The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I like Dante. I really do have to start by saying that. So when I saw a game based on Inferno my first reaction was to go "Hey, cool! I want that." and when I flipped through it all looked fine. So there I found myself a week later buying it and eagerly packing myself off to my trip to Europe with it where I planned to spend a blissful vacation with what I hoped was going to be a great game.

My god was I wrong.

At first glance, Abyss looks quite good. The pictures on the front and back cover are enticing, as is the rather difficult to read writing on the back. In the inside cover is a quote from Dante, a rather good one dealing with the gates of Hell. All is fine so far.

Next up is the in character description of the Nine Layers of the Abyss. Not to bad. A bit hard to read in parts, but it happens. So it goes on through a brief look at character creation, then the templates. I really liked the templates. I thought they were pretty neat and some of the concepts were nice. Then we get into the meat of the character creation section. And that is where it all goes to hell, both literally and figurativly.

The character creation system is based around Soul Points, which are sort of like character points except you don't know how many you have. The attribute system has at it's core uses three "Vitalities" as it's main source. YOu divide and multiply and add and subtract and everything from them to get your attributes. Way to much work, if you ask me. Then there's your skills. They're fairly comprehensive, which isn't to bad.

Then they explain how you roll.

Basically, you end up rolling way more d6's than you have ever probably needed to roll at one time before, and your whole objective is to get at least one six. Yes, that's right. A six is a success, that is, one six is a marginal, average success. Is it just me, or does anyone else remember when sixes used to mean GOOD things in d6 based games? Anyway, I digress. The difficulty of a situation takes dice away from your pool. That sort of makes sense. But you still have to roll a 6 to get a success. So that covers skills.

Now onto Powers. Powers are special abilities, like Merits in White Wolf. They cost Soul Points. Some of the powers, like True Sight, are kind of cool. But the costs make no sense. It costs the same to be able always know what direction you're going as it does to cause armour, metal, and flesh to rot and putrify within moments.

Then there's weaknesses, which aren't very well fleshed out. Simply put, they're not very good.

Then theres the "Arcane" magic spells and the "Mental" Magic spells. Ie Magic and Psionics. Now the main problem that I found upon reading them was this: there are about 3 or 4 non-combat non-damage dealing spells, and about 4 or 5 psionic powers that are the same. This is out of 15 or 20 magic spells and about 10 or 12 psionic powers. That's worse than the ratio of damaging to non-damaging spells in Dungeons and Dragons.

Then theres the combat system, which I will not go into as I have vowed upon my life and honour not to read it, as I have this sinking feeling that it will be even worse than the rest of the book.

Now, after all the system stuff, there is finally a whole load of descriptions of the Abyss. These are pretty much the only good part of the book. It's 39 pages of setting material. I like it. If you're willing to pay $25 for 39 pages, it would make a half-decent D&D campaign setting. But other than that, that's about all the book is good for.

In conclusion, Abyss has got to be one of the worst games I have ever come into contact with.

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Abyss
Author: Marco Pecota and Wes Johnson Category: game Company/Publisher: Global Games Line: Abyss Cost: $25 Can. Page count: 160 ISBN: 1-896983-00-6 SKU: 800 Capsule Review by Pzrtal on 09/07/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Horror Gothic	I like Dante. I really do have to start by saying that. So when I saw a game based on Inferno my first reaction was to go "Hey, cool! I want that." and when I flipped through it all looked fine. So there I found myself a week later buying it and eagerly packing myself off to my trip to Europe with it where I planned to spend a blissful vacation with what I hoped was going to be a great game. My god was I wrong. At first glance, Abyss looks quite good. The pictures on the front and back cover are enticing, as is the rather difficult to read writing on the back. In the inside cover is a quote from Dante, a rather good one dealing with the gates of Hell. All is fine so far. Next up is the in character description of the Nine Layers of the Abyss. Not to bad. A bit hard to read in parts, but it happens. So it goes on through a brief look at character creation, then the templates. I really liked the templates. I thought they were pretty neat and some of the concepts were nice. Then we get into the meat of the character creation section. And that is where it all goes to hell, both literally and figurativly. The character creation system is based around Soul Points, which are sort of like character points except you don't know how many you have. The attribute system has at it's core uses three "Vitalities" as it's main source. YOu divide and multiply and add and subtract and everything from them to get your attributes. Way to much work, if you ask me. Then there's your skills. They're fairly comprehensive, which isn't to bad. Then they explain how you roll. Basically, you end up rolling way more d6's than you have ever probably needed to roll at one time before, and your whole objective is to get at least one six. Yes, that's right. A six is a success, that is, one six is a marginal, average success. Is it just me, or does anyone else remember when sixes used to mean GOOD things in d6 based games? Anyway, I digress. The difficulty of a situation takes dice away from your pool. That sort of makes sense. But you still have to roll a 6 to get a success. So that covers skills. Now onto Powers. Powers are special abilities, like Merits in White Wolf. They cost Soul Points. Some of the powers, like True Sight, are kind of cool. But the costs make no sense. It costs the same to be able always know what direction you're going as it does to cause armour, metal, and flesh to rot and putrify within moments. Then there's weaknesses, which aren't very well fleshed out. Simply put, they're not very good. Then theres the "Arcane" magic spells and the "Mental" Magic spells. Ie Magic and Psionics. Now the main problem that I found upon reading them was this: there are about 3 or 4 non-combat non-damage dealing spells, and about 4 or 5 psionic powers that are the same. This is out of 15 or 20 magic spells and about 10 or 12 psionic powers. That's worse than the ratio of damaging to non-damaging spells in Dungeons and Dragons. Then theres the combat system, which I will not go into as I have vowed upon my life and honour not to read it, as I have this sinking feeling that it will be even worse than the rest of the book. Now, after all the system stuff, there is finally a whole load of descriptions of the Abyss. These are pretty much the only good part of the book. It's 39 pages of setting material. I like it. If you're willing to pay $25 for 39 pages, it would make a half-decent D&D campaign setting. But other than that, that's about all the book is good for. In conclusion, Abyss has got to be one of the worst games I have ever come into contact with. Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 3 (Average)