Review of Soul's Calling

This is a game that left me with mixed feelings until the second reading. Then I realized I was just looking for something that wasn’t there. That said, when I got that and actually read the game? I was perfectly happy with it, and I’m now considering ordering the full version A word of warning about that – I read the playtest rules. There is additional content in the full book, but I’ve never had access to it. That said, I do believe the author has done a good job. Call it gut instinct. . As far as I can tell, it consists of additional advancement rules, rules on herbalism, some customisable pregens and more creatures.

So, what I was looking for that wasn’t there?
I was looking for a game that allows both immersion-focused and story-gamers (meaning all non-immersive gamers, but especially those that want to have narrative powers, as far as I can understand the author’s definitions) to enjoy the game equally. That’s not the game that’s going to achieve that. Or it might, but that’s not due to the ruleset. It just contains advice for the Referee (gotta give it to Soul’s calling, it uses the ”right” word for the GM!) to appoint a-refs. That’s short for assistant referees, and are basically players that you appoint to perform some Refereeing tasks (although the GM can overrule them). Running an NPC for you, in or out of combat? Sure. Paying attention to the results of some sub-system? Ask an a-ref. So, this is actually an elegant way to give the players that want them GM-like powers, which some would enjoy. In my experience – and I’ve used this before – even immersion-focused gamers enjoy this, if the group is bigger and tends to split. But it might work – and it makes the task of running a big-group game that much easier. Now, everything else is geared towards increasing immersion, according to the author’s experience – there’s even advice on giving hand signals to differentiate between IC and OOC speech. Not gonna use that part, or my group would laugh at me for years – different cultures and all that. But still, that's giving some effort to allowing story-focused gamers to play together with sim/immersion-oriented ones. And that's a nice touch.

With that in mind, let’s pass on to the mechanics.
Soul’s calling is a game with two basic rolls. Both of them use d12. One of them means you roll only 1d12 and so does the opposition; the second one means both roll 2d12. The Referee decides which one is more appropriate. The only difference isn’t in the chance of success, actually. The two have roughly similar odds of success – the faster single-roll method is for the times when you just need a pass/fail result. The double roll method also gives you degrees of success: Perfect, Clear, Middling, Bare success – or Fail, these are your options. The double roll mechanic also represents the more unusual cases, when you want a specific effect: it ties it with a specific success level (which might be the perfect one or Middling) and you need to get exactly that level of success. Anything different means you don’t get exactly your stated goal, but might get more or less than it, at the Referee’s discretion. So, if you want to strike someone just to injure them slightly, you might kill them instead – or you might not leave a scratch. Similarly, if you were going for a clean headshot to take someone out, you might miss and hit them on the shoulder. All in all, that’s a clever mechanic. But at first, you’d need to refer to your character sheet, which – conveniently – has an explanation of how to read the results of the double roll. The character generation is based on archetypes, depending on social class, vocation and faith. There are also things your character would never allow (it might be sparing a heathen or fae, for example). That’s about all you need to know, as the rest is setting-related. Oh yes, and don't try fighting unarmed if you can help it. Any weapon is better than that. Sounds reasonable to me, and evokes a gritty feel that matches the setting very well if you ask me. After all, Conan himself didn't try fighting unarmed if he had another option – even if this option was a dagger, or a bone he has been eating. And did I mention setting? Right. Setting it is, let me tell you more about it.

Setting
The setting is solid, although nothing that many of us haven’t seen. There’s the almost-medieval world, and there’s magic that actually works. The reason mages aren’t running the show is, some higher powers, including Fate itself, don’t want the people to actually know for sure magic exists – only some special people, PCs included, are allowed on the secret. The rest are the way the supernaturals like them: pretty much defenceless against a weapon they have never seen. Meanwhile, your magic ability, assuming you’ve got any, makes you a tasty snack for some malevolent entities. The only way to avoid them is to be among other people. But then you shouldn’t let them witness your magic… All in all, that’s a setting where wizards need to be careful with magic. I approve! The fact that you do know about magic is not entirely positive. If you spread the rumors, Fate would go after you. So, if you use magic… don’t leave (unenlightened) witnesses. Alive. But would you be able to kill every mugger that surprises you and causes you to resort to magic? Including the young and hungry ones? If not, are you going to take the risk of extracting a vow from them, and letting them alive? That seems a source of major internal conflict for wizards. Again, not that we haven’t seen something similar, but I approve of this approach. There are several kinds of magic. They’re powered by different beliefs and approaches, and create effects that are pretty much in line with the effects you would expect from reading folkloric tales and dark fantasy… and that’s all I’m going to say, because we finally reached the reason the game’s called Soul’s calling. See, your religion determines, among other things, your soul’s higher (or lower…) calling. Arguably, one might argue whether people with the “right” calling are simply drawn to the “right” (or very, very wrong, as the case might be…) religion, or the religion shapes their calling. I suspect scholars in the setting have nice debates about it. To us, it’s an allegiance mechanic, tightly linked to the setting. The different callings are Primal, Damned, Redeemed, Unbidden, and None (which defaults to Damned for most things – guess the gods in this setting don’t go to should slurs at atheist and break their windows, but only because their approach is more perfidious). This actually determines a whole lot of things. First, your calling decides whether you can be raised as an undead. A very practical consequence of being Damned is that they can return by themselves if they died in anger and had unfinished business (having None as your Soul’s calling means you still go to the pits of hell when you die, but there’s no chance to return by accident. As I said, gods in this setting HATE atheists...although, strictly speaking, there is a difference between religion and your Soul's calling. So I guess you can be a follower of the heavenly religion without being Redeemed). The followers of the angelic religion, however, get to go to Heavens when they die… keyword being when they die. Presuming you can go there before is a huge mistake. See, there are a Spectral plane, Spirit plane, a Heaven, the Seelie realm and the Unseelie realm and the Pits of Hell (all of them with different rules for what you can see from there, to which plane you can pass from there, how long it takes…). However, the ways you would be met in either depends on what your Soul’s calling is, and whether you’re alive. Dead guys with the right Soul’s calling go to Heavens (the bad ones don’t go to L.A. , though, at least in this setting – it’s Pits of Hell for them). That is, as long as they’re dead. However, anyone – even one of “theirs” that reaches Heavens alive, is killed by the angels’ ire. Well, at least then his soul isn't thrown in the Pits of Hell, for the demons to gnaw for all eternity – so you get something for being Redeemed. Still, nice way to screw up, isn’t it? Ah well, at least they’re not afraid of becoming undead! The Primals get better relationship with the Seelie (of which there are three kinds) and, if anyone could have nice relationships with them, probably would have better relationship with the Unseelie as well. However, the description leads me to doubt that. The No Calling guys are just screwed, as mentioned above. The Damned are serving demons in life, or even serving a perverted kind of cosmic balance (the Apocalyptic religion in the setting claims that there are multiple worlds, and the good and evil in them balances out. So, in order to preserve the beauty in other words, they call their worshippers to act Always Chaotic Evil and make atrocity after atrocity. No, it’s not meant for PCs, although it sounds to me like the kind of things an RPG group might invent if the want to blow some steam. In a way, that’s “preserving the good and beautiful” in our world, too…although I doubt that’s what the author had in mind). That said, despite some religions talking a lot about good and evil, the truth in the setting is that nobody knows for sure what is good and what is evil. I like that. It leaves me space to define them by the actions of my PC! So, clashing religions, clashing philosophies, and wizards who have restrictions on magic use. What more can one ask for from a setting? If you want to learn more, go and download the book. As stated above, the playtest document is free, and it does contain most of the rules!

Now, what are the differences between the free and the paid version? Should I get the paid version?
Long story short: yes you should, if you're looking for long-term play. The game is presented well enough with the free version, but not having experience is a major hurdle for most people. And since experience systems are actually a statement about the game's goals, let me tell you what the XP system is stating unambiguously about the game. It's an immersion-focused game, and that's the prime objective. No second thoughts here. There are clear rules on what gives you more points to use for your character. There are even strict rules (unless you choose to eye-ball them) for how longer or shorter sessions should change the amount of XP received. No, it's not a linear progression. Engaging with the game and the game's world is rewarded as well, no matter what kind of engagement. Granted, you don't need to be doing any “homework”, and it must be approved by the Referee – but that's also a possible source of bonus experience. That's the biggie, and I find it's presented well enough to be worth reading for new Referees (or for experienced Referees that only have experience with more gamist/narrativist systems, which don't follow quite the same logic in awarding experience). I'm not going to re-tell it here, but suffice it to say, it's well-done for the purposes of the game. There's also the section on herbal concoctions. As expected, it deals with poison first and foremost – and the author actually takes care to note that it's hard to poison someone. First, the poison falls from the blade; second, cutting through armour generally cleans your blade. And last but not least, the timeframe for it tends to be too long – so the dice checks are usually made after the fight. Yes, you can very well win a fight, and then suffer the effects of poison. Or you can make sure anyone who defeats you will be weaker, or die. Anyone remembers a popular fantasy series? Well, this is the way to go if you like this series. Apart from that, there are also rules on how much herbal mixtures you can brew, how many doses you would get, and how hard it is to find ingredients. On top of poisons – which are, let's face it, one of the first issues you'd encounter in an RPG – there are antidotes, stimulants, mixtures that make you tougher physically, but less resilient on an occult level. Healing salves are a must, but for maximum effect, you should also be treated by a physician. There are combat drugs, and...well, that's about it. All in all, it's a nice addition that adds mechanics that actually show the setting flavour better than lots of game fiction. Oh yeah, and the full rules allow for more options for character customisation. More is more, as Winnie the Pooh says, so that's a good thing! Although, to be honest, I'm perfectly happy with the basic character creation (but I wasn't planning on plyaing anything but a Primal character anyway).

Overall, I believe a 5/5 rating would be a reasonable note here. Granted, it's not doing everything I'd like it to do, but it's doing very well the job it's setting to itself. And that's not a small achievement. Besides, the setting is cool, and athmospheric. I'd like to try it some day, after my current campaign ends.