No, the struggle has been with how to
approach my review. LotDS is more than just an adventure or
mini-campaign, however, it is also less than a setting guide or OSR
rule set. In the end it is all three but not whole one or the other.
This aspect alone has been keeping me from this review. However, the
time is nigh, the calender is in the correct alignment and my
daughter lost tablet privileges allowing me to more easily ready my
.pdf of LotDS on the go (seriously, smart phones and RPGs
don't mix). Given the length of the Liberation as well as the
multiple aspects that the book encompasses I've made the decision to
split my review into two-parts. The first will be about the alternate
rules that +Venger Satanis adds into the d20 based rule systems that
can be used with this adventure and the setting as presented in the
first 25 pages of LotDS.
Obviously, spoiler ahead.
Liberation of the Demon Slayer
Review – Part 1 The moons around the dead god go 'round and 'round
The setting of
LotDS is an interesting one. It isn't new but it includes a lot of
elements from a lot of different sources, time periods and literary
sub-genres to create a world that both feels like Thundarr the
Barbarian and Lovecraft as filtered by Howard.
Razira, the world
that the game takes place on, is no ordinary planet but a sleeping
god (or being of immense and cosmic level powers) by the same name.
How long this god has slept is not apparent in the material of the
adventure but given the aeons long history of lesser dark gods,
interdimenional travelers, wars and plots I would gather that this
god has been out of it a very long time.
The history of the
world, Is vast and painted in enough broad strokes by Venger that
while the referee is given a framework, the walls, floors and
interior design deceptions are all his or hers. It is a generalist's
approach to world building and that, as both a game designer and
referee is a very good thing. For many reasons the generalist
approach works best for the setting that Venger created due to who
some of the movers and shakers of the setting are. Let us be clear,
it matters not if Devils are Lawful and Demons are Chaotic …
they're both evil races that will do what needs to be done to further
their goals and that chiefly means lying out their shiny read back
ends.
That's right, the
devils and demons run this show, shadow masters behind everything
that goes on yet they themselves are puppets to even higher beings.
It is an interesting change, to go from setting after setting in
which such abhorrent evil is just a side note to that evil being the
core of all the bad and evil in the world. It really makes the
reader wonder, if on Razira evil is cancer that good must eliminate
or if it is the other way around.
When Dungeons and
Dragons 4e came out the designers talked about “Points of Light”
in a world of darkness, on Razira, I am not seeing points of light,
just shades of gray fading to black as the big point of the
adventure, the giant mystical object sought after, shows with a very
swift punch in the face. The setting, and in particular the mechanics
of magic and objects created by magic, forces both the referee and
the player to make choices and sacrifices for the “greater good”.
The biggest
suggestion I could make to any referee and one that Venger doesn't is
to make elves off limits to players. In Venger's setting they are
deliciously different than their typical high-fantasy name-sakes and
as such would serve much better as something whispered in the dark by
the players rather than a wolf right next to them.
This of course
serves as a bad segue into the next section which is on the
additional and alternate rules that Venger presents in the first 20
odd pages of the mini-campaign. To be blunt there is a lot here in
terms of suggestions and ways and alternatives to your typical d20
almost anything. Of particular note (and what we will be focusing on
here) is the inclusions of “Free-from Magic”, motivations, dark
secrets and explosive damage (but what about fortune!?). I'm focusing
on these for several reasons, the first being that I've been thinking
of similar things for Eira, second they are the most fun and unique
things about the suggested alternate rules and lastly because I want
to.
First up is magic!
It is no secret that magic and I do not get along … at all and
honestly that does not change with LotDS. What does do, however, is
give me insetting reasons to dislike magic. Why? Because magic comes
from the demons and devils mentioned above! As to the rules, Venger
gets rid of the traditional “fire and forget” style of magic that
has plagued the d20 style games since the beginning and replaced it
was a roll and fail system that is adjudicated with a success/failure
table. I like this, I like it a lot and have been working on
something similar (See this blog post) for a while now. It adds more
rolling which I am never a fan of, but makes the magic-user of more
use than the he is in other magic systems. Add to this the bizarre
effects that could happen from the misuse of magic items and the
increased effectiveness of a spellcaster that doesn't decide to just
start raining destruction down on the world and it is honestly a lot
more fun. Still, I don't like magic so I was little surprised that
given the properties of so many things in the game that Venger did
not create a corruption mechanic for spell use as that would have fit
excellently with the themes throughout the rest of the adventure.
Motivations and
Dark Secrets are an excellent edition that I was not surprised to
find given Venger's background in White Wolf products. Motivations
are what drive the character and Venger provides a table for 8
motivations a player may have (although I assume that a good referee
or player may include alternate ones) and range from the typical
greed to learning to be self-sufficient. Dark Secrets are a trade
off, get a reroll on a bad ability score in exchange for lusting
after your sister. Venger didn't include a limit to the dark
motivations but I would draw the line at two, if World of Darkness
should me anything it is that too many “flaws” can kill a game.
Both factor into another mechanic called Fortune which adds bonuses
to a roll of the player's choice but is not replenished unless the
character plays to his or her Motivations or Dark Secrets. In a way
all three are mechanic based carrots on a stick to get the players to
roleplay instead of the overly cliche'd term “rollplay”. However,
that is not the true case as none of the mechanics punish for not
roleplaying as fortune does replenish over time regardless of the
ability of the player to play his character's lust for his sister to
a hilt or not.
Note:
Lusting after your sister is note actually an option but I was
watching Joe Dirt this morning.
Finally the most mechanic-y of the alternate rules
presented by Venger is the exploding dice. If anyone has played NwoD
they know what these are. Essentially if your longsword does d8
damage and you roll an 8, than roll again if you get a 4 you did 12
damage if you roll another 8 roll again. It is possible (although
statistically unlikely) to roll upwards to a 100 points of damage on
a single attack. This for me is the most troubling of the new
mechanics and the only one I didn't use as I thought it made things
potentially too overpowered (after all the monsters should be allowed
to as well, right?) Still, I can see this being a fun event at any
game table in the same way a natural 20 does and in the end the
players having fun and sometimes getting to feel bad-ass is
important.
The rest of the review will be up eeither tomorrow or
Thursday depending on time and how well my kids allow me to sit and
type nearly three and a half page of overview/review. However I will
be splitting my rating for this review into 3 areas with a final over
all to come with the final part.
Setting – 5 out of 5. Despite being a broad-strokes
setting the atmosphere and potential history of Razira are full of
greatness and I hope we get to see more of this setting by Venger.
Rules – 3 out of 5 Over all very good, I think
something are a bit clunky but they are suggestions more than dogma
and being that the post Dungeons and Dragons d20 movement is all
about tinkering I see no problem with ever replacing, forgetting or
adjusting some of the alternate rules. In particular I think
explosive damage needs a limiter placed on it so that no one can be
“too lucky”.
Agree, disagree? Tell me in the comments maybe you can
get me to change my mind on those dice?
You actually had me convinced that lusting after your sister was one of the choices, but that's the kind of thing you receive when rolling on the Dark Secrets table.
ReplyDeleteA great part 1. Looking forward to part 2. Behave, kids... behave.
VS
Part 2 should be incoming by Sunday. I am sorry about how long its taking but things have been ... stressful the last few days.
DeleteExcellent review bud. I agree breaking the review up is the smartest plan. I do quite like the fact that the world is described, but allows some room for the DM to change, modify etc. As an alternative PC's in anyones campaign could step thru a portal from the current world to Clear Meadows. I'm glad you were able to explain the exploding dice, as I didn't comprehend properly (although that's not because of Venger's explanation, more my own brain not working properly). I look forward to reading the rest of the review when you can get your hands on the ipad.
ReplyDeleteExploding dice are a thing I've had a lot of talking tos about thanks to my liking of the nWoD system over the oWoD system. My oWoD fans love to sit me down and tell me why nWoD is horrible and the exploding dice mechanic is a huge part of that discussion.
DeleteThanks, by the way. I'm glad you liked part 1. Hopefully part 2 will live up to it.