Book Reviews for Gamers: Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding

First a shout-out to the Man Battlestations Podcast for recommending this book.  They described this book as The Golden Compass meets Firefly, and that is a fitting description.  Retribution Falls is a book about airship pirates and the swashbuckling adventures that they engage in.

Retribution Falls takes place on an Earth-like planet.  The geography is such that airship is the most convenient form of travel.  There is also some magic throughout the setting.  I would describe it as steampunk, although airships and planes are powered by some type of resource specific to the setting that is vaporized via electromagnets into lighter than air gas.  The steampunk feel comes from the airships and the fact that all other technology is from the eighteen-hundreds.

Go airships!

Retribution Falls is a fun read that follows the crew of the airship Ketty Jey.  The crew is a mix of dastardly characters who engage in pirate hijinks.  There is just the right mix of guns, swords, and magic.  The world the the author builds is intriguing.  There are different factions fighting for power and vertical cities built for the convenience of airships.  Giant airships fire cannons at each other while fighter planes engage in tense dogfights.  I recommend this to any fan of genre fiction.

Gaming the Book

Retribution Falls is a great inspiration for gaming.  The world of the book would make a great rpg campaign world as is, and it has tons of ideas that gms can borrow.  So you have read Retribution Falls and you are inspired to do some airship pirate gaming.  Where do you start.

Card Games

Retribution Falls has rules for a game in the back of the book.  How cool is that!  The game is a poker variant called Rake.  Rake is a variant of stud poker where the final cards of the hand are dealt in the middle of the table, and the players take turns taking them into their hands.  I like poker and this variant looks fun.  Rake is played throughout the book, and if you decide to run a campaign based in this world you should definitely have the characters play a hand of Rake.

Board and Miniature Games

When I was reading Retribution Falls I was thinking of games about air piracy.  The first game that I though of was the old FASA game Crimson Skies.   I had never heard of this game until I went over to a friend's house and he had it set up on his table.  He explained that it took place in an alternate history where the US became balkanized and air piracy was big as people used air shipments to smuggle cargo across the fractured political landscape.

There were no airships in the scenario we played but it was enjoyable.  We each had two fighter aircraft.  The game used pre-plotted movement.  Whenever an airplane was hit you put a clear template over your plane sheet used it to mark off damage that was done to your aircraft.  This was interesting because you could pick different types of ammo that did special damage.  For example, armor piercing rounds would go straight through the body of the aircraft while explosive rounds would take out shallow, broad chunks of the aircraft.  The game is now out of print.  WizKids published a version with airplanes that had heroclix style bases but I never played that edition.  If you want some air piracy and are lucky to find a copy, check out FASA's Crimson Skies.

There are a few miniatures rulesets that deal with airship combat, although I have not played any of them.  One that comes to mind is Dystopian Wars.  The original owners of the game have gone out of business and the IP is being transferred to a new company.  The game is in limbo right now but if you want to have some airship fleets attack each other it is worth checking out.   Note that Dystopian Wars also involves naval units and land units.  Imperial Skies is a game  published by Brigade Models.  They publish the rules and sell miniatures for the game.  It looks like pre-WWI airship combat with ships and fighters.  Ironclads & Ether Flyers is a set of miniatures rules that was written in the Space 1889 universe.  The rules can be purchased in pdf from rpgnow and in print from Amazon.  You will have to find/build your own miniatures for these rules.  Any of these games should allow you to have some nice airship combat on your tabletop.

Role Playing Games

If you want to run a campaign set in the world of Retribution Falls there are a few games that come to mind.  The main thing is that you will want a ruleset that can cover swashbuckling action, magic, and most importantly airships.  The company Cakebread & Walton publishes a game called Abney Park's Airship Pirates.  The game is based on the music of the Steampunk group Abney Park.  I have not played to game but it has airship pirates in the title.  It also has time travel and dinosaurs but any good gm could hack this game to fit the setting.  Cakebread & Walton have also a version based on their simple and excellent OneDice engine.

FATE would be another game that I would consider using if I was going to run a Retribution Falls game.  I think that FATE handles swashbuckling action well, and there are a few FATE settings that have airships.  The one that I would use would be Kriegszeppelin Valkyrie from FATE Worlds: Worlds on Fire.  While this settings is more of an alternate WWI with huge blimps and biplanes, with some magic thrown in and a few hacks here and there it would work well to run a Retribution Falls campaign.

My personal choice for running a Retribution Falls game would be Amazing Adventures from Troll Lord Games.  This uses the SEIGE engine which runs their Castles & Crusades game.  It is basically a streamlined version of the d20 system.  Amazing Adventures has magic rules already built in.  I would recommend using the Amazing Adventures Companion as it has some character classes (pirate, soldier) that would work well.

So check out Retribution Falls and then go game some airship piracy!

Witch and Witchcraft Reading Challenge: Winter Witch

Winter Witch:  My second review for the 2017 Witch and Witchcraft Reading Challenge.

Winter Witch by Elaine Cunningham is a fantasy novel set in the Pathfinder world of Golarion.  The beginning of the book starts with a pseudo-viking village being attacked by minions of of the winter witches.  They are looking for a child who is born with magical abilities.  We get a nice action-packed battle scene.  The book fast-forwards fifteen years as the sister of the magical child has traveled south on a mission to secure her rescue.

Winter Witch reads like a fun role-playing campaign.  The main characters join a caravan and trek to the frozen north to the city of the winter witches.  There are lots of standard fantasy tropes with interesting twists on them.  There is a magic school originally built for gnomes, marauding nomad warriors for the characters to fight on their trek,  and the titular winter witches.  My favorite part of the book is how one of the characters uses drawing and art to cast magic.  This book is a quick read full of fights, magic, and spellbinding places.   I recommend it to fans of fantasy and Pathfinder.

Gaming Inspiration:

If you are a Pathfinder fan then this book will give you background information the cities of Korvosa and Whitethrone as well as the winter witches themselves.  If you are not a Pathfinder player this book is still full of useful items for a fantasy game.  You can use the characters as NPCs and use the locales in your own campaign.  I would steal the art magic that one of the main characters uses for my game.  I give this book 2 natural 20s.

Witch and Witchcraft Reading Challenge: The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

The Good, the Bad, and the Undead:  My first review for the 2017 Witch and Witchcraft Reading Challenge.

The Good, the Bad, and the Undead by Kim Harrison is the second book in her urban fantasy "The Hollows" series.  I reviewed the first book, Dead Witch Walking, back in 2015.  Dead Witch Walking set up the series as it ended with Rachel Morgan severing her official ties with law enforcement and becoming an independent runner.  The Good, the Bad, and the Undead starts with her working on her own.  Rachel is a witch who lives with her vampire roommate/business partner.  They run Vampiric Charms, a private investigation/bounty hunter firm located in Cincinnati.  In this book Rachel has to track down a killer who has been targeting ley line witches.

Harrison adds more depth and background to all of her characters in this book.  We learn more about Rachel's history as well as the world of the Hollows, where vampires, witches, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures exist alongside humans.  One of the strengths of this series is how Harrison explores the practical and legal matters that have arisen because of this arrangement.  For example, I like how demons are not held accountable for their actions in court, since when a pact is made with them that are compelled to complete it.  Thus they have a status similar to weapons.  Another thing I like about the book is the humor and levity.  The fun parts help to keep the story moving along quickly.  I enjoyed the book.  My favorite parts of these books is Harrison's world-building.  My only criticism is that the main mystery is solved but its solving felt anticlimactic.  I would recommend this to fans of urban fantasy.

Gaming Inspiration

This book and series is great inspiration for anyone running an urban fantasy campaign, particularly one in which supernatural creatures exist in the open.  Harrison provides some fresh takes on familiar creatures.  Vampires exist in living and dead versions.  The rules for dealing with demons  is explored more in this book.  These rules are perfect for any game that features demonic pacts.  If you need some fresh takes on urban fantasy, particularly with how legal and bureaucratic issues would intersect with the supernatural, the Hollows series is a great place to look.

Book Reviews for Gamers: Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov

It is time for another book review.  Today's book may seem like an odd choice, so I would like to talk about why I write these "Book Review for Gamers" posts.  Role playing is a creative process and those who partake in it need fodder for their imagination.  There is a reason why Gary Gygax included Appendix N in the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide.  Of course, many of Gygax's listings are from the fantasy genre.

Inspiration often comes from unusual sources that one might not expect.  George Lucas was inspired by the Kurosawa film The Hidden Fortress when he made the original Star Wars.  Allan Calhamer was inspired by the card game Hearts when he was designing Diplomacy.  When Christopher K. Bigelow wrote issue #1 of his zine The Oracle he included a dungeon adventure that was based on the film Escape from New York.  I believe that it is important to go outside one's comfort zone and read books, comics, plays, etc. from all genres.

My copy of Heart of a Dog

Back to today's review.  I read the book Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov.  I bought this book as a teenager because I was intrigued by the premise.  Heart of a Dog was written in the Soviet Union in 1925.   In the book a physician transplants human organs into a dog, which results in the dog turning into a human.  The premise sounds science fiction but the actual book is filled with political and social commentary.  The book is a quick read at 123 pages.  Anyone interested in post-revolutionary Russia would enjoy the story's satire and prose.

How can this book inspire your gaming?  If you are interested in running a historical game then this book will give you a nice peek at Soviet life in the 1920's.  Literature is a great way to learn about a specific time and place.  Also, the concept of turning animals into people is great fodder for horror/steampunk games.  This territory has already been explored in The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells, while Heart of a Dog gives this idea a Soviet spin.  The doctor in Heart of a Dog practices in his clinic in Moscow rather than a secluded island.  Also, the doctor in the book would make for a great NPC.  He is a man of privilege watching as the new generation assaults his lifestyle.  Part of the story is seeing if his connections and important standing can protect him from the consequences of his actions.  I have created a FATE Accelerated version of him below:

Doctor Philip Philippovich Preobrazhenskey

High Concept:  Brilliant surgeon, specializing in animal/human physiology
Trouble:  How dare you lecture me, young man!

Aspect:  Of course I know the committee director, shall I telephone him now?

Approaches

Careful - +1
Clever - +3
Flashy - +2
Forceful - +2
Quick - +1
Sneaky - +0

Stunt:  Forceful personality - +2 when forcefully attacking during a social conflict.

Refresh: 3

Check out Heart of a Dog.  It is a a quick, unusual read and full of good ideas for your gaming table.

Book Reviews for Gamers: Damnation Alley

When I was younger I played a lot of Car Wars.  In the rules of Car Wars they had a list of books that inspired the setting.  Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny was on that list, and when I saw that book in the bookstore I had to buy a copy.  I recently grabbed a copy for my kindle from the Humble Bundle and reread it.

The cover of the edition that I read as a kid

Damnation Alley takes place in a post-nuclear future.  The Earth's winds are in a constant super-storm that whips around the planet, making flight impossible.  Hell Tanner, the book's protagonist, is a motorcycle outlaw who is captured by the California police.  He is offered a full pardon if he drives across the nuclear wasteland of middle America (Damnation Alley) and delivers a serum that will cure a plague that is devastating Boston.  The book has a funky 70's sci-fi feel (it was written in 1968) with a healthy dose of John Carpenter thrown into the mix.  It is a quick read and has plenty of action.  My favorite part is the description of Damnation Alley and the dangers that are there.  Giant bats and lizards roam the landscape.  Storms that drop rocks and fish tear down from the sky.  I love the idea of the weather being an obstacle.

I know that Zelazny is famous for high concept sci-fi.  This book is pure popcorn.  Hell Tanner races across the country as mutant animals and mutant weather threaten to pound him to dust.  He rides in a souped up car armed with machine guns and flame throwers.  I can see why Car Wars listed this book as inspiration.  If you are interesting in post-apocalyptic books or car combat, I would recommend this book.

Damnation Alley as Gaming Material

The plot of this book is ready to be lifted for a role-playing campaign.  Heck, it can even be used as a scenario for miniature games or wargames.  Can you get the package to the other side of the map/table while fighting off mutants, gangs, and environmental hazards?  In fact, the environmental hazards are one of the most interesting aspects of the book that can be used in a scenario or campaign.  While the book is science fiction, I think that you can apply the framework of the story to many genres.  Here are some ideas for running a Damnation Alley style rpg adventure for other genres.

Fantasy - The party has to transport a magical potion across the Chaos Desert.  This is a desert that was created by a magical war between the Wizard-Gods years ago.  The desert is full of whirlwinds, glass storms, strange creatures, and marauders.

Space Opera - The party has to deliver a load of cargo across a sector of space that is full of anomalies.  The sector has black holes, radiation storms, gravity tsunamis, and is the perfect place for pirates to hide.

Steampunk/Pulp - Tesla has created a weather machine that has gone haywire.  The area around the machine is a death zone where lightning strikes at random and storms tear up the ground.  A rival faction is also headed there to capture the machine.  Can the heroes get there first?

How I would run this game:

The parts of the story that resonate with me are the delivery of the McGuffin through the danger zone and the use of nature and the elements as an adversary.  I like the post-apocalyptic setting of the book and the car combat, so I would choose a game system that has both of those traits built in.

I would us Palladium's After the Bomb rpg along with the Road Hogs supplement.  After the Bomb is a post-apocalyptic game full of mutant animals, and Road Hogs adds rules for cars with guns strapped to them.  The Empire of Humanity has released a virus tailored to kill mutant animals.  The party will have to deliver the cure by driving across the US, while avoiding radiation zones, super-storms, and outlaw gangs.  It would basically follow the plot of the book except it would take place in the After the Bomb setting.  That is how I would run it.

Review of Red Nails by Robert E. Howard

Red Nails is a tale of Conan the Barbarian that was first published in Weird Tales in 1936.  This version of the story is in the public domain, and is available from Project Gutenberg.  

Cover to Weird Tales July 1936

Art by Margaret Brundage

I have read some Conan stories many years ago in my youth, and my memories of them were quite fond.  I recently downloaded a bunch of Robert E. Howard stories that are in the public domain and I decided to read a Conan story for old times sake.  Red Nails follows Conan and his companion Valeria as they stumble upon a mysterious city in the desert.  Conan and Valeria become involved in a feud between the crazed inhabitants of the city.  There is action, magic, lust, and enough bloodshed to satisfy the pulp fan.

The Conan of Howard’s tales is a more likable fellow that the taciturn and gloomy caricature made famous in the Schwarzenegger films.  In Red Nails he gloats so much about his deeds that Valeria quips, “"Is there anything you haven't been?"  Howard writes him as a larger than life superhero, leaping off the page at the reader in a burst of adventure.

My favorite character in this story was Valeria, Conan’s pirate companion.  While Conan can work his way through problems with his brawn and cunning, Valeria actually has to overcome trouble throughout the tale.  She is quite competent, a great fighter and dastardly rogue who serves as Conan’s equal as well as object of rescue.  This is what I liked about her.  While Conan can defeat anything in his way, Valeria occasionally has bad luck and must persevere or get help.  If only there was a tale of Valeria’s exploits to read!

Red Nails has many of the Swords and Sorcery tropes that fans will be looking for.  Sinister magic, monsters, and tribes of degenerate men with bloodlust in their eyes.  The modern reader will need to bear with Howard’s archaic attitudes towards race and gender.   To his credit Valeria is written as a strong woman, but she eventually ends up trembling in Conan’s arms nonetheless.  As long as you can remember that this is pulp adventure and not deep social commentary then the story can be enjoyed at face value.

I would recommend this to fans of fantasy and pulp action who want some escapism for a Saturday afternoon.  If you want to read a book where limbs are cut off and you don’t have to take anything too seriously, then read this story.  It is not perfect, but it is a nice capsule of the pulp genre.

Red Nails as Gaming Material

The plot of Red Nails is perfect for being adapted for an rpg adventure.  The basic story involves the player characters stumbling into an ancient city in a desolate region.  The city has traps, treasure, secret doors, crazy warring inhabitants, and its own internal lighting system.  This is a dungeon crawl written before dungeon crawls.  I highly suggest that any GM who needs inspiration for an adventure should read this story.

The cool part is that the idea can translate well to other genres.  If you are running a sci-fi game, then turn the city into a lost generation ship or abandoned colony.  If it is a cyberpunk game, then make the city some forgotten corporate mini-state.  If you you are running urban fantasy or horror, then this is the monster city that exists in the catacombs of New York.  The story is only 67 pages and has plenty of action to move it along.  I recommend it to GMs, particularly those who are interested in the literary influences on the original D&D authors.

Book Review - Wolf in White Van

Review of Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle, with a Digression on Play-by-Mail Games

Wolf in White Van is the story of a teenager/young man who grew up in a life of enui and escapism.  He suffers a disfiguring “accident” and lives his life running a complex play-by-mail role-playing game.  John Darnielle, the author, has been called “the greatest lyricist of his generation”.  I have never heard one of his songs but after reading his debut novel I believe it.  

Darnielle’s prose has an infectious quality that creeps into your skull.  There were many points during my reading where I felt that I was sitting among the characters and watching the story.  It helped that I shared many traits with the protagonist, such as a love of Conan and fantasy and a willingness to use that fantasy to escape the doldrums of suburban existence.  Reading this book made me feel like I was becoming delusional from inhaling the smoke coming of the burning ruins of my childhood.    

The main character runs a play-by-mail game called Trace Italian. This allows him to earn money while staying at home, since his accident has left his face horribly damaged.  He invented the game while recovering in the hospital. Players in the game try to navigate a post-apocalyptic landscape in order to reach the safety of the Trace Italian, a mythical fort built by survivors.  Players are constantly making choices on their quest to security, which is forever out of reach.  The whole novel is a meditation on the choices we make and the blame we try to place when tragedy hits, as well as fantasy and reality and their intersection in our minds.

This is a thoughtful, sad, and emotional book that is worth the read.  If you considered yourself a freak or outsider during high school, or wanted to know what that felt like, then this book will give you an emotional tour of what it was like.  I give it five out of five Robert E. Howard fanzines.

Appendix A - Play-by-Mail Games, What are Those?

Play-by-mail gaming has been around since the early days of hobby gaming.  The board game Diplomacy has a long history of being played by the mail, and many early Diplomacy zines were dedicated to postal games.  The game that is shown in Wolf in White Van is of the type where a player sends in their turn, and the game moderator then processes the turn and sends back a response.  Companies usually charge per turn.  

I remember seeing ads for these types of games in various magazines during the 80's and 90's.  There was even a magazine dedicated to play-by-mail gaming called Paper Mayhem, which was published in Ottawa,Illinois, a town I lived in for a while as a youth.  It would seem that video games and the internet would choke off the need for the play-by-mail format, but there are still some companies operating games.  The biggest change is that turns are usually sent by email, but the idea is the same.  Various players send in their turns, and the moderator processes these turns (usually with a computer program) and sends back the results.

Flying Buffalo

Flying Buffalo published Tunnels and Trolls, one of my favorite rpgs.  They also run various play-by-mail games.  I played one of them called World Wide Battle Plan.  It is a global war game where you control a country.  You build armies, send out spies, launch missiles and engage in diplomacy.  It was complex and interesting.

Flying Buffalo runs many games, including one based on their popular Nuclear War card game.  They have science fiction games, wargames, fantasy games, and more.

Reality Simulations

I used to see the ad for Reality Simulations in Dragon Magazine.  I never played one of their games but I did check out their website.  They run three games; a gladiator game, a wargame based in the Hyborian (i.e. Conan) realm, and an rpg/exploration game set in the Forgotten Realms AD&D setting.  If you are interested in either of those licensed settings they are worth checking out.

Gamesystems Inc.

The only thing I know about this company is that they won an Origins Award and that they offer games set in Middle Earth.  Again, if this a licensed setting that interests you then check them out.

What do you get out of a play-by-mail game? Back in the 80's, play-by-mail was a way for hobby gamers to find and play games with other hobby gamers.  If you were the only guy in town with an interest in D&D and/or Squad Leader, play-by-mail was a great outlet for playing the games that you wanted to play.  In today's world of the internet, MMORPGs, and Target stores selling Ticket to Ride, does play-by-mail still offer a viable entertainment?

What play-by-mail games offer today is a certain level of sophistication.  These games usually offer the player a multitude of options during play.  Do you raise armies or train spies?  Do you invade the neighboring kingdom or do you build up your navy?  Many of these games gave huge turn sheets that require steel acumen to fill out.  When I played World Wide Battle Plan I felt like a NORAD commander planning tactical strikes from my bunker.  The effort put in gives a sense of accomplishment, and the interaction with dozens of players gives the games a Byzantine feel.  If you want to be a true commander of imaginary men, try one out.

Anna Dressed in Blood: A Book Review

Anna Dressed in Blood - A book review and part of the 2015 Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge!

Summary

Anna Dressed in Blood is a young adult urban fantasy book by Kendare Blake.  The story follows Cas, a teenage ghost killer who roams the country with his witch mother dispatching murderous spirits.  Cas uses his father’s athame, a mystical blade that can cut and kill ghosts.  He and his mother (his father was killed by a ghost) move from town to town knocking of vengeful spirits who are murdering the living. Cas and his mom move to Thunder Bay, a small city where the ghost of a teenage kill named Anna Dressed in Blood has been committing murders. Cas will find out that there is something different about this spirit while he continues to research clues about his father's killer.

What I Thought

I enjoyed how the story played with the relationship between Cas and the spirit he is sent to kill.  The tale turns into an examination of the kill-the-monster-of-the-week trope" and asks questions such as, “What if that monster that you are killing actually has feelings?”  There is also some refreshing reflection as Cas ponders his fate as a ghost killer.  What kind of future does a teenage monster killer have?  The world of the book was cool. It felt like the world where I grew up, only at a perpendicular angle.  I had the sense that these spirits could exist in some version of my high school experience. The characters where compelling and I look forward to reading the second book in this series.

Witchcraft Elements

Cas is not a witch, but his mother is.  Also, witchcraft plays an important role in the story as many of Cas’ friends and helpers use witchcraft to help him in his ghost hunting.  His mother makes a living selling occult supplies. The scenes where she uses her herbs and ointments to protect her son remind me of a loving parent wiping a smudge of ice cream off of their child’s mouth, slightly embarrassing but loving and necessary. Witchcraft and Wicca and prevalent throughout the book and portrayed positively,

Gaming Material

Cas and his mom live the life of murder hobos.  They travel from town to town and kill monsters.  The only thing that they do not do is take their stuff.  This book is ripe with inspiration for any urban fantasy or monster killing campaign.  Any GM who has had player characters wish for magical weapons should take a good look at Cas’ athame and the role that it plays in the story.  Also, the interplay that occurs between Cas and the ghost that he is hunting is prime material for any role playing session.  Any GM who would like to have their players actually interact with the XP machines that the players always attack will gain some great inspiration.  I think that this plot could be lifted and used in any rpg campaign where the characters hunt monsters, from hack and slash fantasy to modern paranormal hunters.  When my copy of Monster of the Week comes in to my FLGS, I will be lifting this plot and running it!

Dead Witch Walking Book Review

Dead Witch Walking: My first review for the 2015 Witches and Witchcraft Reading Challenge

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison is an urban fantasy story that is full of action and humor.  The story takes place on an alternate Earth; one where a genetic engineering mishap wiped out a good chunk of the human population.  This led to supernatural beings being able to come out and live openly among humanity.  Things are not all brotherly love, as in the book’s setting most supernatural beings live in a supernatural ghetto across the river from Cincinnati called the Hollows.

The main character is Rachel Morgan, a witch and bounty hunter.  She leaves her career with the I.S., a law enforcement agency run by supernatural beings charged with policing supernatural beings, in order to go solo.  This causes her many problems, such as her old boss seeks revenge, she becomes caught up in criminal intrigue, and has to deal with roommate issues with her living vampire friend.

Dead Witch Walking starts a little slow but soon turns into a rollicking pulp adventure.  The depiction of magic is detailed and adds to the verisimilitude of the story.  The characters are fun and believable.  They all have quirks and flaws that make them relatable.  For example, Rachel’s vampire roommate is not just some uber-powered vamp, she is also an OCD control freak.

My favorite part of the book is that it was plain fun to read. The action and humor kept me turning the pages. Since this is the first book of a series, the author sets up many mysteries and issues to be dealt with later.  There is just enough to whet the appetite of the reader, and this volume still stands along as a satisfying solo story.  I would recommend this to urban fantasy fans who like pulp-style action.

Gaming the Book:

Harrison’s universe has a Shadowrun feel to it, as paranormal creatures and magic users have come out of hiding to co-exist with the normals.  If I were to run a game in this setting, I would probably use something like GURPS or Fate.  For further information I will direct you to Timothy Brannan’s blog, The Other Side (of which I am a fan).  He has done some great character write-ups for Rachel Morgan in various rpg systems.  My favorite is for the Amazing Adventures rpg, which is perfect for pulp-style play.

Tim Brannan's character write-up for Rachel Morgan

The Invisible Man: a Condense Book Review with Gaming Material

I recently read The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells.  I was surprised by the story.  I was expecting a straight horror story, as The Invisible Man made it into Universal’s iconic movie monster crew.  The main character is invisible, a mad scientist who received more than he bargained for with his discovery.  

I was surprised by the humor in the book, whether this was intentional or not.  There are scenes in which characters bumble around like Keystone Cops trying to capture the Invisible Man.  Where the story shines is when it explores the psychology of the Invisible Man.  The title character is a total asshole throughout the book.  His hubris and sociopathic nature are as visible as his flesh is transparent.  The story does end as a horror tale, as Wells postulates what a madman would do with the power of invisibility.

The book is in the public domain and a short read.  I enjoyed reading it on my kindle, so I could look up all of the outdated vocabulary in the middle of my perusal.  I would recommend this story to fans of horror and of Victorian era literature.  

Game-able Material

The Invisible Man would make an excellent antagonist for a role playing campaign.  He could be dropped in any Victorian or Steampunk setting as is, and could be used in other settings with mild changes.  There are some things to remember when using the Invisible Man as a villain (or as a hero).

The Invisible Man is a scientific genius.  He create the process that turned himself invisible.  What if he turned his endeavors to other scientific pursuits. Would he try to create an invisible army, or would he try to harness the power of light into a new power source or weapon? He is the archetypal mad scientist.

The Invisible Man needs others to help him, and uses others as resources.  In his own words, “I must have a confederate.”  The Invisible Man needs minions and helpers.  He draws a crowd when he walks around covered in bandages and goggles, and to be fully invisible he must be naked and vulnerable.  Therefore, the Invisible Man would have a minion or group of goons to do his bidding.

The Invisible Man is a jerk.  In his words, “I felt amazingly confident,—it’s not particularly pleasant recalling that I was an ass.”  He uses and abuses people.  He will be callous and cruel.  If a minion fails in his duty, he will suffer.  If the Invisible Man captures the player characters or confronts them, he will not show mercy. 

Keeps these ideas in mind when using him as a character in your campaign.

Using the Invisible Man in Other Settings

Pulp - The Invisible Man would make a great pulp villain.  An axis power is trying to buy the formula from him and the heroes have to stop him.  How about a showdown between the Invisible Man and the Shadow?

Fantasy - The Invisible Man could be an alchemist who has gone crazy due to his experiments on himself.  He is terrorizing villages throughout the kingdom.  The party is hired to root him out.  If and when they find him, do they also find that he has some ulterior motive behind his attacks?

Science Fiction/Cyberpunk - The Invisible Man is a former corporate scientist who has been cursed by his own invention (that is the original premise of the story!).  He is now an underground criminal mastermind who commits terrorist attacks on those he deems his "enemies".  The characters are contracted to take him out.

The Invisible Man as a Player Character

Can the Invisible Man be a viable character?  He is not a likable fellow, and if he were a D&D character his behavior would push him towards chaotic evil.  However, it would be fun to play a tortured, cursed mad scientist as long as he didn't back-stab the party.

Here is my take on the Invisible Man for the FATE Accelerated game system.  This is my first time making a character for FATE, so feel free to comment with suggestions.

Name:  Mr. Griffin aka The Invisible Man

Aspects

High Concept:  Experimental investigator specializing in the refraction and reflection of light

Trouble:  “It’s not particularly pleasant recalling that I was an ass.”

Others: I am invisibly … permanently, Alumni of University College, You will be my confederate

Approaches

Careful +1

Clever +2

Flashy +0

Forceful +2

Quick +1

Sneaky +3

Stunts

Because I am invisible, I get +2 when I sneakily overcome an obstacle when I remove all of my clothes.

Because I am a brilliant experimental investigator, once per game I can automatically solve a problem of a scientific nature.

Works Cited

Wells, H.G. (2014-11-18). The Invisible Man (Kindle Locations 1755-1756). Atria Books. Kindle Edition.