Blood Games
Occult Horror Role-Playing
Review by C. Demetrius Morgan
Synopsis
Blood Games is a monster hunting “modern Occult horror role-playing game” published as a PDF by Flying Mice LLC in which religion plays a prominent role, as opposed to merely being part of the forgettable background flavor text. The rulebook is 155-pages of horror role-playing rules and guidelines authored by Clash Bowley, Jason Ludwig, and Wesley Fornero. Blood Games is currently available through RPGnow for $10.00.
Time Required: Minimal with a GM familiar with the material and able to walk you through it, otherwise expect to do a lot of reading to familiarize yourself with the game.
Core System: Starcluster 2 game engine.
Playability: 5. (Median.) Requires a magnanimous Game Master and dedicated players.
Complexity: 5. If you are familiar with Starcluster then you should already know the basics of the system.
Quality: 4 for layout. (Needs more art and less white space.) 5 ½ for content. (Doesn’t list nearly enough religions or occult groups. Needs qualitative CC examples.)
Originality: 6. Roughly on par with most Horror role-playing games, though with a few twists.
Grade: B- Has good thematic execution and covers religion with tact.
Overall Rating: 5 ½ out of 10 golden apples.
Initial Impressions
There's something about Blood Games that threw up the old wall of writer's block. I sat there, staring at the document, and felt. . . like something was missing. Like I was staring into the dark and the dark was staring back at me with hungry eyes. Sure, as with previous Flying Mice LLC products Blood Games contains a lot of information, so it could be I was feeling overwhelmed. Lord knows I am not getting any younger so maybe it’s burnout or cognitive dissonance. Then again there is that certain something about Blood Games which makes it difficult to reduce the product into mono impressions.
I mean, lord love a duck, the section on background schooling alone takes what all into account and leaves little out besides! And I can’t tell you how many times I started to write about the religion section only to get sidetracked into a ramble that had to be totally deleted.
So what are the two strongest impressions I have?
This will be a bit of a surprise. First, not only is there a table of contents that is HOT LINKED to the relevant sections but there are also bookmarks! Second, when I saw Zoroastrians listed in the section discussing religions my eyes bugged out. You just don’t find authors willing to tackle religious subject matter. So the two thinks that stick out like a sore thumb are the ease with which the document can be navigated and the fact the author wrote about Zoroastrians. Normally that would be fine but, being a role-playing game, I figure none of that matters since all the average gamer will be interested in is an overview of the game mechanics. That said…
Summary
There are two primary things that every reader of reviews wants to know upfront. First, Is this book worth spending my hard earned cash on? The quick answer being: That depends on whether or not you like horror RPGs that deal seriously with matters of religion and the occult. Second, Does it look like this game will be fun to play? Judging what may be fun is always difficult, especially when every gaming group has its own peculiar foibles and eccentricities. If you like horror then you should like this game.
However I’d also say, despite the fact this RPG weighs in at 182 pages, those pages have a lot of white space. What this means is there‘s not as much reading required as one might expect. Still a lot of reading will be necessary since you are learning a new system. If you are up to that then Blood Games may be a potential source of future entertainment. By the same token if you don‘t like sitting down to learn new systems, don’t like PDF products, or can’t stand horror as a genre then I‘d suggest you pass this one by because you really do need to sit down and read through it. That means having a liking for the material and a reservoir of patience. If you don‘t like horror or PDF products then Blood Games probably isn‘t for you.
Why? Since I first began this review I have come back and stared long and hard at what I have written. Blood Games presents a lot of information that has to be read, digested, and put into context. The underlying system is not really derivative of any of the more popular systems. That means you really do have to sit down and read every word. Which may be a problem for some. Take me for instance. Every time I go back to skim sections of the document I find myself scratching my head in bafflement. So much so that I let the review sit awhile- a long while- and moved on to other things.
Then one day I decided to find out why I seemed to be running in to the reviewer’s equivalent of writer’s block. In rereading my review of the Starcluster 2 RPG I noticed that I expressed a similar degree of befuddlement about character creation as I found myself facing here. This forced me to ask myself why this might be. My answer?
It is my feeling this is the result of one of two things: either 1) I am not getting what is written, or have become burned out from reading too many rules, thus the rules I read just bounce around my head like a rubber ball in a empty room. Or: 2) what is written may perhaps be somehow opaquely worded, or not as well pruned of excess wordage as could have been, thus making the point seem dense and/or vague. If it is the latter then certain sections may need to be rewritten. If not, then I’d suggest, at the very least, that step by step examples be provided so that it is clear, even to the terminally brain dead, what players are supposed to be doing. At present there’s not a lot of examples, which means the GM is going to have to do a lot of handholding with their players. If you are the sort of GM who prefers rulebooks that provide step-by-step explanations of the rules then Blood Games could pose a headache for you.
Most players are not going to have time to read the entire document. In fact most players don’t want to read the entire document, they just want to sit down, be told in two or three easy steps how to roll up their character, and play. This means players will need to be able to take in the rules “at a glance” in order to know precisely what they need to be doing without reading more than a paragraph or two. Sadly I came to a simple conclusion, Blood Games needs a cliff‘s notes version of the rules. There is more than enough information about the game yet not nearly enough Game Master related information about how to go about setting up for play.
For instance six pages may sound like enough to lay down the initial rules framework for “character generation” and supply sufficient examples that convey to the reader a full sense of what is going on, and it can be, but Blood Games is not rules lite system. Too, as a full third of all the pages is left blank that means you really are only getting, at best, maybe two thirds of a page of information. Rules need to discuss what the point and purpose of the attribute scores are, what the point of the numerical values are, how these numbers figure into the game, and what all that means in practical terms. Indeed there should be some discussion about how these numerical values work within the game in addition to outlining the process whereby these numerical values are generated.
In short: There‘s a whole heck of a lot of information explaining mundane things, but the more I glanced over the pages the less I knew what the heck was going on. Either it’s me or it‘s the text. Let’s see if we can find out which…
The Setting: Blood Games takes a bold leap from the usual fictionalized pseudo-modern settings and places the game squarely within our sometimes flawed Technicolor world. It is, as the game puts it, “the one (world) where we all live, work, and play games. To enhance the sense of realism, you can bring the real world into your game by setting it locally - right in your hometown, or perhaps the nearest city. Use setting elements you and you players would be familiar with, such as the local schools or colleges, real pizza places &tc.” It is a choice that will either make or break the game. For many gamers realism in a game setting is very important, however reality isn’t what most gamers are looking for. It’s all around us everyday of our lives and, frankly, role-playing is escapist fantasy. By priming the setting as a reflection of our own real world, rather than portraying it as an alternative reality where the mundane may not be the commonplace, as we know it some gamers may unfairly dismiss the game as a result. Too, the depths to which religions are defined may run contrary to the expectations established by calling this an “occult” RPG.
Problem is what do most people really think of when they hear the world “occult”?
For me what constitutes the occult is not just esoteric knowledge but also a sense of the supernatural. Not that the supernatural and occult go hand in hand, but I’ve always felt they compliment each other. Does simply having a creature crucible that includes vampires, werewolves, mummies, and other standards of the horror genre meet the supernatural basics required of an occult RPG?
It’s a hard call. I’d like to say yes, but I also want to say no. That I actually want to see more I feel is a good sign. So, yes, I would like to see the supernatural elements played up more. However, as the rules of role-playing games are already rather esoteric reading in and of themselves, I‘d also like to see the rules stated in short and simple paragraphs. The less exposition the better.
The Game: So what the F is Blood Games about? Ars Magica this is not. Call of Cthulhu this is not. Rather what we have here is a game that has the potential to be used as the stage upon which any sort of horror is set with a little work. This is actually part of the game design as outlined on page 147 where “styles” of play are discussed. It’s a good idea that attempts, all to briefly, to outline potential modes of play. I would have dedicated an entire section to modes of play and discusses various campaign styles, from Lovecraftian horror to haunted house mysteries in depth. Horror is a very insular genre with its own unique expectations. To this end I would say that while Blood Games is a good introductory level core book that tackles the basics of the genre it might not go far enough for everyone. One can only hope for expansive- not expensive- supplements.
System Mechanics: Blood Games is a skill-based system using %iles. Character creation is involved yet, oddly, the section on character generation occupies barely six pages. Considering about a third of those pages is white space that means there is probably only something like four (?) actual hard pages of text, which hardly seems like enough space dedicated to detailing character creation. No examples are provided, not even rudimentary ones, thus those not familiar with Starcluster may find themselves getting lost without someone knowledgeable to walk them through the process.
Mini Rant: When gamers sit down in a public place with our game books, dice, and character sheets people already give us enough weird looks. Don’t it make more difficult for us to explain our hobby by burying game text in unnecessary exposition. Because you know every Game Master is going to face someone that asks us to explain the game to them. The less work we have to do to condense the rules into a simple, concise, straightforward explanation the better. (It would be best if we could just hand such people the game book and let it speak for itself!) Otherwise we really might as well be sitting there with an illuminated medieval grimoire, astragali, and archaic astrology charts inked in dragon‘s blood!
Character Creation: The Game Master is allowed to set the “age age” at which player characters are to begin. As the character’s age they pick up more skills and acquire more wealth. Essentially the system is designed to simulate the progression of a modern character through life and allow for what could/should happen in a given lifetime. Taken at a glance this system would appear to have several conceptual flaws, not the least of which is the assumption that characters would necessarily acquire more skills and greater wealth as they age, a “fact of life” certainly not in evidence in actual life. Then again this is a fantasy game. If we really were that enamored of the real world we wouldn’t be reading a review of a game that is designed to be escapist fantasy- much less writing about one- so it all balances out.
Characters come in two basic varieties: those of the Path (supernaturally attuned) and Non-Path (mundane). Overall the game setting occupies a fantastical realm somewhere between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Exorcist. Blood Games uses the same rules heavy system found in Starcluster 2. This is a system that may turn off the casual gamer while giving rulegasms to those who enjoy depth and detail.
However it‘s not all clear sailing. The section on character creation is not easy to summarize because it needs to be more coherently summarized itself. Players are given a choice of either using a “random method” or “directed method” of character creation. At a glance it appears that one involves rolling %ile dice and consulting a chart to determine STAT scores while the other involves rolling 2D6 for each STAT. Or does it?
Appraisal
Having the game setting rooted in the real world sounds like a nice idea. But what if I want to play a character patterned after the adventures of Chandu the Magician or some other supernatural pulp chiller? The pulps were often full of tales that took place in our real world, or a cracked mirror reflection version of it, yet were never quite the same mundane reality we are familiar with. Take H. Rider Haggard’s SHE for instance. Full of adventure and mystery set against an real world backdrop. Can Blood Games handle that sort of pulp adventure? Probably, but it might take some work.
What if a Game Master wants to adapt the mysterious horrors found in films like Poltergeist or The Amityville Horror? These aren‘t just horror movies about the supernatural they are based on events in our real world. The Templars have been mentioned, but they are more of a secret society ala the Illuminati or Freemasons than a hardboiled occult group. Though unless you are planning to use the Illuminatus! trilogy, Hellraiser, or Amando de Ossorio’s Blind Dead series as the basis for a campaign what use is an entry on the Templars to the GM who just wants to run a Poltergeist styled campaign?
It’s questions like this that kept nagging at me. So much so that I paused to ponder the material. You know you have a good game on your hands when a reviewer pauses to start looking up references in encyclopedias and is forced to ask penetrating questions about what is going on in the game before they‘ve even finished reading it all!
The PDF: Too much white space. Otherwise crisp, clean, clear, and more or less well lain out; aside from having too much white space. I would like to see the document condensed down to at least a third the current page length. I feel that would be more manageable to print out. Either than or fill the white space with sidebars or something.
Negatives: This is a reading intensive game. That said the font size, in my humble opinion, was way too small for onscreen viewing. Also, due to the inordinate amount of white space- meaning portions of the document left blank that could have been better utilized by printing text- I decided not to print out portions of this document as I often do. It would eat up too much costly paper. Ah, the perils of being an independent reviewer! That’s my main complaint, the font size. Otherwise the document seems pretty well laid out, save for all that white space! Did I mention that yet?
However I did find myself asking more than a few questions. For instance I wanted to know: Where is the section detailing the horrifying nature of characters encountering poltergeists, specters, phantasms, and other disembodied spirits? Sure ritual magic is mentioned in passing, once, but for this to be a full service occult role-playing experience doesn’t the player need more than just passing references? Why wasn’t Big Foot mentioned or the UFO phenomenon, both being sub-sets of the occult in some circles, mentioned? For that matter where is mention of the Illuminati? I could go on but all that would prove is I’m too geeky for my glasses.
Positives: I really liked the cover art. Kudos to the artist for a job well done! That said, what is up with that picture on page 79? Makes me wonder what sort of wacky tabacky that guy put in his pipe! Alas, I feel the illustrations, while well done, don‘t fully convey the diversity of the game. Taking them at a glance I would come away thinking this game was primarily about werewolves and American Indian shamans. Not saying that the art isn‘t good, just that I would like to have seen more of it.
In Summary
In short my personal, highly opinionated, assessment of Blood Games is: As a “modern Horror role-playing” game Blood Games is butter on toast. However, as a “modern Occult horror role-playing game” Blood Games, in my opinion, could be expanded upon. Otherwise it‘s spot on with the modern feel but I really do not get the sense that the full spectrum of the supernatural has been represented here. Then again to do so would be a task in and of itself, but still a worthy effort to make.
That said Blood Games should be a good evenings worth of fluffy goodness and beer and pretzels fun, with a bit of crunch. Meaning that unless you fall into the trap of overanalyzing the game this should be dancing through a park under a full Moon load of fun. The system is simple and relatively straightforward. You have a select creature crucible with the requisite monsters to allow gamers to begin play out of the box and, most importantly, you don’t have to purchase any other game books. Blood Games is a self-contained RPG throwback in the style of the old fashioned boxed sets of the eighties.
More than that Blood Games takes an existing system designed primarily for science fiction games and takes it in a new and interesting direction. However, despite being a showcase of the systems versatility, the game text contains what could be viewed as factual errors.
What sort of factual errors? The sort that leave people splitting hairs. Where real world information adapted for use in a game is concerned, especially matters touching upon religion, problems are almost always guaranteed. Some may feel that the text in the section detailing “real world” religions for in-game use may contain egregious distortions. Why? Simply put we’ve yet to agree on matters of religion in real life and I fear that this section will be the proverbial albatross around Blood Games neck if not handled properly.
Ok, dude, but what do you think? I think the sad fact is you can never please all of the people all of the time. Religion, or even the mention of religion in passing, can be a touchy subject. That the author approaches the subject in a tactful fashion is a plus, but to the zealot who takes offense none of that will matter. That said I have to admit I think it would have been better if the material had been presented more as a fictionalized set-up extrapolated from real world religion. Or presented more as a cultural gloss.
Otherwise, minor gripes and quibbles aside, Blood Games pretty much is what it claims to be: A horror role-playing game with elements of the occult.
To find out more about Blood Games you can visit it’s official web site here.
Happy gaming!
Copyright © 2004 C. Demetrius Morgan
Review Summary