th century, discussing Parliament, courtiers, nobles and so forth. The chapter then moves to a less generalized discussion, talking about the people of Elizabeth’s court from the Queen herself, and including Lord Robert Dudley, Mary, Queen of Scots, Sir Walter Raleigh, Dr. John Dee and even William Shakespeare.


Game Mastering
One of the first things this chapter points out is that the second the game begins, history has been changed, so if the PCs wind up altering things, let it go. Good advice. No plot immunity for you, William Shakespeare! From there it touches on things like Flashbacks, Foreshadowing and different kinds of play, including Generational Play where the PCs play different branches of their family tree, perhaps battling an adversary throughout different eras.


Appendix A: Optional Rules
This gets into optional rules like Plot Points (which can make an action an automatic success or failure), Troupe Play (everyone has multiple characters) including different types of Troupe Play (Mission Impossible style has the group leader selecting the participants for each mission, for instance).
Lastly, the book ends with an index, a character sheet, a character creation worksheet (for tracking advancements in the lifepath) and personal information sheets.


Overall
First, again, unless you hate PDFs, buy the PDFs. The art looks MUCH better. As for the game itself? I’m not a huge fan of the “alternate history England” thing (although its pretty much only alternate due to the presence of monsters and the PCs). For me, I think I would prefer Blood Games II and the more modern approach. However, OHMAS clocks in at over twenty pages more than BGII and still feels more tightly written. The Association rules and the Adventure Generator are great additions, as is the fairy material. The absence of vampires seems odd, but if you have Blood Games II they should plug right in with no problems. Clash once more does an amazing job for what is pretty much a one man operation. All of the various character types feel unique against one another, even if aspects of their mechanics work the same (such as Magi and Minstrels burning pools of Magic points each session).
If you like horror games (specifically, heroes fighting the darkness) games, and you especially like historical games, drop the 10-spot on the PDF. If you are living outside the US, then that’s pretty much the only option unless Lulu has stopped killing people on shipping. Very strong recommendation.

Savage Worlds Characters Are All The Same: The Introduction

So on a recent website thread, I got into a bit of a row with a guy who argued that Savage Worlds characters are all basically the same, mechanically. Similarly, I have also heard that Savage Worlds characters BECOME the same mechanically over time.

I am going to launch into a series of articles, taking a party up from Novice to Legendary. I'm using Explorer's Edition as the base, with a fantasy take most likely...which means I do reserve the right to apply a setting or supplement (as most Savage Worlds games will use a setting, which has its own rules).

I'm going to tinker with the characters a bit, but I'm anticipating an Agile Fighter, a Tank, a Sniper, a Spellcaster and a Faceman, complete with explanations on how they interact with the rules. I'm anticipating weekly updates, I think, complete with what each Advances taken are...and who knows? Maybe I will be proved wrong.

IDEALLY, they will be up by the weekend, but if not, then this time next week.

Savage Worlds Power Stunts

This should have been so obvious to me.

The first full-fledged Savage Worlds campaign that my group embarked on was a Necessary Evil campaign. I'm actually a huge fan of the Super Powers system, I just don't like it for...superheroes.

While some of the powers have flaws (Decay, as written, is useless in our experience), the overall system just isn't flexible. An OBVIOUS solution was staring me right in the face, though.

The Super Powers Companion offers up Heroic Bennies, which offer benefits not unlike those of the Deadlands Fate Chips, including adding an additional +1d6 to a die roll. I submit an alternate use: Power Stunts.

POWER STUNTS
Your hero can spend a Heroic Bennie to gain the effect of any applicable Modifier for one of his powers, until the beginning of his next turn. The GM has final say over whether or not a Modifier is usable in this manner.

Simple, straightforward.

Supers, by their nature, make up crap as they go along...twisting their powers in new and exciting ways. If a PC finds a tactic that they really like? They can pay Power Points to make it a permanent part of their arsenal. Otherwise, they can only bust it out if they have a Heroic Bennie to spare.

Optionally, you can make that a use of any Bennie, not just a Heroic Bennie, if the idea sounds good but limited.

This may have just salvaged "Savage Worlds As A Supers System" for me.

Tommy's Take on The Ice Palace

The Ice Palace, like previous ICONS adventures by Vigilance Press, assumes that you are playing in World War II, as Allied heroes. In fact, any of the previous team books can be used with no adjustments at all, both as PCs and NPCs.

The product is very light on art, which translates into being a lot of text crammed into the $2 package.

To be safe, there are spoilers after the jump:

Tommy's Take on Resolute Beasts, Dungeon Classics and More Dragons

RESOLUTE: BOOK OF BEASTS I

This is actually intended for the Resolute fantasy setting, but is compatible with the supers book if you want some more variety. Costing a whole dollar and running eight pages, you might just be wondering precisely what you're getting.


You are, in fact, getting over 60 creatures, spread out over 7 categories (such as insects, humanoids, lycanthropes, undead, etc), fully statted in the Resolute rules system. There are also sidebars, such as handling lycanthropy in Resolute and magical properties that the body parts of the Fantastic Creatures provides.


Practically indespensible for a Resolute GM. Highly recommended if you run Resolute.


MONSTER BRIEF: DUNGEON CLASSICS

Mind Flayers and Beholders...I'm sorry, Thought Flayers and Watchers.

This may be the single best release by Misfit Studios thus far, bringing two true classics to Savage Worlds, with serial numbers filed off.

The two famous aberrations are dangerous...especially considering that Thought Flayers have a BONUS to grapple the heads of their targets, helping to negate the called shot penalties.

The Watcher's eye stalks are also represented, with cruel and harsh effects including petrification present and accounted for. Seriously: These guys are SCARY...some of the scariest Savage Worlds write-ups I have ever seen...so fair warning.

We also get three new powers: Charm, Mind Reading and Telepathy, to properly model our beasties.

Oh, Cloakers and Mimics are also here, but let's be honest: Mind Flayers and Beholders are the draw here, and rightfully so.

Just a tremendous addition to the Savage Worlds bestiary.

MONSTER BRIEF: MORE DRAGONS

This name is about as descriptive as it gets. Misfit Studios covers more dragons for Savage Worlds.

Ice Dragons have a couple of breath weapon options, the first being a cone of frost that is handled like a typical Savage Worlds cone attack...but the second is a cold fog that utterly blocks all vision in the area. They are also easily baited with warm flesh. In fact, it's probably easier to trick one than to kill one.

The Mountain Dragons is gigantic and scary, spewing hot gravel from its mouth and having a massive treasure hoard. There is a hefty payoff for killing one...but this one will make you work for it.

Sea Dragons are interesting creatures in that they have tempermants as violent as the sea...that is, you can't guarantee what you'll get from one each day. While individual Sea Dragons tend towards malicious or benevolent (adding a modifier to their reaction roll, it is possible than a normally vicious and destructive creature shows up feeling quite helpful.

Swamp Dragons are acid spitting beasts whose scales can somewhat meld into their surroundings. Rather than kill people and creatures around them, they prefer to torment them, getting more joy from inflicting terror and harm rather than outright slaughter.

Another great entry in the line-up, with some obvious D&D inspiration, just tweaked a bit so that these dragons stand out on their own merits.

Tommy's Take on War of the Dead: Chapter Two Week Four

Special thanks to Lee Szczepanik, Jr and Daring Entertainment for sending this along early, as Chapter Two, Week Four of War of the Dead comes out on Monday.

Obviously, there are spoilers, so tread carefully.

[DBloC] Today is a total non-starter

Yeah, so I've started, stopped and deleted this blog post about a dozen times.

If I weren't doing DBloC, I wouldn't be posting today...=P I can't sleep worth a crap this week, which has me running behind and unable to concentrate on anything.

Stuff to look forward to:

- I'll be reviewing GREEN HORNET: GOLDEN AGE REMASTERED #4 and DEAN KOONTZ' FRANKENSTEIN: PRODIGAL SON VOL. 2 #2 (got all of that) over at Project Fanboy by the weekend.

- I think I'm going to start hammering out some characters I have laying around in various supers systems, including Marvel SAGA, ICONS, BASH, Savage Worlds and Hearts & Souls.

- Not ENTIRELY sure what's next in the Review Queue...I'm kicking away at a book that's not going to turn out pretty, I don't think, and those never excite me.

- In awesome, non-review news, I'm sure I'm going to have to partake in Indian Health Services again very soon as I have a tooth giving me INSANE fits again, as well as noticeable hearing loss developing in my left ear...(along with much ringing).

- If you haven't picked it up yet, my first published comic work is available at DriveThruComics for the low, low price of 99 cents. I wrote the back-up story HELLRAZER: LIVING IN SHADOWS.

Anyway, I hope to add more productive stuff to the blog through the rest of the month, but no promises.

Tommy's Take on Leverage Roleplaying Game

I've been waiting for this one.

I absolutely love the TV show Leverage, and the Leverage RPG Quickstart is the only Quickstart I have ever spent money on. The problem? It sure looked incredibly daunting to run when I was reading it. Now, the Leverage RPG is finally released.


For those who aren't aware, Leverage is a TV show on TNT that is, essentially, a "Robin Hood meets Mission Impossible" thing. A crew of five criminals (The Mastermind, Grifter, Hacker, Hitter and Thief, wonderfully played by Timothy Hutton, Gina Bellman, Aldis Hodge, Christian Kane and Beth Riesgraf, respectively) help the poor and downtrodden who have been screwed by The Man, and help them get revenge/restitution.

Nate Ford (Hutton) was an insurance investigator who butted heads with the other four that now make up his crew, who leaves his job when his company refuses to pay for medical treatments for his son, leading to his death. In the pilot, he assembles the crew when he's hired for a big revenge scheme, and it all balloons up from there.

Now on it's third season (and confirmed for a fourth), the crew have hit some interesting twists and turns along the way, but the show keeps to a basic formula: A Client hires The Crew to get revenge on The Mark, complications and hilarity ensue...I say hilarity, in that the show is more of a modern day A-Team than anything else, with the Rule of Cool being the order of the day.

Honestly, it sounds like it should be a lovely transfer to a roleplaying game, right?

Unlike the initial release of Smallville, Margaret Weis Productions has bookmarks in place right away, as well as searchability and copy and paste. However, there is no index, for those of you who buy the physical book.

The book is full color and filled with photos from the first two and a half seasons, making the book appear much less dated than a lot of licensed RPGs tend to (MWP pulled off this same feat with Smallville).

FOREWORD

We get a one page foreword by the show's co-creator (and comic/roleplaying geek John Rogers) about the inspiration for the show. I do agree with the concept, and find it incredibly cathartic...even though I'm not always sold on the politics of the show...but it's far from being as heavy handed as it could be.

THE PITCH

This is essentially the introduction chapter, telling you about the characters in the show (mentioned above) and a bit about the tone of the world, which is Very Serious with a side of Quirky. It also makes it clear that your starting characters are not starting characters: That is, the PCs are not rookies...they are at least Very Good at what they do.

THE BRIEFING

Now we start getting into mechanics and game terminology.

The Party is a Crew, the GM is a Fixer, etc. Leverage skews a little closer to traditional RPGs than Smallville did, not dispensing with the Attributes like the latter did. Every Crewmember has Agility, Alertness, Intelligence, Strength, Vitality and Willpower, rated from d4 to d12. Every Crewmember also has a role (Mastermind, Hitter, Grifter, Hacker and Thief) rated from d4 to d10. You get Specialities that are tacked onto the Roles, Distinctions that help flesh out your Crewmember more, Talents that distinguish one Grifter/Hacker/Mastermind/etc from the next, as well as Assets and Complications (extra bonuses or pitfalls that the Crewmembers may call on - or have to deal with).

As for the system itself, you always roll at least two dice: The appropriate Attribute and the appropriate Role...and yeah, sometimes you have to figure what "appropriate" means. You total the two higher dice (sometimes things such as Assets allow you to roll more dice) and that's your result. The Fixer than rolls the appropriate opposition dice, and if he rolls higher, than he Raises The Stakes. The Player gets to try to regain control of the situation by outrolling the Fixer...at any point, one side can back down and let the side in control of the situation decide how it is resolved. If you outroll the Fixer by 5 or more, you get an Extraordinary Success and have thoroughly trounced the opposition.

If a Player rolls a 1, the Fixer can toss in a Complication. If the Fixer rolls a 1, the Player gets an Opportunity...same thing, different perspectives.

Finally, every Crewmember gets Plot Points that they can then use to tweak the action.

THE CREW

Also known as Character Creation.

They recommend creating characters together and running through a short Recruitment mission...and while you CAN play this with more (or less) than 5 players, that's obviously the sweet spot so that you hit the coverage on all of the Roles.

One thing to note about the die scale: d12 is character defining, off the charts kind of stuff. d10 and d8 is incredibly exceptional. d6 is stuff that you have, but isn't a huge part of your character and d4 is "interestingly bad".

Every Player picks their Primary Role (rated at d10) and Secondary Role (rated at d8). While some people might share the same Secondary, it's PROBABLY a good idea to spread out the Primary Roles...although this can lead to an interesting deficiency for gameplay.

Each role is given a paragraph overview, as well as a full description of just what they do, and important Attributes for each Role. Additionally, each Role gets a set of character "types" one might get by combining the various Primary Role+Secondary Role combinations, complete with suggested Talents for each combo.

Right now, you only assign the Primary and Secondary Roles...from there, you add two Specialties, which add a d6 to your Role+Attribute rolls when relevant. Some examples include Driving (Hacker), Sports Trivia (Mastermind), Explosives (Thief). There is no set list for Specialities...you get to define them, as well as their associated roles.

For Attributes, you get two dice arrays to choose from to spread out among your Attributes, one being more focused (giving you an extra d10, but also an extra d6) while the other is a little more spread out.

Distinctions are kind of like Aspects from Fate-style games, in that they define parts of your character, but can provide bonuses or penalties, depending on the situation. The kicker is that you get a Plot Point for invoking a Distinction in a negative manner...AND you get a bonus die: a d4, which is more likely to cause a Complication.

Talents are unique abilities that are all triggered in different ways: Some are meant to be used when the Fixer provides an Opportunity (by rolling a 1) and some kick in when specific actions are used. The book is annoyingly vague on Talents (stating only that you get "one or two" and that "at least half" must be keyed to your Primary Role).

Each Role gets Talents, as well as a list of Open Talents. I can only imagine that the upcoming Splatbooks (only two, last time I looked, not five - some Roles are sharing books, obviously) will add more.

Grifters get Talents allowing them to spot lies a mile away, or allowing them to be Masters of Disguise.

Hackers can get bonuses if they are squaring off specifically against another person instead of an automated system, or they can drop a Plot Point to have retroactively given a Crewmember a sweet tool.

Hitters can get some dirty, dirty tricks, as well as size up opponents before they ever have to fight.

Masterminds can allow Crewmembers to openly share Plot Points or even turn a Complication around into a bonus die for their own roll.

Thieves can take Talents to gain bonuses on just about any specialty.

Open Talents include allowing you to blend into the background or spend a Plot Point to insert yourself into a scene that you weren't already involved in.

The Talents section ends with a set of Talent creation rules, in case you want something that's not there.

The Recruitment Job is a minisession that brings the group together and helpfully fills out the rest of the character sheet. According to the book, by this point every Crewmember should still be recording 3 Role dice, 2 Distinctions, 2 Talents and 2 Specialties...so I'm really kind of confused on Talents (and Specialties), as to what should be defined when.

The Fixer gets a very brief "Job Creation" guide, to help slap the short session together. Essentially, the Fixer drops the basic scenario in the laps of the Crew, and lets them figure out how they want to solve it, with each deciding their role.

You all then walk through the Scenario, adding the appropriate Talents, Specialties and other Roles as need be, with the Mastermind swooping in to fix things if someone botches their part of the mission.

Once everyone goes through their Spotlight Scenes and the Mark is taken down, all of the Crew should be pretty well fleshed out.

Alternately, there is "Fast Recruitment", which lets you fill in the blanks without the Recruitment Job.

One thing worth noting is that one of your Distinctions is out of your control: That is, the other players will determine that Distinction, as it is how other people see you, so have fun with that.

Experience is handled a little differently here. You record the Jobs you go on, and you can refer back to previous jobs in Callbacks, essentially gaining free Plot Points. You can also "spend" jobs to add Assets, Specialties or Talents, or improve Attributes or Roles, although you can't use "spent" jobs for Callbacks.

You can also modify the Crew (in big and small ways) over time, replacing Distinctions, losing (and replacing) Assets and so on. Optional rules are included to take a very loose approach ala Relationships in Smallville, building the Trust among the team, which can yield benefits.

Lastly, after x amount of Jobs, you take a Break (Leverage tends to run in "split seasons", usually with a dramatic twist that sets up the time off)...during that time, all remaining Jobs must be "spent" in preperation for the return to action.

The latter part of this chapter cleared up the earlier parts...but this could have really done well to have a one page "cheat sheet" of precisely what you get and when creating characters, with hard numbers removed from the wall of text.

All of the flowcharts in Smallville made it incredibly easy to follow...and while character creation isn't as involved here, a summary would still have been great.

The chapter ends with Rap Sheets for the five main cast members, as well as temporary Grifter replacement Tara Cole.

THE JOB

A more detailed gameplay chapter, beginning with going back over Traits in more detail...note that a LOT of supporting characters will be utterly defined by one or two Traits: Thug d6 or Nervous d4 Deputy d8, etc.

We get a very well-written breakdown of action for the game, defining scenes in "beats" (when the dice are rolled), as well as kinds of actions, such as Face Actions (used when one character is trying to manipulate another, for instance).

In Combat, you can Give In if you're losing and don't think you can turn things around, taking a Complication but getting away, as well as a Plot Point.

Leverage uses Flashbacks, and we cover both types in detail: Establishment Flashbacks which are used to add an Asset for the scene to help you out, and the Wrap-Up Flashbacks in which the Crew's plans are all in place, the proverbial trigger is pulled, and hopefully the Mark goes down.

THE FIXER

This is the GMing chapter, and a well-done chapter it is.

This chapter provides a breakdown of the Leverage pacing structure, and a step-by-step walkthrough for building a Caper. You get the starting points: The Mark, The Client and The Problem...does someone come to the Crew? Does one of the Crew witness something they feel needs fixing? Etc. Other selections include The Problem, Why They Need The Crew (if the bad guy is the Mayor, normal legal channels may not work), The Mark's Angle, Why The Mark is Protected, The Mark's Weakness, Who Else Is Involved...just a well-build menu to help walk you through creating Capers.

Again, this chapter is heavily focused on recreating the Leverage experience, with your Crew, and a lot of space is devoted to that. There is a handy section on Twists you may want to avoid, mostly so that you don't make your Crew so paranoid that they refuse to do much of anything without hours of preparation...(anyone here every play D&D with someone whose DM twisted a Wish on them, and they got another Wish? Did that player take an hour carefully phrasing said Wish to avoid being utterly screwed?)

Ultimately, the rule is "Don't let the action slow down, and give the players enough information that they don't spend all night chasing their tails"...which, in most situations, I completely agree. A tail-chasing scenario CAN work, in the right circumstances...I mean, it's classic red herring stuff...but setting up a Mark who is actually innocent isn't the same thing as not giving the players an essential piece of information and having them chase drug smugglers when they really need to be bringing down a hospital administrator.

Seriously...I love the idea of this game, but as I noted, the Quickstart Job made me very...nervous. This removes a LOT of apprehension I have about trying to run the game, essentially acting as a Dummy's Guide To Heists and Capers.

Very well done.

THE TOOLBOX

This is the "how-to" build very aspects of The Job, complete with examples.

The Mark is defined by their Traits, starting with why they are untouchable and their motivations...then they get their weaknesses...and a fifth trait that's more than a little for flavor.

The Client isn't detailed quite as specifically, but they aren't often involved in the middle of the action (though this isn't always true, as more than one Client has wound up as part of the Crew's plan).

Extras a generally a single trait.

Agents are a little more detailed (and competent) than Extras (and often Clients), and can be on your side or against you.

Foils are built almost exactly like Crewmembers (minus Roles, but with Traits). They are generally recurring characters, sometimes being from a Crewmember's past and sometimes holding a grudge once crossing paths with the Crew after they are formed.

Places have Traits as well, and can be one time set pieces or recurring scenery (like the Crew's base).

We also get a bit on "ripping from the headlines"...that is, taking a story from the news and turning it into a caper. Which really ISN'T a bad idea, and if you have any news-aware players, they can probably give you all kinds of inspiration (maybe even bringing you the basic caper themselves).

Where they REALLY win me over is the Random Situation Generator. Yeah...a series of charts that you can use to roll up Capers, starting with The Client and going from there. In fact, I'm going to sideline this review for a minute to roll up a Caper.

Client: Clergy
Problem: Framed (oh, this is getting good already)
Pressure: It's Personal
Mark: Businessperson
Mark's Angle: Greedy
Mark's Power: Wealthy and Connected
Mark's Weakness: Fearful
Mark's Vulnerability: Family
Who Else Is Involved: The Innocent
The Twist: The Mark' not really the bad guy

Hmm...I'm seeing a Pastor or Priest of the church that a crewmember either does (or did) belong to being framed for embezzlement in a charity situation with a local (successful) businessman whose wife is the church receptionist and whose son is a youth leader at the church. Obviously, he's a heartless, greedy bastard who set up the clergyman...except, of course, that he didn't...in this case, I'm inclined to say that the wife or son is the The Bad Guy, having access to both ends of the business' charitable donations. For a REALLY seedy twist, toss in an affair: Wife with clergyman, clergyman with youth leader or wife (actually step-mom) with son...maybe Dad is prominently anti-gay (maybe funding "re-education camps"?), son and clergyman are closeted lovers, and son is doing this all behind his Dad's and lover's back, planning on his lover being exonerated when the framejob collapses...either thinking he can outsmart your Crew, or not counting on the clergyman going to the Crew for help.

Hm...yeah. Anti-gay businessman funding homosexual re-education camps. Clergy gets outed as being gay, and then the frame job happens. Clergyman goes to the Crewmember for help, knowing that the businessman HAS to be setting him up, thinking he may suspect the affair with businessman's son. In reality, the son (with some pent up hostility towards Dad) has manipulated his position working in both the church and his father's company to set up this elaborate plot to give his tyrannical father his comeuppance. Mom can just be hopelessly caught in the middle or supporting either the father's or son's agenda, depending. I think that'd work.

Anyway, back to the review:

The chapter rounds out with stats for some Agents and Foils from the show, including geek icon Wil Wheaton's turn as the Hacker known as Cha0s...and contradicting the early section that says they don't have Roles, but Traits...(to be fair, the book says that some of the Traits may be the same as some of the Roles the Crew has...but not only do the example Foils have the exact same Roles, but they are listed as Roles and not Traits...an example of a Foil, even fictional, with differing Traits would have been appreciated).

THE CRIME WORLD

This chapter gives tips on considering the world at large, as well as "thinking like a criminal", but the harmless, Leverage kind of criminal (that is, don't go around shooting people, for instance).

Of course, it also says to Keep A Low Profile, and anyone who watches the show should know why I find that to be so funny (the crew ends most episodes mugging for the Mark as they are hauled away, and Eliot has become a media sensation at least twice while on the job).

We also get the basics of Cons, including some Cons used in the show, to help everyone get in the mindset.

While not as impressive as the GMing chapter, it is still very helpful.

THE RECORD

This is a summary of the first two seasons, broken down with The Client, The Mark, The Problem, The Plan and How It Goes Down, with quotes tossed in for good measure.

After all of that, we get a blank Rap Sheet.

CONCLUSION

I doubt I've ever been more disappointed that I lack a full group of five players than I am now. Margart Weis Productions *may* have topped Smallville here.

Tommy's Take on Blitzkrieg, Bonus Cards and Bookbinder

BLITZKRIEG LONDON

Blitzkrieg London is a new adventure for ICONS by Vigilance Press, set in their World War II setting.

It is designed for people playing Vigilance Force, The Crown Guard or (possibly) The People's Revolution but as long as your PCs are anyone opposed to the Axis powers and operating in Europe, it shouldn't be too problematic to figure it out.

The Eugenics Brigade are about to launch a desperation assault on allied leaders, who are finalizing plans for D-Day, and the PCs are in London providing extra security.

It isn't a terribly complicated adventure, but it is very well organized, and a good bit of two-fisted fun. Over the course of the attack, the heroes will have the opportunity to fight Nazis on land, sea and air, as well as intervene in a superhero misunderstanding between the Crown Guard member Swordfish and a Captain America stand-in (who acts more like the USAGent).

I applaud them for providing tips on scaling every encounter, as well as tossing in extra "mini-challenges" to spice each encounter up. The adventure is only 17 pages (taking away the cover and OGL information), but is very well organized, making it rather user friendly. Unlike the Battlescenes released recently, however, there is little use if you're not wanting to play in WWII, and you will need at least the Eugenics Brigade PDF to get the most use out of this.

Great value for the price, as always.

OSR BONUS CARDS: Fantasy Deck #1

I...could see these not going over real well.

The OSR Bonus Cards are a deck of cards designed for D&D or any retroclone, designed to be doled out to the players and allow them to gain access to small bonuses. I've seen some old school purists go so far as to say that giving players stuff like that actually means the games are no longer even RPGs at that point...that being said, I think they're kinda cool.

The cards are mapped to the standard playing card decks, with Jokers being wildcards. Clubs belong to Fighters, Diamonds to Thieves, Hearts to Clerics and Spades to Magic-Users.

Fighter benefits include an extra attack, an automatic hit or an automatic parry.

Thieves can score an auto success on a thieving skill roll, double damage on a backstab and various bonuses to thieving skill rolls.

Clerics can get an auto success on turning the undead, a free Detect Good/Evil or doubling the range and duration of a spell.

Magic Users can memorize a bonus spell, an auto success on an Intelligence check or a free Detect Magic.

They're a nice product for under $2 and not art intensive, so it won't be a strain to print them out...plus, being mapped to a standard deck of playing cards, you don't even need to print them if you don't want to. Just draw the cards and check the chart.

Great stuff from Small Niche Games once more, but I'm not a grognard.

OPERATION: BOOKBINDER

The third Battlescenes offering from Vigilance Press is a departure from the first two, featuring the PCs versus your choice between Pearl Harbor December or giant Japanese robots.


It's a straight forward set-up, with the PCs being part of an operation to lure the Japanese into a trap...and, as mentioned, you either get PCs vs Pearl Harbor December or a giant robot and soldiers in power suits.

This is probably closer to what Vigilance Press intended with the Battlescenes, as it really is just a big combat scene (on an aircraft carrier in this case), but it does suffer compared to the detail of the previous two (especially when the first one could be easily transplanted outside of World War II).

Still a cool purchase, especially for the giant robot stats and the vehicles included in the PPDF.

Tommy's Take on The Walking Dead

As part of DBloC, I thought I would do a little talking about The Walking Dead today, both the TV series (early candidate for best show currently on TV) and the comic book (probably my favorite comic of all time).

So be warned...there are spoilers.