Still, being that the book was published by a new company I asked if there would be a set of starter rules as a preview. Pouring over the pages, I’ve been making my way through the setting preview as well to determine what I could about the full game. Here is my review of the MSF High Roleplaying Game: Free Online Edition.
No Table of Contents Well, it was free, so what should I expect? Moving on.
Character Creation:Facets and Races and Stats Oh My! The character creation process is quite involved. Stats are picked, along with disposition, race, skills, advantages/disadvantages, and Facet. Warning: Do not forget facet.
Base stats are the first to be picked, due to being the immutable ‘set point’ for your character. This is necessary as Race, Facet (Read: Class), Disposition, Advantages, Disadvantages, Status Effects, etc. can all modify these stats, and some of these aspects can be modified in game play. This allows one to swap in races, Facets, sizes, etc. relatively painlessly.
Base statistics include Defense, Strength, Agility, Accuracy, Intelligence and Personality. Defense may more accurately be described as Constitution or Toughness, but its a minor nitpick.
Next on the agenda are Dispositions which will modify your statistics further, each of them representing a personality type.
Race is picked next which will determine how many skill points you have. Skills are basically named after the different classes of MSF High including History, Gymnastics, Martial Arts, Magic, Art, etc. However, it is worth noting that in some capacity almost every skill is a combat or spell casting skill. History is used with Archaic weapons, Math with guns for their trajectory- there are almost no bad skills to take. Language seems to be the least useful in this department, though the Mystic makes use of it in the full version.
Advantages and Disadvantages are only atypical in that some of the advantages that may be bought are more like superpowers, including shifts in size, the ability to fly, etc. This is most likely done because the ‘races’ are broad archetypes meant to depict a group of races. These kinds of advantages and disadvantages allow one to play any race they can build, to a degree.
Race and Facet are both approached in quite a different way in this game. Both Race and Facet have levels that may be increased with experience.
Race: One’s Race starts at Level one at the beginning of the game. Race may change during play depending on spells cast upon the character, for example, a Human may be transformed into a Mythic, such as an Elf. There are some modifiers to deal with this change in physical body, small bonuses and negative to various stats that may easily be templated on to your character with relative ease. While an Elf, they will still have access to the levels of human they have purchased and all its benefits, but they may purchase levels of Elf which they will retain even when changed back. This system is meant to represent a sort of cross cultural/biological learning system. Systematically, this allows players access to a wide array of bonuses they may wish to have access to at any time, which may encourage players to transform on a purely statistical basis.
Facets: Pre-warned: Facet levels may be confusing to figure out, but are extremely important. It took me a few reads through of the material to understand how they worked- I will try to be clear as possible. Though you do not start with a facet for free, you are expected to buy one with your free 500 XP, as without a facet, one is completely incapable of attacking in combat. Future editions of the rules should probably make that more explicit.
Facet levels are purchased for the various ‘classes’ one might typically play as well as a few specific to MSF High’s anime inspired setting: Mage, Warrior, Priest, Maid, Artist, Nerd, etc. Each Facet level is leveled separately and is given limited access from racial facet levels. It’s reminiscent of the ‘job’ systems for some Japanese console RPGs.
How it Works Out: For instance, while your character may have purchased 5 levels of Warrior and 2 Levels of Priest, their Racial Facet level may only allow them access to 2 of any of these given levels to use. So while able to use 2 levels or Warrior or 2 levels of Priest or 1 of each, they cannot use all the levels they have unless raising their facet level somehow. The two primary ways to do this seem to be raising ones Racial levels and purchasing and wearing magical items. A list of costumes provided seems to allow unlimited level use of one particular facet or another, though some are too expensive to purchase at the start of the game.
It’s hard to say how this works out as the rules for awarding XP and money are not included, however, I took two characters through 5000 XP to see how a focused approach at leveling compares to a more scattered one.
Both were Elves (Mythic race group) starting as Martial Artists for simplicity. Our focused character ends up as a Level 3 Elf with 2 levels of Martial Arts, (HP 45 MP 46) while our scatterbrain ends up with one level in Martial Arts, Student, Mage, and Priest (If accessing all, HP 55 MP 76). The pure martial artist will have access to five more MP worth of spells, but will likely be unable to cast as often as their opponent. As Race levels plus equipment could allow the scatterbrain to access most of her levels, the scatterbrain is obviously a better choice as more levels can be brought to bear, though perhaps there is something I am missing. With the 3000 Xp to gain the next part of Martial Arts, the scatterbrain may buy more levels to bring to bear or the next level of several of her facets. While it may take more and more magic items and race levels to bring the full power of the scatterbrain to life, it seems to be the better choice in early play.
Conclusions: To sum up character creation and advancement, it is very detailed and continues throughout play. The rules seem to encourage variety, trying ones hand at both various races and facets seeming to be beneficial rather than punishing as it is in most games. Focused characters (one race, one facet) may pay off later in the game as Facets become more and more expensive to manifest with magic items and used skills become more varied. However, if one is not careful, it is easy to create a character completely incapable of doing anything useful, especially considering humans start with zero inherent facet and must buy equipment to be functional in their given facet, limiting the starting facets a human can effectively play.
Recommendations: I would make include a two page spread with a character creation flowchart listing the Stats to fill, the dispositions, the 1st level of each race, the skills, the facets, and the advantages and disadvantages as well as getting rid of the 500XP at the start in place of stating they get a level one Facet to avoid confusion and unplayable builds.
MECHANICS
Game Mechanics:
Attributes have dice types, reminiscent of Savage Worlds, but with the added complexity of d20 style Attributes. This means that you have to look on the chart to determine what dice you get from your 8 Str rather than simply recording a dice type. Record the dice type for each of your stats for ease of play.
Once you’ve determined the die type based on your attributes, the number of dice you will roll is based on your skills, generally a 0,1, or 2 early on. The highest number rolled is the one that counts unless the roll is unskilled, in which case the lowest dice of two is counted. Here are some examples:. (Ex: Rolling 2 Science (2 dice) at Intellect 10 (d10) results are a 7 and a 5. The total for the roll is 7.) (Ex: Rolling 0 Home Ec (2 dice take lowest at Personality 11 (d12) gets a 4 and a 10. The total of the roll is 4 due to being unskilled.)
Base attribute rolls are made with just one die of the appropriate type. In some rolls, such as damage and soak, the rolls add together rather than counting the highest. Any die that lands on its maximum facing is re-rolled and added to via an exploding mechanic.
Numerically, the systems base statistics shift up one die at a time (d4, d6, d8, etc.). From d12 upward we see a d12+1, then d12+2, then d20 before the next set of plusses, which continue on. While the d20 is statistically better than a d12+2, it is more random in its results and may lead to lots of high and low rolls versus a more standard curve.
Combat Combat seems like a pretty chaotic place with all the spells, attacks, abilities, and other actions that can be performed. The general breakdown is an Agility roll for initiative, choosing a stance, then taking actions in order.
Stances include six different combat stances, three defensive and three offensive, that give bonuses in combat. Defensive stances appear to be available to anyone. Offensive stances available will depend on the weapon used and if a character’s facet allows its use. Example) A rapier is a Fast/Precise weapon wielded with either History or Gymnastics. The Fast and Precise stances can be used while wielding a rapier if History or Gymnastics are included as part of a Facet’s skills. Priests specialize in History and would be able to use the two offensive stances available to Fencing.
Stances determine defense stat used (accuracy, agility or defense) and some defenses are strong against certain attacks, giving a slight strategy to things, using the right attack for the right kind of defense and vice versa. By targeting an opponent with an attack reduced by their weakest defense stat, one can win by ‘knowing’ their opponent.
On your turn each round, a move, speak, primary hand, and off hand action are available. Attacks need to make a five using the skill for the weapon wielded based on die for stance taken (Strong stance with a Hammer uses [HomeEc]d[Strength] to attack), defensive actions leading to an opposed roll. A hit is a damage roll versus a soak roll using defense and armor. The speak actions are quite interesting as attempts to infatuate, infuriate, or intimidate ones opponent can take place for free almost every round. Hand actions allow for two gunning, gun sword, parry swing, etc, but its worth noting that the off hand is penalized as one would expect- the full rules may have an advantage to counteract this.
As mentioned previously, one cannot attack without an attack stance, and one cannot have attack stances without an active facet and an appropriate weapon, meaning you need to buy a facet at the beginning of the game.
The system seems to favor offense as all defense rolls are unskilled (1 die) versus skill rolls that will generally involve multiple dice. While the appropriate defense will reduce the attack by one die, and switching up stance results in penalties to the next action, the base 5 may be harder to hit for some characters than the opposed defense roll. Its also next to useless as while your opponent may not hit you, you certainly won’t be harming your opponent, making it only useful for running away or performing non-damaging spells mid combat. Damage is mitigated by soak, meaning another roll in combat, leading to longer handling times for fights, much like the old World of Darkness system. Exploding dice still provide for the possibility of the one hit fight however.
Its also worth noting that a character could potentially build up a high agility and accuracy character with the express purpose of getting initiative, shooting with fast attacks and precise attacks and running to maintain distance. Arena like environments can limit this, but a slower character with little or no range may get ripped apart. This may include your bad guy of the week.
Running some sample combats, combat tended to be quick for a one on one fight with animals in the back of the book or the Maid in the middle, so I generated two characters to see them slug it out. The little melee took about 7 rounds and about 20 minutes of real time. This was for two starter characters, with less abilities, spells, and other options to pull out mid combat. With more than two combatants, combat could become very time consuming, but probably no more than your average D&D combat.
Overall, combat could be better, but it could be worse. The handling time can be mitigated by preparation and detailed sheets for your players and baddies.
Recommendations: Improve defense stances! Allow defense modes to be picked in each round for free, or give defense more dice, improve it in some other way, or pitch the idea all together. An ineffective defense only provides unneeded complexity to an already complex combat system.
Spell Casting
Spell casting seems to be simple once deciphered. Like Facets, the information is spread out and a little unclear, but here is how it seems to go.
Every spell casting facet has a different way of doing magic, though the basics are the same- use up a hand or more worth of actions, spend MP to make the spell go, roll relevant skill versus difficulty to activate, spell takes effect. Spells are arranged into elements, much like D&D magic schools: fire, water, body, light, etc. Every spell has a monetary cost as well as its MP cost- but I was still confused as to exactly how some of them learned spells. Every spell caster class had slightly different rules for learning and casting, some involving money, some not, but each had in common a Spells MP stat that tells them the Max MP spells they can learn to keep the big spells for higher levels.
Especially difficult to understand was the Priest/Doctor facet. Shoe horned into the same place as the Priest, the Doctor seems to purchase needles full of potion, which he then injects into himself and others for a variety of effects-unfortunately, they do not give the rules for these needles. Its also worth noting that neither of them needs to learn spells- I can assume this means they can cast anything within the Elements they have access to, but it is not clearly communicated within the text.
Animals Some quick stats on animal near the school are given here. These little beasties are kind of cannon fodder, but they give you some monsters to kill that you won’t have to write up yourself, or pokemon to catch if your into that.
Bits and Bobs General details of this PDF worth mentioning.
Art: The art and layout is stunning in many areas, not so much in some others. It goes between colored art and black and white art with seemingly no reason at time. Still, much of it is done very in the spirit of the comic and if you enjoy the art of the comic, you’ll definitely appreciate the book.
Page Count: The free preview is 89 pages long, which is a considerable amount of text.
Editing: Many page references are marked as ‘refer to page XXX’. This typo does feel a little ridiculous to see time and time again. However, considering this is a first time publisher, its still ahead of the game.
Starter Rules: Has enough detail to be used by other players as a supplemental “Players Guide” if only one of you has bought the core book, allowing for faster character creation and keeping the need to pass the book around to a minimum.
Conclusion The MSF High free supplement is quite a useful preview of the main book. The system, while perhaps in need of some tweaking, does not look like it will fall apart midway through a campaign and provides an enjoyable fighting experience with some variety to the moves used. Still, while one could create characters and someone else could GM, some of the finer details of the game would have to be guessed, such as the setting details and XP awards. The full book gives access to the full variety of races, weapons, facets, and other character attributes to bring the game to its full glory.
If your not a fan of the comic or comics like it, I wouldn't bother with the game- its probably not for you. But, if you’re a big fan of the comic, than I strongly suggest you take a look at the free game, and if you have friends who are fans or willing to play, I suggest you get the full rules. If you’re a fan, $20 is probably worth the setting details and art alone. So strap on your magical armor, get to class, and hope the Legion smiling at you isn't thinking how cute you would look as a girl.
Necessary Links: The Comic http://www.msfhigh.com/index.php The PDF http://www.msfhigh.com/RPG/MSFHFree.pdf The Core Book http://www.lulu.com/content/1007331
