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The Book Itself
Crimson Exodus is a 335 paged hardcover book. The cover is full color and depicts an elf standing aboard one of two boats in a swaying sea with a large rock outcropping with a castle upon it in the background. The cover is a well done piece and I think sets the tone for the game quite nicely. The interior is all black and white, and the art work within is fairly average. None of the art really impressed me; however, none of the art made me cringe in a revolting manner either. The art is pretty standard to the industry.
Chapter Breakdown
Core Concepts (Pages 6-9)
The game begins with a section that gives some of the basics of the game from the author’s point of view. The author gives his ideas on how an RPG, especially his, should be played, and is pretty unapologetic in his ways. While at first I wanted to be upset with the author for taking this tone with me, I find that it all does fit with his game, and increases the enjoyment of it. It is the way the game is meant to be played, and is written to coincide with the author’s ideals. The basics cover the dice needed for the DICE system which are four, six, eight, ten, and twelve sided dice. There is also a section that presses the issue that this game takes balance and throws it out the window as system mechanic, and instead relies on the GM and the players’ intelligence to understand their situations and encounters well enough to know when they should talk, fight, or flee. Crimson Exodus expects the players to also control a decent amount of the NPCs. These NPCs are known as Allied-Player Characters or APCs. The point of this is to institute lots of role-playing opportunities for the players, and to increase their chances to manipulate the story. The author finishes the section with lists for both the players and the GM that very clearly explain the expectations of each within a session of CE. Again for some this may come off as being slightly out of bounds, but I feel it adds to the feel and style of the game. It gives a similar vibe to the writing of Hackmaster, or older school games where the authors wrote their games with more authority over them.
Peoples (Pages 10-45)
The Peoples chapter jumps us straight into our first true glimpses of both the system and setting. This chapter gives us the races and cultures that we can play in the game. Each racial write-up gives us the starting attributes for that race, an age chart, and a section for each social class with in that race that lists their common enemies/allies and the types of equipment they are allowed to take. The next few pages for each race describes the setting fluff for that race, and then we are given a list of racial skills we get, and may choose from a list of occupations for that race which give us some more skills to pick from. There are ten mostly unique races to pick from; each of the races offer up glimpses at what promises to be an excellent setting. The racial choices are:
- Bardur - The Bardur are a race based on a noble aristocracy ruling over the common workers. It is an old kingdom created by the Elves and Elnar in ancient times. This kingdom is known for having a myriad of traditions and cultures.
- Dwarves - There are three very separate groups of dwarves. The sea dwarves in the west and the eastern dwarves are more secretive and reclusive; however, the Iron Dwarves have a long history of war and trade with the empire.
- Elnar - The Elnar are humans who basically worship the elves, and therefore have received some of the power of the elven authority. They often see themselves as being better than other humans because of their closeness to the elves.
- Elves - The elves are arrogant and racist and have built their empire upon the backs of men. All elves are raised understanding that they are superior to all other races, and are the rightful rulers of the world.
- Heartlanders - Heartlanders are the melting pot of the human race. Often the only common trait between heartlanders is their diversity. The Heartlands cover such a large area that the blood that makes up the people of one area to another can be drastically different.
- Maktiti - The Maktiti are a nomadic people who follow the seasons and herds of the heartlands. They are often seen with suspicious or fear by other peoples, and they have been just as likely to attack the empire as to trade with its people.
- Orcs - Orcs live in a tribal society that has not dominated the territories around simply because of internal conflicts and a lack of keen wisdom. While a cunning race, greed often stunts their ability to remain a strong unified power.
- Senshoul - The Senshoul are humans that have been bred into Orc society. They are known to be wise and spiritual beings, and can often be seen at the head of Orc tribes due to their intelligence, at least compared to Orcs.
- Toth - Servants to the Bardur nobility, they are feared for their underground worship of the ancient Serpent Gods. They wait for the serpents return to power.
- Vren - The large barbarians of the cold wilderness. They have recently attacked the empire to regain territory the empire conquered form them years ago. They follow a strict Viking-like society.
Character Creation (Pages 46-73)
Creating a character in Crimson Exodus has several steps, but is a relatively simple process that can create a variety of PCs. The first step in creation is to choose the people the PC comes from. This gives the player the base attributes the player starts with for the next step, adjusting attributes. CE uses eight stats for its basic attributes which are: Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Sight, Cunning, Wisdom, Demon, and Spirit. Attributes decide the number of dice a player can roll for an action with the skill determining what die type. Each of the stats are paired off as they are listed, so Strength is paired with Agility, Dexterity with Sight, and so on. A two in all stats is human average, and at character creation any stat may be increased by one if its paired stat is decreased by one. One thing I feel should be noted is that both Demon and Spirit are sort of mental stats with Demon being “of the head” with dealings in ego and authority, and Spirit is “of the heart” and deals with love and compassion. These attributes derive two stats that are Toughness and Reflex. Toughness is used to ignore shock and pain while Reflex is the stat for determining initiative.
The next step for a player is determining the PC’s skills. The PC’s people already allowed some racial skills and some occupational choices to be made. Now the player gets to pick any 4 skills at d4 with one specialty or two skills at d6 with one specialty. Lastly, they must choose if they are a Generalist or a Professional in their main skills. Being a generalist allows the player to pick 4 skills at d6 rank with one specialty, and being a Professional allows them to take 2 skills at d8 rank with two specialties.
Next, the player gets to spend 20 experience points on wealth, talents, skills, and attributes. CE uses a wealth system and in PC creation a player may spend XP to start with more wealth or may gain XP buying starting with lower wealth. This wealth stat is used to show what a player may purchase from the lists of equipment in their people section for their starting character. Larger purchases could lower this stat while good sales and loot can increase it. Talents are capabilities not covered by skills that the PC may have. Talents cover such things as acting, playing an instrument, or painting. The player and GM are encouraged to make their own if wanted, but to not step on the toes of the skills. Skills and Attributes can also be increased with XP, but an attribute can never go above two higher than the racial base. After spending XP the character gets 2 hero points to spend on Path abilities. These are explained more in the next section.
The game so far has been a rather simple game with similar aspects to games like Savage Worlds and the Cortex system, but in the next step of PC creation things take a turn adding aspects of games like Cortex+ and FATE to the simple base mechanics we have seen so far. The next section the player picks Aspirations, Characteristics, and Relationships for their character. Aspirations are the goals and dreams of the PC. The pick an immediate aspiration capable of being grasped quickly, a Grand Aspiration that is a long term close to impossible goal, and a conflicting aspiration that short of goes against their other ideals creating a spice and flavor to the PC. They also choose some characteristics that work essentially like Aspects in the FATE system. These range from one word like “bold” to phrases such as “lucky devil.” Aspirations, Characteristics, and Relationships can all be used for or against a PC by using Trigger Ammo. Trigger Ammo is a unit used by the players and GM to trigger their own or another’s Aspirations, Characteristics, and Relationships in appropriate situations that could either help or hinder the target. Triggering one for a positive effect uses up Ammo, while having a negative effect causes the target to regain some ammo. The Trigger Ammo system is kept much simpler than FATE’s and is a very welcome addition to the game in my opinion. I like that it is attached to a more traditional system, and kept basic. FATE lost me due to it being too far out of the boundaries of traditional gaming, and often made neat ideas way to complex, and therefore an annoyance at my table that fell flat. Crimson Exodus does a good job of creating a middle ground that I think could really shine for my gaming group.
The PC creation section ends with the player picking their gear, and adding final touches to the PC that give the PC more detail, and allows the player to figure out just how the PC shall be role-played. The last several pages are dedicated to premade character sheets. These premades are of the PCs that were being made in sidebars throughout the creation section.
Paths (Pages 74-91)
Paths are lists of special abilities and powers a PC may gain through a separate type of XP called Hero Points. These paths are sort of like class abilities from games like Dungeons and Dragons, but are not tied to a level system as CE does not use one. The Hero Points system is separated from XP so that the GM can gauge how many Path abilities he wants his players to have without ramping up or down the rest of the PC’s stats and skills. The Paths that players can choose from are:
- The Way of the Warrior
- The Way of the Barbarian
- The way of the Swordsman
- The Way of the Archer
- The Way of Command
- The Way of the Rogue
- The Way of the Beast
- The Way of the Witch
- The Way of the Sorcerer
- The Way of the Demon
Skills (Pages 92-104)
This section covers the detailed descriptions of the skills in the game. Crimson Exodus keeps a tight skill list with 30 skills, but allows diversity through specialties in those skills. As stated before skills determine the die type rolled, and if the player has an appropriate specialty it adds an additional die to the pool. There are a few skills that are restricted by race. For example, Dwarves and Elves can use Alchemy like a normal skill, and Elnar and Heartlanders can take it to a d8, but any other race cannot take it. Most of the restricted skills are magical such as Alchemy or Witchcraft.
Barter (Pages 105-117)
Sword and Armor (Pages 118-133)
These two sections give descriptions for basic equipment, weapons, and armor. They are your basic equipment chapters, and cover most things a player or GM could want in their fantasy game.
Rolls and Rules (Pages 134-156)
The basic mechanic for Crimson Exodus is Attribute # of Skill Die type of dice vs. a Target Number. For example if you have a Spirit of 3 and a Witchcraft of d10 a basic Witchcraft roll for you would be 3d10 vs. a TN that the GM comes up. The TN can range from an easy difficulty of 2 to an insane difficulty of 12. A player rolls his dice and the highest number is his roll. What adds a lot of tactical style to this mechanic is that players are allowed to scale their dice pools up or down. If the witch in the example needs to try to hit a TN of 12, 3d10 would make the feat impossible, but the player can scale the dice up to d12 by losing a die. Thus the 3d10 becomes 2d12 making the action plausible. It works the other way also, if it seems the action is more simple, say a TN of 4, the player can take the 3d10, and make them 4d8 or even 5d6 to have a better chance of succeeding. However, the higher above the TN you roll the better success you get, and the lower you roll in a failure the worse the outcome. This system of dice tradeoffs and levels is what truly makes the system shine; the rest of the game works in tandem with this system to create layers of outcomes including a social conflict system that uses the DICE system to affect an NPCs attitude and responses. So far I really like the system in this game. It allows a lot of player control, and it promotes a lot of tactical thinking while keeping the complexity of the game down.
Character Development (Pages 157-160)
This section covers information for the GM on how to award XP to the players. How much is appropriate, and when to hand it out are a couple of the ideas discussed. It also covers how to keep the NPCs in tandem with the PCs.
Chapter Combat (Pages 161-179)
The combat section builds upon the basic resolution system from the Rolls and Rules chapter. In CE each character gets one primary action and one secondary each round. Primary actions can be used for any action, and the secondary action can be as well as long as it is not the same as the primary action. Combat is also a contested roll for the most part. Attacks can be parried, dodged or blocked, and if the defender wins, and has a secondary action left may immediately counterattack. If a player decides not to defend the TN becomes 2 if melee, and 4 if ranged. This section has lots of options that mostly affect the number of dice rolled or the difficulty. These things range from aiming to multiple attackers to reach advantages based on a weapons length. There are rules for grappling, cover, and various combat actions that add a lot of tactical depth to combat without really adding any complexity to the base mechanic of the game. Again the tactical aspects of the scaling DICE system offer a lot of strategy to the game that might not be apparent on an initial reading of the rules.
Trauma (Pages 180-181)
This section is dedicated to damage in the game. I will admit it took me a few reads to grasp this section, but now that I am more familiar with it, it is not nearly as complex as I was worried it would be. In CE weapons do not have a damage number or even a dice to be rolled; instead, they have a weapon severity rating that can be one of 5 levels. These are superficial, nasty, grievous, grim, and mortal. When an attack hits its margin of success can raise or lower this rating, and armor can lower it even further. Some weapons may also have a penetration rating that lowers the AR of armor on a one for one basis. Trauma can also go above Mortal such as Mortal + 1, Mortal +2, etc… this is for figuring armor protection and increases or decreases in the severity; however, any rating Mortal or above counts as Mortal when all is said and done. Each trauma level gives the affected character with negatives in their rolls, with the target suffering only the worse of his wounds penalties.
Another neat aspect of CE’s Trauma section is the post-trauma rules. After combat, the players must see if they suffered long lasting injuries such as broken bones, severe bleeding, and internal injuries. This is all done with some small charts, and I feel is the most complex or crunchy part of the entire game. Which leads to the fact that Radical Approach has a Trauma Companion that supposedly adds more crunch to trauma for those who would want it. From the description of it in the Trauma section of the core book, it sounds like it adds a Rolemaster style damage chart type of system to the post trauma rules. I would be very interesting to see how far it foes.
The Ambush (Pages 192-194)
This section gives a real quick encounter to play now that the rules have been read. It is nothing more than a quick fight with the PCs being ambushed on the road. The whole point is to test out the system, and not really an adventure per say.
Game Mastery (Pages 195-204)
This section is your basic how to run a game section. It provides ideas and advice on how to pace a game, and set up an interesting story with plot. It also gives advice on how to use your NPCs and has a neat system of how NPCs are listed. NPCs have a dice rating that ranges from 3d4 all the way to 3d12 always 3 dice with a dice step showing their capabilities. This rating is their default roll in actions they would be appropriate for them, if the GM thinks an action would not be normal for them dice can be dropped or even the dice type lowered for things well outside their abilities. This system makes it quick and easy for general NPCs and “mooks” to be used on the fly without worrying the GM.
Demons and Spirits (Pages 205-209)
I must admit I find this section a little odd. I am confused as to its purpose and content. It talks about the Spirit and Demon levels of the different creatures of the world, and talks a bit about what these levels mean, and how it can affect things when they swing one way or the other. This leads into a lot of fluff about the walking dead and wraiths, plagues and taint, and even diseases such as rot. It feels a bit out of place and I feel it would have made a better part of the Bestiary later in the book.
Witchcraft (Pages 210-220)
Sorcery (Pages 221-231)
Black Arts (Pages 233-238)
These three sections cover the types of magic in Crimson Exodus.
- Witchcraft - Witchcraft is the magic of the blood. It flows through it for generations and uses it as the fuel for its power. It is a tradition handed down through families, and is a ritualistic based magic that outlawed by elves, and even punishable by death in some regions.
- Sorcery - Sorcery is magic learned through ancient tomes and through training that teaches the sorcerer to see the intricate patterns in reality that are invisible to most. The dwarves are the biggest users of sorcery though some elves have learned it and taught it to the Elnar.
- The Dark Arts - The Dark Arts is a form of magic that relies on runes, glyphs, and demonic essence to fuel its power. In the west it is mostly unheard of by the Elves and Elnar. The Dwarves know of it, and forbid its use. However, the Toth and underground Bardur cults know it well and practice it in secret.
Artefacts (Pages 239-250)
This section gives rules for creating magical items, and lists several artifacts that have already been made for the players and GM to use. Artifacts abilities range from extra dice when used to extra AR or PR. They can have bonuses to defense rolls, and other incredible abilities. Like most of Crimson Exodus, it does not rely on a balanced system, but the GM’s fiat and the story telling to know how much is too much and how little is too little.
Herbs (Pages 251-260)
Alchemy (Pages 261-266)
These two sections go hand in hand. The herbs chapter gives a pretty exhaustive listing of the common herbs in the known world, and how they can be used and to what effect. This is followed by the Alchemy chapter which goes into detail how those with the alchemy skill can use these herbs to create potions and other alchemical products that go beyond the herbs normal capabilities.
Known World (Pages 267-292)
Most of the true importance to the setting is within the People write-ups at the beginning of the book, and in the Dark Secrets section later. This section goes into descriptions of the some of the actual cities, and regions within the Known World. For the most part, the world is a pretty basic fantasy setting. Well at least in this chapter it reads that way. I find that the world was much more exciting in the People write-ups, through the description of the world’s magic, and especially in the next chapter on the organizations in the world. The section describes things in minor detail location wise, but I feel is a rather simple explanation. Now don’t get me wrong, this is good news to a lot of people. It means there is just enough for GM to really make the setting his own. It is not so bare as to be unserviceable. It leaves lots of room to play without feeling you have to contest the creator, or follow some meta-plot not of your own devising. But for those looking for a truly detailed and complex setting with everything already laid out for you, look somewhere else.
Dark Secrets (Pages 293-305)
Now this section I think helps the setting to gain more glimmer. I love chapters dedicated to the organizations and secrets that truly run the flow of the setting. Even with discussion of the big events of the setting the author does a good job of not giving a true answer. No railroading meta-plot here, just ideas for the GM to play with. This section talks about the elves leaving the continent, including the Empress, and is why the Empire is declining. It talks of such organizations as the Black Order who still worship the Serpent Gods of old. We get descriptions of the major Orc tribes, the Vren raiders, and the Shensoul. While the Known World section I found to be dull location information, this chapter upped my excitement again.
Doom and Gloom (Pages 306-312)
This section provides a more traditional pre-made adventure instead of the basic fighting encounter earlier. It follows the classic scenario of a small town being attacked by zombies and the PCs staving off the attacks and finding out how to stop it. It is the usual base establishment adventure you often find in Dungeons and Dragons, and is a good start to further adventures.
Bestiary, Index, and Sheets (Pages 313-335)
The book finishes off with a Bestiary that covers several basic animals and many monsters, some old some new and unique. It still uses the NPC system where each creature has a dice rating for quick use. There is a five paged index that is extremely exhaustive and helpful, and then character sheets for the players.
Overall
I really like Crimson Exodus. The races are all interesting and add a lot to the creation of characters. I do find the setting to be a bit basic, but sometimes that is exactly what I am looking for so I can mold it to my ideals. The system is what truly makes the game shine. I like the simple DICE mechanic alongside the Trigger system that is like a less complex aspects system of FATE. I would be extremely interested in seeing sourcebooks for this game that expand on the setting.
Ratings
Style is getting a 3. The cover is a nice piece, but for the most part the art is truly average. It is not good, but it is not bad either. It just is. The layout of the book is done well, but its independent company roots do show. Still it is a very well done book for an Indie group.
Substance is getting a 5. I mean look at the length of this review. This book is crammed full of stuff. It has all you could need in the core, and then some. And even with all of the wonderful ideas, it is still written as to not be overly done. A GM has lots of room to play with the setting and system.
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