Far West... Finally

The fortunes of the Empire have always ebbed and flowed with rebellion and repression and restoration. An Imperial Governor deciding to throw off the shackles of Imperial control and declaring independence, only for his rebellion to be crushed and he be replaced by a political opponent. Always on the Periphery of the Empire and always following this pattern until a cascade of rebellions began The Session Wars. The Imperials had industrial and economic might manifested in superior training and technology, the Periphery had numbers and zeal. The August Throne also had time and it picked and pecked at the alliances between the rebellious new states, defeating each in turn until years later, the last free Kingdom of the West, Orinost, stood alone, the engineering geniuses at the Engineering school at the University of Alsdolan, the so-called Circle of Iron, used their advances in technology, especially Cog Science, to withstand the Imperial assault. This, combined with the efforts of the Clever Folk of the Far West and the Grand Masters and Legends of the Dust Road, to harry and undermine the efforts of the Imperial forces, enabled Orinost to hold out for three more years and so create its own legend along those of many of its great defenders. Ultimately, the two sides would clash at the battle of Ash Ford which would see men and women capable of shattering mountainsides with their bare hands battle each other, thousands killed, and Orinost defeated, yet the Emperor, in his wisdom, came to terms. The rebels were allowed to enter exile on the condition that they never took up arms against the Emperor again. So they fled West as far as they could from the Empire back East. They took the Dust Road over the border beyond the Periphery and the Last Horizon, and so into the Far West.

Yet the Far West is not quite as wild and barbarous as Imperial propaganda might say it is. The trains of the Chartered Houses, each led by a great Steam Baron, run far to fortified towns within territory, bringing goods and people to the new land; the people value their honour and courteous to a fault lest they insult one another; and the Marshals, empowered by the Chartered Houses to bring Imperial Law and ‘justice’, are known for the masks they wear which keep their faces hidden as much as for hunting down and executing the bandits which infest the region, though their reputation for ruthlessness has made them equally as feared. Then there is ‘The Dust Road’, a path rather than a road, walked by the Clever Folk, those whose knowledge and skill, whether in the arts, engineering, or sciences, and especially in the martial arts of kung-fu, transcend that of ordinary men. They can manipulate ink to blind their opponents, stand upon one spot unmoving no matter how much force is brought upon them for they will shatter first, make any object as sharp as a sword or as strong as steel to withstand a blow from a sword, target the humours of an opponent and so upset his equilibrium, shoot opposing bullets out of the air, and so on. Heroes or villains, they upset the natural order of things and so are not to be trusted, as thirty years since the battle of Ash Ford, the Empire eyes the lands beyond the Periphery with greed, the Chartered Houses plot to expand their economic grasp, and bandit armies strike fear into settlements large and small in the Far West.

This is the set-up for Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game. Published by Adamant Entertainment, it is undeniably one of the most notorious roleplaying games of the modern age. Not because it is bad or its subject matter is contentious or its designer has expressed himself or done anything that could be regarded as inappropriate. No, it is notorious because it is late—and not just late, very late. In fact, to fair, very, very late. A decade late. In the past this would not have been an issue, but Far West was among the first roleplaying games to be funded via Kickstarter and to raise what was then a lot of money in doing so. In other words, its supporters put their money into the project and did not receive the much-promised book—until now, that is. Funded via Kickstarter on August 25th, 2011, it has taken almost thirteen years to bring the book to fruition. In that time, the designer, Gareth-Michael Skarka, has suffered illness and difficulties, least of which is the damage to his reputation, the roleplaying game has undergone a drastic redesign, and there have been numerous delays. Finally, with the assistance of Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Far West has seen print. To say all of this is not to attack the designer, but rather to give context and an understanding of the history of Far West. Yet the author barely addresses the issue in the book and certainly does not go so far as to apologise or offer a mea culpa for those delays, though his introduction to Far West would certainly have been the place to put that on record.

If anyone has had the patience to wait the thirteen years for the book, then they certainly owe Pinnacle Entertainment a debt of gratitude for helping the designer get Far West into the hands of the remaining Kickstarter backers and to T.S. Luikart, for working with the designer to complete the roleplaying game. Then with the book now out, the designer can at least put the project behind him, and those who waited for it, discover whether that wait has been worth the final product.

As the title suggests, Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game combines two genres. One is the Old West of the post-Civil War United States, the other the Jianghu, the world of martial artists and the Wuxia genre of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Warring States period of Chinese history. More specifically for the first genre, it draws upon the Spaghetti Western rather than the Wild West, with stories set along the border between Mexico and the United States of America. This brings what is called a Castalan—in other words, a Hispanic—aspect to the setting. The combination of the Spaghetti Western and Wuxia genres also means that the traditional displaced native peoples typically found in the latter do not appear in Far West. In some ways Far West feels tonally very much like the television series Firefly, although without the Science Fiction elements. However, with the addition of Cog Science, Far West is also a Steampunk roleplaying game.

A Hero or Player Character, one of the Clever Folk, in Far West is defined by his Rank, Attributes, Background, Occupation, Skills, Spirit and Aspects, Edges and Flaws, and Allegiance. Rank, from Novice to Legend determines how many dice a player has to assign to Attributes and Skills, the number of Kung Fu Forms he knows and how much Spirit he can have. The seven Attributes are Reflexes, Strength, Wits, Toughness, Presence, Knack, and Kung Fu. Of these, Knack is a measure of aptitude with tools and technology, whilst Kung Fu represents how good he is in the special forms of martial arts. Background, such as ‘Back East—The Empire’ or ‘The Rolling Steppes’, and Occupations like ‘Artist’, ‘Gambler’, ‘Hired Gun’, ‘Lotus Girl/Willing Lad’, and ‘Wrangler’ all provide bonuses to skills.

Aspects are descriptive elements of a character. They can include relationships, beliefs, descriptions, catchphrases, distinctive possessions, tied to Advantages and Disadvantages. In play, a player can spend Spirit to Tag an Aspect, bring it into play and gain two bonus Wild Dice to a roll, whereas the Narrator can compel an Aspect, bring it into play, forcing the Player Character to act against his best interests or simply earn a penalty to roll. In return, the Player Character is rewarded with Spirit. It is possible for one Player Character to Tag another and so gain the Wild Dice bonus. One advantage of tagging an Aspect is if the roll is successful. If so, the Spirit spent to Tag the Aspect is refunded, but if the roll is a failure, the Spirit is lost. A player can refuse an attempt to Compel an Aspect, but this will cost Spirit to do so. Aspects can also be built into scenes to be Tagged or Compelled. An Aspect can also be Tagged after a roll, but this does not gain the two extra Wild Dice, instead allowing a reroll.

Spirit is a Hero’s inner power or life force. It is based on the value of his Attributes and Kung Fu dice. Divided into Permanent Spirit and Temporary Spirit. Permanent Spirit is reduced to learn Kung Fu styles, whilst Temporary Spirit is used to add dice to rolls, Tag Aspects, and so on. A Hero has an Aspect each from his Background, Occupation, highest and lowest Attributes, and Rank. The Background and Occupation Aspects must be selected from virtues of the Dust Road. These are altruism, justice, individualism, loyalty, courage, truthfulness, disregard for wealth, and desire for glory, and one must be negative and one positive. Edges, such as ‘Blinding Speed’, ‘Deadly Aim’, and ‘Fortune Of The Celestial Monkey’, are purchased by spending Skill dice, whilst a Hero can add to his Skill dice by choosing Flaws like ‘Addlepated’, ‘Debt’, and ‘Thick As A Stump’.

Kung Fu is different in that its four skills are determined by the Kung Fu Attribute. The four Skills are External Kung Fu, which focuses on physical power and agility with direct, explosive attacks; Gateways Kung Fu is about the flow of Spirit along meridians within the human body to the points where they intersect at gateways or pressure points, which can be disrupted to cause paralysis or even death; Internal Kung Fu is about the flow of Spirit within the practitioner’s own body to harden the flesh against attacks, expel Spirit as attacks, and master balance and leverage; and Lightness Kung Fu is about the manipulation of the practitioner’s own body weight to be able to walk along walls, leap over roofs, and move swiftly and lightly.

Allegiance can be to an organisation, a belief system, nation, or a philosophy, and in play, mechanically, it can be Tagged or Compelled like any other Aspect. The default Allegiance is to a Clan, but a Hero can also be a Drifter in which case he suffers interaction penalties when dealing with any Clan. Some Clans are secret like the ‘lotus girls’ and ‘willing boys’ of the Foxglove Society, a clan of assassins, or secretive, such as the ‘Brotherhood of Steel and Song’, the solitary Mariachi. Others are more obvious, such as the Iron Dragons, which work the rails back and forth across the Far West, whilst the Jade Family are nomadic con artists, beggars, thieves, entertainers, and fortune-tellers who take ‘Jade’ as their surname to indicate membership. Every Clan is described in some detail, including its background, philosophy, fighting styles used, organisation, symbol, and benefits.

The actual process of creating a Hero is a matter of assigning dice to both Attributes and Skills, and making choices. It is not a difficult process, but it is a daunting one because of the array of choices possible and the lack of advice when it comes to those choices. There are templates at the back of the book, but they are bare bones and there is no complete example of the Hero creation process—there are lots of little examples—and then the player has the problem of tying his Hero into the setting. This is compounded by the sheer number of Kung Fu styles to choose from—there are over eighty! The question is, which Kung Fu style goes with what concept or background? Which Kung Fu styles can be used with melee weapons or firearms? Perhaps it would have been helpful if some archetypes had been given, complete with Aspects, Kung Fu styles, and origins to tie them to the roleplaying game’s setting, both to illustrate and sell the setting?

Name: Mathias Pouke
Rank: Initiate
Background: Back East—The Empire
Occupation: Artist (Journalist)
Allegiance: The Wandering Stars
Spirit: 16 Permanent, 9 Temporary
Aspects: Individualism (Not From Around These Parts), Desire For Glory (Something to Prove), Fingers & Thumbs, A Way With Words, The Cat’s With Me
Edges & Flaws: Animal Ally (Cat, her name is Fence), Famous (Chronicler of the Far West), Debt
Kung Fu Styles: Brushless Sight Stroke, Fluttering Fist, Quivering Palm)
Reflexes 4D (Dodge 1D)
Strength 2D (Running 1D)
Wits 4D+2 (Artist 2D+2, Bureaucracy 1D, Gambling 1D, Investigation 2D, Scholar 1D+1, Streetwise 1D)
Toughness 3D
Presence 4D+2 (Animal Handling 1D+1, Bargain 1D+1, Charm 1D+1, Persuasion 1D)
Knack 2D (Lockpicking 1D)
Kung Fu 4D (External 1D, Gateway 1D, Internal 2D)

In terms of rules, Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game is also a combination of two mechanics. The core rules are the D6Plus system, which uses pools of six-sided dice and which is a development of the mechanics first seen in Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, published by West End Games in 1987. The other is the storytelling or narrative Tagging and Compelling of Aspects as seen in FATE. The D6Plus system measures everything in terms of how many six-sided dice it has, primarily attributes and skills. It can have a bonus of +1 or +2, but never +3 or more. If an attribute or skill has a bonus increased to +3, it is instead increased by a whole extra die. A player will be typically rolling a number of dice equal to the rating of the attribute or skill, adding the results of all the dice, aiming to beat a Difficulty Number. An Easy Difficulty Number is roughly five or more, Easy ten, Moderate fifteen, Difficult twenty, and so on. Bonuses and penalties can apply from the situation, equipment used, or other factors.

When the dice are rolled, one die must be of a different colour. This is the Wild Die. If the result on the Wild Die is a one, it indicates a Critical Failure, whilst a roll of six on the Wild Die is a Critical Success and the player can roll the Wild Die again and keep adding as long as the Wild Die result is a six. If a Critical Success is rolled and a roll of one occurs, it does not mean that a Critical Failure has been rolled. A Critical Failure either negates the result of the highest die rolled or a complication occurs, the severity of which is determined by the Narrator, the suggestion being to make it lean into comic relief rather than necessarily being deadly. There are some suggestions for complications for the Narrator to use, such as “One of the characters kills a bandit. Unfortunately, the bandit was preparing to throw a stick of dynamite. The characters have only a few seconds to act before the dynamite explodes...” and it is suggested that the Narrator also write possible Complications into scenes and encounters in her scenarios. Additional Wild Dice can be added to a dice pool by spending Spirit.

An optional rule allows for ‘Joss’ or extra luck in a dice roll, but after the roll has been made. This counts doubles in the roll. If the doubles are low, the Hero suffers ‘Bad Joss’ and the situation does not turn out in his favour, whilst if they are high, the Hero has ‘Good Joss’ and the situation does turn out in favour. Where the ‘Joss’ rule is interesting is that it is possible to fail a roll and still have ‘Good Joss’ or a roll to succeed and suffer ‘Bad Joss’. This is the equivalent narratively of ‘Yes, but’ and ‘No, but…’.

If a roll is a success, the amount by which the roll succeeded is called ‘Result Points’. These are used to add bonuses to future rolls, like damage and defensive rolls, sets the length of time for an effect or the complexity of later tasks. In some cases, the whole value of the Result Points is not used. For example, it is halved as a bonus for the Hero’s next roll and divided by five for the damage bonus.

For all the simplicity of the D6Plus system, combat in Far West is comparatively complex. Ranged combat is straightforward enough, a simple skill roll versus range, but close combat is not. Skills rolls are made against the difficulty of wielding the weapon used, brawling attacks are always very easy, whilst each Kung Fu style has its own Difficulty value. However, all of these Difficulty values can be replaced if a defendant decides to use the Dodge skill to avoid the blow, the Melee or Brawling skill to parry, or a Kung Fu style with a defensive element. This turns combats into a series of opposed rolls. Modifiers adjust the number dice to be rolled due to range, cover, protection, the type of manoeuvre, and hit location. There are also penalties for multiple actions, these being very likely if a defendant wants to avoid or stop an attack. Add into this the some eighty of so Kung Fu styles and that is a lot to take into consideration. Obviously, not all eighty Kung Fu styles are going to be used in single combat, but with four Heroes, which is twelve that the Narrator needs to be aware of before she even considers those for the NPCs.

Duels—which work for both the Western and the Wuxia side of Far West—are actually neatly done with ‘The Showdown’ rules. This is divided into two phases. In the ‘Stare-Down’ phase, in which the participants make opposed Intimidation (or Prescence) rolls. The ‘Stare-Down’ can last multiple rounds during which the participants attempt to roll higher than the other. The loser always chooses when the ‘Stare-Down’ ends and the winner then uses the Result Points from his total rolls to modify his initiative roll in the ‘Quickdraw’ phase. This gives the winner an advantage as otherwise he would have to use dice from his weapon skill to modify his initiative.

Damage comes the weapon used, plus the Strength Attribute if a melee weapon, and Kung Fu style if appropriate. This is opposed by the defending combatant’s Toughness, with Result Points determining the effect of the damage done. A stunned combatant suffers a die penalty to all actions, a wounded one is knocked to the floor, and if the Result Points are sufficient, the defender can be killed. Damage options include substituting severe injuries instead of outright killing someone and there are descriptions given for narrative damage. Combat is surprisingly deadly, and a player may want to spend Spirit Points to temporarily increase his Hero’s Toughness or he can reduce damage on a one-for-one basis.

The setting itself is supported with a solid section of arms, equipment, goods, and services, and it is here that the Cog Science is covered. Each device has a Scale ranging from Character to Huge, plus the various dice bonuses it provides, bonuses and limitations, skill required for its use, and so on. This can include adding Aspects to the Cog device. The Cog Science skill is required to build any device and a player works with the Narrator to determine what it does and what its total value is. The value indicates how many days the device will take to complete, whilst the Narrator works out how much it will cost based on the cost of other devices given in the book. To compare, a Pocket Tracker has a value of twenty-three versus the fifty-one of a Repeating Rifle. Numerous example devices are given, but the few pages here—just eight—barely scratches the surface of this aspect of Far West. The guidelines are serviceable, but not spectacular. Arguably, Cog Science could have done with a chapter all of its very own.

A fifth of the book is dedicated to the setting of Far West, its history, geography, culture, common means of travel and communication, and more. This includes how the peace is kept, how business is done, what entertainments and medicines are available, what faiths are followed, festivals celebrated, and so on. There is quite a lot here and it also includes a Far West lexicon. It is, however, all quite broad in its detail, as there is a lot to cover. The Narrator is given a chapter of her own which really introduces the two genres of the roleplaying game properly and gives some pointers as to the elements of both. The advice highlights the parallels between the Wuxia and the Spaghetti Western genres and it is these parallels which bring the two genres together. There is decent advice on what types of adventures can be run in the setting as well as campaign ideas, and some suggestions on legendary weapons and Kung Fu manuals—the latter being one of the primary ways in which to learn more Kung Fu styles, the creation of other Clans, and a random adventure generator as well as some hooks throughout the Narrator section. Add in the random settlement generator and the Narrator is given the tools to create the bare bones of her own scenarios. That said, a starting adventure would not have gone amiss.

Overall, the rules for Far West are at best serviceable, rather than exciting. The D6Plus system is generic and leaves the Tagging and Compelling of Aspects to do a lot of work in terms of bringing the setting to life mechanically. In fact, the combination of a nearly forty-year-old game system with a more modern one—and even that is a decade old—feels creaky. It does not help that Critical Successes are undeveloped, doing no more than allowing extra dice rolls, in comparison to the attention paid to Critical Failures. The Hero creation process is hindered by a lack of a fuller example and archetypes which could have showcased what was possible in terms of character types. Similarly, whilst there are lots of little examples of the rules and combat, there is no one big example of play or combat which would have showcased everything in action, which in the case of the latter would have helped the Narrator understand the complexities of the combat system.

Physically, Far West is, in general, well presented, being vibrant and exciting in terms of much of its art. Yet the editing could have been tighter and the artwork is not without its problems. Notably, one of the pieces that illustrates Cog Science is directly inspired by Lego Technic. Then there is the issue of representation, of which Far West is a victim of its own Kickstarter campaign. One of the pledges, ‘Grand Master of the Dust Road’, enabled backers to submit a photograph which would be turned into a portrait in the setting and book. Consequently, the resulting artwork reflects the backers and reflects the gaming hobby as it was in 2011, so there are a lot of Caucasian faces and there are a lot of stocky, bespectacled male faces* within the book. This does not mean that Persons of Colour, whether Black or Chinese, or as well as women, are not represented in the artwork. They are. However, whether they are represented enough is another matter. What is clear is that a lot of the better artwork—and there is a marked divide in quality—does depict male Caucasian faces. Again, this is not intentional, but rather the consequences of the Kickstarter campaign.

* To be fair, I am one of them.

Ultimately, it is great to have Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game in the backers’ hands. They have waited a long time. Has the wait been worth it? With regard to what they may have pledged for on the Kickstarter campaign, probably not, since the book itself does not feel very special. Mechanically, arguably not, since Far West underwhelms and simply does not do enough in terms of its rules to bring the setting and game to life, and against that, there are a lot of little aspects of the game, primarily the many styles of Kung Fu, which complicate play and make it just a bit more fiddly. In terms of look, debatable, but then to be fair, there are mitigating circumstances. In terms of setting, arguably, yes. The concept of a Western/Wuxia mash-up is still an intriguing, even enthralling combination, a great vehicle for action and storytelling even thirteen years on. That is perhaps where Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game shines, in its core concepts and parallel genres rather than its execution. Overall, Far West: Western Wuxia Mash Up Adventure Game is not a disaster ten years in the making and it is playable with some effort upon the part of both the Narrator and her players, but it does show its age in very many ways.

Big Brew, Bitsy Box

In the past, small games tended not to offer a lot of game play, serving mainly as a filler in between longer, more in-depth games or as games to play with casual players. Not so with the ‘Microgame’, which originally appeared as mini-wargames such as Metagaming Concepts’ Ogre, MicroGame #1—first released in 1977 and since published by Steve Jackson Games in various formats—and with the growth in popularity of Euro games, has seen a revival of the format, most notably, the ‘Tiny Epic’ series from Gamelyn Games. These pack enough game play and depth into their boxes that it easy to imagine them having been as a standard big box games, but as Microgames, their components can be just as good (if much smaller), their game play can be as thoughtful, and they can be both far more portable and more inexpensive.

Microbrew is a Microgame which should appeal to gamers of a certain age and their love of beer—especially their love of craft beer from microbreweries. Thus, you have a small game about brewing small beers. Published by One Free Elephant, best known for Carcosa – A Lovecraftian board game of Cults and Madness, a version of Carcassonne infected by the Mythos, Microbrew is a two-player worker placement game with elements of pattern building and recognition. The two players lead rival brewing crews at a brewery, competing to brew, bottle, and serve beers to their thirsty customers. If they can brew and serve the right beer to the right customer—for every customer has his preferred beer—then they will not only make money, they will also ensure the loyalty of those customers.

Microbrew comes with quite a lot of components. These start with the four Copper Still cards, each player receiving two of these to form the Copper Still in which he will brew his beer. The Copper Still is marked with sixteen interconnected spaces divided into four equal columns (a fifth column can be added during the game). It will be filled with Wort tokens of varying strengths (Wort being the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer or whisky which is fermented by brewing yeast to produce alcohol) and by ‘brewing’ moving the Wort around in the Copper Still, a brewer will be able to match a recipe, more or less—hopefully more—that he can serve to his thirsty customers. Each Copper Still card also has a track for the amount of money a player has.

Between the players is the Brewery, again made up of two cards. It is marked with Brew, Bottle, Serve, Mash, Flush, Break, Advertise, and Manage Actions which a player can assign his workers to. There are two wrinkles here. One is that there is a Brewmaster in charge at the brewery and he constantly moves from the Manage Action to the Flush Action to the Advertise Action, and then back round again. When he arrives on one of these Actions, they automatically happen. The other is that when a player has placed a worker on an Action, it does not block that Action for the other player. If a player really wants to, then he can displace his opponent’s worker and take that Action, but this gives his opponent a chance to place his worker elsewhere, effectively giving him an extra action. This is a nice touch, providing a solution to the frustration of players being blocked from taking an action.

The Customer Cards all prefer particular types of beer, such as the Englishman’s love of English Milk Stout and the Jamaican’s like of Jamaican Tropical Stout, indicated by the particular recipe each card. When a Thirsty Customer is served a beer, he will pay a player money, the amount depending upon the quality of the beer and whether it included a favourite flavour, such as a sweet for the Scottish Wee Heavy. If a Thirsty Customer is served a beer which they rate as perfect—that is, matches their preferred beer—they become a Loyal Customer. If a Thirsty Customer was not served a perfect beer, he has had his fill of beer for this round, but will return the next round as a Thirsty Customer once again. It is possible to keep serving a Thirsty Customer imperfect beer from round to round in order to make money, but it is also a viable tactic to serve a Thirsty Customer an imperfect beer, not just for the money, but to force your opponent to serve an imperfect beer to another Thirsty Customer instead of the intended Thirsty Customer for whom they had the perfect beer and so prevent him from gaining them as a Loyal Customer.

The Recipe Cards are all marked with the four Worts they need from one column in a player’s Copper Still to be brewed perfectly. The fewer correct Worts a recipe has when served, the less money it will make for a player when served. Similarly, if there is a contaminant in the beer it will make less money. Each player usually has one Recipe Card which is kept secret, so that he has one potential perfect recipe he can serve, whilst there are at least three face up on the table that either player can attempt to brew.

The last cards are the Reputation Cards. These are objective cards, one of which is kept public, whilst each receives two to keep secret. Typically, they are fulfilled by brewing the most recipes of a particular flavour or acquiring Loyal Customers flying particular flag. If fulfilled, they score a player the equivalent of extra Loyal Customers at the end of the game.

Lastly, there are the wooden tokens. Most are the yellow, orange, and brown Wort tokens, but there are also Green Malting tokens which can clog up a Copper Still (one or more being added at the start of the game, depending upon the desired complexity); tokens to track a player’s money, a management token, upgrade tokens to add a fifth column to a player’s Copper Still, and three Workers per player. 

The rules pamphlet is double-sided and folds to fit in the game’s tin—like everything else. The tin is actually packed quite tightly with the components. It also forms a part of the game’s play too, Worts being drawn blind from it when a player needs to refill part of his Copper Still.

Game play itself is made up of Rounds divided into two phases. In the Work Phase, each player takes it in turn to place his Workers in the Brewery and take their Actions. In the Rest Phase, Workers return for reassignment, Customers served imperfect beer last round Thirsty Customers again, any Customers who became Loyal Customers and any recipes made last round are replaced, and the Management token moves to take a new action.

There are a number of Actions at the heart of the game which are essential to brewing beer. These are Brew, Bottle, and Serve. The Brew Action allows a player to move one Wort token in his Copper Still up or down, swapping places with the Worts above or below it. Dark Worts always want to settle, whilst light Worts always want to rise, and as long as there is a light Wort below it, a dark Wort can keep settling and swapping places. Equally, as long as there is a dark Wort above it, a light Wort can keep rising and swapping places. This allows a player to radically alter the arrangement of Worts in his Copper Still, his aim being to have Worts in a column match those on a Recipe Card—either in his hand or face up on the able. They do not need to match the order of Worts on the recipe card, just the colours. This is the puzzle element to Microbrew, a player having to arrange the colours or Worts on his Copper Still card to get a match with those on a recipe card.

To Bottle a beer, a player takes the Worts from one column of his Copper Still and places them on a Recipe Card, hopefully one where the colour of the Worts match as much as possible. Once a beer has been bottled, it has to ferment. Whenever a player uses on of his Workers to take an Action or passes because he no more Workers to place, each bottled beer ferments. This is simply the removal of one of the Wort tokens from the Recipe Card. When they are all removed the beer is ready to serve. Once served, the player keeps the Recipe Card, but cannot brew it again.

What this means that brewing takes time and fermentation. In game terms, at least six or seven Actions over two or three rounds, although this will speed up once either player hires a third Worker. It is also likely that a player will have more than the one recipe on the go—and one piece of advice tis that a player should always have a beer of any kind fermenting as it might not be the perfect beer that any of the Customers currently want, but it will gain you some money and money will buy you upgrade, new staff, and advertising.

Other Actions include Mash (draw more Worts blind from the tin to fill a player’s Copper Still), Flush (return all discarded Worts to the tin and then swap any from any from the player’s Copper Still—that is, not blind!), Advertise (draw an extra Loyal Customer and an extra Thirty Customer), Manage (Overtime—gain an extra Action; Three recipes—add Recipe Cards to a player’s hand and those face up; Hire Staff—add a third Worker), and Break (a player’s Workers use the vending machine and earn him money and all Customers who have had a beer become Thirsty Customers once again). The Overtime, Three Recipes, Hire Staff, and Upgrade Actions cost a player money.

Play continues Round by Round until the last card from the Customer Deck is drawn or all of the Customers are loyal to one player or the other. The player with the most Loyal Customers, including any extra from Reputation cards, is the winner, the amount of money serving as a tie breaker if needed. Game length is roughly between thirty and sixty minutes, probably towards the latter when first learning the game and if a second set of Microbrew is added to the first to allow for a three to four player game (although another two different sets of meeples will be needed if this done.)

Physically, Microbrew is impressive. For such a small game—physically, at least—the components are all nicely done, if of course, a bit small. This may make the game a bit fiddly in places to play, especially when manipulating the Worts in a player’s Copper Still. The rules pamphlet feels a bit light, but that is a more an issue with the amount of space there is in the tin. The rules do need a close read though, as the lack of space means that they are succinct and perhaps in places could have done with more of an explanation. The advantage to the small size is Microbrew is very portable and even when in play, takes up very little space.

There are essentially two paths to victory in Microbrew. One is brew the prefect beers, sell to the right Thirsty Customers and turn them into Loyal Customers. The other is sell imperfect beers as fast as possible, raise enough money to pay to Advertise and so gain more Loyal Customers and more potential Loyal Customers, but that methods gets more expensive, the more Loyal Customers a player has. Then of course, a player can switch back and forth between the two paths. The game has a strong puzzle/pattern recognition element in the manipulation of the Worts in a player’s Copper Still and getting that right can quickly set a player up with lots of fermenting beers and potential sales. The capacity for a player to undercut another player by selling an imperfect beer adds a nice tactical element to the game play, whilst the hidden Recipe and Reputation cards give a player something to work towards without his opponent being able to actively block him.

One Free Elephant has taken the theme of brewing beer and microbreweries and done a very nice job of applying that to Microbrew. Overall, Microbrew is packaged small, but does a big job of brewing beer and satisfying thirsty customers.

—oOo—

Currently, Microbrew is being funded on Kickstarter.

Retrospective: Top Secret

There can be no doubt that TSR, Inc. is the most important publisher in our hobby and as much it became a moribund juggernaut its its later years, it should be remembered that in its early years, it was a vibrant innovator. It released not only the first roleplaying game with Dungeon & Dragons, but the first roleplaying game with a setting in the form of Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne, the first game set in the Wild West, Boot Hill, the first Science Fiction roleplaying game with Metamorphosis Alpha, and both the first espionage roleplaying game and the first contemporary roleplaying game in the form of Top Secret. Published in 1980, Top Secret: An Espionage Role Playing Game for 3 or more players, ages 12 to adult would dominate the espionage roleplaying until 1983 and the release of Hero Games’ Espionage and Victory Games’ James Bond 007.

Like the majority of TSR’s titles and roleplaying games from this period, Top Secret came as a boxed set. Inside can be found two books and a pair of ten-sided dice, in those days a pair of twenty-sided dice, numbered zero through nine twice. The first of the two books is the rulebook, the second the adventure module, ‘Operation: Sprechenhaltestelle/Code Name: Pisces’.

As explained in the rulebook, Top Secret is a roleplaying game in which the players take on the roles of spies or Field Agents for an unnamed, possibly anonymous agency. They will be under the direction of the Administrator—their Game Master—who will assign them missions and assignments and who upon completion of said missions will reward the Field Agents with monies for services rendered. So it sort of suggests that the Field Agents are not doing this out of a sense of duty, that they are employees rather than patriots. How far the Administrator wants to take this potentially mercenary aspect of the game is another matter, but then again it could be hang over from the rewards (treasure) gained during a game of Dungeons & Dragons. 

Field Agents are created by rolling percentile dice for six primary traits and then deriving various secondary and tertiary traits from the core six. Other factors such as height and whether or not a Field Agent needs to wear glasses are rolled for, as are a Field Agent’s ratings in the languages he knows, and the Areas of Knowledge (AoK) he possesses as well as their values. Most traits are self explanatory, except for Deactivation, which is dealing with alarms and traps, Deception, which is lying, and Evasion, which is avoiding others and getting out of the way. The process requires some arithmetic and gives a result like this:

Emil Izmailov
Level 1 Investigator
Height 5’ 11” Age 26
Handedness Right Glasses N/A

Personal Traits
Physical Strength 37 Charm 99 Willpower 54
Courage 86 Knowledge 72 Coordination 97

Secondary Personal Traits
Offense 92 Deception 93 
Evasion 85 Deactivation 85 
Life Level 9
Movement Value 188

Secondary Personal Traits
Hand-to-Hand Combat Value 122
Wrestling Value 129
Surprise Value 178

Languages
English (87), Spanish (40), Russian (87)

Areas of Knowledge
Economics/Finance (120), Fine Arts (52), Geography (67), Home Economics (74), Mathematics/Accounting (129), Political Science/Ideology (93), Psychology (81)

At this point a player can also buy some equipment for his Field Agent. He can also select a Class for his Field Agent. Now Top Secret is a Class and Level roleplaying game, but not in the traditional sense, because all that a Field Agent’s Class does is determine his Bureau Classification, that is, which department he is in. These are Section 2—Investigation, Section 3—Confiscation, and Section 00—Assassination, with Section 1—Administration being reserved for the Administrator and a hangover from an earlier version of the game in which the Administrator was also a player and not the game master. What a Field Agent’s Bureau Classification does is determine what Experience Bonuses he receives for what actions carried during a mission. So an Assassin will receive a Bureau Bonus for assassinations, muggings, blackmail attempts, and rescues; a Confiscator for hijacking and skyjacking, theft, and use of counterfeit money; and an Investigator for breaking and entering, lying, tailing and surveilling, and conducting a full investigation. Each of these tasks, as well as the other tasks in Top Secret, all have a base Experience Point reward, so an Assassin who carries out surveillance on an NPC will receive the base reward, just not the Bureau Bonus that a Field Agent from the Investigation Bureau would. Problematically, there are a lot of Bureau Bonuses available for the Assassination Bureau, in fact, double the amount given for each of the other two Bureaus. There is even a base reward and a Bureau Bonus for killing civilians, which is not merely a matter of not feeling right, it is simply wrong.

What a Bureau Classification does not do, is grant a Field Agent any mechanical benefit whatsoever. So a Field Agent in the Assassination Bureau is no better at killing targets than a Field Agent from the Confiscation Bureau—he just gets more rewards for doing so. It also gives the indication that the unnamed agency that the Field Agents work for gave them no training before sending them off on an assignment (which makes them feel mechanically more like Troubleshooters in West End Games’ Paranoia roleplaying game than spies in an espionage game). There are not even any skills in Top Secret, and even though Areas of Knowledge do cover some aspects of skills in the game, they are not explained in the rulebook (and would not be explained until the release of the Top Secret Companion in 1985). Now this is not entirely fair, since a Field Agent’s skills are really represented by his raw traits and it is these that will be used throughout most of the game. It is these traits that the players will increase as their Field Agents gain Experience Points—there is not even any benefit to acquiring a new Level.

Mechanically, Top Secret is a percentile system. It is not a game though, with a unified mechanic. Instead, it has multiple different mechanics, one for each aspect of the game—gun combat, hand-to-hand combat, wrestling, contacts, and so on, not chases though. There are no rules for chases in Top Secret, on foot or by vehicles. So for example, the outcome of an interaction between a Field Agent and an NPC is determined by the player deciding which method to use—Force, Fool, Fascinate, Impress, Bribe, Lure, and so on. The method sets the Field Agent’s Trait to be compared, so Physical Strength plus Hand-to-Hand Combat Value for Force, Charm for Fascinate, Deception for Con, and so on, while the Administrator sets the resisting Trait for the NPC. Sometimes this may even be an Area of Knowledge and using an Area of Knowledge in this way is one of the primary ways of doing so in Top Secret. The two values are compared in the Contact Reaction Table and this gets a letter representing a Reaction Key Code. The Reaction Key Code is then checked on the Contact Reaction Key table, the entry here giving a definite result, but often requiring a dice roll upon the part of the Administrator. As cumbersome as this was, it did at least point the way towards roleplaying that involved more than just exploring dungeons, killing monsters, and taking their treasure, that involved interaction and talking. This is enforced to an extent by the Experience Point reward system for missions, even as that table favoured one Bureau Classification over another.

The rules for gun combat first deal with surprise and then the first shot determination, followed by movement and actually firing the weapon. So far so good, although the process requires that at certain steps, various tables need to be checked for appropriate modifiers. Once a target has been successfully shot, the attacker rolls for injury location and then whether the wound is light or serious and for type of wound—from Abrasion and Incision to Fracture and Internal Damage. Only at this step will the Administrator and the player know how much damage is inflicted. Optional rules—given later in the book—provide further detail, including injury modifiers for location, ammunition used, and both temporary and permanent losses to a character’s Traits as the result of being shot.

Similarly, the rules for hand-to-hand combat are equally as detailed and complex, but where gun combat ends with a randomly determined hit location for a successful attack, in hand-to-hand combat both attacker and defender write down manoeuvres at the start of each round, the attacker targeting a particular location with a move like a slap to the neck or a one-two punch or foul strikes like a below the belt hit, and the defender attempting to prevent his being attacked with a defensive move such as a right side parry with the hand or ducking. The attacker always chooses the one manoeuvre, whereas the defender chooses two, and if the attacker successfully hits, the defender selects the better response out of the two. Hand-to-hand combat covers untrained brawling, martial arts, boxing, and wrestling covering an array of different manoeuvres. As complex as this sounds, it gets even more complex when more than two combatants are involved. Further, what form of hand-to-hand combat a Field Agent knows is determined not by his Bureau Classification or his training as such, but his Areas of Knowledge. So if a Field Agent has either the Physical Education or Military Science Areas of Knowledge, then he will know one or more forms hand-to-hand combat. If he has neither, then he is untrained, which again seems absurd.

Combat is such a focus of the game that the primary examples of the rules play in in Top Secret—there is no sample of play—focus on combat. In fact, the complexity of the combat systems are such that studying the examples are the easiest way of learning how to understand both. This does not get away from the complexity of these rules and the frequent need to refer to tables.

Beyond the rules for combat, Top Secret covers the police and their equipment, security systems, using explosives and bullets on vehicles, fencing goods, using truth serum, disguises and more, though the Administrator is left to work out how gambling works. Optional rules provide for getting arrested, called shots, poisons, gun design, sneak attacks, and oddly, executions. In fact, there is a table of execution methods, which includes the chances of survival and effect of doing so. So many of these optional rules should really not be optional, sneak attacks at the very least if not more.

Notably, there is an optional rule for Fame and Fortune Points. Each Field Agent will begin play with several Fortune Points and a single Fame Point. He will earn more Fame Points as he attains Levels, but not Fortune Points, which are finite in number. A Field Agent will know how many Fame Points he has, but not how many Fortune Points. Both are used as luck points to overcome a fatal wound. They have no other use, but in 1980, their inclusion is revolutionary. They would not come into wider use in other roleplaying game designs for two or three more years—most notably in the James Bond 007 roleplaying game—when their application would be further refined, but their inclusion here is one of the first, if not the very first.

Lastly, the rulebook comes with several appendices. These include lists of major languages and espionage terms and agencies as well as suggestions as to devices from ‘Q Section—Special Services Division’. This is an obvious nod to the James Bond movies, as is the Bureau Classification for Assassins and really is not much more than a list of ideas and items that the Administrator will need to create some stats for. Lastly there is a short bibliography. 

The second item in the Top Secret boxed set is ‘Operation: Sprechenhaltestelle/Code Name: Pisces’, an introductory game module for the roleplaying game. Designed for the beginning Administrator and beginning Agents, it is set in a  European-style town caught somewhere between the Eastern and Western blocs. It is a known den of spies—some Red, some Blue, some grey—and minor criminality, a point of neutrality through which both powers can operate, but without consequences on either side. At the beginning of the scenario, the Agency has learned that a ‘neutral’ organisation is holding defectors from the East for auction. The Agents are tasked with locating both defectors, learn the operations of those holding them, and then disrupt them. This will probably take multiple operations Sprechenhaltestelle.

Specifically focused on the waterfront—seafront or lakefront?—of the town, Sprechenhaltestelle is essentially a sandbox that the Agents will explore and search, interacting with the locals, trying to find the clues they need to proceed further. Some fifty locations above ground and some fifty locations below ground are described and detailed, each needing to be matched with the one hundred or so NPCs. The NPCs are kept separate from their respective locations which means that tying the right line of stats for an NPC to the right location is not easiest of tasks. It does not help that the NPCs lack personality, so the Administrator will need to provide those as well as placing targets, both human and objects.

Packaged in cardboard folder with a separate briefing file for the Agents and the full scenario for the Administrator, ‘Operation: Sprechenhaltestelle/Code Name: Pisces’ is not really a scenario for use by a beginning Administrator. It is too complex to set up and run with ease, requiring more preparation work than a more straightforward plot-driven might have done. In the hands of an experienced Game Master or Administrator, this would not have been an issue, but as a first scenario…? That said, there is plenty of play to be got out of the module and a good Administrator can do a lot with it. Also, the compact nature of the waterfront in Sprechenhaltestelle does make it feel a movie backlot, for example, like that used to film The Man from U.N.C.L.E. television series. It is interesting to note that the editor of ‘Operation: Sprechenhaltestelle/Code Name: Pisces’ is Mike Carr, best known as the author of B1 In Search of the Unknown, the module that originally came with the Basic Dungeons & Dragons boxed set. It goes some way to explaining the sandbox feel of ‘Operation: Sprechenhaltestelle/Code Name: Pisces’ and of the need to populate parts of the town.

Top Secret does not come with a specified background. Rather it comes with an implied background of an agency or institution with the mandate to conduct espionage operations. Top Secret being an American RPG means that it is implied that this agency is the CIA, but of course, it does not have to be. The Admin is free to create background and content as is his wont, drawing upon the source material of his choice, whether that is the James Bond books and films, the John le Carre books and films, or television series like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. or The Avengers. Certainly, James Bond films are fairly obviously referenced in the rulebook and there are nods to the other sources too. 

It does not really help that there is little advice or help for the Administrator for running Top Secret in the rulebook. There is some guidance on creating environments and some on setting up a campaign network, but really the advice on running the game appears in ‘Operation: Sprechenhaltestelle/Code Name: Pisces’. It is reasonable enough, but overall hindered by the lack of any discussion on running or playing an espionage-themed roleplaying game. All right, Top Secret is the first, but some advice to that end would have been helpful, for those new to roleplaying and those who have been playing fantasy and science fiction roleplaying games.

Surprisingly, at the time of publication, Top Secret appeared to receive no reviews—certainly not in White Dwarf or Different Worlds magazines—but it did attract some official interest. As related in ‘The Rasmussen Files’ in Dragon #38 (June, 1980) and this interview with the designer, Merle M. Rasmussen, on the podcast The Dead Games Society, Mike Carr’s game notes were found and handed into the authorities and on January 17th, 1980, the FBI paid a visit to the TSR offices, investigating a tipoff about an  assassination plot in Beirut, Lebanon. Further, and to avoid official interest, the cover had to be redone so that it did not show a photograph of American dollar bills, which would have been illegal at the time. This also had the effect of covering up the photo of the model whose legs can be seen on the cover. That model is Elise Gygax, Gary Gygax’s youngest daughter, who would also appear in a number of adverts for TSR products.

Physically, Top Secret is a workmanlike product. Both the rulebook and the module are clean and tidy, but both are relatively lightly illustrated and not all of the artwork is of the best quality. Perhaps the main issue physically with Top Secret is the layout, which has one subject matter after another with no thought to real organisation or being able to find anything. What this means is that the combat rules are not all together and not all of the rules and entries for NPCs are together, for example, and there are no chapters for easy organisation and access.

By modern standards, Top Secret is not a great game. It lacks any real background beyond that which the Admin can draw upon his knowledge and consumption of the genre, leaving him with the tasks of creating an agency, threats, and so on. It couples this with a set of rules that consists of multiple subsystems, so that there is one set of rules for one activity, one set for another, and so on. This makes it cumbersome and often slow to play. The lack of Class abilities is an oddity and the skewing of Experience Awards to the Assassin Class as well as the monetary reward for achieving scenario goals, point towards a design that that has not quite escaped Dungeons & Dragons-style play.

Yet as much as Top Secret’s design is arrested by the post-Dungeons & Dragons design ethos of providing detail and realism—often too much detail and realism—its design can be can be seen as a transition. A transition away from the wargames based design of Dungeons & Dragons to the more coherent handling of theme and rules seen in later TSR, Inc. roleplaying games such as Gangbusters, Conan, and Marvel Superheroes. Despite all of this, Top Secret is always going to remain a classic because it was the first roleplaying game to do espionage and because it remained the top treatment of the genre until the release of Hero Games’ Espionage and Victory Games’ James Bond 007, both in 1983. In between then, Top Secret would prove to be popular and be supported by a number of scenarios and supplements, many of which would help the game explore the espionage genre better than the core rules do. It would then be replaced by Top Secret/S.I., a roleplaying game more inspired by the James Bond movies and a better, more modern design. 

Top Secret is a classic because it was the first and it will always be remembered for that. It cannot be said to be a great game design or necessarily a great game, but there are some clever ideas within its pages. It would just take a bit more time and other games for them those ideas to bear fruit.

—oOo—

A new version of Top Secret called Top Secret: New World Order is currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign. Again designed by Merle M. Rasmussen, it will eventually be released by TSR Games.

Movie Dominoes

Published by Cinelinx Media, LLC  following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Cinelinx - A Card Game For People Who Love Movies is a light, movie trivia card game that essentially plays like a cross between classic Dominoes and Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Rather than asking questions about what you know about the movies—film titles, actors, genres, movies, directors, scenes, quotes, and characters—it asks you what you know about the movies and then make connections between them.

Designed for two to six players, aged thirteen plus, the game consists of two hundred and twenty-four cards. These are broken down into four rules cards, eighteen Directors cards, eighty-six Actors cards, sixty-two Movie cards, sixteen Double Feature cards, four Quotes cards, four Character cards, four Scene cards, and fourteen Genre cards, plus twelve Director’s Cut cards. Each of the game cards comes with two pieces of text on it. One indicates the type, for example, Movies or Actors, while the other gives the text to connect to. So, for example, a Movies card might be ‘Star Wars’, a Actors card might be ‘Morgan Freeman’, a Genre card might be ‘Science Fiction/Fantasy’, and a Directors card might be ‘Christopher Nolan’. All four sides of each card are marked by film reel halved. These are lined up to form the connections from one card to another.

The rules come on four cards. One of the four gives the rules, one a guide to making connections, one to card types, and one to game variations. The rules to Cinelinx are simple. One card is placed in the centre of the table, typically a Genre card and the Director cards, which allow a player do things like swap cards with another player or allow a player to play two cards. Each player receives a hand of ten cards. Then on his turn he plays a card from his hand, placing it down so that it forms a connection with a card on the table. So for example, with the ‘Horror/Thriller’ Genre card down on the table, a player might place the ‘Interview with the Vampire: Chronicles’ next to it, the ‘Kiefer Sutherland’ Actors card (because Flatliners is a horror movie), and so on. Play continues until one player has played all his cards.

If a player cannot place a card, he must draw two cards and miss a turn. Alternatively, a player can swap up three cards from his hand and miss two consecutive turns. A player’s choice of card and connection can also be challenged and if proven invalid, he loses a turn.

And that is that… Physically, the cards in Cinelinx are decent enough if slightly rough to the touch. The rules themselves are perhaps slightly succinctly done on the cards and they are also a bit too small read. This being a trivia style game and a movie buff is going to have a big advantage with Cinelinx. The Dominoes-style game play is probably a bit too simple for anything more than casual play and a bit too simple for anything more than repeated play, whilst its age limits means that it is not really a family game either. Cinelinx - A Card Game For People Who Love Movies is a simple game for movie buffs that is not quite worth a rerun.

Lyre! Lyre! There are no Pants to Set on Fire.

There are some reviews that I want to write and some reviews that I do not want to write. There are plenty of the former, but fortunately fewer of the latter. The reasons why I typically do not want to review a game or supplement are either because the subject matter does not interest me or because the item in question merits a negative review. Sometimes giving a product a negative review can actually be a cathartic process or an exercise in writing skill because it takes greater skill to write a negative review than write a positive one. On the whole though, it is rare that I write a truly negative review, notable examples being of R. Talsorian Games, Inc.’s Cyberpunk 203X and of Goodman Games’ Age of Cthulhu Vol. II: Madness in London Town. At other times, giving a negative review of a book can be an uncomfortable exercise, because after all, you are criticising a publisher’s labour of love. Unfortunately to this list of the latter must be added Era: Lyres - Deluxe Rulebook.

Published by Shades of Vengeance* following a successful Kickstarter campaign, the setting for the Era: Lyres - Deluxe Rulebook is an interesting twist upon the fantasy roleplaying game. What if the adventurers possess ‘nearly’ all of the skill to go on brave adventures, set out on extreme expeditions, face down dangerous beasts and monsters, steal their treasure, and return again to tell the tale, but none of courage to do so? What if instead, they possessed chutzpah enough to convince everyone of their bravery and of their adventures, and in the process of doing so, have drinks and meals bought for them, have their praises sung from one end of the kingdom to the other—and back again, and eventually become famous to court the attention of the nobility (even royalty). It is a great set-up for an RPG. The players take on of the role of failed adventurers/con men, telling the tales of their derring do and rolling when necessary to determine the outcome of an action or interaction within said tale, with the GM taking the roles of everyone that they face—in and out of the tale, as well as taking the roles of the player characters’ audience.

*Yes, there is an irony to writing a negative review for a game from a publisher with this name.

Unfortunately, the Era: Lyres - Deluxe Rulebook does it very, very best not fulfill the possibilities of a set-up that is rife with tension and humour. To start with, it is not very clear as to exactly what the GM and his players are doing in the game. Well, it is sort of clear. It is heavily inferred throughout the first half of the book, but it is not stated outright until three quarters of the way into the book at the beginning of the GM’s section—and even then, not fully. (Which may mean that I have got the description of the game and how it is played almost, but not entirely wrong.) This lack of explanation of how the game is played is ably supported by a lack of any kind of example in the book. So there is no example of character generation in the game. There is no example of actual play in the game. There is no example of combat in the game. Now there are example characters given as filled out character sheets, but these are far from the easiest of things to read.

None of this helped by the organisation of the Era: Lyres - Deluxe Rulebook. It opens with pages and pages of fiction, describing the non-adventures of adventure avoiders telling the tales of adventures that they never had in return for fame and fortune—and lunch. This amounts to over a quarter of the book and it is followed by ten pages of descriptions of monsters, so the reader is half way through the book before he begins to look at the rules or character creation or even how the game is played. Lastly an explanation of the book’s title, Era: Lyres - Deluxe Rulebook, is needed. ‘Era’ is the name of the game system, whereas ‘Lyres’ is the name of the game and the role taken up by the player characters.

In Era: Lyres, the players take the roles of barbarians, bards, rogues, and warriors in a traditional medieval setting, that of the city of Yarnolth. Known for its innumerable number of taverns and city squares where the practitioners of Lyres’ arts, that is, the player characters, can pitch up and spin their yarns for potential profit. They must dress the part; they cannot profess to using magic—divine intervention is believable, but arcane arrows are not; avoid being found lying lest they ruin their reputations and end in barroom brawls; and lastly, not be seen committing acts of murder or theft. Instead of actually going on adventures, they will spin stories of they slew great dragons, battered bandits, obliterated ogres and trolls, and more. The more successful they are, the more they will increase their party’s Confidence Rating and thus be able to ‘perform’ at bigger and more prestigious venues.

Creating a character using the Era: Lyres - Deluxe Rulebook first involves assigning three sets of points—four, three, and two points respectively—to three different Attribute groups (Potence, Defence, and Reaction) and spending the points to improve the attributes within each group. These points are not assigned on a one-for-one basis, but each attribute needs to be bought up. Since it costs four of these points to improve an attribute to a score of two, every character will start the game with one attribute set at a value of two at the utmost. Similarly, three more sets of points—nine, five, and three points respectively—need to be assigned to the three Skill groups (Personal, Technical, and Interpersonal) and their points divided amongst the skills within the Skill group. Skills are on the same scale as attributes, but are more expensive because unlike attributes which start at one, they start at zero. The end result is that again, a character might start play with a single skill with a rating of two.

The sample character—and this is probably right given examination of the sample character sheets at the back of the Era: Lyres - Deluxe Rulebook rather than any explanation or worked examples—is a student turned adventurer, or rather student turned Lyre. He ran out of money to pay for his studies and turned to other means—adventuring! Or not...

Sagacious Sam
Potence
Strength 1 Intelligence 1 Charisma 1

Defence
Stamina 1 Willpower 1

Reaction
Dexterity 2 Wits 1 Luck 1

Personal Skills
Brawl 1, Investigation 1, Larceny 2, Melee 1, Stealth 1, Survival 0

Technical Skills
Alchemy 1, Archery 0, Blacksmithing 0, Drive 0, Lore 1, Medicine 1, 

Interpersonal Skills 
Commercial 1, Esteem 1, Instruction 0, Intimidation 1, Persuasion 1, Seduction 1

Derived Stats
Notoriety 0, Size 5, Encumbrance 2, Speed 4, Defence 2, Wound & Kill Modifiers 0, Health & Pain 6

The rules presented in the Era: Lyres - Deluxe Rulebook are known as the Era d10 rule set. Era as a set of mechanics uses dice pools comprised of an Attribute plus Skill or an Attribute doubled. To undertake an action, a character rolls the dice pool and attempts to gain successes. Successes are measured against a threshold that may vary according to the difficulty of the action—five to play a tune on your own musical instrument, seven when attempting to persuade a barmaid that you are a hero, nine to pick the pocket of a guard you are talking to, and so on. Rolls of ten allow re-rolls to get more successes and the circumstances of the action may allow the GM to grant a player more dice. Even so, with just a value of one in most Skills and most Attributes, a beginning character is not going to be particularly competent and rarely succeed at anything more than simple actions, except in a very few cases. For example, Sagacious Sam rarely gets to roll more than two dice unless it involves Dexterity and Larceny.

Now the clever use of skills in the Era: Lyres - Deluxe Rulebook is that although in telling their tales the Lyres are using their charisma and their persuasion skills, they are backing it up with their knowledge and other skills. So it is not just a matter of a Sagacious Sam telling his audience that in order to escape the ogre’s kitchen by using his alchemical knowledge to concoct something so noxious so as to distract the ogres—which is saying something, let us be clear—he has to demonstrate said knowledge. Or rather convince the audience that he can. Which means that players are effectively playing a game within a game, but how that game within a game is played is never really explained. There are some pointers in that the combat rules are not there necessarily for handling fights within the tall tales, unless of course, the players want their characters to be fighting the monsters and have the monsters fight back, but even then there are no monster stats to fight against, just their descriptions for the characters to work off. No what the combat rules are there are for when the audience does not believe the tale being spun and a brawl breaks out. Unfortunately there are no stats for NPCs.

Physically, the Era: Lyres - Deluxe Rulebook is decent looking book. The full colour artwork is excellent and the writing is acceptable. The issue is simply the design and the lack of development in the RPG.

Era: Lyres - Deluxe Rulebook is a game about the non-adventures of non-adventurers describing their adventures—or it should be. As written, it almost is. Whilst there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the game’s Era mechanics—though some might argue that they are too heavy and cumbersome for what the game is trying to do—the design of the book itself, the Era: Lyres - Deluxe Rulebook, goes out of its way to be unhelpful in any way that it can. It is not organised for ease of play or ease of learning, it lacks sufficient explanations or examples, and it lacks the equivalent of a good elevator pitch. At the heart of the Era: Lyres - Deluxe Rulebook is a clever, fun idea. As designed, the Era: Lyres - Deluxe Rulebook does its very best to be anything other than that.

Currently the Kickstarter campaign ‘£1 Tabletop RPG Rulebook: Era: Lyres - Pocket Edition’ is coming to an end. For that price, the Era: Lyres - Pocket Edition is worth your time for something to tinker with and perhaps get right as the designer intended.

Necromancy for Beginners

Cadaver: A Game of Lighthearted Necromancy is the latest game to be released by Triple Ace Games via Kickstarter. This follows on from Rocket Race: A Steampunk Rocket Building Card Game and Halfling Feast: a card game of competitive eating for 2-4 players. It is a card game in which the players—prospective necromancers all—compete to reanimate a series of cadavers. They must gather the right Corpses, Resources, and Diabolical Accomplices, whilst denying them to their rivals, if they are to prove themselves to be the most prestigious necromancer!

Cadaver is designed to be played by players aged thirteen plus, the number of players determining how many Cadaver decks are needed. One Cadaver deck is needed for two or three players, whilst two Cadaver decks are needed if there are four or more players. Each deck consists of fifty-four, brightly coloured, nice illustrated cards. Two of these give the rules, but the remainder come in three categories. 

The first category is Corpses. Each Corpse—James Darkwell, Priscilla Deravin, Jebidiah Whateley, or The Abomination—has certain Resources that it needs if it is to be reanimated. For example, Jebidiah Whateley needs two Spells and a Potion, whereas James Darkwell needs one Brain and two Potions. Resources are the second category and come in three types—Brains, Potions, and Spells. The third category consists of Diabolical Accomplices and enables a player to perform special actions. The Witch Doctor enables a player to gather Brains, Professor Victor Drax helps a player get Potions, and The Blind Scholar lets him gather Spells. A Coffin Lid is used to close access to a Corpse, but can be unlocked by a Coffin Key, whereas a Ghoul can be spent to steal Corpses from rival Necromancers.

At game start, a Resource Pile consisting of two cards is set up for each Resource, the deck is shuffled, and each player receives five cards. During his turn, a player can lay down or place up to two cards, then draw back to five cards, and lastly trade with the other players. Once a Corpse card has been laid down, a player can lay Resources on it. A player can lay a Coffin Lid on another player’s Corpse to prevent him from laying Resources on it and thus from successfully reanimating it. A Key card can be laid to unlock and remove a Coffin Lid from a Corpse. A Ghoul can be laid down to steal a Corpse from another player. Lastly, a Diabolical Accomplice, such as The Witch Doctor, Professor Victor Drax, and The Blind Scholar can be laid down so that a player can draw from the Resource Piles as well as the deck. For example, laying The Blind Scholar enables a player to draw Spells from the appropriate Resource Pile.

Play is simple enough in Cadaver. Each player is trying lay Corpses and then lay Resources on the Corpses in order to reanimate them. He can prevent another player from laying Resources on one of his Corpses by laying a Coffin Lid on the Corpse, but he can steal a Corpse from another player by using a Ghoul. Lastly, a player can guarantee access to certain Resources by laying down a Diabolical Accomplice.

Cadaver comes to an end once the last card has been drawn from the deck. Players are allowed one last turn before their Corpse are scored. Points are awarded for sets of Corpses—a set of three difference Corpses is worth seven points, whereas a set of the three same Corpses is worth five points. A Corpse is worth one point, whilst the Abomination is worth three points. The player with the most points is the winner.

Cadaver is a lovely looking game. The cards are beautiful, but the lack of text on them does mean that the game is initially confusing and heavy reference needs to be made to the albeit simple rules. Once the use of the different cards is mastered, then play proceeds apace. 

In comparison to earlier card games from Triple Ace Games, Cadaver: A Game of Lighthearted Necromancy is very light and does not have their depth. This is not to demean Cadaver, which is a pleasing if simple game. It does play better with more players and with more cards, so that it is a better game with two decks even if there are two or three players, but four players seems a good number.