Armaggeddon Nuke 5 Review

[Elder Raman]

Theyear is 2016. A being of enormous power known as the Dark Apostle and his Church of Revelations are waging World War 3 on both mundane and supernatural fronts on behalf of Leviathan, one of the Mad Gods from outside all of Creation bent on corrupting reality itself. Humans with supernatural abilities and inhuman creatures serve openly with the mundane armies of the world to combat the threat, but most of Europe and South America have fallen, as have much of the Middle East and Asia. The Pope has been executed, the angelic army sent to his rescue destroyed. The United States endures, but with the Dark Apostles Army of Revelations pounding at its southern border and with chaos and paranoia turning parts of its cities and countryside into Escape from New York and Road Warrior, respectively.

The primary difference between this character creation chapter and the corresponding chapters in other Unisystem games is the greater emphasis placed on the four campaign power levels of Pre-Heroic, Heroic, Legendary, and Mythic in Armageddon, certain character types are suitable only at certain levels. And this is a wise move, as it prevents one-size-fits-all game balance concerns from crippling powerful entities. (For a perfect example of a game guilty of the latter, see my Everlasting: Book of the Fantastical review.)

On a related note, the chapter offers a nice spread of archetypes across the power levels up to Legendary, from a humble front-line grunt on up to the daughter of a death god. Some tempting options like Special Forces Soldier and Immortal Stuntman round out the selection.

Aside from the Qualities and Drawbacks common to all standard Unisystem games and those for the various supernatural races introduced in this book, two new and interesting entries drew my notice. The first is the Beholden Drawback, which lets a powerful supernatural entity see through the PCs eyes at the lower level and take him over at the higher level. And the second is the Enlightened Quality, which takes Gifted status to the next level for seers and magicians. Such characters can spend any amount of their Essence instantly in the manner of the Inspired, without the need to Channel. Regrettably, the player in my game who was to play an Enlightened character had to back out, but it looks as though these characters are powerful enough to keep up with the most powerful of the inhuman types.

Playtest: This turned out to be something of a necessity, since certain types of creatures seemed to run out of reasonable power purchases or, in some cases, any powers to purchase at all. This happened with the Immortal Shetarri Warrior in the group, who, lacking access even to most Immortal powers, had to settle for pumped-up attributes. As a result, he ended up being the most physically powerful member of the group.

Playtest: I switched over to the fixed target numbers when one of our larger skirmishes bogged down. This speeded things up to the general satisfaction of everyone. Still, I went back to standard Unisystem attack rolls for the goon NPCs after a while, just to give them a chance to open-end and get a lucky shot. The difference in competence between the PCs and the "goon" NPCs was much greater than in the typical Buffy game, and having the NPCs blazing away round after round with basically no chance to hit got old.

In combat, my Legendary-level PCs proved capable of dishing out extraordinary amounts of damage in some cases, putting them on par with heavy artillery. Taking damage, however, was a different issue altogether. As I said in my WitchCraft review, offense can suddenly and unexpectedly outstrip defense in Unisystem. Here, though, I discovered that my non-human PCs were as remarkably durable as advertised the demon PC shrugged off a direct hit from an anti-tank missile with barely a scratch, for example. This proved to be a bit of a problem for the one human PC in the group, who, while spirit bonded and extremely deadly in combat, lacked any special defensive or recuperative powers imagine a lone infantryman walking along with a group of tanks, and having to endure firepower designed to destroy tanks. Chapter Five: Tools

As might be expected from a game set during wartime, the equipment lists focus heavily on weaponry. Well, okay, they focus exclusively on weaponry. That specificity pays off, however, with the chapter covering everything from pocketknives to fuel-air explosive bombs. (No nukes, though, but that's not a problem for unknown reasons, they haven't worked since the war began anyway.)

Included are some nifty examples of near-future tech, like the HAR-19 heavy assault rifle with ramjet-propelled rounds and a computer sight that projects its image on the visor of the formidable U.S. Combat Armor, allowing soldiers to shoot around corners. Low tech isn't neglected, however: for the anachronistic, broadswords, maces, bows, crossbows, and plate mail are all there.

Better still, this edition fills a huge gap in the first in the form of military vehicle stats: tanks, armored personnel carriers, and jet fighters from both sides, as well as the ever-popular Hummer. I think a helicopter would have been nice as well, since the typical PC group is far more likely to encounter and/or use one of those than they are a jet. Still, given the lack of any military vehicles at all in the first edition, I'm not complaining too loudly about the omission.

Playtest: Speaking of omissions, the lack of non-military vehicles got in the way a bit when one player wanted his character to have a pickup truck. For that, I had to refer to my copy of All Flesh Must Be Eaten.

I also wish that the equipment lists had included prices for the military weapons. Yes, I understand that they're not for sale through legitimate channels, but having some idea of what they'd cost on the black market would have been nice. As it is, the Resources Quality is of limited use in the highly likely event that your PCs are members of a group that can provide military hardware, given that arms and armor are the only products available for purchase. Several of my players didn't see much point in providing their own civilian rifles, for example, in lieu of just requisitioning them from the higher ups.

However, the true stroke of genius in terms of both setting and game mechanics is the Alliance, a union of supernatural organizations dedicated to the defeat of Leviathan. With its governmental contacts and provision for dual group membership, the Alliance is the perfect story motivator and group unifier. Like all organizations in the setting, it includes a small game mechanics perk for members; however, those with dual membership can choose which groups perk they want, symbolizing where their strongest loyalties lie. And even if certain characters want no affiliation with the Alliance at all, their organization might nevertheless send them on joint missions with the Alliance.

Playtest: My group, for example, included a Nephilim, an Infernal Seraph, an Immortal, and two Primals all of whom might well be at each other's throats, were it not for the unifying influence of the Alliance. Sure, we could have come up with a way to unite the diverse group anyway, but the Alliance provided a quick and plausible solution.

(And then theres the fact that the Alliance founders are the Norse god Odin, the self-exiled archangel Michele a.k.a. Michael, when shes in a masculine mood and the ghost of Benjamin Franklin. I just find that triumvirate really entertaining.)

Playtest: I didnt have the foggiest idea how many goodies the Alliance would shell out for my groups team, for example. Their requests were surprisingly low-key, so it wasnt much of an issue. But if they'd requested full combat armor, or a crate of grenades, or a rocket launcher, I'd have been at something of a loss.

Seraphim are the classic angels and demons: in their Divine/Infernal forms, winged entities of incredible beauty and power. They come in Lesser, Common, and Greater power levels, the main difference being the levels of their Primary and Secondary Attributes. All of them can manipulate Celestial/Infernal fires to create blasts, blades, and shields or armor, spend Essence to heal themselves instantly, and alter probabilities in ways at once reminiscent of Marvel Comics' Scarlet Witch and the Drama Points of the Buffy RPG.

In addition, all Seraphs have one or more special powers to aid them in their particular missions. These are pretty heavy-duty, including the ability to heal basically anything, teleport anywhere the angel's seen, or erase a being right out of existence, history and all. However, Seraphim can become Exiles by force or by choice. This traps them in human form and robs them of most of their flashy abilities; however, they keep their superhuman attributes, and gain the advantage of no longer being the equivalent of supernatural signal flares to their enemies.

Playtest: The Infernal Seraph in my group definitely served as the big gun. As previously mentioned, she was able to withstand a direct hit with an anti-tank missile thanks to her Hellfire shield, and her Hellfire blasts tipped the balance of the fight in the PCs favor several times. Whats more, she regained Essence at a truly terrifying rate, allowing her to throw around high-powered Hellfire bolts with near impunity.

Kerubim, unlike Seraphim, are deceased humans, and hence better able to deal with humanity. They are less powerful overall than the Seraphim, lacking wings and Celestial Fire, but nonetheless get some of their own special abilities.

Nephilim are the offspring of humans and Seraphim. They have superhuman attributes across the board, albeit nothing compared to their fully angelic kin. However, not only can they recover from any injury short of total immolation including decapitation but they are also completely immune to supernatural powers, whether powered by Essence (the building blocks of Creation) or Taint (the anti-Essence of the Mad Gods and their warped realities). Leviathan itself could unleash a nuke-level blast of pure Taint on a Nephilim and not leave a scratch. While obviously handy, this ability makes supernatural types really uncomfortable, which in turn makes Nephilim really big targets for extermination by most angels and demons as well as by Leviathans minions.

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