Nightbane

Overall score:

Nightbane is kind of an odd little game, but one of Palladium's most intriguing titles. The game was released during White Wolf's first surge of popularity, when Vampire and dark RPGs were the sudden trend. Mixing these new ideas with good old Palladium butt-whuppin', Nightbane is a half-and-half mix of angst gaming and hero gaming that's very entertaining, even if it is a little schizophrenic.

The basic premise is this: parallel to our own world lies an alternate world, the Nightlands, ruled by ancient princes of darkness and deception known as the Nightlords. The Nightlords desire nothing more than to conquer our world, and for centuries they have used their minions--some of them warriors, some of them demons, and some of them nearly-human doppelgangers--to infiltrate and invade Earth. Poised to fight against them are the Nightbane: normal humans who, for reasons unknown, transform into inhuman monsters with extraordinary powers. Anyone could be a Nightbane and not know it, until a traumatic or stressful event triggers the transformation and the truth is revealed. One of the more interesting aspects of the game is that no two Nightbane ever look the same--the form you take is a reflection of your inner fears or desires (or both), leading some to speculate that Nightbane are literally nightmares made real (as you can tell, there's a whole lot of words that start with "night" in this game).

An infestation of Palladium-style vampires makes the balance more interesting, since they want to fight off the Nightlords in order to conquer our world for themselves. Add to this the unaligned paranormal forces of the world--wizards and psychics and investigators and random demons--and you've got a pretty interesting blend of villains and anti-heroes, all waging a war between the shadows that normal people have no clue about. Despite the angsty coating, however, this game has a chewy adventure-game center. In practice, you can go either direction or use a combination of the two.

Much of the angst lies in the Nightbane transformation--you can turn back into human form (called the Façade) at any time, to try to lead a semblance of a normal life, but in this form you are weak and helpless. When you turn into your "true" form (called the Morphus) you can vanquish evil and save the day, but any normal people who see you will be scared and horrified, and are likely to assume you're just another monster. This can lead to some interesting situations: what if you're wearing your Façade in a restaurant with several coworkers, and all of sudden a demon attacks. Do you blow your cover to save the innocent people? When the cops arrive, how are you going to escape? When it comes right down to it, do you even want to fight for people that hate you?

The book is rich with background and detail, including a recent event known as Dark Day in which the Nightlords manage to stage a full-scale invasion of Earth. During Dark Day thousands of Nightbane all manifest at once, triggered by the invasion, becoming outcasts and fugitives from both the Nightlords (who now secretly control the government) and from regular people--possibly even their own families. The book gives some great background on the various factions in this secret battle, and the campaign suggestions are short but interesting. The campaign that has always tickled my fancy is the historical one: given that the Nightbane are ageless (i.e., they don't die unless you kill them), and that small numbers have existed throughout history, why not start your game in the distant past and then work your way up? At level one the characters live in ancient Egypt, possibly revered as gods, and begin a long-term war to keep the Nightlords out; each adventure jumps forward a few hundred years, as you carry on your war during the glory of Rome, the superstitious terror of the middle ages, the renaissance, the discovery of America, and World War II. You could have adventures with knights, pirates, cowboys, samurai, and anything else that strikes your fancy, and then end the campaign with the PCs as powerful leaders in the aftermath of Dark Day.

Though several classes are available, the game expects most characters to play as simple Nightbane; this leads to the book's biggest failing, which is that the Nightbane have surprisingly limited options for appearance and special powers. The game's three sourcebooks added significantly to this, as have several issues of the Rifter, but it's disappointing that you need so many extra books just to play the primary character class of the game. You can certainly get by with just the main book, especially if you're creative and make up a lot of your own stuff, but the lack of information is a frustrating defect no matter how you look at it.

Though a little too dark for many of Palladium's normal fanbase, Nightbane is a fascinating game with a very loyal following. When Palladium fired the game's writer the series got left by the wayside for several years, but survived on fan support in the Rifter and on the Internet. One of those fans finally came up with a full manuscript, submitted it, and Palladium is now officially supporting Nightbane once again. If you're looking for a darker game with a strong adventure twist, give Nightbane a try.

Written by Fellfrosch on September 06th, 2003