The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I followed Mr. Skarka's game design column here on RPGnet, just like most of the people reading this review now did. I read it, I enjoyed it, and I commented (and a lot of us who commented got an unexpected thank you in the book too, hats off to the Author for that) - then I bought the game at GenCon. From the column, I was expecting the game to have its moments but not blow my socks off, but when I bought it and flipped through it, my expectations actually dropped a fair bit. Then I read it, and I was quite surprised with how good it turned out. And no, that's not a veiled insult, it's actually a compliment to Gareth Skarka. He managed to sell me on an idea that I thought much more limited.

A game set entirely in the subways and sewers of a city? Seems really rather iffy at first. I mean, there isn't like some underground kingdom or ecology down there or anything, nothing really much to do, is there? Instead of the usual "magic in the shadows" kind of modern occult game, UnderWorld takes a bit more of a mythic track, trying to invoke images of a realm of gods and heroes and simple tales. For the most part, it succeeds. It stops short partly because it could have laid more emphasis and mood toward that end and partly because the game aims to be almost half a game, Skarka nearly forces the gamemaster (Conductor) to build their own game themselves. He provides the outline of a setting and the outline of the rules - do the rest yourself. Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes it's not, but it's definitely not for everyone.

The art is the first thing you notice about the game, and it's also the thing that really turned me off from it when I picked it up at the con. Starting with the cover from Christopher Shy and continuing until the end of the book, the illustrations are a complete grab-bag of talent and doodles not really fit to published. The cover is good, although I'm really beginning to wonder if Shy has developed some kind of allergy to all forms of light, since nearly all of his pictures are this dark. Flipping through the book you'll see great and okay pieces from Raven Mimura, some good but also rather mood-breaking pieces from Clayton Graham, and then a whole slew of something like half-finished sketches or complete works that are just downright bad from a number of other people. Most of the art at least shows some talent, but a lot of it is amateurish or simply unfinished, looking like design sketches. Not only that, but almost all of it seems to completely break the mood I was expecting from UnderWorld. Instead of mythic, dark, brooding and hidden horror, I saw comical adolescent and hip-hop punks. Very jarring, I must say. Some of it is bad, some of it is out of character, and a fair amount of it is both, like the gigantic war-scene in some crazy underground city. It would be neat if it was my friend showing me a picture he did during class, but not for something in a book I've paid money for. Art is supposed to convey the image of the author through another medium, a visual representation of "what the game should be." For some reason, I think that a lot of games have forgotten that of late. On the good art side, Hive steps in to do some photoshopped scene pictures (which I have to love if only because of the Sneaker Pimps quote on one) that are all very nice, but in the end UnderWorld is not that pretty a book.

As for the writing, it's pretty consistently good the whole way through. I found all of the fiction interesting and I was also entertained through even the brief rules sections. Speaking of the rules, I'm amazed at how well they worked, actually. Strongly in the rules-light camp (where I like to sleep at night, I must say), everything is resolved by the flipping of a coin. If you have an applicable skill or trait, you flip more coins, if a task is harder, you need more "heads." Pretty nice and simple, and something that I'd like to try out, to see it in play. Personally, I'd probably use a deck of cards and run much more fast-and-loose with skill titles and purviews, but the "Head Count" system seems fast, flexible and simple, all the things I value most in a system. Character creation is similarly quick and easy, although it's a little less flexible than I would like, and the Breeds and Guilds have a much greater influence on both character creation and the later rules system than I would prefer as well. Both are relatively easily fixed, however. The book also has a section on designing Salvage Tech (mad science gadgetry) that seems workable, although I haven't tried it. Charms, however, confuse me. Are they actions or objects? There are examples of both, but does an object Charm also include the knowledge of how to make it, because otherwise the purely action Charms seem a fair deal more powerful.

I quite enjoyed the setting. The Radiance (magic) has receded from the world, hiding only in dark places where no one looks, and then only because some force designed the subways in the patterns of great mystic sigils. In this environment of waxing and waning mystic energy, people in a world below ours try to live out their lives.There was no overt mention of "technology killed the magic" (although there was the implication), I hope that later books don't follow that up at all. That's a stereotypical path that I hope UnderWorld leaves alone. Instead, I hope that the game plays up it's "domain of myth" aspect - this is actually one game that I would like to see go epic. As it stands, however, Skarka provides you with a brief overview of the world beneath New York City, as well as a map of the subway. I would have liked some more UnderWorld-specific information on the map, even just hand-drawn pointers to the landmarks and locations described later. I've never been to NYC - I have no idea where all that stuff is. The Guilds and the Breeds are a bit of a bump in the setting, however. I didn't much like the categorization that the Breeds added to the setting (and unlike most people it seems, I'm also not a fan of the Ferals), but it's just a minor nit-pick issue. The Guilds, on the other hand, are artificial and contrived, but perfectly understandable as such if they are restricted to New York only. Fans of the game are probably standing up now screaming "BUT THAT'S THE WAY THE ARE!!" are their screens even now, and I don't disagree. The Guilds are just in New York, just as the entire book only talks about that city to any extent, but that's neither explicit enough nor detailed enough to make me completely accept the Guilds.

Simply taking them as they are presented in their one-page write-ups, they are generic character classes that span the game as a whole, not living, breathing organizations steeped in the history of the underworld of New York City. There are no mentions of founders, old politics, recent policies, rises in power, or falls from grace - all the things that make history seem real. It's that feeling or verisimilitude that is largely absent from the Guilds, but oddly fills the actual description of places around the underbelly of NYC which was a fair deal of detail and interconnection. Perhaps it's that dichotomy that grates on me so much, but the Guilds are definitely something that needs a great deal of development. As they stand the Guilds seem to be more dry classes than rich elements of the setting. A lot of the ideas for the game that I had when reading the book revolved around how I would have done the Guilds differently. I liked their brutally enforced economic monopoly but I would have liked more attention paid to them. A lot of ideas only really come into their own when deeply developed.

In the end, I can easily say that UnderWorld passed the most important test for a game: Did it give me ideas for a game and the desire to develop them? Yeah, it did. It got me thinking about running a game in my hometown of Boston, working in our own unique (and much more limited) subway system. While the book looks very unpolished (partly due to the printer error of a slew of blank pages at the end), UnderWorld turns out a much more solid game than it looks to be. My only real problems with the game are "further development" issues, and I'm certainly going to be keeping my eye on UnderWorld. It's a very easily molded game. Skarka wanted to make something that users will bend to their own will, and he succeeded.

Editor's Note: some of the original language of this review has been modified

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

UnderWorld
Author: Gareth Michael Skarka Category: game Company/Publisher: Synister Creative Systems Line: UnderWorld Cost: $19.95 Page count: 163 ISBN: 0-9700821-7-7 SKU: SCS-UW vs. 1.0 Capsule Review by Derek Guder on 09/10/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Modern day Horror Live-action	I followed Mr. Skarka's game design column here on RPGnet, just like most of the people reading this review now did. I read it, I enjoyed it, and I commented (and a lot of us who commented got an unexpected thank you in the book too, hats off to the Author for that) - then I bought the game at GenCon. From the column, I was expecting the game to have its moments but not blow my socks off, but when I bought it and flipped through it, my expectations actually dropped a fair bit. Then I read it, and I was quite surprised with how good it turned out. And no, that's not a veiled insult, it's actually a compliment to Gareth Skarka. He managed to sell me on an idea that I thought much more limited. A game set entirely in the subways and sewers of a city? Seems really rather iffy at first. I mean, there isn't like some underground kingdom or ecology down there or anything, nothing really much to do, is there? Instead of the usual "magic in the shadows" kind of modern occult game, *UnderWorld* takes a bit more of a mythic track, trying to invoke images of a realm of gods and heroes and simple tales. For the most part, it succeeds. It stops short partly because it could have laid more emphasis and mood toward that end and partly because the game aims to be almost half a game, Skarka nearly forces the gamemaster (Conductor) to build their own game themselves. He provides the outline of a setting and the outline of the rules - do the rest yourself. Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes it's not, but it's definitely not for everyone. The art is the first thing you notice about the game, and it's also the thing that really turned me off from it when I picked it up at the con. Starting with the cover from Christopher Shy and continuing until the end of the book, the illustrations are a complete grab-bag of talent and doodles not really fit to published. The cover is good, although I'm really beginning to wonder if Shy has developed some kind of allergy to all forms of light, since nearly all of his pictures are this dark. Flipping through the book you'll see great and okay pieces from Raven Mimura, some good but also rather mood-breaking pieces from Clayton Graham, and then a whole slew of something like half-finished sketches or complete works that are just downright bad from a number of other people. Most of the art at least shows some talent, but a lot of it is amateurish or simply unfinished, looking like design sketches. Not only that, but almost all of it seems to completely break the mood I was expecting from *UnderWorld. Instead of mythic, dark, brooding and hidden horror, I saw comical adolescent and hip-hop punks. Very* jarring, I must say. Some of it is bad, some of it is out of character, and a fair amount of it is both, like the gigantic war-scene in some crazy underground city. It would be neat if it was my friend showing me a picture he did during class, but not for something in a book I've paid money for. Art is supposed to convey the image of the author through another medium, a visual representation of "what the game should be." For some reason, I think that a lot of games have forgotten that of late. On the good art side, Hive steps in to do some photoshopped scene pictures (which I have to love if only because of the Sneaker Pimps quote on one) that are all very nice, but in the end *UnderWorld* is not that pretty a book. As for the writing, it's pretty consistently good the whole way through. I found all of the fiction interesting and I was also entertained through even the brief rules sections. Speaking of the rules, I'm amazed at how well they worked, actually. Strongly in the rules-light camp (where I like to sleep at night, I must say), everything is resolved by the flipping of a coin. If you have an applicable skill or trait, you flip more coins, if a task is harder, you need more "heads." Pretty nice and simple, and something that I'd like to try out, to see it in play. Personally, I'd probably use a deck of cards and run much more fast-and-loose with skill titles and purviews, but the "Head Count" system seems fast, flexible and simple, all the things I value most in a system. Character creation is similarly quick and easy, although it's a little less flexible than I would like, and the Breeds and Guilds have a much greater influence on both character creation and the later rules system than I would prefer as well. Both are relatively easily fixed, however. The book also has a section on designing Salvage Tech (mad science gadgetry) that seems workable, although I haven't tried it. Charms, however, confuse me. Are they actions or objects? There are examples of both, but does an object Charm also include the knowledge of how to make it, because otherwise the purely action Charms seem a fair deal more powerful. I quite enjoyed the setting. The Radiance (magic) has receded from the world, hiding only in dark places where no one looks, and then only because some force designed the subways in the patterns of great mystic sigils. In this environment of waxing and waning mystic energy, people in a world below ours try to live out their lives.There was no overt mention of "technology killed the magic" (although there was the implication), I hope that later books don't follow that up at all. That's a stereotypical path that I hope *UnderWorld* leaves alone. Instead, I hope that the game plays up it's "domain of myth" aspect - this is actually one game that I would like to see go epic. As it stands, however, Skarka provides you with a brief overview of the world beneath New York City, as well as a map of the subway. I would have liked some more *UnderWorld-specific information on the map, even just hand-drawn pointers to the landmarks and locations described later. I've never been to NYC - I have no idea where all that stuff is. The Guilds and the Breeds are a bit of a bump in the setting, however. I didn't much like the categorization that the Breeds added to the setting (and unlike most people it seems, I'm also not a fan of the Ferals), but it's just a minor nit-pick issue. The Guilds, on the other hand, are artificial and contrived, but perfectly understandable as such if they are restricted to New York only. Fans of the game are probably standing up now screaming "BUT THAT'S THE WAY THE ARE!!" are their screens even now, and I don't disagree. The Guilds are* just in New York, just as the entire book only talks about that city to any extent, but that's neither explicit enough nor detailed enough to make me completely accept the Guilds. Simply taking them as they are presented in their one-page write-ups, they are generic character classes that span the game as a whole, not living, breathing organizations steeped in the history of the underworld of New York City. There are no mentions of founders, old politics, recent policies, rises in power, or falls from grace - all the things that make history seem real. It's that feeling or verisimilitude that is largely absent from the Guilds, but oddly fills the actual description of places around the underbelly of NYC which was a fair deal of detail and interconnection. Perhaps it's that dichotomy that grates on me so much, but the Guilds are definitely something that needs a great deal of development. As they stand the Guilds seem to be more dry classes than rich elements of the setting. A lot of the ideas for the game that I had when reading the book revolved around how I would have done the Guilds differently. I liked their brutally enforced economic monopoly but I would have liked more attention paid to them. A lot of ideas only really come into their own when deeply developed. In the end, I can easily say that *UnderWorld* passed the most important test for a game: Did it give me ideas for a game and the desire to develop them? Yeah, it did. It got me thinking about running a game in my hometown of Boston, working in our own unique (and much more limited) subway system. While the book looks very unpolished (partly due to the printer error of a slew of blank pages at the end), *UnderWorld* turns out a much more solid game than it looks to be. My only real problems with the game are "further development" issues, and I'm certainly going to be keeping my eye on *UnderWorld. It's a very easily molded game. Skarka wanted to make something that users will bend to their own will, and he succeeded. Editor's Note: some of the original language of this review has been modified* Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 4 (Meaty)