Dark Fate Review

At World vs. Hero

source: http://www.worldvshero.com/2010/06/spotlight-world-dark-fate.html

Spotlight World: Dark Fate

I love RPG campaign settings, but I'm certainly not versed in every game system. So, part of my motivation for designing World vs. Hero was to produce a single engine that would allow me to experience any campaign setting regardless of that setting's original rules!

So far, it's been great fun moving from world to world so easily, using the richness and variety of each place and its inhabitants without the toil of learning new systems every time. To encourage others to do the same, I'll share on this site some of the worlds that I think make for great gaming, especially with World vs. Hero. First up is Marcelo Paschoalin's Dark Fate.

Intended to be used with Mythmere's retro-styled Swords & Wizardry system, Dark Fate appears on the surface to be a by-the-numbers medieval fantasy setting. However, once players read into it more carefully, they'll learn quickly that much more lies beneath the surface. With subtle and surprising variations on the classic tropes of fantasy literature, Dark Fate is the kind of world for which the bumper sticker "Come for the combat... stay for the existential crisis," would be terribly appropriate (if anyone had a bumper to put it on).

Though a complete time line of the history of the Dark Fate world is given, for the deepest tension, heroes will want to adventure on the continent about 100 years after everyone in the city of Amtal died in one night. Since that mysterious event, the dead have raised a new city, a Necropolis with undead inhabitants who, it should be plain to see, are very, very bad to have around. Yet, the five nations of the continent have barely reacted to the undead threat. So preoccupied are they with their petty struggles and long-held grudges, they seem oblivious to the painfully obvious.

Worse still, the deities of the world have taken the Celestial Oath, a bond forbidding interference with the mortal world unless all act as one, a fairly rare event since each god and goddess holds sway over its own sphere of influence. Only Gwyanna, Goddess of Death and Life, seemed to have been able to convince her fellow beings to join her in meddling with the mortal world. How? All it took was a bit of twisted logic. You see, it was Gwyanna who devised the plan to kill everyone in Amtal and to raise them as the living dead.

Gwyanna's argument was, to her, simple. For too long, the pantheon had championed the cause of Life. Death, too, needed a place in the Divine Plan. The Necropolis made that possible.

The others acquiesced.

So, in a world where gods are damning souls in a compromise to a specious argument, where a well-intentioned theocracy remains isolationistic while evil grows, where a military nation attacks everyone around them except the greatest threat of all, and where magic has been awkwardly reinvented as a science after the death of a goddess, is it any wonder that heroes are needed very badly?

This is the stuff of great drama! For a hero to truly rise up in Pontad or Dunir or Novarion, he or she will most likely have to first come into conflict with the very nation that has raised that hero. For example, if a cleric of Amaron strives to become a Warrior of Faith, is such a title worth any value if that cleric buys into the isolationism of the nation? And what would it take for a Legionnaire of Pontad to stand up to his superiors and declare the country's aggressions misguided? Such a crisis of identity makes for brilliant storytelling, and whenever a campaign setting can offer that kind of opportunity, it is certainly worth a visit!

Of course, Dark Fate could be played straight--kill monsters, take treasure, and go home--but that would be a waste of Paschoalin's wonderful attention to detail. The nations, their history, their people, and their cultures are intricately described, giving players so much from which to draw that creating anything less than powerful character studies would be a terrible disservice. Dark Fate is not simply a challenge of men versus monsters; it a world where the hero's conflict is as much with his or her own society as it is with the forces of evil.

Irony abounds in this world, and, for a storytelling game like World vs. Hero, that's a bonus! Take the Crimson Order, for example. This brotherhood of sorcerers had the potential to become a great force of magic after re-learning the mystical arts virtually through force of will. However, after a necromancer's attack, the Order pathetically fragmented, and small, individual covenants now roam the land, unable to get past their own rivalry of one another to unite and further the power of good over evil. Could a hero rise out of this group of shortsighted spellcasters? It's worth a shot!

And in Dunir, the honor-loving, illiterate citizenry obsess over who will marry their unattached Queen. Meanwhile, a rival nation commandeers their land and the undead devour the hamlets on their outskirts. Who will wake them up before it's too late?

In the end, Dark Fate's title isn't simply a composite of two ominous words that sound cool together; it is a symbolic reference to the inevitable oblivion of nations that become too self-absorbed for their own good. That's what makes this world so different.

Heroes need to be real heroes--mavericks, even--in a place like Dark Fate's continent. For here, the battle truly begins at home.

For more on Dark Fate, check out the official site!

At The Underdark Gazette

source: http://underdarkgazette.blogspot.com/2009/12/reviews-dark-fate-swords-wizardry.html

Dark Fate - Written, edited and illustrated by Marcelo Frossard Paschoalin.
Cartography by Robert Antonishen. Forward by James Maliszewski.

Originally released in Brazil, Marcelo Paschoalin has translated his work, Dark Fate, into English and presents it for our gaming pleasure. A low-magic fantasy campaign setting, with elements of horror, Dark Fate utilizes Swords & Wizardry as the basis for its rules. The author’s store can be accessed here. The PDF runs $10.99. A print copy costs $21.90 for the Softcover and $32.90 for the Hardcover. Adobe tells me that the PDF runs 156 pages. The book features full color art on the front and back covers, and black & white interior illustrations. The Dark Fate website features an extensive gallery of art from the book, and free downloads of the world map as it appears in the publication and two alternate versions of the map, one of them a hexmap.

A Title Page, Table of Contents, and a copy of the OGL leads us to the Prolegomenon for Dark Fate, which consists of a welcoming Forward by James Maliszewski and an engaging Designer’s Notes piece, by the author. A handsome, black & white World Map, follows, which, as mentioned above, can be downloaded at the Dark Fate website. From there, the book moves into its eight chapters.

Chapter One: Dark Fate, consists of a quick introduction to the land and recent events. We learn that Berilla, the Goddess of Magic has died and many of the magical creatures of the world followed her in death. A new type of magic has recently been found, replacing the art which was lost with the death of Berilla. The former Elven city of Amtal has become ground zero of a Plague of Undead, brought about by Gwyanna, Goddess of Death and Life. As if this wasn’t enough to keep people busy, strife between the various countries has been heating up and the folks living in the world of Dark Fate are cursed to live in interesting times, indeed. The author refers to the act of Gwyanna as “the last godly intervention on the lands of the mortals,” which, together with the fallout from Berilla’s death, sets the stage for the low-magic setting presented by Dark Fate.

Chapter Two: A Hero is Born, provides the character creation rules. Fighting-Man, Cleric, and Magic-User are the class options, and Human is the only race option, given at this time. Rules for playing Elves are given later in the book, but, playing a human is by and large expected here. There are no Dwarves or Halflings. The rules largely follow those given in the Swords & Wizardry Core Rules, with a few exceptions. The Max Spell Level entry on the Intelligence Table is more stringent, as Magic-Users in Dark Fate have to work a little bit harder, due to the workings of the new form of magic. Clerics have it tougher; it’s a lot harder to Turn Undead, though, the Cleric does receive bonuses to turn attempts, if his target has taken damage. The Turning Chart has several entries unique to Dark Fate, and omits several of the S&W entries. These missing undead are also absent from Dark Fate’s Bestiary. Clerics can serve either the Pantheon as a whole, or choose one particular patron. The eight gods of the Pantheon, including Berilla, are listed, along with their portfolio’s. There are no alignments given for the deities, a noteworthy point, as we shall see. Cleric’s have a list of spells available and list of weapons permitted, based upon their choice of patron. Cleric’s serving the Pantheon have  these lists, as well. Other than this, there are a few Orders in the game world, which the character may join, gaining a benefit, thereby. The equipment list follows, with Dark Fate featuring a greater variety of arms & armor than the S&W Core Rules. The differences between the two books, in regards to other types of equipment, are very minor.

Chapter Three: The Dark Fate of the Land, opens with some introductory material, which leads into a Creation Myth that is reminiscent of Neo-Platonism, various Qabalistic doctrines and other bits of Western Esoteric Lore. Other, related legendary material, follows. I enjoyed this section, which is saying something, as I’m usually rather critical of fantasy mythological underpinnings. I thought the author did a fine job with his mythology and the whole story ties in nicely with the rest of the work. Of particular interest, is that the pantheon works together. There is no divine war, or inherent good vs. evil duality. The peoples of the Land are actually Pantheistic, something not usually seen in RPG worlds. Next, more concrete history follows, featuring great heroes and happenings.

Chapter Four: Gazetteer.  A large portion, some 55 pages, of the book is given over to the Gazetteer.  First, the six major political/cultural groupings are described; Amaron, Pontad, Dunir, Siarit, Novarion, and Zenev, the last land being inhabited by the Orcs. Each of these have sections on geography, borders, cities and towns, its society, culture, trade, and current events. This is followed by material on some other places, including the Necropolis of Amtal. Then, information on currency, general religious matters, more information on the gods, as well as a few other matters, follow. Lastly, some of the organizations of the campaign world are described.

The Gazetteer section is very information rich and the author has put a lot of thought and time, into creating his world with a great degree of depth and verisimilitude. A lot of material on the movers and shakers are given and political maneuvering, machinations and intrigue are supplied in abundance. From the motivations of the governing classes, to the superstitions of the common folk, the nations and their people are well detailed and described. Current events at a national, as well as local level, are provided, with plenty of details for the DM to utilize. The author does include some rather stringent rules for playing Elven PC’s in this section. Adhering to them would pretty much guarantee that they remain rare, which, fits this Human-centric setting, as the vast majority of the Elves have left the human lands.

Chapter Five: Adventures. Most of this section consists of a series of random tables, intended to generate an adventure. The generator isn’t well suited to sandbox play, and the ideas will be familiar to all but beginning DM’s. You might find some use for the tables, if they’re taken lightly.  Overall, this short section is the weakest in the book.

Chapter Six: Dramatis Personae, is a chapter of NPC’s consisting of the Movers & Shakers of the campaign, from relatively low placed functionaries up to commanders and rulers of nations, as well as some other important persons. About a third, or so, of a page is devoted to each NPC, describing the characters and offering ideas on how to use them. Stats, level, class, spells, etc., are given. The author doesn’t relate how the ability scores for the NPC’s were derived, but, they are about the range one would expect from the 4d6 method. Also, in this chapter, the author introduces his NPC Class, which, is very low-powered and avoids the sort of problems found in d20 versions of this idea. All in all, it’s a rules-light design and one which many DM’s would probably find useful. There’s only one uber-powerful NPC in this section and other than this fellow, the highest level character is 12th, with the majority being of a much lower level. Several are non-adventurer’s, utilizing the author’s NPC class.

Chapter Seven: Bestiary. The bestiary is rather short, amounting to eleven pages. Some of the monsters are from the S&W Core Rules and these are sometimes altered, with the accompanying text re-written, in many cases. The author has also included his own creations and as one might expect, several of these are undead. The new monsters are fine, though, most of the new undead have very little in the way of physical descriptions, leaving it up to the DM to decide how they should be presented. I’m unsure as to why some of the undead from the Core Rules were left out. Orcs are the only humanoids present and they are quite a bit tougher than your standard pig-face.

Chapter Eight: Treasure. This chapter features some legendary items, unique to the campaign world, as well as some minor magic and the sort of odds & ends one might expect.

The Index and a Character Sheet, finish out the book and brings this outline to an end. The Character Sheet, is also available for free download at the Dark Fate website.

Dark Fate definitely has a distinctive feel, and the author’s loving attention to detail has given us a well realized campaign setting, one which can be used in different ways. As presented, the campaign has a strong, though certainly not exclusive, leaning toward political involvement and out and out warfare, as so much of the work is devoted to describing the events transpiring in the various, Human civilizations. The different nations have their own, distinct character and flavor, instead of being bland, carbon copies of some vaguely medieval type kingdom. After the events leading to the undead plague, the gods have become refreshingly distant and Dark Fate is well prepared, to serve as the setting for a swords & sorcery campaign.

Several items are left up to individual DM’s to flesh out, or, perhaps, are left for further publications. For instance, it’s never really made clear how the goddess of magic met her end. Also, there’s enough information on the Necropolis to get you started, but much of this, also, is left up to the DM.

The author utilizes his own 3-D art, throughout the book. Characters, places and various objects, are represented. The art is good and the characters evince emotion and personality, in most cases.

There are some problems with Dark Fate. As mentioned above, the work is a translation from the original Brazilian, and English is not the author’s native tongue. There are a large number of grammatical errors, throughout the book; some awkward phraseology, as well as some that is unfamiliar. The problems are worse in some sections, than in others, suggestive of editing issues. There is no bar to understanding, but, it was a little jarring, on occasion. Also, some italics would have been useful, particularly in chapters wherein a lot of new, foreign names were introduced.

I would like to have seen some regional maps, to go along with the passages where new areas of the land are introduced.  Some city and location maps, would have been nice as well. Also, an introductory adventure is always welcome in a Campaign Setting book. There are no encounter tables and for the most part, other than undead and orcs, it’s up to the DM to decide how to handle monster distribution.

(A note added after this piece was posted: There is an Encounters Past Midnight table for use in cities on page 98. In the paragraph above, I was thinking of wilderness encounters and should have been clearer.)

As an aside, I couldn’t find a name for the world as a whole. Presumably, there isn’t one.

For DM’s looking for a Low-Magic milieu, which describes its nations, cultures, and current events with richness and depth and features a Necropolis, to boot, Dark Fate is well worth exploring.