 Goto [ Index ] |
I'm not going to go into any detail on the tri-stat system itself. It's strengths and weaknesses have already been extensively discussed in previous reviews and threads on rpg.net. Suffice to say, Tri-stat is a point-buy system, lighter than gurps or hero, with the vast majority of its complexity in character creation. It is primarily designed to emulate cimematic stories where characters are broadly competent and few major characters die, and requires a few (easy) tweaks for more gritty play styles.
Unlike the previous tri-stat books, Dreaming Cities does not assume a single die-type, but instead has the full suggestions and rules for power levels between d4 to d20, though the settings in the book are geared for d6 or d8. The explanation seem to make a lot more sense in Dreaming Cities than they did as presented in the (settingless) Tri-stat dX rulebook. I have not, however, actually gone back and reread dX, so I can't tell you if the text has actually been changed. Perhaps it is simply the immediate presence of examples, or that I've had much more time to think about it since then.
As for new rules? There aren't any. What Dreaming Cities adds to tri-stat is a large number of well done and immediately applicable examples. And this is a good thing. Tri-stat is an incredibly flexible system, and the most common problem with tri-stat for both new players and veterans is figuring out how to most effectively get what they want out of the half-dozen or so options for building it. Throughout this book, almost everything of any significance is given an example stat block showing how it can be quickly and easily built using tri-stats existing generic rules. These include templates for the creation of characters, spells and powers, and in the settings many examples of fully formed creatures and antagonists.
Dreaming Cities does, of course, have a chapter on magic and ritual magic in particular. In addition to the excellent advice GoO consistently provides on the thematic and play issues of evey topic they cover, the chapter consists of examples building spells (along with a couple pre-built spells) and for using Power Flux to represent more flexible magics. This is about the only place in the book I feel GoO mistepped. The mechanics of Power Flux basically require that the powers it is expected to represent be statted out before the game. This works well for more ritual and ceremony based magics, such as the example necromancy, where a a player can reasonably decide "OK, today I am going to head out prepared to banish ghosts, get some information from the dead, and with a zombie or two in tow". It works far less well for the thematic powers of faerie glamour, the other example power given, where it should be perfectly reasonable for the fae to invent, on the spot and off the cuff, some application of glamour that had never even occured to any of the players or GM before. The attribute to cover this exists (Dynamic Powers), which makes what is as far as I saw the only outright bad example in the entire book more inexplicable. The chapter then wraps up with a very nice, short discussion of sources of power and the powers of innately magical beings.
A minor gripe that I wish the magic chapter had addressed is the overall design decision of tri-stat to make defects unappealing from a min-max point of view. While certainly defendable (in fact, I agree) as a general issue, this means that GMs will basically have to impose the restrictions and defects on powers that make ritual magic work, and will have to do so evenly or face justified complaints about unfairness in games containing both ritual magic users and naturally magical beings. Its a minor issue because it is easily solvable by tinkering with defect costs or requiring thematically appropriate defects in all powers, but the book does not address the issue at all.
Rules mechanics and the Magic chapter take up the first 110 pages of the book. The next 30 are the Gamemastering section, and here GoO lives up to the extremely high standards set by their previous books. About four pages of basic GMing advice and they get to the meat of urban fantasy for rpgs. They go through the different types and moods of fantasy, and about a dozen different themes to include in games. Then follows an excellent section distilling the archetypal components of settings and plots in modern fantasies. Then a brief digression into using technology for rpging (familiar to anyone who has read Ex Machina) and then the highlight of their recent books, the bibliography, a fairly comprehensive listing of the books, comics, films and television shows from which they drew their inspiration. Combined with the excellent essay on the development of the genre that opens the book, you will not find a better introduction to urban fantasy literature. However, I did notice the omission of both Terry Brooks and Mercedes Lackey, both of whom have written excellent works in this genre, and wonder if it may represent a bias in the reading habits of the authors. (If you are curious, the books in question are Running with the Demon by Brooks and The Fire Rose by Lackey, both of which are far superior to their stamped-out-generic-fantasy stories and simply brimming with rpg potential).
And then we come to the settings. Dreaming Cities has three, down from Ex Machina's four, but makes up for quantity in quality. In contrast to Ex Machina, each of the settings are immediatly available for play, with ready plots and antagonists to go along with their themes and settings. The three are the Nightmare Chronicles, a setting and backstory for a shadow war of demons and demon hunters for the fate of humanity, the World at Twilight, a setting for the interaction of mutually befuddled legends and mundanes in the shadow of a looming, hidden armageddon, and the Small Folk, a brilliant, hilarious combination of the Littles and the World of Darkness that manages to be both satirical and the most eminently playable non-human setting I have ever seen.
The Nightmare Chronicles is a setting that knows exactly what type of story it wants to tell, and unapologetically includes all the deus ex machina to make it so. Its a setting where a select subset of humanity battle the hideous invading forces of demons with explosive magics and shining katanas in the shadows of alleys and forbidding wildernesses under moonlight. The settings conceit is that only demonic blood, imparted by ancestral interbreeding, allows the hunters to see the demons as they really are and manifest magical powers when in their presence. Politicing is rampant in the setting, but optional for the players, as they may simply manifest their powers without getting recruited and proceed to nondenominational ass kicking of demon butt without worrying about the intracacies of the demonic civil war or the many small, mutually paranoid organizations of human hunters. A nicely extensive listing of fully statted demons provides more than enough opponents for characters at any level of power the GM wants to start them at. In short, a well done implementation of an archetypal modern fantasy campaign which many other settings in certain other games seem to get twisted into so often there must be a demand for it.
The World at Twilight is the "everything and the kitchen sink" setting of Dreaming Cities, the one that includes all the archetypes, plots and themes from the GMing chapter. Literally - you can go down a list, checking each one off one by one. As such, it is by far the last focused of all the settings, and the least ready-to-play. Games set in this setting will have to prune away large chunks they aren't interested in exploring, from the suburban struggles of soccer-witches and returned fairies, to the cyclical struggles of archetype incarnations to return to the land of faerie by fulfilling their stories in a world that no longer fits, to the looming armageddon of both the faerie world and the generic city where the game is set. The focus of the setting description is on the archetypes, figures of faery tales and legends that have possessed mundane individuals and are now struggling to adapt to modern life while completing their tales so they can leave - or, in some cases, struggle to prevent their tales from completing so they can remain. All of which was set off by the mysterious burning of a sacred tree in the city park which held reality stable.
But the best comes last. The Small Folk so easily could have been a disaster. The setting takes modern children's story about the small people living in your walls and takes a step backwards to the older tales of the fae and a step sideways to satirize the most famous of urban fantasy rpgs, the World of Darkness. Right down to metaphysics, uncertain and murky histories, and most especially, splats. Veteran White Wolf players should be right at home. You can play your artistic, (literally) flighty clique, your wild, wandering clique, your wannabe-buisnessmen clique, and of course your angsty, outcaste loner clique. All with their own powers, appearance and stereotypes. Just very, very small. Among all the light-hearted humor, however, is also a very playable setting and theme. You are the little people, living on the edge under the noses of the large, dangerous humans, facing deadly threats in the person of cats, rats, and civil renovations. Work together to prosper and protect your tribe, uncover your people's lost powers and past, or compete with each other for prestige, glory, and the best scavenged goods.The Small Folk is one of those rare settings which both write their own stories and provide a vast range of themes and play. While the rest of the book was good, this setting was the pleasant surprise, an unexpected high point for the books end.
Art and Layout:
This book is beautiful. The cover art is simply georgous. The back is decent enough, though there is an unfortunate problem where the image overlaps the text. The true accomplishment, however, is the incredible quality of the inside art. This is the best collection of black and white art I have seen in an rpg, period. At least six artists worked on this book, and none were worse than good. All images are two-page spreads like Ex Machina, but there are far more of them than in the previous book. The highlights of the art is a set of unbelievably shaded good pencil work in the rules sections, depicting the grittier sides of urban fantasy, and the five incredible illustrations of the Small Folk setting, which look so good in black and white that I'm not certain if I wish I could see them in color or not. All of the art in the book not only looks good but fits the appropriate moods and supports their text.
Layout and editing is up to GoOs usual standards of excellence. While typos exist, they are minor and do not interfere with reading. The text is easily readable despite being small and dense. There is simply nothing to criticize anywhere in layout except for the unfortunate and easily overlooked mistake on the back cover and a single "see page xxx" in the item appendix. The index is comprehensive and well done.
Content: 4/5. Well done and with only a few complaints to be made, with one or two instances of brilliance (Small Folk!) Appearance: 5/5. Best of its kind that I know of. Slight problems with editing barely mar the incredible art and layout.
