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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
Summary
The Setting
System Mechanics
The LS System
Character Creation
Appraisal
Words from the Author
PDF Issues
Negatives
Positives
Rumors
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
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