Eidolon: the Dreamscape Opera

[Morningstar]

I did some groundwork on this a while ago in this forum.

Here's the front cover for the game, brought to you by the same artist that did Nobilis.

Eidolon cover

edited to turn image into link - RE

[Morningstar]

Slightly updated front cover,

revised cover

Inner jacket cover

inner cover

Title Cover

title page

edited to turn images into links - RE

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

I'm glad you've brought the game to the point of setting up the cover, and I appreciate your enthusiasm, but this isn't a place for announcements. It's important that when you start a thread, you provide a topic for discussion.

I've also edited your posts to turn the images into links, which is sort of an annoying, keystroke-heavy job. It would have been a lot more convenient merely to send the thread to the Inactive File and inform you by a private message.

Please start a discussion about the game and its development, including a link to external materials we can use as reference. The site's here to support you in doing that.

Best, Ron

[Morningstar]

Thanks for the heads up. I wasn't intending to use this as an announcement mechanism. I probably should have been clear in revealing that this is open to feedback.

For reference, I'm not a representative of a company. I'm a sole author who has been commissioning artists to do design work, and now illustrations. I'll be posting snippets of content up, and I would be interested in getting feedback on that.

Some specs: the current word count is 157K. We are talking about 230 pages without illustrations. Of this word count, all of it is setting material, and none is rules. The rules themselves will take probably no more than 10K words. I don't have shopping lists of tech devices and 'spells', but I do have the theories behind those systems explained to allow individuals to creatively determine what might work. This is my fourth year writing this project. It's taken a lot of research and revisions.

I'm looking at developing a narrative based engine and removing dice/cards etc as the principle mechanic of resolution. I'm looking into some of the ideas from the Fate system, such as the aspects of Houses of the Blooded, I am also looking at other narrative mechanisms. However, I'm writing the setting first, mechanisms second.

My philosophy behind writing this game is to straight up come with a rich, lavish world that will allow for deep immersion. It will be pitched around the dramas of international diplomacy, kingdom management, and the politics of court. In fact I don't have a chapter on weapons, but I do have whole chapters dedicated to costume, vehicles and transport, and communications.

The setting will be an alternate earth where story is as real a principle as physics, creating a gaslamp fantasy somewhere along the lines of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (which I will acknowledge as an influence), set in the equivalent Edwardian Era. It also has the history of the 20th Century mapped out as a future projection/prophecy.

Additionally, I am not treating this as a commercial venture. I am treating it as an artistic project. Part of what I had thought about doing with releasing this game, was  rather than publishing it straight away, I will get it to a point of 'basic' completion, and then open it as a beta document to allow community contribution. To allow an opportunity for fans (the many theoretical ones in my head) to have an influence over its shape and nature.

[Morningstar]

Please click on this link to see an excerpt document giving some of the setting highlights. It's not enough to give away all my secrets, but it does give you the general shape and feel of it.

http://bit.ly/Eidolon-Excerpt

[Ron Edwards]

Cool and double-cool! Compliance enforcement droid mode: off!

Thanks - I will be looking your material over as soon as I can.

Best, Ron

[David Berg]

Hi Angelus,

I love the way your images are rendered.  Definitely looks like a professional product. 

That keyhole makes me want to open it.  The rest of the cover, while pretty, is a bit non-specific for my taste.  In another market, that wouldn't be true!  But RPG land is somewhat saturated with olde-n-venerable imagery.

The inside cover, in contrast, is appealingly perplexing and visceral.  What's going on there?  I don't know, but it seems exciting and weird and I want to find out!

As for the game itself, whenever someone tells me they have 230 pages of setting, my first question is, "What am I supposed to do with it, relative to play?"  The answer to this question will then tell me whether or not this is the product for me.  Possible answers, to illustrate what I mean by the question:

• Read it all because it's fun to read!  And afterwards, you might be inspired to play too!
• Decide which small section is most inspiring to you for your game, and read that.
• You really need to know all this information in order to GM.
• You really need to know all this information in order to play.
• You should bring this to play to look stuff up and answer questions about what's in the world and how it works.
• You should read section A to GM, B to play, C for fun if you feel like it, one of D-Y once you've picked a province; and bring Z with you for reference.

And then, once I knew the intent, I'd want to know what the book does to deliver on that intent.  Like, if it's a reference, the index had better be good!

Hope this is helpful.  If you're looking for a different sort of feedback, just say so!

For what it's worth, "theories behind tech & magic from which to derive game content" sounds great to me if you can pull it off!  I also dig the community contribution idea.

Ps,
-David

[Morningstar]

Hi David,

I should be a professional look, as I commissioned a professional to do the artwork and layout. You can thank Peter Gifford from Universal Head for that.

I have also given some thought into the questions that you have asked and I have anticipated some of those needs.

Roughly speaking the game is setting is broken down into six areas... Scene (background, mythology, and setting information); Stage (physical places and environments), Actor (the characters and their roles), Prop (objects, and technology), Mask (society, politics and frameworks of social interaction), and Trope (mysteries, theories and lore).

It is a setting that engages in a broad reality, and all the chapters are designed in a modular fashion. This means that you only have to use a small part of it for a successful game. It allows you to set the game at a micro level of politics, in which case you probably only needs about 10 of the chapters for a good game. It also lets you broaden the scope of characters and their ambitions as players become more familier with the setting. Effectively, you can partician and cordon the game off in such a way to focus only on the parts of reality you wish to explore.

For example, Chronicle is one of the bigger chapters. It's a lot of history and most players won't find this immediately relevant to any of their games, but it does provide a huge resource for potential story hooks and historical artefacts that you can make relevant to your game. It's there to provide you with a sense of scope, but it can be reasonably assumed that (like real people) not everyone is on top of all the historical content. So if players just don't remember an aspect of the setting, it's like a person not knowing everything and this works (I think). If you're not playing a game with a huge historical context than you could easily skin over it. If you're playing a game that focus on trade and kingdom building, there is information there you can use (or gloss over).

Compare it to rules heavy settings where interruptions and delays can happen because players don't know the rules. Not knowing the setting is just a story hook waiting to happen, it's pre written story your players can explore.

So yes, all of this type of guideline is going to be put into a gamer's handbook.

[Morningstar]

If people want to help support this project, I've created a RocketHub

http://www.rockethub.com/projects/4024-eidolon-the-dreamscape-opera

[Morningstar]

Here's a copy of one of the pages in the book. Some of the illustrations are starting to come in.

http://eidolon.me/files/Basilisk-Hydra.pdf

[David Berg]

Looks nice!  What are you looking for feedback on?

[Morningstar]

In about a day or so, I'm going to upload some of the "in-game" magic systems. I'll be wanting feedback from people about whether it comes across too confusing or whether it works. I'm just tidying up a note or two.

[Morningstar]

A post-mortem of how Eidolon came to be: http://eidolon.me/history.htm

[Morningstar]

http://www.eidolon.me/files/Actor.pdf

I'm interested in hearing from people whether they like the simplicity and balance of this chapter layout. Note it is a two-page spread.