Liminal is an urban fantasy RPG set in London with PCs of supernatural backgrounds like werewolves and wizards vying with various powerful factions. I have a group of mixed skill: all the way from a brand new player to old hands with decades of play under their belts. I went looking for a system with very specific requirements: PC goal driven, easy to understand mechanics with decent dangerous combat, a variety of ready to go NPCs and monsters, adventure support, an interesting premise, and some character building options without going overboard. I found Liminal and after reading it I asked the author, Paul Mitchener, if he’d talk about his RPG with me. It ticks all the boxes for me.
Charles Dunwoody (Charlie): Thanks for talking with me, Paul. Liminal uses an easy to understand roll 2d6 plus skill to beat a target number (usually 8 or higher). Beyond that basic building block, if you had one paragraph to describe your RPG for RPG gamers mostly unfamiliar with the game, how would you describe Liminal?
Paul Mitchener (Paul): It's a fantasy game set in the modern UK, where there's a “Hidden World” of magicians, werewolves, vampires, and fae. The player characters form a crew of Liminals, neither fully part of the Hidden World or of ordinary society, being caught between as it were. They solve cases, often ones where supernatural events or beings threaten ordinary people, and the mundane authorities can't help.
Charlie: What types of characters can players look forward to playing in Liminal? I have players who like both wolves and bats, so related character options are always appreciated.
Paul: Shapechanging magicians and werewolves are both big parts of the setting, and good player character types! Other possible supernatural characters include changelings, descended from both humans and faeries, dhampirs, almost vampires who still retain humanity, and magicians, both academical wizards from the Council of Merlin and hedge magicians the snooty academics reject. More mundane characters are also a part of the game, including detectives from P Division who investigate “Fortean crimes”, mortal agents of the fae courts who can negotiate the mortal world for their faerie sponsors, and wardens who are trained bodyguards to magicians. These more ordinary characters may know a supernatural trick or two, or have purely “ordinary” abilities but know about the Hidden World.
Charlie: What kind of adventures will PCs go on in Liminal and what foes will they face?
Paul: Some of the cases have involved looking for a teenager missing in a faerie realm who made an inadvertent pact with its prince, investigating a ghostly house which appears only on certain nights of the year, stopping vampires from performing a powerful magical ritual, and dealing with a wild werewolf pack, persuading them in some way to stop hunting people. There's a range of adventures, and foes including vampires, evil magicians, dragon spirits, and faerie giants.
Charlie: What tools will GMs get to help in creating adventures and building worlds? Will most games likely take place in London?
Paul: The core book contains plenty of advice on world building and adventure creation, including what amounts to a template for making scenarios for Liminal – which like any other template can be modified or largely ignored, but provides a handy starting point. There are also a number of adventures released, both individually and collected into a book, the Casebook. There's no assumption in terms of things being set in London, though obviously that's a very suitable place for British urban fantasy. Things I've run have been set in the Yorkshire countryside, Glastonbury, and at Hadrian's Wall. The core book has adventures in York and in Brighton, and a whole chapter of places in the UK. There are also notes on running Liminal outside and further afield – there are Liminal descriptions of Berlin and Fayetteville. A friend of mine has run adventures set in New Orleans. Basically, what is needed in an adventure location are some historical features or features of the landscape, and some local folktales or urban legends. And everywhere has that.
Charlie: What other support is there beyond the core book, in print or upcoming?
Paul: Supplementary books in print at present are Pax Londinium, the London sourcebook, Werewolves of Britain, and the Casebook mentioned above. There are also several individual short adventures available in PDF. Faeries and Folklore is the next book coming – it's written and edited, so it's currently in art and layout.
Charlie: Many readers of EN World are D&D and Pathfinder players. In your opinion, what might make them decide to give Liminal a try?
Paul: As you said, Liminal is an easy to understand system, so I hope a different system won't put them off. I know a few people for whom Liminal is the first RPG they've run, so there's evidence it's accessible. So anyone who might be interested in a fantasy game set in the modern world, with a dose of British flavour (note the spelling!), might want to take a look. There's a free Liminal Quickstart available.
Charlie: Where can fans go to find your work?
Paul: The Liminal website is currently being worked on, but my gaming website is The Imaginarium of Doctor Mitch Readers might want to take a look at my newest RPG, Out of the Ashes; both Liminal and Out of the Ashes are available via Modiphius at Liminal (modiphius.net) and Out of the Ashes (modiphius.net)
Charles Dunwoody (Charlie): Thanks for talking with me, Paul. Liminal uses an easy to understand roll 2d6 plus skill to beat a target number (usually 8 or higher). Beyond that basic building block, if you had one paragraph to describe your RPG for RPG gamers mostly unfamiliar with the game, how would you describe Liminal?
Paul Mitchener (Paul): It's a fantasy game set in the modern UK, where there's a “Hidden World” of magicians, werewolves, vampires, and fae. The player characters form a crew of Liminals, neither fully part of the Hidden World or of ordinary society, being caught between as it were. They solve cases, often ones where supernatural events or beings threaten ordinary people, and the mundane authorities can't help.
Charlie: What types of characters can players look forward to playing in Liminal? I have players who like both wolves and bats, so related character options are always appreciated.
Paul: Shapechanging magicians and werewolves are both big parts of the setting, and good player character types! Other possible supernatural characters include changelings, descended from both humans and faeries, dhampirs, almost vampires who still retain humanity, and magicians, both academical wizards from the Council of Merlin and hedge magicians the snooty academics reject. More mundane characters are also a part of the game, including detectives from P Division who investigate “Fortean crimes”, mortal agents of the fae courts who can negotiate the mortal world for their faerie sponsors, and wardens who are trained bodyguards to magicians. These more ordinary characters may know a supernatural trick or two, or have purely “ordinary” abilities but know about the Hidden World.
Charlie: What kind of adventures will PCs go on in Liminal and what foes will they face?
Paul: Some of the cases have involved looking for a teenager missing in a faerie realm who made an inadvertent pact with its prince, investigating a ghostly house which appears only on certain nights of the year, stopping vampires from performing a powerful magical ritual, and dealing with a wild werewolf pack, persuading them in some way to stop hunting people. There's a range of adventures, and foes including vampires, evil magicians, dragon spirits, and faerie giants.
Charlie: What tools will GMs get to help in creating adventures and building worlds? Will most games likely take place in London?
Paul: The core book contains plenty of advice on world building and adventure creation, including what amounts to a template for making scenarios for Liminal – which like any other template can be modified or largely ignored, but provides a handy starting point. There are also a number of adventures released, both individually and collected into a book, the Casebook. There's no assumption in terms of things being set in London, though obviously that's a very suitable place for British urban fantasy. Things I've run have been set in the Yorkshire countryside, Glastonbury, and at Hadrian's Wall. The core book has adventures in York and in Brighton, and a whole chapter of places in the UK. There are also notes on running Liminal outside and further afield – there are Liminal descriptions of Berlin and Fayetteville. A friend of mine has run adventures set in New Orleans. Basically, what is needed in an adventure location are some historical features or features of the landscape, and some local folktales or urban legends. And everywhere has that.
Charlie: What other support is there beyond the core book, in print or upcoming?
Paul: Supplementary books in print at present are Pax Londinium, the London sourcebook, Werewolves of Britain, and the Casebook mentioned above. There are also several individual short adventures available in PDF. Faeries and Folklore is the next book coming – it's written and edited, so it's currently in art and layout.
Charlie: Many readers of EN World are D&D and Pathfinder players. In your opinion, what might make them decide to give Liminal a try?
Paul: As you said, Liminal is an easy to understand system, so I hope a different system won't put them off. I know a few people for whom Liminal is the first RPG they've run, so there's evidence it's accessible. So anyone who might be interested in a fantasy game set in the modern world, with a dose of British flavour (note the spelling!), might want to take a look. There's a free Liminal Quickstart available.
Charlie: Where can fans go to find your work?
Paul: The Liminal website is currently being worked on, but my gaming website is The Imaginarium of Doctor Mitch Readers might want to take a look at my newest RPG, Out of the Ashes; both Liminal and Out of the Ashes are available via Modiphius at Liminal (modiphius.net) and Out of the Ashes (modiphius.net)
