Setting
Liminal is an urban fantasy RPG whose primary influences are very obviously Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. Look a little deeper and you'll see hints of The Dresden Files, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Alex Verus, and a bunch of other urban fantasy works from both page and screen. Chapter 1 has a list of inspirations, including quite a few I haven't read or seen. As well as urban fantasy, there's also a section on non-fiction and folklore.
All of this adds up to an author who loves urban fantasy even more than I do, and has really done the research.
The player characters are the liminals of the title. The internet tells me that liminal means 'occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.' An accurate description for characters who exist at the point where the hidden world of fairies, magicians and monsters meets the mundane world we all know. The types of characters you can play will be familiar to anyone who's played the Dresden Files RPG - clued up mortals are joined by changelings, werewolves, wizards and dhampirs. Where I think it scores slightly over that book is that it gives multiple suggestions for human characters and how they might fit into the hidden world. Humans really feel like a viable character concept here, on equal grounds with the weirder stuff.
The setting is what I'd call 'generic urban fantasy' except in one key respect: it's heavily rooted in the UK, in a way you won't find in The Dresden Files. With both key influences being set in London it's no surprise that there's a lot going on there, but the game doesn't neglect the rest of the country. Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast don't normally get much of a look-in in either RPGs or urban fantasy, but here they are alongside the more obvious choices of London and Oxford. And it's not only cities. The UK is full of weird little places - Portmerion and Puzzlewood are just a couple of examples from the book.
What all this adds up to as I'm reading is a world that feels lived in. The hidden world sitting side by side with the mundane. This isn't Buffy, where pretty much everything takes place in one small town. While London is big enough that you could run a full campaign there, the design here immediately makes me want to send characters travelling around the country, because there is nothing generic about the locations here.
What is rather more generic is the design of the vampires, in that you can pretty much design your own, assigning them whatever abilities and limitations you see fit. There's a few standard models you can use, but there's nothing to stop you going full Dracula, or just making up your own. Having run a pre-written adventure featuring vampires, I felt I could have used a little more guidance on how they were supposed to work, but for your own campaign there's nothing wrong with a bit of flexibility.
In summary:
While the urban fantasy elements are nothing you couldn't find in another game, and could sometimes benefit from being a little more specific, the way the whole thing is rooted in the UK is what makes this setting distinctive and compelling. And with upcoming supplements based around fleshing out different parts of the country, this seems likely to only get better.System
The entire rules section of the game takes thirteen pages. At its heart is an uncomplicated mechanic. 2d6+skill versus a target number, normally 8. Two dice, for me, is the right balance between overly swingy and overly normalised. A skilled character will succeed most of the time; a character using their particular speciality is unlikely to fail. Beat the target by 5 and you get a critical success, and the book gives examples of interesting bonuses beyond just 'you do it really well'. The same applies to failure, which doesn't necessarily always mean not succeeding in the task if something else would be more interesting.
Players always want to assist each other with rolls, and there's a simple mechanic for both individual assistance and group tasks.
Combat is all reassuringly familiar. Initiative rolls, attack rolls and damage rolls are all present and uncomplicated. Beyond that, pretty much anything is handled by +2 or -2 modifiers. Various examples are given, but ultimately it's the GM's call.
And finally, the push mechanic, which is a feature I'm seeing more and more in games recently. You can spend will points to add successes to a roll, and best of all, there's none of that nonsense about having to apply them before you make the roll.
Character creation is a simple point buy, with separate pools for skills and traits. An initial skill cap (plus diminishing returns from a 2-dice system) ensures players start with a reasonable range of skills. Three pages cover the basics, with the rest of the character creation chapter giving details of the skills and traits, plus the set of character concepts mentioned above - anyone unsure about creating a character can use these concepts as templates, but full customisation is equally viable. The only reason I'm not already coming up with character concepts is because I know I'm going to end up in the GM's chair for this one.
In summary:
A system that's familiar enough to pick up quickly and as complicated as it needs to be, while using the dice you already have.Style and Substance
Being in possession of some bloody heavy RPG books (I'm looking at you, Pathfinder 2e) I very much appreciate a book that doesn't require additional luggage to transport around. The print version of Liminal is a 285 page hardback in trade size rather than the 'this is literally bigger than my laptop' size of most RPGs, so will fit very nicely on the shelf next to Blades in the Dark. At this size, reading it cover to cover is entirely realistic.
It feels well-manufactured, with a lovely matt finish on the cover and a ribbon bookmark. The internal art is gorgeous, with full colour plates starting every chapter, and a mix of colour art, black and white pencil-style work and modified photographs illustrating the text. This is a seriously good looking book.
I ordered the book from Modiphius, who immediately sent me a PDF download. The quickstart guide and character sheet are also available as free downloads. The book itself doesn't include a character sheet, but realistically, none of us are photocopying our gamebooks any more and the separate download is a sensible choice. The PDF version is fully bookmarked and has linked page references, and the trade format means it's a good size for online reading. I often like to have multiple pages open simultaneously so a PDF that's as easy to use as the book is a win for me.
The quickstart does exactly what it says, with enough information about the setting to get you started, and an adventure with pre-gen characters. I've run this adventure twice now, and it's both entertaining and a good introduction to the rules. There are two more adventures in the main book, plus several more in PDF form for very low prices. On top of that, the book has a chapter on how to be a GM, including guidance on how to construct an adventure. When it comes to running this game, the bar to entry is pretty low.
No comments:
Post a Comment