Thanks to the the dawn of digital self-publishing, there are now hundreds of free RPG's available for the download. However, few of them receive any but the most cursory exposure to a large audience. Consider that here on RPG.net, most reviews and discussion are still concerned with traditional commercially distributed products, even though the venue is itself a web-based medium.
I have decided to address this disparity by writing some reviews for free RPG's. I will not claim this is part of a continuing series, or that I will diligently try to cover as many games as possible before arthritis finally silences my typing fingers. Just, when I have the time to write a review, I will tend towards the free and the downloadable rather than the commercial, and hope that others will follow suit.
Some concessions have to be made when considering a freeware RPG; applying the same criteria one would use to evaluate the worth of a professionally published book would not be fair, as these games do not benefit from the efforts of a full-time creative staff or the financial resources of a company that could. Thus when assigning the traditional values for Style and Substance, I will be skewing the scale accordingly.
EPITOME
Along with several other RPG related resources, Epitome, subtitled “Continuous Role Playing System” is available from http://ekkaia.org/rpg/. The current edition is labeled Version 0.2.2 with a copyright of 1992/1998. I imagine then that this is an ongoing project which the author feels has not yet reached its final form. Also, the game bears an Open Content License, one of only a handful of games to do so at the time.
It is presented as an efficiently formatted 16 page document, text in double columns with headings, sub-headings and a complete table of contents. Illustrations are colored, but minimal and strictly conceptual; three small pie charts used to illustrate certain concepts. Available from the same website are two versions of the character sheet, one colored the other black & white. There is also a single six page supplement, which I will discuss below.
If I am deciphering the website correctly Pitt Murmann, the writer, is German. If not a native English speaker, this would explain the less than eloquent flow of his text. Idioms and similes are terribly mangled. For instance, “Epitome is quite virtual a game and concept,” and, “The mere moments of the character creation may turn out to be one of the most exciting moments in the life of the character.”
But once past the minor convolutions of speech, it is still a challenge to interpret what Epitome is actually supposed to be. At the very beginning it makes a statement to the effect of being a minimalist role-play experience. Then we are told that to offer the least hindrance to this experience, all rules have been “flattened”, which seems to be an artsy way of saying that they haven't been included at all. Fortunately, we are told, Epitome is directed at experienced players who are so good at this sort of thing that you should actually find the lack of rules liberating, and in fact probably can run a fun game without a GM around.
Still though, you'll need a character. Once again the text points out how merciful the game is by not forcing any undue restrictions on us, just write down whatever you think works. Except for one; for reasons that are not explained, circles are considered more conducive to effective character description than squares or lines. To this end the provided character sheet (which you are not required to use) is divided into areas of pleasant-looking circles, all gently touching to make a single intriguing and balanced figure. It was this unorthodox sheet that first drew me to the game. What kind of rules, I wondered,are built from that flowing form? Sadly, it is style without substance. Like any other sheet, the circles are just areas to write down information about a character. One circle divides the character's personality into three layers, Soul, Demeanor and Appearance. A second, labeled Composition, is essentially a skills & powers list in the form of a pie-chart of sixteen slices. Players are to divide up these slices into different abilities and, if the mood suits them, color-code them (actually using colors on the sheet in general is encouraged). The last significant circle is Coherence, a square grid squashed round on which the player is supposed to record “coherence, interrelations and contiguity”. More colloquially, it's where you're supposed to design whatever alignment system you feel best suits your character, and track their evolution along it. The text implies that the author favors dual axis systems, like D&D's Law/Chaos, Good/Evil. I imagine other possibilities like Freedom/Security, or Spirit/Matter/Thought are fine, but the grid does encourage a two-dimensional graph approach. Other circles on the sheet are set aside for personal notes, background, profession and other such typical fare. Some sample characters are provided: a very blatant imitation of Capt. Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager, a Norse clan chief and an ancient dragon. Interestingly, all these characters are described textually, not via the color-coded circles which were presented as so essential.
Reviewing the rest of the game if difficult, because what little structure exists in the system ends at character creation. What essentially follows are several short sections which bring up typical rules issues, such as resolving conflicts and handling the improvement of characters over time, and hand-waves them along, telling the reader in various ways that the players will decide how to resolve such issues during play. It is not an exaggeration to say that the content of Epitome can be summarized in three sentences. Matter of fact, I'll do that now:
1) Describe a character by writing and drawing whatever you feel like on a piece of paper, but remember to use crayons and circles.
2) Get together with some people who also made characters and tell a story about them, using your own judgment and discussion to decide what happens.
3) The End.
If I sound sarcastic, its from the disbelief I feel that it took sixteen strangely worded pages to say what could have been fit onto one side of an index card.
Which is not to say that the game is without merit, it's just that it isn't a true game at all. Rather it is an essay about how RPG's are designed and played, and since such forums as the Forge hadn't been around when Epitome was first written, establishing a context for such discussion, perhaps the author couldn't think of another way to present such views except by packaging them as a game. The germ of many a good idea is in here, and with a little help some questions can be asked based off of what Epitome leaves unsaid. What is the purpose of rules in an RPG? How else can we look at our characters besides lists of abilities and possessions? Where does the divide between player and GM exist, and is it necessary? Some may consider such ideas old and already done to death but at the time Epitome was written, I can't recall many who addressed them.
Unfortunately the game's sole supplement, Exemplary Settings, lacks even this appeal. Presented as a more specific set of guidelines for using Epitome in different genre, it is little more than a list of different skills to use in different settings. It isn't terribly insightful to tell us that in a sword & sorcery setting, characters will probably have skills in melee and magic use, whereas in space opera they'll use pilotting and gadget operation. Give it a miss.
