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Rick
sits looking at the book, flipping back and forth. "Where's the
character creation section?" "It's in the back, here,"
I say, taking the book and opening to the section. "Roll 4d6, take
away the lowest. I told you there's not much to character creation."
I have read the book to see what the guys were going to be getting into
once we started the game, and I had hoped for more. "You'll also
note, there's no money listed, so just take what you feel is appropriate."
Rick makes some notes and rolls his dice, hopefully I don't have to
go through this pain of hunt and quest when the other players make their
characters...
Engel
is set up to be a core rulebook for its own setting. While reading,
I constantly felt as though I was reading a White Wolf book. Engel's
creators have been translating WW into German for a while, so it was
bond to happen that their first roleplaying game of their own design
would have the same set-up. I don't fault them for it, its just what
I noticed.
Unlike
the World of Darkness books, Engel has all their setting material in
the front, letting referees sort out what the players should and shouldn't
read. It feels that this book was designed with the referee in mind,
not the players, as some of the interspersed fiction will get too much
of the setting's secrets away. Players may be annoyed by the table of
contents, as the creation section isn't called "character creation"
but "alea iacta est." One of the players even called the index
useless for anything except broad topics, "if you want to find
something, flip through the book."
Engel
would have greatly benefited from the d20 system logo in the creation
section, as it's hard to see value to the book for lacking it. Without
the d20 logo, yes, they can detail character creation, but they didn't
do well in the book. They simply detailed which method the player should
use; even the benefit of detailing what happens to the character once
a new level is gained was glossed over in a small paragraph. But cutting
these two paragraphs, or rewording them, Engel could have easily worn
the d20 logo without issue. (Though the "requires the use…"
required text may have kept some gamers from buying the book. They also
would have to cut the "corebook" from the cover, but it wouldn't
have mattered.)
Craig
looks over his clipboard, "If they didn't have rice, they wouldn't
have anything to eat. That's the benefit to having read random parts
of the book looking for the creation section. Their main source of food
is rice, second is noodles…" I groan inwardly, hoping that
the group can focus somewhat and get into the spirit of the game. Yes,
I threw it at them somewhat cold, but we should be able to get into
the setting as we go along.
Engel
is set in the future. In the 27th century after a plague and flood wiped
the human race nearly clean, sparing only the children. The future is
bleak, it's a second dark age. Some preflood technology still remains,
uncovered by heretics that don't wish to follow the Angelitic Church's
ban on sinful preflood relics.
In this
age, the church is a dominate force, forcing villages to surrender a
tenth of their children in annual tithing to the church, as for a while
human commodity was the only thing keeping the church going. Also in
this age, several hordes of demon creatures, dreamseeds they're called,
plague outlaying towns and huddled masses for the glory of their Lord
of the Flies. Engel (the angel characters) battle these creatures for
their God and the Himmel (a holy place where the Engel reside), placing
themselves in harms way as the warriors of heaven.
Engel
(the book) presents a wealth of setting details, including the big secret
that doesn't take much to figure out if you read the book's fiction.
One player guessed it after reading the Engel comic book (Pandoramicum).
I enjoyed the setting flavor, though I didn't get a chance to present
its best face as we played Engel the first time.
"Alright,
Jeff, make a Listen check," I say as the other Engel are flying
back towards their Himmels. Failing the first check, I allow another
roll, as the dreamseed get closer. The Urielite bowman finishes tying
down the rogue grimriders when he hears the approaching tainter-dragonflys.
He returns to the skies, and launches an arrow into the multifaceted
eye of the demonic insect. Two tainter-dragonflys fling themselves at
the Engel as he fires again into the leading creature...
Most battles
in Engel result after diplomacy fails or when dreamseed are involved.
Like other d20 games, the roll of the twentysider keeps one character
ahead of the other, or plays havoc when the dice fail. Engel's combat
system doesn't really add much to the flow of combat, except that height
now is a factor should a character fall (or be beaten) unconscious on
wing.
In the
battles we ran into in our game, the challenge rating system seemed
skewed as characters (1st level Engel) took on higher level creatures
without too much hassle, again flight came in handy for defeating one
of the ground based creatures. Played properly, though, most of the
dreamseed would be able to easily defeat a single Engel (which was nearly
the case with Jeff's Urielite). The unfortunate part of the book is
that there is only two creatures in the main book.
Of the
aspects of the rules not touched on by our first level characters was
the potestates of the Engel. Each Engel character has a set of
powers that are fueled by hit points, and allows them special abilities.
A few have a zero hit point cost, but most run between three and six
hit points, with the more expensive ones available at higher levels
of play. Potestates are run, oddly, as skill checks. And some of these
abilities can't be accessed without the other types of potestates available
to the character. The types are signum (1st level Engel have access
to these), sigil (3rd level) and scriptura (5th level). The referee
sets the DC or uses the ones detailed in the book, and then the players
rolls a skill check and the effect happens or doesn't.
For example,
an Engel using The Voice (a signum skill) modifies their voice to be
either pleasing or frightening. A check, plus one hit point to activate,
results in the DC for a Will save that the target has to make or they
will obey the Engel and do any non-live threatening act (and not realize
that they have acted against their convictions). It's an interesting
system to use, as it gives the players more or less pull and not an
automatic effect if the designers made the potestates a feat
styled system.
I enjoyed
Engel. It was a concept that I thought I might have had issues with,
as the religious overtones in the book are heavy. One friend returned
his copy because of that. I enjoyed the setting detail. It really shines
as an example of those looking on how to present a setting. Though the
interspersed fiction was a tad trying at times, it was decent.
I feel
that the rule section could use an overhaul to take better advantage
of being an Open Game License-only game. The d20 system does a good
job presenting battle-focused games, but Engel feels best suited for
roleplaying. While the rules are good, they may not be the best thing
to have in an Engel game. Personally, I don't have an issue with the
rules as they are, I just wish they were presented better in the book.
Also the index and table of contents could use a bit of tidying for
clarity. The editing was glaring in some parts, but not bad for a translated
work.
Overall,
Engel is a good example of a well detailed and designed game setting.
I hope that the supplemental material is does an as decent a job in
bringing the setting across in a playable way.
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