The Inside Scoop on Gaming

INTRODUCTION

Children of the Sun (hereafter "CotS") is one of those fantasy settings with a twist. In this case, the "twist" is something called "dieselpunk". Now, the suffix "-punk" is a tricky thing when it comes to game settings. In cyberpunk, it refers to the cynical, dystopian feel of the near-future setting in question, but since the advent of steampunk, it seems to have drifted toward meaning "anachronistic technology". Which, if either, is CotS, and how well does it pull it off? Let's find out…

Tale of the Unknown Soldier

This introductory fiction piece is the first-person account of a soldier involved in a D-Day-like landing, with soldiers carrying rifles and short swords(?) riding their landing craft ashore in the face of artillery barrages and hails of arrows(??). I found this odd mix of weaponry much harder to swallow, somehow, than the presence of mages riding along with the other troops. The sides seem at least evenly matched, so why is one side using archers and the other using rifles? And why are all the soldiers on the side with the rifles also packing short swords?

And given the placement of the story, the nature of the conflict described makes no more sense than the means. The narrator's force is invading some place called "Lysirial", but that name means nothing to me so far. Still, the story does get across the idea that this is -- or, at least, can be -- a brutal setting.

Introduction

Unfortunately, the questions raised by the introductory fiction will have to wait until after the introduction proper, which focuses on the system, not the setting.

I would describe the system -- called the Token System -- as a cross between Deadlands and Silhouette, with just a dash of Storyteller thrown in.

As in Deadlands, attributes are expressed in terms of a number of dice of a certain die type, with higher die types giving higher possible scores but higher numbers of dice providing more consistent results.

The basic mechanic is also reminiscent of Deadlands: Roll the dice pool and take the highest result, with the high dice open-ending. The human range of die types is more narrow than that of Deadlands, however, running from d4 to d8 rather than from d4 to d12. Also unlike Deadlands, levels in skill don't replace the number of attribute dice for skill rolls; instead, as in Silhouette, they add directly to the high die roll.

That's just the basic roll, a.k.a. a Quality Test, however. There are also Resistance Tests, in which the number of dice of dice beating the target number -- determined by an opposing roll -- becomes important, a la Storyteller. And the number of successful dice in a Resistance Test determines how many Effect Dice will be used to determine such things as the effectiveness of spells. Finally, there are Peril Tests, in which the number of dice beating the target number matters but for which only two dice are rolled, the type being determined by the relevant attribute. (In other words, it doesn't matter if you have a Strength of 5d8 or 1d8 -- for a Strength Peril Test, you'd roll 2d8.)

There are a couple of other factors touched upon but not explained in this chapter: magic points and the system's eponymous Tokens. More on both later.

Got all that? Good. Let's move on…

A History of Krace

Okay, now we find out what all the fuss was about in "Tale of the Unknown Soldier", along with gobs of other history besides. Like much of the book, it's very detailed and very well done -- although certain references won't make much sense until you've read the entire book -- and there's no way I can do it all justice here. But I'll do my best to summarize.

Basically, this chapter starts out with the creation of the world, Raevich, by a monotheistic deity known as the Dreamer. Then it's on through both supernaturally golden and dark ages to the rise of the Elven kingdom of Lysirial. Lysirial founds a colony on GreenIsle, which eventually rebels under the yoke of a brutal Elven governor. A Human named John Krace, a former prisoner of the Elven governor, leads the successful revolution and is crowned king. King Krace abdicates the thrown after a short while to his trusted advisor, the Elven poet Aetheri, who renames the island "Krace" in honor of its hero and First Sovereign. The island of Krace soon thereafter becomes a key player in the Great Conflagration, a world war against the increasingly Nazi-esque Elven rulers of Lysirial.

The game's "present day" is 163 years after the Great Conflagration. The war, like our own world's World War 2, produced an amazing array of technological advances, such as electric generators, radio, repeating rifles, canned plasma, and new airship and ground transport designs. But Lysirial is in ruins, and Elves are viewed with anything from suspicion to outright hatred for the actions of Lysirial's overlords. King Aetheri of Krace has had no heir, perhaps to sooth the fears of those worried about a second Elven king, and the possible successors are jockeying for position as rumors fly about the King's waning health.

It's an interesting and intricate history, and sidebars regarding firearms and other examples of modern technology help give the details a little more context. I still was left scratching my head about the overall relationship of technology to this world, but I figured that all would be revealed in time.

The Dreaming Races

I do not like furries, Sam I Am. I don't actively dislike them, or their fans, but they just aren't my thing, really. So the realization that most of the CotS races are "animal people" set off warning bells in my head.

I'm happy to report that my fears were completely unfounded. Yes, most of the races are based on animals, but they aren't caricatures. The animal aspects are merely starting points, not goals unto themselves. And the non-animal races are just as interesting.

The races:

Avendera: Lion-people, smaller than humans and subterranean. If the idea of lion-people living underground seems odd, it should – they were driven underground in ages past.

Banfilidh (a.k.a. Filida): Really alien tiny plant-people with any number of forms, from obvious plant beings to anthropomorphic animals to miniature Elves and Humans.

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Playtest: The fact that the Banfilidh are so alien puts the pressure on the text to go the extra mile in making them playable. Unfortunately, there are some problems here. One of my players took a Banfilidh PC, and she wanted to know about nutritional requirements. Well, the Banfilidh section in this chapter says that their nutritional requirements "include ingestion of small quantities of soil and water" and "at least minimal exposure to sunlight". All well and good, but then when the group was buying supplies, I came across a listing for "Filidan rations". The listing says that these rations theoretically could be used by a human, so I assume that they're meant to be used by Banfilidh, and aren't just so named because the Banfilidh produce them. If so, it raises the question of what else Banfilidh need to survive -- if they can live on dirt, water, and sun, why do they need rations?

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Elves: Yes, they're the beautiful human-like beings we all know and love, but with a twist: Due to their role in past atrocities, they are almost universally despised, or at least distrusted.

Hu Lenkra: Nifty Viking-like bear-people.

Humans: There's more to say about Humans in this setting than you might think. For one thing, they have a drive to achieve that amazes the other races. For another, in a manner reminiscent of D&D orcs, Humans are capable of breeding with any of the other races except the Banfilidh, despite the fact that none of the other races can interbreed. Humans get some other perks as well, but those appear in the character creation chapter that follows.

Luparathi: Primitive, giant wolf-people, seen as nothing more than animals by many. (The fact that they can be used as mounts probably doesn't help dispel this image.)

Thorqua: Peaceful, shamanistic turtle-people.

Zheol-jhe:

Character Creation

The character creation process starts with the player selecting one of the aforementioned Dreaming Races to play. This choice will determine the range of die types available to assign to the nine attributes: Strength, Agility, Vigor, Focus (raw intellect), Perception, Discipline (willpower), Charm, Leadership, and Ferocity. The player divides up three d4s, three d6s, and three d8s between the nine attributes, with one d4 and one d8 swappable for two d6s. Players subsequently add four additional dice wherever they like, adding no more than two extra dice to any one attribute, for a maximum die pool of 3.

Racial modifiers can then push the final die types down as low as d4-4 or up as high as d10. The latter bothers me somewhat, since it compresses the range of superhuman attributes into a single level one step beyond the Human maximum. It also means that the strongest Avendera is just as strong as the much larger Hu Lenkra and the even larger and more robust Luparathi.

One unusual aspect of the process is the concept of the "occupational skill", which every character must have. Occupational skill scores don't represent the PC's ability to do his job; rather, they represent what the PC knows about his job and his status within the community.

After choosing the occupational skill and five skills representing the character's past, the player then fine-tunes the PC with a pool of points with which to purchase racial abilities and advantages, magical abilities, increased attributes, and additional magic points beyond the initial free point.

Some racial abilities -- and disabilities -- are automatic, while others must be purchased with the pool of points mentioned above. However, many of the optional abilities seem necessary to keep the PC from being an anomalous freak -- the Thorqua's shell and the Zheol-Jhe's gills, for example. Would you really want to be a shell-less turtle person or a gill-less mer-person?

I suspect that this may be a game balance mechanism, giving Humans more flexibility to buy abilities that make them truly exceptional, rather than just typical members of the species. Among the optional abilities Humans may purchase are the ability to attract the Dreamer's attention and gain luck from doing so, to have a better-than-normal grasp of arcane engineering (see below), and to have a mixed heritage that allows the PC to have a single, slightly modified racial ability from his non-human parent.

All characters have a Tendency, which is equal to the highest of their three social attributes (Charm, Leadership, and Ferocity). This works a bit like personality traits in Pendragon: In a stressful situation, the GM can force the player to make an opposed roll between the social attribute he wants his PC to use and his Tendency. If the Tendency wins, the PC loses as many dice as are in his Tendency from his roll. I'm not a big fan of this sort of mechanic, but I can live with it. At least it doesn't force the player to have his PC behave in a certain manner -- it just makes going against the PC's Tendency difficult at times.

Equipping the character is the last step, with the character's occupation and occupational skill ranks determining starting cash.

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Playtest: For the most part, I found character creation to be nicely compartmentalized -- plenty of options along the way, but not so many as to be overwhelming at any one step. There were two big exceptions to this, however.

One was purchasing equipment. This was due largely to the fact that is one of those games that goes into the finest detail of character possessions, and the fact that I was playing online, so I couldn't just hand over the list for browsing. More on this in the "Money and Equipment" chapter.

This was also one of many places in which a close reading of the rules was required. A one-page table lists the starting money and "freebie" starting equipment by occupation. Handy enough, except that I missed the single sentence on the facing page that indicates that the starting money listed on the table should be multiplied by the PC's ranks in the appropriate occupational skill. I couldn’t figure out why my PCs couldn’t afford to buy much of anything.

Also, on the off chance that your PCs want to purchase some form of arcane technology, the prices and stats for those are separated by three chapters from the rest of the equipment. Which is especially confusing, given that it's not immediately apparent what technology is "arcane" and what is not.

The other big issue had to do with magic. More on that in the Magic chapter.

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Skills

One of the finest aspects of the CotS system is the division between standard and expert tests. Standard tests are activities at which anyone could succeed and are simple pass/fail affairs, with no success levels involved. These are handled as per the basic mechanic described above. Expert tests, by contrast, require (as the name implies) some expertise -- success levels matter, and the degree of success is limited by the number of ranks the PC has in the relevant skill. This is, perhaps, the best implementation of an "attribute skill" system that I've seen. It eliminates the problem of low-skill, high-attribute characters performing like masters, while keeping some advantage to high attributes and allowing even PCs unskilled in a specific area to attempt a given task.

A much odder mechanic is the concept of the "skill-spell". This is something like the supernatural equivalent of a cyberpunk skill chip, using a spell rather than circuitry. The PC buys the skill as a spell -- which costs less than would the same skill purchased as as a skill -- and powers it with magic points. Aside from the magic point cost, and the fact that these magic points are tied up while the skill is in use, other drawbacks to skill-spells include their vulnerability to magical detection and nullification and the lack of creative flair involved in their use. The latter seems a little problematic to me -- if a character has an extraordinarily high skill spell in painting, for example, how can the character produce a painting worthy of the skill rank that lacks creative flair?

I like the breadth of the skills themselves, although the opportunity for specialization would have been a welcome addition. For example, the skill "Weapon Use: Melee" covers the use of all hand weapons -- and their repair and maintenance -- and the "Unarmed Combat" skill includes the use of improvised weapons like chairs or wine bottles. I also like the fact that skills aren't "hard linked" to a specific attribute -- the applicable attribute varies with the specific use of the skill.

This chapter also goes into more detail regarding occupational skills and their use in play. PCs have a chance to know information related to their field equal to their occupational skill rank x 25%, 15%, or 5% for basic, general, and obscure information, respectively. Culture points, awarded for spending time around a specific culture, work in the same manner.

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Playtest: Both my players and I were extremely puzzled by the jarring addition of a percentile mechanic for this specific circumstance alone. We were also a bit confused regarding when to apply this anomalous mechanic. Is a roguish PC's knowledge of the streets covered by his occupational skill, his streetwise skill, or both?

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Magic

The magic of CotS is intimately tied to the setting, and its pseudo-scientific nature nicely complements the setting's premise of a society based on the scientific study of mystical truths.

Basically, the idea is that a symbiotic relationship exists between the physical world and the invisible aetherial world. Because the two realms are mirrors of each other, what affects one world in some way affects the other. Magic in CotS is the process of creating a physical device in the aether through mathematical formulae, gestures, and words, which in turn produces the desired effect in the physical world. (Okay, maybe not so basically, but it's still an unusual and creative take on the subject.)

Not so unique is the concept of Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Pillars of magic, which have been seen before in games from Ars Magica to Torg. These are the mystical elements that must be combined to produce magic techniques, and the magician's levels in these Pillars serve as limits to the levels of the techniques he can learn. All techniques require a Primary (Body, Energy, Mind and Matter) and Secondary (Alteration, Control, Corruption, Creation, Decay, Harmony, Life, and War) Pillar, while only certain powerful and specialized techniques require one of the mysterious Tertiary Pillars.

Through the Tertiary Pillars, the game allows for certain schools of magic that feel "special" without resorting to new mechanics or character classes -- certain groups simply have access to special magical knowledge that others lack. In essence, the Tertiary Pillars help keep magic feeling, well, magical

(Strangely, all spells are called "techniques" except for skill-spells, which also don't require knowledge of the Pillars to use. I don't understand why the word "spell" would exist only to modify on kind of spell.)

Unlike Ars Magica, CotS does not allow for improvised magic. On the contrary, CotS features one of the most hyper-specific spell (sorry -- technique) lists I have ever seen. Consider the technique "Lend a Hand", which grows a third hand anywhere on the subject's body. Not an arm, mind you, but just a wrist and a hand. While such quirky little spells do suggest centuries of magical tinkering, I can't imagine anyone bothering to take them for their characters. And even if their eccentricity seems oddly appropriate, cutesy names like "Lend a Hand" do not.

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Playtest: Do not -- I repeat, do not -- attempt to play this game online unless all the players have their own copies of the book. Not if you want magic involved, that is. As I mentioned, the spells are grouped by Rank, which in and of itself tells you little about them. Within the Ranks, they're arranged alphabetically, and a good number of the techniques have names that reveal little about their function. That being the case, spell selection by any means other than methodically perusing the book itself is a nightmare.

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Although the techniques are very specific, there is some room for tweaking for individual castings. Magicians can adjust the magic point cost of a Technique to affect various aspects of the technique, such as the area, range, duration, and damage.

This chapter also explains that all PCs are part of a 1-in-1,000 breed knows as the "Talented" -- that is, they can manipulate the aether, represented by the magic point mechanic. In this, they remind me a bit of the PCs in Torg and in Earthdawn.

Combat

Combat in CotS might best be termed "elegantly complex", factoring in an impressive number of variables with a largely unified mechanic that requires several steps to utilize.

A Perception roll determines initiative order for the round. An Agility roll determines how far the characters can move in their turns. Characters have lots of leeway regarding how much they can accomplish on their turn, the main limitation being a cumulative -1 die penalty for each extra action.

A hand-to-hand attack is considered to be an exchange of blows, rather than a single strike. The main game mechanic effect of this is that a character can't take a multi-action penalty to attack one opponent multiple times on his turn, because his single attack already consists of extrapolated multiple strikes. However, the character being attacked gets to select from one of several reactions, from actively defending to counterattacking, each with its own pros and cons. As a result, while a character can only initiate one exchange of blows per round with a given opponent, he will have the options of exchanging blows again when he is attacked in turn.

Another unusual mechanic in CotS is the concept of weapon "quality dice". The number of quality dice ranges from one to five, with two being average. The roll of the weapon quality dice counts just as much as does the attacker's Agility. Unfortunately, the concept of quality dice isn't explained until the equipment chapter, so I was completely confused as to how the number of quality dice is determined. Worse still, nowhere in the book does it say how to determine what kind of dice to roll for the quality dice. I finally had to contact one of the authors (Lewis Pollack, for the record), who told me that it's the same as the weapon's damage dice. So, bigger, badder weapons not only do more damage, but are also more likely to connect in the first place. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that mechanic, but I can live with it, I suppose.

And speaking of damage, exchanges in hand-to-hand combat are used to determine "combat advantage" -- the difference between the combatants' roll totals in the exchange. Combat advantage adds directly to rolls of Strength and weapon quality dice to determine the damage done.

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Playtest: Here's where that limit on success levels in expert tests has a neat effect.

One character was playing an Avenderan scholar. Lacking both combat skills and weapons, he attacked a foe barehanded. At first, he seemed to be doing decently even in spite of this relatively low Agility, but that was before I realized that his combat advantage would be limited to zero.

I had a bit of difficulty figuring out how this affected his chance to hit, since the rules are unclear as to whether the limit is applied before or after the subtraction takes place. I finally decided that it was applied afterwards -- otherwise, there would be no way for the Avendera to ever strike his opponent. However, I did apply the limit to the damage equation. The result made a fair amount of sense -- a character with even a high raw Agility but no skill can hit fairly often, but his strikes will lack the finesse needed to dish out more damage from a precise strike. Instead, brute strength and (in the case of armed opponents) weapon deadliness will have to do.

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Ranged combat works very differently, pitting a Perception Quality Test and weapon skill against a target number determined by the size and range of the target and a host of possible modifiers. Here, the weapon's quality doesn't affect the chance to hit, but rather the weapon's range. Also, bows, firearms, siege weapons, cannons, and explosives have a "Damage Factor" -- a number that is a multiplier for the roll of the weapon's damage dice. This is meant to simulate the weapon's stopping power, although I think it might better be understood and applied as a representation of scale. (Thereby making the same mechanic usable for giant-sized melee weapons, for example.)

The mechanic for shields doesn't make much sense to me. Shields have a protection rating that subtracts from the quality dice rolled for the attacker's weapon. What this means, in effect, is that no matter how skillful the attacker (Agility dice and skill) and how powerful the weapon (die type), shields only act to nullify the skill with which the weapon was made (the number of quality dice). So, from a tactical standpoint, if you know you're going up against poorly equipped opponents, using larger shields becomes pointless -- the extra protection they provide against higher-quality weapons will be wasted. Well, unless the enemy attacks barehanded, in which case the shield's protection rating reduces the attacker's Agility dice. This is probably one of the worst aspects of the combat system.

Armor, thankfully, makes a bit more sense: make a Quality Test using the protection rating for the armor in question and subtract the total from incoming damage. Strangely, however, armor protection ratings don't vary with quality, as do weapon dice. Instead, the default rating presumes a full suit of armor, leaving the GM to judge by how many dice the protection rating should be reduced for partial suits. Also, given the general complexity of the system, I was marginally surprised to see that hit locations aren't really an issue outside of called shots to get around armor.

And speaking of getting around armor, what happens when damage gets past both armor and shield? Hoo boy, I was afraid you'd ask that… Well, damage is rated in Strain. Strain builds up until it exceeds the character's Strain Limit -- derived from the character's Vigor -- at which point Strain resets to zero but the character takes a single wound. (Strain damage below the Strain Limit is considered superficial damage.) Each wound after the first reduces all attribute dice pools by one, and when Vigor, Discipline, and Tendency all reach zero, the character is dead.

Ah, but that's just the beginning.

If the damage from one blow exceeds the Strain Limit -- thereby causing a wound -- you must multiply the new wound total by 10, add the damage caused by the blow, then consult the Wound Effects table to see what additional effects the blow had on the character. These start out at knockdown on the low end and automatic death at the opposite extreme. Note that the Wound Effects table is also the only way to inflict more than one wound per hit -- Strain, in and off itself, will only cause a single wound.

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Playtest: And from what I saw, that's not all that likely. One character in my game shot an Adavae (annoying little monkey-squirrel critters with spears) with a gun, twice. The result in both cases was nothing more than a knockdown.

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If the character takes twice his Strain Limit in a single blow, he's knocked out for a number of rounds equal to [damage suffered - (Strain Limit x 2)].

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Playtest: Three times during my game, this resulted in a combatant being knocked out for zero rounds (Strain Limit of 6, 12 points of Strain).

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Also, a character will fall unconscious when his wound total exceeds his Vigor dice, although he can resist this using a Vigor Peril Test. Remember that Peril Tests always use two dice. So, the number of the Vigor dice is all that matters in determining when the character is in danger of passing out, but the type of Vigor dice are all that matter in determining how well he can resist passing out. There's some fairly nice symmetry there.

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Playtest: As was my experience with Deadlands, I found all of these steps in the damage process far too cumbersome. Granted, there's not as much dice rolling as there is in Deadlands, but there's even more calculating. Fans of complex systems may disagree, but I would suggest that a person would need a good mind for numbers to keep things flowing smoothly. As it was, our trial combat crawled.

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Now, what we have so far is a fairly complex combat system. Making it still more complex -- while giving players still more options in the process -- are those tokens I mentioned earlier. These can be anything that the player can throw down on the table -- poker chips, coins, etc. Each player gets one token, which he can use for his character once per round, the primary use being to declare an "Interrupt". Interrupts allow characters to act when it isn't really their turn in order to interfere with another character's action.

The nature of CotS combat makes determining what is a valid Interrupt a little tricky, however. A melee counter-attack against a charging foe is not a valid Interrupt, because that's already covered in the standard melee combat rules, but attacking the same foe with a ranged attack would be a valid Interrupt. A melee attack meant to save a hostage who is about to be killed could be valid as well.

Interrupts become particularly troublesome as they relate to multi-actions and multi-action penalties. While standard multi-actions get a cumulative -1 penalty after the first, actions during an Interrupt start out with a -1 penalty due to their reactionary nature and get a cumulative -2 penalty after the first action. The two penalties don't stack, so a GM may find himself having to keep track of two separate cumulative penalties for the same character in the same round.

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Playtest: The main benefit of Interrupts is that in theory, they keep players involved in combat -- just because it's not your turn doesn't mean you can't act, and just because an opponent has already acted doesn't mean he won't act again. But given the length and complexity of combat, I found that adding yet another layer of complexity in order to maintain interest amounted to one step forward and two steps back. Across the board, my players lost interest over the course of single combat rounds. The Interrupts, when played, just dragged out the combats instead of spicing them up.

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Social Interaction

I've seen many vociferous debates on RPGnet between people who feel that social interaction in games should be a function of the player's roleplaying and those who believe it should be determined by the character's skill. CotS manages to find a clever compromise between the two. When a PC makes a statement in a social situation, the GM decides how many dice the statement is worth and which social attribute is being used. The player then rolls the determined number and type of dice, adding modifiers for the situation, appearance, and applicable skill. The target of the interaction makes a Resistance Test using the same attribute, and the number of Effect Dice remaining determines the outcome.

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Playtest: It took me several re-readings to get this mechanic down. The biggest confusion on my part was over the Effect Dice, and the fact that they are only counted, not rolled.

That aside, this is one of the best social interaction mechanics I've seen, but I'm afraid that all of the dice rolling would be a little jarring during extended interaction sequences. Those of a more Simulationist bent may not have a problem with that, however.

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The game applies this same mechanic to social attacks. In this case, the Effect Dice reduce the number of dice the target can roll against the attacker for the remainder of the entire encounter, unless the defender immediately makes an Interrupt and counters with a rebuttal using the same mechanic. This makes social attacks particularly effective, doubtless to the delight of players of dashing swashbucklers and intimidating vigilantes everywhere.

Money and Equipment

The chapter begins with a fairly thorough explanation of the world's monetary systems, then plunges into that huge equipment list I mentioned earlier. This includes a list of annual wages for various professions, which highlights just how poverty-stricken starting player characters are meant to be.

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Playtest: The wealthiest PC in my game was a truck driver who had some skill in arcane engineering. Not finding an occupation listed that really fit that description, I gave her the same starting funds and equipment as a professional arcane engineer. This included 250 silver coins per her three occupational skill ranks, for a total of 750 silver coins. If we assume, for the sake of argument, that that's a month's salary in hand, then for the 10-month Raevich year, her salary is 7,500 silver coins. By contrast, the yearly wages of the typical rural school marm are 12,000 silver coins.

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Speculations about annual salaries aside, the cost of equipment and the small amount of starting money for PCs will make certain character concepts difficult or impossible without GM fiat.

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Playtest: Given that the equivalents of modern firearms are one of the most notable points of difference for the setting, it's reasonable to expect that some players will want to get their characters' hands on them. Such was the case with the truck driver's player. Unfortunately, all she could afford was a four-barreled pepperbox revolver -- the second-most-primitive firearm available. And that would have taken all of her starting cash, leaving nothing for ammunition. So, going strictly by the book, those wanting to play anything other than a second-string gunslinger are out of luck. Still, the book does encourage GMs to work with players in order to equip their PCs in a manner that makes sense, so I went ahead and gave her the revolver and some "free" ammunition. This sort of fiat has the potential to make some players much better off than others, however, so beware.

And this won't just be a problem for gunslinger types, by the way. Long bows, dual and heavy crossbows, and any armor heavier than leather are also fairly cost-prohibitive for starting characters.

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By contrast, it seems to me that technological devices are too inexpensive to be as rare as the setting suggests. Granted, they're pricier than their real-world counterparts -- I'd say that a CotS shotgun costs about as much as a real-world personal computer, for example. Still, given their extreme utility in a dangerous world, that's a relatively small price to pay. I'd think they'd be more prevalent.

And that, in turn, calls into question the setting's premise of medieval and modern technology operating side-by-side. How much use are armored knights going to see in a world with automatic rifles?

Every item of equipment comes with a one-sentence to multi-paragraph description. In many cases, this is just overkill -- do we really need a description of "Mirror, Small Glass"? -- but in the case of the setting's equivalent of technological devices, many of which have unrecognizable names and all of which have a setting-specific explanation, it's often necessary.

One nice touch is the inclusion of typical diets for Kracians of various social strata. It might have been better placed with general descriptions of the setting, but it's welcome nonetheless.

Words of the King

An excerpt from the journal of the dying Aetheri, Poet King of Krace, in which he muses over the nature and history of his kingdom. It packs a lot of good information about the setting into a small and very readable package, which makes me wish that it had been used as the opening fiction.

The Kingdom of Krace

Here, the book really hits its stride. Finally, 203 pages in, CotS puts some meat on the bones of the setting.

It starts with a description of the awe-inspiring geography of GreenIsle: an island featuring a valley filled with trees so massive that they tower over the surrounding mountains, their branches merging together to form a solid layer -- the Green Sheath -- high above the unknown and threatening darkness of the valley floor. It's a remarkably creative setting that provides a vast, dangerous "dungeon" running below the majority of the island's woody "surface". Need a previously unknown horror to appear somewhere on Krace? No problem -- just have it burrow up from the darkness beneath the Green Sheath.

From there, the chapter goes on to discuss the various fine details of the island -- the calendar, the weather, the sun and moons and their supernatural significance, population statistics, lifestyles in the cities and in the countryside, education, laws, and interesting details on every city, organized by province and with population, exports, and imports listed for each. It's the sort of fully visualized fictional setting that leaves me dazzled and eager for exploration.

Overall, Krace appears to be an ideal "home base" for player characters on Raevich, offering plenty of intrigue and adventure in the most advanced nation -- socially and (arguably) technologically -- on the planet.

Unfortunately, it is in this chapter that the book really should have made clear the biggest oddity of the setting: the juxtaposition of medieval trappings alongside modern conveniences like electricity and radio. It does not do so. It also does nothing to shed light on the nature of "dieselpunk" -- it's the first chapter that even mentions the diesel engine, and then not by name and only in passing as something on which the Royal College of Engineers is working.

Guide Advice

This is a kind of catchall chapter -- a combination on general advice for the GM (such as how to handle magic point and token use), new mechanics (such as how to create advanced characters), and recaps of already-discussed mechanics (including basic task resolution). It's useful information presented in a kind of non-intuitive jumble, making this chapter the rules equivalent of that box under your bed that is the last place you look for something you just know is somewhere in the house.

Aetherial Mirrors

Aetherial Mirrors are the magic items of CotS -- items in the physical world that serve as anchors to the aetherial constructs described in the magic chapter. These come in three varieties: linked devices, divine relics, and arcane engines.

Linked devices are the most basic aetherial mirror, storing magic points and or magic techniques for later use. The catch is that, as the name implies, a Talented individual must form a magical link with the device in order to use it. Forming a link isn't too difficult unless the character is in a hurry or unless he needs to break a pre-existing link to establish his own. Also, linked devices can have more than one "link point", allowing multiple individuals to link to the same device.

Divine relics are items infused with supernatural power from having been used in the completion of a Spirit-mandated quest. They simply perform whatever magic function they perform without any rolls or links involved. The ones blessed by the Dreamer can be used by anyone, while those dedicated to lesser Spirits usually only work for the faithful of that Spirit.

By far the most complicated items, both in terms of concept and game mechanics, are the arcane engines. These are based on "circuits" -- tiny patterns of lines on an item that serve as ritual inscriptions that may be activated by anyone without the need for magic. To create an arcane engine, the player chooses from a list of common arcane functions or works with the GM to come up with a new one, then determines the success of the creation through a formula that factors in the base cost, specificity, and duration of the function, the required frequency of recharging the function, and the quality of the materials used.

Despite the name, arcane engines aren't engines in the physical sense, and the devices to which they're added may seem like "traditional" magic items -- cloaks and rings, for example. However, they may serve as the power source for physical engines, and that's where things really start to get interesting. For example, arcane vehicles such as arcane steeds (motorcycles), steel mules (jeeps), and phants (tanks) are powered by steam produced by water passing over heating runes. And airships use anti-gravity arcane engines to fly.

The line between mundane and arcane technology isn't at all clear -- again, the book mentions that "light oil combustion" is being explored as an alternative to rune-heated steam, but would such a device be arcane or mundane in CotS terms? Are all technological items powered by arcane engines? If not, what explains the apparent lack of mass production that maintains the medieval aspects of the setting? For a less intricate setting, a hand-wavy "just because" might suffice, but CotS sets a high standard for itself in the degree of detail it presents in so many aspects of the world.

(For the record, the author has informed me that items such as firearms are not arcane and could be mass-produced, but haven't been as of yet. He also said that the setting is changing and that it diesel engines will become more prevalent as the game line progresses.)

On a final note, the listings of arcane engines don't include prices. It's probably just as well, however. If a starting character can't afford a decent longbow, what are the chances of him affording a magic-powered sedan?

Creatures of Raevich

CotS offers a very generous bestiary that covers a wide range of creatures both magical and (for Raevich) mundane. Of all those featured, only the griffon is a fantasy staple.

Two real highlights are the rules for spirits and the undead. Spirits, which include divine, elemental, and infernal entities, have no bodies of their own and must be provided with a physical form: holy icons and relics for divine spirits, aspects of their environment for elemental spirits, and bodies (living or dead) or golems for infernal spirits. Because spirits don't belong in the physical realm, they're limited to how much power they can use to bend reality -- a limit called "flux". Summoners can increase the amount of flux possessed by a summoned spirit by placing "geasa" -- spiritual or formulaic chains -- upon it, at the cost of limiting the spirit's overall usefulness in some manner. Geasa can also make the spirit easier to summon, at the cost of making it harder to bind. The combination of flux powers and geasa allow both GMs and players plenty of room to customize summoned entities, and the chapter includes a number of ready-made spirits as well.

There are two main classes of undead: corporeal (remnants) and incorporeal (ghosts). (Flesh puppets, a third type, are artificially created remnants.) Ghosts are about what you'd expect, but remnants are a brilliant little piece of setting and game design -- a sort of Unified Theory of the Living Dead.

All undead have a "fugue" rating from 1-10, which represents their ability to affect the physical world. In the case of remnants, it also affects their appearance, and, effectively, what type of undead creature they are -- higher-fugue remnants are both more powerful and look more like how the deceased think their bodies should look. So, at Fugue 1, you have skeletons, and at Fugue 2, you have zombies. Once you get up to the middle of the scale, the entities become more vampire-like (although they aren't called such) and can pass for human, while those at the top of the scale approach painful supernatural beauty. However, the distorted perceptions of an undead madman could produce a "perfect" form that's truly horrific, perhaps looking just as inhuman -- if not more so -- than lower-fugue remnants (thereby allowing for liche equivalents and the like). In short, CotS uses one sort of creature to cover just about every sort of corporeal undead within a 10-point power scale. It's an excellent melding of setting and system.

The Elder Spirits

The cosmology of CotS reminds me a bit of that of Middle-earth, with a remote, monotheistic Creator -- in this case, the Dreamer -- creating a group of powerful entities -- the Elder Spirits -- to watch out for its creations. These Elder Spirits, like the Valar of Tolkien's world, form a kind of polytheistic pantheon within a monotheistic framework. The evil side of the equation comes from the Infernal Elders, powerful spirits formed by the Dreamer's darker thoughts.

The chapter then goes on to describe the turbulent history of religion on Raevich. This culminates in a status quo of friendly relations between the various churches of the Elder Spirits and a generally non-devout and religiously pragmatic public that seeks the blessings of whichever Spirit is most appropriate to the situation.

The bulk of the chapter is an excellent listing of the Elder Spirits, complete with symbols, holidays, rites, and Mysteries (the Tertiary Pillar that gives the devout access to special magic techniques relating to the Spirit in question). The descriptions manage to give the Elder Spirits a bit of depth beyond simply "God of _________". The Infernal Elders, by contrast, get only brief descriptions at the end of the chapter.

Guilds & Societies

Information on the various organizations present in the setting. Fairly extensive details include each group's entrance requirements and Tradition. The Tradition is the skill representing the character's knowledge of the group's workings and teachings. In some cases, it also forms the basis of a Tertiary Pillar of magic (like the Mysteries of the churches).

Several of these groups would be ideal as either adventure sponsors (such as the Adventurer's Guild) or as the adventurers themselves (such as the Rangers of Ebrigil, a paramilitary police force reminiscent of the Texas Rangers that includes members who operate with near autonomy).

Gazetteer of Raevich

And now it's back to geography. This chapter takes us on a quick tour of the world outside of Krace. Like the races of Raevich, the various nations contain enough familiar aspects to feel comfortable but enough innovations to stay interesting. The people of Allathian, for example, seem to be analogues of the Arabs -- a fact not so interesting in and of itself, until you include the fact that this male-dominated society formed a marriage of necessity with Thena, a strongly matriarchal society with an Asiatic feel, to create the nation of Alliathena.

The place that most cries out for adventure, however, is Lysirial, the elven kingdom left devastated by its invasion during the Great Conflagration. Just imagine the possibilities of lawless post-apocalypse cities filled with smugglers, pirates, and survivors; horrific forests hiding warped Filida; communal burial sites roiling with hordes of flesh-hungry undead; and vast military bunkers hiding vaults of stolen treasure, malignant magic items, and half-completed weapons projects. And surrounding it all, a perpetual maelstrom of thunder, lightning, and the wailing souls of the dead. Good, good stuff that provides rational explanations for old-school dungeons and their associated hordes and guardians.

The chapter also includes a useful timeline of the history of Raevich, beginning with the Dreamer's arrival in Raevich and his repair of the Elder Artifact. This is rather odd, given that up until now, the book has indicated that the Dreamer created the world, and that this is the one and only mention of this "Elder Artifact".

Scenarios

The book includes two scenarios, which it describes as "fleshed out". I can't really agree, given the complete lack of stats, but they do both offer very workable plots.

The first, "Reclaiming the Sunrise", put me in mind of Warhammer FRP: a wealthy man hires the PCs to clear out the squatters from the Sunrise, and insanely vast theater/hotel. Easy enough. Or it would be, if it weren't for the (swipe spoiler text) gang of cat burglars trying to make the PCs think the place is haunted, and the real Ghoul they inadvertently awaken.

The second, "The Wager", is a much more lighthearted affair. Another wealthy man hires the PCs, this time to be his team in a race across the length of the Green Sheath and back. I ran this one for my playtest, although as a nod to my trucker PC, I changed it from a low-tech foot race to a Cannonball Run-style arcane vehicle race.

* * * * *

Playtest: I found the lack of NPC stats really grating in trying to set up this adventure. Character creation is a fairly involved matter in this game, and there are four opposing teams to stat out along with whatever foes you decide to throw at the PCs along the race route. Then there's the fact that one of these teams is made up of a single Elven killer who's supposed to be a challenge for the entire group. That's a rather tall design order for a GM who is new to any system, but especially one this involved.

The scenario does include a breakdown of events by Act and Scene, but even disregarding the lack of stats, many of these event descriptions aren't particularly helpful. One scene just suggests that the PCs be ambushed by someone, another has one of the opposing groups being in some kind of trouble, and a third is entirely the GM's call.

* * * * *

STYLE

Even given the fact that I'm working with a proof copy in a 3-ring binder, rather than the finished product, I can see that this is a beautiful book, starting with a stunning cover illustration of an Arcane Engine that reminds me of nothing so much as Myst. The internal artwork tends to be less stark and more dreamlike, but is likewise quite good. And while the rules text tends to be somewhat dry -- as the rules text in rules-heavy games is wont to be -- the game fiction has a certain elegant flair.

But strange as it may sound, all that beauty and elegance is a problem. The term "dieselpunk" implies, as the Misguided Games web site describes Raevich, "a world of grit and oil, of dust and mud." Instead, the language and visuals suggest an ethereal Camelot, albeit with a firearm or two stashed behind the luxurious tapestries.

One annoying tendency of the book is its manner of naming and describing certain Arcane Engines -- vehicles, in particular -- in-character, studiously avoiding referencing their real-world equivalents. Now, granted, this does contribute to the reader's immersion in the setting, but it comes at the expense of efficiency and clarity -- just saying "this is a motorcycle/car/tank" would have saved an awful lot of space. Such a straightforward description would be even more help in terms of the airships, which appear in no illustrations despite their clear impact on the setting. I think some of the airships are the literal aerial equivalents of naval vessels and that others are more like real-world aircraft, but I can't be 100% certain.

Layout and (especially) organization are problems as well, both in terms of the setting and the rules. Important facts appear in counterintuitive places (such as the Guide Advice chapter) or appear only once, often lost in a sea of dense text. And the chapters really ought to be rearranged to group the rules and setting information together, and to do a better job of easing the reader into the setting.

On the bright side from an organizational standpoint, the book does include an index, a list of tables and charts, lists of Techniques sorted alphabetically and by Pillar and rank, and movement and strength tables.

CONCLUSION

From a rules standpoint, Children of the Sun will never be my thing. I don't like dice pools, I don't like lots of dice rolling, and I don't like dense rules. That in and of itself doesn't make this a bad game, however. The rules have a certain internal logic and flow that should appeal to fans of dice-heavy systems. I suspect that even those gamers will have problems with the game's organization, however.

The setting has lots of potential, but it needs focus. The game needs to decide what it wants to be. Right now, it's like a noble knight describing in Elizabethan English just how grim n' gritty he is, citing as evidence a wild pulp adventure. "Dieselpunk" either needs to be expanded or discarded, and if expanded, explained. Mixing medieval and high-tech "just because" may work for Masters of the Universe, but CotS sets a much higher standard than that for itself.

In the end, I think I have to let CotS just barely squeak by with an above-average rating. Clearly, the writers have a grand and creative vision. What they need to do now is a better job of making sure the rest of us can see it clearly.

SUBSTANCE:

Setting

Quality = 4.0

Quantity = 3.5

There's good information, and there's a lot of it, but some of the most vital aspects never really gel.

Rules

Quality = 3.5

Quantity = 4.0

Overly complex for my taste, but sound for the most part. And the rules definitely cover a lot of ground.

STYLE:

Artwork = 4.0

Very pretty, but not very thematic.
Layout/Readability = 2.5

Needs some serious reorganization.
Writing = 3.0

The decent fiction balances out the dry rules text.
Proofreading = 4.0

Not enough mistakes to be noticeable.