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Disclosure: I bought Hot War at the Dragonmeet convention in London, and it impressed me sufficiently that I was motivated to write this, my first review. The closest I can come to be affiliated with the author is my intention of helping out in the same game design collective where he is active. My biggest bias is probably the fact that I'm living in London where the game is set, but that also speaks for the authenticity of the setting.
The Little Red Book
A small book, 5.5" x 8.5", perfect bound and just over 200 pages. Which makes it ideal for reading on the go. It has so far withstood travelling with me around London in my pockets and bags, with no sign of deterioration. It uses a typewriter font, which is perfect for the 1963 post apocalyptic theme of the book. There are seven chapters which flow naturally from introduction, to setting, to creating games & characters, playing the game, organisations, London & beyond and then finally appendices with a useful mediography and game aids such as character sheets and even a player's primer! The writing is excellent and I can find no faults with the chosen layout.
Devastation and Despair in Pictures
The artwork by Paul Bourne is a black and white mixture of full page memos, letters, directives, debriefings, reports, posters, notice boards and eerie scene photos. All of the artwork is very integral to the setting and contains valuable information and inspiration. They are filled with evocative propaganda, sedition, reminders of harsh punishments for crimes, restrictions, advertisements for bully beef, and such as: "Your GASMASK is your BEST FRIEND. KEEP IT SAFE, KEEP IT CLOSE!" from the ministry of emergency planning. The photos portray men, women and monstrous creatures,as well as London landmarks such as Tower Bridge and St Paul in ruins and quarantined tube stations. All of it is well thought out and fits with the period and theme.
London's Burning
The setting is intentionally restricted to London to create a very claustrophobic world. Little is known about the rest of Britain, although there are some hints of going ons. Nothing is known about the rest of the world and there is a disturbing lack of communication, which means nothing is known of what has happened elsewhere. As for Britain it has been hit by several nukes and invaded by strange horrors that resemble men only from a distance and prowl the countryside. By a miracle London was not hit by a nuke, but is now under siege from a steady stream of refugees, while power and food is in short demand, and horrible things infest the underground and ruins. Not many Soviets actually made it on to British soil and many of them died during the initial invasion and are now mostly struggling to survive themselves. This is little relief, however, for what remains of the struggling British government as the Army and Navy compete for which will take over when the government finally collapses under the strain. The army has managed to hoard the most fuel and despite a high rate of desertion has the upper hand. The navy, however, has the nuclear submarine GMS Dreadnought and cruiser HMS Belfast sitting in the Thames providing energy and artillery power.
Why Can't We Just Get Along?
These are harsh times, with racism, nationalism and squalid internment camps. Different factions and groups are engaged in power struggles and caught in the middle is the SSG (Special Situations Group). The PCs are assumed to work for this group, which consists of recruits, willing and unwilling, from the various factions. The powers of the SSG and its operatives are poorly defined and can be a great source for conflict themselves. Created by the Government, the SSG is tasked with collecting information on twisted technology, hunting down monsters, spies and so on.
The setting is very evocative and filled with despair and bleak realism that still leaves room for hope. However, not without compromises. Everyone is trying to rebuild, but have very different visions of how to best do so and what the new world should be like. While organisations struggle for power, people struggle for simple survival. Simple things like canned beans and bully beef are used as payment for information and back breaking chores. Different areas in and around London are given brief descriptions that exude the atmosphere of the setting. In addition there are one page profiles, spread throughout the book, of various real world locations in Britain. With information on what they were used for and hints at what sinister things may take place there now.
Things That Go Bump In the Dark
There are some sample monsters provided, each described on a single page. Disturbing bayonet troops wearing face covering gas-masks containing a greenish gas and with too many joints and a chilling determination to complete their mysterious missions until death. Creeps dressed in Soviet uniforms and gabbling in broken Russian. The Fear, which seems to be some sort of non-corporeal entity that feeds on fear and loathing. Runners, huge, horrid, bony spiders that first appeared from Soviet ships and gates, and tore through defences early in the war. Servitors, which are flowing, wavering black masses that crush and pulverise everything in their path. These are generic types of monsters listed with attributes and traits. Several ideas for twisted technology is hinted at in the setting text, but it is largely left up to the GM and players to decide exactly what role it plays in their games. It can be something ominous and mysterious, but never encountered directly, or the players could be cleaning out nests of nasty critters infesting the underground and prowling the city by night. This might require a bit more imagination and work than a typical dungeon crawl where every room and monster is mapped out, but allows a lot more flexibility and freedom in exactly how the situation in London is portrayed.
The Gears and Cogs
The system, which seems to have evolved from Cold City, is tightly integrated with the setting. It uses conflict resolution, where the conflict in a scene is resolved rather than the individual actions that make up the scene. This is resolved with a dice pool, where the highest roller wins and the number of dice that defeat the opponent improves the degree of success.
Attributes
The three attributes used to resolve all conflicts are action, influence and insight. An attribute can run from 1 to 5, which represents the number of dice in the pool when the attribute is the one used for the conflict. Starting characters have all three attributes at one and get five additional points to divide between them. Which attribute is used depends on the type of conflict and how it is resolved. Something which may be negotiated between the players and GM.
Traits
Traits that apply to a scene add additional dice to the pool, one per trait that is appropriate. Traits always improve the character's chances, but can be negative which introduces a risk of a negative consequence even if the conflict is won. Also, any trait that is used runs the risk of being altered if the conflict is lost. Characters start with three positive and two negative traits. The traits are created to suit the character. Positive traits might be "Contacts within the political system" or "Has a keenly analytical brain", while a negative trait could be "Can't trust anyone". There are quite a few sample traits listed, of different types.
Relationships
Relationships can also affect the dice pool. Players have eight points to spend on relationships. A relationship can be positive or negative and has a rating from zero to four, where zero is effectively no relationship and four is the strongest possible relationship. The points in a relationship can be added as extra dice to the pool when the relationship is relevant to the conflict. Relationships can also be used against the character, for example in a betrayal, and there are well thought out rules that cover both scenarios and who gets to do what. The difference between negative and positive relationships, is that negative relationships give bonus dice when used to for example harm or bully, while positive relationships give bonus dice when being supportive or helpful. There is more to it than this, but that is beyond the scope of this review.
Agendas
Importantly all characters have a personal and factional agenda, which again can add dice to the pool when relevant. One of each must be chosen when a character is created and it must also be determined how urgently it needs to be resolved. For this purpose it is given a rating which is equal to the number of scenes it must be resolved in. The higher the rating, and therefore more scenes it can be used in, the fewer the bonus dice. As the agendas come to a conclusion they either succeed or fail and the character must choose a new agenda to replace it.
Tools
Tools and weapons can also be used to improve a character's chances, but this is a flat two dice bonus if it applies. Personally I would allows greater flexibility on the number of dice depending on the tool, but I can see that doing so would complicate things as it can sometimes be hard to judge something's usefulness.
Open or Closed?
When considering the attribute, which traits, relationship and tools might apply in a conflict both players and GM all have a say. It should also be mentioned that the game can be played as either an open or closed game. In an open game the players do not keep their agendas and backgrounds secret, although the characters are still oblivious. The open game allows the players to play off each others agendas and create characters and conflicts which bring everyone's issues into the spotlight. Obviously then, in a closed game agendas and backgrounds are kept secret. This gives the players a real feeling of not knowing what everyone is up to and adds the excitement of revealing each other's secrets. An open game requires a lot of trust, while a closed game requires more work by the GM to ensure agendas come into play.
Three's a Crowd
There can be several people involved in a single conflict scene of course and there are simple, but well considered, rules for handling people working together, or several people working towards different goals. I will not attempt to explain them here, but rest assured that they are there.
Scenes and Narration
The GM frames and describe scenes, except for a few specific cases where a player gets that privilege. Once the dice are rolled the side with more successes gets to narrate the outcome. If this is the NPC(s) the GM determines the outcome, if it is a player, the player describes what happens. The narration must match the scene, conflict and number of successes among other things. All the players can have their say, although the winning player decides what goes and what doesn't and the GM always has veto power. There are guidelines for how to narrate the outcomes and maybe most importantly it forbids the GM to "make statements of fact about PCs" and players from "making statements of fact about NPCs the GM has brought into the scene". Neither are the players allowed to make factual statements about what they have discovered as part of a conflict, although they can describe things which allows the GM to reveal secrets that they are after. So no "I hide in an abandoned apartment, open the stolen briefcase and it contains the secret plans", but instead "I hide in an abandoned apartment, open the stolen briefcase which contains sheaves of papers and folders". In such a case the GM is encouraged to reveal information, as it is obviously important to the players, but it is the GM which decides exactly what that information is.
Consequences
Part of winning a conflict, and tied into the narration, is determining the consequences. Each success allows more severe consequences to be measured out. These can be both positive to the winning side and negative to the losing side. They include such things as changing, gaining and losing traits, gaining or losing relationships or increasing and reducing an attribute. Only traits, relationships and attributes involved in the conflict can be so altered. If an attribute is reduced to zero the character reaches a crisis point. If this is a NPC he is usually out of play at that point. Mentally broken or shot dead depending on the attribute involved and conflict. If it is a PC this is left up to the player. The player can decide to retire his character and describe this final scene or allow the character to survive, but with the loss of a trait and the attribute now only half its original level.
The Good Stuff
The book is full of examples in bold, showing how rules are used in play. Indeed the author has done a very good job of explaining how to create and run a game of Hot War, a collaborative process between all the players and GM. There is information on how to determine the tone, dark apocalyptic, BBC drama, etc. How to frame scenes and other very useful player and GM advice for playing Hot War.
Bonus Material
It has an appendix with sources of inspiration from films, books, web sites and other roleplaying games. It also has a one page "Player's primer" which presents the setting, something which every roleplaying game should include. Other game aids consist of a game creation sheet, which is a one page document with the questions that should be answered before play. A character sheet, npc sheets and a handful of pre-written game creation sheets. It also has an index for those that need that. A free 16 page scenario by a Sophie Melchior, downloadable game aids, a 1960s London 2 London map, desktop wallpaper of the game art and a preview can all be downloaded from here: http://www.contestedground.co.uk/hotdown.html. The website also has a pretty good resource page and several actual play and play test reports, so is certainly worth a visit.
Verdict
A work of love, but also of quality. It's well designed with a holistic rules system. It deserves to be discovered by as many as possible. Something which can only help to promote the roleplaying hobby as a whole.
