The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Asylum, published by Clockworks, is a roleplaying game set in a futuristic world where humanity has lost its collective grip on sanity, and the majority of the world's population lives in Wards, city-sized secure areas where the population of inmates is fed, watched, and treated by the Warden and his charges, the Staff and the Orderlies. The game's setting has a dark, fatalistic tone, and the players are individual inmates struggling to survive both their stark physical surroundings and their inner personal demons.

The game itself is a paperback work of 176 pages. The binding is relatively stout, and the game has a useful table of contents and a helpful index. The last two pages of the game contain useful charts and a sample character sheet. The artwork in the game is black and white (this may be planned), and generally along the lines of the type of artwork currently in vogue in new games post-White Wolf: altered photographs, line drawings, and graphic headers and footers on the pages. The art is not bad, even good in parts, but not thrilling -- I'm not going to critique the artwork, as I'm no artist, but in general terms there's some room for improvement here. That said, roleplaying's not really about artwork, either. The print (thankfully) is black on white, in readable type, in a magazine-like two column format. My only beef about the text is that it's justified, which tires the eyes after a while. That said, maybe the effect is intentionally planned -- after all, the game's about insanity. There is a series of linked fictional preludes to each major section of the book. The fiction isn't bad, which says a lot in this medium, and the fiction illustrates the setting well.

The included setting is well designed and plausible, although very dark. Without giving too much away, a set of natural and man-made disasters resulted in ash and plant matter blotting out the sun, giving Earth an eternal shifting twilight, which drives everyone (that means everyone) eventually insane. Make no mistake, this game is about insanity -- there are no nifty technological devices, supernatural monsters, or magical powers in this game, although the characters (who are insane) may believe there are. The descriptions of the game world and its inhabitants are complete and interesting, and rightfully generate interest in playing -- roleplaying insanity is a challenging concept. In some instances, certain topics (e.g., the Fields, a near-mythical land where all the food is grown) seemed to be covered incompletely, but this isn't new in RPGs, and Clockworks may be planning some supplements. A reading of the setting generated active interest in playing the game, which in itself is an achievement.

Asylum falls into the 'rules-light' faction of roleplaying, with a relatively free-form set of mechanics. Asylum, in essence, uses a "task number" system with a few modifications. The most obvious modification, and not necessarily a good one, is that Asylum requires the players to use marbles -- yes, marbles -- to generate random results. This is accomplished by placing two each of five different colored marbles (each color has a different value from 1 to 5) into a bag and pulling two marbles out at random -- a process called a Draw. The author avers to the "losing your marbles" concept when discussing the mechanic, and I can see the natural link there, but the marble system has its share of problems in Asylum. I did not have any marbles of my own (perhaps a danger sign there), so I marked 10 poker chips with color and value marks (e.g., "White, 5"), and placed them in a basket, in a reasonable imitation of the recommended method.

The trouble with the marble system really didn't begin until the playtest, and that's because, on the surface, the system appears fine. There are a number of charts used in Asylum -- for example, when generating characters, determining disorders (major illnesses) and aberrations (soon to be major illnesses), and determining your character's current level of insanity. The players draw, look at the chart (ah, blue and black -- there!), and determine the result. It sounds and should be simple.

The problem comes into play (and it did, in spades) when you attempt to apply the mechanic (actually, mechanics) involved. Here's the deal. The marbles are five different colors and, when drawing two at a time, not counting duplications (e.g., red, green -- green, red), there are 15 different possible combinations. But there is also a second system involved here. Each color also represents a number, from 1 to 5, giving you a possible numerical result of 2 to 10. This numerical system is actually used more often in the game, as it's the basis for the rather traditional task number system in Asylum. So, if you draw a white (a 5) and a black (a 1), the results could either be read as "6" (the numerical system) or as "white, black" (one of 15 possible color combinations). So far, so good.

These two mechanics work well in theory, but the problem comes into play in the following manner: most charts in the game list only color combinations, even the ones which apparently use the numerical system. For example, a green, green (two 3s, or a 6 total) is the numerical equivalent of a blue, red (a 4 and a 2), but the applicable chart would list only green, green. Thus, when the player draws a blue, red, it's simply not on the chart, and the gamemaster is left scrambling, wondering what is going on. This amuses players, but not the gamemaster. For example, the disorder table in character generation has ten possible outcomes (apparently the numerical system is intended for use here), but the list uses only color combinations as guides, meaning that 5 color combinations aren’t listed. This meant that character generation (which should probably take no more than twenty or so minutes) took almost an hour for my players, as they drew (then reshuffled), and drew (then reshuffled), and drew (then reshuffled), color combinations which simply weren't listed. I finally stopped play, bemused, sent everyone to get chips and soda, and sat down with a pencil and figured out what was really supposed to be going on with these tables.

Note that the problem isn't really with the system, it's with the charts. If the charts had included numbers where applicable (or simply said "use number values for this chart"), there would have been no confusion. The way it stands, the players and gamemaster will need to learn the numerical values for the colors and guess correctly which table uses which system. Better yet, they could use dice, which would be faster. I'm not saying that Clockworks should chuck their marble-based system, just that the charts could have used more individual explanation.

THIS JUST IN! My wife (the smart one) just pointed out to me that, in the explanation of the marble system, the author comments that in tables using the numeric, ten option system they would list only the first possible combination, instead of all of them. So, I must recant. The system rules are, in fact, explained at the beginning (with a chart, even), but even so, the players and gamemaster will still need to memorize colors and values and then determine which tables use which of the two possible systems. This is unnecessarily confusing, when simply listing number values on each chart as applicable would have avoided any confusion.

Character generation (once you get beyond the system issue) is a snap. Characters have 5 stats (rated 1 to 5 each, either chosen from a point pool or a single-marble draw), an occupation (if they want it), a disorder (drawn or chosen), an aberration (drawn if the character has no occupation), a small point pool from which the player can draw knacks (costing points), faults (giving points), or quirks (costing points), or status (costing or giving points). Knacks are simply advantages, faults are faults, quirks are actually minor mental disorders (such as a phobia), and status selections give the character a higher or lower status in the inmate community. The generation system is straightforward, and while minmaxing is possible, the setting itself provides gamemaster tools to handle power gamers, so it's not a major concern. While I was surprised that Quirks (minor disorders) cost, rather than give, points, the experience system is based largely on roleplaying your disorders well, so perhaps quirks give the character an edge on gaining experience.

Other notables about the system include the fact that bullets and pills are used as currency in the game, a nice touch, since pills (given out daily with the food) and guns (tossed out to inmates for recreational purposes) are both useful in game terms and omnipresent. In playtest I noticed with amusement and appreciation that the players were very reluctant to part with their hard-won bullets just to fire a few shots at someone. While some equipment and services lists are provided in Asylum, the setting is intended to create a situation where occupations and the economy are really recreational in focus (they're something to do), as characters will already have food provided by the Ward. Items, for the most part, are easy to come by, and wealth isn’t a primary focus for character development. The system uses a modified hit point system for combat, which works reasonably well, and provides for penalties as characters grow more wounded. The skill system is straightforward as well, with skills ranked 1 to 5, with 5s being quite rare. Combat is also simple and fast, using a task-number based system for hits and hit location. Damage is a constant based in most instances on a character's Zeal (strength) stat. Except for the problems mentioned above, the charts in the game are clear, straightforward, and useful.

The book continues with an educational discussion of the history, nature, and treatment of insanity (which begins as fact-based but has a fictional ending), then provides a gamemaster's guide for Ill-Ward (formerly Chicago), which contains a reasonable amount of detail regarding places and powers-that-be. The book concludes with two scenarios: a peremptory rescue adventure (which I used for the playtest), and a longer, campaign-level scenario involving politics and a struggle for power among several major factions in the Ward.

My playtest for Asylum went well, after we smoothed over those system and chart-related problems. The players (new to the game, obviously) liked the setting, and, given the "light" nature of the rules, the game tended to be quite wide-ranging and free-form. The players particularly enjoyed roleplaying their disorders, which created some inherent (and often humorous) conflict among the characters. A significant characteristic about roleplaying with Asylum is that, since all the characters are insane, the conflict in the game is, more often than not, NOT combat-based, but rather based upon inner struggles (e.g., do I want to touch this slimy sewer grate?) with personal disorders. This was a refreshing change of pace in a roleplaying game.

The players did offer some insights, however. All enjoyed the setting as one worth exploring, but each remarked about the absence of incentive for players to keep playing over time. Indeed, Asylum contains experience and aging rules which ensure that all characters will eventually become unplayably insane, which is a grim ultimate outcome. The author remarks in Asylum that he kept the paranormal and supernormal out of the game because he wanted to keep the game focused on insanity, and on the relative powerlessness of the inmates. However, some sort of professional or factional development or opportunity for players is a must to keep player interest, and hopefully Clockworks will provide supplements containing such opportunities for player empowerment of some sort, perhaps paranormal (which would be interesting), or perhaps simply rules for playing the sane in an insane world (also an interesting idea). In the interim, it falls to gamemasters to do this, but with the system's broad-brush rules and well-designed setting, it shouldn't be too difficult a task.

There is a lot of good gaming material in Asylum, particularly the setting, which is certainly a departure from the norm (no pun intended). If the gamemaster can work the system out to his liking, Asylum contains great opportunities for finding education and entertainment in roleplaying insanity in Earth's future twilight.

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

Asylum
Author: Aaron Rosenberg Category: Company/Publisher: Clockworks Cost: $20.00 Page count: 176 Playtest Review by Elliot Rushing on 11/30/97. Genre tags: none	Asylum, published by Clockworks, is a roleplaying game set in a futuristic world where humanity has lost its collective grip on sanity, and the majority of the world's population lives in Wards, city-sized secure areas where the population of inmates is fed, watched, and treated by the Warden and his charges, the Staff and the Orderlies. The game's setting has a dark, fatalistic tone, and the players are individual inmates struggling to survive both their stark physical surroundings and their inner personal demons. The game itself is a paperback work of 176 pages. The binding is relatively stout, and the game has a useful table of contents and a helpful index. The last two pages of the game contain useful charts and a sample character sheet. The artwork in the game is black and white (this may be planned), and generally along the lines of the type of artwork currently in vogue in new games post-White Wolf: altered photographs, line drawings, and graphic headers and footers on the pages. The art is not bad, even good in parts, but not thrilling -- I'm not going to critique the artwork, as I'm no artist, but in general terms there's some room for improvement here. That said, roleplaying's not really about artwork, either. The print (thankfully) is black on white, in readable type, in a magazine-like two column format. My only beef about the text is that it's justified, which tires the eyes after a while. That said, maybe the effect is intentionally planned -- after all, the game's about insanity. There is a series of linked fictional preludes to each major section of the book. The fiction isn't bad, which says a lot in this medium, and the fiction illustrates the setting well. The included setting is well designed and plausible, although very dark. Without giving too much away, a set of natural and man-made disasters resulted in ash and plant matter blotting out the sun, giving Earth an eternal shifting twilight, which drives everyone (that means everyone) eventually insane. Make no mistake, this game is about insanity -- there are no nifty technological devices, supernatural monsters, or magical powers in this game, although the characters (who are insane) may believe there are. The descriptions of the game world and its inhabitants are complete and interesting, and rightfully generate interest in playing -- roleplaying insanity is a challenging concept. In some instances, certain topics (e.g., the Fields, a near-mythical land where all the food is grown) seemed to be covered incompletely, but this isn't new in RPGs, and Clockworks may be planning some supplements. A reading of the setting generated active interest in playing the game, which in itself is an achievement. Asylum falls into the 'rules-light' faction of roleplaying, with a relatively free-form set of mechanics. Asylum, in essence, uses a "task number" system with a few modifications. The most obvious modification, and not necessarily a good one, is that Asylum requires the players to use marbles -- yes, marbles -- to generate random results. This is accomplished by placing two each of five different colored marbles (each color has a different value from 1 to 5) into a bag and pulling two marbles out at random -- a process called a Draw. The author avers to the "losing your marbles" concept when discussing the mechanic, and I can see the natural link there, but the marble system has its share of problems in Asylum. I did not have any marbles of my own (perhaps a danger sign there), so I marked 10 poker chips with color and value marks (e.g., "White, 5"), and placed them in a basket, in a reasonable imitation of the recommended method. The trouble with the marble system really didn't begin until the playtest, and that's because, on the surface, the system appears fine. There are a number of charts used in Asylum -- for example, when generating characters, determining disorders (major illnesses) and aberrations (soon to be major illnesses), and determining your character's current level of insanity. The players draw, look at the chart (ah, blue and black -- there!), and determine the result. It sounds and should be simple. The problem comes into play (and it did, in spades) when you attempt to apply the mechanic (actually, mechanics) involved. Here's the deal. The marbles are five different colors and, when drawing two at a time, not counting duplications (e.g., red, green -- green, red), there are 15 different possible combinations. But there is also a second system involved here. Each color also represents a number, from 1 to 5, giving you a possible numerical result of 2 to 10. This numerical system is actually used more often in the game, as it's the basis for the rather traditional task number system in Asylum. So, if you draw a white (a 5) and a black (a 1), the results could either be read as "6" (the numerical system) or as "white, black" (one of 15 possible color combinations). So far, so good. These two mechanics work well in theory, but the problem comes into play in the following manner: most charts in the game list only color combinations, even the ones which apparently use the numerical system. For example, a green, green (two 3s, or a 6 total) is the numerical equivalent of a blue, red (a 4 and a 2), but the applicable chart would list only green, green. Thus, when the player draws a blue, red, it's simply not on the chart, and the gamemaster is left scrambling, wondering what is going on. This amuses players, but not the gamemaster. For example, the disorder table in character generation has ten possible outcomes (apparently the numerical system is intended for use here), but the list uses only color combinations as guides, meaning that 5 color combinations aren’t listed. This meant that character generation (which should probably take no more than twenty or so minutes) took almost an hour for my players, as they drew (then reshuffled), and drew (then reshuffled), and drew (then reshuffled), color combinations which simply weren't listed. I finally stopped play, bemused, sent everyone to get chips and soda, and sat down with a pencil and figured out what was really supposed to be going on with these tables. Note that the problem isn't really with the system, it's with the charts. If the charts had included numbers where applicable (or simply said "use number values for this chart"), there would have been no confusion. The way it stands, the players and gamemaster will need to learn the numerical values for the colors and guess correctly which table uses which system. Better yet, they could use dice, which would be faster. I'm not saying that Clockworks should chuck their marble-based system, just that the charts could have used more individual explanation. THIS JUST IN! My wife (the smart one) just pointed out to me that, in the explanation of the marble system, the author comments that in tables using the numeric, ten option system they would list only the first possible combination, instead of all of them. So, I must recant. The system rules are, in fact, explained at the beginning (with a chart, even), but even so, the players and gamemaster will still need to memorize colors and values and then determine which tables use which of the two possible systems. This is unnecessarily confusing, when simply listing number values on each chart as applicable would have avoided any confusion. Character generation (once you get beyond the system issue) is a snap. Characters have 5 stats (rated 1 to 5 each, either chosen from a point pool or a single-marble draw), an occupation (if they want it), a disorder (drawn or chosen), an aberration (drawn if the character has no occupation), a small point pool from which the player can draw knacks (costing points), faults (giving points), or quirks (costing points), or status (costing or giving points). Knacks are simply advantages, faults are faults, quirks are actually minor mental disorders (such as a phobia), and status selections give the character a higher or lower status in the inmate community. The generation system is straightforward, and while minmaxing is possible, the setting itself provides gamemaster tools to handle power gamers, so it's not a major concern. While I was surprised that Quirks (minor disorders) cost, rather than give, points, the experience system is based largely on roleplaying your disorders well, so perhaps quirks give the character an edge on gaining experience. Other notables about the system include the fact that bullets and pills are used as currency in the game, a nice touch, since pills (given out daily with the food) and guns (tossed out to inmates for recreational purposes) are both useful in game terms and omnipresent. In playtest I noticed with amusement and appreciation that the players were very reluctant to part with their hard-won bullets just to fire a few shots at someone. While some equipment and services lists are provided in Asylum, the setting is intended to create a situation where occupations and the economy are really recreational in focus (they're something to do), as characters will already have food provided by the Ward. Items, for the most part, are easy to come by, and wealth isn’t a primary focus for character development. The system uses a modified hit point system for combat, which works reasonably well, and provides for penalties as characters grow more wounded. The skill system is straightforward as well, with skills ranked 1 to 5, with 5s being quite rare. Combat is also simple and fast, using a task-number based system for hits and hit location. Damage is a constant based in most instances on a character's Zeal (strength) stat. Except for the problems mentioned above, the charts in the game are clear, straightforward, and useful. The book continues with an educational discussion of the history, nature, and treatment of insanity (which begins as fact-based but has a fictional ending), then provides a gamemaster's guide for Ill-Ward (formerly Chicago), which contains a reasonable amount of detail regarding places and powers-that-be. The book concludes with two scenarios: a peremptory rescue adventure (which I used for the playtest), and a longer, campaign-level scenario involving politics and a struggle for power among several major factions in the Ward. My playtest for Asylum went well, after we smoothed over those system and chart-related problems. The players (new to the game, obviously) liked the setting, and, given the "light" nature of the rules, the game tended to be quite wide-ranging and free-form. The players particularly enjoyed roleplaying their disorders, which created some inherent (and often humorous) conflict among the characters. A significant characteristic about roleplaying with Asylum is that, since all the characters are insane, the conflict in the game is, more often than not, NOT combat-based, but rather based upon inner struggles (e.g., do I want to touch this slimy sewer grate?) with personal disorders. This was a refreshing change of pace in a roleplaying game. The players did offer some insights, however. All enjoyed the setting as one worth exploring, but each remarked about the absence of incentive for players to keep playing over time. Indeed, Asylum contains experience and aging rules which ensure that all characters will eventually become unplayably insane, which is a grim ultimate outcome. The author remarks in Asylum that he kept the paranormal and supernormal out of the game because he wanted to keep the game focused on insanity, and on the relative powerlessness of the inmates. However, some sort of professional or factional development or opportunity for players is a must to keep player interest, and hopefully Clockworks will provide supplements containing such opportunities for player empowerment of some sort, perhaps paranormal (which would be interesting), or perhaps simply rules for playing the sane in an insane world (also an interesting idea). In the interim, it falls to gamemasters to do this, but with the system's broad-brush rules and well-designed setting, it shouldn't be too difficult a task. There is a lot of good gaming material in Asylum, particularly the setting, which is certainly a departure from the norm (no pun intended). If the gamemaster can work the system out to his liking, Asylum contains great opportunities for finding education and entertainment in roleplaying insanity in Earth's future twilight. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)