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Chapter by Chapter synoposis: Chapter One: A History of Gothic Earth. This chapter is devoted to the history of the Gothic Earth. It follows the real world history, with one notable exception: the evolution of world culture is caused by the Red Death. This world’s history extends back to ancient Egypt, when the Red Death entered the Gothic Earth. Before that event, the world was relatively uncorrupted from evil. Ever since its entry into the world, the Red Death has been corrupting it to suit his whims. At about the same time, a counter-conspiracy started. This conspiracy, composed of good hearted people, began to arrest the influence of the Red Death. Their first act was the imprisoning of the Red Death’s first lieutenant, Imhotep.
The pattern for the history of Gothic Earth is pretty much as follows: there is a person who would do anything for power. The Red Death hears about this and offers a Faustian bargain. The person usually takes the offer and takes the power to accomplishes what he or she wants. This process is repeated throughout recorded history until the 1890‘s. After each time this happened, the Red Death’s power and influence grew. By the default year, there isn’t a corner of the world that is free of the Red Death‘s taint. At the same time, the counter-conspiracy also grew. They have made little ripples to counteract the effects of the Red Death. The counter-conspiracy is biding its time and growing its forces for one big assault.
In the default starting year, the forces of good and the forces of evil are gathering in strength and number for one final battle. The player characters are the front-line soldiers in this battle, whether they know it or not. The fate of the Gothic Earth rests in their hands. The last pages of this section is devoted to the important themes and motifs of the 1890’s, from Spiritualism to Imperialism, and Invention to Exploration. I guess these paragraphs serve as a primer to the kinds of adventures the character’s may encounter. There is also a timeline that includes the important events of the 1890’s. If nothing else, this section provides an excellent look in the Gothic Earth world. The timeline can provide excellent fodder for adventures in real world events, but they would require a lot of research to make them fleshed out.
Chapter Two: An Atlas of Gothic Earth. This chapter is devoted to the Gothic Earth world as it stands in the 1890’s. The chapter is much like the same chapter from the Ravenloft setting. There is one noticeable exception: this world is much more open than the Ravenloft one. In Ravenloft, the borders between the domains are clearly defined and the domain lord can choose to close off his or her realm, unless his or her curse somehow prevents him, like Sir Tristen Hilregard/ Malken. The borders on Gothic Earth are artificial. The books goes into some detail about the world as known at the time. Well, it goes into as much details as can be expected for a genre specific book can.
The books tackles every continent in an alphabetical fashion. starting with Africa and ending with Europe. This probably done deliberately as an attempt to lessen the Eurocentric feel of the chapter. Proof of this attempt could be in the decision to label the American sections, “America, North” and America, Central and South” respectively. Another odd thing is the inclusion of Russia in the Asia section of the chapter. This is odd because, historically and politically, Russia has been included in Europe regardless of where the bulk of it lies. Anyway, each continent is given the following treatment: Overview of the continent as seen through the lens of European prejudices.
Then the book goes into the major cities of the continent. Each of the city’s description is broken up into modern day, history, and forbidden lore sections. The modern day and forbidden lore sections are there for the traveling orientated people who want to know something about the places they are going to. The forbidden lore section is the most important because it provides the Gothic Earth spin to the cities. This section offers advice and possible storyline seed for the Dungeon Master (hereafter, DM) to use for adventures. Some of the cities includes are: Mexico City, Boston, Singapore, Brisbane, Vienna, Paris, and Constantinople.
One thing that must be stated, although it has been mentioned before, is that the section has a decidedly Eurocentric spin to it. This was done deliberately because the history for the rest of the world has that taint regardless of what the intentions are. It might offend some readers from other parts of the world.
Chapter Three: Character Creation.
This is the character creation section of the book. This is also biggest chapter of the book. It starts off with the normal things you might expect from a d20 book: Attributes, Races, classes, etc. The section starts with attributes and proceeds from there. There is also a treatment of core classes and how they are different on the Gothic Earth. The classes are organized alphabetically: Adept, Athlete, Intellectual, Mystic, Sleuth, and Tradesman. Inside each core class are slight variations on the basic theme. Why play an adept when one can play a charlatan? Why play an athlete when one can play a explorer? And so on. These add a little variety to the character creation process. In total, there are 23 character classes that a player can use for his Masque game. These MotRD classes are based on the ones found in the 3.5 Player’s Handbook, but they were given the Victorian spin to make them fit the genre.
Like other d20 books, when the players get tired of their starting class, they have the option to diversify into prestige classes. These ones were previously published in character splats and possibly the 3.5 corebook. Once again, these have been given the Victorian age spin to them. This also means that they tend to be weaker than their fantasy counterparts. This is appropriate because the game is a horror story. As for the classes themselves, there are only two that are unique to this world: the master inventor, and the qabalist. But, even then, the master inventor is not really unique. That prestige class could appear in any game that uses a lot of mechanical devices. The only difference is the any other variation would have more of a magical bent to them. The Masque of the Red Death’s master inventor is basically a creature with several spell-like abilities and no real magic powers. The qabalist is a unique invention in this world. These are the members of the counter-conspiracy against the Red Death.
The skills section of the chapter includes all the relevant skills from the Player’s handbook, plus all the ones pertinent for the game setting. The big difference is that the book includes a bunch of craft and knowledge skills. These fuel the Victorian age feel to this game.
The feats section contains all the feats that could be feasibly used in a Red Death game. Many of these are just reprinted from the Player’s Handbook and are useful as written. There is a noticeable lack of Armor proficiencies. This is because firearms made them obsolete. The cool feats from this book are: uncanny sense, savoir-faire, and perfect pitch. Like many feat lists, there is a tendency for specialization. This selection is geared more towards social sphere than the combat side of the equation.
This chapter is standard d20. An interesting thing in this chapter is the treatment of nonhuman races. The core setting assumes that the players are going to be human. This is because the heroes from literature of the time period have that affliction placed upon them. The section also states that it is possible to have nonhuman races as playable characters, but they must be modified to fit the setting. It gives some suggestion to make them fit the setting, but there are no concrete rulings. This is good because it allows the DM more control over what is and is not allowed in his or her game.
Chapter Four: Money and Equipment.
This chapter starts, once again, with an explanation of the differences between the fantasy world and the Gothic Earth. In the fantasy world, you know where evil lurks, most of the time. On the Gothic Earth, however, evil has a freer reign over the places it can be. They can dwell anywhere from the lowest gutter to the greatest hall of power. To combat this evil, one needs to prepare for travel within in all social spheres. This section is devoted to the tools one needs to combat the Red Death in all his forms.
There is a treatise on the monies used on the Gothic Earth. This is similar to the real world equivalents, but with more of a spin towards ease of use. From there, the section goes into the tools one can purchase and attain for his or her use on the Gothic Earth. The last half of the chapter is devoted to weapons. The weapons are broken down into the following categories: firearms, melee, marital, simple, primitive, and exotic weapons. The weapons that you would expect to fall into one of the categories. The last category is a hodgepodge category that includes every conceivable other weapon, from whips to kopeshes to katanas. That last one does not really fit the Gothic Earth setting, but it might come up because people think katanas are the shit.
Chapter Five: the Magic of Gothic Earth. This section is similar to the one in the Ravenloft corebook. Like Ravenloft, magic on the Gothic Earth is corrupted by an being evil and its use invites corruption and damnation. Every magic spell, even those that are cast with good intentions, is corrupted by the Red Death. This means each spell cast require a dark powers check. This may mean the game will turn into a battle of rolls. This bogs down the game with meaningless prattle about the details. To prevent this, the designers give several other spell casting options for alternate power for a price scenarios. The games goes into a list of spells that are appropriate for the game setting. It does not limit the variety of spells, however. Any spell that appears in a OGL licensed game is appropriate for a Red Death game. The main difference from a gothic horror game and a fantasy one is the special effects. This means that flashy spell from a fantasy game might take on more subdued features in a Gothic Earth one. While the fourth level ice storm spell looks like a column of ice in a fantasy game, the same spell in a Gothic Earth game might look like an extreme case of frostbite that occurs in a few seconds. Basically, shift the description from the effect to the result and you can make any spell fit the Gothic Earth setting.
The last part of this chapter is devoted to magical artifacts on the Gothic Earth. Again, the main difference between magical items from a fantasy setting, and one from a Gothic Earth setting is one of description and effect. The fantasy magic item is simply a description of what it is and its effect. For example, a wand of frost is simply that. On the Gothic Earth, however, a wand of frost is never that simple. It must have some sort of sinister history attached to it. It also might have something cooler sounding like the limb of the frozen yeti. That is a cooler sounding name for something that is so mundane in other version.
Chapter six: combat. This is the obligatory combat chapter that must be in every RPG book. This book assumes that you are using the combat rules from the Player’s Handbook to run combat for the most part. The first section is a little explanation about why heroes take up the good fight. The heroes are fighting for a utopian world free of injustice. Once again, the book goes into detail about why the Gothic Earth is different than the fantasy world. In this case, the player characters can’t go around and kill everyone and everything by a whim. There are rules that they must follow. The section is fairly rules light, but there are two special rule sets for firearms and explosives. The rules for firearms and explosives are concrete and offer damages and ranges for the players to have. Damage for firearms depends on the kind of pistol used. Explosive damage depends on a formula: the more you have, the bigger the explosion. This is good, but it does not allow for plot device loophole: what if they need to destroy a monster’s lair but they do not have enough explosives to do it? There is always one rules lawyer that will calculate the damage it caused and throw off the effect on the game.
Chapter seven: Madness and Mystery.
This chapter is devoted to the things that make a Ravenloft game truly different from other games. The rules for madness and horror from the core Ravenloft setting are listed, but with the Victorian spin to it. The Victorians are more stoical than their fantasy counterparts and they do not suffer as easily from madness. They are a little more cognizant in their mental facilities and they do not get afraid as often. As such, they receive better scores for madness checks than their fantasy counterparts. The Victorians know that it wasn’t a vampire who tried to seduce him in that room: that is merely the butler who made an overt attempt at control. Basically, the Victorians have a better chance to rationalize stuff away.
This chapter also reveals that any magic spell, no matter the intent, gets a powers check. The Red Death has corrupted every magic, including the good ones. There is also a section on curses. The curses from Ravenloft work just as well on the gothic earth, but all curses require a powers check.
Chapter eight: A Practical Guide to the Century This is the primer to the late 19th century and beyond. This section provides enough information to play in the Gothic Earth setting. It is an interesting look at the 1890’s world. There is information on fashion, transportation, and various form of popular culture. This section includes a look at the different parts of the world, like Europe, South America, and the American West. The last one may be a nod to Shane Hensley, the creator of Deadlands. He also wrote some things for the AD&D version of this game. Anyway, the section is extremely general and it could be applied to other period games, if they did not include a section on Victorian life late 1890’s. The only unique section is on the secret societies. This game includes nine of them for this section, one for each alignment combination.
That is the end of the player’s section. From here on in, it is completely DM info. The book ends with a section on the various kinds of villainy that is included in the Gothic Earth. These also serve as another means to tell the differences between the core Ravenloft and the MotRD setting.
Appendix I: The Villains of Gothic Earth. These are the villains of the Gothic Earth. The section starts with a little blurb about the Red Death. This gives no new information. There is also a section on the hierarchy of evil minions. Then there are the Red Death’s lieutenants, the ones that the Red Death has given more power to. These are the oddest and the strangest peoples from the real world as well as fictional. The Red Death imbued these creatures with powers because they have chosen to be evil, or in the case of Sarah Winchester, chosen to be insane. A strange choice to include in this is Dr. Moriarty, who is a Raskaska on the Gothic Earth . This is an odd thing to do, but it does make sense in the context of the Sherlock Holmes short stories. There is also Dracula, the Frankenstein’s monster, Sarah Winchester, and Imhotep.
Appendix II: Monsters in the World. This is a section on the creatures inhabiting the Gothic Earth. These are the nameless minions that spread evil without any purpose and sense. They do not have goals unlike the Red Death’s minions. There is the usual section of monsters. These fit the feel of the Gothic Earth great. There is also a section on making creatures from other d20 games mesh into this one. This way, the DM can include something completely out of genre, like a minotaur, and include it into his game. The game introduces the concepts of masques. These are little abilities that make monsters from other settings fit this world. The masques are cool and practically the most useful part of this chapter.
Appendix III: Lairs of Evil. The old saying goes, “A man’s home is his castle.” In the Gothic Earth, that is more true if you are evil. The Lair is this game’s equivalent of a domain from the Ravenloft core setting. It is also a combination place of power and sinkhole of evil. This section is basically a toolkit to help the DM to create his own lairs. There is a series of questions one has to answer that give the place much more depth than it is just a sinkhole and an evil lair. This is very similar to the ones from many of the old world of darkness games that dealt with lairs of some sort: Book of Chantries, Caerns: Places of Powers, Freeholds and Hidden Glens, Haunts, and Havens of the Damned. The main differences is that this section handles it a lot better than the other books. The books over-explained the importance of the lair and provided too much information on certain lairs. The section in this book, by having a limited space, forces the DM to come up with his own version of a lair. This approach is more useful than the other one.
Appendix IV: Adventures on Gothic Earth. The last section of this book is devoted to adventures on the Gothic Earth. These are really the stereotypical adventure seeds. (Treasure hunt, dungeon crawl, and political trickery are just a few of the present game settings) The main difference is that they have the Gothic spin on them. They are not really adventures, but more like blueprints to build your own adventures on top of. These are useful for DM’s that do not have a clear idea for running games in this world or do not have any time to come up with an adventure for the next session.
Artwork: the art work is functional. There are not any spectacular pieces in this book.
Overall, the book is extremely useful for what it is. It is a period game that expands the core Ravenloft setting into the places where it was not allowed. It is also a homage to the source of the Ravenloft. Many of the information is reprinted from the original box set and several pieces from the Kargatane website (www.kargatane.com). This is not really surprising because the writers use to maintain that particular website. The book does gothic horror really well. There is that feel prevalent in this book.
But I have a few complaints of this book. First, there is a tendency to demean the reader; every chapter in the book includes a blurb about the differences from a fantasy and a Gothic Earth game. Once in a while that is a good remainder, but the effect caused in this approach is one that feels like the author are beating the reader’s over the head with that information. My other complaint is that there is nothing on Steampunk. While there are other books that combine both ideas into a unified whole (like Gurps: Screampunk), the Red Death’s variant of Gothic Steampunk would be a cool addition in this game. But these are minor nitpicks that does nothing to belittle my love for this game.
I’ve given the book high scores because I feel that it can be used in any system with little changes for the core setting. The d20 material is, for the most part, in one section of the book and can be easily ignored in favor of the rule sets in Savage Worlds, Deadlands Classic, Unisystem, or Storyteller.
Style: 4. Substance: 5.
