Goto [ Index ]

"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 A quick flip through the book, however, will prove that Heaven & Earth Third Edition is anything but cheap or outdated.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

Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.