Minireview: Scroll of Fallen Races (Exalted)
Scroll of Fallen Races updates two “lesser races” from Exalted 1st edition to the 2nd. These being the Dragon Kings and the Jadeborn (“Mountain Folk”, also known as “the dwarves of Exalted”). I haven’t actually read the 1st edition writeups on these, other than what’s in the Rathess book about Dragon Kings, so I can’t compare much to the previous version here.
Like the Black & White Treatises, this book is in dual flip-over format. Half the book is about one race, and then you flip it over and have the second half with a different cover. It’s a pretty nifty format, no complaints on that. The content feel like (and probably is) a compressed summary of previous information, with a large part of it dedicated to “crunch”; the Jadeborn get “Patterns” and the Dragon Kings get “Paths”, both being special forms of sort-of-charms. Both are much more limited than Exalted Charms, but both have their strengths. There are also rules for creating player characters of either race.
The races themselves aren’t bad. The Dragon Kings are probably the more interesting ones here, but the Jadeborn turned out to be more intresting than I had expected… they both are and aren’t typical fantasy “dwarves”. Yes, they do live underground and (at times) dig for ore… but their reasons for doing so and their society structure are very different from you base fantasy variant. In fact, one of the more interesting bits in here is what these creatures actually are… some possible story elements to be found these. Their endless war against the spawn of the Neverborn is also good stuff (though only limited details are given here).
While it does seem to contain all the required info, the book does seem a bit lightweight at times. There is reference to a pact between the Scarlet Empress and the Jadeborn, but nowhere is it specified what this pact actually says. In addition, the details on their Geas are a bit slim. I do get the impression that I’d need to read the 1st edition to get the full story. This lack of detail is of course a function of the page count, 160 total pages gives only 80 pages pre race, and when the bulk of that goes into charm lists and character creation rules… well.
Not a bad book, but the fact that it details two rare “secondary” races in Exalted does makes it a bit of a fringe one. If you only want to read background on these, I do get the impression that you’ll get more information from the 1st edition books (Player Guide for Dragon Kings, Alchemicals for Jadeborn). Of course, if you want 2nd edition stats for these, and/or want to use these for player characters, you’ll get your money’s worth here.
Pew pew pew reloaded: Alliance Tournament qualifier round 2
Well, as predicted it was a somewhat tougher fight (as in: it actually was a fight), but we still scored a comfortable win over Privateers (video).
We used what looked like the same setup as the last time, a calculated move. Privateers were expecting us to switch, which worked to our favor… but mainly we just ended us with counters to their tactics, while they didn’t have as many to ours. Good piloting from the Privateers, they did the best they could with the cards they were dealt. As per intention, we didn’t give the opposing FC any easy choices in who to make primary.
The commentators were (if possible) even more clueless than usual. In the beginning they were expecting Privateers to totally demolish us, since according to them Thoraxes are totally superior and Drakes, well, suck. The commentary ended up being a long string of stuff like this:
“Ok, here come the Thoraxes, we’ll see them tear those Drakes apart any second”
(Thorax goes boom)
“The Thoraxes will start winning any second now”
(another Thorax goes boom)
“Why aren’t the Thoraxes winning?”
…all in all, good for a lot of laughs. Apart from that comedy commentary, the Privateer FC posted a commentary on the fight which tells people what actually was going on. It’s funny, the only people who don’t seem to think we just got lucky are our opponents…
On Saturday it’s the finals, with live “televised” Eve TV coverage. Our next fight will be against Star Fraction (19.20 eve time, 21.20 Finnish time). Should be a very tough fight, and also a fun one: it’s two roleplayer alliances facing off. Impossible to say how this one will go… the finals are single-elimination, so one lost fight means you’re out. No room for bad luck or mistakes.
We’ll try to provide people with an entertaining fight, at the very least.
P.S. That Ishkur you see orbiting a Dominix in that picture is very possibly mine (or a certain team mate’s, it’s impossible to know for sure).
Minireview: A Clash of Kings, by George R.R. Martin
A Clash of Kings forms book two of The Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy saga. I really, really liked book one, and this second part does not disappoint either. It doesn’t have the sense of newness that the first book had, of course, since it “just” continues the story – but that continuation is good stuff.
The action continues where the first book left off. The kingdoms are in chaos, and everyone and their cousin (sometimes literally) are declaring themselves king. Naturally, with multiple people declaring themselves the ruler of a given area, armies and bloodshed are quick to follow… and this is exactly what happens. Well, not quickly as such, most of the book details the buildup to the really big battles, with skirmishes by various forces trying to either capture territory, defend it, or just burn & destroy everything. Some of the main characters here are somewhat it control of events, but most are just swept along, some just forced to spend all their efforts in trying to stay alive.
The new “official” king, Joffrey, proves to be a total bastard (which will not come as no suprise to the reader), while Tyrion the dwarf and Arya continue to rock as characters. Not to belittle the rest of the cast either; while the viewpoint shifts around continually, pretty much all of the cast is interesting and varied. You get to see viewpoints on the war(s) from lots of viewpoints, and again it tends to be grim stuff. This is not friendly, fluffy fantasy by any means, and war is an ugly business.
While Martin continues to depict feudal social and gender roles in a pretty realistic fashion, he does have a high number of female lead parts (almost none of whom are of the delicate wallfower variety).
People saying this is the best fantasy since Tolkien have a point. Sure, comparing this to Tolkien is close to impossible, it’s just so very different. Where Tolkien delved into epic myth and language, Martin delves into gritty feudal history. Still… as fantasy books go, this is among the best I’ve read. No question.
Minireview: Dark Heresy
Well, this is one book with a colorful history. I don’t (or didn’t) know all that much at all about the “Warhammer 40,000” universe, except that it seems to involve lots of somewhat silly-looking miniatures and totally overblown “gothic” imagery and “dark, dark future” trope. I’m a bit more familiar with the fantasy “Warhammer”, but don’t know all that much about that one, either (except that the rpg has gotten quite a bit of praise ever since the first edition). In any case, lots of (other) people apparently had been waiting a long while for a WH 40k rpg, and Dark Heresy was just that.
The tiny limited run of the book sold out in minutes, and the normal printing started to fly off the shelves, too. Based on rumors of limited printing run size and no certainty of reprint, I decided to get a copy for myself, too – it was getting a lot of attention, and I was interested in reading it at some point. The game was generally well-received, even though some on the forums were bitching about the low power level. Low power level sounded fine to me, so I wasn’t concerned.
Then the bombshell dropped: Games Workshop was discontinuing the game. It would get two other books (ones already written), and that would be it. Most people, including me, were going “what the fuck?!?” at this point: an rpg sells out in short order, receives critical acclaim… and is immediately discontinued. It just didn’t compute. Well, of course there is some method to the madness; turns out it’s cheaper for Black Library (the subdivision responsible for Dark Heresy) to churn out endless Warhammer novels than to do rpgs… so even though the rpg sold well, the profits from novels were higher. Spreadsheets win, game loses.
Well, turns out GW did retain some sanity: they sold the Dark Heresy license to Fantasy Flight Games (known for brilliant board games and some very cool rpgs), and FFG pledged to continue the line. Now, half a year or so later, things look pretty good. FFG has published a fourth book for the game line, and there are more in the works. The quality, I hear, is very high. So after much angsting and gnashing of teeth, WH 40k fans finally have a pen&paper rpg that seems to have a future. A daaaaaark future. Sorry, just had to drop that in there….
So much about the game history… what’s the thing like? Well, as I said I come into the game pretty much from the outside, not knowing all that much about it. I can’t compare the section of the game universe shown here with the “big picture” (if indeed there is such), I can only examine this on its own merits. Which it does have, no question of that.
The players play “acolytes” in service of an Inquisitor, tasked with rooting out heresy, corruption and anything dangerous to the Empire. This is an interesting approach, since it formalizes the “NPC gives you missions” structure many games have in a less formal fashion. I think it’s a fun choice…. and there is nothing really forcing the GM to go with that model, it’s just the assumed base scenario. So, the game has you playing lowish-level servants/journeymen of a more important Inquisitor NPC, and this is probably the basis of some of the complaints; it is a quite limited thing to focus on, and it does make the game more like “Cthulhu in Space” than “Super Space Marines Kill Everything!”. Which is fine by me. The game universe seems huge, so deciding to focus on one facet was a good design decision, imho. There is talk of possible later books opeining up higher-level careers, letting you play space marines, and all that stuff. No hard info on that yet.
So yeah… it’s kind of “Cthulhu in Space, with Nazi Stormtroopers”. Where the Nazi Stormtroopers are you, the players, and the Cthulhu is more of the in-your-face gibbering horror variety than the Lovecraftian subtle menace variant. There are chaos cults to unearth, real or imagined heresy to track down, witches to burn, and suchlike. As you may have gathered, the PCs are not necessarily the “good guys” here, they are more Imperial Stormtrooper than Rebel Alliance. They may (or may not) think they are doing the right thing, but the ways and means to their goals may not always be very pleasant. Or justified, at least to our modern, “western” sensibilities. I’m not sure if there are any good guys in the WH 40k universe, it’s dystopian to the point of being silly. Everything is more-gothic-than-thou, with more spikes, skull motifs and black menacing uniforms than you can shake a hand flamer at. I’m not sure what to make of the whole universe… it’s apparently intentionally over-the-top, being quite corny in places, but contains some “serious” bits too. Of course, the same thing can be said of Exalted, too, so…
I mean, come on. A place called “Gunmetal City” where they make… yes, guns, and where all inhabitants carry a gun. There are chainsaw swords. And chainsaw axes. Hell, I’m pretty sure they have chainsaw forks somewhere in there, too. These guys love their chainsaws. The ruler of the whole thing is a semi-immortal creature who feeds on thousands of sacrifices daily. There are space orcs. And space elves. The spaceships also have spiky bits and gothic towers. Etc etc.
Silly, yes. But kinda fun, too, in a demented way, and not all of it is quite as silly. Some of the political groups, cabals and what have you are pretty interesting, as are some of the locales.
This seems like a game that you can play in many ways. You could get a pretty serious investigation-themed game out of it, or you could go for over-the-top action and mutant hunting. Or both. I like that, versatility is good.
Ruleswise, this is very old-school… but for some weird reason, it fits. Unlike the fantasy version of Warhammer, here you cannot switch careers, you can just choose some advancement paths and take some optional stuff. It makes sense, due to the rigid future society this thing is set in: people there tend not to change careers, so the game doesn’t allow it either. There are levels, and hit points (of sorts), and the combat system seems workable but also very old-school. Round per round, init rolls, all that. In short, I should probably hate this… but I don’t. Here the rules, while not awesome, seem to fit the spirit of the game somehow. In addition, there are at least some nice bits; some of the combat crunch does give you options, and armor isn’t a simple hit/don’t hit thing. I also liked the rules for playing “psykers” (psionically gifted people). You can do it, but it’s extremely dangerous. Using your powers may possibly get both you and your “team” killed, driven insane, possessed, or other nastiness. No “I cast fireball!” wizard stuff here. Me likes.
Overall, I liked this quite a bit. While the game universe has me somewhat bemused by some overly silly stuff, the game as a whole seemed very well done. Sure, it’s an old-school game system, but it’s a well-done one – and for once, a rigid game system feels fitting since it’s trying to model a very, very rigid society. The production values here are excellent, the book really is a thing of beauty. The writing and organization were very clear, and in general this whole thing exudes quality. I was pleasantly suprised by this game, I wasn’t expecting to find anything quite this interesting.
