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The Setting
The 1850’s. In the recent past, the Industrial Revolution has caused the dissolution of the American Republic. The economic changes have divided the North – which raised tariff barriers in order to protect its new enterprises from competition with established British businesses – and the South – which needed good overseas relations to ensure the profitability of its cotton trade and to make sure manufactured goods won’t become too expensive – on a permanent basis. As the South continued to use slavery in order to keep up with the demand for raw cotton, the ideological differences between both sides made sure they would eventually tumble right into a civil war.
Events such as the birth of the Lone Star Republic, the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Joseph Smith, the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, the Apache and Commanche threat in Texas, the political friction caused by President Harrison’s nationalistic economic policy, the Smith-Cuevas treaty pushed by President Henry Clay which recognized Texas independence in 1945, the potential admission of the self-proclaimed California Republic to the Union in 1947, the emergence of abolitionist political parties during the presidential elections of 1948, the American War in 1851-1852 and 1854-1855, and General Zachary Taylor’s decision to envelop the Union’s right flank at Gettysburg while General Twiggs attempted a direct break through the Union center at Cemetary Hill, routing the Union army, all helped to shape recent American history.
The above and many other events resulted in the signing of a peace treaty between the North and the South which recognized Southern Independence in 1857. Territory held by belligerent forces now forms the boundaries between the two nations. The United States has moved its capital to New York City, the District of Columba has been absorbed into Maryland, the Confederate government has granted New Orleans to France and after the ‘Cajun War’ illustrated that the Confederacy would not succeed in holding the region by the force of arms, Louisiana has seceded and joined the Republic of Texas. Welcome to the Shattered Frontier.
The Low Down
Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier is a self-contained, lavishly illustrated role-playing game set in an alternative version of America's Wild West. In this alternate reality, the United States never won the Civil War and has signed a peace treaty with the Confederation. Now, both nations exist alongside each other. Apart from this and other obvious deviations from history, the setting feels very realistic and genuine, with no elements of fantasy added. The idea may not be new, but it serves well as a general background for ‘Wild West’ stories and the existence of two separate North American nations opens up several interesting opportunities. Best of all, the story is supported by an intricate and creative set of rules…
Character Creation
Nowadays, most gamers seem to consider ‘point-based’ character generation as more modern than random methods of determining stats and other Player Character information. However, there is something to be said for the thrill of rolling a bunch of dice and hoping they'll come up high. Rolling randomly also forces players to play characters that are a little deficient in areas the players would usually consider to be important, which often makes for interesting role-playing. In Aces & Eights, players roll 3 six-sided dice and add them together in order to determine each of the 7 ability scores: Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, Looks and Charisma. Additionally, each of these statistics also has a fractional value, determined by a d100. Scores are written down as 14/47, 9/82, 17/31, etc. They can be adjusted by trading in 2 points of any ability score for 1 point of any other ability score, or by spending any of the 75 available Building Points, with 1 BP equalling 5 fractional points.
Reputation is very important in this game and is based on Charisma, Looks, background, quirks and flaws. It may allow for additional Building Points. Quirks and flaws can either be rolled randomly or cherry-picked. The first method generates more BPs than the second one, which only grants half of the listed BPs. This is a very interesting and fun design decision, as it’s always fun to see players agonize about the choice between getting a lot of free points but risking major inconveniences and earning less but retaining control. Also, instead of limiting the number of flaws available, like most games do, each flaw after the first earns 5 BPs less, which is a better approach to the entire concept. Lastly, even when rolling randomly, players retain some measure of choice, as they can always spend 5 BPs to get a reroll. All of the traditional flaws are present (from Absent-minded to Fear of Heights, Addict, Fanatic, Far-Sighted and Blind in One-Eye), but a lot of these disadvantages have been infused with the specific genre flavor, like Yellow Belly, Indian Giver, Dehorn, Flannel Mouth, Medicine Tongue, Loco, Fourflusher, Hayseed, Straight Shooter, Buffalo Mange, Ham-fisted, Strange Body Odor, Plumb Blind and more. This is something we particularly like, as it not only maintains, but strengthens the game atmosphere. Most quirks and flaws have specific game rule effects, which on the one hand makes sure no-one can misinterpret them, while on the other hand might be too specific in some cases.
Talents are natural gifts that each cost a certain number of BPs. Most costs are pretty hefty, like the 70 BP cost for Advanced Sighting or the 50 BP cost for Crack Shot, Deadly Shot, Hearty, Shot on the Run or Grit. Most have an effect on combat. We would have liked to see more talents like Forgettable Face, Hold Your Liquor or Resist Disease/Infection, but of course game masters can make up their own.
Skill mastery levels are determined
counter-intuitively, but intelligently. Each skill starts out at 100,
but after the required BPs are spent (the cost is different for each
skill), a specific skill mastery die is subtracted, as well as the
relevant ability score. 99-75 is considered to be Novice, 74-50 is
Average, 49-25 is Advanced, 24-13 is Expert and 12-0 is Master.
Example: Journalism/Composition has a BP cost of 2, INT as its relevant ability score and a mastery die of 1d6. If a PC with 14 INT would spend 2 BPs, (s)he would subtract (1d6 + 14) from 100. If the result on the die is 2, the final skill mastery level would be 84 (Novice).
Buying a skill multiple times becomes exponentially more expensive.
For example: The above PC would have to spend another 4 BPs to buy Journalism/Composition a second time (for a total of 6 BPs so far). This would earn him or her another (1d6 + 14) roll to subtract from the skill mastery level of 84.
High or low Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma scores provide relevant skills with a Skill Learning Modifier, which makes the BP cost less or more expensive. High scores in one of those 3 attributes also grant bonus BPs which can only be spent on relevant skills. Some skills have more than one relevant ability score, cutting the benefit gained from the bonus BPs fractionally in one of the advanced rules.
For example: Jack has 16 Intelligence and a 15 BP bonus. He purchases Stonemasonry, which has two relevant ability scores: INT and STR, and costs 2 BPs. Jack will have to spend 4 bonus BPs (2 x 2) in order to purchase the skill once.
Some skills have prerequisites and additionally, certain skills, such as Administration, Agriculture, Climbing, Diplomacy, Interrogation, Joke Telling and quite a lot of others are considered to be universal, which means PCs who don’t have invested BPs in the skill need to surpass 100 with a d100 roll + the relevant ability in order to succeed in their skill check. In other cases, one needs to roll equal than, or greater to, his or her skill mastery level on 1d100 to be successful. An optional rule also allows for partial success if the roll is failed by no greater than 10%. Trivial tasks earn a whopping +90% to the dice roll, easy tasks 80%, average tasks 40%, difficult tasks 0% and very difficult tasks only garner a 10% penalty. This might seem like skill checks are too easy, but please keep in mind that most skill mastery levels will be pretty high up the scale. Still, we would have liked to see steeper penalties for some tasks.
In an excellent design move, all skills, talents, quirks and flaws are explained fully on the last pages, much like Silhouette 1.1 did. Better yet: all skills get examples of every difficulty level, much as in Hero Games' The Ultimate Skill, but more compact. Also, there’s a separate chapter section with background tables that really allow players to fully flesh out their characters to the highest extent. Most tables allow 1 BP to be spent for a re-roll. Tables include circumstances of birth, parental status, number of siblings, sibling status, order of birth, sibling rivalry, upbringing, social class, profession, class, sample names and more. Unfortunately, there are no fun ‘event tables’, such as those found in Artesia, Battlelords of the 25th Century or MechWarrior, but the background tables provided here come in handy nonetheless.
Rules
Combat is where Aces & Eights truly shines. Actions are declared in Wisdom order and Initiative is determined by rolling a d10 and adjusting for the character's Speed, Fame, weapon model and type, etc. It’s best to have a low starting Initiative, as the Game Master starts a round by ‘Counting Up’. When a PC's Initiative reaches the Count Up, (s)he can take his or her first action. However, all actions have a certain Count. By adding Counts, it’s easy to determine what happens when. This is both actual simulation and a surprisingly easy to follow system. The first time we saw anything like this was in one of the Rolemaster Companions, but to our knowledge it’s never been implemented like in this rulebook. Excellent work!
For example: Busty Jane has a Wisdom of 12 (Speed Modifier 1) and a Dexterity of 15/51 (Speed Modifier -1), for a total Speed of 0. She has already survived 7 gunfights, lowering her Speed by an additional point, for a final Speed of -1. She is carrying a Colt Bisley with a short barrel, which has no Draw Speed Modifier. During the beginning of a gunfight with One-Eyed Bart, Busty Jane rolls 1d10 and gets 3. Her Count begins at 2 (3 – 1 Speed), while unlucky Bart has his first Count at 9. Busty Jane draws her pistol, which would normally take her 5 Counts and bring her up to 7, well ahead of Bart. However, she is drawing without a holster, which slows her down d4 Counts. Luckily, she rolls a 1, bringing her Count up to 8. She brings her pistol to bear on Bart, which takes 4 Counts. Before her Count of 12, Bart can act. He has already decided (during the action declaration phase before Initiative is rolled) there is little time to spare and is going to use fanfire. Unfortunately, he has injured his good hand and needs to draw his revolver with his off hand, which incurs him 5 Counts extra Counts on top of the 5 Counts to draw a weapon out of a holster. This will bring him up to a Count of 19 and he still will have to aim (4), cock and fire (3 – 2 because of the fanfire)! If all goes well, he will be able to shoot at the Count of 24. However, Busty Jane has already aimed her weapon at the villain at the Count of 12. Now she only needs to cock and fire (3), so her first shot goes off at the Count of 15. Worse yet: she can cock and fire again after another 5 Counts (for every shot after the first), so she’ll squeeze off another shot at Count 20, 4 Counts before Bart acts! Ouch!
More than the order in which (N)PC’s act, the aiming procedure is an example of superb game design. To shoot, players take a drawing of the silhouette of their opponent and cover it with a transparent plastic overlay. The overlay has a series of concentric circles printed on it, which are broken down by lines running from the center of the middle to the outer circle. The center of this 'Shot Clock' is placed on the intended target location and all modifiers (range, visibility, movement, character Accuracy, wounds, etc.) are added to a d20 ‘To-hit’ roll. A modified 25 or greater hits the intended spot, while a roll of 14 or less is a miss. Everything in-between places the shot on one of the concentric circles, which are marked from 23 (24 hits the periphery of the center circle) to 15. If 24 to 15 is rolled, a playing card is drawn. The circles are divided in 4 quadrants, with each line in-between the outskirts of each quadrant tied to a certain card (ace of spades up to king). The resulting intersection is where the shot hits. This is a fun and absolutely ingenious way of determining hit location. We seem to remember an interesting hit location system in the rare Interstellar Elite RPG and of course, Battlelords of the 25th Centuryuses silhouettes, while the old The Babylon Project RPG had a neat hit location system, but Aces & Eights quite simply has the best hit location allocation system we have ever seen!
It gets better: in a stunningly intelligent design decision, the creators have made a separate overlay for shotgun shots. However, this time around, the overlay is also rotated if a hit which isn’t a perfect shot is scored. A card determines the rotation, while the range is color-coded. The color tracks individual pellets on the shot clock, allowing for a surprising amount of dispersal variations. At first, we needed a little time to figure everything out, but the shotgun procedure soon became second nature to us and allowed for an additional load of fun as characters were pumped full of lead, but with realistic dispersal patterns!
There are rules for the effects of Reputation and Fame, facing, line of sight, cover and visibility, flinching and tactical movement. Mounted movement is described very realistically and even takes into account different gaits. For example, trotting 5 feet takes 5 Counts, while galloping the same distance only takes 1 Count. Turning a moving horse slightly more than 2 but less than 3 facings is 6 Counts, while trotting horses can safely turn up to 60 degrees as 1 facing change, or 90 degrees (one and a half facing) with a successful Riding check. Characters can be thrown off the saddle and movement affects Accuracy. A separate table clarifies moving and shooting at the same time. Excellent stuff!
An unmodified To-hit roll of 1 incurs a mishap or a failure, from minor underloads to saddlebag breaks, bystander hits, lever failures, sweat in the eyes and slipping away. The great many possible mishaps and failures again show home much care, research and attention slipped into the game, which is always a lot of fun to see. Check out the non-weapon injuries, for example, which occur when characters hyperextend themselves, or pull, strain or twist a muscle or joint.
Close quarter fighting works much in the same way as ranged combat, but is faster. Advanced rules allow for Speed and Accuracy Modifiers according to familiarity with the weapon or by steadying the hand, taking careful aim, laying prone, resting the weapon on a solid object or a horse, firing multiple shots at the same target, etc. Primitive ranged attacks can be indirect, while artillery and explosives also find their way into these pages.
Wounds incur Speed and Accuracy penalties according to severity (in relation to total Hit Points) and location. Arrow wounds add even more penalties. 1 HP is healed per day, assuming perfect conditions, but certain wounds can cause severe bleeding, internal bleeding or internal hemorrhaging. Serious wounds require Constitution checks to not become infected and specific injuries, such as broken bones or mangled body parts need longer to heal, which again adds the realism we’ve already come to expect from this game. There’s even a section on lodged bullets, an oft-forgotten topic in RPG’s! Exact wounding effects are gleaned from a number of tables, organised according to location. The Wound Severity is cross-referenced with the type of wound (gunshot, slashing, piercing or bludgeoning) to get results such as ‘Sprinting, Running, Jogging or Walking not possible; Fall prone & drop all held items; Effective STR -4; STR permanently -1; Broken Bone; Severe bleeding and Character may never Sprint again for a Wound Severity of 10 and a Slashing Wound to the hip/buttock. It’s not quite as fun as the Rolemaster tables, but it is very specific and a very nice addition to the game.
There’s more: a section on diseases, for example, ranging from pneumonia to cholera and taking into account factors such as settlement, sanitation, age and other adjustments. There’s also a quick way to handle mass barroom brawling with poker chips – neat, but not something we’ll ever use.
An extensive (colored) section on firearms precedes the best-written (nine) pages on horses ever seen in a role-playing game. There’s a ton of information in here that helps gamemasters to add flavor to their campaigns, including breeds, markings, coloration, age, sex, behavior, temperament, vices, gaits, clothing, equipment, ranching, breaking a horse and equine attribures. Sure, a lot of this information may be found in all kinds of different books, but it’s always a lot easier to have everything in one book and it’s a pleasure to find that the writers have included this much information in Aces & Eights.
The advanced chase rules use a shuffled deck of playing cards and some kind of markers to represent distance, relative location and hazards, making for a fairly random course. We would have liked other rules that take into account pre-drawn maps, but this system works just fine as long as only an abstract representation of what’s happening is needed.
Also included: a number of mini-games that have their own rules for cattle driving and ranching, prospecting, gambling and trial processes. Each mini-game uses different rules, which might annoy some players who like unified rules systems, but the games are also a lot of fun! The only negative thing is that, because they all have different rules, there is a certain learning curve involved and Gamemasters and players might find themselves flipping through the pages for a while before being able to continue.
Conclusion
The realistic approach to the rules, the detailed setting (with maps), the adventure hooks the two towns that are described in the book, the superb hit location procedure, the attention to detail, the gun statistics, the equipment lists and the wealth of atmospheric information all make for what very well might be the best ‘Wild West’ RPG ever. Never before has so much information about so many aspects of the genre been combined with such an intricate rules system.
Visually, Aces & Eights looks stunning, especially the leather-bound version: glossy paper throughout, quite a lot of color, genre-specific, atmospheric illustrations, a nice lay-out with plenty of examples, good editing, good-looking maps of the most important locations and territories, easy-to-read tables and a decent index. Yes, there is some number-crunching involved and the mini-games need extra attention, but we prefer this kind of rules set to very non-specific systems which don’t manage to capture the flavor and specifics of a setting. Not surprisingly, Aces & Eights got the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game the Silver ENnie Award for Best Game, and was nominated for three more ENnies: Best Production Values, Best Rules and Product of the Year.
Only two negative things we can think of: we’re still waiting for the supplement with more silhouettes and most of our players weren’t interested in a
‘Wild West’-type of game! Bastards!
More info: www.kenzerco.com
