The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Enh.

This is my second review here at RPG Net, and it's going to be a heck of a lot shorter than my last review. Why? Cos my last review was for a good product. My next review may be for an awful product. I'm a well known ranter, so when doing a review of an awful product, I'll probably be pretty darn verbose. Fall of the Malakim is neither here nor there.

It's decidedly enh.

Let's flip through it right now. Write ups of old superiors. Frankly, I actually like these. They give lots of neat new information, and often give new attunements. I find that these new attunements are often pretty handy, especially when you really like the concept of a superior, but his or her attunements really blow. (Like Janus and Gabriel.) Unfortunately, this doesn't either Janus or Gabriel. This has David, who could be one of the most dull superiors out there. James Cambias does a reasonably good job of making him rise above the 'me warrior man, firm like stone, hard like rock' (that's a movie quote, I apologize) stereotype I'd attributed to him, but sometimes when you're given boring source material, it makes it hard to spice it up. Elizabeth McCoy handles Lilith. Let me air this little greivence now. I don't like Lilith. I don't like how she's often handled in games (White Wolf has Lilith as a bigger-than-god omnipotent wossname) and I don't like how she's generally v! iewed in pop culture (Lilith Fair my ass. You notice Sarah McLachlan never points out that in myth, Lilith strangles babies. There's a symbol of free womanhood!) Er. I told you I'm a ranter. Back on track. I don't like Lilith. I do, however, like Elizabeth McCoy. Back when I was on the In Nomine list, her posts were among the more interesting. While reading her Lilith writeup, you can tell that -she- really does like Lilith. For me, that takes something I don't like, then gets really enthusiastic with it. It's almost unbearable. If you like Lilith, however, this is just your thing.

Elizabeth McCoy also covers the Bright Lilim. I despise them. Not Miss McCoy's write up of the Bright Lilim, but the whole idea behind them. I really, genuinely hate them. A friend of mine says that when she runs her next In Nomine game, she'll be tossing Lilim entirely. I can't blame her for it. Still ... bright lilim. Yugh. Of course, Bright Lilim, like the Bunyip or Abominations in the White Wolf pantheon of stuff, are unique and rare, so of course -everyone- wants to know how to play one and what special crap they get. Now that those questions have been answered, they just need to know how to play Grigori and their Nephilim children and they may be sated for a while longer. Yugh.

Fortunately, Fall of the Malakim had no new superiors. I really don't like them either. (Man, I don't sound like I like much of anything. I honestly like In Nomine, but the further they move from where they started, the less appealing it seems to me.) I am, however, guilty of having written up a few of my own superiors, so I'm a bit of a hypocrite here. (If you'd like to read them, just go to ... aw, no plugging.) It's just that the new superiors have a tendency to, oh, suck. Like Christopher and Zadkiel. Ugh. And especially Furfur. Ugh ugh!

The previous books all had universal information which would come in handy in any game. Night Music had information on drugs, Soldiers and other human related items. The Marches had information on sorcery and, of course, the Marches. Heaven and Hell covered, you guessed it, Heaven and Hell. Running through all of them was the 'revelations' back story.

Unfortunately, in Fall of the Malakim, they seem to have run out of gas with the universal information. So 51 pages are taken up by an LA citybook. This is longer than the Austin citybook in Night Music, but I'm not sure if it's really any better. The problem with citybooks is that they're great for GMs trying to get an idea of where to start, they're good as settings for new games, but unless a GM and his players want to move from their already established settings, they're rarely good for a game that's already running. The earlier mentioned friend asked me if the NPCs given in the book would be easily transferable to her London based game. My response was that if you changed their backgrounds, I wouldn't see why not, but that it seemed like something you'd really only want to do if you needed an NPC angel or demon really quick off the top of your head and couldn't write one up yourself.

As for the LA sourcebook for those who don't mind moving or don't already have a game going, Derek Pearcy and Kenneth Hite do a servicable job of describing the feel and lay-out of the city. There are numerous NPCs, none of which really reached out and grabbed me, some story ideas that didn't make me want to run out and get my friends around a table, and sections devoted to how each superior feels about the city, etc etc etc.

Like I said. Enh.

At the end are two adventures. The Premiere revolves around a demon funded movie on its opening night, and the arrival of Nybbas to mess with just about everyone. Maybe it's because I've recently run Tatterdemalion, the simply stunning Cthulhu adventure revolving around a production of the King in Yellow, or perhaps it's because I've recently played in La Musique de la Nuit, a CoC adventure taking place in Paris' Opera House in the 1890's (published in Fatal Experiments, by Chaosium Games, and the Golden Dawn, by Pagan Publishing, respectively) but the idea just seemed old to me when I read it. Your mileage may vary.

Then there is the adventure for which the book is named, the Fall of the Malakim. Malakim, it has been said, cannot fall. So now one has. Egads! It's an okay adventure, and I won't give away the sekrit ending, but needless to say the first trumpet is blown and it will most likely lead directly into Revelations V: The Final Trumpet.

All and all a very enh book. If you're considering running a game in LA, you might as well get it for the ideas. (Though I think that were I gonna run a game in LA, I'd get the Los Angeles Insight Guide, and go from there.) If you are an angel of David, a Lilim or really want to play a Bright Lilim, then you might as well ... let someone else buy it, then read it over their shoulder.

I know that after the Final Trumpet there will be a Book of Tethers. After that, though, I wonder what else they can do. This book shows me that the gang behind In Nomine are rapidly running out of ideas. What new can they give us? I really do like this game. I'd like to see more original stuff released. This, however, just doesn't cut it. I hope that their next 'cycle' is better than this one has been, on average.

Then again, I suppose they could go White Wolf and just release a second edition of In Nomine, and toss in second editions of every book they've released so far. That done, they could do third editions! And In NomiLARP, the Live Action Game of Angels and Demons. Just don't show it to grampa!

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Revelations IV: The Fall of the Malakim
Author: James Cambias, Alain H. Dawson, David Edelstein, Kenneth Hite, Elizabeth McCoy and Derek Pearcy Category: game Company/Publisher: Steve Jackson Games Cost: $19.95 Page count: 128 ISBN: ISBN 1-55634-341-8 Capsule Review by Adam Schroeder on 08/09/98. Genre tags: none	Enh. This is my second review here at RPG Net, and it's going to be a heck of a lot shorter than my last review. Why? Cos my last review was for a good product. My next review may be for an awful product. I'm a well known ranter, so when doing a review of an awful product, I'll probably be pretty darn verbose. Fall of the Malakim is neither here nor there. It's decidedly enh. Let's flip through it right now. Write ups of old superiors. Frankly, I actually like these. They give lots of neat new information, and often give new attunements. I find that these new attunements are often pretty handy, especially when you really like the concept of a superior, but his or her attunements really blow. (Like Janus and Gabriel.) Unfortunately, this doesn't either Janus or Gabriel. This has David, who could be one of the most dull superiors out there. James Cambias does a reasonably good job of making him rise above the 'me warrior man, firm like stone, hard like rock' (that's a movie quote, I apologize) stereotype I'd attributed to him, but sometimes when you're given boring source material, it makes it hard to spice it up. Elizabeth McCoy handles Lilith. Let me air this little greivence now. I don't like Lilith. I don't like how she's often handled in games (White Wolf has Lilith as a bigger-than-god omnipotent wossname) and I don't like how she's generally v! iewed in pop culture (Lilith Fair my ass. You notice Sarah McLachlan never points out that in myth, Lilith strangles babies. There's a symbol of free womanhood!) Er. I told you I'm a ranter. Back on track. I don't like Lilith. I do, however, like Elizabeth McCoy. Back when I was on the In Nomine list, her posts were among the more interesting. While reading her Lilith writeup, you can tell that -she- really does like Lilith. For me, that takes something I don't like, then gets really enthusiastic with it. It's almost unbearable. If you like Lilith, however, this is just your thing. Elizabeth McCoy also covers the Bright Lilim. I despise them. Not Miss McCoy's write up of the Bright Lilim, but the whole idea behind them. I really, genuinely hate them. A friend of mine says that when she runs her next In Nomine game, she'll be tossing Lilim entirely. I can't blame her for it. Still ... bright lilim. Yugh. Of course, Bright Lilim, like the Bunyip or Abominations in the White Wolf pantheon of stuff, are unique and rare, so of course -everyone- wants to know how to play one and what special crap they get. Now that those questions have been answered, they just need to know how to play Grigori and their Nephilim children and they may be sated for a while longer. Yugh. Fortunately, Fall of the Malakim had no new superiors. I really don't like them either. (Man, I don't sound like I like much of anything. I honestly like In Nomine, but the further they move from where they started, the less appealing it seems to me.) I am, however, guilty of having written up a few of my own superiors, so I'm a bit of a hypocrite here. (If you'd like to read them, just go to ... aw, no plugging.) It's just that the new superiors have a tendency to, oh, suck. Like Christopher and Zadkiel. Ugh. And especially Furfur. Ugh ugh! The previous books all had universal information which would come in handy in any game. Night Music had information on drugs, Soldiers and other human related items. The Marches had information on sorcery and, of course, the Marches. Heaven and Hell covered, you guessed it, Heaven and Hell. Running through all of them was the 'revelations' back story. Unfortunately, in Fall of the Malakim, they seem to have run out of gas with the universal information. So 51 pages are taken up by an LA citybook. This is longer than the Austin citybook in Night Music, but I'm not sure if it's really any better. The problem with citybooks is that they're great for GMs trying to get an idea of where to start, they're good as settings for new games, but unless a GM and his players want to move from their already established settings, they're rarely good for a game that's already running. The earlier mentioned friend asked me if the NPCs given in the book would be easily transferable to her London based game. My response was that if you changed their backgrounds, I wouldn't see why not, but that it seemed like something you'd really only want to do if you needed an NPC angel or demon really quick off the top of your head and couldn't write one up yourself. As for the LA sourcebook for those who don't mind moving or don't already have a game going, Derek Pearcy and Kenneth Hite do a servicable job of describing the feel and lay-out of the city. There are numerous NPCs, none of which really reached out and grabbed me, some story ideas that didn't make me want to run out and get my friends around a table, and sections devoted to how each superior feels about the city, etc etc etc. Like I said. Enh. At the end are two adventures. The Premiere revolves around a demon funded movie on its opening night, and the arrival of Nybbas to mess with just about everyone. Maybe it's because I've recently run Tatterdemalion, the simply stunning Cthulhu adventure revolving around a production of the King in Yellow, or perhaps it's because I've recently played in La Musique de la Nuit, a CoC adventure taking place in Paris' Opera House in the 1890's (published in Fatal Experiments, by Chaosium Games, and the Golden Dawn, by Pagan Publishing, respectively) but the idea just seemed old to me when I read it. Your mileage may vary. Then there is the adventure for which the book is named, the Fall of the Malakim. Malakim, it has been said, cannot fall. So now one has. Egads! It's an okay adventure, and I won't give away the sekrit ending, but needless to say the first trumpet is blown and it will most likely lead directly into Revelations V: The Final Trumpet. All and all a very enh book. If you're considering running a game in LA, you might as well get it for the ideas. (Though I think that were I gonna run a game in LA, I'd get the Los Angeles Insight Guide, and go from there.) If you are an angel of David, a Lilim or really want to play a Bright Lilim, then you might as well ... let someone else buy it, then read it over their shoulder. I know that after the Final Trumpet there will be a Book of Tethers. After that, though, I wonder what else they can do. This book shows me that the gang behind In Nomine are rapidly running out of ideas. What new can they give us? I really do like this game. I'd like to see more original stuff released. This, however, just doesn't cut it. I hope that their next 'cycle' is better than this one has been, on average. Then again, I suppose they could go White Wolf and just release a second edition of In Nomine, and toss in second editions of every book they've released so far. That done, they could do third editions! And In NomiLARP, the Live Action Game of Angels and Demons. Just don't show it to grampa! Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Revelations IV: The Fall of the Malakim