Originally Published in Pyramid Magazine – September 15th, 2000

In 1988 the anime feature film Makai Toshi Shinjuku was released in Japan. Based on a novel by Hideyuki Kikuchi (the Japanese SF/Horror author), Shinjuku told the story of Kyoya, a young student of the mystic combat art of Nempo.

Ten years before the film begins, Kyoya’s father (a Nempo master himself) attempted to prevent Levih Rah (a Nempo master who had turned to evil) from summoning demonic powers to conquer the Earth. He died in the attempt, but not before he disrupted Levih Rah’s spell. Instead of conquering all of humanity in a single blow, Rah is only able to summon his demonic horde to a localized area: the Shinjuku district of downtown Tokyo. A massive earthquake wreaks devastation across dozens of city blocks, and Rah begins to prepare for the day when his dreams of conquest will reach true fruition. Now, a decade later, Kyoya must venture into this modern city of the damned, and finish what his father started…

Several years after the film’s original release, Central Park Media translated it into English as Demon City Shinjuku. In America, as in Japan before it, Shinjuku quickly became a classic of both its medium and genre. And now, twelve years later, Guardians of Order has presented us with the Demon City Shinjuku Roleplaying Game and Resource Book.

Demon City Shinjuku is not the first, nor will it be the last, of GoO’s licensed anime games (it was preceded by Sailor Moon and Dominion: Tank Police, and has been followed by Tenchi Muyo!). Like these other games, Demon City Shinjuku uses the Tri-Stat System which first appeared in the critically acclaimed Big Eyes, Small Mouth.

Action resolution is handled in a fairly standard and straight-forward manner: A roll of 2d6 is modified by a difficulty and compared to the appropriate Stat or Skill. Combat uses the same basic mechanic to determine the relative effectiveness of attack and defense. Damage is determined through the combination of a secondary attribute and the weapon’s damage rating. One nice touch throughout the game are two simple flowcharts (one for combat and one for character creation) which clearly and concisely summarize the rules for easy reference during gameplay.

Character creation is based primarily on three things: Three character Stats (Body, Mind, and Soul – hence the name “Tri-Stat”), Character Attributes, and Skills. Each of these systems is point-based, with fairly broad and open-ended definitions. For example, your character might have a Level 3 in Massive Damage – allowing you increase your damage in combat by 15 points because you know precisely where to land a blow to cause the maximum possible amount of damage. However, precisely how your character knows how to land such a blow is left open-ended – they might have trained in the martial arts; or perhaps they receive mystic insight into where to place each strike.

This system is mechanically very precise while, simultaneously, modeling a wide variety of phenomena in the Demon City Shinjuku universe in a simple and easy-to-use manner. In addition, a great amount of care has been taken so that the elements of the game system will interact in exactly the manner shown in the movie – if doing X and Y in the movie allowed a character to achieve Z, then doing X and Y with the game system will also result in Z.

As impressive as the system is, though, the Demon City Shinjuku Roleplaying Game really begins to shine when we reach the second part of its title: Resource Book.

In addition to simply presenting a roleplaying game for their licensed products, Guardians of Order also present their books as generic resources for fans of the source material. In addition to creating a higher potential for the development of a crossover market of anime fans interested in purchasing the book, this also lends to the book a true depth of source material which is often lacking in licensed products. Instead of simply covering the material found in the movie, GoO has taken the next logical step of supporting the movie with a wide variety of supporting details – exactly the type of details which a GM craves when running an adventure.

While doing this, however, they have very carefully not imposed a vision of Demon City Shinjuku beyond the confines of the movie. Instead they have presented a wide-open toolbox with which a GM can create their own version of the Demon City Shinjuku universe. By doing so they don’t lock the property into their own vision of “how things are supposed to be,” instead opening it up to a multitude of visions limited only by the extent of your own imagination and desire. Want a campaign where Shinjuku was only one of many cities struck by Levih Rah’s spell? You’ll find support for it here. Want a campaign set in the years between Levih Rah’s spell and Kyoya’s success? You’ll find support for it here. Want a campaign where Kyoya failed? You’ll find support for it here. And so forth.

Moving beyond this toolbox, they have provided a wealth of real world information on Japan and Tokyo. This is, essentially, the foundation on which the movie is built – and by stripping away the surface of the movie, and revealing the pylons on which it was constructed, GoO is giving you the same firm base with which to build your own campaign.

By doing this, GoO has proven – once again – that they are capable of looking at things with the eye of a master game designer: Finding the basic elements which make up an experience, and laying them bare for you to use in the easiest fashion possible. The result is a high quality product which is, above all else, useful as a gaming resource.

So, at the end of the day, what is Demon City Shinjuku? It’s a tried and proven rule system which has been expertly adapted into a near perfect adaptation of a licensed property. It’s a property which is, in turn, rich with gaming opportunities — demons on the loose in a mystic post-Armageddon setting with gothic horror themes. It’s presented in a dynamic and open-ended fashion – remaining true to the source material, while simultaneously facilitating a diverse set of visions.

It is, in one hundred and fifty pages, a rich and worthy addition to your library of gaming experiences.

Style: 5
Substance: 5

Writers: David L. Pulver (with Mark C. MacKinnon, Jeff Mackintosh, Karen A. McLarney)
Publisher: Guardians of Order
Price: $19.95
Page Count: 150
ISBN: 0-9682431-9-3
Product Code: 05-001

This review, at long last, concludes the archiving of my older reviews from Pyramid Magazine, Games Unplugged, RPGNet, and others. (One final review, of Gary Gygax’s Lejendary Adventure: Lejend Master’s Lore, unfortunately seems to have been lost to the mists of time. I know it appeared in the June 1st, 2000 Games Unplugged webzine, but I’ve somehow lost the original digital file and the published version wasn’t archived.)

It’s been interesting looking back at where both I and the RPG hobby were at the turn of the millennium. I’ve been reminded of a few old favorites and been inspired in new ways by old “friends.” But I’m also glad this particular project has reached its conclusion. It’s surprisingly time-consuming to do the archival work of reclaiming, reediting, and commenting. (Which is, of course, why it’s taken more than a decade to finish archiving all 200+ reviews.)

The artwork ranges from mediocre to terrible. The pages seem to overflow with wasted white space. There’s a lack of depth to the material. They neglected to put a price on the cover. The soy-based ink their printer used smears at the slightest provocation, leaving your fingers an inky mess. The prose occasionally slips from one tense to another – the bane of the amateur. The maps are of poor quality and reproduced in a manner which makes them nearly impossible to read. The tagline of the game is a needless, second rate rip-off of Talislanta.

It is a litany of faults which first assaults your senses as you take a look at Diomin – but if you let them cloud our judgment, you’ll be missing out on some of the golden material which is hiding underneath its somewhat rough exterior.

So, grit your teeth just a little bit, and come along with me into the world of Diomin…

COSMOLOGY

Diomin opens with a discussion of the cosmology and primal, mythological history of the book. At first glance you may feel your jaw starting to tighten even more, but I suggest you unclench: Although it firmly maintains the feel of a traditional fantasy pantheon, there’s some fascinating material here.

Basically, the creation mythos of Diomin works like this: The One looked out upon the Void and felt alone. And so he created the world, and peopled it with servants who would accompany him. The gods lived with the One in the Divine Realm. But, of course, not all would go well with his creations: Some of them discovered another realm, the Spirit Realm, and sought to understand its secrets. After long debate, the One finally yielded to their wishes and created a passage between the Divine and Spirit Realms: The Physical or Mortal Realm. What they discovered is that a spirit contains tremendous power – and some of them became addicted to that power, and consumed souls whole to grasp it. With inevitability, wars followed.

All of this gives rise to a really great pantheon: The Warriors of the Light serve the One. The Lords of Darkness serve Cedron, the Liberator. And the Children of the Vineyard serve none but themselves. Each god has a vibrant existence, with a fully developed role and presence within the greater cosmology.

What makes this work is the successful wedding of two worlds: Savage has taken the mythology surrounding Christianity, given it a couple of unique twists, and then jacked up the pantheist elements by several notches. The result is a tapestry providing a rich setting from which to build a world.

RACES

When the conflict between the Divine Children had come to an end, the Lords of Darkness withdrew beneath the earth with those who had followed them, while the Warriors of the Light stayed to tend their flock of mortal followers. In both cases, the care of the gods (whether nefarious or beneficent) reshaped some of the mortal stock into new forms.

The Arak were the original race of Diomin and the Mortal Realm. They are tall and blue-skinned, with red eyes and black hair. They are a proud, barbaric people (very Howard-esque) who look down upon the “Seconds.” Five of the Arak clans remain intact, the rest were changed by the gods:

The Gnolaum were taken to the lands of the East, where they learned strange mystic arts which extended the span of their lives and turned them into a fair and beautiful people. When their race became corrupted, those who remained loyal to the Warriors of the Light were forced to flee back across the sea to Diomin.

There are two human races on Diomin: The Tirasim and the Zeredites – their history is locked together.

Finally, there are the Gadianti – strange, cat-like creatures who were corrupted by the Lords of Darkness and now are the bane of all civilized existence.

In recent years another race has appeared, apparently not of Arak stock – although their true origins remain unknown: The Hearthrom are living statues.

What’s really nice about this is that Diomin manages to capture the feel of the traditional/Tolkienesque fantasy races used by D&D and its brethren (elves, dwarves, and halflings) without actually using those races (or pale rip-offs of them). This is a major strength for the product (which is, unfortunately, buried somewhat behind the lame derivative of Talislanta’s “Still no elves” in Diomin’s backcover text of “Elves? We don’t need no stinkin’ elves…” and “Who needs elves?”).

Indeed, it can be said that the races are the showcase on which the value of this product rests (with some major assists from the cosmology and a minor assist from the classes): They are presented with a wealth of detail, and are easily appreciated as fully developed cultures.

An unfortunate fault in an otherwise excellent section is the lack of the coverage of the half-Arak races (which are explicitly mentioned in the text) in the rules, and the lack of coverage for any of the other possible racial combinations.

CLASSES

Diomin performs some simple modifications on a couple of classes to give them a unique flavor and presence within the game world – and it works quite well. It also introduces a new class, the Shaman, which works with spirits – this is also well done.

A SECOND LITANY

It is rather unfortunate that a product which is labeled a Worldbook is, essentially, completely lacking in actual world information: Geography is not detailed. Nations are not detailed. Cities are not detailed. These are all left ciphers upon the nearly illegible maps located at the back of the book. In a book with a low page count, massive sidebars, and a layout which promiscuously wastes space as if it were going of fashion this is simply inexcusable.

For example, in one of the most insulting bits, the solar-based calendars which are used by most of the races on Diomin is explained in one sidebar. At the end of the explanation, we are told that the Arak use a lunar-based calendar. This lunar-based calendar is not described in the text – despite the fact that if you move your eyes from the page on which the solar-based calendar is detailed across to the facing page, you see a gaping, empty sidebar which, of course, could have been filled with just that detail.

Furthermore, the maps themselves – from what can be made out on them – are far too simplistic: Even if this world had been described, it would not be as impressive as the stuff from which it was getting made. The Arak have a nation. The two human races each have a nation. The Gnolaum have a nation. The Gadianti have a nation. And the Hearthrom have a nation. And the world itself is incredibly tiny: Although the maps lack a legend, you can extrapolate from a travel time given in the text and reach the conclusion that no point in the world is more than ten days distant from any other point.

And never, ever describe something in a fantasy world by saying “it’s just like the FBI” – especially when you’re wrong, and it’s not “just like the FBI.”

As I noted, all of this would be more forgivable except for the fact that the product also wastes space: Not just in layout, but in content decisions. How did the authors convince themselves that they didn’t need to include a single monster (once you’ve eliminated elves and dwarves, why would you bring in orcs and goblins?), but did need to include a 30+ page adventure in a 112 page book? An adventure which is nothing more than a “hired in a bar” yawner? An adventure which uses seven pages for random encounter tables? (Random encounter tables, note, which a more sensible lay-out could have gotten onto a single page.)

I just don’t get it.

IN CONCLUSION…

As I mentioned above, there are three areas where Diomin shines: The cosmology (primal myth and gods); the races; and the information regarding classes.

I suspect that, if it had been included, the bestiary would have been equally impressive. And it was possible that, despite the simplistic maps, the world itself could have had potential. Tragically, we don’t know if this is true or not.

However, I will give this cautious recommendation: The tool-set found in Diomin is extremely rich, and could easily serve as the foundation of a truly excellent, and uniquely different, fantasy world. But Diomin itself misses the target substantially, and squanders its potential.

This doesn’t mean, however, that you must squander it. Or waste it. Although the cover charge is a bit steep here, I would say that it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad idea to pick up Diomin and then using the building blocks it presents to build your own fantasy world. Or just use it to construct a “land beyond the seas” for your existing fantasy world – a region with unique flavor, utterly different than the realms with which your players are already familiar.

Give it some thought.

Writers: R. Hyrum Savage, Chad Cunningham, Christopher T. Miller
Publisher: OtherWorld Creations
Price: $19.95
Page Count: 112
ISBN: 0-9705312-0-6
Product Code: OWC1001

This review was originally written for Pyramid Magazine back in 2000, but was never published. Unlike similar reviews, however, I apparently never found a new home for this one and it has instead lurked unread and unloved on my hard drive for the past quarter century.

It’s interesting reading my critiques of the Diomin‘s shortcomings. They’re certainly true, but overall I’ve generally had a fond impression of the book whenever I’ve noticed it on my shelf. On the other hand, I’ve also never actually used it for anything. For better or worse, there’s always been a faint whiff of Fantasy Heartbreaker around Diomin for me. (But that idea of using it as a “land beyond the seas” is really intriguing.)

And the Dukes of Chaos raised up the least among their servants and they were the most plentiful of their servants and the formless among many and riven of all nature.

This scroll describes, in brief, the Elder Brood – a myriad horde of “creatures born of chaos” who are the “least among the servitors of the Galchutt”. Names like akop, bulugon, nyogoth, obaan, and the like are listed.

But the scroll then settles into a particular subset of lore describing one creature from amongst the Elder Brood: The Spineseekers known as Tilaxic.

Tilaxic possess the body of a snake covered with the chitin of a scorpion. Hundreds of spiky legs jut out form their lithe forms, and their bellies are marked with three suckered and befanged mouths. Wriggling, tentacled arms and insectoid wings rise from the creature’s sides and back.

Tilaxic will swarm over the backs of their victims, suctioning their mouths lamprey-like over the spinal column and sending tendrils piercing into the flesh. A tilaxic which successfully parasites itself to a host will take control of its motor functions from the neck down, while slowly sucking the vitality and life from them.

SUMMONING RITUAL

The book also describes the particular details of the summoning ritual necessary to call forth a tilaxic from “the teeming mass of the Elder Brood”.

A summon fiend spell can be used to temporarily call forth a tilaxic, but the rituals described also allow one to use 1,000 gp of material components and cast the spell using a 6th-level spell slot to bring forth the tilaxic full-bodied.

THE TILAXIC’S CAGE

However, caution is also given that tilaxics are inherently untrustworthy creatures. Those who attempt to turn them against their foes are just as likely to find the tilaxic turn against them.

“And thus cages were crafted for the treacherous brood-spawn, and their purposes turned to those who would harvest for the Lords of Chaos…”

Tilaxic’s Cage: A small glass box in which arcane symbols of gold have been suspended. One side is hinged, allowing a tilaxic to be sealed within. The cage places the tilaxic in a state of suspended animation (similar to a hold monster spell cast by a 9^th-level wizard). When the cage is activated it can either be opened immediately, within 1d4 rounds, or within 1d4 minutes (depending on which rune are touched on the cage). When the cage opens, the tilaxic is released.

Market Price: 1,500 gp
Weight: 4 lbs.

DESIGN NOTES

I created the name Tilaxic to fit in with the rest of the Elder Brood, but this creature is a Spineseeker, once again from The Book of Fiends.

You can see an example of the intended use of the Books of the Elder Brood in Running the Campaign: Inserting Bangs, where a tilaxic was sent by the chaos cultists as an assassin in my Ptolus campaign. The Elder Brood is a tool used by the cultists, and if the PCs could discover these volumes of lore before the cultists used them, then they might be able to glean important advantages. (Or perhaps even learn how to turn the Elder Brood against the cultists.)

Back to Chaos Lorebooks

Originally Published in Pyramid Magazine – March 2nd, 2001

As far as I can tell, Reiner Knizia doesn’t know how to design a bad game – and Lost Cities is no exception to his exemplary track record.

Although connected to the reputed theme of the game (adventurers traveling to lost cities around the globe) in only the loosest of possible fashions, the mechanics here prove to be simple, but not simplistic: To borrow the cliché, Lost Cities is easy to learn – difficult to master.

Despite the fact that it comes with a board, Lost Cities is essentially a card game: You have five different color suits (each belonging to a different environment in which a lost city is located), with each suit containing three “investment” cards and ten cards numbered from 1 to 10. Each player receives a hand of eight cards, and play proceeds in turns – with each player either playing or discarding a card, and then drawing another card in order to replace it.

Cards are played off of the board (which has five playing areas keyed to each of the five colors), with each player playing on his or her side of the board. Cards must be played in order – with investment cards coming first, and then the numerical cards in order after that. (So, in other words, if you’ve played the red seven, you cannot go back and play the red five – you can only play the red eight, nine, or ten.) When you decide to discard a card (rather than playing), you do so into one of five discard piles (keyed to each of the colors). When you draw a card you may do so from the top of any of the discard piles, or from the top of the draw pile. The game ends when the last card is drawn from the draw pile.

You score each color separately in the following manner: Total the numerical cards, subtract 20 from the resulting total, and multiply that total (whether its positive or negative) by the number of investment cards you played plus one. If you didn’t play any cards in a color (investment or numerical), however, your score for that column is 0. Then add the totals from all five colors together.

Simple, right? Right. But in the actual practice of it, Lost Cities becomes something more than you’d expect.

For example, it’s not enough to merely play cards out in a haphazard manner: You must be aware of your ability to reach the 20-point minimum required to see a return (otherwise you’re throwing your money away). You must balance the risks and advantages of additional investment in an exploration. You must keep in mind how much time you have left in the game, and attempt to manipulate that time limit to your advantage (and your opponent’s disadvantage) through your discards and draws.

And then there is the direct player interaction through the five discard piles, which takes a difficult decision and turns it into a nerve-wracking one: You must play to your strengths, subvert your opponents, and avoid your weaknesses.

The incredibly diverse array of tactical options and strategic possibilities which result from the elegantly simple mechanics of Lost Cities is a testament to Knizia’s brilliance at game design, and the strength of this game. This is a game in which you will be asked to choose between the lesser of two evils, and forced to decide between the conservative and the risky.

In addition to being a great two-player game, Lost Cities is also a visually beautiful package (although the white “map” on the superfluous playing board comes off as far too bluish, leaving you momentarily confused the first time you look at the game board). There is little doubt that this game is well worth the cost of admission, and should prove a worthy addition to your collection of games.

Style: 5
Substance: 4

Designer: Reiner Knizia
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 1-892081-23-7
Production Code: 687618

Lost Cities is currently available in a 6th Edition. I haven’t seen this new edition, although I know it features new art, some revised rules, and also expansion scenarios.

As I mentioned  recently in my retrospective review of Hera & Zeus, it’s been many years since I was a regular player of two-player board games, so I haven’t revisited Lost Cities recently. But you’ll still find it on my shelf.

(click for PDF)

Mothership is a sci-fi horror RPG. Think Alien, The Thing, Pitch Black, or Annihilation.

Its calling card is an old school approach wedded to red hot innovation:

• Blazing fast character creation.
• Brutal systems for Combat and Stress.
• Tons of sandbox support and tools in the Warden’s Operation Manual (the GM book).
• An overwhelming amount of adventure support, including both first party books and a deluge of third-party support.

This last point, in particular, convinced me to make Mothership the basis for my current open campaign. Not only is there a ton of adventure support, a lot of it is designed so that you can spend 15 minutes reading through it and — presto! — you’re ready to go. My expectation is that I’ll be able to rapidly build a stable of adventures that will easily let me run the game with minimal or no prep.

I previously shared alpha and beta versions of this cheat sheet. In addition to several minor corrections, the two big changes are adding several key reference tables (wounds, panic effects, etc.) and the full skill list. (I’d previously been relying on the official GM screen and character sheet to provide theses references, but I’m now moving towards using a custom screen featuring only my cheat sheet.)

WHAT’S NOT INCLUDED

These cheat sheets are not designed to be a quick start packet: They’re designed to be a comprehensive reference for someone who has read the rulebook and will probably prove woefully inadequate if you try to learn the game from them. (On the other hand, they can definitely assist experienced players who are teaching the game to new players.)

The Mothership cheat sheet, in particular, works very well in conjunction with the GM screen(s) for the game, which are excellent. (There’s both a standard screen and a larger deluxe screen, which each come with the respective boxed sets.)

The cheat sheets also don’t include what I refer to as “character option chunks” (for reasons discussed here). In other words, you won’t find the rules for character creation here.

HOW I USE THEM

I usually keep a copy of the cheat sheet behind my GM screen for quick reference and also provide copies for all of the players. I have two copies of the Mothership rulebook at the table, too, but my goal is to summarize all of the rules for the game. This consolidation of information eliminates book look-ups: Finding something in a dozen pages is a much faster process than paging through hundreds of pages in the rulebook.

The organization of information onto each page of the cheat sheet should, hopefully, be fairly intuitive.

PAGE 1: Basic Mechanics and Skills. (Most of the core game play loops are covered here.)

PAGE 2: Violent Encounters and the Threat System.

PAGE 3: Survival. (Most of the miscellaneous rules in the game.)

PAGE 4: Ports & Medical Care. (Stuff to do in your downtime.)

PAGE 5: Ship Stats & Space Travel. (All the rules for operating ships except for ship-to-ship combat.)

PAGE 6: Ship Repairs & Contractors. (Not a big fan of these two sharing the same sheet, but they ended up being two half-pages without good companion pieces.)

PAGE 7: Ship-to-Ship Combat.

PAGE 8: Wounds, Panic, Death Save, and Damage tables.

CRUXES

This cheat sheet has not quite reached its final form. There are still several elements I’m experimenting with. A few things to note:

First, some rules from first-party supplements have been included. These are marked in red. There are additional rules (like those for cybermods) that I suspect probably belong on this cheat sheet and may be added in the future.

Second, these sheets include my personal house rules. With the exception of the Threat system (which I’ll discuss in a moment), these are marked in blue. Some of these are original rules, others overwrite the published rules. When I release the final version of the sheets, I may or may not do a version which is strictly the published rules of the game, but for now this is my working document and what I’m using at the table. If you want to strip these house rules out on your own, here’s a copy of the Microsoft Word file I used to create the cheat sheet so that you can easily edit it:

Mothership Cheat Sheet – Microsoft Word

Note that you’ll need to track down the relevant fonts.

Third, the sheet includes the Threat system, which I first discussed in Mothership – Thinking About Combat. Based on actual play, the system as presented here has received some refinement (and I’m still tinkering with it).

For the moment, this has also resulted in the “Violent Encounters” section of the cheat sheet appearing on both the first page (paired with Basic Mechanics) and the second page (where it appears with the Threat system for a complete combat reference). Partly this is because I’m still experimenting with the Threat system. Partly because I’m still trying to figure out the final layout of the sheets. And partly so that those not interested in the Threat system can simply remove that page of the cheat sheet and still have a fully functional packet.

I previously discussed an additional crux:

Androids & Oxygen: The rules state that androids don’t consume oxygen when life support systems fail, but there are separate rules for vacuums and toxic atmospheres (which require rebreathers or oxygen supplies). Should androids be affected by exposure to vacuum or toxic atmospheres? My ruling is No.

I have not included a resolution to this particular conundrum on the sheet. In my personal campaign, we’ve been developing a wide variety of androids and I’m still figuring out if different types will have different features and, if so, how they interact with things like the Atmospheres rules and hyperspace travel.

Having run character creation for Mothership many times, the sheer speed at which it happens turns the limited number of rulebooks at the table into a significant choke point. I’m going to continue experimenting with how that should be handled, and probably trying to figure out which pages from the PDF need to be printed out to help everyone zip through. (I’ll report back when I know more.)

MAKING A GM SCREEN

These cheat sheets can also be used in conjunction with a modular, landscape-oriented GM screen (like the ones you can buy here or here).

Personally, I use a four-panel screen and use reverse-duplex printing in order to create sheets that I can tape together and “flip up” to reveal additional information behind them. I’m still experimenting with exactly how I want the Mothership pages arranged on my screen.