Ships of the Fleet, Vol. 4: Venus Fleet – a supplement for Dream Pod 9’s Jovian Chronicles game – is plagued by minor inconsistencies and errors of detail. Fortunately, it is also possessed of substantial strengths, proving itself useful for tactical and roleplaying games alike. Recommended.

Originally Published in Pyramid Magazine – August 11th, 2000

Being truly excellent is a double-edged sword: On the one hand, of course, you’re excellent – and that comes with a lot of perks. On the other hand, though, you’ve set yourself a very high standard – and a failure in the details suddenly becomes a notable offense.

Which is why I’m going to take a few moments to dwell on the failures of Ships of the Fleet, Vol. 4 – a supplement describing six Venusian ships of the line, the principles of Venusian ship design, and Venusian fleet operations. Although these failures may all be in the details, they are no less disappointing.

Why are they disappointing? Because Dream Pod 9 has excelled – with all three of their games – in providing a level of depth, breadth, and quality for their fictional worlds that almost beggars the imagination. When, for example, you not only know the broad strokes of political machination and warmongering in the solar system of the 21^st century, but also what the favorite books of the Jovian Confederation are, and how the details of shipboard life onboard a Constantinople-class vessel differ from those of a Birmingham-class – and all of this weaves together into a consummate and seamless whole – you’ve achieved something special.

You can build mighty worlds out of imaginative wonders, but the final key to the imagination lies in the details. It is there that a world will cease to be merely words on a page and, instead, become a living, breathing presence in your mind’s eye.

So, when you’ve accomplished the extraordinary task of making this happen – of bringing a world to life – it behooves you to make sure that those details continue to be consistent and believable.

Which brings us back to what makes this book disappointing.

For example, on page eight we are told that all Venusian ships are specifically made to look different from one another – part of a fleet-wide doctrine to camouflage their navy as civilian merchant vessels and, thus, hide it from the other solar powers. So why on page thirteen are we told that “these newer ships are cosmetically indistinguishable from the older ones”? And why, whenever we are shown pictures of multiple ships, these are merely cut-and-paste copies of one another (an offense made all the more notable by the fact that even the name stamped on the side of the ship has not been changed from one carbon copy to another)? And speaking of that all-too-obvious name: If you’re attempting to keep the size of your navy a secret, is it really a good idea to be printing “CVNA” (Cooperative Venusian Naval Administration) in large letters for the entire solar system to see on every single ship in your navy?

There are other examples of carelessness, as well: In the core Jovian Chronicles rulebook we were told that Venus deliberately exported only algae products and foodstuffs in order to conceal from the rest of the solar system the extent of their technical knowledge. So why is it that in this book we’re told that Venusian ships are at a particular risk from pirate attacks because their ships are almost “guaranteed” to be carrying items of value? One of the nicer elements in the book are the crew interviews – allowing you to hear first-person narratives of why shipboard life is like… but many of these interviews do not sound like Venusians, coming across as angry and egotistical rather than reserved and polite.

And so forth. There are many companies out there – companies which turn out good games – who could do these same things, and I just wouldn’t care. I probably wouldn’t even notice. But the Podsters have established a record of high quality, and I notice things in their books that I wouldn’t notice if I didn’t care so much.

Now that I’m done nitpicking the book to death, though, let’s dwell on its pleasant – and substantial – successes:

For starters, if you’re running a roleplaying campaign set onboard a Venusian ship, you should seriously consider picking up this book. The detailed ship information, interviews with crew members describing ship life, and coverage of crew structures for each type of ship, along with descriptions of shipboard procedures and naval structure are all great, hands-on material which will have immediate applicability for you.

For tactical players the most obvious application of the material in this book comes in the form of ship stats — giving you some new toys to play with. But I think that most of you will also find the information regarding Venusian deployment philosophy and tactical planning during wartime to be fascinating and useful material (although I wish there was as much detail provided for Venus as was provided for the Jovian Confederation in previous volumes).

The only problem the Ships of the Fleet books have, as a concept, is that they lack a clearly defined role for either roleplayers or tactical players. The inclusion of shipboard life and procedures makes the books potentially useful for roleplayers – but only roleplayers in campaigns with substantial time aboard ship. On the other hand, the inclusion of this material reduces the number of ships which can be covered – making the book less inclusively useful for the tactical player. Both roleplayer and tactical player receive a number of tools in these books – but it is an open question in my mind whether or not either receive enough tools to justify the price tag.

Therefore, this books comes with a reserved recommendation: If you’re a Jovian Chronicles fanatic, definitely pick it up. Otherwise, you’re only going to want this one if it has a very specific application to your campaign.

Grade: B

Writers: Wunji Lau (Writer/Designer and Lloyd Doug Jessee (Game Stats/Design)
Publisher: Dream Pod 9
Price: $20.95
Page Count: 144
ISBN: 1-896776-70-1

And they took the gifts that Nature left for them and turned those gifts to their own ends, shaping them through rites of chaos to become a teeming legion – least among their servants, but limitless in number.

This scroll describes “seething caverns of chaos, impossible in their vast expanse” and filled with “the seething terrors” that are the “least among the servitors of the Endless Sleepers”. These corrupted masses are called the Elder Brood and some are given names: Akop, tesk, marbassik spawn, tilaxic.

Attention is then paid to one of the Elder Brood in particular: “Unto the bulugon they gave the feast-lust, driving their bloated forms to obsession of corpulent excess.”

Bulugon were reptilian creatures who were gifted with an endless, insatiable appetite. This appetite fuels a limitless capacity for hate and a cruel drive for conquest. Their thick scales are stretched taut across an abdomen swelled with excess. Although bat-winged, their corpulent bodies make them clumsy fliers. (It’s actually quite remarkable that their wings can support their bulk at all.)

THE GLUTTONY

No matter how much a bulugon eats, the endless starvation in their belly continues. Their masters use their constant feeding to both grow their bloated bodies and to motivate their service, but there is no satisfaction which can be given to them.

There are many tales of lone bulugon tyrannizing isolated communities. They “enthrall those weakest of mind and will” and then seek out some isolated cave or (more blasphemously) a religious shrine. Word goes out through their newfound servitors that the devil must be fed or the community will feel its wrath. Tribute and service are demanded in the name of fear.

But its hunger cannot be satisfied. The bulugon will “feast until all the fields are bare; until all the stores are consumed; until it feeds upon starvation itself”. In just a few days, the bulugon can deplete the food reserves of the entire village. And then these malefic gluttons will turn on the locals and begin to feed on them. Horrific tales are collected here of villages reduced to grisly lotteries and bloody arenas in which desperate men and women are faced with the heinous choice of the next victim to be fed to an insatiable appetite.

THE GIFTS

Graphic depictions are given of the bulugon using their long horns to impale flying opponents, using the great bulk to send both themselves and their pinioned foe crashing to the ground.

Bulugon are also said to be able to “wreathe themselves in a mist of terror”. Although they are not very fast or agile, bulugon use this fog – and the fear which accompanies it – to disguise their approach. And then their considerable bulk – both of fat and muscle – is capable of delivering blows strong to crush plate armor.

Finally, the stomach of a bulugon possesses an acid of incredible strength. (Its enhancement is most likely the source of their appetite.) Once removed from the bulugon’s body, the acid quickly loses its strength, but the bulugon is able to spew this acid in a flesh-searing cone.

ALCHEMIC ARTS

Detailed instructions are given for extracting the acid from the belly of a recently deceased bulugon while sustaining some of its preternatural strength. With a successful Intelligence (Alchemist’s Supplies) check (DC 20), an alchemist can remove 1d6+4 vials of bulugon acid. This acid deals 6d6 acid damage, three times the damage of normal acid.

DESIGN NOTES

Like the akop, the bulugon were taken from Green Ronin’s The Book of Fiends to expand the ranks of the Elder Brood.

Another technique to note here is that each Book of the Elder Brood focuses on a different brood, but each volume also introduces the Elder Brood as a whole. (Since any one of these books might be the first one the PCs chance upon.) In several of them I list the names of other creatures within the Elder Brood, but notably each listing is incomplete and each listing is different-but-overlapping. This is a matryoshka techniques, with the players being able to slow correlate a list of the Elder Brood by comparing different sources of lore.

Back to Chaos Lorebooks

Originally Published June 20th, 2000

This is how you write a supplement.

Why? Well, for starters, what makes a good supplement? First off, the book should be good enough that you want to buy it – but the underlying system should have been designed well enough that you don’t need to buy it. In other words, the supplement should live up to it’s name: It should supplement the gaming process, and not be an integrally necessary piece of it.

Second, the book should contain a wealth of background information and source material. By the time I finish reading a supplement on, for example, a “guys-with-cars and girls-with-guns in a cops and robbers game”, I should know everything I ever wanted to know about cars, guns, and the men and women who use them to catch crooks and rob things.

Finally, the supplement should work by itself, but also work in synthesis with the other supplements for a game. In other words, I should be able to pick up Hot Rods and Gun Bunnies™ and be able to use the book without suddenly discovering that I also need to pick up The Complete Book of Cars and The Totally Insane Guide to Guns. At the same time, though, if I decide to pick up The Totally Insane Guide to Guns it should add to my experience using Hot Rods and Gun Bunnies™, and vice versa.

Needless to say, Hot Rods and Gun Bunnies™ (HRGB) succeeds at all of this with the fine polish of a new ‘vette and the lightning impact of Colt .457. Even though its twice as long as the core Big Eyes, Small Mouth™ (BESM) manual, at no point in time do you feel as if you actually needed to buy this book. At the same time, though, every single page is chock full of material so good that you will never regret, even for an instant, the hard earned cash you laid on the line to pick it up.

Basically the content of HRGB can be broken down into three categories: New Rules, Equipment, and Campaign Info.

NEW RULES

Character creation in the basic Tri-Stat System (on which BESM is based) is a process of seven steps. HRGB not only elaborates on how each of these seven steps can be tailored towards a campaign of high-octane action, but strategically expands the rules for maximum impact. An example of this is found in Step 4: Character Attributes – in which not only are all of the attributes in the core manual assessed as to their appropriateness in an HRGB campaign, but several attributes are specifically modified for easier use in such a campaign, and a set of brand new attributes are introduced.

But HRGB doesn’t stop there, it also goes on to insert new steps and sub-steps into the character creation process – expanding and adapting the character creation process. The most notable example of this is the presentation of a skill system for BESM (which first made its debut in the stand-alone Tri-Stat game Dominion Tank Police). This skill system is not only dynamic, it also fits almost perfectly into the overall feel and nature of the system as a whole. One would expect this type of thing to either feel like a completely tacked on addition or, alternatively, something which should have been included in the basic BESM manual to begin with. The truth is that you feel cheated neither in the skill system itself nor its lack in the core rulebook — an accomplishment that speaks highly not only of HRGB, but the Tri-Stat system as a whole.

Beyond the rules for skill resolution, the only other noteworthy addition to the basic Tri-Stat rules takes the form of a brief section describing genre combat, including a surprisingly wide array of optional rules and tweaks.

EQUIPMENT

A supplement about hot rods and gun bunnies which lacked a description of cars and firearms would, of course, be remiss. It should come as no surprise that HRGB lives up to the task admirably in Chapter 3: Boom and Vroom, tossing in bombs along with the titular autos and guns.

Not only is this section a sizable and well-researched portion of the book, it also excels at maximizing the value of everything it gives to you. By implementing a template system (so that, for example, the same set of stats covers not only an H&K MP5, but also an Ingram M10) they maximize their coverage. And all of this is backed up by rock solid research which is presented in a clear, easy-to-understand, and easy-to-use format for the GM.

This section is also a good example of the modular design to the BESM product line I was discussing earlier: In the Big Robots, Cool Starships™ supplement for BESM a complete vehicle construction system is presented for the game. Now, HRGB could have required the purchase of this separate book or – worse yet – simply reprinted the material. Instead, Guardians of Order have presented us with this entirely new template system, which is not only a better fit for the material covered by HRGB, but is also completely compatible with BRCS for those who want the added flexibility the complete VCS gives.

CAMPAIGN INFO

Between the new rules and equipment guide, HRGB has already justified its existence as a supplement – but it doesn’t stop there. Jim Crocker goes on to provide a wealth of campaign detail. This material ranges from an overview of pertinent anime titles in the genre (such as Gunsmith Cats and Riding Bean); to a breakdown of campaign styles, themes, categories and ratings (and how the rules can be tailored to each of them); to a set of character archetypes; to a stand-alone module; to (finally) an overview of firearm laws, motor vehicle laws, and bounty hunting and bail in America, Canada, and Japan (accompanied by a general description of “Law and Order in Japan” and America’s Miranda Warning).

All of this material is immediately useful and pertinently selected – there’s no deadweight to be found here, and its organized and presented in an easily referenced and accessible manner.

Of course, nothing is truly perfect – and HRGB is no exception to this truism. The book has a minor typo problem, particularly in the first few chapters. The new attributes added to HRGB have six levels (instead of the standard five of the core BESM rules) – this works, but it lends an unbalanced feel to the system. Although the new skill system is excellent (as noted above), this particular presentation of it is definitely slanted towards an HRGB campaign. Clearly this isn’t a flaw, but if you’re picking this book up solely for the skill system you should go in with the knowledge that you’re going to have to adapt it to other types of BESM campaigns.

But at the end of the day there is only one conclusion which can be reached: Guardians of Order was good to begin with, and with each new supplement they get better and better. Hot Rods and Gun Bunnies is a textbook case of “how to do it right” – and it’s well worth your time and money.

Writers: Jim Crocker, David L. Pulver
Publisher: Guardians of Order
Price: $15.95
Page Count: 124
ISBN: 1-894225-07-8

Originally Published July 14th, 2000

When you think about the typical roleplaying game made available over the internet for free, the thing that springs to mind is that it is, above all else, free. Because there is no serious investment necessary to present the material to us, we see a cascade of secondary effects as the standard norm: Poor presentation. Poor artwork. Questionable system design. Lots of rehashed ideas. Little research. Less development. No support.

If we wanted to generalize a little more we’d note that most freebies are one-man shows, and, thus, even if something stands out for some reason, it will usually never stand out in more ways than one or two. You might get a good artist, but what are the odds of them also being a good writer? And if they happen to be both, how likely is it they’re going to be good at system design, too?

So the odds are against you when you start surfing around looking through these freebies. But there are a lot of diamonds out there – and not all of them are in the rough. What you need is a little guidance to point you in the right direction…

Which brings us to Children of Fire.

The first thing you’ll notice when you go to the webpage are the lavish illustrations which accompany the text. While lacking substantial content, the richness of visual design which supports the skillfully utilitarian lay-out of text and information not only supplements the writing (while not overpowering it or distracting from it), but also lets us begin checking things off of our mental checklist: Good presentation. Strong artwork.

Is there anything lying beneath this visual feast, though? Or are we looking at a shiny apple with a rotten core?

The central concept of Children of Fire is that the PCs are angels (the children of fire) sent to Earth to protect humanity (the children of clay) — both from itself, and from other supernatural forces (including the obvious fallen angels, but also the Grigori, the Anakim, the Nephilim, and human Sorcerers). This is territory which has been well-covered before, so the key question really becomes whether or not Children of Fire succeeds at bringing anything new to the arena: It does.

The problem a game of angels has is that, when you get right down to it, angels – as they are understood today in popular culture – are simply not interesting characters to play. An interesting character is a flawed character – a character who has to struggle against themselves as much as an exterior foe. Angels, on the other hand, are perceived as perfect beings who wander the universe doing nothing but good. Thus a typical game of this nature will have players taking on the roles of lost or even fallen angels, or it will “modernize” the angels by sullying them in one way or another.

Ironically, Children of Fire avoids the problems which typically lead to “modernization” by simply turning back the hands on the clock. Instead of adopting the cliches of today, CoF opts to base its setting on the rich mythology which was understood in ages past, but which has been lost in the gloss of the 20^th century. Backed up with an array of solid research, Erich Wambach (the author) succeeds at bringing a very different look to some familiar territory. The nine choirs are flawed creations, but even in their imperfection they are viewed with awe and fear by the bulk of humanity.

So, we have some fresh ideas which are backed up with strong research. We can knock a couple more slots off of our checklist. What about system design?

Children of Fire uses a simple, relatively loose, set of rules based around a fairly standard 2d10 mechanic (roll the dice, add a score from the character sheet, compare to a difficulty number set by the nature of the task and the GM). This is a good fit for the material, amply covering the broad nature of angelic abilities.

Character creation is a ten step program, but focuses primarily on the assignation of points to various Aspects (Knowledge, Understanding, Power, Vigor, and Glory – which are roughly equivalent to Attributes in most games) and Virtues (Justice, Prudence, Temperance, and Fortitude – which are a mapping of the angel’s moral make-up). This entire system, while bearing semblance to a typical set of character creation rules, actually emphasizes the utterly alien nature of angels. The fact that angels are quantified in ways which are completely different from the ways in which humans are quantified is a subtle, but powerful, game design tool.

Those are the strengths. Now, what are the weaknesses? The primary failing of Children of Fire is a lack of depth. There are only sixty pages of material in the basic book and certain elements of the background material read more as introductory pamphlets, rather than a solid tour guide. On the other hand, Children of Fire is receiving continuing support (a supplement, Children of Clay, is already available) – and I expect to see the setting appropriately fleshed out. This wouldn’t be acceptable if I had paid $20 or $30 for Children of Fire, but I didn’t – and the free nature of Children of Fire allows its creators to take an approach that wouldn’t work under different circumstances.

There are also some flaws in the general presentation of the material. Although the website itself is graphically rich, the PDF file available for download is not (I would have preferred the option of downloading a larger PDF which contained the graphics). Proofreading is sadly lacking and the text is replete with typos, homonyms, and other errors (for example, the book can’t quite figure out whether it wants 250,000,000 angels or 250,000 angels). The prose intermittently becomes stilted and awkward, a problem compounded by the occasionally condescending and annoyingly self-righteous implications of “this is the way you’re supposed to game”.

Those problems aside, Children of Fire is definitely worth taking the time to check out: A simple, effective system coupled to a setting replete with possibility.

Writers: Erich Wambach
Publisher: Methods in the Madness
Price: Free!
Page Count: 60

This review was written as part of a pitch to Pyramid Magazine to publish a review column focused on free RPGs available online. (Back in 2000, I was trying really hard to land a regular column gig for one of the RPG magazines because it would’ve given me a reliable income for paying rent.) At the time, these free RPGs were still something of a novelty: GMs who’d been running their homebrewed systems could suddenly use the World Wide Web to share them with the world, and they did! I thought this was incredibly cool and downloaded literally hundreds of them. I also thought it was a shame that so many of them were basically unknown and that it would be great to shine a spotlight on them.

Pyramid bought the review, but weren’t sold on the idea of a dedicated column. C’est la vie.

DriveThruRPG and RPGNow largely brought an end to the wild west of free RPGs, with creators these days mostly preferring to make PDF versions of their games available for sale instead.

Children of Fire remained available online until just a couple years ago, but can still be found on the Internet Archive. While poking around to see if the game had a modern home on the ‘net, discovered that Wambach published a board game with the same name back in 2005.

If a GM runs systems where they call for specific skill checks (e.g., “give me a Computer Use check”), my experience — from both sides of the table — is that they’ll often develop biases in the skills they call for. Sometimes this will just be a natural consequence of skill design (Spot Hidden in Call of Cthulhu has a far more universal application than Geology), but often it’s just familiarity and comfort: They habitually reach for Field Medicine, even though Cybernetics or Pathology might be better fits. Or maybe they just never think to call for Mysticism checks.

These biases affect both rulings made at the table and adventure design. Either results in a flattening of the game world: If you’re not calling for Cybernetics checks, for example, then it likely means that you’re not including cybernetics meaningfully in your game. (Or, at least, keeping it out of the spotlight.)

If you’re running a system with skill overlap, of course, it’s fine for multiple skills to be applicable, but the bias will still have an effect: Skill checks are a way of asking questions about the game world, and if the only questions you’re asking about Cybernetics are the ones fully covered by Field Medicine, then you’re still missing the chunk of Cybernetics that makes it unique.

You can see this really clearly, I think, when it comes to designing mystery scenarios: If you’ve got an unconscious blindspot when it comes to Chemistry tests, then there are lots of different types of clues that you aren’t including. Your mystery scenarios, by necessity, will be less varied and interesting.

SOLUTIONS

Start by putting the skill list on your GM screen. Having that list at your fingertips from day one while running a new system is a great way of making sure you take advantage of all the tools the game is giving you. A skill bias often develops because you just keep coming back to the first dozen or so skills you learned, so if you can avoid falling into that rut in the first place you’ll never have a problem.

After five or six sessions, review the skill list. This shouldn’t take more than ten minutes or so, but really put in the effort to look at and think about each and every skill: Have you been using this skill? If not, are there times when you should’ve used it? What are some fun ways you could use the skill in designing your scenarios? Is there stuff you could add to the environment? Ways that your NPCs could use the skill or force the PCs to use their skill? If you’re struggling, re-read the description of the skill in the rulebook and/or check out the pertinent Wikipedia article.

Pay particular attention to skills the PCs are proficient in. Make a separate list or highlight them on your GM screen. Hitting these skills will spread the spotlight around and give the players opportunities to show off how awesome their characters are.

Then use these lists — both the game’s skill list and the PCs’ skill lists — to inspire your adventure creation. Need a clue? Pick a skill and ask yourself how the PCs could use the skill to get the lead they need. Designing a monster-of-the-week? Think about how the PCs could use skills to interact with them, either directly or indirectly. (Where does Cybernetics take you as compared to Pharmacology, Xenoesotericism, or Zero-G?) You can do the same thing when filling your environments with cool details — think not only about things to interact with (e.g., you can use Chemistry to analyze the strange liquid puddled on the sofa) but how skills can become an extension of the character’s senses (e.g., Chemistry lets them recognize a distinctive fragrance compound).