The Inside Scoop on Gaming

A funny thing happened to me as I was flipping through my brand-new copy of d20 Afghanistan, the sourcebook to the current and still-ongoing U.S. 'War on Terrorism'. Between the descriptions of guns and helicopters and rival Pashtun tribes I discovered a pretty good summary of the conflict, done with more taste and reverence than anything produced by the major print/electronic/broadcast media outlets. I also found not only a good supplement but what might be a decent campaign setting in modern Afghanistan. I'll explain this but first let's get all of the controversial issues settled.

Is d20 Afghanistan Unethical? A lot of people have expressed outrage at Holistic Games publishing an rpg based around a current war, obviously upset at the idea of playing pretend soldiers while real-life ones are being killed that same day. I was pretty turned off about it when I first heard it too. But thankfully the people at Holistic have taken a respectful approach to the real-life concepts in the book. Information is presented in a purely objective fashion. The facts are all grouped together and clearly separated from the game elements so as to not appear as if they were just using a current event to pimp out their games (a la White Wolf's WoD). And the historical and factual information is well-written; somewhat dry and with the hint of military snobbishness but far better than any throwaway article in USA Today with the headline "America Strikes Back". I guess the best thing I can say is that the game designers treat the material as if it were serious and that real people were dying out there. If they err it is on the side of caution. You'd have to be unreasonably oversensitive to be offended by d20 Afghanistan.

On to the Review.

Chapter 1: Introduction. Opens with a 2-page piece of fiction about a U.S. Forward Observer in Kabul. Moderately hokey and hamfisted, but most game designers aren't known for their subtlety when it comes to fiction. Then follows a bunch of talk about why they made the game and why they aren't bad people for making it (more or less that's what they're saying). They also try to establish the setting and the themes of Afghanistan, once again with moderate success.

Chapter 2: History. Next is about 20 pages of factual background information on the war-demolished country and the ethnic tribes therein. If you're like me and are interested in studying third world nations then this section is a goldmine. Also includes short bios on many of the key players in Afghanistan: terrorists, tribal leaders, political figures, and so on. No stats, thank God, but also no photographs, which is a shame. The absence of bios on some of the current warlords is also curious, and it robs the setting of much-needed moral ambiguity.

Chapter 3: Character Classes. Here's where we leave the realm of reality and d20 Afghanistan starts to resemble 'Mullahs & Martyrs,' albeit slightly. Character classes include Cleric, Soldier, Officer, Smuggler, etc. Each have interesting little class abilities that make them more unique than classes in most other d20 games. One theme that I do like about d20 Afghanistan is the relative similarity between the Afghanis and the Americans. Both groups pick the same classes and they don't treat the different nationalities as if they were a different race with inferior or superior stats. It's a real touch of class on the part of the game designers, especially game designers writing during 'wartime'.

Chapter 4: Skills. A brief chapter, used mostly to describe the changes in D&D3E/d20 skills to the Afghanistan setting. Adds only a few new skills like Techcraft, Hacking, and Call Support. The latter is probably the most important new skill in the game as you can literally call in an air strike with a successful check and the requisite 10 minutes of waiting for the gunship to show up. Also has the stats for the damage of the bombs, from an 80mm mortar (8d8) up to the awesome 15,000lb. 'Daisy-Cutter' (100d20). Yup, you too can now bomb those annoying monsters from the Epic Level Handbook into the Stone Age. In a world without magic it’s the closest you’ll ever get to tossing fireballs.

Chapter 5: Feats. Another section perfectly useful in other d20 games. A whole mess of feats adapted for a modern age. There are social feats like church rank and general feats like rapid reload. All of them are new and there are none of the standard feats from other d20 books so it you're looking for your favorite feat combo here you probably won't find it. Doesn't say whether or not you can use other d20 feats, so it might make the game more limiting. Still, it's not supposed to be standard D&D....

Chapter 6: Equipment. Guns, guns and more guns. Each comes with its own paragraph but sadly no pictures. There are very few photos or illustrations in d20 Afghanistan which is a letdown if you're not a gun-nut (like me). It tells you the contents of an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) yet doesn't include a description of those little yellow food packets we allegedly bombed the Afghanis with. That's too bad. Your typical D&D equipment section, only with modern military stuff. One funny little section is the description of a laptop computer, which apparently adds a 2 to Hacking skill checks. I would have thought you'd need the computer anyway to hack into someone's system.

Chapter 7: Combat. Here we go. Standard d20 combat system but with a few neat changes. The type of weapon you use applies a penalty to your initiative, meaning that someone with a heavy machine gun or a sniper rifle (-6) takes a little longer to aim and shoot than someone with, say, a pistol (0). Kinda like the old weapon speed concept from AD&D. Suppressive Fire forces the target to make a Will save to avoid being pinned down and losing their actions for two combat rounds. One thing that sucks is that character classes use hit dice to determine hit points, meaning that at the higher levels they'll be wading through gunfire like Rambo. Oh well.

Chapter 8: Prestige Classes. Another awesome and highly useful chapter. For once d20 prestige classes come off as cool and interesting without being made into badass and absoluetly necessary for advancing PCs. There's Combat Engineer, Covert Agent, Dervish, Sniper, Special Ops and Terrorist Cell Leader, and not a single one of them is a reject. Snipers are suitably cool, capable of performing ranged coup de grace attacks (you heard me) and disabling vehicles with their rifles. Special Ops PCs can hide in plain sight, you get the idea. Probably the most upsetting element in the game is the Terrorist Cell Leader, whose 10th level ability is called 'Master of Terror;' but once again the designers whitewash the concept so fiercely that it loses much of its distastefulness. Still a good section.

Chapter 9: Vehicles. By now a lot of people have mentioned the air of invulnerability attributed to military vehicles by the game designers. I for one don’t mind. Afghanistan is less about humvees and tanks than it is about the individuals caught in the crossfire. Hiding inside a 40-ton war machine is hiding from the truth, and because of that I think the game designers were right in not giving any stats to the vehicles. Besides, you’re not gonna win a stand-up fight against a tank or a smart-bomb. Just ask the Taliban.

Chapters 10 and 12: Missions and Campaigns. In the end they throw out a bland scenario and a few campaign ideas for Afghanistan. I wasn’t blown over by this section and I’ll explain my reasons why in the summary.

Summary, and “Why Afghanistan?” Here’s my biggest problem with the game, and that with all of these great sources of drama they do little to create or describe a vibrant game setting. The current state of Afghanistan is one the great tragedies of the world, not in the television sense of the word but a real tragedy. Within the span of a few months an ancient nation went from being in the grip of a tyrannical dictatorship to an anarchist’s paradise. It’s the freaking 21st century and people still refer to other people as warlords. And no matter what the U.S. does we end up killing dozens of innocent civilians for every honest-to-God terrorist we assassinate. Holistic made a great d20 supplement. They did a good job reporting on a country the western world has abused and then ignored for centuries. And they almost made an amazing game setting, opting instead to take the easy route and settle for an interesting novelty. Most people are going to look at d20 Afghanistan and be unable to turn it into a playable setting, either because they’re unwilling to do further research (which they should only have to do if they want to) or because they’re unable to see the story behind the news. Maybe if the game was made into a campaign set within a margin of a few months and based around specific events a coherent story might come out of the whole hopeful mess. Instead it’s just uneven, awkward, and disorienting. I hope Holistic gets a chance to turn the game into something more complete.

Anyway if you’re into d20 gaming then the 100 pages of new classes, feats, rules, etc. is well worth the purchase. If you don’t like the idea of Afghanistan tear out the first 30 pages and use the rest. Controversy solved.

Darrin…

Afghanistan d20
Afghanistan d20 Capsule Review by Darrin O'Connor on 05/08/02 Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty) Hey, it's 'Twilight 2002'! No, really. Product: Afghanistan d20 Author: Ken Lightner and Tom Ricks Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Holistic Design Games Line: Cost: $20.00 Page count: 125 Year published: 2002 ISBN: 1-888906-89-8 SKU: Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Darrin O'Connor on 05/08/02 Genre tags: Modern day	A funny thing happened to me as I was flipping through my brand-new copy of d20 Afghanistan, the sourcebook to the current and still-ongoing U.S. 'War on Terrorism'. Between the descriptions of guns and helicopters and rival Pashtun tribes I discovered a pretty good summary of the conflict, done with more taste and reverence than anything produced by the major print/electronic/broadcast media outlets. I also found not only a good supplement but what might be a decent campaign setting in modern Afghanistan. I'll explain this but first let's get all of the controversial issues settled. Is d20 Afghanistan Unethical? A lot of people have expressed outrage at Holistic Games publishing an rpg based around a current war, obviously upset at the idea of playing pretend soldiers while real-life ones are being killed that same day. I was pretty turned off about it when I first heard it too. But thankfully the people at Holistic have taken a respectful approach to the real-life concepts in the book. Information is presented in a purely objective fashion. The facts are all grouped together and clearly separated from the game elements so as to not appear as if they were just using a current event to pimp out their games (a la White Wolf's WoD). And the historical and factual information is well-written; somewhat dry and with the hint of military snobbishness but far better than any throwaway article in USA Today with the headline "America Strikes Back". I guess the best thing I can say is that the game designers treat the material as if it were serious and that real people were dying out there. If they err it is on the side of caution. You'd have to be unreasonably oversensitive to be offended by d20 Afghanistan. On to the Review. Chapter 1: Introduction. Opens with a 2-page piece of fiction about a U.S. Forward Observer in Kabul. Moderately hokey and hamfisted, but most game designers aren't known for their subtlety when it comes to fiction. Then follows a bunch of talk about why they made the game and why they aren't bad people for making it (more or less that's what they're saying). They also try to establish the setting and the themes of Afghanistan, once again with moderate success. Chapter 2: History. Next is about 20 pages of factual background information on the war-demolished country and the ethnic tribes therein. If you're like me and are interested in studying third world nations then this section is a goldmine. Also includes short bios on many of the key players in Afghanistan: terrorists, tribal leaders, political figures, and so on. No stats, thank God, but also no photographs, which is a shame. The absence of bios on some of the current warlords is also curious, and it robs the setting of much-needed moral ambiguity. Chapter 3: Character Classes. Here's where we leave the realm of reality and d20 Afghanistan starts to resemble 'Mullahs & Martyrs,' albeit slightly. Character classes include Cleric, Soldier, Officer, Smuggler, etc. Each have interesting little class abilities that make them more unique than classes in most other d20 games. One theme that I do like about d20 Afghanistan is the relative similarity between the Afghanis and the Americans. Both groups pick the same classes and they don't treat the different nationalities as if they were a different race with inferior or superior stats. It's a real touch of class on the part of the game designers, especially game designers writing during 'wartime'. Chapter 4: Skills. A brief chapter, used mostly to describe the changes in D&D3E/d20 skills to the Afghanistan setting. Adds only a few new skills like Techcraft, Hacking, and Call Support. The latter is probably the most important new skill in the game as you can literally call in an air strike with a successful check and the requisite 10 minutes of waiting for the gunship to show up. Also has the stats for the damage of the bombs, from an 80mm mortar (8d8) up to the awesome 15,000lb. 'Daisy-Cutter' (100d20). Yup, you too can now bomb those annoying monsters from the Epic Level Handbook into the Stone Age. In a world without magic it’s the closest you’ll ever get to tossing fireballs. Chapter 5: Feats. Another section perfectly useful in other d20 games. A whole mess of feats adapted for a modern age. There are social feats like church rank and general feats like rapid reload. All of them are new and there are none of the standard feats from other d20 books so it you're looking for your favorite feat combo here you probably won't find it. Doesn't say whether or not you can use other d20 feats, so it might make the game more limiting. Still, it's not supposed to be standard D&D.... Chapter 6: Equipment. Guns, guns and more guns. Each comes with its own paragraph but sadly no pictures. There are very few photos or illustrations in d20 Afghanistan which is a letdown if you're not a gun-nut (like me). It tells you the contents of an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) yet doesn't include a description of those little yellow food packets we allegedly bombed the Afghanis with. That's too bad. Your typical D&D equipment section, only with modern military stuff. One funny little section is the description of a laptop computer, which apparently adds a 2 to Hacking skill checks. I would have thought you'd need the computer anyway to hack into someone's system. Chapter 7: Combat. Here we go. Standard d20 combat system but with a few neat changes. The type of weapon you use applies a penalty to your initiative, meaning that someone with a heavy machine gun or a sniper rifle (-6) takes a little longer to aim and shoot than someone with, say, a pistol (0). Kinda like the old weapon speed concept from AD&D. Suppressive Fire forces the target to make a Will save to avoid being pinned down and losing their actions for two combat rounds. One thing that sucks is that character classes use hit dice to determine hit points, meaning that at the higher levels they'll be wading through gunfire like Rambo. Oh well. Chapter 8: Prestige Classes. Another awesome and highly useful chapter. For once d20 prestige classes come off as cool and interesting without being made into badass and absoluetly necessary for advancing PCs. There's Combat Engineer, Covert Agent, Dervish, Sniper, Special Ops and Terrorist Cell Leader, and not a single one of them is a reject. Snipers are suitably cool, capable of performing ranged coup de grace attacks (you heard me) and disabling vehicles with their rifles. Special Ops PCs can hide in plain sight, you get the idea. Probably the most upsetting element in the game is the Terrorist Cell Leader, whose 10th level ability is called 'Master of Terror;' but once again the designers whitewash the concept so fiercely that it loses much of its distastefulness. Still a good section. Chapter 9: Vehicles. By now a lot of people have mentioned the air of invulnerability attributed to military vehicles by the game designers. I for one don’t mind. Afghanistan is less about humvees and tanks than it is about the individuals caught in the crossfire. Hiding inside a 40-ton war machine is hiding from the truth, and because of that I think the game designers were right in not giving any stats to the vehicles. Besides, you’re not gonna win a stand-up fight against a tank or a smart-bomb. Just ask the Taliban. Chapters 10 and 12: Missions and Campaigns. In the end they throw out a bland scenario and a few campaign ideas for Afghanistan. I wasn’t blown over by this section and I’ll explain my reasons why in the summary. Summary, and “Why Afghanistan?” Here’s my biggest problem with the game, and that with all of these great sources of drama they do little to create or describe a vibrant game setting. The current state of Afghanistan is one the great tragedies of the world, not in the television sense of the word but a real tragedy. Within the span of a few months an ancient nation went from being in the grip of a tyrannical dictatorship to an anarchist’s paradise. It’s the freaking 21st century and people still refer to other people as warlords. And no matter what the U.S. does we end up killing dozens of innocent civilians for every honest-to-God terrorist we assassinate. Holistic made a great d20 supplement. They did a good job reporting on a country the western world has abused and then ignored for centuries. And they almost made an amazing game setting, opting instead to take the easy route and settle for an interesting novelty. Most people are going to look at d20 Afghanistan and be unable to turn it into a playable setting, either because they’re unwilling to do further research (which they should only have to do if they want to) or because they’re unable to see the story behind the news. Maybe if the game was made into a campaign set within a margin of a few months and based around specific events a coherent story might come out of the whole hopeful mess. Instead it’s just uneven, awkward, and disorienting. I hope Holistic gets a chance to turn the game into something more complete. Anyway if you’re into d20 gaming then the 100 pages of new classes, feats, rules, etc. is well worth the purchase. If you don’t like the idea of Afghanistan tear out the first 30 pages and use the rest. Controversy solved. Darrin…

Afghanistan d20