James Nicoll Reviews

Generation Manifestation by Steven Bereznai

“A richly realized dystopian world that reads like The Hunger Games meets X‑Men.” –Ryan Porter, The Toronto Star By the award-winning, bestselling author (previously published as I Want Superpowers) New Apple Literary Award winnerGen M: Book 1; the adventure starts hereStrong, conflicted female protagonistNeurodiversityLGBTQ positiveLove-story light DON’T BE DNA REGULAR. BE GENERATION MANIFESTATION. The Genetic Wars that turned most of the planet into a wasteland are over. The so-called ​“dregs” (DNA regulars) and superpowered Supergenics now live separately from each other – the Supergenics in the shiny towers of Jupitar City; the dregs across the river in the squat concrete buildings of the boroughs. But some dreg parents bear Supergenic children; under repressive laws, they must be sent to live with their own kind. THEY ARE GEN M. To find these special few, every teen faces Testing Day. When her turn comes, socially isolated Caitlin Feral is determined to Manifest powers like the heroes in the comic book propaganda she loves. If she fails, she faces a lifetime of loneliness and drudgery in the boroughs. How much is Caitlin willing to sacrifice to be a supergirl? When she uncovers dark secrets, does she dare start another war to reveal the truth? And…who will pay the price? Find out in Generation Manifestation

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Inspired by Aaron de Orive’s 2020 First Ten RPGs, a brief account of the roleplaying games I have played most recently, beginning with the most recent and working backwards. Number Six: Brendan Conway et al’s Masks, published by Magpie Games. 

Masks is another superhero game, of which I’ve played many. This is one of many, many games in the Powered by the Apocalypse lineage, which has its roots in Meguey Baker and Vincent Baker’s 2010 Apocalypse World¹. Player characters in Masks are teen superheroes. Very unusually for roleplaying games, there are no hit points as such. Instead, there’s emotional trauma, which turns out to be just as effective at sidelining characters. 

I’ve only played Masks once² so take this with a grain of salt. The emotional trauma in lieu of hit points threw me a bit. Characters have to be one of a limited number of templates. These can be personalized to a degree but there is not a general design system. It seems to me that there are reasonable characters the game cannot accommodate because there is no way to generate them. As well, once characters mature enough, they graduate from the game and are no longer playable. Having recently encountered a number of games with defined exit points for characters, I’ve discovered I don’t care for that.

Still, I can see people enjoying this if they like roleplaying emotionally vulnerable teens with powers beyond human ken. 

1: Which I have not played. 

2: Yet another variation of Kid Apocalypse, whose concept is extraordinary power levels combined with lousy control. Thus, the Uxbridge Incident, which he doesn’t like to talk about. The other character was a succubus whose entire goal was to provoke Kid Apocalypse into doing something horrific, for the lols. 

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The Fallen by Ada Hoffman

From the immersive and intoxicating world of The Outside , comes the exhilarating sequel *from Philip K Dick and Compton Crook Award-nominated author, Ada Hoffmann.* 

The laws of physics acting on the planet of Jai have been forever upended; its surface completely altered, and its inhabitants permanently changed, causing chaos. Fearing heresy, the artificially intelligent Gods that once ruled the galaxy became the planet’s jailers.

Tiv Hunt, who once trusted these Gods completely, spends her days helping the last remaining survivors of Jai. Everyone is fighting for their freedom and they call out for drastic action from their saviour, Tiv’s girlfriend Yasira. But Yasira has become deeply ill, debilitated by her Outside exposure, and is barely able to breathe, let alone lead a revolution.

Hunted by the Gods and Akavi, the disgraced angel, Yasira and Tiv must delve further than ever before into the maddening mysteries of their fractured planet in order to save – or perhaps even destroy – their fading world. 

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Inspired by Aaron de Orive's 2020 First Ten RPGs, a brief account of the roleplaying games I have played most recently, beginning with the most recent and working backwards. Number Five: Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet’s 13^th Age fantasy roleplaying game.

13^thAge is D&D-like in many respects, particularly in the use of character levels. Nevertheless, it has some interesting innovations. For example, while elements of the background are predetermined, a lot of the world-building is intended to be a group efforted, fleshed out as a side effect of character design. Rather than acquiring the entire suite of new abilities at once, as soon as the character advances from one level to the next, advancement is incremental. As well, it rejects specific skills in favour of broad backgrounds, which provide bonuses to circumstances related to the backgrounds. Finally, combat is sped up through the use of an escalation die, which adds a bonus to player character to hit rolls equal to the number of rounds that have passed since the first round.

We played this a couple of time. My characters were, if I recall correctly, a backwoods ranger with no concept of communities larger than a handful of people, and a Tiefling sorcerer who wanted very much for nobody to discover he was actually a reformed demon who commandeered a mortal body when the original owner discovered why one should not dabble in that in which one should not dabble. Wait, no: I played a half-orc fighter/accountant who did body guard work to get exposure for his accounting services.

It’s a perfectly functional little system, although we have not been back to it in a while. New horizons always beckon!

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A War Without Casualties The Republic of San Magnolia has long been under attack from the neighboring Giadian Empire’s army of unmanned drones known as the Legion. After years of painstaking research, the Republic finally developed autonomous drones of their own, turning the one-sided struggle into a war without casualties-or at least, that’s what the government claims. In truth, there is no such thing as a bloodless war. Beyond the fortified walls protecting the eighty-five Republic territories lies the ​“nonexistent” Eighty-Sixth Sector. The young men and women of this forsaken land are branded the Eighty-Six and, stripped of their humanity, pilot the ​“unmanned” weapons into battle… 

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Inspired by Aaron de Orive’s 2020 First Ten RPGs, a brief account of the roleplaying games I have played most recently, beginning with the most recent and working backwards. Number four: White Wolf¹​’s Mage:

Mage the Ascension was the third game in White Wolf’s long running World of Darkness series. Of all the World of Darkness RPGs, it is the one whose cover is most purple. 

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From one of the most exciting voices in contemporary Chinese literature, an uncanny and playful novel that blurs the line between human and beast …

In the fictional Chinese city of Yong’an, an amateur cryptozoologist is commissioned to uncover the stories of its fabled beasts. These creatures live alongside humans in near-inconspicuousness — save their greenish skin, serrated earlobes, and strange birthmarks. 

Aided by her elusive former professor and his enigmatic assistant, our narrator sets off to document each beast, and is slowly drawn deeper into a mystery that threatens her very sense of self.

Part detective story, part metaphysical enquiry, Strange Beasts of China engages existential questions of identity, humanity, love and morality with whimsy and stylistic verve. ** 

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April 2021

21 works reviewed. 10 by women (48%), 10 by men (48%), 1 by a non-binary author (5%), and 8 works by POC (38%)

Year to Date

85 works reviewed. 47.5 by women (56%), 35.5 by men (42%), 1 by a non-binary author (1%), 1 by an author whose gender is unknown (1%) and 35 works by POC (41%)

Grand Total to Date

1833 works reviewed. 1030 by women (56%), 765 by men (42%), 22 by
non-binary authors (1%), 16 by gender unknown (1%), 514.75 by POC (28%)

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Inspired by Aaron de Orive’s 2020 First Ten RPGs, a brief account of the roleplaying games I have played most recently, beginning with the most recent and working backwards. Number three: Steve Kenson’s Silver Age Superhero RPG Icons.

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Who will take up the mantle and slay the evil in the Frozen North, saving all from death and destruction? Not Kell Kressia, he’s done his part… 

Kell Kressia is a legend, a celebrity, a hero. Aged just seventeen he set out on an epic quest with a band of wizened fighters to slay the Ice Lich and save the world, but only he returned victorious. The Lich was dead, the ice receded and the Five Kingdoms were safe. 

Ten years have passed Kell lives a quiet farmer’s life, while stories about his heroism are told in every tavern across the length and breadth of the land. But now a new terror has arisen in the north. Beyond the frozen circle, north of the Frostrunner clans, something has taken up residence in the Lich’s abandoned castle. And the ice is beginning to creep south once more. 

For the second time, Kell is called upon to take up his famous sword, Slayer, and battle the forces of darkness. But he has a terrible secret that nobody knows. He’s not a hero — he was just lucky. Everyone puts their faith in Kell the Legend, but he’s a coward who has no intention of risking his life for anyone… **

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