The Good, The Bad and The Skinny: Shadow of the Demon Lord

In 2015-16 I set out to learn RPG systems and games as a GM. During that span I learned and played D&D 5e, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Fate, Spirit of '77, Monster of the Week, Gumshoe, and the Cypher system (Numenera and The Strange). While none of those replaced Savage Worlds as my go-to system, I learned a lot. I took bits here and there. I believe it made me a better GM. I feel it made me appreciate Savage Worlds more. It gave me a different perspective on RPG design, especially adventure design.
This year, I felt like sitting back a bit and running Savage Worlds. Learning a new system is a major time investment. Writing picked up and I didn't want to lose any momentum. To be honest, I was also a bit snake bit by a few bad experiences with new systems. Those were mostly due to inexperience. I found comfort in going back to a system I know well.
I tried City of Mist back in spring. This noir/superhero (think Netflix's Daredevil) game is beautiful but since it turned out to be a mix of Fate and Powered by the Apocalypse, I can't say it was totally new. Again, I felt the discomfort and promptly retreated back to Savage Worlds.
Here I am. Fall started today and I started this personal challenge. Looking at my digital library, there are so many RPGs I bought over the years but never sat down to read or play them. I've been intrigued by them. Every time the thought crossed my mind to take the plunge, I'd get cold feet. Then last week, my buddy +Gary McCallum was on +The RPG Brewery to argue over systems. Gary being a Savage Worlds fanboy, and +JPierson71 in the opinion that there's the right tool for the right job. I think this was the deciding factor for me.
I decided that six new RPG/systems wasn't over committing myself. There were three main ones I knew I wanted to try. Cortex +, Ubiquity and AGE. I then turned to my circles and the Nerds-International community for suggestions. I received some good ones but I haven't decided on the remaining three yet. I'll start with those three and see where it goes.

Ubiquity

The main reason I chose Ubiquity is for Hollow Earth Expedition. While Savage Worlds has been branded a pulp system by some, it lacks in quality settings for it. Another reason is because it's become Paul "Wiggy" Williams' favorite system. When I first got into Savage Worlds, his name appeared in almost every book I read. He had just started Triple Ace Games and Hellfrost had been announced. While Hellfrost is still supported, he now writes for Ubiquity the most. I'm a big fan of his design and writing. I discovered Savage Worlds because my favorite designer at the time, Keith Baker, praised it in his blog about a decade ago. So who knows, right?

For part 1 I will introduce the system, particularly the setting Hollow Earth Expedition and talk about its first three chapters: Introduction, Character Creation and Rules.

Ubiquity is the system used for Hollow Earth Expedition published in 2006 by Exile Game Studio. It's also used for Space 1889, All for One: Regime Diabolique and Leagues of Adventure.
"The Ubiquity roleplaying game system is streamlined for fast, cinematic game play."
Wait! That's Savage Worlds! Hmmm. It also claims to eliminate unnecessary dice rolls such as when a character is performing a routine task. We'll get back to that last part later.

Chapter 1: Setting

This chapter is a 20 pages history lesson into the 1930's with a focus on 1936 where the action takes place. What makes HEX special isn't revealed at this point.

Chapter 2: Characters

Step One: Archetype

You pick an archetype that will serve as a guide during character creation. This isn't a class or anything like that. Being a 1930's pulp setting you get things like adventurer, celebrity, explorer, hunter, occultist, reporter and scientist.

Step Two: Motivation

This is your character's reason for adventuring. You can pick from a list or make up your own.

Step Three: Primary Attributes

You get 15 pts to distribute between Body, Dexterity, Strength, Charisma, Intelligence and Willpower. They must be between 1 and 5.

Step Four: Secondary Attributes

These attributes are derived from the primary attributes. Strength + Dexterity = Move, Intelligence + Willpower = Perception, Dexterity + Intelligence = Initiative, Body + Dexterity - Size (Human have 0) = Defense, Body + Willpower + Size = Health.

Step Five: Skills

You have 15 points to pick skills with. You can purchase up to 5 levels in a skill during character creation. For a half point you can choose a specialization as well. You are limited to one per skill at character creation, though. There are 30 skills. You can roll those untrained unless they are a specialized skill like Academics, Craft and Science. They are basically groups of skills. You must pick a discipline. For example, History for Academics, Mechanics for Craft, or Physics for Science. You can't have just Academics as a skill.

Step Six: Talents and Resources

When you create your character you can choose between a Talent or Resource.

Talents are called Merits, Feats or Edges in other games.

After reading these I get the impression that Talents aren't central to Ubiquity. They can give you an edge but they don't help define your character.

The names are very similar to those in Savage Worlds. Most of them seem to give bonuses to skills (and allow you to start over the limit of 5 at character creation), some mitigates penalties, but only a few lets you accomplish things not normally allowed. What I like about the format is that for each you get the benefit of the talent but also how it works if you don't have it. For example, Captivate. As an attack action your character can attempt to entrance her opponents during combat. That's the benefit. Sounds cool, right? But what does that mean within the context of the game? So you read the Normal section of the talent's description. It reads: "Your character may only attempt to entrance her audience outside of combat." So you have a better idea of what you're getting and you learn how the game mechanics work at the same time.

What I don't like is that there isn't a whole lot of flavor in there.

Now the Resources.

You can have Allies, Artifacts, Contacts, Fame, Followers, Mentor, Rank, Refuge, Status or Wealth.

That's where the flavor comes in for me. Want a secret lab? Pick Refuge. Want everybody to like you? That's Fame. Want a robot familiar? Artifact.

Step Seven: Flaws

Other games call them limitations of hindrances. Same thing. I can't help but notice how similar they are to Savage Worlds. I tried not compare the two but each page I've turned so far...

Anyway, you MAY pick one Flaw during character creation. This is optional. This gets you one Style Point. We'll get to those soon.

Step Eight: Experience

Your character starts play with 15 experience points. There's a chart where you'll find the cost for what you want. You won't get much. A new Talent or Resource is 15 points. An Attribute increase is new attribute level x 5 points. Skill is x 2 points. A specialization is 3 points. So you get to tweak it a little bit but not much more.

Step Nine: Finishing Touches

That's where you tie everything together. You fill in the details, name your character, write a physical description, background and pick out your gear.

Step Ten: Style

You get one point if you took a Flaw. The Gamemaster may award additional Style Points for writing a character background, creating props or costumes (uuuhhh) or hosting the game.

What Style points are for is in the next chapter. Bare with me, folks!

At the end of this chapter you get an excellent selection of 12 sample characters. They have full color illustrations, character background and roleplaying guidelines. There are also available as a free download on their website.

Chapter 3: Rules

Dice Mechanics

This is a dice pool system. You grab a die for every rating in the appropriate Primary Attribute and/or relevant Skill. Charisma (3) + Diplomacy (2) gives you a dice pool of 5 dice to roll. Which dice do we use, Eric? Any dice with a equal number of even and odd numbers on them. That means no d3, d5, etc. Even is a success.
So you count successes. D6s are fine. You can mix and match die types or roll your favorite die type. It's up to you. There are even special Ubiquity dice you can use. They come in handy for large dice pools. They are d8, one type is like rolling one dice, another one is like rolling 2 dice and the last one is like rolling 3 dices. They have numbers from 0-3 on them. The number you roll equals the number of successes you rolled. Need to roll 6 dice, roll two "Ubiquity d3" and you're good to go.

Modifiers (equipment, circumstances, time, synergy or teamwork) will give you more or less dice in your pool.

You need to roll a number of successes equal or over the Difficulty number (1-6) or more than your opposition in the case of an opposed roll.

So remember earlier I mentioned that the system claims to eliminate unnecessary die rolls? Well this is where it gets a bit silly for me. In order to get things moving, you can take the average of a dice pool. Let's say you have a Survival pool of 6. Your average is 3. You automatically succeed at "mundane" tasks of difficulty 3 or under.

"As a result, you only roll dice in dramatic situations or when the chance of success is uncertain."

My problem with this is if the situation isn't dramatic to begin with why even bother with averages in the first place?

Hey you're driving on this paved road on a clear sunny day, it's difficulty 1. Okay, your Driving average is 3, you can do that no problem. No shit! Hey I guess this is a good rule if you're the type of GM to ask for dice rolls when the heroes are tying their shoes in the morning. So I keep reading. Maybe this is something for mooks or NPCs only. Nope, it's on the character sheet.

Now, I can see the benefit of that when it comes to combat or for opposed rolls. Take the average of Defense instead of rolling for it. That's what Parry and Toughness are in Savage Worlds. Taking the average can also be used when you have large dice pools. Need to roll 14 dice? Take the average of 10 (5) and roll 4 dice. Bingo!

Lastly, there's degree of success. The more successes you roll over the opposition, the better the success. This is all left up to the GM's interpretation. This is pretty standard to any RPG I've played. But then again, some people believe you can only do that with a system with a $15 set of dice :P

Style Points

"Style points are used to reward players for the kind of behavior that makes the game more fun for everyone involved."

Does this sound familiar, Savage Worlds players? They even suggest tracking those with poker chips...

I explained earlier how you can earn those points. HEX suggests awarding no more than 5 Style Points per session.

But what can you do with those Style Points, Eric?

Shut up! I'm sick and tired of your questions! Go buy the book and find out for yourself.

So you can spend these points on buying bonus dice, boosting talents, damage reduction or the GM may also allow you to spend them for other benefits such as altering a plot point or making seemingly random events turn out in your favor.

You can't share those points with other player characters but they may be spent on an Ally or Follower. If there's a Talent that allows you to share with other player characters, I missed it.

There's a default cost for each thing you want to do with a Style Point but you have the option to scale the cost up or down depending on the type of campaign you want to run: Legendary, High Adventure, Pulp Adventure, Low Adventure or Gritty Realism (meaning no Style Points - should be perfect for +Harrison Hunt and his crew). In addition, you can limit the sharing of Style Points with other characters.

Chance Dice.

You "gamble" within the game. You can ask the GM for more dice. For each two bonus dice you receive, the difficulty rating of the task increases by one point. You may gain up to ten bonus dice in this manner, which also increases the difficulty rating by up to five points.

Feeling lucky, punk?

Experience

The GM may award between 1 and 5 Experience Points per game session. But why would you do that? Experience Points are for wimps!

This concludes the first three chapters and 119 pages of this 264 pages book. There are six more chapters plus a sample adventure.

Impressions

Ubiquity is a simple system that doesn't want to reinvent the wheel. So simple as to be a bit bland. I know a good setting and a fun group can make up for that. It just lacks the fun factor that Savage Worlds, Year Zero, or Cypher has. I'm only 3 chapters in.
Watch out for part 2.

This isn't much a review, it's a blog about my impressions of this new tabletop RPG. I haven't read the whole book yet. I decided to take a pause amidst my frantic devouring of pages and pages of this book to share my enthusiasm with you. It has no structure, just impressions randomly tossed in.
Above is what appears to be a live recording of a seminar the author of the book was a guest at last summer.
I must say I haven't had that much fun reading a RPG core rules book in a long time. This really talks to me and the realistic expectations of running a campaign. It's structured to be 11 sessions (adventures) of 3-4 hours in length. Your character is defined as your group goes up in level.
I love the Warhammer Fantasy influence. WHFRP 1st edition was one of the first RPGs I played and he really captured the feel.
I really like +Robert Schwalb's design decisions with this game. Because my experience with D&D was really short I don't care how the designer seem to define his game in relation to the world's favorite game in the video. Perhaps it was simply because of people in the audience that participated in the Q&A. I think the fact that he was part of the design team for many editions of that game but decided to go a different way with SotdL speaks for itself.
I'd like to see how he would do Sword & Sorcery for D&D 5e. I think he would respect the tropes mechanically much better than Sasquatch Games did with Primeval Thule.
Anyway, if you're looking for a dark fantasy RPG that feels like d&d and Warhammer Fantasy but without the bullshit; if you want a tight design, a modern game that caters to old school gamers; if you want a professional looking book with a great layout and awesome artwork; if you want a game you can easily digest, this is the game for you! I mean this game is badass! What other games do you know of that your character can become so insane he decides to gouge his own eyes out? Cthulhu maybe but it's a different genre with different tropes where such terrible fate is expected for your character.
The only minor quibble I have so far is that there are too many Afflictions (Conditions) to keep track of. Compared to D&D this is standard. Compared to other games I like such as Savage Worlds, Gumshoe, AGE or AW this is a problem for me. The less time I spend looking up rules when I'm trying to run a game, the better.

The Good, The Bad and The Skinny

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

January 24th Update

Sunday, September 24, 2017

The Six New RPGs Challenge - Ubiquity: Part 1