The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Who says the world today lacks Christmas spirit? The folks at Deep7 certainly don't lack in Yuletide cheer, as they release Santa's Soldiers, their latest rpg and their first to be available in hardcopy. Appropriately available just in time for the holiday season, Santa's Soldiers is a tongue-in-cheek game inspired by those great Rankin-Bass Christmas specials.

Deep7 bills it as "a game of Christmas cheer, good will towards men, and very large guns". Indeed, the cover is graced by humorous art of commando elves wielding immense firearms. As with their 1page rpg's for sale as downloadable files, Santa's Soldiers is clearly designed to be a "rules lite" game, perfectly suitable for either novice players or as a break from more detail oriented systems.

I just love the premise behind the game. "Saving Christmas....by any means necessary. Join the OSN (Order of St. Nicholas) and save Christmas from the depredations of Santa's deadliest enemies". For those of you who take Christmas presents under your tree for granted, it's time you had a reality check. A war rages out there, fought by special teams of black op soldiers. The casualties are unknown to the public, victims of a desperate and unending fight to preserve Christmas. The primary combatants on the side of good are the OSN troops, highly trained elves who act as the defenders of Christmas cheer.

Your pc's are members of the OSN. During character generation, they decide if they want to be soldiers, commandos (infiltrators), mages, or support troops (reindeer handlers, medics, sleigh mechanics or pilots etc). Characters roll 3d6 for their primary stats-- Nimbleness, Strength, Cunning and Christmas Spirit (combination of luck, faith, and magical ability)--and then customize their skills by dividing points, the number determined by their Cunning score, among their skills. This is as difficult as character creation becomes.

The rules are straight-forward as well, taking up a mere 4 pages! Despite their simplicity, the rules work and are thoroughly inline with the tone of the genre. Actions are resolved by rolling a d20; any result that is lower than the score of a characters specified skill is a success. Combat is only marginally more difficult, as fun is stressed over rules.

In fact, I get the impression that author Bill Kte'pi would encourage characters to overcome the Abominable Snowman by taking advantage of it's fondness for pigs and it's ticklish weakness, as seen in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (as if I needed to tell you!), than through the use of guns.

Much of the book is taken up by important npc's. Santa is dealt with in depth, though he remains a mysterious figure. In a brilliant twist, Mrs.Claus is not the sweet old lady she pretends to be. Infact, she is a founding member of the OSN and a deadly efficient assassin who serves as Santa's bodyguard. "If you ever cross her, she will smile sweetly as she kicks your jiggly elf ass from one side of the workshop to the other".

Then there are the enemies. The Easter Bunny and Boogieman who represent the chief rivals to Santa, wish to further their own holidays while destroying the appeal of Christmas. More sinister is the Anti-Claus, who represents a long-forgotten summer holiday. He is a sadist with perhaps only a sliver of sanity remaining, served by an army of broken or discarded toys. Other antagonists include the Grunch, a green-furred monster who hates Christmas and it's cheerfulness; Strange Men in Dark Suits, who believe Santa and his minions are Aliens; and the shadowy Vatican cabal known as True Meaning of Christmas (TMC), who view Santa as their main opponent in reminding the world that Christmas is a Holy Day.

The game is completed by an introductory adventure, Dead Letter Office, wherein OSN operatives must travel to a small town which no-longer believes in Santa Claus and investigate the cause of this aberration. There they learn that the gun-toting postmaster is to blame. He recently found an undelivered letter in the Dead Letter office, a letter he wrote as a child. He decided, therefore, that Santa must be a fraud, and so held back all letters to Santa. As a result, the towns children have stopped believing in Santa. Though only three pages long, it's plot is fun and presents some interesting obstacles for the pc's. Open ended, it can be resolved in several fashions.

The quality of Santa's Soldiers is high, especially so for it's relatively inexpensive pricetag of $9.99. The cover becomes a gm screen, complete with all the rules and charts one might need during the course of game play. The artwork is cartoony, and if not great, certainly appropriate to the genre. Much of it looks computer generated. The writing, which is clear and often humorous, makes for a great read on it's own. My sister, a definite non-gamer, picked it up and was soon chuckling at the tongue-in-cheek world developed by Kte'pi.

In fact, my sister was so enthused she has asked to play a session over the holidays (this is a true story!!!). It is my hope that Santa's Soldiers will be a Christmas tradition in my house, a fun way to bring my gaming group and our non-gaming spouses and siblings together over the holidays. In it's own little way then, Santa's Soldiers will be fostering the true spirit of Christmas, as well introducing new people to the hobby. For that I applaud Deep7. Here's hoping there's a copy of Santa's Soldiers under every little gamers tree!