I don't know what it is about gamers and religion. Most of the ones I've met have either been devoutly atheistic or have collected all kinds of spiritual elements into a myth-based hobby-faith... placing elves and maiar alongside bodhisattvas and saints. But that all isn't important to this review. I just say that to point out that gamers are weird when it comes to religion.
So here we've got The End, one of the many post-apocalypse and dark prophecy games that proliferated in the last years of the nineties. Thanks to the d20 movement and some of the folks here on RPG.net The End has been re-released in a "Lost Souls" edition. It recently appeared on the shelves of my local game store and I purchased it. And this is a review of said game.
Quick synopsis of the game. The End is a d20 post-apocalypse game about life in the United States after the events described in the biblical Book of Revelations. No, your characters aren't angels or demons. You play ordinary average Joes and Janes that survived, that weren't pious or wicked enough to be taken, and that are now stuck on the post-God world. The Rapture is over, done, finito. Civilization is wiped out, Man has lost power over the world and the few survivors, the leftovers have to fend for themselves. Like a standard postnuke story there's barbarians in the wasteland and would-be empires trying to take over small colonies of decent people. The highs and lows of The End is its gameworld, which is on one page vibrant and an enthusiastic read and on the next page flat and stereotypical. I’ll touch more on these points later.
Nowadays role-playing games have to look pretty, and The End has some of the coolest art design out there. The book itself is printed to mimic one of those faux-leather religious hymnals you see inside a bible store. And the resemblance is uncanny, from the gold leaf letters on the cover to the unusually thick yellow-colored pages to even that memorable hymn-book smell. Interior art is passable, with some very nice watercolor art that adds an ambiguous tone to the setting. My only two problems are the similarity in the art styles (a few still photos of some ghost towns would have rocked) and a preponderance towards glamour portraits of sultry femme fatales (not that I don't like girlie pictures, it just doesn't mesh well with a postnuke game). Whatever. Just as long as I can get loaded on those wonderful book fumes.
Alright let's talk rules. The End is a d20 game and it embraces the Open Game thing fully. In fact the first couple of pages have the entire Open Game License printed, making it totally compliant and allowing for you to cross-pollenate with other d20 products. Most of the rules are standard and solid, with a few novel ideas worth mentioning. There's only one PC class in The End: The Meek. As far as classes go it isn't bad. There are very few hit dice in the game (d2 per level, to a max of d4 for a few Prestige Classes) but at least your base hit points are your Constitution so you've got more at a beginning level than most d20 PCs. While having one PC class does have problems (no multiclassing, some Players might complain) it also creates a very "1st Edition" feeling whereby PCs struggle through their 'meekness' hoping to advance to a level where they can qualify for a Reborn (Prestige) class and make something of themselves. The Reborn classes suffer from the same problems as other d20 prestige classes with some being more prestigious and useful than others. Still, I like the Meek idea and believe it fits in well with the atmosphere of the game.
A few other rules of note. Equipment has levels of complexity and condition, both of which refer to how quickly they succumb to the "Blues" and fall apart. An automobile has a better chance of working than a computer but sometimes not even the car starting is guaranteed. The healing rules use some form of advanced calculus and I have yet to understand them. There's like a million medical-related feats to make up for the lack of a cleric. Also, there are no class-based Defense bonuses to AC, and since there are no magic pluses for armor that means your AC is gonna be low and you'll get hit a lot. So I suspect the game is unreasonably lethal. There's two kinds of magic in the game: one is your typical shamanistic pagan stuff, the other is freaky kaballistic Word of God stuff, both of which are marginally impressive. Finally in lieu of alignments or a humanity score PCs choose a Sin that kept them on Earth (minor stuff like Agnosticism, Atheism, or Bitterness) and an Ennui score. Ennui is a measure of your character's loneliness and if it goes too high the PC suffers depression and ability score loss. Being around others and preserving a sense of community reduces Ennui while wanton murder and separation from other humans increases it. Unfortunately the mechanic is based on individual actions rather than day-by-day choices so there's no real sense of consistency. Also, you can reduce Ennui (and thus preserve your emotional state) by killing in self-defense (most gaming situations) so it's all somewhat silly. Your mileage may vary.
Okay so let’s talk setting. The best way to describe The End’s mixture of postnuke/cowboy motifs and biblical authority is to label it as an “Old Westament.” A lot of gamers may be turned off by the religiousness of The End, or its bleak tone, or it’s mature content (authentic mature, without exploitative I might add), so they may either reject the game outright or remove the unwanted elements. This is sad, since The End loses much if it just becomes Fallout d20. Unfortunately the game designers have made the spiritual elements so slight as to be one-dimensional.
A quick, non-Bible thumping note about biblical applications to gaming. Remember that in the Old Testament God is popular not because he’s a hardass but because he’s the most tolerant of pre-civilized deities. The hebrew tribes were beset by barbaric neighbors whom worshipped degenerate monster-gods that were fickle and unpredictable, demanding human sacrifices and pushing their people towards atrocities. God was a sensible alternative, one that was lenient in worship rites, slow to anger, and when pushed to vengeance always gave prior warning. If you want your games to match the tone of the Old Testament, like as they do in The End, don’t forget this.
There’s a lot to the setting that works and a lot that could use some more research. I like the various survivor colonies that have sprung up in the ruins of the U.S. Some are very detailed and sensible, like the militant survivalist bunker that has evolved into an unlikely Marxist utopia. The idea of american indians, a demographic prone to both atheism and geneological nitpicking, staking out the country and killing anyone with less than 1/16th pure blood is both funny and honest (before anyone complains, note that American Indians are the fastest (re)growing demographic and political group, so they can take being cast as villains in an rpg). But then they boil down their foes to the level of cartoon supervillainy, like the neo-confederates in the South that have once more returned to slavery... except instead of using the ‘N’ word the designers opted to have the rednecks enslave their own women. The evil just jumps off the screen, don’t it? Still, it looks like they want to support the game with supplements so it’s not a huge deal.
I think The End, because of the (slight but still there) religious subject matter is going to be a hard sell for gamers. If any of the above strikes you as interesting or gives you ideas then I suggest you go out and buy this game. If you’re leery of it you might want to listen in on discussion boards to get a sense of how it all works out (by the time this is posted I should hopefully have run my first game for my Players and I’ll provide playtest feedback below). If you just can’t use religion but love postnuke stories, yes you can run The End without God but I’d advise against it. And I’d say make sure your Players are cool with religious roleplaying before jumping in. This ain’t your typical d20 game.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)