Been a while, huh?
The Game: Colonial Gothic, Revised Edition
The publisher: Rogue Games
Degree of familiarity: None. I've read the book, and well. Thoughts below.
Books Required: Just the core book, which I bought at GenCon.
Now, I'd heard about this game and heard good things. It's a niche for a historical horror game that I thought was both appropriate and under-used: The American Revolution. History gets more interesting to me the more recent it is, and the Revolution seemed like a pretty interesting time to be killing vampires. So I bought the book at GenCon and talked to Richard Iorio about it a little. System seems interesting, premise was good, OK.
And then I read the book. Now, I worked for White Wolf, as you all know, and much is made over White Wolf's frequent editing and grammatical errors. But I'll tell ya, when I read WW books, even the ones I don't work on, I don't see it. I mean, I catch one or two here and there, and sometimes we get annoyingly embarrassing mistakes like the whole "bloomer" thing in World of Darkness: Antagonists or the book title being misspelled on the spine of Fallen Tower. But man, it felt like I was seeing some pretty amateurish stuff in this book. Or maybe it was just that the mistakes I saw were pet peeves of mine (and in fairness, I have no idea if they come from the writers or the editor, since Scribendi has consistently fucked up WW books for a long time now).
For instance, I noticed "effect/affect" being misused a bunch of times. Lots of passive constructions, "there is/there are" statements, which aren't wrong, but I've been conditioned to read them as weak. I didn't see "loose" being used as "lose," which might have prompted action (probably of the "groan and shake head" variety), so that's good.
But beyond editing, the book just didn't grab me. Which is a shame, because I was all ready for it to. I wanted this to be a game that yells "Run me!" because it'd be a fun thing to try out with my players, but I've got so many other games that just look fun. And after reading, I can't remember much about it at all, which is not a good sign.
Oh, wait, here's something I do remember: There's a section on religion. It discusses the various flavors of Christianity that were prevalent; Quakers, Puritans and the like. And then at the end, we get this paragraph:
No discussion about religions in the colonies would be complete without mentioning the Indian tribes who call this land "home." Though many attempts in the past have been made to convert the tribes to the religious beliefs of the colonists forcibly, many still hold their tribal beliefs close.
And that's it.
Anyway, with all of that in mind, it's a game I'd love to play, because I'd like to see it in action. So, me am make character!
Character creation has five steps. Step One is deciding on Abilities. We get a pretty typical spread here: Might, Nimble, Vigor, Reason and Resolution.
Minor point: Is "nimble" ever used as a noun? If not, it's inconsistent with the other Abilities, and should be called "nimbleness."
Anyway, I get 55 points to divide up. Since I'm dividing points before doing concept (which I'm not saying is bad, it just makes for a different kind of chargen), I think I shall consciously avoid my usual "jumpy-flippy" character.
Oh, wait. This is fun. Under the "Hero Creation Process" header, it says I get 45 points for Abilities, and then further down the page it says I get 55. C'mon, guys. I'll take 55. If 7 is average, then I could put them all at average and have 20 points left over. Wait, that means I'd have four of my five stats at 12, which is the maximum. Damn, I guess they do mean 45 points.
OK, take fucking two. 45 points. 7 in all five stats, with ten left over. Much better. I'll boost Might to 10 (7 points left), Resolution to 12 (2 points left) and Vigor to 9. I'm strong, yeah, but really I'm unshakable.
Some bad book design ahoy. The steps at the beginning of the chapter say I go from Abilities to Background, but after Abilities, we get a discussion of Fate cards. So do I do those now? I guess I should do some Background first. I want my character to be kind of rough around the edges, and I like the idea that he doesn't owe anybody anything. I'll make him a former indentured servant. He left England because he was in trouble (I'll think about why later, since it'll be a Fate card) and to pay his way to the New World, he agreed to a term of service. He wound up skinning animals for a wealthy tanner, and so he's got nicks and cuts and scars all over his hands. He finished his term of service and left with his termination pay, as well as a couple of knives that the tanner felt were too worn to be useful.
The book recommends I consider a few questions, so I shall:
Where and when were you born? Let's say he's now 28, and was born in London.
How do you feel about Magic? I don't think he's seen it yet, but he does know that death and blood can be powerful things. That doesn't mean he wants any part of it or thinks it's right, that's just how it is.
What makes you a Hero? I like this question. His will makes him a Hero. He's committed to freedom as an ideal. That's not freedom from responsibility or work or hardship or care. He's a full supported of the idea of indentured servitude - you agree to the work, you do the work. He hates the notion of slavery and abuse of servants, though, but he's equally contemptuous of slaves who put up with that treatment.
What do you think about the War for Independence? He sees himself as independent already, so he doesn't much care. If he sees some tangible proof that England is really fucking the Colonies, though, he'll be ready for war.
What defines your Faith? The idea of personal independence. He can't stand Puritans or Quakers; they're either meek or intolerably nosy. He's probably Anglican, but the dogma is less important than his own take on it. He'd be very surprised to learn that the phrase "God helps those that help themselves" isn't actually in the Bible.
OK, keen. This guy's starting to take shape. Let's do the Fate cards. These are cards that the GM can whip out to mess with me during play, that define my beliefs and so on. I get five of them.
- "You killed a man on the streets of
London by smashing his head against the street. He turned out to be a
rich man's son." - This was why my character left London; he knew the
dead guy's father would track him down.
- "You saw a dead deer get up and walk 18 steps - after you'd already skinned it." - Magic, and good flashback fodder.
- "You
fell in love with a woman on your ship from London, also a servant. She
was taken to Boston, but you aren't sure what happened to her. Her name
was Rose. You never spoke to her." - I'm a sucker for unrequited love.
- "You
never trust a man who offers to buy you a drink, because of what
happened to your father." - I'll leave that open for the GM to screw
with.
- "You cut your master with a blade while skinning once,
because he was standing too close. He still thinks it was an accident."
- Further definition of his issues with personal freedom and personal
space.
Now, Skills. I get Trade (Leatherworking) at
Base Rank, whatever that means, and Language - English (Fluent) for
free. Then I get 55 points to buy Skills. Let's see how this works.
OK,
this is kind of weird. You buy Skills using these points, sure, but to
buy the first rank, you pay a number of points equal to the associated
Ability. Get that? It costs more to buy Skills if the Ability is
higher. Shouldn't it be easier to get good at a Skill if you've already
got natural talent? But whatever. This system is a simple 2d12 roll
under a target number affair, and the TN is the associated Skill +
Ability. So shooting someone, presumably, is Nimble + Shoot; I have to
roll under my total of those traits on 2d12.
Still, weird point
expenditure. OK, I get Trade (Leatherworking) at Base Rank for free.
That's Rank 1. The language here is confusing, and it doesn't help that
the chart for buying skills in the book is wrong. Argh.
OK, I'm
going to run out of points very quickly if I buy Might or Resolution
Skills. Let's flip through the Skills and see what I really need. Holy
shit, I don't have nearly enough points. Is this system meant to make
sucky starting characters (boo!) or characters that only have a few
skills, even if concept dictates others (boo!).
Like, here's the thing. I want these Skills:
Animal Handling
Athletics
Brawl
Intimidation
Melee
Thrown
There are others I'd like, but I figure these are appropriate to the concept. Now, to take these at Base Rank
is 56 points. If I wanted to boost them higher, to give myself a chance
to, you know, succeed on rolls, well, I have no way to do that. ASS. I
guess what I'll do is ditch Intimidation. It doesn't make sense that I
wouldn't have it, but it's the most expensive and I need those points.
That gives me 12 points back, so I actually have 11 to throw around.
Now,
taking Skill ranks past Base costs half the appropriate Attribute.
Every time. Argh. OK, so if I want to raise Melee to Rank 2, it costs 5
points. I do, as it happens. I'm also going to specialize in Knives, so
my effective Rank for not-knives drops to 1, but with knives I have
Melee 3. I have 6 points left. You know, I think I'll drop Thrown, too.
That gives me 7 points back, so I have 13. I'll buy another rank in
Melee (5 gone) and another one in my Trade (5 gone), leaving me with 3
left. I'll buy up Animal Handling to Rank 2 with that, I guess.
Finishing
touches. I'm meant to choose name, gender and age. I did age already
and gender is obvious, so I'll do name. His real name is Timothy
Edwards, but upon getting to the New World his master just called him
"Skinner," so that's what he goes by.
Oh, gotta do derived
traits. I get 45 Vitality, 45 Resolve and 60 Sanity. I have no idea how
to mark those on these weird boxes, so I just marked off the bottom row.
There, that's me done.
