Tagline: Although often lost in the shadow of her big brother Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles is a great game in its own right. The Silhouette system is every bit as powerful as it ever was, and the setting — a future version of our solar system — intriguing, layered, and (literally) exploding with potential.

Dream Pod 9 has produced and supported three primary games. The first of these, their flagship, is Heavy Gear has been almost universally praised. The second, Tribe 8, has carved out a place for itself as one of the finest and most original fantasy games in the roleplaying industry.

Their third game, however, has not been quite so fortunate. Jovian Chronicles, like her big brother Heavy Gear is a mecha game using the Silhouette rules system and inspired, at least partially, by anime. As a result, Jovian Chronicles has often found itself lost in Heavy Gear’s shadow.

It doesn’t deserve to be.

Although there are many similarities between the games, there are also many differences. In Heavy Gear, for example, the mecha are suits of powered armor in completely alien setting far in the future, driven by an overarching meta-story and set of intriguing, deeply developed characters. In Jovian Chronicles, on the other hand, you have a hard SF world in which the mecha serve as space fighters in a setting close to home, both spatially and temporally.

Both Heavy Gear and Jovian Chronicles are remarkably strong games, and both would be in my Top 10 list for the industry. But they are there for different reasons.

THE SETTING

At a basic level a setting can be either good or bad. In general you can characterize a good setting as one based upon interesting concepts, with a great deal of depth, detail, and originality. In general you can characterize a bad setting as one which lacks an interesting concept and is either shallow, poorly developed, lacking in originality, or a combination of all of the above.

That much is simple.

A more interesting question is what separates a good setting from a superb one.

For example, why is it when I read the setting material for Deadlands or Vampire I think to myself, “Wow, that was really good!” But when I read Heavy Gear or Trinity I’m, literally, blown away? What makes one good and the other great?

After thinking about this for a long while, I’ve decided that the primary difference lies in breadth and versatility of the setting. For example, when I read Deadlands I think to myself, “Wow, there’s a near fantasy version of the Old West, with the PCs playing western heroes. Cool.” When I read Vampire I think, “Wow, there’s a really neat modern gothic setting, in which the PCs will be playing vampires.”

When I read of Terra Nova (the world Heavy Gear is set in), however, I think to myself: “Wow, what a great world.”

In Vampire I play a vampire. In Terra Nova I can play a cop, a vigilante, a gear pilot, a spy, a terrorist, a freedom fighter, or any one of a dozen different things. As a GM I can design a campaign around, literally, dozens of completely different hooks. And all of this takes place in a richly developed world, with many different, unique cultures and political units.

Of course, you have a great deal of variety within, for example, the World of Darkness as well (particularly as you start picking up additional games and supplements), but the setting as presented in Vampire is clearly designed for the PCs to play vampires within a very specific type of campaign structure (although I would be the last to say that there isn’t a tremendous amount of variation possible within that basic structure). This isn’t a bad thing (far from it), but only a fool would say that the World of Darkness as presented in Vampire is comparable to Terra Nova as it is presented in Heavy Gear.

Which brings us back to Jovian Chronicles, which possesses all of the strengths of Heavy Gear in this regard.

The fictional timeline of Jovian Chronicles begins in 1999 (the original game was published in the early ‘90s), when the Solar Power Satellite 1 is successfully tested. By 2002 mankind has established their first permanent space station (which is true, although in the game it has the fictional name of “Freedom Station”). In 2007 a prototype fusion engine successfully generates power. Technology and space exploration begins to advance rapidly and by 2024 the moon is colonized. (For those of you gasping with incredulity at this point, the designers are fully cognizant of the fact that, without a minor miracle, there’s no way for a major space presence to be established inside of twenty years as Jovian Chronicles postulates. They stretched the facts slightly in this regard so that they could have an advanced spatial civilization in a future which was not so far distant as to render humanity completely unrecognizable culturally.)

In 2030 major development on orbital stations begins; in 2033 Mars is settled for the first time; in 2037 the Jovian Gas Mining Corp. is founded and the first station in Jovian orbit is built; the New Earth Project begins to terraform Venus in 2072.

And then “something bad” happens.

Social economic pressures cause several nations back home to collapse and people begin to flee Mother Earth in a massive exodus (during which Venus is settled for the first time). As chaos seizes the homeworld, Mars seizes its independence (the first stellar colony to do so). Then, in 2100, Earth disappears – rumors of major disasters and civil conflict fill the solar system, but any and all shuttles sent to investigate are destroyed. The colonies are completely cut off.

This period of isolation lasts for nearly a hundred years. In the colonies, much of this time is spent trying desperately to make themselves reliably self-sufficient; back on Earth civil war rages. Then, in 2084, the Central Earth Government and Administration (CEGA) gains control of a significant portion of Earth’s surface as the Unification War ends. As Earth extends back out into the solar system, an era of peace ensues.

But such peace cannot be sustained for long. CEGA longs to return Earth to its position as the center of humanity, while the colonies (after a hundred years of independence) squabble among themselves and no longer recognize any such thing to be true. By 2210 war seems almost inevitable…..

In the year 2210 the Solar System looks something like this: Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter are all major colonies. CEGA controls much of Earth (except for the Non-Aligned States), the orbital stations in Earth orbit, and the colonies on the moon. The asteroid belt has become a sort of “wild frontier” where those unwilling or unable to live under an organized government live in small settlements. In trans-Jovian space are the Outer Realms – dominated mainly by small research stations and the THC Corporation, which exploits the chemical riches of Saturn’s moon Titan.

Mercury. Mercury, the hottest planet in the solar system, was settled in order to provide raw resources to the New Earth project which terraformed Venus. It expanded in the 22nd century as disaffected Venusian colonists left to start new lives for themselves. Today it is home to the Merchant Guild. The guild served as the primary transport of goods and services in the solar system following the Fall. Because Mercury is entirely reliant upon the success of the Guild for their own survival, they have become friends of everyone and enemies of none… although that might change if CEGA’s “manifest destiny” begins to conflict with their own vision.

Venus. The New Earth project began the terraforming process of Venus in 2072. In the time leading up to the events of the Fall, many businesses back on Earth realized that hard times were ahead – and left for other places. Several migrated to orbital stations, but many came to Venus. In the world of 2210, the society of Venus is the result of the mixing of the corporate cultures of Asia, North America, and Europe – with a heavy influence from the Japanese. It is controlled, behind the scenes, by the manipulative Venusian Bank – which now attempts to spread its influence throughout the solar system. Many believe that Venus largely controlled CEGA for many years, but now the puppet may be getting out of control.

Earth. After the events of the Fall and the Unification War, Earth is split into two parts – CEGA and the Non-Aligned States. CEGA has expansionist plans for the solar system at large, and earthers in general have a hard time understanding that their brethren in the colonies no longer bear as much love for the birthplace of humanity as they once did. Earthers see a manifest destiny for Earth, to bring all of humanity under its control once again and CEGA leads the charge. Many wonder, however, how long CEGA will tolerate dissension at home as well as abroad.

Orbitals. Some of the earliest space stations, the O’Neill stations in Earth orbit are home to millions of people. They are once more under the control of CEGA, but were independent during the period of the Fall. The Orbitals are a melting pot, with almost every cylinder having its own Earth-derived culture and traditions.

The Moon. Like the orbitals, the moon is under CEGA control. There are several Lunar cities, with a total population of about one million. The Selenites, during the Fall, adapted themselves to the hard realities of self-sufficiency. They possess a very Puritan work ethic as a result, with creativity and imagination discouraged in favor of doing the work necessary to stay alive.

Mars. After years of war, Mars has become split in half by a tense cold war. On one half is the Martian Federation, a totalitarian state which has sided with CEGA (although it possesses some doubts now, based on the recent destruction of Mars’ orbital elevator with possible CEGA involvement, see below). On the other is the Martian Free Republic, which tends to support the Jovians.

Asteroid Belt. The belt has become home to those who choose or need to remove themselves from society. Home to countless bases formed by hollowing asteroids (with an economy often based in mining), most of the belters possess a distinct “frontier” culture. The rest of them are isolationists and fantatics.

Jupiter. As the title might suggest, Jupiter is meant to be a primary focus of the Jovian Chronicles game. The Jovian Confederation joins together three distinct states – Olympus (in Jupiter’s orbit itself, with the capital colony of Elysee itself), and the two Trojan States (Vanguard Mountain and Newhome) located at Jupiter’s lagrange points. Although all of these bases orbit Jupiter, it should be noted that they are (literally) millions of kilometers apart… with all the logistical nightmares (particularly in defense matters) that this would suggest. Quite accidentally, Jupiter has become one of the two major powers in the solar system (with CEGA) being the other. They are the only ones with an existing military capable of meeting CEGA on the figurative battlefield, and they are the only ones with the political clout to possibly avoid that bloodshed. Tensions run high between these two powers.

The setting, as you can see, is a rich one (particularly once you begin to add in the complex and dynamic interactions which exist within and between these general groupings) – with many different places to set a campaign, and even more hooks on which to base a campaign. I haven’t even begun to skim the surface of the setting (leaving out details such as Titan, the United Space Nations, SolaPol, and the mystery of the Jovian floaters). It is easily one of the best roleplaying settings you will find. Indeed, I will say that, like Terra Nova, it is one of the best settings period — in or out of the roleplaying industry.

With all that being said, the setting of Jovian Chronicles as presented in the core rulebook does have two relatively serious problems. To explain the first of these, I must first delve into a digression.

A setting can be crippled not just through a lack of information, depth, campaign hooks, or originality. It can also be crippled by the lack of specific information.

Take, for example, the first printing of Trinity. This setting contained a massive number of potential campaign hooks – the proxies who controlled the psi orders were obviously engaged in their own personal machinations; the Aberrants who had devastated Earth a century before had returned; the mystery behind the disappearance of the Upeo wa Macho (the psi order of teleporters) had never been solved; Earth was going back out to reclaim their lost colonies; and the various alien species were engaged in their own plottings. These campaign hooks were backed up with a wealth of detailed information, a rich history, and an engaging, original universe. Unfortunately, there was one thing missing: The keys to unlock this vast treasure trove. Specifically, the original printing of the Trinity manual lacked information on who the proxies were and what their goals were; why the Aberrants had returned; why the Upeo wa Macho had disappeared; what had happened to the colonies during the years they had been lost; and what the aliens wanted.

Without these “keys”, the Trinity setting was fantastic – but you couldn’t do anything with it, unless you waited for the supplements to be released or were willing to abandon the two things which make using a published setting over one you’ve created yourself worthwhile: the ability to take advantage of published material and the fun of exploring someone else’s creation. (It should be noted that the paperback release of Trinity corrected this problem; the added text can be found on White Wolf’s website.)

Jovian Chronicles does not suffer from such a widespread, universal problem. However, there is one very important “key” which the book lacks. The main rulebook is set in 2210, a few weeks after an event known as the Odyssey. The Odyssey started when a group of Jovian agents were sent to Venus in order to liberate and give asylum to a Terran scientist who had perfected a “cyberlinkage” system. Their efforts to get him safely back to Jupiter spanned the solar system, and resulted in the destruction of Copernicus Dome on the Moon and the orbital elevator on Mars. One of the major Jovian colonies also came near destruction before the entire incident came to an end.

The Odyssey has had massive repercussions on the world of Jovian Chronicles, and things seem to be spiraling rapidly towards war. That makes for a very exciting game setting…. It is also creates the problem we’re discussing. To whit, the setting material in Jovian Chronicles makes it abundantly clear that things are developing very rapidly in this world – within a matter of days or weeks, literally, the solar system could be at war. The situation you’re left with is one in which, if you start a campaign, you’re just not sure when the events of your campaign are going to begin to supercede future supplements. This problem was compounded as Dream Pod 9 began pouring the majority of their efforts into the Heavy Gear product line, and Jovian Chronicles languished without support.

Fortunately, the release of Jovian Chronicles product has recently seen an upswing in support, and the next couple of years look particularly bright for the line. Further, you shouldn’t consider this a crippling flaw by any stretch of the imagination – the great diversity and breadth of the setting make up for the lack in this one particular area. Due to the depth of material presented it is also relatively easy to start a campaign in the pre-Odyssey state of the setting, and thus give yourself a little bit more breathing room.

The second problem is connected to this one, but requires me to go off on another digression: Jovian Chronicles was originally released as a licensed supplement to R. Talsorian’s Mekton game. One supplement was released, the Europa Incident. It was here that the events of the Odyssey were detailed for the first time. The Silhouette version of Jovian Chronicles reviewed here wouldn’t be released for a few more years.

The problem is that the Odyssey simply isn’t adequately explained in this book. It gets a four paragraph description on the first true page of game information, and then bits and pieces of it are referenced throughout the rest of the setting information (mainly in terms of telling you how people, places, and policies have been effected by different facets of the Odyssey). But the pieces don’t always match up, and are almost never explained.

This is frustrating, and I finally put my finger on why: Reading the details of the Odyssey in this core book were like reading a supplement. The same way in which, while reading a module set in the Forgotten Realms, you are expected to know where the Sword Coast is, this supplement expected you to know the Odyssey in quite a bit of detail (even though they did supply the summary).

But, again, a minor problem. Overall, as I’ve noted, the setting is going to knock your socks off, so let’s close on a positive note: The creative team down on Dream Pod 9, once again, display the loving detail which they are willing to put into a setting. A good example of this is found in the equipment chapter, where money is given an extensive explanation, complete with a basic primer of the economic underpinnings of the capitalistic system of 2210 (some of you are yawning, others of you have realized how important this information might be in, for example, a campaign where the PCs portray traders). It also shines through when, instead of just detailing a generic “first aid kit” or “sleeping drug”, the authors take the time to detail specific brands for the various equipment types, complete with some suggestive guidelines on how the GM can design their own brands.

It’s this type of attention to detail, in addition to envisioning broad, epic strokes for the setting, that have made Dream Pod 9’s campaign settings the industry standard in recent years.

THE SYSTEM

Jovian Chronicles uses the Silhouette Engine – so named, the designers tell us, because it “evokes many things that they hoped to build into the rules. A silhouette is simple; so is the game system. A silhouette marks the outlines of an object; the rules outline the game, helping to give form and definition to all situations. A silhouette is a shadow as a game system should be, to the point where players are not aware of it any more. A silhouette is flexible and can change shape; so can the rules.”

The motif of the silhouette, as it is described here, is certainly a model which all game designers should aspire to (with the exception of the simple part, everyone knows somebody who likes a complex engine). The game designers down at Dream Pod 9 carry through on their promises – delivering a simple, easy-to-learn system, with a ton of potential.

It should also be noted that the Silhouette System is unique in that it functions both as a roleplaying engine and a fully functional tactical engine. The two systems are completely compatible, with a simple scale change operation, and, thus, allow for a number of interesting campaign types.

The Silhouette System was introduced with the first edition of Heavy Gear, in 1995. Jovian Chronicles followed it in early 1997, with several modifications. In late 1997, the second edition of Heavy Gear was released, modifying the version of Silhouette found in Jovian Chronicles. Finally, Tribe 8 was released last year, 1998.

The primary differences between these versions of the Silhouette engine lie in the skill list, the tactical game, and the vehicle construction system. Functionally, the engine is basically identical in all its iterations, although minor things have been twitched here and there.

The basic mechanic is a dice pool (but one which doesn’t suffer from the usual statistical vagaries). Specifically you roll xd6 and take the highest number rolled. If multiple sixes are rolled, you add 1 for each additional six. If all the dice come up as 1’s, you have fumbled. Unless you fumble, you compare your final number to the assigned Threshold (difficulty) for the action – if the result is higher than the Threshold, then the character has succeeded.

So, for example, if you roll 3, 4, and 6 your total would be 6. If you rolled 2, 6, and 6 your total would by 7 (6 + 1).

In your basic skill test your skill determines the number of dice you roll, and your attribute acts as a modifier to your final result. For example, if you had a skill of 2 in Swimming and a Fitness attribute of 2, you would roll 2d6 and add 2 to the final result.

The only problem with this system is that higher levels of attributes end up contributing a lot to the resolution process, while higher levels of skills contribute less. I, personally, don’t have a problem with that – since I tend to run more heroic type campaigns (where a person’s natural talents are at least as important as what they’re skilled at), but that won’t cut it for everyone. Michael T. Richter, who occasionally posts reviews here on RPGNet, has suggested that changing the resolution system to a d8 base (with no other changes) would solve the problem.

CHARACTER CREATION

Character creation in Jovian Chronicles is a five-step process – the first of which is conceptualization and the last of which is simply purchasing equipment. The three steps in-between are “Select Attributes”, “Select Skills”, “Calculate Secondary Traits”. Character creation is thus a very simple process, but it is also a very dynamic one.

This is a good point to mention another strength of the rules specifically: Dream Pod 9 takes a lot of effort to try to make these games all things to all people. To accomplish this they provide a multitude of options, this crops up most notably in character creation with the GM’s decision to set the campaign at a “gritty”, “adventure”, or “cinematic” level. This controls the number of points which players get to create their characters, and the differences between the campaign types is discussed elsewhere in the rules.

The nice thing is that all of these options are kept simple and unnecessary – for example, specialized rules are provided for creating low-gee characters, but it’s a special option so that there’s no need to use it. You can use these extra tidbits as you want, or ignore them as you want. Dream Pod 9 has been very careful to keep the core of the system streamlined, and to make sure that everything else is a simple module that can be plugged in or left unplugged at the GM’s discretion. It gives you, as the gamer, a tremendous amount of power without burdening you with a lot of responsibility.

Select Attributes. Silhouette character creation is point-driven, but the points are split into two pools – one for attributes and one for skills. Unspent attribute points can be converted into skill points, but not vice versa.

The attribute points are spread across eight attributes: Agility, Appearance, Build, Creativity, Fitness, Influence, Knowledge, Perception, Psyche, and Willpower.

Select Skills. There are “Simple” and “Complex” skills, with different costs for both. Your attribute level in the closest related attribute to a particular skill imposes limits on the skill level. There are also specialization rules, which allow you to get a slight edge in a particular area of one of your skills.

Calculate Secondary Attributes. A lot of games which have a set of calculated secondary attributes start with a core of generalized attributes and then attempt to get more specific secondary attributes through various mathematical formulas and attribute combinations.

Well, in Silhouette the mathematic formulas are there and so are the attribute combinations – but the process has been inverted. As you probably noted above, the attributes in Silhouette are very specific (allowing you to specify a character with a very large body, but who is also in bad physical shape, for example) – the secondary attributes are more generalization compositions of these attributes (along with several combat-specific scores): Strength, Health, Stamina, Unarmed Damage, Armed Damage, Flesh Wounding Score, Deep Wounding Score, Instant Death Score, System Shock Score. This works a lot better, since it gives you both the specific control and the generalized usefulness of, for example, a Strength score.

COMBAT

Combat in the Silhouette engine is basically an extrapolation of basic action resolution (as it is in most games of the past twenty years).

Initiative is determined by rolling a Combat Sense opposed Skill test, in which the character with the highest score goes first, second highest second, and so forth. Tied results act simultaneously.

Two actions can be attempted during a combat round without any penalty – additional actions may be attempted, but each additional action adds a -1 penalty to all actions attempted in the round.

For combat actions the character makes a skill check against the pertinent skill, which is opposed with a Dodge skill check on the part of the defender. Modifiers cover typical combat situations (different attack ranges, speed of attacker and target, and so on) – these are all accessible through easy-to-reference tables (and can also be improvised by the GM fairly easily). There’s some specific rules for handling grenades and burst fire.

If a character is injured, damage is determined by multiplying the Weapon Damage Multipler and the Margin of Success on the opposed skill check together. This number is compared to the character’s Flesh Wound, Deep Wound, and Instant Death scores and the character takes a wound based on the highest score surpassed. If none of the scores are surpassed, the injury was so minor that it was inconsequential in game terms. (Example: A PC gets an MoS of 3 when shooting a bow at an NPC. A bow possesses a damage multiplier of 7, so the damage score is 21. The NPC’s Flesh Wound score is 16, and there Deep Wound score is 25. So they take a Flesh Wound (since 21 is higher than 16, but lower than 25).) Each wound applies a penalty to action checks (-1 for each Flesh Wound, -2 for each Deep Wound)

Death can occur in one of two ways: Either the play takes a massive amount of damage in one hit (which exceeds his Instant Death score) and dies immediately; or from trauma caused by multiple wounds. The latter takes place when the character’s action penalty from wounds exceeds their System Shock rating. Various healing rules exist which can save the character from “death” if they are reached soon after their penalties exceed the System Shock score.

Several additional rules exist covering non-standard combat options – drugs, stimulants, fire, poisons, radiation poisoning, and so forth. These work intuitively with a handful of simple charts.

In practice the combat system is simple, sleek, and dynamic. It’s as smooth as clockwork, producing a fast-paced brand of action which is also very realistic when it needs to be – the unique damaging mechanic, in particular, works surprisingly well. The one thing missing from this section of the book are some solid examples. Actually, examples would be helpful throughout the rules to help clear up the problems left by the muddy wording of some passages.

THE TACTICAL SYSTEM

I have found, from experience, that while a summary of the basic components of a roleplaying system can generally be useful, a similar summary of a tactical system is both impractical and seldom illuminating. My theory is that this is because both the strengths and weaknesses of a tactical system are in the details, and therefore I would have to relate to you most or all of the system in order to give you any meaningful perspective on it.

That being said, I do feel comfortable in highlighting some of the unique strengths of the Silhouette tactical system (particularly as it is applied in Jovian Chronicles). I would also highlight the weaknesses, but I haven’t really found any upon which to comment.

First off, for all the roleplayers quaking in their boots at the thought of moving miniatures or counters around a table, let me assure you that Dream Pod 9 has not forgotten you. They have provided a set of abstract vehicle rules which take up no more than a page and easily allow allow you to include vehicular combat without whipping out the hex paper.

As I noted before, a feature of the Silhouette game is the complete compatibility of the roleplaying and tactical rules. This is not a matter of conversion tables, it is a matter of both sets of rules being based upon the same engine. Because of this, it is as easy as pie to create a hybrid roleplaying-tactical campaign. The game includes a brief set of guidelines for the GM which includes extras such as hidden units, PC crew injuries, and so forth.

In turn, this should not be construed by tactical gamers as meaning that Jovian Chronicle’s tactical engine is “corrupted” by roleplaying elements. The tactical engine is fully capable of acting as a strong, stand-alone game in its own right. About the only unfortunate thing at the moment is the lack of Jovian Chronicles miniatures on the market at the moment, but that situation may be corrected in the near future.

There are basically three primary features which make Jovian Chronicles unique (several of which distinguish it from Heavy Gear’s tactical system as well):

First, Jovian Chronicles implements a unique vectored combat movement system which can be used in either two dimensions or three; with two, three, and even four vectors axes. The fourth vector is used for 3-D games using a hex map (so you get three 2-D axes running through the six sides of the hex, plus one vertical vector to add the third dimension). Once again, Dream Pod 9 has provided multiple levels of complexity and accuracy depending on your experience and personal tastes.

What is a vector system and why do you need it? In space, for those who slept through physics class, there’s no friction and little gravity to slow your ship down – so Newton’s law (“a mass in motion will tend to remain in motion”) will display its full effectiveness. On Earth, if I accelerate my car forward and then turn the car and accelerate in a new direction, the friction of the ground and the atmosphere means that my car will stop moving in that original direction (and that if I stop accelerating, my car will come to a stop). In space, however, if I did this I would keep my momentum from both accelerations (unless they were in opposite directions) and head off at an angle relative to them. In essence, unless you take an action to stop moving , you’ll keep moving. And this becomes a composite equation – in which your speed forward, backward, left, right, up, and down (although these are all relative terms in space) is maintained unless you accelerate in the opposite direction. In other words, the vector system is a way in which if accelerate three hexes forward this turn, then, unless you accelerate three hexes backward next turn, your spaceship will move forward three hexes next turn as well.

This can become a logistical nightmare, and does in many games – it is very hard for you to keep track of all of your ships carry-over movement, and thus it is difficult to get a clear tactical view of the situation. Dream Pod 9 solves this problem through the use of “altitude” and “destination” counters. The former are used only for three-dimensional games (in which your ship can rise above the table surface or sink below it), but the latter are used in all games. Essentially when you finish moving your ship for a turn you duplicate the exact same move and put a destination counter for the ship down in the hex the ship would end up if the move was actually repeated. (So if you moved forward three spaces, you would put down the destination counter three spaces ahead of the ship’s final location.) “So what?” you say. Well, at this point instead of moving your ship the way you would in a more standard tactical game, you manipulate the destination counter. So if you wanted to, for example, move to your right two hexes and decelerate one hex you would move the destination counter two hexes to the right and one hex back – then you would move the ship to the destination counter, and move the destination counter to its new position (two hexes to the right and one hex back).

With this system, vectored movement is handled without you ever having to wrap your end around four different numbers. If you don’t believe me, feel free to try it out a couple of times. If you don’t like it, feel free to use a pure vector system – noting down the ship’s momentum along each of the vector axes.

The second thing of note in Jovian Chronicles are the Lightning Strike combat rules. In a standard space tactical game it is assumed that the two sides attempt to slow and match one another’s relative velocity in order to actively engage one another in combat. However, there is also a good deal of tactical and strategic advantage (in some circumstances) to building up a massive difference in the velocity between the two fleets and performing a “lightning strike” – where the two sides zoom past each other at incredibly fast speeds, getting only one or two turns of effective combat (in game turns).

Finally, Jovian Chronicles, amazingly enough, does not satisfy itself with just have space combat rules. Rules for planetary ground combat and planetary air combat are also included, plus some guidelines for tactical games set inside colony cylinders.

As a result, Jovian Chronicles easily establishes itself not only as one of the best space combat tactical games, but also one of the most versatile science fiction combat engines available. Round all of this out with the excellent Silhouette engine’s description of vehicles and technology and you have a tactical game worthy not only in its own right, but for its rightful part in the complete Jovian Chronicles gaming experience.

GENERAL NOTES

Which leaves us with a just a few general notes regarding Jovian Chronicles.

The book begins with an eight page short story. I am skeptical of gaming fiction in general, and downright biased against the quality of fiction in an actual gaming manual – if I see it, I am going to think it bad until it has proven otherwise. Dream Pod 9, however, has developed an uncanny knack for it – when it is short (their Heavy Gear books have a short piece of fiction at the top of each chapter) it is evocative and useful; when it is long it is compelling and revealing. “Playing Games”, the piece found here, acts as an excellent introduction to the setting – not only piquing your interest, but giving you a very real feel for what the world of 2210 is like.

The fiction also serves as an oblique introduction to the mini-campaign in the back of the book, designed to give new GMs an easy place to start. The campaign deals with JSS Valiant, the inaugural vessel in a fleet of new Valiant-class ships in the Jovian fleet. You get a little bit of intrigue, a little bit of action, and a lot of interesting possibilities. My own regret is that the mini-campaign is presented in a disjointed, abbreviated form.

Included in the mini-campaign is an eight-page full-color section, which is very welcome because most of this book is very art poor – particularly in comparison with other Dream Pod 9 products. Besides the full-color section, this fact is also mitigated not only by the cunningly rich lay-out work done with the art which is there, but also gorgeous two-page spreads at the top of each chapter. These last do an excellent job of showcasing Ghislain Barbe’s phenomenal talent.

The book is rounded out, after the mini-campaign, with a chapter of “Gamemaster Resources”, focusing mainly on advice for creating your own campaign. Although brief, this chapter performs with excellence. One of the more interesting ideas they present is that of a “Pilot” scenario, in which the campaign is given a test flight, just like a television show. In addition guidelines are given for various “Reality Distortion Levels” (means by which the campaign can be varied anywhere from hard SF to anime space opera) – including script immunity (at various levels of effectiveness), existential angst (you have to read these rules), and, my favorite, the “WOO Factor” (which they claim stands for (W)eapons (O)ut of (O)rdinance, but which all fans of Hong Kong Action flicks will recognize as something else altogether). They also deal with villains and give a number of campaign hooks (complete with an overview of the necessary preliminary work). A short section, but packed.

One last thing which should be noted: Jovian Chronicles features an extensive technical reference, designed not only for the pleasure of gearheads, but also a general introduction to concepts such as Lagrange Points for the neophyte.

Before moving on, I need to comment on couple more weaknesses in Jovian Chronicles. First, the entire manual is laid out in a font which is approximately one size too small – it not only strains the eyes when you’re reading, it also makes it harder to find information quickly.

Second, material throughout the book is plagued with a certain vague opaqueness. One example of this which has already been mentioned is the strange occurrence of passages which seem to demand footnotes reading “here’s some information about the Odyssey, which won’t make any sense without knowing the details of what happened during the Odyssey, and you don’t”.

Another, and far more troubling, example, however, is the skill check mechanic. Like many game engines today, the Silhouette rules supply some “basic” information about the resolution mechanic before character creation (giving you some idea of the effect all these numbers you’re plugging in will have in the actual engine): First how to roll and read the dice (complete with fumble rules); then they discuss action tests in general (comparing the die roll to a threshold); then they discuss opposed actions; and finally they reveal that in a skill test the number of dice you roll is equal to your skill level; and finally that there are many zero-average ratings in the game which will act as modifiers to your die roll under certain circumstances (and that Attributes are among these). In other words, they don’t just give you the basic mechanic – they give you all the steps which go into making up the basic mechanic, which allows both them and you to easily vary the basic mechanic in a great number of ways.

Here’s where it gets screwy. They revisit these concepts in the “Character Action” chapter, which follows character creation, and explicitly lay out how action tests should run. At this point they describe a skill test, in full, as:

The roleplaying game, like the tactical game, relies on Skill tests to determine the outcome of most character actions. Unlike the tactical game, however, the number of possible actions and Skills required to perform them is virtually unlimited.

Here’s the catch, folks: At no point is it explicitly laid out that the skill test mechanic consists of a die roll with a number of dice equal to your skill level, modified by an attribute (I know for a fact this is the way it is supposed to be done based on other Silhouette systems).

This can be implied in various ways: For example, the passage about attributes acting as modifiers. Plus, each skill has an attribute associated with it. Unfortunately, both of those have other explanations – attributes are explicitly assigned as modifiers for attribute checks; and we’ve already discussed that in character creation the associated attribute acts as a limiter on a character’s maximum skill level.

This is a massive, gaping flaw in the presentation of the rules and should definitely have been caught by a playtester.

(Looking back at Heavy Gear I can see that both editions of that game have a passage regarding “any applicable modifiers” (which Jovian Chronicles lacks), which by context would seem to include attributes – although obliquely. Tribe 8, finally, added a specific passage covering this rather basic element of the game system.)

CONCLUSION

Jovian Chronicles has a rather fair share of faults and flaws in it. It is a testament to its immense strength, however, that despite these slight foibles it still comes across as a a product of major significance, power, and potential. The setting is evocative, deep, and useful in many, many ways. The rule system is simple, flexible, and versatile. The overall feel of the product is clean, professional, and impressive. Minor flaws in presentation cannot thwart any of that, or the conclusion that derives from it — Jovian Chronicles is one of the best games on the market today. Capable of appealing to fans of hard science fiction, anime, and space opera (plus anything in-between) this book definitely deserves a place on your shelf.

Style: 4
Substance: 5

Author: Phillippe Boulle, Jean Carrieres, Wunji Lau, Marc A. Vezina
Company/Publisher: Dream Pod 9
Cost: $29.95
Page Count: 232
ISBN: 0-895776-13-2

Originally Posted: 1999/08/24

It’s interesting coming to these Jovian Chronicles reviews at the current moment: I’m currently in the middle of a pretty serious Eclipse Phase binge and for some reason these two games strongly remind me of each other. I mean, there’s obviously radical differences between the transhuman horrors of the one and the mecha war stories of the other. But, nonetheless, the commonalities of the Solar diaspora, tin can habs, and the like create a sense of commonality and the excitement I feel in exploring Eclipse Phase reminds me a lot of the excitement I had when I was first exploring Jovian Chronicles.

Poor, benighted Jovian Chronicles. I still strongly recommend these core products; the setting really is wonderful and the early Silhouette mechanics are a joy. But if you’re looking for a case study on how to neglect, abuse, and mismanage a game there are few better candidates.

For several years after it was initially released, the game received essentially no support whatsoever. Then, when the support finally came, several disastrous decisions were made. (During this time I was working as a freelancer for the company.) Midway through the development cycle, the decision was made to cut the size of their supplements from 124 pages to 80 pages; this is despite the fact that some of these books had already been written and others were in the process of being written. Almost simultaneously the setting saw a major change in artistic direction, so that the titular good guys were suddenly rewritten as dystopic bad guys. And then the company decided to release a completely incompatible system called Lightning Strike that had supplements containing information which actually contradicted information found in the RPG setting supplements.

I bear some responsibility for this mess. I pitched DP9 a “security briefing” concept for the Jovian sourcebook: The setting material would be presented in the form of a Solapol briefing file with excerpts taken from other documents, intercepted communications, guidebooks, and the like. The structure would present useful, practical information for the GM in a format that would also allow it to be excerpted and used as handouts for the players. The line developers loved the idea and decided to revamp the entire sourcebook line to use the format. What I didn’t know at the time (and didn’t discover until much later), was that this included having a different freelancer rewrite an entire sourcebook that had already been finished in an effort to convert it to the new concept. (He may have also been simultaneously trying to cut 20-40 pages worth of material in order to squeeze it into the smaller book length. I was doing the same thing simultaneously while in the middle of writing my first draft.) Ironically, most of the material I wrote for the Jupiter sourcebook was then thrown out.

In any case, this was all years later: Copies of the first edition of Jovian Chronicles are relatively easy to track down and I heartily recommend that you do so. There’s a lot of awesome packed between those covers.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Tagline: The Accursed Tower is a fairly solid module, with a handful of potential problems.

R.A. Salvatore is best known for his novels dealing with the drow character Drizzt Do’Urden – one of the finest swordsman in all of literature. There are some who worship these stories; others who revile them. Personally, I find them to be possessed of both significant strengths (such as Salvatore’s outstanding description of fight scenes and some of the soul-searching for Drizzt found in the Dark Elf Trilogy) and significant weaknesses (such as the repetition of some of the plots and several weak characteristics to Salvatore’s writing).

Similarly these novels are set in the Forgotten Realms, a campaign setting which some worship and others revile. As with Salvatore himself, I find the Realms to be possessed of both significant strengths (breadth of the setting, the wealth of detail and support) and significant weaknesses (some ridiculously bad supplements, over saturation, and general silliness).

I therefore approached The Accursed Tower (an adventure for 4-8 characters of level 1-3) with a fairly open mind – Salvatore and his original gaming group (the Seven Swords) “return to the Savage Frontier” of the Ten-Towns in the Icewind Dale. The characters get a chance to explore a well known area of the Realms, while running into some well known characters of the Realms.

THE PLOT

The PCs are in Luskan, the City of Sails, along the Sword Coast (with that (in)famous “it’s up to the DM to determine how” that seems to be present in every D&D adventure I’ve ever read). They sign up to guard a merchant caravan which is going to the Icewind Dales. When they get there the caravan owner reveals that he has an opportunity for them to earn a great deal more money if they help him out with something.

It turns out that the caravan dealer is searching for a ruined tower where a mage died while researching a healing salve with the potential to help a great many people. If the PCs help him get the notes from that research, they will not only be helping in his humanitarian quest – but will also share in a significant portion of any recovered treasure.

The PCs track down the location of the tower with the help of a few familiar faces – Regis and Drizzt from Salvatore’s books – and then go off to obtain the diary. They do so. End of story.

Except, that’s not all that’s going on. The caravan driver isn’t actually a humanitarian — he’s an evil mage who has killed the actual caravan driver and taken his place. The research he’s after isn’t for any healing salve – it’s for becoming an immortal lich.

It’s time to insert the dramatic music.

THE GOOD STUFF

The set-up is intriguing and provides a solid base for the adventure. Salvatore and his gaming group construct a complex plot with several different hidden agendas and machinations going on behind the scenes – wheels within wheels is the order of the day. First, you’ve got the dual nature of the NPC who hires the PCs. Plus, one of the people the PCs get to help them out is actually an ancient barbarian sorceror, who once fought against the evil mage who owned the Accursed Tower and was responsible for his downfall.

The adventure is also blessed with some remarkably strong NPCs. Drizzt and Regis, of course, get an extra boost thanks to their literary background, but there are several others – including the father-son team from the caravan who befriend the PCs, the barbarian sorceror, and several others.

I was also impressed with a number of hooks which were left open for future expansion at the DM’s discretion – such as a scroll the PCs find half-buried in a snowdrift, with no ready explanation as to how it got there or why.

Finally, the entire package is strong one. As per usual for a TSR book the production values are high, the art is of decent quality, the book has been thoroughly proofread, and the lay-out is clear.

THE BAD STUFF

First, there’s no excuse for recycled art in a 32 page book – even if you are just filling up the quarter page of blank space left on that second-to-last page. This is particularly true if you’re TSR. They’ve published hundreds of books. Surely there was a piece of art from some other book they could have recycled instead of copying the art from page 17.

Second, the book suffers from that perennial Realms problem: Silly names. Maybe some people don’t have problems with names like “Peddywinkle” in their fantasy campaigns, but I do.

Third, random encounters are not a substitute for meaningful plotting. Although the first part of this adventure deals with a caravan trip, absolutely nothing happens on that caravan trip of any significance. The only planned event is a goblin encampment, and that only happens if the PCs follow a specific set of tracks. Everything else is a random encounter. I wasn’t too impressed with this – you could just as easily have said “the PCs are in the Icewind Dales” instead of “the PCs are in Luskan”.

Fourth, the “healing salve” cover for the archmage’s true intentions was a little annoying. It is described as “healing any wound and curing any disease”, and the guy goes on to say how he wants to “make this salve known to all, so that the world would be free of sickness”. Yeah, right. Did the Realms suddenly become devoid of healing potions?

Fifth, the map on the inside front cover is of the caravan route. Along this route are numbers. What these numbers are supposed to be is never mentioned, but you can interpolate and figure out that these represent how far the caravan gets on each day of the journey. This has relatively little importance (after all, it is a set path), especially considering the complete unimportance of the caravan drive to the overall adventure in general. The book would have been better served with a map of the Icewind Dales, where the PCs have to trek all over the place to figure out the location of the tower.

Finally, the early part of the adventure is fairly railroaded (except for those sections where nothing of importance is happening). The last part of the adventure, where the PCs have reached the tower, is nothing more than a standard event-by-location dungeon.

CONCLUSION

The primary appeal to The Accursed Tower is going to be for those familiar with Salvatore’s writing. The basic plot and elements of the adventure are nothing to get excited about (and are, in fact, possessed of several drawbacks) – but this can be mitigated when the PCs run into characters well known to them from their favorite books. It’s the same kind of rush you got from the line, “Anakin Skywalker… meet Obi-Wan Kenobi.” Or from those Howard stories where you’re following some unfamiliar character and suddenly they run into Conan.

So, The Accursed Tower gets an average rating overall. Those with an interest in Salvatore’s writing might want to pick it up; those with an undying hatred of Salvatore, Drizzt, or the Realms should avoid it at all costs.

Style: 3
Substance: 3

Author: R.A. Salvatore and the Seven Swords (Mike Leger, Brian Newton, Tom Parker, David Salvatore, Gary Salvatore, and Jim Underdown)
Company/Publisher: Corsair Publishing, LLC and Sovereign Press, Inc.
Cost: $25.00
Page Count: 168
ISBN: 0-9658422-3-1

Originally Posted: 1999/08/16

I honestly have no idea what my problem with the name “Peddywinkle” was.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

I have previously read (and reviewed) two other products from Guardians of Order: Big Eyes, Small Mouth (the first generic anime RPG) and Big Robots, Cool Starships (a vehicle construction system for BESM). I approached each of these books with a certain degree of doubt: Anime is capable of anything, so isn’t a generic anime game just another anime game? A simple vehicle construction system? Isn’t that an oxymoron? In each case, not only did the doubts vanish, but the books proved themselves worthy of lavish praise.

The Sailor Moon Role-Playing Game and Resource Book (henceforth the Sailor Moon RPG) was no exception when it came to doubts. I had no worries about the game itself (which uses a specially modified version of the TriStat engine used in Big Eyes, Small Mouth), but with the source material: Even if I was impressed with how well Guardians of Order had translated the Sailor Moon television series into game terms (and that was no sure thing, licensed products are devilishly hard to do properly), quite frankly, I didn’t really think the material itself was going to do anything for me. I’m not a rabid Sailor Moon hater – quite the opposite, I mildly enjoyed the handful of syndicated episodes I saw (although, per usual, I have issues with the American translation, dubbing, and censorship), but it simply didn’t seem the type of thing which was going to send me dancing through the streets singing its praise.

Well, I’m not dancing, but I’ll tell you right up front that Guardians of Order has successfully pulled the rug out from under my expectations once again.

THE RULES

The Sailor Moon RPG uses a customized version of the TriStat System, Guardians of Order’s house system originally used in its generic form in Big Eyes, Small Mouth. In my review of BESM (found elsewhere on RPGNet), I have given a comprehensive overview of the basic TriStat mechanics. Therefore, for the Sailor Moon RPG I am just going to briefly go over how those rules have been customized. Anyone curious in any specifics which I don’t mention here can, of course, take a look at my review of BESM.

Starting at the top of character creation: One of my minor problems (and they were all minor) with BESM was that stat generation defaulted to a random state (2d6+10 points which are distributed among the three stats), with the non-random options isolated at the back of the book. The Sailor Moon RPG not only corrects this problem, but goes one step better. Two methods are presented by which the GM can determine stat points: In Method A the GM gives everyone the exact same number of stat points. In Method B every character is given a static number of stat points, which is then modified by a random roll.

What seems to be missing are the options for unbalanced character creation – so that some characters will have more stat points than others. This option is given for the generation of attributes, so its oversight in stat assignation is odd. On the other hand, since there are attributes which modify the basic stats, you can get the same result through indirect means.

The character attribute system itself is a proto sub-attribute system. I describe it that way, because by the time I read the Sailor Moon RPG I had already read Big Robots, Cool Starships which develops and refines the mechanic in order to create a phenomenal vehicle construction system (reviewed elsewhere on RPGNet).

In the Sailor Moon RPG the sub-attribute system is used to specifically model the special powers of the Sailor Scouts (known as Sailor “Senshi” or “Knights” in the original Japanese) as well as the special powers of their Negaverse (or “Dark”) foes. Specifically you spend some of your Character Points to purchase either the Senshi/Knight Powers attribute or the Negaverse/Dark Powers attribute. For each level of these attributes you purchase, you get 10 Power Points in order to buy the sub-attributes which you are given access to (such as “Item of Power” or “Mind Control”).

And that about does it as far as customization goes.

This customization process works quite well with the TriStat system – which, due to its simplicity, take no more than half a dozen pages or so to explain (plus the particular attributes, many of which are specialized to the Sailor Moon universe). As a result you end up with a complete, stand-alone game which is also 100% compatible with other TriStat products. If you bought the Sailor Moon RPG first, for example, you could go out and buy Big Eyes, Small Mouth and use the attributes there to expand the scope and depth of your game. When GOF releases their licensed Dominion Tank Police game, you’ll be able to do crossovers easily. And so on. Nothing extra is required to play, but everything becomes an addition to your game.

THE RESOURCE BOOK

The other interesting thing about this book is that it is presented as the Sailor Moon Role-Playing Game and Resource Book. What’s this “Resource Book” stuff?

Well, this is not just a game – a large portion of the book is dedicated to being a general resource guide for fans of the Sailor Moon television show. So you get some general background on Japan (including the particulars of how their school system functions); a guide to the places seen in the Sailor Moon TV show; a Sailor Moon timeline; a “travel guide” to the Negaverse, the Moon Kingdom, the Planet of Makaiju, Crystal Tokyo, and Nemesis the Dark Moon; a character guide to all the major and minor characters; an overview to the mythological references made in the series; an episode guide complete with summaries; a bibliography of Sailor Moon’s creator (Naoko Takeuchi); a guide to Japanese pronunciation (and a minor glossary of some major terms relating to Sailor Moon); a guide to the meaning of the character’s names; a reference to the Sailor Senshi attacks (and translations of them); a yoma/cardian/droid list; a guide to on-line Sailor Moon resources; translations of the opening songs; and a credit list for the creative personalities behind the show.

As you’ve probably already noticed, a large amount of that stuff is fairly typical of what you’d see in any RPG – setting information. So why call it a “Resource Book”? Because by calling it a resource book, Mark MacKinnon is able to get the book into places where an RPG could never go. People who would never see (and would never consider buying) such a roleplaying game, will see (and perhaps even buy) this book. Recent reports seem to be bearing the theory out.

And that’s great. The young females who are the primary (but not only) audience for Sailor Moon are precisely the demographic to which RPG’s have never appealed. Indeed, I can’t think of any better property which could be developed than Sailor Moon which would both appeal to these new fans, and also have some potential of attracting established roleplayers. Nor is there any system better built than the TriStat System to function as an introduction to roleplaying. Anyone with young daughters or nieces who they would like to get interested in roleplaying could probably do no wrong in giving them a copy of this book as a birthday or Christmas present.

THE SETTING

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably been reading this review with a bit of a jaundiced eye. Sure, the system is nice. Sure, the presentation is superb. Sure, the game functions great as an introduction for new players. But play a bunch of pubescent girls who run around in skimpy outfits?

A digression is called for.

One of my favorite RPGs is Amber, a game based on the series of popular fantasy novels by Roger Zelazny. Although I find its system to be tremendously innovative, what draws me back to the game time and time again is the setting. For whatever reason the basic Amber canon, as described by Zelazny, functions only as a starting point for a host of variation. I, for example, have played in a variation where Amber was completely destroyed, and another where the entire Court was replaced with alternates (King Oberon became Queen Titania, Dworkin the ancient man became Rozel the young female, the players assumed the roles of a brand new set of children, and so on). Some have theorized that this was brought about because of the unreliability of the narrator in the original Amber books (was he really telling the truth? or was his version merely a plot to accomplish something else?); others point to the basic necessity of any licensed property to modify the canon in order to leave a place for the PCs to participate; and some have pointed to Wujcik’s decision to model multiple interpretations of the major characters in the main rulebook. In my opinion all of that had something to do with it, but when you boil it all away, Zelazny based his world on strong mythological archetypes. Those archetypes are extremely resiliant to massive amounts of change, and indeed, have been subject to thousands of alterations over the course of human history. It is little surprise, therefore, that Amber not only stands up under such change, but thrives under it.

In any case, the world of Amber has been twisted and distorted in any number of interesting and original ways. It’s fan community is a vibrant thing in which ideas are swapped and every conceivable alteration and possibility is considered, adapted, and used in various combinations.

I bring all of this up because I see the same potential in the Sailor Moon RPG, with the same type of groundwork being laid (almost certainly unintentionally) by Mark MacKinnon as was laid by Eric Wujcik. The basic mythological themes of Naoko Takeuchi’s characters and plots, combined with the need to modify the canon for a roleplaying game, leads inexorably to the great potential found in variating the Sailor Moon Universe. I have already considered several interesting possibilities (including one in which the Sailor Moon manga and anime series are a set of propaganda films distributed by the evil Sailor Senshi, while the truth is that the Negaverse is fighting to protect our world from their machinations and eventual domination).

As for “playing young girls in skimpy outfits” being a problem for you, the method of your salvation is built right into the game. Rules for creating Knight characters (such as the Tuxedo Mask from the series) are built right into the system. I immediately began pondering the possibility of a campaign where all the PCs are Knights, while the Sailor Senshi were relegated to fulfilling roles similar to that of Tuxedo Mask.

A COUPLE OF BAD THINGS

I came across two things in the Sailor Moon RPG which are regrettable:

First, many of the attributes discuss and use Energy Points to one degree or another. The only problem here is that you don’t find out what “Energy Points” are until Step Six of Character Creation (because its a Derived Stat), while the Attributes are discussed in Step Four of Character Creation.

Second, the Sailor Moon RPG suffers from what I’ve begun to call the “Guardians of Order Index Problem” – in which every entry in the index has exactly one reference. For example, according to the index, Sailor Moon is only mentioned once in the entire book (the reference is to her character sheet write-up). There is actually one exception to this: Each episode of the Sailor Moon TV show ends with a segment called “Sailor Moon Says” in which a little moral is provided for the day’s story. MacKinnnon used these to great effect throughout the book as boxed text, often finding very appropriate ones which complemented what the main text was discussing. In the index all four of these are mentioned.

CONCLUSION

I highly recommend the Sailor Moon RPG for five reasons:

First, the “Resource Book” portion of the title should be considered anything but tacked on. It is the first such resource book published for Sailor Moon in the States, and it is a wonderful resource. Any fan of the Sailor Moon TV show would definitely enjoy the book just for its reference purposes.

Second, it acts as a wonderful (if previously unmentioned) showcase for Sailor Moon art. The text is liberally sprinkled with highly appropriate selections from the manga and anime, including a full color section of pin-ups.

Third, the Sailor Moon RPG acts as a showcase for the enduring strength of the TriStat system. It’s sub-attribute system, as well as the host of new attributes introduced for the Scouts and Negaverse powers, would be useful in quite a few BESM games.

Fourth, I think that the Sailor Moon universe has tremendous flexibility and potential. The Japanese have far more respect for their children’s media tastes than American cartoon makers typically do, and as a result Sailor Moon benefits greatly from an unexpected depth of character and unique mythology. As a result, campaigns set both within and without the “canon” the series have a surprisingly huge amount of rich source material to draw from.

Fifth, and finally, the Sailor Moon RPG acts as an excellent introductory volume for roleplaying – particularly for young girls and fans of the Sailor Moon anime and manga. I have a cousin who, when she gets a couple of years older, will probably be getting a set of Sailor Moon tapes, some Sailor Moon manga, and a copy of this book. I’ll corrupt her yet.

For some this book will just be silly; but for many it will hit the nail right on the head. In short, I can’t say “every roleplayer will enjoy this book”. However, I think every roleplayer who has a broad palate should at least give the book a try… particularly if anything in this review has caught your interest.

Style: 5
Substance: 4

Author: Mark C. MacKinnon
Company/Publisher: Guardians of Order
Cost: $25.00
Page Count: 209
ISBN: 0-9682431-1-8

Originally Posted: 1999/08/16

This really was a groundbreaking RPG and the “Resource Book” approach was, according to all reports and evidence, highly effective at reaching out to new players. It was one of the few instances where I feel a small RPG company was actually really, really successful at reaching outside of the existing hobby.

Unfortunately, within a few short years the internet had grown to a point where “Resource Books” were irrelevant: Online resources and wikis wholly replaced them. It’s probably not wholly coincidental that Guardians of Order didn’t last very long after that. As I said in my review for BESM, I miss ’em. They came close to nailing something really special, but in the end they missed it.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Tagline: Another excellent, if not so cheap, Cheapass Game.

Cheapass Games has created quite a reputation for itself. Producing games from the cheapest materials possible, they create highly affordable games with highly original premises. Almost all of their games have catchy titles and/or taglines, and their concepts are usually intriguing and amusing enough in their own right so that, even if the gameplay doesn’t catch your fancy, the product is still well worth the cost of entry.

And I say that as if their gameplay is usually poor. Quite the opposite is true – Cheapass Games doesn’t just have a reputation for their cheapness, they have a reputation for the high quality and playability of their game concepts. In short, Cheapass has ushered in a breath of fresh air to game design. Because they can produce games with such a low overhead they can experiment in many different directions very quickly, and with comparatively low risk. As a result you can see Cheapass play with and discard innovative game mechanics that other companies would be forced to milk for years, if they ever tried them in the first place.

Which brings us to Falling, an innovative and relatively unique card game. As with all of Cheapass Games’ products the first thing I heard about it was the tagline: “Everyone is falling, and the object is to hit the ground first. It’s not much of a goal, but it’s all you could think of on the way down.”

Instantly intrigued I surfed over to the Cheapass Games website and went digging around for more information. I came across an article written by James Ernest, the game’s designer and the driving force behind Cheapass Games, discussing some advanced tactics he had recently discovered… long after releasing the game.

I knew right then and there that I had to possess a copy of Falling. Most games, you understand, are like Sorry or Candyland — what little strategy and tactics there are in such games was known by the designers before the first playtest. It is the games which take on a life of their own, which have hidden complexities and dynamic interactions between their components which result in strategies and tactics which the designer never dreamed of, which are the very best games. Games like Chess and Diplomacy. If Falling was truly that type of game, and it contained the same type of powerful innovation found in other Cheapass Games, it was definitely packed with potential.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find Falling anywhere. I scanned the Cheapass racks (with their distinctive white envelopes) in, literally, half a dozen stores without any luck.

Why not? Because Falling is sold as a card pack, in one of those little cardboard boxes, on playing-card stock, for a price of $9.95. From Cheapass Games? What the heck?

Well, after playing the game it has become quickly apparent why this is the case. The cards simply have to be of a higher stock than your typical Cheapass game because, as the box says, Falling is a “frenetic” card game. Without the durability of an actual playing card, anyone owning Falling would quickly find themselves in need of a new deck.

So is this Cheapass Game worth a not-so-cheap price tag?

Hell, yeah.

THE RULES

Falling reminds me of another favorite game of mine, Twitch (from Wizards of the Coast and reviewed elsewhere on RPGNet). They’re both copyrighted for 1998 and therefore I won’t engage in pointless speculation as to which came first – it is far more likely a case of simultaneous inspiration (or drawing from some primal source with which I am wholly not familiar).

I say they remind me of each other, because both of them are “turn-less cardgames” – instead of following a set play order, like your typical card game, both Twitch and Falling feature simultaneous play by all the players at the table. No lazy downtime from these games (I actually managed to work up a hefty sweat while dealing for Falling).

In Twitch, simultaneity is accomplished because the basic mechanic of the game is determining the play order – the card one person plays determines who goes next, and if anyone else can play before that person can, then that person has to pick up the discard stack.

Falling, on the other hand, does it in a completely different fashion. One player is the dealer. Throughout the game all that the dealer does is deal cards, he doesn’t play at all. In fact, the dealer is dealing cards continuously throughout the game, proceeding sequentially from one player to the next. While the dealer deals, the players are all playing cards on themselves and against each other all at the same time.

Cool, huh?

In an unmodified situation (such as the very beginning of the game), each player starts with a single “stack” of cards. The dealer will deal one card to each player’s stack, and then move onto the next player (remember, once he starts dealing, he deals continuously). As the players receive cards, they can pick up one card at a time (and only the card on the top of a stack), which they can play on themselves or on another player.

As cards are played, however, things will change very quickly. The main mechanic in Falling are cards known as “riders”. Essentially, a rider informs the dealer how to deal to a player. There are three types of riders:

Split. A split card tells the dealer to start a new stack for the player (so he would deal one card to the existing stack, and then deal a second card to start a second stack). On subsequent turns, the dealer will deal one card to each stack (however, a player can get rid of a stack if he can play through all the cards in that stack before the dealer returns to him – a dealer only has to deal to stacks he can “see”, unless there are no stacks present in which case he automatically creates one).

Hit. A hit card tells the dealer to deal an additional card to each of the player’s stacks.

Skip. A skip card tells the dealer not to deal to that player this time around.

A player can only have one rider on them at a time. The dealer picks up the rider when he finishes its instruction (so a rider is only in effect for one turn).

In addition to the riders there are also “action” cards, which can be used to manipulate the riders in various ways:

Stop. A stop card destroys the rider. Put the rider in the discard pile, along with the stop pile.

Push. A push card takes a rider which has been played on you, and “pushes” it onto another player.

Grab. A grab card takes a rider which has been played on someone else, and “grabs” it – applying the rider to yourself.

Finally there are the Ground cards, which are placed at the bottom of the deck before the deal begins. If you are dealt a ground card you have hit the ground and are out of the game. The only way to avoid this is to “Stop” the ground card as soon as it is played (in which case it is placed back in the deck by the dealer). Because the ground cards are all grouped together once they start coming out it is generally useful to “Skip” your turn and to “Hit” other people (since having them dealt more cards makes it less likely that they can avoid the ground cards or stop them effectively).

There are a couple of extras (including, ironically, the “Extra” cards) – but that’s the core of the game.

DOES IT WORK?

Yes. Absolutely, positively. We had a rough start-up, since we had several neophytes who couldn’t quite get their heads around the “simultaneous play” portions of the game, but after a few trial runs (during which the dealer dealt very slowly and stopped often so that people could ponder how the game worked) we were able to quickly vamp things up to speed.

And at that point the game rocked. Just like Twitch people became speed demons around that table.

One thing we found of particular interest, though, was the differences in gameplay based on the speed of the dealer. We had a couple of very methodical dealers, who would deal at a steady, even pace. This allowed a bit more of personal reserve and tactical consideration. On the other hand, the speed demon dealers – who would race around the table as quickly as possible – inspired a rapid-response style of play in which you did your best to disadvantage the other players while keeping your disadvantage as limited as possible.

IS IT FUN?

You’re kidding, right?

I have a very large shelf of games (which, coincidentally, is coming to be dominated more and more by Cheapass Games). However, there is a small, select handful which get played time and time again. After one short evening of play, Falling has joined that select list. It is fun, it is engaging, and it is captivating. We were playing at a sizeable family gathering, and our initially small group had soon maxed out my deck many times over. Falling was drawing people to it from across the room.

So get out there. Scour your store for it (it may very well be in the last place you look, as it was for me). Buy it. You won’t regret it.

Style: 5
Substance: 5

Author: James Ernest
Company/Publisher: Cheapass Games
Cost: $9.95
Page Count: n/a
ISBN: n/a

Originally Posted: 1999/08/16

I absolutely adore real-time card games. They are so much fun! Unfortunately, most of the people in my immediate circle of gamers are completely disinterested and I almost never get to play them any more. They also seem to have fallen out of fashion. It makes me all frowny-faced.

It should be noted that Paizo reissued this game. I don’t own the new version, but my understanding is that the rules have not been changed and the only difference is that the game has been re-themed to feature Paizo’s crazy goblins.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Tagline: This is the stuff disappointment is made of.

Some quick background: In July 1999, I wrote a review of the Sovereign Stone: Quickstart Rules. I thought it was fantastic and wrote the review specifically to highlight the game’s upcoming release. One month later, the game had been released; I had read it; and this review appeared. Then the drama started…

This is the stuff disappointment is made of.

Let me start by saying that I’d like to issue an apology to anyone who bought this game based on my recommendation in a review of the Quickstart Rules a couple weeks back. Having obtained and read the core rulebook for Elmore’s Sovereign Stone I can now see that the potential I saw in the Quickstart Rules is completely unrealized. This is coupled with pathetic shortsightedness, poor conception, and an appalling sloppiness in execution.

INITIAL IMPRESSION

When I first saw Sovereign Stone on the store rack I was incredibly excited. I instantly recognized the elegant stonework framing an Elmore painting from the Quickstart Rules (although the painting is different). I picked it up and turned it over…

And began to get nervous. The back cover, in complete and utter contrast to the front, was black text on a plain white background (with a pale, blue pencil sketch design centered in the middle). You’ve probably seen books like this before – fronts and spines done in dark shades, and the back cover (for reasons beyond comprehension) done in an extremely light shade of an entirely different color. It screams “Amateur Land”.

No big worry, though. It wasn’t that bad. Right? Right. So I started flipping through it…

And my heart sunk. For reasons, once again beyond comprehension, the entire interior is printed in a grayish-brown ink – including the artwork. It was probably meant to set a mood. It succeeds brilliantly at being drab as hell. There were a few specific textual details which made things even worse, but we’ll cover those below.

So why do I own the book? Well, I was still hopeful. After all, the Quickstart Rules had really excited me. And it was Elmore, Weis, and Hickman, right? How could they go wrong?

All too easily.

A GROWING HORROR

Getting home I started reading it within the hour – I had been anticipating Sovereign Stone for quite some time, and I was anxious to get down to it. As I pushed farther and farther into the book, though, things got worse and worse.

Things started off well. The book begins with a table of contents and a two page map of the world, and then we move onto Chapter 1. Like Dream Pod 9’s Heavy Gear line of books, each chapter starts off with one page of flavor text – in this case a first person viewpoint of the world from each of the races (Chapter 1 is a dwarf; Chapter 2 is an ork; and so on).

It was when I hit the actual writing that I realized something was horribly wrong. First off, the writing style is stilted and amateurish – apparently aiming at a 4th grade reading level or lower most of the time.

Then we move onto the standard “What is a roleplaying game?” shtick. I don’t mind this, but the complete incompetence with which it is done is alarming — considering how many times its been done successfully, there are plenty of examples to draw from. For an example of the idiocy demonstrated here consider for a moment that the Sovereign Stone system uses the complete range of polyhedral dice. Not once – not here, nor anywhere else in the manual – is dice notation explained for the targeted neophyte.

This is also the section where we get the first inkling of a much larger problem. Here’s a little game for you. What header would you use to describe this paragraph:

The goal of the Sovereign Stone game is to give the players and the Game Master an interesting and exciting world in which to adventure, and an easy-to-play set of rules to enhance the adventure.

I’m willing to bet solid money that “Remember, This Is a Game!” was not the header you chose. I’ll bet it wasn’t even on the list. This is a persistent problem, with sections of text being labeled apparently at random.

And the lay-out problems don’t end there. The book simply isn’t constructed in a logical fashion. We jump from “What is Roleplaying?” straight to “Current Affairs in Loerem”. This doesn’t make any sense at all, I thought, we haven’t even been introduced to the world yet – none of this is going to make any sense. I was right.

Another little game for you: What’s the difference between “Nimra”, “Nimora”, and “Nimorea”?

Well, “Nimra” and “Nimora” are two of the eight kingdoms of the world of Loerem (where Sovereign Stone is set). Unless, of course, “Nimora” is actually supposed to be “Nimorea”. It appears as the latter on the map, the former in the text (sometimes), and its people are “Nimoreans”.

Where to begin? First off, having only one (or two) letter differences between two of your kingdoms is just plain stupid. It only leads to unnecessary confusion. Second, if you simply must do this thing, then there is absolutely no excuse for this shoddy excuse for copyediting.

A similar problem crops up when we get to languages: One of the languages is named “Karna”, spoken by Karnuans and Dunkargans. Which is fine, except for one thing: Karnu is a country which was formed after Dunkarga broke into two pieces in a civil war. So the language spoken mutually (and originating with the earlier people) is named after the latter group of people?

“Current Events” and “Languages”, however, are separated by the section on “Money” – which is pretty much like AD&D, except funny names have been given to all the coins and they’ve attempted to convince you that coins weighing the exact same amount but made in different times are worth radically different amounts (on an order of ten times as much for the older coins), but only for the silver ones.

One last generalized problem with the book as a whole, and then we’ll move onto Character Creation:

This is an RPG based on a world created by Larry Elmore, the famed fantasy artist, right? Larry Elmore is intimately involved in the production of the book, right? It is Elmore’s Sovereign Stone, right?

Right.

So can someone explain to me why this RPG is art poor in the extreme? Excluding the twenty-five pages of monsters (each of which has its own illustration), there are only forty illustrations in the entire book (a count which includes multiple instances of the same piece) – averaging only one piece of art every 3-4 pages. Many of these are small, and not helped in the least by the grayish-brown ink in which they are reproduced. Worst yet, they are almost all “people shots”. Between the skimpy text and the lack of illustrations, I have absolutely no idea what this world looks or feels like.

Not to mention the glaring inaccuracies. For example, we are told that the male clan dwarves “grow mustaches, though they do not grow beards”. Apparently someone forgot to inform Elmore of this tidbit (wait, isn’t it his world?) because every male dwarf depicted in the book (including the one accompanying the description of the clan dwarves) is shown with a beard. This type of error is repeated again and again and again.

CHARACTER CREATION

First off, the character sheet is reproduced twice – once on page 15 and once on page 16. Why? Apparently to balance the lay-out so that all of the two-page racial write-ups would be on facing pages.

Second, what do you think of this passage:

Additional Skills may be added to the character to make him more rounded. Refer to the Choose More Skills section to add Skills to your character.

How about this one?

A character possesses a pool of Life Points equal to his Vitality plus Willpower die maximums.

I hope you like ‘em a lot (plus about six others), because you’ll be reading them nine times.

This is because, after giving a two page write-up covering the general character creation process, the authors have then decided to include the basic character creation rules nine times – once in each of the racial write-ups (choosing a race is your first task). So you get a summary once, then you get it nine more times, and then you get the actual rules necessary for creating characters.

Allow me to express, as calmly as possible, my absolute fury about this: You could have produced these summaries and handful of actual rules (which take up almost an entire page) in the space you allotted to that extra, pointless character sheet. Then you could have used the space you saved nine times over there to give us more valuable information about each of the nine races (which, by the way, include five different nationalities of human) instead of the generalized cliches you have.

Why does this infuriate me? A brief digression is called for.

THE WORLD OF LOEREM, A BRIEF DIGRESSION

In my review of the Quickstart Rules I mentioned that one of the things I was really looking forward to was the potential in Sovereign Stone to do something really original and different with the standardized Tolkienesque fantasy tropes.

Well, it’s possible that the world of Loerem will live up to my every expectation. I won’t be one to know it, however. First, because I’m not buying anything else in this product line without a lot of evidence that things have improved. Second, because aside from a longish section giving one-page write-ups to all the monsters (ala Monstrous Manual), I’ve already discussed all the world information you get in the book. That’s right – a section on “Current Events”, the write-ups of the various races in the character creation chapter, a section on monsters, and that’s it.

Pathetic.

This is a 168 page book with more wasted space than a sub-lunar orbit. There is simply no excuse for the setting to not be covered in this volume.

BACK TO CHARACTER CREATION

Did you notice the number “nine” above? This makes sense, at first, because there are nine cultural groups shown on the map – Vinnengaelean, Nimra, Nimor(e)a, Dunkarga, Karnu, the Elves, the Clan Dwarves, the Unhorsed Dwarves, and the Orks. However, there are also the Trevenici – a nomadic race of humans spread throughout the world who don’t appear on the map.

Wait a minute, you say, doesn’t that equal ten? Why, yes. Yes it does.

So why are there only nine racial types you can select? Because this game sucks.

What’s missing? The Dunkargans. You know they’re supposed to be there, because the beginning of the Karnuan text reads: “The Kingdom of Karnu emerged as the victor in the debilitating civil war.” The civil war? What civil war? The civil war that would have been mentioned in the Dunkargan section, except that the Dunkargan section no longer exists.

What this means is that, somewhere along the line, the Dunkargan section got deleted from the text. And nobody noticed. Talk about half-assed. If it was done deliberately, then the Karnuan text should have been changed to reflect that. If it was done by accident, they’re just dumb as bricks.

I’m going to attempt to calm my rage long enough to explain the basics of the character creation system to you in a rational manner. It is essentially a seven step process (which, as noted before, is gone through more than nine times):

1. Generate Attributes
2. Calculate Life Points
3. Choose Traits
4. Choose Racial Skills
5. Choose More Skills
6. Starting Money & Gear
7. Name the Character

Generate Attributes. There are eight Attributes, which are measured by die types (so you might have a d4 in Strength and a d12 in Psyche). They are generated semi-randomly in two groups (four Physical Attributes and four Mental Attributes). First you roll 8d6, pairing the dice four groups of two. You then add those pairs together and consult a chart to determine the resultant die type (so pairing a 4 and a 2 would give you a score of 6, which, according to the chart, gives you a d6 die type). You assign each score to one of the four Physical Attributes. Repeat for the Mental Attributes. (The chart can be summarized as “if the score is equal to or less than the die type, while exceeding the previous die type, then it is that die type” – hence 2-4 results in a d4; 5-6 results in a d6; and so on.)

An alternate method is given, by which the GM gives each character 56 points to spread around the various attributes. If the GM wants a slightly more powerful campaign he can increase this number of points, “not to exceed 60” – a seasoned character would get 57; a veteran would get 58; and a hero character would get 60 (they don’t say what a character with 59 points would be called).

At first glance the system looks incredibly silly – a spread of four points? Wow! What flexibility! However, if you run the numbers through you’ll see that those four points can make a large difference – each additional point you give the characters essentially means they can get, in most circumstances, an additional attribute level. Since the system boils down, in the end, to five discrete levels (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12) those four levels mean a lot.

Calculate Life Points. The character’s pool of Life Points is equal to their Vitality die maximum plus their Willpower die maximum.

Choose Traits. Sovereign Stone uses a system of Advantages and Disadvantages. All Advantages and Disadvantages have a Minor level; several of them have a Major level as well (with slightly more serious consequences).

Each Race has a package of three advantages and disadvantages, except humans whose “package” consists of any advantage and any disadvantage. In the first step of choosing traits each character selects one advantage and one disadvantage from this package.

In the second step of choosing traits each character may then take an additional two Minor Advantages (or one Major Advantage), with a corresponding number of Disadvantages.

The system has three major drawbacks in my opinion: First, ad/disad systems are most useful for balancing out other parts of the character creation system. When they are allowed to do so, the ad/disad system helps break out the symmetry of character creation – attributes no longer have to line up along a bell curve, skills do not always total exactly the same number of skill points, and so on. As it stands, every part of Sovereign Stone is a perfectly balanced microcosm, which is generally inflexible.

But that’s mostly a personal taste (your mileage may vary, of course). The other two problems are far more serious. First, the racial packages encourage stereotypes and limit your options (particularly since you are forced to select one advantage and one disadvantage of them). Why must all elves be either honest, have a special enemy, or be possessed of a distinctive look? Why must all dwarves have a phobia, a special enemy, or battle lust? Why must orks either be infamous, indecisive, or greedy (i.e., they’re either a criminal, greedy, or wishy-washy)?

Second, there simply aren’t that many options. There are only eighteen advantages, three of which are variations of Animal Empathy, and one of which is limited to Orks only. There are only sixteen disadvantages (which balances with the advantages once you eliminate the Animal Empathy variations). Not only are clear opposites ignored (so you can, for example, negatively effect your wealth, but not positively effect it), but many options are left completely unexplored. “Lack of space”, as noted before, simply isn’t palatable in a book of this length – if something is left out it’s because you chose to leave it out. If you found yourself without inspiration crack open a GURPS book.

Choose Racial Skills. Each racial package has a short list of “racial skills” from which they must select four. All of the non-human races, except Unhorsed Dwarves, have one mandatory skill which they are required to select.

Choose More Skills. Total your attribute die levels to determine your initial Skill Points, which are spent progressively on buying die types in the skills you desire. This creates an interesting dynamic, in that you will almost certainly end up with more skill points than attribute points (since even with the semi-random system you’re going to choose pairs which result in the lowest possible total for the desired attribute). I don’t know whether this was intentional or not.

The only serious drawback here is that, for unknown reasons, no complete list of skills is provided for easy reference. You have to go wandering through the skill descriptions to find what you’re looking for.

Starting Money and Gear. To determine your starting money you roll Willpower + Dickering (or just Willpower if you didn’t take the Dickering skill) and multiply by four and add 80 – this gives you a total in silver coins. You then use this to purchase equipment (which is detailed in its own chapter).

One very nice part of the equipment system is the location system. The designers have taken the time to specify in what types of towns adventurers are likely to find each type of equipment – simplifying the GM’s job and discouraging the common practice of beginners to have every village shopkeeper possessing every item in known creation.

Name the Character. This is actually handled quite well. Each racial type is given a couple of paragraphs in which their naming conventions are briefly discussed.

Overall, the character creation is solid. I would have liked to see non-random options introduced for all the default randomness, but that’s no big deal.

However, character creation, like everything else in this book, suffers greatly not because of what it is, but because of how it was presented. The system itself is admirable, but it is presented in a way which is repetitious and under-detailed. Did I need to read the same text several times over? And if you could afford the space to do that, why are there other things which you don’t give enough of?

RESOLUTION MECHANIC

The basic resolution mechanic is simple: Roll your applicable Attribute die type and your applicable Skill die type, add them together, and compare to an assigned Difficulty number. Unskilled actions are resolved by rolling only an attribute die. An opposed action is successful for whoever has the higher die total.

In addition, you can choose to “exert” on any particular action – by taking stun damage (representative of the amount of exhausting yourself by over-exerting) you can add an additional die to your resolution. The more stun damage you take, the higher the die type you can use. (Wait a minute, you say, stun damage? I thought damage in the system was handled through a Life Point pool? Yup. If you’re confused by this review, you’d be no less confused by Sovereign Stone which routinely pulls this “using the rules before explaining them” routine. Sometimes there’s no way to avoid this, but at the very least reference should be made.)

COMBAT

Speaking of damage, let’s take a look at the combat system.

As I mentioned in my review of the Quickstart Rules, it was here that I started getting excited about Sovereign Stone. The rules were clean, being a nice, clear extension of the basic mechanic. They felt very much to me alike an “AD&D done right”.

This hasn’t changed… mostly. There’s a couple of places where the rules have been altered from the Quickstart Rules. Usually for the worse. I’ll discuss this as it comes up.

First, the designers seem to have found a nice compromise between the easy bookkeeping of traditional Hit Points and the slight edge in verisimilitude of Wound systems. Your character has a pool of Life Points (which is shown as a strip of boxes on the character sheet) and can take two types of damage: Stun and Wound. If you take Stun damage you mark off from top down; if you take Wound damage you mark off from the bottom up (with Wounds superseding Stun if the two meet). If all of your Life Point boxes are marked off you fall unconscious. If all your Life Point boxes are marked off as wounds you die. Nice and simple.

[ That’s the way it’s described in the rulebook. If you want a more mathematical, rather than visual, approach to this record-keeping: You have a pool of Life Points. You can take Stun Damage and you can take Wound Damage. If your Stun Damage + Wound Damage total is higher than your Life Point pool you fall unconscious. If your Wound Damage total is higher than your Life Point pool you die. ]

Battles are divided into turns (lasting approximately six seconds) in which each character gets to take one action (which is declared at the beginning of the turn). Before anything is resolved everyone rolls the dice for their declared action (this is important) – the highest resulting roll goes first, the second highest next, and so on down to the lowest roll.

Now, if you are attacked before taking your action for that turn you have two options: You can attempt to defend or you can “tough it out”. If you decide to defend you roll your dice again. If your new total is higher than the attacker’s then the attack is unsuccessful. If it is lower then the attack is successful and damage is determined by Attacker’s Total – Defender’s Total + Weapon Damage Bonus – Armor; which is then divided evenly between Stun and Wound damage (round in favor of stun) unless the bonus states otherwise.

“Tough it out” replaces “take the attack” from the Quickstart Rules. With “take the attack” you weren’t actively defending, but would still attempt to dodge the blow, rolling your Agility Attribute only. Damage was determined the same way. “Tough it out” is handled exactly the same way, except that when you take damage it raises the Difficulty of whatever action you are attempting to take.

This change was badly thought out. The version found in the Quickstart Rules provided a nice dynamic. Before showing you how that dynamic has been ruined, let me explain one last catch: If you’ve already taken your attack (i.e., you went first in the turn) and someone attacks you, then you can actively defend without losing your attack for that turn.

Example. Using the Quickstart Rules you and a taan both want to beat on each other with swords for awhile. You both declare your intention (“I wanna beat up on the other guy”) and then roll your initial dice (Strength Attribute + Sword Skill). You get 14 and the taan gets 11, therefore you get to go first (since you have the higher total). The taan decides to take the attack, so he rolls his Agility Attribute and gets a 7. You subtract 7 from 14, add your sword’s damage bonus (let’s say it’s 3). The total damage would therefore be 10, making for five points of Stun damage and five points of Wound damage (evenly divided).

Because the taan took the attack, the taan now gets to attack back – using his original total of 11 (because this was his declared action). You still get to defend, because you went first – roll your Strength Attribute + Sword Skill and get 12. Because your total was higher than his, his attack is unsuccessful.

Under the new system, however, the taan has his difficulty raised by the damage which was inflicted. So let’s take a slightly different look at this example:

Example 2. Because the taan took the attack, the taan now gets to attack back – using his original total of 11. You still defend, but let’s postulate that you got a Strength Attribute + Sword Skill total of 10 this time. Under the Quickstart Rules you would have been unsuccessful and the taan would have hit you, but under the new rules you defend just fine – because the taan gets a -10 modifier and his effective total is reduced to 1.

Do you see what happens? Before you could decide to make yourself easier to hit in order to still get off an attack, but under the new system you make yourself easier to hit and the fact that you get hit means you are unlikely to have a successful attack (especially since the other guy still gets to defend). “Tough it out” ceases to be tactically useful.

I say all this, but let me now modify it by saying that I have no idea if what I just told you is correct. Why? Because the rules are presented in a muddy, incompetent manner. First, in the Quickstart Rules it is laid out quite plainly that if you attack first you can still defend against later attacks. In this rulebook, however, that is not plainly stated – although it is stated that a defensive action cancels your declared action. So it’s possible that this entire dynamic has simply been removed, which is even worse. (Plus, how does it all interact with the new mechanic which states that each additional defense costs a point a Stun? Does that apply to defenses taken after a declared action? And if you can’t defend if you’ve already taken your declared action, why not?)

Second, the rules state: “Of course, any Wound damage suffered in this attack will still modify the dice roll for the target’s declared action, changing the order of his action as well as affecting its success.” This is odd. “Of course”? “Still”? This rule is not mentioned anywhere else in the text. Is it an artifact from an earlier edition of the rules? If I ignore it the rules certainly improve. Does this apply to other attack situations or not? If I fail to defend against your attack, does the penalty apply to all future defense actions I take in that turn?

The rules are simply put together badly and explained worse. They’ve ruined what was presented as an elegant, simple system in the Quickstart Rules.

They make things even worse. In my review of the Quickstart Rules I mentioned specifically how happy I was that they had trimmed away the “needless and contradictory fat” of the AD&D combat system. I spoke too hastily. The fat is back with avengeance – special modifiers plague the system throughout, along with reference charts and special case options.

Another odd thing: The rules for determining what happens when two characters tie for initiative have mysteriously disappeared. In the Quickstart Rules the decision of defense type was left in the hands of the PC. Given that the decision is no longer palatable (you can either not attack at all or have a good chance of giving an ineffective attack) it is unsurprising that some other compromise should be found. Unfortunately, this compromise is never detailed.

MAGIC

I mentioned in my review of the Quickstart Rules that I thought they had a solid foundation laid down for their magic system – with a couple of additions and extrapolations (magical item creation, for example), they could easily be a contender for one of the best magic systems in the biz.

Well, the solid foundation remains. And that’s it. None of the extra material or extrapolation which should be present in a full-sized game are present here.

Basically it works like this: Magical spells have difficulty numbers. He rolls his Psyche Attribute + Magic Skill and totals the dice – if the total is higher than the difficulty number he succeeds immediately; if not he may try again on the next turn, adding the new total to the old total until he gets a total higher than the difficulty number. The more complex the spell the higher the difficulty number, the higher the difficulty number the more turns it will take before the mage is successful.

Unlike combat they haven’t weighed the system down with inconsistency, gaping holes, or needless complication. Across the board the system is clean and nicely handled.

The cosmology behind spell-casting is relatively simple: Each race is advantaged in one of the four elements (earth, fire, water, air). It is easier for a spellcaster to learn spells dealing with the element which his race is advantaged in, and more difficult in spells opposed or unrelated to his advantaged element. In addition there is a fifth element, the Void, which is opposed to all of the elements – but which any spellcaster can pick up. (There’s some nice “Taint of the Void” mechanics which I won’t take the time to get into here.)

SYSTEM SUMMARY

If there’s any reason to pick up Sovereign Stone at all it would be to cannibalize and fix-up the system, which is excellent. Basic Resolution, Combat, and Magic are all clean, simple systems which get the job done in an elegant and easy-to-learn manner. Even Character Creation is decent, although it needs the most work.

The only problem the system information has is that it is presented in such a shoddy manner. Besides the general problems discussed above, you end up with idiocies such as describing what attributes are at the beginning of the “Basic Rules” chapter – despite the fact that this chapter comes after the “Character Creation” chapter and therefore there is no need to explain what attributes are (particularly since you discussed them about a dozen times). (If I had to guess, I would say that they were initially going for a White Wolf-style lay-out where the basic rules would be explained before character creation. When they changed their mind they simply cut-‘n-pasted the section without thinking to rewrite it.) This problem is not the exception to the rule (if you’ll pardon the pun), but representative of a generalized fault.

THE WORLD OF LOEREM

Essentially the world of Loerem suffers from three things in this book: First, a lack of information (discussed above to some degree). Second, they try too hard at times to distinguish the world from other Tolkienesque worlds. And, third, they don’t try hard enough to distinguish the world. Here’s what we know of the world:

General History. A long time ago the Kingdom of Vinnengael ruled the continent under a golden age. Actually, I’m not sure it was that long ago – since no dates are given and one of the quoted human characters specifically references this earlier time period as if he had lived in it (I’m willing to chalk the latter up to one more instance of sloppy writing, though). At that time the Gods blessed certain humans with holy power. These humans became known as the Dominion Lords. The King of Vinnengael requested that he be given the power to make Dominion Lords for the other races, and he was given the Sovereign Stone in order to make that happen. At some point the Sovereign Stone was broken.

General Current Events. Dagnarus, Lord of the Void, was thought killed long ago (in circumstances so mysterious they’ve decided not to tell us about them), but he wasn’t (whoa!). He’s actually some form of undead and he craves the Sovereign Stone (for reasons so mysterious they’ve decided not to tell us about them). He has returned to this world with a massive army of Taan (“fierce creatures from another part of the world”… so mysterious that they’ve decided not to tell us where), led by his undead knights known as the Vrykyl.

Humans. There are five human kingdoms: Vinnengael, Dunkarga, Karnu, Nimra, and Nimor(e)a. Vinnengael is an empire which is in steep decline (they don’t even mind that they’re being invaded); Karnu split off from Dunkarga in a civil war which was comparatively recent (but at a time so conspicuously recent that they’ve decided not to give us any dates… oh wait, I don’t even know what the current year is), but not so recent that Karnuans don’t have an entirely different culture than Dunkarga; Nimor(e)a is a northern settlement of the Nimran people (settled so long ago that they’ve decided not to… oh nevermind). Vinnengael is the decadent one; Dunkarga is the timid one; Karnu is the aggressive one; Nimrans are the traders; Nimoreans are the hardy barbarians living in a harsh land.

Not Enough Information: Almost everything we are told about the human cultures is ancient – mainly how their modern borders and politics were defined by the Fall of Old Vinnengael.

Trying Too Hard: “And here’s a completely different culture….” Historically you end up with a lot of different nations, all very similar to one another, grouped together. You get “Asian Countries” and “European Countries” and “African Countries” – you don’t get “An Asian Country” and “A European Country” and “An African Country”.

Not Trying Hard Enough: You have probably already noticed that all these cultures can be broken down into traditional fantasy roles. There is, of course, a great deal of variation which could be done within any one of these roles – but we simply aren’t given enough information about any of them. As a result, everything defaults to a cliché.

Elves. Elves are the Asians of the setting (cunningly located to the north to throw you off the scent). They have elaborate customs, an ornate system social order, and so on.

Not Enough Information: Every elf in the book is shown with a face paint or tatooed design around their eyes. What does this design indicate? I dunno. It’s never explained.

Trying Too Hard: Elves don’t like magic. Why? Because elves do like magic in any other Tolkienesque fantasy setting.

Not Trying Hard Enough: Well, they have an elaborate set of customs. And they are…? They have an ornate social order. And it is…? Once again, we are given cliches where hard information would have been preferred.

Dwarves. Dwarves are Mongols who believe they will inherit the planet someday. They are members of large clans which travel through the eastern steppes on their horses. However, some dwarves are cast out of this clan and become known as the Unhorsed.

Not Enough Information: Nothing specific, although the dwarves are as poorly described as everything else in the book.

Trying Too Hard: Dwarves like magic. Why? Because dwarves don’t like magic in any other Tolkienesque fantasy setting.

Not Trying Hard Enough: You’ve heard this complaint before. We’re given the cliché, but nothing to back it up with.

Orks. Orks are largely a seafaring race, with a complex social system based on this fact and their life as traders.

Not Enough Information: Orks believe themselves to be the first race on Loerem, tracing their ancestry back to the sea monsters known as “orca”, from which they derive their name. Why aren’t the “orca” described in the book? Are they supposed to be whales, as their name might indicate?

Trying Too Hard: Actually I don’t have any problems here. The Orks have been differentiated to a large degree from your standard orcish fare, but they have been done so in an intelligent manner across the board.

Not Trying Hard Enough: Once more, Sovereign Stone proves itself to be King of the Cliché.

You might be thinking to yourself: “Wow, nice summary.” Afraid not. If you buy this book you won’t be getting much more information than I’ve imparted to you here. Personally I still think Loerem has a lot of potential, but it remains no more realized here than it was in the Quickstart Rules. Indeed, it is worse. With the Quickstart Rules you were given practically nothing in the way of world background – which was acceptable, since what was hinted at was promising. Here, however, you are given just enough so that everything strikes you as clichéd and nothing strikes you as original.

Very disappointing.

OTHER STUFF TO HATE

If you’ve read my review of the Quickstart Rules you probably remember me mentioning the foolishness of describing your magical Portals in terms which in no way distinguish them from the Waygates of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. Let me say here and now that despite my complaints of the method used in the Quickstart Rules, that method is vastly superior to the method selected for this core rulebook.

To whit: The Portals aren’t discussed anywhere in this book. They are mentioned many times (and apparently there’s a major military action involving one of them, but it’s very vague), but never explained. This is symptomatic of the entire game – things simply are not discussed when they should be.

Did I mention that they don’t appear in the Index, either? They share this trait with many other things, and the things which are mentioned usually aren’t comprehensively referenced. The index is a piece of crap.

To give you a total understanding of just how shoddy this thing is, let me draw your attention to something else: The game is called Sovereign Stone. Why? Because there is a major artifact of some sort known as the Sovereign Stone. It’s of fairly significant importance even beyond the implications of its titular role – it leads to the fall of Old Vinnengael, the separation of Nimra from Nimor(e)a, Dagnarus’ invasion, and is what allows for the creation of the Dominion Lords. What is it, though?

How the hell should I know? Although it is mentioned a couple of times it is not discussed in any detail. This is like the core Dragonlance manual not discussing the dragonlances.

WRAPPING THINGS UP

Why am I so furious? Why is this review filled with invective I have never before unleashed?

Because this game is so damn disappointing.

Sovereign Stone is a travesty. It has a world brimming with potential. It has a rock solid set of rules. It has a creative team with a proven track record any other start-up in this industry would die for.

And it sucks.

Unreservedly. Without qualification. With utter conviction. Sovereign Stone sucks. It is a waste of paper. It is in serious competition for the worst roleplaying game I have ever owned. The World of Synnibar was done better.

I wish I could say, “Go out and buy this game. If nothing else, it’s got some great ideas.”

In all good conscience I can’t say that. There are some good ideas in there, but they are not only presented in an ugly, debilitating fashion – their potential is completely unrealized and is hidden away at every possible opportunity.

Sovereign Stone is not worth your money or your time. Stay as far away from it as you can.

Style: 1
Substance: 1

Author: Don Perrin and Lester Smith (Larry Elmore)
Company/Publisher: Corsair Publishing, LLC and Sovereign Press, Inc.
Cost: $25.00
Page Count: 168
ISBN: 0-9658422-3-1

Originally Posted: 1999/08/16

This review caused an uproar. First, there were the people who were incredulous that my opinion of the Quickstart Rules and the core rulebook could be so diametrically opposed. Second, there were the authors and publishers who were absolutely furious. Third, there were the people who had also bought the rulebook and were generally confirming every negative thing I had to say about the game.

The publishers would later admit that they had sent the wrong file to the printers: Instead of the final draft of the book, they sent a much earlier draft that had not been fully proofread.

Which explained some of the horrible editorial problems the book had and possibly even some of the design issues, but didn’t explain the massively underdeveloped (to the point of being unusable) setting.

One incident that stands out in particular for me happened at Gencon: Despite the crushing disappointment of the core rulebook, my interest in Sovereign Stone had not abated. So I stopped by the Corsair Publishing booth and was looking over the product line. Someone associated with the company came over and started chatting with me. Then I very distinctly remember them looking down at my name badge, reading my name, and then looking up into my face. “Oh,” they said. And then turned and walked away.

So I put the book back down and walked away.

For years now, I had placed this memory at Gencon 1999: That I had written the review, there had been an uproar, and then I had gone to Gencon and in the heat of that uproar the fellow from Corsair had simply wanted nothing to do with me.

But in prepping this review for reposting here at the Alexandrian, I’ve realized that this timeline doesn’t work: My review didn’t appear at RPGNet until a couple weeks after the convention. So the incident in the Corsair booth actually happened at Gencon 2000. This actually makes sense, because this definitely happened at the same convention that Orkworld was released at (which I remember because of the “feud” John Wick and I supposedly had going on, which neither John Wick or I actually considered a feud… but that’s a story for another time), and Orkworld was definitely released in 2000.

Memory is a tricky thing. On the other hand, that actually makes it a sadder story. I was in the booth because I was genuinely interested in seeing how the Sovereign Stone product line had developed, but the fellow from Corsair apparently thought I was there to do some sort of “hit” on their new books. As a result, I’ve never actually picked up another book related to Sovereign Stone and they didn’t get the positive reviews I might have written (assuming the books had actually improved, of course).

C’est la vie.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.