Post originally by Jack Holcomb at 2003-07-07 08:13:07
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I bought Everway the week it came out, back in '95 I think. I went back and bought another copy, because I knew it would see a lot of use. Since then I've bought four more, and given them to friends. I've run it a LOT, and used the system (with variant decks and rules tweaks) for Star Wars and Silver Age Supers. There's a semi-active online community over at Yahoo Groups; if you aren't a member, go join and give the conversation a kick in the rear.
D&D and Vampire certainly take the prize when we're talking about games that dominate and direct the hobby--but Everway, IMO, was and continues to be the most inspirational game I've played. It's been a major influence on the creation of such well-crafted (and themselves inspirational) games as Ron Edwards' Sorcerer and R. Sean Borgstrom's Nobilis. Honestly, I think I see its influence (philosophically if not mechanically) in a LOT of good games--Unknown Armies, RISUS, maybe BESM, etc.
It's not everyone's thing, of course--what game is? Some people are put off by the looseness of the rules, by the lack of dice, by what's perceived as a new agey feel (which I've honestly never seen in my games--they tend to be much more sword-and-sorcery than they are Starhawk, and Everway handles them just fine).
If you haven't seen the Spherewalker's Sourcebook, well, get lookin'. It's at least as good as the basic game.
Post originally by Yamo at 2003-07-07 12:02:27
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"It's this character creation process that most interests me, since it works towards developing fully fleshed-out 3-D characters, rather than the 2-D templates that tend to be found in the more number-crunch-based systems."
Mindless slam against gaming style author doesn't approve of. -10 points.
Post originally by Yamo at 2003-07-07 12:22:27
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I'm trying to understand what makes resolution in this game anything other than total GM fiat. If I have this right:
a) The GM normally dictates outcomes based on "interpreting" the meanings of cards, all of which are so vague that almost any interpretation will do.
b) If the GM doesn't want to bother with the cards at all, he just flat out does whatever he feels like and it's no biggie.
So doesn't this render the cards nothing but a poorly-implemented and completely superfluous gimmick? Why belabor the game with all this tarot nonsense when the GM can just be honest and say "You tell me what you want to do, and I decide how it works out, mmmkay?"
It doesn't seem like the cards have any real concrete effect on what's essentially a dressed-up GM fiat system.
Post originally by E.T.Smith at 2003-07-07 12:36:53
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A very nice and thorough review, but you've glossed over one of the major aspects of the game: the Visual Cards.
Everway was released back when Wizards of the Coast was riding high on the popularity of Magic: the Gathering, and perhaps unsuprisingly they incorparated a collectible aspect into their first major RPG. the 90 art cards that came in the boxed set were intended to be a starter set, to be expanded with booster packs of Everway cards.
The basic idea was good. Players went through the cards and picked out a few that represented such things as their character's family, home sphere and major life events. After the players finished their characters, they passed their cards around the group and each player was to ask one question about what the card depicted (pre-written questions were on the back of each card to aid this) to help flesh-out the character in ways the player hadn't thought of. The GM also made use of the cards, using them to depict key characters and locations the players would encounter during the adventure.
The cards were of good quality, much of the art provided by professional illustrators such as Michael Whelan and Rowena. And a real effort was made to depict non-tradiotional fantasy milieus, such as architecture and creatures from Native American traditions and people clearly from an African racial background.
Unfortunately the execution of the idea was lousy. The boosters were sold just like Magic cards, in randomn packs with the implication that people were supposed to collect and trade them, though I can't imagine why. A GM who wanted to set an adventure in, for example, an Arabian Nights type of setting would just have to keep buying packs and hope he could get some useful cards from them.
Further, Everway suffered the misfortune of being published just before the whole industry of non-game collectible cards collapsed, so stores weren't willing to carry them even if they offered the main game.
Of course, it wasn't necessary to use the specific Everway cards to play the game and any set of likely illustrations would do. I persoanlly love the art card aspect of the game, and have a large collection of such sets, for use with Everway and other games. Sadly, art cards aren't made anymore (they have been replaced by CCG's and collected art books) and it looks like my collection has reached its end.
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