I spotted wanting again on my protection of the Fables line that I’m probably not doing a primary impression of every particular person journey, a lot as doing a working evaluate of your complete journey path as the person installments have been launched. Due to this, I’m going to deal with these just a bit bit in another way going ahead. I’m simply going to make this a multi-part evaluate.
This works particularly nicely for the present Fable, Brokers of the Empire, as the primary installment separates the Setting Information from the journey materials, and it seems to be just like the Setting Information will probably be bundled with every installment of the journey path. I feel this can be a optimistic change, particularly with the road experimenting with extra distinct settings and genres inside a fantasy framework.
I’m not going to say that nobody buys and runs only a single journey in one of many Fables journey path, however I do assume that the first intention of the road is to current a cohesive marketing campaign throughout all the adventures. That’s going to be the lens by which I’m viewing these, so I simply wished to make it clear from the beginning.
Disclaimer
I didn’t obtain a evaluate copy of this materials from Ghostfire Gaming, and have a subscription to the Fables line. I’ve not had the chance to play by this materials, however I’m very acquainted with D&D 5e each as a participant and as a DM.
Spoilers
This setting information dives into a number of the ongoing themes of the journey path, and touches on some background materials that might not be out there to the gamers till later adventures. If you’re planning on being a participant on this marketing campaign, chances are you’ll not need to maintain studying past this level.
Brokers of the Empire Setting Information
Written by: Chad M. Lensch, Joe Raso, Erin Roberts
Head of Fables: Joe Raso
Story Design: Joe Raso
Artwork Director: Marius Bota
Brokers of the Empire Writing Workforce: Leon Barillaro, Chad M. Lensch, JVC Parry, Joe Raso, Erin Roberts, Carl Sibley, Jeff C. Stevens
Managing Editor: Joe Raso
Editors: Matt Click on, Shawn Merwin, Christopher Walz
Graphic Design: Martin Hughes
Cowl Design: Martin Hughes
Inside Illustrators: Isabeau Backhaus, Zoe Badini, Ivo Campelo da Silva, Brent Hollowell, Katariina Sofia Kemi, Diana Khomutina, John Derek Murphy, Laura Marie Neal, Mihai Radu
Cartographers: Kristian Agerkvist, Andrei Iacob, Damien Mammoloti
VTT Asset Design: Joshua Orchard
A Information to the Information
The PDF of the Brokers of the Empire Setting Information is 88 pages lengthy, together with a abstract web page for the six adventures within the journey path, a desk of contents, a credit web page, an editor’s message, a two-page pronunciation information, and a single web page advert for Ghostfire Gaming merchandise. The e book itself has a two-page format, and the borders and sidebars have an Artwork Deco really feel to them.
Along with character art work, which feels extra in step with present tendencies in fantasy RPG designs, there are additionally characters with extra colonial-era designs, in addition to fantastical variations of real-world transportation, equivalent to Warfare Zeppelins. There are additionally some specialised symbols developed for the totally different branches of service that PCs could belong to within the marketing campaign.
Departments
The Setting Information is split into the next sections:
- The World of Tholus
- Character Creation
- Agent Development
- New Mechanics
- Appendix
- New Monsters
- Magitech Autos
- New Gear and Magic Gadgets
- Random Agent Gear
- Pronunciation Information
One of many fascinating points of this information is that the Karelagne Empire isn’t model new for this journey path, however was truly the first antagonist on the finish of the earlier journey path, because the PCs needed to face down a Karelagne admiral making an attempt to grab a superweapon from the Aethereal Expanse.
The Setting
As I discussed above, the Karelagne Empire confirmed up within the Aethereal Expanse Fable, basically the higher of two evils, because the extra harmful of two colonial powers that had as soon as dominated over the area. This does call to mind instantly, “how are PCs going to react to being brokers of an influence they could have already got a unfavourable disposition in the direction of.” I can’t reply that proper now, however I can clarify how the setting is introduced on this Fable.
The continent that homes the Karelagne empire was as soon as dominated by a distinct energy, and after that conflict ended, the continent was divided up between a number of warring city-states. The final 300 years of historical past have seen wars on and off once more, together with a conflict to manage the extraplanar Aethereal Expanse, and a combat in opposition to fiendish creatures that invaded the continent by a portal as a part of one other ongoing conflict.
The empire consists of the next parts:
- Karel Province (the area that features the capital)
- Talavi (a creative area recognized for info brokers)
- Raal (beforehand the opposite energy of the continent, recognized for its rail strains)
- Nelox (a mining province with devotees of the Deep Data)
- Folly (the devastated area the place Karel’s superweapon was set off)
The areas of the continent not beneath management of the Karelagne Empire embrace:
- The Edosians (fisherfolk who’ve a non-aggression pact with the Karelagne Empire)
- The Gravespray Islands (recognized for wild magic and monsters)
A number of of those areas have their very own native energy teams that will have pursuits that aren’t in live performance with the higher Empire or their neighbors.
Through the Folly Catastrophe, when the portal opened and dislodged fiends into the world, a few of these fiends managed to cover and enact a long-term plan. The Infernal Swarm of the Buucahb are basically a hive thoughts of evil cockroaches, a few of which might burrow into humanoids to manage them. The present Sovereign-Normal of the Empire is infested, as is without doubt one of the essential members of the Company.
The Aethereal Expanse launched us to a number of the magical cannons and propulsion techniques of the Karelagne Empire, however the information goes into extra info on the event of Magitech, know-how that may be reproduced extra simply than making a magic merchandise, however should be powered by the Aetherium obtained from the Aetherial Expanse. This stuff are additionally extra risky than conventional magic objects. Whereas they aren’t so frequent that common individuals have entry to them, which means brokers are more likely to see bikes, vehicles, tanks, and zeppelins of their adventures, and there are firearms that use Aetherium as an alternative of black powder.
This a minimum of partially solutions my questions on getting PCs to work for an imperialist energy that has already been the villain of one other marketing campaign. There’s a likelihood to make the Empire into a greater place by ferreting out essential individuals in energy which were possessed by the fiendish bugs.
There may be one side of the setting that feels a bit bit handwaved. It mentions that the Empire could be very cosmopolitan, so most elves, dwarves, and so on. see themselves as members of their area moderately than having a separate cultural id. I perceive this to some extent, however given the truth that it’s solely been 300 years or so because the earliest occasions within the timeline, it looks like older civilizations ought to nonetheless be within the reminiscence of species that stay longer than 300 years. I perceive that for a setting information that’s solely going for use for this marketing campaign could not need to make investments a lot in previous civilizations, however I additionally keep in mind how little lore it took Bael Turath to have detailed to make it really feel like part of historic historical past in 4e when presenting a fallen nation of Tieflings.
Autos
I’m going to offer automobiles their very own part on this a part of the evaluate, as a result of I spent an honest period of time being vital of the earlier Fable for creating brand-new car guidelines that didn’t work like different points of D&D 5e, and weren’t obligatory for 90% of the marketing campaign. I’m not saying they have been unhealthy, I’m saying it felt unusual to have such radically totally different mechanics for one side of the sport.
This time round, we don’t revisit these car guidelines. As a substitute, we get car stat blocks which are similar to the expanded ship statistics in Ghosts of Saltmarsh, or the car guidelines we see in Descent into Avernus. Principally, you will have a distinct armor class, injury threshold, and hit factors for various elements of the car.
That doesn’t imply there aren’t extra guidelines than the D&D guidelines present. There are extra guidelines for what number of squares a car must make a flip, crash issues, and elective guidelines for magitech car mishaps each time they take injury, because of the instability of the Aetherium energy cells.
The chase guidelines exist for each foot chases and car chases, however I’m going to say them on this part, partially due to a number of the elective guidelines included. The chase guidelines embrace 3 ways to adjudicate chases:
- Group Ability Verify
- Hole Monitoring
- Full Fight Chase
The group talent test is a barely modified model of the group talent test mechanics introduced within the Participant’s Handbook, but when outcomes are tied between success and failure, one character could make a “tiebreaker” test. Full Fight Chase is basically the foundations launched within the Dungeon Grasp’s Information for chases. Hole Monitoring is the chase mechanic launched within the earlier Fable for ship chases, and it was truly one side of these guidelines I actually preferred.
Hole Monitoring includes setting quite a few tokens that characterize the common velocity of a personality’s motion fee within the chase between the particular person working and the individuals chasing them. Characters make a test on the finish of a flip to see if they’ve narrowed the hole, with bonuses if they’re sooner than the velocity represented by the token, or penalties if they’re slower. Characters that may use magic to maneuver or take the sprint motion may take away a further token.
Brokers
All the PCs on this marketing campaign are assumed to be members of The Company. The Company has 4 divisions and 6 ranks. Along with getting these advantages, in addition they achieve a degree of Fortune, which features so much just like the Luck factors from the Luck feat, besides you solely get one whenever you be a part of The Company, and everytime you go up in rank. Moreover, characters achieve a bonus to sure expertise, from +1 to +1d12, relying on the division they’re in and the skills they take from that division’s checklist.
The Agent guidelines are basically a way more granular model of the faction guidelines that D&D 5e tried to introduce, however solely actually utilized in Adventurers League or Dragon Heist. On this case, characters get rather more concrete extra talents for reaching totally different ranks of their division. Advancing in rank is dealt with through Milestones, so like a whole lot of adventures with XP, you achieve a rank in your Division when one thing occurs within the story, moderately than gaining X variety of factors till you hit a threshold.
Particular person divisions enable a personality to reroll a capability test that makes use of a selected talent after they roll a one, taking the brand new roll. For every Agent rank, characters decide a brand new expertise, which features for a particular talent beneath a particular circumstance, permitting them to roll their Agent Bonus.
Brokers of various ranks also can requisition magic objects in the beginning of a mission, however they must return these magic objects when the mission is over. Typically talking, in the event that they discover any “good things” through the mission, the house workplace goes to need to purchase that as nicely.
I’m not usually a fan of inflating the talent curve in 5e’s bounded accuracy, however I like each of the methods they’re boosting competency. Rerolling a 1 doesn’t blow the lids off of potential outcomes, and getting a bonus die, as an alternative of doubling proficiency, nonetheless implies that the web result’s inside a variety, moderately than elevating the minimal roll by greater than 1.
Gear
A lot of the Magitech gear we see is flavored to herald the sensation of spy devices. You may have flasks you may throw to keep away from being pursued, escape boots that allow you to fly quick distances, blasting sticks that allow you to do strategic detonations, and grapple weapons that allow you to zip off to the rooftops.
Monsters
A lot of the “monsters” introduced are stat blocks that I assume will probably be repeated so much throughout a number of adventures. Lots of them are NPCs that may be distinctive to the setting, together with totally different iterations of the infernal cockroaches that appear to be the first antagonists of the marketing campaign.
- Aetherium Researcher (CR ¼)
- Agent, Novice (CR ½)
- Agent, Veteran (CR 3)
- Agent, Grasp (CR 5)
- Buuchahb, Particular person (CR 0)
- Buuchahb, Lesser Swarm (CR ½)
- Buuchahb, Swarm of (CR 2)
- Buuchahb, Larger Swarm of (CR 5)
- Buuchahb, Harrier (CR 1)
- Buuchahb, Drone (CR 3)
- Buuchahb, Infestation (Swarm Kind)(CR 11)
- Buuchahb, Infestation (Corporeal Kind (CR 11)
This does make me surprise how NPC stat block heavy the marketing campaign will probably be. That may make sense for an espionage-based marketing campaign, however I do nonetheless wish to see some hulking monsters occasionally in my fantasy tales.
The View (To a Kill) So Far
I feel this can be a tough promote for some gamers that basically don’t need to play brokers of an imperialist energy, except you clue them in that you could be be coping with corruption from inside and making adjustments to the system. I’m curious to see how evident this theme is early within the marketing campaign. That stated, I additionally need to see how straightforward it’s to get that feeling of chasing somebody down on a proto-motorcycle, and doing that opening scene of a Bond film the place you do some extremely over-the-top stunt.
We’ll wait to see how the adventures unfold, however the stew of a marketing campaign setting I’ve received in my head proper now could be someplace between 2011 Three Musketeers, The League of Extraordinary Gents, and the animated Gotham by Gaslight.
