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Heaven & Earth Third Edition Review
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are
dreamt of in your philosophy."
--William Shakespeare, Hamlet "I.v.174-75"
Note: Heaven & Earth Third Edition is Abstract Nova's
premier role-playing game. Like its previous versions (published by Event
Horizons and Guardians of Order, respectively), Heaven & Earth Third Edition
calls itself "a role-playing game of surrealism, horror, and absurdity." Rather
than focus on the differences between Abstract Nova's edition and its two prior
incarnations, I choose to treat Heaven & Earth Third Edition within this
review as an independent text. While I believe that there is value in comparing
editions, I will not do so here.
Overview
Some role-playing game systems are written in an attempt to
establish a rule for every possible PC action. Heaven & Earth Third Edition
is not one of those RPGs. Instead, Heaven & Earth Third Edition is the
kind of role-playing game that caters to gamers who care little for
verisimilitude in game mechanics. Rather, gamers who see role-playing as a true
exercise in improvisational theatre are certain to embrace Heaven & Earth
Third Edition's game system and flourish in its esoteric metaplot. The
result is an RPG that may alienate other kinds of gamers, but gives
thespian-types a veritable feast.
Presentation
Heaven & Earth Third Edition is a perfectbound softcover
reminiscent of role-playing game supplements and cheaply made RPGs of a decade
ago. A quick flip through the book, however, will prove that Heaven & Earth
Third Edition is anything but cheap or outdated.
The RPG's layout and typeset are easy on the eyes. Throughout
Heaven & Earth Third Edition, we are treated to clearly titled headings that
subdivide information into accessible and easily assimilated text. Even the
sidebars are placed so as not to disrupt the flow of the main text. And while
there are a handful of grammatical and spelling errors, they aren't enough to
ruin our reading experience.
The core book's visual appeal is further enhanced by provocative
illustrations that mix the plain (the NPC portraits are particularly "ho-hum")
with the grotesque (Mourgie the Clown, for instance). Albrecht Dürer woodcuts
introduce each chapter, but it's clear that these illustrations are meant purely
as ambiance pieces.
Perhaps the most compelling of the illustrations is the cover
art itself. The cover depicts what seems like a lazy-eyed Rastafarian offering
an apple to the reader through a window. The Rasta is framed on either side by
stained-glass angels (one surrounded by light, the other by flames). The
inscribed glass reads: "Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in Caelo et in Terraa." Thy
will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.
System
Heaven & Earth Third Edition's game system is streamlined
and simple. Character creation is point-based out of a pool of twenty-three
points. Of the twenty-three points, fourteen are for the six basic Attributes
(i.e. Coordination, Strength, Fortitude, Awareness, Aura, and Knowledge). The
remaining nine points are used to buy skills in levels of Rookie, Professional,
and Veteran. However, this is where character creation gets inventive.
Rather than provide a standard list of skills for players to
choose from, Heaven & Earth Third Edition asks players to choose a
real-world occupation for their characters. During gameplay, if that PC would
know a skill because of his or her occupation, then he or she simply does.
For instance, if I were to create a character whose occupation
is a Rookie level History Professor, my PC would automatically know skills like
oration, research, and teaching. Yet, it would be unlikely that my character
would have acrobatic, engineering, or firearm skills. Working off of these
career stereotypes, a whole slew of character skills may be introduced to the
game without having to refer back to the core book for clarifications. To offset
the occupational skill restrictions, players have the option to "purchase"
extracurricular skills (also at the Rookie, Professional, or Veteran skill
levels) that may have nothing to do with their careers.
Task resolution, then, is a simple matter of rolling any given
die (e.g. d4, d6, d10, d12, or d20) and adding the role to the governing
Attribute and any qualifying skill level. If the final die roll and skill value
is greater than nine, the task succeeds. The catch is that game masters
arbitrarily ask players which die to roll depending on the difficulty of the
task.
To further my example from above, let's say that my Rookie level
History Prof wants to talk a group of drunks into a frenzy. Since they're all
drunk and impressionable, the game master may deem this to be a pretty easy act.
Thus, I would roll a d20, add my PC's governing Attribute (say, a 3 in Aura)
together with the my oration skill level (in this case, a 1 for the Rookie
level) to the roll, and match that up with the target number of nine. Chances
are pretty good that these drunks would be ready to do whatever my History Prof
asks of them. However, if this mob happened to be a group of conservative soccer
moms--well, the difficulty would be much higher. In that case, I may have to
roll a d6 in an attempt to beat a score of nine! Even with an Aura of 3 and a
Rookie level in oration, I'd have to roll a five to succeed. It looks like my
History Prof may be in for a soccer mom browbeating.
Combat resolution is much the same as task resolution. Players
try to beat a target number of nine. The difference here is that the difficulty
die is determined by the opponent's Defense Value. Thus, characters who possess
higher levels of coordination or whose careers are more combat oriented are
intrinsically more difficult to hit.
Unfortunately, this is where Heaven & Earth Third Edition's
rules become muddled. In "Chapter III: Game Mechanics," the claim that
determining difficulty in combat "will be covered shortly" is an oversight.
Determining difficulty in combat is never clarified in "Chapter III."
However, the astute reader will remember Defense Values were clearly explained
within "Chapter II: Character Creation." The omission of Defense Values
within the combat chapter is a minor error, to be sure, but a nuisance
nonetheless.
Campaign Setting
Second Note: The following critique of Heaven &
Earth Third Edition's campaign setting contains some spoilers. If you do not
intend to be the game master, I discourage you from delving any deeper into this
review. Skip down to the next section, you naughty player.
In a nutshell
To oversimplify, Heaven & Earth Third Edition is yet
another RPG that places its PCs within the midst of the ensuing Apocalypse. Set
in the fictional Midwestern town of Potter's Lake, player characters are somehow
caughtup in the ancient battle between God and Lucifer. Ideally, each PC will
begin as a humble investigator of the supernatural and eventually discover his
or her role in the Apocalypse.
Player characters begin as strangers to Potter's Lake with
little to no knowledge of the town, its inhabitants, or the strange goings-on
within the town and its surrounding woodland. For instance, PCs are likely to
find it strange that Powell Air Force Base is practically deserted, despite the
fact that it claims to be a "training facility." PCs may also find it odd that
the mayor of Potter's Lake is a hideous, uncouth crone who is adored by the
town's citizens. And while some things, like Deke's Bar and Grill, seem ordinary
enough, everything within Potter's Lake is tinged with the weird. (In case
you're wondering, Deke's happens to be the home of a memorial wall dedicated to
the lake's drowned victims. Creepy!)
The Supernatural
All of this is, of course, a backdrop for the supernatural
events that take place in Potter's Lake. Ghosts, spirits, magicians, psychics,
secret societies, angels, and demons all have their place in this Midwestern
town. Player characters will rarely find motivating factors for such beings'
existences, at least not at first.
Ghosts, for instance, are quite literally the reflections of
past experience. That is to say, they are the psychic impressions left behind by
intense emotions from the past. How did they come to manifest themselves in a
corporeal world? And what happens to the sentient ghosts, those that understand
that they are mere reflections of a living being? When they are finally
"exorcised," do they simply vanish? Who knows?
Spirits are another anomaly. These enigmas are the non-corporeal
embodiment of iconic concepts. Those readers familiar with Plato's "Theory of
Forms" will recognize this concept immediately. Unlike in Plato's theory,
however, these spirits (the most powerful of which are called the Goetia) are
intelligent and motivated by their own, selfish persecution of whatever they
represent. It's easy to imagine a spirit of Murder trying to get what it wants
by hook or crook. But what about a spirit of Laughter? Could such a
"light-hearted" entity still be so selfish? The answer is, like most
supernatural issues presented in Heaven & Earth Third Edition, up to the
players.
If it seems like there's much about the supernatural that goes
unsaid within Heaven & Earth Third Edition, that's because there is. You
will not find stats for ghosts, spirits, angels or demons here. These beings are
so alien to humanity, and in some instances so much more powerful, that there
simply isn't a way to quantify their abilities. From a personal standpoint, I
believe this places Heaven & Earth Third Edition above those RPGs that attempt
to contain (within statistics) the uncontrollable. Does that make Heaven & Earth
a better role-playing game? Again, the answer to that question lies within its
players.
The "Truth" behind the Metaplot
Once we get past the metaplot, we can see that Heaven & Earth
Third Edition is really an exercise in existentialism. When played the way
it was intended, (that is, played as a long campaign of investigation, intrigue,
and layers of half-truths and misinformation) Heaven & Earth Third Edition
urges PCs to ask the very simple question: Why do I exist?
The unfortunate problem with such an ontological undertaking is
that the player characters' raison d'etre (or lack thereof) is deeply buried
within the metaplot. So, while the GM may know all the answers to Potter's
Lake's mysteries from the onset, the players will need to invest months of
gametime in order to reach a sliver of the "truth."
The worst characteristic about Heaven & Earth Third Edition,
then, isn't a poor gaming experience. Rather, Heaven & Earth Third Edition
promises to be an investment in player character development. Such an investment
in character development is a prospect that is either alien to some gamers or an
act in which other gamers will quickly tire. What good is the GMs ultimate
knowledge, after all, if it can't be readily shared with the rest of the group?
Final Thoughts
When it's all said and done, I firmly believe that Heaven &
Earth Third Edition's structure, meta-plot, and ambiguity are exactly
what this RPG is all about. At the risk of seeming elitist, it's clear to me
that those who "get" Heaven & Earth Third Edition's primary message will
be able to explore existentialism within Potter's Lake for several campaigns
before even approaching the Apocalypse metaplot itself. For everyone else,
Heaven & Earth Third Edition provides an effective rules-lite system packaged
with an intriguing and mysterious campaign setting.
Heaven & Earth Third Edition can be found at Abstract
Nova's website: www.abstractnova.com
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