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Warbirds
Warbirds is a diesel-punk air combat adventure game that focuses on fighter pilots as they chase after fame and fortune. It combines the action and excitement of early adventure serials with chaos and heroism of World War 2 dogfights.
The game is set amongst the sky islands of Azure. It is an alternate reality version of the Caribbean islands (and the Florida and Yucatan peninsulas), floating in the sky above an endless murk. The islands are populated by fascinating characters and rich cultures which are both familiar and slightly alien.
The game is set amongst the sky islands of Azure. It is an alternate reality version of the Caribbean islands (and the Florida and Yucatan peninsulas), floating in the sky above an endless murk. The islands are populated by fascinating characters and rich cultures which are both familiar and slightly alien.
188 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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January 19, 2014
A game that handles aerial or space dogfighting with a reasonable amount of verisimilitude while still being both fun and fast has been something of a holy grail for me in gaming, so when I heard about this game, and that it was getting good reviews, I had to check it out.
The game is set in an alternate history where in 1804 a massive storm ripped out the entire Caribbean, including the Florida and Yucatan peninsulas, and deposited it in what appears to be the atmosphere of some sort of gas giant. Throw in the transmutation of some of the bedrock of the surviving landmasses into "floatstone" and we get flying islands. Once civilization recovers, and floatstone is discovered, we also get floating ships. Eventually we get airplanes as well, and by the year 2039 the world of Azure (as it has come to be known) has reached the rough technological equivalent of the early to mid 1940s, lagging behind in some areas and forging ahead in others.
The players are hotshot pilots recruited by the "Guild" a mercenary alliance that recruits the best and brightest of pilots from all nations, then throws them together into a unit of "rooks" to sink or swim on their own.
Mechanically, the game uses a d6+skill+stat+mods to try to beat a difficulty number. Pretty standard mechanics. There's a "reserve" rule that amounts to a pool of periodically refreshed points that can be spent to improve the results of some rolls, or as a last ditch way to save a character from otherwise certain death.
Air combat is handled through the simple expedient of the dogfighting roll. The winner of the role gets to take a shot at the loser. In a multi-plane furball you get to take a shot at any single target that rolled lower than you. It's a simple mechanic, but I don't think I've ever seen it implemented in exactly this way. I haven't tried it in an actual game, but it looks like that when some simple maneuvers are added into the mix it should really capture the feel of a dogfight without bogging things down.
I have only a couple of issues with the game after my initial read. The first is a serious one, but the other is less so. The serious issue is that the game uses an old fashioned advantage/disadvantage system where the only benefit that a disadvantage gives the player is the pre-game ability to buy a corresponding advantage during character creation. Once the game actually starts the disadvantages are simply things to be gotten around. I really think there's no excuse for a game to do this anymore with the examples of Fate and other systems that have tied disadvantages into the mechanics so that the players are rewarded for bringing their disadvantages into the game. This is a potential deal breaker for me, and it's the reason I gave this game four stars instead of five, but the rest of the game is so good that I will still give it a try.
The second thing is the setting. I like the setting, but the mercenary guild seems a little too centralized for my taste. It has the practical effect of justifying PCs having better equipment and skills than nearly everyone they face, and helps to keep the focus on the admitted theme of the game, which is the nature of fame. I'd rather have a setting where mercenaries were less centralized like that in Battletech, but it would be easy enough to tweak.
Overall this is a very interesting game, and I plan on getting it to the table.
Edit: I forgot to mention that this full color book is simply beautiful. The propaganda art style of the cover is very evocative of the pulp genre, and the interior art supports the theme as well. The pastel color palette serves to tie the look of the book together, with the full page bleed helping differentiate the chapters and making it easier to reference the book in play.
The game is set in an alternate history where in 1804 a massive storm ripped out the entire Caribbean, including the Florida and Yucatan peninsulas, and deposited it in what appears to be the atmosphere of some sort of gas giant. Throw in the transmutation of some of the bedrock of the surviving landmasses into "floatstone" and we get flying islands. Once civilization recovers, and floatstone is discovered, we also get floating ships. Eventually we get airplanes as well, and by the year 2039 the world of Azure (as it has come to be known) has reached the rough technological equivalent of the early to mid 1940s, lagging behind in some areas and forging ahead in others.
The players are hotshot pilots recruited by the "Guild" a mercenary alliance that recruits the best and brightest of pilots from all nations, then throws them together into a unit of "rooks" to sink or swim on their own.
Mechanically, the game uses a d6+skill+stat+mods to try to beat a difficulty number. Pretty standard mechanics. There's a "reserve" rule that amounts to a pool of periodically refreshed points that can be spent to improve the results of some rolls, or as a last ditch way to save a character from otherwise certain death.
Air combat is handled through the simple expedient of the dogfighting roll. The winner of the role gets to take a shot at the loser. In a multi-plane furball you get to take a shot at any single target that rolled lower than you. It's a simple mechanic, but I don't think I've ever seen it implemented in exactly this way. I haven't tried it in an actual game, but it looks like that when some simple maneuvers are added into the mix it should really capture the feel of a dogfight without bogging things down.
I have only a couple of issues with the game after my initial read. The first is a serious one, but the other is less so. The serious issue is that the game uses an old fashioned advantage/disadvantage system where the only benefit that a disadvantage gives the player is the pre-game ability to buy a corresponding advantage during character creation. Once the game actually starts the disadvantages are simply things to be gotten around. I really think there's no excuse for a game to do this anymore with the examples of Fate and other systems that have tied disadvantages into the mechanics so that the players are rewarded for bringing their disadvantages into the game. This is a potential deal breaker for me, and it's the reason I gave this game four stars instead of five, but the rest of the game is so good that I will still give it a try.
The second thing is the setting. I like the setting, but the mercenary guild seems a little too centralized for my taste. It has the practical effect of justifying PCs having better equipment and skills than nearly everyone they face, and helps to keep the focus on the admitted theme of the game, which is the nature of fame. I'd rather have a setting where mercenaries were less centralized like that in Battletech, but it would be easy enough to tweak.
Overall this is a very interesting game, and I plan on getting it to the table.
Edit: I forgot to mention that this full color book is simply beautiful. The propaganda art style of the cover is very evocative of the pulp genre, and the interior art supports the theme as well. The pastel color palette serves to tie the look of the book together, with the full page bleed helping differentiate the chapters and making it easier to reference the book in play.
Displaying 1 of 1 review