Tolen Mar

From rulebooks to spellbooks, there would be no RPGs without the written word, and without writers, there would be no words and no game. Ink & Quill is a free PDF from Bastion Press that deals with writers and the magic of the written word in the OGL world of gaming.

Thomas Knauss is the lead designer of Ink & Quill, and he doesn’t limit his presentation of writers to tortured poets and other creative types. There are rules for the barrister (legalese is a disorienting supernatural attack!), cryptographer and musical composer prestige classes in addition to the more traditional warrior poets, playwrights and scribes.

Each of these creative classes is driven to write, both for income and for a sense of satisfaction, represented by certain skill bonuses. If the writer doesn’t create a new work within a given time frame, they lose the bonuses from their last creation.

There’s a chapter on crafting spellbooks and scroll cases, focusing on the materials used in the preparation of these items and the benefits offered by such rarities as vrock pens, octopi ink, and techniques for keeping spellbooks away from prying eyes. The Champion of the Tome is a great spell – it summons a warrior if someone comes within ten feet of a spellbook. Not subtle, but effective.

Considering my background as a technical writer, the chapter on manuals and manual writing was my favourite. These manuals are non-magical and require an Intelligence check against the manual’s Difficulty Class – if successful, the reader gains an insight bonus to a particular skill check; if failed by 10 or more, the reader misinterprets the book and receives a penalty and the reader must make a Will save or suffer from a gross misinterpretation, which is even worse.

There’s a list of sample mundane manuals and their benefits, along with the rules for creating new manuals. There’s some good flavour text in the descriptions of these works.

The next chapter describes magic books that can grant the users interesting powers. Some of the books are quite ingenious, like the Sketchbook, which contains sketches of useful items that can be removed from the page; others are arbitrary and odd in their effects, like the book with pages of firebreathing – simply eat a page and breathe fire.

How is the player supposed to figure that out? They find the book, and then decide to give it a nibble?

There’s also a selection of librams (instruction manuals for creating new types of golems and constructs) and some interesting artifact books. Well, the stories behind the artifacts are interesting, but I think it’s strange that they’re universally evil and have the weirdly specific methods of destruction that don’t relate to the origins or powers in the book.

I always understood artifacts were powerful and had unexpected effects on their user, but not all artifacts were evil. They can’t all be the Eye of Vecna; some of them have to be the Mace of Cuthbert.

So, it’s clear that there’s some interesting material in this book, but I think Ink & Quill is best suited for GMs. The rules for creating manuals, magic books and epic poems are interesting from a system design point of view and the classes are better suited for NPCs. Although there is something to be said for a warrior poet suffering from the pangs of writer’s block, I don’t think these rules are necessary for a roleplaying session.

There are some layout problems in the book, including missing bolds, missing chapter numbers on the edge of the page, and inconsistent headers to a cost table for mechanical spellbook traps that fails to appear in the text. I got the impression that Ink & Quill was intended to be a larger volume, and when it became clear that it would, the book was released without a final edit for polish.

For all the discussion about books, I would have liked to see Ink & Quill expand the focus of its magic the way it expanded its study of the writing classes. For example, a section on the effects of musical performances would be welcome. I’m sure the rules for writing books could be loosely applied to the new genre, but, still, the author demonstrates a good deal of creativity that I would have liked to have seen being given free rein.

Ink & Quill is a great source of inspiration for campaign flavour and detail. The right thousand words bound between two covers, can go a long way to presenting a lasting picture of the campaign world…especially if those words let the characters work some unexpected magic.

Licensed properties are a tricky business for any type of game. While the license usually guarantees a greater audience for the game, that audience arrives with definite expectations about style, environment, and that ever-elusive notion of what “feels right”. If the game doesn’t fit the expectations of the fans, no matter how well-crafted or enjoyable the gameplay might be, then the effort in adapting the property to a game is wasted; and if the game isn’t fun, then no license can turn that failure into a success.

By the standards of licensed games, the Serenity RPG is a roaring success, with a great appeal to the fans and a fun, quick game system that suits the style of property. It is the best licensed RPG I’ve ever seen.

First, some background: The Serenity RPG is based on the film of the same name, which, in turn, concludes the storylines introduced in the short-lived TV series, Firefly. Created by Joss Whedon, Firefly is a low-tech space western set in a newly populated solar system. The television series follows the adventures of Captain Malcolm Reynolds of the Firefly-class space freighter, Serenity. Mal found himself on the losing side of a civil war, and now operates a freelance shipping/thieving/salvage operation on the edge of legality and civilized space. His crew consists of his lieutenant, a chipper mechanic, an ace pilot, a licensed courtesan, a preacher, a doctor and his dangerously unstable sister. The doctor and his sister are fugitives from the central government, though the reasons why are never explained. The TV show was cancelled after only fifteen episodes.

Enter the Serenity movie: Joss Whedon reassembles the cast and shoots a movie that wraps up the mystery of the doctor and sister, as well as finishing some individual character arcs. The movie deals with the idea of living right on the wrong side of the law; of belief, doubt, order, chaos and survival. In fact, it’s a great deal about survival.

The Serenity RPG was released on the same day as the film, so the fans the game is trying to reach are fans of Firefly. However, the game is only licensed to cover the characters and events depicted in the film which, aside from the main characters, aren’t necessarily all that the fans want. And yet, the game doesn’t disappoint these expectations. Why?

There are two reasons.

First, the author, Jamie Chambers, has written the game in the style of speech used by the characters in Firefly. There’s a lot of Western-style speech, full of reckonin’ and conjurin’ and other –in’ gerunds, crossed with Mandarin curse words. This is the distinctive voice of the series, and the book captures it – from the fiction, written by Margaret Weis, to the system of character generation.

Second, the book is littered with references to Firefly that the fans will recognize. Whether it’s a quote by Mal describing River as “whimsical in the brainpan” to examples of difficult tasks taken right from the show, there’s not one episode of the series that escapes a sly reference in the RPG. Sure, the game might be allowed to describe Adalai Niska, but a generic criminal kingpin with a habit of torture and poetry is a fair game. And so on. Fans of the series could buy the book simply for a challenging game of allusion hunting and consider the money well-spent.

In fact, it’s as a straightforward adaptation of the storyline of the film that the RPG falls short. I would have liked to have read more about the Operative, and about the surprise revelation in the film, but I’m sure the timing of the game’s release is the reason why that information doesn’t appear. I know I held off on reading the game until I’d seen the movie for fear of spoilers. Perhaps the game wasn’t based on the complete script.

I was interested to see pictures, quotes and at least one named character in the RPG that didn’t appear in the theatrical cut of the film.

Now that I’ve talked about the game from a fan’s point of view, I’ll talk about the gameplay. Conflict is the essence of character and drama, and conflict in the Serenity RPG is resolved using an Alternity-like dice system. A character’s attributes are represented by different die types, with excellence represented by the d12 and clumsiness represented by the d4…or the d2. All conflicts are rolled against a standard set of target numbers representing the difficulty of the attempted action, ranging from 3 to 31. You have to roll greater than or equal to the target number to succeed.

Having access to large dice thanks to elevated skills and attributes isn’t any guarantee of success. To mediate some of the randomness, players can spend Plot Points (similar to Action Dice in the AEG library of games – there’s a whole other discussion about the utility of such metagame economics to be had) to increase their results before and after the die roll. There’s still every chance of failure, unless you have an absurdly large number of available Plot Points.

Plot Points are also used to buy new skills, improve attributes, and generally improve your character. Plot points are earned through that nebulous act of good role-playing, which generally consists of describing something cool and in-character.

Speaking of character, I was pleased to see that ships are generated in exactly the same way as human characters. There’s no AI in the world of Serenity, but if you don’t think that vessels have their own share of quirks and variations, you’d be sadly mistaken.

The widespread complaints about the Serenity system are the absence of a blank character sheet, a collection of quick-reference tables and an index. I’ll add my voice to that chorus. The endpages are blank, and could have easily been used for such information. Well, maybe not the index, to be fair. A book this size should probably have 3-4 pages of index, at least.

However, since I’m not likely to play the game, these complaints are but minor quibbles. The structure of the game is solid, so the game player in me is content; the storyline and character information in the book has my inner Firefly fan singing the theme song:

Burn the land and boil the sea. You can’t take the sky from me.

Serenity is one gorram good book, let me tell ya.

I saved and printed the free RPG adventures posted to the 7th Sea RPG resources site. There’s some interesting material there, from the Novus Ordum Mundi adventures reprinted from the Crow’s Nest newsletter, to material that didn’t make the Rapier’s Edge adventure anthology.

Men & Gods – The heroes travel across the Crescent Empire and Cathay in search of pieces of a Syrneth artifact. Each piece unerringly leads the way to the next, but the heroes have to deal with the politics, ambitions and threats of these new nations during their search.

When assembled, the pieces of the artifact create the Hand of the Creator – a Syrneth bio-engineering device that transforms the user into a perfect human specimen at the cost of weakening the Barrier that holds back the Bargainers who granted sorcery to Theah.

This is a fine adventure, but it desperately needs to be reformatted to fit the rest of the material.

The Fall of Derwyddon – Derwyddon is the Merlin of the Thean world, and this adventure reveals the final fate of this most mysterious of druids. When the heroes foil an attempt by one of the Queen of the Sea’s minions to kidnap a sidhe, Derwyddon hires the heroes to return the wounded sidhe and convey a message to the Sidhe Queen. Upon their return from the Sidhe Court, the heroes encounter the Lady of the Lake, and finally find Derwyddon in combat with the Queen of the Sea.

Nothing the heroes do can help save Derwyddon, but they can spend a good deal of time fighting the Queen of the Sea’s lead minion. The goal of the adventure is role-playing, and if the campaign involves the Sidhe or Avalon, there are many opportunities to advance plotlines or start long-term arcs.

The Mystery of Black Ash Island – Otherwise known as Oak Island, this document is both a location sourcebook and a murder mystery.

The mystery is okay, but isn’t overwhelming. I’m amused to see the mystery of Nova Scotia incorporated into Theah.

A Murder of Supplication – This adventure is so long that it could almost be a campaign. There are 16 Hard Points (story elements that must be achieved over the course of the adventure) and 50 Soft Points (optional story elements that can send the heroes off on all manner of interesting tangents).

The adventure takes place in Ussura, and concludes the official storyline for the Knias of Molhyna. The Thean version of Ivan the Terrible is actually the victim of horrible torture and brainwashing. The immortal sorcerer Koshchei is finally driven to intervene. Molhyna is his home, and though often leaves mortal affairs to sort themselves out, Koshchei hires the heroes to deliver a series of four letters to important figures.

As the heroes go about their appointed rounds, they run afoul of the current ruler of Molhyna – Kalenikov, the Chamberlain. Kalenikov has his own secret police, and his control over the Knias means that he can order the most heinous of crimes with complete immunity. All blame falls on the Knias.

The heroes meet with notables and dignitaries loyal to Molhyna, but not the Chamberlain. Koshchei can trust these people to organize a result, and plans are well underway. The heroes travel great distances to deliver the messages and are fighting the secret police at every turn.

The adventure ends with the liberation of the Knias, the defeat of Kalenikov and a rebirth for Molhyna. This is the end according to the official storyline, but the writers offer suggestions for heroes who choose a different – and perhaps less heroic – path.

This is the best adventure of the bunch.

NOM Adventure 1: Unstable Ground – An earthquake in Vodacce reveals a hidden keep. The owner was known to have dabbled in Syrneth artifacts, and caused the landslide that buried the keep for years. Vincenzo Caligari wants those artifacts, and so do any number of other secret societies.

The twist with this adventure is that the players have a real-time limit of two hours to get in, grab whatever they can for whatever reason, and then get out.

NOM Adventure 2: For the Sake of Change – An Explorer has found half of an interesting Syrneth artifact, and needs to help of the heroes to reclaim the other piece. The current owner is an Avalon noble who financed the expedition, and who is holding a ball to celebrate the unhappy betrothal of his daughter to a Montaigne fop.

Eventually, the heroes get the artifact. And then the Montaigne fop gets both artifacts…and uses them. Hilarity ensues.

NOM Adventure 3: Villanova’s Rose – Welcome to the CCG! The heroes are hired to escort a Vodacce emissary as she pursues a pirate. Of course, it’s a trick. The heroes and the emissary board the Revenj, the Vestenmanavnjar pirate ship from the CCG, and interact with Yngvild, Red Thorfield, Jorund and Fid Blue-Eye.

The victim is a nephew of Val Mokk, one of the magnates of the Vesten guilds, and a business rival of Caligari. The heroes must choose to play along with the assassination, or defend the nephew.

NOM Adventure 4: Flames in the Night – In Castille, the heroes cross paths with the Inquisition, who are looking to burn the residents of a women’s school as witches. The heroes have to warn one chapter of the school, and then save the residents of another chapter.

Of course, the women know sorcery. They are members of the Sophia’s Daughters secret society.

NOM Adventure 5: Wheels Within Wheels – An adventures that places the heroes between two factions of Novus Ordum Mundi. Through an agent, the heroes are hired to waylay a caravan carrying contraband. The contraband is destined for the laboratory of the current head of NOM, and includes potions, scrolls and human cargo, but the heroes don’t know the true use, destination or ownership for these items.

There’s surprisingly little subterfuge or reversal in this adventure. The heroes either succeed at the task, or they fail. Their ultimate patron may find a use for them in the future, which could set the stage for further adventures with NOM, or the heroes could simply go on their merry way.