| What is RETROFUTUR about ? |
Rétrofutur is a French role-playing game, written in the French language, from Multisim (the most prolific French publisher).
The game is about the Twisted 50's, a world inspired by uchronic dystopian works such as
Dark City and
Brazil, adding many ideas from other authors (Dick, Burroughs, Cronenberg, Van Vogt, Orwell, Kafka ...).
Here's the history :
In the middle of the 19th century, some governments have been (telepathically) contacted by aliens : Earth was about to be accepted by some galactic federation, and they have to ready themselves for the event. One century after that contact, the aliens are still not there (as far as everyone knows) but their influence on Earth is radical : most governments are unified, Agencies are promoting ideas and technology inspired by the Aliens, Men in Black are everywhere, etc. There are still wars at the outer reaches of civilisation, but no one really knows what happens there.
Most countries have accepted to follow the instructions of the aliens, such as Europolis (Europe), the US (split into 3 : Paradise, the United Agencies of America and the Confederated Agencies of America), Interzone (North Africa), the Great Leap Forward (China), etc.
A few countries have refused help from the Aliens, and some of them are quite powerful, such as Russia (having evolved into a gadgeteer pulp Empire) and India (the last remnants of British civilisation). The West Indies are controlled by the Posse, a Voodoo Mafia.
Of course, the PCs are champions of freedom and belong to the Résistance. Opposing the Agencies within their territory, the PCs will have to ally with strange people, and use strange tools ...
| What does the book look like ? |
Rétrofutur is a 256-page hardcover book, in black & white except 16 colour pages for the character templates.
The colour illustrations from Benjamin Carré (cover & Archetypes) are extremely beautiful. Most other illustrations are manipulated photographs from the 50's, and the other illustrations are very good too.
Something unusual : in the book, there's a photographic presentation of most authors (23 of them), like if they were taken during a Twisted 50's LARP.
The layout is extremely ... original : the columns are not printed straight on the pages. They are slanted one way or another... generally on the left page the whole text is slanted down to the left, and on the right page the first column is down to the left and the two other columns are slanted down to the right.
Also, some side-notes are slanted another way, on a not-quite-square grey boxes.
At first sight, you may fear a severe headache, but finally is reads quite easily when you get used to it.
The writing style is good, and typoes are rare. If French is not your mother tongue, you may have problems understanding some phrases, because of the heavy use of mid-20th-century slang. Also, there are allusions to popular French works such as the film dialogues from Michel Audiard, or books from our local paranoïd writers (Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Maurice G Dantec, Michel Houellebecq ...) : the foreign reader will certainly miss them ...
| What is the contents of the book ? |
Livre I : Les Twisted 50's : about 60 pages on background
Introduction,
La Révolution Etrangère,
Le meilleur des Mondes ? ,
Légendes Urbaines ? : in 26 pages, those short chapters give an overview of the Twisted 50's
La Résistance,
Les Agents,
Les Mafiosi,
Les Terroristes,
Les Egarés : a description of the rebellion against the Agency system, and a look at the 4 power groups of the setting (well, the Lost are not really a group but isolated rebels)
This part ends with an 8-page "Resistance cookbook" written in character. It's a extremely well-done document, really looking like a handbook for the historical French Resistance.
Livre II : Les Règles du Jeu : about 70 pages on basic rules and character creation
Les règles,
Rejoindre l'armée des Ombres,
Les Fractures,
Les Traits,
Les Aptitudes,
Les Occupations,
Le Jeu d'Influence,
Les ContactsLivre III : Mettre en Scène l'Univers : the rest of the book (some 130 pages)
Les Rouages des Twisted 50's : rules for Influence and Wealth (6 pages)
Les Combats &
La Santé : 28 pages about combat and health. The basic system may be simple, but they've added so many options : lots of possible actions in a combat are described, each with their own special rules ... boring, boring ... This is the kind of chapter you'll want to skip, and I won't blame you.
L'Au-delà : 16 pages about the powers from beyond death (story, rules, examples).
La Technologie Etrangère : 12 pages about the alien technology built by the Agencies (story, rules, examples). It's all about wacky sci-fi : probability guns, X-Ray googles, berserker drugs, etc.
La Technologie Russe : 14 pages about Russian gadgets (story, rules, examples). It's a very entertaining read : this technology is all about miniaturisation and combination of functions. You'll love this necktie-sword.
Les Forces Vives des Twisted 50's : 14 pages describing a few factions within the power groups (Agencies, Mafias, Terrorists) and the Resistance
A lire avant de Jouer ! : 6 pages of advice to the GM
Paradis Perdu : a 12-page scenario. It's not really a scenario, by the way, but a description of a situation (a place newly corrupted by the Mafia). An fantastic subplot is proposed, too (dealing with a living toaster)
Les Etudiants Rêvent-ils de Parasites Interdimensionnels ? : a 10-page scenario (a crime story with some non-A twists)
The end of the books contains some play-aids to be photocopied (Character Sheet, etc.)
There's a rather complete table of contents but NO INDEX. This is very annoying, and the main problem with Multisim (especially since they publish background-heavy RPGs).
| What is the basic system like ? |
The system uses adjective ratings like some other Multisim games (
Guildes,
Nephilim : Révelation).
You pit adjectives together on a chart, and it gives you your chance of success on a d10
Here is the resolution table from Rétrofutur. (Nephilim : Revelation uses a similar table, but based on a d20 roll.)
| opposition | not (hard) | not very (hard) | rather (hard) | (hard) | very (hard) |
| not (skilled) | 5 | 3 | 1 | impossible | impossible |
| not very (skilled) | 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 | impossible |
| rather (skilled) | 9 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 |
| (skilled) | automatic | 9 | 7 | 5 | 3 |
| very (skilled) | automatic | automatic | 9 | 7 | 5 |
e.g. if you're
rather skilled at something and try a
hard action, you have to roll 3 or below with a d10 to succeed.
As you can see, the table is almost useless, because you can determine your chance with a quick calculation (5 when opposing something/someone equal, plus or minus 2 for every level of difference).
| How are the characters defined (and used) ? |
In
Rétrofutur, the only adjectives PC's have on their character sheets are :
Their Stamina (Endurant adjective)Their Will power (Determiné adjective)Their official Wealth and their Black Market Wealth (two Fortuné adjectives)How much they're involved into the Agencies (Administré adjective), the Mafias (Corrompu adjective), Terrorism (Violent adjective) or Anarchy (Exclu adjective)How much they're receptive to Beyond (Schizoïde adjective) and how much they've mutated, thanks to the Aliens' influence (Gangréné adjective)
Unlike in Nephilim : Révélation or Guildes, there's no attribute or skill adjectives : to determine how much you're skilled at a task, you count the number of adequate skills (verbs) and domains (names) you have on your character sheet ... for example, if you have the skill/verb "steal" and the domains/names "book" and "bookshops", if you want to steal a book in a bookshop, you have 1 adequate verb and two adequate domains, so you're skilled. The rule is :when you have no verb nor name, you're not skilledwhen you have name(s), but no verb(s), you're not very skilledwhen you have a verb and one name, you're rather skilledwhen you have a verb and two names, you're skilledwhen you have a verb and three names, you're very skilled
Of course, the book give rules for the players not to abuse the system.
Besides your adjectives and your choices of verbs and names, you've got traits (advantages and disadvantages, which sometimes replace attributes, such as "big" or "strong"), contacts, etc.
The book give you rules to build your character, and the book gives eight pre-generated characters, some of them directly stolen from pop culture : Bill Lee the Roach Killer (Naked Lunch) and ... David Vincent.
The game give some "mundane powers" :Characters have some "super-verbs" called Manoeuvres, which are kind of super-skills (like the Machinations in Guildes). They allow for multiple effects in one roll (for example, kill someone and terrifying their friends at the same time).Adjectives and Traits give you influence over the game world. For example, the adjective "Violent" gives you the possibility to call for a terrorist action against someone or some place.Strange technology from the Aliens, and Q Technology from the Russian Labs may also be really powerful.
There's also the Ubik effects ... this is the power from Beyond (l'Au-Delà), classic psionic powers, and the mad distorsions of reality as found in the works of Dick, Burroughs, Cronenberg, Brussolo and others. Users of the Ubik effects are called non-A's. Some sample effects includeOrganic Gun (a bit like the one build in eXistenZ)Schizography (draw an animated graffiti turning people mad)Gravity Fails (walk on ceilings and walls !)Organic Portal (the "organic pocket" as used in Videodrome)etc
Of course, the use of non-A effects causes some collateral damage (hallucinations, etc.).
The most original feature of the game is the Ubik : it's a container (box, bowl, whatever) in which players put bits (marbles, coins, whatever). The contents of the Ubik is called Substance Death (Substance Mort)
In some cases (when they want to re-try a bad dice roll, when they perform a Ubik effect ...) the players add some Substance Death in the Ubik.
When he wants to make PC's life difficult (hallucinations, bad luck ...), the GM draws some Substance Death from the Ubik.
The Ubik is not only a negative thing : Substance Death has benefits too (Ubik effects are easier when Substance Death is plentiful). The idea is somewhat like the Doom Bank in Marvel Super-Heroes Adventure Game, with some interesting additions (It has positive effects too).
| Philippe Tromeur, rebellious bureaucrat After a car crash, he was in a coma for months ... Now he's not sure if he's really awakened ... Age : 30 Faction : Agencies
Group : Alien Technology
Occupation : photofluide specialist (a kind of semi-living fluid used for visual communication) Fracture : Near Death Experience
Education : College Advantages : Haunted
Disadvantages : Paranoïd Contacts : one Agent, one Lost (to be determined ...) Influence
Bureaucratic (Administré)
Not Violent
Not Corrupt
Not very Lost (Egaré) Wealth
TUS (official currency tickets) : wealthy
Black Market : not wealthy
Grisbi (cash on hand) : 1 Willpower : rather determinate
Stamina : rather endurant Non-A : Yes
Haunted : rather schizoïd
Ubik Effects : Spirit Gills (aura perception), Sense Extension (insect telepathy), Emotional Psychometry, Scarab Gun Skills : Classify/Search, Perform, Order, Teach, Activate (Alien Technology), Bricoler (do-it-yourself works), Repair, Heal
Manoeuvres : Re-Activate
Domains : NewSpeak, Europolis, Alt-Paris, Univ-Lyons, Alien Technology Agency, Lab Workers, Jazz, File, Ultrachemistry, Photofluide Non-A Skills : Perceive, Animate
Non-A Domains : Ghost, Corpse, Object, Insect |
I've not played the game for the moment, and I've been hesitating to buy it for some time (2 months) because negative impressions from the wacky layout, the seemingly high number of tables on the GM screen and the overcrowded inspirations. Finally I made a decision thanks to positive online comments about original aspects (the Ubik, mostly).
Finally, the game is a very exciting read ; the rules are simple (except the combat rules) and most tables are here to clarify things. The world is quite coherent, yet simple, and the game can be played right out of the main book.
I'll recommand the game to anyone interested in paranoïd dystopian worlds and able to read French. Rétrofutur is not only a well-done compilation of paranoïd pop culture, it's also a brilliant game in its own sake.
| | style | substance |
| plus | well-writtenfrightening yet funnythe art fits the text | meaty book !a successful mix of many inspirationsa few extremely brilliant rules ideas (the Ubik) |
| minus | no indexconfusing layout | over-complicated combat rules |
| rating | 4 | 4 |
(In French, January 2003)
http://www.retrofutur-rpg.com/ : the official website
http://membres.lycos.fr/arpenteursmonde/retrofutur_index.htm : a fan site
http://rfnews.ouvaton.org/ : another excellent fan site (with lots of fan contributions)
http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/twisted_50s : the Mailing-List [in French]
http://blancfonce.com/ : Benjamin Carré's website (with some incredible galleries)
http://www.roliste.com/jeu.jsp?id=2184&ft=1 : description and reviews of the game [in French]
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)