Secret of Zir'an

[Mr_Pleasington]

My interest was piqued a few months ago when I heard mention of this game being published through Arthaus (a division of White Wolf) and it finally got released.  

Being a game addict, I bought the pdf.

It's a complicated game.  Not for newbies, for sure.  Complicated and complex, but also very well done.  I'm very impressed with it and no game has captured my imagination as this has since I read Deadlands back in the late 90's.  

That said, I'm still trying to wrap my head around parts of it.

The system is very cool, allowing for success levels to have a dramatic effect on the game.  The setting is even cooler.  It's a strange mix of pulp, fantasy, noir, and bits of anime.  

Character creation is a lifepath system and one of the best I've seen.  You start off with a base age and origin and then buy skill packages that cost a number of years and give you options of skills to take.  For example, you could take a military package for a few years, get captured and take the prisoner package, and then take the life of hedonism package once your character is released.  When you get done with character creation your character will have a pretty deep history. This has been done in other games, but the system is done almost to perfection in SoZ.

In a lot of ways it reminds me of the Final Fantasy games, particularly 6 (3) and 7.  That's a compliment, by the way.

I'll have a review in a bit, after I finish Ashes of Middenheim, but I've got to say that this game has a lot of potential and I think there are several of you guys who will find this as imaginatively-captivating as I have.

[Spriggan]

I like character development like that hearing it reminds me of Mekton which is simialer.

Infact that reminds me that I'd like to run a quick 2-4 session Mekton game sometime, just haveing the players build their own Mecha and totaly go postal on others.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

looked at in the store and was turned off by the background art that totally confuses the text because it is so dark.

The book would look great if no for that.

[Mr_Pleasington]

I heard the book has a horribly design such that some pages are unreadable due to silver print on glossy gray or some such.

I have the pdf and,as such, those things aren't problems.

The content is worth it.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

So have you run any games yet Dr. P?

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Zir'an Hardcopy first impressions...
Kill the layout gal

Kill her.

Ok not really... but honestly what design class told her that it was ok to put heavy fake text behind the regular text.

Its really distracting and makes my eyes hurt, which isnt a good thing to do when the most important character and rules chapters are the illegible ones.

For the record the chapters that are hard to read are

Chapter 2: Game System

Chapter 3: Character Creation

Chapter 4: The Peoples of Zir'an

Chapter 5: Character Origins

Chapter 6: Skill Packages

Chapter 9: Setting (but only the first few pages so its mostly ok)

Chapter 12 Adversaries

Since there are only 12 chapters and an index half the book being illegible is pretty much unacceptable.

Paragon has made the two most illegible chapters (Skill packages and Adversaries [6&12]) availible for free download.

Apparently the Download on RPG now is fine.

Gripe two

Organize it better...

Creation sections are all over the place...

all over.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Now that the gripes are done,... I really like the world. I like the Magic/tech combination, I like the finesse system.  

The world.

Inspired by Nausica and Miazaki it has a neat post apocylptic feel with weird ungainly aircraft.

There are other nations though and a rich background. In a personal game I'd probably drop the other racial humanoids (because the game doesnt need them really)

[Mr_Pleasington]

So have you run any games yet Dr. P?

No, too many other things on my plate right now.  I'm currently running Vampire: The Requiem and either WFRP or Necessary Evil is next on the plate.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

mmm NE!

[The Jade Knight]

It sounds something akin to WFRP's career system, but where you give starting characters more experience, and also weight careers with age.

So, are some of these packets more expensive than others?  Or can you pursue a packet as long as you want and slowly become better within the packet?  How does it work?

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

it works like this, you get a set number of character points to spend on packets and they cost a set amount. Arivonean Pilot for instance costs 13 points, while resistance member costs 24. Each has a set of skills you can choose from a bonus to one of your 3 aptitudes and often some sort of language skill and each adds x number of years to your starting age.

You can spend two years as a pilot (1 term) 13 points and then take a year off to be roughing it (1 term)12 points or be a soldier and follow it up with a life of debauchery.