(http://www.krinein.com/img_oc/big/626.jpg)
First, I must explain that I am French and have been following Multisim's games with passion. Multisim is the publisher of the RPG Nephilim, and Agone owes some of its fantastic vibe to this evocative game of modern occult.
Rather than ramble about the contents, I'll link to an RPGnet review instead (http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_5848.html).
What's really interesting about Agone is that it's truly original in its feel. It's not a copy from some Fantasy style out there but its own, through and through. It's an evocative type of High Fantasy inspired by tales and legends with a touch of esoterism, poetic license and conspiracy theories in a world of wide variety and contrasts.
It's not D&D, it's not Warhammer, it's a game world of its own that is truly inspiring. It's not perfect (I'm not a huge fan of its rules system), but it doesn't deserve its relative anonymity either.
I got a real cheap copy of this from Troll and Toad a while ago. I really like the setting and presentation. It's a bit confusing in some of the organization and descriptions though, likely due to the translation. It's not something that I would ever play, but I did enjoy reading it.
A visually stunning and unique looking book. I picked up mine on Ebay, and apart from a few cursory glances and flick-throughs, I confess to not having read much...
I own the core book and a supplement and while fun to read I'm also one of those people who've never been compelled to actually run it.
Interesting. I'd like to know more but I admit to being too lazy right now to go look at the RPG.net review. (I will just not right now.)
I might develop later, but I must say, there's actually a reason why I posted the cover in the OP: sometimes, a picture's better than a thousand words, as they say, and I think it works quite well in this instance to convey the feel of the setting.
Sorry to say, but if the people who own it don't even play it, why is it considered underrated?
Creativity vs. stagnation, free will vs. strict determinism, artistic endeavors as magical conduits, lands and fantasy races that are mostly well-thought-out and interesting(mostly . . . sorry, but that Giants even still exist does NOT make sense given their reproductive habits as written -- unless it's a recent development, they should have died out long before the Masque ever became an issue).
The Masque is seriously one of the best villains ever created -- he wants to make the entire world take part in twisted, sadistic stories of his own devising, much like puppets in a play.
And the only weapons at people's disposal are a small and shrinking supply of shards of the dead(sort-of) goddesses, living dancing bits of magical material(that I believe are remnants of Diurn -- the eternal of light's -- power, but don't quote me on that), and the occasional artifact or place of power from a previous age of greater magic(before shards of the goddesses became so rare). Without these, people can still fight the Masque in some ways, but the lack of magic backing them leaves them especially vulnerable.
It's not a happy setting, though it's not oh-woe-is-me bleak either. There is plenty of room for victories, and the books hint at behind-the-scenes projects that could seriously change things if they're able to pull them off successfully, but it gives the impression that if something big doesn't happen fairly soon then the main characters -- the Inspired -- are probably fighting an ultimately losing battle.
Its in the collection, but its more likely that it will be read, and ideas used, rather than it ever being run.
Heck, I only paid £1 for it...
Yeah, I got the whole set for like $10 plus shipping. And another at the same price for a friend. And another a long time ago for full price that I probably sold -- stupid, stupid, stupid -- during one of my bookshelf purges. But I have a set now, so yay!
Hrms, I recall more of this now. I think my only complaint is PC minotaurs. (I don't know why that bugs me--other animal races don't so why the minotaur? Maybe its cow=food to me...)
I'm curious about this now. Someone ought to start a WTF Agone? thread.
Quote from: Silverlion;300213Hrms, I recall more of this now. I think my only complaint is PC minotaurs. (I don't know why that bugs me--other animal races don't so why the minotaur? Maybe its cow=food to me...)
But they're Darken-tainted Minotaurs from the Abyss(every minotaur starts out with a few points in that kind of taint)! Plus they're only male, and can only reproduce if a female demon of a certain type volunteers to help them out. This is rare, but not as rare as you'd think considering such pregnancies have an over 80% mortality rate.
You'll notice heavy influence from Greek mythology. Not an entire adaptation, but heck -- they even call their primary goddesses Muses, and the whole art-magic theme . . . sweeeeeet!
The cover art is excellent. Does that continue throughout the text?
However, from the review, I haven't been moved to be terribly interested yet. Anyone care to explain the magic system?
Yes.
I wish i hadn't sold my copy. Brilliant game. Brilliant fairytale setting, translation lets it down somewhat. Aside from that, brilliant!
Quote from: The Worid;300221Anyone care to explain the magic system?
There are two types of magic:
The first is tied to the arts. You can cast spells by writing, painting, sculpting, or playing an instrument. There are some exceptions, but most casters in the current time-line of Agone can only easily access the lower forms of these arts. And most of those spells have a difficulty, casting time(how long it takes to paint, carve, write, or play the necessary artistic component), and effect much like spells in other systems. There are a few known orchestra spells(music performed by multiple mages in concert), though there aren't enough mages to make very big magical orchestras. And there is a combination art(writing/music) that focuses on poetry and other passage recitation(including proper timing as well as the words themselves).
The music art is further broken down by instrument type(with the harpsichord being associated with the Masque, though that might be baseless superstition), though there is as of yet no vocal music art(though the Sirens of the Isle of Autumn have inspired some to begin research into such, as the Siren song is supremely useful to anyone who wants to retain their free will). And the painting art is broken down by seasons -- seasonlings who use this art tend only to learn the paintings of their own season, though there has been some experimentation into multiple-season paintings.
Most of the actual spells available to most are low magic, and as I already said, don't take long to cast(there are some exceptions that take longer to cast, especially in the sculpting art). There are remnants of the previous age of high magic(the Flamboyance) that are much more complicated and powerful. Vista(painting), for example, can potentially be used to effectively create pocket dimensions and portals connecting distant points of the world in its "high" form. Sculpting can be used to create semi-living beings(think gargoyles), powerful artifacts, and even buildings with peculiar powers(like the ability to turn invisible, shift rooms around, etc.).
The type of stuff each magical art can accomplish(even at the low-magic level) tend to be themed to some degree. Such as sculpting being the best way to create enchanted objects. And the combined writing/music art(cantor I think) has some focus on time manipulation.
That doesn't even say everything, but it's a lot. And on to the second type of magic:
Dancers -- I believe they are living remnants of Diurn's power(the eternal of light who is currently cut off from the world by the power of the Darken[eternal of darkness and servant of the Masque]). Or bits of the "dead" goddesses that didn't become magical sparks of inspiration(the things that give the PCs their magical powers). I forget which.
There are three methods that people use dancers. The first is jornism, in which the master and dancer come to know and trust one another fully. This school of dance magic generally focuses on healing type stuff. The second is eclipsism, in which the master and dancer are more detached. It's better at obfuscation type spells. And the last is obscanturism, in which the dancer is actually tortured(physically AND psychologically) in order to provoke the desired movements. Unsurprisingly, it's the school best at direct damage spells, and paradoxically the master and dancer in this school may be every bit as close as any jornist -- a bit of a necessity since they have to know just how far they can push their dancers w/o causing permanent harm.
Dancers can only know a limited number of spells, though they can perform unknown spells at a higher difficulty. Also, dancers can perform spells that fall outside of the normal purvue of their school at a higher difficulty. And mages who control multiple dancers can direct them in concert to cause some truly spectacular effects, though it's not easy.
The casting system is pretty simple. Your base skill to use any magic will be determined by one of your derived stats and the value of the applicable skills. It's all figured out during chargen. You roll the die, add your base skill and any applicable modifiers, and you try to hit a target number determined by the difficulty of the spell(its threshold value, which is always in multiples of 5). In the case of dance magic, trying to cast spells your dancer doesn't know or that would normally fall under a different school than you practice raises the threshold. If you succeed, you wait out the casting time, and the spell goes off and does its thing.
The cover looks great.
Quote from: GeekEclectic;300290Dancers -- I believe they are living remnants of Diurn's power(the eternal of light who is currently cut off from the world by the power of the Darken[eternal of darkness and servant of the Masque]). Or bits of the "dead" goddesses that didn't become magical sparks of inspiration(the things that give the PCs their magical powers). I forget which.
Thanks for the copious information. One question: what is a dancer? Is is some sort of immaterial spirit, or is it more like a high fantasy Pokemon?
Quote from: The Worid;300293Thanks for the copious information. One question: what is a dancer? Is is some sort of immaterial spirit, or is it more like a high fantasy Pokemon?
There is magical material in the setting called simply Shard. It is somewhat rare, being the solidified remnants of one or more of the "good" eternals' powers, and is a vital component of magical artifacts. Dancers are small humanoid formations whose bones are made completely of shard, and their dance-like movements can cause various magical effects if directed properly.
I guess you could compare them to Pokemon. They are small, easily controlled(for the most part), and they produce magical effects. But they don't really have types -- the spells they learn and perform are determined more by their relationship with their master(specific discipline -- jornist, eclipsist, or obscurantist) and the specific training they undergo(specific spells their master teaches). No psychic type or grass type here!
If my memory serves, I really think they are somewhat sentient remnants of Diurn's power that came into being when the Darken cut off Diurn from the world(and a good chunk of his power that was being used in the world at that time). I'll be sure to check my book later. It's bugging me that I can't remember more clearly.
Those are actually some terribly interesting magic systems. Nice to see creativity in a game; I'll look for this book.
Quote from: The Worid;300689Those are actually some terribly interesting magic systems. Nice to see creativity in a game; I'll look for this book.
Click here (http://www.trollandtoad.com/p170415.html) for the Troll & Toad RPG book lot containing every Agone product ever released in English. This is where I got my set(and the set I gave to a friend). $16 plus shipping for the whole shebang.
Quote from: GeekEclectic;300700Click here (http://www.trollandtoad.com/p170415.html) for the Troll & Toad RPG book lot containing every Agone product ever released in English. This is where I got my set(and the set I gave to a friend). $16 plus shipping for the whole shebang.
Thanks for the link.
Quote from: The Worid;300689Those are actually some terribly interesting magic systems. Nice to see creativity in a game; I'll look for this book.
I'm just getting to chime in, but, yeah, you should. It's great. I own everything they released in English for it and have actually played. If an RPG company picked it up again, I'd pre-order. Immediately.
Seanchai
is this available on pdf. i'd happily pirate this (it's out of print, keep your pantyhose on!)
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;300809is this available on pdf. i'd happily pirate this (it's out of print, keep your pantyhose on!)
$15.99 for everything is hardly a big loss and the art is pretty snazzy. Not trying to start the piracy debate but the product is still available dude.
Quote from: Idinsinuation;300817$15.99 for everything is hardly a big loss and the art is pretty snazzy. Not trying to start the piracy debate but the product is still available dude.
Not in english.
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;300822Not in english.
The items for sale at Troll & Toad are in English, yes.
Quote from: GeekEclectic;300826The items for sale at Troll & Toad are in English, yes.
What Geek said.
Quote from: GeekEclectic;300826The items for sale at Troll & Toad are in English, yes.
Well, I don't have that kind of money, so no one's going to be making any money from me either way.
And secondly, I'm not in America.
i just baught the books and im in the UK, i had no troubles placing the order as they ship to the UK from what the site says so thats hardly an issue.
as i said i don't have the money.
It's cheap on Amazon.com...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/284476083X/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1242176144&sr=8-1&condition=all (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/284476083X/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1242176144&sr=8-1&condition=all)
Seanchai
...again from america. I don't live in america. I thought i had mentioned this.
Are there any fan translated pdfs of the french source books that didn't make it to being translated to english? I'd really like to find a version of the bestiary and the art of conjuration.
If that is impossible, I dont suppose someone could assist in helping me find a way to translate these (what I assume are fan made, as I can't speak french to read the website, though I wish I did at this point) pdf dovuments: http://www.souffre-jour.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=109&Itemid=140
The first, second, and fifth ones would be super useful.
Wow, epic thread necro. This thread brought back a lot of memories, haven't seen half these posters around in a long time.
Why was Ghost Whistler banned?
TRPS is poorer for the lack of Seanchai, Ben and Pseudo. I'd take AM and Walkep back in a second as well. Some left by choice, others were banned.
We should have a banning amnesty every now and again.
I think GW was banned for an accumulation of things, but I can't remember.
So, I'm curious, as of last major discussion on this thread, it seemed few if anyone had played Agone.
I however, prior to my last post, had run a campaign that lasted nearly a year, and shortly after my last post I started a weekly campaign which is still in progress to this day (abd 8ve translated large portions of the French books into English fir my players, including 9 complete translations, with a 10th on it's way).
Has anyone else done anything with this game since? I often feel like I'm the only English speaker running this game... There is a French site fir the game, but not living around French speakers means my franchise isn't really good enough to hold meaningful conversations, especially about something as complex as an RPG...
Something I will say after having run it as long as I have, I know one complaint was how, on paper, the game has major balance issues. When you actually play the game though (and assuming you arbitrate what choices are acceptable to combine given the structure of the party. Obviously a giant doesn't fit if the party has any other combat character, unless the giant isn't a combat character for some reason, abd usually you don't want someone to be dual obedience Ascendancy if there is already another ascendancy mage, just to state a few examples) the game mechanics usually work out just fine. After all, the upward limit to combat prowess is incapacitating an enemy in a single blow, and there are a lot of ways of doing that in this game, regardless of your character's concept.
I find the strength of the game to be in its use as a sort of Fantasy Mystery solving game, where players only seriously fight enemies that pose a significant danger, like Masquards, other inspired, or powerful Demons. And even then, only after having tracked them down, piecing through complex puzzles, mind games, and lots of diversions orchestrated by this enemy to confound the PC's. After all, the Masque's first love is Drama...
Its an odd setting to be sure. I have seen the French version but never seen the english version.
Quote from: Omega;1035545Its an odd setting to be sure. I have seen the French version but never seen the english version.
the nice thing about it is that the English version is just a translation. the only difference is they added the errata into the core book, as well as the material that came with the french version of the map pack.
They are literally the same. It just seems like there has been little interest in playing the English version...
Like I mentioned, I've been GMing a campaign for almost a year now (and GMed another long running campaign a while ago), but other than that, I've not found much evidence of it's having been played in English, which saddens me...
It was linked earlier in this thread, but there is a website that sells the remaining stock of the English content. none of the books are above $10 USD (my theory is that the game just never sold because of poor timing of the release, mixed with a compete lack of advertisement).
Quote from: Hastur-The-Unnameable;1035583It was linked earlier in this thread, but there is a website that sells the remaining stock of the English content. none of the books are above $10 USD (my theory is that the game just never sold because of poor timing of the release, mixed with a compete lack of advertisement).
It was Troll & Toad, and that link no longer works. It looks like they don't have any of the bundles at the moment, but they're still selling the individual products. Just plug Agone into the search bar.
Before this thread sinks too far down again:
I've gotten permission from Souffre-Jour to translate and share their free content, in English, on my Google+ community.
I'm currently working on SJ1, which was a supplemental Bestiary.
( I know some people were put off by the Bestiary not having been released, but this should alleviate some of those misgivings)
It's going to take me a little while to get that done, but in the mean time, I'm uploading cleaned up versions of my translations of some of the smaller supplements from their website.
Does anyone have any updates on this? Are these translations still available somewhere, since Google+ is no longer up and supported. Any news of Agone would be arppreciated as well. I know it is no longer made, but have they buried the idea of new edition or translating more books into english. Unfortunately I don't read french so all those nice looking sites won't be much of a help for me.
Glad to get an email reminder of this thread. There was part of a book I was asked to scan for someone so he could translate(it was a product he didn't personally have), and I totally forgot about it until now. I still don't have a scanner, but it's only a few pages so I can probably type it up if the dude's still interested. I'll go through my PMs and see if I can get in contact with him soon. It's not much, but it'll be one step further towards making Agone accessible to the English-speaking world.
Hi there,
We've started to play Agone once again. Am I missing the part where they explain what is the penalty for being prone, defending from prone and attacking from prone, or is it not just in the English language books (I own them all). I would be very much also interested of any news, updates, translations (unofficials), extra materials in english etc. If someone is interested to share here links or send me a private message, that would be very much appreciated. I have also dilemma how can you change spells from one dancer to another (rules)? Also do you use your PC's dodge if Dancer is targeted or does dancers have different dodge and melee attributes calculated somehow. What about dancer hitpoints. It is mentioned that they are very resilient, but that is not covered
too widely in those books I have read once again. We made some house rules, since the game doesn't seem to cover all the angles, but then again, I think that is the point, right? I've played lots of RPG's during the years like Earth Dawn (5 years), In Nomine (couple of years), Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, D&D, AD&D, Pathfinder (both editions), Vampire the Masquerade, Warhammer (Two last editions for many years), Witchcraft, Armageddon and so on. So maybe I am too attached to rules. Hope to get some replies.