Engel
This OGL game is set in 27th century Europe. A post-apocalyptic setting, the Earth is radically different; technology and 21st century level of education have been wiped out by various catastrophes, including a few virulent plagues, a rise in sea level and the resulting coastal floods, and the strange phenomena of fiery tornados called "infernos." The culture has been reduced to a "neo-medieval" state where superstition and the decrees of the Angelitic Church rule everyday life.
The PCs are Engel, "servants of heaven in the form of a child-like being with large wings." (p.14) There are five angelic orders from which player characters are designed: the charismatic Michaelites, the warrior Gabrielites, the healing Raphaelites, the scholarly Ramielites, and the stealthy Urielites. Angelic order is a combination of race and class; you can't multiclass into an order to which your PC was not initially baptized.
In opposition to the PCs are a host of evils; the Lord of the Flies has many pawns. Bandits prey upon the God-fearing populace. Heretics infest the land, spreading dark rumors about the Holy Church and practicing unspeakable acts. The Tempted are evil minions who directly serve the Lord of the Flies, sometimes exhibiting perverse powers mocking the righteous gifts of the Engel. The Junklords are secular upstarts who utilize the forbidden technological artifacts of the ancients for personal power. Then there's the horrific Dreamseed, insectoid abominations that fly forth from the wastes of the Brandlands, where the earth is tainted from the passing of an inferno.
Though the forces of evil seem pervasive, the Engel have been blessed with heavenly gifts to combat them. Each order has a set of potestates, special powers that allow the Engel to fulfill their divinely appointed tasks. For instance, Raphaelites have powers that heal people of injury or disease, while the gifts of the Gabrielites are geared towards enhancing their combative abilities.
So, this all sounds interesting, but what is this game about?
Premise
"The Engel carry the hopes of the world between their wings. The Shining Host faces the spawn of the Lord of the Flies in a struggle which shakes Heaven and Earth to their foundations. And the result of this war will decide the future of mankind - or lead to its ultimate annihilation." (p.7)
This game explores both setting and situation. The Engel are innocent and naïve "harbingers of heaven." They begin the game freshly baptized and formed into a fellowship, consisting of one engel from each order. Their knowledge of the mundane world is minimal, but they must now go forth from their safe and cloistered Himmels and serve as their masters in the Angelitic Church hierarchy command, for the greater glory of God, of course.
Through exploration of setting, certain secrets or alternate viewpoints may come to an Engel's attention. Does the new information alter how the Engel performs her task as a "minion of light"? Are these secrets merely the insidious lies of the Adversary, tempting the loyalty of the faithful, or is there a dark secret behind the façade of Roma Aeterna? In turn, this exploration of situation will drive the Engel further into exploration of setting, looking for answers or attempting to quiet these doubts through heroism.
This is a beautiful concept and it is wonderfully handled in the rich and compelling setting of this game. Ultimately, the PCs must decide where the Lord of the Flies has spread its evil influence and deal with it accordingly. In this choice, the PCs hold the salvation of humanity in their hands, to protect or destroy.
So, given the powerful premise, how does this game implement it through game mechanics and techniques of implementation?
Mechanics
Unfortunately, the mechanical implementation is awful. A bland appropriation of the SRD, this is almost d20 with the restrictions filed off. Moreover, the game specific additions are messy and unreliable. There are so many areas that I find lacking, but I'll focus on three main grievances: Engel class design, setting simulative implementation, and challenge/reward structures.
Class design encompasses various elements of resource allocation, such as assigning effective ability scores, selecting skills, and developing the potestates. Overall, this game does a miserable job in design. The failures are numerous.
First of all, since this is an OGL product, there is an opportunity to introduce an alternative manner of "rolling up the stats." Is anything interesting done, something to model the "divine gifts of the Heavenly host" through ability allocation? No. There isn't even a point-buy system, as can be found in base-line D&D. What a missed opportunity.
How about the classes themselves? How are the "powers" distributed? There are all front-loaded; For example, Michaelites and Raphaelites gain no special abilities beyond 5th level. Moreover, they are unbalanced. For instance, in mechanical terms, Michaelites, the leaders of an Angelic Fellowship, are much weaker than the other orders due to poorly focused linked abilities to relevant potestates, a lack of bonus feats and inadequate skill points to insure reliable utilization of potestates. It isn't immediately noticeable on paper, but in playtest this imbalance becomes obvious.
Potestates
Furthermore, the most important traits of Engel, the potestates, are rife with errors and poor design decisions. The base idea is sound; the potestates are activated with a "skill check," adding the relevant ability modifier and purchased ranks to the die roll. Generally, this takes a full-action and provokes an attack of opportunity. Furthermore, in activating the power, the Engel loses a set amount of hit points. This isn't dissimilar from "Force skills" in the Star Wars rpg. However, this game fumbles in implementation.
For instance, the Michaelite ability "Hand of God" is an attack power which discharges an electrical attack into an opponent through a melee touch attack, at the cost of 6 hit points for activation. So let's say the Engel spends a round activating the power, while an opponents advances to engage her. She gets a decent roll, enabling her to strike at her foe for 4d6, with a Fortitude save of DC 15 for half damage. Meanwhile, not only has she given a round of attack to her opponent, but also she has lost 6 hit points. Then she needs to touch her foe, again with the reciprocal opportunity for harm. At some point, she hits doing an average of 14 hit points of damage, but with an unmodified chance of 30% that her foe will shrug off half of that due to passing the save. Not really cost or time effective.
This is also true for the primary healing power of the Raphaelites, "Helping Hand." For the most part, the hit point expenditure of using this power will be the average healing potential rounded down. For instance, if a Raphaelite rolls extremely high, they may heal up to 2d6 points of damage but at a personal hit point expenditure of 7. This totally hobbles the healing potential of the order. Didn't the designers do their math?
But it gets worse. Some potestates simply do not work. For instance, the Michaelite power of "shield of faith" allows the Engel to absorb the kinetic energy of a melee attack and reflect it back upon her attacker. At the expense of 6 hit points, this could be useful. Unfortunately, there is no listed duration. So is it cast in reaction to the attack as a free action? The text doesn't say. Well, can it be readied? No, because there are no "readied" actions in this implementation of the SRD, but even if there were, using potestates requires a full-action. So, how does this power get implemented? I don't know.
Then there are the little problems of implementation like poor game balance or unreasonable DC difficulties or vague durations. All in all, the potestates are poorly designed. But the problems don't end simply in design; the resource allocation is mismanaged as well.
Potestates are purchased with skill points. Each order has eleven potestates, which become available in three different groupings of power. At first level the Engel receives the opportunity to develop four potestates of the Signum level. At third, the four of the Sigil level are available for purchase. Finally, at fifth level the three most potent powers of the Scriptura level may be acquired. Potestates may not be used untrained, even if the Engel is of a level where they could have purchased it.
So, Engel power opportunities increase with level, but the base pool of skill points do not increase to allow the PC to make the most of it. Either a PC will focus on a few well-developed powers, or they'll spread their abilities thin across a wider selection. Moreover, purchasing potestates pulls much needed resources from developing mundane skills.
Combined with the spotty mechanics, this situation results in a highly dysfunctional PC; they are seriously lacking in overall competency. Since each Engel faces this allocation problem, Fellowships end up looking like a collection of winged freaks and losers; not really an awe-inspiring "heavenly host."
So class design is abominable. There isn't even a guideline on assigning initial equipment to the PCs. Did anyone playtest these rules? I don't think so, because the problems come out immediately in implementation.
Simulation of the setting is of great importance in Engel. The setting is so powerful in concept, so evocative of mood and theme. What assistance do the mechanics offer in facilitating of a vivid feeling of "being there"? Nothing!
Gathering information through social and investigative challenges is a primary form of exploration of setting. The game offers no help in implementation. In fact, this game doesn't even offer a guideline to influence NPC attitude, which even the d20 core rules have. Without a system for social challenge, the Michaelites lose the opportunity to utilize their greatest skills and abilities. Without a system of investigative challenge, the Ramielites are of minimal use to the Fellowship.
Furthermore, little details of the setting, such as the climate or population centers, could have been implemented with mechanical guidelines. For instance, the setting is extremely wet; why isn't there a climate chart for randomly determining the weather? It doesn't take much to write one up, but it goes a long way in creating an immersive experience. Likewise, a population guideline for the GM to design towns and villages would be of great help, but nothing of the kind is offered.
Then there are more serious matters. For instance, all PC Engel have wings. They can fly. So, since we know for a fact that flight will be an issue of game play, do the designers offer detailed rules for simulation? No. In fact, the one special rule offered is poorly designed; it forgets to mention the DC for pulling out of a fall. This is an inexcusable oversight. Of course encounters will take place in flight, so there should be mechanics to help us implement the situation.
Antagonists & Threats
It gets worse. There are three sets of antagonists that the Engel may face in combat that require special mechanical attention. First, the insectoid Dreamseed need to be written up in classic Monster fashion. The book offers only two relatively weak examples of these horrors. Eh? Does anybody think that this is even close to enough? There should have been at least ten Dreamseed examples of diverse types and challenge ratings.
Furthermore, the Engel may come across the Junklords and their forbidden caches of ancient technological artifacts. Does the book offer anything to help the GM introduce these "signs of the hubris of man?" Not at all. There are a couple of firearms written up, but nothing really impressive. Come on! When my Engel come face to face with a Cult of the Machine city baron, I want something big and dramatic in the scene, not just a pistol.
Finally, the Tempted are among the more subtle and insidious threats that the Engel may face. Through embracing the evil of the Lord of the Flies, these depraved beings have been granted profane gifts that mockingly resemble the sacred powers of the Engel. So, how do I go about designing such a threat? Just make it up. Umm, yeah, thanks for the help.
So simulation of setting fails in both the big issues and the small. This totally derails the premise. The exploration gets tripped up in shoddy implementation. It must be pure laziness of design that let such huge gaps occur in these necessary mechanics. It's atrocious!
Challenge and reward structures are important in crafting a campaign. I've already discussed the lack of helpful mechanics for social and investigative challenges. Moreover, without detailed information on climate and terrain, survival challenges are difficult to implement as well. Stealth challenges are viable, as are combat challenges. Let's look at the mechanics for designing a combat.
We'll ignore the whole flight complications for now. The book suggests that challenge rating among identical foes equals the base CR plus half their number. Well, this generally results in a CR of two levels higher than baseline d20. To further complicate matters, due to the lack of reliable healing and the attrition caused by potestates utilization, Engel may find themselves frequently low on hit points. This is fine with me as a design choice, but it seems to go contrary to the presentation of the Engel. The PCs will be less capable against their opponents than their base d20 counterparts. Engel are supposed to be awe-inspiring and powerful, but this system of challenge undercuts the image. PC death is a definite possibility over a couple of combats.
After the challenges have been dealt with, the PCs receive a "reward." Well, there's no "loot" in this game, nor some sort of "nifty" to take the place of "treasure." Again, this skews PC power level. An eleventh level Engel, a veteran of many battles against the Dreamseed, will have little different in terms of equipment than a first level novice, fresh from the Himmel. Again, I'm fine with this design choice, but it undercuts the power of the Engel; they simply are not up to the challenge of facing foes of their appropriate level.
Moreover, this OGL implementation takes a different approach to experience. Rather than use an escalating chart of challenge compared to party competency, Engel uses a static award system based off of dramatic achievement. It's the Storyteller system used in Vampire, Werewolf and Mage, but d20-fied. This is an ugly implementation for two reasons.
First, the static awards offer diminishing reward as PCs advance in level. For instance, after successfully completing an adventure appropriate to their challenge level, second level Engel may find an overall experience award of 1650 to be fair and balanced. However at tenth level, after resolving an adventure equally as appropriate to their level, PCs may find this experience award meager. It may be proportionately the same threat level, but it gives a lesser reward.
Second, these mechanics of reward were crafted using Storyteller implementations of "currency." This means that when a Mage GM gives out a reward of eight experience points, the players can immediately spend them; they can do things like buy a new skill, improve an attribute, or horde them up to make a big purchase like advancing magical spheres or arête. This is as true for the greatest of archmagi as it is for the most inept of apprentices. There's always something to buy, even if it's only a single dot in Irish poetry or Thai cuisine.
This isn't true for a game using baseline d20 level progression. You must horde the experience until you make the next level requirement. The "currency" can only purchase levels. You can't go buy an extra rank in Knowledge: Botany, or increase your Dexterity, or acquire a new feat. Only level advancement allows such purchases. Again, the designers simply do not understand the ramifications of their design.
So, in analysis, this game completely botches the mechanics from start to finish. It is a poster child of haphazard design. So, what does the book have to say about potential mechanical difficulties of implementation?
"If you do not like the rules, change them or even ignore them altogether. Rules are not a necessity, but they can add spice and give the impression of fairness and equality - which can be very important to the players." (p.151)
So they've invoked the "Golden Rule" defense, eh? Fair enough. A game with shoddy mechanics may be salvaged by wonderful techniques of implementation. So, let's see how they did in this regard.
Technique
It looks kind of skimpy. I'm not seeing any helpful advice on "storytelling." There is plenty of stuff like "focus on drama" and "be courageous" but little that transcends the "pep squad" level of advice. Yes, I know that drama is good and that mood is important to immersive play, but I need some solid guidelines here. The main techniques offered here are example and metaplot.
Example is the saving grace of this game. The setting is well detailed, the adventure ideas are solid and enjoyable, and the sample NPCs are well written. The depth of this world is exquisite; from the basic foodstuffs to the political structures, we are given a fine overview of life in 27th century Europe. Moreover, the fiction offered at the beginning of each chapter is helpful in establishing mood and creating a strong visual image for the reader. All in all, this was wonderfully accomplished.
Metaplot is either a "love it" or "hate it" matter. I love it when properly implemented. The changing setting feels real to me; it's a plotline that advances in the background of PC activity. As long as the PCs have a chance to meaningfully interact with the metaplot elements and the GM is given the necessary tool to craft diverse scenarios, I'm all for metaplot.
However, Engel does not implement it properly. Secrets are kept from the GM, sabotaging attempts to implement stories that will allow PCs to interact with these metaplot elements. The designers do this on purpose:
"Even though Engel was designed with a certain timeline with fixed events in mind, which will be detailed to the storyteller in this book as well as in future supplements, there is an almost infinite number of chances to run adventures with small or no significance to the events unfolding in the rest of the world." (p.156)
Oh joy! We get to play out events of small or no significance. Doesn't that just inspire the creative juices to flow? Image reading a game like Mutants & Masterminds and getting a passage that says something like "Your PCs can stop a few bank robberies or beat up on random street thugs and drug dealers, but when the big dangers come to town, leave the job up to the Freedom League. Have a nice game!" It's lame.
Finally, let's consider our situation. We've got a slew of broken mechanics and an obscure metaplot. We can still salvage the situation with golden advice and technique. After all, games like Everway, Amber Diceless and Nobilis have ascended to the stature gaming greats through their insightful advice on managing dramatic flow and narrative control. Does Engel do likewise? No.
We get a load of attitude and fluff, but nothing to assist us. There is no discussion of player stance, task resolution in accordance with dramatic situations, or "currency" of narrative structure. This game wants to be "drama" empowering, but it does nothing to obtain this goal. It fails completely.
Appraisal
I want to like this game. The setting is wonderful and the thematic explorations into the setting and situation are compelling. However, the game does nothing to deliver on its potential.
The mechanics of facilitation fail.
The techniques of implementation fail.
The "Golden rule" defense can only cover so many failures before the players find themselves thinking, "Why don't we just design our own game?" There needs to be a reason for us to want to use this game. There is only the setting and premise for us here; everything else is inadequate.
Therefore, I do not recommend this game.
---OMW
