There has been a lot of talk about Eoris, and as it’s proved a little difficult to get hold of. So for my first RPG.Net review I thought it worth taking a look at Eoris when I finally got hold of a copy.
The first thing that hits you about this game is that quite simply it is gorgeous. It comes as two full cover hardback books in a slipcase. When you get hold of a copy you might be forgiven for thinking you’ve been sent a limited edition version by mistake, but no, this is the standard Eoris set. The book is packed with art, making it one of the best looking gaming product you will ever see. I’ve certainly not seen a book as lush as this since Laughting Pan’s ‘Deleria’ RPG. Even though the price tag is rather steep ($100) I don’t see how the guys who produce it can be making a profit (although this may be why it is difficult to find in retail). I can only hope they haven’t printed 30,000 copies to get a good deal, unaware that selling 7,000 is good for an RPG these days…
However, the question is, under all this glossy art, is there a decent game lurking underneath? Interestingly that turns out not be a very simple question to answer. Eoris has a very detailed world and a reasonably solid rules system, but it does have its faults. Some gamers are going to find it wonderful; others are going to hate this.
So let’s take a look at the first volume, which contains the world background (the second volume is the rulebook). This volume is divided into 2 books, although ‘book 2’ is only a few pages long and offers sparse but useful notes on play eras. Book 1 begins with a description of the universe Eoris takes place in. It isn’t especially complicated, but it is rather involved so bear with me. The universe was called into being by ‘the Great Spirit’ whose mere existence creates powerful energies that manifest as The White Ring, an unbelievably vast planet in the shape of a ring, similar to the Ringworld but a lot bigger (yes, bigger than Ringworld!). As all things have their opposite, the ‘Black Sphere’ came into existence in the centre of the White Ring. As the Black Sphere sucks energy like a black hole, the space inside the White Ring is devoid of life and air, although several universes (ours included) have come into being in this ‘space’. The forces playing on both objects (and the movement of the Great Spirit on the White ring) cause the White Ring to spin around the Black Sphere, causing waves of energy to ripple out across the rest of the supra-universe.
The waves that flow from the White Ring make the space outside a place of life and energy. Planets don’t need suns as the waves of energy (essence) sustain everything they pass over. The White ring is effectively a sun for the whole universe. Eventually these waves of essence reach the ‘Horizon of Soliloquy’, the edge of the universe. Due to the movement of the White Ring the waves of essence focus more strongly on a particular part of the Horizon of Soliloquy. At this point the planet Eoris came into being, bathed in the strongest waves from the ring. Most of Eoris remains unformed in the horizon, so only a tiny fraction is inhabitable. However, even this fraction is vast, and has grown or shrunk as the planet has sunk or risen into the horizon on the tides of essence over the millennia.
Still with me? Cool. The planet Eoris is where the game takes place, and it is populated with three main types of life. The Sil are the first kind of life, effectively angels, created on Eoris by the Great Spirit. Not many are left now, but they are still regarded with a little awe and fear. The second type of life is more common, the various forms of Xylen or mundane life. These creatures (ranging from furry beasts of various sizes to human like beings and wolves) developed on Eoris due to the waves of essence that saturate it and the creation of the Sil. The last type of being are the Kalei, or ‘last spirits’, crystalline angelic entities who have come from the White Ring to destroy the Great Spirit in the Black Howling (but we’ll get back to that).
The lands of Eoris are many and varied. Many of the landmasses actually float creating a two-tier system of those who live on the floating islands as sky dwellers and those who live on the land below. Some even live under the sea as well. While the landmasses were once a single large island, several wars and disasters over the ages and separated them into their present form. The peoples of these lands have divided into twelve tribes which each owe fealty to one of the original four original families of the Sil.
There is a significant amount of space dedicated to religion, which as you might imagine, focuses on the Great Spirit. As the existence of this God is not in any debate, the people of Eoris argue a little about the best way to worship it. Having said that the tribes all seem to get on very well indeed, which is a bit of a shame as the world could do with a bit more conflict on a smaller scale. All the wars that have come and gone usually involved vast powers doing huge things. So there is little to give you a feeling of what it’s like to be a more ‘ground level’ type of character. Some of the history seems a little contradictory. For instance, at one point in the past a race of almost indestructible spirits called The Twilight Spirits’ landed on Eoris intent on wiping out all life there. They almost destroyed everything before finding what they were after and leaving (although what they were after we don’t know). However when you get to reading about the tribes it turns out these same genocidal spirits took time out to help and advance one particular tribe. To me, this seems utterly at odds to what we know about them. This may be the writers trying to create mysteries, and that’s fine for the players, but if I were running this I’d want more detail.
I should also add a note about the Black Howling I mentioned above. This is the era the game is designed to be played in but it is possibly the most confusing. At this point in the history the Great Spirit has left the White Ring and arrived on Eoris. She has declared a mandate that for the universe to grow and change she must be destroyed to usher in a new era. The Kalei and Sil agree with her, but the Xylen decide that deicide isn’t a good plan and determine to defend her. Unfortunately, while the book talks about vast armies laying siege to the continent where the Great Spirit resides, it also appears to describe all these tribes still getting on with their daily lives as if nothing special is happening. It all feels as if the authors thought ‘God attempting suicide’ was a cool idea, even though it just doesn’t seem to work. Why can’t she destroy herself? If she directly told the Xylen it was for the best why would they disagree? Why not return to the White Ring where only the Sil and Kalei might go and end the problem? However, I find myself genuinely wanting to know the answer rather than declaring the game broken, although they aren’t questions I should need to ask. It feels very much as if the style is overwhelming the substance which is something that occurs a few times in this game. Having said that, you need not set the game during the Black Howling; the world after ‘War of the Twilight Spirits’ is a good time to place adventures (even if the Kalei won’t be available as characters) as several ruined civilizations look to rebuilding in the wake of an attack by an advanced species.
In general the background makes sense, and if you are a final fantasy fan, you are going to love it. However, the roots of the creators as artists is sadly all too apparent in the background book. It reads not like an RPG book, but like an art book and as such it doesn’t often nail things down or explain itself as well as it could or should. Many things are included that sound really cool, but when you put them all together they often don’t seem to work so well. It also seems more concerned with raising philosophical questions than just explaining the how and what of the world. Now I’m not against adding philosophy and making the reader think a little more. However, I’m not so keen on it when it apparently takes precedence over the background. This isn’t helped by the writing style of the book. It reads very much as if English is not the author’s first language. This is not to say it is wrong, if anything it’s too correct, making the tone stilted and heavy to read. The book also desperately needs a glossary, as it has so many special words you need some reference to remind you what many of them mean. Given all the philosophy and poetry that litter the book the authors do get points for not being pretentious in the writing. Their love of the world is apparent and they don’t start trying to tell you this is ‘a game unlike any you have ever seen’ or similar (which always annoys me). So as a player’s guide, volume 1 is very pretty and offers a nice intro to the world, but as a resource for a GM it falls very short.
So now we move onto volume 2 (and book 3) the rules section. The book begins by explaining the general system, combat and skill use, even magic, before it moves onto character creation. While this is a little odd I like the idea of telling people what the numbers mean before you try and build a character with them. Unfortunately, as you haven’t read the details of what all these skills and attributes are, the opening chapters are a little unclear. The system is solid enough though. You build a dice pool from your attribute + skill and try to beat a difficulty number with each one for an amount of successes. So far, so White Wolf, and that’s fine. However, in most cases the target number for the dice is the same (15) with the difficulty being defined as how many successes you are required to roll to achieve success. While this is fine the book doesn’t give you a lot of guidance about what sort of calls the GM should make for the amount of required successes which is not helpful. Another thing I find odd is that in Eoris you use D20s for your dice pool. For me the D20 is a bit too variable and people don’t tend to have large collections of D20s. Mind you, no gamer is ever really going to complain about making a trip to the dice shop. The general downside for this system is that you have to define how many dice you roll, what number you need to roll to get a success and how many successes you need to succeed which to me is not very streamlined. When a player says ‘what do I need to roll’ the answer should be a lot simpler.
What I do like about this system is the way the dice are modified for racial attributes, even though it is slightly confusing. All characters have the same base points for the same 10 attributes (Strength, Spirit, Constitution etc) so all player characters have the same range of attributes for their dice pools. However, where a specific race has a better base attribute they get to reduce the number they need to roll on the D20 for a success. So a strong human type character might have a higher raw attribute than his bear like companion, but the bear guy will need to roll less to get a success. It’s a nice feature that lets you set global attributes for different species without rewriting character creation.
Combat too is quite straightforward, but a little clunky for a modern system. You can roll to hit with your dice pool, the defender can parry and the amount of actions you have are determined by spending action points. If you are used to D&D this sort of tactical combat will be reasonably familiar. I can’t claim its bad, I’d just have preferred something simpler and less involved, but that’s just my preference. Continuing the D&D parallel, damage is rated in life (hit) points. However, every time you lose life points equal to your toughness you suffer a wound, which gives you a penalty. Run out of life points and you’re dead. This gives a nice way to represent general bruising and knocking about with life points, but offers the option for broken bones and sprains with the injury system.
The Saia, or magic section is again straightforward, building on the same system for skills. Magic in Eoris works on the theory ‘any sufficiently advanced science appears to be magic’. However, Saia looks, feels and resolves in the same way as magical power in any other game so the distinction is not very apparent. Mind you, it still works. Saia is utilized as a form of song (although you need not actually sing, some magicians use Runelore or the like) with the caster having to roll to compose and to cast the song in question. The book offers an array of Saia songs, so magicians certainly don’t get short changed. However, Sil have a distinct advantage as they have an ‘Aura’ stat (which for others is very expensive to buy) which makes Saia casting a lot easier.
In general I’d say the skill system works, and possibly works well. However, reading it is rather heavy and feels like you are reading the designer’s notes rather than getting a fuller explanation. There are thankfully plenty of examples, but the array of additional rules and modifiers makes this quite a rules heavy system. Actually, that’s not entirely fair; it’s a relatively light system that has been overcomplicated a little by trying to make it do too much. It’s like a character being told ‘in this game you just need to say you have a gun and that’s fine’ but still allowing them to pick from a list of firearms, all of which have slightly different properties. Some things in the game make perfect sense, others are less precise. There are several things that look fine when reading the book, but I suspect will become confusing when you actually play. Again, it is all about nailing down the specifics, which I’m not convinced in always achieved.
What I am really in two minds about is the social system. Each character has a trait for how good they are at convincing people of things or ‘adjusting their impulses’ and a trait for resisting them. Then, much like Pendragon, they have a series of personality attributes that are assigned values to govern these impules. In moments of crisis you might roll to see what your character’s impulse is. Now in Pendragon this really works, especially as many Arthurian stories involve knights doing what they know they shouldn’t. However, in Eoris is seems like just too much system. If the dice define how your character reacts, how are we role-playing? However, if the player can overrule these results (which in Eoris they can to a certain degree) why bother rolling them? I’m oversimplifying here, but the social system is going to be a love it or hate it mechanic. Especially as you have to assign the points to your personality traits from your character creation points. I’m not clear why you’d spend these on personality and not skills and powers. Personally, I’d make players roll these, and then mess with the points a little and just run it like Pendragon.
Character creation gives you a lot of options, and all the races you read about in book 1 are potential player characters. However, again, the section reads like designer’s notes rather than an explanation. Some things are a little patronizing (such as step 1 being to print out a character sheet) and other things aren’t especially clear when you think about them. For instance, some abilities say ‘you can do X’ without describing what you need to roll, how long you can do it and how often. I’m also left very confused with some races as I thought the various Sil races were actually Xylen until I got this far. What is really lacking here is an example of character creation, which usually answers the questions I have when working through a game. Given they have offered plenty of examples in the system it is very odd we don’t get one for character creation.
Some characters might have companion animals and so there is a system for creating weird and wonderful beasties. Given there no are examples of the sort of creatures and vehicles you might produce it is a little bewildering. However it looks solid enough even if the pile of rules may put you off the idea of having your cool vehicle. One thing that does deserve a mention is the power scale system allowing you to ramp up the level of player powers from simple adventurers to epic heroes with some very basic math. The ability to scale your whole campaign with one modifier is a nice piece of game engineering and fits the style of Eoris well.
Once you have a character, the rest of the book covers the various powers, Saia and equipment you might choose. There are an array of weapons, all fully illustrated, to choose from. It feels very self-indulgent, as if the artist just likes drawing weapons, but they all look cool even if some are a little ridiculous. The book finishes with some antagonists and final system notes. The antagonists are again well illustrated but not especially well detailed although there is enough to make use of so I’m being picky. The system add-ons include rules for mounted combat and a series of other ‘you might need this rule sometime’ stuff. While it’s odd they reside at the end of the book, as they are all minor rules they make sense as an appendix.
So, after all this, what’s the verdict? I’m left thinking Eoris is a nice game, but not a great one. It looks stunning, and while there are many cool things here it doesn’t instantly inspire me to dive in and play it. If it didn’t have the production values it does, I’m not sure I would have noticed it. In some cases the language is a barrier as it is an odd read. For instance, all the various tribes are assigned a gender and change from being referred to as he or it. I can only assume this is the authors applying the ‘le’ or ‘la’ as in French, and if so it just adds to the confusion when that doesn’t apply in English. Even if I’m wrong it was still confusing!
It seems apparent that Eoris is aiming for the sort of game we saw with ‘Skyrealms of Jorune’. The idea is to simply leave your world behind and enter the vast world of Eoris. While they don’t actually fail at this, they don’t really succeed either. The game is there, but they have focused on the wrong areas to make the world live. We know about the global detail and huge histories but not about how the people live and work together. It’s those details that breath real life into the world, not the poetry, philosophy or even the pictures. I get the feeling that the creators did extensive playtesting, but never handed the game to someone who knew nothing about it and asked them what they thought and what made sense. I think if I knew the writer’s personally I’d very much enjoy playing any game of Eoris they ran. Especially in the limited contact I've had via forums and ordering a copy they have been truly nice guys. However, with only what is in this book I’m left feeling as if I haven’t seen enough to really understand what makes the game special. Having said that, there is a powerful ‘cool factor’ to this game that will make you love it or hate it. Personally I very much hope we’ll see more supplements to this game (and I’d be happy to work on one to be honest) that can expand what we have here into something really remarkable. The potential is there, but it just doesn’t quite get there. Yet.
Review Summary