Terror Network
Brendan Davis, William Butler, Steve Bowden
Bedrock Games, 2009
bedrockgames.net
$19.99
110 pp

Disclosure: I received a free hardcopy of Terror Network in order to complete this review.  Kudos to Brendan Davis for bravely sending me the game when he had no idea who I was.  


Terror Network (subtitled 'The Counter Terrorism Role Playing Game', and hereafter 'TN'), published by Bedrock Games, is an rpg dealing with counterterror investigations and operations in a modern setting.  I had visions of perhaps a game that could easily do The Unit and 24 and Modern Warfare and a bunch of other stuff all blended together.  Before I even had the game in my hands, I had a few questions in mind which I knew I wanted to answer by the end of the review:

1) Why should I use Terror Network instead of another modern game?  In other words, what does TN bring to the table that makes it specialized at the task the designers have assigned it?

2) How does Terror Network function as a modern game in general?  How adaptable are the mechanics to other genres or situations?

The back of the book (and the Bedrock website) mention forthcoming projects Crime Network and Horror Network, so I think we can see where they're going with this.

I read through the book, then focused on a few sections of import; then I invited some folks over to quickly make characters and blow through a short session to see how it worked in play.

THE BOOK
Terror Network is 110 pages, with a nice color cover and solid black & white interior illustrations.  The layout is classic, workmanlike, and readable, and the print size is good for those of us with aging eyes.  All the tables and diagrams are clear and readable as well.  The writing style is straightforward and the book reads like, well, a rules manual - no cutesy characterizations, no winking snark, and no in-game fiction.


MECHANICS & CHARACTERS
I have to say I like the fact that TN opens with a quick explanation of the base mechanics of the game - in the introduction itself!  TN is driven by skill rolls involving pools of d10s which are added to beat a target number; tens 'explode', allowing that die to be rolled again.  Pretty straightforward.  Actually, I found it curious (counterintuitive?) that a game which was supposedly focused on a gritty realism (the game is potentially quite lethal to PCs) had an exploding die in the mechanic - I usually associate that feature with more 'cinematic' games.  There is a sidebar with suggestions for rules tweaks for 'High Octane' campaigning to put a more Hollywood spin on things, and I recommend using that option if you're looking to use Terror Network to run an action-movie-esque one-shot or con game.

The characters in Terror Network are counterterrorism agents, pure and simple.  They may be investigatory law enforcement types, or door-kicking snake-eaters in the sandbox.  TN supplies three 'backgrounds' to choose from - Military, Academic, and Civilian, each of which affects which skill groups are primary for the character, as well as what kind of Contacts the PC gets.  However, the three aren't really mechanically different, other than changing the 'flavor' of the primary skill group and the bonus Contact; you could easily just have players choose one skill group as a primary and go from there.  Players spend one set of skill points on their primary group, and a second, smaller set, on the other skill groups.

There are plenty of skills, but not an overwhelming panoply (rules for specialization covers that).  The entire system is skill-driven; there are no attributes, just skills.  If your PC's a bruiser, then you put more dots in Muscle (a Physical skill).  They cover all the standard stuff, and the GM could easily add skills if necessary.  Skills cost progressively more based on proficiency level.

Characters also get Contacts which they can use during the course of the game to provide information, equipment, safe haven, an air strike (!), and more.  The contacts, which are listed as 'military', 'academic', 'criminal', 'media', etc, actually remind me of Influences from White Wolf games.  PCs also have Clout within their organization(s), which reflects rank and influence, and allows the PC to request favors.

PCs can be associated with the FBI, CIA, DHS, SOCOM, local law enforcement, or whatever floats the GMs boat.  The recommended campaign structure actually involves a homeland presence (FBI, DHS) as one set of PCs and then a whole 'nother set of PCs as action-types, with the scenes (or sessions) moving back and forth between them.  I can see how in the hands of an able GM, that kind of setup could really kick ass, and I'm curious to give it a shot - I just with Terror Network gave me hints on how to do it, pitfalls to avoid, etc.


COMBAT & GEAR
Combat in TN is fairly traditional - a skill roll is made to attack, and the defender either uses Evade (versus ranged) or Parry (hand to hand) to defend; so it's an 'active' defense system.  When a character gets hit in combat, the attacker makes a damage roll against the defender's Hardiness; if the attacker's highest d10 in the damage roll meets or beats the Hardiness rating, the defender takes a wound.  Tens explode here and inflict extra wounds.

Terror Network has rules for firearms, obviously, and explosives; but the list of firearms seems quite anemic.  Players expecting a huge Armory section with custom sights and variant weapons - perhaps they've been playing too much Modern Warfare 2, let's say - are going to be sorely disappointed.  TN supplies a chart with the basics, and a GM can certainly extrapolate from the chart, but there are no particular rules for damage as based on caliber, or interpreting other modern weapons to add to the game.  I suspect the designers have a 'way' they decided which guns did what damage, etc - they should have shared it with TN players.  Explosives, chem-bio warfare, and a couple of melee weapons round out the listing.

COUNTERTERRORISM
Now on to the meat of the book, in my opinion.  After a short listing of various agencies and their roles (reflected in the game by Mandates - a kind of favor PCs can request using their Clout), we get a short history of the featured agencies and a look at their tactics.  Then follows a well-researched look at the history of terrorism, how terrorists think, how terror cells are formed, and more.  Terror Network then presents suggestions on creating new terror organizations and crafting NPCs your players will remember.  These chapters - especially if they were fleshed out more - could make for a good pdf product on 'tips & tricks' for running a counterterror campaign with any game.

An adventure ("Operation Dirty Water") follows, which I read, but didn't use for my one-shot.  I had my players kicking in doors in Karachi.  Regardless, the adventure gives us an idea of the kind of mission TN intends - a timeline of what the bad guys will do & where they'll be, a series of places to investigate (in any order the PCs feel is prudent), etc.  Definitely not intended as a railroad, but there is a timer.  There are suggestions concerning what NPCs may do based on the PC actions, but the GM will still need to be ready for improvisation.  After 'Dirty Water', TN has a section of drop-in NPCs of various stripes (a charismatic cell leader, an assassin for hire, some good guys as allies or even PCs, etc), but the descriptions on these are fairly sparse, and there are no illustrations for any of them - or, for that matter, for the adventure in the previous chapter.

At the tail end of TN is a decent index, a good list of inspirational materials, character sheet, etc.

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Okay, let's get some gripes off my chest so I can be clear-headed for the summary.

GRIPE #1: The Interrogation skill includes everything from interviewing witnesses to near-torturing suspects, and is used in a contested roll against the NPC's Resolve skill.  I presume most GMs would require some roleplaying of the scene before this roll is made (presuming you're not just shortcut narrating through something), applying modifiers based on the roleplay...at least, that's what I did.  I didn't want Interrogation to be a game-killer skill, and I don't think the designers did either; but I wish they'd gone into more detail about it or even introduced some kind of subsystem to handle the 'battle of wits', wearing down, etc.  I'm not usually into 'social combat' subsystems in RPGs, but I think maybe this genre could benefit from it.

GRIPE #2: Good God, there need to be more weapons in this book.  Some of the players who will be attracted to a game like this are exactly the sort of player who know their firearms (or think they do, at least).  More guns, please.  Seriously, you give us stats for sarin gas.  Give us some more firearms.

GRIPE #3: The art in the book is good.  I would like some more of it.  Particularly in those big white areas.  Also, pictures of the weaponry would be sweet for those of us who don't know an AA from a SPAS.  Maybe some handouts?  Ah, the bureaucracy of the CT world...

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CONCLUSIONS
Terror Network is a solid base game that could use either a little polishing or a devoted GM who's willing to spend a little time on the internet doing some research and pulling down pictures of things.  The core mechanic was solid in play and could probably handle having psychic powers or vampires or aliens stapled to it without too much trouble.

I do wish that Terror Network had spent a little more page-space on GM advice having to do with the actual running of this sort of game - pacing, tricks of the trade, that kind of thing.  TN is meant to emulate one genre (okay, not a fictional genre necessarily, but you know what I mean), so I want it to emulate that genre well and tell me how I can replicate that in my home game.

Random note: I believe pretty strongly that character creation in TN lends itself toward some kind of joint task force with multiple agencies involved, so as to allow players maximum leeway in creating PCs which are different from one another.

Let's take a look at my "pre" questions again, and answer them.

1) Why should I use Terror Network instead of another modern game?  In other words, what does TN bring to the table that makes it specialized at the task the designers have assigned it?

The 'genre' chapters are good, but TN does not have any particular mechanics that make it uber-specialized at running a counterterror game; the Clout/Favor/Mandate rules are an excellent start, but there's nothing super-special for running the investigation end of the game hardwired into the mechanics.  

2) How does Terror Network function as a modern game in general?  How adaptable are the mechanics to other genres or situations?

TN's base system seems to be a solid modern-era game, the system held up in the session we played, and I'm sure we'll see slight variants of it in the projected sequels.  Character creation was actually fairly quick once players had general concepts they were aiming for, and each seemed relatively satisfied with their PC's capabilities.  You could very easily hash out some psionics or laser-pistols or something to use with this base system.  Actually, now that I think about it, the dice mechanic is very similar to the d6 system, save with d10s.

VERDICT:  Terror Network is pretty good, and the system could eventually be really good with the right supplements (be they from Bedrock or lovingly homebrewed).  I like Terror Network the game; I think I would have loved Terror Network the systemless sourcebook & genre guide, wherein the authors avoided reinventing the wheel with system and instead focused their skills on the gamestyle and applying it.  I absolutely recommend picking up the pdf to read the 'Counterterrorism' sections if you're prepping that kind of game in any system; and the Clout and Support Contacts bits will probably make a ripped-off appearance in one of my (completely different) games in the future.

Does this game have rules for Car Chases/Vehicle Combat, and if so, are they any good?