The Inside Scoop on Gaming

This review originally appeared in Alarums & Excursions (http://thestarport.com/xeno/aande.html) issue #301.

The first thing you must understand about this book is that it is not about creating worlds. It should have been called Aria Societies or, more specifically, Aria White European pre-Renaissance Societies. There is no information on geography, climate, or ecology. Aria Worlds offers nothing for creating non-human races or creatures not of this earth. I would have liked to have seen notes on linguistics including the development and spread of languages. In other words, once you have created the world, you can use Aria Worlds to develop the civilizations and societies in that world.

My recommendation for experienced roleplayers is to skip directly to the second chapter. The Prelude includes seven pages of task resolution rules that are never used in the book. The Prelude also discusses players developing and "roleplaying" societies in much the same way as characters, but we can ignore this whole aspect. All of this ties into the Aria Roleplaying system, which I will not be reviewing and I will treat Aria Worlds as a stand-alone rpg reference. Another warning for experienced roleplayers: the Aria Lexicon is three pages long and includes terms like Mythguide Persona and Narrative Environment (translated: NPC and setting, respectively). Yes, they are always capitalized.

Aria Worlds is a well crafted book. The quality of the pages and binding is very good. The layout of the book is very nice, except for a two-page introduction which is almost entirely unreadable. There is a lot of art and it is generally good. Narrative text showing examples of different societies is sprinkled throughout the book. A few key examples are highlighted in each chapter, helping to tie the whole process together. Each chapter also contains campaign and adventure seeds, though their relevance to the chapter might be marginal at best.

Aria Worlds describes societies by a number of attributes like Age, Philosophical Orientation, Technology Value, and many, many others. Most of these are rated on a 1-20 or 1-10 scale with text examples of each one. The 1-20 scale is rarely used to its full effect; for example, Dominant Materials Scale levels 12-20 are all "Iron/Steel." Simple formulas and a few (optional) die rolls help make sure that they come out somewhat realistically. For example, the Technology Value increases with Age and the amount of Interaction (affecting trade) is modified by the society's level of Isolation. In general, these are really easy to use and understand.

Reference pages throughout the book summarize the calculation of the various societal attributes. Unfortunately, the formulas do not always match the main text, are missing a critical table header (easy enough to figure out, but annoying), and are written in black-text on medium-gray background (good for finding, bad for extended reading). The back of the book offers society "character sheets" for recording all this information, but the associated formulas are not on these.

The major chapters cover Foundations of Society (Age, Philosophical Orientation, Isolation, Interaction), Technology and Innovation, Sustenance and Mobility, Politics and Kinship, Interests of Society (Economic Infrastructure and Foundation, Military Infrastructure), The Humanities, and Hierarchy of Social Estates (Status, Freedoms, Vocations). All these topics are covered in good detail, but the writing style is far from concise. From chapter to chapter, there is much reiteration of the same themes and concepts. I often thought "I get the point, can we move on please?" While it does a good job addressing the major aspects of civilization, it misses some of the finer points, such as education, a recent A&E ignorable theme.

Magic and Religion are lumped with Arts and Scholastics into the Humanities chapter. The chapter discusses how to calculate the Tolerance, Prevalence, and Diversity of magic, but there is nothing about designing the metaphysics of magic. Likewise, this chapter does not help create pantheons of gods, religious traditions, or belief systems (for these areas, I recommend GURPS Religion). Aria Worlds tells of the forthcoming books Aria Military, Aria Religion, and Aria Magic, but I do not expect to ever see these books on the shelves.

Aria Worlds can be very useful. It definitely has a good dollar-per-pound ratio, especially if you can find a used or discounted copy. As a reference for making GMs think about all these various societal factors, it can add depth and realism to a campaign setting, but I ultimately found it lacking.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Aria Worlds
Author: Last Unicorn Games Category: game Company/Publisher: Last Unicorn Games Line: Aria Cost: about $26 Capsule Review by Patrick Riley on 09/11/00. Genre tags: Fantasy	This review originally appeared in Alarums & Excursions (http://thestarport.com/xeno/aande.html) issue #301. The first thing you must understand about this book is that it is not about creating worlds. It should have been called Aria Societies or, more specifically, Aria White European pre-Renaissance Societies. There is no information on geography, climate, or ecology. Aria Worlds offers nothing for creating non-human races or creatures not of this earth. I would have liked to have seen notes on linguistics including the development and spread of languages. In other words, once you have created the world, you can use Aria Worlds to develop the civilizations and societies in that world. My recommendation for experienced roleplayers is to skip directly to the second chapter. The Prelude includes seven pages of task resolution rules that are never used in the book. The Prelude also discusses players developing and "roleplaying" societies in much the same way as characters, but we can ignore this whole aspect. All of this ties into the Aria Roleplaying system, which I will not be reviewing and I will treat Aria Worlds as a stand-alone rpg reference. Another warning for experienced roleplayers: the Aria Lexicon is three pages long and includes terms like Mythguide Persona and Narrative Environment (translated: NPC and setting, respectively). Yes, they are always capitalized. Aria Worlds is a well crafted book. The quality of the pages and binding is very good. The layout of the book is very nice, except for a two-page introduction which is almost entirely unreadable. There is a lot of art and it is generally good. Narrative text showing examples of different societies is sprinkled throughout the book. A few key examples are highlighted in each chapter, helping to tie the whole process together. Each chapter also contains campaign and adventure seeds, though their relevance to the chapter might be marginal at best. Aria Worlds describes societies by a number of attributes like Age, Philosophical Orientation, Technology Value, and many, many others. Most of these are rated on a 1-20 or 1-10 scale with text examples of each one. The 1-20 scale is rarely used to its full effect; for example, Dominant Materials Scale levels 12-20 are all "Iron/Steel." Simple formulas and a few (optional) die rolls help make sure that they come out somewhat realistically. For example, the Technology Value increases with Age and the amount of Interaction (affecting trade) is modified by the society's level of Isolation. In general, these are really easy to use and understand. Reference pages throughout the book summarize the calculation of the various societal attributes. Unfortunately, the formulas do not always match the main text, are missing a critical table header (easy enough to figure out, but annoying), and are written in black-text on medium-gray background (good for finding, bad for extended reading). The back of the book offers society "character sheets" for recording all this information, but the associated formulas are not on these. The major chapters cover Foundations of Society (Age, Philosophical Orientation, Isolation, Interaction), Technology and Innovation, Sustenance and Mobility, Politics and Kinship, Interests of Society (Economic Infrastructure and Foundation, Military Infrastructure), The Humanities, and Hierarchy of Social Estates (Status, Freedoms, Vocations). All these topics are covered in good detail, but the writing style is far from concise. From chapter to chapter, there is much reiteration of the same themes and concepts. I often thought "I get the point, can we move on please?" While it does a good job addressing the major aspects of civilization, it misses some of the finer points, such as education, a recent A&E ignorable theme. Magic and Religion are lumped with Arts and Scholastics into the Humanities chapter. The chapter discusses how to calculate the Tolerance, Prevalence, and Diversity of magic, but there is nothing about designing the metaphysics of magic. Likewise, this chapter does not help create pantheons of gods, religious traditions, or belief systems (for these areas, I recommend GURPS Religion). Aria Worlds tells of the forthcoming books Aria Military, Aria Religion, and Aria Magic, but I do not expect to ever see these books on the shelves. Aria Worlds can be very useful. It definitely has a good dollar-per-pound ratio, especially if you can find a used or discounted copy. As a reference for making GMs think about all these various societal factors, it can add depth and realism to a campaign setting, but I ultimately found it lacking. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average)