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A couple of years ago, there was a brouhaha at GenCon over The End. The End deals with religion, specifically the Judeo-Christian religions, in a way that isn't flattering. But it's a game, not a theological treatise.

In The End, players take on the characters of the survivors of the Rapture. God took the good people up into Heaven, Satan took the evil people into Hell. The Meek, too timid to choose sides in the divine struggle, have inherited the earth. In In Nomine, God is unknowable. In Rapture, he's on the ropes against the forces of evil. In The End, God is sort of a jerk. Not only did He leave people behind to fend for themselves, He made sure that everyone knew the score: I exist, and I don't care a fig about you.

In addition to being left behind, characters in The End tend to be pretty average people--so average that it seems ironic later in the book when it is claimed that after the Rapture, the survivors are among the toughest humans ever to walk the earth. Granted, the post-Armageddon world is a tough place, but starting characters seem less like veterans of the world than the people who just woke up to discover the world had ended. Still, the point of the game is that you're playing real, flawed people, and the rules reinforce that. Combat is to be avoided. It's deadly, especially for novices. It takes a few combats before characters learn to overcome the human instinct to look around and see what's happening when guns start firing. Characters who can't learn that don't get the chance to learn much else.

The rules don't show up until pretty far into the book (page 78 out of 179, to be exact). The first almost-half of the book is taken up by the backstory of how the world came to an end, and what's left--several colonies of humans, of varying degrees of unpleasantness. Characters would probably be better off staying far away from other humans, except for Ennui. Ennui in The End is what happens to people who stay away from human contact for too long. They become less and less stable, forgetting skills, ultimately becoming despondent and catatonic or suicidal. Even hardened loners need people around for them to stay apart from.

Unrelentingly, The End is one of the bleakest games I've ever seen. At the same time, it's a wonderful entry into both the "religious/occult" genre of games (including the previously mentioned Rapture and In Nomine as well as Nephilim and Witchcraft) and in the "postholocaust" genre (and few postholocaust games have ever pointed out how depressing the end of the world would be like this one). Yet despite the incredibly depressing setting, The End manages to be entertaining.

Unfortunately, support for The End has been virtually nonexistent. There has been talk of a second edition, but it seems to be vaporware at this point. This is a shame, since The End is truly a fascinating and entertaining work from a small company (and I always like it when a small company puts out a product better than most big companies' products). Future releases were to have featured the resurgence of magic and the Savage Gods (now able to walk the earth again since God left) and other areas of the world than North America. Let's hope we haven't seen the last of The End.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

The End
Author: Joseph E. Donka Category: game Company/Publisher: Scapegoat Games Reviewed by Kevin Mowery on 08/15/97. Genre tags: none	A couple of years ago, there was a brouhaha at GenCon over The End. The End deals with religion, specifically the Judeo-Christian religions, in a way that isn't flattering. But it's a game, not a theological treatise. In The End, players take on the characters of the survivors of the Rapture. God took the good people up into Heaven, Satan took the evil people into Hell. The Meek, too timid to choose sides in the divine struggle, have inherited the earth. In In Nomine, God is unknowable. In Rapture, he's on the ropes against the forces of evil. In The End, God is sort of a jerk. Not only did He leave people behind to fend for themselves, He made sure that everyone knew the score: I exist, and I don't care a fig about you. In addition to being left behind, characters in The End tend to be pretty average people--so average that it seems ironic later in the book when it is claimed that after the Rapture, the survivors are among the toughest humans ever to walk the earth. Granted, the post-Armageddon world is a tough place, but starting characters seem less like veterans of the world than the people who just woke up to discover the world had ended. Still, the point of the game is that you're playing real, flawed people, and the rules reinforce that. Combat is to be avoided. It's deadly, especially for novices. It takes a few combats before characters learn to overcome the human instinct to look around and see what's happening when guns start firing. Characters who can't learn that don't get the chance to learn much else. The rules don't show up until pretty far into the book (page 78 out of 179, to be exact). The first almost-half of the book is taken up by the backstory of how the world came to an end, and what's left--several colonies of humans, of varying degrees of unpleasantness. Characters would probably be better off staying far away from other humans, except for Ennui. Ennui in The End is what happens to people who stay away from human contact for too long. They become less and less stable, forgetting skills, ultimately becoming despondent and catatonic or suicidal. Even hardened loners need people around for them to stay apart from. Unrelentingly, The End is one of the bleakest games I've ever seen. At the same time, it's a wonderful entry into both the "religious/occult" genre of games (including the previously mentioned Rapture and In Nomine as well as Nephilim and Witchcraft) and in the "postholocaust" genre (and few postholocaust games have ever pointed out how depressing the end of the world would be like this one). Yet despite the incredibly depressing setting, The End manages to be entertaining. Unfortunately, support for The End has been virtually nonexistent. There has been talk of a second edition, but it seems to be vaporware at this point. This is a shame, since The End is truly a fascinating and entertaining work from a small company (and I always like it when a small company puts out a product better than most big companies' products). Future releases were to have featured the resurgence of magic and the Savage Gods (now able to walk the earth again since God left) and other areas of the world than North America. Let's hope we haven't seen the last of The End. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)