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Cloak of Steel
Gigantic metal warriors clash in the world of Tierplana
Review by C. Demetrius Morgan
Synopsis
This is a review for Postmortem Studios 217-page Cloak of Steel, a game produced by the tag team efforts of James Desborough, Steven Mortimer, and Raven Morrison. Cloak of Steel is currently available for $11.00 through RPGnow as a 15 MB downloadable ZIP file.
Rating: Weighing the minor PDF issues outlined herein against the sheer bulk of honestly useful background material I give Cloak of Steel 6 out of 10 Golden Apples; but with the following caveat: This assumes Cloak of Steel will be purchased by and played with veteran role-players with a firm knowledge of the inner workings of the D20/OGL family of game mechanics.
Initial Impressions top
This is a hardcore campaign world. Lots of reading required. While I do like the fact there is an index a contents page would have been nice. Especially since casual readers are not likely to know an index exists otherwise. Also the fact that the search function does not work makes it very hard to navigate the document. Too, this being an OGL game, it may or may not fit into your current D20/OGL campaign milieu. Please read this review carefully as some potential rules issues are mentioned. Overall there are some noticeable rules tweaks, the biggest of which is the attempt to create a classless system devoid of level based character advancement. Now some may feel levels is what makes the xD&D family of games what they are. Then Cloak of Steel isn’t meant to be a clone of D&D. Rather what it is, after a fashion, is a fusion of equal parts anime, high fantasy, and action adventure plugged into a console arcade world of slipstream science fiction.
The background material presents copious detail on a diverse number of countries and factions. CoS earns a shiny golden apple for that alone. Alas, the document in its current state is a pain and a half to navigate. I’d also have liked to of seen sections introducing breeds presented with the names in a larger font. Make each entry more prominent on the page is all I am asking. When looking at a glance it is hard to tell how many actual entries might be on a page, much less where an entry begins. The lack of a contents page, while salved by the existence of a well-put together index, does nothing for the fact this PDF is literally a virtual book. Indeed, this is a damn good book layout, and that’s the problem. It’s a PDF! I am looking at this on my computer yet can‘t utilize something as simple as a Boolean search. I’d rather have had this material broken down into a World Book and Rules Book, and maybe even a Character Book. There is enough information here that the material could easily be re-edited into a virtual boxed set comprised of two or three core booklets. Not sure if this really would have made referencing information any easier, but it couldn’t have made it any more difficult.
Summary top
Cloak of Steel is a game and campaign world in one. Published under the auspices of the OGL- Open Game License, specifically version 1.0a- and using a modified version of said game system referred to as the Live System; hereafter to be referred to simply as LS. (A 350 KB ZIP file containing a 13-page PDF demo of LS can be downloaded from here.) When asked what the main influences that helped shape Cloak of Steel were Mr. Desborough said, “Escaflowne was the major one, as were a few threads on RPGnet about different types of fantasy campaigns, reading Perdido Street Station didn't hurt, and Icy's art (the guy who did the cover) inspired a few changes.” More comments from the author can be found below.
The Setting: The game takes place upon Tierplana, this being a Flat Earth type body populated primarily by humans, with a minor percentage of the population being comprised of Half-Men. Half-men being little more than magically created human-animal hybrids. (A furry by another other name.) As to the style and feel of the game? That’s a hard one. I would have to say that Cloak of Steel is the distant Mirror, Mirror universe step-cousin of the mech genre popularized by Robotech and Battletech where Cloaks- a sort of magi-punk version of a hulking powered battlemech- cross pollinate with a liberal dose of fantastical furry fuzziness to create a slipstream fantasy genre unto itself. The mechs are more or less explained in the voluminous background details as being an evolution in design growing out of magically animated suits of armor and golems kind of thing. Created for, what else, fighting wars between some empire or another and it’s enemies. Every good campaign needs tension, and there’s tension a-plenty brewing here. And what do these potential enemies have in their arsenals? Airships! That’s right, airships. Airships powered by Mana stones, steam engines, and possibly even carrying canons. Woot! Which would make CoS, what, a magi-steampunk setting? Seriously this game has my head spinning. I really, really want a working search function, or a contents page. top
System Mechanics: Cloak of Steel states that it presents a classless and level less system based on the D20/OGL SRDs, specifically portions of the D&D SRD and D20 Modern SRD. The game is released under v 1.0a of the OGL and presents rules that introduce the following new core rules concepts: Success Factor, which replaces DC; Hero Points, earned points used to alter die rolls; Hit Locations, essentially a new method of handling Hit Points; Defense Class, replaces Armor Class; and magic is powered by Feats. Basically the LS game engine powering Cloak of Steel appears to be mostly a tweak of the existing SRD rules mechanics. But is LS supercharger heaven? top
The LS System: From page 86, “There are no classes in Cloak of Steel. You create your own package of ‘class’ skills according to your character’s background, training & profession.” However the LS system isn’t really classless, as the use of ‘class’ in the second sentence above makes rather obvious. What LS does is replaces the standard class system with something a bit different. You have Categories, organized by age bracket, that rather stringently define what a character should have achieved by the time they reach a certain age bracket. Just like a player might expect to have attained certain abilities or skills upon reaching a certain level of experience. Even so most class systems tend to be hierarchical based, rooted either in social status or rank advancement, while most classless systems usually rely solely on presenting a skill systems centering play on earning points to raise skill rank. CoS presents a system that is between the two. Standard Classes (Warrior, Rogue, Wizard) are replaced with Categories like Teen, Master, and Apprentice. Some balk at this. However the system simulates a pseudo-real life feel rather well. Perhaps too well. For instance the age bracket for Apprentice lines up rather nicely with the ages in which we might spend in High School and College. Master, which covers the age bracket of 35-40 year olds, is just about what we would expect of persons that age. In real world terms a Master should have found a niche in society in which they have established their field of study or be at the top of their job field. The main problem I see with the Categories as presented is it makes little room for exceptions to the rule. I found myself asking where a bum or indigent wander type might fit into this scheme. There are always those who fall through the proverbial cracks. What of them? Then there is the Venerable Ancestor. I hate to burst this wonderful castle in the sky dream bubble but I have to ask why every person that manages to live to such an old should necessarily fit this description? Be nice if that were the case. Luckily this is a fantasy world so you apply this just to surviving Heroes, which I suppose is what the Categories are supposed to be for. Which leads to my next question: Why would the rest of society be different? top
Character Creation: Players essentially have only two core stock races to choose from, Humans and Half-Men. Half-Men are literally described as half-animal and half-human, with players allowed to choose for “breed” and “nationality”. There are roughly fifteen breeds to choose from, ranging from Badgerfolk to Wolfen. In other words these are Furries. The upside is there is a megaton of background information. So much that it is sometimes hard to keep track of who is who and what’s what at a casual glance. I mean there’s Staholm, Gendivaisa, Verderre, and Trecamasa- Gesundheit! -And all kinds of tidbits about politics and history spread throughout the rules. Of course this all very pertinent because the choice of background, meaning what city or region a character is from, can directly impact the sorts of weapons and abilities available to characters. A nice touch, if perhaps a bit much for the GM looking for a casual one-shot game. top
Aside from that that were there any noticeable problems? Yes. Or maybe this more of a learning curve issue. There is mention of Ability Points, which are tied into Category, but how are ability scores generated? All entries for the various breeds of half-men list standard attribute modifiers, thus at a glance I initially assumed character generation was by random die roll. However Ability Points are stated to be set according to Category (page 95) by, I assumed at first, point distribution. Alas the example would seem to indicate that characters start at a static default attribute. Add to this the fact there are two tables presented on page 95, tables that require no small amount of real life augury for a newbie to this system to decipher, and still for all that effort I am not clear on how to generate ability scores! Though I have at least three solid possible methods floating around my head after reading all that, and I wont even bring up Hero Points or Reputation. I cannot stress enough the need for an active search feature since I ultimately just gave up trying to figure it all out using the index. Not a good sign. top
Appraisal top
An interesting premise. However, taken at a glance, I just couldn’t see what was supposed to be so different with the basic mechanics to warrant giving them a new name in an effort to distinguish LS from other SRD material. (A matter for another review.) As to the claims of a classless system I’d say they are marginally accurate. For instance, on pages 94 and 95, there are thumbnail entries providing sample skill and feat packages that would make for good Magician, Noble, Priest, Rogue, and Warrior types. Hardly the 100% break from the class system I was expecting. On the other hand levels do seem to simply have been replaced by “Categories”, these being nothing less than a class division sorted by age. Sounds like a hierarchical advancement system to me. For instance you have Kid, Teen, Apprentice, Journeyman, Master, Grizzled Veteran, Old Master, and Venerable Ancestor. Each “Category” pretty much defines what is expected of a character by the time they reach each age bracket. Think of categories as age stereotypes that outline the expectation of character advancement in years of life as opposed to levels of experience. Still it is a different approach. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it is totally classless, then again most usually really mean they are not using a level advancement system. If put in those terms I’ll grant Cloak of Steel that.
Words from the Author: Mr. Desborough, whose credits include work on a diverse range of print and PDF role-playing material ranging from The Munchkin's Guide to Powergaming, Macho Women With Guns d20, Encyclopaedia Arcane: Nymphology, and the previously reviewed title 100 Fantasy Adventure Seeds was kind enough to consent to a supplementary e-mail interview for this review. In that correspondence this reviewer had the opportunity to ask what led to the development of the Live System RPS, here is a portion of what Mr. Desborough had to say: “Basically, I cobbled together my personal system changes that I'd made for my games, slotted together the best parts of material I'd seen in the SRDs and other open material and set it down. My internal mental brief was 'd20 for people who don't like d20' even though we REALLY should be referring to it as an OGL item and stop mentioning d20.” Indeed, as I have come to realize while putting this review together there is a perception that a fine line distinction exists between D20 and OGL products. However there exists a very real difference between the two. And it’s not just a matter of logos. More on that in an upcoming review. top
Mr. Desborough was also very forthcoming with information about Cloak of Steel. For instance when asked if there was any single driving motivation responsible for Cloak of Steel's concept and design Mr. Desborough replied, “Not any single idea no... Lots of ideas... I wanted a setting where there was a reason to have faith. I wanted a setting where ideology was important. I wanted to use The Live System to support it. I like mechs... *grin* and I wanted a more series/dramatic approach to them.”
PDF Issues: Cloak of Steel suffers from many of the same PDF issues, as did 100 Fantasy Adventure Seeds. First, whenever I attempted a block copy all I got were blank lines. Did not matter what I tried to copy or how I tried to wrangle the result. Second, pages chosen at random for printing turned out clear and, in most instances, looked much crisper and were far easier to read than when viewed onscreen. Alas, the gray highlights were a bit too dull. Third, sadly, and most annoying of all, the search feature does not appear to be implemented in Postmortem‘s PDFs as searches for words like “sea”, “cloak”, “steel”, or “game” returned nothing. I did not notice any discernibly annoying load lag this time. Still, needs work. top
Negatives: There are some annoying PDF issues that require hammering out. For instance in the section on “Opponents” the gray boxed Stats provided appear all scrunched up. This makes them very difficult to read onscreen, though the sample page seemed to print just fine. While there is a 13-page “demo” (in PDF format) of the LS rules available the full version (also available only in PDF format) weighs in at 124 pages. I would rather have a set of true SRD documents available in vanilla RTF format, sans graphics, as an “authors toolkit”. Preferably free, as are the core SRD files, with the additional option of purchasing the PDFs. top
Positives: There are many maps included. Very professional looking, even if they are presented in grayscale. There is character clipart presented throughout the document. Nice and handy visuals. The world background and flavor text, though a bit dry at times, presents exactly the sort of details that a Game Master might want to know. Sometimes the text presents a bit too much detail, but that means that Game Masters need not waste precious game time fleshing out a lot of minutia. There is much potential here. For instance, if Character Creation is presented more clearly for the newbie, perhaps with less ambiguous examples, and selective reference to the tables is made by way of example, then I have no doubt Cloak of Steel could become a good introductory level campaign world. A bit of a backhanded compliment, perhaps, but potential is always a positive. top
Rumors: When asked if there would be an "author's toolkit" of the LS SRD forthcoming- as in perhaps a RTF or similar release of SRD files suitable for would be authors to use as a basis to design their own LS compatible games- Mr. Desborough offered the following: “At the moment I am afraid not. If developers want to get in touch with me I can make copies freely available to them, but only if they're serious.” In addition to this Mr. Desborough hinted that there may be some interesting titles forthcoming not directly related to CoS or LS in the near future, yet titles that might be usable as supplements to CoS. For instance what intriguing concepts might The Quintessential Temptress and Cannibal Sector One have to offer? What intriguing campaign ideas lurk within the pages of the Encyclopaedia Divine: Tantric Magic? What sort of intrigues indeed! top
Happy gaming!
Copyright © 2004 C. Demetrius Morgan