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To give you an idea of where this review is heading, I think that Chronicles of Ramlar is a game with several great ideas, a few bad ideas, some of which are major issues for me, and it’s in need of some heavy editing. I think the system needs refinement in order to appeal to a wider audience, but the good news is that they are already hard at work on a revised edition. I also mention some of the planned revisions as I go through the review, at least as I’ve learned them from the White Silver forums. This is a fairly critical review, but I do see potential in the game and would like to see it succeed; I just think there are some critical points that need to be addressed in order to make the game more viable.
The interesting concepts that I want to call attention to are: Demeanor/Theme; Weapon and Armor Customization; Momentum; Improvisational Spellcasting; and Spell Components. I’ve put these terms in bold when I start discussing them, for those who are just doing a quick scan through this review.
Let’s hit it chapter by chapter:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Founding
Chapter 3: Races
Chapter 4: Attributes
Chapter 5: Path
Chapter 6: Talents
Chapter 7: Skills
Chapter 8: Demeanor/Theme
Chapter 9: Outfitting Your Hero
Chapter 10: Bringing Ashurlyn to Life
Chapter 11: Action & Combat
Chapter 12: Magic
Chapter 13: Spells
Chapter 14: Elite & Master Paths
Chapter 15: Life in Eranon
Chapter 16: Marks of Eranon
Chapter 17: The Pantheon of Ramlar
Chapter 18: Dragons of Ramlar
Chapter 19: Bestiary of Ramlar
Chapter 20: Index
Chapter 1: Introduction
This brief chapter explains what Ramlar is, what role-playing is, and what the Armor/Body system is all about. This chapter is odd in that it has a completely different tone than the rest of the book; I assume this has something to do with the fact that 8 different writers are listed in the credits. This chapter is more conversational than the rest and it addresses the reader directly.
Ramlar: What is it? This section is a scant four paragraphs, and while it introduces a few the races and special places you’ll find in Eranon (the continent on which game play occurs), it really doesn’t give you any feel for the setting at all. This, to me, is one of the biggest flaws of the book, although it’s one that you don’t realize until later. As you read about character creation, magic, combat, and all that good stuff, you never really have a good sense of the world in which you’ll be playing. In fact, you have to make it all the way to chapter 16 before you really get the meat of the setting. This little section at the beginning of the book should be expanded to several pages so that you get a solid foundation on the world as soon as you open the front cover; then everything following will just build on that. I’ve suggested as much in the White Silver forums, and they’ve been very receptive to the idea for their upcoming revised edition.
What is role-playing? Normally I wouldn’t even mention this section, but this deserves special notice because it is the strangest, least useful explanation I’ve yet come across. It assumes that the reader is a fan of computer RPGs who now wants to dabble in pen-and-paper RPGs, so it explains everything in video game terms. If I didn’t already know what an RPG is, I think this section would probably confuse me. It’s definitely something that needs to be revisited in a future printing.
The A/B System: What is it? A/B stands for Armor/Body, which is the name of Ramlar’s system as a whole. It’s a d100-based system with an emphasis on hit locations and the armor covering those locations. This section tells you a bit about the cool stuff you’ll find in the system, and it also emphasizes that the system is there to support role-playing over rules. While the game does have some interesting ideas in that direction, one of the core features of the system actually goes against that philosophy. And unfortunately, it’s the feature that the system is named after. But more on that later.
Chapter 2: Founding
In stark contrast to the conversational introduction, this chapter shifts to a rather formal tone as we learn about the creation of the game world. This page is all about gods; Ramlar has an extensive pantheon. In brief, the god Ramlar is the god of gods, and he created several other gods to help him build the world; these helper gods are called Alari. The Alari, in turn, created their own helper gods, who are called Eleri. The book spends 4 pages talking about the various deeds of the gods, with some betraying Ramlar and being cast out to become the evil section of the pantheon.
The main problem with this chapter is that it’s right at the beginning of the book; it’s one of the first impressions a reader will get of the setting, and really almost all of this information is not useful at all to the average player. I mean, this is ancient history…everything described here happened thousands of years before the time of the player characters. I guess what I’m saying is, “Who cares?” This may be a personal taste issue; I often find pantheon descriptions in fantasy RPGs to be painful and tedious, but this same chapter might be fascinating to other readers. To me, this chapter is essentially a bunch of “blah blah blah” without much useful substance, but your mileage may vary. Regardless, this information does not have enough immediate relevance to be right up front. This becomes more evident as you read further and see that the gods really aren’t as central to the setting as this top billing might lead you to believe. This information should be moved to the Pantheon chapter later in the book, and in its place should be the extended introduction to the setting that I mentioned earlier.
Chapter 3: Races
Ramlar has the races you would expect in a fantasy setting: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings, plus a new race called Spirinari. The first three are broken down into subraces:
Humans: Auzronian; Frorinian; Nurinian; Osarian
Dwarves: Hethmarkn; Kasmarkn
Elves: Druegarn; Fetharn; Sinflar; Tylvane
Looking at that list reveals something about the game: There’s a fair bit of new terminology to swallow, which presents a bit of a learning curve. It’s not that bad really; just something you need to be willing to absorb. However, the terms listed above are particularly troublesome because of the poor way in which they are introduced. Each race description starts out with an extension of the history lesson from chapter 2; it tells you what each race did after the Founding and/or where they settled after the Dakass Luot. Dakass Luot? Well, here’s one place where the book needs some editing…there are many references to the Dakass Luot before it is actually defined, and that explanation is buried within the description of the Druegarn elves. It turns out that Dakass Luot is Elvish for “Dark Elf War” and it is a period of time when the Druegarn—dark elves—emerged from under the earth to try and conquer the surface world. This war lasted 2000 years (yes, 2000!) and left the surface world devastated. Only after this brief history lesson do you actually get a physical description and outlook of the race so that you can determine if it’s one that you’d like to play.
So anyway, what are those races like Frorinian and Kasmarkn? Well, it turns out that for the most part they represent familiar concepts such as nature elves (Tylvane) or desert-dwelling humans (Osarians). Each race gets a few bonuses and penalties to various attributes; typically they get +10% to one attribute, +5% to another, and -5% to a third. The concepts behind these races don’t require much new learning, but the vocabulary does. The new race, Spirinari, is essentially a specialized version of elf; the book doesn’t relate them to elves, but they have that vibe to me. What makes them stand apart is that they have control over the mysterious Spirit Bone, crafting weapons and even cities out of the stuff.
Chapter 4: Attributes
Each character has eight primary attributes, and they are: Charisma, Endurance, Intelligence, Nimbleness, Perception, Strength, Tenacity, and Wisdom. Ramlar is based on a percentile system, so each of these attributes ranges from 1 to 100, although you can actually exceed 100. When you have to make an attribute test, the attribute value is your target number; if you have a 59 Strength, then you need to roll 59 or less on d100 to succeed at a Strength test. You can generate your attributes using one of three methods: random rolls, assign points, or a combination of the two. If you use the random roll method, the rolls are actually weighted to ensure you don’t do too horribly. For example, if you roll between 01-20, you add +30 to the roll. 21-40 adds +15 to the roll, and so on. So really the starting range is from 31 to 100.
You then have some secondary attributes, typically derived from combining a few of the primary attributes in some fashion. For example, your Attack Rating is calculated as (STR + NIM + WIS) / 20. The secondary attributes are: Life Points, Mana Points, Attack Rating, Defense Rating, Contact Rating, and Subterfuge Rating. Only spellcasters will have a Contact Rating attribute, which is what they test against in order to make contact with the magical ley lines flowing through the earth. Only rogues will have a Subterfuge Rating, which is essentially a catch-all rating for all “thief-like” abilities such as picking locks, disarming traps, black market trafficking, and so forth. Stealth is actually a skill, so not every thiefly ability is covered by Subterfuge Rating.
Playtest notes: Generating attributes was easy enough, but I found myself wishing for a calculator when I had to do double-digit addition and division such as (54 + 73 + 98) / 20. It feels a little cumbersome to have to hammer out a little math on some scratch paper.
Chapter 5: Paths
A path is a traditional character class. The basic paths that you can choose from are: Merthwarg (druid), Rogue, Sevar (cleric), Warrior, and Wizard. There are a lot of other, more specialized paths you can attain, but we’ll cover those when we get to chapter 14. Each path has a list of path skills, which are skills that you can buy at a discount, and also a list of path talents. While some core talents are available to all paths, path talents are exclusive to a particular path, and there are a good number of them for each path. For example, only a wizard can choose the talents Arcane Might, Armored Spellcasting, and Familiar. There are a total of 17 path talents for wizards.
In general, the paths don’t have any intrinsic abilities that you get “for free” – everything is bought as a skill or talent. This allows for a little more variety between two members of the same path, as you can’t predict exactly what abilities a member of a path will have. For example, rogues have the backstab talent available to them, but not every rogue will opt to take it. In addition, the backstab talent can be taken multiple times for increased effect, so two rogues with backstab could vary greatly in their ability; one might specialize in backstabbing, while another might only know the basics. There are a few exceptions to this selection system, though. Merthwargs automatically get Animal Ally, and Warriors automatically get Martial Weapons Familiarity. I would prefer that these be purchased as well, just to take the concept across the board.
Ramlar is a level-based system with multiclassing (or multipathing, as it were). When you raise a level, you can choose to increase the level in your current path or else take a level in another path. You are considered to be a member of your most recent path choice. For instance, you take 5 levels in warrior and then decide you want to learn some magic so you take 1 level in wizard. You are then considered a wizard. You can still use the abilities you gained while you were a warrior, but anything that refers to warriors would not apply to you; you’re a wizard. You can take another level in warrior to return to that path. So essentially you can only belong to one class at a time, although you don’t lose anything that you gained while you were following other paths. If you are a 3rd level warrior and a 2nd level wizard, then you are a 5th level character overall with a path level of 3 for warrior and 2 for wizard. Sometimes a rule in the book uses your path level, and sometimes to your overall character level.
Chapter 6: Talents
Talents are your special abilities. They typically grant you various bonuses to skill rolls, damage, attribute checks, movement speed, and so forth. Some of them are required in order to gain other abilities. For example, if you’re a wizard, you need to buy Arcane Spell Proficiency in order to get some spells you can cast. This talent gives you a number of spells equal to your INT / 10. If you want a whole bunch of spells to choose from, you can buy this talent more than once. However, this talent doesn’t give you access to any spells higher than 10th level. If you want higher level spells, you need to buy Superior Arcane Spell Proficiency (maximum spell level: 15) or Supreme Arcane Spell Proficiency (maximum spell level: 20). These follow a prerequisite chain, so you have to obtain them in order.
Some talents just give you skill points. For example, Proficient Wizard gives you 20 extra points to buy your path skills with. You can take Proficient Wizard only once per level, or you can choose not to take it if you’d rather gain another talent instead of improving your skills.
Divine Boon: This is a special talent that is only available to those who are dutifully serving their patron diety. A member of any path can buy divine boons as they would any other talent during character creation, but after that the only way to gain a divine boon is to complete a Demeanor/Theme circle (explained in the next chapter) in service to their diety. Each diety has an automatic ability that you gain as soon as you complete your D/T circle, and then a list of 2-3 divine boons.
Let’s say you choose Lasek, who has dominion over lies, as your patron diety. You complete your first D/T circle in service to Lasek, so you gain his automatic ability, which allows you to detect lies from a specified target automatically. You also get to choose one of his two divine boons: Impenetrable Facade lets you automatically succeed at a Disguise skill roll, and Undetectable Lies lets you tell completely convincing lies 3 times a day which cannot be detected except by a follower of Lasek or Nind (the god of judgment). If you complete another D/T circle to Lasek then you can take the remaining divine boon.
If you ever stop your service to the patron diety by choosing not to advance that D/T circle any further, then you lose all of the divine boons you have earned and have to start again later. There are a whopping 41 gods listed in the divine boon section, each with their own list of divine boons. Yes, Ramlar’s pantheon is enormous.
Chapter 7: Skills
Skills are learned abilities, such as Disguise or Acrobatics. They run from 1-100, although the actual maximum for any skill is the related attribute + character level + 10%. For example, Concealment is based on Perception, so if you have PER 66 and you are level 5, then your maximum Concealment score is 81 (66 + 5 + 10). The number of points you can spend on skills is the sum of all 8 primary attributes, so typically you will have hundreds of points available (playtest note: this is another area where you’ll be doing some scratch-paper math if you don’t have a calculator handy). You can also gain additional skill points through talents or other bonuses; these bonus points ignore the maximum described above.
Chapter 8: Demeanor/Theme
While I think there are several interesting ideas in Chronicles of Ramlar, the most intriguing by far is the Demeanor/Theme concept. This is a novel approach to gaining experience and improving your character, and I think it makes a lot of sense. The goal behind D/T is to encourage character development through role-playing rather than by earning points for killing monsters and taking their stuff.
Each character has 5 D/T circles on their character sheet. One of them is always labeled “Participation,” but the others are defined by the player. When you make progress toward the goal you defined in the circle, you shade in one of the 10 dots around the main circle. When all 10 dots have been filled in, you achieve that goal. The goals that you put into that circle can be specific and short-term, such as “Improve Strength,” or they can be long-term campaign goals such as “Liberate my homeland from the evil overlord.”
The game lumps D/T goals into these categories: Attributes; Skills and Skill Groups; Divine Boons; Elite and Master Paths; Campaign-Affecting Goals; and Personal Goals. For each category there is some advice on when and how often the GM should award dots. Some of them, such as improving a specific skill, should be achieved rather quickly, whereas improving an entire skill group (such as all skills based on Strength) should be a bit more difficult to earn dots toward. Campaign-Affecting Goals, such as “I want to be king of all the land,” are things that require GM approval because they could drastically alter the state of the campaign.
The Participation D/T circle is the closest thing Ramlar has to the standard experience point model. You earn Participation dots every session, with bonuses for good role-playing and whatnot. The book even suggests you could give a dot to players who arrive on time, if timeliness happens to be a problem with your group. When your Participation wheel fills up with 10 dots, you gain a level. What happens when you gain a level? This is a bit fuzzy, because I can’t find a single place in the book where it specifies everything that happens when you raise a level. In the Attributes chapter it says that you gain Life Points when you gain a level; in the Talents chapter it says that you choose additional talents; in the Skills chapter, it says you get more skill points to spend. I’m not sure if I’ve covered everything; future printings should really have a collected summary of everything that happens when you gain a level.
Unfortunately, the game does not include an example of a character working toward fulfilling a D/T circle; it really needs one in order to make sure everyone is on the same wavelength on how they work and how to earn dots. Here’s an example of my own creation. Let’s say that a warrior has “Improve Strength” as a goal. While in a village, the character helps the locals repair the local mill, hauling stones and whatnot. The GM decides that’s some significant effort and awards two dots toward that goal. The character then spends a lot of downtime training with his weapons, which earns him a few more dots. In defending the village from an orc raiding party, the GM decides that the battle was significant enough to earn more dots toward Strength. In camp every night, the character goes through an exercise routine; the GM decides that for every 2 nights of this, he can earn a dot. Eventually the character gets all 10 dots, at which point he can raise Strength by 1%. After that, he can either start the D/T circle over again with the same goal, or he can replace that goal with something else. You can replace a goal at any time, but you lose whatever dots you had earned toward the goal you’re abandoning.
As I said, the design goal with the D/T circles is to get players to role-play their character improvements rather than just amassing a generic pool of experience points. It also causes them to focus more closely on their character’s goals. If they have a goal to usurp the evil king, then they’re encouraged to actively think about the steps involved in that task by earning dots toward it.
I think the important part of the D/T concept is that a player has to act multiple times to make something happen. In the above example of improving strength, even if the player was unimaginative and said, “I spend my downtime lifting weights!” 10 days in a row in order to earn the 10 dots, there’s still some value in that. The player had to think on 10 different occasions about improving his strength, and so when it finally happens it feels like an accomplishment even though everything happened “off camera.”
The possible danger with the D/T system is the fact that there is no hard and fast rule on when dots are rewarded. Some players may not be happy having their character improvement/progress at the whim of the GM. However, I think the system is ingenious because it gives a lot more meaning to the rewards players earn, and gets them more actively involved in their character’s goals and activities. If there is one aspect of Ramlar that I’d like to take with me to other games, this would be it.
Playtest notes: As Demeanor/Theme is a really a concept that comes into play as you progress further into a campaign, we unfortunately didn’t use D/T at all in our demo game.
Chapter 9: Outfitting Your Hero
This chapter covers wealth, encumbrance, weapons, armor, and equipment. The vast majority of the chapter is focuses on armor, as that’s what the A/B System is named after (Armor/Body).
As in many other fantasy games, you can buy a suit of armor as a single item which protects the entire body. However, Chronicles of Ramlar also lists out armor choices for each body location (head, neck, arm, lower arm, etc). These 8 tables each have around 19-20 different armor options, such as chainmail, enforcer leather, and Kasmarkn platemail. Each piece of armor has a cost, a Defense Rating (DR) modifier, a number of Armor Points (AP), and an Encumbrance Value (EV). Heavier armors can reduce your DR, making you easier to hit, but they have significantly more AP. There is also a smaller table of shields available for purchase. The total EV of your armor and shield, in addition to encumbrance, also acts as a penalty to Subterfuge and Contact tests; in other words, armor makes it harder to sneak around and harder to cast spells. A full suit of platemail has 60 EV, which means -60% to Subterfuge and Contact ratings. That’s a pretty stiff penalty, but it can be countered with talents such as Armor Efficiency or Armored Spellcasting – each time you take one of these talents, your armor hindrance penalty is reduced by 10%.
One of White Silver’s selling points for the A/B system is the ability to customize your armor and weapons, and it doesn’t stop with just being able to buy different types of armor for the various locations. By paying extra gold, you can add bonuses to your weapons such as +1% to attack or +1 Defense Rating. You can also add extra dice to damage--a battle axe does 1d8 damage, but you can customize it to do 2d8 or 3d8. You can also make your equipment magical by having it cause or resist energy damage. Each of these customizations comes along with a suggested maximum for the GM to follow, such as no more than +50% to hit and no more than 2 extra dice of damage. There’s also a formula to calculate how long a customization will take to complete by the local blacksmith or other craftsman.
You can also give your equipment flaws in order to reduce the cost. For example, I might decide that I want my sword to be able to do fire damage, but it only works in sunlight. I would pay extra money for the fire damage, but then get a discount for the limitation on its use. In a way, this feels like a simplified version of the power creation rules that you see in games such as Hero System or Mutants & Masterminds, except you are using money instead of character points.
The rest of this chapter contains a list of weapons and adventuring gear, including an extensive list of toxins.
Playtest notes: It quickly became evident that you don’t have much money to begin with; if you buy a decent suit of armor then you won’t have much gold left for anything else. Also, the various toolkits, such as rogues tools, seemed a bit pricey. One player discovered that there is a talent which will give you a very large bonus to your starting gold; he took that and was able to buy a full suit of platemail, while most of us were struggling to afford lesser armor. In general, the prices seem a bit strange given the amount of starting money you get (unless you take that talent for extra money).
Chapter 10: Bringing Ashurlyn to Life
This is a two-page chapter creating the charater Ashurlyn step-by-step. If you have a question about some aspect of character creation, this extended example might clarify things.
Chapter 11: Action & Combat
As I mentioned, Chronicles of Ramlar is based on percentile dice (d100). To test against an attribute or skill, you just need to roll equal to or below the relevant number. If the singles die comes up zero (10, 20, etc), then you either have a sensational success or a botch. If the roll is a success, then it’s a sensational success; if it failed, then it’s a botch. For attribute and skill rolls, the book doesn’t really detail what these mean but I assume it’s up to the GM’s discretion depending on the context.
Each roll also has a Success Value (SV), which is an important concept to remember for later when we get to Momentum. If your roll succeeds, then the tens die is your SV. Let’s say you need to roll 75 or less, and you roll 67. You succeeded and you have 6 SV. So, the ideal roll in Ramlar comes as close to your target number as possible, without exceeding it; that way you maximize the Success Value you earn.
Ramlar has the concept of Dramatic Actions, which are tasks you work at for an extended amount of time. For example, let’s say a rogue is trying to pick a complicated lock while combat rages around him; the GM declares it requires 15 Success Value to open. Each round of combat, the rogue attempts to pick the lock, and his SV accumulates. When he amasses 15 SV, then he succeeds. If he fails during a round, then he doesn’t add any SV to the running total. A sensational success doubles the SV you earn, and a botch causes a loss of 10% of the botch roll. For instance, if you fail and roll 90, then you lose 9 SV from the running total, which might cause you to start all over!
Combat works by taking the relevant Attack Rating (AR) and Defense Rating (DR) and looking them up on a standard table which is used for many things in the game (combat, spellcasting, subterfuge). The table can be summarized this way: If AR = DR, then the attacker has a 46% chance of success. For each step of difference, the percentage changes by 3%. For example, if you have AR 10 vs. DR 7, then the attacker has a (46 + (3 x 3%)) = 55% chance of success. For AR 5 vs. DR 11, the attacker has a (46 – (6 x 3%)) = 28% chance of success. The table saves you from having to run this formula each time, but if you are able to run it quickly in your head, then the table becomes unnecessary.
Revision note: In the revised edition they plan to change the baseline from 46 to 50, as this is more intuitive and makes the math a bit easier.
Playtest note: I found that in every combat, I had “more or less” 50% chance of success. The AR and DR of the combatants were always fairly closely matched, so the target numbers seemed to hover around the 45-60% range. This seemed odd to me; you need a very wide disparity between AR and DR in order to have a really good or really bad chance of success, so much of the time I felt like I was essentially flipping a coin.
When you hit a target, you roll 1d12 to determine your hit location and apply your damage there. First you subtract armor points, and when that is depleted, you subtract life points from that body location. Armor needs to be repaired to restore any lost points, so as you might imagine, armor repair is a very important skill.
Playtest note: Our entire group was frustrated with the fact that each hit location is equally likely to be hit. Some of our battles became somewhat comical because we would hit a goblin in the upper arm, then in the lower leg, then in the neck, then in the chest...every monster seemed to be somewhat mutilated from hits all over its body before it went down. This just seems to just prolong combat by spreading damage all over the place. One of the other players commented that it would be great if some hit locations were more likely than others; for instance, multiple results on the 1d12 hit location roll could result in a torso hit, since that seems like the biggest target.
Revision notes: In the revised edition they will be changing armor from an “extra hit point” mechanic into a “damage reduction” mechanic. It will also be much more difficult to actually damage armor, which will cause the armor repair skill to fade in importance significantly. Also, they will be removing hit locations from “regular” encounters and offering up a simpler, faster system for those battles. Major villains, however, will still use the same hit location rules as in the current edition.
Momentum is one of the other interesting aspects of the system. Remember the Success Value (SV) I mentioned earlier? At the start of each combat round, you can spend your SV from the previous round to purchase various bonuses. For example, for 2 SV you can get +5% to your next attack. For 5 SV, this 5% bonus applies to all of your allies in addition to yourself. You can also spend SV to get extra attacks, sieze the initiative, make a reroll, and a number of other options. The rules require that you role-play the use of Momentum or else you don’t get the bonus; you just need an in-game explanation of where the bonus is coming from. If you buy a +5% bonus for the entire party, then you might role-play it as your character giving a rousing speech to boost morale. You can’t store SV from round to round; you spend it or lose it.
Playtest note: The group I played with loved Momentum; it was great fun for them to shop the table and find out what cool stuff they could buy for the next round. However, I kept forgetting to record my SV so unfortunately I didn’t make much use of it. After playing for a little while, I’m sure it would become second nature to keep track of any SV you have to spend at the start of the next round.
The combat chapter closes with a number of combat options such as Called Shot, Parrying, Disarm, Dual-Weapon Fighting, Shield Bash, and several others.
Chapter 12: Magic
There are three traditions of magic in Ramlar: Arcane, Divine, and Nature. This means that Merthwargs (druids), Sevars (clerics), and Wizards have entirely distinct lists of spells to choose from. Spells are acquired by taking the appropriate talent. For example, if a Sevar takes Divine Spell Proficiency, then he can take a number of Divine spells equal to 1/10 of his Tenacity attribute (with a maximum spell level of 10; you need other talents to get higher-level spells). This talent can be taken more than once in order to gain more spells.
Ramlar’s magic system is a hybrid of a memorization system and a spell point system. Spellcasters have a Memory Matrix where they store the spells they have prepared and ready to cast; the number of spells it can hold is based on your Intelligence. Once a spell is prepared in the matrix, you can cast it as often as you like; there’s no need to prepare it again between each casting. However, each spell costs a number of Mana Points to cast; your number of Mana Points is equal to your Endurance attribute. You can also cast spells that are not in your memory matrix, using a spellbook instead, but the they take longer and your defense rating is reduced while you have your attention focused on the book.
Casting a spell is the same as making an attack, only with different values used to reference the table. You compare your Contact Rating against the Difficulty Level of the spell. As with combat, if the two values are equal then you have a 46% chance of success, and that chance varies by 3% for each step that the two values differ. You expend Mana Points regardless of whether the spell is successful or not.
Revision note: As mentioned in combat, these tables will be changed in the revised edition so that the root chance of success is 50% rather than 46%.
The magic chapter also discusses enchanting items and creating new spells, and then ends with a list of sample enchanted items. It appears that the intent is for each magical item to be unique, as opposed to a world full of generic “sword +1” type items – although such items can be created using the weapon customization rules discussed earlier.
Playtest note: Nobody in our group played a spellcaster, so I haven’t seen the magic system in action.
Chapter 13: Spells
There is an extensive list of spells for each of the three traditions, which looks familiar to what you would see in most fantasy RPGs. One interesting thing to note here is the use of spell components. In other games that require spell components in order to cast a spell, I tend to ignore the component requirements because they seem like a small detail that’s not worth the bookkeeping they require. Ramlar approaches it a bit differently; the listed spell components are always optional, but if you use them, you get a casting bonus! This slight change makes components a lot more interesting to me; players will actually want to go seek out components in order to gain those bonuses, and the GM can reasonably base adventures around obtaining some of the more obscure components.
In addition to the spell lists, Ramlar also allows for improvisational spellcasting. While this doesn’t allow you to create spells from scratch on the fly, it does allow you to modify your spells in many different areas. By increasing the difficulty and/or the cost in mana points, you can modify the Area, Casting Time, Damage, Duration, Effect, Range, or Resistance Roll of a spell. So you can cause your summoned weapon to stick around much longer than it would normally, or you can make your healing spell affect an entire village instead of just one person. These modifications are done on the fly, each time you cast the spell. The difficulty and mana cost increases as you improve these factors more, so your spells become more flexible as you improve your Contact Rating and you are able to make greater improvements and still have a decent chance of success.
The spells chapter ends with an extended discussion of the various types of elementals that you might summon to do your bidding.
Chapter 14: Elite & Master Paths
In addition to the five core paths, there are a large number of other paths that you can take. These are Elite and Master paths, and really the only difference between them is that the Master paths have stiffer entry requirements. Each path has 3 elite and 3 master paths that stem from it, and they all have their own unique list of path talents that you can begin earning after taking the path. Here are all the available paths:
Merthwarg
Elite: Animal Master, Forest Guardian, and Ranger
Master: Beast Shifter, Elementalist, and Nature Master
Rogue
Elite: Assassin, Pirate, and Spy
Master: Arcane Gypsy, Deathbringer, and Shadow Master
Sevar
Elite: Faithkeeper, Inquisitor, and Life Giver
Master: Death Knight, Demonbane, and Paladin
Warrior
Elite: Archer, Berserker, and Weapon Adept
Master: Blood Dragoon, Dragonslayer, and Sky Knight
Wizard
Elite: Channeler, Sage, and Summoner
Master: Necromancer, Plane Lord, and War Mage
As an example of the requirements for these paths, let’s take two from the rogue group. To become a Pirate (elite path), you have to complete a Demeanor/Theme circle dedicated to it. This represents your efforts to secure a ship and crew. You also need to have ratings of 50% or higher in these skills: Acrobatics, Expertise: Seamanship, and Swimming. To become a Shadow Master (master path), you need to complete a Demeanor/Theme circle devoted to it, representing an apprenticeship to another Shadow Master. You also must have the Concealment and Stealth skills at 75% or higher, and you must have Proficient Rogue, which is a rogue path talent.
You’ll note that a common requirement to gaining these classes is the completion of a Demeanor/Theme circle. This essentially means that all of them require that you spend time role-playing your character’s quest to join that path. Each path has examples of how to role-play the D/T circle. The example for Shadow Master is: “Locate and persuade a Shadow Master to mentor you. Infiltrate and intercept missives through subterfuge alone. Remain unmoved and hidden in shadow for hours.” Once you’ve done these activities, or similar ones, enough to earn 10 dots, you complete the D/T circle and can become a Shadow Master as long as you also meet the skill/talent requirements.
Chapter 15: Life in Eranon
This is a short chapter with some miscellaneous information about the setting, including the calendar, common festivals and holidays, and some of the flora and fauna to be found. It also briefly discusses climate and geography as well as the languages spoken across the land.
Chapter 16: Marks of Eranon
This chapter covers the setting in detail. Although the game alludes to the fact that there are at least two major continents, this book only describes one of them, which is Eranon. The land is divided into quadrants, from Mark I to Mark IV. I find this a little strange, and would prefer names that are somewhat indicative of location and/or features to be found in those quadrants.
Each Mark contains several regions that are described in detail. For example, the major regions of Mark I are: The Chill; The Bay of the Wolf; The Karis River; The Mountains of Madness; The Frendell Forest and the Dalaghost Swamp; and The Hilspar Plains. Each of these regions is then broken down into cities found there. Each city has a general description and then covers the following topics: Economy; Military; Underworld; Interesting Sites; Plots and Rumors. Finally, the book describes points of interest for each region outside of the various cities.
So what you get is a very encapsulated look at the setting; you can drill down into a mark, then a region, then a city, and then a particular aspect of a city. Scattered throughout are a huge number of “cool places” that are ripe for adventuring. There is a quite a bit of setting content in the 60 or so pages that make up this chapter.
The problem for me is that I seem to have trouble getting a general picture of what the setting is like. While I know about specific cities or locations, for some reason it’s hard to put that all together in my head and come up with a definitive picture of the continent as a whole. As I mentioned way back in chapter one, I think this book could benefit dramatically by having a setting summary right at the start; a few pages that just describe the current state of things and give you a base familiarity. Then the book should drop more setting stuff around to help reinforce that; for instance, the description of the Rogue path could mention a few places that are infamous dens of thieves. Then when you come to chapter 16 to read all the setting details, you already have some general concept of what is about to be elaborated for you. I also think that regional maps, at the Mark level at least, would be helpful.
In very general terms, though, as hinted near the front of the book, Eranon is an epic fantasy setting in which the player characters are striving to become great heroes who will have their deeds recorded for all time in The Book, which is actually an enormously vast and hidden library tended by the Hethmarkn Dwarves.
Chapter 17: The Pantheon of Ramlar
This chapter describes the gods of Ramlar, and as I mentioned when describing Divine Boons earlier, there are quite a few of them. The gods are divided into three tiers. Ramlar himself is the top tier, and underneath him are the Alari. Each Alari then has three Eleri who serve them, except for one god who defied Ramlar and created 5 Eleri for himself.
Each god’s description begins with a few paragraphs of fiction. This is unusual because this is the only chapter in the entire book that has fiction; probably a testament to the fact that there are 8 authors credited. You then get a description of the god and its followers, as well as the god’s physical appearance and some art depicting his holy symbol.
The problem with this chapter is the same one that rears its head in the Races chapter: rather than having the most pertinent information front and center, you have to dig through the text to find what you need. For instance, if one of my players asked me the name of the god of war, there’s no easy way to find that other than to scan through the whole Pantheon chapter until you find it mentioned in the text. It would be tremendously helpful if each entry began with the realm(s) that each god oversees. This exists in some cases; the entry on Veda starts with, “Veda is the goddess of beauty.” That’s great. But for too many other gods, it’s not stated so succinctly.
Chapter 18: Dragons of Ramlar
Dragons have a significant presence in Chronicles of Ramlar, as evidenced by the two shown on the wraparound cover. This chapter describes all the types of dragons in the game.
This chapter is confounding in a few different ways. The first is the names of the different dragon species. They are all new terminology for you to learn, and the names are not at all indicative of the species’ characteristics. The types of dragon are: Albesherak, Cyantheer, Gethnarsus, Lerinia, Magentura, Rezthanin, and Tethsharin.
The second way in which this chapter can be confusing is in the art. All of the dragons are drawn by the legendary Larry Elmore, and all of the pictures look great. However, most of them look like different poses of the same dragon! In most cases you have to study the pictures for a moment before you notice the differences; one has a slightly different horn arrangement than the other, for instance. There are only two dragon types that really stand out from the rest; Albesherak dragons don’t have wings, and Tethsharin dragons have sort of a flattened, crocodile-like back.
On White Silver’s website there are pictures of their booth at Gen Con 2006, and in one you can see a large poster declaring, “Color Has No Meaning,” referring to the fact that dragons are not grouped by color as they are in some other fantasy games. I find this an odd selling point to begin with, but I think maybe color SHOULD have meaning here, because it’s difficult to keep the various types of dragons separate in your mind without just committing their names and descriptions to heart.
Chapter 19: Bestiary of Ramlar
This collection of creatures has a few familiar faces such as orcs and goblins, but for the most part presents monsters unique to this setting. Each comes with a very impressive illustration, and also a hit location chart to match their body shape. For instance, orcs have a humanoid hit location chart, but something decidedly non-humanoid would have a different arrangement of hit locations. A common complaint about this section is that there are only a small number of creatures suited for low-level adventurers, but this is something I believe they will address in the upcoming revised edition.
Chapter 20: Index
The book ends with an index, a character sheet, a bunch of empty hit location diagrams for the GM’s use, and then a collection of all the useful charts and tables found throughout the book.
The Art
The art throughout the book is extremely well done. All of the pictures are evocative of the epic feel of the setting, and all of the creatures look fantastic. The final page of the book credits the 10 contributing artists. Probably the biggest name among them is Larry Elmore, who rose to fame through his many illustrations for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, particularly the Dragonlance setting. Ever drawing is of high quality, and the only complaint I could raise would be with the similarity of the dragon art, as I mentioned in chapter 18. Well, I guess I could also complain that there is not enough art in some sections; for instance, the lengthy spell section goes several pages with no illustrations at all; more art would certainly spice that chapter up.
Editing
The book as a whole could use an extensive round of editing. While everything is completely readable, it’s common to come across some awkward grammar which will cause you to stumble and re-read a section. There were a few occasions where I found myself quoting from The Princess Bride: “I do not think that word means what they think it means.” Taken separately, each instance that requires editing is a minor thing that could easily be overlooked. However, they occur with enough frequency that they begin to reflect poorly on the book overall. If I were editing Chroncles of Ramlar, there would be red ink on the vast majority of pages just to fix a strangely written sentence or something along those lines.
Revision note: It was recently revealed in the White Silver message boards that this edition did indeed suffer from a lack of editing due to deadline pressure. So, it’s reasonable to expect that the upcoming revised edition will have its language cleaned up quite a bit.
Conclusion
Chronicles of Ramlar has an interesting foundation for a role-playing game; the setting has a good amount of detail and there are several great mechanics such as Momentum and the Demeanor/Theme circles. However, in other ways it feels fairly crude, such as in the presentation of the races and in the overly-complicated hit location scheme. The upcoming revised edition will address quite a few of these problems, although I fear that some of the things I would label as awkward or in need of improvement are things that the authors and current fans of the game view as strengths, and so they probably won’t undergo any revision. In light of the revised edition which is expected to ship in 2007, I would have to recommend waiting for that rather than picking up the current Ramlar book.
Disclaimer
I didn’t pay for my copy of Chronicles of Ramlar. It was given to me by a generous fellow member of rpg.net who had received the game as a playtest copy from the company, but who had never had the time to review the game himself.
