Games
Minireview: Houses of the Blooded
Ok, now I’ve finally read it. Houses of the Blooded is huge, complex, intimidating, weird and quite fascinating. John Wick wrote a game that he would like to play himself, and the end result features betrayal, social status games in an alien society, bloody duels and romance (which always ends badly). And opera. Which also always ends badly.
It’s a weird game. Quite clearly a labor of love, it’s written in a very strong authorial tone. Unlike Luke Crane’s Burning Wheel, though, the tone here does not annoy me a bit, it just lends flavor.
So, what’s it about? Well, the players are all “Ven”, and “Blooded”. Members of an ancient race of beings originally created as slaves/servants to a now-dead race of sorcerer-kings, they do everything by extremes. All players are nobles, and all control land and are lords over a large population of lesser Ven – land serfs, essentially. Non-Blooded Ven are essentially property, and non-Ven are even less: they are collectively called “orks” and treated as unintelligent animals. The Ven are xenophobes and elitists in the extreme, and laugh at our weak “modern” ideas of equality and moral relativity. Players belong to (or claim association with) various animal-themed factions… one might be Blooded of the Elk, another Blooded of the Bear. This matters, in various ways.
There is sorcery, but it’s illegal. Everyone does it. There are rules, which are strict. Everyone breaks them. The words for “love” and “revenge” are almost identical, and this is extended into the mindset of the Ven – love is seen as a dangerous obsession, a weakness which often leads to bloodshed. Still, almost everyone chases after it. The color of your clothes matters. Nobody wears black, by choice. Some are forced to.
Mechanically, it uses an “Aspects” -based system (modelled after Spirit of the Century) with tons of clever bits tacked on. The winner of a (mechanical) test does not necessarily win the current challenge; he/she gets to decide what happens, and how. This is an important difference. There are no levels and no hit points, none of that crap. Combat is lethal, so you want to avoid it – until you can’t, when someone challenges you to a duel or insults you. Which happens, more often or not.
The Ven don’t die of old age, they retreat into cocoons, and whisper in the dreams of their children.
This is one of the more impressive “indie-style” games I’ve encountered in a while. It has so many neat things that I don’t really know where to start. It’s also a bit intimidating, I do have a small “well, what do I do with it?” problem. There is a very good Narrator section on the book, though, which helps out a lot in this regard. The characters actually age, and must make land-rule decisions in a small resource-management minigame of its own. John has said it’s a sort of an “anti-D&D” game: dungeon crawling is for peasants, this game is about all the bits D&D is not about. Including opera.
The game is very strongly player-loaded, and players are expected to develop a large part of the game world as the game progresses. This will not work for more passive game groups which are used to the GM providing the entertainment, here the players absolutely must chip in. It’s also (optionally) a slightly player-vs-player game – the PCs are expected to plot against each other, at times. This may not be suitable for some play groups, so it can also be left out.
If you’re at all interested in unusual fantasy games, get this game/book and read it. It will give you ideas about gaming, even if you never run it. I’m still not sure if I’m brave enough to give it a try.
I have a few small niggles. The layout is a bit chaotic, with rules scattered all over the (big) book. A more clear “rules section” and “fluff section” might have been better. Also, while the conceit in the book that the Ven were a real, historical race and that the book is based on actual archeological research is fun in a way, it gets a bit old. I would have kept that stuff in the player section, and left them out of the GM-only parts. […]
Minireview: Southern Leaguebook Two, Humanist Alliance: Utopia Under Siege
In the Humanist Alliance book for Heavy Gear, we get an overview of one of subsidiary republics in the AST: the Humanist Alliance, once independent but then conquered by the Southern Republic… and not happy at all about it.
The HA is a society based on a “scientific” caste system and a sort of Panopticon society, where every move is observed and privacy does not really exist. In lesser games this would have been written as a stock Orwellian control society nightmare, but here it becomes quite interesting. While being oppressive in a way, it also works (in a way)… there is very little crime, and the citizens aren’t an especially unhappy or oppressed lot. One can’t help but draw parallels to moden-day Japan (where police have extensive powers, but where that also has resulted in a very safe society). As an additional factor, the HA is under siege by the Southern Republic, which is trying to mold it into a society more like itself. There is resistance, of course, but it is more in the careful disinformation direction than actual guerilla warfare (which also exists, of course).
Another very interesting sourcebook for HG and a pretty fun read. I appreciate how DP9 has avoided the temptation of going for the easy caricature here, and has instead created something a lot more complex and harder to categorize. […]
Minireview: Hunter: the Infernal
Hunter: the Reckoning was a conflicted game. People were expecting something like what the new Hunter is: a game about people kicking supernatural ass, in Buffy style. The artwork for the game (especially the covers) supported this view. Problem? The game was nothing like that, and featured normal people given strange supernatural powers by unknown entities, and struggling to survive in a world they suddenly see is filled with monsters. It’s easily the most “horror” game White Wolf has ever done, and also totally dark and nihilistic. It got a very mixed reaction, probably due to the above mismatch between advertising and reality. I was very sceptical in the beginning, but then bought a huge pile of the books from a sale. After reading them I was quite impressed with the game, and now consider it one of the better “old WoD” games. The books are all written in an intentionally confusing multi-viewpoint subjective style, which I loved (but which also split opinions), and are the best reads of all the White Wolf books I’ve read to date. And I’ve read quite a pile. Special mention goes to the book Fall From Grace, which is a fantastic and disturbing look at what happens when the “Imbued” (Hunters in this game) get to high power levels. It’s not superhero territory.
So, nowadays I’ve been tracking down the few books I’m still missing from the full set. I recently managed to get The Infernal, a sourcebook about demons for the game. Like most of the H:tR sourcebooks, it’s very good. It also features the trademark shades-of-grey style of the game… demons are shown to be evil, but not mindlessly so and not necessarily so; the “evil” they do is often a function of them being alien, not malevolent as such. There is even some viewpoint given to demons trying to do “good” (in a fashion). Told in typical fashion for this game, it features four separate storylines, all telling the story of one encounter between the Imbued and demons. All are very different, though none of them exactly have happy endings.
I remain impressed with this game… and the game’s split personality remains with this book: the cover shows some sort of demon summoner in what seems to be some sort of occult (summoning?) circle. All fine and good, but “summoning demons” is almost non-existent in this book – the things are quite capable of entering our world on our own. So once again, the cover has very little to do with the actual content.
By the way, this book is a link between Hunter and White Wolf’s short-lived Demon game (which I haven’t read, but have actually heard quite good things about). Might have to pick it up sometime. […]
Keepers of Tradition
Well, the new VTES set Keepers of Tradition is out, and it’s looking very good. It’s a new “core set” for the Camarilla – and it’s been a while since the Cam got any new toys. The vampires are all new, and the library consists of part new cards, part reprints. The best value of all this is, of course, for new players: this is a chance to get some cards that have been quite difficult to find for a while now. For the older players, the value here is the new set of vampires, the new cards, and the reprints (which feature some very much in-demand cards). Some weird choices among the reprints, but generally there’s a lot of good stuff there.
The new cards and vampires are interesting, and some open up some very cool new tactics. Too early to tell yet what will work in the long run and what won’t, of course. The set includes a weenie hoser Event, an anarch + ally hoser Event, and off-clan stuff like a (poor) combat end for Obfuscate. Oh, and the promos include a card that will probably become quite significant: Two Wrongs, an OOT Master which hoses bleed bounce. Honestly, it should have been part of the core set, not a promo… but thankfully VTES promos aren’t all that hard to get, in the long run.
We had a “post-release” tournament for this set on Sunday, braving the snowstorm. 19 players, and the Malkavian starter proved to be far and away the most powerful: the top 4 rankings were all Malkavian. Not that the other starters were bad, strictly, but there was nothing there that could really stand up to the stealth bleed power of the Malks.
Very happy with this set, myself. Oh, and it also contains (nice) new art for a lot of old “staple” cards. […]
Minireview: Final Flight
Will wonders never cease? We now have an actual new adventure module from Pagan Publishing. Between this and the resurrection of Delta Green, things are looking great on that front.
Unlike the previous Cthulhu scenario I read (Murder of Crows) Final Flight is not suitable as the beginning of a campaign – since it’s very doubtful there will be any characters left alive to start said campaign with. For the same reason, plopping this in the middle of a campaign might also not be the brightest of ideas… this thing is lethal. I think it would work best as a one-shot, with maybe a continuation campaign if any characters actually manage to survive.
The story has the PCs setting out to attend an archeological conference in South America, aboard the (prop-driven) Flight 101. This is a “classic era” scenario, so “modern technology” isn’t all that modern. Things go awry, and when I say “awry” I mean “crash in the middle of the jungle”. Hilarity ensues, as characters with skills more suited for academia try to survive hostile sort-of-natives, the hostile environment, other passengers, and other fun stuff. As noted, the probablity of any of them making it back to civilization are on the lowish side. Never underestimate the ingenuity of players, of course….
While I don’t think this is quite up to past Pagan quality, that’s purely because that quality has been so very high. The scenario is quite good, and goes in a “survival horror” direction that isn’t the most usual theme in Cthulhu. I think the biggest problem is that it’s quite sparse; the GM needs to do quite a bit of prepwork for this one and figure out how he/she wants to make the jungle lethal – no rules support is provided here. A somewhat bigger page count, with some additional detail, would have helped. That said, the price point is very low, so you are getting plenty of bang for your buck.
So… not a “must buy”, but not bad at all. If you want some jungle horror in your Cthulhu, take a look. […]
Minireview: Murder of Crows
Chaosium has recently licensed Cthulhu to various rpg companies, and the first fruits of that are now appearing on store shelves. Murder of Crows is a “classic era” Cthulhu scenario from Super Genius Games, set in the fictional town of Bethlehem, New Hampshire. The town has transmuted itself from an up-in-the-mountains lumber town into a fashionable wilderness retreat for city folks – which is now threatened by a plague of crows, in the thousands, in true Hitchcock “Birds” fashion. Who can save the day? Why, an intrepid group of investigators, of course!
This is a “low-level” scenario, well suited for starting off a campaign. The Mythos involvement is fairly minor and no special skills are really required. Some connection to the town via backstory etc would of course make the PC involvement feel a bit more natural. That’s actually one of the minor flaws in this otherwise very good scenario; the beginning is a bit weak and needs some GM work. Another minor flaw is that the “bad guy(s)” are pretty obvious, the PCs are almost saturated with clues pointing in the correct direction. I would personally make things a lot more muddled and add some red herrings here and there. Depends on group, of course.
I liked this. It’s well-written (bar some editing glitches) and engaging, and the town is a well-realized locale. Nice Twin Peaks vibe going on. I gather there are mode adventure modules on the way from these guys, with apparently one being a sequel of sorts to this one. I’m probably byuing them, this was a very good initial effort from a new Cthulhu licensee. […]
Minireview: The East (Exalted)
The East (wielding the full title of The Compass of Terrestrial Directions Volume 3: The East) is the latest “direction book” for Exalted 2nd ed, and one which I’ve been waiting for since my game takes place in the East (well, up North at the moment, but anyway).
It was worth the wait. While some of the info was just (re-statted) repetition of stuff in the 1st editon books, there is a lot of new stuff here – and some of the old bits have been tweaked in very interesting ways. While Halta is still the darling of the North-East, the Linowan have now been given a proper writeup… and one that doesn’t conflict too much with my own version, which is handy. The Bull of the North is only lightly mentioned here, he may be given more screen time in the North book. Or not, we’ll see.
The star of the show is the Chaya writeup. Where before we were given the (interesting as such) peaceful region where people go apeshit bugfuck nuts from time to time, now we’re given the reason why. And it’s good. And very, very creepy. Kudos to whoever wrote that; I think it was StephenLS but not 100% sure. Mount Metagalapa is also statted up in a useful fashion, as is the realm of Raksi, the Queen of Fangs (talk about bugfuck crazy part two…).
All in all, an excellent region book for the game. If you’re running a game set in the East, this book will give you tons of ideas. The only minus goes to the map in the beginning of the book: it’s worse than useless, and whoever did it apparently never read the book itself. Rubylak is set hundreds of miles from the river (while it’s clearly set next to it in the text, as in 1st edition). Raksi’s lair is set in the middle of the eastern rice paddies, instead of the middle of the jungle. And so forth. White Wolf seems to have a general hatred of exact maps, or even semi-exact ones. Maybe their developers think that maps don’t matter in a game like Exalted, but I find it hugely annoying. So skip the map. Read the text, it rocks. […]
Minireview: Don't Lose Your Mind
A pair of government agents stalk a runaway girl armed only with a teddy bear. They are never heard from again. A psychopathic hero wields every blade that ever murdered, carving off pieces of his personality in an effort to beat back the Nightmares. A temptress lures the cruel and vile to assault her – only to trap them in a prison built from her own ribcage. Trailing ash and burning footprints with every step, a man cursed with Orpheus’ gift delves deeper into Hell each day on a quest to find the last missing puzzle-piece needed to rebuild his late girlfriend from the wreck she has become…
Don’t Lose Your Mind is a supplement for the brilliant and strange Don’t Rest Your Head game, written by Benjamin Baugh of Monsters & Other Childish Things fame. It’s basically a “madness toolkit” – since “Madness Talents” feature so heavily in DRYH, coming up with a good one can be tricky. This book leaps to the rescue, dribbling ichor and making strange noises. It’s a very good book, but (like the core game) extremely strange. We’re presented with 26 Madness Talents, each one weird and very detailed. In addition to the basic idea of the talent, the book also details how the talent is slowly tearing you apart and what sort of Nightmare you’re turning into (if you don’t keep the “talent” in check)… so the book also doubles as a book of new monsters for the game. Nifty. We’re also given some tips on how to handle madness in the game, and some general game tips to top it off.
I was very impressed with DRYH and this book just adds to the fun. Be warned, though, this is not everyone’s cup of tea. The themes go into the “mature” category, and the “talents” outlined here aren’t nice and comfortable “superpowers”. Far from it.
Added note: Fantasiapelit in Helsinki now carries a stock of IPR games (including Don’t Rest Your Head), so you no longer have to order the things from IPR unless you want to. Being able to browse the books and buy if you like them is very nice, compared to online ordering. […]
Minireview: Curriculum of Conspiracy
The first of two supplements for the brilliant Monsters and Other Childish Things, Curriculum of Conspiracy is the more “standard” one (the other one, Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor, is reputedly a more radical departure from the base game and is also still in my “to buy” queue). Curriculum presents you with a campaign seed for a “Monsters” game, one with a lot of the same Buffy-esque flavor as the high-school one in the core book. It has its own twist, of course; while the locale is still a U.S. school, here some of the faculty know about monsters – and want to control and use them. In other words, some of NPCs are actively hostile to the PCs, and also know a lot about what’s going on.
It’s not bad. The NPCs are nicely detailed and have motivations that aren’t quite black/white. Full maps of the school are given, as are notes on how to run the game. If the idea of pitting the PCs (children) against an actively hostile group sounds like your thing, this book is probably what you need. It’s probably also useful in other “Monsters” games as a source of interesting NPCs. It’s a pretty thin book, with large font – there’s not a ton of content here, though the content you do get is quite good. My copy has some binding problems, not sure if this is a common problem.
Dunno, this feels like a way to run “Monsters” more like a “traditional” rpg… which may be just what some people want. I personally am more interested in the nonstandard aspects of “Monsters”, so I’d probably either use one of the settings in the core, or (more likely) go for the reputedly weird and excellent Candlewick setting. I’ll be able to comment more once I get and read that. […]
Striders incoming!
Finished Half-Life 2: Episode 2 over the weekend… and now I’m stuck with the rest of the world, waiting for Episode 3. While Episode 1 wasn’t anything too special, the second ep was a hell of a lot of fun. Driving (and mowing down zombies) is always amusing, and the new Hunters were a bitch – not to mention the last big battle, which had me hitting the “reload, dammit!” button more than a few times. I thought the length was pretty much spot-on and the graphics and scenery were great (partly due to me being able to play the thing with all the HDR goodies turned on with my new graphics card).
Valve continues to rock. […]
