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Skyrealms of Jorune, 3rd Edition

Skyrealms of Jorune's game motto is: "Leave your world behind..." and that is a key idea for new players approaching this game. It is mostly unlike anything you may have played before. Apparently Andrew Leker and Miles Teves met and started gaming years ago in a shared English class, and over the many intervening years built up a huge and complex history, ecology, and biology of an alien world: Jorune.

Teves drew the creatures that Leker described, and the illustrations in SoJ are some of the best you will see in any game. Each race is presented with great detail, though those gamers who prefer color illustrations will feel left out, as (almost) every illustration here is in good ol' B&W.

But the game itself? The setting is brilliant, taking a weary plot (man settles on alien world, loses contact with Earth and must "go native") and working it with such care and attention to detail that it nearly transcends its gaming roots. This is a setting that one could happily write several good novels in, having plenty of material remaining for more. As an example, there's the story of Theodore Iscin, who wandered the planet in despair after a battle with the Jorune-native Shantha in which all of his companions were killed. Obsessed with science, Iscin knew that his time was limited; he had spent the best years of his life working on making the colony work, and now it was finished. Thinking himself the very last man alive, he determined to preserve human knowledge by creating creatures in his image. Playing god, he used the biotechnological tools at his command and wrought humanoid species with traits of different animals. Players can play the descendents of some of these creatures, or of the human descendents.

The races each have different abilities and, more importantly, social interactions and predilections which make for marvellous role-playing opportunities. There are over a dozen countries described in the main rulebook, each with its own political and geographical vagaries.

SoJ's system is a relatively easy to learn skill-based system with a d20 mechanic (six-sided dice are occasionally used to determine combat results) and a gloss of classes called professions.

The primary negative aspect of the SoJ 3rd edition is that of editing. The rulebook is, at points, edited very poorly, so that internal references do not always match up, and charts are organized in odd, counter-intuitive ways. Also daunting to many a novice player is the extensive vocabulary involved in the setting. Players often get frustrated or confused when hit with too many Jorune-specific terms.

But all in all, Skyrealms of Jorune makes for quite a game, and for an even better campaign setting.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Skyrealms of Jorune
Author: Andrew Leker Category: game Company/Publisher: Chessex Reviewed by Harold Ogle on 08/14/97. Genre tags: none	Skyrealms of Jorune, 3rd Edition Skyrealms of Jorune's game motto is: "Leave your world behind..." and that is a key idea for new players approaching this game. It is mostly unlike anything you may have played before. Apparently Andrew Leker and Miles Teves met and started gaming years ago in a shared English class, and over the many intervening years built up a huge and complex history, ecology, and biology of an alien world: Jorune. Teves drew the creatures that Leker described, and the illustrations in SoJ are some of the best you will see in any game. Each race is presented with great detail, though those gamers who prefer color illustrations will feel left out, as (almost) every illustration here is in good ol' B&W. But the game itself? The setting is brilliant, taking a weary plot (man settles on alien world, loses contact with Earth and must "go native") and working it with such care and attention to detail that it nearly transcends its gaming roots. This is a setting that one could happily write several good novels in, having plenty of material remaining for more. As an example, there's the story of Theodore Iscin, who wandered the planet in despair after a battle with the Jorune-native Shantha in which all of his companions were killed. Obsessed with science, Iscin knew that his time was limited; he had spent the best years of his life working on making the colony work, and now it was finished. Thinking himself the very last man alive, he determined to preserve human knowledge by creating creatures in his image. Playing god, he used the biotechnological tools at his command and wrought humanoid species with traits of different animals. Players can play the descendents of some of these creatures, or of the human descendents. The races each have different abilities and, more importantly, social interactions and predilections which make for marvellous role-playing opportunities. There are over a dozen countries described in the main rulebook, each with its own political and geographical vagaries. SoJ's system is a relatively easy to learn skill-based system with a d20 mechanic (six-sided dice are occasionally used to determine combat results) and a gloss of classes called professions. The primary negative aspect of the SoJ 3rd edition is that of editing. The rulebook is, at points, edited very poorly, so that internal references do not always match up, and charts are organized in odd, counter-intuitive ways. Also daunting to many a novice player is the extensive vocabulary involved in the setting. Players often get frustrated or confused when hit with too many Jorune-specific terms. But all in all, Skyrealms of Jorune makes for quite a game, and for an even better campaign setting. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)