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In Short
Kerberos Club offers a magical Victorian setting absolutely full of imagination, adventure, and fresh ideas. Players take on the role of super powered members of a secretive society who trade in favors, with the good of Queen and country always put first before personal desires. Powered by the adaptive Wild Talents system, Kerberos Club characters are limited only by the wild imagination of their creators. With excellent game advice, plenty of support, and enjoyable writing, Kerberos Club demonstrates the pinnacle of setting creation.The Good: The setting is highly creative, with no wasted effort in terms of interesting ideas that would be fun to explore in play. The writing is engaging all the way through, so much so that I couldn't put the book down once I started. The GM advice is excellent, the example characters are evocative of the setting, and the world has a lot of adventure opportunities.
The Bad: Additional artwork would have been a fine addition.
The Physical Thing
For $39.99 this 336 page black and white softcover showcases average production values. For the price the fact that it's black and white and a softcover is a little surprising, as is the sparse artwork included. The artwork that is here is often very evocative of the setting and does a great job of supporting the text. While the book lacks an index, the table of contents is very detailed and makes navigation a snap.Under the Cover
Kerberos Club is firmly based in Victorian London, though it does provide a few setting details for the greater world during the 19th century. The setting is very adaptive in that it begins with just a dash of supernatural activity early in the century and steadily increases until the end of the century. Campaigns set earlier in the century have more of a supernatural in the shadows sort of a feel to them, where locals occasionally hear tales of the unbelievable but dismiss them as simple flights of fancy. Later in the century the world lives in a constant state of future shock as robots, advanced communication, and spiraling wonders cause people to not even understand the basics of the world around them.During this century of tumult one constant is the Kerberos Club, an elite club that only accepts membership from a handpicked few. Within the Club there is only a loose structure of authority, with a tiny few presiding over necessary operations of the Club. An attitude of equality exists within the Club, and it may be the only place in all the world where men, women, blacks, whites, Christians, and pagans all drink together, discuss the news of the day, and trade favors. This fits well with the Club's desire to include exceptional people, as the Club has learned that exceptional qualities can be found among a wide variety of creatures... not all of them human.
The Club operates using an economy of favors bound by the honor of the individuals. This does two wonderful things in play. First, it gives characters a reason to constantly be interacting with members of the club. In this age of change everyone has problems, and for the sandbox-style GM this is a recipe for endless adventure hooks. Second, it enables painless adventure generation since the characters are assumed to regularly be helping out other Club members for the same benefit later on.
The Kerberos Club is exclusive and doesn't offer membership to just anyone. Not only does a person have to be exceptional in some notable way, but they also have to endure a ritual designed to test them and make sure they're worthy of joining. This is conducted by existing Club members and tends to be tailored to the unique gifts of the potential recruit. A person is chosen for membership, a challenge is initiated, and if they pass the challenge then they are offered an invitation to join the Club. These challenges can be quite deadly at times, but the Club seeks only the most exceptional individuals to add to its ranks.
While the Club is the vehicle for bringing the characters together, the rest of the world is the adventure ground. This setting is one of increasing wonders, featuring such fantastic elements as clockwork servants, vampire plagues, werewolf special ops squads, faerie servants, and more. One of the most interesting setting artifacts is the Queen herself, who becomes less human and more like a living incarnation of the spirit of the Brittish Empire as the years go on. Special Branch, British special police, are a common foil of the Kerberos Club though the Queen seems to enjoy pitting them against one another in order to keep both of her most powerful tools sharp.
A lot of writing is spent presenting the fantastic elements of the world. A detailed timeline focusing in on the most interesting developments of the setting is provided, and it does a great job of orienting the reader to this remarkable setting. In fact, the timeline does a good job of showcasing the author's ability to focus in on interesting information that supports play rather than chewing on minor details that are unlikely to ever be mentioned at the gaming table. The timeline is also quite nice as both an idea generator and as a tool to aid the reader in deciding where in the 19th century to set the game.
Plenty of detail is given to aiding the reader in bringing Victorian London to life. Social customs, laws, life experiences, and clear class discussion all aid in enabling the reader to easily embrace this unique setting. I found this to be particularly helpful, as while I like the Victorian setting I'm not a history enthusiast am not as aware of the social customs of the area as I need to be to paint a vivid picture of the setting at the gaming table. One of the most interesting aspects of the setting design is the contrast between the socially progressive Kerberos Club and the strict social reality of Victorian London. This is a big part of what makes the Kerberos Club an interesting setting concept. Players can play women and other groups that otherwise have strict behavioral restrictions in the setting and not have to worry about those restrictions while a part of the Club. What's more, as people of serious power and influence the characters can even work to change the social customs of this quickly advancing society, should that interest the players.
Character creation in Kerberos Club is more guided than in standard Wild Talents, with points being specifically assigned to Attributes, Skills, and Powers at different steps. I like this a lot for this setting as it guarantees that characters will have broader capabilities instead of an intense focus around one or two specific superpowers. Convictions replace Loyalties and Passions. All Base Will must be invested into Convictions and Convictions must be extremely strong. Absolute, unwavering faith in a true love is an example of what the author has in mind, and I think this will continue to result in passionate characters giving their all for what they believe in during play. It's also worth noting that a new Skill system focused more on occupation and background than individual task is also included. I find it to be much better for maintaining a sense of a given character in play and prefer it to the standard system.
Additional support in the form of well fleshed out NPCs can be found in the book, and they're wonderful both in terms of concept and utility. Each of these characters is perfectly matched to the setting, is interesting to read about, and does a great job of illustrating the setting changes. What's more, each has discussion of using the character as a hero or a villain in the setting thereby providing the GM with even more tools to make the game flow in play. An example adventure wraps up the excellent support present here.
My Take
Kerberos Club showcases the very best in setting design. Imaginative ideas, strong setting support, excellent GM advice, and a host of supporting tools all come together to create a fun and manageable setting that will appeal to a broad range of gamers. Those who enjoy Victorian London will find that the setting does a great job of merging historical elements with the fantastic, while fans of imaginative settings will enjoy the constant parade of interesting ideas found throughout this book. The Wild Talents system works well with the setting, resulting in a great deal of player freedom to leave their unique stamp on the setting while also maintaining a certain level of grittiness appropriate to the era. Kerberos Club combines everything I expect from a well done setting into a stellar package that I'm sure will bring me fun for some time to come.Please help support RPGnet by purchasing the following (probably) related items through DriveThruRPG.
