INTRODUCTION
Arrowflight is a new fantasy game featuring…
HEY! Get back here!
That's better. Now then: Arrowflight is a new fantasy game featuring elves, dwarves, orcs, dragons, and…
Dammit, SIDDOWN!
See, this is the problem Arrowflight faces: At first glance, it looks like just another Tolkien/D&D-inspired fantasy game. Which is a real shame, because while the author clearly does draw on some Tolkienite influences, his interesting perspective breathes some proverbial new life into some old fantasy standbys.
How, you may ask? Let's find out…
CONTENT
The King is Dead!
The setting material starts off with an in-character piece: a missionary's address regarding the recent death of good King Cedric of Corvel at the hands of assassins from the evil land of Kilmoor. Here we learn that Corvel -- the kingdom of the Good Guys, apparently -- is now threatened not only by the dragon-worshipping Kilmoorians to the south, but also by the Raalthu'uk Goblin Nation to the north and by civil war from within. We also learn that the setting features a Moorcockian war of Order and Chaos, with the two seemingly fairly synonymous with Good and Evil -- the Kilmoorians are bad for even advocating a balance between the two.
The World
The title of this chapter is a little misleading in that only the very beginning of it covers Nia -- the flat disc-world of Arrowflight -- as a whole. After first describing the creation of Nia and its pantheon of gods by (appropriately enough) the Creator, the chapter discusses the world's geography, peoples, magic, and technology in the most general of terms.
From there, it focuses in on Corvel, the aforementioned fracturing empire once ruled by the recently assassinated King Cedric. It's here that I really got the impression of a world lovingly crafted down to the finest detail by the author. Unfortunately, I think the book zooms in too quickly on the minutiae of the setting, like icing put before the cake. As a result, the big picture left unfinished by the brief overview must be pieced together from the details.
Fortunately, the details are very engaging, painting a picture of a vibrant world much more advanced socially and technologically than is the typical fantasy setting -- very High Renaissance, teetering on the edge of the Enlightenment in some respects. (The latter includes weaponry, with flintlock firearms having recently replaced matchlocks and wheellocks as state-of-the-art.) The result is a setting that allows for knights in shining armor -- and in their proper context, as opposed than the anachronistic knights in full plate of D&D -- as well as for pirates with proper canon-armed pirate ships and musketeers with actual muskets.
Topics include Corvel's government, calendar, transportation, arts and entertainment, architecture, social hierarchy, social mores and taboos, education, diplomacy, military, and holidays and festivals. A reasonably detailed listing of Corvel's provinces follows, complete with vital statistics of each province and a description of the provincial ruler. Ending the chapter are an attractive display of Crovellian heraldry (with an even more attractive full color version available online) and a chronology of every monarch of the empire since its founding.
Introduction
Oddly, it's only after all of those details that we get to the introduction. As such chapters go, it does a pretty good job with the requisite "What is Roleplaying?" section and the listing of game terminology. And Gods of Gaming be praised, it doesn't offer up a bunch of pretentious alternate terms for such things as "Game Master" and "Player Character." Hell, it even offers up "Dungeon Master" as another word for "Game Master." The horror!
Character Generation
Characters have eight primary stats: Agility, Dexterity, Strength, Willpower, Perception, Intelligence, Spirit, and Mana. All but the last two are self-explanatory.
Mana is a measure of the character's link to the world -- specifically, to the Force-like "Web of Life," the "strands" of which may be plucked to work magic. Spirit is a measure of the character's connection to the forces beyond the world -- to the realm of the gods. A high Spirit allows one to invoke miracles.
Players distribute 30 points amongst the primary stats, with the selected race of the character determining the maximum possible scores.
And that last part just doesn't sit quite right with me somehow. I'd prefer the characters to get bonuses and penalties based upon race; as it is, there's nothing race-specific about a given character's primary stats unless that character is "maxed out." In my discussions with the author, he explained that they do it this way to allow for maximum freedom for the players -- it would be possible to play an enfeebled but magically powerful orc, for example. While that's true, I think it washes out some of the unique "feel" of the various races. But if it bugs you as well, it's an awfully easy problem to fix: all human primary stats range from 1-6, so just convert the difference between a nonhuman racial maximum and 6 into an attribute bonus or penalty. Also, I should point out that every race has some sort of racial perk, mostly in the form of a free point or two in a certain skill. Finally, race determines the number of wounds a character can take per Wound Level (see below).
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Playtest: Given my concerns about the relative competence of starting characters (again, see below), I decide to try maxing out the toughest character I can make: an orc soldier. I give him 7's in STR and AGL, a 4 in PER, 3's in DEX and WIL, and 2's in all the rest.
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After selecting a race and applying the points to primary stats, the player rolls for or (at the GM's discretion) chooses one entry from tables that determine the character's social status, his home environment (urban, rural, or wilderness), the general location of that environment (coast, forest, highlands, lowlands, mountains, or plains), the career to which he was apprenticed (but not necessarily that which he ultimately followed), his inheritance, and his property (if any). The first four tables give the character some starting skills and (in the case of social status) his starting money.
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Playtest: I decide to go strictly random on the Lifeline tables. For Social Status, I get "Indentured." Lovely. Well, that gives me Domestic Arts: 1 and half the standard starting cash. For Environment, I get "Rural." That gives me Lore: 1, Natural Sciences: 2, and Domestic Arts: 1. Since these skill points are stackable, my orc now has Domestic Arts: 2. At least he'll have a fallback career as a custodian… For Location, I get "Mountains," for Climb: 1, Athletics: 1, Wilderness Skills: 1, and Awareness: 1. Okay, that's better…
Now I'm up to Apprenticeship. I note that the only Apprenticeship -- indeed, the only entry in any of these tables -- that offers any combat skill is "Military," which gives you Combat Skill (Solider): 1 and Missile Weapon: 1 or Black Powder: 1 if you're a freeman or indentured. Oddly, professionals and nobles in the military get no combat skills, but screw them! I'm indentured, so c'mon, Military!
Ah, crap… Nope, it's "Arts." That gives me Dance: 1, Play Instrument: 1, Con: 1, and Performing Arts: 1. At least he'll be an entertaining custodian…
On the bright side, I roll a fine or heirloom weapon under Inheritance. And thank the Creator, because being indentured, I'm not exactly going to be able to afford a top-notch armory…
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Next, the player assigns 30 points to skills.
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Playtest: Skill mechanics and descriptions are in the next chapter, but thankfully, I've already read the whole book. So, not only do I know at this point how skills work and how to buy certain special ones like Combat Skills, but I also know that I'm not allowed to increase my starting skills by more than 3 points. I decide to follow the sample occupation of Soldier (see below) to save time. After all my points are spent, I end up with final skill totals of Combat Skill (Soldier): 3, Combat Skill (Brawling): 3, Athletics: 4, Dance: 1, Missile Weapon: 3, Play Instrument: 1, Repair: 2, Climb: 3, Endurance: 3, Awareness: 4, Command: 3, Con: 1, Diagnostics: 2, Performing Arts: 1, Wilderness Skills: 1, Cultural Sciences: 1, Domestic Arts: 2, Lore: 1, and Natural Sciences: 2.
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Characters each get one Destiny Point, which allows a re-roll of a failed roll of any kind. In a manner reminiscent of Star Wars D6's Force Points, characters can gain more Destiny Points by getting Critical Successes when using them, using them in a dramatic manner, or having them awarded by the GM.
The player next determines the character's Initiative, Save, and Actions. The first two are the number of dice rolled (averages of AGL+PER for Initiative and STR+WIL for Save) and the roll-under target number of those dice (averages of Awareness+Best combat skill for Initiative and Endurance Resist for Save) used to determine order in combat and survival from injuries, respectively. "Actions" refers to the number of actions a character can take in a single combat round and is determined from the number of Initiative dice. Because any Initiative dice between 4-6 = 2 actions/round, a character will have to be extraordinarily clumsy and obtuse or fast and perceptive to get fewer or more actions than that. In fact, the only PC who could possibly get 3 actions/round is a faerie with maxed-out AGL and PER.
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Playtest: My orc's (AGL+PER)/2 = 5.5 and his (Awareness+Combat Skill(Soldier))/2 = 3.5, so he'll roll 6 dice for Initiative and try to roll under a 4. I also find that his 6 Initiative dice give him 2 actions per round. No surprise there. His (STR+WIL)/2 = 5 and his (Endurance+Resist)/2 = 1.5, so he'll roll 5 dice for Saves and try to roll under a 2.
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Finally, the player determines the PC's starting money (rolled randomly and modified by Social Status) and buys equipment.
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Playtest: I roll 700 geld (silver pieces), but my orc was an indentured servant, so that's divided by two for 350 geld. Sheesh. Well, I skip ahead to the equipment chapter, and immediately I'm glad that he got that free inherited weapon. I make that a "grago," which is a special orc weapon, then buy him a full suit of hard leather armor, a short bow, a quiver, and 10 arrows. He'll have 10 geld left over -- not enough to buy even a set of clothes, really. Hmmm… Maybe he'll have to ditch that bow.
At any rate, this whole process has taken me less than 30 minutes, so you should be able to create characters and start play in the same session with no problem at all.
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Races
Despite the primary stat issue, the races of Nia were one of the things that really sold me on Arrowflight. There is something about the author's approach that offers a fresh look at overused fantasy races without resorting to the superficial changes ("Look! elves with beards! Dwarves without'em!"), pointless name-changing ("See those pointy-eared magical forest dwellers? Well, they aren't elves!"), hyper-elementalism ("elves are plants!") or in-your-face contrarianism ("See? Noble orcs! Evil elves!") to which such new approaches seem to lead so often.
To illustrate, let's cover the PC races, which are presented in order of their prevalence in Corvelian society.
As you might expect, first on the list are humans. What you might not expect is that humans aren't just the flavorless "default" race. On the contrary, they are rumored to be the offspring of elves and either demons or dwarves. Either way, they are considered remarkable for their resistance to magic and psychological trauma and their capacity for extremes of Order and Chaos.
Next up are elves, who aren't the superhumans that they are in some other games. In primary stats, the only thing separating them from humans are one more point of Mana and one less point of Strength. That's right: elves aren't any more agile or dexterous than their human progeny. This took a bit for me to accept, but given the close kinship of humans and elves, I got around it. And speaking of that kinship, the frequent interbreeding of humans and urban elves has created an interesting split in the species: Urban elves have more human-like features (yes, including facial hair) and shorter lifespans, while the tribal elves of the wilderness have the longer lifespans and feral features of the pure elf strain. And I really look forward to learning more about the tribal elves in future supplements, by the way -- from what I can piece together from their mentions in this book, they bear a remarkable resemblance to Native Americans, right down to their warriors being known as "braves."
Dwarves -- always a favorite fantasy race of mine -- are the offspring of the same goddess who gave birth to the elves, albeit by her rape at the hands of a mountain god. Despite this fact, there's no -- I repeat, no -- hatred between the two races.
Oh, and speaking of racial hatreds: Neither elves nor dwarves bear one for orcs, the product of a human sorcerer's Chaos-powered crossbreeding of trolls and wild boars in an attempt to create a race of supersoldiers. Naturally, that backfired and the orcs escaped to breed like crazy in the wild and become a major threat. However, once they, along with every other nonhuman race, became the targets of genocide by a cruel human king of Corvel, they allied with the elves, and once the king was deposed, they joined civilized Corvelian society. However, orcs in other lands are still tribal creatures of Chaos. So, you have your "revisionist" orcs to play as characters and your "classic" orcs to terminate with extreme prejudice.
Other PC races include two breeds of the tiny winged faerie-folk -- the amiable sprites and the militantly mischievous pixies -- and three breeds of earthfolk (races somewhere between elves and faeries) -- the cultured and clockwork-making gnomes, the antisocial sprigs, and the feral brownies.
Note that elves, faerie-folk, and earthfolk are all "elf-kin" races. This sets up an interesting family tree in which humans, while the most numerous, are also an aberration, as are dwarves (albeit to a lesser degree). In other words, insofar as there is a "default" race in Nia, it is the elves and their kin, not humans.
It should also be noted that interbreeding between almost all of the races is possible and that such crossbreeds are viable PCs. So, while you could play the venerable half-elf or half-orc, you could also play an orc/sprig halfbreed.
Sample Occupations
If the races of Nia moved me well on my way to loving the setting, the sample occupations sealed the deal. Again, they are specifics that reveal interesting facts about the general setting. In particular, the Musketeer and Pirate occupations -- both of which appear in exactly the form one would expect from the names -- highlighted the less Medieval and more swashbuckling Renaissance aspects of the setting.
The other sample occupations are closer to fantasy RPG standards: Combat Mage, Archer, Chaplain, Cutpurse, Soldier, and Scout. Note that all of these occupations, with the possible exception of Cutpurse, are more or less martial in nature, with even the Combat Mage and Chaplain having combat skill. This makes a certain degree of sense, given the rather martial state of affairs in the setting. However, given the suggested importance of politics and court intrigue, some more interaction-heavy samples might have been useful as well.
All of the occupations list the requisite skills for the occupations but do not apply suggested Attribute or Skill totals. I don't think it would have hurt to have provided such scores -- they've have made for handy quick-start characters, they'd have been easy enough to modify if desired, and, given the lack of racial modifiers, they would have been applicable to almost any race.
Skills
Since almost every roll in Arrowflight is some manner of skill roll, this chapter also covers the basic mechanics of the game. And those mechanics are quite good, combining the best aspects of Silhouette and Storyteller with a mechanic that is both roll-under and open-ended.
Characters roll a number of dice equal to their primary stat, trying to roll less than or equal to their relevant skill. On an individual die, 1 is always a success and a 6 is always a failure. The number of dice that come up successes are the degree of success. A majority of 1s is a Critical Success, allowing a reroll of all the 1s and adding any successes to the overall total. A majority of 6s is a Fumble, meaning that something bad happens. (In the case of magic or black powder weapons, "bad" can be very bad indeed.)
Note that there are no pure "attribute" rolls -- every action falls under a skill. For example, applying pure brute force to a problem would fall under the Strength Feat skill. If a character has a score of 0 or less in a skill (due to difficulty modifiers, for example), he will need a number of extra successes to get a single success equal to the difference between the PC's current skill level and 1. In other words, unskilled characters will need to roll two 1's to get a single success level.
I found this base mechanic to be remarkably transparent, but it puts an awful lot of power into stats as compared to skills. Skills help determine the likelihood of success and the probability of a good success, but stats help determine the likelihood of success and the possible degree of success and the likelihood of a critical success or fumble.
To illustrate, take the example of a sword fight between Frank (AGL 2, Combat Skill 5) and Joe (AGL 5, Combat Skill 3). Frank is an expert swordsman, while Joe is merely decent. But Frank, despite his skill, can only max out at four successes, and then only on a lucky roll of two 1s followed by two successes. Joe, on the other hand, stands a very good chance of getting three successes on any given roll.
Mollifying this objection slightly are Assumed Successes: When a skill increases past 5, the difference between the skill and five is converted into automatic successes. This results in a sudden shift in the stat/skill balance in skill's favor that grows rapidly as skills increase still further; however, a Fumble still sweeps away all successes, including assumed ones.
Furthermore, even those automatic successes won't always be enough to trump a good-sized dice pool. Although it's not in the rules, Todd tells me that he uses the concept of "point shaving," which allows characters to trade in points of skill for extra dice on a given task. That fixes the problem, for the most part, although it requires characters with skills of 6 to give up assumed successes to get more potential successes. For that reason, I think I'd have the shaved points come from the points before the assumed successes first. In other words, if your skill is 6, a shaved point would result in an automatic success of 1 but a failed roll on a 4 or less. (I also advocate listing assumed successes separately, by the way -- 5 1 rather than 6, for example.)
All this aside, I really do like the system. And it seems terribly easy to tweak to suit one's tastes, if the default rules don't do it for you.
After covering rules for concentration, specialization, and character improvement, the chapter presents the skill list. It's not a terribly long list, since the skills are both fairly basic and fairly broad -- the specialization option takes up the detail slack where desired. The most complex skills deal with combat and magic, but we'll get to those in just a moment.
Combat
Well, okay, we'll get to them now.
Combat begins with the ubiquitous initiative roll, with characters taking their available actions one at a time in order of initiative. (In other words, you don't get your second action until everyone else has had a first action.)
Hand-to-hand combat involves opposed skill rolls. The system encourages parries over dodges by not charging an action for the former. Baring certain martial arts, however, dodges are the only way to actively avoid ranged attacks; otherwise, range and environmental conditions are the only modifiers to such attacks. Either way, damage is determined by the margin of success, modified by a damage multiplier and/or a damage bonus from the weapon used (the Weapon Rating and Damage Bonus, respectively) and the user's STR (for hand and thrown weapons).
And these modifiers can really add up. Armor subtracts from the damage, but it seems awfully weak: Even the very toughest armor, Dragon skin, is only 3 points tougher than the strongest PC's STR damage bonus. What's more, all armors except Dragon skin lose a point of protection each time they're penetrated, which will probably be quite often. In short, you really don't want to get hit in this game.
The damage system is a little unusual. At first glance, it resembles that of Storyteller: rows of wound boxes with a number of boxes left unfilled based upon the character's toughness and each row corresponding to a wound modifier.
The difference is in the Save roll. When a character takes damage in excess of his Wound Threshold, he must make a Save roll or be knocked out (or lose an action, in the case of non-lethal damage). When a character takes damage in excess of 3 times his Save target number, the hit location is crushed or severed and the character must make a Save roll or die. Likewise, if a character runs out of wound boxes, he must make a Save roll or die -- otherwise, he just passes out. So, it's entirely possible to lose all of Arrowflight's answer to Hit Points without actually dying. (A good thing, too, given the brutal nature of combat in the game.)
By the way, I wondered why the threat zones for knockouts and death are based on the Save dice pool and three times the Save target number, respectively. Todd Downing explained that since the latter is skill-based, it's much easier to increase. So, the score that matters most to staying alive can get higher as characters improve. Fair enough, although while this makes sense from a game mechanic standpoint, it seems a little shaky from an in-game point of view -- resisting pain is innate, while resisting death is a skill? Seems backwards to me, although since both factor into the actual roll, I suppose it all comes out in the wash. At any rate, I definitely think there should be a spot to record the Save target number x 3 for easy reference in combat.
Another high point of the system is the organization of the combat skills. Rather than divisions by weapon type, Arrowflight combat skills are divided into fighting styles. Both armed and unarmed combat have basic, "no frills" skills -- Melee Combat and Brawling, respectively. These are purchased just like ordinary skills. The two ranged combat skills, Missile Weapon and Black Powder (for firearms), are also purchased normally. However, the game also features five distinct martial arts schools (one with separate elf and dwarf versions) and five distinct armed combat styles. All of these have a number listed by their names that indicate three things: the extra cost that must be paid for them at character creation and per level thereafter, and the damage bonus applied to all attacks using that skill. The armed combat styles also have a general list of allowable hand (and in some cases, thrown) weapons, while the unarmed skills list the heaviest possible armor that may be worn while using each style. Finally, each style of combat has an ability associated with each level of skill. Most of these resemble D&D3e Feats, although several of the armed combat skills offer no real perks until two or three levels of skill. (This is balanced by lower costs and, in the case of Soldier, a wider range of weapons and armor.)
The names of the martial arts styles are completely made up, so I won't bother writing them all out here. Suffice it to say that they loosely cover the various real-world martial arts styles, from relatively passive judo throws to cinematic ninja nerve strikes.
But it's the armed combat styles that I feel really add to the flavor of the setting: Assassin, Cavalier, Gallant (a.k.a. fencing), Rogue, Soldier, and Swashbuckler. It just seems like a nice bonus to be able to pick up all of the various abilities of swashbuckling combat, for example, in one neat package. The only real drawback is that if you want to be good with a particular weapon, you have to pick up the relevant Combat Skill (e.g., Rogue for whips). At least one point of Soldier is required for the use of heavy armor without enormous penalties, but I consider that to be entirely appropriate -- after all, how often do you see a noble fencer or a swashbuckling pirate clunking around in plate mail?
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Playtest: I decide to pit my orc dancing-janitor-turned-warrior against a goblin. Believe it or not, the goblin has the edge. My orc's got AGL 7, Combat Skill (Soldier) 3, STR 7, Initiative 6/4; the goblin has AGL 7, Combat Skill (Soldier) 5, STR 4, Initiative 6/5. I give the goblin full hardened leather, same as my orc, for an Armor Value of 4.
They tie on Initiative, but a tie goes to the combatant with the highest Initiative Target Number. That's the goblin, unfortunately. He gets in the first blow with his weapon -- a nasty thing called a headcatcher. My orc parries, naturally. Since the goblin can only fail on a 6, it's not all that surprising that he gets successes on all 7 of his dice. My orc, on the other hand, gets only 2 on his parry. That's 5 net successes, multiplied by the headcatcher's Wound Rating of 4 and adding 4 for the goblin's strength, for a grand total of 24 Wounds. My orc's armor subtracts the goblin's strength bonus back out -- losing a point of Armor Value in the process -- leaving the orc himself to soak up 20 Wounds.
At this point, I'm glad I didn't waste time naming him.
Since 20 is more than three times his Save Target Number, he has to make a Death Save. He succeeds -- barely -- but now he's all the way down to the Grievous Wound level, with its associated -3 penalty to all skill rolls. Since his Combat Skill is only 3, that means he's at an effective skill of goose egg when his turn comes around, so he'll have to get two 1s just to equal a single success. He doesn't even get that much, and he does just as poorly trying to parry the goblin's second attack. That finishes him off.
Well, at least that didn't take long.
Lesson #1: Goblins are tough in this game. (More on that in a moment.)
Lesson #2: Combat is deadly.
Lesson #3: As is the case with Silhouette, Waste World, Over the Edge, and other games in which damage is based on success level times a weapon damage modifier, a seemingly minor point difference in ability can translate into a huge advantage for one side.
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Magic & Divinity
As the name of this chapter implies, the Arrowflight magic system has two major divisions: arcane (D'Raihar Magis, or "The Fire Within") and divine (D'Raihar Diven, or "The Divine Fire"). Both use the same purely skill-based mechanic, although arcane magic uses Mana and divine magic uses Spirit. A third division, Glamour, also uses Mana but is the sole province of faeries and earthfolk.
Each type of magic is further subdivided into skills representing specific types of magic: Theories for arcane magic, Prayers for divine magic. The Theories are Combat, Healing, Illusory, Necromancy, Divination, Elementalist, and Folk Magic. The Prayers are Healing, Protection, Communion, Wrath, and Common Prayer. To learn any of these except for Folk Magic and Common Prayer -- the arcane and divine equivalents of "hedge magic," respectively -- all Theories and Prayers require at least 2 points of both the Theoretical and Natural Science skills.
Finally, each Theory and Prayer has a number of associated spells templates. These are a base difficulty and set of stats from which the player -- and, from an in-character standpoint, the magician -- creates an individualized spell. In the world of Arrowflight, all spells are individual creations. More powerful spells are more difficult to cast, but the difficulty may be offset by adding complications to the casting -- more time, more gestures, more incantations, rare spell components, etc. Magicians also get to define the special effects associated with the spell -- the sights, sounds, smells, etc.
(An interesting side effect of all this individuality is that all spells have unique signatures that any magician or magical being within a radius determined by the power of the spell can recognize.)
The templates do a decent job of covering the magical bases, although there's a notable absence of shapechanging and summoning spells. (These, I suspect, will appear in the upcoming magic supplement.)
For the most part, the template customization process is quick and easy, although you should be prepared to spend more time on character creation for magicians than for other character types. However, some of the templates do require a bit of mulling over to see their full potential. The templates could be used as-is to save time if desired, but in at least some cases, the templates lack any flavor at all before customization.
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Playtest: To whit, I attempt to create a Wall of Earth spell from the Elementalist "Wall" template. I could just grab the template and go, except that there is nothing "earthy" about the unmodified template -- that would give me a wall that blocks living matter but lets inanimate objects pass through.
To make it a literal wall, I have to add at least an Armor Value of 1. That adds 1 to the base difficulty of 2. But that's only an AV of 1 -- no tougher than heavy cloth. If I want my wall to be as hard as, say, plate mail, I'll need an AV of 9. Each level of AV increases the difficulty by 1, so now I'm at a difficulty of 11. Keeping in mind that my starting skill is going to be no more than 4 -- and then only if I'm lucky -- that's not going to work.
So, I add a requirement for a two-handed motion (rather than the default single hand motion) for -2 difficulty, a short incantation (rather than the default single word) for another -2 difficulty, and a rare focus item -- let's say, the heart of an earth elemental -- for a -3 difficulty. Now my spell has a difficulty of 4… just enough to negate my starting skill, assuming my PC is an accomplished rookie magician. Ah, well… maybe I'll make it a softer wall.
In the process of doing this, I notice that there is no practical difference between what I've done here and what could be done with a Wall of Fire -- they both default to the same template. So, by default, a Wall of Fire wouldn't burn anyone, yet it would block (but not injure) living beings. I could have a harmless Wall of Fire that's as hard as stone or a Wall of Earth that causes damage but lets inanimate stuff fly right through it.
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Speaking of the elements, one fact not made very clear is that attack spells based on the Combat Theory of arcane magic are only pure magical energy, regardless of their appearance. In other words, the sidebar example has a magician creating a Fireball spell using the Combat Theory "Energy Projection" template, but it fails to mention that the spell will not be a literal ball of fire that can actually burn things -- for that, you'd need the Elementalist Theory "Projection" template.
Despite these misgivings, I still think this is a solid foundation for a magic system. Like the system as a whole, it has a nice sturdy-yet-tweakable feel to it.
Religions of Corvel
A large chunk of this chapter is dedicated to the Church of Rellian, the dominant religion of Corvel. It's a very Christian-like faith, worshipping Creator as the supreme being with a messianic elf martyr named Rellian as its Christ figure. This serves to enhance the Renaissance feel of the setting for me in a way that the rampant polytheism of Warhammer FRP does not. On the other hand, the Church of Rellian is much more tolerant and touchy-feely than the Renaissance-era Catholic Church, founded as it was in response to a time of oppression and genocide and accepting as it does the worship of lesser deities (so long as such worship is not exclusive). In that way, it provides a bridge from its pseudo-Christianity to the "traditional" fantasy setting polytheism and helps explain the interracial harmony in Corvel.
Following a description of the organization of the Church of Rellian and its various orders are descriptions of some of the other religions found in Corvel, with a list of gods, saints, and holy places wrapping up the chapter. Again, there's no explanation of the Order/Chaos dichotomy mentioned several places in the book -- including here -- other than more indications that in Arrowflight, Chaos = Evil. On the other hand, the well-rounded descriptions of the various churches, including the Chaotic ones, offer some insights into their place in Corvellian society: even the Corvellian equivalent of Satanism has a more-or-less tolerated cult that serves as its "public face".
Economy
This chapter begins with a useful explanation of the Corvellian monetary system, then unaccountably delves into a description of the Corvellian diet that, while interesting, seems like it belongs with the other setting details presented earlier on in the book.
An "Old School" equipment list follows -- you know, the kind with a price for every little item of clothing, morsel of food, and piece of jewelry? Some might find this tiresome. I love it. Not only does it keep me from having to guess at prices in a pinch, but it also adds yet more setting flavor. A nice touch is the division of products by the merchants who sell them -- as the text points out, there's no "Adventurer's General Store" to be found on Nia.
The weapons tables follow, superimposed in places over weapon illustrations. (This is extremely helpful when it comes to the more obscure or setting-specific weapons, although the way many of them cross over multiple weapon listings and each other makes it difficult to tell what's what if you don't already know.)
I really like the fact that weapons in this game can have a damage multiplier (the Weapon Rating) and/or a flat Damage Bonus. Games with just the former have a harder time differentiating between similar weapons, while games with only the latter tend to wash out the effects of skill at higher levels. For example, using this system, most knives have a Weapon Rating of 1. If that were the only damage score, the next step up would be 2, the equivalent of a short sword. But with the Damage Bonus, you can create a knife that's just a bit better than average.
Another rule helping weapon differentiation is the optional stat for weapon Types. These are Slashing, Piercing, and Crushing, which do extra damage against Light Armor (e.g., leather), Medium Armor (e.g., chainmail), and Heavy Armor (e.g., platemail), respectively. It's a nice nod to realism without undue complications.
The Weapon Accuracy rating is another helpful rule, offering a good reason to choose lighter but more accurate weapons like the rapier over devastating but clumsy weapons like the halberd. On the other hand, I'm not so fond of the Wound Rating serving double duty as the weapon's strength requirement, since the damage a weapon does should be more than a function of its weight alone; however, I suppose that the Damage Bonus stat picks up some of the slack in that regard.
A more serious problem to my mind is the lack of any rate-of-fire stats for ranged weapons. This would be a big enough issue in a game featuring bows and crossbows, but it becomes rather critical when arquebuses and flintlock muskets are thrown into the mix.
As I mentioned previously, I found armor to be disturbingly weak in this game, especially given the text's emphasis on its importance. Any characters not taking the heaviest armors (and thus, almost by necessity, the Soldier skill) will be doing little beyond negating Strength damage bonuses.
The chapter ends with an exceedingly helpful selection of equipment packages with total costs to save players some shopping time. Selections include general traveling gear and appropriate equipment for knights, hunters, magicians, nobles, and thieves.
Bestiary
The first thing that struck me about this chapter was its welcome breadth, with sections for Outsider (i.e., hostile) Races, Domestic Animals, Wild Animals, Supernatural Creatures (like ghosts), Undead (like vampires and zombies), and Dragons (ranging from primitive, non-sentient riding beasts to awesome Smaug-class army crushers). In fact, the only obvious omissions are demons.
The second was that like the PC races, the fantasy setting standards get a fresh look. For example, trolls appear to be 8' tall mutated elves, are quite intelligent, and use Chaos magic, black powder weapons, and soul-drinking rune weapons. Giants are the solitary missing link between gods and mortals, carving prophecies onto the sides of their mountains. Will-o'-the-Wisps are incredibly creepy Chaos faeries with chitnous skin who lure travelers to their deaths and burrow through their sewn-together corpses to make their hives.
* * * * *
Playtest: And, as I said before, goblins are tough. The one-sided combat debacle with my orc made me look more closely at the creature stats, and I soon realized that just about everything in the Bestiary can mop the floor with a starting character, and even those that can't will give a new PC a run for his money.
And I'm not just talking goblins here. I'm talking monkeys. Rats. Parrots.
This problem springs from two sources: One, the stats used for the non-PC races are quite close to being maxed out on the physical side; and two, the primary stat scale has an inviolate minimum of zero, with no actions possible using a zero-level stat (literally, no dice). This creates a cluster of minimal stats at 1 for everything other than Intelligence and forces anything superior to that up into the human range and beyond. So, for example, parrots, with their powerful beaks, end up with a Strength of 3 -- average human strength. The lower Wound levels of small creatures mitigate this problem, but that's no consolation if your character gets killed by a parrot that wins Intiative.
My suggestion would be to extend the primary stat scale into the negative range, adding a die for every point below one but taking the lowest rolled score. Not a perfect solution, maybe, but better than the status quo, IMHO.
And speaking of stats, the monster write-ups are missing the Initiative and Save scores. It was enough of a pain stopping to calculate these scores when running my test combats. I can't imagine doing so in the face of an on-the-fly encounter. I'm told that these scores will appear in future printings, however, as will the Wound scores that are missing from several write-ups. (The latter are available on the Deep7 web site, by the way.
* * * * *
It appears that Arrowflight is an early victim of the bug that didn't fully overtake AD&D until the Fiend Folio. I'm talking about entirely original monsters that don't quite feel right for the setting and/or seem a little silly. The arboreal shambler, with its Geigeresque sci-fi horror appearance, is a prime example of the former, while the goblin-wolf -- a kind of wolf/goblin centaur -- is a borderline example of the latter. They have better luck with the winding sheet, however -- a creepy combination of slug, blob, and ghost.
And speaking of ghosts, I found the setting's rationale for ghosts and the undead to be awfully clever. When an individual dies, the person’s Spirit and Mana basically tell each other to go their separate ways -- Spirit to the divine realms, Mana to dissipate into the Web of Life. If you die with a Mana score of 0, nothing tells your Spirit to move on and you become a soul without a body -- a ghost. If, on the other hand, you die with a Spirit of 0, nothing tells your Mana to dissipate and you become a body without a soul -- a vampire or other undead creature.
GM Section
Just some generic but valuable GMing advice. This includes some good but rather hard-nosed methods for dealing with Munchkins, best used if you can stand to lose the offending players.
Minutiae
Details not covered elsewhere in the book, such as rules for travel, poisons, and fire damage.
The optional aging rule, which involves slowly increasing Mana and Spirit at the expense of other stats, seems like a good idea in concept but flawed in execution. Rather than a separate aging cycle for each race, it presents a single universal aging cycle with members of various races dropping dead at various points along it. In other words, the longer-lived races merely experience a longer period of dotage.
There's also a brief nod to magic items. There are no rules for creating them, although several sample magic items are listed; however, the short essay on the value of such items makes some good points about why they aren't available on the open market and why dragons hoard them.
Tables for magical and black powder mishaps, racial attribute caps (for both PC and non-PC races), and encounter quick-reference end the section.
I'd prefer to see the results of the magical encounter table made a little less specific and, in at least a couple of cases, a little less silly. The result that has people around the magician floating away borders on the comedic territory of Murphy's World, and the result that has them turning into random livestock sails right on over that border. (The sound effects used to name these results -- "Whoa-whoa-whoa!" and "Paf-Baaaa!", respectively -- don't help.)
Scenarios
In keeping with Deep7's pursuit of the casual gamer market, Arrowflight includes both a complete adventure and a trio of linked adventure seeds.
The adventure is "Darkmoon Rising," a horror-oriented tale of Chaos cultists and lycanthropes strongly reminiscent of Warhammer FRP -- not a bad thing at all, in my opinion, since Arrowflight should appeal strongly to Warhammer veterans. I do think that a more standard fantasy adventure, or perhaps a swashbuckling one, might have been a better introduction to the setting, however.
The adventure seeds, "Coup in Blariston," "The King's Road," and "Ride of Vengeance," put the PCs in Blariston as King Cedric is assassinated and as Kilmoorian troops attack. From there, they presumably flee south, battling the dangers of the open road until pressed into service by a King's Pistolier to help capture an escaped traitorous member of the Royal Intelligence Service. While experience has made me gun-shy of adventures that expect PCs to flee from anything -- let alone in a specific direction -- if it's pulled off well, this campaign would give the characters a "We were there" to talk about for years to come.
STYLE
Overall, the artwork is excellent, much of it displaying either an elegant, detailed fantasy flair or the look of medieval woodcuts. Oddly, I found the weakest art to be on the front cover, which, while not bad, would better serve as the cover of a Cartoon Action Hour fantasy supplement.
The writing is at its best when it's describing the setting -- there, the author's obvious love for his creation really shone through and pulled me in. It required more careful reading when it came to the rules, however, where certain important points lacked sufficient emphasis for a single read-through. In addition, there are several notable text errors and omissions that the website errata thankfully address.
The generally attractive layout seems a little chaotic at first glance but proved quite readable. The organization of the book could use some polish, however, with more generalities about the setting before the specifics. And it really, really could use an index.
CONCLUSION
Despite the overcrowded fantasy game market, I'd encourage gamers to at least give Arrowflight a look -- it's a really good game that needs only a bit of fine-tuning to be a really great one. If you're a fan of high fantasy, High Renaissance, brutal combat and dramatic swashbuckling, this could be your game.
SUBSTANCE:
- Setting
- Quality = 5.0
- Quantity = 4.5
- Rules
- Quality = 4.0
- Quantity = 4.0
STYLE:
- Artwork = 4.5
- Layout/Readability = 3.5
- Writing = 4.0
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