The Inside Scoop on Gaming

NOCTURNE is a brief supplement for the British modern horror RPG PRINCIPIA MALEFEX. The booklet is 31 pages long, comb-bound, with light card stock covers and no internal artwork, coming at a cost of £3.99 including UK shipping and handling. Contents include three adventures, a detective agency for use in your campaign, notes on running the game, and an expanded character sheet.

The book opens with a short contents list, the standard disclaimer and a short piece of prose entitled "Afterwards", apparently dealing with the aftermath of a suicide attempt in the 1st person. This nicely sets the tone for the world of Principia Malefex, which is basically terribly depressing.

The Site

The first adventure in the book details shenanigans at an archaeological site in Chester, threatened by new road construction. The set up for the adventure is good; there's a nicely atmospheric description of the site and its contents, and some pleasingly plausible red herrings. The character descriptions are believably mundane, adding to the "everyday world" feeling of Malefex. However, the adventure is really let down by the plot, or lack of it. There's no real drama here, and if the players are particularly sharp, they can end the adventure very rapidly indeed. That said, with some work, I can see the adventure being used as a nice change of pace for just about any modern horror game.

The Lost

The second adventure opens with an advisory to the GM that it is designed to give the characters their first brush with magic, and that they may be simply bystanders as the events play out, or could become heavily involved. I can't think of any players who'd enjoy being a bystander for a whole adventure, as getting involved is what it's all about.

The story begins with the funeral of a well respected local woman. One of the characters is left something in her will, and is later hounded by a mystery man who is after a suspicious sounding book in true CALL OF CTHULHU fashion. Sadly, much of the backstory is deliberately placed beyond reach, so that if the adventure is played out as written the only person who will know what was going on at the end is the GM.

The adventure thereafter progresses along familiar lines, though the writer makes some very odd assumptions about the way the players will behave. After being accosted by a mystery man who makes threats and demands a strange sounding book, we are told that the character will "likely write the incident off." Would you? At another stage, the writer tells us that if a player jumps to the right conclusion without a good reason, he should be penalized for bad roleplaying. Since when are roleplaying character supposed to be entirely bereft of imagination?

The ending of the adventure deserves a mention, because it's so surreally creepy that it largely overshadows the adventures faults. Despite the fact that the adventure as written would play out exactly the same if the characters weren't involved, there's enough here for any competent GM to build a really involving scenario with only a little work.

The Hunters

This is a one page piece of prose, describing a race of creatures who work as a sort of supernatural ecological balance, preying on other creatures (including humans) as a means of keeping their numbers down to manageable levels. The idea is fascinating, and is laid out well, but is not backed up with stats or any suggestions on how to use the concept. This was, for me, the most interesting thing in the book, and I found myself feeling quite cheated that it wasn't expanded on further.

Violent Nights

This scenario, like those before it, is really half an adventure. While the basic storyline is engaging, a wide variety of likely PC actions and their possibly consequences are simply not considered. A vital NPC isn't even mentioned until the "What's really going on" summary at the end of the adventure. A primary location is barely described at all, and to get to it the characters are expected to break the law with little or no reason, in a setting where doing so has very real consequences. And again, the adventure appears to be constructed in such a way that the PC's are unlikely to ever know what was really going on.

All that said, with some small effort, this could be an entertaining adventure. There's a neat hook for casting the characters in the media's spotlight, which any GM worth his or her salt will be able to use to make the character's lives miserable.

Howard and Johnson

This is a short description of a detective agency, located in the East End of London, but ripe for transplantation to your campaign's location. Sadly, the agency and its main characters are almost directly lifted from P.N.Elrod's "The Vampire Files" novels. Still, as presented the agency is quite useful, and can be introduced as adversaries, allies or simply a distraction.

Principia Malefex Addendum

The addendum is three pages of additional information about the running of the game. The advice on gamemastery is largely irrelevant, as GM's will either have got the point from the main book, or don't care. It's also rather condescending on the topic of gamers who don't wish to "explore their character's psyche", which adds to the general impression that the author is a) pretentious and b) really needs to lighten up. Gaming is, after all, supposed to be fun.

The advice on characters makes it plain that they aren't supposed to win (that's "not what Malefex is about"). I'd recommend that GM's keep that nugget of information to themselves whilst trying to recruit players. Characters are designed to be middle class, in order to deny them the resources of the rich, or the street level skills of the poor. The GM is also advised to allow characters who are glad to gain magic to die quickly, which, frankly, is a terrible waste of good scenario material. An example of the advice on how to deal with eager magicians in the game is this; "Let them die by purely mundane means, their dreams of magical power unattainable as they find out that no matter what they wish to be, they are mortal, and as they die they can feel their desires and dreams slipping out of reach, away from the forever", to which I would add "then watch them get up from your gaming table, and walk away, never, ever to return."

Thankfully, all of the above advice can be freely ignored, as it's not hardwired into the game system.

Of more use is the section on magic, and in particular on sustaining magic spells. Of greater utility still is an updated double sided character sheet, which can easily be photocopied or scanned due to the lay-flat binding.

Summing Up

As noted in my review of BEST OF FRIENDS, another MALEFEX supplement, the big weakness of this game is that the characters are supposed to be essentially powerless observers, stumbling blindly through a world that will keep going just fine without them. They're not allowed to make any real difference, and victory is often limited to things being only fractionally worse than when the adventure started. That weakness is cast into sharp relief with the adventures in this collection, and is further highlighted by the advice in the addendum. I've got nothing against dark gaming, but those who enjoy the feeling that eventually all their characters works will be for nothing will have much more fun with nihilistic games like KULT or CALL OF CTHULHU. If you're a hardcore fan of PRINCIPIA MALEFEX, you'll want to pick this up, but unless you've got the time and energy to make something usable out of the adventures within, you'd be far better off picking up a supplement for another game and adapting it.

Details of PRINCIPIA MALEFEX, NOCTURNE, and other supplementary material can be viewed online at http://www.malefex.co.uk/ and can be ordered directly from the publisher, or through Noble Knight Games in the US.

Nocturne
Nocturne Capsule Review by Chris Halliday on 09/04/02 Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 2 (Sparse) Disappointing supplement throws game's weaknesses into sharp relief Product: Nocturne Author: A. Whetton Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Principia Malefex Line: Principia Malefex Cost: £3.99 (inc UK P&P) Page count: 31 Year published: 1997 ISBN: SKU: Comp copy?: yes Capsule Review by Chris Halliday on 09/04/02 Genre tags: Modern day Horror	*NOCTURNE* is a brief supplement for the British modern horror RPG *PRINCIPIA MALEFEX. The booklet is 31 pages long, comb-bound, with light card stock covers and no internal artwork, coming at a cost of £3.99 including UK shipping and handling. Contents include three adventures, a detective agency for use in your campaign, notes on running the game, and an expanded character sheet. The book opens with a short contents list, the standard disclaimer and a short piece of prose entitled "Afterwards", apparently dealing with the aftermath of a suicide attempt in the 1st person. This nicely sets the tone for the world of Principia Malefex, which is basically terribly* depressing. The Site The first adventure in the book details shenanigans at an archaeological site in Chester, threatened by new road construction. The set up for the adventure is good; there's a nicely atmospheric description of the site and its contents, and some pleasingly plausible red herrings. The character descriptions are believably mundane, adding to the "everyday world" feeling of Malefex. However, the adventure is really let down by the plot, or lack of it. There's no real drama here, and if the players are particularly sharp, they can end the adventure very rapidly indeed. That said, with some work, I can see the adventure being used as a nice change of pace for just about any modern horror game. The Lost The second adventure opens with an advisory to the GM that it is designed to give the characters their first brush with magic, and that they may be simply bystanders as the events play out, or could become heavily involved. I can't think of any players who'd enjoy being a bystander for a whole adventure, as getting involved is what it's all about. The story begins with the funeral of a well respected local woman. One of the characters is left something in her will, and is later hounded by a mystery man who is after a suspicious sounding book in true CALL OF CTHULHU fashion. Sadly, much of the backstory is deliberately placed beyond reach, so that if the adventure is played out as written the only person who will know what was going on at the end is the GM. The adventure thereafter progresses along familiar lines, though the writer makes some very odd assumptions about the way the players will behave. After being accosted by a mystery man who makes threats and demands a strange sounding book, we are told that the character will "likely write the incident off." Would you? At another stage, the writer tells us that if a player jumps to the right conclusion without a good reason, he should be penalized for bad roleplaying. Since when are roleplaying character supposed to be entirely bereft of imagination? The ending of the adventure deserves a mention, because it's so surreally creepy that it largely overshadows the adventures faults. Despite the fact that the adventure as written would play out exactly the same if the characters weren't involved, there's enough here for any competent GM to build a really involving scenario with only a little work. The Hunters This is a one page piece of prose, describing a race of creatures who work as a sort of supernatural ecological balance, preying on other creatures (including humans) as a means of keeping their numbers down to manageable levels. The idea is fascinating, and is laid out well, but is not backed up with stats or any suggestions on how to use the concept. This was, for me, the most interesting thing in the book, and I found myself feeling quite cheated that it wasn't expanded on further. Violent Nights This scenario, like those before it, is really half an adventure. While the basic storyline is engaging, a wide variety of likely PC actions and their possibly consequences are simply not considered. A vital NPC isn't even mentioned until the "What's really going on" summary at the end of the adventure. A primary location is barely described at all, and to get to it the characters are expected to break the law with little or no reason, in a setting where doing so has very real consequences. And again, the adventure appears to be constructed in such a way that the PC's are unlikely to ever know what was really going on. All that said, with some small effort, this could be an entertaining adventure. There's a neat hook for casting the characters in the media's spotlight, which any GM worth his or her salt will be able to use to make the character's lives miserable. Howard and Johnson This is a short description of a detective agency, located in the East End of London, but ripe for transplantation to your campaign's location. Sadly, the agency and its main characters are almost directly lifted from P.N.Elrod's "The Vampire Files" novels. Still, as presented the agency is quite useful, and can be introduced as adversaries, allies or simply a distraction. Principia Malefex Addendum The addendum is three pages of additional information about the running of the game. The advice on gamemastery is largely irrelevant, as GM's will either have got the point from the main book, or don't care. It's also rather condescending on the topic of gamers who don't wish to "explore their character's psyche", which adds to the general impression that the author is a) pretentious and b) really needs to lighten up. Gaming is, after all, supposed to be fun. The advice on characters makes it plain that they aren't supposed to win (that's "not what Malefex is about"). I'd recommend that GM's keep that nugget of information to themselves whilst trying to recruit players. Characters are designed to be middle class, in order to deny them the resources of the rich, or the street level skills of the poor. The GM is also advised to allow characters who are glad to gain magic to die quickly, which, frankly, is a terrible waste of good scenario material. An example of the advice on how to deal with eager magicians in the game is this; "Let them die by purely mundane means, their dreams of magical power unattainable as they find out that no matter what they wish to be, they are mortal, and as they die they can feel their desires and dreams slipping out of reach, away from the forever", to which I would add "then watch them get up from your gaming table, and walk away, never, ever to return." Thankfully, all of the above advice can be freely ignored, as it's not hardwired into the game system. Of more use is the section on magic, and in particular on sustaining magic spells. Of greater utility still is an updated double sided character sheet, which can easily be photocopied or scanned due to the lay-flat binding. Summing Up As noted in my review of *BEST OF FRIENDS, another MALEFEX* supplement, the big weakness of this game is that the characters are supposed to be essentially powerless observers, stumbling blindly through a world that will keep going just fine without them. They're not allowed to make any real difference, and victory is often limited to things being only fractionally worse than when the adventure started. That weakness is cast into sharp relief with the adventures in this collection, and is further highlighted by the advice in the addendum. I've got nothing against dark gaming, but those who enjoy the feeling that eventually all their characters works will be for nothing will have much more fun with nihilistic games like *KULT* or *CALL OF CTHULHU. If you're a hardcore fan of PRINCIPIA MALEFEX, you'll want to pick this up, but unless you've got the time and energy to make something usable out of the adventures within, you'd be far better off picking up a supplement for another game and adapting it. Details of PRINCIPIA MALEFEX, NOCTURNE*, and other supplementary material can be viewed online at http://www.malefex.co.uk/ and can be ordered directly from the publisher, or through Noble Knight Games in the US.

Nocturne