Game: Chaositech
Publisher: Malhavoc
Series: d20
Reviewer: Wyrdmaster
Review Dated: 19th, January 2004
Reviewer’s Rating: 8/10 [ Really good ]
Total Score: 21
Average Score: 7.00
This is the first review I’ve written in nearly, gosh, nearly a month. So, what happened and what actually does it have to do with Chaositech? I read Chaositech one night and have been ill ever since. In fact, even as I type there’s an unholy amount of slime coming from somewhere. Will it never end? There’s the truth; Chaositech is dangerous stuff!
It’s dangerous in-game as the effects it has on those who use it are startling. It’s also dangerous out-of-game, not because reviewers get ill after reading it, but because it could unbalance your entire game. This isn’t a supplement I’d recommend to a novice. This isn’t a supplement I’d bring to a game where there’s one (or more) annoying player who tends to get what he wants, all those extra powers, by lording over the rest of the game. Chaositech, I fear, is the sort of supplement that’ll run afoul of gaming problems like that. It is the sort of gaming supplement that can add some spice to a tiring campaign world from a most unexpected angle.
Chaositech isn’t an Arcana Unearthed (necessarily) supplement. This has produced some debate in channels I listen to. Some people had noticed that all the best offerings from Malhavoc had gone the way of Arcana Unearthed. There’s no questioning that this isn’t the case in Chaositech as it’s certainly one of the best offerings from Malhavoc in 2003. On the other hand, Chaositech /will/ shake up your campaign world tremendously so. I’ve heard some people mutter that this seismic shaking was what stopped this particular offering from being included in Arcana Unearthed. Why build such a carefully detailed and balance game and then unleash Chaositech on it? I’ll let people have their theories. I don’t really care what Chaositech’s relationship is with other Malhavoc Products. This supplement could easily have been another Event Book (when alien technology is discovered!) (doesn’t that sound like a cable TV show?) … and it still would have worked. The point is the supplement does what it promises it’ll do.
Chaostech, sorry, Chaositech, is about horrible and powerful semi-biological, just not magical technology, which can be used by characters and villains. It uses characters and villains in return. GMs can and should have fun with the back story as to why there is chaositech in the world, where it comes from and what the implications are. I don’t really care to mull over some of the ideas in the supplement itself because they’re good enough to be protected by a spoiler free review.
There are two types of chaositech items. The simple, less dangerous, less powerful devices are more mundane in nature. They might actually look like glass or steel and might even be held in the hand or worn. The more complex devices, the most powerful, the most dangerous are entirely alien. It wouldn’t be unusual to have a complex device which wraps around you, in you, through you, which activates with a thought and which might do something unexpected such as emit a knockout gas or suck the life from mutants.
Ah yes. Mutants. That’s the risk (reward?) of using chaositech. Sooner or later the alien devices will corrupt body, mind and if you care to be dramatic the soul as well. That should be the cost. Watch for players trying to get all the pros without the cons – see comments above about finding a suitable game, suitable gamers to use this with and have patience for a proselytising and ill reviewer. Your body will warp and your mind will twist. Even better – at least from the plot point of view – the chaositech devices will have more control of you and you won’t (can’t) really be sure what they want to do. I like the idea of mutants in a fantasy game. I much prefer dark and sinister fantasy to the high fantasy heroics that feature heavily in most D&D games. Who needs sanity anyway? Mutants are great because they go equally well into both types of fantasy and they’ll go in most other fantasy genres too. Heck. Chaositech as a D20 Modern promise to it too.
The prospect of scary mutant cults has not been overlooked by the supplement. Oh no. The PDF moves into first gear as it opens with a quick run down of a few sample cults. There’s a wealth of ideas here. It’s also an early indication that Monte Cook, author, was determined not just to write a splatbook – even if was always going to be a splatbook with a difference. The balance of crunch and gamemeal is just about right.
Chaositech reminds us at every opportunity that we’re not dealing with magical devices. We’re dealing with something entirely different. Good. Excellent even; a chance to introduce the magic-like into a low magic setting and a chance to add a counter weight to the dominance of extreme magic in a high fantasy setting. There are new spells in the supplement though. The “Detect Mutant” spell is annoying. It’s typical of D&D supplements and is right up there with “Detect Evil” as a drama spoiling, tension wrecking, mystery mashing mechanical villain. The DM really is limited on how far he can take the “anyone of the courtiers could be in the mutant cult…” tension if one of the players has “Detect Mutant”. Mind you the players could equally well have “Detect Chaos” and that’s a likely giveaway too. It’s just because the “Detect” spells are so annoyingly D&D that Monte Cook would have been wrong not to include the blighted spell (and the other similar ones in the supplement). The rule system and the cosmology it supports expects a “Detect Mutant” spell, DMs should have access to it if they want it and can ignore it at their leisure.
The bulk of the PDF is given over to sample chaositech items. Oh, the good news is that there are easy rules for creating your own items and letting your player characters create these items in game. That is if you want to let your characters have access to this sort of, er, chaositechnology. It might just be that only alien gods, strange demons or dark oracle can create new chaositech, if it can be created at all. The “easy” rules are easy to follow. It’s not easy to create these items. We get going at about page 19 and begin with the simple chaositech first and conclude at about 67 with the last of the complex stuff. It’s a free fall into mutation at this point. Once again the mutation rules are simple to follow and yet not so shallow that they feel empty. We don’t quite have “Realms of Chaos” style d1000 lists for mutations here but I’m more than content with a detailed d100 list.
I think new classes and new prestige classes are a given for any d20 supplement and we can certainly expect them from the master classman Monte Cook. Even if you’re fed up to your back teeth with yet another collection of prestige classes these chaositech portfolios are worth checking out. These classes are worth checking out simply because they are focused on the new chaositech – and I doubt you’ve many of those at your disposal – and because each one has the Monte Cook polish.
Okay. So it’s well into 2004 now – but I read Chaositech in 2003 and it was a welcome end to the year. It seemed to sit well with what had gone before (it could be dropped into almost any d20 game) and it spoke volumes of what we might expect in 2004 (something jazzy and new for the campaign) from roleplaying supplements.
