Game: Blood & Circuits
Publisher: RPGObjects
Series: d20 Future
Reviewer: Wyrdmaster
Review Dated: 9th, January 2005
Reviewer’s Rating: 7/10 [ Good ]
Total Score: 7
Average Score: 7.00
When Blood & Circuits first appeared on GameWyrd’s radar it was listed as d20 Modern supplement. After reading through it I changed that on the WyrdRanks to d20 Future. You can certainly use Blood & Circuits with d20 Modern it’s just that you get to use more of it with d20 Future. You can’t invent or adapt a sci-fi weapon with d20 Modern (normally) but you can in d20 Future. Blood & Circuits extends up to Progress Level 9.
Don’t know what Progress Levels are? You’ll not have read d20 Future. This is no handicap. Blood and Circuits uses the SRD to reprint the Progress Level rules. This is exceptionally handy and the sort of quality touch that we can expect from RPGObjects.
What we don’t get from RPGObjects is any sort of introduction. The 60-paged PDFs dive straight into chapter one and the advanced classes there. Amazingly Bug Hunter isn’t an advanced class. To explain that joke; the class special abilities here are dominated by “Bug Hunter” – where the advanced class is especially good at ironing out quirks, flaws, glitches and bugs in their designs.
In fact Blood & Circuits is designed to be a sourcebook on design. It’s a “gear and equipment creation resource”. As this is a d20 supplement it also includes new classes and feats. There’s an additional focus here to – the Smart Hero. This makes sense, if we’re looking at creating new equipment, creating new weapons, new armour and even creating new vehicles then that’s very much the speciality of the Smart hero. All the classes will benefit from the book though – Strong and Tough heroes, for example, will find out how much it could cost to have a weapon (or computer, etc) modified for them.
The advanced classes are targeted mainly on the Smart hero – that’s to say advanced classes characters can move to after knocking back quite a few levels in Smart. It’s fair to say that quite a few of these advanced classes would still fit and appeal to other classes too. First off we have the Armorer (or Armourer if you will), the Arsenal and Combat Engineer. The Armourer likes his combat mosh and not taking too much of a whomping – hence the need for decent armour. The Arsenal is a weapons enthusiast and is able to devise and construct her own guns. The Combat Engineer is more rounded. All three of these advanced classes have their specials dominated by increasing levels of Bug Hunter. With Bug Hunter they’re better at ironing out the drawbacks to their, no doubt, impressive inventions. There’s the Gadgeteer. Then we’re straight back in Bug Hunter territory with the Grease Monkey and The Inventor.
As you might guess there’s are plenty of new feats in here. We’ve some typically and usefully modern feats here – formation flying, for example, helicopter vehicle weapons, cover fire and radar operation. There’s also plenty of the dreaded “advanced/improved/greater” rot. Here you take an already popular feat or established ability and prefix it. Advanced Armour Design, Advanced Weapon Design and Advanced Vehicle Design are just a couple of examples. I call it a rot because the titles are so dull but I do after to admit that in many cases there is a valid need for an “advanced x” feat.
I picked radar operation as a sample feat on purpose. It ties in with a d20 joke that Blood and Circuits threatens to spoil! “Between adventures I’m going to practising my listening!” Yeah. Right. “I’m a professional listener, you’re just an amateur.” There is a new use for old skill section in the supplement. Blood and Circuits points out Sonar Operation as a trained use of Listen. I suppose there is an argument which says that it does take a trained ear to tell the difference between a shoal of fish echo on the sonar to that of a submarine or that of a whale.
Blood and Circuits has rule bites for Submarine Warfare too. These rules come with a peppering of other modern day situations which could do with a bit of d20 guidance. There is also a collection of combat modifiers. If you peak back up to the list of sample feats you’ll see cover fire and, yes, there are combat modifiers for working with the benefit of covering fire. There are modifiers for when you’re able to operate with air support and even air dominance. We’re just looking at simple plus or minus points to dice rolls here but that works for me. In my mind d20 is supposed to be abstracted and so simple plus or minuses to dice rolls in reaction to complex issues (whether air dominance is reached or not) is not just fine, it’s preferable.
Chapter 2 starts after a 15 or so pages and continues to, almost, the end of the 60-paged supplement. Chapter 2 is all about making stuff and that’s exactly what Blood and Circuits is designed to help with. I’ve just said that the d20 system is supposed to abstract and that’s good. To make something you’d roll your d20, check your Craft skill and see whether the product is good enough. If it’s – you’ve built something, if not – back to the drawing board. That’s fine in most situations but what if the scenario has a lot of time for the nuances of craft and invention? Many scenarios have a lot of time for the nuances and dramatics of combat and d20 has a combat system just for that. Blood and Circuits deliberately offers some optional rules – which are the bulk of the PDF – for gaming groups who want to make more of a meal out of invention. I think this is perfect for d20 modern mercenary groups trying to cobble together their own gear without massive military budgets, for private or arcane investigators who have to device cunning inventions to photograph their targets, plant a bug, or open doors, etc. In my mind it’s the sci-fi games which are likely to have the most cases of player driven intention. Characters trying to improve their space vehicles, adapt their lasers or engage in the sundry occurrences of lateral thinking requires to improve, smuggle, construct, demolish or conceal will frequently require lots of attention from the GM and support in the form of invention rules would be very handy indeed.
The first set of rules simply breaks down the stages in design and construction. You need the theory. You need the materials. You need to put the two together. You need to make the skill checks. Then you’ve your new item.
The second set of rules use Invention Points. Here the more complex items require more Invention Points than the simpler ones. As the inventor works on their device they (hopefully) increase the number of invention points they have spent on the project. This allows GMs to work on a modular system; for every extra bell and whistle the player-inventor wants to add it’s simply a case of adjusting either or both Invention Points and DC values for skills.
RPGObjects does us proud and goes to town with the modular extras and technological differences for inventions and improvements. The rule set begins with stone, goes through bone, bronze and iron, reaches steel, titanium and then dura-steel and goes on to include plasteel, live steal and energy technologies. In fact, RPGObjects does so well here that they make Blood & Circuits work. It’s a good supplement in that it’s professionally written and has a bunch of nicely designed feats and classes. Almost every d20 supplement has that though. It is Blood & Circuits success in introducing a full set of through invention options that boosts the supplement up above that average mark. There are pages of options for modifying and creating new weapons. There are pages of options for inventing and creating new armour. There are pages of rules for inventing and improving computers – both software rules and hardware rules. Similarly, we’ve pages for designing and inventing headquarters, robots and vehicles. It’s great that headquarters are included here. That’s such a typical gamer thing to do; my home is my castle. In addition there’s a whack of rules for general and miscellaneous inventions too.
The invention rules include bugs. After so many of the new advanced classes here made such a big deal out of bug hunting I’m thankful to see that bugs actually show themselves as a real issue in the bigger picture. Blood & Circuits’ rules introduce prototype modifiers which cover the use and unexpected glitches with untested weapons and designs. Authors Rice and Davis use the great example of motor racing to illustrate this point; the combustion engine is well known to engineers today, race car designers have certainly designed and built engines and cars before and these teams of crack mechanics and engineers have multi-million budgets behind them. There are still bugs and quirks in racing car engines. Just today as I write this part of the review the BBC news has a snippet on the new Toyota design for Formula 1. If you work at the cutting edge then you work alongside unexpected bugs. The possibility of bugs is also an important counter point to the joys of custom designing and building your own weapon. It might seem like the way to go – but it could also mean a lot of a lot of badly timed jams.
RPGObjects are very well known for their post apocalyptic Darwin’s World RPG where many of the characters there would likely be involved with adapting and retro engineering technology of various progress levels scavenged from ruins, looted science labs and scrap heaps alike. Thankfully, Blood & Circuits has a healthy (that’s large enough but not too large) Darwin’s World conversion section.
Blood & Circuits is one of those rare RPG supplements which manage to make themselves very useful by simply pushing on and on until they’re there. Blood & Circuits is complete. Its goal, if slightly obscure, is thoroughly achieved and it’s achieved with no small amount of aplomb. In addition Blood & Circuits goal of providing item creation rules and expansions targeted to the Smart Hero is focused enough that it seems unlikely anyone could buy the supplement expecting it to talk about some other aspect of d20 modern or d20 future. This might be something of an info dump for RPGObjects but it is also a safe and solid success. If you know your players are the type to invent, improve or otherwise modify technology and trappings then there’s every reason to find the few dollars required for this PDF.
