The Everlasting: Book of the Fantastical
From: Visionary Entertainment, Inc.
Reviewed by: Ron McClung
The Everlasting: Book of the Fantastical is a new Foundation Book from Visionary Entertainment, Inc.
Whereas the first three books of The Everlasting were published in 1994, the final foundation book took 9 years to publish, and it marks the resurgence of this game. The Book of the Fantastical is slightly different in format and content but is basically the same kind of book as the others. It opens with a note about the content, in fact, noting there was an over-abundance of it, and the remaining material would be available on the web site. This books simply seems more robust than its predecessors. Unlike the books prior that covered races of The Everlasting, Book of the Fantastical covers a whole genre. Most of the other races were horror based, while this book brings in a new level of roleplay, separating the game itself further from the White-Wolf-wanna-be I thought it was at first.
Content: This book is no different than the others – containing much of the common text the others had. The biggest difference is the gentes and the background. See my review of the first book – Book of the Unliving – for details of the common core material.
From the page # 19: “ damnant quod non intelligunt (They condemn what they do not understand.) – Latin Proverb”
At the heart of the Book of the Fantastical are the realms of fantasy and magick. Opening this book, you enter the realm of fantasy that lies behind or beneath our own. The primary races available are Dragons, Elves, and Faeries. Also included are Dwarves and Orcs, and it covers worlds of the fantastical: Astral Aethyrs, Dragonhome, Agartha, and Faerylands. After browsing through the book initially, I decided to find out what The Everlasting did differently with these fantasy-regulars to separate them from other fantasy based games.
One of the interesting aspects throughout the books is the integration of other modern legends and myth into the standard fantasy-genre. Things like the lost technology and knowledge of the nephilim, the sciences and arts of Solomon, UFOs and greys, sea serpants, the Voynich Manuscript and crop-circles are all integrated into these books. This is an interesting take.
From the page # 95: “ Do you believe in sea serpents?”
Dragons are the genos that would probably attract the most attention considering the fact that most Everlasting adventures either start out or involve in some way the mortal world. To travel in the mortal world, dragons can shape-shift to human normal forms. The ability to play dragons is definitely a good step into making Everlasting-fantasy different. However, my first worry would be balance, and I would recommend to GMs that allow dragons as protagonists to be very attentive to balance.
Dragons in The Everlasting are the ancient reptilian beast of legend and more. The history of Everlasting-draconis explains them as elemental progenitor creatures that dominated our world long before the ‘Reign of Man.’ Dragons are broken down into ‘stirpes’ or sub-races, like red (fire), sea (water), black (darkness), and chromatic (light). Each sub-type is described thoroughly, with notes on habitat, true form, and general abilities and habits. Interesting aspects of the Draconic race are Dragonsleep (a healing sleep), Dragon “Soul Burning” (life points can be burned for magic), their treasure horde, and Dracomorphics (their shape-shifting ability). Dragons can shapeshift into three different forms – true dragon form, half-dragon-form and human form. Each form has their own abilities and aspect modiferes.
Dragons also have their own Torment, and it is Furor. Because of an ancient betrayal and savage war, there burns inside each dragon a hatred of all mortals and the desire to subjugate them once again This anger can be engulfing. This anger threatens to this day to open up into a Dragon war, but more level-heads within the dragon society have met to try to agree to channel this rage at a new threat – the daimons and the leviathans. Dragons also have their own inheritances or preternaturae (magickal abilities) based on their elemental nature.
From the page # 129: “ Do you believe in divergently evolved humanoids?”
Elves in The Everlasting are the results of cross breeding a pre-human super-race called Adapan and the fey folk. The Beautiful People or Avlari that arose now span the mortal world as well as many other worlds within the Reverie. Further mating with humans created more varieties of elves, which in turn formed the many Elven Nations. There are seven elven nations including the Valmori (wood elves), Xeysori (city elves) and Aedrith (gray elves).
The Torment of elves is called the Yearning. This yearning stems from their long life and an eventual yearning for a release for the concerns of everyday life. The preternaturae of the elves is called Wyrd but it only supplies a short handful of preternaturae. It encourages the player to create other wyrds using the Codex of Imortality guidelines (reviewed later). Also included is a brief mention of half-elves and how they are treated by elven society. There was not anything in the Elf chapter that surprised me or differentiated elves from the usual fantasy based elves in other games, however.
From the page #153 :“ Do you believe in Fairy Tales? ”
Not many fantasy games include faires as a core race. I played Perils and Powers (Avalon Hill RPG) years ago, and one of the races was faerie. The challenge is to make them interesting to the players, separating them from the Tinker-Bell-like image that they have. The best way to interpret the way The Everlasting does it is to say that it is a catch-all race for everything else they could think of. “They are like aliens, spirits, and ancient gods all rolled up into one,” (pg153). They are also called Fey (which I am used to called elves). They are an extremely diverse gentes, with a wide of variety of types but all seem to be tied to the mysteries of nature.
There are three physical types of fey – Ferrishyn (little people – true faerie), Sidhe (Highborn – humans that have given themselves over to the fayerie) and Elves (detailed earlier – half-human, half-fey). These lineages are further broken down into faerie races or Tuathas. Included in all these are creatures like goblins, sprites, orcs, animal folk, gremlins, bogies, brownies, greys (of UFO mythology) and even Santa’s Helpers (in the realm of Imagination).
Also included in this chapter are common fey ethics and cultural norms. Although very diverse, the fey tend to have certain things common. Certain fey called Reivers are prone to do something called Spellweavering which is interestingly linked to the myth of crop-circles. They ‘retrieve’ the lands needed for the Faerylands continued existence. The faerie preternaturae is called glamoury,and a short list of abilities are listed. Their torment is called fayerie, which represents their connection to the Great Beyond. As the faerie grows stronger, so does its tie to the mysterious powers of nature that created it, eventually leaving their 3-dimnsional existence forever.
Book Three further expands the fantasy realm of The Everlasting with the addition of dwarves and orcs. Both are detailed in a similar manner as the other races including rules to play them as protagonists. It also explores more dimensions of the reverie, like the Agartha (other physical real worlds) which includes the Faerylands and all its many kingdoms like Avalon, Kingdoms of Dwarves, and the Empire of the Goblins. It virtually creates a parallel fantasy universe for the players to explore in general details.
System: Additional things to the system are more paths of magick, including Bardic Magick, magick of the dragons, spellweaving, and urban elf technomancy. A short list of powers are given for each.
In conclusion, the final book of The Everlasting took a while to be completed, but they did well. It is definitely not just another Everlasting foundation book because it adds so much more. It applies different takes on many different fantasy axioms while still preserving some of the basic ideas of fantasy that all have come to love and expect. I like the subtle insertions of other mythologies into fantasy and sometimes the crossovers into sci-fi mythology like greys and UFOs. It is a rich book with lots of opportunity to roleplay. The quality of art did not follow-through in the new book from the old, but I can look past that. There are some formatting and editing problems I spotted as well, but again, I can look past that as well.
Much of The Everlasting reminds me of a game called Dark Conspiracy (DC). This makes it slightly different in that you play the monsters and minions where in DC you played humans (mostly). I like the way all the books combine mythologies and tweaks them in different ways to make a rich universe. A lot of heart and passion for gaming went into the foundation books. It is a good system and a world with lots of variety and depth. I would recommend getting all four books and creating a diverse party and exploring the many worlds of The Everlasting if you are looking for a new game to play.
For more details on Visionary Entertainment, Inc. and their new Foundation Book “The Everlasting: Book of the Fantastical” check them out at their website http://www.visionaryentertainment.com and at all of your local game stores.
The Everlasting: Book of the Fantastical
From: Visionary Entertainment, Inc.
Type of Game: Foundation Book
Written by: Steven Brown
Game Design by: Steve Brown
Developed by: Steve Brown
Cover Art by: Alan Rabinowitz
Additional Art by: Steve Brown, Bradly McDevitt,
Number of Pages: 365
Game Components Included: One Softback book
Retail Price: $ 36.95 (US)
Item Number: VES 400
ISBN: 1-887358-03-X
Email: chip_dobbs@visionaryentertainment.com
Website: www.visionaryentertainment.com
Reviewed by: Ron McClung