My (Very Late) Thoughts on Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition

I truly believe we are living in a golden age for RPGs. Roleplayers have an amazing array of choices, in terms of games available and avenues in which to buy and play them. The giant RPG publisher may be mostly dead, but not for lack of RPGs being made and sold. 2014 was an exceptional year within this golden age, and I believe it will be remembered as a landmark year, partially due to the release of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.

I'm not going to bore you with a breakdown of the rules and mechanics of play—I'm writing this way too late to have anything new to say in that realm. What I'd like to do is just share some thoughts on what I've seen, and what I think of it.

The first thing I should note is that for me, this feels like an alternate history 3rd Edition. Now don't assume I'm bagging on 3.x. It's a great game, and I got years of great play out of it's myriad variants (D&D 3.0, Classic Spycraft, and Mutants & Masterminds 2E being my highlights). That said, it was a huge departure from the original 2nd Edition core books. (I should note I was completely out of the D&D loop during the Black Book era of things like Skills & Powers.) When I read through and played 5th Edition, it felt more like a natural progression from those original 2nd Edition books than 3rd Edition. So what if Wizards of the Coast never released 3rd Edition in 2000 and managed to keep the 2nd Edition line, as I remember it, going? Then add in the things designers have learned over the last 14 years, and took the same "it still has to feel like D&D" approach. I believe 5th Edition is pretty damn close to what that 3rd Edition would look like. Why is this an important thought to me? Well, the original three 2nd Edition books were my favorite D&D iteration. (Yeah. I'm that one guy with 2E as his fave.)

The Player's Handbook is very well done in 5th Edition. I love how you can play through your whole class using only one section of the book, with only minor departures if you decided to play a spellcaster or take an occasional Feat. I think 13th Age does a better job of compartmentalizing the classes, but that book departs more from the feel of D&D for me (not a bad thing, just different). Speaking of "an occasional Feat," I love that Feats aren't really necessary in play. I was skeptical when I'd heard this, but it's true. The trade-off between raising your stats and getting a Feat is perfect. I think Feats are great in concept, but they got way out of hand in 3rd Edition.

There's been a great deal of positive sentiment for the 5th Edition Dungeon Master's Guide, and I have to agree. In fact, I'd say this is the best DMG ever made. The main reason? It acts as a true Dungeon Master's, well, Guide. The tools for building a world, creating a campaign, all the tables—I'm sure this will change over time, but today, I can't imagine what changes I'd make to this book. Truly brilliant.

As for the Monster Manual, I don't have much to say, other than I'm glad it's not a binder with loose leaf like the original 2nd Edition core—which has stood as my second-biggest 2nd Edition complaint (second only to racial level limits from AD&D in general). Other than the binder kerfuffle D&D has never really had a bad core monster book.

I'm hoping to run a D&D campaign in the near future, and for the first time, I'm actually interested in trying organized play. I'm sure I'll have more on that last thing after I try it.

Until next time, do good, avoid evil, and play more games!

[Read-Thru] Odyssey: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Campaign Management

I'm thinking of investing in one of those aluminum foil hats. You know, the kind that's supposed to prevent mind reading? Because I'm pretty sure the folks at Gnome Stew are scanning my brain for ideas. When Martin Ralya contacted me to find out if I wanted to do a pre-release review of the next Gnome Stew/Engine Publishing book, I was of course intrigued. Their last three entries were great, and I was pretty sure two of them were the result of reading my mind. Odyssey: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Campaign Management, by Phil Vecchione and Walt Ciechanowski, has me considering aluminum foil hats. The book has arrived as I'm feeling it's time to take starting and running a campaign seriously if I want to keep the buy-in of my group, who are all-too patient with my Game Mastering Multiple Personality Disorder (GMMPD). Odyssey should help me do just that.

The PDF is of the typical quality expected from Engine Publishing. That is to say it's bookmarked and hyperlinked, and it's just the right file size to make for a super-smooth read on my iPad Mini--or any tablet, I imagine. The font size should make for easy reading whether your tablet is 7" or 10". For fun, I put it on my wife's phone, which has a 4.75" screen, and I could read it just fine in landscape mode.

After the obligatory introduction material, which includes a foreword by the inimitable Kenneth Hite, the book is broken down into four sections. The first part is all about how the author views campaigns and why he thinks managing them properly is important. Given my current GMing situation, I didn't need much convincing, but I also identified with a lot of the explanation of when things work and when they don't, and why. If you want to give your GM (who clearly doesn't need any help--just ask him) a gentle nudge in the right direction, I'd recommend asking him to read this section before poo-pooing the book.

The main three sections of the book are Starting a Campaign, Managing a Campaign, and Ending a Campaign. Each section is broken down into steps, and each step provides questions you should ask, steps you should take, and examples of what happens when you do it right and if you don't do it so well. Throughout the book, Phil and Walt provide real life examples from their own campaigns. It was refreshing to read their mistakes as well as their successes. Also, there's a fictional gaming group that is used to help drive home each lesson in the book. I like that the group didn't seem fake. They were completely believable because I was able to see myself and other gaming friends in them.

After reading Odyssey, I came away feeling better about the mistakes I've made over the years, and feeling great about the things I know I've done well. I'm really excited to apply my newfound knowledge to future campaigns. This book will be a useful reference whenever I'm between sessions. Of course it's my hope I will spend more time in the middle of this book than in the other sections.

As I write this, it's my intention to do a "Play-Thru" of Odyssey. I'm about to start a new campaign. I may as well report on how each step works for me. The Starting a Campaign posts should come rather quickly. Perhaps Managing a Campaign posts would come as they apply. Hopefully, the Ending a Campaign posts will be farther into the future than might be usual for me.

So after writing this post, I've decided not to invest in an aluminum foil hat. If the guys at Gnome Stew really are scanning my brain for ideas, the information is clearly in good hands.

[Read-Thru] BareBones Fantasy

I buy a lot of PDFs. (Seriously, you should see my iPad.) Consequently, I spend a lot of time on RPGNow. For the last several weeks, I've noticed a game I've never heard of stay in the top two or three among the site's best sellers. My curiosity piqued, I finally took the plunge on the PDF version of BareBones Fantasy (BBF, going forward).

For $9.99, DwD Studios provides you with the 80-page core book, an adventure, two alternate character sheets, a sheet to track your character's progress, a two-page character creation quick reference, and print-friendly versions of all of the above. In addition, a full-color map of the default setting is provided--two versions, actually--in both hexed and non-hexed versions. All the above is wrapped up in a neat Zip file. When it's ready, you'll be able to get a print version of the core rules with the PDF for only $4 more.

Before I get into the game itself I want to call out the production values of this product. The art is evocative of the genre and by-and-large very attractive. The cover is one of the better fantasy pieces I've seen in recent memory. It immediately made me want to play. That's sadly more rare than you may think. The PDF has an attractive layout that provokes you to turn the page and keep reading. The table of contents is hyperlinked, and the file is fully bookmarked. There is an index at the end of the book, as well, and if I had to call out a short-coming I'd probably settle on the fact that the index isn't hyperlinked. Given the detailed table of contents and the bookmarks, this would truly be nitpicking. Should you have the tools to make modifications to the PDF, DwD was kind enough to not lock the files. "Physically," this PDF product is on par with nearly anything put out by any other publisher, and it surpasses most. The production values of BBF are proof that in the hobby games industry, size doesn't have to matter.

Another aside is the editing. I know this goes along with production values, but I'm an editor. Sue me for my bias, if you wish. As an editor, it can be pretty painful to read RPGs. I am elated to say there are very few errors in this book. DwD even failed to trip up in the easiest places to do so. I'm not saying there are no typos, but this is yet another area where nearly all other publishers should take note.

As for the game, BBF is meant to be a lean system, with a deceptive amount of depth. On this count the game seems to succeed in spades. As I read through the rules, I couldn't think of any fantasy scenarios that could not be duplicated in play. It's a simple percentile system, wherein the dice provide a 00-99 result, rather than the typical 01-100 (the only other game I can think of that went this route might be Eclipse Phase). There's a one-page rules summary that should be plenty of knowledge for a new player to get started.

The magic system is as streamlined as the rest of the game. There are few spells, but they're designed to have different effects or trappings, based on the spellcaster's description. For instance you could use Offensive Strike to fire a magic missile or a lightning bolt, or you could use Charm to represent hypnotism or perhaps the mesmerizing tune of a bard's lute. There are only 17 spells in the core rules, but all the classic bases seem covered to me.

Character creation should be a pretty quick affair, with the caveat that the math-averse may initially recoil at calculating the starting values of skills. The four typical fantasy races are here: human, elf, dwarf, and halfling. There are four base attributes. There are only a few skills in the game, even fewer that every character will have. On skills, I've noted a lot of folks compare them to character classes, based on how broad they are and the way they're named (cleric, warrior, and thief are examples). I get the train of thought, but I'd compare them more to the starting professions in Barbarians of Lemuria.

You choose two skills to be primary and secondary, and you get bonuses in these skills. I can see combinations of the skills being used to create some of the fantasy character tropes. For instance, you may be able to combine Thief and either Scholar or one of the three spellcasting skills to create a bard-style character.

You round out your character by determining her moral compass though the use of a quick, word-based, multiple choice table. Then you add descriptors, which are phrases you make up about your character. These remind me of FATE's Aspects, though they're not used in-game so much as one of the bases for XP rewards at the end of each session.

The GM section provides all the tools the GM needs to run the game. It starts off with information on modifiers and all the dangerous things that can occur outside of getting hit with a weapon. There are rules for creature creation, trap creation, magic item creation, and there are samples of each. I've read one or two complaints about the monster selection in the book, but I have to disagree. All the basics seem covered to me, and the tools to make more are provided. In addition to the above, BBF provides a plot creator and a dungeon creator. These are all tools you may expect in a much bigger product and not get.

The book wraps up with an outline for BBF's default setting, which spans a mere five pages of text, plus a two-page black and white version of the separately-included map. Each region on the map is given about a paragraph of info, and there's a section on the setting's pantheon. This is meant to be the taste it is, as the full setting is available as a separate product. Still, I managed to get multiple adventure and campaign ideas in those five pages of text.

The extras included with the game don't skimp. The color map of the world is gorgeous, and the adventure has enough to it for a full session or two of play, depending on your group. There are also separate maps of the dungeon, one for the GM and one for the players. Have I mentioned DwD seems to provide product way above their "pay grade?"

There are two features of BBF that are not included in the package, but warrant some discussion regardless. First is the DwD website. The forum seems to have friendly patrons and frequent interaction with the game's designers. You may be noticing a trend here, if you think this is yet another area where nearly all other publishers could learn a thing or two from DwD. The second feature is Decahedron, a free PDF magazine designed to support BBF. The first issue is out, and it contains material written by BBF's designers, as well as fans of the game. The production values are on par with their paid product.

I think it goes without saying that I like BareBones Fantasy. At $9.99 it's practically an impulse buy, and if DwD can maintain their production values, you'll be getting in on the ground floor of something special. I'm certainly rooting for them. I intend to take the game out for a test spin, so you'll be hearing more from me on BBF.

I'd recommend this product to anyone looking for a simplified-but-deep-enough approach to fantasy. I'd also recommend it to anyone looking to learn a thing or two in preparation for their own publishing adventure. I wouldn't recommend this book if your interests lie primarily in the truly crunchy and/or complex.

@ReverbGamers Master List Number 26

#26: Who or what was the most memorable NPC you've ever encountered? Why?

That'd be my version of "One-Eyed" Hank Ketchum. Again, I'm going back to my classic Deadlands campaign. He ended up being in Veronica's character, "Black Widow" Beth's, background as the guy who recruited her. I brought him in as a one-off to kick off the campaign. He was well-liked by the group, so I ended up making him recurring.

He wasn't one of those GM characters that stayed with the group or anything, but he did show up now and then to give the group a mission or nudge them in one direction or another. I never had him saving the day or anything--that's never fun for a group when a GM character has to bail them out all the time.

[Read-Thru] Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade

In July of 2010, my buddy Eloy Lasanta, owner of Third Eye Games, sent me a review copy of Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade. I read the book and loved it, and I had Eloy on my podcast to discuss the game several months later. But I never got around to commenting on the game here. Recently, I’ve had reason to go back and re-read the game (maybe the reason will be discussed here one day), so I figured I’d give my thoughts about it while it’s fresh in my memory.

In Wu Xing, you play a ninja who has joined the Lotus Coalition, in an effort to strike back at the Izou Empire, which has called for the destruction of all Ninja. While the Lotus Coalition means well, there is still plenty of enmity between the various Ninja clans, so there’s a lot of potential for some awesome storytelling.

Let’s take this chapter by chapter...

Introduction
The book starts off with a brief introduction, which includes a look at the setting, the ninja clans, and the (very) basics of the game system. It also includes a short example of play in the “what is roleplaying” section.

Wu Xing is powered by the Dynamic Gaming System (DGS), the same system found in Apocalypse Prevention, Inc., which requires only a single d20. This is not in any way related to The d20 System--it simply uses a d20.

I think this section of the book is just about perfect. It was enough information to get my juices flowing about the setting, without setting me up to re-read too much later in the book (who has time for that?).

Chapter One: Ninja vs. The Empire
Ninja vs. Empire goes into more detail about the setting. You get the history which leads up to the Ninja Crusade. You learn a little more about the clans and what it means, in general, to be a ninja. The major players of the world are discussed, to include the Lotus Coalition, the Izou Empire, and the Five Kingdoms surrounding the Empire. (The Five Kingdoms are only given a very high-level view, as they will each be covered in source books, the first of which has been released--The Land of Seed and Blossom.) There are two beautiful maps: one for the Izou Empire, and one for the rest of the world.

There is a great deal of information in this chapter, and I feel like, once again, it’s just what a GM needs to create her own campaign. Eloy is known for amazing control of the delivery of setting information, and he didn't disappoint here.
 

Chapter Two: Clans
The Clans chapter goes into detail about the 10 major ninja clans of the setting. (To date I believe the number of playable clans has roughly doubled with the release of two source books and one single-clan PDF.) They are presented in what I call the classic White Wolf style--you get a quick story about a sample clan member, the history of the clan, the lifestyle of a typical clan member, clan agendas, character creation info, and the telltale Clan Impressions section, which gives a sentence or two describing, in the words of a clan member, what they think of the other clans, the Lotus Coalition, and the Empire. The clans include:

Bamboo Herbalists: Adrenaline junkie healers with a propensity for going where they’re not wanted to get their ingredients.

Blazing Dancers: Light-hearted circus performers who use performance to stay in shape for ass-kicking.

Grasping Shadows: These guys are probably what comes to mind when you think of a Ninja (deliberately capitalized here).

Hidden Strands of Fate: These ninja spend less time fighting and more time politicking and controlling things from within.

Living Chronicle: Contemplative biographers of the world, they keep their records on their skin.

Pack of the Black Moon: These are the country folk, attuned to nature--especially animals. They can grant their powers to specially-trained dogs.

Recoiling Serpents: Masters of poison, and they’re ambitious to boot. Everyone watches them closely.

Virtuous Body Gardeners: Tattooed upstarts, these guys can animate their tattoos. Since they’re a newer clan, they are constantly looking for ways to improve themselves--which usually involves taking crazy risks.

Wardens of Equilibrium: All these ninja care about is balance in the world. They created the Lotus Coalition to combat the imbalance created by the Empire. Most of these guys are merchants.

Will of Iron: These metal smiths like to fight. Think of a Viking, only violent.

Another skill, at which Eloy excels, is the ability to keep you thinking about “your character” as you read through his books. In this chapter, I had to keep re-reading sections because I kept going off into my own world, thinking of “my character.” Then I’d realize I didn’t know what I just read. That’s a nice problem for a gamer to have and a nice one for a designer to create.

The Clan Impressions and the fiction in each clan write-up solved another problem for me. In the first chapter, I was thinking Eloy’s writing style might be wrong for a game about the Far East. The Clans chapter solved this conundrum for me. By the time I read the included fiction and the Clan Impressions, I got the sense Eloy was deliberately going for a looser style. The language and the sensibilities of the book are deliberately Western (the hemisphere, not the genre), and it will make Wu Xing more approachable to folks, like my wife (hint hint), who know little about Eastern cultures.

Chapter Three: Character Building
Character creation is basically a point buy system, with each part of the character having so many points to spend. There are six steps to creating a character. They’re listed in a sidebar at the beginning of the chapter. I couldn’t find step four (select Wushu) anywhere in the body of the chapter, but it’s listed again in the quick reference at the end (and Wushu is covered fully in the next chapter). The chapter is rounded out with a complete character creation walkthrough, to include a completed character sheet. More games should have this.

This chapter includes all the stats you’ll use, to include Skills, Gifts, and Drawbacks. Wu Xing has a lot of numbers to keep track of--this is seriously one of the crunchiest games I’ve liked in years--but this chapter does a decent job of conveying what needs to be done. With the exception of Clan choice, Wushu, and equipment, everything you need for your character is in here, which should minimize page flipping, at least a bit.

The skill list is short, which is a Good Thing(TM). There are a number of Fighting Styles to choose from, definitely taken from Kung-Fu styles, named after animals. There are a lot of variables in here--each style gives bonuses for different things, and there are special abilities associated with the styles. It’s great for flavor, but could create issues with keeping track of what your character’s bonuses are for which moves.

There is quite a bit in character creation that gets a player thinking about her character and provides guidance on how to play it. Eloy spends quite a bit of space on concept, including upbringing, gender issues, etc., then there are stats that provide guidance as well. Your character’s Chi levels in Yin and Yang determine much about personality. Your ninja will also have an elemental soul, which also provides more great food for thought. Put these together with Drawbacks, and even less-experienced players should walk into the first session with good ammunition for getting into their character’s head.

Character advancement is very White Wolf. Basically you get a point for showing up, a point for learning, etc. These XP can be spent to improve your character. 

Chapter Four: Wushu 

Wushu are ninja powers. Each clan has their clan-specific wushu, and there are more general wushu, which more than one type of ninja may possess. Those are usually elemental.

The powers are activated with a die roll, and Chi is spent in different ways to fuel it.

The feeling of wushu covers the gamut from spells to superpowers, and there’s a lot of variance between the different types of wushu. The chapter ends with some quick and dirty rules for making your own wushu. It gives magic  a “sky’s the limit" feel.

(Coming from a guy who plays a lot of Savage Worlds, the way powers are set up in Wu Xing is certainly refreshing for me. All the characters are spellcasters, and they all manage to feel different. It takes a lot of suspension of disbelief on my part to have multiple spellcasters in Savage Worlds--not so here.)

Chapter Five: Equipment and Combat
I’ll say right away I was taken aback by having equipment share a chapter with combat. Equipment isn’t just about weapons, so there’s more to it then fighting. I would have definitely broken these up.

In regards to equipment, your Class in life determines what you can afford to have as a character. Land-owners can buy things with Cost: 1 or less, Artisans can buy things with Cost: 2: or less, and so on. It’s really clean, and it ties nicely into the setting. As weapons and armor help in combat, other items can help with skill checks. Pretty straightforward; I like it.

Combat is pretty crunchy, but I think in a game where spells, fists, feet, and swords are flying, wuxia-style, that’s completely appropriate.

Different combat actions essentially provide a combination of modifiers to attacks, defense, and damage. These numbers are further modified by Fighting Styles, armor, and weapons. Everything you do has a Speed, which brings me to the initiative system.

Each combat round consists of 20, half-second Counts on a combat tracker. Your initiative roll determines your starting space on the tracker. Then on your turn, the action you choose determines when you’ll go next. Every character has at least two actions per round.

You may initially be thinking, “oh, crap--phases ala Champions,” and you would be wrong. Instead you have to make strategic choices every time you act or react to someone else in the combat.

Example: You act on Count 2, your opponent on Count 7. Do you take an action that does more damage and give your opponent the chance to act next, or do you go for less damage, but give yourself two actions before your opponent? For your opponent, do they try to avoid your blow, pushing them down the combat tracker and giving you another chance to attack, or do they take the hit and hope for a killer comeback?

By default, the DGS uses no battle mat, but my sense is there’s little chance of falling into “I attack, I hit, I damage” with this system. And unlike other game systems, not using a mat won’t require a ton of GM fiat either.

I haven’t played it enough to give a final verdict on this, but I’m really excited to spend some time with it.

The chapter is rounded out with a three-round, one-on-one combat example. It does a great job of conveying what Eloy is going for with this combat system.

Chapter Six: Antagonists
There's a thorough selection of NPCs. There are also supernatural creatures, to include Spirits, Celestial Animals, and Oni. The stat blocks presented are pretty easy to read and understand--they’re neatly organized.

Barring something very specialized, there’s no reason a GM should ever need to fully stat up NPCs with what’s presented. That said, it’s my hope there will be a supplement to expand on the supernatural creatures, especially the Oni. I just wanted more.

Chapter Seven: Storytelling
This chapter is all about GMing. There are tips on theme and mood and recommendations for animated films to watch (for the record, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Naruto, and Basilisk). Also included are story hooks, based on the different styles of story the game is meant to be played with. The chapter is rounded out with some general “don’t be a dick”-style GM tips.

Between this chapter and everything else in the book, this game deftly avoids the trap so many games fall into: “so now what?” In Wu Xing, the “what” is clear.

Appendices
The book is rounded out with a glossary of terms, a series of quick reference sheets for combat and fighting styles, character sheets, and an index. The index is serviceable, but not as detailed as I’d like (to be fair, most aren't).

Conclusions
This is my favorite Third Eye Games setting so far, which is saying something, since I edited the bulk of Part-Time Gods. I’ve loved them all, but this one fires on all cylinders for me. One of my favorite features is there’s no metaplot, just the setup. There are no secrets, which only the game master may know--another Good Thing(TM). The end result is players can read this book, cover-to-cover, and their understanding and enjoyment of the game can only be enhanced by doing so.

While I've mentioned the crunchiness and statiness (new word) of the game, the core mechanic of the game is simple--roll d20, add modifiers, beat target number. A deft GM could easily roll in the additional mechanics as needed, to a crunch-shy group.

I have two issues with this book: 1) It seems to me a game about a war should include mass combat rules. I know ninja battles are showcased as one-on-on events in anime and manga, but larger-scale skirmishes and battles are mentioned; so they should be represented by rules. 2) The editing in this book leaves much to be desired. There are times where I laughed for all the wrong reasons when I was reading.

If you’re looking for a blow-by-blow replacement for Legend of the Five Rings, you may be disappointed by Wu Xing. Further, avoid it if you weren’t excited about my description of initiative and combat. But if you love martial arts action, and authentic Eastern culture is a tough sell at your game table, this is a must buy. Heck, if you saw Avatar: The Last Airbender and loved it, go directly to your FLGS or Third Eye Games' store or RPGNow--do not pass go; do not collect $200.

[Read-Thru] The Flux

Are you one of those GMs who get Shiny New Game Syndrome? Does it cause you to constantly switch games on your usually-reeling players? Have your players held an intervention to make you commit to running the same game for more than, say, 90 days?

If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions (I may have), then John Wick's The Flux might be just the ticket for you and your group!

The Flux is one of the many little games to be found in John Wick's Big Book of Little Games. The PDF was provided to me, gratis, by the fine folks at DriveThruRPG.

You might be playing The Flux in your current game, and you don't even know it - yet. Because The Flux happens to your character, to your group's whole party, and usually when they least expect it.

Imagine playing a sorceress in a Pathfinder game, and she's in the midst of a climactic battle. Suddenly, your GM describes a humming in your character's ears. She can't place where it comes from - it's everywhere and nowhere. Then there's a flash and BAM! She's no longer a sorceress in Golarion, but a mad scientist in Hollow Earth Expedition. Later in the Hollow Earth, she has been captured by Nazis and left without any gadgets. As the player you try to help the mad scientist recall a memory - a skill or ability - from a previous world or existence, and suddenly she makes a gesture, speaks an incantation, and throws a fireball at her captors, clearing a path for escape!

In The Flux, you can totally do that. Seriously.

So if you're running a game, say RunePunk for Savage Worlds - you love it; you really do - and you discover you can finally read Earthdawn Third Edition on your iPad (totally not your fault!), there's an easy way to transition, using The Flux and making it easy on your players:

• Grab your players' RunePunk characters
• Make new Earthdawn characters for them, based generally on their RunePunk characters
• One session, in a tense moment, have The Flux kick in
• You're now running Earthdawn

Your players don't have to make new characters or come up with new personalities - you're remaking their characters in a different world. Your players don't have to know about the new world right away - your players' characters are supposed to be hazy on the new setting.

There's no need to remember the rules from the old game. To access their previous characters' abilities, the players keep their characters in a stack - newest on top, oldest on the bottom. They roll some d6s - the difficulty based on how old the previous character is - and if they succeed, they automatically succeed with the best possible outcome: Fireball? Max damage. Shooting? The target is dead, if that was the goal.

On the surface it may seem broken. You may think players will abuse the abilities. But there is a price. The world knows someone is breaking the rules, and it fights back. Every time you use an ability from a previous character, there's a chance for Whiplash, where your character may get really hurt - or worse.

The Flux is very cool. I will be trying it at some point. And to my players: trust me, there were no spoilers in this post...

[Read-Thru] Agents of Oblivion

Recently my friend, Sean Preston of Reality Blurs, sent me an early copy of Agents of Oblivion (AoO), an upcoming Horror/Espionage setting for Savage Worlds. The copy was sent simply for my amusement, but I offered to provide my thoughts on this Savage setting for this site, and he agreed.

The copy I received is text only, but it is the final text (barring any last-minute proof-reading) of the game, laid out and waiting for art.

Forgive the length of this post, but I’ve seriously waited several years for this setting…

The Read-Thru:

Savage Worlds veterans should be careful to read this section, as there are a couple tweaks, to include the bonus for being human, starting and available Skills, Hindrances, and Defining Interests. Speaking of Defining Interests, this is one of my favorite features common in Savage settings from Reality Blurs—essentially you choose a set of hobbies and other interests not necessarily covered by Skills, and these get you bonuses to your Common Knowledge rolls. This is a great way to help flesh out your character.

Another thing AoO provides is archetypes, nearly ready for play. Essentially the Attributes, and Skills are filled in, and you need only choose your Edges, Hindrances, and Defining Interests (though the latter can be chosen in play). These archetypes are a nice compromise between designing a character and having a pre-gen—your work is nearly done, but the archetypes are customizable so you can still feel like the character is yours.

There are a few additional skills—not the typical Knowledge (Whatever), but real new skills. I’m not a huge fan of the new Skills. All these skills could be covered by existing skills, and while they make things a little better defined, I’m personally a “fewer is better” thinker. On the bright side, Agents get four free Skills at d4, so this should make up for the extra Skills you have to choose from.

There are several new Edges and one new Hindrance. My favorite addition here is Power Mods. These edges modify existing powers in a way you might expect to do in a supers setting. For example, there’s one called Selective, which allows you to choose who is hit with an area effect power. Very cool! In addition there are Technological Edges, which deal directly with cybernetic implants.

In the Setting Rules section there are rules for Extended Trait Checks (or ETCs), as originally found in Reality Blurs’ Iron Dynasty: Way of the Ronin. These cover a similar roll to the new Dramatic Tasks rules found in the new Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition (SWD). I’m glad these are here, though. They’re well written and more detailed, which allows for greater flexibility. I can see using both ETCs and Dramatic Tasks in the same campaign, depending on the situation. Also, it may be awhile before many players convert to SWD, and I think this type of rule is essential to the genre.

AoO provides some great guidance on different ways to use skills for certain situations you don’t want to roleplay out, such as manhunts and hacking. There’s some good stuff here. I think other licensees—and for that matter, designers of all systems—should take note of this. This type of guidance can be invaluable to a gaming group.

Now for my favorite rules bit of AoO—Using Powers. Reality Blurs has devised another way to go Power Point-less in Savage Worlds. I am aware of three other ways it’s done, including Savage Worlds of Solomon Kane, Hellfrost, and the new SWD. This version is my personal favorite. Basically you just ignore Power Points, and power maintenance begins immediately. Blast and bolt were re-written and broken down into separate powers to take care of the stickiness these rules would cause with those Powers as written. While I don’t have a problem with Power Points, some Savages do, so this is a Good Thing.

Special Ops teams are typically provided their gear, and AoO has a great day to simulate this. Agents are given Resource Points to spend on mission loadouts—package deals for equipment. Players take a few moments to make their gear picks, and off they go. There are also rules for that equipment an Agent may need when already in the field. This seems to work very well and can actually be used right alongside the standard money system if your campaign concentrates at all on your Agents’ real lives.

You can also use your Resource Points to purchase Perks—special benefits you may need for a mission, like calling in an air strike or arranging an escape from a bad situation—and Spytech & Special Training (which I would hope I don’t need to describe). These are a nice idea and necessary to the genre for sure. Well handled.

The final section of the players’ portion of AoO is a lexicon of terms used in this setting and the special ops genre in general. I find this sort of thing very useful for immersion, and it’s great for newbies not already familiar with the lingo.

The Eyes Only!—or GM section—of AoO is chock full of great setting info and GM tools. As is pretty common in Savage Settings, it comprises much more of the book than the player section.

The Hidden Histories section gives you the setting history and info you need on Oblivion and its evil counterpart, Pandora. I love that Reality Blurs went with the G.I. Joe/Cobra format for their bad guy. It’s nice to have someone for the players to be paranoid about and blame for everything—makes a GM’s job easier!

The campaign section gives a lot of great advice on the genre and provides some clear direction for the GM. In addition it provides guidance on tweaking the setting elements, including, aliens, conspiracies, magic, horror, and tech. It really allows you to run anything from the default Mission: Impossible meets X-Files, all the way to G.I. Joe versus Cobra—no kidding!

The campaign advice section rounds out with campaign archetypes, which are generally frameworks for your campaign’s direction. This section covers a huge swath of campaign types—really anything I could think of while reading the book.

The next section, Agency World View, gives you an idea of what’s going on around the world, and it’s designed to work alongside the campaign archetypes. There are a ton of story seeds to be found in these pages. You could seriously run several campaigns out of this book with very little prep!

Speaking of little prep, AoO includes the now-obligatory adventure generator found in so many Savage settings. The Mission Generator, as it’s called, is much more detailed than the typical adventure generator, though. It’s chock full of great options for when you have one hour till the game session starts and you seem to have failed to prep (that may happen to me sometimes).

In addition to the Mission Generator, there’s a Creature Generator, for those times when your mission consists of “just what the hell is this thing killing people?!” I love this tool and could spend days just making creatures.

This is where we get into the “But wait, there’s more!” section of the book.

As if there wasn’t enough campaign goodness in this book, AoO includes sample story arcs, one for each of the Campaign Archetypes from earlier in the book. These are basically outlines for Plot Point Campaigns. Combine these story arcs with generated missions, creature hunts, and stories of your own devising, and voila! The story arcs are reminiscent of what Ken Hite called Savage Skeletons in The Day After Ragnarok, but they’re more detailed, including stats for each story arc’s major players later in the book.

The final section details some useful NPCs and organizations, including those from the aforementioned sample story arcs. The NPCs cover nearly any other character you may need for a game, certainly any character with little tweaking.

The Conclusion:

Agents of Oblivion may be Reality Blurs’ best effort to date. With enough information to support seven complete and varied campaigns packed into the book, the full edition of AoO can’t make it into my hot, rather large hands fast enough.  Awesome setting aside, this may have been called the Horror/Espionage Companion, were it a Pinnacle product.

If you enjoy horror, espionage, modern action/adventure, or any other modern gaming, this book is a “can’t miss” for you. Don’t bother with the book if you are not into any of those things or detest fun in general.

[Read-Thru] Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game

Awhile back, I posted my thoughts about Eureka, a system-neutral, plot-assistance book for Game Masters by the fine folks at Gnome Stew. I was pretty excited about the book, as it was the most useful book of its type I'd come across in 25 years of GMing. UPDATE: I still use it. I used it a couple weeks ago. No one's changed my opinion of its status as the best RPG plot book ever.

The same group is back with a system-neutral NPC book, and, given my adoration for Eureka, I couldn't resist digging in. I should disclose, unlike with Eureka, I received a PDF of the new book, Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game, free of charge, for review purposes. Further, while my opinion has been solicited, it has in no way been guided.

Masks starts out on familiar ground. Like Eureka there's an explanation of why the book exists and how to use it. The why is obvious, I hope--make it easier for a GM to provide awesome NPCs to her players. The how is much more detailed.

The NPC's are broken down (nearly) equally into three broad genres: fantasy, sci-fi, and modern. They are further organized into enemies, allies, and neutrals. Each character takes up a quarter page. The design goal was to provide enough information without being too much, so the entries were kept to a tight word count budget. This goal was definitely met.

Each numbered, character entry is written sparsely, but manages to provide everything you need to know about the character in question, including everything but stats.  The NPCs include an entry number, a name, a quote, and a two-word description, containing an adjective and a noun (the first entry is a "Possessed Cleric"). These are followed by tips on appearance, roleplaying, personality, and background. Like Eureka, each Masks entry includes traits, by which NPCs can be searched in the book.

The most important thing about the NPCs in the book is they're very well written. I haven't read all 1,000, but I can tell you I've read a lot of them. From the very start, the NPCs are interesting and thoughtfully designed, especially compared to what most GMs get when they truly have to make up an NPC on the fly. I found myself wanting to know more about these people--always a good sign.

One final thing about the uniformity of the NPC entries: the authors suggest the template they've created for these characters will help you write your own characters. I tend to agree. And I look forward to using the template myself.

The authors believe you can use these NPCs on-the-fly or with some planning, and I tend to agree. You can just grab a name; or the two-word descriptor and the traits maybe. You can read them all the way through if you have time. There is a simple list of names that starts at the beginning of the first NPC page and ends on the last. I'm terrible at taking notes during play, so I plan on grabbing a couple key words and jotting down the entry number so I can return later to flesh out my find.

On the advice front, there is a section on how to modify the NPCs to fit any roleplaying game, by giving a twist here or a quarter-turn there. For instance, all the NPCs are humans, as this is the easiest twist of all, since any race a game designer can create will have intrinsic human qualities. Simply focus in on those to find your race. A gruff carpenter? Dwarf. A beautiful sorceress? Elf. There are definitely more than 1,000 NPCs in this book when you consider these simple changes you can make.

The other advice in the Masks is a collection of excellent points on playing NPCs, from the GM's standpoint. This advice has been delivered elsewhere by many people, but I've never seen it all together in one convenient place in a book designed for roleplaying. Players should take note of this section, as it serves as a great set of tips for PCs as well.

Like Eureka, Masks is a super reference. There are indexes in the book to help you find characters by trait, by name, by author, and by group (think Tavern Staff or Bandit Gang), so as a GM, you have lots of ways to find what you're looking for. The pdf is superbly bookmarked. My only gripe is I believe the entry numbers should have been used in the bookmarks with the character names (yes, all 1,000 characters are bookmarked), as one more awesome way to reference this book.

I plan to have Masks close to me for every game I run, and if you're a GM, you should too.

Read-Thru: BASH! Ultimate Edition

Recently, I've been looking for an easy-to-run game to use with new players. As providence would have it, I found a complimentary coupon code in my email, from the fine folks at Basic Action Games, which netted me the PDF version of BASH! Ultimate Edition (Basic Action Super Heroes), the latest iteration of a rules light RPG that manages to keep it simple, while allowing players to reenact every major trope of super-powered fiction, be it comics, movies, or cartoons. Overall, the game definitely scratches an itch for me.

The Basics of Basic Action

The core mechanic is a 2d6 roll, multiplied by the appropriate stat. The dice themselves explode in an odd and cool way: if you roll doubles, you get to roll an extra d6 and add it to the dice total before the multiplier. If your extra die happens to match the original doubles, you get to roll and add another, and this repeats till the bonus die doesn't match. Again, all this before the multiplier.

A typical stat goes no higher than five, but different circumstances (equipment, powers, etc.) can bring the multiplier up beyond 10, depending on the power level of the game. There's potential for some very high results. For instance, when playing a cosmic-level game, there is a 200+ success level (called Beyond Imagination). Regardless of this, BASH! seems like it will handle all power levels, from pulp heroes like the Shadow, to the Power Cosmic-wielding Silver Surfer.

Like many modern games, BASH! has in-game currency, called Hero Points. Hero points can be used to add to rolls; they can be combined to buy Hero Dice, which can be used to great effect. The Narrator gets equivalent currency in the form of Setbacks and Villain Dice respectively.

The game includes over 70 powers, and I could find nothing of note missing from the list. There are simple systems in place to modify powers to make them cooler or cheaper. The amount of customization is astounding, given the ease of the creation system. We're not talking 80s Marvel game easy (due to BASH!'s point buy character generation--random will almost always be easier, if not more desirable) or Champions (or even Mutants & Masterminds) depth (no higher math required), but it hits a sweet spot that appeals.

The details of the system manage to stay light while giving players options to imitate great comics moments like the Fastball Special. The knockback rules guarantee all kinds of genre-appropriate property damage. There are even rules in place for completely scalable, improvised weapons--from lamp posts to city buses.

Over half the book is for GMs. The Narrator's chapter is packed with tips for running a game. Given my recent interest in player-facing rolls, I found it interesting that the rules for minions make fighting them completely player-facing. While only minions work that way, it's nice to see the concept in use in another game. An additional nice feature in this section is a series of random encounter tables.

The Settings chapter provides genre-specific tweaks for running in 10 different styles, including all the proverbial "ages" found in comics, as well as pulp, super teens, cosmic, sci-fi, and fantasy. Included are ideas for mixing genres as well.

Finally, there are appendices, which include an archetype appendix, broken down by character scale, and a whole section on alternate mechanics for the game, which includes several different resolution options to include dice pools, playing cards, and Fudge dice.

What I Would Change

The book starts out with a glossary of terms and leads right into character creation and rules, which is great, but I found important rules hidden in the Powers chapter (which comes after the rules) that aren't necessarily power-specific, like the details on how area effect works in the game. Also, the minion rules are hidden in the Narrator's chapter, which wouldn't be a problem if the writer didn't make a big deal out of the need for transparency between the Narrator and the players in a super hero game. Why not just put all the rules in the rules chapter?

BASH! uses quite a few tables. I'd like to see the tables put together at the end of the book or in a free download on the website. The book does include a dice roll chart on the back of the book (for those who don't want to use a calculator or wait for someone to multiply 23 by nine in their head), but it's the back cover of the book, which is black--printing that table for those who need it would use a ton of ink. I did notice a more printer friendly chart available on the website, which is a good thing.

The core mechanic of the game is so different (in a good way) from others I've seen. This book needs tons more substantive examples. For instance, sometimes modifiers are applied to dice rolls (before the multiplier), sometimes modifiers are applied to the multiplier, and sometimes modifiers are applied to the final result. A few more examples might help a reader contextualize which to use in what situations better. Also, there are success levels in the game, but sometimes you have to beat a target number by a certain amount--essentially a target number modifier.

The PDF

While this is a locked PDF, which I'm not a fan of, BASH! is fully bookmarked, and the publisher left copy and paste capability intact. There's no printer-friendly version, but BASH!'s clean layout couldn't get much more printer friendly without removing all the art, which has always seemed wrong to me.

Who is this for?

Anyone who's ever wanted to try a supers game but was intimidated or turned off by the front-loaded, math-heavy character creation typical of the genre should check this game out. BASH! also seems well-suited to introduce new players. Old school gamers would probably get a kick out of this game, as it leaves much open to GM interpretation. Finally, I'd feel pretty comfortable handing out some of the archetypes from the back of the book and running a pick-up game with this, no notice needed--and who doesn't have a need for that?

Who should stay away?

If you like highly detailed character options, this is not the game for you. If you find yourself wanting more realism in a game, move along. If you want a lot of detailed rules for every possible maneuver, I'd also recommend checking out another product.