The Demolished Ones Review

Perfectly controlled explosion or scattered rubble?  

Summary

• A deep mystery game, which keeps you on your toes throughout the campaign, with dangers from within and without.
• This product has a unique take on FATE's quick character generation, which provides a blank slate approach to that encourages immersion in its rich thematic element.
• The rules within are a great entry product to the FATE system, the uncluttered approach and slow building up of mechanics suits newcomers well.
• For those who enjoy mysteries, twists, and cinematic play, the ending of this product is both fulfilling and unexpected.

A mystery in FATE? I would typically be uninspired by this sort of thing. It is not that you could not run an investigation using this lighter rules system, rather that the system does not explicitly support it like systems such as Gumshoe. However, I'm pleased to be disproved by The Demolished Ones by Brian England and Rite Publishing. This setting creates a compelling cinematic Victorian-themed Noir mystery by playing to FATE's strength, character backgrounds, by making who your characters are the true mystery.

This product has a clean two-column layout with unobtrusive background art inlaid. The evocative art sprinkled throughout the book meshes well with the gaslamp aesthetic as well as the black-and-white format. The handouts in particular are well-executed. The whole thing comes to 88 pages which is packed with to-the-point content and an accessible brevity.

The base mechanics follow the same sort of lighter bent, much like the recently released FATE Core. Resolution, for those unfamiliar, is based on rolling 4 fudge dice, which have blanks, plusses, and minuses, yielding a result of -4 to +4 biased toward +0. This is added to a skill value, which is then compared against a difficulty. Beyond this mechanic, the true engine of the game is FATE points and aspects. FATE points are an economy which rewards accepting poor choices based on aspects which describe character background or unfortunate circumstances. These are then spent to allow PCs to influence the plot at times of their choosing based on character background or fortuitous circumstances. This product provides a clean, uncluttered, and nicely brief explanation of the rules, and the light mechanics seem to fit well with the setting.

The flavor of this product is reflected in mechanics through the Stress tracks (here Health and Composure), Skills (Engineering, Science, Slight of Hand), the use of aspects to reflect temporary and permanent Gear, and some especially powerful aspects that can have special features at extra cost. However, the real innovation is how characters are made. This game is about discovering the mystery of yourself, and using a re-imagining of the on-the-fly character generation to build, rebuild, and perhaps destroy who you thought you were, all based on progression in the plot. This is where the mystery lies, and is reflected eloquently in how you build your character as you move along.

As a mystery is the key to this neat campaign, I feel the need to avoid spoiling the fun. In broad strokes, the story is broken into a three act structure. The players have leeway, but there is definite structure and a sequence to the game. Character development is key, but there is a narrative and a progression to the game which makes it compelling. This product's plot does require a bit of trust from the players, things could go awry if they are not expecting some twists or the GM to alter aspects of their character. That said, it is worth these concessions to keep the mystique of the game. Speaking of twists, they are numerous and like any good thriller or investigation novel, the biggest come at the dramatic conclusion.

Overall, the tightness of the narrative is reminiscent of other great games and novels of self-discovery, notably Aletheia, another great mystery game. This is a well-thought out product which targets a particular play style and is incredibly accessible, the kind of game which could bring in new players that are huge mystery fans. I'm left with the lingering impression that with the right type of group, this could be the kind of campaign which can help shape a very memorable experience.

Achtung Cthulhu! The Trellborg Monstrosities Read-through Review

Scandinavian Stupendousness or Wartime Weariness?

Summary

• An awesome cinematic story is this adventure's crowning achievement, but also a potential downfall. It's a bit linear in construction with lots of great scenes that evoke an awesome WWII feel. This can be great for most GMs and players, some will stifle at this.
• Excellent production value in layout, evocative art, good choice in readable fonts.
• In contrast to my qualms with the Call of Cthulhu rules being deadly and counter to the pulpy feel in Three Kings, Savage Worlds fits perfectly in tone and mechanics with this adventure.
• A bevy of extras help this adventure, a novella, pre-gens, maps, and handouts make this adeventure easier to run and helps evoke the feel and tone crucial to this genre

In the Trellborg Monstrosities by John Houlihan and the folks at Modiphius, A crack team of the British Special Boat Section and vetted experts journey into the far north to unravel the Nazi's interest in the town of Trellborg. They will uncover the dark mysteries in a set of 5 adventures which form the arc of this adventure supplement. Each has enough material for a session, more if you run at the slower speed I usually work through published materials.

The whole thing comes to around 51 pages, which is packed with adventuring material and background. This is nicely accompanied by resources to help run the game. Notably, some nice handouts and a short novella around the events of the adventure up the overall quality of this adventure. The production value is nicely consistent with the past adventures released (Three Kings in particular) in terms of both art and layout. I'm a little less wild about some of the NPC specific art, but these and the handouts both evoke that classic Call of Cthulhu flavor.

A major objection I had in the first Achtung Cthulhu! adventure, Three Kings, was that run straight from the Call of Cthulhu rules the encounters seemed combat heavy and likely quite deadly given that the system is oriented away from combat at its core. It's night and day with a Savage Worlds conversion with the Realms of Cthulhu setting book rules, which really highlights the pulpy aspects and relishes the combat encounters.


Realms of Cthulhu also offers dials on the deadliness and degree of mind blasting, which in this adventure could be used to change the tone from pulpy horror to gritty wartime to suit a group. I'll definitely be picking up any future adventures with this rules conversion.

The plot and setup is the thing that will make this adventure or break when you sit down to the table. I don't want to touch the sandbox vs. railroad debate because its rather moot, these are just tools in the GM kit (See Monte Cook's recent post for a well-articulated discussion). This is a structured adventure, it will take you to some awesome places if you go along for the ride. It has some elements, like redirecting contingencies and an NPC that is nudging a little toward a powerful GM PC.


The adventure "knows" this and the author gives clear indication and the pitfalls to note. This is all in service of creating a memorable narrative and lots of cinematic action. It helps hit on the classic pulp cliches like crazy Nazi occultists, monsters, and beating impossible odds. The setting is undeniably spooky, with the environment as much an enemy as anything else. It also, to my knowledge of Nazi occult (mostly derived from recent Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff episodes), the events depicted fit into that nice niche of ridiculous-yet-plausible.



There is a fair amount of investigation and inquiry to evoke the Mythos flavor, but its generally moved along by the action scenes. In short, you will never see the rails in all likelihood, but if your group bucks at this prospect whenever they see it, you'll have some extra work in this adventure. I want to emphasize the choice the author made here by design, rather than accident.


Overall, this is a great product for setting up a nice short campaign arc, converted to a system which plays to the flavor of the setting well. The consistency between this and the first product professes to the continuation of a high-quality product line. It also increases my excitement for the GM and Investigator's Guides, which will be the product of Modiphius' recently funded Kickstarter.

Ep.35 The Occult Guide to London Review

This episode I review the Occult Guide to London by Paula Dempsey and published by Pelgrane Press.


Show Audio




Transcript:

The Occult Guide to London is a very unique supplement to a Trail of Cthulhu or any Cthulhu-themed game. It is a modern book, but it harkens back to the historic tone we love in Lovecraftian games with it's other moniker: Liber Fumo de Frater Vigilo (The Book of the Smoke) by Augustus Darcy, Deceased. With a name like that it's straight out of the forbidden

Ep.21 Achtung Cthulhu Review - Zero Point Pt.1 Three Kings

This episode I review the Achtung Cthulhu! Zero Point Pt.1 Three Kings campaign for Call of Cthulhu.

Show Audio

Transcript:

Lovecraft and the related gaming materials have a definite special place in my heart, Call of Cthulhu was very revolutionary, so much so that we can still play it after thirty years without batting an eyelash or getting that dated feeling. That said it's been some time since I've been excited about a product for the original system, usually I stick to the classic modules. The new game company Modiphius does have me intrigued with their new Achtung Cthulhu! setting, which is being released for

Deadlands: The Flood - Actual Play Review

Saddle up Greenhorns! This time I wanted to review the Deadlands Plot Point Campaign, The Flood. This supplement served as an excellent source for a long-standing campaign in our gaming group, so I'm glad to be able to share my experiences from actual play in the review. As I step through the review of the product, I'll also tell you a bit about our experiences during our campaign.

For those of you less familiar with Deadlands, it is essentially a Western game, mixed with equal parts horror and monster-hunting. In the alternate history of this

Death Bringers - 3:16 - Supplement Review

Following up on the review of 3:16 a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to let you know about a campaign setting for that same game. 3:16 focuses on the brutal lives of space marines as they blast their way through alien worlds and emerge victorious with goo splatters coating their MandelBrite armor. The original game is designed for campaign play and gives a system for creating a unique campaign, but largely leaves the GM to fill in the particulars. This can be great or a little lackluster, depending on the GM or the group playing. Death Bringers by Felbrigg Herriot picks up the standard from the random generator and runs screaming back into the fray.

What Death Bringers gives you is a complete