The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Age of Empire (AoE) is a new Victorian RPG from a (to my knowledge) new company, Epitaph Studios. [ed. note-- Event Horizon Productions bought Epitath in March 1997, and is supporting Age of Empire. Its previous company first premiered in 1994 with a science fiction game named Periphery.]

At first reading, the game is a very nice product. The mechanics are simple -- three Statistics (Mind, Body and Spirit) define the characters, followed by a number of Traits and Skills. Each character has a Profession, but this is not a stricly class-based system in the manner of AD&D. Characters must meet pre-requisites for class (i.e. a Doctor must have medical skills), and the classes grant certain bonus abilities. Skill use, combat included, is based on the comparison of dice rolls -- high rolls succeed. Experienced gamers should have no trouble with the system, and inexperienced players will porbably have little problem, even though the game was written with experienced players in mind.

There is a magic system, which is somewhat more complex than the other rules. Sorcery, as opposed to Mysticism, which covers things like Mesmerism and Fortune-Telling, works somewhat similarly to White Wolf's Mage, though the game uses a set of confusing Sanskrit terms to define the various "operants" of sorcery, adding some confusion to an otherwise nice magic system.

The setting, obviously, is a fantastic version of the Victorian Era. Or, as the rulebook terms it, a mad Victorian fantasy. Essentially, it is the world of Victorian literature; the latter nineteenth century, with wizards and weird scientists thrown around to make things interesting. A reasonable amount of background material is included, though I suspect running an AoE campaign will require some background reading, or more supplements for the game (which I, for one, would like to see!)

Production values are average. The art is decent, but does not especially add to the product. (Nor, I should add, does it subtract.) It is nice, though, to not pay for twelve pages of color plates of questionable usefulness in a game. Those looking to buy the game may have trouble finding it because it is unlikely to leap out off of the stands at the local hobby shop: the image is that of a Victorian Era book, with the title in gold lettering. There is no cover art, in the usual sense.

Fans of Victorian RPG's will probably wonder how the game compares to another prominent Victorian game: R. Talsorian's Castle Falkenstein (CF). The answer is: very nicely. The best way to sum up the difference between the two systems is thus: AoE is a fantasy set in the Victorian world, while CF is set in a Victorian fantasy world. In other words, the setting of AoE is a much more straight-forward Victorian world, as opposed to CF's fantasy world with a very strong Victorian flavor. (There are no Faeries secretly influencing the leaders of AoE's world!) I also find AoE's simple mechanics preferable to the card-based system of CF.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Age of Empire
Author: Gareth-Michael Skarka Category: game Company/Publisher: Guardians of Order (formerly from Event Horizon Productions) Cost: $18.00 US Page count: 108 Capsule Review by Arthur C. Adams on 09/11/97. Genre tags: none	Age of Empire (AoE) is a new Victorian RPG from a (to my knowledge) new company, Epitaph Studios. [ed. note-- Event Horizon Productions bought Epitath in March 1997, and is supporting Age of Empire. Its previous company first premiered in 1994 with a science fiction game named Periphery.] At first reading, the game is a very nice product. The mechanics are simple -- three Statistics (Mind, Body and Spirit) define the characters, followed by a number of Traits and Skills. Each character has a Profession, but this is not a stricly class-based system in the manner of AD&D. Characters must meet pre-requisites for class (i.e. a Doctor must have medical skills), and the classes grant certain bonus abilities. Skill use, combat included, is based on the comparison of dice rolls -- high rolls succeed. Experienced gamers should have no trouble with the system, and inexperienced players will porbably have little problem, even though the game was written with experienced players in mind. There is a magic system, which is somewhat more complex than the other rules. Sorcery, as opposed to Mysticism, which covers things like Mesmerism and Fortune-Telling, works somewhat similarly to White Wolf's Mage, though the game uses a set of confusing Sanskrit terms to define the various "operants" of sorcery, adding some confusion to an otherwise nice magic system. The setting, obviously, is a fantastic version of the Victorian Era. Or, as the rulebook terms it, a mad Victorian fantasy. Essentially, it is the world of Victorian literature; the latter nineteenth century, with wizards and weird scientists thrown around to make things interesting. A reasonable amount of background material is included, though I suspect running an AoE campaign will require some background reading, or more supplements for the game (which I, for one, would like to see!) Production values are average. The art is decent, but does not especially add to the product. (Nor, I should add, does it subtract.) It is nice, though, to not pay for twelve pages of color plates of questionable usefulness in a game. Those looking to buy the game may have trouble finding it because it is unlikely to leap out off of the stands at the local hobby shop: the image is that of a Victorian Era book, with the title in gold lettering. There is no cover art, in the usual sense. Fans of Victorian RPG's will probably wonder how the game compares to another prominent Victorian game: R. Talsorian's Castle Falkenstein (CF). The answer is: very nicely. The best way to sum up the difference between the two systems is thus: AoE is a fantasy set in the Victorian world, while CF is set in a Victorian fantasy world. In other words, the setting of AoE is a much more straight-forward Victorian world, as opposed to CF's fantasy world with a very strong Victorian flavor. (There are no Faeries secretly influencing the leaders of AoE's world!) I also find AoE's simple mechanics preferable to the card-based system of CF. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)