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Up until recently, when I thought Kenzer & Company, I thought Hackmaster. Although it isn't everyone's cup of tea, Hackmaster fully revived my interest in 1st Edition D&D and continues to provide for exciting campaigns. After a while though, I realised that although the 1e D&D side of Hackmaster had drawn me in, I stayed with that RPG thanks in large part to the new rules Kenzer & Co added. I lived for the awesome d10,000 critical hit table, or the fumble tables, the honour system or even the "going to college" rules. These innovations had become central to the campaigns I played in, both because they were a lot of fun, and because they really captured the feel of D&D.
Despite being so enamored to Hackmaster, I have to admit, I pretty much ignored other KenzerCo products until I saw Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier in my local gaming store. Flipping through the handsome, leather tome, I quickly realised that I had found a game where K&C had gone to town with original ideas. With Hackmaster, KenzerCo brought in new and innovative rules (which were excellent), but was largely restricted to keeping a true, 1e D&D framework. Design of Aces & Eights, however, was completely unrestricted; the result is a product built out of only the most creative and innovative mechanics.
The Book
For its hefty $49.99 price tag, Aces & Eights is a solid deal. The book is very heavy, with a finely tooled, dark red leather cover. Inside, the four hundred pages are a heavy, high quality glossy paper. Illustrations are innumerable and of the highest quality, all taken from period artwork of the wild west and the nation's frontier. The beautiful colour paintings are well complimented by early photography of the wild west, giving a strong feel for the setting and plenty of inspiration for a campaign.
White space and text are easy on the eyes, and the layout in general is top quality. The lack of an index is unfortunate, but after rolling up characters with my group and exploring the book in depth, I haven't yet had trouble locating anything. The layout of the chapters is particularly sensible and easy to follow. The first section is dedicated to some (very) quick start rules to sketch out your gunslinger and have your first gunfight. The next section details the extensive character creation process for extended campaigns. Unlike Hackmaster, this section is very easy to follow, with clear diagrams of what to do in what order. After this comes the advanced fight rules, followed by all the supplemental rules, equipment and setting information.
Character Creation and Improvement
Although it is the only similarity they share, Aces & Eights borrows heavily from the character creation rules of Hackmaster. Each character has 7 Abilities that somewhat mirror D&D, including Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, Looks and Charisma (in that order). To determine these values, you roll 3d6 for each Ability in order, as well as percentile dice for each ability. Thus, the first roll of 11 (on 3d6) and 52 (on 1d100) would indicate Strength 11/52%. Each ability can then be boosted by building points, or sold down to boost another ability (with a sliding cost scale, so you can't make one ability unrealistically high).
Each ability confers certain benefits, according to how high the ability is. Strength is used for lifting, dragging and carrying, as well as a damage modifier for physical attacks. Intelligence grants you better firearm accuracy, as well as giving free BP's for Intelligence skills and making Intelligence skills cheaper to buy. Wisdom does the same for Wisdom based skills, and also gives you a quicker reaction time in combat. Dexterity affects both your speed and accuracy further. High Constitution gives you more hit points, as well as helping you deal with poison and wounds (and helping you stay standing after being shot!). Looks helps your Charisma, your reputation and your fame, while Charisma helps with Charisma based skills and general social interaction (including cheating at gambling). These abilities lead to the two derived abilities reputation and fame, which are two measures of your success on the frontier.
Building points (BP) represent the basic currency of character improvement, and you get a bunch to start off with. They can be used to improve abilities (only during character creation), buy skills and talents (sort of like combat stunts), and re-roll undesirable results when randomly determining your character's background, quirks and flaws.
Background, quicks and flaws round off character creation, and they can be either chosen or rolled randomly. Quirks and flaws are just that, those little imperfections that make the characters more human. They give you weaknesses, but also provide more BP for character creation (representing how your character has both benefitted and suffered from adversity). Character background can be made up by the player (for no benefit) or rolled randomly on a long series of tables (for potential gain and potential loss). I highly recommend rolling randomly for all these things, as the brainstorming session that follows when you try to connect all your quirks, flaws and background is incredibly fun and provides only the best character ideas.
Unlike many other RPGs, Aces & Eights has no class system. Professions can be followed, but only as a guideline for the character's activities, skill foci and rewards in game. Even then, switching professions often is fairly common. In-game character improvement follows exactly as character creation, using BPs awarded by the GM to buy skills and new talents.
Scrapes
The combat system is, in a word, inspired. The initiative system works without rounds, as a "count up" that tracks a difference in speed of a tenth of a second. Even though tenths of a second are modeled, combat flies when compared to any other RPG. This is because not every tenth of a second sees a new action resolve. If it takes me a half a second to draw my pistol, another half a second to point it at the bandito, then nothing needs to be rolled for the first 10 counts. The bandito, being a tenth of a second faster, perhaps pulls his trigger before mine, resulting in a truly hair-raising "to Hit" roll.
The "to Hit" system is, however, what this game will be famous for. Instead of using an abstract idea of the combat, you throw down a silhouette of the bandito, put the target-like "shot clock" on any part of the bandito you want to gun for (his hat, for instance) and roll a d20 to hit. The to hit roll is modified further by your pistol's accuracy, your own accuracy and any modifier for your attack style (hip shooting is less accurate, while using iron sights takes longer but is much more accurate). A roll of 14 or less is a miss, while a roll of 25 or higher is a bull's eye. Anything in between and the shot deviates, for which you simply draw a poker card and consult the shot clock. The card will tell you which direction (a 7 of clubs is 6 o'clock, for instance), while the to hit roll tells you how far the shot deviates (the higher the roll, the closer to the bull's eye). This result is a very fast and realistic system that accurately accounts for things like cover and hit location. If I roll a 17 to hit, and the shot deviates onto a barrel that the bandito is hiding behind, then his cover saved him. If the shot deviates from his hat down to his neck, then I've hit him in the throat.
Damage is then rolled, for which both hit points are reduced and a wound chart is consulted. The above hit could result in a gunshot wound of 6 damage to the neck, with special penalties for taking a level 6 wound to the neck. To this extent, damage is very realistic and -very- deadly, and I would highly recommend initiating your players with a few shoot outs with quick start characters before you set up a campaign. It is not unusual for a victim to die of a wound while having near full HP left.
Skills
Like everything else in Aces & Eights, the skill system is unique. Skill tests are taken with percentile dice, where you attempt to roll greater than your percentage training in that skill (with modifiers for difficulty). In this way, skill training starts at 100% and works its way down, with each purchase decreasing the rating by the relevant ability score (Dexterity, for instance), plus a random die roll (Riding is a d6, for instance). Thus if your relevant ability is high, you can expect to train much faster than one with less natural ability. A score of around 5% represents a true mastery of the skill.
Supplemental Rules
The supplemental rules are best described as modular. You do not even need to read these rules until you are preparing a session to include them, which is a relief for any GM. The supplemental rules that can be tacked onto your game include rules for barroom brawls, chases on horseback, prospecting, cattle driving and gambling. Each functions as a fun, little mini-game within the greater campaign. Brawls, for instance, are a resource bidding game, where you bid poker chips of different types (representing strength, agility and endurance) to win the pot for the round (with different maneuvers including uppercuts and chairs over the back). When gambling, instead of just rolling dice, you actually break out the poker cards (or chuck'a'luck dice, or faro board) and... gamble!, including rules for if your character is particularly good or bad at gambling (if you have low gambling skill, you could enter a poker game, get the world's worst hand and be convinced that you have the best, refusing to fold until the keys to your ranch are on the table!). Each of the supplemental rule modules is different and unique, and brings plenty of fresh things to breath excitement into a trail-weary campaign.
Setting
The Aces & Eights background is an alternate history of "the west that never was", with changes in real world history to create maximum potential for roleplaying adventures. In a word, the background to this game is intensive. The world history section reads like a history text book, offering a very detailed history of the past half-century. This is both a blessing (giving the GM full knowledge of the setting) as well as a curse (I found much of it a very dry read, especially the sections that don't have to do with war). The Cauldron background (where the A&8 game actually takes place) however is much easier to read, and the "at a glance" national profiles do a lot to alleviate the extensive world history.
Summary
With Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier, there is simply too much to talk about. Aesthetically, the book is lavish. The rules are thorough, creative and characterful. A lot can be gleaned from the plethora of free, downloadable content on the Aces & Eights website. If you are a wild west fan, this is a must buy. For everyone else, this book may very likely make you a wild west fan. Style 5, Substance 5.
