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Terra Incognita is a pulp/steampunk version of our Earth, but with a rather esoteric premise: the PCs are members of the National Archaeological, Geographic, and Submarine Society--in other words, they're Nags. The characters are a sort of cross between high-tech steam-age spies and university professors. Their mission is to explore the world's mysteries, and then protect the rest of humanity from what they discover. I have to admit that as a GM I might have trouble quickly explaining this concept to potential players, but this seemingly strange premise nonetheless leads to a lot of interesting possibilities.
Terra Incognita uses a fully fleshed out version of the Fudge role-playing game. For those of you that don't know what this is, it's a highly customizable rules-light role-playing game dedicated to concentrating on the story rather than rules. You can download it for free from www.fudgerpg.com.
My copy of Terra Incognita is a soft-cover book with 144 standard (8.5" x 11") sized pages, two of which at the back are dedicated to advertisement. Terra Incognita has very good typography: few typos, very legible font and two-column presentation. There are no fancy background images or colours to obscure the text. Hence, any colour-blind readers out there should have no difficulty. The table of contents is clear, and the book has a decent index.
That having been said, I'd like to mention the book's exterior. The book's cover art is of a full-colour globe, with smaller black-and-white images that feature a zoom in to a locale. It's very pleasing to the eye. The back cover text really evokes images of pulp action: "Forbidden Maps, Mysterious Archaeological Sites, Ancient Shipwrecks." Moving on to the interior of the book, it's worth mentioning that Terra Incognita is written in an unusual way. I have a fairly large vocabulary, but I often encountered new and interesting words between the covers. Also, the phraseology seems to evoke the picture of a witty English professor--which is certainly appropriate.
The art inside the pages is black and white, and serves to give the reader a real sense of the exploration of the unknown. For example, there are pictures of explorers in ancient tombs, photographers in the jungle, mountain climbers, camel-riders, etc. Some pictures bring to mind the quaintness of days long past. For example, at the end of the equipment chapter, one can find a picture with a sign that says "Gewgaws for the girls! Tomfooleries for boys! Fancies for women! Substantials for men!" I don't even know how to pronounce "gewgaws."
Detailed Examination
Out of its approximately 133 pages of writing (i.e. not counting the table of contents, index, appendices, etc.), a lot of Terra Incognita is unfortunately dedicated to rules and mechanics. By my reckoning, it contains about 65 pages of rules, and 68 pages of story and setting information. That means that rules take up about 49% of the book's pages, and while this is much better than many other products out there, it's still higher than I was hoping for when I first opened the book.
I have to admit, I don't like learning new game systems. I prefer to find (or make) one that I like, and then stick with it. I'll happily convert any source material to my house system. This is why I really appreciate games and supplements aimed at being useful to everyone, and not just followers of a particular game system. Terra Incognita makes up for its over-concentration on rules with Fudge's easy-to-read mechanics. If I have to read rules I won't use, at least Fudge uses plain English.
Part I: Player Information
Terra Incognita offers a good introduction to the source material in its opening pages. The NAGS Society is a secret society whose purpose is to solve mysteries, clean up messes, and just plain protect society. They help protect the Earth's denizens by holding onto technologies and information that could be dangerous, until human culture is ready for that knowledge and power. Since the NAGS Society is secret, its members don't get any credit for the great things they do (just a pat on the back). Society members are exceptional people recruited from the general populace (often through "societal extraction," where they fake their own death!), and then put to work simultaneously discovering and saving the world.
Honestly, it's an interesting premise, if not very glorious. Power-gamers and glory hounds probably aren't going to like playing in this setting. On the other hand, people that enjoy role-playing, investigation, stealth, and incapacitating without killing are probably going to have a blast. While reading this chapter, I had images flowing through my head of world-shattering Cthulhoid monsters battling a secret society and then being sealed away into their evil tombs, all without the rest of the world ever realizing how close they had come to disaster! As a gamer, if playing an elite member of a benevolent secret society seems like your cup of tea, then Terra Incognita is for you.
Character creation uses the Five Point Fudge system, whereby players have 5 skill points, which they can spend purchasing a variety of genre-appropriate skills for their characters. For those people that don't like the Fudge RPG because they think it's incomplete or too fuzzy, this chapter should change their opinion. The character creation system is clearly laid out and as complete as can be. Character skills, gifts and faults are listed and described, and several character templates are provided to make things easier as well. Plenty of examples are provided, which when combined with the simple rules, make understanding and using this chapter a breeze.
On the other hand, one of things I like about Fudge is that it doesn't require sourcebooks to waste valuable paper explicitly writing down the details of elements like character gifts and faults. Some people call it incomplete, I call it not repeating the obvious. A simple list of skills, gifts and faults, without detailed descriptions, would have been enough for me. I would have preferred that the 24 pages in this chapter be dedicated to more setting and campaign background information. What's more, despite the fact that Nags (members of the NAGS Society) are supposed to be very exceptional individuals, I find that the Five Point Fudge system creates very mediocre characters. This is not a major problem, as a GM all you have to do is increase the power level, but it strikes me as a style issue.
Terra Incognita's equipment chapter, entitled "The Well Dressed Nag," starts off with a great picture featuring two Nags festooned with high-tech gadgets. It's misleading because the equipment at this point in the book is pretty ordinary, but don't despair, because the high-tech and improbable Nag Tech gadgets come in a later chapter. Overall, the equipment list seems complete and appropriate. Prices are listed for the 1890s and the 1930s, and in dollars and pounds, which allows for a greater range of campaign options.
Next, there come the Action Resolution and Combat chapters. There's nothing new here for any experienced Fudge gamer. However, people new to Fudge will get an easy walk through its basic mechanics. At a grand total of 9 pages, it should be obvious that Fudge is quite easy to play. In essence, every skill has one of seven possible levels, which are in increasing order: Terrible, Poor, Mediocre, Fair, Good, Great, Superb. Rolls are made using four Fudge Dice (or an equivalent), each of which is a six-sided die with two +1 sides, two 0 sides, and two -1 sides. Rolling the dice modifies a character's skill up or down (e.g. Mediocre + 2 = Good), and if that modified skill is greater than or equal to a task's difficulty, then the character succeeds.
It's worth mentioning that throughout the book, the sample character (Cecil St. John-Smythe) and his team are featured in all of the examples. As the rules unfold, so does their story. Cecil and his party of intrepid Nags explore a mystery involving the ancient Embalming Beetle. It's really quite cool, as the examples not only serve to clarify the text, but they also create tension and give the reader a sense of adventure. Plus, you could probably borrow the ideas and develop a full adventure based off of the examples alone. Now that's bang for your buck, and it makes the rules less of a waste of space for someone like me who already knows them.
Terra Incognita continues with chapters on Nag Tech and Vehicles. Nag Tech is basically steam-age technology with a twist: it's much more advanced than it really should be for the time period (or ever, in some cases). Also, it has the tendency to glitch in annoying or amusing ways. The sample technology is original, genre appropriate, and just downright cool. What self-respecting traveller wouldn't want a T3? It's the Traveling Tea Tray, a collapsible kit that brews perfect tea. Other awesome gadgets include the umbrella that doubles as a parachute, and the x-ray spectacles that glow unearthly green when in use. Each gadget also comes with a list of common glitches, which will hopefully make the GM's job easier during play (at the cost of needing to refer to the book).
The vehicle rules are nice and simple, which is to be expected from a game like Fudge. Vehicles have four attributes: Quality, Speed, Maneuver and Range. Everything else about them is determined by their Gifts and Faults, which include things like Portable, Experimental, Flying, etc. It's a nifty system that allows for a lot of options, while not requiring a lot of time to translate ideas into something usable by the characters. Sample vehicles for land, sea, air and more are provided, my favourite being the Aardvark. It's a muscle-powered flying bicycle that defends itself with sticky aardvark droppings. Now that's travelling in cinematic style.
Subsequently, Terra Incognita features the Nag Operations chapter, also known as Nag Ops, where there is some information for the players on what to expect in terms of adventures. Typical Nag Ops include perfecting maps, extracting or recovering artefacts or people, investigating strange things, and preserving secrets. Like with other investigative games (Call of Cthulhu comes to mind again), the Nags protocol is to first do research on a problem, and second to observe, and only if absolutely necessary to actually intervene. The fact that intervention will almost always be required doesn't change the fact that it's a last resort! The chapter finishes with a useful page description of how to play characters in the context of the NAGS Society.
Part II: Game Master Information
Finally, we arrive at Part II of Terra Incognita: the Game Master's section. It starts off with a description of those Fudge rules that weren't relevant to the players (and which I won't describe here, since you can learn about them from a Fudge review or by reading Fudge itself). The "Running NAGS Society" chapter starts by providing the GM with some real meat. It describes all of the NAGS Society bases, called campuses. They all have their own unique character, and it's left to the GM to flesh them out completely. It would have been nice to have some maps, or a more detailed description of each, but at only 144 pages it's understandable.
Next comes the best part for the GM: A Terra Incognita Almanac. This chapter gives all of the significant events that happened from 1851 through 1940, as well as some extra fictional twists (clearly marked in italics). This is a treasure trove of historical research for a GM to pore over and think about when generating adventure ideas. It's also great for gaining a general understanding of what major political events were happening whenever the GM wants to set his or her campaign.
In the remainder of Terra Incognita, the GM is provided with more adventure ideas, customization options, a sample campaign, several sample adventures (including one that's nearly complete), and some help on designing and running Terra Incognita adventures. There's a lot of help (and a lot of ideas) here, and what's more it's all focused on the Nags setting. I think that this is great, because there's no time and valuable space wasted offering general advice--there are many other sources for that (including more introductory role-playing games), so this was a good choice in my opinion. Finally, the book ends with a small bestiary, among which are some creative and interesting monsters in addition to some standard fare. Interesting beasts include the Dream Weaver, Cannibalistic Gorilla, and Spirit Tiger. Some tables, appendices and an empty character sheet line the back of the book.
Conclusion
Terra Incognita has an interesting and original setting. It's a crossover of many different genres, including spy, pulp and steampunk. I'm not a big fan of any of these genres, however, I still felt inspired while reading the book, which I think is testament to its quality. Terra Incognita is very well written and laid out, and offers tons of originality and creativity. Thus, if you like these genres, then Terra Incognita will certainly be worth the $22.95 USD price tag.
Another thing to take note of is that in its original style, Terra Incognita is a game of subtlety and poise. Gamers that like to pump up their characters and rack up a body count are not going to like it. However, gamers more into thinking, investigation, and intelligent combat (where you're not allowed to kill but your enemy is) will probably like it a lot.
A major selling point of Terra Incognita is that it's a complete, stand-alone product. You won't need to spend any additional hard-earned money in order to get a NAGS Society campaign going. In a day and age where role-playing games often require you to buy several expensive books to play, this is a breath of fresh air I'm sure you will appreciate.
One of the advantages of Terra Incognita's use of the Fudge role-playing game is that it's very easy to convert to any other system. Hence, even non-Fudge gamers who like Terra Incognita's genre(s) should certainly consider getting this book. On the other hand, Terra Incognita does spend about half of its space on Fudge rules, which means that it contains less setting information than it could. However, the setting information that is there is more than sufficient for a GM to come up with lots of entertaining adventures.
Grading
It is now time for the grading. In terms of Style, Terra Incognita earns a solid 5. From the cover art, to the interior art, to the writing style, and the quality of the typography, everything contributes to creating a flawless presentation.
Terra Incognita slips a notch and earns a 4 in the Content category. The sticking point for me is that too much space is taken up by rules, space that could have been used to describe more of this excellent game world. For example, the NAGS Society is known for its excellent maps--it would have been nice to see some.
