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Before the book really starts, we are given a decent table of contents and overview of the game. Remnants bills itself as a cinematic game, where PCs take on the roles of Ishinari, people who pilot ancient war machines (Ishin, or Battle Remnants) while looking for other ancient weapons (also known as Ishin or Battle Remnants) and relics (Ishi, or Remnants) and trying to survive.
Chapter One: The Broken Lands (11 pages) – Humanity came to this world from somewhere else, built an advanced civilization, had a great war between machines of metal (the Ishin) and weapons of flesh (known as Monstrosities and Near Humans), and nearly destroyed the world. Almost a thousand years later (as best as anyone can tell), the world still has yet to recover. Wars between city-states and tribes over food and water are abundant, the ecology of the lands are in a shambles, volcanoes and ash storms and stranger terrains are common, and the ruins of the ancient civilization are still revealing great treasures and weapons that are barely understood at best. There isn’t a lot of detail here, but the chapter does a good job of painting this part of the world in broad strokes.
Chapter Two: Life in the Broken Lands (9 pages) – Humanity is eternal. They’re hardier, and more resistant to things like radiation and choking clouds of ash. Humans also no longer age once they reach 40 years or so. The downside is that people who reach that age require roughly twice as much food to keep going. And since famine is so common, and food so scarce, most people starve to death in what is considered an “aging disease”. The human race has also seen other sub-races develop; strains of humanity adapted to certain terrains or habitats. They are different enough to be considered a new species, but not so different to be considered a Far Human (a human that’s no longer truly intelligent, but more like a smart animal). The chapter also provides an overview of human cultures and populations; as with most of the setting, cultures are described broadly and with minimal detail. The feel I got is one of a world that ranges from Bronze Age to perhaps Iron Age technology, augmented with the occasional (and irreplaceable) Ishi or Ishin for an advantage.
Chapter Three: Rapifire Rules (15 pages) – Characters have three stats (Body, Mind, Spirit) with scores ranging from -3 to +3 as absolute human limits, and most people ranging from -2 to +2. I should point out that there aren’t really any ways to measure lifting strength or IQ under this system, and that some creatures or artifacts or powers can go past these limits. Players roll a die, add the relevant Stat, add a relevant Skill, apply any other modifiers, and compare it to a difficulty number ranging from 2 (Routine) to 6 (Moderate) all the way up to 14 (Epic). Characters also have a 3 point reserve they can use to increase their rolls on a one-for-one basis, after the dice are rolled. Reserve is refilled by doing something Awesome, accepting a Critical failure, or whenever the GM says. Awesome acts are essentially “stunts” in other games, except here they merit a +1 bonus to the roll, 1 point back of Reserve, and potentially an XP bonus to the skill. Likewise, if the player rolls a 1 and fails by a wide margin (3 or more points) the player can ask for a Critical failure; the GM can’t kill them, but can do pretty much anything else, and in return the PC gets a point of reserve back and another XP for the failed skill. The rest of this part of the chapter is devoted to explaining the combat system, and environmental damage. Combat is fairly lethal, with a starting character likely able to dispatch an average foe with a single hit or two. After covering the basic system, the chapter then goes on to explore the mechanics of the Remnants.
In a nutshell: Remnants are just big suits of armor that people wear. While it’s highly unlikely a person with a spear could penetrate a Remnant’s armor plating (especially an older, more defensive one), it’s possible. Remnants and normal people exist on the same “damage scale” as it were, except Remnants are harder to hit, harder to hurt, and do more damage than normal people. Remnants offer their Ishinari a “Structure” track of damage, acting like an extra layer of Hit Points; and even if an Ishinari’s Structure is reduced to 0, neither it nor its pilot are necessarily destroyed. In fact, reducing an Remnant’s Structure to 0 is one way to increase its permanent Structure once the Ishinari heals (yes, Remnants are self-repairing). The chapter also includes an overview on things like a Remnant’s speed, its ability to inspire or terrorize people without war machines over ten feet tall, the differences between Strike and Assault attacks (ranged and melee attacks respectively), and the concept of Focus. Focus will get a little bit of extra attention from me later, but for right now I’ll just say that Focus is the act of a Remnant “charging up” to use enhanced Strike and Assault attacks. To build Focus, the Remnant must stand still, doing nothing else, and it can’t take damage or else it will lose its Focus. Weaker enhanced attacks require less Focus than the more powerful ones, and there are ways to reduce how much Focus is needed. But more on that later.
Chapter Four: The Characters (24 pages) – Here are the guidelines for purchasing stats and skills. Characters have 1 point to assign to one of their three stats, and can gain up to an extra two points by reducing another stat; no score can start higher than 2. Players also divide 10 points between their normal skills, and have an extra assigned point depending on your character’s background. This chapter really tries to push the idea that players need to consider their character’s background, and offers some suggestions for why Ishinari might adventure together. There’s also a section on Advantages/Disadvantages that are intentionally nothing more than descriptive character text rather than anything with mechanics. There’s also an interesting mechanic for income where “currency” is based around how hard it is for a character to maintain a certain quality of life for a day. For example, rather than having players keep track of how many gold pieces or glass beads they gain for caravan guard duty, they’re rewarded with three months’ worth of food and housing. Rounding out the chapter are brief (very brief) lists of mundane gear, the possibility of guns (an optional element in the setting) and mechanical breakdowns of the four major species of Near Humans (which are also optional PC races). Finally we get to the experience and advancement section of the book. While XP and advancement is fairly normal here, it’s worth pointing out that elsewhere in the book the game potentially awards lots of XP and advances for characters that’ve either succeed or fail spectacularly.
Chapter Five: Battle Remnants (24 pages) – The main attraction of the book, and it doesn’t disappoint. Or at least not much. Starting Remnants are pretty much identical blank slates. A new Ishinari can customize his Ishin a bit through swapping out stats (a point more of Strike damage for a point less of Assault damage, for example) and by choosing a free Trait (like Stealth or Drones). Remnants also start with a free Specialty, like Ishin Slayer or Sniper, that gives them extra advantages in certain situations. But how do Ishin advance in power? When they first engage a “real physical threat” in a scene, get Wrecked, or the pilot does something Awesome or Critically Fails for the first time in a scene, the Remnant gains Duress. Duress is effectively a form of experience points that can only be used to enhance the Remnant, and after 8 hours (or instantly for 5 Duress!) the changes have manifested across the Remnant’s frame.
As for the Traits themselves, they run a good range. The game doesn’t have a huge and comprehensive list of attacks, instead expecting players to apply “trappings” to traits. For example, whether you want to breath fire or shoot laser eyes or lob acidic grenades, all are considered a form of Strike attack. Traits consist of Upgrades (boosts to the stats of your Remnant), Drones and Drone Enhancements (semi-autonomous miniature robots that fight for and defend the Remnant), and Powers (a catch-all of abilities that don’t fit in the other two categories). Powers are somewhat limited to low or mid-tier style “sci-fi powers”. Flying, cloaked Ishin with an instant repair are possible (and belong to fairly experienced Ishinari most likely), while teleporting mecha that can raise the dead are right out. Think more like “The Vision of Escaflowne” or “Gundam” anime series perhaps, and less like the “Exalted” or “Dragonmech” RPGs.
Chapter Six: Game Master (25 pages) – One thing I think Outrider Studios is getting right is their Game Master chapters. Whereas most games spend paragraphs (or even pages upon pages) talking about what RPGs are and who Joseph Campbell was, here we have plot hooks, monster stats, guidelines for making balanced opponents and monsters, suggestions for optional rules, a mass combat system, the question of whether or not the game is set in a world of super-science or super-magic, and much, much more. This is a great chapter, with loads of practical, mechanically crunchy application to the game. Things like theme and rewards are discussed, but only in terms of how to apply them to this game in practical application. Wrapping up the book we have a character sheet for the Ishinari and their Remnant.
Okay, one thing I want to come back to is the idea of Focus. The book is clear that Remnants is meant to be a game where dueling Ishinari must decide “do I strike first and hope to break his Focus, or do I wait and charge up, hoping my armor and Drones will block any damage he can dish out.” I think it’s trying to go for the same vibe of two gunslingers facing each other down and wait for the other to flinch, or two samurai engaged in a battle of iajutsu, or a Dragon-ball Z fight where two characters yell at each other and glow for 48 episodes. And I can see how it works here in the game. I can also see a more common scenario where anybody trying to build up Focus for a melee attack is at a huge disadvantage against a ranged combatant or one using Drones from afar. Under this scenario, Assault Focused attacks end up only being used against other melee fighters as they’re the only other opponents who’ll stand around and wait while staying in close combat quarters. The desire for “flavorful fighting” doesn’t really survive for long in actual play. But it’s a minor problem at worst, and one that I easily houseruled.
Style: I’m going with a “low 3” here. There isn’t a lot of art here, and what there is ranges from “small and hard to make out” to merely adequate. The Remnants appear to me to have been heavily inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion mecha designs, not that that’s a bad thing. Layout is otherwise clean, and there’s a neat little bit of chapter indicator art in the header of the pages. There’s no index, but a decent table of contents. Editing could’ve been better (when I referred to “Chapter Three: Rapifire Rules” earlier, that was a quote from the table of contents and not a typo on my part) but it doesn’t hurt my understanding of the book.
Substance: I don’t like the lack of explanation for how much my Remnant (or anyone else for that matter) can lift. I know it’s a cinematic game with limited stat numbers, which wouldn’t provide a good scale of measurement, and that it doesn’t want to bog things down with hard numbers anyway, but this is a pretty big pet peeve of mine in games. Vaguely defined mechanics for characters make it harder for me to relate with the system as a whole. Also, I think it’s close to offering too little information on its world; there’s enough here for a lot of gaming to be sure, but if it cut out much of anything I’m afraid the game would’ve been too sparse. Some of that has to be blamed on my desire to have more of a good thing, but not all of it. As is, there’s plenty to get a game started with and good ideas and advice for GMs to come up with their own. I’ll go with a “low 5” on Substance. My gripes aside, it’s got the bare minimum of everything you need and what is there is all pretty dang good.
Conclusion: If you’re wanting a game where you know the tonnage, ammo load, and appearance of dozens of mechs before you even make a character, this game isn’t for you. On the other hand, if you want an open-ended post-apocalyptic world with mechs smashing things and growing through combat, and don’t mind some improvising or world building yourself, this is a very impressive game. Its setting is very original and the mechanics have some innovative ideas, and I strongly recommend it.
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