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The Good: Historical support, including timelines, currencies, and general histories, is well done and useful. The use of Fate Cards is neat and maintains emphasis on specific character elements.
The Bad: With no specific setting other than the time period and very little in the way of rules for supernatural creatures (just general suggestions) the product leaves an awful lot up to the GM to create and some GMs may wonder why they need this game when they could just set another game in this time period. Some gamers may find the rules system boring.
The Physical Thing
This 214 page 6x9 black and white softcover is an excellent example of how relying on public domain artwork can be the perfect choice for some games. With inspirational art that helps to convey a gothic atmosphere and good formatting this book strongly conveys an impression of the time period to the reader. The only downside here is that there is no index, and I found that to be problematic while writing this review.Under the Cover
Chapter One 12 Degrees - 8 pages.The 12 Degrees system is a 2d12 roll under system. The GM tells the player any difficulty modifiers and the appropriate Stat or Skill (Ex: Roll Might at a -1). The player then rolls 2d12 and if they get under the adjusted value they succeed. The standard three types of tests are present: Raw Stat tests (lift this, see how long you can run), Skill tests (roll your Blacksmithing), and Opposed tests (two people roll Might in an arm wrestling match). Mix in critical successes and failures (2 and 24) and you have the whole of the system.
The upside of this system is that it’s simple and intuitive. Anyone with even a little bit of familiarity with other RPGs will pick it up right away and there’s very little in the way of rules that a GM must know. On the downside, the system doesn’t do anything special nor does it particularly support this specific game world. The lack of any interesting rules might be a turn off to many groups.
Chapter Two Heroes - 22 pages.
There are five Stats to work with here – Might, Nimble, Vigor, Reason, and Resolution. Characters also have a pool of Vitality and Sanity points derived from these stats, which are lost in combat and when exposed to maddening things. Finally, all characters have a pool of Faith points that can be spent to make die rolls easier. Faith, while very useful, is much more low-key than the sorts of meta mechanics found in other systems. Each point of Faith spent just lowers the difficulty by 1, which makes sense since this is meant to be a somewhat grittier game.
Character creation kicks off by asking the player to choose a Background that reflects where their character comes from. Immigrants, Colonists, and Native Americans are all supported choices and a character receives several mechanical bonuses to reflect their background in game.
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Example: I’m building Jacob Smith, a wealthy Virginia resident whose life of pleasure has recently been transformed into a life of purpose after the death of his wife by sinister means.
Jacob is a Colonist and falls within the sub-type ‘Urban Colonist.’ He receives literacy in English for free along with a +1 bonus to either Resolution or Reason (I choose Resolution). |
Characters receive 55 points to spend during on Stats, and starting Stats must range between 3 and 15. Stats are particularly important since they both add to vitality/sanity pools and dictate the rating Skills begin at.
| Example: Reason and Resolution will be the highest stats for my well-off intellectual. I set both of them at a base of 14. Might, Nimble, and Vigor all get set at 9 – slightly below average and reflecting his bookish physique. This gives him final values of: Might 9, Nimble 9, Vigor 9, Reason 14, Resolution 15, Vitality 45, Sanity 75, Faith Points 12. |
Chapter Three Skills - 16 pages.
Colonial Gothic sports a moderately sized Skill list that may seem larger considering the small number of Skills starting characters begin with. All characters receive 45 points to spend on Skills, but the first Rank of a Skill costs a number of points equal to the associated attribute. So a Reason Skill costs the character’s Reason in points and begins at a value equal to the character’s Reason. To increase the Skill another rank the player spends a number of points equal to 1/2 the associated Stat. Characters also gain a free Profession or Trade Skill, which is a nice addition.
| Example: Jacob has Profession: Investor for free. I also buy Diplomacy (Resolution), Study: History (Reason), and Language: French (Reason) for a total cost of 43 points. Those last 2 Skill Points may be saved for combining with XP to increase Skills later on. |
In addition to the relatively mundane Skills which cover all the basics (from combat to investigation), Colonial Gothic also makes use of a variety of occult Skills for those who want to play magically inclined characters. The only potential downside here is that starting Skills can be very expensive and, because of this, playing a practitioner of magic means that the character knows how to accomplish little else. Astrology, Divination, Lore, Rituals, and Sense round out the Occult Skills and magic users probably are proficient at several of these.
Chapter Four Action - 20 pages.
It’s time for combat! Roll Initiative and decide on what you’re doing this round. Each character gets a varying number of Actions and both attack and defense require the expenditure of these Actions. Characters normally have just one Action, however, so defensive actions are likely uncommon since they prolong the fight rather than bring it to an end. This does give groups a notable advantage, however, since the likely primary targets of attack can try to avoid damage through defensive actions while others do the killing.
When attacking just roll 2d12, like with any other Skill test. A result under the character’s Skill results in a success. Various penalties, such as from cover and distance, may apply. If the opponent does not roll a successful defense action (such as Dodge) then you hit and deal damage based on weapon type.
That’s it, combat is very simple but be aware that characters can generally survive several serious wounds before otherwise going down due to the fairly large Vitality pools. Other than combat, the Action chapter explores Madness. When a character encounters monsters, the undead, or other frightening things a Resolution test is rolled. If the character fails this test they lose a point of Sanity. Over time this loss of sanity results in a variety of different disorders and, ultimately, madness.
Diseases and Poisons round out the chapter, but Diseases deserve special mention. Whenever a character comes into contact with someone who has a disease they make a Vitality test. If they fail they contract the disease. I like this quite a bit because it plays up the danger of disease and provides players with a strong incentive to take disease very seriously. This is unusual for an RPG and a welcome addition to the rules.
Chapter Five Economics - 16 pages.
Currency systems, bills of credit, and weapons round out this chapter. Historically the chapter does a good job of informing the GM and players of what different things are worth and describing the goods found in this era. On a system level the weapons are well done. While pistols are surprisingly non-lethal, rifles are very dangerous and characters have every incentive to begin combat with rifles and then switch to hand to hand weapons at close range. Pistols fill the sole role of the weapon used at medium range before the enemy can close, which works well for more cinematic combat.
Chapter Six America - 32 pages.
Each of the American colonies gets about a half page to full page of historical discussion and there’s enough information here to give those unfamiliar with this period in history a good idea of what’s going on. Native American tribes receive even more detail and anyone interested in portraying a tribal person will find a good amount of support here.
Chapter Seven Witchcraft - 26 pages.
Magic isn’t flashy. It’s the subtle sort of magic worked in shadows of which no one is likely aware unless it’s found out. Basic rituals are very basic. Many are as simple as allowing a candle to burn longer. However, there are a few potent spells even among the basics. Being cured of disease or poison is quite the feat, especially considering how dangerous and easy to contract disease is in this game. A bound animal to watch over the spell caster is invaluable in a setting where witches are feared and hunted.
There aren’t any combat spells here. The closest the game comes are various spells that increase a person’s ability or curse another with a horrible fate. Since all spells are a little risky to cast, even these spells (if known at all) will only make an appearance in the game in the most dire circumstances. That said, when performed as a group even this subtle magic can become very dangerous to others. A group of evil witches or shaman could easily exert powerful influence over an area, hurting or killing those who oppose them without ever having to confront the person directly.
If you like subtle, low-key magic that comes with a bit of risk then this magic system will work well for you. Spells are learned individually and executed through a simple skill test.
Chapter Eight Secrets - 30 pages.
Effectively a GM and monster section, the Secrets chapter unfortunately fails to really assist the GM. Take, for example, supernatural setting information. It is suggested that Colonial Gothic may have an alternate timeline or a secret history (things lurk in the shadows) but neither of these concepts are elaborated upon. There’s no discussion of the impact of the supernatural on this period of history and the entirety of the setting other than the colony and Native American Tribes overviews earlier in the book is left up to the GM. I want more setting support and interesting ideas, it’s not enough to say “Yes, it’s 1776” and expect the GM to wing it from there. I can already do this with any generic game.
The rest of the advice is basic, with a few gems scattered among the uninspired discussions of playing historical games. I would love to see more discussion of making this period in history exciting, inspiring plot hooks, and pre-generated NPCs to immediately throw into a game.
Zombies, Ghosts, Vampires, Demons, and Humans all receive brief discussion and sparse mechanical support. No details are given on any supernatural creatures, which like the rest of the book is both a good and bad deal. It leaves the content wholly up to the GM’s discretion, but like the rest of the game it fails to provide anything new and exciting. With mechanics for these creatures that amount to no more than small supernatural templates they’re easy to create on the fly but lack any more detail than a supernatural bite or being pretty tough. Human Villain Creation rules follow the same guidelines as normal character creation, but different point values are provided to build villains of varying strength.
All that said, one interesting new mechanic is discussed here. Each player begins with four Fate Cards that each describe some interesting bit of information about a character. One may be played per adventure to bring that bit of history or character quality into play to the advantage of the character. While the rules are very sparse, it is nice to see a mechanic that encourages the players to bring something of their own creation into the game and make sure their characters get a certain amount of spotlight time.
Chapter Nine Adventure - 20 pages.
The included adventure is of average quality, providing a fairly linear investigation of a Beast Cult by the player characters. It does do a good job in giving the reader a better idea of what sorts of adventures Colonial Gothic is striving to produce, however, and for that reason it’s a very welcome addition to the product.
Chapter Ten Appendix - 11 pages.
A detailed timeline and bibliography together round out this product and they’re both well done. The timeline provides the reader with a better idea of what’s going on in history, and bibliographies are often useful for those interested in further exploring a setting. Two full pages are dedicated to biographies of the writers and artists as well, so you may bask in their awesomeness.
