The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I picked up Precedence Publishing's first game, Immortal: the Invisible War at a local gaming store for free. "If you run a demo for it, you can keep the book." Being a student at the time, a happily snatched up my copy of the book. I read it once, twice, three times, trying to get straight all of the terms introduced in the book. Surely, it was a richly developed background, but it was a lot to swallow all at once, especially with the haphazard layout of the book. But I got through it, and rounded up a group of hearty gamers to try it out. The demo went well, I wrote a review, and fulfilled my obligation. But the players wanted more - it was very unique and tantalizing the way the Immortal starting story introduced the characters/players to the game world. The players played themselves, and through a series of bizarre encounters become embroiled in the politics of Perpetual Society (the entirety of the story was covered in the story supplement called Dream Stroke). The campaign continued for a long while, and I even started another campaign when I moved to another city. In both cases, the players loved the story, although some members of the second group commented the system was a bit too 'bloated' story and mechanics-wise. All in all, it was a good experience - a fairly complete and interesting game for a reasonable price.

When I heard Immortal: Millenium, a revised edition of the game was coming out, it pleased me greatly. I thought, "Alright! This gives them an opportunity to clean up the rules system, fix their layout, and clarify the background." When I finally purchased the newly shipped Immortal: Millenium at the hobby store, I devoured the contents… and was left with a bit of a dry taste in my mouth.

The first thing that struck me was the size of the new book (96 pages). It seemed to be about a 3rd of the size of the first edition rulebook (294 pages), and the new book had a larger standard font! I noticed the book had the words 'Book I' in the corner, and after doing a bit more reading found that there are to be 4 core books in the system. Hrm. After paying $20US for what was assumed to be the main rulebook, it mentions that no, actually you need 3 other books to have the complete rules and story setting. It doesn't say that anywhere on the cover of the intro, you discover that by reading the book. Now, assuming that the other books are $20 US each as well, $80 US seems a bit much in order just to have complete rules and story! They managed to do that with their first edition book, and that only cost $24.95 US! (I noticed that the lovely Claudia Christian of Babylon 5 fame is on the cover of the book; is that what raised the cost of the book?!?)

The overall layout of the book is pleasant, at best. As mentioned, Claudia is on the cover and the back posing as the character 'Shade'. The outer and inner covers are the only color artwork presented in the book. The rest of the pages are filled with different types of imagery from different artists, and are typical to any modern fantasy genre (some dice, a dragon, a gun, a snake, an open window, a guy holding swords). They also have some sidebars spread throughout the book that are apparently supposed to be some sort of computer communication between Immortals. The most annoying thing about those is that they use an old digital analog font that is more annoying to read than anything; when was the last time you've seen digital analog associated with computers? The only thing that uses that anymore is car radios, VCRs, and digital watches. Time to catch up with the times, people…

On to the content… the beginning of the book tells the story of how the Immortals came about in our world. The story seems a bit weak in some parts, especially when it is talking about the actions of the Shards. For those of you who are not familiar with the background of Immortal, a being known as the Sanguinary was cast out of his dimension, and crashed into the earth, shattering its body into Shards. These Shards were sentient, and were driven by the urge to merge with one another. To this end, they invaded host bodies, making them immortal. This seemed like a really futile gesture, since every being the Shards invade rebel against the Shards and uses the powers inherent to the Shards to further their own ends. The story never actually mentions any of these creatures possessed by Shards 'merging' with each other, so it seemed like a moot point. This is especially true when one of the immortal races rebels against the Sanguinary itself, almost destroying it. There are other story elements that seem to crop up without any apparent explanation, making it a somewhat disappointing read. In other words, it seems as though they tried to summarize the extensive background from the first edition and all the changes incorporated with the revised edition into a few pages, and fell short. Upon reading further of the different factions of Perpetual Society, a person familiar with the first edition realize that all of the old factions (known as 'Prides') have changed entirely. There is only a vague reference as to why this has occurred (must be covered in the later 'core books' required for purchase, I guess). This was a major aspect of the first edition, and I was faced with many a disgruntled players when I mentioned this to them.

The mechanics were totally changed, thus getting rid of most of the 'bloated' bits… and making all first edition books nearly useless. The Book of Serenades, Art of War, Pride books, Story modules - all of these have become pretty much useless due to the changes incurred by the extreme rules changes and the aforementioned story changes with the character types. While this may not affect players new to the game, it was a real disappointment to veteran players. Upon further investigation, I realized that Immortal: Millenium uses a free mechanics system available on the Internet called 'The Window'. I'll have to admit, the new system is simpler and more reasonable than the older system, if a bit less realistic (but that's an issue of personal preference more than anything). The problem is, the rules system is not complete; although Book I makes references to Serenades, magical songs that Immortals use to amazing effect, there are no rules for it in the book (you guessed it, it's in another 'core book').

All in all, I'd have to say that Immortal: Millenium is a disappointment. The rules are incomplete, and completion means lots of expense. The background material is sketchy, and leaves out a lot of material that would be useful for people trying to continue with existing Immortal campaigns. It would seem that Immortal: Millenium is a pale shadow of its former self.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Immortal: Millenium
Author: Ran Ackles, Steve Winter, John Myler, Jim Ward, Paul Beakley Category: game Company/Publisher: Precedence Publishing Line: Immortal: Millenium Cost: $19.99 US Page count: 96 ISBN: : 1-929323-01-8 SKU: PDN 10001 Capsule Review by Randy Mosiondz on 11/03/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Modern_day Historical Conspiracy Live-action	I picked up Precedence Publishing's first game, Immortal: the Invisible War at a local gaming store for free. "If you run a demo for it, you can keep the book." Being a student at the time, a happily snatched up my copy of the book. I read it once, twice, three times, trying to get straight all of the terms introduced in the book. Surely, it was a richly developed background, but it was a lot to swallow all at once, especially with the haphazard layout of the book. But I got through it, and rounded up a group of hearty gamers to try it out. The demo went well, I wrote a review, and fulfilled my obligation. But the players wanted more - it was very unique and tantalizing the way the Immortal starting story introduced the characters/players to the game world. The players played themselves, and through a series of bizarre encounters become embroiled in the politics of Perpetual Society (the entirety of the story was covered in the story supplement called Dream Stroke). The campaign continued for a long while, and I even started another campaign when I moved to another city. In both cases, the players loved the story, although some members of the second group commented the system was a bit too 'bloated' story and mechanics-wise. All in all, it was a good experience - a fairly complete and interesting game for a reasonable price. When I heard Immortal: Millenium, a revised edition of the game was coming out, it pleased me greatly. I thought, "Alright! This gives them an opportunity to clean up the rules system, fix their layout, and clarify the background." When I finally purchased the newly shipped Immortal: Millenium at the hobby store, I devoured the contents… and was left with a bit of a dry taste in my mouth. The first thing that struck me was the size of the new book (96 pages). It seemed to be about a 3rd of the size of the first edition rulebook (294 pages), and the new book had a larger standard font! I noticed the book had the words 'Book I' in the corner, and after doing a bit more reading found that there are to be 4 core books in the system. Hrm. After paying $20US for what was assumed to be the main rulebook, it mentions that no, actually you need 3 other books to have the complete rules and story setting. It doesn't say that anywhere on the cover of the intro, you discover that by reading the book. Now, assuming that the other books are $20 US each as well, $80 US seems a bit much in order just to have complete rules and story! They managed to do that with their first edition book, and that only cost $24.95 US! (I noticed that the lovely Claudia Christian of Babylon 5 fame is on the cover of the book; is that what raised the cost of the book?!?) The overall layout of the book is pleasant, at best. As mentioned, Claudia is on the cover and the back posing as the character 'Shade'. The outer and inner covers are the only color artwork presented in the book. The rest of the pages are filled with different types of imagery from different artists, and are typical to any modern fantasy genre (some dice, a dragon, a gun, a snake, an open window, a guy holding swords). They also have some sidebars spread throughout the book that are apparently supposed to be some sort of computer communication between Immortals. The most annoying thing about those is that they use an old digital analog font that is more annoying to read than anything; when was the last time you've seen digital analog associated with computers? The only thing that uses that anymore is car radios, VCRs, and digital watches. Time to catch up with the times, people… On to the content… the beginning of the book tells the story of how the Immortals came about in our world. The story seems a bit weak in some parts, especially when it is talking about the actions of the Shards. For those of you who are not familiar with the background of Immortal, a being known as the Sanguinary was cast out of his dimension, and crashed into the earth, shattering its body into Shards. These Shards were sentient, and were driven by the urge to merge with one another. To this end, they invaded host bodies, making them immortal. This seemed like a really futile gesture, since every being the Shards invade rebel against the Shards and uses the powers inherent to the Shards to further their own ends. The story never actually mentions any of these creatures possessed by Shards 'merging' with each other, so it seemed like a moot point. This is especially true when one of the immortal races rebels against the Sanguinary itself, almost destroying it. There are other story elements that seem to crop up without any apparent explanation, making it a somewhat disappointing read. In other words, it seems as though they tried to summarize the extensive background from the first edition and all the changes incorporated with the revised edition into a few pages, and fell short. Upon reading further of the different factions of Perpetual Society, a person familiar with the first edition realize that all of the old factions (known as 'Prides') have changed entirely. There is only a vague reference as to why this has occurred (must be covered in the later 'core books' required for purchase, I guess). This was a major aspect of the first edition, and I was faced with many a disgruntled players when I mentioned this to them. The mechanics were totally changed, thus getting rid of most of the 'bloated' bits… and making all first edition books nearly useless. The Book of Serenades, Art of War, Pride books, Story modules - all of these have become pretty much useless due to the changes incurred by the extreme rules changes and the aforementioned story changes with the character types. While this may not affect players new to the game, it was a real disappointment to veteran players. Upon further investigation, I realized that Immortal: Millenium uses a free mechanics system available on the Internet called 'The Window'. I'll have to admit, the new system is simpler and more reasonable than the older system, if a bit less realistic (but that's an issue of personal preference more than anything). The problem is, the rules system is not complete; although Book I makes references to Serenades, magical songs that Immortals use to amazing effect, there are no rules for it in the book (you guessed it, it's in another 'core book'). All in all, I'd have to say that Immortal: Millenium is a disappointment. The rules are incomplete, and completion means lots of expense. The background material is sketchy, and leaves out a lot of material that would be useful for people trying to continue with existing Immortal campaigns. It would seem that Immortal: Millenium is a pale shadow of its former self. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 2 (Sparse)