To keep a focus on the 2019/2020 Australian Brushfire Crisis, and give an indie RPG the spotlight, I’m looking at The Fallen by Aaron T. Huss and published by Mystical Throne Entertainment. I picked up this Powered by the Apocalypse RPG along with 34 other RPGs, comics, and novels via one of the recent Australia Brushfire Relief Charity Bundles on DriveThruRPG. [This link may be void by the time this article goes live.]
Part of the AU Charity – Modern & Urban Horror [BUNDLE], this game offers an alternate history in which the Inquisition is a force attempting to safeguard humanity against the dark, cosmic horrors that almost captured the Earth during the First Crusade.
What are The Fallen?
“The Fallen are the greatest threat against those who look to enslave or erase humanity. They are supernatural beings that fight the horrors of the universe. While the Inquisition keeps humanity safe, The Fallen keep humanity alive. Without them, humanity would have disappeared long ago.”
The Fallen are supernatural warriors that battle the darkness of the universe, sometimes dubbed the occult. The Inquisition are enemies of the Fallen, but they’re also the enemy of the evil that the Fallen faces. When their agendas align, they find themselves allies instead of hunter and hunted. The setup is a three-way dance with you playing the least organized but most combative faction.
The game takes place in a pre-apocalyptic now as the world leads up to Third Coming of the Occult. Psionics are taking off and the occult is capitalizing on them, building up its strength for a final showdown with the Fallen and the Inquisition.
In the core rulebook, there are six character paths or types: Cambion (a half-demon), Dhampir (a half-vampire), Djinni (a demon), Fallen Angel (not demons but angels that got trapped behind enemy lines, so to speak), Lilin (demonic warriors), and Reverant (humans that have been resurrected as undead warriors). There are no humans or mages in this. While psionics are mentioned as a power of the enemy, they are not available as playbooks.
While this product stands alone as a complete game, it is set in the Shadowed Earth setting. This gives support and flavor to the world and, unlike many indie games, offers some depth of product.
Powered by the Apocalypse
For d20 Radio, I’ve covered two other RPGs that use the Powered by the Apocalypse system, Legacy: Life Among the Ruins 2e and Girl Underground. The PbtA engine is popular because it’s versatile, easy to grasp, and puts emphasis on actions instead of numbers. Pick a playbook (a character sheet that offers various check boxes that flesh out your character and has details about what your Moves in the game are), add a few personal delineations like a name and appearance, and start playing. Every time you describe an action that requires overcoming an obstacle, decide which of your Moves best speaks your direction, roll 2d6 and add a Stat. If the result is 10 or higher, you succeed without a complication. If the result is 7 to 9, you succeed but there’s a cost. Normally that cost is a burden but, in this game, it can be a lesser effect. 6 or below, you fail, and the GM gets a move. Therein lies the secret of the PbtA system, the GM gets moves when the story needs it and when you fail your rolls. Other than that, they’re not the enemy, they’re helping you to tell a tale.
After picking which path, or type, of supernatural creature (half or full demon, half-vamp, angel, or undead) you’re going to be, it’s time to populate stats. For a PbtA game, this one has a larger number of stats: Grit (mental fortitude), Stamina (physical), Acumen (intelligence and wisdom), Vigilance, Karma (used to interact with people and the world), Faith, and Occult (which, in this case, is not the enemy, but the classic meaning of the term).
While each of the stats has a function, Faith has an additional feature; you track your Faith in relation to your relationships with the other characters. This shows how much you trust them (positive) to how much you don’t trust them (negative). You get one point per player and can go negative on any character to get more points for other companions. The idea is, you trust someone(s) at the table, but not everyone. As the game progresses, character actions can influence you to raise or lower your Faith in another character. This is a good option to build table dynamics provided no character gets singled out with negative scores from every other character making them the odd person out.
Esoterica, their name for magic and spell casting, is a common feature for the Fallen. Using the Wield the Forbidden Move, they have spell effects that, while not as numerous as D&D, add variety here.
That said, know this game is brutal juice. Like many PbtA RPGs, damage is titled “Harm” and you have six levels of it (at seven or more, your character is dead). Some weapons are able to do up to five Harm in a single blow (most do less). Add to that, every time you take a Harm, you roll plus Harm Suffered. If you roll high, you suffer more, roll low, you suffer less long term. You may be reading that as a lot of downside but assuming you must heal quickly, right? No. You heal one Harm per week. Spells only let you recover one Harm per day. When you die, and that seems unavoidable, you can be resurrected so there is an option to keep on keeping on.
Should You Fall?
In The Fallen, you’re a supernatural being facing off against worse supernatural beings that are bent on dooming the Earth. This product opens some interesting doors and proposes a great deal of possibilities. Using the Shadow Earth setting, you have resources and more depth than many Powered by the Apocalypse games. Is this the RPG for you? If you’re looking for a rules light RPG where high powered beings facing off against other high powered beings and the possibility of character death is more of a reality, The Fallen awaits you.
NOTE: Save for the AU Charity links, this article includes affiliate links to DriveThruRPG. As a DriveThruRPG Affiliate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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