Game: Denizens of the Twisted Earth
Publisher: RPGObjects
Series: Darwin’s World: d20
Reviewer: Wyrdmaster
Review Dated: 11th, February 2002
Reviewer’s Rating: 6/10 [ On the ball ]
Total Score: 6
Average Score: 6.00
Darwin’s World is a pdf based game world in the d20 mechanics from RPG Objects. Darwin’s World is a blasted wasteland were mutants evolved from the human stock that managed to survive the nuclear fall look to be new inheritors of the earth.
Denizens of the Twisted Earth is the first pay-to-download supplement for the game and it covers more than just a sampling of people. Denizens is certainly value for money, it has 48 pages that are absolutely packed full of text I’m looking at the new revision of the supplement at the minute, the first was a wash of text, in this one they’ve mingled in pictures to break up the sea of words. It sounds like a little thing but it makes a big difference. I’m re-writing the review. There are still plenty of pages where you’ll find nothing but text but the breaks for the eye candy give your brain time to mull over what you’ve read. Pictures also help to enforce the images and ideas that the text was putting over. One test for RPGs is to see whether the pictures seem to relate to what’s been written at all. If they don’t then it suggests to me that the authors failed to express their “world view” ideas to the artists and if that happens then it couldn’t have been a very good world. With Denizens of the Twisted Earth the pictures fit very well, I especially liked the three armed Mech.
Adventure Locations
The first chapter is one of the better sections in the download. The range of locations suggested is wider than might be expected and not immediately obvious either. This section alone is a showcase for the versatility of a post-apocalyptic world setting.
Major Groups
The way the Darwin’s World‘s character class system works means that the group section was going to run the risk of being something of a re-cap. Essentially your character class in the game is a reflection on the community way of life you know. The re-cap trap does detract from the Major Groups, in too many cases a group is pretty much only a character class template given a name and a geographical location. On the plus side the Groups are identified along with their parent character class origins and so you’re not left to the mundane task of having to link the two together yourself. It is worth saying that not all the Major Groups are so transparent since some are better than expected. The outsiders is a welcome sub-section that details some of the smaller but still note worthy groups. Images of chemical wasteland roaming Amazons or mutated bouncer hunters as Darwin’s World’s unique police force are both pretty cool. This section benefits from the re-release of the download, the major groups come with colourful logos and insignias. Post-apocalyptic heraldry. Unlike the uniform shields of old though these insignias come in a whole range of different shapes and sizes.
Legends, Myths and Famous Places
Umm. Yes and no. I thought this would be a great place to hark back to what might have survived the fall, be it technology or ideals. Myths such as the Star Cult nestle wonderfully with this preconceived conception of mine as does the Arching Eye, a mysterious light that sometimes appears in the sky. On the “no” side of the coin you have the few legendary NPCs. Whereas I suppose it could be argued that legends of individuals could and probably would persist even in the wreck of civilisation that forms the basis of Darwin’s World I just wasn’t able to shake of the feeling that the examples given in this section where anything else than favourite player characters from the author’s own game group. I will admit that I happen to have a bee in my bonnet about this sort of thing, having previously poked fun at Forgotten Realms for telling me Elminster’s dancing score as soon as page 7 and the dire Secrets of the Dread Realms for being nothing but a collection of useless stats. I hate it; others might love it even though you’re not tortured with the actual stats for these legends (which would be worse).
Commonly Accepted Rules of the Wasteland
Use this large side bar as the example of the mixed quality that represents Denizens. The rules start of good and strong, “If you are dying and a man shares with you his water, you owe him your life” but start to slide until two different rules say the same thing “Might makes right” and “He who has the biggest gun and the greatest strength makes the rules”. I’ve started to use the Commonly Accepted Rules of the Wasteland as a way to summarise the theme of the game for people who are new to it. The need for water, food and basic survival comes before any attempt to sort out conflict or clashes.
Prestige Classes
Well, you knew there would be prestige classes sooner or later. I felt, though, that by this point the download had waited long enough before presenting them. Better still, some of the prestige classes relate back to the groups that had been detailed before. This is the sort of thing I appreciate, I believe the prestige class should have a solid grounding in the game world and not introduced as a token extra on the side. Many of the classes are actually “prestigious” which is again something some publishers seem to ignore. There are very many of these prestige classes. Again you’re getting value for money but value that is cramped into a small a space as possible. Ranger is a prestige class, lovely!
Maps
It is worth scrolling past the OGL text to get to the maps at the end of the text. Some people really get into cartography through their roleplaying and spend their time creating wonderful old looking maps. In Darwin’s World you get a weird blend of future and old looking maps.
I think Darwin’s World is the best supported PDF rpg out there at the minute and it continues to grow. If you already have the old edition of Denizens then I’d recommend the update.
