Review of Angel Roleplaying Game

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Introduction

The name's Davenport. I review games.

And sometimes, I see a new gig come down the pike, and I just don't get it.

So when Eden sends the obvious guy over to push their new Angel Roleplaying Game, I says to him, "I just don't get it."

"You don't get… what?" he says, all broody-like.

"The game. This game. Your game. Why isn't this just a Buffy supplement? Why's it gotta be its own game?" (Maybe I was bein' a little grouchy, but I hate keepin' late hours – I don't care who the client is.)

He gets up from his chair and paces around the room, his long coat swishing all broody-like. (I had to admire that bit.)

"Do you have any idea what it's like?" he says.

"Do I have any idea what what's like?" I says.

"Protecting an entire city from evil. Living with the knowledge of the evil I've done. Dealing with the harsh realities of a world where the humans can be worse than the demons. Getting my hair to look this good without being able to use a damn mirror. You think all that's covered by a game about a high school 'Scooby Gang'?"

"Well, you do have a point th-"

"And besides," he says, "My game has demon power system for PCs. Does Buffy's game have a demon power system for PCs? No? Didn't think so! And what about rules for organizations? Not much call for those when the most byzantine group your character can belong to is a college fraternity, huh?"

"Hey, take it easy, pal!" I says. "Kinda defensive about this whole deal, ain'tcha?"

He walks over and rests his arm against the window and his forehead against his arm, gazin' out over the city. (Or as much of it as he could see from the first floor, anyway.) Damn, but he had this broodin' thing down!

"Yeah," he says. "Maybe I am. See, there's this curse I'm under: I sleep with this girl, and I lose my soul."

"Oh, yeah, I've heard of that curse" I says. "It's called 'being a guy'."

Content

Note: The contents of the Angel RPG overlap heavily with those of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG. That being the case, I'll be frequently referencing the latter game and focusing on the differences between the two for the purposes of this review. (Translation: You might want to read my Buffy review first.)

Chapter One: Angel's Path

Every Unisystem book starts with an introductory chapter, and Angel is no exception. There's the obligatory explanation of roleplaying games and how they work, the chapter summaries and book conventions, and a quick introduction to the Angelverse.

Two items make this chapter noteworthy, however.

First are the excellent summaries of the show's first three seasons, complete with roleplaying and gamemastering tips if the group chooses to use the original cast and their circumstances as the basis for the group's own campaign.

And the second is a sidebar defending the decision to make Angel a separate game from Buffy. Basically, the suggestion is that there are fans who like one show but not the other, so it wouldn't be fair to force Angel fans to buy the Buffy game. I suppose there's something to that, although the emphasis on the stylistic differences between the shows doesn't really convince me. Is it really worth re-buying the same rules set just to get a different "style"?

The stronger argument involves the differences in rules emphasis between the games. For one thing, Angel plays up supernatural protagonists and plays down magic. For another, Angel adds rules for organizations of all sizes.

To Eden's credit, the sidebar concludes by flat-out telling owners of both games that they don't need to buy the other.

Chapter Two: Chosen Champions

Basic character creation in Angel mirrors that in Buffy in all but one important respect: the character types in Angel – Investigator, Champion, and Veteran – all get more skill points than their Buffy counterparts, White Hat, Hero, and Experienced Hero. (For the record, it's ten more points for Investigators and Champions but only five more for Veterans.) This is meant to reflect the fact that in general, Angel characters are more experienced than those of the high school/college-focused Buffy. And given the relatively small scale in Unisystem, those extra points make a serious difference.

Playtest: Appropriately enough, my Angel game is a spin-off of my Buffy game. As a kind of preview of the Angel game, I had one of the characters who was to appear in that game guest-star in the Buffy game. Upon seeing the havoc wrought by the Angel character in battle, one player felt moved to comment: "Angel characters kick butt!"

The basic Qualities and Drawbacks get a few name tweaks to reflect the differences between the shows: Jock becomes Athlete, Nerd becomes Brainiac, and Watcher becomes Ex-Watcher, for example. Also, the book brings in some training package Qualities from The Slayer's Handbook, such as Cop and Criminal. The Demon Hunter package is a nice addition for those wanting to play hardcore human monster-slayers.

But then we get to the Supernatural Abilities section. And now the fun really begins.

The Demon Quality is a variable-point Quality, because players can build their demonic (or otherwise super- or subhuman) characters from the ground up using 26 Supernatural Qualities and Drawbacks. The psychic powers from The Magic Box are all here, as are obvious choices like Natural Armor and Natural Weapon. (Although shouldn't those be Supernatural?) There's even a cool little Daredevil-like power, Nanjin Adept. Essentially what you have here is the beginnings of a superpower system – one that, along with Armageddon, might tide over Unisystem fans until Beyond Human finally arrives.

Playtest: And that's exactly how a friend of mine used it in her supers game, in fact. It worked pretty well, although I had to help her import and translate some powers from Armageddon to create my speedster hero. And that's just one example of the mileage I've gotten from this chapter. The half-demon PC in my Buffy game can now get some actual demon powers, and my Totem Warrior in a friend's Buffy game can now get an actual superhuman sense of smell, rather than just a really good human-level one.

There is one flaw in the system, though. Well, perhaps "flaw" is too strong of a word – "quirk" might be better. At any rate, here's the deal: there is absolutely no incentive to play a normal human in this game. Why? The answer lies within the Enhanced/Reduced Attributes Quality/Drawback.

Enhanced Attributes cost 1 point per +1 bonus up to +10 for Strength and Constitution and up to +5 for everything else; beyond these limits, the cost is 5 points per +1 bonus. Now, consider that for normal humans, Attributes cost 1 point per level up to 5 and 3 points for 6, the human maximum. But if you happen to be a supernatural of some type, suddenly you're still paying 1 point/level at level 6 and beyond thanks to Enhanced Attributes. And there's no requirement for a character with Supernatural Qualities to take Supernatural Drawbacks, so the argument can't be made that all superhumans will have special problems of their own. Aside from their powers, they could be perfectly normal – remember Gwen the Electric Girl?

The bottom line is that playing a human in this game is a self-imposed limitation with no counterbalancing benefits. That's not a game-crippling flaw by any stretch of the imagination, but it's something to keep in mind.

On a related note, the Enhanced Attributes Quality lets players do an end-run around the restriction that points from Drawbacks can go to Qualities or skills but not Attributes.

Playtest: For example, a player in my game wanted his character to have not superhuman Attributes, but simply more Attribute points than normal. And he wanted to pay for these extra points with Drawbacks. That's not possible for a human. But okay, fine, he's not a normal human – great-grandma was a demon, or he's a freak like Gwen, or something. Taa-daa! Now he could spend those Drawback points on the Enhanced Attribute Quality, effectively buying up his Attributes with Drawbacks.

The Supernatural Abilities section concludes with four sample pre-calculated supernatural races, including one particularly interesting example: the Revenant. These are essentially Crow-like beings who return from the dead seeking vengeance or justice, but with a twist: they don't re-animate their own bodies, but rather the body of the nearest victim of a violent death. Unless burned alive, they continue to body-hop in this fashion.

After the skill listing – identical to that in Buffy – come the archetypes:

• Apt Pupil (Champion) (A nifty rich sorceress/fencer lady who'd make an ideal patron for a PC group.)
• Barbarian Queen (Champion) (An import from medieval Pylea.)
• Barrio Defender (Investigator)
• Crusading Biker (Champion)
• Daemonic Investigator (Investigator)
• Demon Gangsta (Champion) (Imagine Wesley Snipes' Blade on steroids.)
• Former Cultist (Investigator)
• Psychic Supermodel (Investigator)
• Pyro Girl (Champion)
• Reformed Assassin (Champion)
• Rogue Demon Hunter (Champion) (Turns out there really is such a thing as a "rogue demon.")
• Undead Champion (Champion)

Two thoughts come to mind.

First of all, Champions outnumber Investigators here two-to-one, leaving an impression that Angel's focus is on the fighters. That makes some sense, especially if you want a game more like the later seasons when pretty much the whole crew was throwing down with the bad guys.

And second, there are an awful lot of mental and emotional problems with this bunch, so if your group relies exclusively on archetypes, get ready for one screwed-up team. But that, too, makes some sense – there are some people with some awfully serious issues on the show, after all.

Overall, the selection really does showcase the broad potential of the game.

Then we get the write-ups for the show's cast as of Season Three:

• Angel
• Cordelia Chase
• Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
• Winifred "Fred" Burkle
• Lorne
• Allen Francis Doyle
• Kate Lockley
• Connor
• The Groosalugg

Not bad at all, especially with the inclusion of adjustments for the first two seasons.

In case you're wondering: no, Connor's write-up doesn't reveal what he really is. And wow… I had no idea Cordelia was such a force to be reckoned with by Season Three. She could go toe-to-toe with Wesley in a swordfight, at any rate.

Chapter Three: Helping the Helpless

Being the rules chapter, this is where the greatest degree of overlap with Buffy occurs. Nevertheless, the chapter features some welcome refinements and additions to cinematic Unisystem.

For example, the chapter includes rules for "wire fu" leaps based on a character's Strength, possibly increased by a Dexterity + Acrobatics roll. (For the record, Angel can pull off a 10' high jump without really trying. Not too shabby.)

Also, in keeping with the more serious nature of the show as compared to Buffy, the chapter ramps up the violence a notch with some new combat maneuvers. Now your characters can literally blow a foe's brains out, break or lop off a limb, do that cool "wall flip" move, hold multiple opponents at bay with a whirling sword, or grab opponents and smash'em into the nearest wall.

Playtest: I've definitely gotten some use out of that last one using my aforementioned super-strong Bear Totem Warrior. This is one of the few moves that uses Strength instead of Dexterity (combined with Acrobatics), allowing him to really show his stuff. (All those Takedowns were getting tiresome.)

The chapter includes an intriguing new option for handling multiple actions: when an attack fails, the defender gets to counter with his attacks until he fails, and so on. I haven't put this one to the test yet, but I like how it simulates a back-and-forth slugfest.

Angel also introduces vehicles into cinematic Unisystem. As befits the system as a whole, it's nothing complicated: vehicles get Armor Value, Damage Capacity, Handling, Speed, and Toughness stats, with Damage Capacity serving as the vehicle's Life Points and Toughness as its Constitution. Handling effectively serves as a limit on the driver's Dexterity in Dexterity + Driving rolls, which makes perfect sense – even the most nimble driver is only going to get so much performance out of a bulldozer, but given the cinematic nature of the system, a sufficiently skillful driver might still be able to surprise you.

Again, magic is mostly a rehash of that found in Buffy, except that in keeping with Angel's lack of dedicated spellcasters in the first three seasons, there is no Sorcery Quality. As a result, all magic will be ceremonial in nature – no fireballs and lightning bolts. Honestly, though, I don't see this as much of a limitation. First of all, you can always bring in Sorcery from Buffy or The Magic Box. And secondly, I actually think that for combat magic, the Supernatural Abilities in this book do a better job. If you want your magician to be able to lob fireballs and lightning bolts, simply give him the Supernatural Attack Quality with the appropriate special effects. This approach gets around that multi-casting penalty, which I've never particularly liked anyway. If you want to make such an attack more "magic-y", use the Limited Use Drawback to require incantations, gestures, and so forth.

Along with the aforementioned supernatural powers section, here's the other big selling point of this book over Buffy.

Given the prominence of organizations in the series, from Angel Investigations on up to Wolfram & Hart, it's only fitting that the game provide rules for the creation of groups of all sorts. The fundamental precept of the mechanic is that the more power the PCs have in the organization, the less power the organization has as a whole, and vice versa. This works beautifully to keep the PCs "in the trenches" – if you work for an organization that can topple governments, you're most likely going to be one of the grunts.

The measure of an organization's overall power comes in the form of organization points, which the players can spend on three general areas: Clout, Quarters, and Gear. These, in turn, break down into sub-categories, each with their own levels and organization point costs. For example, a group with Governmental Clout Level 1 might have some pull with the local cops, whereas a group with Governmental Clout Level 5 practically is the government. A group whose Quarters have Computers Level 1 has a typical office setup, while a group with Computers Level 5 might have its very own A.I.

The system smoothly prevents the creation of organizations that completely defy logic. For example, a group with Supernatural Clout Level 5 has to have Financial Clout 3 and Criminal Clout 2 to support its inherent exotic and illegal needs. And Criminal, Financial, and Government Clout all add points for the group to spend on Gear, since it wouldn't make much sense for a group well connected in those areas to be poorly equipped.

Playtest: The only hole I found in the system is the lack of a relationship between the Resources of members and the Financial Clout of the organization. One player wanted to play the de facto leader of the group – a filthy rich individual dedicated to investigating the supernatural. But given the rules, the fact that he was filthy rich had no bearing on the organization itself – a PC was in charge, and so the organization was at the lowest tier of power. Later the player in question had to leave the group, so the character became an NPC. This didn't solve the character finance/company finance issue, but it did allow us to bump the organization itself up a level of power, since a PC was no longer in charge. (This was early enough in the game that such shuffling had minimal impact on the adventure.) One final side note: it's awfully cheap to get a "Tricked-Up Car" (2 organization points), and the "tricked-up" aspect is left pretty vague. An example given is mounted weapons. I let the players have concealed "pop-up" weapons, but I'd definitely advise caution here unless you want the team to have a Bondmobile.

Rounding out the chapter are four sample organizations: Angel Investigations (circa Season Three), Wolfram & Hart, Gunn's Gang, and the Morningstar Foundation. The latter is a non-canon monster-busting group founded by a benevolent billionaire, perfect for groups wanting to play agent types for a medium-sized organization.

Chapter Six: City of Angel

As the book itself points out, there's simply not room to provide a comprehensive guide to Los Angeles, nor is it particularly vital. However, this chapter offers the basics for those who don't know East L.A. from Bel Air or Chinatown from Downtown. More importantly, it gives detailed descriptions of key locations from the series: Caritas, the East Hills Teen Shelter, the Hyperion Hotel, Jenoff's Demon Casino, some of the mystical shops, and, of course, Wolfram & Hart. In addition, the chapter features descriptions and stats for Anne Steele of the East Hills Teen Shelter, David Nabbit the billionaire geek, and Merl the demonic stool pigeon, along with some generic humans.

It's the Buffy monster chapter, and then some.

Vampires get about the same treatment, but with a bit more focus and organization. For example, there's a handy-dandy chart of vamp dusting techniques, their Life Point thresholds, and whether a given method allows the vamp a Survival Test. And the chapter wisely adds the option of dusting a vamp by simply blowing it to bits – after all, beheading kills a vamp, and the complete and total destruction of a body pretty much includes "beheading" in the package.

Demons get a much more thorough treatment than they did in Buffy. Not only are there more example demons, but thanks to the Supernatural Abilities section earlier in the book, the chapter avoids a repeat of some of the more worthless power descriptions in Buffy – e.g., the description of Telepathy just stating that some demons have telepathy. Instead, the chapter references the actual power, with the actual stats.

Werebeasts don't make the cut this time – nor does the Werewolf Quality, for that matter – but that's not a big deal, given the Dual Shape option under the Supernatural Form Ability and other were-appropriate powers.

Ghosts and zombies are still there, though, and given a bit more flavor – again, thanks to the Supernatural Abilities. Poltergeists can make use of the Telekinesis power, for example, and certain zombies might have Regeneration.

And more than making up for the lack of werewolves are a whole slew of human adversaries, freakish and otherwise: the telekinetic Bethany Chaulk, Ronald Meltzer and his detachable body parts, Faith the Vampire Slayer, Capt. Daniel Holtz the fanatical vampire hunter from the past, and those wonderful folks at Wolfram & Hart, from goons to lawyers to black-clad commandoes. (And before you ask: no, the Slayer Quality does not appear in this book; however, it wouldn't be hard to cobble one together with the Supernatural Abilities using Faith's stats as a guide.)

This chapter of gamemaster tips follows closely in the footsteps of its Buffy counterpart: group configurations, relationships to the show's characters, alternate settings, series creation, etc. The only noteworthy differences to my mind are that some of the ideas here are even better. For example, Angel has a built-in swords-and-sorcery setting in the dimension of Pylea. And in addition to the various combinations of Champions and Investigators, the chapter suggests a darker game in which the players are all Wolfram & Hart employees, or one in which all of the characters are demons trying to get by in a human-dominated society.

Chapter Nine: Blood Brothers Part One

This is another of those adventures in which the very premise is a pretty big spoiler. Highlight below to read:

The heroes bust up your typical demon cultist ceremony, only to accidentally create a doppelganger of one of the heroes in the process. Investigation of the aftermath of the ceremony leads the heroes to seek a highly rare scroll of demon prophecies from a wealthy and occult-savvy collector, either through negotiation or a little Grand Theft Scroll-o. Meanwhile, the doppelganger-ed character's prophetic dreams lead to a search for a teen runaway with a very scary and very uncontrolled power: she not only sees negative events in the future through visions, but actually causes them. (Like the deaths of her parents, for example.)

The demon cultists, Wolfram & Hart, and the Doppelganger all want this girl for their own nefarious purposes. The whole situation ends in a bloody three-way siege of the heroes' headquarters (or wherever they decide to hide the girl), with hired demon thugs from the cultists and Wolfram & Hart commandoes fighting the heroes and each other to get the girl. But in the end, it's the Doppelganger who snatches away the girl, courtesy of a bit of railroading. End Part One. Part Two will have to wait for the GM screen.

Playtest: The opening scene was a lot of fun, since the cultists aren't particularly good fighters. It gave the players a chance to break in their badass PCs in relative safety while having a good old mook-bashing time. I wasn't as thrilled with the Doppelganger angle, though. It's a great idea, but not for an introductory adventure. We hadn't really gotten to know the PCs yet, making a convincing "evil twin" difficult to run. We enjoyed the many opportunities for interaction throughout the adventure, with the wealthy occultist, a Wolfram & Hart attorney, the Doppelganger, a demon who shows up posing as the psychic girl's uncle, and the girl herself. A couple of complications inherent in writing pre-gen adventures for this game that aren't really factors in Buffy showed up, however. First, the wealthy occultist will only meet with groups of sufficient Clout or Contacts; failing that, breaking and entering is required, and the occultist's defenses are considerable. My group didn't meet the criteria for a meeting, but burning a Drama Point earned them a party thrown by the occultist to which some clever computer hacking got them invited. (That actually ended up being one of the more enjoyable interludes in the adventure, in fact.) And second, the variable nature of the group's headquarters has the potential to make the final battle spiral out of control, or possibly nullify it altogether. Sufficient levels of Supernatural Security could keep out the demons, and sufficient levels of Physical Security could keep out the whole lot of them – at least, barring something akin to total warfare. Which brings up the "spiraling out of control" angle. By the time we got around to running the climax, the group's shakeup had left the heroes one tier down on the authority scale – basically, they were the only people there aside from The Boss. But if they'd been less significant employees working for a larger organization, the resultant battle would have been more than I could have handled easily. One other note: while the game discourages the PCs' use of firearms, the attack of the W&H commandoes puts PCs armed with swords and crossbows at a distinct disadvantage. Guns hurt a lot. If some of the PCs in my group hadn't had guns of their own, I doubt they could have survived this encounter. And assuming that the PCs are victorious, what do you suppose they're going to do with all the machine guns and body armor lying about? I know what my PCs are going to do with them, and I can't say that I blame them...

With its guide to "Angelspeak" and its conversion guide from cinematic to standard Unisystem, this chapter is identical in function to its Buffy counterpart, and equally as useful. In fact, since Angel lacks the "quick magic" of Sorcery found in Buffy, the conversion is even more useful: an Angel GM owning WitchCraft or Armageddon but not Buffy could convert standard Unisystem magic to fill the Sorcery niche.

Style

Every ounce of praise I heaped upon the style of Buffy applies to Angel as well – the writing is as witty, the cover as beautiful, the layout as clean, etc. If anything, the organization is even better.

Conclusion

It's the smooth game play of the Buffy RPG with the same sense of fun combined with even greater utility courtesy of supernatural powers and organization rules. There's really not much more to be said. I'm just glad both books have the same author, because if you have to choose between the two, this is the one to get.

In any case, as of right now – i.e., at least until Beyond Human comes out – this game is the ultimate incarnation of cinematic Unisystem. (And, arguably, the ultimate incarnation of Unisystem, period.)