Eoris is a two book set contained in a sturdy slipcase. I reviewed the first book earlier so reading that may be informative. The second physical book contains Book Three (Thought) which is dedicated entirely to the mechanical system underlying Eoris including most (but not all) of the information needed to build a character. I'm not going delve too deep into the actual mechanics (other then the basic system) since crunch is not my forte and I haven't had a chance to play Eoris which will more greatly inform on the viability of the system.
Book Three is broken up into 9 chapters starting out with the basic system information and working through the various systems from there. The basic system shares a lot of similarities to White Wolf's Storyteller system but relies on rolling D20s rather then D10s and includes a special "Essence" die which depending on its roll can greatly change the outcome regardless of whether you succeed or fail with your overall pool. The system does add some more granularity then White Wolf by allowing changing of both the target number or the number of successes needed. Systematically I think this allows for a lot of fine tuning on the part of the Narrator. One problem in the book with having these two different ways at scaling power is that the reader must pay careful attention to whether a bonus is modifying the target number (thus making a -1 a good thing) or modifying the dice pool (-1 doesn't look quite so good now). Sometimes this isn't readily apparent especially in the race selection area.
Eoris has support for social combat which interestingly can coincide with physical combat and can reduce overall die pools and inflict status anomalies onto others. This seems to make social combat a vastly more useful affair especially since that allows non-physical characters a chance to contribute to combat beyond just hiding. Now they can hide and hurl insults at their foes reducing them to mental slag heaps.
Character creation feels rather complicated. Oddly the reader is required to reference the other book for information on some powers and abilities. This seems somewhat less then ideal but other then that the sections are fairly straightforward. There are a large amount of powers and spells (called Songs here) to choose from although none of them feel terribly exciting. Useful, yes, but nothing that seemed to reach off the page. Likewise we're given beautiful images of a wide assortment of rare weapons and it felt like their individual abilities weren't as awesome as they looked. Some of this feel may be mitigated by actual play showing off their true strengths but as a read it just felt un-impressive.
Overall this book felt like it could use a little better organization just like its partner. Editing was again impressive and art is still amazing. It stills feels like to me that it's missing some of a greater potential so it's going to sit at 7 out of 10.
Next Up: Gatecrashing
Showing posts with label eoris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eoris. Show all posts
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Eoris - Part 1
Eoris is a two book set contained in a sturdy slipcase. Currently it is only available in print format and just through the company's website or at conventions they attend. The books are split into the setting and the rules. The reason for the split as explained by the writers at GenCon to me was that the high quality paper used could not be bound well into a single book. Hence the split. This review, however, covers just the setting book.
Just picking up this book you can tell that Eoris was a labor of love. The actual physical books themselves are beautiful and it's almost worth it to have these books on your shelf for that alone. The layout is in landscape allowing for very expansive and gorgeous artwork. The artwork is amazing another indicator I think to the effort and care put into this product. Onto the actual content itself!
Technically the setting book is split into two sub-books: Book One (Dream) and Book Two (Memory). Dream provides a broad but comprehensive looks at the world of Eoris. This is prefaced with an initial introduction which is fairly typical as introductions go. You have the standard what is roleplaying section and then some notes on the tones of the book. It also explains that Dream is written as the recollections and thoughts of limited narrator referred to as the Wanderer. The one thing that is it sorely lacking is a glossary of terms.
This lack is not initially apparent until moving into the next chapter: The Beautiful Universe. We're thrown straight into the Eoris cosmology which is detailed and complex. The challenge being keeping track of it. As it was I spent a fair amount of time either lost or paging back to try and keep things straight. The chapter gives a run-down on everything from an overall layout of the universe, to magic, to the universal currency, to the major races and their sub-speices. The variety of races here should provide a wealth of choices for even the pickiest of players. I found several that I want to play.
The next chapter "Beliefs" covers just thought, the major religion of Eoris called the Cerian Tree of Thought. It's broken into "Emblems" which are essentially like minded people who interpret the greater religion similarly. I was initially off-put by the thought of one monolithic religion for the world but I like how the Emblems act almost as separate branches of a church. It felt a little contrived to me as if the authors wanted to have it both ways.
Following that chapters is "Memories". This gives an overview of the history of Eoris covering all the major events. This helped fill in a lot of areas that made no sense from earlier chapters such as what the "Black Howling" is. It also provides a pair of secret societies to give an idea of what such organizations look like in Eoris.
Then we get to one of the larger chapters, "Paleogeography" which not only breaks down the geography of Eoris but also the breakdown of the major cultures living on it; the "Ethnias". There are many amazing maps at the start of the chapter which provided a thorough overview of the entire planet and it's many layers. The chapter then proceeds to cover these locations. Almost immediately I wished the maps had been broken out to go along with their sections of the chapter as I would be constantly paging back and forth to get a better idea of what was being described. I found the descriptions to be rather vague but this is a bit of personal taste. I enjoy a well detailed map and accompanying description. (Hence my love for 3rd Edition Forgotten Realms and Exalted!) The benefit to not having much detail laid out is that there is a lot of room for players to tell their own stories. The Ethnias are quite interesting and for the most part are fairly distinct. Their histories felt a little repetitive to me by the time I was finishing them but it was hard to put my finger down on exactly what was repeating. It may have been the broad stroke overview of their histories making several sound like the same story with different actors. Interestingly there is one that has no real information provided about.
Then we are on to Book Two Memory which provides a lot of art and a very long poem and a concise summary of the what you've been reading. I found this to do a better job explaining some setting elements then the proceeding chapters simply because it was not written in the 1st person. I came away with a better understanding of the setting and I am thankful for it.
Overall thoughts. I'm not a fan of the setting being described through the narrative of the Wanderer. I prefer a more upfront corebook so I have a solid idea of the world I am in. I found it both confusing and at times repetitive (alas not in a way that helped me to lessen the confusing part). Book Two certainly did a better job in my view. In both the editing was superb, I don't remember any typos at all. If only all game books were edited this carefully! The art is amazing but there are times where it doesn't seem to relate much to what is going on around it in the text. I would have loved for more pictures of everyday life in the villages of Eoris. Still I can't wait to play in the world of Eoris! I'll kick of my inaugural review with a 7 out of 10.
Next up, A Penny For My Thoughts
Just picking up this book you can tell that Eoris was a labor of love. The actual physical books themselves are beautiful and it's almost worth it to have these books on your shelf for that alone. The layout is in landscape allowing for very expansive and gorgeous artwork. The artwork is amazing another indicator I think to the effort and care put into this product. Onto the actual content itself!
Technically the setting book is split into two sub-books: Book One (Dream) and Book Two (Memory). Dream provides a broad but comprehensive looks at the world of Eoris. This is prefaced with an initial introduction which is fairly typical as introductions go. You have the standard what is roleplaying section and then some notes on the tones of the book. It also explains that Dream is written as the recollections and thoughts of limited narrator referred to as the Wanderer. The one thing that is it sorely lacking is a glossary of terms.
This lack is not initially apparent until moving into the next chapter: The Beautiful Universe. We're thrown straight into the Eoris cosmology which is detailed and complex. The challenge being keeping track of it. As it was I spent a fair amount of time either lost or paging back to try and keep things straight. The chapter gives a run-down on everything from an overall layout of the universe, to magic, to the universal currency, to the major races and their sub-speices. The variety of races here should provide a wealth of choices for even the pickiest of players. I found several that I want to play.
The next chapter "Beliefs" covers just thought, the major religion of Eoris called the Cerian Tree of Thought. It's broken into "Emblems" which are essentially like minded people who interpret the greater religion similarly. I was initially off-put by the thought of one monolithic religion for the world but I like how the Emblems act almost as separate branches of a church. It felt a little contrived to me as if the authors wanted to have it both ways.
Following that chapters is "Memories". This gives an overview of the history of Eoris covering all the major events. This helped fill in a lot of areas that made no sense from earlier chapters such as what the "Black Howling" is. It also provides a pair of secret societies to give an idea of what such organizations look like in Eoris.
Then we get to one of the larger chapters, "Paleogeography" which not only breaks down the geography of Eoris but also the breakdown of the major cultures living on it; the "Ethnias". There are many amazing maps at the start of the chapter which provided a thorough overview of the entire planet and it's many layers. The chapter then proceeds to cover these locations. Almost immediately I wished the maps had been broken out to go along with their sections of the chapter as I would be constantly paging back and forth to get a better idea of what was being described. I found the descriptions to be rather vague but this is a bit of personal taste. I enjoy a well detailed map and accompanying description. (Hence my love for 3rd Edition Forgotten Realms and Exalted!) The benefit to not having much detail laid out is that there is a lot of room for players to tell their own stories. The Ethnias are quite interesting and for the most part are fairly distinct. Their histories felt a little repetitive to me by the time I was finishing them but it was hard to put my finger down on exactly what was repeating. It may have been the broad stroke overview of their histories making several sound like the same story with different actors. Interestingly there is one that has no real information provided about.
Then we are on to Book Two Memory which provides a lot of art and a very long poem and a concise summary of the what you've been reading. I found this to do a better job explaining some setting elements then the proceeding chapters simply because it was not written in the 1st person. I came away with a better understanding of the setting and I am thankful for it.
Overall thoughts. I'm not a fan of the setting being described through the narrative of the Wanderer. I prefer a more upfront corebook so I have a solid idea of the world I am in. I found it both confusing and at times repetitive (alas not in a way that helped me to lessen the confusing part). Book Two certainly did a better job in my view. In both the editing was superb, I don't remember any typos at all. If only all game books were edited this carefully! The art is amazing but there are times where it doesn't seem to relate much to what is going on around it in the text. I would have loved for more pictures of everyday life in the villages of Eoris. Still I can't wait to play in the world of Eoris! I'll kick of my inaugural review with a 7 out of 10.
Next up, A Penny For My Thoughts
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