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Showing posts with label RPG Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RPG Review. Show all posts

Saturday, 24 January 2015

Posted by Martin - Saturday, January 24, 2015

Review of Rivendell for The One Ring

Alright, enough with all the mechas and power armoured anime dudes! Let's get back to the Season of the Ring and the the first review of a The One Ring book, namely the just released Rivendell by Cubicle 7!

Rivendell is a new hardback sourcebook for The One Ring that weighs in at 144 pages and it marks the series first foray outside of the original setting of Mirkwood and its surroundings that is the default adventuring area for the core book and the supplements released so far. Originally the plan was to release three core books, each focusing on different geographical areas of Middle-Earth, but this idea was later abandoned in favour of releasing sourcebooks like this one to fill in the blanks and provide extra cultures fitting the setting.

Although the original core book for the game was released back in 2011 the release schedule since has been rather slow and somewhat erratic. Most of this has apparently been the fault of the Tolkien estate who need to check that everything looks ok to them and they can at times be a little slow and other times request changes to be made further prolonging the process. I don't fault Cubicle 7 at all in this regard, but can understand players who felt frustrated during the first couple of years. Now however, it seems like things are picking up a little and with the release of the Revised rulebook it feels like the game has got into it's second breath!

I'll take the time to make a mild SPOILER warning here. Although I'll talk mostly in generics it might be wise to avoid this review if you are a player in a The One Ring campaign and want to remain completely in the dark of what is to come.

Rivendell is of course of extra interest to anyone who has wanted to explore the world beyond Mirkwood and the Misty Mountains and it does not disappoint in this regard. At the moment I only have access to the PDF of the book so can't really comment on its physical appearance, but it's hardback and I'm guessing it's similar to either The Heart of the Wild or The Darkening of Mirkwood (they're slighly different in that Darkening is matte while Heard it gloss). From what I can tell there are no loose maps included with the book, although you get them as separate files with the PDF. I imagine they will be part of the upcoming Journeys and Maps supplement. When I get my hands on the actual book, I'll update this section with more details on its physical appearance. By now I don't think I need to mention that the book is absolutely beautiful with spectacular and immersive art by Jon Hodgson, Jan Pospíšil and Jeremy McHugh. I mean, it goes without saying, The One Ring line of books is famous for their art and graphic design! Taking a quick look at the contents we have: Introduction, Imladris, A History of Eriador, The Regions of Eastern Eriador, New Monsters, Magical Treasure, The Eye of Mordor, Heroic Culturs and Appendices. So let's dig deeper and see what each chapter brings to the game!

The Introduction is, well... an introduction, but it also explains that Rivendells it the companion book to the upcoming Ruins of the North, much like The Heart of the Wild is the companion book to The Darkening of Mirkwood. That being said, I suspect Ruins of the North will be more similar to the adventure compilation/mini-campaign Tales from Wilderland that the epic play experience that is The Darkening of Mirkwood. It is also explained that the book is written with the year being some time after 2951 and possibly as late as 2077 (the default ending year of the The Darkeing of Mirkwood campaign), however it is also stated that things change slowly in Eriador and if you want to set your campaign earlier few things would need adjusting.

Imladris, Rivendell, The Last Homely House.
The chapter on Imladris is 15 pages of Rivendell background and information, including its history, a map with just the right amount of detail and a number of key characters who reside there. I have never been all that interested in Rivendell myself (unlike many others) as it has somehow felt almost "too good" a place to be in. I want my adventures to be muddy and dirty! Haha! Even so I found myself re-evaluating my position on the Last Homely House and am now actually looking forward to having my players find and explore it (some time in the far future once we're "done" with Mirkwood). Good chapter with just the right amount of information to craft good story hooks and get ideas, but not being overburdened with minutia like what exactly each room is used for and looks like.

The next chapter, A History of Eridador, is quite short at only six pages, but you should be aware that a lof of the history has also been baked into the gazeteer in the next chapter. You get a rundown of the rise and fall of both Arnor and Angmar, how the rangers formed and how they are pretty much keeping the entire region safe from orcs, troll, wargs and other even worse servants of the Shadow! While not a long chapter it provides a solid overview of the events which should be easy to relay to the players when required.

Now comes the real meat and potatoes of the book in the form of The Regions of Eastern Eriador. That's right eastern Eriador! You see, Cubicle 7 has plans for the western parts (which apparently includes the town of Bree and its immediate surroundings which are not covered in this book) and the Rivendell book covers the region from the Misty Moutains in the east to the Barrow Downs in the west. Just like The Heart of the Wild this chapter is a kind of gazeeter of the entire region with each section zooming in on a particular area (ie. Angmar, Mount Gram, Trollshaws, South Downs, Eregion etc). Each area gets between three and five pages devoted to it and after a general overview we get a subsection on wildlife, inhabitants, notable characters and notable locations as well as some special rules like new Fellowship Undertakings here and there. These chapters are pure gold for an industrious Loremaster as each of them could easily be spun into several sessions worth of adventuring! Generally each region has around three obvious hooks, but the general background certainly provides inspiration for creating more.

One thing this chapter really succeeds with is instilling a sense of how the Companions are moving through the ruins of an ancient and great kingdom. Not only through the snippets of history inserted throughout the text but also when talking about the ruins of towers, forts, statues and roads that litter this part of Middle-Earth. While a Ranger or Elf might know about most of these I would love to have a Company totally ignorant of the history of the region to kind of slowly piece everything together.

The 18 page chapter on New Monsters starts with a section about Powerful Adversaries which describes how to grant some of the new, powerful special abilities to existing monsters to bring their threat level up. It's also mentioned that some of these abilities already exist on a number of the new monsters of Eriador. Again, it is half-assumed that the group who has played enough to make their way across the Misty Mountains to Rivendell will need some tougher opposition to go up against. That is not to say that all the new monsters are super deadly, there are certainly normal level enemies in this chapter as well. Provided are both stats for some of the named monsters and adversaries that is mentioned in the previous chapter, like Bloodstump the Hunter, as well as generic creatures like Goblins of Carn Dûm and Hill-men of Rhudaur. Fitting the lost realm of Arnor, there's also an extended sub-chapter on the undead which lists a number of different variants as well as several pages on The Lord of the Nazgûl, aka The Witch-King which makes for interesting reading. The authors are however quick to point out that:
"While precise definitions are generally something to be desired in a game, sometimes they provide an explanation to things that should remain inexplicable, robbing a legendary world of its mystery. Keeping a level of uncertainty and providing only glimpses of a world that defies understanding goes a long way in preserving a sense of wonder in those who take part in the game."
Which is very much in keeping with my own view on the matter - again showing that they have a firm grasp on what makes Tolkien Tolkien. Basically the New Monster chapter provides exactly what you'd think it would, with some extra additions here and there.

Of course, powerful adversaries calls for some more extravagant rewards and Rivendell provides in the form of a 19 page chapter focusing on Magical Treasure. For those of you sharpening your pitchforks, checking your supply of torches and frantically trying to find Cubicle 7 HQ on the map, don't worry - there are no +2 maces or swords of advanced fireballs. Again Francesco and his co-writers show their adept feel for the setting and how Middle-Earth works. Mechanically speaking the main new addition is that of Hoards. A Hoard is not simply some regular treasure to be used up by the Companions but also have the chance of containing Magical Treasure. In Rivendell and every forthcoming TOR release the Treasure rating is expressed as a number plus zero to three asterisks to show if it's a Hoard with potential magical items in it. For each asterisk you can roll to try and find something special and you succeed on the Will of the West or the Eye of Sauron (the latter, with complications, naturally) and you can then roll further dice, based on the number of unspent experience points you have, to see exactly what you have found. If it turns out to be a Precious Object, Wondrous Artefact or some Famous Weapon or Armour (the four categories presented) you need to actually spend experience to get it.

This acts both to make magical treasure costly, to make it rare and to tie it specifically to the character that finds (and invests in) it. It's explicitly stated that these kinds of items aren't meant to be passed around at will or given to the character who could use it best (from a min-max perspective) but that it was meant to be found and carried by that very character: "After all, it was Bilbo who was meant to find the Ring, not Balin, Gandalf or Thorin." The items are also not meant to be random or made up on the spot, but rather prepared by the Loremaster before hand. Included in the book are sheets for making a Magical Treasure Index where you can compile a list of lost items that might be found in the area; their stats and bonuses as well as their individual history that might be revealed through a successful Lore test or a fitting Trait. I really like this idea as all the magical items featured in the books have a long and glorious history to them! And even if the exact details of an item is unknown (like Sting) you can still figure out the general history of it - where it probably was made and when. With the great and sad history of Arnor it certainly feels more likely to come across something out of the ordinary in Eriador rather than Mirkwood. Besides including instructions for how to create each of these objects and how many to incorporate in the campaign there are also rules for cursed items (remember that Eye of Sauron you might roll?) as well as a complete sample Magical Treasure Index for Loremasters who lacks the time to create their own.


Following this is a shorter chapter about The Eye of Mordor which is a new mechanic introduced in Rivendell to track how well the Company manage to avoid attracting the attention of the Enemy. The basic value to track is the Eye Awareness rating which moves up and down depending on the size of the Company, what kind of members it has and what it's doing. High Elves and Dúnedain attract more attention than men or, especially, hobbits. The starting Eye Awareness level is then continually modified during the Adventure Phase by rolling Eyes of Sauron, gaining Shadow or blatant use of magic. Of course the Loremaster could raise it further because of the actions taken by the players. When the Eye Awareness raises above a preset level (depending on their current location) - the Hunt threshold - the Company is considered Revealed, instead of Hidden. When this happens the Loremaster will introduce an especially dangerous event to inflict on the characters and then the Eye Awareness rating reset. Being revealed is not meant to trigger some artificial event like, "suddenly ten orcs appear and attack" but should rather be integrated with the current narrative and should generally be used to make the situation worse - if the characters are in dire need of allies and seek for help in a nearby village they're regarded with suspicion and hostility, the skies that seemed to clear up suddenly turn dark and the Companions are drenched in a downpour far out in the wilds, an enemy etc. It is also suggested that you can use the cards from Hobbit Tales from Green Dragon Inn for inspiration if you have that game (which I will review soon).

While this system is completely optional and easily something you could organically create as you play I still quite like this mechanical approach to it as it will make the players think twice about certain courses of action. It's generally aimed at campaigns taking place later in the timeline that the core book, when the Enemy is awake and actively searching, but I think it could easily be introduced in any time where keeping a low profile is of importance.

Finally we have the two new Heroic Cultures - the Rangers and the High Elves of Rivendell. From the start it is emphasized that these are not ordinary cultures like those we've seen so far for the game. Indeed the Rangers are all descendants of the Dúnedain and the High Elves lived long and seen much. Because of this they are intentionally made in ways that break the mold a bit and are on par with already experienced characters hailing from the Wilderlands. The authors also don't recommend more than one or maybe two of these powerful characters in the Company lest they unbalance the carefully wrought intention of having "regular people" step up and become heroes. I think both offer some very interesting roleplaying opportunities and they also have drawbacks to keep them somewhat in check.


Rangers have the Allegiance to the Dúnedain to keep in mind which makes them loners in the world of men, meaning that while they contribute normally to the Fellowship pool, but is not allowed to spend Fellowship points to recover lost Hope. Fellowship focus works as normal though. They have a really cool Cultural Blessing called Foresight of their Kindred which gives them a Trait called Foresighted that, that can be invoked like a normal Trait and will then be available for the entirety of that session, but then not again until the next Adventure Phase. So basically it works like a kind of danger sense that might tell you of what lurks ahead but that can only be used during one session per Adventure Phase, making it both powerful and tricky to use (do I invoke the trait now, or might there be an even more fitting occasion later?). They start with higher stats than a normal character but kind of makes up for it with the Allegiance to the Dúnedain and the fact that it costs more for them to raise their skills with experience points (reflecting that they're already quite experienced). The background packages are diverse and inspiring - supplying a variety of archetypes instead of the typical Strider-wannabe broody ranger that I think it's easy to fall into the habit of playing. My favourite is probably the Keeper of Earth and Spirit who has a kind of Radagast vibe and knows every plant and animal in Eriador and always have just the right thing to help with an ailment. Neat!

High Elves of Rivendell are especially marked by the Shadow and can't simply forget what has happened to them in the past. This means that they have an interesting way of handing Shadow points as they can't use the Heal Corruption undertaking in the Fellowship phase! Instead they can distance themselves from the past as an undertaking. You do this mechanically by marking one of your Common skills (preferably with a little Eye!) and for each point in that skill your Shadow score is lowered by two. The problem is when you later use that particular skill and happen to roll an Eye of Sauron - when this happens the test will fail automatically and you'll get a Shadow point. Basically you are overcome with sorrow of things lost and can't bear yourself to complete the task. I really like this mechanic as it makes High Elves very different from other Cultures and will make them slowly turn from the world in front of them (as more and more skills become marked) and think about leaving for the west. Their Cultural Blessing is called Agains the Unseen and lets them see spirits and wraiths that might be invisible to others, as well as not having to take tests to avoid Fear.


They also have a new trait called Enemy of Sauron which means that the servants of the Enemy instantly recognizes you for what you are and fear your presence. They will only attack if they have a proper advantage. Vice versa, it also means you have to take action when you see evidence of the work of the Enemy. The different backgrounds provide good inspiration for aspiring High Elves, with archetypes like the Elf-lord, Heir of Gondolin, Counsellor of Elrond and Vengeful Kin to choose from. Both cultures of course have some really neat Virtues and Rewards to choose from. The High Elves in particular can learn elven-smithing and craft enchanted weapons, which is pretty cool!

Finally we have the Appendices with the different sheets, the maps and the index. Nothing majorly exciting here. :)

Thoughts

As I mentioned above, I have never been all that interested in Rivendell as a place so even though I was looking forward to this book simply as one in a great series of The One Ring supplements, I would probably have preferred the Rohan book first, or maybe even more dabbling with spiders in in the dusk of Mirkwood. The area of Eriador also felt a lot less open than Mirkwood and more restricted in what you could do with it as a Loremaster. But, I'm happy to report that my fears and prejudices were entirely unfounded. In fact my perception of the region have changed a lot from reading the book and there's certainly a lot more to it than Rivendell and the Rangers. While I'm still partial to Mirkwood I've also become eager for my players to explore this land of spirits and lost realms.

The two new Heroic Cultures also manage to do a lot more than I had expected and I think a Ranger or a High Elf could be a very interesting addition to a company from the Wilderlands. They might demand a little more of the players though as at least a passing familiarity with the history of Eriador is almost required to really get the feel across right.


While the more mechanically focused chapters are good, and I'm especially impressed with how they handled the "problem" of magic weapons in a Tolkien setting, my favourite chapter is The Regions of Eastern Eriador. Just like The Heart of the Wild this gazeteer style chapter packs enough info to keep you busy for a good long while. If I were to nitpick I would have liked some zoomed in maps on certain of the places mentioned in this chapter. There are quite a few different ruins mentioned that would make for good mini maps to fold into the text. Then again, I have a feeling we'll see this kind of stuff in the Ruins of the North adventure supplement that's out next for The One ring.

I also feel it's slightly odd not to include Bree-land as part of eastern Eriador as it's as far or even farther east than the Lone-Lands and the Barrow Downs. While I can understand the desire to include it in the book covering the Shire and western Eriador (that way keeping a kind of thematic parallel with the part of the journey the hobbits made themselvs in LotR) it still feels strange to leave out the only proper village/town in the entire region, apart from Imladris. Not having actual fold out maps included with the book (please correct me if I'm wrong on this) is also a bit of a bummer.

Still, these small niggles aside I think this is an excellent addition to The One Ring and it's exciting to see the world open up for continued adventures in Middle-Earth!
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Saturday, 26 January 2013

Posted by Martin - Saturday, January 26, 2013

Review of Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game



Alright then... so that's the card (board?) game players and miniature game players taken care of. But what about roleplayers? Fear not! Next up are my review of FFG's recently released Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game (or just Beginner Game for short). You noticed I wrote review and not first impressions like I said earlier. As I kept writing the whole thing simply became a bit too comprehensive for some mere first impressions so I decided to give it the proper review treatment. While I haven't actually played it yet I think my grip on the system and the setting is firm enough to warrant it. :)

Back since that announcement, yes you know which one I'm talking about by now, the game I was most interested to hear about was a new Star Wars rpg. I had a gut feeling that FFG might try and develop the system they created for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd ed. further, as it had a certain cinematic feel to it. In August last year FFG announced the new rpg and the beta prior to its release. After reading the preview I discovered that my hunch had been correct and the game would indeed use the WFRP3 system at its core. Good news I thought, as I quite like WFRP3!

FFG decided to do a big beta project to get input from the player community and although I didn't participate directly I read a lot about it and wrote down my thoughts on the game.  From what it seemed Edge of the Empire would indeed be using a refined version of the WFRP3 system; refined meaning some changes in the rules but mainly the removal of the huge amount of tokens and cards that WFRP3 was built on. Now, I like the idea of the cards and tokens - to have everything at your fingertips, and not need to flip through books - but with new cards and tokens being added with every expansion it soon became bloated and unwieldy. In fact I think "card fatigue" was one of the reasons our WFRP3 campaign kind of fizzled out after we finished The Gathering Storm. But streamlining an already solid system seemed great to me! Of course, new rules had to be added as well and character creation and evolvement have changed drastically from WFRP3. 

Now the main rulebook has still not been released, although it was recently "officially" announced, and we probably won't see it for another few months. To tide us over until then, and help attract non-rpg players, FFG has released the Edge of the Empire Beginner Game. A box including a slimmed down version of the rulebook, some pre-generated characters, an introductory adventure, dice and... some tokens(!). While I don't fit into the category of non-roleplayer who need to be lured into the fold, I do fit into the category of veteran roleplayer who gets way to excited about something and who doesn't have the patience to wait for the real deal. :)

So when the Beginner Box was released in late December I simply had to order a copy.


What You Get in the Box


Apologies for the many stock images. Didn't have time to take any pictures.

I mentioned briefly what you get in the box, but lets have a closer look. What first might catch your eye is a leaflet with the text "Read This First" at the top. I'll admit to not doing this as it's simply another "what is roleplaying?" text with an example of play. Good for someone completely new to the concept though. On the backside is the opening crawl of for the adventure 'Escape from Mos Shuuta' which is a pretty neat idea. Then there's the actual 32 page adventure book which is labeled "Read This Second". Finally there's the 48 page rulebook with the label "Read This Last". The idea is to be able to get started quickly as all the essential rules are introduced gradually in the adventure.

Besides books (and leaflet) there are four very nice looking pre-made character folders. They are all four pages with a full page cover art of the character and her backstory on the last page. Four pages might seem like a lot but the idea is that you'll flip to the next page when your character levels up, unlocking new abilities etc through XP. There is also a large fold out map, which I think might have been the main reason I bought this box. I love maps! On one side is the top down view of the interior of the Krayt Fang, a YT-1300 freighter the characters are trying to get hold of (it's got a Wampa rug!). On the other side are one larger map of Mos Shuuta and two smaller map of the local cantina and spaceport control. They all look very nice and are reminiscent of the excellent Mos Eisley map from WEG's old game.

An rpg without dice is a rare beast indeed, and the Beginner Game comes with a decent assortment of the special dice you will need when playing. 14 in total of seven different varieties. Again, if you are familiar with WFRP3 they will be fairly familiar, although there are some changes to how the dice system works. Finally there is a sheet of tokens you can punch out and use during the game. They consist of tokens for the player characters and the enemies they might encounter (including spaceships) as well as Destiny Point tokens that are used to keep track of the how many light or dark side Destiny Points are in play (they are doublesided).

On a final note I'm sad to report that the actual box this all comes in is simply rubbish. It's a packaging box - for delivery of the content to the store/customer - not a storage box - for the customer to keep the content in after she's purchased it. This is a shame as I thought I might use it as a general Star Wars rpg storage box, not I'll probably end up throwing it away instead. Sadface.


The Content

Alright, those are the physical components, but what I think you all are more interested in is the actual content of the game. Let's have a look at the rulebook first, and go through a very brief rules explanation.

When playing the game you roll a pool made up of the special dice mentioned above. As you assemble your pool you'll start with the positive dice - for your Ability and Skill scores plus circumstantial benefits you might be enjoying - and then you add the negative dice as instructed by the GM - for the difficulty and circumstantial disadvantages. You roll them all together and look at all the different symbols that come up. Most of the time a positive symbol of a certain kind have a respective negative symbol and the two cancel eachother out, so after you've taken the canceled dice out you're left with the net result. If you've managed to score more Success symbols than Failure symbols you have succeded in your attempt.

It doesn't stop there though as you might have succeded but still rolled a bunch of Threat symbols, meaning you succeded but with some detrimental side effect. The flipside is also true and you could fail but roll enough Advantage symbols to still manage to get some kind of advantage out of the situation. There are also Triumph and Despair symbols that are kind of like stronger versions of Advantages and Threats. Check the nearby table for more detailed descriptions.

Then there's the 12 sided Force die.... which is mystical. It isn't actually used in the Beginner game except for generating Destiny points at the beginning of each session. It's interesting since it can result in either light or dark side points, the twist being that there are more sides with dark side points, but the sides with light side points have higher values. This very much goes with the dark side not being stronger but quicker, easier, more seductive. Light Destiny points can be used by the players to boost their rolls, while dark Destiny points can be used by the GM. But when used by either the Destiny Point token is flipped over to the other side, so if the players use up all the remainging light Destiny points the GM have them all available to herself as dark Destiny points! A pretty cool balancing mechanic that seems in line with the whole Force thing. While I'm glad there are no jedi in this game (yet) I'm definitely looking forward to reading the force rules in the full rulebook!

So yeah... that's a lot of text just about the dice. But the thing is, if you get how the dice works you pretty much get the entire system. The rest is rather basic stuff: you have primary abilities, skills that enhance those abilities and talents that allow you to break the rules and do some cool stuff! When damaged you suffer physical Wounds and/or Strain which is more akin to exhaustion. You can also elect to suffer Strain voluntarily to get more maneuvers during combat.

Some of the tokens you get in the box.


It's pretty far from rules heavy (and rules strict!) systems like D20. In fact I think it has more in common with the modern indie rpg movement as it's very easy to play fast and loose and simply adjust on the fly and not get bogged down in detail; "That Stormtrooper shot out the lights. Ok, that means you have to roll an extra Setback die when attacking". I was going to say that the system is a bit abstracted, but I actually don't think it is. You might see it as abstract if all you've ever played is D&D with its grids and modifier minutae, but compared to most other rpgs I've read and played I'd say it's fairly middle of the road. It's abstracted in a way I think rpgs should be abstracted, that is to say it doesn't matter if the Rodian bounty hunter is 6.5 or 7 meters away, it simply matters that she's close. If I want that kind of tactical grid-infested play I'll go and pull out my copy of Descent or fire up SWTOR.

Sorry, going off on a tangent there.

The rulebook covers the basic of gameplay but doesn't go into character creation at all and, seeing as this is a beginner's game, the chapters on talents and character evolvement are quite short. However, there is a chapter on spaceships and spaceship combat which I was pleasantly surprised by! At the end of the book are chapters for equipment, starships and NPCs and I think the book actually includes more stuff than would strictly be needed for a beginner game. If you really wanted to this could last you quite some time - as long as you have the imagination to come up with further adventures.


The Adventure


Speaking of adventures... I haven't actually read Escape from Mos Shuuta. I flipped through it quickly just to get a sense of the layout and I read the 'How to Use This Book' section but that's about it. The things is, I dind't want to spoil it as there's a chance that I might actually get to play it! However, from what I have gathered from people who have played it and the backstory for the player characters it's centered around escaping Teemo the Hutt and aqcuiring a spacehip to make it off Tattooine. The adventure is quite short, usually lasting around two or three hours, which is probably the perfect lenght for a demo, but there's a much longer sequal available for download from FFG called 'The Long Arm of the Hutt' which should provide a couple more sessions at least.


The Characters

The four characters included in the box are Oskara the twi'lek Bounty Hunter, 41-VEX the droid Colonist, Pash the human Smuggler and Lowhhrick the wookiee Hired Gun. I wasn't sure what to expect of the pre-gens, but I ended up quite liking them! Their backstories are just the right length and have just the right tone for you to quickly get the characters. Are they slightly stereotypical? Yes, but in a good way; a way that allow new players to quickly find something familiar to latch on to.

Pash's character folder. Click for larger view.

The character folders of course include the character sheet with all the stats, but also explanations of what everything is and how the dice symbols work. It's all quite clearly laid out and should make it very easy for new players to get into the game. Flip the page and you've got an updated character sheet where you can choose and fill in your first character development(s). On the final page is a another character sheet with more space for filling in upgrades and the first start of that character's talent tree. Basically this makes it possible to play with the character and level her up a few levels before you'd need the main rulebook. Again, this is something FFG could probably have gotten away with leaving out entirely, so having it included is a nice bonus.

It bears mentioning again that the art is absolutely spectacular! FFG is known for having beautiful looking products but their new line of Star Wars games (that share art, naturally) might be my favourite so far. There is mostly new art, but now and then you come across something from an older game or one of Ralph Mcquarrie's pieces of concept art and it all blends well together. Awesome!

Oh I almost forgot! There are two more characters available for download from FFG if you have more than four players in your group, Sasha the Explorer and Mathus the Technician, both humans.


My Thoughts

I think Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Beginner Game is a pretty good product. If you belong to the target group of people new to roleplaying (or perhaps people new to non-D20 roleplaying). It's got a surprisingly comprehensive starter rulebook, well rounded characters that can be developed further and an adventure that (I hear) is a good introduction to roleplaying. What more could you want as a teenager just exploring this new medium?

On the other hand, if you are a rpg veteran like myself this is more of an appetizer as you wait for the main course and had the core rulebook been released on the same day I don't think I would have bought the beginner box. Although I'd love to play or run the adventure and the downloadable follow up, in the end I think what I will find continual use for in the future is the dice, the map and perhaps the tokens. On the third hand, it is a good rpg introduction and I could easily see myself running this as a demo for roleplaying in general more than once. And I've enjoyed reading through it and kind of getting warmed up for the core book that I'm assuming will be released in May or June. So for me I feel the box was worth the investment.

As for the system itself, I like it. They've taken the good things from WFRP3, left the baggage and streamlined it. In this game you won't end up with the huuuge dice pools of WFRP3 as you often upgrade or downgrade dice instead of simply adding more dice to the mix, meaning the size of the pool stay more or less constant. Difficulty is also a bit more fluid instead of the standard one difficulty die of WFRP3. I also like the Destiny Point system as its dual nature forces the players to really think about when to use it (because they know it'll come back and bite them in the ass!).

There are of course things missing form this paired down rulebook. While I didn't expect character generation to be in their I was a little surprised that Obligations didn't make it. Obligations in the main game is something every character have, it could be a dept or a promise or simply baggage that your character starts out with. It adds to the characters background but also figures in play as there as the Obligation in question can turn up when least expected - you run into a bounty hunter working for that Quarrian you owe money.

The full talent tree from the beta rulebook.

These are trifles though, and in the end I think this is a good way of trying to widen the hobby a bit. You will have to decide for yourself wheather you will find use for the Beginner Game or wheather you'll get more out of simply waiting for the core book. It's good at what it does, but what it does is fairly specific. With that said, I really can't wait to play it!


Star Wars week on Fire Broadside is in full swing and next up is a tactics article on how to play the Rebels in X-Wing. Expect to see it on Sunday.

May the Force be with you!
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Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Posted by Martin - Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Review of The Loremaster's Screen for The One Ring


Yes, I know I've promised to review Tales from Wilderland, but I'm still reading and absorbing it so it will have to wait for a bit (spoiler: yes, it's very good). However I did get the Loremaster's Screen a bit back and it makes for a quick and easy review, even though it's a meatier product than you first might expect! If you are wondering what this is all about, I'm talking about The One Ring by Cubicle 7 - a Tolkien rpg done right! You can read my review of the core books here.

What you get is a four panel screen and a 34 page sourcebook that explores Lake-town and its surroundings. The screen itself is very sturdy and easily rivals most board games when it comes to thickness, this is no mere cardboard! The front features a motif of Lake-town, more specifically the towns merchant quarter (or the market-pool as it is known). The art is by Jon Hodgson and it fits beautifully with the Tolkien theme - no fireball shooting mages or axe-wielding berserkers need apply. In the distance beyond the town lies the Lonely Mountain and if you look to the right you can see the bones of the great dragon Smaug poking out of the water, a couple of neat details I thought.


On the inside of the screen we have the ever present charts and tables. They are ordered after theme and colour coded, starting with basic rules tables (seven), combat tables (nine), encounter tables (four) and finally  tables concerning the Shadow (six). There are also some additional page references for often used rules like fellowship points and skills. It seems like most of the important stuff has been included, although some quick journey reminders would have been welcome as well. Although you might perhaps simply use the online tool by Shane Ivey for those calculations, it's great.

When it comes to GM screens I prefer the landscape variant as it creates less of a barrier between the GM and the players while still being able to keep some stuff hidden. However they've never seem to be all that popular as most of the screens you see today are of the vertical variety. Thankfully the Loremaster's screen isn't overly tall at 28cm so shouldn't pose too much of a barrier even if the GM decides to sit directly behind it (something I rarely do myself, choosing to have it beside me instead).

So that's the screen, what about the book? Well, written by Franceso Nepitello it's suprisingly well packed little book of goodies I have to say! GM screens seem to be that one thing that all roleplaying games have to have as soon as humanely possible after the core rulebook. Most of the time this leads to them being poorly thought through and the little booklet thrown in with the screen to justify the price more often than not contains some very niche information that rarely gets used during the game anyway. Not so this time!


After a brief introduction, in the form of a letter from Glóin to Bilbo, the first seven pages cover the city of Esgaroth, or Lake-town. Going after the map in the middle of the book we get to read about the different districts and their inhabitants. Peppered among the descriptions of the different locales are stats for the people who live there so they can quickly be used as NPCs. After this there are three pages about "Things to do while in Lake-town" that includes a couple of new Fellowship Phase Undertakings. For example, you can go to the market-pool to see if there is something there to aid you during coming adventures. In this section is also included a kind of translator table for those who want to use something less abstract than "Treausure" to record the wealth of their characters. This helps you translate this abstractness into... gold.

Following this are four pages dedicated to the Dragontide, a newly created festival that takes place in Lake-town on November first to third. It combines the end of harvest with the celebration of the killing of Smaug and is generally a big merry feast. On the first day there's an archery competition called the Day of the Black Arrow and through a series of different rounds and challenges a winner is found. This competition is described in some detail and with rules for how player companions might enter it, and I can see it making quite a highlight for any archers in the group!


In the middle of the book we have the aforementioned birds-eye map of Lake-town. While a traditional top down map might provide more specific detail I like how this more artistic view really pulls you in. You can almost hear the cry of the seagulls! (Sorry... I just really like Jon Hodgsons art).

The next five pages are titled Secrets of the Long Marshes and include rules for some different marsh plants you can come across and collect. They each provide some little benefit during the following adventure phase.  We are also introduced to a few new monsters who dwell in the marshes: the Hobgoblins, the Marsh-hags and the Marsh-ogres. My favourite is the Marhs-hag naturally, as I've always been fascinated and horrified by Meg Mucklebones in Ridley Scott's Legend who obviously served as the rolemodel. There is also a clarification regarding Blighted Places and how they work. Basically it is up to the Loremaster whether the companions have to roll for Corruption tests, it's not an automatic even if journeying through Dark lands.


The final eight pages detail a new heroic culture: the Men of the Lake. This section follows the layout of the ones in the Adventurer's Book and has everything you need to create a companion hailing from Lake-town. It also includes Rewards and Virtues so you can keep developing her as you continue play. Generally Men of the Lake are open to new things and like to embrace new technology. They value crafting and trade which shows through their virtues and they can get some neat trinkets through their rewards.


The book ends with a ready made companion, Frida daughter of Finnulf, and then there's actually an index! I really like that Francesco/Cubicle 7 decided to include a thorough index even though the book is only 34 pages. Good job guys!

Overall I'm very impressed with the Loremasters Screen! Granted this is a smaller product in the greater scheme of things (really looking forward to The Darkening of Mirkwood and Heart of the Wild!) but they have managed to cram in a lot of information and very little of it can be considered filler. The archery competition rules are a bit over-long but that's about it, the rest is all stuff I can see genuine and frequent use for in my games. As I have yet to actually play The One Ring I can't really comment on if there are any tables missing on the screen, but I'll let you know once we get on with it.


As you can see I'm quite happy with my purchase, doubly so as GM screens tend to be a bit sub-par. But if Cubicle 7 keep up with quality releases like this and Tales from Wilderland my expectations of the next books that should be out in the first quarter of next year will go through the roof! This is a solid purchase for any The One Ring Loremaster, highly recommended!
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Thursday, 3 November 2011

Posted by Martin - Thursday, November 03, 2011

Review of The One Ring



I got my copy of Cubicle 7's new Lord of the Rings roleplaying game The One Ring: Adventures over the Edge of the Wild (try saying that three times fast!) last week and I spent the weekend reading through it. It's been in the works for some time and it's been apparent from the start that the authors have tried to take a new approach to roleplaying in Middle-Earth compared to earlier RPG efforts. The game was written by Francesco Nepitello together with Marco Maggi and if those names sound familiar it's probably because you've played their board game War of the Ring. If you have you already know that these guys truly know their way around Middle-Earth! If you haven't then what are you waiting for?! BGG has it listed as the top thematic game (followed by Earth Reborn!) and 15th on the overall board game ranking. It's a great game in and of itself and it also manages to be a great Lord of the Rings game!

In this review I will talk mostly about the different mechanical systems in The One Ring (TOR). Since you all know the setting pretty well I thought you'd be mostly interested in seeing how this game differs from the earlier ones from a rules standpoint. I'm not going to get too much into the nitty-gritty, but if you just want to read my concluding thoughts on the game and aren't all that interested in individual mechanics scroll down to My Thoughts.

Setting and characters
Well, I suppose I should mention something about it anyway. The One Ring takes place in the areas around Mirkwood five years after the death of Smaug. You can play as a Barding, Beorning, Dwarf, Elf, Hobbit or Woodman and you get to choose from a number of Callings: Scholar, Slayer, Treasure Hunter, Wanderer and Warden. These two choices are what will make up the core of your character, but you will also choose Skills as well as a set of Traits and some gear. So that's that.

The Set
The game comes in a slipcase containing the two core rulebooks and a set of seven custom dice. There's the Adventurer's Book (190 pages) and the Loremaster's Book (141 pages) and they're both soft cover. There are also two maps of the region of Middle-Earth relevant to the game, namely Mirkwood, the Misty Mountains and the surrounding areas. The graphic design and layout is pretty much spot-on for a Lord of the Rings roleplaying games, it even has art from John Howe himself and John Hodgson's full page spread paintings that each chapter starts with are stunning! I really don't have any complaints on the physical look of the books. Some might be disappointed that the books are not hardcover, but I actually think there are pros and cons to both the soft and hard format so it doesn't influence me in this regard. I quite like the slipcase approach as you get the sturdiness of a hardcover book with the ease of reading a softcover.

Anyway, when reading the books you can tell that the designers have allowed themselves to be inspired by many of the "new wave" indie games that have become increasingly popular in recent years. From a storytelling standpoint I'd say TOR is fairly traditionall, but there are many mechanical elements that are definitely inspired by more unorthodox games. Perhaps it's because its fresh in my mind but I can see a lot of Mouse Guard in TOR. It doesn't have the strict storytelling structure that MG has (although there's a nod towards it) but there are many mechanical and general conceptual similarites between the two.

The most obvious one might be that when playing The One Ring you divide it into two phases; first there is the Adventuring phase where the heroes are on their mission or quest and the Loremaster throws all kinds of obstacles at them. Then there's the Fellowship phase which takes place once the quest is accomplished and the heroes have some "free time" to spend as they want. It might sound like the GM/players turn of MG, but here the adventuring phase can extend over several sessions and it's not until the heroes have actually accomplished their quest that the Fellowship phase kicks in. And when it does it's really a lot more similar to the winter phase of Mouse Guard - essentially the players get to decide what their characters do during their downtime; how to spend their experience and advencement points, how to spend their treasure, where they spend their time (at home, at a haven) and if they try to use their resources to try and establish a new haven or make sure to uphold their reputation back home. Basically it's more big picture stuff, rather than going into detailed skill rolls.

Basic Mechanics
Speaking of rolls, what kind of mechanics are we talking about here? Well, the basic resolution mechanic is a dice pool; roll a special D12 (the Feat die) plus a number of D6 (the Success dice) corresponding to your skill rating, add them up and try to beat a set Target Number (TN) which is usually 14. However there are some added functions to this mechanism. First off there's a Gandalf rune and an Eye of Sauron on the Feat die in place of 12 and 11 respectively. The rune signifies an automatic success and the Eye of Sauron counts as zero and is generally used to add some additional complications if it happens to come up while you also fail the roll. The D6 dice are special as well; the numbers 1-3 are printed in an outline while 4-6 are solid black. There's also a tengwar rune on the number 6 face. The outlined numbers are used when your characters is Weary, you simply count them as zero if you happen to roll them when Weary. The tengwar rune is used to measure degrees of success, ranging from none (a narrow success) to two or more (an extraordinary success).

Although there are a lot of different mechanisms crammed into these dice the pool is actually exceedingly simple to read at a glance and compared WFRP3 (which also uses a pool of custom dice) it's a lot quicker! While I mostly like the dice pool mechanic in WFRP3 it can take some time to sift through it and come up with the actual result when you have just rolled 15 dice and they cancel each other out. In TOR you can quickly eyeball the result and see if you beat the TN but you don't have to add them all up exactly since the degree of success is taken from the tengwar runes and not from the actual number you rolled. It's quick and at the same time allows for a number of clever little uses in the system, like the aformentioned Weary mechanic. You could of course use regular D6 for all this, but it would definitely take away some of the speed. I for one will pick up another set or two once they become available separately.

There are a couple of ways to influence dice rolls. You could invoke one of your Traits (Keen-eyed, Vengeful etc) and if the Loremaster and the table in general agree that it's fitting you simply pass the test, no roll required. Or you could spend a point of Hope (kind of like fate points, but also a measure of your characters mental well being) to add the value of the relevant attribute to the final roll. This is something you can do after you've rolled so it's quite powerful, especially considering your Attribute can be as high as seven. But then again Hope is not a resource to squander as if it dips too low you can become Miserable.

Numerically speaking your character is made up of three Attributes, Body, Heart and Wits, and skills of which there are 18 divided into three categories. Your attributes range from 2 to 7 while your skills range from zero to 6. Your skill rating determines how many Success dice you get to roll besides the Feat die and your attributes can then be added to this total with a Hope point. Another little twist here is the Favoured mechanism; if the skill you're using is Favoured (marked by underlining it) you get to used the Favoured rating of the relevant Attribute, which will be 1-3 point higher than the base Attribute.

All in all I quite like the mechanics of The One Ring. They are relatively simple and easy to remember (even after just one read I feel that I have a really firm grip of the system) but there are still room for a lot of nuances and neat tricks.

Combat
There's also a fairly different take on combat as well. You start by choosing what Stance your character is in, ranging from Forward to Rearward. The further forward you are the easier it is to hit your enemy but it's also easier for them to hit you. Rearward is a bit of a special case since you can only choose that stance as long as you have two companions in close combat stance (they're basically protecting you), and you can only use and be hit by ranged weapons. This is somewhat of an abstraction but still allows for a lot of tactical decisions; general risk versus reward and more specific tactics in who should be protected in Rearward stance (the injured Beorning, or the Elf who's skilled with a bow?!).

There are no hit points in TOR, instead you use Endurance. When you get hit you loose Endurance, and when it sinks below your Fatigue value (basically your encumbrance from weapons, armour and equipment) you become Weary and only get to count the solid black numbers on the dice, and when you reach zero you pass out. But there's also another damage mechanic! At certain times (usually when rolling the Gandalf rune) you can achieve a Piercing blow, forcing your opponent to make a protection test, using his Armour, against your weapons Injury rating and if he fails he becomes Wounded. There are also additional rules for knockback (take half damage, but loose your next action) to tearing your helm off in the middle of battle (lowering your Fatigue score by 3, possibly preventing you from becoming Weary). There are also different actions you can perform depending on your stunt, like intimidating your foe or trying to rally your companions.

This all combines into making the combat feel both cinematic and true to Tolkien. It's easy to visualize the scene as you have the hardy dwarf in a forward stance with his great axe, while the Barding warden is fighting in an open stance, giving the elf enough room to use his bow to deadly effect. Fights are also quick and fairly lethal (most enemies die if you manage to Wound them) and while the heroes can rely on their Endurance there's always the risk of a Piercing blow, even when their Endurance is at max.

Oh, and it seems to be very quick during play as well. I haven't tried it out myself yet but from what I hear it's just as fast in play as it looks on paper; a fight between a group of four heroes versus nine orcs only took two rounds and a total of about 20 minutes. That's pretty rare in the RPG world I'd say!

Journeys
One of the systems in the game that certainly screams Tolkien is the way travelling is handled. It's not simply about getting from point A to point B but everything that happens in between and how it affects the heroes. When the players start planning their journey they do so using one of the large, beautifully illustrated maps that come in the set and when they've decided on their rout the Loremaster checks it on his map that is the same, except it's divided into hexes and areas are colour coded, showing how difficult they are to traverse. He makes some calculations depending on where the heroes will travel, what season it is and their means of transport. The result is how many days it will take and how many tests the characters will have to make to try and resist stuff like getting fatigued or receiving Shadow points. Most likely he will keep these numbers secret from the players though. You can see both maps in the nearby picture, the left one is the player map and the right the Loremaster's map.

During a journey the players also get to choose different roles in the party for their characters. For example, one of them must be the guide (and there can only be one) who should have a high Travell skill. Then there are roles for Scouts, Huntsmen and Look-out men. They all have different tasks during the journey and should, for example, the Scout fail on his test it might mean that the party run into an ambush, or they face an obstacle in their path and have to go around.

Fatigue and Endurance also play a large part during journeys as you will have to make several tests and might gain Fatigue as you go. And since Fatigue can make you Weary it can really lead to situations where a difficult journey through Mirkwood puts you at a serious disadvantage when you suddenly need to fight. It all comes together to make journeys a core part of the entire TOR experience and I'm very eager to see how they play out.

Corruption
There are also rules for how the corrupting influence of the Great Shadow affects the characters. When travelling through Shadow regions or experiencing something nasty you risk getting Shadow points and when your Hope becomes lower than your Shadow point total you become Miserable. In this state you are susceptible to Bouts of Madness which can result in permanent Flaws being added to your characters. What kind of Flaw depends on what your Calling is; a Treasue Hunter will get more and more greedy etc. If you aqcuire more than five of these Flaws your characters is for all purposes lost to the Shadow - basically they're driven mad. So remember to keep your Hope up!

The Rest
There are a lot more to TOR but I've tried to highlight what makes the game special to me. Other stuff that I really like is the Valour/Wisdom mechanic, how money (Treasure!) is handled and the fact that some things need upkeeping. The character advancement rules are also interesting with a lot of different options on how to develop your hero.

Naturally there is also the setting itself. I think the time period and the location is well chosen; I've always liked Mirkwood and the time between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring is certainly an interesting one, with a lot of white spots on the map so to speak. What I think might have gone unnoticed though is that Cubicle 7 has decided to do the same thing Black Industries first pioneered with the 40krp-line, and release three different core sets based on different time periods and regions. The first is The One Ring, which will be followed by The Errantries of a King, which will somehow connect with Aragorn's travels in the west, and the final release will be The War of the Ring which I think speaks for itself.

My Thoughts
Here we are then. What's my overall thoughts on the game (and remember I've only read the books, no actual play)? Well, to be honest I'm pretty bloody impressed! You rarely see a game system that so well integrates with the theme. And when that theme has such gravitas and is as well known and loved it's even more rare! As I mentioned in the beginning Francesco Nepitello knows Tolkien, he gets Tolkien and it really shows. Pretty much everything in the system feels right for the setting. It simply feels Tolkien. That's a very fuzzy kind of statement but once you sit down with the book and read it you'll understand what I mean.

The character creation system does it's part here as it's easy to make it fit over the characters from the books. Combat is the same way and when you think about the skirmishes from the books they mesh very well with what the combat system in the game would produce. And finally the journey mechanic ties it all together and I think this system is probably what brings most of the Tolkien feel to the game! The struggles and joys of the journey, the different dangers and opportunities it can bring. It's certainly what makes The One Ring stand apart from its predecessors.

There are some niggles though. Speaking of the journey mechanic for example, there is a bit of calculation involved when plotting a rout and if you try to do it on the fly during a session there will probably be 5-10 minutes of downtime as you figure everything out. This can be remedied by plotting out likely routes ahead of time, but it's still there. I'm also a little bit wary that the journey could simply become a long string of dice rolls. This is very much up to the Loremaster and players to act it out, but I think if you play with the wrong people, or in the wrong mood it might become simply an exercise in dice rolling.

There's also the Encounter mechanic which tries to bring a bit of "social combat" into the game. While I like the initiative and the overall idea of it, I think it needs to be fleshed out more. It's hard to tell since I haven't seen it in action yet, but I think some more roleplay-oriented players might feel stifled by it while the more rules-oriented might be confused as what to do next.

Finally, there is no magic. Well, no look-I'm-a-Wizard-kind of magic anyway, although there are some subtle things in the game, more suitable to Middle-Earth. I don't think this is a bad thing, quite the opposite in fact! But I thought it was worth mentioning in any case.

So what we have here is a great game in general and a spectacular Middle-Earth game in particular! Now, I'm some of my opinions will change once I've actually played it but just from reading the book I'm very impressed. You have elegant, slightly indie-esque but with traditional roots game mechanics that are integrated very well with the setting combined with heroic, but not too heroic, characters that feel real in just the right ways. And the smell of Middle-Earth are all over the pages. I think The One Ring just might have jumped to the top of my want to play list!


For the numerically minded readers out there I'd say this is a strong four out of five at first reading.
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Thursday, 13 October 2011

Posted by Martin - Thursday, October 13, 2011

Review of the Mouse Guard RPG Box Set



The other day I finally got the recently released Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game Box Set set in the mail and I thought I would actually take the time and do a proper review of it here.


What's in the box
The meat of the review will naturally be the contents of the main rulebook, but first let's have a look at the actual components in the box. The box itself is surpsisingly sturdy, actually more so than most board games I own (including FFG's that are usually pretty good quality). It has a glossy finish both inside and out and it feels like it will stand the wear and tear of carrying it around. The original hard cover book was released in 2008 and I think the only real difference between it and the book in the box is that it's now soft cover. It seems to be of good quality so I'm not worried about it falling apart. Only time will tell though.




Then there's the new extra stuff: a Game Master's screen, a bunch of cards, 10 mouse dice, a booklet of new rules and missions, player and GM sheets, a map of the mouse territories and five mouse pawns in the style of the ones you see Gwendolyn handle in the comics. Ooh! Lots of juicy stuff!


  • The screen is well designed with things liks skill factors, weapons and animals and their nature listed on it. It is relatively flimsy though, more like how GM screens used to be rather than the heavy linen card stock that we often see today. It's very much an optional accoutrement though so I don't have a problem with that. 
  • There are two cards for each weapon (except for just one mace), three cards for each condition and three cards for each conflict action. They look great and are of a very sturdy, gloss cardstock. I will probably sleeve them although I can't imagine that you would actually need to. Just my anal nature. 
  • The booklet has some new rules for additional weapons (for all the different conflicts) and mounts. There are also a couple of new cities introduced as well as three new missions, one of which is based on the Winter series (think snow, owl and Darkheather). All in all a nice addition!
  • The map is the same you see on the inside cover of the books only it's in full colour. It's a beautiful map but I was hoping that it was going to be larger. It's actually only twice the size of the book which is not bad but... would have liked it larger. Well, hopefully I can find a high resolution image that I can print out nice and large to put in the middle of the table during play.
  • With a map you naturally need some mouse pawns to put on it! You get five of them in a variety of colours and they are very nice. They really don't serve any other function than eye candy but I'm perfectly satisfied with that. Larger than I expected.
  • The new character and GM sheets have been slightly redesigned. First off they're now square to match the books (and the box) and some of the information has been moved around or swapped. Nothing dramatically different but they look a bit nicer.
  • And finally my favourite components; the dice! They are simply fantastic and I was really sad to hear from Luke that extra sets will not be available separately. I'd buy two or three packs right off the bat! There are three ouroboros symbols, two crossed swords symbols and one axe symbol on each die, corresponding with 1-3, 4-5 and 6 respectivally. The symbols are emgraved on the dice, not simply printed on and they look spectacular. Love them!
  • Oh, one final thing that bears mentioning. The box actually comes with a transparant plastic insert that fits on top of all the books and sheets which has room for the pawns and cards as well. It seems to be designed with reusability in mind and will serve to keep all the components in place when you put the lid on the box. A nice touch!




Bottom line is that the production values and design of this box is through the roof. Sure, the book isn't hardback and the screen is kind of flimsy, but apart from that it really deserves the highest praise!


Now, onto the rulebook and the game itself.










The Game
I've been reading the PDF while waiting for the hard copy and it's one of, if not the most interesting RPG product I've read to date. I'm not saying it's necessarily the best roleplaying game but it's certainly one of the best roleplaying books.

I first came in contact with the Burning Wheel system and Luke Crane a couple of years ago when I first started looking around for alternatives to what I suppose broadly could be called "traditional roleplaying games" (incidentally that is also when I discovered Diaspora and FATE). I read through the Hub and Spokes and while the concepts therein were absolutely fascinating I was also wary how well the system would go across with my regular gaming group. So I kind of filed it among the other would-like-to-play-sometime-games and left it at that.

I had heard about Mouse Guard at this time but the subject matter didn't appeal to me (mice with swords? What?) and I hadn't really made the connection with Burning Wheel. Nonetheless I had of course noticed that it was very popular. Then a couple of months ago something made me  want to read more about Mouse Guard, and I'm glad I did!

I got the PDF and as I started reading I simply could not put it down. For a grizzled old roleplayer like myself reading about radically different concepts and ideas like this is a novel experience! Sure, there are buttloads of RPGs out there with all manners of neat mechanics and interesting rules, but very few of them put half as much thought in how to actually create the story, play the characters and how it all ties into the mechanics as Mouse Guard does. This kind of nonconformity are almost immediately apparent just from the layout of the book.

Pretty much all RPGs I've read so far have started with talking about what an RPG is, then they describe character creation, then probably skills and abilities followed by weapons and equipment and finally a world section and a GM's section. You know how they all look, right? In Mouse Guard the chapter for character creation is the last in the book! Skills and Traits are just ahead of it and the book starts with what is actually the core of Mouse Guard: how to truly play your character - not from a numbers standpoint but from a roleplaying one. There aren't many equipment rules so they're covered in the Resolution chapter and the information about the world is sprinkled throughout the book (although you could argue that the Seasons and The Territories chapters are the "world chapters"). So what about the GM's section? Well, there is a chapter for it (The Mission) but to be perfectly honest the entire book is like a guide to Game Masters everywhere!


I will try to make a short summary of the essential concepts of Mouse Guard (the spokes!) for those of you out there who have no idea what I'm on about.

I think the core idea is to more closely integrate roleplaying with the actual mechanics of the game and to try and make the story more "alive". In traditional RPGs the mechanics are pretty much disassociated from any actual roleplaying that might or might not be going on. The mechanics are the gamey bits provided by the book and the roleplay bits are supposed to be provided by the players. In Mouse Guard these two are very much integrated and to be able to play the game you will have to actually roleplay your character.

To create this integration each character has a Belief (a snapshot view of how the characters thinks and reasons), an Instinct (something your character does without really thinking) and several Traits (one word descriptions) that further helps fleshing out your character.

Your Belief is the main guide on how your character should be played. If, during play, you're not quite sure what to do in a certain situation you can simply read over your belief and think about how your character would act. It also serves as a reminder for the rest of the group what kind of character you play. This is not to say that your Belief is some kind of rule that you have to follow. While you do get rewarded with Fate points when acting according to your belief you also get rewarded with Persona points for acting against it (since it shows the difficult decision your character faced and potential character development). Instincts also net you bonus points if you use them at the right time, mind you the right time does not necessarily mean the best time. Having an instinct like "I always draw my sword at first sign of trouble" can be just as much a detriment as a boon.

And finally we have Traits. If Beliefs are the overarching concept of the character, the Traits are the meat and bone of it. Traits are simple statements like Tall, Stoic, Inquisitive, Sceptical etc and is yet another way to develop your character's thoughts and habits. Traits can be used to receive bonus dice to your tests ("I'm Sceptic, don't you think I should get a bonus die for resisting that Deceive attempt?") which is all well and good but the real punch comes from how you can use the Traits against yourself during play ("I'm Sceptic so I probably don't believe that a weasel army is marching against Lockhaven"). Purposefully tripping yourself up like this helps to further develop your character and also earns you Checks that can be spent later. For those of you familiar with FATE this mechanic is rather similar to how Aspects work in that game.


Now, Fate and Persona points can be used at any time to allow you to add extra dice or re-roll bad ones, but Checks (that you earn from traits) can only be used during the players turn. "What the hell is the players turn? I thought this was a roleplaying game!" I hear you say. Yes, this is another very different concept that you'll find in Mouse Guard. Each session is made up of the GM's turn, in which the guardmice are sent on a mission and need to overcome a number of obstacles set before them by the GM. However, once they accomplish the mission (or this leg of the mission at least) the reins are handed over to the players and they get to take the initiative instead. However, to be able to take actions and roll dice during the players turn you need to use the Checks that you earned in the GM's turn from using your Traits against you. 

This concept of the GM's turn and the Players' turn is probably what had me most perplexed when reading Mouse Guard, and I know I'm not alone. However you need to remember that the entire structure of Mouse Guard is completely different from traditional RPGs. Someone somewhere likened the turns with playing Grand Theft Auto. When you go on a mission in Mouse Guard it's like when you go on a mission in GTA - you have some specific instructions on what to do and certain obstacles are set before you. And all the other time where you just ride around and do whatever you want, be it robbing people or buying new guns, is the players turn in Mouse Guard. It's not a perfect allegory but it's close enough I think. During their turn the players can try to heal up if needed, tie up loose ends, visit friends or relatives or even start a conflict of their own choosing if they want. It's worth mentioning that this kind of balance exists in pretty much all RPG's, only not to such a formal extent. In actual play I think it will feel more natural and I'm very interested to see the Checks economy in work.

So that's a little bit about the character part of Mouse Guard. And if you haven't noticed by now it is the main part -  the characters are the game. It's not about the mission it's about how your characters act during the mission. This really can't be stressed enough and it's what has me so excited about Mouse Guard; 100% character driven! The mission is simply a framework and there are no guaranties it will go as initially envisioned, as a matter of fact it probably won't...

And this leads into the other big thing with Mouse Guard: there's no failure. Yes, you can fail a test and not make it over that river, or not find the path to that village or get defeated by that badger but that isn't a failure from a story standpoint it simply leads it into a different direction. When a player fails a test the GM can either allow him to succeed anyway, but with a condition (like Hungry, Tired or Angry) or he could introduce a Twist! When using a Twist the character does fail to accomplish what he set out to do, but something is added to the mix. Perhaps you get swept downstream straight into a weasel patrol! Or maybe you get lost on your way to the village and the cold spring rain turns into snow forcing you to seek shelter. Or the badger chase you into a hole leading into the Darkheather. Basically your "failure" drives the story forward creating new events and opportunities. At times the story can take a completely different turn from what the GM had in mind from the beginning, going from Twist to Twist to Twist!

This kind of organically growing roleplaying again helps to put the character in the center as there's no wrong way of playing. As long as you simply play your character the story will unfold naturally. In fact when GMing Mouse Guard what should be first in your mind is not the nitty gritty of the mission but the Beliefs, Instincts and Traits of the characters. As long as you challenge them you will have a solid play experience. Or as Luke puts it in the text:
"There’s an easy trick to it: Lean on the players’ Beliefs; interfere with their Goals, trigger their Instincts and stomp on their traits!"
As a player you should actively try to put yourself at risk by using your Belief, Instincts and Traits not only when it's beneficial but also when they get in your way. It's very liberating not to have to worry about failing an important roll, or failing to do the right thing during a mission - it will just drive the story into new unexplored territory!


In summary, this is a book that I think every roleplayer should read. It doesn't matter if you don't like the subject matter (mice with swords!) or if you will ever actually play the game or not, but just reading it will change the way you think about roleplaying games in general. When I first read Diaspora/FATE it had a similar effect on me but with Mouse Guard (or Burning Wheel) it was much more pronounced.


Speaking of the subject matter, as I said in the beginning of this review my initial thought was that I would read Mouse Guard and if I liked the system transplant it into another setting (Warhammer Fantasy to be precise). But as I was reading the book the world of Mouse Guard really came alive and I became more and more interested in it. I read the many examples in the text featuring Lieam, Kenzie, Saxon and Sadie and my curiosity kept growing. In the end I ordered the three Mouse Guard books released so far and they are spectacular!


While the stories are fairly straight forward the characters and the art really puts them a level above the competition. Mouse Guard are no childrens stories (although they could be read by kids) and are certainly not light or "whimsical" as The D6 Generation's Craig put it. In fact, to me at least, they have a kind of weight to them that I feel are comparable to... dun-dun-DUN, the Lord of the Rings. Yes, also very different naturally, but the way that they are similar is that when you read Mouse Guard, just as when you read LotR, you simply accept the story fully and at no time does it become anything less than serious. Especially Winter 1152 which is both so dark and so epic. The owl could easily be compared to the Balrog of Moria and their respective battles are equally epic. Ooh, getting chills just thinking about it!


So not only has Mouse Guard provided me with a fantastic new system to try but it has also introduced me to a completely new world. So now I'm doubly excited to play the game - partly to use the system and partly to begin exploring the Territories!


Conclusion
There are of course still many things I haven't even mentioned, like the conflict system, the importance of weather and the seasons or the large part the guardmice's Nature play in the game. But I still hope that I have managed to give you an inkling about what's between the covers of Mouse Guard. It's completely different to what most of us are used to, at the same time being more structured and more free.


Ironically I think that Mouse Guard is probably more accessible to people who are not experienced roleplayers. We simply have too much baggage and too many notions about how a roleplaying game "should" be that we simply have a hard time grasping this radical new concept. I listened to the Minions of the Monster Master's playthrough of Mouse Guard and I could tell that they were struggling with wrapping their heads around this new system. They definitely seemed to enjoy themselves (right?) but the phrase "I just don't get why ..." was uttered on more than one occasion. And I don't blame them! I imagine my first venture into Mouse Guard/Burning Wheel territory will be a similar experience. However, this is part of what makes Mouse Guard great!


Even if you never intend to actually play the game the book is worth reading simply for all the new thoughts and ideas it will put in your head and I think it will make you a better roleplayer in general. Be it as a Game Master or a player. So, if you are a roleplayer, buy this book (or PDF. It's only $20) and read it. It's that simple. For those of you out there who are looking for a numerical rating this is clearly a 5 out of 5.


Tomorrow I'm heading over to my sisters house to see my eight year old niece and I will bring Fall 1152 with me to read to her. But before I go, I just might head to town and treat myself to Burning Wheel Gold...
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