Tales of Gargentihr: Real Fantasy

Yet another British RPG from the mid-nineties and part of the ‘it only cost a quid’ collection, Tales of Gargentihr (ToG) is more impressive than the usual small-press offering. A 340 page perfect bound book with a large number of relatively well done illustrations (even though they seem to have been scanned at too low a resolution; there are pixels everywhere), the book is pleasant to read though some of the sidebars are a bit too busy due to a textured background.

The cover does remind me of the cover of Chaos Engine, a game for the Amiga.

Anyway, what is ToG about? I’ve decided it’s easiest to let the book speak for itself and quote from the back cover.

Real Fantasy

In 1492 two continents met and the humans known as Karro first sighted the New World. In the villages there they met a simple and peaceful people who greeted them as gods. From these bases the Karro explored and claimed their New Republic of Gevuria.

It is now 1585 and the Ha’esh villages have grown into pollution filled Karro towns; the Ha’esh relegated to second class citizens in their own land. The new Institutes of the Karro collide head on with the old guard of the Chuch, whilst the bordering realms of Khos-Tavar and Ja’Hall look on with growing apprehension at their swiftly expanding neighbour.

Into this turmoil come the Clondis, a secret society of adventurers from all walks of life; grizzled streetmen from the back alleys of Rol Katel, educated society men from the mighty capital of Treth and noble Channi, the holy warriors of the Ha’esh. The Clondis accept any who are bold enough into its ranks and turn away no task that it deems worthy.

Tales of Gargentihr

Gargentihr is a world far different from our own. The continents drift upon endless seas of silt whilst Sa-energy crackles overhead in the blackened skies. The continent of Agasha lies before you, awaiting discovery.

Gargentihr is a world both ancient and new. The Insitute of New Science explores the frontiers of technology, whilst the secret powers of the Ancients reign within the dark corners of Agasha. Man stands on the brink of a glorious new age of knowledge, but many would block his progress.

This strange world is finely detailed throughout the rules and plunges the players into an alien landscape ripe for exploration.

Notice something there? Not one mention about revolutionary rules or there being a thousand and one new skills and realistic combat. ToG is selling itself on the strength of its setting rather than its rules.

Characters are members of the Clondis, and form a Shevin attached to a Clon-hall.

Reading through the Clondis chapter, your characters are basically part of an extended A-team, without the ‘arrested for a crime they didn’t commit’ bit.

“If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire...the Clondis.”

Doesn’t sound quite right, but close enough.

Now to get started with character creation.

First, I need to decide what sort of character I'm going to play, this is easy enough, I’ll be trying to build a warrior-scholar. The game suggests four basic concepts for characters if you’re having trouble, the warrior, the scholar, the rogue and the mystic along with brief details of how such a character fits into the world.

Now to roll my Characteristics. There are there are ten of these, 6 physical, 4 mental. For humans they range between 1 and 10 with an average of 4. They’re generated by rolling a d20 and checking a table.

The table has three columns; Medium, Favoured and Slighted. The column you roll on determines the value. For example, rolling a 10 would get me a value of 5 on the Medium column, 7 on the Favoured and 3 on the Slighted.

All characteristics apart from Dalshra, which is slighted, are rolled on the Medium column. You can choose to shift a characteristic up a column at the cost of shifting one down. To get Dalshra to Favoured would require two shifts of other attributes to Slighted.

The Characteristics are Strength, Health, Agility (on which Initiative is based), Manipulation (fiddly desxterity), Stealth, Combat, Senses (perception), Knowlegde, Kai (charisma, empathy, spiritual well being), Dalshra (magic).

It doesn’t say whether you roll and arrange to suit, or roll and keep, so I’ll go for roll and keep. Before I roll I decide to Favour Combat, and Knowledge, and Slight Kai and Stealth.

Rolling and checking, I get the following results.

STR: 5
HEA: 5
AGL: 8
MAN: 5
STE: 3
COM: 10
SEN: 4
KNO: 7
KAI: 2
DAL: 3

Pretty good based on the human average being 4. However it should be noted that the Medium table is set up so that you have a slightly better chance of rolling scores above average. I approve of this; there are still too many RPGs that seem to want to make you play the lowest of the low.

Next I have to pick between one of the two types of humans, the invading Karro or the native Ha’esh. Reading up on them, I decide the Ha’esh are more interesting. PC Ha’esh have ceremonially died left their clans to seek enlightenment.

This gives my character a +1 to Health, and the following skills: Silent Way 4 (SEN), Speak Geruvian 5 (SEN), Speak Ha’esh 4 (SEN) and Cultural lore, Ha’esh 2 (KNO).

Next I roll my family background, getting a 16. My character grew up in a port as his family have been working for the Karro for at least a generation. I get the following skills: Cultural lore, Geruvian 2 (KNO), Ettiquette 2 (KAI), Literacy – Lathmirian 1 (KNO) and 4 Wealth points.

Rolling on the location table and starting age tables, I find my character grew up in the port of Treth and left home at 14.

The next part of character creation is lifepath based. You get 6 terms of randomly determined length to represent your character’s travels and adventures before they join the Clondis. During these terms your character follows an apprenticeship and at least one occupation. Not all options are available at all locations, but you can move between locations freely at the beginning of the term.

So, my first step is to decide what Apprenticeship I want my character to serve.

I don’t have a lot of options for my character – it’s not going to be possible to keep to concept.

Anyway, the only Apprenticeship open to my character is that of Pathsilker – part guide, part rural cop. I decide that my character travels to Ronth to train as a Pathsilker.

Rolling on the event year for that term at Ronth, I find out that my character was came into contact with a Geographical expedition that set out into the swamps. Rolling on the Event outcome table, it seems that my character made friends with someone on the Expedition. I roll on the Individuals table and come up with a member of the Institute of Law who has the trait of being Friendly.

My character spends one and a half years as a trainee Pathsilker, gaining 28 points to spend on appropriate skills.

My skill totals after spending points are:

Riding-sleth 1
Combat-ghurti 2
Endurance 1
Survival-swamp 1
Cultural lore-Ha’esh 3
Sense sho’ta 1
Boating 2
Corncraft 1
Silent way 4
Speak Ha’esh 4
Swimming-water 1

A ghurti is apparently a machete, a sleth is some sort of riding lizard and sho’ta is a soul trace – the skill allows my character to see them and to track people he knows via it.

Anyway, after a year and a half it becomes clear that my character doesn’t have what it takes to be a full pathsilker (they have a requirement of SEN 5) so leaves Ronth to travel to Rol-katel, where he becomes a Danja – a street performer, spending 2 and a half years there, gaining 36 SPs.

Event: Sarakern arrive at the Windbays and hold a trading festival; as a result of this my character ends up in debt to the sum of 350 Clys to a fawning criminal.

Acute balance 4
Crowd manoeuvre 2
Juggling 4
Heavy drinking 3
Gaming 2
Street lore 1

As a result of the money owed, my character decides it’s prudent to leave Rol-katel and travels to Jagan where he signs up with a Siltreaver crew. Unless the event rolls indicate otherwise, I’m planning to have him spend the remaining four terms as a Siltreaver based around Jagan.

Term one

Duration: 2 years, 32 SPs
Event: Non-human traders take an interest me in, with an outcome of my guy picking up something from them – I gain four extra SPs.

Term two

Duration: 2 years, 32 SPs
Event: A silt storm floods the dock area under a foot of silt. As a result of this and meeting a violent non-human (maybe a guard of one of the traders from the previous term?) I pick up 3 levels in a skill relevant to the event. Not sure what that would be yet.

Term three

Duration: 2 years, 32 SPs
Event: The Blood-scourge (a rather nasty plague) kills many in the town. As a result, I gain +1 to a related attribute. As it didn’t kill my character, I decide it should go on health, bringing his total health to 7.

Deciding that it’s time to leave, my character takes his leave of the Siltreaver crew and travels to Geva where he spends another one-and-a-half years as a Danja again, gaining 28 kill points.

Event: Strangers use secret paths to enter the port. As a result of this my character ends up owning several favours to a witty Doctor.

Time to spend all those skill points.

I have 100 to spend on Silt Reaver skills

Athletics 4
Combat-brawling 4
Combat military-davin 6
Endurance 2
Navigation-silt 5
Tactics-naval 5
Ropemastery 2
Sailing 2
Scaling 2
Bow-long 2
Speak Khan’Dha 2
Weather lore 1
Swimming-silt 2

A davin is a sword. I also decide that my three skill levels that I got in term 2 are best applied to the Swimming-silt skill, bringing it to 5.

For my final term as a Danja, I have 28 skill points.

Acute balance 6
Crowd manoeuvre 4
Juggling 6
Heavy drinking 4
Gaming 2
Street lore 2
Tjhav 3

Tjhav is a form of darts played with spiky balls.
At the end of my 6 terms, my character is 25 and a half years old and has the following skills.

Silent Way 4
Speak-Geruvian 5
Speak-Ha’esh 4
Cultural lore-Ha’esh 2
Cultural lore-Geruvian 2
Ettiquette 2
Literacy-Lathmirian 2
Athletics 4
Combat-brawling 4
Combat military-davin 6
Endurance 2
Navigation-silt 5
Tactics-naval 5
Ropemastery 2
Sailing 2
Scaling 2
Bow-long 2
Speak Khan’Dha 2
Weather lore 1
Swimming-silt 2
Acute balance 6
Crowd manoeuvre 4
Juggling 6
Heavy drinking 4
Gaming 2
Street lore 2
Tjhav 3

I havn’t spent any points on wealth, so I now check to see what my starting 4 WPs translates to, which turns out to be 240+(d6*20) Cyls. I roll 4, giving me 320 Cyls in starting money. I also get to pick the equipment from one of my occupations, and go for the Siltreaver stuff, giving me a Silt coat, Silt trews, Silt goggles and a weapon. I pick a military davin for that as it’s my best weapon skill.

There are a few attributes I need to work out, and then we’re done.

My character has an Agility of 8, so gets an initiative score of 14 and a Strength of 5 which means no damage modifier.

ToG uses something it calls an Energy Bar as a unified record of Fatigue, encumbrance and Initiative. A brief look at the combat chapter shows that Fatigue seems to replace hit points to a degree, though there’s a second damage status known as a Wound Effect which adds to the difficulty level of all rolls.

Character generation, though slightly longwinded, has provided me with a fairly interesting character. The lift path system used has given me both a barebones background and some plot hooks for the GM to work into the upcoming campaign.

However, this was the first of the non-random character generation systems that didn't allow me to follow my concept, though it would probably have been possible if I'd made a Karro rather than Ha'esh character.

The setting of ToG is detailed and looks interesting, but went out of its way to be strange for the sake of being strange - see the funny names for swords and machetes as an example. There are too many setting terms and odd names for all but the most dedicated players to want to remember. Also, many of said words and names feel like a collection of random syllables rather than an attempt to represent a coherant language.

Phil Masters has written a detailed review of Tales of Gargentihr over on his website, worth a read.

Next, Call of Cthuhlu, 4th edition.