[imager]http://www.rpgnow.com/products/product_6057.jpg[/imager]Etherscope is a new “d20-based OGL” game distributed through Goodman Games, but appears to have originated by the small press publisher Malladin’s Gate Press. Etherscope is a d20 system game based on the concept of a “steampunk” world based in a Victorian era-flavored (but not actual era-it’s actually set in 1984) world in which travel via “etherspace” has been discovered. Etherscope’s chief design is credited to Nigel McClelland and Ben Redmond.
I received Etherscope as a complimentary PDF, but it is soon to be in print as well. This review is based on the PDF version.
A First Look
The PDF version of the book is a 294 page PDF (with cover and end leaf images) available through the usual PDF outlets (RPGnow, ENGS, and DriveThruRPG.) The list price of the PDF is $24.99 but at the time of this writing ENGS shows a significant markdown for me. The electronic version is zipped with two different PDFs, one with full graphics and a more printer friendly version with the cover images, mostly-black endleafs, and the background images excluded.
The cover art is by Jonathan Hill.
Interior artists include Alex Kosakowski, Alex Shiekman, Chris Watkins, Eduardo Herrera, Ethan Pasternack, Ilya Astrakhan, James Cosper, Jeremy Mohler. Mohler is the most immediately recognizable to me in both name and style. Frequent purchasers of Goodman Games products should recognize his style from works like Book of Templates Deluxe Edition.
There is at least one instance of my grammatical pet peeve: the use of affect when the author meant effect.
The PDF does feature bookmarks, but they are not functional. The bookmarks only includes tables, and there is no hierarchy, making them difficult to browse. But if you click on any of them, they only lead you to the title page. The table of contents is hyperlinked, but the links also all lead to the title page.
A Deeper Look
Etherscope is written as a stand-alone OGL game, with basics of character generation being covered as well as setting details. The book is organized into an introduction and seven chapters. The first two chapters concern character generation, a third equipment and a fourth combat. The fifth and sixth chapters are setting details (the world and the scope/technology, respectively.) The seventh and final chapter is GM advice and material, including advanced classes.
The concept of Etherscope is curious. The first term that comes to mind is “steampunk”, a subgenre that has been getting some good play in the gaming industry. But it’s a bit of a twist on it. The original term steampunk refers to SF in which many modern advances occur in the Victorian era. Sort of like Verne if he could live today. Etherscope assumes that a facilitating phenomenon called “etherspace” was discovered in the 19th century, and then takes the world forward to 1984. The result is a world that has a bit more of a modern feel than typical steampunk.
The empowering technologies and principles in Etherscope are etherspace and the etherscope. Etherspace is an other dimensional realm based on the archaic concept of the ether. The etherscope is a device that, in essence, allows one to transfer their essence into etherspace. The upshot is that this otherwise strangely Victorian realm is that you have what amounts to Cyberpunk style netrunning.
Etherspace also facilitates technologies like heat sources powering powerful boilers, resilient zeppelin-like airships and floating “zepcars”, etherspace borne computers, and artificial and steamtech body grafts and replacements called “cybernaughtics”. All this in a setting with an alternate history that acts to extend the age of the great European empires and in which there in genetic engineering. And etherspace promises horrors of its own.
This concept feels like a bit of a mish-mash to me. But it’s not an indiscriminate one. I think that Etherscope could pan out to be this decade’s Jorune, another cult classic game well known for its odd juxtaposition of subgenres.
Etherscope uses the race mechanic, but most of the races in Etherscope are human variants. But in the setting, eugenics and genetic experimentation has occurred, and was (as the book discusses briefly) considered acceptable practice by Victorian society. The eugenics programs produced human subraces. Normal humans are called Beta humans in the game. Alpha humans are of a superior breed, but start with an XP deficit compared to other character races.
Other human offshoots Beta, Gamma, and Epsilon, all what are called “transgenic strains” that arose as a replacement for lost workers after a pretty bloody rebellion putdown. These three strains are engineered with DNA of animals, rats, canines, and horses, respectively.
A final race is the Fey. Fey are fundamentally human, if beautiful looking beings. The truth is that they are inheritors of the lost legacy of lemuria, descendants of an ancient lost race. Fey can detect the presence of etheric energy and receive a familiar similar to the classic D&D familiar in etherspace.
To this point, I have focussed on elements of Etherscope as a game that fit pretty snugly with the classical d20 game model. But Etherscope extends some d20 concepts a little with social templates and influences. Working backwards, influences define your connections in society. You can have influences at a number of levels, but they generally strongly depend on your social caste. Influences have categories like “industry”, “street” and “high society”, and are purchased somewhat like skills (see below).
Social templates define the social circles that a character belongs to, and are more broadly categorized into three social classes, working (such as craftsmen and criminal social templates), middle (such as the tradesman and constabulary social template), and upper (such as academic and idle rich social templates.) Templates are similar to the d20 modern concept of starting occupations in that they provide a choice between additional class skills or skill bonus, and they provide a character’s wealth bonus (though the differences in wealth modifiers are more stark than in d20 Modern).
Where social templates differ is that they offer extra-cheap knowledge skills (costing one-half of the normal cost) and that they determine which influences are purchased at what price. Though influence points are derived from your class, much like skill points, the cost of influence points are determined by your template. Unlike skills, influence points costs are split into three levels: template, cross-template, and “extra influences.” (Twice as costly as a cross-template influence.)
I do question why charisma was not used as a source of bonus points for influences. Perhaps the authors felt that in combination with the etherscope rules (see below) that it would make charisma too powerful.
Character creation in Etherscope pulls a lot from d20 Modern. I have come to see D20 Modern as the gaming equivalent of a good mixer... not entirely exciting by itself, but very easy to add on to and create something really satisfying. Still, for this, the base classes seem a bit forced to me.
Etherscope, interestingly, does what no other D20 Modern setting or variant has done to date. It takes those six D20 Modern base classes and makes them into something with a bit stronger flavor grounding in the setting. The new classes (and the d20 Modern hero classes to which they approximately correspond) are Broker (Charismatic), Combant (Strong), Enginaught (Tough), Pursuer (Dedicated), Savant (Smart), and Scoundrel (Fast).
The choice of the concepts behind the classes was careful, and in some ways they capture the essence of the basic concept the mechanics seem to convey better than the generic d20 Modern classes might have if they were applied directly. For example, it always seemed a bit strange that I a definably “fast” agile soldier character couldn’t qualify for the best attack bonus progression. But since etherscope shifts the definition and scope of classes modestly, such a character could be defined using a class that does not seem like it defines your character. Similarly, the scoundrel, which maps most easily to the fast hero class, has a fast talk talent tree that might have formally mapped to the rogue. Of course you could realize these concepts with multiclassing in D20 Modern, but this can complicate things a bit much for some players.
Another contrast with the D20 Modern classes is that they don’t lean on a straight up alternating talent tree / bonus feat progression for new levels as D20 Modern does; each class offers one or more at every level, but different classes has different progression arrangements. Beyond trying to more assertively make up for differences in the combat related statistics for each class, the reasoning for the differing arrangements for different classes is not clear to me, though I might venture that the authors felt that some classes needed more or less access to the variety of talent trees.
In addition to the support for the usual d20 bits and the new influence mechanic, the class writeups provide support for the new etherscope rules. Specifically, classes receive a scope dice which provide the hit points for a character’s scope avatar. All base classes have a d6 scope dice, though some have talents that expand on this, and some advanced classes have larger scope dice.
Skipping ahead, scope combat is curious. Etherspace is said to be the medium through which thought waves travel, and the character’s etherspace avatar is motivated by their force of personality. The result is something that strongly resembles the 2e rules for combat in the astral plane: for the purposes of combat, mental statistics are replaced with physical ones (strength with intelligence, dexterity with wisdom, and constitution with charisma.)
Further, your base attack bonus, saves, and defense bonus do not spring from your class’s advancement table. Instead, it is governed by a skill called scope use (immersed). The ranks in the skill are used almost like levels to determine these modifiers.
Though the skills list is fairly similar to the standard d20 modern skill with, with the expected extensions due to the curious nature of Etherscope technology, a new skill type are the fighting technique skills. These skills have feat requirements in order to take ranks in them, and each skill is unique and separate like language categories. Each skill has a list of maneuvers associated with it. These are somewhat similar to feats in scope and effect, but require a skill check to pull off.
Etherscope is, in part, a horror game. Part of the support for this is new set of occult skills. These make up a minor skill based magic system, describing abilities such as telepathy and hex lore. The concept operates somewhat similar to other skill and feat magic systems (such as in True20), but are driven by talent selections instead of feat selections.
Much of the book is consumed with rules support (indeed, readers should be aware that there are many aspects of character creation that I have not mentioned), but other sections include a section on the world, a GM advice section, and an adventure. The adventure is generously sized (weighing in at 27 pages.) On the other hand, for the focus of this book on the city, the world details chapter seemed a bit brief. Those hoping to tear apart the greater part of the world setting will have to get the next release about the Great Metropolis.
Conclusions
As mentioned, Etherscope is written as a stand-alone OGL game. As such, the game does not rely on the purchase of any core book, but the mechanics that do exist are strongly rooted in D20 Modern. The book does take advantage of its freedom from the D20 STL to make changes in the system the authors found needful, but it’s still close enough that D20 Modern fans should be comfortable with the workings of the system and perhaps even be able to plug in their D20 Modern material with relatively little input. As is the nature of such games, however, there is some replication of material.
I have to admit. Though I have seen some some cool amateur takes on Victorian Superscience RPGs, most published takes on the topic have left me cold. That being the case, I was a little worried when I saw the “V-word” in this product’s description. In actuality, the game ends up being the best professional take on a Victorian style steampunk setting I have seen. The setting is an enchanting synthesis between the world of Victorian era superscience and modern, cyberpunk, and horror tropes.
There are some curiosities and strange bits, some of which seem less than optimal, and some balance points I am uncertain about. The game leans strongly on the skill system, yet it doesn’t take the step of upping the lower end of the skill point per level ratings. Considering that characters that traditionally have a strong allotment of skills have an advantage in etherspace, this might leave the combatant seeming a bit weak. This is doubly as important considering that fighting style skills consume skill points as well, which combatants probably should have good access to.
Another concern related to the skill system is the influence system. I consider purchasing skills one of the biggest tasks associated with creating d20 System characters. I find it odd that the book decides to make an even more complex purchase mechanic for them.
Overall Grade: B+
-Alan D. Kohler
