Cataclysm

Hans Hofmann     Cataclysm     1945


Last week I indicated that Year of the Phoenix (hereinafter Phoenix) is a post-apocalypse game.  The rules refer to the apocalypse at issue as the ‘cataclysm.’  According to Chapter 10 of the Adventure Guide:

          North Amerika was engulfed in a cataclysmic disaster over a century ago.  The exact nature of it is uncertain (letting the gamemaster tailor the facts to fit his or her campaign), but the results are all around.  World population is drastically reduced, culture has been altered, and the Zoviets rule North America.
          Two different versions of a possible holocaust (the Third World War) are included:  one at the beginning of this chapter, and the other at the end.  The first one stipulates that everyone knows what happened, while the latter assumes that portions of the world entered a 'Dark Age,' from which they are only now emerging.

The section on slang indicates that ‘Zoviet’ is the “[e]volution of the twentieth-century term, ‘Soviet.’”  ‘Amerika’ is “a rebel word, to distinguish themselves from the America the Zoviet government represents.”  Yes, the first paragraph of the quoted section above begins with “North Amerika” and ends with “North America.”  I assume that author Martin Wixted intended a consistent spelling.

In the ‘full-disclosure’ version of the cataclysm, the entry for the year 2007 begins:

          Testing of a new Ion Propulsion engine by Japan American Corporation in space leads to disaster for Earth as the magnetic effects wipe out many computer systems monitoring life support, water, sewage, and power use.  The polar ice caps begin to melt as Earth is ripped asunder.  The Van Allen belt disrupts the Ozone Layer, admitting vast quantities of ultraviolet radiation.  Earth's fault lines convulse and nuclear power plants around the globe suffer chain-reaction meltdowns.

The geographic upheaval of the cataclysm affected the continents in terms of coastlines and ecology.  A map of ‘North Amerika’ will have to wait for a future post, but I like to think that Wixted was inspired by the original Gamma World map when creating his setting.  Otherwise, here is a portion of the world map from the back of the box:

Most of the rest of the map is covered by a text box; however, for those interested, Australia seems to be Non-Zoviet.

Among the more drastic changes, page 7 of the Adventure Guide says...

          The North American continent settled, dropping many areas below sea level.  These areas were eventually reclaimed when the nuclear winter increased the polar ice caps...
          The great Mojave desert has all but disappeared, thanks to the shift in the weather and the increased size of the Great Salt Lake...
          No new mountain ranges sprang up as a result of the cataclysm, but most have changed in height to some extent, with several volcanoes active along the Northern West Coast.

Anyway, “The Soviets are hurt badly be the catastrophe, but gamble that the rest of the world is completely helpless.”  Despite the fact that “the comparatively undamaged Asiatic Conclave surges into Russia,” the USSR makes gains in Europe and successfully invades North America.  Nuclear weapons are used and “Disease begins its insidious spread as radiations sickness [sic], rabies, and cancer tear through the innocent populace.”  By the time 2197 rolls around, the Soviets Zoviets still occupy much of Europe as well as the (former) United States and Canada.  Also, the Asiatic Conclave “remains a deep thorn in the Russian side.”

The ‘Dark Age’ version of the cataclysm consists of flavor text on page 17 of the Adventure Guide on a graphic that is intended to represent a tattered document.  Beneath the document, the bottom of the page reads, “Discovered near the Blasted Heath, and translated by Sister Emmanuel Luth.”  ‘Blasted Heath,’ the slang section tells us, “Refers to any radioactive zone.  Originally meant a specific radiation-soaked area in the Southwest.”

The document is titled “St. Augin's Book of Days:  The Third World War” and consists of seven numbered, biblically-styled passages (20-23 and 57-59).  One supposes that “The Red Death,” “the Thing,” and “Evil” are synonyms for communist forces.  In passages 20-23, God commands “the ruler of the greatest nation which opposed the Thing...to go forth and end this plague.”  The ruler and his “war chiefs” travel “across the great sea” whereupon the ruler “led the holy crusade across the length and breadth of the land...”

The last three passages tell us...

          On the twelth year of this task, it is written that God again came unto him.  In his vision the Lord spoke thusly, “Great soldier, your faith is steadfast, and your mission here is finished  Return now, to your homeland, and bear all of life’s misfortunes well.”  “It shall be done as you command,” the man spoke, and returned home.
          Ill was his heart at the words of God, and his foreboding was not misguided.  The Evil One had indeed fled from sight – and had struck at the ruler’s own family, rending their home asunder.  The ruler fell to his knees in dismay, crying, “Lord my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
          God heard his plea, and pitied him.  “It is your holy quest to destroy this Evil, to seek it out wherever it lurks and rid it from the face of the earth.  Once the world is again pure, you may live in freedom.  Your flock is gone, so that you may well heed my message and raise a new people who must obey my word or perish.”  The ruler accepted this mission and went forth into the daylight to fulfill the Holy Word of God.

Sort of like The Book of Job meets Twilight: 2000.

Wixted provides one last bit of ‘flavor’ regarding the cataclysm.  In the slang section, there is an entry for ‘By the Day of Great Blood.’  It is defined as “An oath to swear upon, ‘By the Day of Great Blood I do swear to uphold this treaty.’  Refers to unspecified past event, having to do with the cataclysm.”

Character Creation in Edge of the Empire (Part I)



Art by Howard Chaykin

Contrary to the “Part I” in this post's title, last week we began to create a character for Fantasy Flight Games' Edge of the Empire (Beta) roleplaying game.  Specifically, we sought to define the beloved Saun Dann in game terms.  In our efforts, we managed to get as far as 'Obligation.'

The next step is 'Selecting a Species.'  Saun Dann is – of course – human.  Other options for player characters in EotE-B include Bothan, droid (class four), Gand, Rodian, Trandoshan, Twi'lek, and Wookiee.  The names of all species, except for droids and humans, are capitalized.  The eight species are differentiated from one another in terms of characteristics, derived attributes, starting experience, and special abilities.

EotE-B characters have six characteristics:  Agility, Brawn, Cunning, Intellect, Presence, and Willpower.  A value of 6 is the ceiling for characteristics and no characteristic can be increased beyond a value of 5 during character creation.  Not surprisingly, humans provide the standard against which other species are compared.  Humans have a default value of 2 for each characteristic.  Other species vary from this by having a value of 3 for one characteristic and a value of 1 for another; for example, Wookiees have a Brawn of 3 but a Willpower of  1.  Droids are the only exception to this pattern; they start with a value of 1 in each characteristic.  I am pleased to announce that – as of yesterday’s update – Gand now have a default Presence of 1 instead of a default Intellect of 1.  This means your humble host will forgo his planned hunger strike.

The derived attributes influenced by one's species are 'wound threshold' (ability to withstand physical injury) and 'strain threshold' (ability to withstand mental/ psychological injury).  Wound threshold equals a given species-defined number plus Brawn.  Strain threshold equals a given species-defined number plus Willpower.  For humans, wound threshold is 10 + Brawn; strain threshold is 10 + Willpower.

Humans have 110 starting experience points (XP).  Most speicies have 100 starting XP; Wookiees and Trandoshans start with 90 XP.  Droids have 175 XP but – remember – they start with low characteristics.  To appreciate the utility of starting experience, we must skip ahead to careers and specializations.

EotE-B offers six careers:  Bounty Hunter, Colonist, Explorer, Hired Gun, Smuggler, and Technician.  Each career has three specializations; for example, the Colonist career has the specialization of Doctor, Politico, and Scholar.  Players select a career and a specialization within that career for their characters.  Each career has eight 'career skills.'  Upon choosing a career, a character receives one rank in four career skills.  Each specialization has four skills that are considered career skills for a character with that specialization.  Some specialization skills might overlap with the skills offered by the career.  For instance, 'Skulduggery' is a Smuggler career skill and it is also one of the four skills associated with the Smuggler specialization of Thief.  Anyway, characters receive one rank in two specialization skills.  Also, each specialization has a 'talent tree.'

Characters can use starting experience to purchase and/or improve skills.  For career skills, a rank costs 5 XP times the rank to be attained.  Each rank must be purchased separately and no starting character may have more than two ranks in a skill.  For example, if a character possessed one rank in a given career skill and wanted to have two ranks, it would cost 10 XP; getting a third rank would cost an additional 15 XP.  Non-career skills cost 10 XP times the rank to be attained.

Characters can gain additional specializations with experience.  According to yesterday's update, purchasing a specialization within the character's career costs 5 XP times the total number of specializations the character has, including the specialization to be purchased.  Buying a specialization outside of the character's career costs 10 XP times the total number of specializations, as above.

Characteristics can also be improved with experience.  According to page 64, increasing a characteristic costs...

Ten times the purchased rating in experience.  Each rating must be purchased separately.

The catch is that experience points can only be used to improve characteristics during character creation.

Let's get back to Saun Dann.  We know he is a Trader, which happens to be a specialization of the Explorer career.  Saun Dann gets one rank in four Explorer career skills, specifically Astrogation, Pilot (Space), Knowledge (Outer Rim), and Charm.  From the Trader specialization, we choose Deceit and Negotiation.  As a special ability, humans have “one additional rank in each of two different non-career skills…”  It would likely be effective for a character to have a combat skill; however, so as to be true to Saun Dann's concept, we choose Mechanics and Streetwise.

Next week, we shall invest Saun Dann's experience points.  Until then, may the Force be with you.

The Roleplaying Game of Amerika in 2197 C.E.

Although not labeled as such in its RPGGeek listing, FGU's Year of the Phoenix roleplaying game (hereinafter Phoenix) falls into the 'post-apocalypse' genre.  However, refering to Phoenix as a post-apocalyse game does a disservice to its premise.  Phoenix'  focused and elaborate premise is its most endearing feature; it is also the reason Phoenix is condemned to obscurity.

Phoenix embraces the Reagan era fantasy of a Soviet invasion of the United States.  It was published in 1986 (the same year as Fortress America), between the motion picture Red Dawn (1984) and the televison mini-series Amerika (1987).  To the extent that an invasion of the U.S. was likely at all, your humble host felt that the Chinese were a more plausible culprit (doubtless due to the influence of Heinlein's Sixth Column and “Free Men”).

A Soviet-occupied America – without further elaboration – is a sufficient premise for a role-playing game (see Freedom Fighters, also published by Fantasy Games Unlimited, also in 1986).  However, Phoenix is not content to stop there.  The following excerpt appears on the back of the box:

     It is 1997.  You are a soldier of the United States Space Command, a member of the warrior elite.  Backed by the most powerful nation on earth, your job is to protect our interests in space.
     But tragedy strikes.  During a rescue mission at the space station America, a freak explosion tears you from your Shuttle and plunges you through a time warp.
     Stranded in the future, a future where our great nation fell to the enemy over two hundred years ago, you and your surviving crew vow to continue your fight for freedom.
     “Welcome to Amerika, comrade...”

The back of the box also states:

Unique in the roleplaying experience, players are as shocked and unprepared as their characters when this tragedy hits.

Of course, that's only true for players who happened not to read the back of the box and who otherwise avoided exposure to information about the game.  The 'unique experience' was viable in a playtesting context, but it was hardly feasible to maintain such a pretense in a published product line.  Even if it were so, it would not necessarily be desirable; someone eager to play a 'space commando' may not relish the expected setting turning into an 'underground resistance' campaign.

Phoenix includes a four page Player Handout, a forty-eight page Training Manual (covering chapters one through eight of the rules), and an eighty page Adventure Guide (covering chapters nine through fourteen of the rules, along with three connected adventures).  The handout and manual do not betray the secret that the player characters will be transported to a future, occupied America; that information is in the guide, evidently intended only for the gamemaster.  Phoenix also includes a gamemaster screen; one side is for the gamemaster to view and the opposite side is for the players.  Among other things, the players' side displays weapons tables that provide information such as 'Year of 1st Manufacture.'  Many of the listed weapons have dates after 1997 – the year in which the game supposedly takes place.  Phoenix doesn't make it easy to keep the secret.

Phoenix was created by Martin Wixted (1962 - 1994), who contributed to various projects for West End Games, including The Price of Freedom – another game about a Soviet invasion of the United States, also published in 1986.  The table of contents page of the Adventure Guide makes reference to “The Epic Game Series” and credits Wixted, along with Scot Fritz, for the design of the “Epic Rule System.”  Wayne Shaw and Curtis M. Scott are listed as providing 'Developmental Assistance.'  (Curtis Scott, like Wixted, died at the young age of 32.)  The idea of Phoenix'  rules as a 'system' is fascinating; an idea we shall explore in future installments of Thoul's Paradise.

Most of the art for Phoenix, including the cover shown above, was provided by David Dietrick.  His efforts were uneven in Phoenix, spanning a spectrum from poorly executed to charming.  Patrick Zircher supplied the art for two pages of vehicle counters.

[This paragraph contains spoilers.]  In Phoenix, players create characters who are part of the United States Space Command in 1997.  For their first mission, they travel to the space station America (via the 'military' Space Shuttle Phoenix) in order to liberate it from Libyan terrorists.  (The aptly named station is a metaphor that Wixted employs to foreshadow circumstances that the player characters are fated to experience.)  Before they can confront the terrorists, “the characters are thrown through time and space.”*  Of course, the PCs are not supposed to immediately realize they have travelled to the year 2197.  In the intervening two centuries, a 'cataclysm' occurs.  “The exact nature of it is uncertain,” Wixted states on page 7 of the Adventure Guide, but it provided the opportunity for the Soviets to invade.  Thus, although the back of the box says “over two hundred years ago,” as of 2197 it would be less than two hundred years since the occupation began.  Given the current state of affairs, the PCs are expected to “vow to continue [the] fight for freedom.”  As such, the Phoenix symbolizes a renewed America rising from the ashes of Soviet domination.  Had Wixted gone with communist China as the invader, Year of the Phoenix could have taken on another level of meaning.

The last page of the Adventure Guide describes supplementary products for Phoenix which were never published.  Liberty the Fugitive!  would have continued the 'storyline' of the introductory adventures provided in the Adventure Guide.  Surf's Up!  would have been a distinct adventure module.  Also planned was the Year of the Phoenix Sourcebook.  Evidently, official Year of the Phoenix metal figurines were to be produced by Frontier Miniatures.

Wixted put a great deal of effort into Phoenix and it would seem to be a labor of love.  Sadly, the focus was too narrow to be commercially viable and the topic ceased to be timely a mere handful of years after publication.  Year of the Phoenix remains available for purchase from FGU.  An electronic version may be obtained at RPGNow.


*  On page 46 of the Adventure Guide, Wixted states that “if there are enough requests, FGU may publish a Campaign Pack for adventuring with the Pegasus in the year 1997.”  (The Pegasus is the sister ship of the Phoenix.)

Edited on 11/04/12 to clarify that Curtis Scott passed away.

Obligation in Edge of the Empire

To explore Fantasy Flight's Star Wars Edge of the Empire-Beta roleplaying game (hereinafter EotE-B), let us go through the process of creating a character.  In EotE-B, character creation is decidedly not old school in that it is (mostly) not random.  In other words, one must imagine a character concept first and foremost.  For purposes of our exercise, let us draw inspiration from that beloved Star Wars character Saun Dann.  If any fanboyz experience butthurt over my interpretation of good ol’ Saun, let me know.  Likewise, if anyone who fancies himself an EotE-B rules expert takes issue with my understanding of the rules, leave a comment.

Once concept is considered, each player character has an Obligation, a circumstance that may affect the character in a less than positive way.  Owing money to a Hutt could be considered an Obligation.  Each Obligation has a description and a numeric value.

A table provides a list of Obligation types.  Examples include obsession, bounty, and addiction.  In a concession to 'old school,' a player may make a percentile roll to determine Obligation.  With the Game Master's permission, a player may choose one of the listed Obligations or “make up his own.”  For Saun Dann, let's say he is 'dutybound' to help the Rebellion.  Not only could such a duty be inconvenient, he risks the ire of the Empire because of his association.

The 'value' of an Obligation is based on the number of player characters in the party.  For a party of two PCs, a value of 25 points* each is suggested; for a party of five (which is what we assume for our example), a value of 10 points is recommended.  Regardless of the size of the party, the starting values are designed so that the party's combined value will be between sixty and seventy points (or thereabouts).

A player character can take on additional Obligation – either five or ten points worth – and receive a benefit in terms of experience points or additional starting money.  Given that Saun Dann is a trader by profession, he needs a certain amount of 'stock' with which to trade.  We have Saun Dann assume ten more points of Obligation in order to have an additional 2,500 credits in starting funds.

Once Obligation has been determined for each character in a party, the GM creates an Obligation Check Chart.  Here is the chart for our hypothetical five-character party:

                              Obligation            Character

                              1 - 20                     Saun Dann

                              21 - 30                   Morgan Sunskimmer

                              31 - 40                   Camie

                              41 - 50                   THX-1138

                              51 - 60                   Jaxxon

Each character has ten points of Obligation except for Saun Dann, who has twenty.  In creating a party's Obligation Check Chart, the largest Obligation should be listed first with the remaining Obligations listed in order of descending size.  This is pursuant to the EotE-B update issued on September 4, 2012.  Order among characters with an equal amount of Obligation is supposedly unimportant, but see below.

At the start of any given session, the GM makes a percentile roll and compares it against the Obligation Check Chart.  If the result of the roll exceeds the total Obligation, then the party's Obligations do not affect them during that session.  If the result is equal to or less than the total Obligation, then “something related to their Obligation may introduce complications during the upcoming session.”  In terms of concrete effects, each character's 'Strain Threshold' is reduced for the session.  (Strain Threshold is a 'derived attribute' measuring the amount of “psychological and mental damage” a character is capable of enduring.)  Specifically, the character represented by the Obligation range containing the result of the percentile roll loses two strain while all other characters in the party lose one.  For instance, on a roll of 26, Morgan Sunskimmer would have two less strain than usual and everyone else would have one less.  When rolling doubles, the strain loss is doubled.  For example, with a roll of 33, Camie would be down by four strain and the other characters would be down by two each.

In a party of six or more player characters, the recommended starting Obligation is five points.  In such a situation, there would be characters who could not be the direct subject of a roll of doubles.  Even in our example, Saun Dann, who has twice the Obligation of any other character, has the same chance of being directly afflicted by a roll of doubles.  However, if Morgan Sunskimmer had the same amount of Obligation (i.e., twenty points), she would have twice Saun Dann's chance of being 'hit by doubles.' This offends my sense of fairness.

I would recommend that the double effect be applied when the percentile roll result equals the highest number of any character's 'Obligation range' on the chart.  So, with our example, the double effect would occur on a result of 20, 30, 40, 50, or 60.  In terms of the double effect, each character would have the same risk as any other character, regardless of relative Obligation.


* As of the September 25 update, 20 points each is the suggested value for two player characters.