Role-Playing Games | 

• Violence: the RPG of egregious and repulsive bloodshed
• by "Designer X", aka Greg Costikyan
• published by Hogshead Publishing (http://www.hogshead.demon.co.uk/)
• 32 pages, $6.95, 1999
• review by Mark Damon Hughes (http://kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu/~kamikaze/)

Overview

   Violence is ostensibly an RPG about playing thugs, thieves, and serial killers as you break into homes, kill the inhabitants, and take their treasure. Unlike AD&D(r), though, Violence is set in the present, and doesn't claim that it's okay to kill people just because they're of different races. The game is actually intended to be a bitter and cynical commentary on the tastes of many gamers, though in this reviewer's opinion it's too blatant, often degenerating into foaming-at-the-mouth filled-with-bile ranting instead of really trenchant parody. With some slight changes in tone, however, it could be used seriously. No, really...

Decency Warning:

   If casual vulgarity offends you, don't read Violence (or go outside, or watch non-Disney movies, etc.) There's not really anything else in it that would raise an eyebrow as a PG-13 movie.

The Book

   As one of Hogshead's "New Style" games, this is a thin 8.5"x11" book. The front cover has an evil-looking thug standing amid the bloody remains of his foes, with an Uzi in each hand and several swords stuck in the corpses... just like most RPG covers, really. Inside, there's no table of contents and no index, though the book is at least quite short and well-organized. There is no character sheet, and X has the gall to taunt you with that fact inside - instead you are instructed to buy packs of them from Hogshead (i.e., it's a joke). There are 10 half-page pictures and one full-page, all well-executed and gratuitously bloody; for a book this size, that's a LOT of art. Unlike HOL (another game of gratuitous parody and violence), Violence is typeset and has page numbers; rejoice at X's benevolence.

The Game

   The stats (see the sample character at the end) are rolled with the familiar 3d6. You might get to reroll low stats if you suck up to the GM enough, take disads, or send X money. Skills are also in the 3-18 range, but are purchased with skill points. Despite X's claim to have just picked a round number (100), you can build a reasonably broadly-skilled character with those points and the skill list (mostly combat or underworld activities); the sick bastard probably DID design and test this. Next, spend some improbably low amount of starting cash, which is just enough for clothes and weapons, just like that Truncheons & Flagons game.

   Now, one of the useful parts of the game: each item has a "hide" score, positive or negative, which is used to modify the roll to see if the police or civilians notice that you're carrying a hacksaw and a decapitated head under your trenchcoat, along with several other modifiers. Plenty of games have yes/no "can you conceal this?" notes on the equipment list, but Violence actually makes it a serious mechanic and deals with the consequences.

   To the extent the rules system really matters in this book, here it is: tasks use every die you have, and then some, from d3 to d1000. An average task is a d20, and the die size goes up or down depending on difficulty. If you get the skill or stat score or less, you succeed.

   Combat is just a skill roll. If you succeed, you roll two damage dice: one for hit points, one for pain points. An AK-47 does 1d30/1d10, while an orbital sander does 1d3/1d10. There are no splatter rules and no criticals. In a game called "violence", supposedly mocking how bloodthirsty RPGs are, this is an underwhelming treatment. The sole redeeming factor to the combat section is a rant and some simple guidelines for Innocent Bystanders and missed shots.

   Now we approach X's foamiest rant... Money-grubbing by the game companies. On the back cover are 10 "Experience Points", like proofs-of-purchase, and you have to show all the EPs you've "earned" to a new GM to play an experienced character in a new campaign. The GM (or a munchkin player) has to buy any extras past that first 10. Buy them from Hogshead, that is. All this is really just a tirade against supplementitis and some of the RPGA's less savory activities. My complaint, though, is that it doesn't go far enough in the joke. Why does X award only 2 EP or so per session, subjectively, when a by-hit-die chart and EPs for treasure would be more to the point? And in the fine tradition of videogames, everything should have been multiplied by 100 or 1000. This was a very disappointing section.

   The drugs section is also mostly a rant, with some very subjective rules boiling down to "look it up in a real book". Yeah, whatever. Sex, or ****ing, is an amusing rant leading up to an announcement for "Dungeons & Discipline", the BDSM supplement (it's a joke), but has no rules, which for once is a really good thing. I'd say to just use the torture rule from combat and get it over with (in this game's context, they're the same thing).

   "Monster" listings are in two parts: "Decent, Law-Abiding Citizens" and "The Pigs". The first is an excuse for X to rant a bit more, with some stats and a few surprises for GMs to spring on players. The Pigs section is fairly useful - not well-researched, as X admits, but all the info you'd really need in for practical purposes. By the way, a "haligan tool" (a term X is confused by) is better known as a "hooligan tool", i.e. a big crowbar with a pick on the end, used for popping locks and doors.

   Then there's an excellent parody of AD&D(r)'s random treasure and dungeon creation tables. Good taste and sick humor aside, this is all directly useful stuff, giving personal and home possessions for criminals to loot, and notes on laying out apartment complexes and the like. And yes, you map on graph paper at a scale of 1 square = 10'.

Alternative Uses

   Consider Frank Miller's Sin City and Batman: Year One, or the movies Pulp Fiction, The Big Hit, La Femme Nikita, The Professional, El Mariachi, any movie by Quentin Tarantino or John Woo, and so on. You get criminals, cops, guns, and victims together, and suddenly you have a plot. Violence assumes the PCs are psychopaths, but what if they're the cops (and not just "renegade cops with bad attitudes who get a dirty job done", but the real ones)? Or Mafia enforcers, trying to keep some honor and decency while killing for a living? Or vigilantes, sick of seeing criminals get away from the cops?

Conclusion

   As a game: Violence's weak combat system and lack of many non-combat skills makes it a mediocre choice as a standalone game, unless you like very freeform games or making major additions. On the other hand, it WOULD make a fine supplement to your favorite modern system, as it covers a few subjects other games never have in any detail. As a rant: buy it, you need and deserve this. At 7 bucks, you can't go too wrong.

Sample Character

Philo
Male, unemployed trucker
Strength           12    Hit Points: 8 /
Threshold of Pain  14
Constitution       15    Pain Points: 10 /
Intimidation       12
Everything Else    11

Skills:                  Record:
Unarmed Combat     15      Hit-and-run arrest, released on lack of evidence.
Handgun            10      Multiple speeding violations.
Cosh               15      Drunk driving arrest, license suspended.
Reading             8      Driving without a license - 30 days in county,
Writing             8        truck impounded and repossessed.
Driving            12
Underworld Lore    10
Sports Lore         6
Law                 6
Italian            10

$73  (left from $400 starting cash)
Saturday night special (hide 1)
3 clips (hide 1)
brass knuckles (hide 1)
army boots, jeans, Mortal Combat "Fatality" t-shirt, wool army coat,
underwear, socks, baseballcap (hide -7)
beeper
cigs, cheap lighter
cheap knapsack (hide -2)
crowbar (hide 2)

Last modified: 1999Oct28
Created