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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8707447" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 112: October 1995part 3/5On Life, On Death: Still trying to set the right tone, they give us a whole load of recommended reading. William Hope Hodgeson, M.R. James, Bram Stoker, R. W. Chambers, W. B. Yeats, Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machan, Ambrose Bierce, Sheridan LeFanu, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert Lewis Stevenson, R. A. Gilbert, Robert Arthur, John Bellairs, Barbara Hambly, Jonathan Carrol & Roger Zelazny. Mostly stuff from the end of the 19th century, but also a lot of early 20th century stuff that still has the same feel or intentionally references that era, and some nonfiction stuff that contains relevant info. The writer definitely has distinct preferences beyond just everything remotely supernatural published in the 1890's. What's even more interesting are the things they specifically call out as not influences, so avoid referencing them when writing adventures please. Frankenstein, (too early, not actually victorian era) Stephen King, (too contemporary feeling) and Phantom of the Opera (just bleurgh). (Great, now I want to write a fanfic where the Monster and the Phantom bond over their shared outcast angst and then team up to fight Pennywise. ) Plenty to check out and analyze here then. Who's missing that you would have put in?Horseman, Pass By!: Having given us lots of reference material, they continue the system free talk about the way they want you to write & judge adventures in this setting. Since they usually wind up with more players than judges for groups, even though they only need a ratio of 6:1 or lower, they're obviously working hard to fight that. While it is a horror game, you need to remember that you can't be just non-stop jump-scares and gory deaths or they'll lose their impact, particularly in an RPG, where the PC's come in fully aware that the supernatural is real and ready to rumble even if they're not prepared for a specific type of monster. Make sure they have room to breathe and roleplay in between the combat encounters. Do your research on basic details of life in the 1890's. Splitting the party works well to build tension and make people feel more vulnerable. Don't be afraid to mix it up and use aliens, cryptids, or even just regular evil humans as villains rather than vampires or werewolves. This continues to reinforce that they want to run a classier type of game in here than their fantasy worlds, giving people room to develop their characters, travel the world and feel like they're actually making a difference rather than just following railroads of encounters from one to the next. A laudable goal, even if I remain skeptical of their ability to pull it off given previous performance. Gothic Heroes: After all that buildup, the actual character generation info is a little underwhelming, fitting on a single page. MotRD is only a single boxed set, and the classes & kits already come pre-nerfed compared to regular D&D characters, so they can just allow everything from it, forbid everything else and not worry about scouring hundreds of supplements to decide what's allowed or forbidden case by case. 72 points to spread amongst the regular 6 ability scores, fixed HP per level, max starting GP. The only significant restriction is that only Good alignments are allowed, not even N & LN characters like the other settings. If you aren't in this to fight evil just because it's there without regard for profit, you won't be invited to join the secret society opposing the Red Death in the first place and if you become neutral in play, you'll be on thin ice until you make amends. For all their talk of wanting more roleplaying and ability to make choices, the precise nature of those choices is still going to be strictly proscribed to keep things going in the right direction.</blockquote>

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