The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Let me describe to you an interesting little set of "universal" role-playing rules I picked up the other day. It's a little $12 book called "Story Engine: Universal Rules" by Hubris Games. 102 pages, only 53 of which are actual rules. 6-sided dice required but not included.

Let's start off with a comprehensive overview of the system (you may want to print this out if possible):

Characters

Character creation is handled in 8 easy steps. Let's go through them and make up a sample character, say Luke Skywalker when we first meet him in "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope":

1. Concept:

Luke's concept: "A farmboy from the remote planet Tatooine who is touched by destiny."

2. Race and Gender:

Luke's race and gender: "Humanoid male, about 20 years old"

3. Choose 3 Descriptors:

Descriptors are things that most describe major characteristics of your character. Players are encouraged to be creative when creating their descriptors. Descriptors can be a single word, or a short sentence. Luke's descriptors: "Seeks Adventure, Very Handy with Machines, Wiry and Nimble"

4. Choose a Quirk:

A Quirk is basically the same as a Descriptor, but it describes a negative characteristic of the character. Luke's Quirk: "Rash and Naive"

5. Assign your Descriptors and Quirks to Aspects:

All action in the game is governed according to four Aspects (Mind, Matter, Spirit and Chaos).

Each scene in the game can be described by one of the Aspects; for example a typical fight scene or escape from a pit would be of the Matter aspect, a political debate, romantic seduction or sorcerer's duel would be a Mind scene, clerical ritual magic or convincing steely mercenaries to join the Rebellion would be a Spirit scene, and wild, uncontrolled action that depends mainly on luck, like a chaotic bar brawl, or barnstorming your T-16 skyhopper down Beggar's Canyon would be a Chaos scene.

When the player assigns his Descriptors and Quirks to aspects, they are defining the context that those descriptors are viewed in. For example, if one of your descriptors was "quick as a snake", you could assign it the Matter aspect and it would mean that your character is very agile and dextrous, while if you assigned it the Mind aspect, it would mean that your character thinks quickly. It all depends on how the player wants to define the character.

Luke's assignments: "Seeks Adventure (Spirit), Very Handy with Machines (Mind), Wiry and Nimble (Matter), Rash and Naive (Spirit)" (you'll notice that Luke has no Chaos aspect descriptors. That's OK, it's just how it worked out)

6. Choose your Trait Affinities:

This is a fancy way of saying "choose skills". Trait Affinities are areas that your character is skilled or talented in. They have up to 3 levels (Weak, Mild and Strong). Players have 3 levels to allocate when they create their character, so you could have 3 Weak Traits, 1 Mild and 1 Weak Trait, or 1 Strong Trait. Luke's Trait Affinities: "Piloting (Strong)" (you have to remember, Luke wasn't very skilled at anything else when we first met him)

7. Choose a Cultural and a Gift Affinity:

Now the player chooses a Cultural Affinity, which defines what type of cultural background the character has. For example, a "20th Century American" would be familiar with driving a car, using the Internet, and knowing what the Super Bowl is. However, the character would be a real "fish out of water" if forced to live with Maori tribesmen in the deep jungle.

Also, each character can choose a Gift Affinity, which is basically an "advantage". Gifts vary wildy in usefulness and power, but a general rule is that the more powerful the gift is, the more restictions or sacrifices are placed on the character using them. Gift Affinities are highly dependent on the genre of game being played. In a fantasy campaign, things like Sorcery and Clerical Magic could be gifts, as well as more modest things like Infravision or Invisibility in Deep Forest. In a spy game, gifts would tend to be more modest, semi-realistic things like Affability, Toughness or Iron Will. The bottom line is, the Gifts should reflect the genre of the game.

Luke's Cultural and Gift Affinities: "Outer Rim Territories, The Force (Force-Sensitive)"

(The Force is a good example of a Gift Affinity created specifically for a certain genre. Many Gifts are just "blanket statements" like Infravision, which basically means that the character can see in the dark. A Gift like The Force is an example a more powerful, but more restrictive Gift. In this case, The Force is defined by differing levels of mastery, from Force-Sensitive to Apprentice (Padawan Learner) to Jedi Knight to Jedi Master. Each level brings with it the cumulative ability to use certain special powers. The character gains additional levels by spending Story (experience) points. In the case of The Force there is also the added restriction that The Force must always be used for good or the character risks falling to the temptation of the Dark Side, and that a character with The Force tends to shine like a beacon to others with The Force, whether good or evil. All in all, an good example of a very powerful Gift that brings with it many restrictions that the player must contend with to develop it to it's full potential.)

8. Write it all down and give yourself a Story Point:

Now the player records all of their choices and also records one Story Point. Story Points are the "experience points" of the Story Engine and are used in a few different ways.

First and foremost, they can be saved up to buy new descriptors, raise (or buy new) Traits, or buy new Cultural or Gift Affinities. Additionally, they can be spent during the game to buy back "burnt" descriptors (more on that in a moment), soak up damage (at a cost), or affect the story in a creative way (for example: in a spy game, the player has been stranded in the middle of the of the desert by his arch foe. After struggling through the desert, the spy is confronted by hostile nomads, who are going to summarily execute the infidel. With no escape possible, the resourceful player decides to spend a Story Point and declares that as the scimitar is being raised over his neck, he looks up and finds that the headsman is no other than his old friend Achnad, an Arab operative that he worked with on a Cold War mission to Afghanistan many years ago. Achnad realizes the mistake and drops the sword, and the two long lost friends are reunited amidst much ululating and laughter from the swarthy nomads.)

Luke has 1 Story Point.

Now Luke Skywalker is ready to play!

Action

All action in the Story Engine is handled in a unique method that does not break the action down into "turns" or "segments", but rather handles things in complete "scenes" which are tailored to the flow of the story. Most scenes in the game are considered Open Scenes, which require no dice rolling, just roleplaying. For example, walking into a seedy Mos Eisley cantina, ordering a drink and chatting with the other patrons does not require any dice rolling. However, when one of those patrons decides that you need a lesson in respect for his deadly reputation, things suddenly change: a fight scene is about to break out! Now we've moved from an Open Scene to a Rolled Scene. A Rolled Scene is used anytime that the characters have a chance of failing or being injured by the events of the scene.

In a Rolled Scene, the Narrator describes what is going on. The Players describe what their characters will do in response, what their goal is in the scene. The Narrator decides the Difficulty for the scene (Easy, Hard, Very Hard, Extremely Hard, or Impossible), and the scenes Aspect (Mind, Matter, Spirit, Chaos). The characters then figure out their Dice Pool for the scene at hand. The Dice Pool is equal to:

Base Die + Aspect Total + Burned Descriptors + Extra Dice

Base Die: all characters get one free die

Aspect Total: add up all the descriptors the character has that match the Aspect of the scene (for example, in a Matter aspect scene, like a firefight, Luke would have an Aspect total of 1 as only one of his descriptors, "Wiry and Nimble", is of the Matter aspect.)

Burned Descriptors: a character has the option to "burn" descriptors (of any aspect) for the scene to get extra dice. Each descriptor can only be burned once per game session. To burn a descriptor, the player must define why the descriptor gives him a bonus in the scene, so Luke could say that during the firefight he nimbly keeps on the move, making it difficult for the stormtroopers to zero in on him (he's burning his "Wiry and Nimble" descriptor). This would get him 1 extra dice.

Extra Dice: extra dice can be awarded by the Narrator for things like superior strategy or weapons, circumstances, etc. For example, if Luke has the high ground during the firefight, and is trying to hold the troopers off while his friends escape, he'd get an extra die as a bonus for this tactical advantage. If, however, Luke was foolhardedly running down a corridor alone against 30 troopers, chances are the troopers would get a bonus die for the circumstances.

Once you know the Dice Pool, the player then rolls that number of 6-sided dice. Any dice that come up with an odd number are counted as successes. The number of successes are compared to the Difficulty (Easy (1), Hard (2), Very Hard (4), Extremely Hard (6), Impossible (9)) of the scene, and if there are more successes than the difficulty, the player succeeds. If any dice come up as 1, they can be rolled again... if they come up as an odd number, they count as additional successes. If they come up as a 1 again, they count as an additional success and you can keep rolling!

Any Traits that the character has that can be applied to the task at hand count as automatic successes... a Weak trait is good for 1, a Mild trait for 2, and a Strong trait for 3.

Keep in mind that if a group of characters are working together toward a single goal, they can ADD their dice pools together for the scene! Typically, in a fight situation, all characters on each side will add all of their dice into a single pool and roll against the combined dice of their opponents.

Success and failure are rated by how many successes you earn in relation to the difficulty... if you get just as many successes as you need, then you barely succeeded in your task. If you score 4 or more successes than you need, then you have succeeded spectacularly! The same goes for failure.. if you just failed by 1, then you barely failed, but if you fail by 4 or more, then you are probably in deep trouble!

If the action in the scene is actively opposed by another character or force, like a fight or a debate, instead of using a Difficulty number, the two sides roll their Dice pools against each other, with the highest number of successes determining the winner. Injuries are determined by the amount of successes that the player succeded or failed the roll by... in a fight, if the player scored 2 more successes than his opponent, then the opponent suffers 2 wound levels, and vice versa. Each player has 5 wound levels, Healthy, Bruised, Injured, Out, and Dead. In the cases of groups fighting against each other, wounds suffered are divided among the members of the groups either randomly, by volunteer (very noble), or by common sense based on the circumstances.

Ties are handled by a Tiebreaker round that intensifies the action as each side pulls out all the stops to succeed (I won't go into the detail of that here).

Whichever side succeeds in a Rolled Scene gets to describe in detail (and within reason) what happened during the scene!

The biggest thing to remember about the action of the Story Engine is that it is played out as "scenes" instead of "turns". In the example of a bar fight, the one roll will determine who was the winner of the fight, regardless of how many actual punches were thrown. This is fine for most common encounters in a role playing adventure, but the narrator also has the option to extend scenes into "sequences", where a single scene is split into separate sub-scenes for more important, or climactic situations. A good example of this would be the final space battle in "Star Wars": the first scene of the battle is the X- and Y-wings making their initial approach and softening up the defensive batteries near the target area, the second scene of the battle would be the dogfighting between the Rebels and newly launched TIE Fighters, while the third scene would be the final trench run that could possibly destroy the Death Star. The Rebels would have to survive each scene to make it to the next.

Overall, that's how the system works. There are a few other details, like Quick Takes that characters can perform during a scene to influence the outcome, ways to bring the background to life using the "Props & Sets" rules, and a few other details, but they are all just modifiers to the system I described above.

The Story Engine will work well for most any genre, with a little work from a dedicated and clever Narrator. Just over the course of writing this review I've had a plethora of ideas for a "Star Wars" Story Engine game (as if you couldn't tell).

Personnally, I really like the Story Engine. I've always leaned toward systems that aspire to simulate the "spirit" of adventure rather than those that seek to simulate "reality". This game is all about form over function, with the numbers just serving as a general guide to the description of the outcome of events.

Like all "storytelling" systems, this game is not for everyone. It takes a special group of players to deal with the open-endedness afforded by the letter of the rules... players whose main focus is on telling a thrilling story, and not just on personal improvement (I'm convinced that such a beast exists... I'm just not sure that I've ever actually encountered it). Players aren't the only ones who'll have to be on the ball in the Story Engine... regardless of the simple structure of the rules, it will take a powerfully clever Narrator with an impeccable sense of pace and objectivity to take full advantage of the system. Honestly, I hope I'm up to the challenge!

Minor criticisms: the book is pretty plainly laid out, and sparsely illustrated with old engravings and what appear to be illustrations recycled from Hubris Games other roleplaying product "Maelstrom" (which, incidentally, was the "first edition" of the Story Engine rules). Overall, pretty drab, but the book is short enough that more illustrations would have probably been unneccessary. Just would have liked to see more variety in the illustrations chosen... it would have reinforced the idea that this was a "universal" rukes system.

Major Criticism: almost half of the book is taken up by "background material" that ranges from the useless "fiction" "Should I Die before I Wake" (which presumably was included as an adventure hook of some kind) to the interminably long "Maelstrom Plug-In" which ostensibly is an example of defining a setting for a Story Engine game, but reads more like a commercial for their "Maelstrom" product line. Especially damning is this passage from the beginning of the "Maelstrom" plug-in:

"The Plug-In adds rules for Flux Levels, the Storm, the Magical Gift Affinity and Kael. You'll need to be familiar with the Maelstrom world to use these rules, best described in "Maelstrom Storytelling" (HG1001) and "Dacartha Prime" (HG1004)." So basically, I'd have to buy their other books to get any use out of the "plug-in" included in the Story Engine book. Add that to the fact that the 2 semi-complete adventure scenarios in the Story Engine book are set, you guessed it, in the "Maelstrom" world. If I wanted to play "Maelstrom", I would've bought "Maelstrom", folks. I would've rated the "substance" of Story Engine as "Meaty" if half the book would not have been wasted on this mostly useless material, as it is, I can't go any higher than "Average". I hope that this is correected in any possible future editions of Story Engine... heck, even a Tolkien rip-off fantasy "plug-in" would have been more useful than what's in there now.

In closing, Story Engine is an ingenious little storytelling system with more claims to "universality" than most generic rules systems like GURPS or the Hero System. With a group of roleplayers more interested in adventure than statistics, it will be a real hit. All others should probably take a pass and stick to their tape measures and slide rules....

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Story Engine: Universal Rules
Author: Christian Aldridge Category: game Company/Publisher: Hubris Games Line: None Cost: $12.00 Page count: 102 ISBN: 0-9660736-0-3 SKU: HG1000 Capsule Review by Rod Phillips on 10/17/99. Genre tags: Generic	Let me describe to you an interesting little set of "universal" role-playing rules I picked up the other day. It's a little $12 book called "Story Engine: Universal Rules" by Hubris Games. 102 pages, only 53 of which are actual rules. 6-sided dice required but not included. Let's start off with a comprehensive overview of the system (you may want to print this out if possible): Characters Character creation is handled in 8 easy steps. Let's go through them and make up a sample character, say Luke Skywalker when we first meet him in "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope": 1. Concept: Luke's concept: "A farmboy from the remote planet Tatooine who is touched by destiny." 2. Race and Gender: Luke's race and gender: "Humanoid male, about 20 years old" 3. Choose 3 Descriptors: Descriptors are things that most describe major characteristics of your character. Players are encouraged to be creative when creating their descriptors. Descriptors can be a single word, or a short sentence. Luke's descriptors: "Seeks Adventure, Very Handy with Machines, Wiry and Nimble" 4. Choose a Quirk: A Quirk is basically the same as a Descriptor, but it describes a negative characteristic of the character. Luke's Quirk: "Rash and Naive" 5. Assign your Descriptors and Quirks to Aspects: All action in the game is governed according to four Aspects (Mind, Matter, Spirit and Chaos). Each scene in the game can be described by one of the Aspects; for example a typical fight scene or escape from a pit would be of the Matter aspect, a political debate, romantic seduction or sorcerer's duel would be a Mind scene, clerical ritual magic or convincing steely mercenaries to join the Rebellion would be a Spirit scene, and wild, uncontrolled action that depends mainly on luck, like a chaotic bar brawl, or barnstorming your T-16 skyhopper down Beggar's Canyon would be a Chaos scene. When the player assigns his Descriptors and Quirks to aspects, they are defining the context that those descriptors are viewed in. For example, if one of your descriptors was "quick as a snake", you could assign it the Matter aspect and it would mean that your character is very agile and dextrous, while if you assigned it the Mind aspect, it would mean that your character thinks quickly. It all depends on how the player wants to define the character. Luke's assignments: "Seeks Adventure (Spirit), Very Handy with Machines (Mind), Wiry and Nimble (Matter), Rash and Naive (Spirit)" (you'll notice that Luke has no Chaos aspect descriptors. That's OK, it's just how it worked out) 6. Choose your Trait Affinities: This is a fancy way of saying "choose skills". Trait Affinities are areas that your character is skilled or talented in. They have up to 3 levels (Weak, Mild and Strong). Players have 3 levels to allocate when they create their character, so you could have 3 Weak Traits, 1 Mild and 1 Weak Trait, or 1 Strong Trait. Luke's Trait Affinities: "Piloting (Strong)" (you have to remember, Luke wasn't very skilled at anything else when we first met him) 7. Choose a Cultural and a Gift Affinity: Now the player chooses a Cultural Affinity, which defines what type of cultural background the character has. For example, a "20th Century American" would be familiar with driving a car, using the Internet, and knowing what the Super Bowl is. However, the character would be a real "fish out of water" if forced to live with Maori tribesmen in the deep jungle. Also, each character can choose a Gift Affinity, which is basically an "advantage". Gifts vary wildy in usefulness and power, but a general rule is that the more powerful the gift is, the more restictions or sacrifices are placed on the character using them. Gift Affinities are highly dependent on the genre of game being played. In a fantasy campaign, things like Sorcery and Clerical Magic could be gifts, as well as more modest things like Infravision or Invisibility in Deep Forest. In a spy game, gifts would tend to be more modest, semi-realistic things like Affability, Toughness or Iron Will. The bottom line is, the Gifts should reflect the genre of the game. Luke's Cultural and Gift Affinities: "Outer Rim Territories, The Force (Force-Sensitive)" (The Force is a good example of a Gift Affinity created specifically for a certain genre. Many Gifts are just "blanket statements" like Infravision, which basically means that the character can see in the dark. A Gift like The Force is an example a more powerful, but more restrictive Gift. In this case, The Force is defined by differing levels of mastery, from Force-Sensitive to Apprentice (Padawan Learner) to Jedi Knight to Jedi Master. Each level brings with it the cumulative ability to use certain special powers. The character gains additional levels by spending Story (experience) points. In the case of The Force there is also the added restriction that The Force must always be used for good or the character risks falling to the temptation of the Dark Side, and that a character with The Force tends to shine like a beacon to others with The Force, whether good or evil. All in all, an good example of a very powerful Gift that brings with it many restrictions that the player must contend with to develop it to it's full potential.) 8. Write it all down and give yourself a Story Point: Now the player records all of their choices and also records one Story Point. Story Points are the "experience points" of the Story Engine and are used in a few different ways. First and foremost, they can be saved up to buy new descriptors, raise (or buy new) Traits, or buy new Cultural or Gift Affinities. Additionally, they can be spent during the game to buy back "burnt" descriptors (more on that in a moment), soak up damage (at a cost), or affect the story in a creative way (for example: in a spy game, the player has been stranded in the middle of the of the desert by his arch foe. After struggling through the desert, the spy is confronted by hostile nomads, who are going to summarily execute the infidel. With no escape possible, the resourceful player decides to spend a Story Point and declares that as the scimitar is being raised over his neck, he looks up and finds that the headsman is no other than his old friend Achnad, an Arab operative that he worked with on a Cold War mission to Afghanistan many years ago. Achnad realizes the mistake and drops the sword, and the two long lost friends are reunited amidst much ululating and laughter from the swarthy nomads.) Luke has 1 Story Point. Now Luke Skywalker is ready to play! Action All action in the Story Engine is handled in a unique method that does not break the action down into "turns" or "segments", but rather handles things in complete "scenes" which are tailored to the flow of the story. Most scenes in the game are considered Open Scenes, which require no dice rolling, just roleplaying. For example, walking into a seedy Mos Eisley cantina, ordering a drink and chatting with the other patrons does not require any dice rolling. However, when one of those patrons decides that you need a lesson in respect for his deadly reputation, things suddenly change: a fight scene is about to break out! Now we've moved from an Open Scene to a Rolled Scene. A Rolled Scene is used anytime that the characters have a chance of failing or being injured by the events of the scene. In a Rolled Scene, the Narrator describes what is going on. The Players describe what their characters will do in response, what their goal is in the scene. The Narrator decides the Difficulty for the scene (Easy, Hard, Very Hard, Extremely Hard, or Impossible), and the scenes Aspect (Mind, Matter, Spirit, Chaos). The characters then figure out their Dice Pool for the scene at hand. The Dice Pool is equal to: Base Die + Aspect Total + Burned Descriptors + Extra Dice Base Die: all characters get one free die Aspect Total: add up all the descriptors the character has that match the Aspect of the scene (for example, in a Matter aspect scene, like a firefight, Luke would have an Aspect total of 1 as only one of his descriptors, "Wiry and Nimble", is of the Matter aspect.) Burned Descriptors: a character has the option to "burn" descriptors (of any aspect) for the scene to get extra dice. Each descriptor can only be burned once per game session. To burn a descriptor, the player must define why the descriptor gives him a bonus in the scene, so Luke could say that during the firefight he nimbly keeps on the move, making it difficult for the stormtroopers to zero in on him (he's burning his "Wiry and Nimble" descriptor). This would get him 1 extra dice. Extra Dice: extra dice can be awarded by the Narrator for things like superior strategy or weapons, circumstances, etc. For example, if Luke has the high ground during the firefight, and is trying to hold the troopers off while his friends escape, he'd get an extra die as a bonus for this tactical advantage. If, however, Luke was foolhardedly running down a corridor alone against 30 troopers, chances are the troopers would get a bonus die for the circumstances. Once you know the Dice Pool, the player then rolls that number of 6-sided dice. Any dice that come up with an odd number are counted as successes. The number of successes are compared to the Difficulty (Easy (1), Hard (2), Very Hard (4), Extremely Hard (6), Impossible (9)) of the scene, and if there are more successes than the difficulty, the player succeeds. If any dice come up as 1, they can be rolled again... if they come up as an odd number, they count as additional successes. If they come up as a 1 again, they count as an additional success and you can keep rolling! Any Traits that the character has that can be applied to the task at hand count as automatic successes... a Weak trait is good for 1, a Mild trait for 2, and a Strong trait for 3. Keep in mind that if a group of characters are working together toward a single goal, they can ADD their dice pools together for the scene! Typically, in a fight situation, all characters on each side will add all of their dice into a single pool and roll against the combined dice of their opponents. Success and failure are rated by how many successes you earn in relation to the difficulty... if you get just as many successes as you need, then you barely succeeded in your task. If you score 4 or more successes than you need, then you have succeeded spectacularly! The same goes for failure.. if you just failed by 1, then you barely failed, but if you fail by 4 or more, then you are probably in deep trouble! If the action in the scene is actively opposed by another character or force, like a fight or a debate, instead of using a Difficulty number, the two sides roll their Dice pools against each other, with the highest number of successes determining the winner. Injuries are determined by the amount of successes that the player succeded or failed the roll by... in a fight, if the player scored 2 more successes than his opponent, then the opponent suffers 2 wound levels, and vice versa. Each player has 5 wound levels, Healthy, Bruised, Injured, Out, and Dead. In the cases of groups fighting against each other, wounds suffered are divided among the members of the groups either randomly, by volunteer (very noble), or by common sense based on the circumstances. Ties are handled by a Tiebreaker round that intensifies the action as each side pulls out all the stops to succeed (I won't go into the detail of that here). Whichever side succeeds in a Rolled Scene gets to describe in detail (and within reason) what happened during the scene! The biggest thing to remember about the action of the Story Engine is that it is played out as "scenes" instead of "turns". In the example of a bar fight, the one roll will determine who was the winner of the fight, regardless of how many actual punches were thrown. This is fine for most common encounters in a role playing adventure, but the narrator also has the option to extend scenes into "sequences", where a single scene is split into separate sub-scenes for more important, or climactic situations. A good example of this would be the final space battle in "Star Wars": the first scene of the battle is the X- and Y-wings making their initial approach and softening up the defensive batteries near the target area, the second scene of the battle would be the dogfighting between the Rebels and newly launched TIE Fighters, while the third scene would be the final trench run that could possibly destroy the Death Star. The Rebels would have to survive each scene to make it to the next. Overall, that's how the system works. There are a few other details, like Quick Takes that characters can perform during a scene to influence the outcome, ways to bring the background to life using the "Props & Sets" rules, and a few other details, but they are all just modifiers to the system I described above. The Story Engine will work well for most any genre, with a little work from a dedicated and clever Narrator. Just over the course of writing this review I've had a plethora of ideas for a "Star Wars" Story Engine game (as if you couldn't tell). Personnally, I really like the Story Engine. I've always leaned toward systems that aspire to simulate the "spirit" of adventure rather than those that seek to simulate "reality". This game is all about form over function, with the numbers just serving as a general guide to the description of the outcome of events. Like all "storytelling" systems, this game is not for everyone. It takes a special group of players to deal with the open-endedness afforded by the letter of the rules... players whose main focus is on telling a thrilling story, and not just on personal improvement (I'm convinced that such a beast exists... I'm just not sure that I've ever actually encountered it). Players aren't the only ones who'll have to be on the ball in the Story Engine... regardless of the simple structure of the rules, it will take a powerfully clever Narrator with an impeccable sense of pace and objectivity to take full advantage of the system. Honestly, I hope I'm up to the challenge! Minor criticisms: the book is pretty plainly laid out, and sparsely illustrated with old engravings and what appear to be illustrations recycled from Hubris Games other roleplaying product "Maelstrom" (which, incidentally, was the "first edition" of the Story Engine rules). Overall, pretty drab, but the book is short enough that more illustrations would have probably been unneccessary. Just would have liked to see more variety in the illustrations chosen... it would have reinforced the idea that this was a "universal" rukes system. Major Criticism: almost half of the book is taken up by "background material" that ranges from the useless "fiction" "Should I Die before I Wake" (which presumably was included as an adventure hook of some kind) to the interminably long "Maelstrom Plug-In" which ostensibly is an example of defining a setting for a Story Engine game, but reads more like a commercial for their "Maelstrom" product line. Especially damning is this passage from the beginning of the "Maelstrom" plug-in: "The Plug-In adds rules for Flux Levels, the Storm, the Magical Gift Affinity and Kael. You'll need to be familiar with the Maelstrom world to use these rules, best described in "Maelstrom Storytelling" (HG1001) and "Dacartha Prime" (HG1004)." So basically, I'd have to buy their other books to get any use out of the "plug-in" included in the Story Engine book. Add that to the fact that the 2 semi-complete adventure scenarios in the Story Engine book are set, you guessed it, in the "Maelstrom" world. If I wanted to play "Maelstrom", I would've bought "Maelstrom", folks. I would've rated the "substance" of Story Engine as "Meaty" if half the book would not have been wasted on this mostly useless material, as it is, I can't go any higher than "Average". I hope that this is correected in any possible future editions of Story Engine... heck, even a Tolkien rip-off fantasy "plug-in" would have been more useful than what's in there now. In closing, Story Engine is an ingenious little storytelling system with more claims to "universality" than most generic rules systems like GURPS or the Hero System. With a group of roleplayers more interested in adventure than statistics, it will be a real hit. All others should probably take a pass and stick to their tape measures and slide rules.... Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 3 (Average)