D6 Adventure: Bloodshadows
From: West End Games
Reviewed by: Ron McClung
D6 Adventure: Bloodshadows is a new d6 RPG World Book from West End Games.
I will tell you up front that this will be a biased review in favor of this product because I believe Bloodshadows is one of the most under-rated and under-exposed game worlds in the market. It is one of my favorite world settings and I have all that was published when it was in the Masterbook system. I ran it once and now that it is out in d6, I plan to run one or two sessions at conventions, hopefully.
To give a little background to those that are not as old as I am, back in the day amongst a myriad of licensed products being published by West End Games for Masterbook like Tank Girl, Species, and Necromancer, was a little heard of world setting called Bloodshadows. Most describe it as a role playing game like the 1991 movie Cast a Deadly Spell with Fred Ward and David Warner, but few today have seen that movie. It is not even on Netflix! Bloodshadows is film noir (old 1930-1940 Bogart films) meets fantasy and horror all rolled up into a magical world of private dicks, dames, enchanted tommy guns and demons lurking in back alleys. There is so much to love about this world. It is dark, it is magical, and it has enchanted guns – a fantasy noir game!
From the page #3:
“Jack Deacon hated working divorce cases. As he stood outside the door of the rundown inn, he thought about all the backache he’d gotten peering through keyholes in exchange for barely enough gold to keep his bank balance breathing.”
Content: After the general introduction, the first chapter covers the world of Marl, where Bloodshadows takes place. The book does not cover the whole world. It simply covers the localized area of Northern Marl and primary focuses on one city, Galitia, and the wilderness that surrounds it. Marl’s history is given in general terms, leaving a lot of room for a GM to add in his own flavor and mystery. Much adventure can come from a world chasing or fleeing from its own history. One of those key points in history is the Godwar. No one knows how it started or where, but it is the constant conflict between Order and Chaos. From its conflicts arose a “third party” called the Oathbreakers, which is causing a whole new emergence of activity within the shadows of Marl’s cities. The Godwar is the backdrop to Bloodshadows.
Galitia is the primary city covered in the d6 Bloodshadows book. From its geography, weather and general history to industry, the powers that be, and guilds, Galitia is detailed out for the GM and the players explore. After the general information, each district of the major metropolis is described, including Esler (lower class area), Frenzy (haunt-ravaged area), Canons (a business hub) and Xel (food industry sector). Each are mapped out as is the overall city of Galitia, but do not expect a TON of detail in the maps. Each district map details out roads, a few places of note, and other mass transit routes.
An important thing to note is that there is a lot of vagueness in the history and description of Marl. Although I expect West End to put out more books about the other cities of Marl, there is still more than enough left open that I think if you go from one Bloodshadows gaming group to another, you will find two different Marls. This, in my opinion, is a good thing. There is a lot of stuff left open for the GM to fill in, even for those gamers that have the previously published material like I do. There is enough in the material to inspire a GM to create a whole world and nothing restricting the GM to do so.
Denizens of Marl (Chapter 4) presents the reader with the typical sentient creatures found in Bloodshadows. Each denizen is represented by a typical NPC as well as guidelines (character packages) for creating a character of that species. Along with humans, there are several Breeds that one can play, including Barghests (dog-men), Elkist (crossbreed of ghouls and demons), Gris (alchemical experiments gone wrong), werecreatures, and vampires. There are also demonic creatures that can be played like the Sketh (minor demons) and Succubi. The last several pages of this chapter give a hand-full of other creatures found in the wilderness.
Chapter 5: Character Creation gives the player some of the subtle additions and changes made to fit Bloodshadows character creation into d6 (discussed later). Chapter 6: Magic is a very important aspect of Bloodshadows, and a few additions have been made to the d6 Magic system. Most of it is a carry-over for the Masterbook system. Along with the rules additions and clarifications, it includes more than 50 spells and cantrips.
From page # 3:
“The universe of Bloodshadows is one where fantasy and horror, magic and technology, men and monsters meet and merge.”
Chapter 7: Equipment is what you would expect – a list of equipment for Bloodshadows. Much of it is like 30s and 40s level of tech, but almost always with a little magical twist. Bullets can have runes on them to enchant them with a spell. Vehicles may have elementals powering their engines. The final sections of the book guide the GM on how to run a Bloodshadows game. Bloodshadows can be a universe that some would find hard to wrap their minds around, and there are some good tips to help anyone do so in the last chapter.
The one thing I notice missing is a blank character sheet. They do supply a handful of character templates and more on their web site, but I feel there should be a blank character sheet in the rulebook. Of course, I am sure they hoped people would use the d6 Adventure character sheet, which would work, but there are a few Bloodshadows specific items that would make it nice to have a Bloodshadow-specific character sheet.
System: The system is d6 Adventure, which I reviewed some time ago. It does add a few things to give Bloodshadows its own feel. The biggest change made is in the Magic section. Magic is a huge part of Bloodshadows. It is integrated within the society like electricity and gasoline is in ours. The key thing that is added is the Schools of Magic. When a character chooses the Magic Skill, he must specialize into one of the schools of magic. This defines what spells the character has access to. There is also a new Special Ability that ties into spells called Arcane Knowledge. With this special ability, a character can add bonuses to specific spells.
There is one thing to note about the magic system that I think people would find refreshing, and I suppose this is more a comment on d6 than just Bloodshadows. There are no limitations. This was obvious when I reviewed d6 adventure, but Bloodshadows helps illustrate the point. You can play a PI that uses a small handful of helpful spells or a full blown firemage that is the worst nightmare to any fire brigade.
Another important addition to the d6 magic system is the Bloodshadow magic feedback table. This could be very nasty and although it is an optional rule, it is something I will use. Things like physical damage, insanity, dementia, and cosmic change can happen if the spell caster fails bad enough.
Some changes in character creation are also in this book. One of the changes is the option to have an alignment and the points associated to them. This comes into play for magic using characters. The points are a measure of how strong the character is of that alignment and are used in some interaction skill checks. Also, it should be clear from the d6 Adventure core rulebook that characters can be customized in just about any way possible. Between the variety of character generations systems and the advantage/disadvantage system, this is a strong character concept-based system, and in Bloodshadows, the sky is the limit.
Layout: The book is well laid out and simple. The art is a combination of old Bloodshadows Masterbook art and new. I guess this is where I make my speech about certain artists work – I have NEVER liked Tim Bobko’s work. From his work in Masterbook and his work in some of the d6 Star Wars books, I have to say he is my least favorite artist employed by West End Games. Tom O’Neil is a close second in some cases. However, I guess that is a detail only a long time West End Game fan would notice. Other than that, the layout of Bloodshadows is nothing to complain about.
In conclusion, obviously I love Bloodshadows. This is a good gaming universe in a good solid system. I liked it in Masterbook and there is enough of that carried over to d6 that it is even better in d6. It is very multi-faceted with elements of Cthulhu-style horror, pulp fiction adventure, and fantasy questing. I have always been a fan of cross-genre ideas, and this one really grabbed me when I first saw it. In the new d6 system, this is a great resurrection of the gaming universe.
For more details on West End Games and their new d6 RPG World Book “D6 Adventure: Bloodshadows” check them out at their website http://www.westendgames.com and at all of your local game stores.
D6 Adventure: Bloodshadows
From: West End Games
Type of Game: d6 RPG World Book
D6 System Redesign: Nikola Vrtis
Designed From Material By: Greg Farshtey, Teeuwynn Woodruff, Steven Crane, Bill Olmesdahl, Ed Stark, Sanford Berenberg, Sandy Addison
Editor: Steven Marsh
Cover Illustration: Dalmatius
Cover Graphic Design: Eric Gibson
Interior Graphic Design: Nikola Vrtis
Interior Illustration: Tim Bobko, Eric Coile, Marcio Fiorito, Paul Daly, Jaime Lombardo & Ron Hill, Thomas Oneill, Dan Schaefer, Brian Schomburg, Colin Throm, Karl Waller, Chris Watkins
Number of Pages: 128
Game Components Included: One soft back sourcebook
Game Components Not Included: Core d6 rulebooks
Retail Price: $ 12.95 (US)
Item Number: WEG 53000
ISBN: 1-3-932867-06-6
Website: www.westendgames.com
Reviewed by: Ron McClung