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I did not want a new RPG, I had just picked up every Tribe 8 1st edition book for $80.00. Not only that but my Brothers Arcana Evolved game is going strong. Everything was great, until I went to my local store and on the new release section was The Secret of Zir'An. I did not buy it then, I just looked it over and put it down. "Steampunk" is not my thing so I had no interest. But then I saw the SoZ review here on RPG.net and read it over. Man did I have some misconceptions, first of which this is not Steampunk.
The Basics
The Secret of Zir'An is a Fantasy RPG that has grown into technology. There is no steam magic or magic engines, just normal "tech" that you would expect in 1900's America. Gasoline powered cars, airplanes, zeppelins, ocean liners, ect. There are trains, but they have diesel or steam powered engines. Its like the creators decided to evolve a fantasy world starting from 900AD all the way to the 1900s. Yes, magic exists but it is integrated into the world and not overshadowing it. An example is in airships, they use a Steel rune to make materials such as canvas and wood hard like steel but it keeps its original weight. The practical applications are immense here and the setting supports such magical enhancements to technology.
There are many diverse nations, places, and races but I will not go into them here as I am going to keep this review short. That and I could not do justice to the depth and scope of the setting without maiming it.
Conan McKegg's wonderful review on SoZ goes into plenty of detail about the setting and you can read if you would like more information.
The Boo boo...
One thing that needs to be addressed before I continue... Its about the ::AHEM:: problem the book has.
I went to the Paragon Games forums and asked the following:
[quote]Was it your intention that chapters 6 & 12 turn out the way they did? If not could you explain what happened and what went wrong?[/quote]
The answer from ParagonMarty (aka Martin Caplan) one of the creators of SoZ:
[quote]The SOZCore Gamebook background rune text was meant to be all silver, 10% shade. Chapter 1 has the correct look that we wanted, for example. I do the layout and am ultimately responsible for not communicating and correcting things with the printer, so basically it's my fault things look like they do. It was impossible to see that the ink was not silver in the galleys, since they were printed in greyscale... a tragic fact that will haunt me personally forever! As you noted, we immediately uploaded the worst affected chapters as PDFs on our site for free when we realized the mistake. Also, the online PDF on DriveThruRPG.net fixes all these issues. On the plus side, it will be REALLY easy to decode those particular secrets using the upcoming Empyriar Code Wheel in the Fate Screen supplement coming out next month.[/quote]
Now seeing it was not intentional that the screw up happened I can forgive them. I am deducting 1 point from the Style Rating because it does hurt the book. But it does not kill the system or setting, which is why I picked it up. I also purchased the SoZ core gamebook from DriveThruRPG because the background graphics are removed. If you will not purchase the hardbound book because of the formatting problem, this is a great alternative.
The System
The Secret of Zir'An has a wonderful concept called the Finesse system. In a non-combat or Unstressed situation, the Finesse Level of the skill (Basic, Advanced, Expert, or Elite) the character possesses will allow them to do many things automatically because of their experience. The Hand of Fate (aka GM) may even let the player narrate their character’s action for a bit, as long as they keep in mind their character’s relative skill level and situation.
However, rolling for a Skill Test is always called for whenever an action-oriented or Stressed situation comes about. When the outcome of an action is uncertain, an individual adds the values of their Stats (basic capabilities), Aptitudes (general skill ability) and Skill Practice (specific experience) together with a 10-sided-die roll to try to beat a difficulty number.
Difficulties are rated 10 = basic, 15 = advanced, 20 = expert, 25 = elite and 30 = impossible. If an individual rolls less than the difficulty, their action fails. If they roll the difficulty number or higher, they succeed. Any points rolled in the test above the Difficulty (these are called Successes) can be spent to perform Finesse Effects if available to the skill (see below). The fast general rule to the die roll is that 1 is an instant failure, while rolling a 10 is an instant success, regardless of the total score.
Now if when rolling a skill test you roll the next higher difficulty number (6+ or more over) you have achieved a superior success. The player can then describe what extra bonus action or benefit he has from doing so well. It basically allows you to succeed with a second aptitude related skill test automatically with no roll or chance of failure as long as it is related to the action being preformed.
About contested rolls, two individuals may engage in an opposed Skill Test, as most often occurs in combat with an attacker and defender. In a non-combat situation each person rolls their Stat + Aptitude + Skill Practice + d10 and compares the result. The highest roll wins.
Now every character has a skill finesse level as mentioned above. These are rated Basic, Advanced, Expert, and Elite. If your difficulty is less than the finesse level of your skill you automatically succeed, no rolling needed. In fact it is encouraged to let the players tell the HoF what their players do as a result.
There are Points of Practice (rated +1 through +5) as well which shows how experienced you character is with a skill.
The difficulty levels: 10 = basic, 15 = advanced, 20 = expert, 25 = elite and 30 = impossible are all fixed. These do not change nor are there additions to them. So when your players become familiar with them SoZ has the most natural skill system I have seen in play. My players had trouble with it the first practice session but after the second one they fell into it easily. One of my players even has trouble understanding rules and systems and she even thought it was great.
Character Generation
It is very similar to the old Traveller, Twilight 2000, and Burning Wheel systems. There are no classes, professions, or other rigid caste based systems in the game. You choose your race, then starting origin area, then proceed to build your character with skill packages based on "occupations and events" available to that region. These occupations do not dictate what you are, only that you have experienced it.
A small character creation example is provided with a few steps not discussed earlier: I choose my race: Ianer (Human), then I choose my Character Origin: The Periphery, at this time it gives me my starting stats, aptitudes, racial and origin abilities. I would then spend points (based upon campaign type: Tyroic, Heroic, or Legendary) at this time to improve my base stats, then I would calculate my derived stats (Just a few numbers to figure out, not as scary as it sounds). Then I would proceed to choose my starting skill package, lets say: The Periphery Marshall. This would give me my starting skills, bonus aptitudes, how many years it takes, how many creation points it costs, languages gained ect. ect. Then after all of the information is applied to my character I could choose another skill package, such as: Prisoner or Soldier.
I am leaving a lot out of the example to try and keep this short but I hope you get the general idea. The character generation system is wonderful and as deep as the player wants. It does take a little while to create a character. But again, once they started to "get it" they really enjoyed it. They mentioned it was far more enjoyable than anything White Wolf or d20 has come up with (they are veterans of both systems).
Combat
Now to one of the biggest selling points of the game for me as a GM, The Combat System. You spend "speed" to act during a round, attack or defend, buy initiative, do special attacks or defenses, aim, and generally preform actions (a lot more than I list). When a player attacks or defends they roll against the opponent (usually Athletics for the defender and the weapon or unarmed skill for the attacker). If the attacker’s result is greater, they can spend any Successes above the defender’s roll on Offensive Finesse Effects. If the defender’s result is greater, they may spend any Successes above the attacker’s roll on Defensive Finesse Effects. Any number of Finesse Effects can be bought as the result of an attack or defense, limited only by the number of Successes scored in the Test. These effects are called Martial or Battle Arts. These arts let you do things such as, extra damage, increase the armor penetration, make called shots, knock out a foe, ect. The types of Battle and Martial Arts you can have are based on your Finesse skill level. Someone with a basic skill with a sword will not be doing as many special attacks during combat as say an expert.
Here is some examples of combat from the Paragon forums:
My players are having a blast being able to actually DO something during combat rounds besides roll dice and pretend their descriptive actions do something. That and combat is smooth and fluid, example: We did a really big combat our last gaming sessions with 20+ combatants who were not PC's, 4 of which were "big" monsters and major NPC's. Normally it takes a long time to run combat, 2+ hours for such a large group. But with SoZ it took about an hour to finish it completely. They were very excited afterwards saying it was one of the best combats we have had for such a small investment of time.
Magic
Magic comes in two flavors Rune Magic and Shadow Magic. Rune magic is similar to your normal fantasy systems with a few exceptions. All rune magic is done with a stylus and paper unless you are a master with it. There are two types of runes, Lesser and Greater ones.
Lesser runes are basic magics (Rated Common to Very Rare) that are used in the world that most people can learn or have passed down to them by family. They can create light, mend broken objects, levitate heavy loads, and make weaker materials like glass as hard as steel.
Then there are Greater runes which one must be skilled at to use and takes many years to learn. There are 5 types of runes: Charms, Talismans, Wards, Glyphs, and another unknown permanent type that will be revealed when the Hand of Fate book is released. Each rune can be simple and quick to create (Charms) all the way to very complex and taking hours to complete (Glyphs). This base rune type determines everything from how long it take you to create it, to range, targets, and zone of effect. The effects are based on the Domains of the seven gods of Zir'An. Each domain has different powers (Effects) that you can choose from to create the rune. Each power has a primary effect, then successes are spent on secondary effects if a person rolls high enough. These are your really powerful magics like flight, illusion creation, weather control, and connecting the minds of others together.
Shadow Magic on the other hand is very subtle. Shadow magic is based on the animus or life energy. This energy is represented in the physical world by the shadows that are cast by people and objects. This is where the souls and spirits dwell in the world of Zir'An. Shadowmages will spend animus points to cast spells which are broken down in to categories called Cardinals. These Cardinals are classified by the method the shadowmage directed his will. These focus on the body, the mind, movement, even assuming the matter of shadow to name a few.
Flaws
I cannot praise SoZ enough but it does have a few flaws. There are editing mistakes and the above mentioned formatting problem. SoZ also cannot just say Dwarf, Cigar, or Long Rifle, instead they are renamed Dolonorri, Tchakka Sticks, or Mah’tuad. While I love the flavor it gives to the setting, to rename a lot of common things could annoy some people.
Conclusion
My players and I are having tons of fun and that's what matters the most, we look forward to many years of continued enjoyment. I cannot say enough about SoZ and how wonderful it is. Yes it has some flaws but they are far overshadowed by the quality of the setting and system. This is Paragon games first book and somehow they were shot in the foot by a bad layout. I remember the photocopies of Chainmail and D&D I started playing RPGs with, they were not pretty and had lots of mistakes. But it did start a following and culture that is still here today so I guess that's not a bad job.
I can see Paragon games becoming something similar, because it has a quality system and fresh setting that RPGs are missing today. Even with the problems, even if you don't like the setting, it is worth it. So if you are looking for something new, unique, fun, or elegant you really can't go wrong with The Secret of Zir'An.
One final thing for those who might be on the fence. SoZ can also be used as a fantastic fantasy game with very little effort. A close friend of mine is using the Midnight setting with the SoZ rules and her players really love it.
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