This
is (kind of) a review of Zzarchov Kowolski’s Neoclassical Geek Revival (or
NGR). Zzarchov is the author behind
excellent OSR modules like The Gnomes of Levnec, Thulian Echoes and ScenicDunnsmouth.
What
astonished me about NGR is [First] that it is a game released back in 2011 that
I have never heard about and [Second] that it is a wonderful package of ideas
and gaming principles, all of which are amazingly easy to steal for your home
games/systems.
This
little post is based on NGR’s No Art Version (a 112 pages PDF available from DriveThruRPG - link above).
NGR
is clearly inspired by the OSR but it is not (technically) a retroclone.
Although I hate the term, you could say it’s a fantasy heartbreaker. It’s
definitely Zzarchov’s ideas and esthetics for a generic fantasy game system,
but you can clearly see some of its gaming roots.
The
book start with rules for “rolling dice” (that definitely are in the spirit of
OSR and the first games). My favorite ones are those for limiting bonus, the “?d#”
roll (where you roll a dice until getting its maximum result, with a ?d6 meaning
you roll a 1d6 until you hit 6) and the inverted die. NGR also uses a chain of
dice progression, almost like DCCRPG. There’s also the awesome ‘The Known Rule’,
which gives bonus to the players every time the GM has to stop the game session
to check for rules in the book (I understood that the same rules forbids players
from checking if they can’t remember how a rule works… just roll with it and
keep gaming!).
Character
creation is simple. Each character has 6 attributes: Strength, Agility, Health,
Perception, Intelligence, Charisma and Will (all self-explanatory). Each
attribute has a score, a modifier and a die, all used for different stuff (and
NGR does uses the score itself, which is good since I believe D&D 3rd/Pathfinder
could follow M&M and stop using them). Attributes scores usually vary
between 1-20, with 10 being the baseline.
The
next step is Species (i.e. Races). We get the usual suspects here: Mankind,
Dwarves, Elves, Wee Folk (Halflings, Gnomes etc.) and Wodewose (half-giants,
ogres etc.). At first, there’s nothing new here, but Zzarchov’s approach to Species
is excellent and illuminating. NGR does not lose its time giving bonus and modifiers
for Species. The author believes that a Specie should be foremost about flavor,
so he gives them a lot of unique and interesting benefits or drawbacks (all
mechanically minor; again, you don’t see bonus/penalties here, which I found
excellent). For example, NGR’s Dwarves are color-blind (except for gold, silver
and gemstones) and they only age when their skin is exposed to sunlight (and “getting
old” for a dwarf means get slowly petrified) – this oozes flavor and I’m
tempted to steal it for all my Dwarves henceforth.
Next
we’re introduced to a concept that I’ve been trying to implement in my OSR/Pathfinder
games since reading games like FATE or I AM ZOMBIE – the Schrodinger’s
Character. Basically, you build your character during the first game session,
by playing it. It’s an amazing concept, very useful for grognards like me (or
just adult gamers in general) which have precious little time for their beloved
hobbies due to jobs, daily responsibilities, family etc.
After
that we get to the Pie System, which is basically NGR’s approach to a class
system. Each character gets a number of “pie pieces” to choose from six options:
Warrior, Wizard, Rogue, Bard, Bard, Priest and Fool. The number of pie pieces
you place on each “class” dictates how many abilities you gain and your
progression.
Each
class come with a selection of 6 powers to choose from, besides a Locked Power
(which you only get if you pick 4 pie pieces from that class) and rules for the
class’s Personal Item (from a Warrior’s trademark item to a Priest’s relic). I
won’t lose time with the class details here, except for two: the Bard and the
Fool.
NGR’s
Bard is my kind of Bard. Forget spellcasting minstrels or cumbersome
jack-of-all-trades, NGR’s Bard is a social master. All his abilities are potent
social traits and his ‘Personal Item’ are henchmen (Perfect!).
Finally,
we get the Fool. This isn’t a class, but a pie piece that dictates how Luck
Points progress for a character, besides also giving bonuses to awesome rolls
(more on that later). Luck Points are NGR’s answer to hit points – they’re
definitely abstract, they can be spent to keep the character safe from a lot of
harmful effects (not only physical damage) and they’re recovered in true Sword
& Sorcery fashion (Parties, Celebrations, Ho-Downs, Shindigs & Box Socials!).
In other words: they’re hit points that make sense. In case you’re wondering:
if you get 0 Luck Points, physical damage goes straight to your Health (i.e.
Constitution in d20 games), but we’ll get to that.
Awesome
rolls, mentioned above, remind a little of experience rolls in BRP, but here
they’re used at end of the game session to gain Fate Points (which are NGR ‘action
point’/FATE point system).
The
character’s pie pieces in each class also determine their progression bonus in
the following universal modifiers: Combat, Presence, Stealth, Occult and Faith
(each linked to a class and an attribute). For example, Combat equals a
character’s Warrior bonus plus their Agility modifier).
The
next steps are ‘Character Traits’ and ‘Skills and Knowledges’. Traits are
selected only at character creating (2 at most) and give a character advantages
and disadvantages. For example, if you’re Arrogant it’s hard to hit you in
social conflict, but when you fumble in such conflict, you lose a lot more
Influence. Skills and Knowledges are divided in three basic types: Languages,
Knowledges and Weapons.
Before
picking up equipment each character chooses 2 Relationships, one linked to the
player seated to the left, the other to the player seated to the right. Relationships
help to bring the group together and are simple things like ‘Life Debt’ or ‘Family’
(they also have a small mechanic effect). NGR uses a simple and practical
encumbrance system, which remind me of Lamentations of the Flame Princess and
other OSR approaches to equipment/load.
Thank
the gods, NGR provides starting equipment packages (I can’t say why but these days
buying equipment is the dumbest and more boring part of character creation for
me, which is why I absolutely love the dK
System’s Preparation skill).
Finally,
you choose your Morality (i.e. Alignment), Lucky Number (a famous OSR blog
rule) and fill the last numbers of the sheet – Mana for Wizards, Piety for
Clerics, Destiny (which is 0 for beginners, unless it’s your birthday) and XP.
The
system basic check uses a d20, but you must the check the ‘Keeping Your Cool’ rule.
This basic rule is the core of the system and states that when a character is
CALM he can roll a d20 or just pick d10. He can also choose to go ON EDGE and
roll 3d6 instead of 20. Or he can just go RECKLESS and roll d20. Once you go
from CALM to any other stance, you can‘t go back until you get a restful night
of sleep in a safe area. Checks in NGR are either opposed or against a target
number; you roll your die (following the ‘Keeping Your Cool’ rule) and add the
relevant score.
NGR has a very interesting take on saving
throw, one that reminds me of Chainmail. In NGR a saving throw is a check that
a player can request when nothing else applies and his character is in danger.
Only characters with a milestone can request a saving throw (a milestone is a
very interesting parallel advancement system of NGR, linked to story deeds and
accomplished quests). Now, the cool bit of the saving throw is that the exact
effect of failure or success are based on the player character response to the
threat. Is his idea to avoid the threat standard? (“I duck the lightning bolt”)
Then a failure means normal damage and success means half damage. Is the PC’s
idea crazy enough to work? (“I used my metal staff to discharge the lightning
bolt around me, nullifying it!”) Then is double or nothing. As I said, it’s a
very cool rule.
NGR has a considerably narrative and modern
approach to damage. You can have any number of different damage types, each
linked to a different (or the same) attribute. The game provides a (extensive)
list of “common” types of damage ([Physical] Damage, Stun, Stress, Suspicion,
Influence…) and “uncommon” types (Toxicants, Fear, Mutation…). Some kinds of
damage stack. For example, stun and [physical] damage both affect Health. Also,
NGR uses a brutal death spiral rule for most types of damage. For example,
[physical] damage to Heath inflicts a -1 penalty per point of damage to base
checks (the d20/3d6/take 10 check mentioned above or “dX” as it’s called). That’s
why Luck Points are such important (and awesome) resource, they allow to ignore
ANY type of damage.
NGR damage system is possibly the game’s most interesting
and hard to grasp rule (for me at least). For example: NGR has a Suspicion
damage track, based on Perception, which means that sneaking is now a conflict.
That’s a great rule because it ads tension to scenes where the group is trying
to ambush an orc scout party or get past a dragon guarding the dungeon’s only exit.
However, I feel that NGR would benefit A LOT by giving examples for each kind
of damage (maybe describing an actual play encounter for each type of conflict
or damage). Other damage types could benefit also from a few tips – like the
Mutation Damage, where I missed at least a table of possible effects or other
more concrete suggestions. Social Damage like Influence and Infamy also gave me
headache, especially in conflicts dealing with multiple characters and
different intents (for example, one PC is trying to befriend the NPC while
another is trying to seduce him… does both attempts stack? Do I keep track of “different”
Influence damages?).
NGR does provide a compressive set of rules for
hazards, conflict types, mass combat, trials, investigations, enemies of
different sizes etc. I won’t get in details here, because I’m focusing on the game’s
parts that attracted me most.
NGR provide further support for Warriors
(Combat Tricks), together with the now class stuff for Wizards (Spells) and
Clerics (Miracles). Combat Tricks are martial maneuvers that Warriors can
learn. Wizardly Spells are basic templates (like Powers in Savage Worlds), that
must be enriched with flavor – it’s not just a Bolt spell, but Marvin’s
Magnificent Lightning Bolt! The magic system uses Mana Points and is a bit
bland for me, but these days I consider myself extremely spoiled by games like
Warhammer 2nd and DCCRPG. The author, however, does pull very
flavorful mechanics – especially the Price and Magic Components rules. There’s
also the excellent and weird (in a good way) rule that states that a spell’s
power is inversely related to the numbers of casters that know it (which is THE
BEST explanation about why wizards are such greedy and jealous bastards when it
comes to their spells). Priestly Miracles are based on a caster’s divine patron
and how many Piety Points he has. The Piety rules are the best part of the chapter
and give divine spellcasters a flavorful style, totally different from Wizards.
NGR’s next chapter deal with Fate Points (that
you gain at the end of each session through the ‘Rolling for Awesomeness’ check)
and Destiny Points (which are very hard to gain but allow you to totally own a situation).
This chapter also has an advancement track, Milestones rules, how to gain XP
etc. The last bit is the Rolling “The 2d6” – which is a rule pertaining to each
character’s Personal Item (or henchmen for Bards). NGR’s final chapter deal
with ending a campaign (the game’s top level is 10).
After all this material the only thing that I
missed were information and stats on monsters and NPCs, which seem to be available
through a separate PDF product.
Zzarchov Kowolski’s Neoclassical Geek Revival
is a unique and imaginative fantasy system, that will enrich any gamer’s
library. For me this is the ideal game book – one that even if I never use in
my table (and I intend to use it) makes me read other books with new eyes and
gives me tons of ideas about how adapt campaigns and other games to me needs
(yeah, that’s a 5-star review).
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