Phantom Survival Kit #1
The Phantom Survival Kits are a short series of stories, art, and general game ideas put together by Spectre Press, a small web-based company, with the assistance of a variety of authors and artists. All of the Phantom Survival Kits are zipped Adobe Acrobat files (PDFs), available to download from their site. A sample survival kit is free, but #1 (as reviewed in this article) costs a mere $5 (U.S.). You can download the zip, but without the password, you can't actually read the files.
First of all, to really put the kit to use, you have to download a short (136K) zip of the Phantom Conversion Rules. These rules are free and are only three pages long. With them, theoretically anything in a Phantom supplement can be converted to any other system.
The Rules Themselves
The Phantom conversion rules are pretty darn simple: it's a percentage of the existing stat in any given game. For instance, if a Phantom character is said to have 10% Muscle, then you would figure he would have 10% (.10 on your calculator) of the maximum for your game system. This percentage range does assume normal human maxima, however, and compensates by simply making monsters have more than 100% when appropriate. In such a fashion, a Phantom dragon might have, say 175% Muscle.
The point where this little system becomes thick is with weapons -- any attack's damage, for that matter -- and armor. In this case, the percentage is specifically remarked to be based off some existing value common in all games rather than just a flat minimum or maximum percentage. The reason, as explained in the Conversion Rules, is that most games randomize damage as rolls. The explanation for this is a little confusing. Roughly, 100% (S) would be 100% of the normal damage a basic sword does in your game, whereas 75% (S) would be an attack that does 75% of the basic sword damage of your game. Since most games have a basic long sword or close cousin thereof, even most science fiction games, it is used as the stock value to base your damage off of. However, it might be more efficient to work off the description of the item and tailor a bit to fit the power level defined in the Phantom template.
The advantage in this system, essentially, is that anything can be written into a framework of a few pages of rules, then placed in another system and fleshed out accordingly. If you're a Game Master like myself, who's gone "braindead" more than once trying to think of what mess to throw at your group, this is a blessing. The advantages that Phantom holds over other "generic" systems is that it's not really a system: you aren't dependent on buying any more rule books, you just buy supplements. The supplements really work with anything. If you have tried to convert d20/D&D ideas and notes to GURPS, you can see the headache involved, a headache that this completely circumvents.
The problem is, of course, in judging how you want to tweak the power level to make sure it does (or does not) fit the template given. Phantom doesn't make instant adventures, it is more like "for adventure, just add your game system". If you don't have a calculator or really hate number crunching -- although it's not serious number crunching, some people hate percentages -- it may really annoy you to work with converting the templates.
The Kit Itself
Each Phantom Survival Kit consists of six different articles of varying content. #1 is entirely centered on science fiction stories and settings, although with some work it could be tweaked.
First off, is the "Silver Bullet" article. The idea behind this article, told at the beginning of the description, is an "idea created to give you ideas", or a central point to build characters, adventures, or even campaigns from. This kit's "Silver Bullet" is a nasty little monster called a Thogrot, or Fletcher's Fiend. The artwork for this not-so-friendly creature is a well-executed -- can't say beautiful, or it wouldn't be well-executed -- piece, and includes a page of statistics in standard Phantom fashion and then a page of information. This page of info includes a full history of the discovery of the beast on an obscure world, its native terrain, and ways to use this monster in a story.
Next is an NPC villain for our perusal: Mr. Lance P. Bellwether. Mr. Bellwether is designed as an overarcing villain, complete with a huge financial empire and very tough android guards. Although described for a science fiction setting, he would be easily fit to a superhero setting... or, moving a bit further, making Mr. Bellwether a powerful Awakened agent of Mage: the Ascension's Syndicate would work very well. (HIT Marks fit the niche of his android guards as well.)
The "Thrilling Tales" section of the Survival Kit is a complete adventure, with an entire layout of events, villains, monsters, et cetera. Keeping with the focus of this Kit, the "U.N. Forgiven" adventure is science fiction but with a superheroic twist. Champions or Aberrant would probably be the best major game sytems to tailor this adventure. The background setting is fairly detailed, but not enough to overwhelm the "generic" element of all the Phantom materials. "U.N. Forgiven" has plenty of thought-provoking scenes and interesting description. The adventure also leaves plenty of tidbits open for future Phantom supplements to explore -- one of the villanous races has its information intentionally curtailed, for instance. The last two pages of the adventure are hex maps for the specific combat locations... which leads up to one of the little perks of the Survival Kits.
Included in this kit is a set of Disposable Heroes that work well with the maps in "U.N. Forgiven". The pictures are again consistent with the science fiction feel. There are two different files: a color and a black and white. For those who do not have a color printer able to handle heavy card stock, this is a small kindness showing that this is a company thinking about the capabilities of the people purchasing their products.
"U.N. Forgiven" is an okay adventure. It has plenty of gates left open, but it's not a sterling example of adventures. It is far better than some of the d20 adventures out there currently, however. In addition, for the few dollars being shelled out for this PDF, plus the facts that it comes with other materials and is not system-specific, it has its advantages over the mind-numbing myriad of dungeon hack adventures. The writing is also clear and consistent, with few errors.
The shining part of this Kit is the Chatterlings article. Like the "Silver Bullet" article, "The Chatterlings" is an article with accompanying monsters. However, unlike the Thogrot article, a long story is included in the form of a science fiction military interview transcript. The piece is very well written, with vivid imagery, giving not only a good idea of the dreaded Chatterlings themselves, but also a vivid composite image of the setting. Although statistics for the Chatterlings themselves are, of course, included in the Phantom style, the entire story and the notes with the creatures gives not only basic creature concepts, but an entire backdrop for them. Of all the parts of this Kit, this article is the best written, subtly detailed, and the story itself could easily be copied and given as a handout to players facing the disaster that the Chatterlings create. I felt that this short story, although not a full adventure, actually offered more than the full adventure given in this Kit, mainly because it has more story-type data that can be given to players.
Finally, to round out the little package, and fitting with the inclusion of the Disposable Heroes, is a Rogue's Gallery. This file is simply a package of pictures and basic character concepts that can be used for either Player or Non-Player Characters. These are primarily useful for the Game Master who enjoys using pictures for props in their games. As with the Disposable Heroes, Spectre is kind enough to put in both color and non-color versions of the files.
Overall, the Survival Kits appear to be designed towards filling a niche: making truly universal materials for Game Masters to use. While many games have attempted this -- Wizard's d20 and Steve Jackson Games' GURPS come to mind here -- the problem carried is that they are still geared towards a specific system. Phantom avoids that entire problem neatly, saving its customers money by not forcing the purchase of any particular system.
As far as this kit itself, I'd say that the package is a little light, but not a bad deal for five dollars. It would be better if there was a little more textual content. What there is, however, is very good quality, with little in the way of the technical errors that seem to plague the role-playing industry. The art is good, very good, but although pictures can convey words, they do not totally make up for them, especially when dealing with game mechanics and not just story. As said above, for the Game Master feeling lost or out of it, this little package can carry a GM a long way. You still have to add water to this mix, so if you purchase it, it's not just like buying your flat generic module that you can run the moment that you open it.
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