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The cover does indeed feature the heroes fighting an ape who is piloting a biplane, while above a flaming zeppelin courses through the sky. So even more than the Pulp HERO cover, this one is trying to cover all the bases from the get-go. The credits page does everything in the appropriate style, with "Stunning Acts of Artistry" credited to Christian N. St. Pierre, for example, and at the bottom, in very bold letters, states: "Dedicated in Memory of Britt "Tetsujin28" Daniel - The Biggest Fan We Never Met". So that's worth points right there. (This is a comp copy of a .pdf I received as a prize for my review on Horror Week, so I can't review the physical quality of the hardcopy book.)
The introductory section goes into what "Pulp" is for those who don't know, and while it stresses the ugly bigotries of the early 20th Century, it also emphasizes the Pulp spirit of optimism and progress. The concept of this game in particular is well-expressed here: "In the end, the question for a character is simple. The world can be, should be, a better place. What are you doing about that?" This is in fact a major point in character conception; sample characters are defined partially in terms of that very question, "What are you doing?" For example, the Jungle Lord concept lists "What are you doing" as "You're protecting your home and your pack, and attempting to understand the world outside."
The nuts-and-bolts of SotC is the Fudge system, which is really easy to use once it's explained: Random rolls for task resolution are done on four "Fudge Dice" (4dF) which are d6 that are blank on two sides, have a plus sign on two sides and a minus on the other two, generating a variable of -4 to +4. If you don't have company dice you can just take your regular d6's and count 1 and 2 as (-) and 5 and 6 as (+). So if you roll +, +, - and a blank (or a 5, 6, 1 and 3) the net result is +2 -1, or +1 to the task. The dice result is added to the character's skill rating and any other modifiers. The modifiers are defined in terms of the Fudge "Ladder" concept: 0 modifier is "Mediocre", +1 is "Average" (meaning that an average person with no other modifiers should be able to get a total +1 modifier and complete the task on an average roll), +3 is "Good", +6 is "Fantastic" and +8 is "Legendary." Both the skill roll and the difficulty of a task have ladder modifiers, such that a character with a "Good" ability in a certain area gets +3 to a task. If the task requires an Average (+1) difficulty the character will succeed unless the dice result is -3 or -4, taking the result below (+1). The difference between the task roll (the effort) and the assigned difficulty is measured in shifts, which the character can use in various ways, for instance, allowing the character to beat the clock on a time-limit task like defusing a bomb. (In that example, the character's skill roll with Engineering is so high that he can complete the task in less time than normally required.) Most characters will have skills measured on a certain level, like Superb Engineering, Good Piloting, etc. (defaulting to Mediocre if the character doesn't have the skill).
What really makes all this interesting is SotC's use of aspects. Aspects are catch-all character descriptors and character hooks; they could be anything from "Irish" to "Daredevil" to "Strong as an Ox." But as the game goes on to explain, what matters is getting across the right dramatic flavor; "Trained Fencer" is better than "Swordsman" and "Trained by Montcharles" is better than "Trained Fencer." "Strong as an Ox" is better than just "Strong." It is generally best if the aspect is treated as a story hook rather than just a min-maxing benefit, so that it is possible for the aspect to suggest plot complications or drawbacks as well as dice benefits. The book gets the point across in page 33: "More than anything else, aspects are a player's most explicit way of telling the GM, 'This is the stuff I want to see in the game.'" Because aspects are so central to the style and the play of the game, the rules go into a lot of detail as to their use. In particular they may be used to gain or may be required to use Fate Points (or 'Fudge Points'), similar to what the Adventure! game called "Dramatic Editing." A player may spend a Fate Point (FP) to 'invoke' one of his own aspects (e.g. 'I could crack that door if I could find my Sonic Screwdriver'...). The GM (or in some cases another character) can 'tag' another character's aspect, (e.g. the PC who's kicked out of a club because he's 'Irish') which obliges the character to spend a FP to avoid the complication or go with it and earn an FP.
Note that even properties of the game universe are assigned aspects by the GM, and it is possible for a PC to tag those aspects if he can guess what they are by GM description. For instance, the game shows one character in a "Dark" warehouse, facing "Overconfident" thugs; he uses 2 FP to invoke both aspects and get the drop on one of his attackers from the cover of darkness. When invoking (or tagging) an aspect, the user can spend a FP to either add +2 to the ladder result OR reroll all dice; a given aspect can do one or the other but the character can perform these effects more than once if he can invoke multiple aspects for the same action, as in the case above. An FP can also add +1 to a result (without invoking an aspect) and there are some special 'stunts' that are powerful enough that they require a FP to be used.
Character generation likewise involves aspects, and is very creative in itself. First you have to come up with an appropriate Pulp archetype. Then you have to come up with a "cool" Pulp name. For instance, the game's Rocketeer-type character starts with the archetype and then the "Jet" concept suggests the name "Jet Black and his Amazing Jet Pack!" Then the process goes into more codified phases. For reasons explained later, it's assumed that all PCs are born in the year 1900, which means the game setting is usually going to be in the 1920's. The player describes his character's formative years and in this phase assigns him two aspects. It's also assumed that sometime during the Great War (WW1) the character finds some way to participate in the conflict and/or attracts a patron who initiates him in the setting's "Century Club" for heroic adventurers. In Phase 2, the player writes down the main events in the PC's life during this period and assigns two more aspects. In Phase 3 the character is introduced in his first Pulp novel, which the player has to describe in brief (e.g. Mack Silver and the Pirates of Araby). The events of the novel create two more aspects. At this point the GM shuffles character names and gives one to each player so that he gets to have that other character "guest star" in his PC's next novel. This is not only a great collaborative exercise, it creates a guaranteed method for generating connections between PCs. This also generates two aspects, which may logically involve the other character (For instance, Jet's player draws Sally Slick, Jet appears in Sally Slick's book, and she takes the aspect 'Jet's in Trouble!') Phase 5 is the same except that no character can draw another PC twice. (For instance, Sally Slick draws Jet Black as her guest star and Jet gets the aspect 'Sally, Save Me!'). Thus at the end of this process the PC should have ten aspects, a connection to the Century Club and at least one connection to another PC. At this point the character gets fifteen skills arranged in a 'skill pyramid': 1 at Superb, 2 at Great, 3 at Good, 4 at Fair and 5 at Average. He also gets five 'stunts' that tie into his other abilities and are described later in their own section.
After going into great detail on the use of aspects, what aspects are better than others, how the GM can use them, etc. the book goes to the next section, "How to Do Things." In addition to standard (Simple) actions, you have Contests (contested rolls between characters) and Conflicts (where characters 'act in direct opposition to one another but where resolution is not as simple as a contest'). In terms of how the rolls are done, a foot race is a contest but a fistfight is a conflict. In a contest, the higher roll is considered to have beaten a difficulty equal to the result of the low roll. In a conflict, levels of success create levels of stress on a participant; these accumulate into 'stress boxes' like in World of Darkness and Shadowrun. The victim of stress can instead choose to take a consequence that hinders him in the conflict, which may be tagged by the foe like any known aspect. These consequences accumulate into higher levels of severity until the character is taken out- removed from the conflict.
The neat thing is that this mechanic can be used for BOTH physical and social consequences, the main difference being the skills used to attack and the modifiers the character gets to his stress track (the Endurance skill adds to 'Health' stress levels and the Resolve skill increases the 'Composure' track). Any time a character takes a consequence he also has the option to make a concession- allowing himself to get taken out in order to avoid further consequences (to health, reputation, etc.). The other issue with consequences is that while stress levels just go away at the end of the conflict, consequences last for some time- a Mild consequence (Out of Breath) recovers once the character gets a few minutes 'breather', a Moderate consequence (Twisted Ankle) takes at least six hours recovery, and a Severe consequence (Broken Ribs) takes days to weeks to recover from.
Likewise in-game maneuvers are described in terms of the aspects they create and which can thus be invoked in the scene (like knocking over a candle to give the room the aspect 'On Fire!'). In most cases this is accomplished normally, with the GM deciding how difficult the action is. In some cases the GM may allow (or require) the PC to use a Fate Point to justify the result.
This chapter also provides rules for the use of minions and companions by Pulp characters. The main trait of minions (mooks) is that they only take up to three levels of stress in a given situation, so it's fairly easy for characters to blow through them. However they add to a leader's relevant stress levels, giving him an advantage in either a physical or social situation. Minions also add up to +4 to team rolls by acting in concert. Companions are more like sidekicks, or "named" supporting cast, who primarily serve to add to the main character's consequences, with the "consequence" in this case being that the companion is kidnapped, taken out, etc. Buying stunts (see below) allows a PC to add additional qualities to his companion, such as skills of his own. The genre assumption in these rules is that companions are for heroes, and minions are for villains, if only because it usually isn't feasible for a PC to be running around everywhere with his own platoon.
Then you have the Skills chapter, which the text says is player focused, as in "it offers a 'I have this, what can I do with this' perspective." Each skill has a number of trappings, which are specific applications of a skill. Trappings are dealt with in detail in the Running the Game chapter; the Skills chapter just goes over what they are.
In many cases skills can be used together in order to exploit the aspect rules. For instance, one can use Burglary skill to "case the joint" and discover an aspect of the area being robbed. This is called an assessment. By contrast, one can use knowledge-based skills to make a declaration that creates a new aspect (e.g. one's knowledge of tombs making it possible to declare a Secret Passage aspect to the tomb one is exploring).
Related to skills are stunts, and in a typically loose definition, the book says that "stunts allow the usual rules for skills to be broken- or at least bent." They can be thought of as analogous to D&D Feats, and like feats, they often require certain prerequisites that apply with the skill in question. Each skill has a certain list of stunts available for it, and it is generally required that a stunt only be bought for a skill the PC has at Average or better. Of course, many of these abilities are intended to simulate a superlative ability in the skill within a certain specialty. If a stunt requires spending a fate point, that requirement is written in bold under the stunt description. In many cases stunts form "trees" that allow for buying progressively higher abilities. For instance the Endurance skill allows for the Toughness stunt "One Hit to the Body" that allows the character to reduce an injury if he still has stress boxes to spare. Having One Hit to the Body allows for the "Thick Skinned" stunt that adds one stress box over that allowed by his Endurance score. This in turn allows for "Man of Iron" which means that any hits have to eliminate all stress boxes before creating physical consequences. Likewise stunts can provide for the exotic abilities of Pulp stories, especially the strength feats of Might skill or the psionic/occult abilities under Mysteries skill. This includes the Science stunt Weird Science (which is, of course, a prerequisite for Mad Science). As mentioned above, a character starts with five stunts.
Speaking of Weird Science, the next section describes Gadgets and Gizmos, which is a general overview of equipment, starting with a necessary reminder on what items a 1920's character would be commonly aware of (aspirin, air conditioning), cutting-edge items (automatic firearms, silencers, band-aids) and stuff that is brand-new or yet to be invented (this includes color TV, which the game lists as possible as of 1925). Dollar prices in contemporary terms are listed for common items, even though the game normally handles purchases via the Resources skill. For instance "Poor" difficulty is "A night in a hotel" which rates "Under 5 Bucks." This section also includes the vehicle rules. As in other Fudge games, vehicle attributes like speed are relative to each other and not to characters (a car with Average speed is still faster than the Average runner). Guns are described in Narrativist fashion; one's choice of weapon doesn't have much impact on damage, but longarms have a higher range in combat, and the type of gun used will impact the kind of maneuvers the GM allows, as in, it's easier to lay down cover fire with a Tommy Gun than a single-action revolver.
You also get to Make Things, especially if you're an engineer or Weird Scientist. This usually requires the appropriate skill with a difficulty equal to the cost of the item in question. The character must also have a workshop of equal or better quality (workshops/workspaces being traits derived from one's Resources skill). Items also have certain qualities, and increasing the qualities will also increase the cost, and thus the difficulty. This is already described in the rules for modifying explosives; the Making Things section goes over other miscellaneous improvements, such as "Alternate Usage" (e.g. a ghost detector that allows one to use Science rather than Mysteries to detect spirits) or Futurization (allowing for devices that are science fiction for the age, within World War II technology). Characters also get options for personal gadgets with up to three specific improvements, like Dick Tracy's wrist-radio or Jet Black's Amazing Jet Pack. These are bought as stunts. It is also possible for a character to have an undefined "universal gadget" with two improvements he can define when used. There is also the option for the "wonderful toy" where the character uses his universal gadget as a one-shot device that accomplishes whatever's needed for the scene to "fast forward" past a certain obstacle.
After a sample list of items (like the aforementioned jet pack and wrist-radio) the book very briefly describes artifacts, which use gadget rules but are mystical in nature. They do not require a Weird Science advance to do "advanced" things, but that usually means that some arcane complication or curse is tied to the object.
Then you get the Running the Game chapter for GMs, which starts with the useful but surprisingly uncommon advice that in calling for a die roll, the GM has to imagine the results of both success AND failure- and make sure that both results will be interesting (if not necessarily good). If a choice between results does not suggest a course of action, then calling for a roll is a bad idea. "The bottom line here is that every roll should be fun, regardless of whether it succeeds or fails."
The chapter again goes over the concept of shifts (e.g. if Jet barely succeeds at an Alertness roll, he is not surprised by goons but is surrounded; if he makes it by 3, he can choose to avoid the encounter, and if he makes it by 5, he can try an ambush of his own) and assessment (again, trying to 'size up' a person, group or location and in so doing discover one or more of its unknown aspects. There is also the concept (similar to Hero System's Time Chart) of using shifts to speed up a task or to reduce difficulty by taking extra time. In light of these guidelines, each of the skills is reviewed in turn with greater detail for GM adjudication.
Under "Other Common Situations," environmental hazards like fire are rated in terms of intensity, in which the intensity inflicts its level in stress every turn(where 0 intensity is the building is on fire, but the hazard can be avoided, and 3 is a raging inferno where there may be nowhere to run). Given the frequency of the "burning fuse" scenario in Pulp action, the book goes into much greater detail on the use of explosives and their triggers, along with rules for taking cover when a bomb goes off, especially since it's assumed that being in an explosion will "take out" the character automatically and likely kill him.
After this there is a separate chapter called Tips and Tricks, which does more to explain the concept of the "pickup game" as an RPG. Basically when you don't have enough people to run your regular game (which may have ended in the middle of the action), the pickup game allows you to run a one-shot adventure with just one player or whoever's on hand. For an RPG to work as a pickup game, then, it has to be easy to prepare, easy to get started, and easy to play. Thus the slam-bang, get-straight-to-the-action spirit of Pulp is perfect for the pickup game concept, and the setting concept of the Century Club creates an automatic mechanism for getting PCs into a scenario. It is usually as simple as setting up a danger, creating complications in the resolution, posing "Certain Doom" that the PCs can eventually overcome, and then doing a Final Showdown, which may optionally lead to a Breakneck Escape if the dungeon/luxury liner/zeppelin is about to explode.
Of course this may become predictable, so the book advises the GM to master the skills of "guided improvisation." This ties into my own personal GM maxim that "If you plan for your players to choose between A and B, they will inevitably pick Q." Basically the game recognizes that it is not necessary to know how everything "should" turn out for your plot, and indeed the whole point of roleplaying is for the PCs and GM to create a story together via their interactions. The use of aspects, again, is key in this game system, because they are basically means by which players add their own elements to the game. This is especially useful when two PCs have aspects that can create obvious tension, such as John's "Loyal Like a Dog" and Jane's "Keeps Her Past a Secret." The elements that suggest themselves can be turned into open-ended decision points that move the action in a certain direction but don't predetermine any outcomes. In this case Jane could be blackmailed by a figure from her shady past, leaving John with the decision as to how to approach her about her behavior. "(B)ecause those scenes all rebound off decisions the PCs have made, the episode will definitely be 'about' them in a way that no pre-plotted adventure structure can be, even at its most flexible."
The chapter also reminds the reader that Pulp is a pure action genre, and provides several tips for maintaining an exciting pace. The action can require a certain time limit (stop the train before it rolls off the tracks), the GM should provide plenty of cues and clues to keep the plot moving, and he should allow the PCs and himself to "embrace crazy plans and schemes." And when all else fails, send in the ninjas. "Seriously. Send in the ninjas."
In light of these tips, the book also has to go over the concept of building a mystery in the game, especially since the Murder Mystery is a major example of Pulp, along with similar clue-based scenarios. It also goes over the need to properly describes scenes, which is that much more important in Pulp given the cinematic nature of the genre.
Then the chapter deals with the concept of character advancement. The book actually recommends that this be kept to a minimum, because the spirit of the pickup game is for characters to be basically equal, and if some people aren't able to play for a while, this may result in some characters becoming "sidekick" level to the PCs who have played every game. The primary allowed method of advancement is for a character to pick up new aspects depending on game events or whatever recurring actions he ends up roleplaying. Since Fate Points refresh at the rate of a character's number of aspects, adding an aspect also increases the FP refresh rate. Also, a character continues to get stunts at the rate of half his aspects, rounded down (so a character with 12 aspects gets a sixth stunt). The authors recommend that the GM monitor a character's selection of stunts, given that getting enough stunts in a given skill creates a "niche" for a character and you don't want these niches to overlap.
The next chapter is The Nether Agenda, a sample scenario for SotC. It's actually a two-part scenario, involving a certain Weird Science discovery/MacGuffin that starts small (a scientific conference in Switzerland) and culminates in a threat to the entire city of London.
Then the book reveals "Secrets of the Century"- a campaign setting chapter. This section gets into some of the hidden truth behind the setting, including the real meaning of the phrase "spirit of the century." I'm not going into details here but the concepts should be familiar to fans of Warren Ellis' Planetary, or Scott Bennie's Gestalt setting. This includes a brief review of the game's signature characters/Century Club members along with their "Shadow" counterparts in villainy. After this, the chapter goes over the details of the setting era, which is assumed to be in the mid-1920s although there are of course options for other eras. Prominent features of the period are the League of Nations, the aftermath of the "Great War" and the fate of its veterans, and (in the US) Prohibition. Less prominent issues are the actions of the Bolsheviks in Russia, the Nazi Party in Germany, and the postwar ambitions of Japan, although these do of course become critical in real history. A simple timeline is provided for major events in each year between 1900 and 1924, these events being described in short single sentences.
After all this the book has a very useful reference of Quick Pick Stunt Packages as examples of how a character can invest his stunt selections to create the right concept. This is fairly long given that there are examples for all the skill groups. Then there is a bibliography of Pulp media references, including several websites. Finally you have game stats for the signature characters, and an index.
SUMMARY
In terms of matching the rules to the genre, Spirit of the Century might be the perfect marriage. Whereas Pulp HERO adapts the Hero System to Pulp style and plays to the strengths of that system- using lots of historical detail and new options for character creation- Spirit of the Century takes the opposite tack and starts with the style first and fits it within the already loose Fudge framework using innovative but simple mechanics. (Most other Pulp games like Adventure! fit between these two approaches.) It's been mentioned that the system has a lot of potential for other genres, and it does, but one would have to discard or deemphasize the premises behind the Century Club in the setting. Also, the fact that almost everything is described in terms of aspects creates a lot of elements for a GM to keep track of, but at the same time the concept is so abstract that it allows for a lot of improvisation and creativity. (No, I haven't gotten to playtest it.) Most importantly, the rule system emphasizes simple and fun character hooks that have the inherent potential to generate conflict and suspense- which in Pulp, is just as it should be.
As such, Spirit of the Century is not only a great introduction to the Fudge system, it's the best pure Pulp game on the market.
Style: 4
Simple but appropriate art and an enthusiastic prose style carries off the 'spirit' of the game.
Substance: 4
Spirit of the Century does a lot with just a little, and in that, it simulates the Pulp approach perfectly.
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