[Let's Study] Wu Xing: the Ninja Crusade Starts On Monday!

Having a week of studying the nature of Promethea with Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein, we’re turning our attentions to the third game listed in the last poll I ran. This time, we’re going to look at Ninjas.

Ninja’s don’t take a lot to be cool. Black outfits, mysterious powers and crazy assassination missions all come to mind when people talk about Ninjas. Wu Xing takes elements common to pop-culture ninjas and gives them their very own setting.

Wu Xing: the Ninja Crusade caught my attention when it was running a Kickstarter campaign for the supplement in the line called “Land of Seed and Blossom” I was rather burnt out with Exalted at this point and I was pretty open to checking out a game that featured funky martial arts as well. The game gave me an interesting vibe similar to anime such as “Basilisk” and “Ninja Scroll” which featured a very different sort of ninja than what most people are used to thinking of.

Funky powers that border on weird and horrifying was something that I LOVED in those series, and a game that promised that sort of thing made it a definite must buy. But of course, now that I have it, will it live up to the hype in my head?

That’s what we’re here to find out. Eloy Lasanta of Third Eye Games has been a prolific writer, and I enjoyed his work on Part-Time Gods, so I’m pretty optimistic about it. Starting next week we’ll be taking a look at Wu Xing’s setting and mechanics and see how combat works and what kind of campaigns we can run with it.

Hell on Earth Reloaded now available on DriveThruRPG / RPGNow!

After what feels like forever, the fans of the Post-Apocalyptic alternate future of the Weird West is here in Reloaded form!

There Came a Reckoning…
The year is 2097, but the future is not our own.

The Last War ended in a rain of ghost rock bombs that killed billions and turned the world into a Deadland. And then the Reckoners came–the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse–bringing death and ruin to billions more and seeding the world with horrific monsters beyond imagining.

Then came a harbinger–the strangest savior of all–a former servant of the Reckoners turned traitor, Dr. Darius Hellstromme. With the aid of a band of survivors called the Iron Alliance, the world’s most renowned “mad scientist” trapped the Reckoners and transported them off the planet and far, far away.

Now the world sits in ruin. Monsters stalk the wastelands. Ghost rock storms swirl around blasted cities. Possessed cyborgs run rampant over the High Plains. Strange wormlings tunnel beneath the irradiated soil. And a few lone bastions of civilization hold out against the horrors left behind.

Hell on Earth: Reloaded is the sequel to the Weird Western, Deadlands Reloaded, and the newest version of the original Hell on Earth game line. Inside you’ll find new rules for survival in the Wasted West, including new Arcane Backgrounds such as doomsayers, junkers, templars, and toxic shamans. You’ll also see what the state of the world is after the Reckoners and the all-new challengs that remain for the world’s survivors.

Hell on Earth Reloaded is not a complete game. It requires the Savage Worlds rules to play. It does not require knowledge of the Deadlands Reloaded setting.

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Hell on Earth Reloaded is now available from RPGNow in PDF format for $24.99 or roughly PHP 1075.00

[Let's Study: Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein] Part 6: Conclusion and Review

Few games come even close to the kind of heart that Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein has. Iain Lowson’s work in Dark Harvest could be described as a love letter to gothic horror with a little wink to the steampunk aesthetic.

Setting-wise, Promethea is a strong one, full of interesting and disturbing detail. It is a world gone wrong, with atrocities committed in the name of science, ambition, greed and selfishness. The abuse of power is a prominent theme, but for good reason. The writing of the setting chapters serve to fan the flames of indignation, where any person with half a heart can find the spark needed to DO something about the conditions in Prometha. It is a setting of martyrs and heroes fighting in the purest battlefield for sacrifice, one where their valor and courage will never be recognized.

The rules for DH:LoF are a variant of the Victoriana mechanics. I’d put this in the rules-medium category, similar to that of Legend of the Five Rings, and Savage Worlds. The mechanics are easy enough to learn and teach, though it does require about 10d6 per player. Combat is closer to that of the World of Darkness, where “Tactical” concerns aren’t really the highlight, though tweaking the system to allow for some measure of advantage to those who think ahead before engaging an enemy isn’t too hard to do.

Character creation is meaty, and the book itself suggests minor variations depending on the group’s preferences. Characters can start off with a host of advantages, and the use of social classes to determine the difficulty of certain tasks and the avilability of other advantages is an inspired touch that I wish I could see more of in other games.

Overall, Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein is an inspired and flavorful game that lends itself well to many gaming groups. The blend of Horror and themes of rebellion is a rare one, and DH:LoF finds a way to inspire players to fight, rather than just give up in the face of the inevitable. I would definitely recommend this game to anyone looking for something different as far as RPGs go.

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Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein is available in DriveThruRPG for $19.99 or roughly PHP 860.00

[Let's Study: Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein] Part 5: Sample Combat

Today we’re looking at the combat rules for DH:LoF. Yesterday, we put together Ivan, a young, headstrong Resistance fighter with a vow to avenge his blind sister, Rozsa. In today’s entry, we’ll have a chance to see how well he does in a combat situation. We’re putting him up against an NPC in the book, Parvu Torescu, an “Arranger” who looks for prospects among the living and arranging for convenient accidents to make the Augmentation material possible. Certainly someone that Ivan would love to kill.

So, before the combat, let’s look at both characters again:

Ivan

Strength 1
Dexterity 2
Fortitude 0
Presence 0
Wits 1
Resolve 2

Initiative: 6
Health: 2 dice (4 pips)

SKILLS:
Athletics (Dexterity) 4
Bull (Presence) 2
Conceal (Wits) 4
Dodge (Dexterity) 4
Etiquette (wits) 3
Firearms (Dexterity) 4
Fisticuffs (Dexterity) 3
Forgery (Wits) 3
General Knowledge (Wits) 2
Hide & Sneak (Dexterity) 4
Perception (Wits) 3
Photography (Wits) 3

TALENTS:
Deadly Shot (3 points) +1 die to damage in range combat with Firearms
Quick Draw III (6 Points) my protagonist can draw, ready and use a weapon in the same action.

ASSETS:
Ear of the Street (5 points)
Shop (2 points) – His sister probably lives above the storefront
Society Friends (4 points)

COMPLICATIONS:
Dependent – Rozsa, his blind sister
Vow – Revenge for Rozsa

EQUIPMENT:
Small Pistol (Damage 6, RoF 1, 6 Shots, Reload Time 4, Range 20)
A box of Ammo
A camera
Extra film
Travel Papers

And as for his opponent, Parvu, we’re using the NPC stats provided in the book. If you’ll notice DH:LoF uses a different stat block for NPCs, reducing them to general dicepools based on various competencies as opposed to a full character sheet. This suits me fine, though it might not necessarily be as granular as some people might prefer:

Parvu Torescu

Initiative: 12
Physical Competence +8
Mental Competence +5
Health: 5 Dice (10 Pip)
signature Skills: Appraisal +3, Bull +2, Business +4, Perception +3, Streetwise +2
Traits: Silver Tongue +2, Cold Hearted +3
Combat Abilities: 8 dice
Damage: Pistol 6 dice

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We open the scene with Ivan, our protagonist, slipping quietly into Parvu’s office. It had been a difficult task to slip past Parvu’s security undetected, but Ivan was inordinately lucky tonight. Hopefully his luck would hold up until this assassination.

Sadly, that wasn’t the case as the floorboards under him creaked at his weight, alerting the Arranger of an intruder.

First up is Initiative: Both characters roll a number of dice equal to their Initiative rating and count their successes. The highest result goes first.

Ivan rolls 6 dice, and scores: 1,6,6,1,3,6; rerolling the 6′s gets him 5,3,1 for a total of 6 successes. More than I had anticipated.

Parvu on the other hand rolls 12 dice, scoring 4,6,6,1,6,6,4,5,6,5,1,5; rerolling his 6′s yields 4,4,2,4,3 for a total of 7 successes. Parvu wins initiative.

Parvu seizes a pistol lying on top of his desk and fires at the intruder, rolling his 8 combat dice. Parvu doesn’t exactly have Quick Draw, but I figure he should still be able to make a wild shot given that he won initiative. I figure he’d be doing it at a higher difficulty, so I’ll slap on a 3 Black Die penalty to the attack.

Parvu’s Attack: 6,2,2,5,6,3,1,6, rerolls 6,2,1, reroll 2
Black Dice: 3,1,2

Parvu scores 5 successes on his opening attack firing his pistol at Ivan.

Ivan can only hope to dodge out of the way. His player rolls Ivan’s Dexterity+Dodge pool of 6 dice and prays to roll higher than 5 successes to get through unscathed.

Ivan rolls: 5,6,6,2,2,1, rerolls 4,3 scoring a total of 3 success, not enough to dodge the bullet.

Parvu rolls the damage done by the hit, taking the 6 dice from the weapon and adding the excess successes he rolled over Ivan’s attempt to defend for a total of 8 dice.

This does not look good.

Parvu rolls: 5,2,2,2,5,5,6,3, reroll 1

(I have no idea why these weird rolls come up whenever I’m doing a playtest in combat)

A miracle! Ivan lives! the shot grazes his arm, taking only 2 pips of damage. The shock of the wound will penalize him with 1 Black die for all actions until the end of the turn though.

Ivan retaliates with his own shot, rolling his Dexterity+Firearms rating of 6 dice.

Ivan rolls: 3,1,1,1,6,1 reroll 4 for a total of 5 successes
Black Die: 2

Parvu responds with his own dodge roll of 8 dice scoring: 3,3,1,5,5,1,2,3 for a total of 2 successes. Ivan hits!

Ivan rolls his Pistol’s damage adding an extra die for his Deadly Shot talent, as well as the extra 3 dice for the difference between his attack and Parvu’s defense.

Ivan rolls: 4,1,5,3,2,1,2,6,5,6, reroll 6,3 reroll 3 for a total of 5 pips, half of Parvu’s total health!

Parvu staggers backwards at being shot, but manages to make a desperate yank at a nearby bellpull. Ivan curses, reinforcements will be here soon, and while injured Parvu can still get a lucky shot that could kill him right away…

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My first observation might be a pretty obvious one: The bucketful of dice issue is here, but thankfully since you’re only looking for successes as opposed to counting pips, the difficulty is mitigated somewhat. Black dice didn’t quite come into play just yet, but as the injuries stack up, I expect them to make their presence felt more clearly, which is a nice touch to simulate how people’s combat performance drops after injury and an extended conflict.

We only played through a single round in the game, and there was a lot of rolling. In some ways it harkens back to the old World of Darkness days where the defense is rolled against the offense. It’s not a bad thing, as I know many players prefer holding the fate of their characters in their hands. I’m just glad that there isn’t a “Soak Damage” step to slow things down even further.

Combat is pretty brutal, and I can see how Augmented NPCs are better avoided than fought, at least until the player characters get much better at fighting. There’s a slight lack of variance in what you can do. There were no rules on cover and concealment as far as I could see, but it’s easy enough to slap on some Black Dice and call it a day. Overall, DH:LoF’s combat does feel simple but it works for the kind of game it’s going for. Combat is brutal as opposed to tactical, and the term “Savage beating simulator” comes to mind. Needless to say, the Resistance really ought to be fighting as dirty as possible in this game.

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Next up, we’ll be wrapping up the Let’s Study Series for Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein with a few observations and a final review of the game.

[Let's Study: Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein] Part 4: Character Creation

Now that we’ve had a chance to look over the rules for DH:LoF, we’ll move on to creating a character. Promethea is a place rife with all sorts of conflict that is the perfect breeding ground for heroes.

First step is to create a concept for your character. I tend to favor making concept first before spending points to tweak, so I have no problem with this.  I’m thinking of an avenging member of the Resistance, young, brash and determined to take revenge on the system. His sister lost her eyes to the Dark Harvest on a whim of a noblewoman who envied them. She’s still alive and living with him, unaware that he’d joined the Resistance.

Next up, we choose a Social Class. This is an interesting choice given that the book doesn’t really go into mechanics on this, but instead gives a description of the kind of influence, networks and social circles and freedoms that each group enjoys. For my avenging resistance fighter, I’m going for Middle Class. He’s not from the Working Class and neither was his sister, making what happened to them more tragic in a sense as the Middle Class tends to be “less” likely to be chosen for the Harvest, but they’re not immune.

Now we finally get to numbers. We start off by assigning attributes. There are six attributes in the game, three physical (Strength, Dexterity and Fortitude) and three mental (Presence, Wits and Resolve). I found it interesting that the attributes all start at 0, which represent an Average value. The player characters, being of the more Heroic sort, have 6 points to distribute among their stats, to a maximum value of +3. If you’re so inclined, you can also drop two attributes by one point to salvage extra attribute points, but be careful, whenever a Negative attribute score comes into play, a Black Die is automatically added to the roll.

So, after giving it some thought, here’s what I’ve come up with:

Strength 1
Dexterity 2
Fortitude 0
Presence 0
Wits 1
Resolve 2

Derived Attributes taken from the above scores are:

Initiative: 3+Perception Skill
Health: 2

The next step involves spending 50 Character Points. These points are used to purchase Skills (30 points must be spent on skills, and no skill starts higher than 4), Talents (no more than 4), Privileges, Contacts, Assets and Augmentations (if any).

This is where things get a bit messy, so let me do this one at a time. With skills, I figure our protagonist should have a fairly broad set and spend 30 points on the following:

Athletics (Dexeterity) 2
Bull (Presence) 2
Conceal (Wits) 2
Dodge (Dexterity) 3
Etiquette (wits) 2
Firearms (Dexterity) 4
Fisticuffs (Dexterity) 3
Forgery (Wits) 2
General Knowledge (Wits) 2
Hide & Sneak (Dexterity) 3
Perception (Wits) 3
Photography 2

Next up, I get tos pend the rest of the 20 Points I have left over on Traits. Each trait costs 3 points each, and I am allowed no more than 4 talents.

I figure that our protagonist has spent an inordinate amount of time practicing with guns while plotting revenge, so I pick up:

Deadly Shot (3 points) +1 die to damage in range combat with Firearms
Quick Draw III (6 Points) my protagonist can draw, ready and use a weapon in the same action.

11 Points left on everything else, so I decide to grab a few Privileges along the way:

Ear of the Street (5 points)
Shop (2 points) – His sister probably lives above the storefront
Society Friends (4 points)

Moving on to complications now

Dependent is an obvious choice for his blind sister
Vow is another good choice for his promise to take revenge

Taking two complications gives me 8 extra Character Points (5 for the first one, 3 for the second) I figure I might as well add those back to my Skills, resulting in:

Athletics (Dexeterity) 4
Bull (Presence) 2
Conceal (Wits) 4
Dodge (Dexterity) 4
Etiquette (wits) 3
Firearms (Dexterity) 4
Fisticuffs (Dexterity) 3
Forgery (Wits) 3
General Knowledge (Wits) 2
Hide & Sneak (Dexterity) 4
Perception (Wits) 3
Photography (Wits)3

Now that we’re mostly done, let’s give this protagonist a name. Thankfully there’s a list of names provided for characters of either gender. Going over it I figure that Ivan has a nice ring to it. I’ll get Rozsa as the name of his sister.

I found it just slightly odd that the discussion on Class Modifiers is all the way after character creation, as the mention of it while making the character was somewhat confusing as I’d not heard of it before. That said the mechanics behind them are rather neat, with each step away from your social class being an increase in difficulty to the task.

As for equipment Ivan gets 5 picks of the equipment in the book that makes sense.

Small Pistol (Damage 6, RoF 1, 6 Shots, Reload Time 4, Range 20)
A box of Ammo
A camera
Extra film
Travel Papers

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And there we have it. Ivan took a bit of time to build but that’s not surprising since it was the first time I’ve tried building a character in DH:LoF. That said, his Dice Pools tend to range from 2-8 dice, which seem to be fairly reasonable.

There’s plenty of room to make interesting characters in the game and while I didn’t make an Augmented character, I’d like to put it out there that the character generation rules do account for Augments just in case you want stranger features to your character.

Tomorrow we put Ivan to the test as he set up a mock combat with him against some opposition. Will Ivan’s Quickdraw and training with the pistol help him win, or is he doomed to end up on an Evsiceration Rack? We’ll find out on the next installment of Let’s Study Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein