I’ve finally had an hour to go over Beat to Quarters, the Napoleonic War (at sea) game and companion to Duty & Honor. I came across a review for Beat to Quarters and liked the sound of it –I’m a sucker for Napoleonic sea stories, but strangely, have never done a game campaign in the setting — and jumped over to DriveThruRPG.com to have a quick look. Unlike a lot of the big players in the RPG industry, the PDFs didn’t cost an arm and a leg; for $10 for the core book for each system. (Here’sOmnihedron Games‘ page on DriveThruRPG.)
As with Duty & Honor the system is simple and designed to handle the genre’s tropes, without overburdening itself with rules outside the scope of the game. There’s a minimum amount of fluff, but there is enough background to allow the GM and players to jump right in. If you want more historical accuracy, you’ll be doing some of your own research. The art by Peter Frain is adequate and sparsely used.
The basics: Duty & Honor uses a deck of cards and die poll sensibilities: for a test, the GM pulls a “Card of Fate” (no jokers). If the players are in a contested actions, a fight, wooing, whatever, the FM then pulls a hand of cards. Likewise, the players pull a hand based on their Measures (Guts, Discipline, Influence, Charm), possibly their Reputation, Skills, or a weapon. Match the suit, you get a success; match the card number of the CoF, you get a critical success; match the card (say it was a 3 of Diamond and that’s one of the cards in the players’ hand), it’s a complete success. You count the number of success for who won. Complete trumps criticals, criticals trump normal success.
Character creation is simple and fast: hit on a concept, take a number of experiences (this can be “ten years as an accountant” or “spent a weekend running for my life in the Black Forest”) you’ve agreed on with the GM, pick your position in the ship — officer, warranted office like sailing master or surgeon, or a rating and add their experiences. Each give you points to put to your measures, skills, reputations, traits, etc. They you collectively work on your ship (or have the GM do it.)
Personal combat mirrors the Duty & Honor rules, and the ship combat is similar to the mass combat. The captain’s tactics matter for the overall success of the action, and his discipline test can aid or hinder the other characters and crew in their efforts to perform their duties, which in turn effect the success of the commander’s tactical test. Damage to the ship or the crew’s morale follows. However, where the mass combat was more interested in the morale of the soldiers in D&H, BtQ has more crunchy rules, which is more genre appropriate.
Wind condition and distance govern what actions can be taken. Discipline tests a above are conducted, then repair to the vessel or crew morale (if necessary), maneuvering into position, then the crew/characters handle their tasks — were you directed to fire guns? Aid in crew morale? Lead your marines in firing from the rigging at the enemy command deck? The broadsides are fired, the damage is figured, and then the next moves are plotted for next round.
The background on BtQ is more detailed than D&H. There is a chart of shipboard offenses and the punishments that were authorized under the Articles of War. This allows me to give Beat to Quarters a higher substance rating: 4.5 out of 5. The look: 3 out of 5 — it’s clean, neat, and there’s not a lot of razzle-dazzle, but it gets the job done. It’s definitely worth a look if you like age-of-sail naval games.
The Black Campbell 