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That said:
Houses of the Blooded is John Wick's "anti-D&D" game, in which everything that's not important in the hobby's juggernaut -- things like social interaction, clothes, and economy -- are the primary concerns in Houses of the Blooded. The procedures central to d20 -- the flat-probability roll, the lack of player control over results, the single truly effective feat progression -- are turned on their head in Houses of the Blooded, which replaces them with funky dice pools, player currency with many effective uses, and highly customizable character options. The game began with the FATE system and has merrily modified away, addressing many of the issues with FATE and shaping the game system into something specifically targeted to the lives of the Ven.
And who are the Ven? The Ven are the nearly-human characters which fill the game with their colorful, elaborate, and passionate machinations. Players take the role of Ven noblemen and noblewomen, those "blooded" into the ruling houses of the realm. By default, all characters are landed nobility -- no wandering bravo adventurers need apply. Characters have responsibilities, resources, station and rank, agendas, and every other thing that never really seems to appear in your generic fantasy roleplaying game. What's more, such things are important -- essential, in fact -- to the operation of the game. If you neglect your lands, the resources available to you will quickly disappear. And among the Ven, you only own what you can hold -- and there are a hundred other blooded nobles in the world who will happily divest you of your lands and make you a pauper.
So imagine: thrust into such a world is your character -- probably a baron holding only one territory, blooded into one of the noble houses recently or perhaps some time ago, holding on to his lands and squeezing every drop of wealth out of them just in order to keep himself in the clothes he needs to wear, surrounded by the personal guard he needs to do war, and eating the food that's proper for a noble to eat. He may have ambitions, but the ambition that will sit front and center for most of his career as a nobleman is simply to stay afloat. Running off to "go adventuring" is folly -- and besides, the Ven have more than enough in the way of conspiracies and schemes to keep each other occupied, punctuated with the occasional foray onto the battlefield.
Here's where the FATE system comes in and shines, because Wick has taken the best aspect of FATE -- Aspects -- and placed them front and center in the game. For those of you who are not familiar with Aspects, these are traits that can be activated for in-game bonuses, and they can appear on nearly any piece of the story at any time. They are created by the players and the GM on the fly. So character generation may give you colorful and permanent Aspects such as "Shadows are my second home" or "All horses know me as friend." You'll activate those for sneaking around or riding horses, respectively. However, in the midst of play, even in the midst of combat, you can create more Aspects -- on your character and on others, even on the scene in general. If you're fencing with your opponent using a lit torch, you can "gift" him with the Aspect "On fire" and then activate that Aspect to give yourself a bonus to your next roll. Outside of martial combat, Aspects can be thrown down in social conflicts, economic warfare, even romancing a potential lover. Nothing says love like "Can't stop thinking about the Baron of Tharagon."
The problem with the FATE system is that it's often clever Aspects and nothing more, but Houses of the Blooded has added in a wealth of additional options that are a joy to fiddle with. Clothes, for instance, are usually an overlookable and unsupported element of RPGs; in this game, however, they are your batteries, storing your Style points for you. The better dressed you are, the more Style points you can carry. So too, Wick has replaced the Fudge dice from FATE with pools of dice. Players must decide on every roll how many to gamble and how many to actually use in the roll. Pool of six dice, difficulty of ten? Should I play it safe and roll four dice and gamble two, or play risky and roll two dice and gamble four? If the rolled dice beat the difficulty, the gambled dice turn into additional successes -- each of which is another effect in the story. The opportunities are vast, and the system turns every roll and every exchange into a tricky and compelling gamble -- a perfect fit for the dangerous world of the Ven.
The game is still in playtest and under development, so there were rough spots in the game I played. There are a dozen clever and engaging mechanics in the game and each serves a good purpose in forwarding the particular color and flair of the Ven. Those mechanics are not yet working together in a seamless whole. When Wick stitches these different systems together, though, the result will be fantastic. There are uncountable combinations and permutations, enough options to keep gamers running different characters in different situations for a good long time. What's more, Wick's mechanics and the FATE chassis will ensure that each of those stories will be unique and entertaining in its own right.
Houses of the Blooded has easily jumped up to the top five games I'm looking forward to this year. If an early playtest has that much style and can grab a jaded gamer like me, I quail at the thought of what the finished product will look like. Wick has already got my money for the book -- here's hoping he doesn't keep going and start writing supplements!
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