Introduction
When reading a review I expect enough information to decide BY MYSELF if the book will interest me. So, the reviews I like are mainly descriptions of a book with just the necessary quantity of opinion attached to them. That is the model I will follow in this review (BTW, my first in RPG.NET).
To make my opinion slightly useful, I'll give a base to compare. Some of my favorite games are (in no particular order) Over the Edge, Mage: The Ascension, Godlike, Call of Cthulhu and Unknown Armies (As a side note, Chad Underkoffler, the author of Dead Inside, has contributed to some UA books).
As you probably will notice, English is not my native language, so please be tolerant with the grammar and spelling :-)
The Game
Dead Inside: The Roleplaying Game of Loss and Redemption is a new RPG, written by Chad Underkoffler, available from Atomic Sock Monkey Press as a $13 PDF download or as a Print On Demand book for $25. The review is based in the PDF version.
The premise of Dead Inside (DI) is that the PCs have lost their souls (are "Dead Inside") and are trying to recover them or grow new ones. Both options have advantages and disadvantages, but the DI setting (and system) allows the GM to design adventures around either one.
The setting is both our world (the "Real World") and a fantasy setting that can be entered through magical portals (natural or created by a magical person). The fantasy setting is fully described in Chapter 2 of the book (see below).
The Book
DI is divided in 7 chapters (including a bibliography and a sample scenario):
Chapter 1: Being Dead Inside (7 pages)
This is the introductory chapter, describing what the game is about and what a "Dead Inside" person is. The chapter is written as a series of questions (¿Why Are You Dead Inside?, What Is Being Dead Inside?, How Do I Stop Being Dead Inside?, etc..) that are answered with multiple options (i.e. You can be "dead inside" because you have lost your soul, it has been stolen or you have born without one) that can (and will) be used later in the creation of DI characters.
Chapter 2: The Real World and the Spirit World (17 pages)
The first half of the chapter is dedicated to the creatures that populate the setting. Five of these "creatures" can be used as player characters:
- Dead Inside: Living people without a complete soul.
- Ghosts: Dead souls without a body.
- Magi: Living people with a double soul.
- Sensitives: Living people with a little bit more soul than average people.
- Zombies: Dead bodies without a soul.
The second half of the chapter is dedicated to describe the setting, that is, the Spirit World. This spirit world is described as a city (in fact "The City"), surrounded by four archetypical landscapes (Wood, Waste, Sea and Mists) that change every time someone visit them (for example, the Wood could be a fairy-tale forest one day and a tropical jungle the next) depending on the expectations, needs, dreams, hopes,... of the person. The book doesn't give any detail on the landscapes, but the city is well covered, with descriptions of the principal places, neighborhoods, and NPCs that can be found there.
Chapter 3: Creating DI Player Characters (8 pages)
Mechanically, character creation in DI reminds me about Over the Edge. The player must choose a few (2 to 4) keywords (that DI calls "Qualities") that define a PC character and give him bonuses (from +2 to +6) when attempting an action related to it. These Qualities should be broad enough to give the character a range of different abilities to employ during play. Example (paraphrased from the book): A "Gunplay" Quality would be useful not just in shooting at things, but also in cleaning and repairing guns, discovering the location of nearby gun dealers and shooting ranges, knowing the history of firearms, and so forth
The player must also choose a Weakness (which will give him a penalty of -2 in appropriate situations) for his character.
The last stat, that is rated Average (0) for starting characters, is the Type of character (Dead Inside, Sensitive,...).
The player must also define precisely the story and personality of the character, including a Virtue and a Vice from a given list. This will become important in character advancement(see below)
Chapter 4: DI Game Mechanics (23 pages)
The rules are clearly written and most rules come with an example showing their use. I'll try to give an overview of the system, but I'll (obviously) cover only the basics.
Task Resolution The task resolution system in DI is a simple 2D6+ability roll against a difficulty value (being 7 the average difficulty). The modifiers to the roll are called Upshifts (1 Upshift=+2 to the roll, for special circumstances or just describing cool actions for the character instead of the typical "I hit him") and Downshifts (1 Downshift=-2 to the roll for special circumstances).
Conflict Resolution The conflict resolution system is designed to be employed for all kind of actions, not only combat (in the book there are two long examples of conflict, one combat and one seduction attempt).
The system is divided in three phases:
- Initiative: Basically, the character with the higher ability goes first (unless surprised).
- Moment of truth: Attacker and defender roll 2D6 with the appropriate modifiers and the higher roll wins.
- Damage: If the attacker wins, each point of difference between the rolls is applied as a temporary Downshift to one of the character Qualities (the player of the damaged character choose which one).
As I see it, the two greatest strengths of the system are its simplicity (making conflict resolution fast) and that the system doesn't gives more focus to combat than to other situations, promoting stories that doesn't involve it.
However, I'm not completely convinced about the damage mechanic (I find counter-intuitive that a Master(+6) "Strong" Quality should help a character to resist damage in a social situation, or a "Computer Programming" Quality in a combat one), but I've not played yet, so I can't be sure until I test it.
Soul Points, Abilities and Powers
Soul points are the in-game representation of how much soul the character own/has recovered, and are used to activate powers and in character advance. They are gained and lost depending on the character actions.
Abilities and Powers are magical skills that a character can use (the main difference between them is that the use of Powers costs Soul Points) and that are learnt after the character has seen another person using it. Some of the Powers, however, are restricted to Sensitive and Magi characters.
There are almost 20 Abilities and Powers available to DI characters. A complete list can be found in one of the PDFs that are available in the publisher website. Some examples are Second Sight (precognition, psichometry,..), Soultaking (absorbing the Soul of other characters), Enchantment (creating magical objects) and the creation of "Tulpas" (fragments of the character soul given physical shape and limited independence).
Chapter 5: DI GM Advice (32 pages)
The chapter starts with a few pages of general advice on running different classes of games (themes, styles of play, character creation,...). Good, but almost all known to experienced GMs (On the other side, a new GM will find it very useful).
After that, there is advice in using the special features of DI Scenery and NPCS that are different from other games. For example, ways to made good use of the mutability of the Spirit World or how to roleplay the "Imagos" (very special NPCs that act as guides and, sometimes adversaries of the PCs).
Next comes what makes DI different from other RPGs (BTW, one of my favorite parts of the book): the mechanics for Soul Cultivation. DI integrates these mechanics with the "soul regrowth" theme of the game, so that the player get "soul cultivation ticks" (5 ticks=1 Soul Point) for making actions related to some Virtues, "soul decay ticks" (5 ticks=-1 Soul Point) for making actions related to some Vices.
Each character also has an associated strong Virtue (and Vice), that can change during the game according to the ticks that the character has obtained, and that allow the GM to ask for a roll to resist the urge of the character to follow this Virtue (or Vice). After that, independent of the result, the GM will ask the player WHY the character has acted the way he has, and award Cultivation and Decay ticks if the explanation fits the character story.
Given that Soul Points are used to fuel the character powers, and also as "experience points", this system forces the player to THINK about his character's actions and to behave in a (I didn't want to use the word, but..) moral way.
The last four pages of the chapter are a few (good) pieces of advice on how to design an adventure.
Chapter 6: Glossary & Bibliography (5 pages)
The glossary is 2 pages long and includes both the "game" terms and the vocabulary employed by the characters.
The Bibliography includes: Non fiction books, fiction books, cartoons & comics, films & television and games (only RPG games).
I find amusing that, while it is usual for RPG authors to mention its non-game influences, it is not so usual to mention the games that influenced their design. Nobody works in a vacuum and I think it is a nice touch by the author to acknowledge the influence other games had in DI.
Chapter 7: DI Introductory Scenario (23 pages)
Although it is presented as a scenario, it works better as a campaign outline, giving short scenes that can be used during a campaign telling the history of a group of "Dead Inside", from the discovery of their condition until their "evolution" to Sensitive status.
Handouts
The book ends with three handouts to photocopy (Quick Reference, GM Record Sheet, Character Sheet) that can also be found at the company website in PDF format.
The book has no index, but for a 128-page PDF with a 2-page table of contents I don't feel it is really necessary.
Opinion
Here is where I justify the values I've given in the Style and Substance ratings.
Style
Many people consider the "Style" rating to be just the evaluation of the art in the book. My main criteria for giving points in the "Style" rating, however, is the quality of the writing (for example, if I can understand the rules easily in the first reading), being followed by layout quality (very important to facilitate the reading of the book), and last of all, art quality (that I tend to ignore, unless it is so bad that distracts me from the text).
In inverse order:
The art is comprised of several 1/4 page drawings, that I find of average quality and a little too cartoonish for the subject of the book. There are also nice little faked photographs of digital clocks that display words (like "HELP" or "FEAR") instead of words.
The layout is standard, with two-column text, and grey boxes to point out important fragments of text(or text that addresses side questions). It also uses good use of different fonts to mark diverse types of text (fiction, main text, examples,...). Nothing uncommon, but does the work.
Dead Inside is very well written: the rules are very clear and full of examples. The text is entertaining and written in a very direct way, with little space for useless information. The thing I like most is the way the author presents us the strange world described in the book, giving the reader little chunks of it in a sequential way, so that the reader is never confused about what the author is trying to tell him.
In short: Good Layout + Average Art + Very Good Writing = Style 4.
Substance
The central theme in the game is "spiritual (and emotional) growth", and, what is more important, the game (rules and setting) is built (quite nicely) around this theme, giving it a very distinct feel that is very refreshing.
The ruleset is simple, which is appropriate for the kind of game that DI proposes, and the setting is interesting and well built, allowing (and encouraging) a free-form style of play that also fits very well the premise of the game.
Substance = 4
Conclusion
DI is a game worth reading and playing. Its greatest virtue, IMO, is that makes a conscious (it states it in the introduction) effort to propitiate different types of adventures than those encountered in other games, focusing more in the internal aspect of the characters and its emotional evolution, in a interesting twist from the typical RPG games out there.
