Description
In this Black Comedic Roleplaying Game, you play slightly out-of-touch Atlanteans, trying to bring back the glory of their sunken civilisation in the midst of the milling hordes of humanity. With even their own kind working at odds to their schemes, conspiracy and paranoia are all in a day’s work.
Using the Balance Engine, a D20 based narrative rules system, you can adventure in Earth and its nearby worlds, tackle weird psychic hybrid aliens, the most annoyingly happy woman in the world, and even the feared Conspiracy of Cats, with a ruleset set up to handle Improvisation and rich action-packed storytelling with ease.
This 156 page, 6 by 9 inch , full colour self-contained rulebook contains rules, setting information, and an adventure. Full-page art by Dan Barker.
This book is made up of eight lucky parts which are as follows.
- Introduction. This explains both the setting, an Earth very similar to own but where conspiracy and the supernatural are real, and the basics of the Balance Engine, an easy-to-understand D20-based narrative system.
- Avatars. How to create and grow the players’ avatars, their alter-egos in the game.
- Methods. These are the building blocks of all characters in the game. They can be freeform and defined through play, but I also give you a chapter worth of fifty or so “pre-defined” methods.
- Playing the Game. This rules chapter contains rules and advice for players and GMs.
- Writing and Running Adventures. Primarily for the GM, this chapter gives you a step-by-step method for creating adventures and advice on handling the rules and social aspects during the game.
- The Worlds of Atlantis. Atlantean civilisation has left its mark across many worlds, both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial, and this chapter details them as playgrounds for use in adventures.
- Malcontents and Misfits. A chapter filled with GMCs, both friend and foe, often at the same time. Details the more fantastical creatures that can be met during the game and a Rogue’s gallery of Atlanteans.
- The Bosworth Incident. An introductory adventure. Straight out of the cryo-tubes, the avatars are assigned their first mission by the Atlantean High Council. Go to a car park in the English city of Leicester
and find the lost remains of King Richard the Third. Warning may contain UFOs, which may or may not be piloted by Aliens.
The Balance Engine powers the game. This flexible, easy-to-understand narrative system emphasizes description but not at the expense of being a game. While the system is embedded in the setting, its scaling mechanics make it easily adaptable to other settings and genres. It’s the end result of two decades of experience with other narrative systems (Questworld, Fate, etc.) and my development of Monkey the Roleplaying Game.
