Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Helvéczia First Impressions, pt. 2

Previously posted at the RPGPUB, collecting here to begin campaign notes.

I'm really enjoying reading this. Finished up the Players' Rules yesterday. Starts off with an introduction to role playing picaresque adventures and recommended reading - I've had to add a lot to my reading queue. Then moves into character creation.

Helvéczia characters belong to either Fighter, Vagabond, Cleric, or Student classes. Classes suggest strengths more than restrictions. There are no weapon and armor restrictions, and the Vagabond, Cleric, and Student all have the same fighting skills, only the Fighter particularly excels (and the fighter can further specialize in a half dozen areas, such as Duellist and Hussar). There are skills that can only be learned by specific classes, but anyone can try any skill, they just don't get any level bonus.

There are no demihumans in Helvéczia, everyone is human, but you do choose culture - Germans, French, Hungarians, and so on. Each group has some bonuses. I realize this can be touchy and has been badly done in some games, but I like Helvéczia's handling of it. Rather than boring attribute modifiers, the bonuses include things like German's knowing a family trade that gives them a bonus to a particular Craft skill, Italians regaining extra Virtue due to their closeness to the church, Swedes having a bonus to Bravery but an ill reputation outside Sweden.

Similarly, equipment has no real restriction for class/culture, but the equipment list provides a recommendation of "Standard arms in Helvéczia", from commoners to Hussars to Musketeers. No reason players have to follow these suggestions, but it does a nice job of describing the setting.

The power curve in Helvéczia I think sets it considerably apart from most D&D-likes. The complete level range is 1 through 6, where commoners are 1, player characters start at level 2, and no man or monster exceeds 6. This is a wonderfully tight level spread, even by OSR standards, that allows character development without ever turning into HP and modifier bloat. Glancing ahead to the Monsters, there's no reason a starting party couldn't take on a devil or dragon, it'd just be a horribly risky affair likely to cost some lives in the process.

Combat in Helvéczia should be familiar to anyone who plays any D&D-like. Surprise, Initiative, move and actions, retreat and surrender. It's all very quick, much closer to B/X than 3e, and it offloads a lot of complexity to its Combat Check system, which is just an opposed check that handles all combat manouvres. Disarms, swinging from chandeliers, wrestling, whatever the players come up with should be encouraged in the flair of swashbuckling adventure and quickly resolved with an opposed Combat Check.

Two aspects of Helvéczia set it most apart from D&D. The first is its morality system, Virtue. Characters all have a Virtue score from 1-21, and sins are recorded throughout play. There are means of regaining virtue through mass and confession and particularly virtuous conduct. There are benefits and costs to both high (15-21) and low (1-7) virtue. High virtue gives saving throw bonuses but precludes Student spells, while low virtue gives attack and gambling bonuses but does not allow Cleric spells.

This morality though is more than just a score, it's deeply embedded in the setting and system. The setting of Helvéczia is a fantasy Switzerland sometime after the Thirty Years War. Most of its cantons are Roman Catholic, but the Calvanist "heresies" have their outposts. Jews are also present and have a slight twist on the morality mechanics. But regardless of faith, it's kind of assumed that everyone is of some faith, and it'd be kind of ridiculous not to be, because whether the Catholics or Calvanists or Jews have it right, the Devil is unquestionably present in this game. His minions are in the bestiary and the Devil himself may make an appearance at any roadside inn or den of iniquity where morals are too lose and judgment fading.

There are two major mechanics of the game for using heaven and hell to affect adventures, beyond basic adversaries. Characters can, on occasion, open their Bibles to a random verse and read, and if the verse is applicable to their current predicament, receive divine aid. More reliably but costly, characters may gamble with the Devil for aid, drawing cards from "The Devil's Bible" for good fortune in the moment, but this results in an encounter at the Crossroads with the Devil, where debts must be paid.

I have always disliked Luck or Fate mechanics and pretty well excise them from any games I play, but the way these are handled as completely in character decisions, with consequences which reinforce the setting, makes me actually excited to incorporate them. Plus, there's a certain audacity about writing an RPG that requires a deck of cards (provided) and a Bible at the table.

Magic is the other system that I think will take some getting used to. It's Vancian, I guess, and many of the spells will look familiar (although most get awesome new names like Splendid Ludmilla's Fetching Spell or Borbala No-Name's Requiescent Afternoon). The main differences is in availability and how spells work as a resource. Spells are either tied to a specific location (for Divine magic) or components (for Occult magic), so that preparation takes foresight and planning. Spells are also generally replenished on a weekly basis rather than nightly. Clerics and Students get bonus spells for high Wisdom or Intelligence modifiers, but anyone can potentially learn Divine/Occult spells if have Wisdom/Intelligence scores high enough for bonuses. Many of the spells have other requirements and potential complications. It kind of reminds me of the ritual magic of Beyond the Wall. The general impression I get through reading is that magic is very flexible but requires planning and preparation. It's easy to see how a lot of adventure complications can arise from trying to acquire the magic necessary to achieve some goal.

The last section of the Players' Guide is a tour of the cantons of Helvéczia, with a little commentary about recent history and important figures. This is all presented almost conversationally, not as a set of lists and bullet points and graphs. With map in hand, following along with the author as he describes the smoke-darkened walls and gothic arches of Ammertal, the foreboding and haunted country around the Schwygdalp, the robber bands of the Zwillings sheltering in the ruins of a forgotten kingdom, and the stone heaps of ruined Gubelwaldtal, each locale suggests an allure of adventure and danger. The supplementary book on Ammertal and the Oberammsbund looks to give much more detailed descriptions, with hex locations and a handful of adventures, but this initial setting introduction is enough to get the imagination running.

So concludes the Players' Rules, at 104 of 200 pages. The Gamemaster's Almanac covers mechanics, advice on gamemastering and creating adventures, capturing the style of the picaresque adventure, an introductory adventure, monster and treasure listings, and random useful tables. I'll dig into these over the weekend.

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