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Wyrd is Bond is not going to immediately appeal to everyone.
By default, you take on the role of a 'gangsta,' a member of an urban street gang comprised primarily of black, latino, or asian youth. And although there is room for heroes in the setting, most characters are not going to be nice people.
The system is interesting but occassionally vague, and I found myself rereading sections often in an attempt to understand all of the nuances. Sometimes this clarified things. Other times I remained confused.
To the author's credit, both of these items are addressed in the book.
The author, Jason Blair of Little Fears fame, acknowledges that most roleplayers are probably white and from middle-class families. Coming from that background, some players may find difficulties in portraying the characters in Wyrd is Bond without resorting to stereotypes.
As for the rules, Blair writes in his closing comments that the system is meant to be simple and open to interpretation and that he sees this as a feature, not a bug.
Where the book unquestioningly succeeds is in creating an interesting, vibrant world that may not be full of role-models but is compelling and filled with ideas that creative players and gamemasters will be able to riff off of with no problem.
And although the game may not appeal to everyone immediately, it does have something to offer to everyone who takes the time to read it.
Gangbangers, hip-hop, and street magic: Setting
You are a slinger. A gangbanger who wields the power of the Wyrd, a timeless mystical force that has been tapped into and wielded since the beginning of time by social outcasts and the downtrodden.
The Wyrd is semi-sentient and it tends to back the underdogs. It is never explicity stated why this is, but the Wyrd is unknowable, even to those who wield it.
Wyrd is Bond is set in the streets of large cities in the modern day United States. Magic has recently been revealed to the public through the rise of magic-using rappers and hip-hop icons. You see, some of the gangbanging slingers became entertainers and when they made the move they brought their magic with them, incorporating it into their rhymes and stage performances.
They've also started clothing lines and record labels. It's not hard to imagine a slinger-turned-rapper endorsing a Wyrd Energy Drink a la 50 Cent and Vitamin Water.
These moguls are in the minority, however. Most slingers are local thugs and dealers, more concerned with their street corner and city than building an entertainment empire.
In a neat move, there's a mechanical reason for why Wyrd-users remain underground and low-key. If another Wyrd-user knows your true-name, they get power over you in the form of a bonus to their dice rolls. On top of that, the more Wyrd-users who know your true name, the less effective you are in using the Wyrd, whether your using it against the people who know your name or not.
Your true name is simply the name you were given at birth, so in this technological age it becomes more likely for someone to find your true name the more famous you become. If you're a rapper selling out venues, you probably have some crazed fans who are trying to dig up every bit of information they can about your personal life.
Although the public is now aware of the existence of magic, they're largely ignorant of what, exactly, magic can do and how it's created.
The end result is a world that is very much like ours but with plenty of room to insert mystical weirdness. Because magic users have to hide their identity and remain underdogs in order to be effective, they are not able to change the world but on the street level they can do plenty.
Slingers: Character
Slingers are rare and are usually either gang members inducted into the ways of magic, or inducted into a slinger gang comprised entirely of magic users. There are an extremely rare number of people who have an affinity for the Wyrd without the need on indoctrination, but these people are usually quickly spotted and pressured to join a gang. Everyone else needs to undergo an initiation process in order to learn the Wyrd. This involves a sponsor, who gives up a portion of his power to invest in the new slinger, and some form of ritual whether it be completing a task for the gang or being "jumped" into the gang by receiving a severe beating from gang members.
Most slingers choose to join the gang that brought them to the Wyrd, but other decide to remain with their normal gang. Slingers affiliated with a normal gang lack the magical protection and back-up inherent in slinger gangs, but are also usually given much higher positions than they would receive in a slinger gang.
The book details three real world gangs, the Crips, the Bloods, and the Vice Lords. The Vice Lords hate slingers with a passion and will not hesitate to pump bullets into them. The Bloods actively court slingers, and the Crips are cautious around them but are generally willing to trust slingers who were Crips first.
The Wyrd is too complex for any one person to fully comprehend. Instead, each slinger gang follows a particular Aspect of the Wyrd. A slinger can attempt to cast pretty much any spell as long as it falls under his Aspect. Of course, what is deemed to fall under that Aspect is going to be largely up to the person running the game.
Players are presented with a choice of seven slinger gangs to choose from with an eighth gang detailed but mostly left in the hands of the gamemaster. The format for each of the gangs is the same, so it shouldn't be much trouble for a seasoned group of players to form their own gang. In fact, it's stated that there are local slinger gangs out there. The ones presented are simply those with the largest presence.
Each gang gets a nice description including examples of typical dress and music and the gang's code of ethics, as well as gang-specific slings (spells), tricks (cool little bonuses that fit with the gang's theme), rituals (used to refuel your Juice, or magical power), and bonus dice (specific behaviors that result in increased performance).
The Crows - Your stereotypical gangbanger turned up to 11. Crows are all about making money, driving nice cars with big rims, and having plenty of good looking women (or men for the female members). The group actually follows the teachings of Aleister Crowley, yup the English-mystic Aleister Crowley. The Crows have adopted him, or the other way around, and given him a street name, though, "The Alley Star." The Crows' Aspect is Physical and they refuel their Juice by sex and get bonus dice for operating while under the influence.
The 3xStars (Triple X Stars) - The largest slinger gang, they follow the Hermetic teachings and seek to balance their own lives and the world. They're described in the book as the default good guys, but like everything else their level of good depends on view. Still, since they seek balance and live in the crime-ridden ghetto, they are often positive forces since they try to rebuild their community in an effort to seek the balance to drugs and shootings. I can't help but wonder how good they would remain if their neighborhoods did change for the better.... The 3xStars Aspect is Spiritual.
The D-Men - Demons inhabitating dead human bodies. No, seriously. There are some D-Men who were corrupted or tempted into pledging allegiance to the devil, but the majority of them are actual demons who have traversed Hell and taken residence in a dead body. Their gang sign is throwing heavy-metal devil horns and their Aspect is Infernal.
Los Reyes - Originally formed from members of the Latin Kings, this gang accepts only those of hispanic descent. Members generally don't care about anyone except their fellow gangstas and their family. In fact, their Aspect is Family. Hostile towards outsiders, they still retain a sense of honor, especially in regards to their family. They kind of remind me of Smiley and his crew in the movie Training Day.
The Dread - Created specifically to counter the other gangs, The Dread was formed by voodoo god Baron Samedi. They have a gang-specific sling that allows them to create zombies and have serious problems with the D-Men and Crows. They do not like the fact that magic has been brought to the mainstream and seek to return it to its hidden ways. Their Aspect is Death.
Hungry Ghosts - An asian-only gang that usually divides itself further based on the members country of origin. Like Los Reyes, they are focused on family, but they are much less aggressive about it. If you rough up that shop keeper working in the grocery store in Little Saigon, you're going to have a problem, but the Hungry Ghosts aren't usually going to go looking for a fight. Their Aspect is Taiji, defined as the balance of polar extremes.
Blood Queens - Gang comprised entirely of women, mostly taken in from abusive relationships. They've been warped by the Wyrd into a cannibalistic-vampire hybrid. They look like an average Jane but can transform into a beatial-looking figure with razor sharp teeth and nails. They have to eat two pounds of human flesh a day, so there's guaranteed to be bodies missing in any place that has a group of queens. Their Aspect is Sanguine, covering anything having to do with blood.
The Saints - The mafia's own dedicated group of slingers. These guys are included in the gamemaster's section but are given a full write-up so they are completely playable. Made up of well-dressed, devout Catholic men, The Saints have a couple of neat tricks like the fact that they can't be targeted by a spell as long as they're on holy ground. Their aspect is Divine and they all carry a large silver cross that they use to cast spells. The Saints view the other gangs as upstarts and will do anything they can to put them in their place and prevent them from moving onto their turf.
Traits, Skillz, and Slings: System
Your slinger is comprised of a handful of traits and, in a move that I really like, relationships.
The system itself seems interesting, although I readily admit that I have no idea how it holds up in actual play. Basically, any time you wish to accomplish an action you roll three six-sided dice (if you're a slinger) or two six-sided dice (in the case of non-magic using characters).
You then allot those dice to your three primary stats.
All characters have Order (speed) and Power (strength). Slingers have a third stat, Payback, which is a type of gift the Wyrd gives those who use it.
Rolls are made whenever the player slings or is opposed by another character. The gamemaster may also set a difficulty number for unopposed rolls.
As an example, say your slinger, Tall Red, wants to throw a ball of fire at a member of the Vice Lords. You roll 3d6 and get a 2,3,6. You don't care about acting fast, but you want to make sure wants you hit the Vice Lord that he goes down. You place your 6 in Power, 3 in Payback, and 2 in Order.
Players act in order of their Order score. If your Power is higher than your opponent's you hit him. A succesful sling deals its Power in damage. So if you slotted a 6 in Power you'd deal 6 points of damage. Every character has ten "beats" or health levels. When those are gone, your dead.
Since it determines damage, Power is important and Payback can provide some tangible benefits such as healing or adding to your next roll. Order, however, seems like it'd be important only in certain circumstances because if you act first and have a low Power, then you still won't deal any damage if your opponent has as good a Power rating or better.
Your slinger also gets two positive qualities and two negative qualities. These are things that should be applicable to everyday situations and are more about who the character is than what he can do. Positive traits could be Smooth with the Ladies, Makes People Laugh, or Thrives in Bad Situations. Negative traits could be Uglier than Sin, Doesn't Like Exercise, or Can't Turn Down a Drink.
Whenever a positive trait applies you may roll an additional die and keep your highest three to put in the Order, Power, and Payback slots. If a negative trait applies, you roll an additional die and keep your lowest three.
You also get one skill, or "skillz" as the game puts it. This is more along the lines of what your character can do. A skill may be Safe Cracker, Iraq War Veteran, or Rap Battle Promoter. Whenever a skill applies you roll an additional die and keep it, adding it to any one of your rolls for Power, Order, or Payback.
Bonus dice, dependent on situation and equipment, are handled like traits. Adding a die and requiring the player take either the higher or lower three dice.
I could not determine how damage is dealt, though. The text states that whoever has the higher Power rating succeeds and deals damage. The game says that any sling dealing direct damage deals damage equal to amount of Power. Normal weapons, however, add to the Power roll. A close-range shotgun, for example, does +8. I can only assume this means it adds 8 to the total rather than adds eight dice. This means a shotgun is guaranteed to kill a person. I can buy that, but that also means a sling is almost never going to do that much damage. A sling is also much more expensive, as it costs Juice equal to Power.
Your character starts with 1d6 Juice and gains it by performing personal rituals or rituals associated with his gang. Each ritual may only be used once (per game session is how I took it, although the book doesn't say) and grants the player 1d6 Juice.
Curiously, slings aren't covered very well mechanically. A sling can be anything that is cool and falls within the Aspect of the gang. I can extrapolate myself from there to a certain extent. So, a member of Los Reyes, for instance, with the Aspect of Family could cast flames from his hands if he was protecting his baby sister from the police. Or he could make himself invisible if he's trying to steal in order to feed his kids.
But the game doesn't say how much Juice any of these slings should cost. Going from the combat example, I'm left to assume that you use Juice equal to the Power of the sling. But there are no guidelines for how powerful a sling has to be to warrant a 6 difficulty or a 2 difficulty.
Each gang has two specific slings, signature spells, that they are adept at casting. But the spells cost double the Juice of their Power rating and it's a little unclear as to why a gang sling is better than a normal sling. The Crows, for instance, can cast a sling on a physical object, making it immediately desirable to all who see it (kind of like an unresistable commercial). But, given the Crows Aspect of Physical, you would think they could cast it as a normal sling for a lower price.
Your Aspect also carries with it a certain code. If your Aspect is Family then you damned well better treat your family well. If you don't, the Wyrd reacts by giving you disruption. This messes with your ability to use magic. The only way to get rid of it is to atone for your sins and act in accordance with your Aspect. You have to perform five such acts in order to remove a single point of Disruption. The Wyrd is pretty unforgiving.
Your character also starts with a handful of relationships, which I think is one of the better realized mechanical concepts of the game. They are very simple, but look to be very effective.
Starting characters get to choose a couple of allies and a couple of enemies. Any time you engage in a direct act to help an ally you gain a +1 bonus to your Power, Order and Payback rolls (I assume this adds one to the total and not to the dice -again, this isn't clarified). Any time you hurt an ally you get a -1 modifier to all of those rolls. Enemies work the reverse - bonuses to hurt, penalties to help.
You also get a single Lover and a single Rival. These work like allies and enemies but carry a bonus/penalty of +2/-2 for hurting or helping.
These relationships don't have to be people, either. It's possible to have Lover: Heroin, for example, if you literally live to get high. If you're merely addicted, you could take heroin as an ally. A Rival could be the local set of a gang or a record label.
The relationship rules are simple, easy to understand, and immediately gives you a reason to take an interest in things.
Feathered Serpents, Demon CDs, and More: Assorted GM Items
The book has a fairly robust gamemaster's section. The advice given is actually quite good and applies directly to the game. No vague generalities, which is a plus in my book. Throughout the book the author maintains a fairly good dialogue on gang culture and its presented in a pretty straightforward manner. It's not glamorized, but neither is it looked at through a judgemental lense. Rather, the facts of gang life are presented and the reader is left to draw his own conclusions.
The author also addresses the fact that gangs are comprised of minorities fairly well, in my opinion. Its stated that this has more to do with the fact that these groups are more likely to live in poverty and other conditions conducive to gang recruitment rather than because of the color of their skin. I give the author credit here for addressing the issue at all. The fact that he does so in a fairly intelligent manner is a bonus.
But don't expect a detailed examination of social injustice or racial inequalities. The streets and gangs are simply a backdrop for a game very focused on relationships, debts, and the meaning of power. As a gang member, players begin play with a family. Like a family, there will be gang members that be loyal and help their brother out and members who will prove to be a constant drain whether its because of their drug addiction or propensity for getting into trouble.
All players likewise start out with debts. They are indebted to the gang that brought them to the Wyrd, they owe loyalty to their fellow gangstas, and they owe the Wyrd itself through the code it imposes on their conduct based upon the Aspect they follow.
Slingers have great power thanks to the Wyrd, but what does that power really mean and what is it worth when a shotgun to the chest is often just as effective?
And, as we find out in the actual gamemaster's section (the author offers up the name Master of Ceremonies, but actually acknowledges that it's kind of corny and that gamemasters by no means have to call themselves that), the gangs are controlled by powers far greater than they can imagine. Just as an example, the leader of the Los Reyes is actually Queztcoatl. I probably have the spelling wrong, but it's the feathered-serpent god of Mesoamerica. Yup, the actual serpent. Whether he is an "real" god or not is anyone's guess, but there are definitely some strange things going on in the upper echelons of power.
Each gang has a top dog, an ultimate leader, who has mastered use of the Wyrd. Each one receives a full write up along with just what they can do with the Wyrd. All of them are interesting and well-conceived and provide plenty of story ideas.
The gamemaster's section also covers some worthwhile bits on the police and how they view slingers and the gang community at large.
Info on high-Wyrd characters is also revealed. For each point of Wyrd a character has he gets a bonus to Power, Order or Payback or a personalized ritual to gain Juice or an item invested with magic. The example the book uses is a Raider's football jacket that acts as a bullet-proof vest.
Once a slinger reaches a certain level of Wyrd (this varies depending on the gang), they gain some unique abilities and/or detriments.
A Crow who hits a Wyrd of 5, for instance, begins to experience uncontrollable alterations to his body. Unless he's willing to spend some Juice, people aren't likely to recognize him from one week to the next. Once he hits a Wyrd of 6, though, he gains control and can morph his appearance at will.
All of the effects are evocative and interesting. The Hungry Ghosts, in particular, undergo a pretty dramatic change when they hit Wyrd 4 which could serve as the basis of an entire campaign.
There are two adventures presented at the end of the book. The first is fairly straightforward and involves a crooked cop and intergang warfare with the players caught up in the middle. What I like about it is that it starts players off in jail after having been picked up on a charge, which immediately drives home the point that these people are criminals, or at least travel in those circles.
The second adventure revolves around two slingers turned rappers whose latest CD is possessing machines, which then try to murder everyone around them. There are some interesting ideas in this adventure and it does a decent example showing out there you can make your games.
The game also includes maybe half a dozen single-paragraph plot hooks to provide enough to get an idea for a game going.
Graffiti Artist: Style Score
I haven't touched on the book itself and it warrants some discussion. It is a 96-page, softcover book of standard 8 ½" X 11" size. Overall, the black and white artwork is of average to above average quality with the most of the pieces falling in the "pretty cool" range. There are no mind-blowing pieces, but everything is servicable and some of it inspirational. In particular, the drawings of the gang splats and leaders are quite well done. And the book has a definite feel to it. After reading it, if I spotted another piece of similar artwork I'd immediately be able to say "Hey, that's a Wyrd is Bond piece of art!" Having a solid visual look is a good thing.
The text is a clear sans serif font and easy on the eyes. The book occasionally makes use of a header font designed to look like stylized graffiti. It's readable, but you have to take your time to make out the words sometimes. Not a huge deal, but I think a little cleaner font would have worked better.
Organization is not a problem until you hit character creation which is spread around a few different tracks (chapters). The book will often describe a mechanical term and not describe how it works until much later in the chapter or in even the next chapter. Since it's a relatively slim book, you can find what you're looking for after a little page flipping but during my first read-through it resulted in confusion.
The character sheet is visually interesting but I would not use it for a game. It's designed to look like a promo poster for a DJ or rapper and is kinda neat, but the widely varying fonts makes it hard to locate what you need quickly. And the boxes where you are supposed to mark your Disturbance levels are small and filled in with what looks like bar codes. Which doesn't lend itself to making marks inside of them. Maybe you're supposed to circle them.
I went back and forth a lot on the final Style score for this book. When reading through books, I can often come up with a substance score very quickly, but I always have to think about Style. After going back and forth between a 3 and a 4, I ultimately have to give the game a 3.
The art conveys the mood of the game very well and it's generally easy on the eyes. The organization knocks the game down a notch, though, and there are some areas that could have been tightened up such as the sometimes hard to read graffiti headers and the way too busy character sheet.
Mean Streets: Substance Score
Wyrd is Bond is unique. I don't know of many games that are centered around criminals, and I don't know of any that center around modern day urban gang bangers. The Wyrd is a unique take on magic. The fact that its a semi-aware force that requires as much as it gives makes it an interesting plot device and you could easily center entire campaigns on just magic philosophy.
That uniqueness counts for a lot in my book, moreso because both the Wyrd and gangbangers are given a serious look and thought by the author.
If I was basing my Substance score solely on the setting, I'd be tempted to give the game a 5.
But the rules are a big enough problem that they bring the score down to a 4. Which is still respectable. Above respectable in fact.
For some people the lack of clarification may not be a problem. The author admits that the rules will require some interpretation and that he sees this as a feature, not a but. I love the idea that the gamemaster is encouraged to tweak the rules, but I'd still like to have the rules presented to me in a clear manner so I know what I'm changing.
Understand that the main engine of the game is serviceable. My two biggest concerns, mechanic-wise, are slinging and combat. Considering this is a game of magic and violence, this poses a problem.
I think a lengthy combat example or two, featuring multiple opponents, would have helped dramatically here. The book does contain some examples of play, but I found that these tended to invovle rules I didn't have any questions about. I've recently become a convert to the more examples equals better game school. If I had picked this game up years ago when it was first released, I may not have been that cognizant of the scarcity of examples in the book.
Likewise with slinging. I really like the idea of tying use of the Wyrd to Aspects. I like the fact that slingers can accomplish a dizzying array of effects but only if they are doing so in accordance with their Aspect. But the lack of examples left me without any idea of what the upper limits a slinger can do are and where the line between gang sling and general sling begin and end.
Still, the pieces are there. It's like having a clock with a partial schematic that details how the main winding mechanism works but nothing else. I know how to run the core of the game and I know there are other neat pieces lying around but I'm not quite sure how to lock them together. With a little tinkering, I can figure out a way to make them work but I won't be sure if its how the designer intended them to work.
Even with its occasional hiccup, I have no reservations whatsoever in giving Wyrd is Bond a solid 4 in Substance.
Violence, Drama, Magic: Closing Thoughts
Wyrd is Bond takes a unique spin on magic and fuses it with hip-hop and the street gangster sub culture to create a game that is truly unique. The ideas presented throughout are original, interesting, and beg to be taken, twisted to fit the needs of your gaming group, and played.
The subject matter makes it susceptible to players running with stereotypes and I could see this game causing arguments depending on how different people react to the subject matter. But this is true of many games and many forms of entertainment. Wyrd is Bond makes a concious effort to discuss these potential conflicts up front and in doing so elevates the maturity of the product.
At its best, I think this game could by HBO's "The Wire" with magic and all the additional complications that brings.
At its heart, this is a game about how people and about how complicated they are. There are people who do good but there are no heroes. There are people who do evil, but no one is pure evil (except for the D-Men of course, and the game even includes a bit on members of that gang seeking redemption).
You could, of course, run a more violent and manic-filled game or one with an emphasis on the weird with zombies running amok and rappers hurling Wyrd-infused curses at each other.
The fact that the game maintains a cohesive feel and focus while providing for additional avenues of play is something to be commended.
In closing, if you have any interest at all in crime, street magic, gangs, urban weirdness, or the human condition, you can not go wrong with picking up this book. In fact, I think any game would benefit from having this game in their collection. Even if you don't play Wyrd is Bond, the book provides enough thought-provoking material and ideas you can steal for other games to make it worth the cover price.
