My Rant on RPG Books and Reviewers

A fraction of my RPG books

I have hundreds, if not a thousand RPG books. I've played numerous systems and games. So, when a new game or system is published, I like to read reviews about the game or try the game out before buying it. So, reviews are a great resource. I've been burned a few times where I bought a Kickstarter and found out the game was a clunker or that the game was rushed into production and not enough thought was put into streamlining the book or a through enough editing was done.

Yes, I'm used to errata. Before the internet, game publishers were more careful about making mistakes and corrected them in newer printings. I fear, the trend these days is to push things quick to market and correct the PDF afterwards. But if you got the first print edition, you get screwed. For example Alien RPG, the first printing, Pilots don't have the Piloting skill.

My pet peeves for RPG books:

1. Not using a professional editor/proof reader. Using MSWord autocorrect and Google Translate doesn't cut it. One KS delivered a badly translated RPG. The game was supposed to be decades old and very popular in Sweden. They had an early release PDF to allow us feedback. I'm a native US English speaker and have a college degree. I sent feedback and a number of my suggestions were rejected. The response from the company? We have a friend who's a Swedish expat in the US who speaks English, we rely on that person's judgement for the final decisions. OMG. I sold my copy of Trudvang. Great art, lousy system.

And if you don't use a professional proof reader, then pre-release the PDF, so your fans can give you feedback. Arc Dream at first didn't do this for their The Conspiracy KS. I mentioned this and they happily sent out pre-release PDFs to backers. I noticed that one of the fonts that mimicked an old typewriter was too hard to read. It was atmospheric, but led to sometimes hard to read names. I sent back examples for them to look over such as J-2 vs U-2. When I got the final release PDF, I noticed that they fixed it. Can you imagine if they didn't? As an aside, Arc Dream does a great job proofreading. Minimal typos if any in their products.

2. Important Rules in the Sidebar. Sidebars are for examples and flavor text. When GMs read the core book, we read the main text and look at the sidebars later. Sidebars do not Highlight Rules, sidebars say, "Ignore me until later when you have time to read me."

3. Inconsistent phrasing. Not having a System/World Bible, so you use different names for the same thing throughout your core book. Then indexing the wrong words, so you can't even find the rule you're looking for. I'm looking at you Alien RPG. You can't find Air Supply in the index. You need to look up Consumables. And good luck on finding how Stun weapons work. It's under the detailed description of the G2 Electroshock Grenade p.125.

4. Rules in the wrong place or missing rules. See #2 & #3 above. I'm looking at you The One Ring 2e. If you buy the Starter Set, you can't play the game. Good luck on figuring out what Attribute Level is for monsters. It's not in the rules provided with the Starter Set. You need the core book p.143. The rules in the Starter Set are all Player facing rules, so all the GM rules are missing and there's no GM rule booklet in the Starter Set.

5. Renaming standard RPG terms to be cute. I prefer GM (Game Master). But there's DM (Dungeon Master), Master of Ceremonies, Keeper of Arcane Lore, Storyteller, Narrator, Director, Facilitator, etc. These are all cute and I can figure this out. But then they start renaming NPC to GMPC, etc. Hit Points to Conditions, Health, Stamina, etc. I bought Invisible Sun and I still haven't been able to read past the first book because you need to translate from Invisible Sun speak to RPG speak. It's a giant barrier to understanding the game and playing it. The excuse for renaming common terms is to be "immersive." It's so immersive, I couldn't get into it like trying to climb into a bathtub full of mercury.

6. Bad rule book organization. Making it hard to find rules when running the game. The core books are written to be easily read, but then information is spread out to various sections. The publishers don't want to duplicate info, to save page count, but when info is spread out everywhere, it's impossible to use the core book as a reference book. Mödiphius 2d20 games such as Dune and Achtung! Cthulhu were painful to use at the table. GM pauses the game in what seems like an eternity, trying to look up a rule because misapplication could probably kill a PC. And this happens multiple times during a gaming session.

RPG Game Reviews

One of my friends did a podcast. They decided to talk about Vampire RPG. During the podcast they admitted they've never played the game. WTF? How can you be opinionated about something you've never even tried? Let alone talk a whole hour about it? I've played and run Vampire before and found their comments uninformed.

Book reviewers review a book after they've read it. That is the experience of the book. But RPG books are a different animal. You need to read it and either run the game or play it to experience it. So, I have problems with RPG reviewers who just read the book and don't play it. It's like a movie reviewer who just reads the movie script. Or a book reviewer who only reads the blurb.

I understand some people make a living reviewing RPG books, so they don't have the time to run/play every publication and the output volume of their reviews is their focus. And reading massive amounts of RPG books does increase your ability to make an informed decision. But that doesn't replace cracking open the book and trying to use it in a game.

I've read mediocre reviews of a game I've played in that was very, very fun. I've also read a glowing review of a RPG, but when I looked at Reddit posts about people who tried to play the game, they found it was horrible. It read well, but played terrible. So, I now read reviews with a grain of salt and also consult other online sources, especially comments from people who actually played the game.

I also don't want spoilers for scenarios, but I want to have enough information to decide if that scenario or campaign is right for my gaming group.

So, when I do review a game or scenario, I don't do it until I've been able to play or run it myself. When I've only played it*, I would still want to read the scenario, to differentiate what is in the scenario vs any GM invented material. What's worse than saying, "Hey, that's a great scenario, I'd like to run it," and then finding out your GM invented half of the material or merged multiple scenarios to make the game that you played, so the scenario you're recommending has nothing to do with what's published.

*I want to differentiate my review of a published scenario vs my convention reports about the games I've played in. My reviews are informed opinions about a published scenario I've run, or played in and have read afterwards. A convention report is more about the experience I had. I generally do not go and read the convention scenario I've played in, unless I enjoyed it so much that I plan on running it myself.

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My blog post on various CoC campaigns and scenario books: https://morganhua.blogspot.com/2021/11/cthulhu-campaigns-run-times-and-thoughts.html

Vaesen: Nordic Horror Roleplaying - Review

The first time I heard about Vaesen was from the TV Series Grimm. There's been a series of Monster of the Week TV shows such as Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Supernatural, and The X-Files. I'm a big fan of these shows and Hammer Horror films. So for me, this is a great combination like peanut butter and chocolate.

Free League has been consistenty amazing at releasing beautiful RPG books. Vaesen are supernatural creatures invisible to normal people except for people with the Second Sight. The setting is mid-1800s Sweden with industrialization changing the world, creating a clash between urban/rural, rich/poor, industrialization/nature, locals/immigrants, seen/unseen, science/magic, upper class/lower class, church/old ways.

The conceit behind this game is that the PCs are Thursday's Children, people traumatized by a supernatural event which enabled them to see Vaesen. They belong to The Society, a group that is dedicated to investigating and solving disturbances with Vaesen. PCs also have a Dark Secret that will resurface during play.

The system is a d6 dice pool, counting successes (a 6 is a success). Most tasks only require one success. There are only 4 Attributes (Physique, Precision, Logic, Empathy) and 12 Skills (3 skills under each Attribute). The dice pool rolled is the Attribute + Skill. Various items and talents add extra dice. PCs can take 4 physical and 4 mental Conditions, but the 4th condition always Breaks the PC (either crippling the PC physically or mentally). If the PC survives the Injury, they can get some penalties or in some rare cases additional Insight just as how they got their second sight.

There was a big buzz about the game and I wanted to learn more about it. The first few times I played this game, I wasn't quite sure about it. First, I thought the system was ok, but not that exciting. Second, I thought it was almost impossible to kill a PC, so a game without threat takes away the excitement of danger. Third, I wondered whether a long series of Monster of the Week would get boring.

I wanted to get more Vaesen under my belt, so I played 5 games of Vaesen at VaesenCon. I saw enough variety from different GMs and scenarios that it assuaged my fears. I actually bought a HC of the book and read almost all of it. I skipped the monster section, so I could still play games without having spoilers ruin them.

Reservation 1: The System. It's fine, but one thing that works really well is if you want to Push a roll, you take a Condition. That's a big deal. You only have 4 physical and 4 mental HPs. Also each Condition reduces your dice pool for related tasks on a 1-for-1 basis. It makes Pushing and taking Conditions a major risk factor. This raises the tension level during play.

Reservation 2: Hard to Kill PCs. Some monsters can cause 2 or 3 damage and it can go up if it rolls multiple successes. This can Break a PC in one hit. If the PCs lose the fight or abandon the Broken PC, that PC is basically dead. Seeing a Vaesen can cause 2 Fear, that's 1/2 of your mental conditions. So, Vaesen can be a very deadly.

Reservation 3: Lack of Variety. There are 21 Vaesen in the core book. There are more in published supplements and fan based supplements. Also the Vaesen are based on Folk and Fairy Tales. I bought a copy of Swedish Folk Tales for inspiration. And for people who memorize Monster Manuals, the GM can make up anything they want to switch things up. Most Vaesen are almost impossible to kill without knowing their secret weakness. I'm also using the Society's HQ, a rundown castle full of cobwebs and mysteries, which the PCs need to cleanup, upgrade, and explore. I'm also tying in various character's Dark Secrets and fallout from their actions when they solve a mystery. In my Upsala, I've highlighted the social pressures from the various social classes in the city.

Why is the basis of the game Monster of the Week?

Well, one of the ways of getting an Experience Point (XP) is meeting a new Vaesen, so that's designed into the game. Another is confronting a Vaesen. Each PC gains XP at the end of each session. Every 5 XP allows the PC to bump up a Skill or add a Talent.

Another basis of the game is developing your HQ. The Society (as a whole) gains Development Points (DP) by learning about Vaesen. DPs are spent upgrading the HQ which gives benefits to all the PCs. DPs are gained at the end of each scenario. But fixing things and opening up sealed rooms and areas of the HQ comes with its own danger and more opportunity for adventure. The problem is when you play random one-shots, you never see this aspect of the game.

I've decided that I wanted to make developing the HQ and exploring Upsala as roleplaying opportunities. To make the game environment richer vs just Monster of the Week. Dark Secrets also allows the GM to personalize the various horrors that show up, making it very personal. I've run multiple sessions so far and I'm really enjoying bringing in reoccurring NPCs and city locations.

I also have a deep love of folklore from various cultures, so I plan in using this knowledge in my games.

Overall, Vaesen is turning out to be a really good game. No wonder it's doing so well in the market place.

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Reviews and Notes:

A Wicked Secret and Other Mysteries (4 scenarios)

Seasons of Mystery (4 scenarios)

The Lost Mountain Saga (campaign)

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Q: Equipment rules seem confusing. p.88 Equipment in the Headquarters. It states that you keep the equipment you started with plus one newly acquired item or weapon. Does this mean you keep only 1 extra item or 1 from each completed adventure?

A: One extra item apart from your starting equipment. Period.

This is to prevent the PCs from becoming pack rats. This is for equipment that gives any type of bonus. Normal items that give no bonuses can be carried. You don't want the PCs to have a giant inventory with multiple bonuses for everything.

At the start of each adventure, the PC would have their starting equipment + 1 item they got from a previous adventure. In the Preparatory stage (p.73 Preparatory Equipment), they can then spend resources to buy other equipment that gives pluses. During the adventure (p.73 Shopping During the Mystery), they can also buy equipment. At the end of the adventure, the PCs would keep their starting equipment + 1 item (from any equipment that wasn't used up). If the PCs had upgraded their castle, they can keep more equipment based on the upgrade specifics (p.89 Armory, p.90 Weapons Corridor, p.91 Cellar Vault). As a GM, I'd let them permanently replace starting equipment with something they would rather carry instead. The replaced items are lost.

I'm tempted to explain the missing items as either being borrowed by other Society members, ghostly thievery, or just being used up between adventures. You can turn the quest for the missing items into an adventure.

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Q (C): How do you play The Sight in your games? While I love the idea and its potential for generating exciting play, I'm confused about how to make it work in game.

If I understand it right, The Sight allows the PCs to 'see' Vaesen others can't see - as the book says, 'you have the ability to see vaesen – even when they are trying to remain invisible.' But reading the excellent descriptions of each vaesen in the book, there are very few that seem invisible by default. So what difference does The Sight actually make?

A (MH): I assume they're all invisible or have a glamour that makes them look like normal people or normal things (trees, rocks, a bird, a cat, a deer, etc.). Only people with The Sight can see their real form (even when invisible) or when the creature wants to be seen. Some people might catch a glimpse of their real form from the corner of their eye or during trauma or in dreams. Those are my thoughts on this.

Most if not all Vaesen have Enchantment which includes invisibility (Distort Vision, p.118 core book).

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Q (CD): I really don’t like “Monster of the Week” type games where the monsters are invariably the characters’ enemies, and the adventures are resolved by combat with the monsters. So, in Vaesen, is it necessarily the case that the Vaesen are the characters’ opponents? Or rather, do the characters sometimes help the Vaesen? And where there is conflict, is this ever resolved by negotiation rather than fighting?

A (MH): In the core book, it tells you it's almost impossible to kill a Vaesen. In some cases, you must some how figure out the secret, secret method. That said, if you go toe to toe against one, a lot of your PCs will get broken. And there's a chance of a TPK.

I do think a number of the published scenarios do veer away from the above philosophy or at least forget to reiterate this and lack guidance for the GM. So, the default of kill the Vaesen is what happens. Even the scenario in the core book is a vanquish the Vaesen scenario. I wonder if it would have been better if the core book scenario was different and required some sort of deal making solution instead. Then that would illustrate the philosophy of the game better.

I've played in a variety of Vaesen games at online conventions run by various GMs and a fair number of them are kill the Vaesen (monster of the week). Very few are let's make a deal.

Q (CD): Thank you, that provides a different perspective to a lot of the answers here, and I’m really grateful for it. How difficult do you think it would be to alter the adventures so that a different (non-violent) resolution was possible?

A (MH): I'd start off with a scenario that doesn't require vanquishing the Vaesen to set the tone for the whole series you're running. The issue with the core book scenario, The Dance of Dreams, is that it's a vanquishing scenario and there's no way around it.

I would mix in Vaesen banishing/killing scenarios with others, but I'd start with a few non-vanquishing scenarios first, to help set the mindset of the Players in your gaming group.

For how to alter the adventures, the problem is when the PCs figure out which Vaesen it is, they're given the "cheap" ritual to banish it. So, they think that's the only solution. Maybe make it harder for them to identify the Vaesen, so they'll need to get eyes on it or talk to it to differentiate it from the whole hosts of what it can be, so they must talk to it. Don't let them do a Learning roll until they know "enough," which is up to the discretion of the GM. When roleplaying a Vaesen, think about what it wants and why it's unhappy and what would be satisfactory to it. Some Vaesen are not reasonable, some are vengeful for the wrong that was done to them. A number may require punitive damages in addition to compensatory redress before they back off.

Some Vaesen are powerful and they know it and are unreasonable. In one scenario, my PCs asked a powerful Vaesen to remove a curse (from a different Vaesen) from one of the PCs. The PCs were willing to do a one-for-one trade to remove the curse. My Vaesen required a three-for-one and didn't budge. Eventually, the PCs gave the Vaesen three NPCs (to be entranced as its slaves) to remove the curse from one PC.

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