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The Good: The artwork, formatting, and literary references are spot on and clearly communicate exciting Victorian cross worlds adventure. The “Bullseye” incarnation of the d20 system is simple and easy to work with, avoiding levels and instead allowing characters to be built from a small point pool.
The Bad: The game whets your appetite and then stops, probably offering less content for the cost than some are accustomed to. Game balance among player characters relies heavily on GM supervision.
The Physical Thing
This 296 page black and white softcover showcases average production values for its $32.95 price tag. The formatting is excellent, including a Victorian-esque font and a few different voices illustrating various rules and concepts. The product certainly does not waste space and goes out of its way to present as much information as possible on each page. The artwork is good for the most part. While a few pieces are a little strange, on the whole they do an excellent job of showcasing the sorts of adventures the characters may have. The physical construction of the book, however, is just ok. The plastic coating is beginning to peel away from the edges of my copy, but that may just be a fluke.The Ideas
Through a series of runes inscribed in a circle a portal may be opened to another world. Each world has its own unique address, and in the past portals were carved from stone (making them difficult to construct and change). Today, thanks to the wonders of developing science, projector slides are used to effortlessly construct portals. Armed with occult secrets, adventuring societies travel to exotic worlds in search of knowledge, riches, and excitement.Under the Cover
Chapter One - 20 pages.Passages kicks off with a timeline of interesting events all throughout the Victorian Era (the period of Queen Victoria’s life). It also provides a history of the Book Without End (the name for the myriad dimensions out there), how travelers have accessed the Book, and a host of interesting ideas. The timeline takes up most of the space here and serves as a solid basis for a Victorian game.
Chapter Two - 32 pages.
Character creation begins with a list of cultures and social classes to choose from. Before we delve into that, however, be aware that Passages provides interesting and useful information in sidebars all throughout the book. At the start of this chapter, for example, two pages are dedicated to the proper behavior of a gentleman and lady. It’s great stuff.
Players begin by choosing from several different cultural and social backgrounds. These backgrounds have absolutely no impact on the mechanical aspect of the game and serve to add color.
Let’s build a character!
| Example: I’m playing Ahmad, an inventor and merchant. For Cultural Background I choose Arab and for Social Caste I choose Freeman. Ahmad would be of a higher class but for the fact that many of his inventions fail in spectacular ways. |
Passages makes use of the six d20 Attributes – Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each Attribute ranges from 3 to 20, and all Attributes begin at 3 before points are distributed. Players have 60 points to spend as they wish. Don’t forget that in d20 every stat has a bonus or penalty equal to (Stat -10 / 2), so a 15 has a +2 and a 7 has a -2.
| Example: Ahmad is extremely intelligent, so I go ahead and drop 17 points into Intelligence to give him an Int of 20. 5 points go into Wisdom resulting in a Wis of 8 – he’s really smart but he just doesn’t stop to fully think things through. I drop 7 points in Str, 11 into Dex, 9 into Con, and 11 into Cha giving me the following stats: Str 10, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 20, Wis 8, Cha 14. |
Characters have Hit Points equal to 10 + double their Con bonus, Skill Points equal to 10 + double their Int bonus, 20 ‘creative energy points’ to buy special abilities, and 1 Plot Point (used to add to scenes and perform incredible actions).
| Example: Ahmad has 12 hit points (10 + 1x2) and 20 Skill Points (10 + 5x2). The only way these values can be increased is through spending creative energy points, which also double as the experience system in passages. |
Chapter Three - 28 pages.
Like other d20 games, Skills have a variable number of ranks and are performed by rolling a d20 and adding Skill + Attribute Bonus to the roll. However, Skills in Passages are a little different than those found in other d20 games. Not only are combat capabilities (Base Attack Bonus and Defense / Armor Class in other games) Skills here but all Skills have three sub-Skills that may be specialized in for fewer points. While the Skill system is interesting, it does suffer from a few problems. First, there’s no limit to the Knowledge Skills. In other d20 incarnations the Knowledge Skill is often limited to things that are actually useful in the game. Here the Skill is meant to be more window dressing than anything else, which further expands the next problem. Skills require a lot of GM supervision.
Where one character can buy 10 Ranks in the Combat Skill and be a weapons master another may buy 10 Ranks in Knowledge: Philosophy. Left unchecked this can result in significant character imbalance, especially if the GM isn’t adept at creating as many interesting situations for knowledge of philosophy as butt kicking. The goal of Passages is for players to easily build the Victorian character they imagine, and while it does accomplish this it also discards considerations of game balance along the way. At a minimum I would like to see the single Combat Skill cost more to purchase.
| Example: I take Sabotage at +5, Knowledge: Engineering at +5, Steer at +2, Combat at +2, Carouse at +1, and Profession (Inventor) at +5. Each of these has sub-Skills that Ahmad is also skilled in (I bought the general Skills at a slightly higher cost rather than the sub-skills to reflect specialization). Sabotage, for example, also includes Demolitions, Disable Device, and Lockpicking. |
Descriptions of all the Skills and sub-Skills are provided, but the book does not include any example target numbers (DCs) for these Skills. This is very unfortunate, and some solid examples of different difficulties for each of these Skills would do a much better job of showing their usefulness in game.
Chapter Four - 28 pages.
Advantages in Passages are very broad and provide everything from more health and skills to special combat maneuvers to supernatural powers. They fill the role of Feats in other d20 games, but also serve as the method to advance characters. Rather than XP, Passages awards characters with more advantage points to reflect experience in the world.
| Example: I decide that part of his genius is understanding the metaphysical properties of other dimensions and drawing upon them for strength. I buy Energy Insight for 4 points, which makes him trained in all Skills whenever he is in another dimension. It also gives him a +1 bonus to all Skills used in another dimension. I buy Energy Vigor for 4 points, which provides a +2 bonus to all Strength and Dexterity related checks in another dimension. Really smart people in RPGs tend to know a lot of languages, so I buy Omniglot for 4 points. After listening for a few minutes to an hour Ahmad can speak any language. Weapon Proficiency: Firearms (2 points), 4 more Hit Points (2 points), and 6 more Skill Points (2 points) round out the character. I put 5 points into Knowledge: Other Dimensions and 1 into Investigation. |
Classic Feats like Cleave (take an extra attack after dropping an opponent) can be found here along with a variety of Weapon and Armor Proficiencies, stealth attack abilities, and everything else you would expect to find as part of a class in other versions of d20. Character creation is flexible, but be aware that the number of special powers is limited. This game is completely unsuited for gadgeteering, magic use, or many other supernatural elements a group may want to incorporate. You’re building Victorian adventurers, some with a trick or two up their sleeve, but not mystics and mad scientists.
Chapter Five - 12 pages.
Disadvantages are also considered in the point build system, and Chapter Five covers them. From Dwarfism to Phobias and other period appropriate problems, the chapter does a good job of focusing on disadvantages that will add some flavor to the game. By taking Disadvantages characters gain more points to spend on Advantages during character creation, a classic way of handling character flaws.
Chapter Six - 28 pages.
Weapons, armor, clothes, and various services fill this equipment chapter. While there is little variation between many of the weapons, the author does provide a good amount of flavor by listing all the famous arms of the period. As you will see in the combat example below, weapons and armors are treated in a very simple manner and easily integrate into the skill based combat of Passages.
| Example: While Ahmad doesn’t run around with pistols waving, he has learned to be prepared for anything. He carries a Mauser pistol (Dmg -1) and wears a sort of ‘inventor’s duster’ reinforced with metal plates and covered in pockets (Light Armor, Dmg Mod -4). |
Chapter Seven - 36 pages.
This is the combat chapter and it’s easy to digest. Combat breaks down into 6 second rounds wherein characters go in order of their Initiative checks and each may perform two actions. Attacking an opponent, moving up to 30 feet, and reloading a firearm are all examples of possible actions. Rules for surprise, environmental hazards, poison, disease, and everything else you might expect from such a chapter are found here.
Combat is easy to understand. The attacker rolls 1d20 and adds their Combat (Attack) Skill while the defender rolls 1d20 and adds their Combat (Defense) Skill. If the attacker’s roll beats the defender’s roll then the defender takes damage equal to the difference in the rolls plus or minus any modifiers from weapons or armor.
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Example: Ahmad is confronted with a knife wielding thug who wants his money. Not about to give up his hard earned coin, Ahmad refuses to back down. The thug attacks with his knife. The thug has a Combat (Attack) Skill of +3 while Ahmad has a Combat (Defense) Skill of +2. The thug rolls a 14 (17 total) while Ahmad rolls a 6 (8 total). The Thug hits! The difference between the two numbers, or spread, is 9 before we check weapon and armor values. A Knife has a Damage Modifier of -5 and Ahmad is wearing Light Armor which inflicts a further penalty of -4. This reduces the spread to 0. While the thug landed a solid blow, the metal plates in Ahmad’s inventor’s coat turned the knife aside. Had Ahmad not been wearing his coat tonight he would have suffered four points of damage, subtracting that from his hit points.
Ahmad draws his pistol and fires. His Mauser only has a penalty of -1, making it a far more deadly weapon than the Knife. Since the thug also has no armor it’s safe to say he’s in a lot of trouble. |
Fighting defensively, area attacks, tripping, and a variety of other special maneuvers are all included here. Despite this, the game seems very simple in play. Each player rolls 1d20 + modifiers, compares the total, and then if the attacker wins damage is applied to the defender.
Chapter Eight - 20 pages.
A combination of the historical fact of the Victorian world and the secret world of Passages, this setting chapter does a good job of providing many interesting hooks, supporting organizations, and potential antagonists to assist a GM in getting a game going right away. MI6 blackcoats, invaders from another world, and other similar background elements may all be found here. While I enjoyed reading all of these I do wish there were more of them. More example alternate worlds, sinister organizations, and nefarious plots would make Passages even more worthwhile to me. On the down side, ome of the presented material seems of little use, such as an alternate world filled with tiny people ala Gulliver’s Travels.
Chapter Nine - 28 pages.
This is the Narrator’s portion of the book. Without a doubt the best material here is the portion discussing how to evoke different moods by using different storytelling techniques. Comedy, horror, science fiction, and others all receive attention. Advice on setting difficulties and GMing in general is also provided here and does its job adequately.
Chapter Ten - 23 pages.
Passages wraps up with an excellent example NPCs chapter. A variety of characters from literature are statted up here, such as The Scarlet Pimpernel and Aladdin. Even more useful, basic stats for various types of bad guys are included so the GM doesn’t have to create their own. Thanks to this section a GM can get a game of Passages running with little prep work.
My Take
Passages is a good game, and if cross-worlds Victorian adventure with a light system sounds like a good time to you then pick it up. While the text absolutely oozes flavor, especially with period appropriate chapter titles and a downright cool ad on the back of the book (making the game sound like a healing tonic), there are a few problems here that prevent Passages from being a truly great game.On a subjective level, I don’t like that the combat Skill costs the same as other Skills. I’d much rather see it cost double or have some other barrier to increase. Combat abilities often get tested more than any other single ability, and while a character may have a lot of Philosophy instead of Combat that character is much less likely to have a chance to shine in most groups. I also wish there was some support for magic, gadgeteering, and more supernatural elements in general. While there are a few special powers, such as Flight and Darkvision, it’s not enough for my tastes – especially given the various worlds of magic and technology the characters may travel to. When I first saw the book I thought “I want to play the White Rabbit.” I wish there was support for that.
On a more objective level I only have one major criticism and that’s that there are no examples of the Difficulty Class of various Skills being set in play. There is a chart that helps, and it does have a few general examples, but I’d like to have seen specific examples for many of the Skills. A more minor criticism is that there should be more support for non-combat activities in a game set in Victorian society. Nevertheless, Passages is a complete game that provides exactly what it promises. It’s flavorful, it minimizes the workload on the GM, and it demonstrates that the d20 system can work even for folk who don’t want a lot of rules. Most importantly, Passages captures the feel of Victorian literary adventure all throughout the book. If you want to tell tales of adventure involving the exploration of Wonderland or fighting a dimension hoping Professor Moriarty then pick this one up.
