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The Good: The Ubiquity system is as fast and easy to run as ever. The core game concept is fun, and the supporting fiction really helps to bring the world to life. Some of the focus on post-apocalyptic adventuring and the necessary concerns of a person living in the world is well done.
The Bad: The core world is uninteresting, with only the apocalypse really setting it apart from many other standard fantasy settings. Far too much detail is focused on the setting before the apocalypse. Some game mechanics are poorly thought out, both in raw mechanics terms and in thematic terms.
The Physical Thing
This 256 page black and white hardcover showcases solid production values for its $39.99 price tag. A center section of full color example characters readily stand out and make it easy for an interested reader to quickly get a feel for the game. The artwork is wonderfully grim and logically connected to the text. A useful index rounds out a fine product.On the downside, the pretty world map was not useful in play. Since the book explicitly states that the map no longer corresponds to anything after the disaster, I just couldn’t find a use for it.
Under the Cover
I ran a few sessions involving scouts/diplomats attempting to rebuild civilization by representing an expanding government and negotiating membership in said government. Engaging the setting and testing out the mechanics in a variety of situations was the real focus of the sessions, but I was left a little disappointed. Because it breaks down fairly well I’m going to tackle Desolation chapter by chapter with play commentary alongside my textual analysis.Chapter 1 Before - 24 pages.
The setting is unremarkable and I have little to say on it except that it’s a high fantasy world that lacks the sort of development one might expect from extremely common, powerful magic (magic does not function as technology). The closest parallel that comes to mind is the Forgotten Realms in terms of the abundance of magic that exists in an otherwise high medieval setting. That said, this chapter does do a few things very well.
First, by providing specific regional background it provides players and the GM with the opportunity to play with how the world has changed for a specific character. The types of lives different people led, common characteristics, and other information provides a useful springboard to later roleplaying focusing on putting aside past assumptions and dealing with the world as it is now.
Second, the chapter strives to provide the reader with a sense of what has been lost from the perspective of a citizen of each of the given regions. How life changed during the destruction of the world and how it is now is very useful for both character creation and later roleplaying. For example, the beautiful dwarven underground cities were buried under collapsed mountains during the apocalypse and now many dwarves that were living abroad head home in the hope of digging out their people.
It’s also worth noting that the standard fantasy races are all here, but some have a twist. Humans and Dwarves remain the same. Elves were cursed by nature and now live as wandering exiles who are attacked by animals and trees, and who prevent plants from growing. Halflings were tropical islanders who seemed to practice a variation of Vodoun. Gnomes gave up their knowledge and swore off magic to prevent a disaster, but have the advantage of being able to tap into a sort of universal consciousness. Finally, Rovers are a sort of sea-based humans with tattoos who excel at social skills and mental magic.
Chapter 2 The Apocalypse - 6 pages.
What caused the Night of Fire and resulting destruction is left up to the individual group to decide. While very brief, this small section does an excellent job of painting a picture of the destruction of the world and immediate aftermath. In addition to volcanoes, seas being moved, earthquakes, storms, and everything else magic tore itself apart. Most spellcasters inadvertently killed themselves or died to twisted magical artifacts that no longer functioned properly. When the immediate destruction ended, a long, cold winter settled in over the world which killed off most of the survivors from the Night of Fire. It’s a good, brief apocalypse that provides room for GMs to get creative with the world.
Chapter 3 After - 23 pages.
The authors do a good job right off of stressing how a post-apocalyptic fantasy world functions in terms of civilization. Coin and precious metals are worthless, since only food and useful tools have real value now. There is no large government so there’s no one to turn to in an emergency and no lord to maintain order or justice. It’s steel and will that matter most at the end of the day.
I also enjoy that they stress the magical effects of the Night of Fire. Forests turned to bone and other magically chaotic scenery is found next to ash dunes, chasms, and similarly post-apocalyptic places. In play I had a great time with this since I felt like I could let my imagination run wild and then sharply reign it back in, with characters traveling through harsh scrubland only to find a forest made of pure crystal with creatures of light and glass dwelling within. It’s also fun if you enjoy thinking up weird ecosystems that could develop around such things.
A quick rundown of the setting as presented and how it changed is provided, and it does a good job of focusing on important changes that could serve as fun adventure hooks. The rest of the chapter is filled with example communities, which is helpful because they could be instantly dropped into a game or used as inspiration for creating more communities for the characters to interact with.
I do admit to having a little bit of trouble with the setting in play. Since there is no central authority I quickly came to the conclusion that four or five armed and armored folk who have some experience killing and, almost certainly, using powerful magic would have little opposition in many areas. While the characters in my game did end up fighting with fearful communities, the fights were fast and one sided. Once the leaders were down it was hard to justify hungry peasants attacking the 12’ ogre with a mace or confronting the elf who just burned some of them to cinders.
On the plus side, though, this just creates more interesting choices for the characters. Since the world is beginning anew I think it also gives the players the opportunity to really feel like they’re making a difference in the world. If you killed the leader of that one village, who took over? If you saved that community, how is it doing a year later? You are the movers and shakers in the setting because there just aren’t that many other folk still around.
Chapter 4 Character Creation - 67 pages.
The other reason that you’re the movers and shakers is that character creation easily allows you to build a hardcore badass right out the gate, though I’m not sure how intentional this is. To illustrate I’ll take us through character creation, but first let me explain the basics of the system.
Ubiquity uses an Attribute + Skill dice pool of d2s to resolve most actions. Any dice can be used, with even results equaling one success each. Players may also take the average of a roll, or part of a roll, which keeps dice pools from getting out of control. It also provides players with a good deal of insulation from the fickleness of fate and guarantees that skilled characters can consistently perform well, especially in non-emergency situations.
First off, players select a Archetype and a Race. The Archetype is just a one word statement about the character that serves as a guide for character creation, such as Soldier. Race can play a larger roll. Humans have no modifiers, but Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Mongrel, and Loranthians (halflings) all have modifiers to help provide a unique feel. The modifiers tend to be slight and are focused on developing a unique feel for each race, though I remain disappointed that humans receive nothing except greater access to magic. All magic in the setting is race based, so only elves are Elementalists and only humans are Sorcerers and Nercomancers.
| Example: One of the players built a Dwarven Rune-Knight for play. The Archetype, Rune-Knight, was of his own devising and suggests a character with some magical and martial background. For being a mountain Dwarf the character gains Darkvision, Resistance to Poison (+2), Hardy (Extra die when Style Point spent on Body rolls), Broken Compass (-2 to Navigation), Dense (-4 to Swim), and Slow (-1 to Movement). |
The meat of the character, mechanically, comes in the form of Attributes and Skills. Characters receive 15 points to be spread among Strength, Dexterity, Body, Intelligence, Willpower, and Charisma on a one for one basis, with no stat higher than 5 or less than 1. Derived traits, such as Initiative and Stun, are then calculated from the Attributes.
| Example: Wanting an intelligent and physically capable character, something has to give. That something is Charisma and Dexterity here. The final stats are Body 4, Dexterity 1, Strength 3, Charisma 1, Intelligence 4, and Willpower 2. The derived values include Move 3, Initiative 5, Stun 4, Perception 6, Health 6, and Defense 8 (with armor and shield). |
Characters also receive 15 points to spend on Skills, which can be no higher than 5. A variety of setting relevant Skills are included, but a few deserve specific attention. First, all magic Skills require the character to spend a Trait (see below) on being able to use that type of magic. Second, many Skills are ‘broad skills’ and require a character to specialize in a particular area of knowledge. Academics is one example of this. Finally, a few Skills are significantly more desirable than others.
In play it felt like a Trait + some Skill Points was pretty cheap for magic access. Fighter mage characters were common, and magic is so powerful in the setting that it’s an extremely tempting option. Broad Skills just didn’t work. It’s a post apocalyptic world, the chances of Academics: Philosophy being useful more than once in a campaign is extremely remote. Given the strong focus on more immediate concerns, the broad skills should have just been left as general skills. As it is they were not appealing skills to choose from.
Scavenge and Survival, though, are extremely appealing. Scavenge works much like a bartering roll except the character attempts to find desired pieces of equipment (weapons, armor, etc.) in ruins by making a check. Survival has a variety of uses, from tracking to acquiring game, that make it a very valuable choice in the setting.
| Example: The Rune-Knight takes Rune Magic at 4, Melee at 4 (specialization in Axes), Athletics at 2, Riding at 1, and Intimidation at 4 (specialization in ‘Cold Stare’). This gives him final values of Rune Magic 8, Axes 8, Athletics 5, Riding 2, Cold Stare 6. This definitely makes him a focused combat character, but other PCs were handling wilderness survival, medicine, social interaction, and other useful Skills. |
With Skills out of the way all we have left is Talents. All characters begin with one Talent and may spend starting experience to acquire another (probably a good idea). Talents tend to be very powerful, offering unique abilities that define a character. Unfortunately, I also find Desolation’s Talents to be a little unbalancing at times.
Many Talents offer a simple benefit that’s easy to understand. Use Dexterity instead of Strength to attack in combat. Gain a +1 bonus to Charisma. Ignore a portion of a called shot penalty. You get the idea. Talents also allow characters access to magic, being the prerequisite to training up magical Skills. They can also improve those Skills and lessen the downside of magic. Finally, some Talents incorporate setting-unique concepts such as the Ancestral Stream (Gnomes can tap into it to learn new information).
Some of these Talents are weak in the sense that players lack a mechanical incentive to purchase them. Consider the Accuracy Talent. It allows a character to ignore up to a -2 penalty when targeting a specific location. Now consider the Skill Aptitude Talent. It provides a permanent +2 bonus to any Skill all the time. Now, admittedly, Accuracy will apply to any attack (not just Melee or Archery) and can certainly be useful, but there’s no way it will be as consistently useful as a general +2. A character could buy both, of course, but Talents are a precious commodity and starting characters will only have one or two of them to use. Besides, a character could also buy a +1 to their combat attribute to get a general +1 which is also going to be more consistently useful. Time Sense, which allows a character the same information that could be gained from a difficulty 2 Survival roll, is even less desirable.*
Some Talents are extremely useful. Consider Burn Resistance, a Magic Talent that reduces Burn damage by 1 point. As discussed below in Magic, this is an extremely valuable Talent. In play the spellcaster without this Talent was really hurting, while those with it were more willing to cast spells.
In play the hands down most powerful Talent was Lifesaver. It doubles the effectiveness of the Medicine Skill such that the party medic, with a dice pool of 10, effectively healed the entire part to full after every combat. It was just too much healing to have in the game.
Finally, some Talents are thematically odd. Several seem focused on swashbuckler or Bardic characters while others are a little difficult to wrap my head around (such as using the Body stat as an attack stat). They’re not bad Talents, they just don’t seem to fit with the game very well. In fact, I’d say that’s a problem with some of the Talents in general.
| Example: The Rune-Knight takes Rune-Magic and Burn Resistance for his two Talent picks. |
* Note that many of the Talents appearing here also appeared in Hollow Earth Expedition. I think some Talents work better for that game, and for simulating pulp hero capabilities, than this one. Desolation sets a grim and desperate mood – just reprinting the material from HEX does not always work well. Additionally, just because an ability is not unbalancing or destructive of mood in a high action pulp game does not mean it’s problem free in a game where food and shelter are major concerns.
Chapter 5 Magic - 23 pages.
The core idea behind magic is that it was fundamentally twisted during the apocalypse and, today, can work harm on anyone who uses it. Mechanically, characters attempt an affect at a difficult from 1 to 6 and roll their magic dice pool which will range from around 6 to 12 dice. Every failure inflicts one point of Burn damage which can only be healed through rest. Characters can’t take the average on this roll, so there’s always a chance of severe injury when magic is being used. That said, characters are not required to roll all their dice and can roll as few as they wish.
In play this didn’t work out as well as it reads. In combat the spellcasters realized they could utterly destroy an opponent if they wanted to. Our Elementalist had 12 dice and a Charisma (casting stat) of 5, which means he could have easily killed just about anything in the setting if he went all out. Unfortunately for him and the other casters, even just rolling 5 dice or so could quickly result in a fair amount of Burn damage. After the first two combats this meant that the spellcasters weren’t interested in using magic in combat anymore. It’s too risky to take 2 or 3 points of Burn damage and then get hit once in combat. Even with a conservative roll of 5 dice our Elementalist went down on the first round of combat.
Outside of combat, however, characters could go nuts with magic. Burn heals at a rate of 1 point every 30 minutes, so even blasting oneself into unconsciousness isn’t a big deal so long as you’re in a relatively safe area with a friend nearby. This means that truly incredible effects, such as summoning rainstorms to nourish crops, could be pulled off. In combat, though, players became conservative again.
The primary focus of the chapter, in addition to the various mechanics behind calculating magic difficulties, is on introducing each of the types of magic and providing some flavor for it. Example spell and burn effects, roleplaying suggestions, and the strengths and weaknesses of each type of magic are included. I didn’t have any trouble understanding each type of magic, though at times I wish there was a little more discussion or more concrete examples to give a better idea of what a given type of magic is meant to be capable of.
The magic types include Animism (Halflings), Beguiling (Rovers), Elemental (Elves), Necromancy (Humans), Primal (Mongrels), Rune (Dwarves), and Sorcery (Humans). Each type has a specific casting stat, such as Intelligence for Rune and Charisma for Elemental.
Of final note, magic items are also included here but they’re not particularly well implemented. Despite two magic item creation skills we only get two and a half pages of items and potions, none of which are integrated into a ‘creation system.’ The power level of the items varies, but most of them are built to have a once per day or similar limitation on their effects. I expect mechanics like this from resource management focused games like D&D, but the nature of magic in the setting clashes with the idea of once a day magic items. I’m sorry to say that I find the few magic items to be generally unexciting and their mechanical implementation to be weak.
Chapter 6 Religion - 11 pages.
Ten religions each covering about a half page are included, one for each of the races and a few more for humans. The frustrating part of this section is that the text flat out states that all of the religions are incorrect, and goes on to describe in a few sentences the true nature of the cosmos. Any GM can change anything they dislike, of course, but some of the fun of the religion section is stolen by that initial reveal.
Be aware that this setting does not have any sort of meddling gods whatsoever. The divine entities that actually do exist have no personal role in the universe and really just represent the concepts of Order and Chaos. With that out of the way, what you’re left with is a variety of faiths that resemble the faiths of our world a little bit more in that there’s no divine entity to come down and tell the people what’s what.
Your mileage may vary, of course, but for me the Religion included here is no more exciting than the stock vanilla pre-apocalypse setting the game includes. Evil cults, churches of light, and other groups fail to really inspire but do serve as a useful backdrop for players and GMs that want to have a more defined setting to interact with. I don’t think the topic needs nearly as much attention as its given here, but it can still serve as another useful tool to make cultures feel distinct.
Chapter 7 Rules - 11 pages.
As noted earlier, Ubiquity uses a simple d2 system that encourages players and the GM to just take the average when they want. Difficulty ranges from 1 to 6, and dice pools typically range from 4 to 12 or so. In play this works very well. The system is fast and easy to adjudicate, characters feel skilled but not overpowered, and it’s very easy to correctly guess the mechanics for special situations (they’re intuitive). The system makes good use of Style Points, tokens awarded for good roleplaying that can be cashed in for a bonus die, a decrease to damage taken (for 2), or to increase a Trait by one level for a scene. They’re fun and have a mechanically light touch, so it’s not unbalancing to hand them out like candy to keep the action going and to encourage everything that’s fun about the game.
That said, I do find using the Style Points for a temporary increase in a Trait to be a little on the powerful side at times. In particular, boosting Burn Resistance for spellcasters could be one way to let them really unleash hell without worrying about Burn for an entire combat. Just two Style points down and now the character is very unlikely to experience burn. While I didn’t get to see this happen in play, I do think it would be a reasonable tactic for a spellcaster in a longer running game. I also think it has the potential to really push magic towards being unbalanced.
Chapter 8 Combat - 19 pages.
As a GM I would rarely roll dice in combat. Instead I would simply take the average value for my monsters’ attacks and defenses, at least initially, and then roll situationally after that depending on whether I wanted to move things along or enhance the drama of the situation. The system offers a variety of situational modifiers for maneuvers which add some spice, but be warned that Ubiquity thrives on creative players. If your combats amount to attack, hit, damage rolls with little to no description then you may find the system to be too bland for your taste.
One combat mechanic that did come into play is the danger of multiple opponents. Every additional adversary attacking a character after the first inflicts a -2 penalty on the character’s defense, which quickly results in deadly combats. It’s actually a little strange in some respects because an armored knight can do quite well against a ferocious troll but fall apart when confronted with a small group of goblins. Combined with the fact that accuracy and damage capability are the same thing (weapons add dice to the attack roll and every success over the defense roll is a point of damage dealt) and some combats may not make as much sense as they otherwise should. Still, combat was fun and the system faded to the background so we could focus more on what was going on in the mind’s eye.
Chapter 9 Equipment - 7 pages.
Normally equipment is something I gloss over in a review. “There are weapons.” What more needs to be said? Well, a bit more in the case of Desolation. There are few smiths left in the setting, and many of them are probably busy making other useful things than new swords. This means lots of weapons are scavenged, using the Scavenge skill, and a set difficulty is included for each one.
The equipment here suffers from several potential problems. First, unless it’s a matter of raw necessity characters have little incentive to use ‘weak’ weapons. Weapons deal lethal or non-lethal damage ranging from 1 to 4 points, depending on the weapon, and the end result is that few characters will use a dagger except in the most desperate circumstances. Second, the game has generally applied a series of size-based modifiers similar to those found in other games, most notably Dungeons and Dragons 3.5. It applies these to weapons as well, limiting the weapons smaller creatures can use and reducing the damage on those weapons. It doesn’t do the same for larger creatures, however, and both Mongrels and anyone with the appropriate Trait can be large. The whole nature of the mechanic is a little weird, since small creatures get a bonus die to hit but lose a die because of their smaller weapon. Using the sizes seems like more work than it’s actually worth in play.
Finally, though poor condition is mentioned as being worth subtracting a die over it’s not support by any interesting mechanics. In a setting where antler daggers and other non-standard weapons may be common I would love to see more interesting weapons that help to create a post-apocalyptic feel.
Chapter 10 Storytelling - 21 pages.
While I don’t find all of the mechanics to be as appropriate as I would like, I have nothing but praise for the storytelling support. This chapter focuses in on tips and ideas for bringing the post-apocalyptic feel home, and leaves aside that recycled GM advice we’ve seen in so many games. Character motivations, story arc ideas, and similar information is all included to help get the fires of imagination burning.
A short sample adventure is also included. It’s a simple three part encounter meant to introduce the players to some of the setting concepts. I like it because it’s so short I could easily run it with sample characters to introduce players to the system before character generation, though Ubiquity is a system that definitely favors the low-prep GM.
Chapter 11 Bestiary - 26 pages.
A lot of books provide a couple of monsters but not enough to really sustain a campaign. I don’t feel like that’s the case here. The Bestiary includes all the standard fantasy creatures, such as dragons, orcs, and undead, and a few Desolation natives. What’s important to realize is that the Ubiquity system is easy enough to play with that GMs can easily create their own creatures with little trouble. The example monsters can serve a game quite well, and a few detail changes can turn a troll into a “rock monster” or whatever similar creature a GM desires.
My Take
I feel like Desolation is a great concept that just misses out from being a great game. The Hollow Earth Expedition rules seem to have been applied to a destroyed fantasy setting with some D&D rules twists to create a game that lacks the tailored mechanics it needs to really shine. The authors should have ditched some of the Traits and focused more on mechanics that bring home the post-apocalyptic feel of the game. As it stands I think that the magic in the setting really undoes what the game is striving for, and some of the remaining pulp-oriented mechanics also prohibit a grim and dirty feel.That said, the Ubiquity system does kick butt and a lot of the things I consider to be problems may be complete non-issues for many groups. Additionally, a creative GM can easily patch many of the perceived holes with their own rules variations. Just keep in mind that if your group isn’t high on the imagination then the system may not work well for you, and if you prefer to run things as written then you may have trouble with some of the mechanics.
