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Love. Revenge. Blood. Politics. Duels. Houses of the Blooded provides your group with both system and setting focused on the theme of tragedy – where the characters make well informed decisions that lead to their doom.
Appearance
The book is 438 pages of clean, crisp layout with lush-looking borders and a font that is easy on the eye. Background ‘blood-stains’ are used sparingly to highlight flavour text and do not detract from or obscure the writing. There are one or two discreet typos that are disappointing when spotted, however reprint versions may have cleared this up.
The softback is 9x6” with good binding and uses a high quality paper that looks and feels good. Thanks to the dimentions of the printed version, the PDF is fairly easy to read, but I wouldn't recomend doing it in one sitting. However for $5 I’m definitely not complaining. In fact, I’ve recommended all my players get a copy just to skim over in their own time.
Art is B&W and minimal - only at the start of each chapter if you discount the symbol of each House. However this is a boon as it adds to the feeling that groups can customise the setting as they require. Reference symbols at first glance seem superfluous, but become useful as you get through the book.
The writing style is perhaps one of the greatest strengths of HotB. It is conversational and offers a lot of insight into the design process, thus helping players and narrators understand the intent of the rules.
The index could do with a little work, and the lack of reference sheets in the back is indicative of the space given over to the main text. Thankfully those with the interweb will find the HotB website has summary sheets available to all.
Setting
HotB is an attempt to recreate the tragic tales portrayed in the theatre, opera and pillow books of the ancient Ven. These stories all involve the nobility of the Ven – The Blooded – making decisions that seem (to themselves), to be the best course of action but to us (the audience), are obvious flaws that lead to their doom.
Each of the Houses highlights one of the Virtues of Ven society – Strength Cunning, Courage, Beauty, Wisdom and Prowess – which act as the main attribute stats. Unsurprisingly, your House gives you a bonus in the appropriate Virtue. Characters have ratings in five of these Virtues. The missing Virtue is the tragic Weakness in your character.
The stories are predominated by Love and Revenge. The Ven use the same word for both concepts. This is very telling of their society – marriage is arranged, often close to birth, and so romance is secret. Honour, hospitality and keeping face are all important. Those who act with Good Form and Style prosper. Those who act with Bad Form are seen as a problem to be taken care of.
System
The basics of the system are available for download in a free booklet here. HotB provides groups with a system that rewards focus on creating stylish stories of tragedy and allows everyone at the table to shape the game. Narrators for HotB should leave their adventure modules at home.
Aspects & Style
Aspects are words or short phrases to describe your character. “Athlete”, “Court Gossip”, “Vendetta”, “I know how to hurt you”. All Aspects. They act as the characters skills and merits (You can Invoke an Aspect for a bonus dice in specific circumstances), their weakness (Other players can Tag an Aspect for a bonus dice when facing you in some situations), and their drive (Anyone can Compel your character to act according to their Aspect when the situation demands it).
Example: “Athlete” can be invoked when undertaking athletic Risks. It can be Tagged when your book-learning comes into play (too much time on the track, not enough in the library). Finally you can be invoked to compete, even when it risks your reputation.
Invoking, Tagging and Compelling are all powered by Style Points. You gain Style for doing stuff that is cool. Stuff that makes the game fun. Stuff that follows your character Aspects. Stuff that adds to everyone’s play experience. In short, for Good Form. You loose Style for being a detracting from the game. Ignoring character dives as they are inconvenient. Doing stuff to repeatedly take the fun out of the game. Rules lawering. Being a wanker. Bad Form.
Style points are used to refresh any Aspect that had previously been Invoked, or offered to another character to Tag or Compel an Aspect. I give them a Style point. In the case of a Compel they can refuse – by spending two Style - Yowch!
Risk
All rolls use a pool of D6 gained by declaring your Name if it has an appropriate meaning, calling upon the appropriate Virtue, and invoking/tagging appropriate Aspects. Roll them all and add the total result.
If you roll under 10, the Narrator has Privilege and can detail the event as necessary.
If you roll over 10 you have Privilege.
Privilege determines who decides if you succeed or fail, but nothing else. Characters that are good in an area could have 5-10 D6, so can’t help but gain Privilege (well, I could, but that’s another story). So what do they do? Before rolling the dice pool you can set aside any number of dice you like. They are not rolled. These are your Wagers. If you gain Privilege then for each Wager you made you can add one detail to how you succeed or fail. Anything can be added to the story that doesn’t contradict a previously established fact.
So, an example:
I am being chased across the rooftop after failing to search out the chambers of a particular lady I’m engaged in an illicit romance with. The guards are hot on my heels. I leap from one building in an attempt to reach the next. She’ll be the death of me…
I declare the characters intent is to leap to the other side. His Public Name has the meaning of long-leap and so gains 1D6. His Strength Virtue is 4. I invoke the Aspect of “Athlete” for +3D6. 8D6 to roll and then add together the results to equal or beat 10. Too easy. I want to make the roll, but not by so much. I place 3 dice to one side as Wagers. I roll the remaining 5D6 and get 17! I have Privilege, and so narrate the outcome:
As I leap I failed to get a good take-off and fail (Privilege). However I land on a balcony bellow (Wager 1), the doors to the balcony are open (Wager 2), and it is the room of my paramour (Wager 3).
That is cool – stylish even… The Narrator awards me a Style point. And so the cycle of Style begins.
You want to know something about the world? It’s a Wisdom Risk. You want to find clues at a murder scene? It’s a Cunning Risk. Want to spot your enemies weakness? You guessed it – a Prowess Risk. And if you gain Privilege it is your Wagers that add those details!
Seasons
Time waits for no Ven.
The passage of time is measured in Seasons. Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. As a Noble Blooded Ven, you grow, mature and slowly get closer and closer to the mystical hibernation known as Solace. So much to do, so little time to do it in.
Always less than you think.
The mechanic for this are Season Actions. These are used to put all your plans into action.
You have a family to plot with/against. You have vassals to maintain. Schemes to enact. Training family and vassals up to the point of being NPC's mean they get Season Actions to aid you. However they also get their own agendas. These may not alwas be in your favor.
You have a castle, a village and lands to tame. Expanding your lands not only acts as an aim unto itself. It also allows you to host parties – wonderful opportunities for stories to occur. It allows you to patronise craftsmen and artists to make works that grant Aspects based upon the inspiration provided. Fashionable clothing can help you bank more Style. You can write and host opera of your own.
As time creeps on you age. As you age you gain more Aspects; but as Solace creeps up you gain Solace Aspects that can only be Tagged or Compelled – “Frailty”, “Poor Eyesight”, “Compulsive Behaviour”, “Senelity”.
And there’s more…
Add to this framework rules for Poison (it kills), Sorcery & Magical Artefacts (that always lead to your DOOOOOOOOOOM!), Romance & Liaisons (that give way to bitterness, heartbreak and Revenge), Duels (a fight between two individuals), and Mass Murder (any fight from 3 combatants to 3 million-a-side battles), and you have a wonderfully focussed set of rules perfectly suited to tales of Tragedy.
Conclusion
Houses of the Blooded is my favourite game of the past 10 years. It is perfect for groups looking to make the transition to a narrative play-style and draws heavily from other games in the field. It fulfils every goal that it sets out to achieve and does it with style and flair.
However this isn’t going to suit all groups: If you want to create an adventure for people to walk through or feel control over the setting begins and ends with your characters actions then this mode of play may not be for you.
That said, the ideas presented in this book are a worthy addition to even the most die-hard dungeoneers collection and so the PDF option is a must buy. Well worth it for the Player and Narrator chapters alone.
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