Review of The Fallen Angel

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WARNING: I try not to do it, but this time I couldn't avoid it. The following review contains SPOILERS for The Fallen Angel. Read at your own risk!

Ars Magica offers so many opportunities for fantasy gaming outside of the traditional FRPG cliches. Years before Vampire: the Masquerade, it encouraged character-driven, intensely political roleplaying. The long-duration campaigns (often unfolding over many decades of game time) allow for a leisurely unfolding of action quite unlike most other RPGs (Chaosium's excellent and oft-overlooked Pendragon being a notable exception), with storylines unfolding over years or even generations. The historical setting allows for all kinds of intriguing possibilities involving real-world people, places and events. The concepts of the Covenant and Troupe allow for uniquely interesting low-key roleplaying, with the players playing powerful wizards and lords one session and peasant hangers-on the next. The best published Ars Magica adventures have all capitalized on these ideas. Unfortunately, The Fallen Angel is not one of those.

Now don't get me wrong. Fallen Angel isn't really bad per se -- it's not nearly the mess the embarrassing A Winter's Tale is. But considering both the potential and history of Ars Magica, I really think it deserves better than this tired old story, which is little more than a generic fantasy RPG module with the names of real towns instead of fictional ones. Change a few names, and it would fit into any fantasy RPG with swords and demons.

The storyline of Fallen Angel is distressingly linear. A meteor falls from the sky in southern Ireland. A few different options are given as to how to get the PCs involved -- a useful idea, since Ars Magica campaigns could take place anywhere in Europe, and a group operating out of Italy is going to need different motivation than one already in Ireland. Unfortunately, it goes downhill from there. When they get to the meteor, the PCs just have time to rest their feet before it is stolen by a demon disguised as an ancient Irish hero (!). Luckily, there is an NPC on hand to make sure the PCs follow the only available lead -- a flaming cross in the sky (!!). After finding the cross on the Isle of Man, the PCs must take it to a "holy smith" to have it turned into a holy sword. While they're waiting, the PCs have to beat off the demon's allies -- a diabolist magi and a bunch of bandits. Then the PCs take the sword to pentagram-shaped fortress of the demon (what is this, Doom?), smite him mightily with it, and go home.

And that's it. There is little the PCs can do to deviate from this path. The demon is invulnerable (or nearly so) to weapons and magic except the holy sword, so there isn't really anything the PCs can do to stop him from stealing the rock. The only option after it is stolen is to follow the flaming cross and collect the sword, and then use it on the demon. The whole thing leaves kind of a bad taste in my mouth. Leading the players around by the nose like this is not, in my opinion, a good way to conduct an Ars Magica adventure -- it is terribly frustrating for players who want to do detective-work or roleplay (which should be key in a character-driven game like Ars Magica).

Equally problematic is the relative lack of anything for magi to do in the course of the adventure. There isn't really any opportunity for magi to use their esoteric skills and knowledge, or even use spells to advance the story of the adventure. What's more, there aren't any real rewards for the magi -- they can possibly capture a minor magic item and a bit of vis (but it's infernally-corrupted and not very useful) -- but no new knowledge, insights or experiences. PC magi (and their players) are likely to come away pretty disappointed. The only mildly interesting item is the magic sword, but with fantasy roleplaying over 20 years old, do we really need to fall back on that old chestnut?

What's more, the assumption seems to be that the PC group will include a companion who would be suitable to wield a powerful magic sword that is a gift directly from God. In my experience, this is far from a given. While the holy former crusader is a stock Ars Magica character, a group is just as likely to have a rough-and-tumble ex-bandit or a group of bloodthirsty mercenaries providing muscle instead. Again, it seems like the adventure was conceived of more as a typical fantasy RPG adventure that was plugged into the Ars Magica setting. While it might be interesting to roleplay such a character being changed by being given such an item, it could just as equally fall flat if no one is interested in doing so. And even if a player does want to do that, there's barely time to say "why me??" before he'll be using the sword to slice and dice our local demon.

Speaking of which, both the demon and the diabolist magus in Fallen Angel are extremely uninteresting characters. Just think of the most tired cliches in both departments, and you have them, in a nutshell.

I could go on about other things that bugged me (like the whole demon-as-ancient-Irish-hero subplot, which goes nowhere), but I don't want to harp on it too much. I was disappointed with Fallen Angel, but I didn't hate it, and if I wasn't such a bit fan of Ars Magica in the first place, and if the last Ars Magica book I'd read hadn't been the blow-me-away terrific Medieval Tapestry (click here to see me gush about it at length), I'd probably let it slide a bit more.

There are some things I really did like about Fallen Angel. The way in which the "Heavenly Mote" is presented is quite interesting, as it is based on the medieval, rather than modern, idea of the cosmos. There is a five-page appendix in the book on the subject, which I found fascinating -- "The meteor itself could fall to earth, as a bolt of pure elemental fire. Since the natural place of fire is just under the lunar sphere, it will try to rise up again..." Great stuff. Plus, we get a couple of new woodcuts from Eric Hotz (yay!), so the book is far from a total loss.

Overall, though, I can't really recommend The Fallen Angel. The adventure has too much leading-around-by-the-nose to it, and it doesn't really touch on the things that make Ars Magica unique. What if, for example, the meteor had been a potent source of vis, or if items made from the meteor were especially good for certain difficult enchantments? All the Houses might send delegates to the meteor site, and we could have a good old-fashioned down-and-dirty political-intrigue scenario, especially if the Church and a more subtle demon got involved. I suppose The Fallen Angel might be of interest to people who want a more sword-and-sorcery feel to Ars Magica, but in that case, why not just play AD&D?

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)