1) CREATIVE AND EFFECTIVE INCORPORATION OF RULES (1-10): 8
Ancient- Used as an attribute in the game. Standard, safe answer.
Emotion- Used as an attribute in the game. Standard, safe answer
Glass- A central theme of the game. Also used as an attribute, but better executed because of its link to the games color.
Time- Rigid framing keeps the time element standard throughout different games. Relates to the three ages of the game’s setting. A fine execution.
2) CLARITY (1-10): 4
Feedback: The rules on this one were pretty hard to follow. I got a good sense of what occurs during a session, but not how to facilitate it. The charts didn’t elucidate play, they confused it.
3) COMPLETENESS (1-10): 3
Feedback: This game is all about its setting. You don’t really play characters so much as you PLAY THE SETTING. The text gives the impression that the author understands and loves the setting, but it doesn’t really let the reader in on it. This game should drip color, everything should be steeped in it, and instead it feels like its just pinned onto a dice mechanic. The little fiction vignettes are interesting but they don’t help us get a feel for the game.
The game gives a lot of attention to certain mechanical and glosses over others. Sometimes with a damning effect. From the text “If a crisis involves an element of mystery, such a [sic] finding a murderer, then the crisis should not state the solution to thy mystery. The solution is build as the players attempt tasks until the Gm determines that the crisis has been resolved.” I understand that doesn’t mean much out of context, so really I’m only talking to the author here; this is the kind of thing an entire game can be built on. It is EXTREMELY difficult to realize this kind of storytelling. Spillane, Hammett, Chandler, and Christie don’t just wing it, a game shouldn’t either.
The presence of Gods in the game is completely arbitrary. They aren’t talked about during play at all (it would seem) but are totally integral to the win conditions. The gods are generic and flavorless.
4) ESTIMATED EFFECTIVENESS IN PLAY (1-10): 3
Feedback: This is not a roleplaying game. This is a dice game. Players describe a problem facing the world, and then posit solutions. They roll for results. The macro scope of the game doesn’t really make for character interaction, with NPCs or other folks sitting around the table. The GM is little more then another player at the table who does more work then everyone else. There is a competitive element to the game, but the GM can’t win, not because the deck I stacked against them, but because they don’t have a winning condition.
5) SWING VOTE (1-10): 3
Feedback: I didn’t feel like this game could be played. I didn’t think the setting supported the mechanics, or vice versa. The Color (again, for something like this, should be most important) felt pretty trite. If this whole nation is built on its love of glass, they should have fantastic architecture, fashion, weapons; tell me about this. If glass is the most important thing in a society, that’s going to dictate a lot about its aesthetic, its attitude. The game should explore this from an almost anthropological level. Also, Vikings and Persians as invaders are so well tread they really have to do something awesome for me to care at all about them. I do really like the term “the lash” to describe the north sea. The fiction was a nice addition, but I would like to see it more pertain to the scope of what the players do.
TOTAL: 21