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Review of The Age of Phaedrus
Character design is based around spending the points a 3d6 roll gives you amongst some 12 Characteristics, and randomly determining the rest. Available races are Elves (three kinds), Dwarves, Humans, Halflings, and Gnomes. Skills are level or % based, depending on the nature of the skill. Characters can weild 6 different magic types, or use Prayer to call for the gods' intervention. The world is populated by monsters you'd expect: Dragons, Giants, Goblins, etc.
After some play, the weaknesses with the game are fairly apparent. It feels very much like a home-brew system, with gaps in the rules covering Combat, Prayer and Spell casting requiring a GM to fill in the gaps. The mix of random and chosen elements serves not to give the players more control over the shape of their character; instead, it leaves them ultimately at the mercy of the dice. The world is derivative of others, complete with the Elves, Dwarves, Halflings and Gnomes we've come to expect from fantasy games.
Okay, so clearly the game didn't win over myself or my players. We found it too much like D&D, but too different to be familiar. The combat system provided results that were both unexpected and unwanted (when the kickboxing elf knocked a gnome's arm off with a kick, we began to wonder...). It was determined that jumping was the best way to move around, since other movement rates were incredibly slow.
Which isn't to say AoP is all bad. There are some good ideas wedged into the rules. The fact that a 'fast' character is not always fast (allowing for slower character to potentially steal the initiative) struck me as a nice touch. That anyone can use Prayer also seemed a good thought (if only it weren't so easy). Taken as a whole, the game struck me as being *very* suited to doing a Wuxia Chinese Fantasy game in the style of Chinese Ghost Story.
I was disappointed by AoP. From the name, I was hoping for a game set in a psuedo-Greek Bronze Age, with the opportunity for Epic Heroism against a backdrop of warring City-States and angry Gods (a good bet, given the popularity of Hercules and Xena). Instead, it proved to be yet another derived fantasy setting. Complete with a Dungeon Sample Adventure.
This was Book One: The Heroes, implying there will be more to come. I am hopeful in future releases, the authors will clear up the rule problems and find something unique about their world to make it worth spending more time in. That, or they will re-tune there system to take advantage of its flavor to produce a different setting.
Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)
