(no subject)

[cyrano]

I have just finished reading the new release from Evil Hat Games, Spirit of the Century. And I really want to play it. It's action filled between-the-wars pulp style role playing; good guys and bad guys, quick decisions, broad strokes and bright colors.
The game uses the new and improved FATE system, with lots of focus on aspects. Aspects are basically tags you can apply to characters, objects, places, scenes, and even possibly storylines. Aspects apply role playing 'handles' that in theory make things easier to pick up and manipulate. I feel like I don't have a good grasp on them, but I also feel like it shouldn't take much play experience to get a better idea of their function and uses.
There are no 'basic stats' either--no Strength Intelligence Dexterity and Health--which was disorienting for me. But the Skills pyramid is designed to be broad, and the skills that you should generally need are covered by it.
Ever since being involved in Jeff Campbell's rp experiments, I've really liked the idea of communal character generation. This game doesn't take it quite as far as Ephemera or Signals (nobody would get to choose a phobia for your character, for example), but the 'Create a Pulp Dime Novel about your character and guest star a couple of the other characters in your gaming group' tool makes me happy.
And the last half of the book is about advice to game masters, how to make the game work for the storyteller, and how to make the rules work for the game. For all you Expert Game Masters out there, this will all be boring stuff with maybe a few world-specific comments that might come in handy. For me, it was definitely worth half the purchase price.
The format of the Century Club--the good guys' home base--is also designed to help facilitate role play. As a CC member, it's remarkably easy to get a mission, gather a team, find resources that the PCs might have missed in character generation... The stricture that all members are born on the same day of the century might be a little too confining for my tastes (I'm already chafing at it) but I'm willing to try it before discarding it.
I must confess that many of my gaming-related thoughts while reading it were already bending the format. A Venture Brothers style game (all through the description of the 'Mysteries' section I kept seeing Doctor Orpheus), or possibly a Jazz-Age Torchwood, perhaps with Torchwood Four in New York. (In modern era, it's missing and this would be a chance to tell why.)
I admit that my experience thus far has no play-testing aspect, but I'm very pleased with my purchase.

Comments

[drivingblind.livejournal.com]

Break the setting. Kick it in the teeth. It's paper-thin, and meant to be folded, spindled, mutilated until it is your own.

Glad to hear you're liking the game!

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

My current favorite character idea started with me filing the serial numbers off Jayne from Firefly and giving him a strong background in Mysteries--kind of a 'Hellboy' approach to the esoteric secrets of the Elder Gods.