Liminal Roleplaying Game

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Vampires in Liminal don’t just need blood, they are also inherently sadistic, they struggle to resist the urge to inflict anguish on humans. (Rather like the demonic vampires in Buffy and Angel.) Vampires can dominate any human that drinks their blood and are masters of manipulation and influence.

I’ve got urban horror RPGs that take the anti-hero path (hello World of Darkness) and those that take the hero path (so many; Liminal, Beyond the Supernatural, even the recently released Flames of Freedom with its historic America setting). But both, by design and not a sourcebook, with a system designed with that in mind. That’s rarer than might opening assumptions give credit. Skills start at zero, one point increases them by one rank, up to a maximum of four. Two points in a Skill represents a professional level of competence. Three or more allows you to buy a Speciality in that Skill which grants a further bonus in specific circumstances. It is hard to know if they are meant just as monsters for the GM (which feels a waste as there are NPC for them and I know some of my players would love the chance to play them maybe) or normal (-ish) things in the world that PC might start to play as or even be cursed/blessed to become?

Ghost Realms only appear, or are only accessible, at certain times. Once inside, you can interact with ghosts as though they were physical. (And they can interact with you, so, be polite!) Liminal is a new tabletop roleplaying game about those on the boundary between the modern day United Kingdom and the Hidden World- the world of secret societies of magicians, a police division investigating Fortean crimes, fae courts, werewolf gangs, and haunted places where the walls between worlds are thin. I have almost nothing but good things to say about this book, but I will mention one tiny, tiny niggle. Though the chapters have clear themes such as Magic or Liminal Britain, they are titled Chapter 1, Chapter 2 etc. The actual name of the chapter, e.g., Character Creation, is in smaller type beneath the chapter number. This makes it a little harder to navigate the PDF, though it is fairly well hyperlinked. Chapter 1: Introduction Rusch, Doris C. 2019. “Existential, Transformative Game Design.” Lecture presented at the Center of Excellence in Game Culture Studies, University of Tampere, Oct. 2019.

Blessings and Curses lets you grant bonuses to yourself or an ally. It also lets you inflict Will damage on a target and, if you reduce them to 0 Will, curse them to die or suffer some other unpleasant fate. Extra Traits include the power to heal physical ailments with magic and the power to protect yourself or another with magic. Another extra Trait lets you physically injure people with your curses (inflict Endurance damage), in addition to the usual effects. Baird, Josephine and Sabine Harrer. 2021. "Challenging Systems of Play: Towards Game Design Ethics for Transgender Allyship." Paper presented at FDG21: Foundations of Digital Games 2021, Montreal, QC, Canada, August 3-6 2021. The Council seek to gather greater magical power and to prevent the “wrong sorts” of wizards from getting out of hand. When a big problem arises, they send in Phineas Morgan—a master of weatherworking, ward magic, and swordsmanship. (Don’t get in his way.) Someone of mysterious birth who is perhaps half-Fae. In any case they are caught up in Faerie politics whether they like it or not;Want to bring in Felix Castor or Alex Verus? No problem, even if you can’t build them with the existing Traits and magical styles, you can throw your own together very easily. Phelps, Andy, and Doris C. Rusch. 2020. “Navigating Existential, Transformative Game Design.” In Proceedings from DiGRA ’20 – Proceedings of the 2020 DiGRA International Conference: Play Everywhere: 1-4. Rusch, Doris C., and Andy Phelps. 2021. "Games of the Soul." In A Ludic Society, edited by Denk, et al., 102–126. Donau-Universität Krems, Universitätsbibliothek. Rusch, Doris, and Andy Phelps. 2021. " The Witch’s Way: A Transformational Story Adventure: Theorizing a Model for Existential, Transformative Game Design via the Creation and Analysis of an Experimental Sample Work." At Foundations of Digital Games 2021 Conference (FDG21). Games & Demos. Winner of 2nd place for best-of-show award. Rusch, Doris C. 2020. “Symbolic Enactment in Digital Games.” Lecture presented at Gotland Higher Seminar Series, Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Campus Gotland, Feb. 13, 2020.

Players can spend their characters’ Will points to improve the result of dice rolls, giving them a way to power through bad rolls. Running out of Will leaves a character stunned however, so this is a risky move. Particularly because ghosts and other supernatural creatures have ways of draining or damaging Will. The artwork is pretty and fits the theme well. Subjectively it is not my style, even I however can see the merit, especially in the cover image. The game could easily apply for the most-inspired-logo award, what with the lion's head and the crown, a standard image of Britishness, let alone a familiar image from fairy tales and myth. I am very happy by the extremely small margins; there's a lot of content in this book. Layout is also well done; this is probably one of the fastest RPGs I have assimilated in the last few months. The bookmark doesn't just look cool; it helps.Bowman, Sarah Lynne. 2022. “Finding the Self in Role-playing Games: Weaving Myth, Narrative, and Identity.” Paper presented at Evolution of Story II: Unravelling the Hero's Journey, June 23, 2022. (Forthcoming). Gutter Mage. An informally taught magician, looked down on by the establishment but no less powerful for it. Ancient, capricious, yet bound by strange rules, the Fae are an enigma. Their sense of fashion is usually a couple of centuries out of date, currently they tend to look Victorian. Bowman, Sarah Lynne, Evan Torner, and William J. White, eds. 2021. International Journal of Role-Playing 11. View publication here

Doubles matter; if the dice pops up something like 33, 55 or 77, then it could be a double success or a double failure. The advantage and disadvantage system lets you swap the dice around so that a 19 becomes a 91, but as you can see, a 99 is still a 99.The more one examines the game's modern mythology and the interaction between the different types of the supernatural, the more it will creak. That, however, is expected, and besides, an experienced GM can take care of it easily. In fact, the game's limited take on the supernatural is an enormous strong point, especially when compared to what previous edition of WoD unleashed upon the unsuspecting gamers. Gremlins get a mention, (and a cool picture). Vampire fledglings, though relatively weak by supernatural standards, are violent and bloodthirsty, with very poor impulse control. Older vampires are more calculating, but ultimately more dangerous to society at large. One notable (and extremely dangerous), vampire is Hereward the Wake. A former dhampir of Saxon origin, he has not forgiven the British Fae for their part in the Norman Conquest. More recently, P Division have started to annoy him too. Hereward is a great vampire NPC; I love the idea of a being who still clings to a thousand-year-old grudge and yet is adaptable enough to remain effective in the modern world. Fae are divided into different courts. The ruler of a court is very powerful and has complete free will. Lesser Fae seem to have less free will and a limited sense of self and may simply be extensions of their ruler. Hugaas, Kjell Hedgard. 2021. “The Final Chapter: Practicing Dying Through Play.” Presented at the Knutepunkt Conference in Oslo, Norway, October 7, 2021.