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viktor_haagGot my two copies in the mail on Friday. Alas, the packaging suffered a teensy bit of water damage, but not bad enough to really complain about: just enough for the anal bibliophile in me to say "Dammit". But now, the spine and corners have been taped up, and I've been reading through the book in the spare moments since Friday.
Some things strike me right off the bat:
• This is not a reference book. The book is meant to be read front to back, and is clearly and thoughtfully written. However, if you don't absorb the rules, you'll find it difficult to use this book as a reference during play. I suspect that fans of the game will provide reference sheets and the like to the web in due time. (The pre-ordered books came with a nifty reference bookmark; I don't know if these bookmarks will arrive with all purchases. It's useful, but it's not quite useful enough. I suspect the best way to deal with the need is a character sheet with a reference sheet combined, but it'll take me a while playing to come up with a design that's useful, I suspect. Typically, my first attempts at these kinds of things are not as useful as they might be.)
• This is not a crunchy, tactical game. All conflict is treated with the same mechanics; there's little mechanical difference between a gun and a nasty note. That could suit the genre quite well given the right group playing the game. It won't suit other groups who like their CoC, or their Pulp Hero, or their Adventure, or whatever. It's not a replacement for those games, because it's not the same kind of game (in sort of the same way that Go isn't really a replacement for Scrabble).
• This is a very thorough book, with a pick-up-and go background. When it says that it's a "pick up game", it's a pick-up game in the same way that basketball can be a pickup game. You wouldn't expect to be able to walk into a gym and fit in without knowing how to play the game itself. And yet, this is the very point upon which a lot of gamers are whining. Stop whining. "Pick up" means that, once you know how to play the game, you can just pick up and play at a moment's notice. And the "learn the game part" isn't all that involved. At first glance, it appears to be on the same level of complexity as Dogs In The Vineyard or Call Of Cthulhu.
• There's plenty of room to grow here. Spirit Of The Century could easily be adapted to other high-action, pulpy campaign sets. Lost Worlds. Buck Rogers. Eldritch Horror. John Carter Of Mars. Etc. Etc. I haven't played it yet, but there seems to be a robust power-tool under the thin campaign conceit in this game. Groups that want to use this game for a more involved and carefully prepared campaign can seemingly easily adapt it to that purpose. And because it's licensed under OGL v1.0a, the FATE/Fudge engine under the hood could conceivably be put to use by others in all sorts of compatible game books. Hmmm...
• At first glance, I think this game could be very, very good, and have more legs than just this one book. Evil Hat has already planned a "Dresden Files" game using the same engine. Good idea, that. What I'd really like to see? A licensed "Malazan Empires" game using this engine: just to see how the engine would adapt to that kind of high-octane gritty fantasy. Oddly enough, I suspect the flexible "stress" system in FATE would adapt really, really well to a wide power-range, gritty environment like Erikson's fantasy books. (I think it would also work well for Glen Cook's "Black Company" books, as well, but that license is currently held elsewhere...)
I wonder how much money such a license would cost, and whether Evil Hat would be interested in pursuing it. (Hey, Evil Hatters! If you're reading, but that in the back of your head for use at a later date... 8))
(Of course, now someone's going to tell me that the Malazan setting has already been licensed, and most likely by someone that wouldn't be nearly as creative with it as Evil Hat could be. Oh well.)
Some things strike me right off the bat:
• This is not a reference book. The book is meant to be read front to back, and is clearly and thoughtfully written. However, if you don't absorb the rules, you'll find it difficult to use this book as a reference during play. I suspect that fans of the game will provide reference sheets and the like to the web in due time. (The pre-ordered books came with a nifty reference bookmark; I don't know if these bookmarks will arrive with all purchases. It's useful, but it's not quite useful enough. I suspect the best way to deal with the need is a character sheet with a reference sheet combined, but it'll take me a while playing to come up with a design that's useful, I suspect. Typically, my first attempts at these kinds of things are not as useful as they might be.)
• This is not a crunchy, tactical game. All conflict is treated with the same mechanics; there's little mechanical difference between a gun and a nasty note. That could suit the genre quite well given the right group playing the game. It won't suit other groups who like their CoC, or their Pulp Hero, or their Adventure, or whatever. It's not a replacement for those games, because it's not the same kind of game (in sort of the same way that Go isn't really a replacement for Scrabble).
• This is a very thorough book, with a pick-up-and go background. When it says that it's a "pick up game", it's a pick-up game in the same way that basketball can be a pickup game. You wouldn't expect to be able to walk into a gym and fit in without knowing how to play the game itself. And yet, this is the very point upon which a lot of gamers are whining. Stop whining. "Pick up" means that, once you know how to play the game, you can just pick up and play at a moment's notice. And the "learn the game part" isn't all that involved. At first glance, it appears to be on the same level of complexity as Dogs In The Vineyard or Call Of Cthulhu.
• There's plenty of room to grow here. Spirit Of The Century could easily be adapted to other high-action, pulpy campaign sets. Lost Worlds. Buck Rogers. Eldritch Horror. John Carter Of Mars. Etc. Etc. I haven't played it yet, but there seems to be a robust power-tool under the thin campaign conceit in this game. Groups that want to use this game for a more involved and carefully prepared campaign can seemingly easily adapt it to that purpose. And because it's licensed under OGL v1.0a, the FATE/Fudge engine under the hood could conceivably be put to use by others in all sorts of compatible game books. Hmmm...
• At first glance, I think this game could be very, very good, and have more legs than just this one book. Evil Hat has already planned a "Dresden Files" game using the same engine. Good idea, that. What I'd really like to see? A licensed "Malazan Empires" game using this engine: just to see how the engine would adapt to that kind of high-octane gritty fantasy. Oddly enough, I suspect the flexible "stress" system in FATE would adapt really, really well to a wide power-range, gritty environment like Erikson's fantasy books. (I think it would also work well for Glen Cook's "Black Company" books, as well, but that license is currently held elsewhere...)
I wonder how much money such a license would cost, and whether Evil Hat would be interested in pursuing it. (Hey, Evil Hatters! If you're reading, but that in the back of your head for use at a later date... 8))
(Of course, now someone's going to tell me that the Malazan setting has already been licensed, and most likely by someone that wouldn't be nearly as creative with it as Evil Hat could be. Oh well.)
