The Inside Scoop on Gaming

OVERVIEW

First and foremost, Children of Fire is available for free from http://www.mimgames.com, aka Methods in the Madness, the same people responsible for the Window generic role-playing system. However, Children of Fire is not supplemental or compatible with that system, and is intended to be a complete stand-alone game. It is available in both html and adobe format. The adobe version is 57 pages of two-column format written in a comfortable font, without any illustrations (the credits list Scott Lininger as illustrator, but I assume that means the excellent pieces found on the web-page). A seperate character sheet can also be printed up. It is much more graphic in nature than the rules, so much so that most slower machines can't manage it; be warned.

The document is a triumph of organization. Though it has no index, the table of contents is detailed and exhaustive (3 pages long, actually). The writing style is atmospheric yet concise, quickly conveying a myriad of ideas efficiently. Best yet, there is no gratuitous game fiction spacing out the chapters or padding up the first quarter of the game. Instead we are given a short section telling us what sources the author used for inspiration and guidance while writing the game. Honest-to-god designer notes; how refreshing. Its amusing to realize that if this was a White Wolf product, it would be about twice as long and half as informative.

THEMES & CONCEPTS

This is an angelic role-playing game; the characters are angels. Immortal servants of God. Foes of the Adversary. Defenders of Heaven and guides for mortal man. How else can I say it? Such a premise is extremely rich in potential, and can be used in any historical period or genre. However, these are not happiness-and-light angels of the fairy tale and Sunday school variety; they are modelled after the fearsome beings of Jewish tradition and old-testament lore, the "bringers of God's wrath" that would occaisonly blast a city or two from the face of the Earth. The game takes pains to point out that these angels are complex, basically juvenile creatures whose thoughts and motives are quite different from the human norm. Most of a character's stats are geared to enforcing this sort of characterization.

The game offers a variety of foes and plot motivators to choose from, including demons, antediluvian giant-spawn, the ever straying race of mankind and the occaisonal wayward angelic kin. But the prime motivator of games is always supposed to be the vibrant and excessive personalities of the angels themselves.

THE WORLD

The first third of the book is a fine gazeteer of the angelic setting. We are lead through a definition of what angels are, how they were created, what role they fill, what their history is, how they are organized and what are their nine greatest books of knowledge. Following that is an overview of the various types of fallen foes an angel may face (Sammael and his hordes, the above mentioned giant-kin and other such mortals). Next is a description of the seven levels of heaven, and finishing off the section is a roster of important angelic beings.

The most compelling thing about this section is that all the information is authentic; its not just some amalgamation of invented terms and mock-epic melodrama. The author, Mr. Wambach, got all the background from primary sources such as the Books of Enoch and translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Unusual details abound; Raquia (what we would call Hell) is the second level of Heaven, not its own underworld; Angels of Vengence are not particularly liked by the Almighty, but considered necessary; Since angels were created, not born, there are precisely 266,000,000 divine beings in existence. These and other such tidbits make it clear that the game was drawn from a background significantly different from the usual action-adventure genres.

CHARACTERS

Mechanically, character creation is a snap. Cenceptually, it could take hours. All characters start as members of the Choir of Angels, the lowest choir in divine hierarchy. The player chooses which of the six suggested Orders he will be a member of, a choice which will influence what his angelic role will be, what Powers (angelic abilities) he can choose from, and how much Grace (divine favor) he has. Choices range from the benign Guardian Angels to the terrible Angels of Vengence. Next he assigns points to his five Aspects (Attributes) and four Virtues. The Virtues (Justice, Prudence, Temperence and Fortitude) serve as guides of how well the angel is at controlling his passions and resisting temptation, a game concept that should be familliar to players of Pendragon. The player then chooses Powers from a shopping list that spans sixteen pages, including such friendly things as Calming the Savage Beast and Empathy, some more clearly divine ones such as granting Visions and bestowing Blessings, and a few thunder-crackers like Plague and Wrath of God. Now the character chooses three Temptations, things or situations which the angel is drawn to or fascinated by. Examples would include laughing children, forgotten lies or rainy days. On top of that comes Providence, that special area of creation of which the angel is most knowledgable and for which he gains a game bonus when dealing with it. The characters being mere angels, the players have to be quite specific; he can't be an an angel of dawn, but he could be an angel of 7:30am. Finally the character chooses a Signature; some appearance, action or association that always heralds the angels prescence, such as long red hair, a book he always carries, or only speaking in song. After jotting down the angel's Grace as determined by his Order and fleshing out the character's personality a bit, he's done.

Someone just banging through the steps and arbitrarily assigning Temptations, Providence and Signature could complete a character in under five minutes, but doing so would be a waste of the characterizations the system can offer, especially via those last three details. In fact they are the primary means of distinquishing the characters. Also, as compared to most other RPG characters, these angels are extremely powerful; they can travel anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye, are thoroughly immortal and can cause riots if they assume their true form among mortals. All these abilities are in addition to whatever Powers the character chooses to take. A new player may not quite realize what he is being presented with. Far worse would be if this game fell into the hands of munchkins. One limitting factor has been included however. As technology is a result of creation by man, not the Divine, it is not part of God's plan, ergo it is not part of an angel's inherent knowledge of the universe. Any angel, when faced with technology, will be at best unsure of its use, at worst totally uncomprehending. Angels with uzis will not be a problem.

GAME MECHANICS

The actual system part of the game is extremely loose. Discussions of mechanics, dice, combat and experience take all of five pages. Its a classic difficulty number system: roll two ten-siders, add the roll to the character's appropriate Aspect or Virtue and if the result meets or exceeds twenty, you succeed. The occaisonally more difficult task may require a higher number, but that's as complex as it gets. The rest of the "rules" are advice on how to handle common situations and frequent encouraements to use the dice as little as possible. Personally, I feel that such a freeform system is the only way to handle the subject matter deftly; the characters are capable of too much to try and include a rule for everything. Of course, I have a natural disposition to rules-light systems, and others (especially GURPSians) may find the rules far too sparse for their taste. Another point of contention may be that character advancement is entirely up to GM fiat and story flow and, since there aren't often openings to be found in the higher Choirs, its not gonna happen much. Anyone who games primarily to see their characters grow in level/skill/disciplines will be disappointed.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Children of Fire finishes off with a section focusing on Demons and the Children of Clay (humans) and then a couple pages on Storytelling (an unfortunate synonym for GMing, stolen from White Wolf and also haunting the Window). Since most of the story aspects of demons and mortals have been dealt with in other sections, their inclusion here is concerned mostly with how to handle them in terms of game mechanics. It is here that the game suffers from its only real kludge. Humans use an entirely different set of Aspects than Angels and instead of Glory, Temptations, Providence or Sigantures have Faith, Interests and Specialities. Now, I understand why this was done, and concede that it may have been the only way to simulate the differences between mortals and angels. But, it is quite annoying to have to remember the game effects of over twenty different attributes, many of which serve simillar, even indistinquishable functions.

The Storyteller section is brief but quite useful. After acknowledging that Children of Fire will be an unusual situation for most traditional gamers, the section goes on to offer advice on maintaining theme, what settings to use, how to organize a party and what kind of campaigns can be run. Not bad for two pages.

CONCLUSIONS

No, I've never played or read In Nomine, so no clever comparisons are forthcoming.

The sample game I ran was a blast, and proved that the light system was adequate to the task at hand. Most of the action revolved around the characters' reactions to each other and being pulled hither and yon by their various temptations; I didn't once need to generate stats for an NPC, so my one gripe with the system never became an issue. I don't think I would want to run a long campaign with Children of Fire, but it seems excellently suited to one shots and short epics.

I have not bothered to stress the most amazing aspect of this excellent little game, the fact that it is a completely free download of a GOOD game, not some business-major-sophomore's lame D&D clone. Support for the game already exists in the form of a mailing list and a supplement (Children of Clay, focusing on magic-using mortals and unfortunatley only available as a series of hyper-links so far). This is clearly a labor of love, a game written by someone not because they want to be famous or get rich but because they had a neat idea they wanted to share. I heartily recommend this game, and encourage anyone even mildly intriqued by its subject matter to give it a try.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Children of Fire
Author: Erich Wambach Category: game Company/Publisher: Methods in the Madness Line: Children of Fire Cost: free download Page count: 57 ISBN: NA SKU: NA Playtest Review by E.T.Smith on 04/10/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Historical Horror Gothic Superhero	OVERVIEW First and foremost, Children of Fire is available for free from http://www.mimgames.com, aka Methods in the Madness, the same people responsible for the Window generic role-playing system. However, Children of Fire is not supplemental or compatible with that system, and is intended to be a complete stand-alone game. It is available in both html and adobe format. The adobe version is 57 pages of two-column format written in a comfortable font, without any illustrations (the credits list Scott Lininger as illustrator, but I assume that means the excellent pieces found on the web-page). A seperate character sheet can also be printed up. It is much more graphic in nature than the rules, so much so that most slower machines can't manage it; be warned. The document is a triumph of organization. Though it has no index, the table of contents is detailed and exhaustive (3 pages long, actually). The writing style is atmospheric yet concise, quickly conveying a myriad of ideas efficiently. Best yet, there is no gratuitous game fiction spacing out the chapters or padding up the first quarter of the game. Instead we are given a short section telling us what sources the author used for inspiration and guidance while writing the game. Honest-to-god designer notes; how refreshing. Its amusing to realize that if this was a White Wolf product, it would be about twice as long and half as informative. THEMES & CONCEPTS This is an angelic role-playing game; the characters are angels. Immortal servants of God. Foes of the Adversary. Defenders of Heaven and guides for mortal man. How else can I say it? Such a premise is extremely rich in potential, and can be used in any historical period or genre. However, these are not happiness-and-light angels of the fairy tale and Sunday school variety; they are modelled after the fearsome beings of Jewish tradition and old-testament lore, the "bringers of God's wrath" that would occaisonly blast a city or two from the face of the Earth. The game takes pains to point out that these angels are complex, basically juvenile creatures whose thoughts and motives are quite different from the human norm. Most of a character's stats are geared to enforcing this sort of characterization. The game offers a variety of foes and plot motivators to choose from, including demons, antediluvian giant-spawn, the ever straying race of mankind and the occaisonal wayward angelic kin. But the prime motivator of games is always supposed to be the vibrant and excessive personalities of the angels themselves. THE WORLD The first third of the book is a fine gazeteer of the angelic setting. We are lead through a definition of what angels are, how they were created, what role they fill, what their history is, how they are organized and what are their nine greatest books of knowledge. Following that is an overview of the various types of fallen foes an angel may face (Sammael and his hordes, the above mentioned giant-kin and other such mortals). Next is a description of the seven levels of heaven, and finishing off the section is a roster of important angelic beings. The most compelling thing about this section is that all the information is authentic; its not just some amalgamation of invented terms and mock-epic melodrama. The author, Mr. Wambach, got all the background from primary sources such as the Books of Enoch and translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Unusual details abound; Raquia (what we would call Hell) is the second level of Heaven, not its own underworld; Angels of Vengence are not particularly liked by the Almighty, but considered necessary; Since angels were created, not born, there are precisely 266,000,000 divine beings in existence. These and other such tidbits make it clear that the game was drawn from a background significantly different from the usual action-adventure genres. CHARACTERS Mechanically, character creation is a snap. Cenceptually, it could take hours. All characters start as members of the Choir of Angels, the lowest choir in divine hierarchy. The player chooses which of the six suggested Orders he will be a member of, a choice which will influence what his angelic role will be, what Powers (angelic abilities) he can choose from, and how much Grace (divine favor) he has. Choices range from the benign Guardian Angels to the terrible Angels of Vengence. Next he assigns points to his five Aspects (Attributes) and four Virtues. The Virtues (Justice, Prudence, Temperence and Fortitude) serve as guides of how well the angel is at controlling his passions and resisting temptation, a game concept that should be familliar to players of Pendragon. The player then chooses Powers from a shopping list that spans sixteen pages, including such friendly things as Calming the Savage Beast and Empathy, some more clearly divine ones such as granting Visions and bestowing Blessings, and a few thunder-crackers like Plague and Wrath of God. Now the character chooses three Temptations, things or situations which the angel is drawn to or fascinated by. Examples would include laughing children, forgotten lies or rainy days. On top of that comes Providence, that special area of creation of which the angel is most knowledgable and for which he gains a game bonus when dealing with it. The characters being mere angels, the players have to be quite specific; he can't be an an angel of dawn, but he could be an angel of 7:30am. Finally the character chooses a Signature; some appearance, action or association that always heralds the angels prescence, such as long red hair, a book he always carries, or only speaking in song. After jotting down the angel's Grace as determined by his Order and fleshing out the character's personality a bit, he's done. Someone just banging through the steps and arbitrarily assigning Temptations, Providence and Signature could complete a character in under five minutes, but doing so would be a waste of the characterizations the system can offer, especially via those last three details. In fact they are the primary means of distinquishing the characters. Also, as compared to most other RPG characters, these angels are extremely powerful; they can travel anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye, are thoroughly immortal and can cause riots if they assume their true form among mortals. All these abilities are in addition to whatever Powers the character chooses to take. A new player may not quite realize what he is being presented with. Far worse would be if this game fell into the hands of munchkins. One limitting factor has been included however. As technology is a result of creation by man, not the Divine, it is not part of God's plan, ergo it is not part of an angel's inherent knowledge of the universe. Any angel, when faced with technology, will be at best unsure of its use, at worst totally uncomprehending. Angels with uzis will not be a problem. GAME MECHANICS The actual system part of the game is extremely loose. Discussions of mechanics, dice, combat and experience take all of five pages. Its a classic difficulty number system: roll two ten-siders, add the roll to the character's appropriate Aspect or Virtue and if the result meets or exceeds twenty, you succeed. The occaisonally more difficult task may require a higher number, but that's as complex as it gets. The rest of the "rules" are advice on how to handle common situations and frequent encouraements to use the dice as little as possible. Personally, I feel that such a freeform system is the only way to handle the subject matter deftly; the characters are capable of too much to try and include a rule for everything. Of course, I have a natural disposition to rules-light systems, and others (especially GURPSians) may find the rules far too sparse for their taste. Another point of contention may be that character advancement is entirely up to GM fiat and story flow and, since there aren't often openings to be found in the higher Choirs, its not gonna happen much. Anyone who games primarily to see their characters grow in level/skill/disciplines will be disappointed. EVERYTHING ELSE Children of Fire finishes off with a section focusing on Demons and the Children of Clay (humans) and then a couple pages on Storytelling (an unfortunate synonym for GMing, stolen from White Wolf and also haunting the Window). Since most of the story aspects of demons and mortals have been dealt with in other sections, their inclusion here is concerned mostly with how to handle them in terms of game mechanics. It is here that the game suffers from its only real kludge. Humans use an entirely different set of Aspects than Angels and instead of Glory, Temptations, Providence or Sigantures have Faith, Interests and Specialities. Now, I understand why this was done, and concede that it may have been the only way to simulate the differences between mortals and angels. But, it is quite annoying to have to remember the game effects of over twenty different attributes, many of which serve simillar, even indistinquishable functions. The Storyteller section is brief but quite useful. After acknowledging that Children of Fire will be an unusual situation for most traditional gamers, the section goes on to offer advice on maintaining theme, what settings to use, how to organize a party and what kind of campaigns can be run. Not bad for two pages. CONCLUSIONS No, I've never played or read In Nomine, so no clever comparisons are forthcoming. The sample game I ran was a blast, and proved that the light system was adequate to the task at hand. Most of the action revolved around the characters' reactions to each other and being pulled hither and yon by their various temptations; I didn't once need to generate stats for an NPC, so my one gripe with the system never became an issue. I don't think I would want to run a long campaign with Children of Fire, but it seems excellently suited to one shots and short epics. I have not bothered to stress the most amazing aspect of this excellent little game, the fact that it is a completely free download of a GOOD game, not some business-major-sophomore's lame D&D clone. Support for the game already exists in the form of a mailing list and a supplement (Children of Clay, focusing on magic-using mortals and unfortunatley only available as a series of hyper-links so far). This is clearly a labor of love, a game written by someone not because they want to be famous or get rich but because they had a neat idea they wanted to share. I heartily recommend this game, and encourage anyone even mildly intriqued by its subject matter to give it a try. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)