Ok, since there seemed to be some interest in me doing this, I'll give it a try.  Never done one of these before.  I mean I've read RPGs, but never for any reason other then to play them, and certainly never as a summary for others.

Not sure how often I'll update, but I'll try to get through the books.

So we will start off with

Providence A Hero's Prologue
The Hero can be Poet, Prophet, King or Priest or what you will, according to the kind of world he finds himself born into. --Thomas Carlyle
We begin with that quote and an introduction explaining what a role playing game is, and that it is possible to play a game where the characters are heroes, and fun can be had in a world of optimism, and not everything needs to be dark and depressing.  The setting is a world of magic and mystery, full of super-heroic fantasy.
If you have read an RPG, you know how these introductions go.  Then we get to the opening short story
The Burden of Responsibility.
Prologue
The story is told from the point of view of the Regent Caiylus.  She is the head of the Alliance of Kings.  Each city state has a king and they all look to her.  She is worried about the announcement she plans to make tomorrow, and is worried about how others will react.  She is a member of Troupial Eagle, a proud warrior race of the people of this land.  They were all sent here after a great war 2000 years prior on the world Yas'Wail against the creature Elothorin and its avatars.  Fighting along side them were their gods, who died, revealing they were simply more powerful mortals. This resulted in the death of religion.
While she is fretting over her decision, she is absentmindedly playing with her crown, when in walks King Raldowin, a former warrior uncomfortable with the mantle of a King, and a friend.
They exchange barbs about the proper behavior of a noble, he about playing with the symbol of her office, and she for entering a lady's chamber uninvited.  He reassures her that the alliance backs her decision, and more importantly HE believes in her.
Act 1
Cut to the Stage of Kings, a marble balcony hanging off of a spire holding the city-state Cliff-Spider. Around here are the other members of the Alliance of Kings, and down, below the balcony are tens of thousands of the peoples of their nations.  
She announces that 2000 years prior their mothers and fathers fought in a war they believed was right, along side their gods.  Their gods were killed, and they were defeated, and exiled to this jungle cavern.  Where they came as prisoners, they fought and freed themselves from the cruel yoke of the Wardens, and forged new empires, and are once more the children of their own destiny.
However, there is a vast rip in the world, spilling forth (I'm quoting a lot of the descriptions here so don't blame me for the purple prose), vast waters that are filling the cavern. One city-state has already fallen to the waters.  Another wound fills the air with volcanic fire and smoke, threatening to collapse one of the great spires holding up the roof of the world.
Monsters they can fight, this is a threat too great for them to face, so they must, with a heavy heart, find a way home to Yas'Wail.  This is not something that the Alliance can do alone, all of them shall have to work together, and so she has sent for the Guilds.
This gets the populous excited because most respect and fear the guilds for their powers.  Where the Nobles of the Alliance tend to be born into power, membership in the Guilds is open to any and all who have abilities that can be put to use in that guild.
One by one each of the Guild leaders steps forward and pledges to serve the Regent in the journey home. (the guild leaders and the function of each guild in society is described as well, but I'll save that for later)
After each leader has sworn their pledge, the Regent announces that they know the location of 3 of the gates they came through even if they can't be opened. That the secrets of the gates must be answered, this will require them going to areas that have yet to be explored.  She now calls on the leaders to agree to assist the citizens in this task.  Everyone (except the leader of the chirurgions immediately agrees).
Act 2
The Regent retires to the Regent's Hall, a place set aside for the Regent that exists in every City-state, because as one who is set as head of the alliance, she has citizenship in all city states equally.  It is here she receives people who pledge to assist, who are not members of the guilds. The 2 of note, so important they are mentioned by name, are a member if the D'Shau Monks, and one of the Slaywinds.  The 2 are the heads of their religious orders.
The D'Shau monks are makers of crystal weapons, that are as strong as metal, and the Slaywinds are archer-palidins who assist any who are in need.
As representatives both groups agree to pledge to assist the search for the secrets of the gates.  However, the alliance has one more thing to ask of the Slaywinds, they control a city near one of the known gates, and the alliance asks that the Slaywinds allow the incursion into their lands when the gates are finally opened. The head of the order seems surprised, but not insulted, that this even needs to be asked, and agrees without hesitation.
Epilogue
The Regent prepares to rest for the evening, when she senses a presence in her chambers, Warden Elarian.  Where all the other Wardens of the city states had allowed their prisoners to go free, and assume something approaching a normal life, only he had stayed true to the task assigned to him.  With him are Ravagers (no idea what they are, but their name is capitalized so it must be important).
She tells him to call off the Ravagers, or she will turn them to ash.  He assures her that he is just there to talk.  Normally he would like to fight her, but he has more important things to do.  He knows of the plan to return to their homeworld, and is all in favor of it.  He would like nothing more then to see them all beaten and banished here like their ancestors.  But he knows they will need help, his help.  He has agents that can counter the magics of the antagonistic Lost Tribes, and in exchange he wants the knowledge to open the Gate that lies in his possession.  He tells her to either agree to his demands or he will simply let their enemies kill those he has prisoner, while he escapes with the rest of the people fleeing through the gates.
She, reluctantly, agrees and after his magical sending vanishes from her chambers she tells herself that she will find a way to end his threat.

The World of Providence
Ancient Past
We begin with a very condensed history of the people of Providence.  Way long ago the gods fought a monster.  The people fought along side their gods.  They beat the monster, but didn't kill it.  They banished it to a different world.
(Yeah that is different from what I said earlier, my bad.  I misunderstood what the story was telling us)
Back then EVERYONE had wings, and time passed.  A Caste system was set up to distance the rulers from their subjects.  Then the priests said "our gods don't like this caste system.  Knock it off."  The rulers didn't like that, so they killed god, and beat up anyone who disagreed with them.  Then they stripped anyone who had magic powers of their abilities, and kicked them off world into the world of Providence.  They sent a bunch of families who were loyal to act as Wardens and keep the rebels in line, saying "do a good job and we will bring you back home."  
Guess what?  The rulers were lying. It only took most of the Wardens several hundred years to figure that out.  So most of the Wardens opened the cells and told everyone they were free, or at least as free as anyone could be in the massive cavern that served as a prison.  Only the Wardens of Bone-Wail remain true to their duty.
Recent Past
Most people live in the city states that are up off the jungle floor.  Since pretty much everyone can fly, and the ground is dangerous, why not live in the trees?
Well there is a reason for that, apparently after 2 thousand years or so evolution has started saying "why do you need wings if you live in a cave?  (sure it is a BIG cave, but still...)" so more and more kids are being born without wings.  This is causing the creation of a new caste system, kinda like the one their ancestors fought against.
About this time people start getting their magic abilities back, both as spell casters and as Shards.  This is upsetting the clear cut caste system, because magic is almost as awesome as flying...
Plus there are some who have the power of magic flight. Even without wings!
(and at least one of the PCs in the intro adventure in part 3 has no wings but can fly better then the people with wings.)
Present Day
Apparently the cavern is a hollow sphere?  it isn't really well described, but there are spires connecting the top and bottom of the world, and one of these spires, the Great Bridge, holds the 'sun'. A big bright ball that provides light and heat, and brightens and dims to provide a day/night cycle.
Yeah well, the Bridge is starting to collapse.  There is an unknown source of water that is washing away the foundation of the spire.
Setting
Yup, entire world is a big bubble, the inside of it is covered in jungle, and there are 2 big salt water seas.  The floor of the jungle is cracked and letting in an unknown source of water that is threatening to flood the entire world.
People
Everyone, even those who don't have wings, have colored skin.  Like the plumage of birds, only without feathers.  (unless you have feathered wings)  No two people have the same coloration but family will have similar color schemes.  This also helps pigeon hole you, errr, I mean, identify which Caste and Troupial you are a member of.
Castes
There are 6 of these.  The Pure have true wings and can fly with ease on them.  Blessed, they have full sized wings, but can't really fly so much as glide, without magical assistance.  Gifted/Guild member, this is where people who have magic fit in.  This is the only caste strata not delineated by appearance. Fortuned, these are people who have a membrane connecting their arms to their torsos, allowing them to glide.  Redeemed, these are people who once had glider membranes or wings, but have lost the ability to fly.  Fallen, these are the lowest of the low, they were born without wings so naturally everyone treats them like shit.
Troupials
So there are 2 common types of wings, feathered, the Seraph, and leathery, Iblii.  From here everyone splits into the Tropials.
Bat, an off shoot of Dragon, they have poor eyesight, sonar, leathery glider wings and  upturned noses. Dragon looks after them and doesn't treat them any different then they treat their fellow Dragons.  They make good scouts.

Dove, they are social, and work well in groups, and love to be involved.  As a result they have a hard time accepting the need for isolation in others.  They have feathered wings and a good sense of direction.

Dragon, they have Leathery wings, tails, and are fierce both in war and politics.  

Eagle, they consider themselves to be the pinnacle of their society, and  value their appearance, physical prowess and their word in equal regard.

Gargoyle, they are bigger then Dragons, have leathery wings, and are looked upon as being barbaric, stupid and crazy.  only the barbaric is true.  they have little patience for civility.  They wear hide clothing they hunt and make themselves.

Hawk, with their feathered wings, they are the best hunters of the tropials, and are born with a spirit of adventure and exploration.  They also tend to be the best fliers.

Hyena, they are all Fallen, and are looked down upon by all others.  They tend not to have much self worth.

Jackal, another group of fallen, unlike the Hyena, they want to overthrow the caste system, and are willing to fight to get an equal share.  They dye their hands and eyes to mark themselves.

Rat, another group of Fallen, born to Bats or Dragons, they are protected by both and are treated as, not quite equals, but better then any other fallen.  They have a keen sense of smell and infrared vision.

Raven, nearly hairless and have jet-black skin, they are the hidden watchers and keepers of secrets.  They have feathered wings.

Swan, these are considered to be the most beautiful of the Seraph, with skin and feathers of either pure white or black in color.  They tend to be artists and mate for life.

Swarm Dancers, a lost tribe, that mimic the behavior of insects with a hive mentality.  Those who have wings have clear wings and occasionally an exoskeleton.

Serpentkine, they are reptilian in appearance and live in the hidden areas of the jungles.  The recent start of the flooding has caused some to believe that all the Yas'Wailians must die.  Others think that only by working together can everyone survive.

Green People, they have a symbiotic lifestyle with the plants of the jungle, with their skin hosting plant life.  They have vines growing out of their skin providing armor, a sticky sap covering them that traps their prey, and vines in their lungs allowing them to survive extended periods under water.

White Crows, they are the most mysterious, living in an area of the jungle called the Deep, they want the distruction of all of the Yas'Wailians, and will use their magics of darkness and shadows to do it.  They are also more arrogant then the Eagles.

Guilds
With magic returning, this has forced the caste system to allow those with magic abilities to be higher then they normally would be.

Drummers, they all carry war hammers and have the ability to cause the earth to literally shake, both as a combat tactic and a communication ability.  They have the most political power, and everyone loves the spectacle they can cause.  (In pro wrestling terms they know how to work a crowd, for a cheap pop)

Cartographers, mostly flyers, they are in charge of mapping and exploration. Getting that information from them however, can be difficult, unless you meet their price...

Archers, a military force to be reckoned with, they can unleash destructive power at long distances.

Dusk, an illegal guild that no one can prove exists, but everyone finds need of an assassin in the games of politics.

Chirurgians, the only guild that allows non Shards to join. So long as you can heal, be it through magic or surgery, you are in.  The guild is greedy and wishes to expand their political power supplanting the Drummers.

Messengers, they want to take up the original mandate of the Cartographers in exploring and mapping the world.  They are becoming very important as speedy communication is quickly becoming more and more important.

Part the Third
System
As was said in the earlier thread the system is based off of the roll of 2d10
You have 10 characteristics and over 100 skills that act as modifiers to this roll.
Characteristics range from -3 to 3 being the human minimums and maximums, with 0 being average.  why they have it lists as human maximums and minimums when none of the characters are human, I have no idea.
Skills range from 0 (untrained) to 6 (grand master).  You add your skill rank and characteristic, each point is a + or -2 modifier depending on if the number is positive or negative.
If you are making an opposed roll against another character or NPC, you do not add your modifier, you subtract their modifier, and they yours.  Whoever rolls highest is successful.
Combat works the same way.  Roll and subtract their defense modifier.
The basic target number of any roll is 7.  Depending on how high or low you roll you get various levels of success.
There is a damage table that lists 5 different types of damage you can take depending on what your Body score is.
Slight, Grave, Devastating, Dead/KO, and Overkill.
depending on how much damage you take you move X spots to the right (towards zero) on the table.
Armor blocks damage, so an armor rank, be it a power or physical armor, of 5 will stop any damage of 5 or lower.
This is the shortest section of the booklet.

Part the Fourth
The Enemy of My Enemy
1)
5 pregenerated characters are called before the Regent of the Alliance of Kings, Guild members of the Drumers, the Archers, Chirurgeons, Cartographers, and a low ranked Warden.
It appears that an envoy of Bone Wail, the last Warden run city-state was attacked on the way to a secret meeting to discuss an alliance.  The PCs have been tasked to go and track him down before he is killed, or the rest of the populous find out that there was going to be such a meeting.
Each guild member is also tasked with a goal from their Guild leaders.
The Drummer is to just do the job, because they are loyal to the Alliance.
The Archer is to try to make an alliance with the Drummer.
The Chirurgeon is to get as much information as possible about the situation.
The Cartographer is to try to start laying the basis of an alliance between the Cartographers and the Wardens.
The Warden is to keep an eye on the escaped convicts.

If the PCs choose not to go, then a different group of heroes go and rescue the ambassador, and are hailed as proud warriors of the people.

2)
The PCs go to the last outpost where the Ambassador was seen, a remote outpost.  They will meet up with a guard who escorts the PCs into the jungle, where they will find signs of battle.  A successful tracking test will find that the attackers were Serpentkine, and they took a hostage.  A better success will show a second set of tracks left by an injured person, going off alone and circling back and following the first set of tracks.

3)
No matter which set of tracks the PCs follow they will both lead to a clearing where the last surviving guard from Bone Wail is being attacked by Serpentkine.  1 will get away.  The PCs give chase and end up at a camp where the ambassador is about to be killed publicly.  The PCs should find some way to rescue the ambassador, combat being the most expedient method.  The Serpentkine will flee when injured, as they don't really wish to die.  The Ambassador will be saved, but injured badly enough that the PCs will not have the means to completely heal him.

4)
The Ambassador will be thankful to the PCs but will only be friendly to the Warden, who he will see as a great hero.  It will take a couple days of overland travel through the Jungle to get back to Cliff-Spider, the alliance capital.  At night the party will be attacked by carnivores.  If they travel at night there will be more, but if they party makes camp and has a fire the beasts will be frightened off by the fire and not attack.

5)
Getting the Ambassador to Cliff Spider results in everyone getting a medal, and being proclaimed a hero.  The PCs will be grilled by their guild masters about the success of their individual missions.  If the Cartographer gets the chance to talk privately with ambassador, he will be open to an alliance and will want to talk to someone higher ranked in the guild.  The Warden will be congratulated by the ambassador, and will be assured that he will be rewarded by his superiors.  How things go for the Archer depends on how things work out between the PCs, and not anything in the control of the GM.  The head of the Chirurgeons is eager to get the information about the events the PCs were a part of.

The last pages of the book are Statted write ups of the Ambassador, Serpentkine, the beasts, and the PCs, as well as write-ups of the motivations of the characters.

-----

This ends the first of the Providence products, something that now a days would be a fast play, and given away at Free RPG Day.  I think I paid like $5 for it including shipping.

What should I do next?  
Should I continue this?
Should I do the next book in the product line, the Main Rule book, or move on to one of the books with setting information?
the rule book is pure crunch, consisting of character creation, skills, powers, spells armor and weapons.

I leave it up to you.

Could you maybe explain what Providence is? I've never heard of it until now.

Also, do you have any association with it? Were you involved in making it, or selling it, or are the people involved friends of yours?

I have no association with the product line what so ever, I bought the game largely unseen.  I would see ads for it in Dragon and White Wolf magazine, and thought it looked cool.  But at the time it was being released I didn't have the finances to buy the books.  Fortunately, thanks to ebay I was able to pick up the entire game line for around the cost of the 2 core books.

The idea behind Providence is to have a super hero RPG with a high fantasy setting.  The author says in the introduction that he was put off by how grim and gritty super hero RPGs had become.  (This being the 90's where Cable, Liefeld and pouches were standard, I can see his point.  Hell even Superman had a mullet.)
So he decided to create a setting where the characters were bound up with an element of the Arthurian Mythos, and were real HEROES, and not just super powered killing machines.

To an extent it was Exalted before Exalted was a thing. Only with a system that is more like BESM.

First, thanks for doing this Remial- very appreciated.  "Let's read..." things are very helpful and there's next to nothing out there I've found on this game.

Quote from: remial;866779To an extent it was Exalted before Exalted was a thing. Only with a system that is more like BESM.

That right there makes me want to pick up the book and give it a read.

First off the book starts with an 8 page full color insert.  This is the exact same insert that was in Dragon Magazine back in '96-97 or so.  Then is the same piece of fiction that was in the Fast Play booklet.  Each chapter starts with part of a short story, featuring a Horizon Strider (a member of the explorer's group) and his allies facing off against an advancing party of Lost Tribe attackers.  Each page of the story ties into the subject of the chapter, for example the page where one of the characters uses his super powers kicks off the Shard powers.  The page where the mage uses his spells kicks off the magic chapter. Etc.  Each chapter also ends with the examples of creating 2 characters, and a summary of the contents of the chapter.

What is a Roleplaying game
You know what this is, it is in damn near every RPG we own.

Basic system
In this game you always roll 2 dice.  every die in you dice pool over or under 2 counts as a + or - modifier of 2.  So if you have 5 dice, you have a +6 modifier. If you have 1 die you have a -2 modifier to your roll.  Simple, right?
Well the full rule book offers another option!
For Example, you have a dice pool of 5 dice, and you have been rolling pretty badly.  So you decide to roll 3 die.  the 2 you don't roll provide a +4 modifier, which you add to the result of adding the 2 highest dice in your pool.
So, if you roll a 3, a 6 and an 8 on your three dice, you add the 8 and the 6 and your +4 modifier, and get a 18.

Characteristics
These are where some of your dice in your dice pool come from.  These are the foundation of your character.  There are 10 of them.  
Coordination - Dexterity, reflexes and balance
Strength - how strong you are
Constitution - how long you can exert yourself, as well as overall health
Intelligence - how smart you are
Willpower - how focused you are
Psyche - mental health
Appearance - how good you look, and how well you talk
Charisma - emotional attractiveness
Perception - how observant you are
Aura - how gifted you are with magic

each of these start with a rank of 0 and to raise them costs points.  Each rank must be purchased separately, and has a cost multiplier.  Aura has a multiplier of 4, Appearance, Charisma, and Perception have a multiplier of 2, and the rest have a multiplier of 3.
so buying a strength of 2, would cost 3 points for the first rank and 6 points for the second, for a total of 9 points.
having a negative rank will give you a similar number of points, so a -3 perception would give you 2 points for rank -1, 4 points for -2, and 6 points for -3.
Aura is the exception to the rule of giving points as most people have no magical rating to begin with, so you can only sell back points if you are playing a Shard or a mage.
Experience cost for raising a characteristic is 2 times the level attained times the multiplier.  so raising, for example, strength from 2 to 3, would cost 2*3*3 or 18 XP


Skills
This is where the rest of most of your dice will come from. by comparison the point cost for these is way easier.  each skill rank needs to be purchased, and is the cost of the rank...
rank 1 is 1 point.  rank 2 is 3 points, rank 3 is 6 points. and so on.

Shard Powers
These are 10 points a rank.  Want a rank 5 fireblast?  spend 50 points.  We will get more into these later.

Spells
These are a bit more complex then Shard powers.  Each spell has a power rank from 1 to 6.  the cost is 3 times the rank.  so a rank 6 spell is 18 points.

Now buying all of these come from different catagories.  Characteristics come from 1 set of points, Skills from a second set of points, and Magic from a 3rd set of points.  The number of points you have in each category depends on what power level the game.

Traits

The book is getting into specifics here, rather then the broad strokes it was painting earlier.  These are Merits and Flaws.  You have things like Rich, Poor, Blind, Ambidextrous, etc.
This is also where you buy your Breed, so if you want to be a Flyer you need the merit for it.  The majority of the book tries to be fairly generic, so you don't get into the Troupials until the very end of the book (and the Setting Book).
The book advises that the GM allow for no more then a +10 total for merits in an average game.  So if you take 15 points in merits, you should take at least 5 points in flaws.

Skills
Skills have a ranking between 1 and 6, where 1 is basic knowledge, and 6 is grand master.  They are broken into 3 categories.  Innate, Learned, and Studied.  Most skills have a standard Characteristic associated with them, so if you were picking a lock, you would add Coordination.  However if you were to be studying the lock to determine how it worked before opening it, that would add Intelligence.  If you were kicking the door open (this is the actual example from the book) you would add Strength.

There are around 100 skills total in this book, so I hope you will forgive me if I don't go through and list them all.

Innate skills are things like Acrobatics, Running, Climbing, Dodge.  These are things that pretty much anyone can do. Specific Shard Power use falls into this category.  If you can shoot blasts of fire, this is where the skill to actually hit things falls.

Learned Skills are things you have to be taught.  This includes things like Melee weapon, Ranged Weapon, Drive, Flight (how well you can actually use your flight power.  Just having the power of flight isn't enough apparently).  These skills you need to track down someone to teach you in order to improve the skill.  Individual languages fall into this category, and at a rank of 3 you speak the language as if you were born to it.  This is also where Specific Shard Control skill is.  For example, if you have the ability to create stone warriors out of near by rocks and have them attack your enemies, this is where you find the skill.

Studied Skills are things you need to sit down with a book and research.  This is where skills like Ancient History, and Magical Theory fall.  So if you are creating a Wird user, this is where you get the skill to cast spells.  This is also where Martial Arts fall.

Options: Support Skills

I didn't mention this earlier, but the book has sidebars of optional rules to make the game (and the math) more complex.  These are there if you want them but not required.  Some of the options are kinda dumb, like for characteristics you have the option to buy sub characteristics, so if you want a character who can pick a lock by touch alone, but trips over his own feet walking down the street, you can do that.  (I didn't think they were a good idea in 2nd ed AD&D, and I am not wild about them here)

Anyway Support Skills.  This adds the assumption that you can't have a rank 6 in Physics without being somewhat knowledgeable in Mathematics.  The down side is that you have to buy the skills, the bonus is that if you are making a Physics test you can add half your rank in the support skill to your roll.

Shard Powers

Shard Powers are how most people in this game are able to do magic.  They have less flexibility, but tend to be stronger.  The table for power level goes up to 15.  
"But you said that the powers only go up to 10!"
Yes I did, however, if you have a higher then normal Aura Characteristic, then your power effect is 2 levels higher then your actual score.  Also, some defensive powers are more effective against some offensive powers then others, and act as if they were a higher rank.  For Example, if you use Air based armor against a Sound attack, the armor power gives you a +2 level bonus to defense.
One of the other benefits of Powers as opposed to spells is that if you have a power ranked at 6, and know that if you hit with your full power, you are going to kill your opponent, but you want to take him alive, you can choose to attack as if you had a power rank lower then that.  With spells you don't have that choice.

Buying Powers
the first five levels of each power cost 10 points a level.  Levels 6-10 cost 20 points a level.
Each power falls into one of the Power Groups.
Air, Adhesion / Friction based, Alter Bodies - Other, Alter Bodies - Self, Cold based, Darkness based, Earth based, Electrical based, Fire based, Light based, Natural Flight, Sense, Sound based, Water based, Wird based.

So long as you are buying powers within the same group, the point cost remains the same.  However, say you wanted to have a character who was an air controller, who had the power to create lightning storms and rain lightning down on their enemy.  You would need to spend an extra 10 points to access the Electricity Blast power in the Electrical based group. To have a thunder based attack would be another 10 point initial buy in to a secondary power group.

There are also power modifiers that you can buy that raise and lower the cost.  Each modifier is 10 points.

Each power also has a Wird cost. This is how much mystic energy that it costs to fuel the power.  The more powerful the power, the more Wird you need to use.

Your power rank you can purchase is limited by your Shard Power usage skill.  You have a separate skill for each power.

Spells
Spell casters are fewer in number then Shards.  The book says only about 5% of the magically active population is a spell caster.  Spells also have an table that lists their effectiveness, much like Powers, only theirs only goes up to 9.  6 levels of spells, but some defenses are more effective against other attacks.

Spells are divided into 1 of 4 schools, Earth, Air, Fire and Water.  the school of the spell determines the kind of spell it is.  For example, Fire spells tend to be attacks, so even if the spell you are using is an Air Blast spell it falls under the Fire school.

Spells are also divided up by Caster.  There are 4 philosophies of spellcasting.
Wird Weaver - they see the world as being covered in a tapestry of magic, and by manipulating the strings they bring about magical effects.
Wylder - these casters have no real formal training, and pick things up as they go.
Wird Dancers - Where weavers alter the tapestry of magic, the dancers move with the flow of the strings, trying to avoid tangles or tears.
Blight Crows - These guys are an NPC only school of casters, they drain the magic from an area to power their spells.  you want evil necromancers that EVERYONE hates?  these are the guys.

The power level of spell you can learn is governed by one of 4 skills, Wird Casting - Air, Wird Casting - Earth, Wird Casting - Fire, and Wird Casting - Water.  If you wanted to research a new spell, you need the Wird Lore skill, which also is also what you would use to try to determine what kind of mage or spell you are seeing.
It is also possible, once you reach rank 4 in your casting skill, to learn spells outside your philosophy.  So if you are a Wird Dancer, and you have the healing spell, you can initially only use it on yourself, but once you reach rank 4 in the governing skill, you can learn how to cast it on others.

The book also mentions that one of the down sides of spellcasting is that, unlike Shards, Wird casters of all kinds have the potential to cause tears in the magic field binding everything together. there are 2 large tears in reality at the moment, one is where the flooding is taking place, the other where the big volcano is.  So far everyone is too busy trying to find a way out to think of how to fix these tears, so maybe that would be a good sub-plot for a campaign.

Quote from: remial;866779...  The author says in the introduction that he was put off by how grim and gritty super hero RPGs had become.  ... Hell even Superman had a mullet. ...

Wow, that IS grim and gritty!

Quote from: remial;867259... In this game you always roll 2 dice. every die in you dice pool over or under 2 counts as a + or - modifier of 2. So if you have 5 dice, you have a +6 modifier. If you have 1 die you have a -2 modifier to your roll. Simple, right?
Well the full rule book offers another option!
For Example, you have a dice pool of 5 dice, and you have been rolling pretty badly. So you decide to roll 3 die. the 2 you don't roll provide a +4 modifier, which you add to the result of adding the 2 highest dice in your pool.
So, if you roll a 3, a 6 and an 8 on your three dice, you add the 8 and the 6 and your +4 modifier, and get a 18.

What? I always roll 2 dice... but then I decide to roll 3 dice? What's a dice pool? And why would I be changing the number of dice based on results of past die rolls?

Conflict Resolution

This section is all about hurting other characters.

It also mentions something I should have mentioned earlier from the Characteristics Chapter.  Derived Characteristics.

You have 3 Derived characteristics, that are based off of the characteristics you have from creating your character, with a possible 4th.
Body - how much damage you can take
Endurance - how long you can be in stressful situations
Wyrd - how much magical fuel you have access to without being drained.

Body also has an optional sub characteristic True Body.  This only comes into play if you have any powers that provide a permanent bonus to any of your characteristics.  For example if you have a normal strength of 1, but an enhanced strength power that gives you a strength of 10, the 10 is used in Body, but the 1 in True Body.

Body is, more or less, your hit points.
When in combat weapons do damage to you, depending on how many damage points they inflict they will cause one of 3 types of wounds, Slight, Grave, and Devastating.
(rather then include the Body Table (which is also at the bottom of every character sheet) I am going to have the variable X represent the Body score.
Slight wounds are the result of a damage point total caused that are less then or equal to X, cause a -1 die penalty, and lower your Body score by 1.
Grave wounds are the result of a damage point total caused that are X+1 to 2X.  They cause a -2 dice penalty, and lower your body score by 2.
Devastating wounds are the result of a damage point total caused that 2X+1 to 3X. They cause a -4 dice penalty, and lower your Body Score by 3.
You only suffer the worst of the penalties, so if you take 1 Slight wound and 1 Grave wound, you lose 3 body and 2 dice from your pool.
There are 2 additional damage types other then the wounds.
Dead/KO - This will take you out of the action and potentially out of the game, unless you get healing.  this is a result of damage equal to 3X+1.
Overkill - This turns you into mush, you aren't going to get healed from this baring GM fiat.  This is a result of a damage point total equal to 6X+1.

Body is listed in 2 places on your character sheet, at the top is your permanent score, and at the bottom you list your current score.
So as you take damage, you change your body score at the bottom of the page.

Setting

This chapter gives you a brief overview of the world, and the point and power packages being a member of each Troupial gives you.  Each Troupial gives you points to spend towards characteristics, skills and power ranks.
in the case of skills and characteristics, these are not the levels of your attributes, but points to spend toward your attribute levels.  Power ranks on the other hand are the level of power, and while they can not be altered via having a higher or lower Aura characteristic, you can improve them with experience.  Troupials Hyena and Jackyl, receive 20 points to spend on powers, and chose 2 Troupials to be descended from, and the powers they choose can not be higher then the power ranks of the parental Troupials' ranks.

Character Sheet
This is pretty standard, it has space at the top of the page for name, Troupial, guild, etc, then has a 3x5 grid for characteristics, then several lines for skills known, across the bottom of the page is the body table, and current body rank, as well as space for listing the number of wounds of each category you have received.
The back of the page has lines for your powers and spells, as well as misc traits.  
Both sides of the page, as well as the back cover, have a background image of a modified Vitruvian Man, with the addition of wings.

The book overall
This probably should have been at the very beginning, but as I said, this is the first one of these I've done, so I'm bound to make mistakes as I go along.
The book is softcover 8.5x11 inches, with a white cover.  Except for the very beginning is entirely in black and white with art through out the book.  The art is an odd mix of wingfic, super hero, and fantasy.  The pages are slightly glossy, and have a very light gray background, giving the illusion that all the text and art is on hand made paper.  The borders of each page are black.  The top and bottom of most pages have a header and footer that has a scrollwork pattern similar to a celtic knot design. In the center of the header is the name of the book, and at the bottom is the page number and name of the book, in a smaller fond then the header.  the total page count is 272 pages.

Quote from: Skarg;870124What? I always roll 2 dice... but then I decide to roll 3 dice? What's a dice pool? And why would I be changing the number of dice based on results of past die rolls?

ok, the book isn't what you would call clearly written in some places.
the default roll is 2d10.

however, you can potentially, if you decide to, roll more dice then that.

a dice pool, in this game, is the number of dice equal to a characteristic score plus a skill score.  For example if you have a strength score of 2 and a melee weapon skill of 4, you have a dice pool of 6.

because your pool is higher then 2, you can use that positive total as a modifier to your roll, in this case your pool modifier would be +8 (2 times the number of dice in your dice pool)

if you choose to do so, instead of taking the +8 to your roll, you can reduce that by reducing your bonus pool, by rolling additional dice.

Why would you do this?  Say you are in combat against a monster.  The last couple of times you rolled, you didn't so much as put a dent in your enemies armor.  Rolling 2d10 and adding 8 isn't giving you the power you need.  So you reduce your bonus pool, and roll 3 dice instead of 2.  Maybe you luck out and the extra die gives you that extra little bit you need to actually hurt the monster, so now it has a negative modifier to deal with the next time it attacks.