[RPG]: Warlocks and Detectives, reviewed by L.J.Steele (2/2)

[RPGnet Reviews]

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/14/14355.phtml

L.J.Steele's Summary:

Police, PIs, and Vigilantees in an Alternate World. Likely useful to Edge of Midnight GMs, but of limited interest to others.

Go to the full review for more information.

[Fulsrush]

From the review, it sounds like this could be an interesting urban fantasy setting, but it does feel like the reviewer has put more thought and research into it than the author has... which is a warning sign right there.

[Xombie]

Originally Posted by Fulsrush

From the review, it sounds like this could be an interesting urban fantasy setting, but it does feel like the reviewer has put more thought and research into it than the author has... which is a warning sign right there.

Edge of Midnight is a guilty pleasure of mine. The core of the idea and the system are good IMO. I particularly enjoy the fact that rolls take into account success based on natural aptitude, skill or a combination of both. The only problem is that the setting lays perhaps the thinnest framework of any RPG I've ever read. There's so much room for the GM to fill that it feels like too much.

Then again if I ever want to run something akin to the movie Cast A Deadly Spell, this game is a quick and easy way to do just that. I don't regret owning it, and didn't trade it in when I did many other games recently.

It reminds me of Engel actually, something that always felt incomplete but oddly compelling (at least the english translation anyway.)

[L.J.Steele]

Originally Posted by Xombie

Edge of Midnight is a guilty pleasure of mine. The core of the idea and the system are good IMO.

As I don't actually own the setting -- I had picked this up out of interest in urban fantasy and mystery/cops settings, can you fill in some background?

I infer from the RPGNet reviews that there are only the 5 cities in existance, with perhaps some border areas, and mostly howling wilderness in the middle. The tone of Warlocks and Detectives is fairly gritty/realistic -- how much does that extend to the rest of the setting?So where do the food and raw materials come from to feed the cities? Do they just sell their goods to each other? Is there much about how much people remember of their lives and interactions before the White Light? Are all records gone, or only some? How much do the locals realize things have changed?

[Andrew Ellis Troubio]

That's kind of one of the points of the setting. The PCs are people that start to ask those questions. It all ties in to the where and the what of the White Light

Basically, the White Light occured and people have trouble remembering stuff before that. They know they were in The War, but if you asked them to name a specific town or what their Sgt.'s last name was, they would have difficulty remembering. (The game borrows heavily from Dark City here.)

The core book also has a big reference list, but its mostly detective fiction and film rather than history books. IIRC, this was written by some folks late of AEG and shares a lot of the strength and weaknesses of their other pseudo-historical settings like L5R and 7th Sea.