Shards of the Stone: Core RPG

Overall score:

Whether or not we like to admit it, we live in a new age of pen-and-paper roleplaying. It is an age dominated by open-license systems of RPG mechanics, the most prominent being Wizards of the Coast’s d20 system. An RPG designer no longer needs to create a set of mechanics to go with a new gaming setting – he/she can just plug the new ideas into an existing system. This idea has really existed for many years, embodied in systems like GURPS, but it is quickly becoming the streamlined rule where it was once the messy exception. This is a good thing, right?

In a lot of ways it is, but gaming purists bemoan the disappearance of RPG systems where the mechanics were tailored specifically to enhance the setting and desired atmosphere of play. Perhaps attempting to emphasize how this unity can be a great boon to RPG design, indie RPG designers are working harder than ever to unite setting and mechanics. Obsidian Studios’ Shards of the Stone RPG is an interesting attempt at this, bringing together a fascinating fantasy setting and a unique and tailor-made system of mechanics. The setting is brilliant, but the high-minded mechanics are often half-baked and, in combination with a bizarre marketing strategy, undermine the game’s potential.

Shards of the Stone takes the standard idea of fantasy chemistry (i.e. alchemical elements) and uses it as the foundation for a unique approach to fantasy roleplaying. In the beginning, the gods were given the Stone, by which they had power to create and govern a perfect balanced world called Core. The gods imprinted the twenty-five facets of the Stone with their personalities and predilections as they used it to build their perfect world. However, a power struggle began among the gods; in their struggle they shattered the Stone, and its fragments were scattered throughout Core in the form of different materials, depending on the facet they originally composed. These facets represented the twenty-five Elements, everything from Time and Law to Energy, Fire, and Water. Large fragments of the Stone, called Shards, reshaped the face of Core where they were deposited; as a result, the perfect, unified world of Core became home to widely disparate realms. Some were replete with veins of Geomecron, the fragments of Order, while others contained an abundance of Nightstone, the remnants of the element of Darkness. Still struggling for power, the gods sought the Shards of the Stone, knowing that obtaining them would bring them closer to supremacy over Core and its inhabitants.

My mind boggles at the surreal possibilities inherent in such a fantastic world. Rich nations mint coins from pure Pride while despots hoard Law in cavernous vaults and demons hide slivers of Chaos in the homes of the innocent. The Stone is central to this RPG, not only because it is the focal point of the setting, but it also creates the foundation of the mechanics. Obsidian Studios previously released Shards of the Stone using the FUZION engine, but many complained that this system was too cumbersome. This time around, Obsidian has created the FiveStat System, where each character has a Power Die, the size of which determines that character’s potency (i.e. a d12 character is more advanced than a d4 character). The five stats of FiveStats are actually more like attribute domains: Physical, Mental, Spiritual, Emotional, and Social. Each of these stats has five substats, resulting in a total of twenty-five attributes. The best part is that the substats match up neatly to the Elements of the Stone: Strength = Earth, Concentration = Order, Ego = Energy, Will = Law, etc. The races inhabiting Core have sympathies and antipathies to various Elements of the Stone, making them inclined to excel in different attributes. The magic system of Shards of the Stone also links magic to the Stone, allowing magicians to power their magic with Physical, Mental, Spiritual, Emotional, or Social attributes (Alchemists, Sorcerers, Channelers, Empaths, and Psions respectively.) The game immerses players in a world where everything points to the Stone, creating a unified vision of roleplaying with endless opportunities for heroic adventure.

It sounds great, doesn’t it? That’s why it is extremely frustrating to see that the game is genius in conception and a terrible mess in execution. The character races are, in my opinion, the first big weakness evident in the game. Why does such an original and potentially varied fantasy world have to be populated by the stereotypical elves, dwarves, and orcs? The designers threw in some winged humanoids, felinoids, and lizard-people, but the original vision of Core starts to look all-too-familiar when populated with these standard races. The magic system is also terribly underdeveloped, providing only a handful of spells for each of the magical approaches. Additionally, the skill system is spotty, missing such basics as Play Instrument or a generic Profession skill, and the mechanics are often described in vague, confusing, and often ambiguous terms.

This spottiness can be explained easily enough, however. Obsidian Studios is releasing a series of Realm books, covering the different unique lands found on Core. These sourcebooks will include, presumably, realm-specific character races, skills, and magic systems. Also, a Shards gamemaster is free to create new races, skills, spells, and magic items using the generic creation rules (called The Forge) at the back of the rulebook. The problem here is that The Forge is not explained explicitly enough to be much use. Don’t worry - the rulebook provides a fix for this as well: use the creation utilities on the Shards website instead.

This would seem like a good solution. The overall vision of the creators of Shards of the Stone is to have gamemasters produce realms and submit the material to Obsidian Studios for release as a Realm Book. The game’s website potentially becomes a repository of information about various realms, and players can log in and see what is happening at different points around Core (much like the Living Greyhawk and related community systems set up by Wizards of the Coast for D&D 3rd.) The problem for now is that the framework is not complete – Obsidian’s web presence is a mess of half-functional sites that are not helpful to gamemasters wanting to run a Shards campaign. The rulebook is incomplete and its support system is equally deficient.

There is hope, however. The current rulebook for Shards of the Stone is currently available only as a free .pdf file from the web site (www.shardsofthestone.com). When the game goes to print, it may have fixes for some of its current problems and its web support might become functional. However, my worry is that the system too heavily favors the use of Realms officially released by Obsidian. To me, the charm of Shards is that it allows the creation of hundreds of widely varied fantasy realms, depending on the primal Elements that dominate their respective landscape. If the creation of realms is left largely in the hands of a select group of Shards realm-masters, it is unlikely that the tools to allow gamemasters to easily create Core realms for individual campaigns will ever be developed.

It’s a pity, too. The game is set up with a unified framework that allows a staggering array of possible game settings, but the marketing strategy of the designers has strictly limited its applications. In spite of its faults, it is one of the most original and fleshed-out fantasy RPGs available for free on the Web, and it is worth checking out. Unfortunately, I am dubious that the FiveStat system of Shards will ever function well enough to make for great roleplaying, and the unified beauty of the world of Core is not one that can be borrowed piecemeal to be used with other systems. The ultimate irony, I suppose, is that Obsidian Studios is currently looking for developers to adapt the game . . . to the d20 system. *sigh* Oh well.

Written by Nathan Jennings on August 21st, 2002