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New RPG settings rarely excite me. Really, there's no reason they would; a lot of the material out there today leaves me feeling that RPG writing is stuck in the 19th century, compelled by Dickensian word quotas to write more than is really necessary in order to palpably convey a setting, a mood, a "feel".

Then something like Thomas MacKay's The Collectors comes along from Rogue Publishing, and I find myself entranced and enthralled. It wasn't just worth reading; it was worth rereading. The setting is put across strongly and vividly, inside of the first twelve pages. The next twelve address specific rules (added to the Fudge baseline) needed to build characters and run the game. If you're not familiar with Fudge, there's a three-page appendix at the end that gives you a nicely compressed summary of the baseline RPG. At that point, you're pretty much ready to go. If you buy the GM's version of the game, you also get a 50-odd page adventure that the author predicts will take you one to three sessions to complete; I'll get to that later.

So, about that setting: in its most vanilla form, The Collectors: The Burning House is a one-GM, two-player RPG where the players take on the roles of demons, incarnated in "human" identities, whose job it is to collect souls on soul-selling contracts that have come due. More players can be added, certainly; the GM's section discusses how.

MacKay does a delightful job of creating an ironic lingo that the PCs and others like them, called Collectors, use to talk about their job. Hell is referred to as the "Home Office"; agents of Heaven are "the Competition". But the setting remains a dark one, with a carefully crafted mood; the irony doesn't overtake the tone, and thus provides a wry counterpoint to an otherwise weighty feel.

What surpised and pleased me most about The Collectors were the subtle touches of horror that are sprinkled throughout the setting description like a rare, potent spice. Collectors don't remember Hell -- it's too awful -- but they're frequently haunted by visions that are thought to be memories of the horrors they saw there. This haunting is called "The Follow" and is a powerful GM's tool for foreshadowing, subplots, and so on. The consequence of a job poorly done is getting Sent Back, and thus the Collectors are strongly motivated both to do their job and to keep on working for the Home Office. Indeed, those that go rogue -- called Watchers -- ultimately have their human lives fall apart around them, and get hunted down by the most terrifying soldiers of hell, the Enim -- who aren't constrained by things like taking human form (one example shows an Enim as a mirror that reflects the room as it is -- only with everything seeming horribly, awfully wrong just beneath the surface).

In the end, The Collectors seems to be about making difficult choices (though you can certainly spin it however you wish). Most demons who work the job are basically nice people who happen to work for a very nasty organization. Sure, they can rip off their skin and spew acid on their opponents if things get down and dirty, but ultimately that's not much more ugly than blowing someone's head off with a shotgun.

As to the game elements itself, in using Fudge, the game openly embraces the idea of house rules and GMs adding in their own material to their base. Gifts, Faults, Skills, and Powers (called Affinities) are presented as examples, not as the end-all be-all of the lists. Still, a great game could be had even by sticking strictly to the published material.

The rules particularly shine when it comes to the Affinities, specialized powers that give you access to particular Hell-magics as a demon. They're evocatively named after aspects of Hell, with titles such as 'Affinity for the Boiling Pit' and 'Affinity for the Whistling Ruin'. Power effects are often subtle, such as causing someone to mishear what another person said, or to frustrate a creative act. One of my favorites, from the Affinity for the Labyrinth, can cause a simple decision to become overwhelming for the target. The more powerful abilities have a certain amount of backlash which can occur if they fail -- which is only appropriate for the setting. Ultimately, I found the affinities to be far more compelling than any White Wolf "discipline" (or whatever it is called in the gaming supplement of your choice) has ever been.

And then, for the GM's guide buyers, is the introductory adventure. If you ever plan on writing RPG material, please take the time to buy The Collectors: The Burning House and study it. This one Gets It.

I was pleased over and again by the solid quality of MacKay's writing as I read the adventure. Not only does he address the various styles of play that your players might prefer; he also constructs a vivid plotline, handling all the possible branchings the players might take with thoughtful skill. The adventure is, essentially, a mystery, which can be one of the more difficult kinds to construct -- and yet he makes it look easy, creating a plot that reveals itself by degrees over multiple paths of inquiry. The story is divided into three acts, and so it has a managable, rough kind of linearity while still allowing for a lot of player freedom within a given "act". Best of all, the amount of detail provided is sufficient to address most questions that might be asked -- a minimum of page-flipping should be necessary to find out a particular fact or relevant point. And that's all I'll say, to avoid spoilering the specifics.

When it comes right down to it, The Collectors is everything I'd want out of a now-you-play-a-demon game. With this in my hands, I can freely ignore the upcoming Demon: The Fallen release from White Wolf, nor will I feel like I need to tread into the often-too-wacky world of In Nomine. MacKay has created something Hellish that is nevertheless down-to-earth and very accessible. I like to think of it as "Hellpunk" -- it's a very "street" setting, where you can focus on interactions and motivations as well as the occasional vicious maggots, hellfire, and claw kind of fight.

And above all, the pricepoint can't be beat -- you can get either the GM's or the Player's guide for under $5 in PDF form. No other game I've come across has provided the same kind of per-penny punch. Buy it today. The themes may be mature, but they'll provide an experience that, for my money, can't be easily beaten.

The Collectors: The Burning House
The Collectors: The Burning House Capsule Review by Fred Hicks on 10/04/02 Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!) A mature, evocative setting for Fudge where the players take on the role of demons out to collect souls for the Home Office -- at an unbeatable price. Product: The Collectors: The Burning House Author: Thomas MacKay Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Rogue Publishing Line: Fudge Cost: $4.50 Page count: 81 Year published: ISBN: SKU: q003 Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Fred Hicks on 10/04/02 Genre tags: Fantasy Modern day Horror Conspiracy Gothic	New RPG settings rarely excite me. Really, there's no reason they would; a lot of the material out there today leaves me feeling that RPG writing is stuck in the 19th century, compelled by Dickensian word quotas to write more than is really necessary in order to palpably convey a setting, a mood, a "feel". Then something like Thomas MacKay's The Collectors comes along from Rogue Publishing, and I find myself entranced and enthralled. It wasn't just worth reading; it was worth rereading. The setting is put across strongly and vividly, inside of the first twelve pages. The next twelve address specific rules (added to the Fudge baseline) needed to build characters and run the game. If you're not familiar with Fudge, there's a three-page appendix at the end that gives you a nicely compressed summary of the baseline RPG. At that point, you're pretty much ready to go. If you buy the GM's version of the game, you also get a 50-odd page adventure that the author predicts will take you one to three sessions to complete; I'll get to that later. So, about that setting: in its most vanilla form, The Collectors: The Burning House is a one-GM, two-player RPG where the players take on the roles of demons, incarnated in "human" identities, whose job it is to collect souls on soul-selling contracts that have come due. More players can be added, certainly; the GM's section discusses how. MacKay does a delightful job of creating an ironic lingo that the PCs and others like them, called Collectors, use to talk about their job. Hell is referred to as the "Home Office"; agents of Heaven are "the Competition". But the setting remains a dark one, with a carefully crafted mood; the irony doesn't overtake the tone, and thus provides a wry counterpoint to an otherwise weighty feel. What surpised and pleased me most about The Collectors were the subtle touches of horror that are sprinkled throughout the setting description like a rare, potent spice. Collectors don't remember Hell -- it's too awful -- but they're frequently haunted by visions that are thought to be memories of the horrors they saw there. This haunting is called "The Follow" and is a powerful GM's tool for foreshadowing, subplots, and so on. The consequence of a job poorly done is getting Sent Back, and thus the Collectors are strongly motivated both to do their job and to keep on working for the Home Office. Indeed, those that go rogue -- called Watchers -- ultimately have their human lives fall apart around them, and get hunted down by the most terrifying soldiers of hell, the Enim -- who aren't constrained by things like taking human form (one example shows an Enim as a mirror that reflects the room as it is -- only with everything seeming horribly, awfully wrong just beneath the surface). In the end, The Collectors seems to be about making difficult choices (though you can certainly spin it however you wish). Most demons who work the job are basically nice people who happen to work for a very nasty organization. Sure, they can rip off their skin and spew acid on their opponents if things get down and dirty, but ultimately that's not much more ugly than blowing someone's head off with a shotgun. As to the game elements itself, in using Fudge, the game openly embraces the idea of house rules and GMs adding in their own material to their base. Gifts, Faults, Skills, and Powers (called Affinities) are presented as examples, not as the end-all be-all of the lists. Still, a great game could be had even by sticking strictly to the published material. The rules particularly shine when it comes to the Affinities, specialized powers that give you access to particular Hell-magics as a demon. They're evocatively named after aspects of Hell, with titles such as 'Affinity for the Boiling Pit' and 'Affinity for the Whistling Ruin'. Power effects are often subtle, such as causing someone to mishear what another person said, or to frustrate a creative act. One of my favorites, from the Affinity for the Labyrinth, can cause a simple decision to become overwhelming for the target. The more powerful abilities have a certain amount of backlash which can occur if they fail -- which is only appropriate for the setting. Ultimately, I found the affinities to be far more compelling than any White Wolf "discipline" (or whatever it is called in the gaming supplement of your choice) has ever been. And then, for the GM's guide buyers, is the introductory adventure. If you ever plan on writing RPG material, please take the time to buy The Collectors: The Burning House and study it. This one Gets It. I was pleased over and again by the solid quality of MacKay's writing as I read the adventure. Not only does he address the various styles of play that your players might prefer; he also constructs a vivid plotline, handling all the possible branchings the players might take with thoughtful skill. The adventure is, essentially, a mystery, which can be one of the more difficult kinds to construct -- and yet he makes it look easy, creating a plot that reveals itself by degrees over multiple paths of inquiry. The story is divided into three acts, and so it has a managable, rough kind of linearity while still allowing for a lot of player freedom within a given "act". Best of all, the amount of detail provided is sufficient to address most questions that might be asked -- a minimum of page-flipping should be necessary to find out a particular fact or relevant point. And that's all I'll say, to avoid spoilering the specifics. When it comes right down to it, The Collectors is everything I'd want out of a now-you-play-a-demon game. With this in my hands, I can freely ignore the upcoming Demon: The Fallen release from White Wolf, nor will I feel like I need to tread into the often-too-wacky world of In Nomine. MacKay has created something Hellish that is nevertheless down-to-earth and very accessible. I like to think of it as "Hellpunk" -- it's a very "street" setting, where you can focus on interactions and motivations as well as the occasional vicious maggots, hellfire, and claw kind of fight. And above all, the pricepoint can't be beat -- you can get either the GM's or the Player's guide for under $5 in PDF form. No other game I've come across has provided the same kind of per-penny punch. Buy it today. The themes may be mature, but they'll provide an experience that, for my money, can't be easily beaten.