Here There Be Dragons (Setting Info)

In May of 2008 a rift tore opened in Binghamton, NY returning magic into the world. As part of the rift being tore open, Merlin was freed from his magical bonds. Coming to America (for “Better Air”) Merlin came to the site of the rift and formed Chaos Univisity.

The University is a unique place with the exterior constantly taking on different forms, from a castle, to a dining car, to even a simple out house. The interior is (almost) always the same how ever, and in this magic building is where the players are students of modern magic.

Most students are located by representatives of the school who can “see” their magic potential. They may be a poor shlub sitting in a bar, or a pro skater, or the goth chick working in Hot Topic in the mall. Usually, once located, they are not given the option of enrollment, they are taken to the school and registered for classes.

So, Like, Who are You (Character Creation)

First thing you need to do is figure out if you’re more attuned to Order or Chaos. That’s fairly straight forward…if you want a books smart student, take Order, if you want to make lightening bolts fly out of some one’s butt in a spur of the moment casting, Chaos is the way to go.

Next, you get to decide what clique you belong to. This is a college, there are always gonna be cliques. But of course, since this is an RPG, what clique you choose will also affect your ability scores, and give you some other sweet bonuses. Like if you’re a Jock, you get +3 to Grit (Strength) and Nimbleness (Agility) but –2 to Hocus Pocus (Ability to cast spells) . The Goth gets you +6 to Hocus Pocus and +2 to Grit but also a –2 to Nimbleness (ever try to look good while dodging spells?) and a –5 to Appeal (Pale skin just isn’t in, dahlink) and so it goes…

Now you get to roll your stats. The stats (Cunning, Grit, Nimbleness, Appeal, Hocus-Pocus, Lady Luck and Vitality) fit really nice with the fast and loose system of the game (I’ll get more into that in a bit.)

The next step is choosing what 3 courses your going to be taking while in your first semester at Chaos U. Some are dependant on whether you Order or Chaos attuned, so if you want to be a Toon-Mage (yes, you read that right), you had better be pretty Chaotic. The classes are pretty well laid out and logically arranged. As you continue your studies you go from the 101 level of the class to the 201 and the 301 levels. The further you advance, the more powerful you are in the given subject, but you also start pick up quirks particular to the subject. (Take Green Magic, as you get more powerful you might start turning green, and not want to harm your friends (the plants) by eating them.)

They also list some sample Curriculums incase you want to become a specific type of mage. For example: Want to be a Shaman take Animal Magic, Deity Worship and Transmogrifaction; or if you want to be a Technomancer take Cybermancy, Inventiion and Math Magic.

One final thing, everyone must take a PE Class. It can be anything from Judo, to Archery, to Hiking. This is how you get your combat skills in game, so choose wisely.

So, now that I’m enrolled, how do I do I blow up the alchemy lab? (System)

The basic system is pretty straight forward and simple, your stats are rated from 1-30, roll a d30 (or 3d10 or 5d6) and roll lower than your stat. If you do that, you succeed, if not well…Max will tell you what happens then. That’s for everything from Combat to trying to be sneaky while prepping a panty raid on the girl’s dorms.

Now if you wanna cast a spell…that works a bit differently…roll your trusty D30 and try to beat 15. If you do you cast it, plus the higher you roll, the less Hocus Pocus points it takes to cast the spell. (all the way down to 0). If you run out of Hocus Pocus, you can’t cast any spells until you’ve gotten a full nights sleep. (So, that panty raid above, if it’s too late at night and you get to bed at 4 am…well your not gonna have a good day at school tomorrow.) The spells themselves are very free form, tell Max what you want to do within the definitions of your classes, and he’ll give you the effects (after your roll.)

Combat is really not the highlight of game, and as such it’s pretty simplified. It’s simply an opposed roll w/ who ever your fighting, then if your using weapons Max determines how much damage you might do, and has you roll for it. If you take damage take it off your Points Until Death (PUD) and when you hit a PUD of 0 you die.

Who Controls all this Chaos? (Game Master)

That would be the aforementioned Maximum Power of the Universe, or Max for short. He (or She) is the ringleader of all the chaos around them. Their information is found in the Chaos University Disciplinary Manual. The manual is your standard how to handle the game and some very good scenarios for running a batch of students through.

The first part of the book is how to handle Lady Luck, Cool Points and Jinx Rolls. The Jinx mechanic is one of the niftiest things I’ve seen in the game…when a play attempts a spell, the Max rolls a Jinx die (d30)…if it comes up one, then something’s gone very wrong with the spell, no matter what the players result is. It adds an element of true Chaos to spell casting in the universe…no matter how good you are, something can still back fire on you.

The second part is the scenario (or Field Trips as they are called if they are off school grounds) section. These are all laid out in a nice easy to read format with the Plot, What’s going on (the way), Rewards (stuff the PCs can end up with), and What the PC’s don’t know. Also included is a section called “Our Way” with notes on how the writers own play test group handled the scenario. That is one of the coolest thing I’ve seen in all my years as a GM, just for the insight on what other players and GMs did during the adventure, giving me a small chance to think ahead. Some really cool scenarios taking place everywhere from Sears Tower to a Toy Factory, some serious, some silly…a really nice change of pace.

The final section of the Manual is the obligatory quick ref charts with the cliques, course list, estimating damage, and a 30 random silly things chart.

Should I drop my $20.00 on this?

Well, first let me tell you the two down sides to the book. The first is the art, and I know this is a small press production and that Jennifer and Daniel Schoonover are the only two people behind Firewater Productions. All the art is credited to Jennifer, and while some of it is funny and fits what’s being described in the rules, it’s a little simplistic. The second thing is really only evident if you read the Tangency forum of RPGnet, there are a few small in-joke from the forum that creep their way into the game.

Overall though, if your looking for a simple system to play a light hearted game, then unequivocally my answer is yes. If for nothing else you can take the setting info in the books and plug it into your favorite game system fairly easy. But for a night of light hearted fun I think that with time, and a bit (not too much) of polish this game could rival Toon in the off the wall comedy category. I look forward to actually sitting down with my friends and playing this as I think they will enjoy it immensely.