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| It almost matches my coffee table! |
It's not really a secret that I enjoy the Dungeons and/or Dragons from time to time, along with other games in that genre. I've been a fan of this style of gaming for...well, probably around 3 decades at this point. As such, I was immersed in this subculture during the Great Gaming Shift of the early 90s, which saw a minor revolt against the stodgy tables and charts of old school RPGs and led to some new, more story based games. The bannerfolk leading this charge were the people of White Wolf, with their legendary game Vampire: The Masquerade. It seems sort of trite now, but the focus on storytelling and getting into your character's head being not only allowed, but actively encouraged in the rulebook was a breath of fresh air that did in fact revolutionize an industry. Coupled with the darker, more mature themes it was a huge success and spawned sister games such as Mage: The Ascension and Wraith: The Oblivion, as well as numerous imitators and rip offs. It was kind of a big deal is what I'm saying. From this torrent was also released one of the first mass market rules sets for a new fangled type of role playing: Live Action Role Playing. Mind's Eye Theater was born, and with it its own host of imitators and rip offs. Our journey today takes us deep into the heart of someone's idea of "I can do better". Let's open the book on Shades of Nightfall.
I've been LARPing for two decades (man that is depressing to think about) though the vast majority of my experiences were outside of the type of game we have today. Shades of Nightfall is solidly in the realm of the Salon style LARP, played in night clubs, warehouses, and even people's homes. If you are interested in more detail about LARPs in general, and the different types, I'm not going to get in depth on those topics, so you might seek out more information. Heck, you might even find a game near you! Still, let's do a bit of setup. The Mind's Eye Theater rules are a streamlined version of the White Wolf Table top system. You have Attributes like Strength and Wits rated in "dots" that are ranked from 1 to 5 dots, and Skills like Driving or Medicine rated in the same manor. To overcome challenges that require use of on character sheet stats (as opposed to ones you can just "do"...it is Live Action Role Playing after all), you entered into a series of "rock-paper-scissors" challenges against your opponent (or a referee if it was against 'the world') where more "dots" overall gave you a greater chance of success via "more tries". However, it is absolutely possible for someone who has super amounts of "dots" to fail miserably because they always throw "rock". Some people don't like that. And then they go and write their own system. With Blackjack! And Hookers! You know what, forget the blackjack. So...Shades of Nightfall.
From a production standpoint, this book is pretty good. The glossy cover, while not fantastic, is definitely on the higher end of mid 90s small print run work. The pages are clear, with some typical "90s edgy" line art. You know, the kind where the boobs are only "just" covered by vines or a moon or whatever, but there's tasteful blood and such too. For a presumably small print run, Shades of Nightfall is slick. Published in 1995, a full 2 years after Mind's Eye Theater, you can definitely tell that it is "in the style of, but oh so unique from" the World of Darkness as presented in that line of books. This will probably been the last nice thing I say about this book. Hold onto your butts folks, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.
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| That's some high quality 90s rulebook boobage right there. |
So, powers are grouped up based on a 5 x 5 grid that consists of five different...areas of influence I guess? Maybe just "relatively logical groupings"? Jeez. The list is: Imperceptual (sic), Beast, Mind & Heart, Storm, and Shadow. Whatever. Each square on the grid represents a combination of these areas like Storm and Shadow, or Mind & Heart and Imperceptual, resulting in 20 combinations and 5 "pure" areas where each one matches up with itself. Within each block, there are 5 levels of power (Circle, Triangle, Diamond, Heart, Star), and three sub ranks within each power: Blue, Red, and Black. Honestly, the Blue and Red are just white and grey in this black and white printed book. Only 49 more shades to get some crap eroticism to add to your crap world building! Did I mention the world building? No? Because THERE ISN'T ANY, or rather what is there is generic and boring, with only a few scraps of interesting stuff amongst the Gothic Dark Darkness. But I'm getting off track. Each power must be purchased in sequence, with all sub ranks of a particular level purchased before opening up the higher levels. Powers gain boosts called, amazingly enough, "gains" based on the number of higher level powers of that sub rank you have. So, if you have the Blue Circle power of, say, Mind & Heart and Shadow, you can invoke Sudden Fear, which means your target cannot act against you (or someone you designate) for the duration, but if you also have the Blue Triangle power in this line, you gain a longer duration and another use per day. Other powers merely widen the types of targets you can affect based on the number of "gains" you have. All told, there are 375 individual powers. No, that isn't a typo, there are 375 distinct powers, ranging from "grow claws" to "put someone in a vortex of emotion permanently, so that they will always and forever hate or love a thing you choose". Yeah, I'm gonna need more booze.
These powers, presumably, are meant to emulate various "traditional" powers of the vampire from lore and myth (and other, better games) but man there are SO MANY that are so WEIRD. One power lets you summon shadow creatures that act as your minions, and have a DPP total of like, 1/4th of yours. Did I mention this is FUCKING LARP? And a Salon Style one at that! I want to know what vampire myths have the Lord of Darkness over there summoning Shadow Mooks based on his or her own power level! I'm sure there are some, but I don't think it works out too well at a damn Larp! This whole section (most of the book, really) smacks of someone having a great idea of how to organize stuff and then really stretching to fill out a power list. This could have been heavily chopped down without really impacting play I feel. It has a lot of options, which I guess is nice but I personally found it ridiculous and overwhelming. You get 30 DPP to start. That's enough for 2-3 powers at most. And you have access to 25 to 75 distinct powers to pick from, many of which lead to interdependencies that make little sense. Why does having ranks in Beast & Nature let you be immune to a Mind Control power? Dunno, balance? There are a lot of this kind of thing too, where having a specific power from one path makes you flat out immune to a specific power in another path. It's confusing and kind of boring to pick through.
There is a bit of world building, but most of it is meh. Typical "supernatural society actually rules the world" stuff that's Totally Original, but also barely touched on. Vampire society is given a bit more space. So, each Vampire generates around themselves a "Zone of Supernatural" called the Knowing. This is pretty tiny at first, but as they get more powerful, and/or join up with other vampires, this area increases. A pack of vampires (called a Coven here for some damn reason or another) gains some benefits from hunting on its home turf. These packs jostle for position and influence. Really old and powerful vampires tend to have sway over these groups, but they really don't like each other, seeing their peers as rivals. Is any of this new and interesting yet? Other then that, there isn't much social structure. Vampires don't have an overarching set of Rules or anything like that, with power being literally "who controls the most territory and has the most power". It's pretty thin really. Not a lot of meat on dem bones.
The actual rules are very, very simple: If you can do it, do it, or if in a combat scene, if you declare it, and no one can oppose you (usually via Power use), you can do it. Participants are ranked according to a calculated Reaction Speed stat, but that's it. If I say I can hit Bob, and Bob doesn't have a dodge or countering power, Bob gets hit. Actions are declared in reverse Reaction Speed order, with slower participants declaring first and faster ones declaring after. Resolution is in Reaction Speed order, of course, and any actions that become invalid due to previous actions are just nullified and not done. If a participant can take multiple actions, these are done after the first set, declared and resolved as above. For example, let's take Alice and Bob and Chris. Alice has a Reaction Speed of 1, Bob has 3, and Cindy has 4. Bob can take two actions. A round goes like this. Alice declares, Bob declares, Cindy declares. Cindy acts, Bob acts, Alice acts. Bob declares. Bob acts. Next round. Powers can heavily modify Reaction Speed, number of actions, and being able to move out of the way of something or shield it, or "act before someone, even if Reaction Speed says otherwise". It's not a terrible system, but slower folk are almost always going to end up "not doing the thing" because people who go before them will nullify so much. It will also rely heavily on Referee fiat to resolve nebulous things. I haven't seen it used, but the system leaves me feeling somewhat concerned about balance. I don't like it is what I'm saying here. Damage comes in 3 Flavors: Normal, Execrated (supernatural), and Consecrated (Supernatural, but also antithetical to vampires specifically). Normal and Execrated are listed as flat numbers, Consecrated tends to be in "Percentage of DDP". Powers let you deal or absorb or heal Damage from various sources, and combat seems like it's pretty lethal, even for fairly high DPP vampires. Indirectly, this would enforce a paradigm of "talk before fight". I don't think it was intentional, but uh, that's probably good for a salon LARP.
The absolute worst thing about this is the attitude that exudes from the pages. From the back cover to the last page, the author (Patrick Ellison) seems to think he is causing a revolution in gaming, rather than a failed attempt at an evolution. From the back cover: "An alternative live-acton vampire system designed specifically for live action roleplaying. This is not a clumsy adaptation of a table top game. In opposition to the gross commercialization (wait, SERIOUSLY? Dude, what are you smoking, because I want some) of roleplaying games, Shades of Nightfall is complete in this book; there are no other supplements needed to become a vampire in the world of Dark Reality" It's amazing how much purple shines through that prose given it's red text on black. Someone thought they were really Sticking It To The Man with this one, eh? Which is hilarious given that the whole schtick (ha!) of White Wolf was that THEY were sticking to the Man (of TSR and Games Workshop and such). The whole book is full of these little jabs and it's really freakin' annoying. In the words of the late Han Solo "Great kid, don't get cocky."
On the FACE Rating System, this gets 3 Frowny Faces. It's bad enough that your reaction to a somewhat clunky tabletop adaptation was basically "Marshal Fiat, but with lists of powers", but forcing me to read THREE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE power descriptions in a book saturated with smugness really chaps my ass. I actually DO recommend people read it, but I DON'T recommend anyone go out of their way to buy it. Truly a monument to one man's hubris this is, but even so I grudgingly give some credit: Mr. Ellison had a vision and pushed it out into the world, which is more than I've done, and he did it in a time when small print runs you could get online were even a thing. Other then that, Mr. Ellison, you are bad and you should feel bad. Get down off your high horse and maybe think before you write next time. Oh. Oh no. Another book in this series was published apparently. Shades of Divinity, covering Fallen Angels. I AM NOT PREPARED!
