EABA (pronounced “EE-bah”) is a generic rpg core system. The designer never explicitly tells us in the rule book what EABA stands for, but rumor has it that it's an acronym for 'End All, Be All', an allusion to the fact that it's the last role playing system you'll ever need. In any case, it’s based on a simple-as-sneezing d6 mechanic, and anyone who’s ever played the original WEG Star Wars RPG will be instantly familiar with the idea.
Players receive a number of points to purchase six Attribute scores with (strength, health, agility, awareness, will, and fate), and naturally, higher scores require increasingly more points to buy. The GM determines how powerful the PCs are by varying the amount of points players have to buy Attributes. A gritty, realistic setting may allow PCs 80 points to buy scores with, giving them average mundane human abilities (attribute scores of "7", say), while a game of super-powered heroes may start with 150 or more points, allowing for characters with massive strength, damage resilience, and super-speed compared to normal folk (attribute scores around "11").
Your Attribute rating then determines how many six-siders you roll when attempting a task using that Attribute, per a handy chart. If your Agility is "6", then your dice pool for rolling tasks that require Agility is "2d", or two six-siders. If your Agility were "9", you'd instead roll "3d". (In between full-die increments, you have bonuses to your rolls, such as an Agility of "8" giving you a 2d+2 dice pool, or two six siders and then a +2 bonus to the roll.)
To succeed in said task, you need to beat a Difficulty rating set by the GM by adding up the best three rolls of your dice. (So having more than three dice to use on a roll doesn’t guarantee you a success, just a higher probability for success.) A Very Easy task requires a sum of 3 on your roll, while a Challenging task requires a sum of 9, and a Heroic task needs a roll of 15. You get the idea.
There are then Skills which are purchased using skill points the same way your Attributes were purchased. By spending more points, you get increasingly higher levels in your Skills, which grants you more dice to roll when attempting to do something. The core book has a standard list of skills to get you started, but really, any talent you can think of can be a skill: computers, sword-making, scuba diving, laser pistols, spell casting, forensics, alpaca farming, etc. You and the GM simply agree on the details of what tasks your skill covers, and you’re good to go.
EABA reads as a basic rules set, but there are advanced optional rules for almost every game concept as well. GMs may add as much complexity crunch to their campaigns as they’d like by using none, some, or all of these optional rules. As an example, for my play test I just used the basic combat rules (do I hit, and if so, how much damage did I do?), but there are optional rules for hit locations, continuous damage, blocking and parrying, grappling, targeting systems, etc.
As with any generic system, EABA is designed to fit any genre you’d like to take on; supers, historical military, high or low fantasy, pulp, horror, sci-fi, whatever crackles your Krispies. While this is not a review of the EABA core system per se, I will take a moment to note that I very much like that core. The scaling of points and powers, the ease of combining basic and optional rules, the malleability of the skills, and the many examples of rules and PC- creation make for a tight, practical game system. I’ve never been a big fan of generic systems, but even I admire the way this one works. A role-playing beginner could grasp the system and start playing with little fuss, while a veteran gamer could use these rules to begin crafting the perfect genre, setting, and power level for their games immediately.
Boo-boos are counted off with lethal and non-lethal varieties. Getting sucker-punched by a grandma possessed by the spirit of a netherworld boogeyman may lay you out, but you'll survive and regain your stamina quickly. Getting your throat ripped out by the claws of a ravenous werewolf… now that's gonna kill a dude. The EABA damage system lets you easily differentiate between "lethal" and "just irritating" wounds, unlike many straight "hit point" mechanics in other games.
Interestingly, the EABA damage mechanics are cool in that the more injured you are, the less you need to worry about lesser damage. The idea being that if you've already been shot, then getting punched in the abdomen just isn't gonna phase you as much.
What the heck’s an EE-bah?
Now, on to the Black…
It's Better to Be the Lesser of Two Evils…
In an unknowably ancient time, the final battle between Good and Evil was fought. Most of the darkness was eradicated from the universe. That Evil which was most powerful couldn't be erased, but it could be imprisoned. So a world was created to act as a tomb for the Evil, and the last powerful darkness was locked away, removed from the rest of existence. In that moment, Goodness flashed across the span of creation, illuminating every furthest star and hidden corner of the universe. And in that same moment, every thinking being in the universe vanished in an evanescent nanosecond of absolute righteousness. For Good cannot exist without Evil. But the universe abhors a vacuum. With Good gone, only the locked-up Evil remained. The Balance must be maintained, and so little by little, the bonds of Evil's prison were weakened, until the least of the great Evils were able to slip out. They were not good, per se, but they were not the worst of the Evil. And that was enough. Balance had been restored. In time, the escaped evils forgot, or chose to ignore, the ancient, powerful Evils who still remained banished. They chose to not see the greater Evils' influence in their daily lives. These most minor of the Evils, the first to escape the prison, were mankind, and they became Blind. Unable (unwilling?) to see the darkness within them, and around them, most of mankind goes about its life, not knowing the Truth. But this Blindness does not protect mankind, as they think it does. Rather, it leaves them open to the influences of the Evil. How can you fight against something you won't admit exists? There are, however, in the midst of the Blind, a few who can See the Truth. Out of those with the Sight, most crack under the reality laid out before them, unable to cope with the Truth of the universe, and mankind's role in it. They go insane. Those that survive are invited into the Brotherhood of Gilgamesh. They are the only ones who See clearly, who fight against the Evil. But, do they do so because they are Good? Or merely because they want humanity to remain the strongest force in the world, and can only do so if the greatest Evil remains imprisoned? Whatever your reason, you are one of the Brotherhood; the most secret, enduring order of crusaders on the face of the Earth. The ones who stand between mankind, and the things that go bump in the night.
In Code: Black, you play members of the Brotherhood of Gilgamesh, in a present day setting. The Brotherhood all have the ability to "See", and thus can spot unearthly beings such as devils, vampires, lycanthropes, and other more sinister beings, who are normally hidden amongst the throng of humanity. Common man doesn't know them for what they are, even when he stands next to them, and deludes himself into thinking they don't exist.
You'll play a low-level Brotherhood field operative. Think of a cross between X-Files and Men in Black, with a dash of Supernatural thrown in. Seriously weird crap goes down all over the world, and somebody has to deal with it. All Brotherhood operatives lead a double life; you've got your standard day job where you make your living, and then you've got your periodic assignments from the Brotherhood. Since there's no one quality that gives people the Sight, members come from any and all walks of life: street bums, CEOs, garbage men, lawyers, surfers, clergy. When making a character, you should think of a day job, with appropriate ramifications. There's no telling when in your life the Sight will come upon you either, so both school children and doddering geezers may be able to See things around them that they can't explain.
In Code: Black, the "fate" Attribute is treated as your PC's Sight score. The higher your Sight, the easier for you to see Evil (with a capital "E") in its many incarnations, and the better able you are to hold onto your composure, and possibly your sanity, when confronted by the horrors that stalk the world. Mechanically, that means that spoooooky critters have Fear ratings, and how you react towards them is determined by the difference between your Sight and their Fear. (Your willpower score is involved also, as a saving throw in case your Sight doesn't cut it.) If during the course of your adventures, your PC loses too many Fear checks, she'll accrue psychoses and phobias, slowly spiraling into insanity. Or quickly spiraling there, depending on how rough a week your agent is having…
The Content
OK, that's the Code: Black background. Agents from a secret society hunt down supernatural threats before those dark nasties have a chance to unleash more eeeeeeevil upon the world. Whether your PC agents do this because they think they're the good guys, or whether they do this because they want humans to stay on top of the food and power chains is a philosophical theme for your own gaming group to explore.
But now lemme give you the low-down on the rest of the PDF contents, just so you know what you're getting for your bucks.
The Black PDF includes notes to fine-tune EABA characters to this setting, such as explaining how to use the fate score as your Sight, and examining several particular skills and how they function within the setting, that sort of thing. Character generation rules are not presented here, so again, you'll need the original core EABA rules to play this material as written. However, the author, Mr. Porter, happily encourages you to adopt the Black background to your own favorite rpg if you like. (I can easily see this material being used in Call of Cthulu, World of Darkness, or even with Unisystem games such as Army of Darkness.)
The book discusses the powers of evil within the game, like how it corrupts humans, and what influence the ancient Evils still trapped in the Prison have, and the role of sorcery in the game. (What? You really thought we'd discuss a horror role playing game without adding black magic and nefarious sorcery into the pot? Puh-lease.)
Code: Black offers a fairly simple system for designing spells based on their effects and the power that the caster wants the magic to pack. Some useful sample spells are written up, in case the GM or player wants to skip the tedious bits of actually inventing their spells, and instead just use some pre-fabs from the list. There are blast spells, and healing spells, and ability-boosters, and shielding spells; all the basics are covered.
The side effects of sorcery use in Black are uniformly bad, however. Fatigue, distraction, and, oh, yeah, the risk of losing your soul are all downsides to summoning a demon or scrying the neighbors. Using healing magic actually hurts you… so, nothing's free, baby. PCs wanting to use magic in Black need to consider whether it's worth the risk. ("If you only knew the power of the Dark Side…" =wheeeeze= )
A whole section of the book is next dedicated to laying out the Brotherhood of Gilgamesh. Standard operational practices are touched on, offices and administrations in different parts if the USA and a few parts of the world are glanced at (so you know, for example, that there are twelve Brotherhood field operatives in Hawaii, and five in Guam). It's also in this section where you discover the different code colors used by the Brotherhood to indicate danger levels of supernatural happenings. (Code: White is Everything's cool. Code: Orange is Something's Afoot in Your Neck of the Woods. There's a whole rainbow of codes, right down to Code: Black, which is All Hell has Broken Loose.)
There's a Game Master section, explaining how to run a campaign, how to keep things eerie and evil and challenging, how to think up adventures, etc. There's a section on gear and gizmos, including special Brotherhood inventions unique to your PCs' line of work. (Think "Q" from the James Bond labs.) There's a list of modern weapons and ammo, plus some nifty specialized boomsticks to put the hurtin' on supernatural critters when normal buckshot don't do the trick. (Nuclear-powered laser rifle, anyone?) There are some sample adventures provided (one quite extensive), plus seeds for other adventures for you to flesh out. Quite a respectable amount of material for a reasonably priced PDF.
(As an aside, there's also a "campaign location" sourcebook for Code: Black available, called Brecken Ridge. A whole campaign booklet at your download-lovin' fingertips.)
Lastly, there's an Open Supplement License, for those of you who like doing your own work. Got a nifty adventure or supplement idea for EABA? Publish that sucker! Just give Mr. Porter at BTRC his due credit.
Playtest!
I had never used the EABA system or the Code: Black material until I playtested them both while preparing for this review. Rather than use the pre-made adventure, I came up with my own.
In case you're interested, it involved a ghul secretly instigating a war between vampires and the Brotherhood agents in Chicago. The ghul was going to let the two sides slaughter each other, then move in and take over the vampires' territory with a well-organized street gang. That's about all I had as far as plot when we sat down at the table. I scribbled down some NPCs in about five minutes using the convenient NPC sheets in the EABA rule book, jotted some notes, and got down to business with four players.
The basic game ran so smoothly that we didn't even have to stop to look much up. (What I did look up was some obscure bit of info.) Not bad for a first-time run through! With just my basic idea, and about a page of notes, I ran the game without a glitch and without looking at the rules. Shows you how intuitive the game system is, once you read through the rules a few times to familiarize yourself with them.
The players enjoyed the feel of the darker, more sinister environment than they were used to playing in. Right up until the near-TPK climax, I mean. The one warning I'll offer is that the Black setting is more gritty than heroic, played as presented. Guns hurt! Especially when the gunfight takes place at point-blank range in a closed room packed with ten people. (Note to my players: Heh heh. Sorry, guys! I just wanted to test out the gunfire rules!)
So… let's recap.
- EABA Core Rules: Solid
- Code: Black setting sourcebook: Deliciously supernaturally evocative (although with very little art! I know some people get concerned about that.)
- Playtesting: Easy as pie.
I'm recommending Code: Black. I've been looking for a few years for a good modern horror setting or rules set, and while I was adequately pleased with the new World of Darkness, I find that system clunkier than EABA. For someone on the fence, I'd recommend Code: Black over the other.
At this point, the review was cut short when the phone rang at Christopher's desk. Apparently, something…odd… has been reported seen in the woods down by the old Johnston farm by several locals. And police have stopped by, but it seems Mrs. Johnston isn’t answering the door.
The reviewer set aside his books, and slipped his coat and his shoulder holster from the closet. Popping the cylinder of his Smith & Wesson 696 magnum, he inserted six silver bullets into the heavy revolver, then snapped it shut with a practiced twist of his wrist.
Time to go to work…
