Quick-Start Saturday: Hellboy

Quick-starts are means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps too. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game for the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

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What is it?
The Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart is the quick-start for Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game, the horror roleplaying game of occult investigation based on Hellboy, Mike Mignola’s comic book tales of horror, myth, and folklore. Originally published by Mantic, it is now published by Nightfall Games.

It includes a basic explanation of the setting, rules for action and combat, setting rules, details of the arms, armour, and equipment fielded by the Player Characters, the assignment, ‘The Sad Case of Mary Pym’, and five ready-to-play, Player Characters, or Agents.

It is a forty-six page, full colour book.

The quick-start is lightly illustrated, but Mike Mignola’s artwork is as good as you would expect. The rules are a slightly stripped down version from the core rulebook and include setting specific rules, but all are easy to grasp.

How long will it take to play?
The Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart and its assignment, ‘The Sad Case of Mary Pym’, is designed to be played through in one or two sessions.

What else do you need to play?
The Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart requires at least one twenty-sided die per player, or ideally a full set of the standard polyhedral dice.

The Game Master may want to have two sets of tokens to represent Doom and Ingenuity.

Who do you play?
The five Player Characters are agents with the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, or B.P.R.D. They include a medical doctor who has been in the field too long; an ex-cop from Vietnam; an archaeologist with psychic powers; a Russian counter-terrorist operative seconded from the FSB; and an ex-US Army chaplain. All come with simple backgrounds and full explanations of their abilities.

How is a Player Character defined?
The Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart, and thus Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game, is compatible with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. A Player Character will look familiar to anyone who has played that roleplaying game or any similar roleplaying game.

How do the mechanics work?
Mechanically, the Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart uses the standard rules for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. However, there are some additions to the rules to take account of B.P.R.D. fieldwork. In addition to rolling the twenty-sided die for ability checks, skill rolls, saving throws, and attack rolls, a player also rolls a ten-sided die. On a roll of one on the ten-sided die, a point of Doom is generated, whereas a roll of ten on the ten-sided die will generate a point of Ingenuity. In addition, certain events or discoveries during an investigation can generate points of Doom or Ingenuity. Ingenuity has a lot of uses. Some of these include succeeding with flair, gaining extra information, failing with style to mitigate the effect of the failure, use an ability that requires a Focus Check without the need to roll, cause a maximum roll on a damage roll to explode, and so on.

Doom does not have as many uses. Typically, it is used to inflict a fumble on a Player Character. In addition, it is possible to both fail or succeed with Doom or both fail or succeed with Ingenuity, plus an investigation can have its Ingenuity and Doom spends. ‘The Sad Case of Mary Pym’ has its own set of tables for Ingenuity and Doom spends.

How does combat work?
Combat in Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart, and thus Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game, uses the standard rules for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. There are some additions to the rules to make play more cinematic in line with the comic book series. ‘This Is Gonna Hurt’ grants a Player Character a bonus attack on which his player can expend Hit Dice to increase damage and ‘Rapid Fire’ enables a Player Character to shoot at multiple targets within close proximity of each other.

How do Rituals and Psychic Powers work?
The Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart includes an introduction to both rituals and psychic powers. To perform a ritual, a skill check is required and then a Charisma check is required to maintain it, but the player must also roll three ten-sided dice instead of one for Doom and Ingenuity with these rolls. These count as extra successes. The rules for rituals are not as clearly presented as they could be. Three sample rituals are given, including Exorcism and The Grāmata Rite, which reverses a transformation or curse.

Psychic powers work in a similar fashion. The three sample powers include Psychometry, Psychic Invasion, and Séance.

What do you play?
‘The Sad Case of Mary Pym’ is a full haunted house investigation for B.P.R.D. which is set in the United Kingdom. The agents are called in to investigate after an estate agent reports seeing a ghost in Uxley Hall. The whole of the house is presented in damp, mouldy detail, which gets weirder and crazier the deeper the agents go and the more Doom they have accrued on the ‘Grand Conspiracy Sheet’, awakening more and more of the monsters. The adventure keeps some of its details hidden until towards the end, so the Game Master will need to give it a close read. It is primarily exploratory in nature, the Player Character actions triggering events and adding Doom to the ‘Grand Conspiracy Sheet’ which also trigger events. It is a decent investigation, pulpy in nature in keeping with the source material. Even the scenario’s map is brash and colourfully pulpy in its style.

Is there anything missing?
The Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart is complete. Portraits for the pre-generated Agents would have been useful, as well as for the NPCs.

Is it easy to prepare?
The core rules presented in the Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart are relatively easy to prepare. The Game Master will need to understand how Doom and Ingenuity work as well as rituals and psychic powers.

Is it worth it?
Yes. The Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart is a solid introduction to occult investigation in the world of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and B.P.R.D. It is pulpy and grows to be over the top in keeping with the source material which the players and their agents will want to play up to.

Where can you get it?
The Hellboy: The Roleplaying Game – Quickstart is available to download here.