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The first chapter describes the world of the game, with no reference to mechanics or to our own present day world. The world of Unhallowed Metropolis diverged from our own in 1905. The Plague struck: people who died rose as zombies. As if that were not bad enough, parts of the world were affected by the Blight, rendering them useless for producing edible food. As the Blight spreads year after year, it may well be a worse threat than even the Plague. It certainly left me wondering how long humanity could survive.
There was no World War I. In Britain, there was a return to Victorian values, albeit with many differences. The Neo-Victorians have undone many social reforms, and the air is at least as unhealthy as it was in the 19th century. On the other hand, there are women soldiers, and women are as likely as men to become mad scientists, performing foul, unnatural experiments to animate the dead, extent life, reverse the Plague, or find a new food source.
The game is set in 2105. The law requires cremation of all dead. Yet, as always, the rich can find a loophole - hiring highly trained Mourners who can decapitate a corpse the instant it starts to move. The middle class has to make do with heirloom headspikes with tender sentiments on them.
Everything from macabre details like the above to political overviews on local and international scales to scientific breakthroughs and scandals are covered in the first chapter. This impressive piece of world building alone was reason enough for me to buy the game.
The second chapter introduces the system. There are six attributes and various skills. Tasks are resolved by rolling 2d10 + either an attribute or a skill versus either a difficulty rating or an opposed roll.
The third chapter covers character creation. Options include, but are not limited to, the Undertaker, hunting the undead for the bounty; the Mourner, rigidly proper, yet devastatingly effective in combat; and the Dhampir, survivor of a vampire attack (or, more rarely, offspring of a human-vampire liaison). The only character type not covered is the Psychic, an odd omission given the description of the Psi Branch in the first chapter. Indeed, nowhere in the remaining chapters are psychic abilities even mentioned. (NB: I gather that Psychics and Mediums will be the subject of the second book of the Unhallowed Metropolis line).
In addition to skills and attributes, characters may have advantages and disadvantages, called Qualities and Impediments. Additionally, all characters start with Corruption, and must choose a single point in one of three areas (paths): Physical, Desire, and Drive. Getting more than 5 points in any of them takes the character out of play, whether because the character is dead or because the character is irredeemable.
The authors are quite up front in explaining that all characters who live long enough will become utterly corrupt and advising players to take advantage of the rules and sell their characters' souls as dearly as possible. Players may use as many Second Chances as their highest Corruption rating to reroll -- or to cause a reroll for an enemy or an ally. Need another reroll beyond that? No problem -- just increase your character's highest Corruption rating by 1. Or, use Devil's Luck to explain how your character survived against all odds.
Just increase your character's corruption rating and forgo Second Chances for the rest of the session. In other words, increasing Corruption is nearly always a matter of player choice.
Corruption may be reduced, but it's not easy. One slip brings it all back, no matter how low it was before. The authors are careful to point out that the methods of reducing Corruption are based on genre considerations, not on reality.
The fourth chapter details the various equipment people might have or might lust after. I know women who would gladly buy a combat corset! Chapter five looks at non-human pathology, with both mechanics for and in character essays about zombies, animates, vampires, dhampiri, and ghouls. Social and legal implications are consided as well. The dead are not legally allowed to hold property or public offices, as, otherwise, younger nobles would be up in arms at the prospect of being denied their inheritance in perpetuity.
Prostitutes are periodically screened for signs of vampirism (and STDs), a good idea marred by a couple of details: Male prostitutes are less likely to be screened than female prostitutes, and prostitutes will often do their best to avoid being screened and locked up on suspicion of contamination. I like this combination of a logical response to vampirism as a contagious condition and the practical realities of implementing that response.
The sixth chapter looks at the world's science, considering alchemy, drugs, and medical procedures. Anti agathics are of special interest, since, zombies notwithstanding, people lust after immortality. Chapter six also looks at artificial life -- think Frankenstein's monster, not an AI here -- reincarnation and "thropes", the products of a military experiment gone wrong. Again, the book gives consideration to social attitudes towards all of above.
Chapter Seven has advice for the GM. It looks at themes and plot elements, and it has a few scenario seeds. This is also where the experience point system is. The chapter also contains a consideration of social scandals and their consequences, and a list of book and film sources. Two appendices follow: A glossary and a bibliography. I am not sure why the bibliography and the list of sources in Chapter 7 were not combined.
The book ends with a two page character sheet. There is no index.
The art is a mixed bag, including photos, gruesome sketches of corpses, and faux medical sketches. All of these work well to illustrate the world of Unhallowed Metropolis. Living people are dressed appropriately for their station in life. Even the prostitutes are scantily clad only by (Neo) Victorian standards. Nudity is reserved for the dead, the undead, and artificial life. It tends to be more disturbing than titillating. However, there are a couple of pieces of fully dressed people with proportions that just don't work.
The most impressive part of the book is the world building. I would not have thought I could get so enthusiastic about a game with zombies as a major element, but the combination of the careful consideration of consequences and the over the top mad science won me over.
It is, however, sometimes an uneasy combination. For example, apparently scientists do not build on each other's work once the game starts. Yes, it's a cliche of the genre, but it's a tired one. Yes, it's hard to have mechanics for that, but in a game where scientific advancements are so critical, there should be such mechanics. At least, there should be such mechanics if the game is intended to support long non-static campaigns.
I don't know how realistic a long campaign is, given the Blight. We are told that 70% of the UK landmass and all of Ireland except for Dublin has fallen to the Blight and cannot support any life. The resulting wastelands "could never be reclaimed". Moreover, the Blight is spreading, and it has no single source. This means that the UK will soon be utterly uninhabitable. If the rest of the world is in a similar state, humanity is doomed.
One can work around that, of course, with either the possibility of reversing the Blight or just not thinking too hard about the details. And, the existence of the Blight does neatly explain why further progress reclaiming civilization has not been made, a detail I appreciate. But, I would have liked some explanation of what the authors intended to be the long term consequences of the Blight.
That said, this falls into the category of products for which I paid and for which I got my money's worth in inspiration alone and which the zombie hordes can have when they pry it out of my cold, dead fingers.
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