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With out a doubt the Everlasting RPG series captured the minds and imaginations of a lot of gamers when it came out in 1997. The first three stand alone foundation books, The Book of the Unliving , Book of the Light and Book of the Spirits currently have a nice spot on my book shelf. We all waited with baited breath for the release of the fourth and final foundation book. We waited, and waited and finally it takes a fan of the company buying said company to put out the fourth book!
To say I am greatly impressed by the book would be an understatement considering this is the first book put out by the new owner, Chip Dobbs, President of Visionary Entertainment. Having never done this sort of thing, and only having his love of the game to go on he managed to put out a very good first printing. Minus a few typo problems, some errors here and there that he has assured me will be fixed in the next printing, The Book of the Fantastical is a very solid buy.
First I want to talk about the binding. Now those who have bought the previous three books will truly appreciate the Eurobinding that the new book has and from what I understand all future reprints will have. Unlike the previous three books which really didn’t have the best of binding, the Book of the Fantastical has a new type of binding called Eurobinding that allows it to be bent all different kinds of ways without the back breaking! This is a book meant to be played with.
The World of the Everlasting-
The Everlasting RPG is set in the modern world. Some people who have played it compare it to World of Darkness by White Wolf but this is a far cry from that setting in that it is much better IMHO. The comparisons are not without merit though. Steve Brown, the author of the Everlasting had an important role in creating the World of Darkness back when he worked over at White Wolf.
In the Everlasting, you can play pretty much anything ( except for Demons) and everything meshes together. Unlike with WOD books , all the races are meant to play in the same system with the same rules. Each of the four foundation books provides everything you need to play while focusing on different aspects of the Secret World. This allows people who only want to play Vampires to only need one book (The Book of the Unliving) to play with someone who wants to play Fey , who only needs the Book of the Fantastical. No one race is more powerful then the other and the rules mesh together well because they were all made together and not piecemeal over time.
What can I play in this book?
The Book of the Fantastical deals with the fantastical elements of the Secret World. Thus Dragons, Elves, and Fey are the primary races one can play with the option of playing Dwarves and Orcs being available as well. Dragons will probably be many players first choice to play but beware. Steve Brown did a great job of keeping them very powerful but also in check with in game mechanics such as backlash and increased difficulty in the roll required to Dracomorph ( change from your human form to Dragon). Dragons are without a doubt the most powerful pound for pound characters in the Everlasting RPG. However a good guide with a vindictive mind can make sure you don’t get to power hungry buy creatively spending your backlash points ( think bad mojo) to insure bad things happen when you least want them. Dragons have 30 backlash points starting off while other races have none.
Elves are the next race in the book and players can pick from a variety of different houses. You can be one of the Xeysori (technoelf), one of the Dru Galeeth (dark underground dwellers), one of the Karges (elves of fire and steel), one of the Lethquesti (elven nobles), or one of the Valmori (keepers of mythical beasts). Unlike in other games, The Everlasting does not delegate what one house has over the other in terms of benefits , mechanics wise. Instead , during character creation process you can pick and choose where to place things. Kudos. By not allowing for cookie cutter Xeysori( who are supposed to be extremely good with computers and what not) or a cookie cutter Valmori ( They do not by default start out with a mystical beast) you can chose to have your Xeysori start out with more points in techno skills or not. You can choose to have the Valmori start out with a mystical pet or instead have the ability to cast magical spells. The choice is yours.
Next we have the Fey, the king of choice in my opinion. The fey are by far the largest of the races listed here in terms of page count. The sheer amount of data is staggering but just food for the creative mind!. There are no specific stats for any race of Fey. Due to the sheer number of fey possible for one to play you can instead customize your character to what you believe your character should be like. For instance: If you want to play a Fey Troll , you have the standard starting method of making your character plus the ability to add 3 pts anywhere you want to better suit what you think your troll would be like. Trolls are normally considered strong so some people would drop more points in Strength, but what if you want your troll to be a tinker? Then you drop those pts into Intellect or Inspiration. Some people may not like the free flowing nature of this but that is the Fey in the Everlasting. If a Fey dies, he/she doesn’t die for good ( unless they were originally human) but instead are reincarnated as a new fey, some times as a completely different race of fey! Thus you can move your stats around once again!
Dwarves are not the typical salt of the earth kind you would expect in a fantasy world. The Dwarven races in the Everlasting have been long divided since many of their best warriors became agents of the Princes of Fire (chaos) and the Lords of Stone (order). Dwarves I think may actually be a bit unbalanced but only time will tell. They have okay powers and stats but their real strength lies in their dwarf tech. Techno Armor, Hammer Guns, Lightning Bolters , Glyphs of Un-Dead Slaying one would almost think this was a War Hammer game.
The General feel of the Game-
In the past the three previous books had opening candle ceremonies and how to role play in your dreams guidelines. I can see how some people would get a little iffy about it but Mr. Dobbs apparently edited that out and will edit that out of all future reprints as well.
The Everlasting has been called a “higher form of RPG” by some of it’s detractors and fans alike. Some people getting their panties in a wad over the authors talk about attaining an altered state of reality when gaming saying that it is too “pretentious”. I happened to be chatting with Mr.Dobbs about that and to gauge his feelings on the matter and his response was very interesting and if you get a chance to talk to him I highly suggest you ask him about this because he makes a very good point. He’s often times on the message board forums at his web site or on Yahoo so if you want to question him about the “pretentiousness” of the Everlasting I am sure he would love to answer your questions.
Over all the feeling of the game is what you make it. It has no set theme per see with myself having run light hearted games as well as horror games and some romantic themed games.
What's the bad?-
The character sheet was an attempt to improve on the character sheets found in the previous foundation books. It fails in that regard.
The story that appeared in the first three foundation book does not appear in this one. Due to space problems I would hope ( but truly I think Mr.Dobbs just listend to the critics who said the story didn't need to be in the book. DAMN YOU!). I understand it will be on the web site in the near future.
Typos and mismatches that will be corrected but that do not detract from the game.
Summation-
The Everlasting Role Playing Game has come back with a roar, although a tad bit shaky. The Book of the Fantastical is a must have for Everlasting fans and a great game to pick up for those looking for something different. It has it’s errors here and there but when you put out a 368 page book for the first time I would imagine you are bound to make some mistakes. Fans of the Everlasting may be hesitant to get back in due to the dry spell that happened under the previous ownership but Chip has done a great job of getting the book out there and promoting it. Currently the Book of the Fantastical is ranked #1 over at RPGMALL.COM followed by the Book of the Spirits at #2.
In addition Visionary Entertainment is represented by Osseum who is getting their books in stores like Amazon, Walden Books, Barnes and Noble as well as through out the distribution channel. Folks, he’s here to stay if you will support him. I for one will be.
If you are looking for a game with a rich background and great races to chose from, then pick up a copy of this Book today!
Style 4: The layout is different from the previous four books but nice none the less. Could have done for more pictures though.
Substance 5: Thick and meaty just the way I like it! Could use better editing next time but still very good.
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