Not "Dust, Fog, and Glowing Members," that'd be a very different game.
The Game: Dust, Fog and Glowing Embers
The Publisher: Scablands Press
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one
You know, I say this a lot, but an example of play is normally helpful, particularly if your game uses some weird or nonstandard means of narrative control or mechanics. Dust, Fog & Glowing Embers (no Oxford comma, I note) has an interesting resolution mechanic. Roll 2d6, one die representing the player's ability and so you add an attribute, and subtract high from low. Whichever side wins gets to assign "details," where "hard details" are things that actually matter, "soft details" are more about set dressing and flavor, and "scene details" alter things in the environment. I think. It's not explained especially well, though, and that's with examples of rolls and an example of play. I think I get it? It's an interesting idea, but in play I do worry it'd be a little softer than I'd like. Actually it reminds me a little of 7th Sea 2nd Ed, and I have some of the same concerns.
But the other thing is, the character creation process does that annoying thing where it's not contained in one place, there's no step-by-step, and then when there is one later in the book:
That last thing? "Choose your spagyric powers?" Those powers are described, but there's nowhere I can find that tells you how many you get or how they're chosen. And there's no example of chargen; although the example of play goes through chargen it only really does the conceptual stuff.
All of this to say: This game has been on my shelf for something like six years, and I keep looking at it in my chargen project list and thinking "didn't I do that already?" So I'm gonna finally do it, but sadly I don't think it's getting run.
Well, anyway, the game itself is a kind of alchemical fantasy sort of thing? You play people who are indebted to a Patron, said Patron has you do things to further their needs, and also you do shit on your own. You have powers that get activated using salts, alcohol, and sulphur. The artwork is kinda reminiscent of Vince Locke. I dunno, that's about all I can say confidently because I read the game last night and it apparently just slid out of my brain.
The first step of chargen would be for the group to come up with a Patron. No place to write that on the sheet, though, so it can't be that important. (It is, in fact, one of the more important parts of the game.) I'll just assume we're just one of the example Patrons:
I really just like that she enjoys fine wines, being a fan of such myself. Anyway, now I pick character type from Raven, Swan, or Phoenix. Or rather, that's what it says up there in the summary, but in fact, the first thing I should do is pick an Origin, because that sets my natural aptitudes (oy).
Sure. Let's say my guy is from the Great Cities. That sets my natural aptitudes as Pilfer, Politics, Duel, Art, and Trade. I don't think I get them all, though. Picking an archetype...yes, it gives me aptitudes. OK, so let's be...hang on.
OK, what the hell. Archetypes (that's the bird thing) sets your attribute spread, either +1/+1/0, -1/+1/+1, or +2/-1/-1. You might notice those don't equal out; they total 2, 1, and 0 respectively. But then you'd think the one that gets the higher attribute total gets fewer aptitudes, right? Sacrifice raw talent for versatility or something? NOPE. The Raven (the one that gets the +1/+1/0 spread of attributes) gets five aptitudes. The Swan gets three, and the Phoenix, with the lowest attribute totals (but a +2 in one Attribute, whoo) gets two.
Mathematically, having a +2 in an attribute is a pretty big swing, since you're rolling a d6 vs. another d6 and any margin of victory is good, but wow, that seems not at all thought out. Also, each of these archetype gets three adjectives to describe what they're about and that's it. I don't know why they're named after birds, I don't know what niche they're meant to protect. Ugh.
Well, fuck it, clearly I'll be a Raven since that's objectively the best choice. That makes me sphisticated [sic], wise, or knowledgeable. Just one of those? I guess I'll be sphisticated, but I'll spell it right. That gives me three aptitudes from my origin and two from elsewhere. I'll take Trade, Politics, and Pilfer, and then I'll take Reckon and Chart. I see my guy as someone who had a successful business involving wine, but not a vintner. Maybe I'm a sommelier.
Anyway, I'll assign my Attributes. I'll put the +1s into Precise and Clever, and leave Tough at 0.
Right, now I answer character questions.
How has Agnes isolated me from the world? Well, let's say that Finu Sart, for 'tis his name, was a sommelier to the upper class. He hired himself out to advise on wine and liquor pairings, and if you really wanted to shell out, mixology - he'd come to your party and mix drinks. And then Agnes Brinne got her hooks into him and got him to agree to work for her exclusively...except she doesn't have parties much and when she does, she wants him to mix the same drinks for everyone. He advises her on wine pairings, but her palate is garbage and she wouldn't know the difference between [good wine in this world] and [trash wine in this world].
Right, two more questions from that list. What object can you talk about endlessly, and why? Wine, obviously. Finu has a rarefied palate and he's a supertaster. He's got no patience for the growing of the grapes, but he knows how it works on a technical level.
When was the last time people saw the limits of your knowledge, and what happened? After the first "party" at Agnes Brinne's place after his employment with her began, Finu went to a wine tasting and got into a tasting/identification competition with a fellow from another city. Basically, much like what goes on between Peter Lorre and Vincent Price in Tales of Terror - they taste the wine and identify the vintage and vineyard. Finu did very well, but then there were some wines that included alchemical processes he'd never heard of and they not only weren't things he could identify but they obliterated his palate for a few days.
 |
| It's a fun movie, check it out |
Right, now we choose a prime humour. Finu is probably sanguine or choleric by nature, but he's pretty melancholic right now. (This game actually has a pretty cool relationship mechanic where other PCs are listed under different humours and if multiple people get listed under one it can become your prime one, but that doesn't matter much for my purposes.)
And finally we're supposed to choose spagyric powers. Powers are divided up into three categories: Fog, Dust, and Glowing Embers Smoke, based on what kind of essence powers them. (Well, there's a fourth category, kinda, because there are a few powers that can be activated using any kind of essence, but they don't have a name.) The book says we start a mission with 4 essence, divided up as we see fit. So do we pick powers already activated, since metabolizing essence and powering down is a thing that happens? Do we just choose what kinds of essence we have? The example of play has a player talk about wanting to make a character with a bunch of sulphur powers, but like I said, they don't actually pick their powers so I don't know what the process actually is.
(Side note: One of the least realistic things about the example of play in this book is that the players have all clearly read the book. That never happens. If I can get any of my players to even crack a book, it's a rare treat. By contrast, I reread Fiasco yesterday, too, because we're playing that on Saturday, and the extremely thorough and well-written example of play in that book has players with all degrees of familiarity with the game, which is not only much more believable but more useful from a game-learning perspective. Anyway.)
You know, I'm just gonna specify my Essence and call it a day. Which powers would like Finu to be able to use? I think that he's not much of a combatant (although a lot of spagyric powers are offensive in nature). I'll put two into salt, one into alcohol, and one into sulphur.
And that's about it, y'all. I picture Finu as in his late 30s, tall, straight, sphisticated, well-dressed, but with a permanently exasperated air about him. He really wishes he could get out from under, because he's basically a toy for someone who does not know what to do with him.
