I used the Role VTT for my games at North Star this year, and in doing so I created character and GM sheets for the game. Here are links to them if you want to use them.
PC character sheet: |
| Copy #122 of the Warlock! Black Edition |
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| Old style print inside. |
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| The Black Edition contains the core book, Kingdom and some elements from Compendium 2. |
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| Grim Biskerstaf, twinned with Liverpool(*) |
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| The Black Edition in its slipcase, lectern not included... |
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| The new layout style. |
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| Cold War Espionage Roleplaying |
TL;DR: There's a lot packed into this short zine, presented well and with enough detail that you could get started very quickly and easily. It's an effective, focussed and functional framework for playing games in the Cold War. However, it doesn't give me the excitement that - say - Cold Shadows did, perhaps because it doesn't have the space to develop the meta-plot side of the warring agencies as well. That said, I could imagine playing using Covert Wars as an engine, as it is clean and simple.
Physically, Covert Wars is presented as a staple-bound 'zine with a striking colour cover and 34-page black-and-white interior using Courier (or at least a typewriter-style face) as the font. The character sheet is printed on the inside of the cover.
The game is set in the Cold War period before personal computers (1955 to 1970) and includes a top-level timeline, background and guidance on playing CIA, KGB or neutral agents. Your characters are operators that make things happen.
The game uses the traditional six abilities, with Will swapping out Wisdom, but fulfilling much the same role. Each ability starts at 10, and you get 20 extra points to distribute. No ability can be above a rating of 20. You have health points equal to your CON x10.
Starting characters begin with 10 skills; these start from a base of the related ability and you can spend a maximum of 50 points on each out of a starting pool of 250. The end rating is used as a percentile rating. There are 31 base skills, so it is a narrow skill system rather than a broader skill system (for example, the Fria Ligan games typically have 4 attributes and 12 skills, 3 for each attribute).
Each character has a speciality, which gives advantage on related skill rolls. They also have a personality trait (roleplaying hook rather than mechanic), a positive trait (which provides a mechanical advantage) and a negative trait (which provides a mechanical disadvantage).
You improve with a levelling mechanic, based on XP obtained from your mission. The game recommends that you level up after each mission on average; however, the exact XP awarded is based on a set of questions. Once you level, you can add 10 points to a skill or purchase another skill. You can hold these skill points instead and when you have enough, use them to buy off negative traits or add positive traits.
Attribute rolls are made with a d20 less than or equal to the attribute in use. Critical success or failure happens on rolls of 1 or 20s. Skill rolls are made with percentile dice, with cherries creating critical successes or failures depending on whether the roll is a success or a failure.
You can make a straight roll or an opposed roll. In the latter, the highest successful roll wins, although a critical will always prevail against a normal success.
There are modifiers for difficulty; mechanically, the effect of difficulty is half as much on an attribute as it is on a skill test. As attributes will always have a starting 50% chance of success minimum, this is a curious design decision.
Melee combat is opposed, ranged combat is a standard skill test. If you're in ranged combat, the cover is critical, as that's the only way that you can reduce the likelihood of being hit. Critical successes will double damage, critical failures cause complications. The initiative is rolled on an unmodified d20, and ambushes are likely brutal, as they allow a free round of attacks with automatic hits.
Healing takes time but can be helped with first aid. If you reach zero health points, you make a CON ability test or die. If you pass, you're unconscious.
You have a Stress score; if it reaches a certain level, your character is struggling and will find all tests more difficult. If you hit the limit, you will have a form of breakdown that will take you out of play. You can recover stress by resting, substance abuse, sex and other forms of relaxation.
You start with a Conviction score of 100; this represents how much you believe in the cause. This will fall over time; once it hits zero your character will likely be out of the game. If it falls below 50, you are at risk of being tempted to be a double agent.
There's a Connections score, which starts with a 3d6 roll. This represents resources, assets, informants that you can draw on. You can lose points from this if you lose connections. It can be used as an abstract check like an ability to see if you can get information or something else from your network.
There's a useful guide to mission types, example NPCs and details about the available gear that your agents can use on their operations.
There's a lot packed into this short zine, presented well and with enough detail that you could get started very quickly and easily. I like the Connections score, as it reminds me of the flexibilities in Night's Black Agents. It's an effective, focussed and functional framework for playing games in the Cold War. However, it doesn't give me the excitement that - say - Cold Shadows did, perhaps because it doesn't have the space to develop the meta-plot side of the warring agencies as well. That said, I could imagine playing using the Covert Wars engine, as it is clean and simple.
16 May 2021
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| A campaign frame for Cold Shadows |
TL;DR: Along Came A Patriot is ambitious in scope but very light in detail. The book has five lightly prepared scenarios across five decades in which the characters become involved in the hunt for a mole in the CIA, codenamed Outrider. During the span of the campaign, characters will have the opportunity to be promoted and retire, to be replaced with younger, less cynical and less experienced new recruits. Overall, I was underwhelmed by the material presented; there are definitely ideas to be mined but it's very much an outline rather than a developed campaign. The book also includes extra material giving guidance and some examples to address frequently asked questions about the game.
Along Came A Patriot is ambitious in scope but very light in detail. The book has five lightly prepared scenarios across five decades in which the characters become involved in the hunt for a mole in the CIA, codenamed Outrider. During the span of the campaign, characters will have the opportunity to be promoted and retire, to be replaced with younger, less cynical and less experienced new recruits.
The first three pages are a reminder of how to run Cold Shadows effectively. The next section covers the ground rules for the campaign. The key point is that only the GM has the narrative authority to reveal who Outrider actually is. The players can come close, but Outrider will always escape until the campaign reaches its climax.
The second point is that - because of the narrative control that the players have - each scenario is only outlined with a situation and some suggestions for how the story may progress. It's a toolkit for a situation, rather than a scenario. Each section concludes with a transition piece that is designed to set up the next in the sequence.
This section also makes it clear that characters may retire and perhaps return as contacts or handlers, or even enemies.
The five acts move from Budapest in 1956 (just before the revolution), to West Berlin in 1961 as the Wall goes up, and then moves out of Europe to Chile in 1973 as the CIA moves to support General Pinochet. The story returns to West Berlin in 1987, as David Bowie is about to play Heroes at the Reichstag, before finishing as the Cold War burns out in Washington DC in 1992.
Each act has a very light framework, some stats for NPCs, and notes on elements to throw in. The guidance also recommends preparing further complications and contingencies. These are definitely needed as the material presented is very much top level ideas rather than detailed adventure frameworks. It does suggest adding further episodes between each act; I guess that will depend on your group, but I think that it could dilute the experience a little.
The book concludes with four pages of examples and guidance. Layout matches Cold Shadows and the editing is probably a bit sharper, although there are still typos.
Overall, I was underwhelmed with Along Came A Patriot. I could see me using it for inspiration, but even in a narrative game it needs more for a GM to deliver effectively. I don't regret getting it, but it feels like an outline rather than a finished campaign. That said, I can understand why it's like that.
15 May 2021
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| Oh dear! |
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| Scary messages... |
I have added about 10 old blog posts tonight, but made sure I moved all the HTTP to HTTPS (and the auto-redirect is set in Blogger). Been through and deleted a couple of dead links. Suspect this is at Google's end as I get the message on the blog editing page as well.
Well, fingers crossed.
Update: this was a Blogger-wide outage and they started deleting posts. It seems to be fixed now and they're restoring the posts that they took down.
15 May 2021
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| I'm pretty certain you can tell the inspiration for this cover... |
TL;DR: Temples & Tombs is a nicely focused, rules-light pulp game, which leans into the genre well. By the time I'd read it, I wanted to get it to the table, and that is the real measure of a game for me. I hope to run this. I think it would work really well for a convention as a one-shot, and the adventure structure and prompts should make it easy to create a scenario. Recommended.
The book embraces lines and veils and the X-Card from the start. So you avoid snakes if you absolutely need to. There's also sensitive guidance on how to handle 'bad tropes'; imperialism, historical atrocities, and more. Effectively, you soft focus and remove elements that don't fit with the story that you want to tell, especially around race and gender.
The game is pretty standard from a YZE perspective. You start by choosing your profession from a selection of pulp standards (Ace, Archaeologist, Doctor, Genius, Hunter, Journalist, Outlaw, Professional, Socialite, Soldier, Spy, Thief). You can't have two players with the same profession. Your age will affect the number of skills and attributes you have; younger characters have higher attributes and lower skills and vice versa. One attribute will be key to your profession and you can start with it at five points. Otherwise attributes range from two to four dice. The attributes are Grit, Quick, Wit and Style. Each attribute has three related skills. These are broad brush, in the usual YZE way. We have Fight, Endure, Feat, Drive, Shoot, Stunt, Fix, Savvy, Lore, Scare, Sway and Trick, all pretty self-explanatory.
Each character starts with one of three talents unique to their career. These give you an edge in the game. They also have an ambition, which serves two purposes. Firstly, it allows the Game Director to help engage your character into the story, and secondly, it provides a small mechanical advantage. Once per session, you can invoke your ambition to gain an automatic success provided there's a reasonable link to your profession.
Once initial character generation is completed, the party chose an institution to work for. It could be a Museum, University, Society, Newspaper, Government, or more. It is a reason for your characters to associate and a way to give missions and some resources. This is a way to steer the flavour of the game.
Characters are also defined by relationships with the other characters; each profession has three prompts, both positive and negative. Gear is handled simply; you can carry as much as double your Grit. Income is defined by profession; you can raise it one level by spending a skill point. You also have a signature item; if you can legitimately use it in the adventure then it adds an extra dice to your pool.
Character development is simple; there are a set of six questions, all very pulp in nature. For each question that you can answer "yes" to, you gain a point of XP. Skills can be gained or increased, and extra talents bought. You can redefine relationships and ambitions in the downtime between sessions.
Skill tests are started by using an attribute and an appropriate skill and look for sixes to succeed.
You can get extra dice for appropriate gear and your signature item. So far, all so standard for YZE. However, you can also add Hero Dice to the roll; as a starter, the Director can give you one if they feel your plan is awesome. You can also get them in a similar way to momentum in 2d20; for every success you roll above one, you get a Hero Dice for your next roll. Finally, you can add Hero Dice if you have an appropriate talent. If any of your Hero Dice comes up six, you can choose an additional effect. These can help the party as a whole, or just yourself.
If you fail on a roll, you take a catch; they represent an impact on your character and change the number of dice in your pool. They can increase them (for example, you could become emotional which gives you 2 extra dice), or decrease them (you're caught off-guard and lose a dice). The modifiers remain until the catch is cleared. If you take all six catches, you drop out of the scene, taken out of action. If you really don't want to take a catch (you don't want to take the final result, you can opt to lose all your Hero Dice for the next roll instead). If you don't get enough successes, you can push your luck; you get to mark Luck, and add Luck dice equal to your current Luck score to the pool. You then re-roll whichever dice you want. The catch is if any of the Luck Dice comes up 1, you clear the Luck tracker, and take a catch. There's also a mechanic to test your luck, using the current tracker score.
Helping adds a single Hero dice for each player up to three into the pool; this can be used for Group rolls as well. Opposed tests look to see who has the most successes and only the attacker can push their luck.
Combat and action resolution is at the lighter end of YZE; if you've seen Vaesen or other games you'll know exactly which you're letting yourself in for.
The Game Director's section defines the following agenda:
It's a simple agenda, but effective. There is a list of best actions to take if the players are looking stumped; these are very much like Narrator moves in Powered by the Apocalypse games. Suggestions include 'Block their Way', 'Drive a Hard Choice', 'Escalate the Situation', 'Make it Visual', 'Ask Questions' and 'Action, Action, Action'. All sound ways to drive the story. There's guidance on running a one-shot ('single story'), an episodic series and cinematic game.
Beats are described for the game session; all games start with a Cold Open. This is a set of questions about the previous adventure. Think the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark. The players have narrative control responding to questions. This serves to introduce the characters and can create ongoing situations. There's good guidance for this process, and no dice are used. Single Stories and Episodes will usually use a short 5-10 section for single stories and episodic series. Cinematic mode will have this dominating the first session, but not being used again.
The second beat is the Call to Adventure, often held at the institution's base. A trusted person presents the mission, and the characters prepare for their journey to adventure. A recommended structure for an adventure is given; starting with the MacGuffin which is the reason for the adventure. There's a Dungeon (a difficult to access location where the MacGuffin is) and a Threat. Something will be Unknown and necessary to discover before the MacGuffin is found. There will be something at Stake; if the MacGuffin isn't found, something bad will happen. Finally, there's the Journey to consider, usually to at least two different and interesting locations.
The Journey is the third beat; when it is concluded, the characters will have everything they need to go to the Dungeon and recover the MacGuffin! So the fourth beat is the Dungeon itself. Assuming the characters are successful, they'll finish with the final beat, the Wrap. This is done with questions rather than dice rolls, mirroring the Cold Open. There's a d66 table of MacGuffin ideas, and further tables for Set Piece, Dungeons, Cold Opens, and Threats. They're a useful inspiration.
The section on threats includes groups that can be a problem for your characters; ideas are given for use in play along with sample NPCs. There's a bestiary that includes the obligatory dinosaurs (but no giant ape).
The book rounds out with three sample adventures; the first - the Temple of the Feather of Ma'at - spans the eastern Mediterranean and Egypt, and looks pretty fun. It's classic pulp. The second - Sky Zeppelin and the Valley of Yesteryear - involves a zeppelin ride into the Andes in search of parts of the world that have hitherto been inaccessible. There's a lost expedition, a lost city, treasure and exactly what you'd expect in an isolated and lost valley, dinosaurs. I think we've all seen the film! The final adventure 'The Lost Works of William Shakespeare and the Oak Island Mystery' didn't work for me. It felt too complicated and just didn't draw me in. There are some clever elements, but it doesn't feel like it meshes well. I could understand how I'd run the first two scenarios by the time I'd read through them, but not the last one. I read it several times, but it didn't work for me. That said, there are some great elements in it that could easily be lifted.
This review is of the PDF; although it's the final version, there are still a few annoying typos. It's nicely laid out and illustrated.
The key thing for me is that that this game is a nicely focused, rules-light pulp game, which leans into the genre well. By the time I'd read it, I wanted to get Temples & Tombs to the table, and that is the real measure of a game for me. I hope to run this. I think it would work really well for a convention as a one-shot, and the adventure structure and prompts should make it easy to create a scenario. Recommended.
13 May 2021
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| Update at 9th May 2021 |
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| My pre-convention advert |
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| Golgotha in the Role VTT, at the point they reached the advertising image |
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| The Tergamant heads into space |
I imagine Sley, Scratch, Dor and Smoooth Eddy are even now sitting in the Tergamant somewhere in the middle of nowhere bickering about whose fault it all is."
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| Dune, Arrakis, Desert Planet |
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| First pass notes... |
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| Second pass notes... |
My first taste of 2d20 and it went very well.I ran the introductory scenario, which was probably dangerous time-wise as it needed lots of conversations (with 13 NPCs) which it proposed tests to be done with for each one! In the end, I abstracted this into groups of engagements with the players, and it worked well. We ended up with a deadly knife fight at the end, between three players and an Assassin. I did a short wrap sequence, and the characters seemed to have succeeded, protecting the Atreides family from the Harkonnen. Meanwhile, the players looked on, knowing how wrong the characters were.
I could feel the sand in the wind, the heat on my head and taste the Spice.
Marvellous!
The party brutally killed Morgantha, the leader of the Hags that live in the Old Mill on the ridgeline between Barovia and Vallaki, then prepared to head home rather than risk fighting her two sisters without some time to rest.
Our dramatis personae:
Ser Alys de Adon-Rouge of House Starbright (a half-orc Fighter with a soldier background, currently the leader of the town militia of Daggerford), played by Tom (Guvnor). Lawful Neutral. Imagine a slightly greener take on Grace Jones... Married to Ser Adon.
Ser Adon de Rouge of House Starbright (a half-orc Paladin, from a knightly background, with two human retainers and a priest), played by Paul (dr_mitch). Lawful Good. Married to Ser Alys.
Kelwarin (Kel) (a half-elf Sorceror flush with the powers of wild magic, an outlander), played by Graham (First Age). Chaotic Good.
Gaddock Teeg (a halfling wizard and former prizefighter), played by Alex (Doggetay), Neutral Good
Afternoon 22nd November
Having killed Morgantha, the party took her head as evidence, along with her eyelashes and iron-hard nails, and other body items which could potentially be useful to spells. They started back to town, with a young 6-year old boy called Ethan who had been sold to the wyrd sisters in return for a supply of the Dream Pastries and Pies that they made. Ethan rode on the wheeled trolley that he had previously been imprisoned on in a burlap sack. It seemed to reduce the weight of everything placed on it, and items rode in a very stable manner. Although it took nearly five hours, they reached Vallaki without incident despite the wolves howling in the woods that seemed to be tracking them.
Ser Adon called on the Priest, Father Lucian, once again and asked for his help to look after the latest stray he had collected. He talked about the hag they had slain, telling about the terrible suffering that the child had had when his parents gave him away, probably to be fattened up and made into a pie after his bones had been ground down. He managed to shift the opinion of the priest about him, perhaps not moving from the dislike he had garnered through the killing of his nephew and brother-in-law and the casting of his sister out of her house, but certainly earning grudging respect. As he left, he noticed the former Baroness starting to care for the child; perhaps this would be the start of a healing process.
23rd November
The next morning, they came up with a cunning plan. The party enlisted Rictavio's help in changing Ser Alys' likeness to look like Morgantha. They planned to play the 'I've died and come back from hell' gambit. Gaddock would pose as a child on the trolley, Kel would hide 100ft away and Ser Adon would be invisible. They soon set off; along the way, they discovered another package of clothes, this time with strict instructions to leave them in place. They did just that. Again the wolves were howling in the distance as they approached the Old Bonegrinder.
Their plan sprung into action; somehow, Ser Alys managed [great roll] to convince the two remaining Hags that their mother may potentially have returned despite her body (less head) being buried in the grave outside the Mill. The grave was marked "Our Ma, and a Beloved Sister, Cruelly murdered".
Enough doubt was there that Bella came out, at which point they attacked. Ser Adon's attempt to freeze her in place failed, but she was caught squarely by Kel's fireball. Rapidly escalating, fireballs rained down, and blades crunched. A dire and evil demon appeared and attempted to attack, releasing a fetid smell. The second hag, partly caught in the fireball blast, disappeared. A lightning bolt transfixed three party members who managed to stand in a straight line, with the hag casting it just managing to disappear into the ethereal plane before they could kill. A desperate fight escalated, with a cat and mouse element as the hags shifted. More demons emerged, choking Ser Adon with their foul stench, only the hasting by Gaddock stopped him from falling out of the fight. A battered Kel cast witch bolts once he ran out of fireballs and sorcery powers. Eventually, the party killed one of the hags. The other phased away.
Ser Adon kissed his wife gracefully, restoring her health only for her to be horrified as he turned into a frog in her arms. Warning the others not to step on any frogs, she stood ready to engage. Eventually, a bag of flour from Gaddock's familiar revealed the hag as she started to emerge; swiftly and brutally, Offalia was killed with a magic missile barrage. As she died, Ser Adon changed back to his human shape, along with a bewildered merchant who appeared in the ground floor kitchen in the Mill from a frog hopping there which had escaped from a jar in the fireball blast.
Searching the Mill, they found two young children (Freek and Myrtle) imprisoned there, being fattened up. They liberated some valuables and found three potions. Gaddock discovered a platinum amulet in the attic, with a red crystal stone set in it. It felt powerful, and the use of the identify spell revealed that it was the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, worn by warriors who sought out and destroyed vampires and long lost. Ser Adon eagerly took possession of it.
The bones and bonemeal flour of the children lost at the Mill were buried with ceremony, and then wood brought and a pyre set in the ground floor of the Mill to burn the bodies of the hags and destroy the nest of evil. The party then set off with children and the merchant, heading back to Vallaki leaving the Mill burning on the ridge, again tracked by wolves. When they reached the Blue Water Inn, Danika Martikov encouraged Ser Adon to take up the holy symbol to help him in his battle against the Devil Strahd. He happily agreed.
GM Notes: mainly a battle, which was good as I was tired after a bad night's sleep. The party came close to failure again, but somehow prevailed. Fortunately for them, Offalia was low on hit points and spells and was revealed by Gaddock's trick. This marks the end of this section of the plot arc; Vallaki is quiet and the evil of the Hags destroyed. A powerful artefact has been found which may well help the party in their plan to cleanse the valley. Of course, the wielder of the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind had been killed in the past, and it was lost. Will they fair better? Next session, we will start towards the Wizard of Wines Vineyard...
5 May 2021