This is a review of In Harm’s Way: Aces & Angels written by Clash Bowley and published by Flying Mice Games.

DESCRIPTION
In Harm’s Way: Aces & Angels is a roleplaying game that puts you in the role of a fighter pilot during World War II. It is available in both print and PDF format from the company website:  http://jalan.flyingmice.com/aaa.html

This is a review of the PDF.

APPEARANCE
IHW:AAA is a 203 page roleplaying game laid out in two column format, with a clean, readable black font on a white background.  The layout is probably the best I’ve seen from a FMG product although there are still a few issues that I’ll note in the text.

The artwork (including the cover) consists of a good mix of WWII-era planes and airmen, all full-color Photoshopped images that appear to be the norm for many FMG products.  I’ve gotten to the point where I’m far less interested in art than I am in content, but given the abundance of WWII source material, I would like to have seen some more images, even grayscale public domain stock WWII images scattered throughout. I know that images from google and Wikipedia are just a click away, but I feel like authentic WWII stock art would have helped capture the genre even further.

I’d estimate that over half of this product consists of tables and charts, everything from airplane stats to how to build an NPC or outfit an airbase from scratch.  I think many of the tables could have been laid out better which would probably have reduced a lot of the page count.  But the bottom line is, if you like tables and charts you won’t be disappointed.  

This product is fully bookmarked, but for some reason the entire foreword is bookmarked by each individual line.  I’m assuming this is a glitch or oversight that was meant to be placed under a collapsible “Foreword” bookmark entry.  As it is, you see the full text every time you open up the bookmark window (which is mildly annoying when hunting for chapters).  


WRITING
The writing is clear and concise (for the most part) without being dry.  There is no fluff or game fiction, but there are plenty of anecdotes and suggestions sprinkled throughout that nicely set the tone for the genre.  


SYSTEM
IHW:AAA uses the StarCluster system which is essentially a “medium-crunch” percentile system where task resolution consists of a base score (45%) modified by stats and a broad skill list.  The task resolution is solid, but some of the numbers outside of basic task resolution (such as Constitution/health, initiative, damage, etc.) get way too high for my tastes.  I believe the numbers get high because everything from characters to vehicles seem to function on the same scale.  I mention it here because whether or not you like this game is really going to depend a lot on whether or not you like the system as some of the game concepts and goals are very tightly intertwined.  What this does is provide you with an immersive setting, where your character sheet is geared toward achieving your goals (becoming a high-ranking Ace pilot).  It also means this is not a pickup and play game.  Everyone needs to know the rules and know what they’re supposed to be doing in order for it to flow smoothly (especially when the dogfighting rules are brought into play). While the same can be said of any game, I think it’s especially worth noting here.  


INTRODUCTION
There are a lot of things to like in the introduction.  The main thing it does is clearly delineate the design goals and focus of the gameplay.  The game states up front that this game is:

“designed as a system to emulate the historical aviation combat and movies like Tora, Tora, Tora, F;ying Tigers, Tuskeegee Airmen, The Battle of Britain, Flying Leathernecks, Flattop, and Midway.”

I’m no historian, so I like this approach.  If I’m running a WWII game, chances are I’m modeling it after a movie, book, or videogame--I don’t care if the Hitlerjugend weren’t in North Africa at the time; if I want my players to fight Hitler Youth in the desert, they’re going to be fighting Hitler Youth in the desert.

The game focuses on six WWII nations--USA, Italy, Japan, USSR, Germany, and Britain during the time period from 1939 to 1945,

Outside of flying, the game revolves around three basic traits--Honor (ability to influence others), Practicality (willingness to push the envelope in order to get things done), and Notice (the game’s advancement mechanic).  

In this introduction, the concept of Troupe play is probably the most interesting read. I’m going to jump ahead a bit here, because I want to make sure I keep everything in context.  

The game assumes you will create at least three characters--a Pilot (the main character), another type of officer (troupe character), and an enlisted man (troupe character).  This is because, as noted later:

“In Troupe Play, the Players have more than one PC, of different rank. This allows a great deal of flexibility in running the game, as it would be awkward to conceive of many situations where all the officers are together all the time. What with being on different “flights” or shifts, being physically isolated from each other, and being sent off on various missions.”

This is a deviation from traditional one-player/one-character roleplaying games and it is supported by another nontraditional mechanic that involves pacing, as defined under a brief section called Actions.

“Actions typically define the most important part of a half-year in the character's life, even if they only take a few weeks to complete, or even a few hours. The balance of the half-year, which is not played out, the character should be doing whatever characters do in their boring hum-drum lives.”

Actions (as defined above) take place once every six months. What it basically comes down to is that only a few characters will play their Pilot character for one scenario in a six-month timeframe.  The others will play troupe characters.   Then, for the next scenario, the former troupe players will play their Pilots and the former Pilots will switch to their troupe characters.  

While I love this concept in theory, I have a few problems with the execution here.  

First off, the terminology is a bit confusing.  I think “Actions” in reference to a scenario, and “action” in reference to what your character is doing during the scenario should have at least been denoted by a capital A, if not a different term entirely.  While I don’t think it’s much of a problem during play, it makes the reading of the text a bit muddled. (for review purposes, I’m going to capitalize Actions when referring to Pilot scenarios).

Next, while I think troupe play fits the genre perfectly, I don’t think it is covered in enough detail, here or later in the text.  Troupe play deviates enough from traditional roleplaying that I would have liked some examples of how a troupe scenario might unfold.  As it is, you’re given a basic suggestion, a few tips later on, and then left to piece out the rest on your own.

Lastly, and this is really just a minor issue, but I see the whole six-month Action period as being problematic for long-term play.  If you’re playing an American pilot who enters the war in 1942, you basically only get 8 Actions.  That does not mean you’ll only get 8 game sessions as you’ll be playing your troupe characters while others are playing Pilots, but your main character only gets 8 chances to receive Notice and advance in rank (I’ll touch on advancement more later in the review).

That’s not a lot of time for a game system that requires so much investment from the players.  I suspect troupe play adds a different element to timekeeping, but I think that if I run this game I will make Actions quarterly instead of biannual.  Otherwise, it seems like a waste of a good war.  

SUMMARY
A good introduction that lets you know exactly what the game is about.  I will note that there are probably other ways to conduct troupe play, but this was the simplest I could envision.


CHARACTER GENERATION
This section is where you pick out your character’s background, culture, etc., assign stats, and flesh him (or her) out. By default, all characters are supposed to be from the same culture, but I see no reason why you couldn’t mix and match, so long as everyone is playing Allies or Axis powers.  (Actually, it might even be a lot of fun to have some players play Allies and others play Axis characters, especially if you split the Pilots on one side and the troupe characters on the other, pitting them against each other, but I don’t want to get too far off on a tangent).  

The StarCluster system uses the standard range of stats (Strength, Agility, IQ, etc.) and skills (riding, firearms, etc.) that are assigned using a point-buy system with some bonuses for certain social classes and backgrounds.  In addition to normal skills and stats, there is also a Luck trait, which for a short time allows everything to go your way.  It requires a bit of narration by the player (subject to GM approval) and is supposed to stay within the bounds of the setting.  It’s a nice addition that pushes the game a bit further away from traditional roleplaying, but carries enough guidelines to keep from marginalizing the GM.  

Pilot characters start off as 2nd lieutenants (or the equivalent, which are provided for each culture), although there is an optional mode of play that allows for higher-ranked characters.  Advancement to new ranks depends on how much Notice you achieve (again, Notice will be touched on later).  

The game places an emphasis on social classes (working class, middle class, gentry, etc.), and social class also reflects skill sets (rural, urban, medical, etc.), which reflect the actual skills (herbalism, streetwise, melee, etc.).  This is all laid out clearly in an orderly progression, but I much prefer the character skill templates (Cowboy, Intellectual, Musician, etc.) that come already statted out with skills because I feel like these reflect the genre better.  

The next section is on PC Careers. As noted above, the game recommends having three characters for each player, with the main character being a Pilot.  Pilots have their own pilot-related skill list and characters receive additional points to buy piloting skills.  

Troupe characters can be pretty much anyone else, including chaplains, ground crewmen, soldiers, mechanics, and even cooks (a nod to Cuba Gooding Jr., perhaps?).  Like the Pilot, troupe characters come with their own skill lists and additional points to spend.      

Players may also choose hobbies such as musician, gambler, writer, etc. to flesh out their characters even more.  I can’t say how much effect hobbies will have on gameplay, but I think they fit the genre well, as they put me in mind of the soldier who plays the violin in the trenches, the one who always has a deck of cards handy, or the writer/journalist recording his experiences in a journal.  The good thing about this is that you don’t have to spend precious skill points on what many (not me) consider “useless” skills.  I like this take as it encourages greater diversity without penalizing starting characters.  

SUMMARY
Character generation seems simple enough and firmly demonstrates that Pilots are the game’s primary focus.  


GUIDE TO SKILLS
This section is basically self-explanatory.  You get an overview of skill checks, a skill list, and a brief description of each skill.  The skills are fairly broad and there is some intentional overlap so that some tasks can be accomplished using entirely different skills.  For example, you might roll Tactics to try to anticipate whether or not an enemy is likely to sneak up on you or you might roll Observe to spot him as he’s doing it.  This obviously requires a GM who encourages player creativity, which is fine by me.  

Another standout of this section is this:

“Skills should only be rolled if a normally competent individual would have trouble. For example, climbing a ladder would not require a climb skill check, whereas climbing a mountain may. Riding a horse would not normally require a riding check, while shooting from horseback would. If the GM keeps in mind the ‘Normally Competent Individual’ concept, the number of rolls, and thus the number of player failures, will be kept to a meaningful minimum.”

Veteran gamers do this already, of course, but it’s still nice to see it spelled out in black and white for newcomers.

SUMMARY
Skills and skill lists.  Fairly straightforward.


NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS
So, you’ve got your Pilot and your Troupe characters, now the GM needs to figure out who they meet, interact with, and of course, fight.  This section gives you all you need to create a credible NPC, with an emphasis on tables containing loose entries that allow you to flesh out the details--everything from NPC personalities, to motivations, goals, wealth, relevant skills, and more.  It also gives about a dozen common NPC templates so you don’t have to stat them out yourself--you can just graft the table results onto the desired template.  

SUMMARY
I prefer tables with a bit more detail.  If the entry is for a Covert Mission, I like to see some examples of covert missions such as capture a prisoner, kill a courier, or mine a bridge.  I find this helps spark my own ideas, especially because the designer is likely to come up with at least one thing I hadn’t thought of.  Otherwise, this is a good section that allows for quick NPC generation.  
 

PLAYING THE GAME
This is essentially the GM’s section.  It outlines the game’s major concepts and goals, chargen, and task resolution, all in one easy-to-read chapter.  Personal combat (including special rules for grenades, cover, healing, etc.), medicine, surgery, and disease are all covered here.  

This is also where we get details on the mechanics of the game’s primary concepts--Honor/Practicality and Notice.

Honor is a measure of how honorable the character is while Practicality rates how far the character is willing to bend rules to get the job done.  A character’s Practicality score and Honor score must total 20 (the starting default is 10/10).  These numbers are increased/decreased in-game by 1 point whenever a situation arises where taking the honorable course of action or doing the practical thing comes into question.  

Honor/Practicality comes into play as follows:  

“The PC can add his Honor score to any rolls where the PC’s Honor might help, such as convincing superiors of the need for a certain action, dealing with lords and ladies and other court actions, convincing others of the truth, diplomacy, or for any Leadership roll.

The PC can add his Practicality score to any rolls where the PC’s Practicality might help, such as dealing with criminals, corrupt individuals and officials, bribing, finding information from low lives, intimidating, or any Discipline roll.”

Notice is the measure of recognition from the Pilot’s superiors and it can be good or bad.  Notice is the game’s advancement mechanic as you need a certain amount of Notice to attain new military ranks.  An extensive list of examples of what deeds receive what Notice is provided (shooting down planes, rescues, etc.), and in an even more thorough touch, a list of medals from all of the covered cultures are also included.  I can see how this might help to add a sense of accomplishment to the game when instead of just getting a number, your character receives an Order of the Rising Sun, a Military Cross, or a Medal of Honor.

More information on Troupe play is included here, but again, I think it could have been covered in a lot more detail.

SUMMARY
A good recap of information needed to run the game.  Nicely detailed rules on the games central traits of Honor/Practicality and Notice, but not nearly enough information on Troupe Play.


EQUIPMENT
This section is also self-explanatory--a standard collection of WWII-era gear and weaponry including costs, concealability, range, damage ratings, etc.  

SUMMARY
A solid section that is needed to run a WWII game.  Contains most weapons and gear you can think of as well as an oddly large number of musical instruments.


AIRFIELDS AND CARRIERS
Your pilots have to live somewhere and this section contains lots of tables that can be used to flesh out your base of operations. These tables are the kind I like, providing more detailed descriptions with each entry as well as modifiers for certain things (like landing on cratered airstrips, subpar repair facilities, etc.)

You get a good breakdown of airfield facilities, antiaircraft defenses, and what makes up squadrons and flights, as well as how many planes your airfield, carrier, etc. typically accommodates.  Special rules for planes vs. antiaircraft guns are included here as well as typical carrier groupings for the Japanese, American, and British fleets.

The section ends with suggested theatres of operations, including the dates and major players of each theatre, as well as generic story ideas to throw in between missions and battles.  

SUMMARY
This is probably one of my favorite sections from a roleplaying standpoint.  You really get a good idea of how to set up an airbase using the information provided, although a sample airfield or carrier (perhaps based on a real one) would have been a nice touch.  This section is also helpful for building an airfield as a target.  


DOGFIGHTING (AND DOGFIGHTING CHEAT SHEETS)
This is the meat and potatoes of IHW:AAA and all I can say is:  Wow.

I’m not really sure where to begin with this section.  Let me put it to you this way:  Once you get hang of the StarCluster system, you should have no problem at all integrating the dogfighting rules.  The only real difference is keeping track of a resource called energy units, which is basically how much punch a plane can muster for maneuvering each round.

Dogfighting is where the wargaming element of this game really comes into play. Essentially, you’re trying to obtain a better firing solution than your opponent(s).  You do this by initiating a series of maneuvers, each of which is FULLY DESCRIBED AND ILLUSTRATED STEP-BY-STEP using airplane silhouettes.  This is extremely helpful, because I probably would have been lost if it had been limited to text only.  The way they’re done, I have no problems visualizing each maneuver.  

The maneuvers consist of simple maneuvers like Dive and Climb and more complex maneuvers like the Chandelle, Barrel Roll, Loop, Wingover, etc.  The more complex maneuvers require more energy units to pull off and with some of the more difficult maneuvers, a failed check could result in your craft stalling, which is a bad thing, obviously.  

Rules are including here for Pilot observation (you can actually lose sight of your opponent during some maneuvers), effects of damage to a plane, stalling, crash landings, and other piloting-related mishaps.  

There is also an entire section on Abstract Dogfighting, which is basically a streamlined version of the dogfighting rules.  It’s actually something very similar to what I use in my Star Wars games, with more of an emphasis on action than details.  I like that it’s included here.  

A full one-page checklist for using the Dogfighting Sheet and the Dogfighting Sheet itself occupy the next section.  The blank Dogfighting Sheets are designed to be tailored to your individual plane and help you keep track of energy expended and list the energy cost, difficulties, and effects of the different maneuvers.  

One of the most useful things given here is the excellent example of a dogfight between a Zero and a P-38.  It goes through the combat round by round, showing the maneuvers, difficulties, and results for each check.  Aside from demonstrating the actual mechanics of the dogfight rules, this beautifully illustrates how simply the dogfighting rules integrate into the system and what you have to keep track of during play.  

SUMMARY
The dogfighting system rocks.  I ran through a few maneuvers with a friend (his Zero vs. my Mustang) using the abstract rules.  I took a couple of hits, but I ended up shooting him down after a nicely executed Half Loop.  I can’t say we got every rule right, but it was fun moving the toy airplanes around.  

I’ll also note that even if the StarCluster system is not entirely to your tastes, the dogfighting rules (particularly the well-detailed maneuvers) look like they can be easily ported over into another game, especially another percentile or d20 game, which I think is another big draw. If you run games with a lot of aerial combat (or even pseudoaerial combat, like Star Wars), the rules alone are worth the price of the book as they provide a broad range of tactics without getting bogged down in details.  


AIRPLANES OF WWII
I don’t think this is actually a separate chapter, but I’m making it one anyway.  What you get here are over 70 pages of WWII aircraft game stats.  These are listed in two-column format, with two aircraft per page.  I think the two-column/two plane format is probably the worst design choice of the book.  I don’t mind two planes per page, but I read from left to right, so I would rather have seen these statted horizontally.  However, this format is probably more useful from a gameplay perspective as the information is easy to find at a glance.  

The list of planes is very comprehensive--it has every aircraft I can think of and plenty I have never heard of before.  Which leads to my major gripe with this section.  I have no idea what the hell a Yakovlev Yak-1 looks like or how it fits into the war.  This section really needs some details, anecdotes, or even public domain photos to spruce up these stats for laymen like me.  I know the designer did a lot of research for this game, but I think he missed out on a chance to show off his research outside of stats.  

SUMMARY
A comprehensive list of airplane stats that is seriously in need of some flavor text or images.  


MUNITIONS
The air war wasn’t just about dogfighting.  A lot of bombs were dropped between 1939 and 1945, and this section gives a rundown of the types of munitions, power, and effects.  Rockets and torpedoes are also covered here--everything you need to conduct a major offensive, but the abstract bomb/rocket/torpedo damage tables are probably the most useful part of this chapter.  After all, bombing runs in WWII were not nearly as accurate as they are today.  

SUMMARY
Good section on bombs.  I will note that while the abstract system is good for general bombing runs, I would want to use the standard rules if my players were bombing a specific target (like trying to stop a train before it entered a mountain tunnel or crossed a bridge, for example).  


MISSIONS
Here we get a chapter dedicated to the different types of piloting missions.  Outside of the dogfighting rules, this is probably the most important section of the book as it details plenty of common WWII piloting tropes (Combat Air Patrol, Air Raid, Close Air Support, etc.) and provides a bibliography and filmography for inspiration.

SUMMARY
Nice chapter on the makeup of different types of missions.  I think this would have been a great place to illustrate how Pilot and Troupe adventures intertwine.


VEHICLES
This was a frustrating section.  It opens with an image of a tank tearing across the desert, and then lists stats for trucks, jeeps, cars, motorcycles, and kubelwagens.  Where are the tanks?  The Panzers, the Shermans, the Churchills?  I strongly suspect that research is to blame.  The rest of the book is so well researched that I have a feeling that once the designer realized he could not include an equally comprehensive list of American, German, Soviet, British, Italian, and Japanese tanks, he decided not to include any at all.  This is a huge oversight, in my opinion. Simply statting out a generic heavy, generic medium, and generic light tank would have sufficed for most of us.  GMs who are even halfway familiar with WWII armor (or who have access to a computer) could have easily filled in the details for the desired nation. As it is, were I to run a Close Air Support mission I would be forced to use the Abstract Mission Success table to determine how effective the players were and I think that would be much less satisfying than if the players got to bomb the bejesus out of the Tigers advancing on their troops.  

SUMMARY
Too-short section with not nearly enough vehicles. Leaving out the tanks was a huge oversight.


APPENDIX A: OPTIONAL RULES
A variety of optional rules are included for different playstyles including “mook” rules, commando actions, dice tricks, and a few others.  I like some of them a lot, others not so much, but since they’re optional I won’t go into too much detail.


APPENDIX B:  JETS
This section gives stats for 10 different jets that appeared towards the end of the war, statted out in two-column format as the other planes above.  I tend not to run late-war WWII missions, so I wouldn’t get much use out of this section, although it might be interesting to throw a prototype against the players earlier in the war.


REFERENCE SHEETS AND INDEX
Next come the character sheets and character scratch sheets.  You will notice right away that the Pilot sheet is much fancier than the Troupe character sheets, which helps hammer home even more what this game is really about.  I would like to have seen a blank Dogfighting Sheet included here with the others so I don’t have to flip pages when photocopying, but that’s a minor nitpick.

The book finishes with an Index which is always a plus.  


SAMPLE SCENARIO
There is none, and that (along with not enough information on Troupe play) is my other major gripe with this game.  If you introduce nontraditional gameplay concepts you MUST demonstrate how they play out during the game.  A sample scenario with some pre-generated characters would have been the perfect chance to showcase how Pilots and Troupes fit into a single scenario.  My first thought was for a Close Air Support scenario involving the SAS or Jedburgh teams during the lead up to D-Day.  Having no tank or train stats would have hampered this a bit, but you could always use the abstract bomb damage tables and focus more on the planes that were sent to intercept the PCs.  Another scenario idea I had was of a Troupe of POWs breaking out of a prison camp, with the Pilots coming to the rescue. There are plenty of others, of course, but the fact that none are included almost makes the game feel incomplete.  


OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
This is a really cool game.  It’s a nice blend of roleplaying and wargaming that fits the genre perfectly and more importantly makes you _want_ to play.  I have some issues with parts of the system as well as some of the game content that was left out, but I will note that I tend to be more critical of games that I like and of games that I feel have a ton of untapped potential.  This is one of those games.  I really hope some of the non-system-related issues I mentioned will be addressed in supplements or future editions. On a side note, during a recent skim of the company’s website in search if product support, I noticed a Napolenic-era game and a WWI game that use the same engine which led me to believe that the same treatment for WWII tank crews would be a great addition to this line.

In any case, In Harm’s Way: Aces & Angels promises lots of action.  The Notice advancement mechanic drives the PCs to go out looking for trouble and the dogfighting maneuvers make every aerial combat round fun.  If you’ve ever wanted to play a WWII pilot, strap into the seat of a P-51 Mustang, and shoot down some Messerschmitts, this is the game to do it with.  
 

QuoteThis is the meat and potatoes of IHW:AAA and all I can say is: Wow.

Very informative review

My crew have been running mock battles ever since we got the rules. It's kind of a separate game by itself.

And you're absolutely right about the scenario or the lack of there of....Clash, next time sample "adventure"....

Regards,
David R

This is a superb review, Pete! Top notch in every way! Thank you for taking the time to do it right.

I'll see what can be done about a scenario...

-clash

Quote from: David RVery informative review

Thanks!

Quote from: flyingmiceThis is a superb review, Pete! Top notch in every way! Thank you for taking the time to do it right.

My pleasure.  FYI, I also posted it to rpgnet, so you might want to be on the lookout for it there.

QuoteI'll see what can be done about a scenario...

Can't wait to see it.  

Pete

Quote from: pspahnThanks!


My pleasure.  FYI, I also posted it to rpgnet, so you might want to be on the lookout for it there.


Can't wait to see it.  

Pete

I'll let you know, Pete!

-clash