jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
I've reviewed RPG products as a fan and a paid professional, though my free time has recently become very limited due to my day job. I've tried to work around it and make time for my usual 10,000 word reviews, but it has become apparent that this won't be happenining anytime soon. To this end, I present the first in a planned series of irregular posts that will hereafter be refered to as "Unofficial Capsule Reviews".
So, what is a capsule review? There seems to be a lot of confusion in the fan community on this point. A capsule review is not (and never has been) the opposite of a playtest review. A capsule review in the mainstream media is a brief synopsis of a product that highlights its ups and downs, and presents the reviewers impressions. Go pick up a copy of Newsweek. You'll find (usually) one fairly involved review of each mainstream media type (e.g., novel, film, music album, etc) and a handful of little 1-2 paragraph blurbs for each media type. These little "blurbs" are capsule reviews.
So, now that I've cleared that up ahead of time, you shouldn't be going into UCR threads looking for detailed breakdowns of every mechancal aspect of a system, examples of actual play, etc. This is what full-blown reviews (playtest or otherwise) are for. Not capsule reviews. Which brings us to. . . .
UCR 1: Principia Malefex
Chances are that you've never heard of this RPG and that it because it was "indie" before being indie was fashionable. Way back in 1997, Principia Malefex was published by its creator as a leatherbound tome of horror roleplaying complete with an attached cloth bookmark and faux parchment pages. As a book it's super sexy, sadly the interior layout is far less impressive (there is no interior art and plenty of horrible text flow). That said, this was put togther in pre-Lulu days when desktop publishing software was still rediculously expensive and not easily obtainable by Joe Average. In that context, the production values of the game are remarkably good. So, what is Principia Malefex?
Principia Malefex is a game of pure genre horror. By "pure genre" I mean that there is no assumed premise -- characters aren't investigators, monster hunters, monsters, or any other archetypical construct by default. They can, of course, be any of those things. That said, what a character is/does in Principia Malefex is up to the players and the GM to hammer out. The game gives you lots of rules for lots of different possibilites. How you decide to use them is ultimately up to you. Which is pretty nice, actually. I bought a copy of the game back in 2000, and recently re-purchased it with an eye toward using it for a Night Watch game. And it will do that, right out of the box. It can also do Buffy, The House on Haunted Hill, Dagon, or even something as mundane as Eyes Wide Shut right out of the box. It's all in how you apply the rules.
All of that said, there is a default setting for the game (modern Great Britain) and a default tone for the included adventures and adventure hooks (bleak). In this vein, there is some incredibly good discussion about how to appoach typically taboo topics (e.g., rape, religion, etc) in a dignified manner during Principia Malefex game sessions. And there are, as one might expect in a pure genre horror game, some snippets discussing different levels of supernatural (including a succinctly British take on the Cthulhu Mythos) and unreality such as monsters creeping in the dark versus earthbound evils like corporate embezzlement (which seems very appropriate in light of the many scandals that have rocked corporate America in recent years). All very good stuff for both budding and experienced horror GMs.
The system itself is the kind of unintuitive thing that many indie RPGs seem to be saddled with, so in that context, it didn't come as a complete shock. That said, while unintuitive, it works. The core of the system is the d200 roll (i.e., rolling 1d20 +1d10) and the goal is to generate a result equal to or less than the acting character's skill rating. Unless you're in hand to hand combat, in which case you roll 1d20 and add the acting character's skill to the result. <----- There's some of that "unintuitive" that was talking about. Again, though, it works (which for me, is quite important, as I've discovered that some game systems don't). It won't be everybody's cup of tea and, honestly, it isn't mine -- but it is tolerable in light of the fact that it allows me to play the game.
Overall, I am impressed with Principia Malefex. You don't hear much about it paving the way for the modern indie movement but it was out in front when that particular race got started. In that respect, it's an interesting piece of gaming memorabilia. As a game it fares slightly worse due to the cumbersome system but it's still worth picking up if you enjoy horror roleplaying and are tired of concept-specific games or want something that can can easily handle either cinematic or (very) subtle horror.
Plus, it makes a great LARP prop
So, what is a capsule review? There seems to be a lot of confusion in the fan community on this point. A capsule review is not (and never has been) the opposite of a playtest review. A capsule review in the mainstream media is a brief synopsis of a product that highlights its ups and downs, and presents the reviewers impressions. Go pick up a copy of Newsweek. You'll find (usually) one fairly involved review of each mainstream media type (e.g., novel, film, music album, etc) and a handful of little 1-2 paragraph blurbs for each media type. These little "blurbs" are capsule reviews.
So, now that I've cleared that up ahead of time, you shouldn't be going into UCR threads looking for detailed breakdowns of every mechancal aspect of a system, examples of actual play, etc. This is what full-blown reviews (playtest or otherwise) are for. Not capsule reviews. Which brings us to. . . .
UCR 1: Principia Malefex
Chances are that you've never heard of this RPG and that it because it was "indie" before being indie was fashionable. Way back in 1997, Principia Malefex was published by its creator as a leatherbound tome of horror roleplaying complete with an attached cloth bookmark and faux parchment pages. As a book it's super sexy, sadly the interior layout is far less impressive (there is no interior art and plenty of horrible text flow). That said, this was put togther in pre-Lulu days when desktop publishing software was still rediculously expensive and not easily obtainable by Joe Average. In that context, the production values of the game are remarkably good. So, what is Principia Malefex?
Principia Malefex is a game of pure genre horror. By "pure genre" I mean that there is no assumed premise -- characters aren't investigators, monster hunters, monsters, or any other archetypical construct by default. They can, of course, be any of those things. That said, what a character is/does in Principia Malefex is up to the players and the GM to hammer out. The game gives you lots of rules for lots of different possibilites. How you decide to use them is ultimately up to you. Which is pretty nice, actually. I bought a copy of the game back in 2000, and recently re-purchased it with an eye toward using it for a Night Watch game. And it will do that, right out of the box. It can also do Buffy, The House on Haunted Hill, Dagon, or even something as mundane as Eyes Wide Shut right out of the box. It's all in how you apply the rules.
All of that said, there is a default setting for the game (modern Great Britain) and a default tone for the included adventures and adventure hooks (bleak). In this vein, there is some incredibly good discussion about how to appoach typically taboo topics (e.g., rape, religion, etc) in a dignified manner during Principia Malefex game sessions. And there are, as one might expect in a pure genre horror game, some snippets discussing different levels of supernatural (including a succinctly British take on the Cthulhu Mythos) and unreality such as monsters creeping in the dark versus earthbound evils like corporate embezzlement (which seems very appropriate in light of the many scandals that have rocked corporate America in recent years). All very good stuff for both budding and experienced horror GMs.
The system itself is the kind of unintuitive thing that many indie RPGs seem to be saddled with, so in that context, it didn't come as a complete shock. That said, while unintuitive, it works. The core of the system is the d200 roll (i.e., rolling 1d20 +1d10) and the goal is to generate a result equal to or less than the acting character's skill rating. Unless you're in hand to hand combat, in which case you roll 1d20 and add the acting character's skill to the result. <----- There's some of that "unintuitive" that was talking about. Again, though, it works (which for me, is quite important, as I've discovered that some game systems don't). It won't be everybody's cup of tea and, honestly, it isn't mine -- but it is tolerable in light of the fact that it allows me to play the game.
Overall, I am impressed with Principia Malefex. You don't hear much about it paving the way for the modern indie movement but it was out in front when that particular race got started. In that respect, it's an interesting piece of gaming memorabilia. As a game it fares slightly worse due to the cumbersome system but it's still worth picking up if you enjoy horror roleplaying and are tired of concept-specific games or want something that can can easily handle either cinematic or (very) subtle horror.
Plus, it makes a great LARP prop
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