Promethean: The Created
An Old School Sourcebook Review
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[/img]
Promethean is now seven years old, so we can make an OSSR out of it. Vampire: the Masquerade was a huge surprise hit, and their followup project was Werewolf: the Apocalypse in 1992. Since then, people have been expecting a Frankenstein's Monster game, because if you asked people to name a monster “like a vampire”, most people would say “Werewolf”, but if you asked them to name four such monsters, there isn't a man alive who wouldn't get to Frankenstein's Monster somewhere in their list. And so it was that just fourteen years and fifteen games later, White Wolf finally delivered on fan expectations and produced a game about Frankenstein's Monster. Creature From the Black Lagoon is still outstanding. There's a fan product on rpg.net called Leviathan: the Tempest, but I think it's permanently stuck in development hell.
Why did it take so fucking long? Well, the most obvious answer is that how you would go about reproducing the winning Vampire formula with Frankenstein is not at all obvious. Adam's true horror is that he is alone, and when you serve it up as a cooperative storytelling game with multiple protagonists, that is already out the window. Also, while Dracula has other vampires to talk to and dominate, and Lestat has a whole vampire hierarchy to overthrow, there is no society of monsters for Frankenstein's Monster to interact with. If Adam had even a second monster to talk to, none of the story's events would have unfolded. The primary conflict is between Viktor and Adam, where Adam wants more monsters so he can have a monster society and peers to talk to, and Viktor won't do it because he is a dick.
There is a reason that when Frankenstein's Monster is introduced in movies along side other monsters, that those are usually different monsters. Whether we're talking about classics like Monster Squad or Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein or... less classic... movies like Van Helsing, we still get Frankenstein's Monster along side Vampires and Werewolves and Mad Scientists. No one has ever made a “Frankenstein's Monster Society” because that is an oxymoron.
But in 2006, White Wolf had already doubled down on their New World of Darkness and shat out 3 games for it (nVampire, nWerewolf, and nMage). Doing things that were bad ideas that probably shouldn't be done was old hat at that point. So they crammed together thirteen designers and nine authors (yes, really) to work up a Frankenstein's Monster game, and Promethean: the Created was born.
Weighing in at 284 pages and over two hundred thousand words (and requiring the basic World of Darkness book to play), Promethean is a hefty tome. It also doesn't make a lot of sense. The book reads like the authors and designers weren't really talking to each other, and this was probably exactly what happened. It has most of the same design staff as made nMage, and also nWerewolf, both of which came out the previous year. So this entire book is very much a shovelware production – it certainly looks from the calendar that primary writing for this baby was done in a few months at most. There simply wasn't time for the different writers and designers to actually discuss design directions with each other. This isn't obvious in every part of the book, nWoD splat books are incredibly formulaic, and where it keeps to the formula you sometimes forget that there are nine authors and thirteen designers working at a frantic pace with little oversight (and that provided by Bill Bridges and Justin Achilli and thus probably worse than not having the Eye of Sauron pointed at the workers at all). But whenever it veers away from the formula, the fractured incoherence of it all is front and center. But we'll burn those bridges when we come to them, because a much bigger problem is that the game is essentially unplayable as designed. The main overarching themes of Promethean are largely incompatible with cooperative storytelling.
We'll start at the beginning of the book. Well, we'll start at the table of contents. The books actually starts with a seventeen page mini-story, but we can't read it so we won't. I know that I read and discussed the story at the beginning of Scion for its drunken review, but in this case it just can't be done. See, it's all written in a font called “p22 Da Vinci Forward Regular”, which is supposed to look handwritten or something, but instead just looks like the typesetter is shitting on the book in your hands while you are trying to read it. There is a time and a place for fonts that have weird shit on the letters, and that is titles and headers. You don't use that shit for text bodies because they are too much work to read, and because when you have the same letter with the same curlycue several times in one page it doesn't look anything like an organic hand written anything and just looks like the typesetter is shitting on the manuscript in your hands.
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Seriously, there's a whole chapter written in this shit
So the book is divided into 8 chapters, and only four of them deign to be named “chapters”. The first two chapters are the “prologue” and the “introduction”, while the last two chapters are the “appendix” and the “epilogue”. So chapters 1 to 4 are really chapters 3 to 6. Such is life.
Anyway, at first you think that Introduction is also a thing you have to skip, because the first page of it is in p22 Da Vinci Forward Regular again. That thankfully goes away at the end of the page. I can only assume that the typesetter simply fucked up when selecting text. The typesetter by the way is “matt milberger” (all lowercase), so seriously fuck that guy.
The introduction doesn't do a really great job of explaining what the fuck is going on, primarily because (surprisingly enough) it's a sprawling overwritten chunk of ramble text. But in no small part it is because the intro tries to get you on board with the weird metaphysics before it bothers to tell you what the game is about. I believe this is because Bill Bridges (of oMage and nMage fame) was the nominal developer for this title and presumably handed out writing assignments and set the pace for the book.
The actual bottom line is that you play synthetic people called “Prometheans” and you have magic powers, but a consequence of those magic powers is that people around you gradually go crazy and if you stay in any one place for very long the effect gets both bigger and worse. Meanwhile there are similar creatures called Pandorans that are trying to murder you. That didn't take very much text at all, and while it's incredibly problematic (as we'll discuss in later chapters), it's not like it's a difficult set of concepts to convey. However, the way they actually attempt to introduce this is like so:
Then it gets down to the nitty gritty of explaining how you have Pyros, which is their “Divine Fire”, but you won't be able to figure that out from this because it talks about it as “Inner Fire” for a couple of paragraphs and then starts talking about “Pyros”, which is the same damn thing, in the next paragraph with no indication that the same thing is being discussed. And you have Azoth, which is your inner furnace of purified Pyros that makes your Pyros. Yes, really. But the Pandorans don't have their own Azoth, but they still have Pyros, and that's why they want to kill you – so they can drink your sweet Pyros that you got from your Azoth made of Pyros.Promethean Introduction wrote:Prometheans are monsters created by monsters. They are incomplete souls inhabiting bodies that have been dismembered and reassembled, then animated, not by life, but a cruel imitation of life: a mysterious, alchemical force — the Divine Fire stolen from the gods by Prometheus. They are beings fueled by a transformative power, with capabilities far greater than those of mortals.
Myths and legends tell of the creation of the Prometheans, although mortals are unaware that these diverse tales reveal that monsters actually walk among them. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is considered a work of fi ction, but it tells of the creation of a Promethean by a mortal alchemist who wielded the Divine Fire. Was Shelley aware of the truth behind her fantastic story, or did she believe she made it all up? Some Prometheans say that the monster himself, Frankenstein’s creation, revealed the story to her, whispering to her as she slept in fevered dreams, unaware of his presence. He desperately needed to communicate his tragedy to a world in which he could not himself participate. Others say that it was the monster’s bride who told the tale to Shelley, deliberately warping it to make the monster seem worse.
Older legends also hint at other Prometheans. Osiris was killed and dismembered, and then Isis recovered his limbs and gave him new life as the lord of the Underworld. Pygmalion made Galatea, a woman “carved from marble,” given life by his need and the breath of the gods. Siberian shamans suffered terrible initiations in trances where they were torn to pieces by demons and then reassembled, with powers unknown to other men. And, of course, there is the legend of the Golem, the being of clay animated by magic to deliver vengeance.
Although the details of these stories are half-truths colored by human ignorance, they reveal the existence of the Prometheans and the force that animates them. They tell of mortals who kindled the Divine Fire within a lifeless body. What they don’t tell is that such an act of Promethean generation by mortals is extremely rare — it has been accomplished only a handful of times throughout recorded history. Each act of creation produced a single Promethean. These lonely Prometheans later sought to create others of their own kind for themselves, producing lineages of monsters. The successive creations are unknown to humans, yet it is those successors who stalk the world still, desperate for an acceptance and belonging that their misbegotten nature denies them.
There's actually a lot of terminology in here. The thing where you drive humans and animals crazy is called “disquiet”, and the area you do it in is called your “wasteland”. But the slow trickle of new words isn't really going to stop. The last part of the introduction is a lexicon that goes on for four pages and has more than eighty entries. Obviously we can't go through these terms one by one, so I'm going to pour myself another glass of whiskey and power through.
The basic themes of this game are at once a kick in the face and a terrible misunderstanding of their market. You're supposed to be on an isolated and deeply personal pilgrimage to attain mortality and stop being a supernatural creature. Really. That is not a joke. The hook is that you don't and can't interact meaningfully with mortal or supernatural society and that you think your super powers are so shitty that you want to get rid of them. And the win condition doesn't really even have rules.
I don't know who this game was supposed to appeal to. If you agree with the central premise that you don't want to be a Promethean, wouldn't you just not play the game? And how the fuck are you supposed to mix these characters into already going World of Darkness games, when they can't stay in one town (while everything else in the nWoD is supposed to sit in one city and never ever leave) and get penalized for interacting with the same people over an extended period of time (even if they are also PCs)? Seriously, what the fuck?
Well, it wouldn't be a World of Darkness product if there weren't a bunch of new symbols to learn. These symbols are based on Alchemy, which means that they are completely abstract series of lines. Here are three:
Someone needs to stab that graphic designer, because those symbols convey zero information.
Next up: Chapter 1: Setting. Because we aren't to chapter 1 yet.
