Review: Soldiers and Serpents RPG

Soldiers and Serpents is a role-playing game based on the book series, “Lucifer:Â Soldiers, Serpents and Sin”, by David M. Taylor II.Â This role-playing game is a departure from the standard pen and paper systems many will be used to and instead centers around decks of cards that give role-playing prompts to players and allow for a more free form role-playing experience that is divorced from intricate game-play mechanics.Â In this review I’ll go over the setting, game-play, role-playing, character progression, difficulty and replayabilty before giving you my final verdict and scores.Â Sit back, strap on your wings (light or dark, you know which you prefer) and let’s get started.

SETTING

As I stated before, this game is set in the universe established by a series of books by David M. Taylor II.Â These books revolve around the fabled “War in Heaven” between the faction of angels who supported The Morning Star, Lucifer, and those who stayed loyal to heaven and would be led by the Archangel Michael.Â If you are not familiar with the cosmology of the angelic host, a cosmology which Taylor draws upon heavily in this role-playing game and in his books, let me give you a brief introduction.

Although it is not traditionally taught in most Judeo-Christian religions, there is a definite hierarchy among angels that has been codified in various esoteric texts over the years,.Â In those texts, there are nine choirs of angels with varying powers and responsibilities.Â Those choirs are the Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Archangels, Principalities and Angels.Â (For more detailed information you can read here)Â A tenth type of angel, the Grigori or “watcher”, was made famous by the apocryphal work “The Book of Enoch”.Â It was this group of angels who would abandon their duties to watch humanity.Â Their obsession with mankind, and the jealous anger that obsession would engender in them, would lead to their fall.Â Many of their number would eventually join Lucifer and be cast into hell.

In Soldiers and Serpents, Lucifer has begun his campaign for the Throne of Heaven and the Archangels (Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, Rafael, etc) will task various groups of angels to investigate and, when warranted, intervene to determine what is happening and put a check on Lucifer’s ambition.Â This escalating war in heaven between angelic powers is the setting in which you, the player, will find yourself.

GAMEPLAY

Alright, now that we have the setting out of the way let’s get down to the nitty gritty and talk about the actual game.Â I will freely admit that it took me a while to understand how to play this game because it is such a vast departure from the traditional pen and paper systems that I’m used to.Â (Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Vampire, etc)Â However, once I figured out what was going on and how to use this system it was quite enjoyable and a pleasant departure from what I was used to.Â One suggestion I would have for future editions of this game would be for the game designers to add narrated game-play examples into the game manual so that new players can get a feel for the flow of the game and how it works.Â I digress.

Each box of Soldiers and Serpents comes with dice, markers to indicate when powers have been boosted or weakened, and 5 decks of cards that are necessary to play the game.Â Â These decks correspond to each of the four character classes available (Seraph, Grigori, Cherub and Gladiator) and a corruption deck to be used when utilizing dark powers.Â A game session requires a game master and at least two players to play.Â It is important to note that each player and the game master need their own box set, or at least their own deck, as each player will need a class deck of their own and a corruption deck.Â Unlike traditional pen and paper games, there are no stats to roll or powers to pick at the beginning of a game.Â Rather, each player simply picks which class of angel they wish to play and uses the corresponding deck for that class.

It would be fair to say that this game is much more of a storytelling game than a traditional RPG.Â Each adventure or scenario is an event that is occurring in the unfolding war in heaven.Â Game masters can choose to have a long unfolding narrative or a series of one off events that don’t tie together at all.Â In point of fact, it is not really necessary to have read the books by Taylor as a game master could tailor a narrative all their own if they so choose (excuse the pun).Â Each of these events is further broken down into scenes which the players must find solutions to.Â As an example, the Archangel Michael may task a group of angels to figure out why humans are disappearing from a hamlet on Earth.Â The first scene could be the “party” of angels trying to get to Earth while the gates to Earth are guarded by an angelic guard force loyal to Lucifer.Â Players role-play among themselves to determine how they will solve each scene and how to utilize the angelic powers native to each deck when appropriate.

Each angelic power has a light and dark aspect with varying effects.Â These are vitally important to the game because usingÂ a dark aspect power can eventually cause an angel to “fall” and become associated with Lucifer.Â When necessary, players and the GM make dice rolls against these powers, similar to skill checks in Dungeons and Dragons.Â If a player rolls high enough on a power check their powers can be boosted.Â However, if a player fails with one of their power rolls they are then presented with two choices.Â The player can allow their power to fail or they can draw from their consequence deck and boost their dice roll while suffering the result of whatever card(s) they draw.Â These cards present interesting role-playing opportunities or can, eventually, lead the character to fall.Â More on this in the role-play section.

Combat also revolves around these power checks.Â Player characters have unique combat abilities which they can test to damage NPC’s they encounter, if they so choose.Â Each NPC has wounds and can be eliminated by doing enough damage.Â Players, however, aren’t wounded in the traditional sense.Â Rather, their powers take damage and those powers are weakened or lost altogether if they are damaged enough.Â Between scenes it is possible for characters to seek healing.Â The combat system in the game is not the traditional tactical combat one might expect.Â Rather, it is a free-form narrative based form of combat that is designed to tell a story without being weighed down by the minutiae of game-play mechanics.

ROLE-PLAY

In the truest sense of the word, Soldiers and Serpents is a role playing game.Â The traditional pen and paper game focuses on classes and character progression as your character accumulates wealth, knowledge and abilities in the pursuit of whatever goals the player has for their character.Â In this system, each player is responsible for telling their part of an unfolding story, the war between Lucifer and Heaven.Â In this sense, the role-playing opportunities are endless.Â In fact, once this game gets going it very much resembles a guided improv session.Â For those players more interested in role-playing than game mechanics this will be a pleasant change.Â As characters draw consequence cards from their deck they are given role-play prompts that tell them how their character has been changed, corrupted or wounded in body and spirit by their own actions or the actions of others.Â It is then incumbent on the player to incorporate these changes into how they role-play the character and for other players to role-play their characters reaction to these changes.Â It is a fascinating system that allows for real storytelling that is driven by the players and not the game master.Â In fact, the game master’s real responsibility in this system is to provide the canvas on which the players will paint the picture.Â This style of play may be jarring for those who are used to the constraints of traditional RPGs but it is liberating once you get into the flow of it.

CHARACTER PROGRESSION

Character progression is a definite minus in this game as it does not exist currently.Â In most games, players focus on advancing their characters by accumulating experience, wealth and knowledge.Â Because this is a narrative focused game the characters one plays are secondary to the narratives you invent using those characters.Â In the truest sense of the word, this game is about role-playing a character.Â There is no experience, no new feats to learn and no way to level up your character.Â Perhaps that could be incorporated in a future edition of the game.Â However, for now, this game is for the hard core role player who is more interested in telling a story rather than building a character.

DIFFICULTY

This game is not difficult to play.Â In point of fact, once you adjust your way of thinking the game-play mechanics are refreshingly simple.Â However, I would suggest this game is for the experienced role-player.Â Where as a game like Dungeons and Dragons gives you stats and skills that allow you to skip role-playing altogether, this game requires that you have the ability and confidence to immerse yourself in a character and narrative and live that through role-playing.Â Â What do I mean by that?Â In Dungeons and Dragons, as an example, one has an intimidate skill that uses a Charisma modifier and, if you want it to, can replace any need to role-play actually intimidating an NPC or another character.Â If, during the course of game-play, you suffer some event that affects your charisma that is reflected in a modifier to your charisma or a corresponding skill.Â Dice rolls are often required to resolve these types of things.Â In this game you are given character prompts that require you, the player, to incorporate them into how you play your character.Â If you aren’t able to act out your character and their corresponding character traits the whole point of the game is lost and your game-play experience will suffer.Â This game requires players who are able to immerse themselves into their characters and act the part.Â That may seem easy but it is not a skill that all players have or want.

REPLAYABILITY
Because of the nature of this game, and role-playing games as a whole, this game offers endless amount of play time and replayability.Â The number of possible game scenarios and missions is limited only by your imagination.Â While the game is set in the Taylor’s fictional world it is not bound to it and so game masters and players are free to expand on this setting as they wish.Â There are some things that I think the game designers can do in future editions or expansions that will add to the game as a whole but I will cover those in the final thoughts section.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This game system is one that is very different than what I’m used to but one that has its merits and a lot of potential for growth.Â I appreciate the emphasis on role-play and player interaction.Â The nature of the game and the card based aspect of the game present a challenge for veteran role-players and will allow for expansion down the road.Â I would encourage the game designers to add some way, preferably using level up card expansions, to customize and progress characters.Â This would invest players in individual characters while staying true to the game mechanics they have put in place.Â I would also like to see new decks featuring NPC decks, monster decks or the ability to construct your own decks for NPC’s and monsters.Â This would vary the game-play even more and allow clever gm’s to expand their home-brewed War’s For Heaven.Â Finally, I would add a game-play guide to the existing rule book or a separate pamphlet.Â All in all this game was very enjoyable and, after a few test plays, my daughters and I were engrossed in our own heavenly conflict.

SCORES

Setting – 5 of 5 Stars
Game Mechanics – 4 of 5 Stars
Role Play – 5 of 5 Stars
Character Progression – 1 of 5 Stars
Replayability – 5 of 5 Stars

Overall Score – 4 of 5 Stars

Game Design by Eric Simon
Story and World Building by David M. Taylor II
Consequence System by Four In Hand Games

Author Profile

Nemesis

Nemesis is a poet, writer and author of the upcoming novel The Long Game. He is a writer of science fiction and supernatural thrillers. Besides novels and short stories he writes for UK based ASAP Comics developing new stories for Level 8 and OPSEC. Nem is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and tries to bring those experiences into his writing.

He lives and works out of his home in Riverside, California with his wife and three children. When not writing he enjoys reviewing comic books and graphic novels for ComicCrusaders.com and living the Southern California life with his family.