"With everyone healed, the party moves on. Everyone with sixth sense realizes the party will need everything it has to survive the next few hours. Aurora realizes the potion of True Seeing will last all turn, so she takes a swig. The party re-enters the room of dung. Aurora now sees an exit on the far wall which was previously hidden by an illusion of a brick wall. Everyone carefully makes their may across the room and to the hidden exit. When at the door, Aurora notices a very powerful glyph in front of the door. Caladil recognizes the glyph as a mark of evil. Any creature other than evil entering the opening could die on the spot! The Captain moves to the front and places his hand on the glyph...."

Don’t you just hate when someone stops right at the exciting oint in the story? I know I do, but I did get your attention, Right? Good, because I'd like to tell you of a new PBM game that is just hitting the market now. It's called, "The Bloody Blade," and it's run by Damien Games. As you can tell from the story above (which was part of my last turn), this game takes place in a fantasy setting. Some people have made the statement that PBM games do not make good role-playing games. Well, his game blows that theory right out of he water! "The Bloody Blade" was designed with one purpose in mind: to be a fantasy RPG. The game is just coming out of playtest, and I would say it's a darn good FRPG too!

Getting down to the nuts and bolts of the game, you get to completely design your own character, down to the point of adjusting the character's stats. There are eight stats that characters use in TBB: Strength, Constitution, Bravery, Agility, Dexterity, Intelligence, Quickness, and Charisma. These stats will have certain maximums that cannot be exceeded, depending on which race you choose for your character. Racial types to choose from range from the ever-popular human, to the rare but exotic lizardman.

Th. next step is to pick a character class, or profession. Originally there were just four classes to choose from, but that number has already been expanded to fourteen! For all of you who like to play magic-users, you will not be disappointed by the selections.

Now that you have your basic character set up, you need to give him some skills, equipment, or perhaps an advantage or two. "What are advantages?" you ask. Something that makes this game a bit more unique than the standard. You can purchase advantages for your character such as Ambidexterity, Peripheral Vision, Sixth Sense, etc. Be warned, though, that these can only be purchased when the character is first created.

What's left? Oh yes, you might want to give your new friend a name!

Now on to what is really important, playing the game. Your character starts out in the city of Thievesville. From the looks of the map, this is a BIG city. Beyond the city is the rest of the world. Currently, no one has tried to explore outside the city. On your first few turns, it's wise to scout out different parts of the city while having a chance encounter or two. After getting a feel for the city, it's entirely up to you what you do next.

"So," you ask, "exactly what am I allowed to do in this game?" The answer is simple: anything. There are no orders or order numbers. Each turn, your character can do one main action and three secondary actions. The main action should take your character most of a day to complete, while a secondary action would take about a half an hour or so. This is what makes the game good for role-playing. For example, my character happened to find a secret entrance to the sewers. Instead of heading down there by myself, I went to the adventurer's guild. Here I teamed up with several other characters, and into the sewer we went! Our trip into the sewers allowed us to build up experience points and sharpen our skills (not to mention getting soundly thrashed. Ouch!)

Since then we have gone our separate ways, each wanting to do something different. Being a city-type character, I currently have my eye on "acquiring" a house in the nice part of town. Then, after that, who knows? Maybe a seat in the Royal Castle.

The GM for "The Bloody Blade" is Robert Harris. I have talked with him several times about his games. He takes great pride in his products, and really puts quite an effort in writing turns. At the price of only $3.00 a turn, this game is well worth it. If you enjoy RPGs that allow you to take complete control of your character's situation, try "The Bloody Blade." Your character will thank you for it!

For further information, contact: Damien Games 1209 Park Hill Cr. Knoxville, TN 37909

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