This is another game I've had in PDF for a long time, and that came out of a bundle Today is a lazy Saturday and I don't have anything in particular to do, and I don't feel like playing Bioshock all day again, so let's do this.
The Game: The Dark Fantasy of Sundrah
The Publisher: Scaldcrow Games, although this particular game is not listed on the site or available on DriveThru anymore
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one
Dark Fantasy of Sundrah starts with a foreword talking about how this game allows creation of whatever you want and came out of the author getting tired of the restrictions of RPGs, which of course were about a band of adventurers getting treasure and holy shit, guys. D&D came out in 1974, but like, I know for a fact there were other games available in the 80s, because I played some of them. Yeah, D&D was the biggest name out there, but like, it was by no means the only one.
Anyway, far be it from me to poo-poo someone perceiving a need in RPGs and wanting to fill it, but like "something other than D&D" was not an empty niche. Moving along.
The basic idea here is that the Old Gods signed a collective agreement of noninterference, that agreement gained sentience and gave birth to the Rune Gods, who are Not Good, and the "heroes" of the setting are people who are strong-willed enough to be able to be free of their influence. The game notes that good and evil might fight alongside each other against the Rune Gods, which, like, sure, but I'm waiting to see what "good" and "evil" are for our purposes. I also note that all of this is set in a fictional world created by the author, and yes, it very much reads like someone's home D&D campaign that got written up as a novel or something.
"A character CANNOT enter the game with a character without first completing a character record sheet." Well, OK, then.
Wow, that is one detailed map. And there's a sea named after Gargamel's cat, how nice.
All right, no way am I reading 20 pages of history, although that's actually not bad, considering (I've seen history chapters go much longer). Character creation uses a mix of random rolls and player choice, which sounds good. The book does advise to have a calculator handy, though, which makes me a little nervous.
Chargen is a 10-step process:
We start with 4 rolls of 1d10+10, which are our strongest traits. That gives me 19, 18, 14, and 12. Next we do 2d10 four times, which gives us our lower or average traits: 10, 11, 15, and 13. Now I roll a d4 (and get 2) and add it to one of my alpha numbers; I'll add it to my 19 and get a 21 so I'm really good at something.
Next, I can subtract from beta rolls and add them to alpha rolls, but I really don't know if I want/need to do that, since once this step is over the distinction ceases to matter. I think I'll leave it. That means my attributes bases are 21, 18, 15, 14, 12, 11, and 10. Now I get to assign them, although later chargen choices with modify them.
Well, hmm. Last character I made was pretty social. Have I done a jumpy-flippy-assassin type character lately? Not really. Cool, so I'll make my Attributes thus: Strength 11, Dexterity 21, Endurance 14, Size 10, Intelligence 15, Willpower 18, Charm 12, Speed 15.
And now I choose a race. Let's see what this game has to offer! Diverse humans? Underground dwarves? Elegant, willowy elves? Surprise me!
Ooh, angels. Wow, these things seem overpowered. I do like that you can pretty much play an angel of any god you want, and the big limitation is that you are a servant of said god, first and last. Don't think I want to play one, though.
Dwarves are indeed folks that live in tunnels. Pass. Elves actually have some interesting history and flavor to them, so I might consider them. There are a bunch of different types, but the blood elves are the ones I like. Let's keep reading, though. Goblinoids (goblins, trolls, gremlins), eh. Lot of species-related violence and I'm not feeling it. Humans are indeed populous and diverse. Low man, various hybrids, eh. I haven't found anything I like as much as blood elf, so I'm going with that.
Elves in general were creations of the Old Gods, but rebelled and were, like Bobby Brown, good to go solo. Blood elves developed partnerships with dragons, and formed cities called blood keeps, ruled by an elf and a dragon of equal age. That's pretty dope. They're militant and aggressive. Sounds cool. I shall add my bonuses to my attributes, giving me Strength 12, Dexterity 23, Endurance 15, Size 10, Intelligence 15, Willpower 20, Charm 12, Speed 18. I also get a bunch of racial advantages. To wit, I don't feel fear, ever, but I can detect it. I can see in the dark, I don't naturally die, I start at level 5 (not sure what that means in practice), and if I'm struck in battle I can automatically counterstrike. Oh, and I speak Draconic.
However, other races sees blood elves as bloodthirsty and arrogant. I am literally the opposite of bloodthirsty, though, because meat is toxic to elves.
Cool! Moving on. Next step is "first contour." This is like a profession. Let's check the list! Hrm. Well, there's a few I don't dislike, but none of them really seem interesting (compare/contrast with the Expert Paths in Shadow of the Demon Lord, which are flavorful as heck). Seems like I should be a distance fighter, but do I wish to tell something of a story, here? I think maybe I do. I'll take Longbowman as my first Contour, and say that my blood elf was one of the city guard, but then his home was sacked and destroyed and he took to the wilderness (thinking about Ranger or Hunter for my second Contour, but I'm not for sure yet). Part of my issue here is that I'm trying to figure out skills, since they're germane to this. Hrm.
OK, I think I get it. I get Archery, Stealth, Navigation, and Longbow Mastery as Skills. I assume I get the levels 2 and 5 bonuses, too, but since those aren't skills I won't sweat it right now. I have to take Weaponsmith at chargen, but I don't get it for free. I have to take Archery as a primary skill (sure, was gonna do that anyway), and I have to take "arrogant" as an evil trait. Well, that fits with the race, anyway. Oh, wow. I have to take archery-related skills in primary slots. I'm heavily focused. "Must take 1d4 attribute bonus to speed or dexterity." Was that the thing at the very beginning? I mean, it's fine, I put it in Dexterity, but like, the attributes aren't even assigned when you do that. Weird.
Well, sure. What's next? Second Contour. Hmm. I had thought about Ranger, but it's too Aragorn for me. Also, god help me, I like spellcasters. I'm gonna take Sorcerer. Yeah, that sounds fun; Hunter leans too heavily on the "you're an uncouth outdoorsman." I'm gonna say that my blood elf was a longbowman, and then the keep got hit with some powerful magic that arrows couldn't kill. He decided that since he was already pretty much perfect with a bow (arrogant), he'd best learn some magic as well.
Add in some modifiers (my Willpower is now 23, that's pretty cool), and Focus (and magic stuff, but that's a whole other thing). What's next? Duplicated Skills. If my Contours gave me any skills in common, I'd get a bonus, but they don't, so moving on. My total Contour rating is 14, that's easy. My level is 5 because I'm a blood elf. To reach level 6, I'd need 49,700 XP (this is a balancing mechanic, I think; you can be an Urbanite and that's only Contour rating 3, which means you don't need as much XP, but you don't get as much cool shit, either).
Add up attribute scores, I did that already, good. Attribute modifiers go in their little column, that's fine. My Field Rating is the sum of my Attributes, which is 138. Evidently average for a PC is 126, so that's cool.
Derived traits are next. I'll just fill them in without typing them all out because this is long anyway. Well, except primary and secondary talent. These are things that my character is just naturally good at, but I have to select Perception, Stealth, Longbow Damage, or Archery as my primary. I'll take Perception, I think, and then I'll say Archery for the secondary. +2 and +1, respectively (but only because I'm level 5; if I were a normal level 0 character this wouldn't matter).
Magic stuff...need to pick a magic sphere, but they aren't listed in chargen so I'll wait on that because I'm almost done in this section. Personality traits...oh, goodness, they have values, and if you're more good than evil, then you're "good" for purposes of magic and so on. I'm skeptical, but sure. I already have "confident" as a good trait (sorcerer) and "arrogant" as an evil one (both of my Contours), so let's see what else. I'll take "careful" and "efficient" as good traits, and "proud" and "violent" as my evil ones. Checking the GM section, I get a Good score of 27 and an Evil score of 73. Welp.
And now Skills. I choose three Primary skills, but one of them has to be Archery. I get 10 total, three primary and seven standard, but I get some for free. Hang the fuck on, I gotta look at my Contours again. OK, I get some free skills (Archery, Stealth, Navigation, Longbow Mastery, Focus), but I have to put Archery as a primary, I can't take non-archery skills as primary, which is really fucking redundant and makes me wonder if I missed something, and I have to take Bowyer, Fletcher, Weaponsmith, and Rapid Fire. So I'm gonna put Archery and Longbow Mastery as primary, and then find something else to put as my third. And then I get six more skills of my choice. Jesus.
Oh my freaking lord, these are granular. "Pratfall" is a skill. Ugh. I guess I'll take Blind Archery as my third primary skill, even though I'd much rather take something magic-related, and now I get six more choices. Oh, wait, 7, because "Rapid Fire" doesn't appear anywhere in the book other than under the Longbowman Contour. I'll take Concealment (hide, then shoot), Deflect (to knock away arrows), Knots (to tie ropes to arrows), Fast Draw, One-handed Casting, Reaction, and Thrown Magic. Now I'll just figure the scores for these, and then move on to magic.
Magic is something of a mess. The Sorcerer and Wizard write-ups in Contours mention a "magic track," but that's the only time in the book that term is used. They also talk about "magic colleges," but then in the magic section, we talk about "spheres" (which are basically styles of magic). All magic is based on a Focus roll, though, which is fine. I'm gonna take War Song as my sphere, which gives my blood elf a lot of magical combat stuff he can do. Something I really like: You can cast any spell within your sphere, it's just that harder ones eat your reserve faster and have bigger penalties; presumably you get better at casting as you level up. There is nowhere to write magic stuff on the sheet. Boo.
Anyway, I start with 95 silver, and at this point I could buy shit, but y'know, I find that step boring and I've already spent a lot of time on this.
So, let's say this: Cardesh Xalin is a blood elf who studied hard to become a master archer and longbowman for his blood keep. When a cult of Rune God worshippers attacked, they blew a big hole in the fortifications with magic and had to be repelled by wizards and sorcerers, not arrows, which to Cardesh was just a slap in the face. He decided to learn both war and magic, so that he could defend his home and himself as necessary. Opening up his horizons, though, made him realize that the Rune Gods are a bigger threat than a lot of people realize, and sometimes - often - the best defense is an arrow from the dark.
Cardesh is on the short side for an elf (about 6'3"). He has deep grey skin, blood red hair, and silvery eyes. His bow is made of sturdy, black wood and he's notched it at the ends, and each of his arrows are scented with something - a flower, pig tallow, whatever Cardesh feels is interesting when he's fletching. Cardesh is egotistical and violent, but he's not, as Starlord says, 100% a dick. He's no fan of goody-two-shoes types, but he understands basic decency and he's not the sort to stab you in the back for no reason (that said, if he has a reason, he's more likely to shoot you in the back than stab).
That's me done, thank goodness.
