Introduction
There has been a recent increase in the number of religious and spiritually inspired roleplaying games on the market. What originally started with
In Nomine and
Heaven and Earth has since increased in size.
Tribe 8, The End, Nobilis, A/State, Demon: The Fallen… the list seems to be continuously growing. Now, Sword and Sorcery Studios hopes to add their translation of the popular German game
Engel to the list.
I won’t claim to have too much knowledge about the original German game; most of what I know can be gleaned from the discussion forums here on RPGnet. Essentially Engel was a game that used a tarot-like card deck in play, and more resembled a co-operative storytelling game – almost like Once Upon a Time from what I have heard – than a traditional western roleplaying game. For those who preferred a more traditional system, the original version included OGL rules at the back to allow players to use the popular d20 system.
Although initial reports were that Sword and Sorcery were going to include both systems in the translation, they have in fact opted to include their own take on the OGL rules. Whether this was a wise move or not will be covered later. First – the setting…
Setting
On the surface
Engel shares a lot with the post-apocalyptic game by DP9,
Tribe 8. There are some very clear parallels between the two settings – namely of civilisation rebuilding itself, challenging authority and facing the questions of spirituality. While
Tribe 8 took an animistic, tribal position,
Engel is based in a “neofeudal” dark ages style Europe. Only the year is 2654AD.
Before I continue, I would like to point out that Engel’s setting is one of the most detailed I have come across in a long time. The Corebook manages to give a very clear and detailed view of life in 27th Century Europe, while managing to keep these details interesting.
Essentially the setting is one of a post-apocalyptic Europe. Following a plague, the Vitusdance, which managed to wipe out a large portion of the world’s adult population while having no effect whatsoever on children; the world degenerates into war. Soon afterwards two blazing pillars of fire appear at the poles – causing the ice caps to melt. Following the Second Flood (so named due to its relation to Noah’s Flood), more “Infernos” begin to appear. As far as the reader knows, Europe has lost contact with the rest of the world – and has degenerated into a state similar to the Dark Ages, with City States warring against each other in the bid for survival.
Amid all this fighting a new Church arises in Italy – the Angelitic Church. Ruled by a Pope-like figure, Pontifex Maximus Petrus Secundus, the Church sets up the Neofeudalistic state, with the Angelitic church at the top of the hierarchy. Soon the Church finds itself battling some of the more powerful merchant princes – at which point God chooses to send his Heavenly Host, the Engel, to help the Church unite humanity against the growing darkness. To save the human race before the Seventh Seal is broken.
The Infernos begin to move, slowly but inexorably across the face of the planet. Wherever they go they leave vast tracts of scorched and uninhabitable land – called “Brandlands.” From these issue forth the Dreamseed, the insectoid demon minions of the Lord of the Flies. Now the Engel must protect the people of Europe from not only Heretics, but the minions of the Devil as well… it is into this world that the PCs are sent. Only… there is something happening within the Church that the Pontifex does not want anyone to know… something about the past that may soon have fatal consequences for the Church’s future…
Graphic Design
Visually, Engel is simply amazing. The book has a beautiful bronze and white cover with a stylised yin-yang symbol that incorporates an Engel and a Dreamseed circling each other. Inside the artwork is consistently impressive. Evocative, relevant and beautiful, I would be hard pressed to fault it. I loved every picture – which is a rare occasion for me.
The only real gripe I have with the look of Engel would be the choice of title fonts. They take some getting used to – the main font used for titles is all lowercase with certain letters printed upside down. Yes, it is on purpose too. While the Gothic title fonts are also unreadable at times. I remember when I first opened the book I found it really difficult to read the contents – it wasn’t until I had been reading the book for a while that my brain got used to the weird fonts.
On the other hand, the use of white space is very effective. A friend of mine commented on how he hated the white space – he felt that it was wasted space that could be filled with more writing. But from a design perspective, I think it is very intelligent. Engel is a setting that can be very overwhelming for some readers the first time around. The use of white space makes the text easy to read, and allows for the reader to digest what he or she has been reading. Bravo Sword and Sorcery Studios for a very well laid out book.
The Good
Needless to say,
Engel’s biggest drawcard is the setting. I haven’t been this excited about running a game since I picked up
Mechanical Dream. Engel has the added benefit of being more accessible to players who aren’t usually into such high-concept games as well. The level of detail is fantastic – and the translation is superb.
I just can’t emphasise enough how fantastic the setting is, how the book details a lot about day to day life for those living in 27th Century Europe, how there is a clear progression of disclosure about the game’s secrets… the writing within the setting section is brilliant.
Another factor that won me over was the fiction. Engel has some of the best game fiction I have ever read. Not only is it visual and involving, it also helps to draw a very clear and concise picture of the setting in a way that most game fiction misses out on. I think the main secret here is that it manages to be thought provoking with out being pretentious or over-written. The language is simple and effective without having the usual amateur embellishment that a lot of game fiction tends to have.
The revelation of one of Engel’s big secrets is also handled effectively. Being a heavily metaplot based game, there are several big secrets behind the setting. One of the most important ones is revealed in the main rulebook in such a manner as to respect the player’s desire for ignorance of the big secrets while being clear to the GM about what is actually happening in the background. It is handled in a very simple manner – on one page is a paragraph warning that the next few pages contain important details that may spoil some player’s enjoyment of the game. It’s a small detail, but one that impressed me. Especially considering the secret. I’ll simply say that I doubted the validity of my purchase until I read those three pages. After reading them all I could think was “This is possibly the coolest game on Earth.” In fact it would have to those three pages that really earned this game the score it got – simply because it changes the way you read the entire book. But I will say no more. If you know anyone who wants to run this game– play in it. You will not be disappointed.
Beginning PCs!!! This is a brilliant move on WW/SSS’s part. By providing a sample Engel Fellowship not only do readers get a good idea about how characters are created, but it means you can start playing immediately with little preamble to players – the character write ups are quite comprehensive.
The Not so Good
What were they thinking? The OGL is a real let down after the fantastic lead in that the setting material gives. It gives the appearance of being cut-and-pasted straight out of the PHB. I felt that the character generation section is poorly organised – it details the various stats, but the rules on how to generate the stats are hidden within a large block of text. Furthermore the “4d6 remove the lowest result” method strikes me as being a poor method for Engel. I would have preferred to see a point based system or an average spread based system. With the method given most Engel are going to come out quite underpowered compared to how they are represented in the setting material.
Did these guys playtest the OGL rules? There is no mention of it in the credits, so I’m led to believe that the authors just assumed that because it’s d20 they didn’t need to playtest it. If this is the case, then they should all be handed a clue-by-four. Playtesting also reveals if the rules effectively emulate the setting. As they stand, I don’t feel that the OGL provided is really worth the paper it’s printed on. Harsh, I know, but I would recommend that any d20 fans wanting to play Engel should invest in a copy of Mutants &Masterminds and use that for the core system. Quite simply SSS’s OGL rules are so blatantly the PHB rules that they would have been better off printing more setting material and saying “must own a copy of PHB to play.”
As an example of how poorly thought out this was, one need only look at the character classes for humans in the game. They are a combination of classes from the DMG (Which were meant for NPCs only) and the Fighter and Rogue classes from the PHB. The classes provided are: Aristocrat, Commoner, Expert, Fighter, Rogue and Warrior. Even at a cursory glance once can see that there is no difference between the Fighter and Warrior classes, except that Fighters get heaps of bonus feats and Warriors get nothing. So why the hell would any PC choose to take Warrior Class? Sure, most PCs are assumed to be Engel, but I can guarantee that there will be some players who would like to play humans.
What happened to the original game system? On GamingReport.com SSS were quoted as saying that the game would come with both the card rules and OGL rules. The original Engel did so, and seems to have done well. I realise that they don’t have to mention why they chose otherwise – my guess is that they wanted to keep costs low on the initial run rather than sink money into a gameline that may not move. Choosing the d20/OGL system would seem like a wiser move because the game would be more likely to sell. If they had done the OGL properly…
Very little is given about the Dreamseed. While the supplement is due out soon, I can’t help but feel that a little more detail could have been given about how to use them in the game. Also there is no sample adventure. While the skeletal campaign provided is great, if this product is to draw in more the d20 market into heavily metaplot focused games then it needs to provide more examples for inexperienced GMs. Considering how much space is wasted by rules that most d20 fans already have, a simple 4-5 page adventure would have easily fitted. This final thing didn’t really effect my scoring of the game, but it is something that I think all games publishers should keep in mind. After having seen this done in Unknown Armies, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Agone I have really come to appreciate springboard scenarios in corebooks.
Summary
Engel is a fantastic setting, and it is good to see more attempts to bring d20 games out of the strictly action, hack-and-slash genres and into something a little different. However the OGL rules that SSS have provided seem a poor match to the setting, many d20 fans may feel that the space is wasted because they already have the rules in the core books for D&D3e while fans of games like
Tribe 8 and the like may prefer to have had the card rules.
While I would have given this game a 5/5, the poor execution of the rules gets it a 4 for substance. Quite frankly, the rules on their own earn a 2/5 for style and 3/5 for substance, if it wasn’t for the fact that the setting material and storytelling section are great, and the fiction is fantastic.
Should I By This Game?: Despite my complaints, yes. Engel is a class act for a game. If you aren’t into Metaplots, then this is probably not the game for you – Engel has a very definite and obvious plot to it. Also there is still a chance that WW/SSS will wise up and provide the original rules system as a supplement. As for the OGL/d20 situation – just alter Mutants and Masterminds to mimic the various powers of the Engel. The game is playable using the rules provided, but you may find that on some occasions your PCs will not be able to perform the actions that they are supposed to be capable of.
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(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)