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The problem that Cutters Guild needs to overcome with the release of an OGL game is whether it is sufficiently different and involving enough a game to capture an already glutted market. OGL and d20 games are aplenty, and while they might not all be fantasy horror, the OGL market tends to be very discerning in their purchases.
Cutters Guild's answer seems to be to retro-develop d20 back into something that is a bit closer to AD&D and then provide a vast quantity of options. But by choosing to do so, it would appear that they have missed the point of d20's success.
Presentation
Firstly, the presentation of the book is a very hefty softcover tome, totalling in excess of 600 pages. The book seriously reminds me of an old Anthropology text I used to lug around at University.The cover art is murky, but reasonably evocative. Certainly not the greatest I've seen in a roleplaying game, but it is a solid piece of art. There is no mistaking that this is small-press, but the quality is good.
The binding appears to be reasonable as well, and the interior has a nice tidy layout with effective use of white space and art.
Art-wise it is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the art isn't really top-notch, but other pieces are attractive. Overall, the presentation is consistently solid and average. Nothing made me go wow, but I didn't particularly hate anything either.
Introduction and Character Creation
Let's consider the guts of this book, however. I'm going to essentially present information in a similar manner to the book. After a general preamble about what Deathstalkers II is, what roleplaying is and then a brief discussion of the core system.Deathstalkers II uses a version of the d20 system that involves not six, but eight stats. As well as the standard six d20 stats (strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, charisma) there are also Courage and Speed.
Each stat is randomly generated, different races have a different number of dice with which to generate the scores.
Now before I continue, I want to mention this. Why Courage? Having read through the rules, the writers completely fail to justify the additional stat. It's write up simply goes to prove that it is used for a Will save essentially anyway. There is no need for it.
As for Speed - again, a random stat for movement? It seems an unnecessary addition. It is this design philosophy of "more = better" that I feel plagues the entire game. More stats, more feats, more races, more skills.
Once the stats have been discussed, there are some definitions provided for various special abilities. Note that Psionics are listed, but never detailed again in the game.
Races
Deathstalkers II eagerly touts it's over 21 different races as a big bonus. Races in DSII are an interesting element because they all get what is called a rage attack. Think something akin to Final Fantasy's limit break, the rage attack is a flashy special attack that each race gets at the cost of temporary constitution. Whenever a character uses their attack, they drop their constitution by one point which heals back within 24 hours.I like this mechanic, and the rage attacks are nifty. Faeries become little blazing comets, Sabyrs make the ground become a giant serpent that rises up and squeezes their opponent in a python crush, Kelpies get to throw glowing horseshoes at their enemies... I can see the "fun-factor" of these things. But I must question their relevance in a game that is meant to be about grim horror.
Between the 21 races and their subspecies, there are total of thirty-nine different racial options. It is interesting to note that a majority of these options are variations of the animal-man variety. Half-wolf, Half-cat, Centaur, Half-dragon, Half-Racoon (called Wu Zen), not to mention the half-stags. There are also the standard races, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins - although these all have unique elements to them that brings a difference to the standard fantasy race. In particular the elves have an aversion to violence called the Kala'Hur.
The Kala'Hur is a malaise bought on by killing other people. The more people the Elf kills the more drow-like she becomes. This can be reversed by saving lives - a kind of karmic attonement. It is a fairly straight forward mechanic, and a nice idea.
Kobolds have shifting blood - they aren't the little lizardmen of D&D, but rather a mix of orc and elf. The happier a Kobold is, the more like an elf she tends to look. The angrier or more upset, the more like an orc.
Overall the races are presented in two to three page write-ups that give a solid idea of how each race exists within the world of Arkastapha (possibly the oddest name for a fantasy world.)
I personally found that the write-ups helped build an interest in the game. Even though there are simply more races than the game probably needed, most of them are interesting and fun enough that it isn't a major issue.
Classes
On the otherhand, the classes are a little more problematic. One of d20's defining changes to AD&D was the standardising of experience. This allowed characters to develop at a similar pace rather than the problem of the characters with lower experience level jumps becoming more powerful than other characters too quickly.Deathstalkers II returns to the old system of different classes have different level experience requirements, and sometimes have less levels to get. There are nineteen classes in total - some, such as Apprentice, which seem to lack any logical reason for being there. Characters also begin play at level 0, and have to work up from there. Given the faulty looking experience reward table - where players can lose experience from poor roleplaying or starting unnecessary fights or not playing in character - I have a lot of reservations about the validity of this choice.
What it will most likely create is a party of characters at disparate levels and ability. This is a serious step backwards in game design, in my opinion.
Another issue is that the two magical classes, Priest and Wizard, are not listed in the classes chapter, but in the magic chapter further back in the book. This is, again, something I find a little disagreeable. It's the kind of thing you used to see back in late eighties roleplaying games.
Skills and Feats
One hundred and seventy different skills, more than a hundred and fifty different feats. But do we really need to see a "blather" skill or "expressionless face" skill? How about "Beautician."The skills in DSII cover a variety of areas that general catch-all skills like, say, "Profession" and "Craft" could have covered. It strikes me as being a case of more skills to be able to say that there are 170 skills than actually needing them to make the game cool or faithful to genre.
There is also an added complexity where certain skills change what they can do based on their level. This complexity again has me asking "but why is this needed?" considering that this is only applicable to some skills and not all skills, there doesn't seem to be a need for having it at all. The benefits tend to be things that could have been solved with just raising the difficulty numbers of certain tasks.
Feats also seem to suffer from the "let's add more just to get the numbers" mentality. Such feats as "Aggressive Assault" have ten variations that simply increase the number of dice rolled at each level. Feats cost XP to purchase as well as getting bonus feats at certain levels. Again the problem of having experience and levels tie into individual classes arises. Certain classes will just increase in strength much faster than others.
System
So with the understanding that, as far as character creation goes, DSII takes a step backwards in design, it is interesting to see that the system itself does try some new things.
Combat
Firstly, DSII introduces the idea of Actions Per Round. At each level characters get a number of APRs that can be spent on actions. While this roughly translates into one full action or two standard actions, this mechanic does allow for more dramatic combat from the first day. Even at level 0, some characters start off with 3 APR - meaning that many characters can perform up to three attacks a round. However there is no AC in DSII. Instead you roll either a dodge or parry defence.This is an interesting change that allows for a new element - the Aggessive Advantage. Whenever your character has a higher initiative, they have an aggressive advantage over lower initiative characters. This translates into an ability to continue to counter attack them if they successfully counter your own attack.
While I do get the impression that the mechanic could, especially at higher levels, slow down combat - it is a refreshing attempt at something a little different.
Furthermore, initiative is tied to level as well, meaning that there is a chance to develop a better initiative bonus - providing a better balance between high level characters.
On the downside, I find myself questioning why all this heroic, high-power mechanic in what is meant to be a grim horror game - according to the packaging.
Something that further impressed me was the training session examples. The back of the combat chapter has three sessions written as if you are being trained by a combat master. Each session details key elements of the rules and do a very good job of helping to clarify the system as well as providing an e-mail at the end for any other questions that may arise. A little thing, but it did impress me.
Magic
Over five hundred spells! The magic rules are quite varied, being split up into the special magics - Demon Magic, Fairy Magic, Spells of Legend, Written Magic - and the standard spell magics, which are the more traditional forms of magic akin to D&D for clerics and wizards.Demon Magic is simply a list of spells that demon characters can purchase. They receive a number of spells automatically and then can purchase higher level spells with experience.
Fairy magic operates in very much the same manner. Alloing fairies to increase in power too.
Spells of Legend are larger spells of grander scale that PCs can strive for later - naturally having higher XP costs (God's Bane, for example, costs in excess of four million XP.)
Written Magic covers wards and runes. The alphabet provided is a little cheesy, being a hashed mish-mash of actual occult alphabets and trying to be somewhat similar to Ars Magica's magic system. Unfortunately there is little provided in the rules to clearly explain how this element works. And the wards and runes provided are messy and somewhat ugly to look at, as well as inconsistent in design.
Setting
So after working through lists of races, classes, skills, feats, spells, equipment and various encumberance, combat, and magic rules, we finally come to the setting chapter.I am somewhat surprised that a book that is over six-hundred pages long only contains less than sixty pages of detailed setting material.
The setting is a fairly standard fantasy world that reminds one of the Fighting Fantasy world of Titan or maybe Warhammer. An evil race of golem-like beasts forged by a dark god have laid waste to a majority of the world - with the continent of Arkastapha being the sole surviving refuge. But here the demons who lived to the north in the frozen wastes have decided to descend on the land and wipe out the races.
So most people live in fortified cities rife with paranoia and conflict. Ancient pacts between races have fallen, and everyone is out to serve himself in a struggle to survive in a hostile world.
There is no more sun in the sky, a dreary grey near twilight pervades. It is a horrible and dark place.
The chapter gives a fairly broad stroke view of the world. Most locations are given a decent write-up and it does remind me somewhat of a briefer version of Blue Planet's detailling of Poseidon. Yet there isn't a lot of in depth detail. Mostly broad descriptions.
Finally we have the Monster Encyclopedia with a list of seventy monsters, each with a treasue code to dictate how much treasure is likely to be found with them.
Thoughts
I think the first most telling element is that nowhere in the entire book is there a Game Master's chapter. With all the lists, character creation details, rules for combat, encumberance and magic; someone forgot to write up rules and advice about how to actually create a campaign. There are environmental rules, but no social rules.Fairly early on I mentioned the "more=better" mentality that appeared to be in effect. The back of the book touts a lot of numbers, revelling in telling us that there are "Over 21 playable races" and "over 500 spells!" There is even a mention of "Nearly 700 pages in length."
And yet, despite all this, the book is very sparse in actual detail. I am still curious as to why there needed to be so much in the way of tables and lists - when the game could have been made a supplement to be used with the 3.5 players handbook, leaving more room for actual setting detail or GMs material. It is interesting to note that Dawnforge by Fantasy Flight Games clocks in at half the size and manages to contain more information and rules.
I kept finding myself thinking that certain elements of the game were appealing, the races were kind of nifty and the APR idea was an interesting choice. But tying levels and experience to classes was not a good idea. d20 got rid of that for a reason.
It might appeal to those who like a heavy system, but even then the lack of sufficient GM advice and help will be a hindrance.
Overall, a good effort that misses the mark by mistakenly thinking that only size matters. Add to this a book full of heroic epic elements and not enough actual horror - somewhat odd given that this is meant to be a fantasy horror game.
Should I buy this? If you want a big book full of options and rules, it might just appeal. However Iron Kingdoms would be a better purchase. If you want a dark gothic horror fantasy, Midnight or Gemini have more setting detail and Midnight is a much more polished line. Definitely for the committed collector only.
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