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Change is inevitable. Thankfully
for every door closing, one very conveniently opens. It is almost like someone
has a plan somewhere. Maybe that is what they refer to as "intelligent design".
The Champions campaign
that I have been involved in for a couple of years is finished. The game will
hold special places in my heart. I love Champions. I love non-conventional
supers (my character was a repressed gay man struggling with his sexuality and leaving
his wife whom he still loved). I loved the opportunity to play with my
real-world wife (one of the better roleplayers I have ever met, if a bit too
serious at times). The GM was fabulous, the other players were great; but
nothing lasts forever.
Three weeks later I turned 40. A
huge amount of reflection, thanks, and a few drinks later I am pretty sure I am
not only the luckiest man I know, I am also the most blessed. I have the
aforementioned great wife (geek chicks are the best), I have avoided death a
few times (the car accident was unlucky, but the change in my life was
retrospectively fantastic), my kids make me proud every day (few parenthetical
comments could do them justice), and my internal monolog gets better every day
("Fly Heisenberg Airlines, we don’t know where we are, but we’re making damned good time."1).
Somewhere along the way we have
lost Aeon. My esteemed editor at RPGnet
for the last two years has finally been pulled in one too many directions and
snapped. He has shuffled off toward world domination leaving Shannon Applecine to clean up
after me. I only hope that I do Aeon proud, and do not make Shannon too crazy
with my weird deadline antics.
Last week in a fit of hangover
after my 40th birthday party I think I overcame the stumbling block
that has been hindering the development of Heisenberg. What is Heisenberg you
ask? Why it is my own SF RPG currently in development. I wrote about it a
little bit in the September
column but now it is better formed. I now know what the spaceships
generally look like. I know what the core mechanic looks like. I know what the
skill system looks like. So amongst all of this change life goes on.
In the midst of all of this I
received a review copy of Etherscope, from Goodman Games. It is a gorgeous game.
Hardbound with an extremely evocative cover by Jonathan Hill, the interior art
is great, the layout clear, the printing of good quality. Even the binding
seems good; admittedly I have only had it for two weeks, but some of the review
copies I get come out of the box with crap bindings falling apart. So what is
inside this slick package? Goodman goodness, but who are they?
If you have not been watching,
Goodman Games has been spending the last few years creating the best old-school
adventure modules for any DDL world extant. Dungeon Crawl Classics have
resurrected the idea of a profitable adventure module. For close to a decade
the idea of a line of adventure modules without a supporting background or
overarching metaplot was the surest way to kill a game. Now not only are the
Dungeon Crawl Classics selling well, but they are also doing modules for games
like Castles & Crusades and Iron Heroes. Add to this mix dinosaurs, dragon
mechs, and Castle Blackmoor and you get an idea of the scope of what they are
doing.
Etherscope takes place in 1984, which is cool enough by itself, then you
realize that it isn't our 1984 at all.
For some reason the idea of clockwork machinery and cyberpunk work together.
The idea of steampunk, as it were, has been well explored before. Many games
have even made significant contributions, in my opinion, to the genre.
Still many of them are stale. They all use London as the center of the world.
They all use clockworks to simply replicate the virtual technologies of
cyberpunk. Few take these ideas ad try and create something compelling. The
idea of the Great Metropolis alone is enough reason to nod in the direction of
the creators. Not taking the easy road (Victorian London is startlingly well documented)
and instead making the cities of the northern industrial center of England
their own was a good move.
The mechanism (dramatic and otherwise) of the Etherscope, the ether, and the
method in which these interactions is handled is excellent. Too bad it is a DDL
game. One of the things that we need less of, as cool as this one is, are DDL
products. Etherscope is OGL, the oddest of the DDL compromises, which
overall could doom it to obscurity. So few DDL products stand out, and so few
are carried widely in retail stores, that while once OGL was guaranteed to get
attention, not it is almost similarly guaranteed to kill interest. At the very
least, it may drive many interested consumers away, which would be a pity.
All prestige classes and artifacts aside, this is a great setting and a
wonderful treatment of steampunk. It also brings a lot of new stuff to the
table. Personally I would have much rather seen this as a True20 or Superlink
title. Converting it wouldn't be hard and if the top secret D&D 4e rumors
are to be believed, and they are; then DDL games as a whole are limited in the
extreme. By the time 4th Edition comes out (probably in 2007) OGL, D&D
Licensed, and D20 will all be completely history. Hasbro has been trying to
close Pandora's box since Peter left, to no avail thankfully, and smart
companies are setting the groundwork to bail out when 4e debuts. I hope that
Goodman is looking elsewhere as well, because it would be a shame to see the
kind of talent and vision they have simply fall out of the running.
In case you think I have no complaints about Etherscope you are wrong. I have
two. First, the technology system and gadget rules are woefully inadequate for
a setting so dependant on technology. Second, Even though they address the
place of Britain in the larger world, I still think the game is a bit too
Anglo-centric. That could just be my being too sensitive about the whole thing.
So if you think that there is still some life in the DDL bandwagon, you love
steampunk, and you want a very well thought gaming world I think Etherscope is
for you, and you first adventure
is free ...
[1] This quote is from Pat
Cadigan’s Synners;
a fantastic book. |
