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The Concept and Setting
Now, with that out of the way, let’s talk about what the game concept is. Try to imagine, if you will, a setting that just screams “Clive Barker”. Add to this a touch of Dante’s Inferno and all the imagery of a truly bad death metal album cover (and that’s coming from an avid death metal fan), and you’ve probably conjured up the appropriate mental images to get a feel for EoS.
In short, the players play Fiends, a strange alien/human/demon hybrid. The general idea is for these fiends to serve their master and one-up each other. The master is, of course, Satanis, the Black God or the Crimson God (the author has called him by both titles for some reason). While they dwell in a realm called Yidathroth, the Fiends mainly like to cause trouble in the realm of the Man, which is referred to as Sha-la. As hard as I tried, I just couldn’t take the latter name seriously because it reminds me of the lyrics to an old “doo-wop” song; just add a few more “la’s” and you’re right on track.
There’s something genuinely cool in all that mess, but this is where the game’s chaotic nature is a severe detriment. The author’s thoughts seem extremely scattered, which is reflected in how his information is organized. To add to the problem, the so-called table of contents is useless; it doesn’t even list the page numbers. This is not good.
The setting info is scarce, to say the very least. I found myself having a hard time visualizing Yidathroth. What does it look like? What exists in that world? What adventures are to be had there? Instead of concrete, question-answering information, we get scattered scraps of hints. If I were inclined to run a game set in Yidathroth, I would pretty much have to just make stuff up from scratch. The author does a scant bit of detailing here and there (such as the City of Frier), though beyond that, there’s no conclusive text about the setting. I know that making up setting details is part and parcel of running RPGs, but there’s really no excuse for such a severe lack of info regarding a major aspect of the game.
GRADE: D-
The Core System
For all of its many, many problems, the Empire of Satanis has a workable core system. It’s not as innovative as the author seems to think, but it is at least functional. Unfortunately, the author’s writing style makes it difficult to decipher, but once you do, it’s surprisingly decent.
Success or failure is determined by adding together an appropriate Attribute rating and Skill rating and rolling a number of d6s equal to the total. Each die is read separately and the highest rolling die is your result. If it’s equal to or more than the GM-chosen target number, the character succeeds. Sixes are open-ended, allowing you to more dice and adding it to the result.
So as you see, it’s nothing new, but it’s pretty solid.
The area of the system in which the author seems rather proud of is the “story alteration” rule. Once per scene, a player can attempt to change reality in some way. He describes what he wants to alter and rolls a d6. If he rolls a 6, the scene is modified accordingly. You may spend two different types of points to make it easier to make the alteration.
Again, this rule is functional, though it’s far from innovative. Ten years ago, it might’ve been, but in 2006, it’s just a nice, simple rule. The games found over at the Forge have done similar things many times over as have more mainstream games such as the Cinematic Uni-System. This isn’t an insult to its implementation, mind you, but the author toots his own horn about how innovative it is, when it’s clearly not.
The combat section is shockingly brief, which isn’t really a bad thing. What is a bad thing is that once combat begins, the game system completely changes. You no longer have dice pools; instead, the attacker adds his appropriate Attribute and Combat skill scores to the result of a d6 roll. The defender adds his Agility and Dodge scores to the result of a d6 roll. If the attacker’s total is higher, he inflicts an amount of damage equal to the difference. This number is subtracted from the injured character’s Vitality.
The combat rules are okay, but it seems counter-intuitive to deviate so drastically from the normal task resolution system. The author should have chosen between the two mechanics and went with it rather than forcing the players & GM to learn two systems. It comes off as amateurish.
Magic is described in the book as “very freeform”. I’m going to be blunt; that’s a euphemism that really means, “very vague”. The only structure given involves spells that cause damage. Other than that, you’re on your own. There are, however, various magic Skills – Black Arts, Blood Magic, Candy Land Magic (I’m not making this up), Dimension Magic, Dream Magic, Flesh Magic, Fungus Magic, Hideous Twilight Magic (seriously), Hyperspace Sorcery, Mask Magic, Nightmare Technology, Plant Magic, Puppet Magic, Shadow Magic, and Word Magic.
GRADE: D-
The Production Value
If a picture is worth a thousand words, this game is worth absolutely no words. That’s right, Empire of Satanis is art-less. If this was a generic fantasy game or even a superhero game, I could almost -- almost -- forgive it. After all, we all know what barbarians and spandex-clad crusaders look like. However, EoS needs pictures… and it needs them badly. The author doesn’t adequately describe the setting in the text, making immersion nearly impossible without artwork to evoke the mood. Tough luck, there are no pictures here.
Absence of art aside, is EoS nice to look at? Not even remotely. In fact, it was apparent that no effort was put into this area. It looks like an average Word file converted over to PDF format. In fact, I’d wager that this was indeed the case. Now before I start sounding like I’m being too hard on the layout, let me state that I understand (first hand) what it’s like to produce a game with virtually no budget. But how hard would it have been to create a double-columned page layout with an interesting font for the headers? Or to add some sidebars to break up the monotony of all that bland text? No, it was painfully obvious to me that no effort was put into it. The author inserted a weak disclaimer that defended the layout as being “minimalist and garage band”. Yet another euphemism, to be sure.
GRADE: F
Actual Play
I ran three sessions of EoS just so that I could fully review the product. For what it’s worth, the system held up reasonably well, even if it was a bit chaotic. So, I’ll give credit where it’s due – the game system is playable. Not excessively inspiring, mind you, but playable nonetheless.
As I indicated earlier in this review, the setting wasn’t described with enough detail to help me run the game. So, I had to pretty much wing the entire thing. It was a pain in the butt, but it was probably for the best, since the author’s few descriptions of the setting left me kind of cold. I spiced it up a little, adding to the overall “universe” with wild abandon.
I asked all three of the players to summarize their thoughts about the game in a few sentences and they kindly obliged:
Jay: “Empire of Satanis isn’t a good game but I don’t think it’s beyond saving. With some elbow grease it could be something cool.
Andre: “I didn’t like it at all. It tries so hard to be evil that it can’t be taken seriously. It might make for a good parody game though.”
Shelly: “The game engine was all over the place and had little consistency. I read through the book, which did not impress me. This guy should hire someone to organize his thoughts.”
GRADE: D+
In the End…
In my opinion, Empire of Satanis fails more often than it succeeds, and by a wide margin. As I mentioned previously, the author has some interesting ideas in the setting, but seems to lack the ability to make it come to life on the written page. His job, as the author, is to convey his ideas through his words and he just didn’t do that. The setting information was scattered throughout the book and what was there was pretty skimpy. How can players and GMs get into a game setting that isn’t described worth a darn?
The system is standard fare, but at least it’s competent. The fact that combat was entirely different than the normal task resolution rules rubbed me the wrong way though. It struck me as sloppy and pointless. Why he didn’t bring it all inline is beyond me.
So, I can’t recommend EoS, to be honest. I found it to be a poorly produced product with a concept that felt as if it hadn’t been fully realized by the author. Its boasts of being revolutionary are empty, so don’t delve into it if innovation is what you’re looking for.
In closing, I’d like to state that Darrick Dishaw has been very professional to deal with. I agreed to review EoS in return for him reviewing Midway City. I emailed him early on to tell him that my review would not be a positive one and that he could call the deal off if he didn’t want to have a negative review looming about. To his credit, he wanted to move forward and even gave Midway City a relatively positive review. So for all his faults as a designer, I can’t fault him for his professionalism in my dealings with him.
You can find out more about EoS here: www.CultofCthulhu.net
FINAL GRADE: D-
