 Goto [ Index ] |
Since I was a playtester, I received both a credit and a comp copy of the book.
For these reasons, I’ll note that my ratings were chosen simply because they are the most "neutral" of the possible scores. I do intend to give what I hope is an unbiased take on the book, but those of you who feel that it would be impossible given what I’ve already noted…well, now would be a good time to stop.
Everyone else, slip on your bell-bottoms, grab your Boom Tube, and read about how you can stop the end of the world.
Premise It’s August 1974 and the nation is in crisis. A group of seven men were arrested while attempting to wiretap the headquarters of a presidential candidate and a link is slowly being established between them and the current Commander-in-Chief. That, coupled with the recent end of a war fought halfway around the world for no gain and much cost have the people clamoring for a change. Impeachment seems likely.
Sound familiar?
It might, until you read that the nation is Americo, the sitting president is Stanton Spobeck and that, on August 9, 1974, something went very, very wrong. What happened on that date is the starting point for Damnation Decade.
The Basics Damnation Decade is a 144-page paperback setting sourcebook for the d20 Modern system and is part of Green Ronin’s Mythic Vistas line. Its first three chapters are intended for players and are concerned with introducing a world gone mad, the types of characters who inhabit this world and the tools of the trade they’ll be using to prevent Armageddon. The remaining two chapters are intended for the Gamemaster and detail the various groups who are vying for supremacy as well as some tips on how to run adventures in the setting. There are also two appendices and an index.
Introduction On the very first page of the interior of Damnation Decade is the first draft of a faux travel brochure that looks like a copywriter’s nightmare: just about every paragraph has an editor’s change or comment. The reason no line has gone untouched is simple—the world ain’t what it used to be, and it’s tough to sell a visit to the West Coast when it isn’t there anymore.
The introduction details in brief what has happened. On August 9, a massive earthquake dropped the aforementioned West Coast into the drink. The President, who had been about to resign in the face of imminent impeachment proceedings, vowed to stay at his post until the crisis was averted.
Unfortunately, it never was. In the two years since that cataclysmic event, things have only gotten worse. Large portions of the country have been quarantined for reasons unknown and even larger sections of the rest of the free world are being swallowed up by Americo’s cold war enemies.
The majority of populace not living in areas affected by these changes have been dealing with the problems the way they usually do--by ignoring them. When not indulging in sex and drugs in all-night party havens called Bootydomes, everyday people are cheering on their local Omegaball franchise as the players risk death for the sake of victory.
But what most folks don’t realize is that the temporary oblivion they’re embracing is soon going to be permanent. For when the clock strikes midnight on December 31, 1979, the world will end. That is, unless a band of brave adventurers does something about it…
The Player’s Section The first chapter of the book gives more information about the current state of the world, as well as the setting’s central concepts, a timeline, map and who’s who. If there’s a section of the book that’s going to trip readers up, it’s probably the who’s who. This is because the places and people you may know from history all still exist in DD, only with different names. So Israel becomes Aleph, Texas is Alamo, Gerald Ford is LeHigh Gort, and so on. Players may alternately be fascinated or frustrated with this level of detail, depending on how easily they are able to match a fictional person, place or thing with its real-life counterpart. Those leaning more toward the frustrated axis may do well to forget its connection to the 70s and treat it as another fictional setting (which, when you get down to it, is exactly what it is).
Chapter One also introduces several sidebars that help add more flavor to the setting, such as one about Abednego Trestle, the mystic who predicted the end of the world back in the 16th Century or an entry regarding Herman Purvis, an actor from a cult TV series and now host of "Beyond the Barrier," a show that probes the mystical and unexplained. Since the majority of the book presents a "thousand-mile view" of the world, the sidebars help focus on the smaller details, even though they are not strictly essential to the larger picture.
The second chapter presents players with new--and in some cases, revised--rules for character specialization. There are new skills (such as Speak Trucker) feats (Psychobabble) and advanced classes (Fightin’ Acolyte); additionally, there are not only new starting occupations, but all of the existing occupations have been recast to better suit the setting. Likewise, the Psychic Power rules found in the d20 Modern core book have been replaced to better approximate how those powers are used in such 70s films as Carrie and The Fury.
The section ends with rules for Omegaball, which is a mix of lacrosse and Rollerball. This is essentially a mini-game for the setting, with two players rolling against each other to see which team wins. Although there are no suggestions on how to use the sport in your game (aside from adding more flavor to the world itself), enterprising GMs might try inserting players into a game (easier, of course, if one of them is already an Athlete) or rolling against his or her players as a way for them to make money or gain additional XP. Or you could simply keep it relegated to the background and use the results of matches, reports of player injuries and news about upcoming playoff pairings as a way of marking time in your campaign.
Character add-ons are the focus of the third chapter, with sections devoted to weapons, armor, vehicles, bionics and drugs. The book notes that most of the equipment available in the d20 Modern core book can be used in DD (notable exceptions being Glock handguns and any digital handheld device), so the use of much of this chapter will be dependent on how much choice a player wants to have. If your character just can’t live without a choice of dozens of different melee weapons, you’ll want to stick with the core book; if you’d rather simplify matters with a much smaller subset of items to choose from, then you’d be better off sticking with the DD lists.
As is the case throughout the book, the equipment in the book is colorfully named, so your character can find themselves hopped up on Grin Pills, driving a Hooptie, and wearing Denim Armor with a Convincer locked and loaded in the passenger seat.
The Gamemaster’s Section The fourth chapter deals with the various factions that are vying for power in this changed world. This is, without question, the largest section of the book, as it provides a history, current plans, adventure hooks, end game (detailing how the players might bring down the faction) and relevant statistics for each group. There are enough different factions that you could create a campaign centered around the players trying to take down zombies, commies, monsters, or the spawn of Satan himself. The groups include:
- Ampersand Vole IV & The Brotherhood: Vole is an oil magnate who became obsessed with finding an energy alternative. In the process, he created the Omega Ray generator, the first test of which sent the world into its current chaos and transformed Vole and everyone within 100 miles into plague zombies. Now, Vole is looking to get the generator back online to “save” the rest of the world.
- Fulton Gort & The Androids: Gort is an auto titan who had his memories implanted into a robot. The Omega Ray accident transformed him, and now he wants his automatons to rule the world.
- Theremin Hunker & The Nagathrite: A long-removed descendant of an alien race is using her self-help seminars to locate other hybrids and brainwash weak humans in order to raise the sunken island home of their alien masters.
- Humboldt Suede & The King of the Damned: The publisher of the gentleman’s magazine Bedfellow’s is actually the son of the devil and has recently decided to run for president. His hidden platform: throw the world the biggest party ever...then send it straight to Hell.
- Stanton Spobeck, Naught & The Monday Men: The sitting president is using a living computer and an army of secret agents to keep himself in power. However, the computer (which is, naturally, controlled by a brain in a vat) is beginning to link itself to the world’s technology in its own bid for supremacy.
- The Dervos: A race of pig-men who are investigating Earth as a new potential home.
- The Kreelak: A race of dinosaur-men who were released from their slumber when the West Coast dropped into the sea—they now want what they believe is rightfully theirs.
- Man Last & Nature Gone Mad: The animal kingdom has decided that perhaps it doesn’t want to tolerate humankind any longer; a radical environmental group wants to help them regain dominance.
- Collectivist Powers: The two other superpowers (The Bloc and The Sphere) used the events of August 9 to make gigantic land grabs—now they’re plotting for more.
- Fedo Malese & The Consortium: The dictator of the oil-producing countries has thrust himself into power as a result of 8/9/74, and he’ll soon set out to achieve his own ultimate goal: to destroy the nation of Aleph.
Making matters more complicated is the fact that many of the factions intersect at various points. For instance, Malese learned of the Omega Ray project and sabotaged the test, which resulted in everything going horribly wrong. The Bloc have their own supercomputer, called Nyet, which has recently gained sentience and is now seeking to both rule over The Bloc and do battle with this Americo counterpart, Naught.
The one drawback of this section is that it might well be too much information. Just about any one of the factions could be fodder for creative GM to spin into numerous sessions. A few of the groups have enough similarities that they could have been combined or removed altogether without affecting the setting as a whole. Either of the Collectivist Powers could have snatched up The Consortium, for example; and the alien races still would have been well represented if either The Dervos or Kreelak had been removed. It would have also allowed more room for some of the elements that didn’t make it into the book (listed in the "Minuses" section below).
Chapter five presents a list of questions that will help GMs get a better grip on running the setting and ways to deal with some major hurdles that might pop up, such as: what tone to set for the game, how many of the different plot lines should be interwoven, who should win the election and so on.
The first of the two appendices lists movies and books that inspired (and could help in capturing the mood of) the game; the second provides instructions on how to convert the crunchier bits of the setting to Green Ronin’s True20 system. Finally, two pages each are dedicated to the index, the OGL, and ads for other GR books.
Pluses Damnation Decade presents a unique take on the dystopian science fiction setting by allowing characters to not only experience first-hand how bad things have gotten, but also giving them a chance to stop it from getting worse. Too often, this kind of setting has been stripped bare of just about any kind of hope—or humor. But, as noted in the book’s introduction, in DD your players can actually win—and that’s a big difference.
Also of particular note is the general excellence of the writing, Sentences tend to be short and sweet, but Mr. Toth uses their brevity to admirable effect (for example, The Man Who Fell to Earth is summed up in five words: "Starring David Bowie as himself"). It’s not often that both fluff and crunch are equally enjoyable to read, but the book manages to do just that.
Minuses As noted previously, Damnation Decade tends to present information about the setting from a "bird’s eye view." There is only one, two-page map spread that shows the entirety of the world post-cataclysm. A map of at least one of the major locations (if only to show the difference between the real-life New York City and the setting’s Fun City) would have been helpful, especially since none of the cities found on the map are given more than mere background information.
Another piece the book could have used is an adventure, which could have provided more details about its people and places and helped both players and GMs get a better sense of what roleplaying in the 70s gone wrong would truly be like. This issue has since been addressed with the launch of DamnationDecade.com, a site dedicated to the game run by Mr. Toth. In addition to an adventure (In the Hall of the Disco King), there’s a write-up of yet another faction (!) and a page that will help those folks having difficulty differentiating their Nixons from their Spobecks.
Conclusion It’s tough to justify using Damnation Decade as a beer and pretzels, one-off game. The tone is certainly there, but GMs will probably not want to do the amount of work required detailing the world for just a one shot. For those who don’t shy away from prep work prior to starting a new game and are looking for something a little less grim and a bit more funky, then Damnation is going to be right up their alley.
Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.
