Review: Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures (part 2)

The first part of the review is here.

For folks who want to eschew the playbooks, there are rules for creating a character in the more expected way.  Simply pick a class (Warrior, Rogue, and Mage), roll ability scores (4d6/drop lowest), pick a few skills, etc.  This might be a good "secondary method" for making characters if a replacement or new character is needed in the midst of an ongoing campaign.  Needless to say, characters made this way won't be as flavorful as ones that are made using the playbooks, but what can you do?  Another option is to generate characters with the dwarf, elf, halfling, or noble playbooks as they are not necessarily connected to the starting village.

Oh yes, speaking of the starting village, Beyond the Wall has a quick system for generating that as well.  It's a collaborative system that looks like it would make more than enough starting locations and NPCs of importance to the characters to get things rolling.

Rules-wise, Beyond the Wall is a D&D-derived system with no particular edition allegiance.  For example, it uses:

• the classic six attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.  The range for modifiers seems to follow Basic's schema.  The modifiers do much what you would expect: Strength gives you a bonus or penalty to hit and damage with melee weapons, Dexterity gives you a bonus or penalty to ranged attacks and Armor Class, etc.
• a three-fold Alignment system of Law, Chaos, and Neutrality as in Basic D&D.
• a Base Attack Bonus that goes up with level, as in 3rd edition.  
• ascending Armor Class as in 3rd edition.  (Combat is "roll d20+Attack Bonus vs. target's AC.")
• five Saving Throw categories as in earlier editions of D&D.  (Saving Throws are simple "roll this number or higher on a d20" rolls.)  (There is an option for using 3e's Reflex, Fortitude, and Will saves as well.)
• characters possess Fortune Points, which function similarly to Action Points in 3rd and 4th editions. Fortune Points can be spent to give a bonus to an ally, re-roll a particularly bad throw of the dice, or to literally cheat death and stabilize a character who has fallen below 0 Hit Points.  While these points may be seen as "plot armor" they do fit the tone and genre that Beyond the Wall is going for.

There are, of course, some differences from baseline D&D assumptions:

There are no weapon restrictions for characters in Beyond the Wall, but there are armor restrictions (this would be the first thing I house ruled...armor restrictions strike me as silly unless they simply modify your abilities).

Skill and ability checks are handled by rolling a d20 lower than the relevant ability score.  So, if you are trying to sneak past the town guard, you might need to roll less than your Dexterity on a d20.  If your character has a particular skill for moving stealthily, they would get a +2 to their Dexterity for the purposes of that roll.  Bonuses and penalties for difficulty are also possible modifiers.

I've seen some people complain that this means that Beyond the Wall doesn't have a unified resolution mechanic, i.e. you aren't always trying to roll high on a d20.  It's true, but I'm okay with this because it gives ability scores an actual purpose in the game other than generating a bonus or penalty to die rolls.  If the lack of a unified resolution mechanic really bothers you, this would be super simple to replace with a 3rd or 4th edition style mechanic.

Beyond the Wall is a class and level system.  Even characters generated using a playbook belong to a character class--it's just that their class selections have been folded into a flavorful lifepath system.  The section on Experience Points is a bit vague, though purposefully so.  As usual, you gain XP for overcoming (not necessarily killing) monsters, but you should also be awarded XP for accomplishing goals, completing adventures, and clever ideas during play.  The text also notes that you should consider "personalizing" advancement (with bonus skills or attribute boosts) if you're playing a long campaign rather than a one-shot adventure.

All in all, the basic system of Beyond the Wall is a nice distillation of D&D's various iterations.  It looks to be simple, elegant, and most importantly, easy to explain to new players.  It definitely achieves the two stated goals for the game: it would be easy for veterans to pick up and play and functions as a solid introduction to RPGs for new players.

Next time: Magic!

Review: Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures (part 1)

Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures is a role-playing game with two purposes in mind.  On one hand, it aims to be a game that can be picked up and played by experienced gamers with a minimum of preparation.  On the other, it aims to be an introductory game suitable for people new to the hobby.  Many old-school (or old-school influenced) games hold those to be goals, but what sets Beyond the Wall apart from other fantasy games cast in D&D's mold is the game's tone: "At its heart, Beyond the Wall is a game about young heroes who find themselves in over their heads and have to grow as a result of their experiences. Their world is often gritty and dark, but it is never grim. The characters have a chance to save their homes, their friends,

and their families, but their success is not guaranteed."  Beyond the Wall wears its influences proudly; this is a game inspired by the Earthsea and Prydain books.  It's more Hobbit than Lord of the Rings, if you see what I mean.

Character generation in Beyond the Wall is meant to be done as a group; the method employed in the game is intended to generate characters who grew up together as friends and have tight bonds to each other and their community.  Each player selects a "playbook" detailing a character type, such as the Young Woodsman or Prentice Witch.  The playbook gives your character's starting ability scores (usually a base 8 except for one or two slightly higher scores) and guides the player through a series of random life-path tables that add depth and personality to the character, as well as defining their special abilities and attribute bonuses.

The implementation of the playbooks is so ingenious that it's worth giving an example of the character creation process here.  Let's make a Would-Be Knight.  First, we note our character has a Strength of 12 and all other ability scores at 8.  Then we roll on the first table, "What was your childhood like?"  An 11, which means "You went on journeys into the woods to gather herbs and berries."  This roll gives us +2 to Wisdom, +1 to Dexterity, +1 to Constitution, and the skill Herbalism.

Next, we roll on the table "How did you distinguish yourself as a child?"  An 8 gets us, "You solved everyone else's problems, never mentioning your own."  This nets us +1 Strength, +1 Constitution, and +1 Charisma.  (Our character's stats are currently: Strength 13, Dexterity 9, Constitution 10, Wisdom 10, Intelligence 8, and Charisma 9.)  It also gives us a potential background question to develop further: what was that problem of ours that we never mentioned?

The next table is going to tell us who else befriended us in the village and what we learned from them.  A 5 tells us, "You are about to marry into the miller's family." Uh-oh, I don't want to be a miller, I want to be a knight!  Potential tension there.  We also get +1 Strength, and +2 Wisdom.

With our childhood days firmly in place, we now move on to tables that detail our quest for knighthood.  We're told that as a warrior we get the weapon specialization and knacks abilities, as well as the Riding skill.  Our next table is going to tell us where we practiced our skill at arms.  "You first saw action with the archers in the levy" gives us +3 to Dexterity and the Drinking skill.

"What is your preferred fighting style?" asks the next table, and the 2 we rolled answers "A glorious mounted charge."  Our weapon specialization is with the lance, and we get +2 to Strength.  But...somehow that doesn't sit right with how I'm imagining this character.  That's okay, the rules say you can swap out one roll you're not sold on.  I've decided that this character is more about "Clever swordplay and a quick guard," which gives us +2 to Dexterity and a specialization in the longsword instead.

The next table will tell us "When did you first draw blood?"  Apparently a stranger challenged our character to a duel and found him more than they could handle.  Serves them right.  This gives our character +2 to Dexterity and another weapon specialization.  But also, the character of the person to my right was there with me; they distracted the would-be duelist's friends.  For their part in this episode of our shared past, they get a +1 to Dexterity!

The final table concerns "how will you seek your fortune?"  A 6 indicates that "You will visit distant lands and tirelessly seek adventure along the way."  This grants us +2 to Constitution and a lodestone as part of our equipment.  (Final stats: Strength 14, Dexterity 16, Constitution 12, Intelligence 8, Wisdom 12, Charisma 9.)

The rest of the playbook tells us how to fill out a character sheet with everything we've generated above, what our starting equipment and money consist of, what our class/level progression looks like, and even summarizes all the rules we need to have in front of us to play through an adventure--and the entire playbook is a mere four pages of clearly-explained prose.  It's worth noting that each "career" section of every playbook is unique; characters will definitely have a different feel from one another, yet because they are tied together by the shared adventures and common childhood experience they will feel like they have a unity of origin.

Next time: mechanics!  (SPOILER ALERT: it's stripped-down D&D of no particular edition-allegiance.)

Savage Worlds: Rippers Actual Play

I finally ran a game on G+ and I think it went pretty well! We started the plot point campaign from Savage Worlds: Rippers, but I suspect subsequent games will go further afield. (Spoilers ahead.)

First Session Recap
The Cast:
- Gideon Egan, inspired preacher
- Henry Zeitgeist, mad scientist
- Solomon Monday,  islander whaler (and possible cannibal)
- Thumper McClusky, pugilist (and possible cannibal)

Outstanding Problem:
- Abraham Van Helsing is missing!

Information Attained:
- Van Helsing was in Scotland, but after examining the symbols on a column on an ancient pillar may have headed to Egypt in search of "the pillar of Atlantis"
- A scrap of paper found in the pockets of a monstrous man says, "Omega arrives tomorrow. I am assured the biosphere will be finished on time. All is proceeding to plan. J"
- Henry's research and experimentation on a tissue sample taken from said monster man indicates that there is more than one monstrous individual about to transforms into a hulking beast afoot in Britain. Since the players apprehended one of these in Hyde Park, the Ripper Organization has begun calling them "Hydes" as a code-word.

Accomplishments:
- A foul murderer apprehended by a foul-mouthed murderer in Hyde park!
- A blasphemous Templar-Freemason cult in Scotland purged from the face of the earth!
- Baphomet was prevented from being summoned by an invisible man wrestling the head of a saint away from a Templar while a rain of bullets thundered throughout an ancient and befouled church.

Oddities Attained:
- The alleged head of John of Baptist, enclosed in a silver head-shaped case. The now-vanquished cultists claimed that the head has the power to control demons, but many in the Rippers Organization feel that the head possesses a malign influence.

So You Want to Run a Victorian Era RPG?

Forget buying RPG books about the Victorian era.  You're better off turning to books written by people who actually know what they are talking about.  These are my suggestions about where to start.

If you're going to read just one book on this list, make it Michael Paterson's A Brief History of Life in Victorian Britain.  It's concise, well-written, and chock full of interesting details.  You will definitely get a feel for the period from this book.  If you want more along those lines, consider supplementing with Daniel Pool's What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew; however, be forewarned that Pool's book does contain a few inaccuracies!

One of the best ways to capture the language, attitude, hopes, and fears of the era is to absorb the literature of the Victorian period.  You really can't go wrong with either Broadview's The Victorian Era or Longman's The Victorian Age.  (The Norton anthology is okay, but a bit conservative in its approach to the canon.)  Of course, since novels were of great importance throughout the 19th century, consider adding a longer work by Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackery, George Eliot, or Anthony Trollope to your reading list.

The reprint of the 1897 Sears, Roebuck & Co. Catalogue is a fantastic resource on the material culture of the era.  Also, it's the most comprehensive equipment book you could every hope for.  (If you're running a British-centric game the exchange rate was about five dollars to the British pound sterling.)

Sooner or later you will probably want to run a game in London; these are the books to use for that.  Liza Picard's Victorian London is a great overview, while Drew Gray's London's Shadows will give you all the underworld stuff you want to trouble your players with.

If you're like me, eventually any game you run will take a turn for the macabre.  To add a bit of the grotesque to any Victorian game I recommend Philip Sugden's The Complete History of Jack the Ripper (easily the most through of books on the Whitechapel murders) and Ronald Pearsall's The Table-Rappers (everything you might hope to learn about Victorian seances and spiritualism).

Psycho-sexual Ravenloft: Dance of the Dead III

The descriptions of Larissa learning DANCE MAGIC linger over the curves of her body, despite these scenes supposedly being about the empowerment of women by women. Worse still is the flashback where Raoul recalls first meeting Larissa: Raoul watches her dance, “performing solely for her own pleasure”; she looks like “a feather caught by a wanton breeze”; he thinks of her as “fey and wild.” You know why this flashback is gross? Raoul is appraising her beauty and at this point she is TWELVE. TWELVE YEARS OLD AND HE IS WATCHING HER THINKING YEAH KIND OF A HOTTIE. Thanks for getting all pedo on us, Golden.

Oh, Raoul is also thinking what a good investment she is because he's just won Larissa in a card game against her father, I shit you not.

While it started off with surprising (albeit minor league) promise, Dance of the Dead quickly spirals into the land of schlock as soon as Larissa's tutelage in the art of DANCE MAGIC happens. The chapters in which the Maiden instructs Larissa are bad enough, but things get even worse when she's sent to the mansion of of Anton Misroi (Souragne's zombie-master Dark Lord) where she learns the DANCE OF THE DEAD! Of course, as the Maiden did earlier, Misroi makes Larissa put on a clothes that give him a better view of her tits; “It was shockingly low-cut,” the narration intimates. She must have some rack on her—everybody in the novel wants a peek at it.

Gosh! As a parting gift, Misroi gives her a riding crop; Larissa discovers that to initiate the Dance of the Dead she has to flog herself with it. Kinky.

On the way back to the Maiden's home, Larissa rides something called a LEZerd. I'm just going to leave that tidbit here and let you mull it over on your own.

At this point in the novel we're treated to some pretty squicky animal torture by its antagonists. Larissa leads a really unspectacular siege against the showboat to free all the animals within. Guess what? She does the DANCE OF DEATH at the climax! That didn't seem like a plot point at all when Misroi taught it to her, right? Unfortunately, Larissa accidentally kills her new will o' the wisp-lite boyfriend with the DANCE OF THE DEAD. Ooops.

In the end, the crew of the magic showboat decides that Larissa should be their new captain since Raoul & co. are now dead. Yeah, I can see how being good at dancing makes one a suitable captain of a ship despite not having a whit of sailing or navigation experience. But, as the saying goes, the show must go on. 

Thankfully, the novel does not.

Psycho-sexual Ravenloft: Dance of the Dead II

Eventually, seeing Larissa prance about in her stage costume like some sort of Ravenloftian Shakira proves too much for Raoul, so he concocts a bizarre plan to have her attacked by a sailor so that he might save her; his theory seems to be that in return for his protection Larissa is sure to give him a little sugar. Larissa reacts with an almost surprising level of horror when Raoul attempts to force himself on her, runs away, and is aided in her escape by some witchy guy from the swamp. Of course, she eventually returns to her “Uncle's” boat even though he just tried to molest her. What a tease or something.

Larissa has to run away from Raoul and his magic showboat again. She takes refuge in the swamps of Souragne, where she meets a spirit of nature known as the Maiden. Up until this point the novel had been cruising at a median depth—neither good nor bad, just plowing along in a workmanly paperback fashion—but once we get to the scenes of Larissa and the Maiden things plunge back into the terribleness I've come to expect from a Ravenloft novel. You see, the Maiden endeavors to teach Larissa...DANCE MAGIC! And the scenes in which Larissa learns to channel elemental magic through the power of DANCE are more than a bit like the scenes in Dirty Dancing where the Swayze teaches Baby to shake it like a Polaroid picture. This is, horrifyingly enough, the Gothic Fantasy equivalent to a training montage from Flashdance or Fame.

But, being a Christie Golden novel, it's got to get a bit sexually weird. The Maiden demands that Larissa where something skankier to...make the MAGIC DANCE better or something: “To Larissa's annoyance, the Maiden made the dancer remove her clothes and tear them into pieces for new garments. Larissa bound her breasts with a halter made of the skirt's material and fashioned a skirt of the lighter-weight chemise. She fastened the skirt about her slender waist and glanced at the Maiden for approval. 'No,' the Maiden chided. She tugged the skirt from Larissa's waist and retied it so it hugged her hips. 'The only time I've ever worn this little is when I was bathing,' Larissa muttered.” What happens in the swamp, stays in the swamp.

But then, this focus on Larissa's body is pretty typical of Golden's writing style. I don't know how else to put this, but she writes about women the way a fourteen year old boy would. From the way the narrative lens glides over feminine bodies throughout the novel it's clear that we, as readers, are meant to be complicity elided with the male gaze that evaluates and objectifies the physicality of women. For example, check out the weird pit stop this description of a woman's anger takes to dwell on her tits: “Her cheeks were flushed and her green eyes sparkling. Her low-cut dress, the same one she had worn at dinner revealed the tops of her breasts. She was absolutely stunning in her rage.” Translation: she is really mad but also she has great titties.

Psycho-sexual Ravenloft: Dance of the Dead I

Last week somebody ended-up on my blog after searching for "funny Ravenloft stories." Welp, here you go.  Laugh until you cry, friends.

Since it's the Halloween season, it's only fitting that October sees the return of the Psycho-sexual Ravenloft series. If this is your first time at the rodeo, the premise is simple: I read one of the official Ravenloft novels from back in the '90s, post about all the weird and yucky sex bits that lurk under the book's otherwise banal surface, and you all get a good laugh at my pain as I slog through this underwhelming sequence of tie-in novels.

Next up is Christie Golden's Dance of the Dead. Oh god, not another Golden novel so soon. I wonder if that guy who had a meltdown the last time I dared besmirch Golden's literary status is reading; are you still out there, buddy? I digress.

I'm actually a bit surprised to find myself saying this, but...Dance of the Dead seems to be an order of magnitude better than Vampire in the Mists. Perhaps I've been brain damaged by the first two Ravenloft books I've read as part of this project, but I'm willing to hazard a guess that freed from the tyranny of having to write about Jander and Strahd has enabled Golden to get an actual plot in motion and to create some characters who are human enough to be at least slightly compelling. The set-up of Dance of the Dead is actually interesting; the novel follows the exploits of a traveling showboat that docks in various domains in Ravenloft and puts on a magic-powered cabaret for the downtrodden denizens of the Demi-plane of Dread. Of course, things go awry and the performing troupe find their boat arriving at Souragne, Ravenloft's Louisiana cum Haiti zombieland pastiche.

Of course, this is a Golden novel, so we're not going to escape having to read about a bunch of rapey male characters. In fact, we get our first abusive guy on the second page of the novel when we're introduced to Sardan, an actor who likes to make the leading woman in the troupe's play sexually uncomfortable: “it was well-known that Liza couldn't stand Sardan. As a result, Sardan made it a point to turn every onstage kiss into a passionate one, taking a devilish glee in the fact that Liza had to pretend to enjoy it.” Yep, we're back in Ravenloft all right.

And back in Ravenloft we are indeed, as we're next introduced to the disturbing relationship between our heroine, the white-maned Larissa, and Raoul, her guardian and the captain of the showboat. From the way Raoul is initially described, it's clear that we're meant to take him as a figure of sexual power. “He was big in more than a physical sense,” the narration winks at us and lolls its tongue lasciviously. Furthermore, we're treated to the “flash of his sea-green eyes, the tightening of his sensual mouth, the clenching of his powerful, callused hands.” Since he's such an obviously virile specimen of manhood, it seems only natural that Larissa would want to ride him like a Shetland pony, but you know what turns it from bodice-ripper to stomach-churner? The fact that she calls him “Uncle” throughout the first third of the novel.