The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Now that Armageddon has hit game stores (Myrmidon Press, $25.00), the tally's gone up to three apocalyptic RPGs, plus In Nomine and Abyss if you want to count non-apocalyptic games that get into the whole Heaven/Hell angel/demon thing. For a while, with the failure of The End and Rapture: the Second Coming, it looked like the apocalyptic Christian genre was going to be an utter failure, but maybe there's a second wave coming.

Armageddon is a fairly well-written RPG in which PCs are cast as heros in a horrific world. C. J. Carella's talent for setting is in evidence here, and to the degree that it takes precedence over the mechanics the game is a success. The setting provides players with a wide range of character types to work with, while GMs will find room to create any number of plots at a variety of power levels. While Armageddon may have a slight case of kitchen sink disease, the overall effect works.

As for the mechanics, while they aren't bad per se, they are lacking in flavor. Armageddon uses the Myrmidon Unisystem, which is functional but uninspiring. It's hampered further by being organized in a manner which will frustrate players during character generation. Fortunately, the mechanics can be easily adjusted, even if the same can't be said for the organization.

The look and feel of Armageddon is average. Tim Bradstreet's art is frequent, exactly what we expect from him, and sets the tone for the other artists. The layout is simple and readable, despite some flaws, and there are no more typos than one expects from a small gaming company. The book is 256 pages of slightly oversized text.

As with most new games in the 1990s, the setting is where Armageddon will either fly or perish. It's set in the same world as Myrmidon's previous game, Witchcraft, although no knowledge of Witchcraft is necessary. Myrmidon's managed the nice trick of making their games complementary yet independent better than anyone's ever managed to date.

The biggest reason for this is undoubtedly the temporal element. Whereas Witchcraft is set in the 1990s, Armageddon takes place in 2016. In Myrmidon's timeline, magic returned to the world with the coming of the new millenium. Unfortunately, the influence of Leviathan -- a quasi-Cthuloid extra-dimensional entity inimical to our reality -- manifested at the same time. His Dark Prophet began a war of conquest soon after, and in 2016 the forces of the Alliance are battling the Dark Prophet's Church of Revelations for the souls of mankind. When all of humanity has placed its faith in Leviathan, reality as we know it will be destroyed.

The forces pitted against him include not only Gifted humans, but angels, demons, the Nephilim children of angels and humans, the surviving Immortals of Atlantis, and both the demigod descendants of humanity's pagan gods and Avatars of those same gods. All of these are potentially available as PCs depending on the power level of the campaign. There's a wide range of abilities within each category, as well: some Gifted humans are psionics, while others are mages; the demigods and Avatars have aspects ranging from Death to Trickster; and the others have their variations as well.

While all this may seem like a little too much choice, a lot of the attraction of the setting arises from the hodge-podge of beings fighting against the monolithic Revelationists. Sure, it's a bit over the top, but Armageddon is meant for people who want to tell really big stories, and there's a lot of roleplaying potential in putting an immortal swordsman from Atlantis next to a rogue angel. Since none of the factions are presented as wholly noble or flawless, there's plenty of room for conflict and moral ambiguity. What's more, the large number of factions reflects the chaos of the setting perfectly. C. J. Carella tends to variety in his settings, as evidenced in both Witchcraft and GURPS Voodoo, and he's got a good handle on how to make that variety work for him.

It's a shame the Unisystem mechanics aren't written as well as the world background. The mechanics are dead simple: skill rolls are 1d10 plus an attribute plus a skill against a target number and the degree of success is determined by the margin by which you beat the target number. Rolls are open-ended, so even attempts at impossible tasks will succeed on occasion. The rules discuss two alternative task resolution systems; first, using a deck of cards as a resolution method, suggesting a mechanism much like Castle Falkenstein, and second, going completely diceless for Amber-style resolution. There's actually nothing wrong with any of this, it's simply uninspired. Even GMs who demand curves in their probability charts can simply use 2d6 instead of a d10.

Combat is equally generic. There's a roll to hit, a potential roll to defend, and a roll for damage. Three rolls for each attack is regrettably slow for the sort of cinematic action the system tries to represent. Even worse, characters wearing armor will have to make yet another roll to determine how much of the attack came past the armor, although there's at least a note that GMs may wish to just use the average roll.

The system is not terribly deadly. A completely average human has 18 Life Points, and a .44 Magnum does on average about 20 points of damage -- but characters don't die until they go to -10 Life Points. Further, a human PC can easily go up to 40 Life Points or more, while high-end PCs could conceivably go over 100. There is no death spiral, so wounded characters function at full efficiency until they're very close to dead.

All these mechanical details are presented in a reasonable order with the possible exception of character generation. The meat of character generation comes early in the book, followed by the combat system, but important options for the various types of character are only found later, in the background sections dedicated to each type. While this is good for readers, in that (for example) you learn what angels can do right after you learn what they are, it's not so good if you're flipping through the book while writing up a character.

There's not a lot to say about the appearance of the book itself. Tim Bradstreet turned in a lovely cover, and his art shows up throughout the book. The chapters are introduced with full page drawings, and half-page pieces are not uncommon. Other interior artists include James O'Barr and Berni Wrightson; one can't complain about quality.

The layout is uninspired but functional with a few minor flaws. There are places where entire pages of text are set in a bold display face, making them difficult to read. The font size is larger than average; it's likely that the book could have been under 200 pages without suffering. Chalk that up to the dictates of the marketplace and try to overlook the occasional sudden change in font size at section breaks. The same goes for the typos; while it's probably embarassing to have a typo in the credits, it doesn't make the book unreadable or the game unplayable.

Minor additional issues include the index (there isn't one) and the section on how to GM (2 pages, but weren't you getting a little tired of reading the same rehash of the same material in every RPG you buy?).

Overall, Armageddon gets high marks for a setting which captures the feel of the End Times, when the barriers between the mundane world and the supernatural break down. While the mechanics are flawed, they are not tied to the world so strongly that it would be hard to replace them if you're willing to pay $25 for just the world. I wouldn't recommend this game to every gamer I know, but if you want an apocalyptic RPG oriented towards the religious (and not just Christianity) then Armageddon ought to be on your shopping list.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Armageddon
Author: C. J. Carella Category: game Company/Publisher: Myrmidon Cost: $25.00 Page count: 256 Playtest Review by Bryant Durrell on 09/24/97. Genre tags: none	Now that Armageddon has hit game stores (Myrmidon Press, $25.00), the tally's gone up to three apocalyptic RPGs, plus In Nomine and Abyss if you want to count non-apocalyptic games that get into the whole Heaven/Hell angel/demon thing. For a while, with the failure of The End and Rapture: the Second Coming, it looked like the apocalyptic Christian genre was going to be an utter failure, but maybe there's a second wave coming. Armageddon is a fairly well-written RPG in which PCs are cast as heros in a horrific world. C. J. Carella's talent for setting is in evidence here, and to the degree that it takes precedence over the mechanics the game is a success. The setting provides players with a wide range of character types to work with, while GMs will find room to create any number of plots at a variety of power levels. While Armageddon may have a slight case of kitchen sink disease, the overall effect works. As for the mechanics, while they aren't bad per se, they are lacking in flavor. Armageddon uses the Myrmidon Unisystem, which is functional but uninspiring. It's hampered further by being organized in a manner which will frustrate players during character generation. Fortunately, the mechanics can be easily adjusted, even if the same can't be said for the organization. The look and feel of Armageddon is average. Tim Bradstreet's art is frequent, exactly what we expect from him, and sets the tone for the other artists. The layout is simple and readable, despite some flaws, and there are no more typos than one expects from a small gaming company. The book is 256 pages of slightly oversized text. As with most new games in the 1990s, the setting is where Armageddon will either fly or perish. It's set in the same world as Myrmidon's previous game, Witchcraft, although no knowledge of Witchcraft is necessary. Myrmidon's managed the nice trick of making their games complementary yet independent better than anyone's ever managed to date. The biggest reason for this is undoubtedly the temporal element. Whereas Witchcraft is set in the 1990s, Armageddon takes place in 2016. In Myrmidon's timeline, magic returned to the world with the coming of the new millenium. Unfortunately, the influence of Leviathan -- a quasi-Cthuloid extra-dimensional entity inimical to our reality -- manifested at the same time. His Dark Prophet began a war of conquest soon after, and in 2016 the forces of the Alliance are battling the Dark Prophet's Church of Revelations for the souls of mankind. When all of humanity has placed its faith in Leviathan, reality as we know it will be destroyed. The forces pitted against him include not only Gifted humans, but angels, demons, the Nephilim children of angels and humans, the surviving Immortals of Atlantis, and both the demigod descendants of humanity's pagan gods and Avatars of those same gods. All of these are potentially available as PCs depending on the power level of the campaign. There's a wide range of abilities within each category, as well: some Gifted humans are psionics, while others are mages; the demigods and Avatars have aspects ranging from Death to Trickster; and the others have their variations as well. While all this may seem like a little too much choice, a lot of the attraction of the setting arises from the hodge-podge of beings fighting against the monolithic Revelationists. Sure, it's a bit over the top, but Armageddon is meant for people who want to tell really big stories, and there's a lot of roleplaying potential in putting an immortal swordsman from Atlantis next to a rogue angel. Since none of the factions are presented as wholly noble or flawless, there's plenty of room for conflict and moral ambiguity. What's more, the large number of factions reflects the chaos of the setting perfectly. C. J. Carella tends to variety in his settings, as evidenced in both Witchcraft and GURPS Voodoo, and he's got a good handle on how to make that variety work for him. It's a shame the Unisystem mechanics aren't written as well as the world background. The mechanics are dead simple: skill rolls are 1d10 plus an attribute plus a skill against a target number and the degree of success is determined by the margin by which you beat the target number. Rolls are open-ended, so even attempts at impossible tasks will succeed on occasion. The rules discuss two alternative task resolution systems; first, using a deck of cards as a resolution method, suggesting a mechanism much like Castle Falkenstein, and second, going completely diceless for Amber-style resolution. There's actually nothing wrong with any of this, it's simply uninspired. Even GMs who demand curves in their probability charts can simply use 2d6 instead of a d10. Combat is equally generic. There's a roll to hit, a potential roll to defend, and a roll for damage. Three rolls for each attack is regrettably slow for the sort of cinematic action the system tries to represent. Even worse, characters wearing armor will have to make yet another roll to determine how much of the attack came past the armor, although there's at least a note that GMs may wish to just use the average roll. The system is not terribly deadly. A completely average human has 18 Life Points, and a .44 Magnum does on average about 20 points of damage -- but characters don't die until they go to -10 Life Points. Further, a human PC can easily go up to 40 Life Points or more, while high-end PCs could conceivably go over 100. There is no death spiral, so wounded characters function at full efficiency until they're very close to dead. All these mechanical details are presented in a reasonable order with the possible exception of character generation. The meat of character generation comes early in the book, followed by the combat system, but important options for the various types of character are only found later, in the background sections dedicated to each type. While this is good for readers, in that (for example) you learn what angels can do right after you learn what they are, it's not so good if you're flipping through the book while writing up a character. There's not a lot to say about the appearance of the book itself. Tim Bradstreet turned in a lovely cover, and his art shows up throughout the book. The chapters are introduced with full page drawings, and half-page pieces are not uncommon. Other interior artists include James O'Barr and Berni Wrightson; one can't complain about quality. The layout is uninspired but functional with a few minor flaws. There are places where entire pages of text are set in a bold display face, making them difficult to read. The font size is larger than average; it's likely that the book could have been under 200 pages without suffering. Chalk that up to the dictates of the marketplace and try to overlook the occasional sudden change in font size at section breaks. The same goes for the typos; while it's probably embarassing to have a typo in the credits, it doesn't make the book unreadable or the game unplayable. Minor additional issues include the index (there isn't one) and the section on how to GM (2 pages, but weren't you getting a little tired of reading the same rehash of the same material in every RPG you buy?). Overall, Armageddon gets high marks for a setting which captures the feel of the End Times, when the barriers between the mundane world and the supernatural break down. While the mechanics are flawed, they are not tied to the world so strongly that it would be hard to replace them if you're willing to pay $25 for just the world. I wouldn't recommend this game to every gamer I know, but if you want an apocalyptic RPG oriented towards the religious (and not just Christianity) then Armageddon ought to be on your shopping list. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)