Recently I have been getting reacquainted with one of my favorite out-of-print FRPGs, the highly detailed Powers & Perils, and once again I am impressed with finding aspects of the game that are ahead of its time and generally useful as a borrowed mechanic for play using other systems. Powers & Perils is a game introduced in 1983 by the Avalon Hill Game Company alongside RuneQuest 3rd Edition and Lords of Creation in an effort to leverage some of the growing popularity of fantasy role-play games. Powers & Perils is written by Richard Snider who was involved with David Arneson during the Blackmoor days and together with Mr. Arneson designed the previous FRPG Adventures in Fantasy (1978).
Avalon Hill Powers & Perils core rules consist of a boxed set of five paperback volumes. They are titled The Character Book (44 pages), The Combat and Magic Book (52 pages), The Creature Book (60 pages), The Book of Human Encounters and Treasures (52 pages), and County Modara (24 pages). A version 2 of P&P (in a single 471 page volume) and its setting Perilous Lands (544 pages) is available digitally and P&P is still a good game. Once described as over priced and complex (some math required) back in the day, I currently find P&P neither. P&P v2 is a free download and its mechanics do not seem complex by today's standards. The popular RPGs GURPS and Champions/Hero System both involve more math during character generation than P&P.
Powers & Perils (P&P) is a roll under d100 system. Skill and combat rolls in P&P are resolved using a system that accounts for "partial success", that is rolling over the target number, but being within 21% points over is considered a partial success allowing for various in-game effects which are less than a total success but greater than a total failure. The mechanics of many d100 systems can benefit from use of such an interpretation of the dice. Recent editions of Warhammer Fantasy Roll Play (4e) and Call of Cthulhu (7e) both make use of a similar philosophy. WFRP 4e uses success levels and CoC 7e refers to regular success, hard success and extreme success.
A partial skill roll success is also possible and earns experience points for the character. Combat in P&P uses a matrix comparing Offensive Combat Value (OCV) to Defensive Combat Value, (DCV) the difference producing a value which is translated into a percentile skill test in which you roll equal to or under the target number for success. A partial success in combat results in a shield hit, provided the target has one. Use of an offensive and defensive value computed during chargen is used in Hero System and Rolemaster games and although it involves a bit of subtraction, it can add to the feeling of realism in my experience.
Mr. Snider has an approach to game settings and milieu which I especially like. Even as far back as that described in Adventures in Fantasy, I found his implied setting captivating. Alignment in P&P is an exceptional concept in gaming. Drawing on the conflict between the forces of Law and Chaos that is found in White Box P&P adds additional layers of conflict consisting of the agendas of several elder races and other worldly beings. Thus alignment in the Perilous Lands is which side are you fighting for as well as a determinate of behavioral attitudes and perhaps a moral compass.
The surface and underworld encounter tables found in Powers & Perils creature book are quite good (some of the best I have seen) and are useful both as an example and as is in many settings. The implied setting of Powers & Perils (The Perilous Lands) involves three distinct "planes", the middle world which is similar to our own Earth in climate, physics and calendar, the lower world of darkness and faerie and the upper world of angels and heavenly creatures. Mr. Snider's take on dwarves, elves and faerie in general gives them a strange and exotic personality very distinct from humans which I find has its own appeal. The middle world contains many connections to the underworld and over world which facilitates "invasions" of nonhuman creatures and exploration/adventuring by player characters who pass through the "portals". A typical "portal" might be a forest glen or cave which "transports" those of the middle world who enter it to the lower world of dark faerie.
Powers & Perils is a game that impresses me each time I spend time with it. It has a system and setting which have influenced my attitudes and preferences. I have frequently drawn upon its material for use in other games and settings and found many of the borrowed ideas taken from the P&P boxed set to be quite satisfying in play. I am wondering why I haven't done more with P&P than read the system materials, borrow from them and roll up a few characters?
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