Originally titled “Nightspawn,” Palladium encountered some legal difficulties with Mcfarlane Toys and their “Spawn” copyright. I am not certain of the entire story, but the net result is the first edition is called “Nightspawn” and subsequent editions are “Nightbane.” Regardless of the title, they are all the same game.

Firs the bad news; it uses Palladium’s standard rules set. I freely admit that the Palladium SDC system is marginal at best and some gamers truly hate it, but I find it tolerable. You do not play Nightbane for the rules, you play it for the world. And the world is truly impressive.

First off, the weird creatures on the cover are the PCs! There are other character classes, but they barely hold a candle to the twisted Nightbane PCs. The physical characteristics are randomly generated and the charts are just cool. Animal traits, bleeding wounds, nails through your skull and other sorts of deformity are all on the menu for a Nightspawn…often at the same time! Since each trait usually conveys some benefit or ability(nails in the skull add to your hit points), the freakier you are, the tougher you are. Relax, you are a shape-shifter, so you can look human when you like…with no powers of course. There is always a downside.

Nightbane are very tough, but they need every ability just to survive. The game takes place in the early 21st century, a world most of us will recognize. There is one tiny difference; extra-dimensional creatures, called “Nightlords” secretly invaded Earth and now control most aspects government and the military. Nightlords are cunning creatures, once human, they now wield immense power (not magic, direct matter conversion. They can turn a beer into a grenade with a thought) from the shadows. From their dark dimension they brought foul minions both human-looking and totally alien…and they are bent on genocide.

One of the reasons I like this game so much is the fact the villains are actually intelligent. They are not running around fighting humanity, they are slowly killing us with our own popular culture while they watch from afar. Some of the evilness includes diet food that slowly starves users to death, slow-acting magical poisons in the soda pop and old-fashioned fanatics operating death squads. The game is less “Dungeons and Dragons” and more “X-Files” in tone.

Satire is an important part of the game and it actually has more than a little black humor. For example, the Nightlords produce a television show called “Nightbane” that uses actual battle footage between Nightbane and Nightlord minions. Whenever someone sees a battle, they are written off as people who watch too much television. I am surprised the author did not include a bit about the evil overlords releasing an RPG game called “Nightbane”…

The Nightbane are not alone in their battles with the Nightlords. Allies ranging from intelligent weapons, vampire hybrids, government spooks, Area 51 and aliens wage a secret war against the Nightlord invasion(all playable PC types). When fighting on Earth gets dull for the players, move to the Nightlands, a desolate mirror image of our world. The Nightlands have their own assortment of creatures and cultures and are the Nightlord’s home dimension.

This is a subtle, thinking RPG. Though powerful, Nightbane and their allies are vastly outgunned by the corporate and government resources of the Nightlords. An open assault is suicide. Subtle sabotage, quiet knives in the dark and secrecy are the order of the day.  Remember, most people do not know about the invasion and would happily kill a Nightbane as a “monster” long before determining their good intentions. In fact, one of my players died a miserable death at the hands of a very human mob when he transformed in a crowded cowboy bar. Good times.

The game appeared in 1995 and three supplements came out in relatively short order and then all went quiet. The first new supplement in years comes out later this year. I am looking forward to it and hope it advances some of the mysteries hinted at in the earlier books. Notably, the connection between the Nightbane and the Nightlords. Nightlords are very resistant to most damage, but Nightbane attacks cut through them like butter. This is never explained and I would like to know more…

This is the first entry in what I hope will be a series over the next few months about games that deserve a reprieve from oblivion. I am open to suggestions as to games I should feature. Drop you suggestions in the comments and I will happily entertain them.

Palladium Books Nightbane Site

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

The Poster Child for a Rules Redo

Storytelling is at the heart of every role-playing game.  Think of the game master as a director and the players as actors in a very dynamic piece of theatre. Though, they are not in total control. Chance plays a part in this play as well.   Gamers use a rules system (usually dice based) to determine success or failure and add an element of risk to the game experience.  When the story is original an exciting and the rules serve to advance the story, all is well.

Sadly, that is often not the case. Games with amazing stories often endure grossly inappropriate rules that bury exciting worlds in terrible mechanics. These are my top picks for games with great plot and world design, but systems that need serious updates. Of course, few of us have the time or energy to completely redo a game’s rules, so this is just wishful thinking on my part. Hey, it is Christmas, the time of miracles. You never know…

1. Nightbane or Nightspawn

This 1995 offering by CJ Carella is one of my favorite game worlds. An urban fantasy version  of the “X-Files” combined with superhero PCs and a secret invasion from another dimension. Lots of sneakiness and intrigue wrapped in a growing horror. A great game to play with those that do not own the book. Makes the revelations about the world all the more startling.

Did I mention it uses the Palladium game system?

I actually quite enjoy some of the other Palladium game worlds (Rifts,) but their rules system is unclear, unbalanced and nearly unplayable.  Palladium rehashed this system so many times that you would think it would improve with each release. Not so! Cut and paste is the order of the day. I long ago gave up on their product lines, though I heard there was some sort of new rules release in the past couple years. Someday I might rouse myself to take a look at it, but a new version of Nightbane is what I really want.

2. Traveller (Original)

A rousing space adventure from days gone by. I have fond memories of carefully generating a character in anticipation of a new game. I gave him statistics and started him on the path of personal development, went to school, attended the space academy and then died.

Yes, died. Traveller had rules for killing you during character generation. Admittedly this was back in the days of truly random character creation, but it was unusual even then.  Combat system was not bad, but the character generation was ugly. There are many versions of Traveller since, but I have a soft spot for the original “little black book” game. Hence its appearance on my list.

3.  White Wolf

White Wolf, strictly speaking, is not a game but a company. They created the elaborate and interesting “World of Darkness” comprised of “Wraith,” “Mage” and the venerable “Vampire” role-playing games, among many others.  Great story and deep character development. A favorite of LARPers everywhere. I played a few times and could not stand the incredibly simplistic character generation and combat mechanics. I know this is a story based game, but it still felt a little…talky. I like a bit more crunch in my role-playing games.

4. TORG

West End Games attempt at a cross-genre game (similar to Rifts.) Multiple universes collide and struggle for dominance. It was possible for a cybernetic ninja to battle a pulp-villian in a Jurassic era jungle. Great fun, until you started running a combat. Some PCs were tough and some were fast. The fast ones dodged attacks very well and the tough ones absorbed damage. Problem was that the damage from a single hit was sufficient to put down a “dodge” character that traded hit points for speed. Occasionally referred to as the “glass-jawed ninja.” Tough to hit, but it only took one hit to kill them.  This system also suffered from “complexity creep.” Every supplement added new rules and very quickly it got out of hand. One bright spot was  a deck of cards to add randomness to combat. It was a blast! Someday I hope this game makes a comeback in some form, but I am pessimistic.

5.  Witch Hunter

Paradigm Concepts created an exceptionally deep world for this game of dark horror. Set in the early years of the American colonies, Puritans, religious fanatics and native americans  do battle with the forces of the devil himself. One of the best written game books I read in a long time. I especially enjoyed the historical research. It makes the list by using a system that reminds me of “White Wolf’s” d10 system. Not identical, but close enough.  This is one of the only games I might suggest going with a pure LARP or the Amber Diceless rules set.

Anyone else have some ideas? I am sure there are other great games buried under bad rules.

Trask, The Last Tyromancer

Nightbane.

I am a big fan of Nightbane. You might also know it as “Nightspawn.” Palladium Books published “Nightspawn” in the early 1990s, but there was some  copyright issue with “Spawn” the comic book character, so they changed the name.

Not to go into spoiler territory, but the bad guys won. The fun thing is that only the PCs realize it. Even then, it has a good “X-Files” feel. Bits of the mystery come out throughout the campaign. There are no clear “enemies,” just government agencies lead by evil creatures, doing   bad things. It is a modern campaign, so modern politics and organizations will put in an appearance.  I am looking forward to throwing some FBI agents at the PCs.  If I am truly evil, I might invoke the feared IRS agent!

I love the storyline and the character classes available, but there is one major issue.

Palladium games have , in my opinion, a sub-standard rules system.    I am seriously considering a conversion to another system. Home-brewing a conversion is a lot of work, I may just tweak the existing system and muddle through.

I am actually excited about this campaign. Will float the idea to my group this week and hopefully they bite.

Trask, the Last Tyromancer