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The Good: This book manages to resemble its inspiring material while being an entirely different game and setting. The mood of the product is wonderful, providing both a post-apocalyptic and classic horror feel. The d20 rules are very well done, and the magic system, in particular, offers an incredible degree of flexibility. Characters are surprisingly adept from 1st level onward.
The Bad: Some readers may not care for how focused the product is on the United States (almost entirely). The fiction may not be up to the standards of some readers, and occasionally feels like it strives too hard to be edgy. An explicit, optional method for blending supernaturals and multi-classing would have been nice rather than hints that it’s possible.
The Physical Thing
This 385 page black and white hardcover showcases excellent production values for its $49.99 price tag. Good editing and formatting, dense but readable text, and an index, table of contents, and character sheet all come together to make a polished product. The artwork, while a mix, goes a long way to further enhance the book. At times the shattered cityscapes, interesting NPCs, and unnatural horrors are depicted wonderfully and do a lot to draw the reader right into the setting. Visual aids and maps of cities provide useful resources in play.The Ideas
The Iconnu, unknowable beings of incredible power from beyond our reality, feed on realities. When they came to feed on our reality they failed – the collective mental strength of Awakened humans (the best humanity has to offer) blocked their assault. Instead, they managed to puncture a hole into our universe (called the Intrusion point) in the central United States which covers hundreds of miles. At the moment of the puncture an event called the Nightmare Wave spread across the world, changing things as it went. Magic came back to the world, and the Iconnu sent evil spirits and souls back into the world to causes destruction and slay the Awakened.Today, one year later, a large portion of central United States is gone, and much of the rest is a twisted land of nightmare and destruction. The entire area is under martial law, and the United States has withdrawn from absolutely all foreign concerns in an attempt to secure itself. Vampires, demons, werewolves, and stranger things still stalk the streets, the dead return to life, and magic is real. Nevertheless, 99% of humanity doesn’t know quite what happened in the United States. Vampires are only understood by a scant few, and the evil beings among us have quickly learned that they must be clever and strike from the shadows if they hope to survive. It’s a world suffering an apocalypse, a world bathed in darkness, and a world not unlike our own all at once.
Under the Cover
Chapter 1 A World in Darkness - 37 pages.The setting is fascinating and not at all what I expected when I picked up this book to review – and that’s a good thing. The incursion of the Iconnu results in a setting suitable for a large variety of playstyles. Near the devastated central U.S., it’s pure post-apocalypse and the only real authority is might makes right. Further out, even in other cities like New York City, it’s more like a traditional World of Darkness setting. Creatures of horror skulk in the darkness, but no one really knows what’s going on.
The whole product does an excellent job of presenting optional rules and setting choices, and this is most clear in an entire page describing how setting the Incursion point in different geographic places can result in a very different setting. Increasing its size or placing it in the ocean, for example, can both result in a significantly more devastated world. Placing it in the Antarctic results in even fewer people knowing “something” has happened, while putting it in the atmosphere or low orbit results in an immense event that the whole world witnesses every day.
One of the great things about the Nightmare Wave is that it’s an excuse for any horror idea you can ever imagine. Haunted houses, evil cars, that mysterious cellar door no one goes near, zombies, if you can imagine it then it can easily be explained away by the Wave. Combined with the fact that as you get closer to the Intrusion Point, where a reality of chaos and madness is partially overriding ours, even the laws of physics become unpredictable, the GM clearly has enough room to introduce whatever concepts he fancies.
The setting does a good job of providing a simple framework for keeping the characters together in the form of a variety of organizations, the largest of which is the I.D.A. The Intrusion Defense Agency, an F.B.I. – like group attached to the Department of Homeland Security, actively recruits supernatural people into teams to investigate the unknown and take on dangerous assignments unsuited for mere mortal agents. This is a very easy way to get the characters together, and is perfect for a mission-oriented campaign.
The bottom line here, in terms of raw setting, is that you can have a post-apocalyptic game, a traditional urban horror game, or something in-between as you mix and match parts of the world to get exactly what you want.
The Iconnu make use of several specific types of creatures, though it’s worth noting that the Iconnu never, ever communicate with anything. They’re unknowable and unreachable, and any communication was done through the process of selecting such horrid things to unleash on the world. The message is simple: destroy.
Vampires are the result of the Iconnu fusing the souls of the worst people to plague humanity with living bodies, resulting in a creature neither living nor dead. Ted, the game store clerk, may have had the spirit of a serial cannibalist forced into his body. Usually the dead, evil spirit is much stronger and takes full control. Sometimes the two bleed together a little or a lot to create different beings. In either case, the final entity is usually quite malign, needs to drink blood in order to live, hates the sun, and sports a wealth of supernatural powers.
Vampires largely resemble the vampires of Vamprie: The Requiem but there are some differences. Gone are the humanity/morality stats for all supernatural creatures – instead characters can earn Humanity points for doing good deeds which can be spent for powerful bonuses (such as a second turn in a round). Vampires take damage from the sun, but higher level ones can deal with it better than their World of Darkness counterparts. In general it’s easier for them to be active during the day as well, no doubt making the mixed supernatural game easier to run.
Like in Requiem, vampires are corpses animated by blood. Every vampire has a pool of ‘blood points’ that can be replenished by drinking from another person (or a supernatural creature). One point is spent to animate the vampire every day, and beyond that blood may be used to heal injuries, activate supernatural powers called Disciplines, and create slaves out of those who drink the vampire’s blood.
Player character vampires may include the rare ones where the human soul was most dominate, evil people who realize serving the Iconnu is not in their best interests, or even mercenary souls who think the United States has more to offer them than some unknown master.
Werewolves came into being when the Iconnu took spirits of destruction and murder from another reality and fused them with human beings. These hybrid creature has many of the same soul melding/battling problems as the vampire, but otherwise is very different. Where vampires often take on the role of seducer and assassin, werewolves are setup to be whirlwinds of devastation.
Werewolves, as in Werewolf: The Forsaken, have the power to transform themselves into wolves and powerful human/wolf hybrids that can quickly and savagely destroy everything around them. They also gain access to a variety of spiritual Gifts that come from tapping into their alien nature, such as the ability to control flame. Of the supernatural creatures presented here they most closely resemble their source material, though the lists of Gifts have been cut down and simplified to make them generally more useful. Note that there’s nothing normal about the werewolf’s wolf form – it’s more like an alien creature that just happens to resemble a wolf in many ways, but in open light clearly isn’t. Scholars in this world believe that werewolves, vampires, and everything else generated as a product of the Nightmare Wave drew largely on the ancient fears and legends of humanity to produce creatures, so there’s no real connection between these spirits and wolves. As such, they have no affinity for wolves or desire to spend time around them.
Mages resemble the magic using beings from Mage: the Awakening in that both alter reality to create magical effects, but that’s where the resemblance ends. Mages do not suffer the debilitating Paradox of that game, and instead must worry about budgeting their Components and avoiding Exhaustion. Effectively, mages can learn to cast a variety of spells but only have so much strength to use in a given day and must be careful about casting very powerful spells less it exhaust them. While Vampires, Werewolves, and Mages are all split into five sub-types the Mage variants differ significantly from Awakening. Enchanter, Warlock, Theurgist, Shaman, and Necromancers each provide bonuses to different pre-created spells, called Rotes, which all mages know. Players always have a choice to cast a spell as Rote, using the list in the book, or creating their own but losing the bonuses Rotes give for being Rotes and (sometimes) for corresponding to the nature of the mage. Enchanters, for example, are much better at casting spells that influence the mind.
Mages, unlike Vampires and Werewolves, were not directly created by the Iconnu. Instead, magic just flowed back into the world and now those with an interest and aptitude practice it. Many, nevertheless, feel an obligation to aid the Iconnu since they have been gifted with such power and even those that don’t often do so inadvertently through fulfilling selfish fantasies and gathering power.
Demons drift away from the World of Darkness and are an entirely new creation. Unlike all other supernatural beings, demons have no real physical bodies and are insubstantial, though they animate matter and cloak it in illusion so it seems like they are very real. Demons are the living embodiment of the Nightmare Wave, created by it to sow confusion and misinformation among humanity so that they would not discover the other agents of the Iconnu until it was too late. As such, demons tend to be alien, sinister, and downright nastier than any of the other supernatural creatures. They simply have no humanity to tie them down.
That said, many demons still use their supernatural powers to aid humanity. They doubt the Iconnu will look out for them after this reality is destroyed and, in their own self interest, work to battle against these unknown creators. Demons can shape change, to a limited extent, and often possess a variety of powers of corruption and destruction. They feed on the energy of the human soul, and use this power largely in the same way that vampires use blood.
The Awakened, the last supernatural character option, are humans with amazingly strong wills. They don’t get all the crazy powers of the other supernatural creatures, but instead are just incredibly competent and make excellent jack-of-all-trades characters. With many Skill bonuses and a knack for detecting the residual presence of the Nightmare Wave they have the potential to outshine any of the supernatural beings except when it comes to straight up physical fight.
Chapter 2 Character - 27 pages.
As with other d20 games, Monte Cook’s World of Darkness uses a d20 + Attribute + Skill + Modifier vs. Difficulty Class or Opposed Roll system. At the core of this system are the six Attributes – Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each Attribute is rated from 1 to 18, at a base, and has an associated modifier equal to ((Attribute – 10) / 2). So, a 13 Strength has a +1 modifier while an 18 Intelligence has a +4 modifier.
Character creation begins by generating Ability Scores and selecting a character Type (Vampire, Werewolf, etc.). The book offers no specific method for generating scores, so for this example I’m just using a standard 25 point ‘point buy’ method. Note that character Type is a combination of “Race” and “Class” from other games, offering elements of both in one package. Multi-classing, by the standard rules, isn’t a possibility but simple house rules could easily introduce it.
| Example: I’m building Roxi, who in her former life was a sales clerk who loved the night life. Today she still loves the night life, but more for the feeding opportunities it provides her as a Vampire (her Type). I decide on the following Abilities: Strength 10, Dexterity 14, Constitution 12, Intelligence 11, Wisdom 8, Charisma 16. |
Selecting a Type defines what your character is and functions as a Class, providing 20 levels of options a player may select to customize their character. The general presumption is that characters begin at 1st level, but there’s no reason one can’t be higher. The only conceptual limit is that the Nightmare Wave only occurred a year ago, so ancient vampires and mages are off the plate. Type provides Skill Points, Hit Points, Attack Bonus, Defense Bonus, Save Bonuses, and a variety of other benefits.
In general, vampires excel at physical and social powers as do demons. Werewolves excel at physical powers and various meta-powers (like controlling fire). Mages excel at adaptability, but have to be careful not to spend too many of their craft points. They also have the advantage of using magic based on Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma at the player’s discretion which allows for a large variety of concepts. Awakened excel at investigation and Skill use generally, and have a lot more Skills at higher ranks than any other Type.
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Example: Vampires gain a variety of Ability bonuses. Roxi gains +2 Str, Con, and Cha just for being a vampire! In addition, she’s of the Clan Daeva, a special type of vampire, and gains an additional +2 Charisma and -2 Will save. She also gets another +1 to any Ability score (Cha is chosen). That gives her a starting Charisma of 21!
At 1st level Roxi gets +3 Attack Bonus, +3 Defense Bonus, +4 to Fortitude, Willpower, and Reflex Saves, 4d8 + (4 x Con Mod) Hit Points, 4 + Int Mod Skill Points, and a Discipline (Vampire power) of her choice. For her Discipline I choose ‘Awe,’ which grants a +5 bonus to all social die rolls in many situations. For her two Feats I take Skilled (+2 Bonus with two Skills, I pick Bluff and Diplomacy) and Way With Animals (Roxi can use her social Skills on animals). This makes her a social monster (hah) who can easily command a room with little trouble, bring packs of wild animals onto her team’s side, and win all but the most incredible negotiations. And she’s first level. |
Skills at first level are determined in a different manner than many other d20 games. The player selects two Themes for their character and automatically gains 3 Ranks in every Skill present in those Themes. Some example Themes are Academia, Military, and Stealth. This results in broadly competent starting characters that know a little bit about a lot of different things. Note that Themes exist for character creation only – after character creation Skills are advanced according to Focus, below.
| Example: For Roxi I take the Social and Ability Themes which, among other Skills, grant her 3 ranks in Diplomacy, Bluff, and Gather Information – Skills core to this character. |
Characters also gain a Focus in either Might, Intellect, Spirit, or Stealth. The Focus provides a +2 Ability bonus to a specific Ability and determines what Skills may be raised at normal cost (as opposed to double cost). Focus may be changed every level, reflecting what areas of personal development are being highlighted at that time. One of the big advantages to being Awakened is that you get to have two Focus instead of just one!
| Example: I choose Spirit as Roxi’s starting Focus. It allows me to put more points into her social Skills from the start, and the +2 Wisdom it provides will be helpful to make up for her Daeva penalty to Will Saves. |
Now that you have your Abilities, Type, Themes, and Focus all you have to do is add everything up, spend Skill Points, Feat Selections, and special powers selections, grab some gear, and you’re done!
Chapter 3 Skills - 36 pages.
Monte Cook’s World of Darkness makes use of over 40 distinct Skills, some of which are further split into a dozen different specializations. The Skills tend to be narrow in focus, but if you’ve had any exposure to other d20 games you’re sure to recognize the list. Skills that have been folded together in more recent d20 variants still remain apart here, so expect to take combinations like Hide and Move Silently. Most Skills are rolled against a Difficulty Class that ranges from 10 to 40, with every 5 levels or so providing a different level of difficulty. Most characters will start the game with about 4 Ranks in their most important Skills and maybe +2 to +5 bonus from Abilities, resulting in around a +6 to +9 value barring supernatural powers or Skill Focus Feats. This means that starting characters can be very competent in their chosen areas with little trouble, but most (except for Awakened) won’t have the capability to be too diverse.
| Example: Roxi has a +16 bonus to her Bluff Skill from the very beginning of the game, meaning that she’ll hit a Difficulty Class of 20 at least 85% of the time. Bluff is usually Opposed by the target’s Sense Motive Skill (so each rolls and highest wins), but with such an incredibly high value she’s very likely to get away with telling all but the most outrageous lies. |
Chapter 4 Feats and Abilities - 56 pages.
Feats are small special powers that, typically, ordinary people with training are able to do. Fighting with two weapons, being especially good at a specific skill, or knowing a special combat trick are common powers and Feats generally are combat focused. Players will find plenty here to choose from, including some that reflect well-known powers in other games (Sneak Attack), some that seem to be in every d20 game (Skill Focus), and some that are entirely new and setting specific (Nightmare Affinity).
Feats retain the melee focus, no doubt from their roots in Dungeons and Dragons, but that’s wholly appropriate here since Vampires, Werewolves, and Demons have every incentive to get up close and personal. Few new Feats support ranged combat, but Rapid Shot, Weapon Specialization, and others serve well enough. More non-combat Feats would have been a welcome addition, and unfortunately some characters will just have to rely on Skill Focus Feats.
Feats aren’t the only special powers included in this chapter, however. Demon Cants allow a Demon to spend Anima (soul essence) to accomplish powerful physical and social attacks. Superior movement abilities (teleportation, flight, insubstantiality) are also quite common and when combined with the Demon’s powers to create claws and shred minds they become very adept assassins. My favorite power, without a doubt, is Infernal Pact. In many games a pact with the devil is a sure loser, but here it’s just plain cool. You can grant the mortal anything within your power to give (so if you’re a millionaire you can give money), or a mystical bonus (such as more Charisma to be lucky in love), in return for their immortal soul. As long as they live you feed off their soul every day, no matter where they are, and you feed off the rest at the moment of their death. It’s an extremely appropriate ability which is useful, fun, and a perfect plot hook all rolled into one.
Mages gain Components which are a mix of special powers and meta-magic abilities. For example, Familiar allows them to have a robust (not easily killed) animal companion who they’re empathically linked to and who can assist in spellcasting. Transformative Aspect allows the magic to drift even further into his magical specialty (Enchanter, Necromancer, Shaman, Theurgist, or Warlock), thereby gaining a skeletal appearance, or fey like horns, or whatever along with some nice bonuses. Extra Components increases the number of Components (spell points) by 10%, which can result in several more spellcasts per day. In general the powers are flavorful, fun, and all worth taking for the right character.
Vampiric Disciplines are also focused on physical combat and social manipulation, but unlike Demons they’re both subtler (in social activity) and broader (there are just more of them). While they largely lack the demon’s movement powers, they may have the most potent defensive powers in the game in the form of Fortitude of Celerity. Celerity, like several other physical Disciplines, can be taken up to 5 times and grants +30 speed, +4 Defense, and +4 Reflex Save for 1 round for a mere 1 Vitae (blood point). It can be used reflexively on someone else’s turn, too, so at the high end it’s a +20 Defense Bonus for 1 turn for the cheap, cheap cost of 1 Vitae.
All the classic vampire powers are here for fans of Requiem, and for those new to the World of Darkness be assured that all the vampire powers you can imagine are here. Invisibility, Telepathy, Claw Growing, Suggestion, and dozens of others are available. Some come in multiple steps, such as Celerity above, offering those who further specialize a substantial increase in power at no additional cost.
Finally, Werewolf Rites offer very broad power options. Invisibility, Ethereal Travel, large physical bonuses, and a variety of shamanistic powers are all available. While their power set is very broad it has the downside of not all the powers being available to every werewolf. Each of the five werewolf types has a few abilities available exclusively to it, cutting the large list down quite a bit in terms of what any given werewolf can have.
The power sets have a lot of great things going on here. For one, they’re similar to many powers found in the World of Darkness games which makes transition between the two simple and intuitive. They also have the advantage of being diverse even within their type, such that players could build a group of only werewolves or vampires and still have plenty of diversity among otherwise similar characters. Finally, these powers are just fun. They’re all powers I want to take, which to me is the mark of a well done special ability system.
Chapter 5 Magic - 44 pages.
All spells have a Component (spell point) cost associated with them that is deducted from a mage’s Component pool. This pool refreshes every day and when the mage runs out, that’s it. A large number of set spells are presented in the book, called Rotes, which provide a bonus to Spellcraft checks to cast a spell since they’re such common and natural ways of using magic.
Let’s walk through spellcasting. First, a player decides what he generally wants the spell to do. Second, he looks at the component descriptions. Components include Area, Range, Duration, Conjure, Control, Damage, Divination, Energy, Enhance, Heal, Illusion, Metaspell, Movement, New Power, and Protect. Each of these can have points added into it based on what the spell does, though all spells have Range, Duration, and Area.
| Example: I want to cast a lightning bolt spell of my own devising. I want it to affect a 20 foot line (Area, 2 points), originate from me (Range, 2 points), and be instantaneous (Duration, 0 points). I decide to have it deal 5d6 points of damage, Reflex save for half (Damage, 5 points). The total cost of my spell is 9 points. If I also decided |
This simple process of mixing and matching components can result in just about anything, from invisibility spells to meteor rains and hurricane creation. Once the player knows what they want the spell to do and what it costs it’s time to cast the spell. Spells usually take a Standard Action to cast and the caster must succeed at a Spellcraft check equal to Component Cost + Exhaustion Rating. Casting spells provokes an Attack of Opportunity, meaning that anyone standing near the mage may have a chance to disrupt him and stop the spell unless he succeeds at a Concentration Skill Check. Once the spell is cast the mage may suffer exhaustion. Take the total Component Cost, subtract 10 and the mage’s level, and whatever is left over is the Exhaustion the mage suffers. As a mage becomes more exhausted it becomes significantly more difficult to cast spells.
| Example: To cast lightning bolt, above, I must roll Spellcraft vs. DC 9. If I succeed then the spell goes off. At first level I will then check for exhaustion, but since 9 -10 – 1 (mage level) is less than zero I don’t suffer any. If I were instead casting a 20d6 lightning bolt, which would cost 24 Components, I would have to roll against DC 24 to cast and would suffer 24 -10 -1 = 13 Exhaustion. That 13 Exhaustion means the next spell I try to cast will be much more difficult (13 points more difficult). |
Counterspelling, group spellcasting, maintaining enhancement spells, and various other options are all presented here but you get the idea. Healing spells are performed much like the lightning bolt above, only the area is smaller and instead of damage there is a Heal component. Divination spells have a Divination component and little else. You can even mix and match extensively for truly strange spells. A lightning bolt that tells you all the bad guys’ credit card numbers while also teleporting them to a local diner, for example, is possible and easy to construct (though extremely expensive to cast) under this rules system.
I really like magic here. It’s very easy to understand, plenty of example spells are provided for folk who don’t have time to build something on the fly, and mage’s are quite capable of creating ‘signature’ spells with just a little bit of work. While Components ultimately limit how many spells a mage can cast per day, and Exhaustion prohibits mages from casting truly powerful spells too often, on the whole it seems to be an excellent balancing system that rewards players who enjoy getting creative with flexible magic systems.
Chapter 6 Equipment - 22 pages.
What is there to really say about modern equipment? Handguns, shotguns, fireaxes, cars, explosives, poisons, tasers, body armor, and still more equipment can be found here. You’re certain to find what you want, and since the equipment lists tend to be generic nothing gets left out. Since characters have a Defense Rating in this game, instead of Armor Class in other games, armor provides Damage Reduction (from 2 to 6 depending on the degree of armor). Survival gear, weapon accessories, and all the other little things that make post-apocalyptic survival games more fun can be found here.
What I didn’t expect from this chapter, but was very pleased to discover, is a variety of magical items. These are all relics from the Nightmare Wave and, as such, are cursed. A single cursed object can drive an entire session of play with ease, so several pages of interesting plot hooks are a welcome addition.
Chapter 7 Playing the Game - 50 pages.
These are the core rules of the game, and if you’re at all familiar with d20 games you’re certain to pick this up with ease. Cyclical turns of 6 seconds are used wherein characters act in an Initiative order based on an Initiative roll at the start of combat. On each character’s turn they have the option to attack once and move, move twice, attack twice (in some cases), or mix up move and attack actions to perform various non-standard actions (like rifling through a backpack for a silver cross). Attacks involve Attack Bonus + (Dex or Str modifier) + Misc. Modifier vs. Defense of target, at lower levels resulting in about a 50/50 chance of hitting someone before factoring in supernatural powers. When struck a character loses Hit Points, the loss of which ultimately results in unconsciousness or death after a significant loss. The rules are designed with the assumption that tokens or miniatures are being used on a grid to simulate tactical gameplay.
That’s the basics, the rest of the chapter deals with specific situations and abilities. Disarm, Trip, Vehicle Scale, Harming Objects, Catching on Fire, and various other special situations are all covered such that a GM will be able to easily find the appropriate rule for the great majority of activities. If you can understand the core d20 mechanics, or have ever played a d20 game before, all of this will be intuitive.
The one big new addition here, which I love, is the use of Humanity Points. Humanity Points are a sort of reverse of the Morality/Humanity stats in the World of Darkness games. In those games characters are penalized for performing bad or sinful deeds. In this game, characters receive points for performing good or heroic deeds. Now, these aren’t just any old points. They can be traded in for things like gaining an entire extra set of actions at any point in the initiative order (going twice), automatically hitting a foe’s eyes with an attack, gaining 10 components, going for a week without spending Vitae to wake up (vampire), and other similarly awesome powers. These are points the players are absolutely, positively going to want to hand and the criteria you determine for their dispersion will greatly affect your game. It’s a wonderful switch to the standard system of measuring character’s falling down the moral decline and I’m very happy to see it here.
Chapter 8 Running the Game - 26 pages.
The chapter kicks off with GMing advice which may or may not be useful to you depending on your play style – but that’s probably not why you’re interested in the GM chapter. The GM chapter shines by talking about all the different sorts of games you can run, what player characters do, and how to set up specific campaigns. The two core campaigns discussed are the Intrusion Campaign (post-apocalyptic) and Shadows Campaign (classic World of Darkness stuff), and a lot of ideas and advice are offered for both. Intrusion, for example, is described as being a better (and even appropriate) game for folk who want to tote around grenade launchers and katana, while a Shadows game might work better for more political and subtle obstacles. Suggestions for using the Nightmare Wave (use it as an excuse for your creative ideas being in the world) and how to run horror games are included, and it’s just a bundle of excellent and helpful advice.
The chapter wraps up with a variety of NPC creatures and typical enemies. While I always appreciate an enemies list in any RPG, I wish this one had a few more entries. Just a single stat block for each supernatural isn’t enough for me, and I feel like a few extra pages could have been well spent on providing the GM with more easy to use stat blocks to throw into an existing game. Nevertheless, these are helpful and I’m glad they’re here.
Chapter 9 Chicago – City of Darkness - 46 pages.
This is 46 pages of pure GM support meant to provide a jumping off point for a full campaign, but the reality is that this is simply a well developed campaign setting on its own. In fact, you could easily run a long campaign (or several shorter ones) set in Chicago with just these 46 pages. From a map of the city to descriptions of its major landmarks, haunted areas, supernatural organizations, and major NPCs, this chapter does a fantastic job of providing you with a more detailed setting than the general World of Darkness. Every supernatural type gets its own entry, a variety of different villainous and neutral groups are presented, and the NPC stat blocks can serve as excellent additional characters for games that don’t even use Chicago. All in all, this is an excellent addition to the book.
Chapter 10 The Edge of Nightmare - 24 pages.
Maybe it’s my love for all things post-apocalyptic, but I couldn’t wait to finish reading Chicago so I could jump into this chapter. Chicago represents a city largely untouched by Nightmare. It has more than a few supernatural creatures and places scattered about, but it’s definitely a classic World of Darkness city. This chapter deals primarily with Minneapolis and other areas right around the intrusion point, and it’s chock full of post-apocalyptic goodness. From the laws passed by the military dictator who controls the area to a map of the devastated city, information on areas surrounding the intrusion point, and a host of different organizations and plot hooks, this chapter has it all. If you ever needed more ideas for a game in this setting this chapter is sure to provide them.
The areas around the Intrusion Point are brutal. Armed soldiers don’t take any crap and shoot to kill at even slight provocation, and you can’t really blame them seeing as how zombies and werewolves run around in the open. Civilian militias control large areas and battle it out with the various gangs who vie for control of the leftovers of the central United States. Take all the stuff you love about post-apocalyptic gaming and combine it with a health dose of supernatural horror and then you’ll have a feel for what this chapter has to offer. Excellent stuff, I just wish there was more of it.
My Take
I was skeptical when I approached this product, due to a variety of factors. I’m a little tired of d20 games and I’m always a little apprehensive of the hype that often follows the big names like Monte Cook. I was very, very happy to discover a solid game that I enjoyed reading and want to play immediately. I’m a World of Darkness fan who never liked focusing too much on the struggle between a character and their inner demon, and so this game seems well suited for me. Get your badge, get your gun, get your demonic powers, and go kick ass to save the world!The game has a lot to offer a lot of folk. If you like the idea of the World of Darkness but prefer the d20 system then this should be a no brainer. It’s a solid game that takes the very best the WoD has to offer, streamlines it, and adds in some of the authors’ own (excellent) ideas. If you are already a fan of the WoD and want to check out a game built specifically for mixing supernaturals on a team, or even for the post-apocalyptic setting elements, then I think you’ll enjoy it. The main group of folk who I think might be better off avoiding this product are those who expect any sort of exact translation of the WoD – this retains many similarities, but it incorporates half as many differences to make it something unique and separate. And, of course, anyone with a strong dislike of the d20 system probably won’t find enough setting material to really make this one worthwhile. It is, predominantly, a rules system.
If you like the idea of mixing and matching a variety of supernatural creatures in a horror or post-apocalyptic setting, backed up by solid rules and interesting ideas, then pick this one up.
