I really like the base-concept of Exilium!
You can think of this as an ideology to have today, which makes it very easy to empathize with:
Imagine all the evil people you players heard of in the news: Murderers, Scammers, etc.
In Exilium these people are not themselves. They are possessed; "Shadows".
Players not knowing what they did, to deserve exile, but rather finding out while playing is also very good. If you are surprised by the character you play, that's always a plus.
Same thing with Elysium not being pre-defined. The group deciding, why Elysium is the beautiful place it is, is smart. Makes every game different.
Another bonus: Since you're not creating all of your character, but only the inside which then possesses a hull, visual character creation can be randomized.
We all know this one person, who basically play the same character in every game they play
While reading my brain is already working:
Having this in a today, mundane setting would be awesome! There's a world behind the world … Sort of like the Matrix!
So where is all of this action taking place? The second half of the book is dominated by a large setting chapter titled, “The Flame Worlds”.
Okay … I guess my Matrix analogy isn't the books intention. :-(
I would like it way more, if the group itself could decide the setting they play in.
I will definitely try running the base-idea on a generic system like FATE some day. Maybe even write a small PbtA hack for it.
I'm still wondering two things, btw:
- How does the group stay together?
Is it just assumed they stay together? In a setting like this I don't immediately think of asking other players for help. Unless every Shadow we hunt is a big fish … - Are there "classes"? If yes, which?
The game assumes the players are fully bought into the premise. You are basically a strike team that works for The Envoy. You don't begin the with players just realizing who and what they are. You assume that's already happened and they have accepted who they are and what they must do. So they stay together because The Envoy has assigned them to be together.
To that end the game heavily implies that Shadow do tend to be big fish. These are power players already with high stakes, high ambitions and therefore high emotions for the Shadow to become addicted to. A lot of the example Shadows in the book are things like Revolution Leaning Union Leaders and Foremen of Entire Mining Operations. Some of them are a little more low level, like a Serial Killer or something but even then they are presented as people with means and resources that require a team to overcome.
There are no classes. There is something a kin to "races". In addition to playing humans you can play genetically engineered "uplifted" alien species and A.I. driven robots of sufficiently complex intelligence. Basically these things have developed intelligence capacity as to be compatible with Numina melding.
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