Well, submitting my thesis cut into game design time in the worst possible way, but I think I have Zodiac almost ready to go. Many thanks to those who offered me feedback.

A cutdown PDF of the first part is at the link below, if you would like to look. Even this version is 6.5 meg - so watch out. Not sure how I am going to distribute it, the 300dpi version clocks in at a total of over 20meg (for 132 pages, lots of art) - the hosting costs seem prohibitive and it would break my heart to cut the art.

Anyway, thought I should share the rules section with you folks.

Scobie

http://www.staff.vu.edu.au/scobie/zodiac_a.pdf

Just glancing through and, even though the Zodiac is just flavor and mood, Virgo and Capricorn should be switched. Carpricorns are usually perserving suave business people who are stubburn and never back down. Virgo might be a better choice for nature survival, going with the whole "earth goddess" aspect of Virgo. Might want to switch Leo and Sagritarious too- Leos are firey "here I am! worship me!" types.

Also, what's with all the cat people?

LR

Thanks for the feedback - I have entrenched some of the zodiac divisions in the background material for the divisions, so not sure if I can unpick some of that stuff. But I will look. I was definately going for the 'stubborn' aspect with Capricorn. It may be intersesting to work on the schism between the signs and the way in which Zodiac divisions have actually evolved - there is a whole internal conflict metaplot brewing...

The kittyboys are also part of the background - think of a gay version of the playboy bunnies, mixed with gatchaman and the thunderbirds and a good dose of the banana splits. They are a well-resourced team of Zodiac agents usually used as 'friendly' rivals for pc teams.

Scobie

I understand thesiswork getting in the way of game design (or in my case, vice versa?). But I like what I see. Soundtracks, Houses, etc: all quite good. A few thoughts, having read the first two major sections.

Firstly, the gridish character sheet for the Disboulator: a bit to Excel-like. Eventually (somehow?) work up something prettier. Actually, the total character sheet in the end would be very sweet as concentric sphers, and I think that actually be really clear. I could imagine that each sector (for Element or Zodiac) being a stylized font, and the Decans (in the most outwards circle) could have an icon to go alongside the skill.

I do feel there are some instances of slightly complexed mechanics (i.e. stepping away from stylized language into technical terms, but yeah, that's hard to avoid). Also, potentially unneeded jargon at times? Examples:
* distinctions between talent and "expertise value"? Any reason to not just refer to the total?
* Faustian Compact, Random Roll are terms that don't seem precisely to fit (the former is also a bit arcane, and you may want to make it EASIER to let people pull this stuff out of thing air! if you penalize it and call it diabolic, you'll probably scare skittish players off from using that option).
* The Character Creation page (you know, with all the numbers and 3 spy types) could be made a touch clearer)
* "phantom talents" - might it be enough to simply say that if there's no talent taken, you assume zero?
* Finally, I do encourage making the Faustian Compact bits easier. Maybe say that for each time you invoke pulling some bit out of your arse, a player takes a "Gotcha" token or such, that the GM can invoke to embarass the player. But that's your call.

Hope this is somewhat helpful. I like the direction this is going!

Thanks for feedback.

Dull character sheets. Yep I agree. I did want to do some kind of hoopy mandala thing but couldn't quite get it to work. It is on my to do list and I think spheres might work and be thematic.

Mechanics. Yeah, I have gone over and overworked too much of the text and most of it should be simpler. I think a few of the explanations make things worse. Talent total includes the other elements? Yeah, much better.

Faustian Compacts. Yeah, they need a snappier name (instants?) and are too expensive. I did think about maybe for each sacrifice giving the player 3 'uses' of the deal, could be three separate instances or one instance with two qualifiers - it all ended up looking too messy but I'm not sure.

Phantom talents. Yeah, back to that overworked text. Now I've had a break I may be able to have a go at it fresh. Its all a bit knotted up

Now I have to figure out online publishing options (yeah, I'll move the discussion to the relevant forum) I was looking at RPGnow but have heard dissatisified rumblings. Hmmmm.