The Imperial Age: Help!

[Walt C]

Hey all!

We've been hard at work cramming everything we can into The Imperial Age RPG.

Unfortunately, it's bloated out to monstrous size. We need to cut at least 25% of it. That's where you all come in. I'd like your help in determining where to make the cuts.

So far, we're looking at the following options:

1. Strip out all the F/X (Magick, Engines, Psychics, etc). Put out a core rulebook that would also include London. The beauty of this option is that those of you that have been keeping up with the line will have a new set of core rules without loads of reprinted material. We'd follow the corebook with revised versions of the F/X.

2. Split the material into two books, perhaps a Player's Guide and a GM's Guide, or a corebook (as under #1) and a second book with all the F/X options.

3. Keep everything, but slim it all down. Instead of every spell from Grimoire, choosing a smaller selection of common spells (the Magick section is the most bloated by far). We could also trim out Victorian Monstrosities.

4. Corebook with one set of F/X, leaving the other F/X for future supplements.

5. Any other ideas you might have.

Right now, we're leaning in the direction of #3, but that may not be enough.

All opinions are welcome and appreciated! Thanks!

Walt Ciechanowski
Imperial Age Line Developer
Adamant Entertainment

 

[Inferno!]

I vote for option 2. Otherwise, I'd rather keep FX and strip out London.

 

[DarkKestral]

1. Strip out all the F/X (... Engines... ) ... [more stuff removed]

Is this mecha/steampunk stuff? or simply machinery in general? (I haven't seen the line, but I'd certainly be interested in it, given the right price.)

Anyways, I'd probably want either 2 or 4. London... hrmm.. I'd be interested, but I kind of feel that it deserves it's own sourcebook, ala Ptolus. I'm not sure you could do that sort of massive tome, but certainly a high-level map of the city with overlays that give general borders of each of the major neighborhoods, locations of specific places that most PCs would likely know of and possibly be familiar with, and writeups of those locations and the general feel and nature of most of the neighborhoods would be great. I don't think that the Victorian Monstrosities section should be cut, as long as it covered the highlights... the Victorians did love things such as Madame Tussaud's and gory sights, and every system that does the historical Victorian era that does London has to have at least a mention of Jack the Ripper. I would also like to see a sourcebook on Paris, given that it went through its Revolutionary period.

They also loved the idea of magic and the occult, so if I had to pick a single FX system to work with, I'd either go with Magick (as long as it wsn't mostly blasty spells, as I'd prefer more of a focus on necromancy of the "bringing back the spirits of the dead" sort, divinations, charms/glamours, and illusions, and small conjurations given that those were often the focus of Victorian magical obsessions) or steampunk machinery.

If you could say... have a game which emulates Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia well, I'd say you'd have the magick FX system spot on, and probably the main core system. If you could emulate The Difference Engine, I'd say the same, except for the steampunk FX system rather than the magick FX system.

 

[Stormborn]

At Dark Kestral: The Magick system is very modular and is intended as tool kit that the GM can use to immulate just about anything they want. It can easilly be all about necromancy and spirits, either by using Walt's Medium or by restircting Magick to School based skills via the 2nd practice of Magick. I have no doubt that you can do just about anything you want with the system.

That having been Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrel was certainly one of the things I was thinking of when I wrote the system in the first place.

Walt's question is essentially, I think, do you want it all? If so can it be divided up? If not what don't you need.

 

[ruemere]

Could you post page counts per chapter?

For now, options are imporant, balance is even more important. My vote goes to keeping setting information (London), tie it up into 1-2 adventure ideas (check Castle Falkenstein for inspiration), trim options to make them usable, fun but not overwhelming.

More options and more setting information to be published in 2nd corebook.

Regards,
Ruemere

 

[Ghostwind]

I'd prefer option #1 or 2 myself, leaning towards #1.

 

[DarkKestral]

At Dark Kestral: The Magick system is very modular and is intended as tool kit that the GM can use to emulate just about anything they want. It can easily be all about necromancy and spirits, either by using Walt's Medium or by restricting Magick to School based skills via the 2nd practice of Magick. I have no doubt that you can do just about anything you want with the system.

If it's that modular, then that's seriously great, as it sounded more like a set list of spells. Modular magic systems are a major plus in my opinion.

Still, what IS the Engine FX? That still confuses me. I assume it's steampunk engines. Is that correct?

 

[Stormborn]

Still, what IS the Engine FX? That still confuses me. I assume it's steampunk engines. Is that correct?

Yeah. Walt can tell you more about that. You can check out the desrciption here.

 

[Walt C]

Still, what IS the Engine FX? That still confuses me. I assume it's steampunk engines. Is that correct?

Engines is indeed ,for lack of a better term, our steampunk product. It's F/X only in the sense that the engineer (an advanced class) can create fantastic machines, such as analytical engines (computers), automata (robots, mecha), vehicles (airships, tanks, submersibles), and weapons.

Walt Ciechanowski
Imperial Age Line Developer
Adamant Entertainment

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Definetely option #2.