The Inside Scoop on Gaming

"Paranoids. Sociopaths. Pyros. Kleptos. Delusionals. They're all here - and you're one of them."
- from the back cover of Asylum

Asylum is a game about insanity. Whatever else individual campaigns might be about - science fiction apocalyptica, personal freedom, factional power struggles - the core of the game is insanity. This makes Asylum unique (though there are obvious predecessors and influences), and also difficult.
      Asylum is 176 pages, and seems solidly bound. The text is easily legible, black-on-white, though justified, and in some places unaccountably centered. Most of the text is organized in two columns of around 250 words per column (which puts the word per page count somewhat below some of the random rpg books I just picked off my shelf). There are many charts that are easy to read, and error free. There are minor typographical errors in the text (some "of"s that should be "or"s). There is a dark outer margin that perhaps lowers word/page count, but makes for a nice, clean layout.
       There is also a bottom margin graphic to each page, a different one for each chapter. This graphic, like all the art in the book, falls into two objective categories: photos (altered or not), and line drawings. The art in the book also falls into two subjective categories: the good, and the ones that look like they were done during game time and were never improved upon. (I want to explain that this doesn't mean that the only mediocre art in the book were the drawings.) I believe that the art in an rpg book should be thrilling (making one want to play the game), interesting (making one curious about the game), or evocative (making one understand the game, or the setting). This book certainly does have some good art from all of these artificial categories that I just made up, but it also has a few too many pieces of mediocre art. (Don't take my word for it; see it for yourself.)
      Each chapter also begins with a two page episode of a short story based in this world. I thought it was quite good, and everything I want in game-related fiction; it was thrilling, interesting, and evocative (though not in that order).

Setting, pp. 7-46

The setting is clearly laid out in this chapter, starting with a much needed history of the future. In 2003 volcanic eruptions led to a new mutation of algae colonizing the upper atmosphere, blocking out the sun. Nothing could be done, and the sunlight-deprived people started developing mental aberrations. At first, city-sized insane asylums ("Wards") were created in the U.S. (nothing is known of the rest of the world), while sunlamps on timers were used so that crops could be grown in the Midwest (renamed "Fields"). Things became worse, and the end result is that today, in the year 2163, almost everyone is in one of the fourteen wards - as either an inmate, or as staff (who are also crazy). There are also Lunatics in the Wasteland between the Wards, and there is the almost-mythical Fields, where there's sunlight. One last note on the setting is that everyday there is a shipment of food from Fields to the Wards; because of this, brute survival is not the main driving force, as it might be in other post-apocalyptic settings.
Included in this section is a lot of the information that one would need to run a game in one of the Wards. There is information on history, ecology (things haven't stayed the same now that there's perpetual twilight), Ward lingo, daily life (currency is either bullets, or doses; there's electricity, but no oil), clothing fashions, religious fashions, social groups (such as the Shallow People, a collection of egomaniacs, and the Factors, essentially a Wasteland biker gang), living expenses, the staff. Then there's also information on some places that each Ward has - the Lounge, the Mall, the walls. And there's a page on the Lunatic Fringe, the people who live in the "suburbs" of a Ward. All in all, I think this is probably the best chapter of the book, giving enough information to run a game in any of the Wards, while still leaving a lot of area for GM control.

System, pp. 47-62

Compared to the setting for Asylum, the system is rather ordinary. Which I don't think is a bad thing. If a system is not in some way evocative of the game, then it should at least be easy to understand. I believe this system is fairly easy for the experienced player. The core mechanic of this game is stat or skill added to randomly generated number versus a set target number or opponent's stat/skill plus random number. Here the random number is generated by pulling marbles out of a bag, which is where this system does gain some style points. Most of the time, the marbles are just numbers, but sometimes the combinations of colors of the marbles are important. Besides the use of marbles, everything should be familiar: initiative, knockout damage, off-hand use. This is also the chapter where one can find information on the effects of the many drugs that are on the Ward street.

Character, pp. 63-110

In the System chapter we read about Zeal and Lucidity, here's where we get to see what those mean. (Hmm, perhaps some reorganization, or perhaps even a game-term lexicon would be helpful.) This is also the biggest chapter because here's all the information on madness. There are three-and-a-half pages on disorders (constantly active), and seven-ish pages on aberrations (which have their severity rolled for at the beginning of each scene). Then there's the stats. Here is another place that I thought Asylum stood out. Each of the four stats has a certain element of the physical related to it, but each is tightly tied to the idea of a character's mental capabilities. As an example, there's no Dexterity, but there is Fluidity, which is a measure solely of how quickly one can act on a thought.
      Here's also a bad typo in the Resistance (i.e., hit points) section: total resistance is Zeal (your energy stat) x 20, with information on where in the body those points are. However, through the rest of the book total resistance for NPCs is Zeal x 15, with their body breakdown adding up to Zeal x 20. Okay, so maybe it's not a world-shattering typo, but it is the worst I found in the book.
       There's information on skills and occupations (if you keep busy, you're probably not as insane), and then other defining things (Merits and Flaws is the way I'm used to thinking of them). There are Quirks, which are eccentricities, Knacks (like Iron Digestion), Faults (like Speech Loss), and positive and negative Status features (like Respected or Hunted). Attitude is another defining matter, with no game-related effects; it's a one word/quote descriptor of your personality (which seems very helpful for NPCs, slightly less helpful for PCs). Most of this is how you would imagine it to be - you pay points for the good things, and gain points for the bad things. Except for Quirks, which seem like bad things (or even just personality related things, that is, things that affect your roleplaying, but not your rolling), but that you pay for. Now, in other games you might take such a quirk to enhance your roleplaying, and to get more experience points because you can always say to the GM, "I roleplayed my _____phobia." But there's already so much to roleplay in this game, and there aren't any special awards explicitly mentioned for Quirks - and I can also imagine this sort of roleplaying nightmare scenario where the GM turns and says "No, you can't be Agoraphobic, you don't have enough points." I think, in my game, I would not have players pay for Quirks, if I allowed them at all.
       At the end of the chapter comes character generation rules, a sample character generation, six example characters, rules for advancement (where both your skills and your level of insanity can go up), and a sample session. The session is amusing because it provides a view of what much of the game looks like it will be about - the character's fight against his own impulses, and, when he loses that fight, against the rest of the party.

On Insanity, pp. 111-126

This is a well-researched chapter on the history of insanity, and the history of the asylum, and it's got a surprise ending: what seemed like an out-of-game chapter, is really an in-character document. Except it's not really. Nowhere but at the end does anything hint that this is being written by someone who is suffering from the many things he seems to be suffering from at the end. (Well, truth be told, it doesn't sound like he's suffering from his disorders, more like he's enjoying them.)
As well-researched as this chapter may be, except for a little bit at the beginning that talks about how rational insane people are if their insanity were reality, I don't think it's necessary in a rpg book. I think this space could have been used better for a description of a Ward, or of the rest of the world, or of anything setting related.

Handling Play, pp. 127-144

Another chapter that I wasn't thrilled with, this has information on establishing atmosphere, common themes, and some advice on running the game (some of which was quite good). There's also a few charts for random encounters, a few pages on how character age affects things, a note on the paranormal (it's not here because it doesn't fit in), and a list of inspirations on film. Kind of what you expect from a small chapter on handling play - about half useful, I thought. I say this because about half of it was so generic as to be common sense to the non-neophyte gamer - and who starts with this game? The really good stuff was very specific to this game.

IllWard, pp. 145-156

Thrilling at only nine pages (eleven minus two for story). Now you know why I was unforgiving with some of the above chapters - I wanted more like this. IllWard is Chicago, and this chapter does in miniature what the first chapter did in macro. There's history, environment (what the place is like now), important locations, and major groups. Now, a lot of the information on this Ward could probably be made by anybody, and a large part of why I find it interesting might be that I've never been to Chicago. (Since I've never been there I would never have thought of building the walls around the highways, so the idea seems brilliant to me.) But I think a lot of it is original - it's some of the best ideas from the first chapter, some twisted, to make a wonderful setting.
But I do sort of wish this chapter was on New York.

Episodes, pp. 157-170

Two scenarios, both nominally in IllWard. A rescue and a fight for control of the Ward. I liked them both. The information given was on possible timetables, and major NPCs, giving the GM - and the PCs - a lot of freedom as to what really happens. I liked them both, as adventures, and as sources of more information on IllWard and on how groups of the insane work together.

Conclusion

Avoiding all bipolar and dissociative jokes, I have mixed feelings about this book, and this game. I didn't enjoy all of the art, or all of the chapters. There were many places were I wanted to know more about the setting. (What sort of animals live in the Wastelands? Who is the Directorate that appoints the Wardens to each Ward?) Then I also have this curiosity/worry about the ability of any group of crazy people to work together through any sort of traditional adventure plot.
However, after all those issues are mentioned, I also have to say that the core setting is fascinating, the possibilities for character are unlimited, the system is solid. I did enjoy many of the chapters and many of the pieces of art. And even the vague details of some of the setting served more to inspire my imagination than to paralyze it with fear of the officially unknown. I think more than anything it is this sense of freedom to create that I will take away from this. For the interesting nature of the setting, a setting both well-defined and open to GM tinkering, I think Asylum is worth looking at.

For another opinion on this game, see here.

Asylum
Asylum Capsule Review by Benjamin Blattberg on 12/06/01 Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 4 (Meaty) An inventive setting and a lot of possibilities can be strangely liberating. Product: Asylum Author: Aaron Rosenberg Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Clockworks Line: Cost: $20.00 Page count: 176 Year published: 1996 ISBN: SKU: 0010 Comp copy?: yes Capsule Review by Benjamin Blattberg on 12/06/01 Genre tags: Science Fiction Post-apocalyse	"Paranoids. Sociopaths. Pyros. Kleptos. Delusionals. They're all here - and you're one of them." - from the back cover of Asylum Asylum is a game about insanity. Whatever else individual campaigns might be about - science fiction apocalyptica, personal freedom, factional power struggles - the core of the game is insanity. This makes Asylum unique (though there are obvious predecessors and influences), and also difficult. Asylum is 176 pages, and seems solidly bound. The text is easily legible, black-on-white, though justified, and in some places unaccountably centered. Most of the text is organized in two columns of around 250 words per column (which puts the word per page count somewhat below some of the random rpg books I just picked off my shelf). There are many charts that are easy to read, and error free. There are minor typographical errors in the text (some "of"s that should be "or"s). There is a dark outer margin that perhaps lowers word/page count, but makes for a nice, clean layout. There is also a bottom margin graphic to each page, a different one for each chapter. This graphic, like all the art in the book, falls into two objective categories: photos (altered or not), and line drawings. The art in the book also falls into two subjective categories: the good, and the ones that look like they were done during game time and were never improved upon. (I want to explain that this doesn't mean that the only mediocre art in the book were the drawings.) I believe that the art in an rpg book should be thrilling (making one want to play the game), interesting (making one curious about the game), or evocative (making one understand the game, or the setting). This book certainly does have some good art from all of these artificial categories that I just made up, but it also has a few too many pieces of mediocre art. (Don't take my word for it; see it for yourself.) Each chapter also begins with a two page episode of a short story based in this world. I thought it was quite good, and everything I want in game-related fiction; it was thrilling, interesting, and evocative (though not in that order). Setting, pp. 7-46 The setting is clearly laid out in this chapter, starting with a much needed history of the future. In 2003 volcanic eruptions led to a new mutation of algae colonizing the upper atmosphere, blocking out the sun. Nothing could be done, and the sunlight-deprived people started developing mental aberrations. At first, city-sized insane asylums ("Wards") were created in the U.S. (nothing is known of the rest of the world), while sunlamps on timers were used so that crops could be grown in the Midwest (renamed "Fields"). Things became worse, and the end result is that today, in the year 2163, almost everyone is in one of the fourteen wards - as either an inmate, or as staff (who are also crazy). There are also Lunatics in the Wasteland between the Wards, and there is the almost-mythical Fields, where there's sunlight. One last note on the setting is that everyday there is a shipment of food from Fields to the Wards; because of this, brute survival is not the main driving force, as it might be in other post-apocalyptic settings. Included in this section is a lot of the information that one would need to run a game in one of the Wards. There is information on history, ecology (things haven't stayed the same now that there's perpetual twilight), Ward lingo, daily life (currency is either bullets, or doses; there's electricity, but no oil), clothing fashions, religious fashions, social groups (such as the Shallow People, a collection of egomaniacs, and the Factors, essentially a Wasteland biker gang), living expenses, the staff. Then there's also information on some places that each Ward has - the Lounge, the Mall, the walls. And there's a page on the Lunatic Fringe, the people who live in the "suburbs" of a Ward. All in all, I think this is probably the best chapter of the book, giving enough information to run a game in any of the Wards, while still leaving a lot of area for GM control. System, pp. 47-62 Compared to the setting for Asylum, the system is rather ordinary. Which I don't think is a bad thing. If a system is not in some way evocative of the game, then it should at least be easy to understand. I believe this system is fairly easy for the experienced player. The core mechanic of this game is stat or skill added to randomly generated number versus a set target number or opponent's stat/skill plus random number. Here the random number is generated by pulling marbles out of a bag, which is where this system does gain some style points. Most of the time, the marbles are just numbers, but sometimes the combinations of colors of the marbles are important. Besides the use of marbles, everything should be familiar: initiative, knockout damage, off-hand use. This is also the chapter where one can find information on the effects of the many drugs that are on the Ward street. Character, pp. 63-110 In the System chapter we read about Zeal and Lucidity, here's where we get to see what those mean. (Hmm, perhaps some reorganization, or perhaps even a game-term lexicon would be helpful.) This is also the biggest chapter because here's all the information on madness. There are three-and-a-half pages on disorders (constantly active), and seven-ish pages on aberrations (which have their severity rolled for at the beginning of each scene). Then there's the stats. Here is another place that I thought Asylum stood out. Each of the four stats has a certain element of the physical related to it, but each is tightly tied to the idea of a character's mental capabilities. As an example, there's no Dexterity, but there is Fluidity, which is a measure solely of how quickly one can act on a thought. Here's also a bad typo in the Resistance (i.e., hit points) section: total resistance is Zeal (your energy stat) x 20, with information on where in the body those points are. However, through the rest of the book total resistance for NPCs is Zeal x 15, with their body breakdown adding up to Zeal x 20. Okay, so maybe it's not a world-shattering typo, but it is the worst I found in the book. There's information on skills and occupations (if you keep busy, you're probably not as insane), and then other defining things (Merits and Flaws is the way I'm used to thinking of them). There are Quirks, which are eccentricities, Knacks (like Iron Digestion), Faults (like Speech Loss), and positive and negative Status features (like Respected or Hunted). Attitude is another defining matter, with no game-related effects; it's a one word/quote descriptor of your personality (which seems very helpful for NPCs, slightly less helpful for PCs). Most of this is how you would imagine it to be - you pay points for the good things, and gain points for the bad things. Except for Quirks, which seem like bad things (or even just personality related things, that is, things that affect your roleplaying, but not your rolling), but that you pay for. Now, in other games you might take such a quirk to enhance your roleplaying, and to get more experience points because you can always say to the GM, "I roleplayed my _____phobia." But there's already so much to roleplay in this game, and there aren't any special awards explicitly mentioned for Quirks - and I can also imagine this sort of roleplaying nightmare scenario where the GM turns and says "No, you can't be Agoraphobic, you don't have enough points." I think, in my game, I would not have players pay for Quirks, if I allowed them at all. At the end of the chapter comes character generation rules, a sample character generation, six example characters, rules for advancement (where both your skills and your level of insanity can go up), and a sample session. The session is amusing because it provides a view of what much of the game looks like it will be about - the character's fight against his own impulses, and, when he loses that fight, against the rest of the party. On Insanity, pp. 111-126 This is a well-researched chapter on the history of insanity, and the history of the asylum, and it's got a surprise ending: what seemed like an out-of-game chapter, is really an in-character document. Except it's not really. Nowhere but at the end does anything hint that this is being written by someone who is suffering from the many things he seems to be suffering from at the end. (Well, truth be told, it doesn't sound like he's suffering from his disorders, more like he's enjoying them.) As well-researched as this chapter may be, except for a little bit at the beginning that talks about how rational insane people are if their insanity were reality, I don't think it's necessary in a rpg book. I think this space could have been used better for a description of a Ward, or of the rest of the world, or of anything setting related. Handling Play, pp. 127-144 Another chapter that I wasn't thrilled with, this has information on establishing atmosphere, common themes, and some advice on running the game (some of which was quite good). There's also a few charts for random encounters, a few pages on how character age affects things, a note on the paranormal (it's not here because it doesn't fit in), and a list of inspirations on film. Kind of what you expect from a small chapter on handling play - about half useful, I thought. I say this because about half of it was so generic as to be common sense to the non-neophyte gamer - and who starts with this game? The really good stuff was very specific to this game. IllWard, pp. 145-156 Thrilling at only nine pages (eleven minus two for story). Now you know why I was unforgiving with some of the above chapters - I wanted more like this. IllWard is Chicago, and this chapter does in miniature what the first chapter did in macro. There's history, environment (what the place is like now), important locations, and major groups. Now, a lot of the information on this Ward could probably be made by anybody, and a large part of why I find it interesting might be that I've never been to Chicago. (Since I've never been there I would never have thought of building the walls around the highways, so the idea seems brilliant to me.) But I think a lot of it is original - it's some of the best ideas from the first chapter, some twisted, to make a wonderful setting. But I do sort of wish this chapter was on New York. Episodes, pp. 157-170 Two scenarios, both nominally in IllWard. A rescue and a fight for control of the Ward. I liked them both. The information given was on possible timetables, and major NPCs, giving the GM - and the PCs - a lot of freedom as to what really happens. I liked them both, as adventures, and as sources of more information on IllWard and on how groups of the insane work together. Conclusion Avoiding all bipolar and dissociative jokes, I have mixed feelings about this book, and this game. I didn't enjoy all of the art, or all of the chapters. There were many places were I wanted to know more about the setting. (What sort of animals live in the Wastelands? Who is the Directorate that appoints the Wardens to each Ward?) Then I also have this curiosity/worry about the ability of any group of crazy people to work together through any sort of traditional adventure plot. However, after all those issues are mentioned, I also have to say that the core setting is fascinating, the possibilities for character are unlimited, the system is solid. I did enjoy many of the chapters and many of the pieces of art. And even the vague details of some of the setting served more to inspire my imagination than to paralyze it with fear of the officially unknown. I think more than anything it is this sense of freedom to create that I will take away from this. For the interesting nature of the setting, a setting both well-defined and open to GM tinkering, I think Asylum is worth looking at. For another opinion on this game, see here.

Asylum

"Paranoids. Sociopaths. Pyros. Kleptos. Delusionals. They're all here - and you're one of them." - from the back cover of Asylum