[RPG]: Heaven & Earth Third Edition, reviewed by Dan Davenport (5/5)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12455.phtml

Dan Davenport's Summary:

What the World of Darkness is to Anne Rice, what Kult is to Clive Barker, what WitchCraft is to Stephen King, and what Over the Edge is to William S. Burroughs, Heaven & Earth is to David Lynch. It's self-contained game of small-town surreal menace with a slick little system and no big secrets kept from the GM. (And trust me, the secrets are BIG...)

Go to the full review for more information.

[The Ent]

This game does sound very promising!

Well-written review btw.

[Dan Davenport]

Originally Posted by The Ent

This game does sound very promising!

Well-written review btw.

Thanks!

[Tim Gray]

Skimming the Potter's Lake section gave me a weird sense of deja vu for some reason...

End spoilers tag would have been handy.

[Dan Davenport]

Originally Posted by Tim Gray

Skimming the Potter's Lake section gave me a weird sense of deja vu for some reason...

Ah, crap. I thought I fixed that. At any rate, I've requested that the Powers What Be fix it.

Originally Posted by Tim Gray

End spoilers tag would have been handy.

That's a good point, Tim.

Originally, I was going to just use spoiler text, but I quickly realized that about half the review would be hidden that way. Still, I should have at least mentioned in the spoiler warning that everything up until the Style section should be considered spoiler territory.

Thanks for the feedback!

[Simple Man]

My problem with the game is very simple. The big mystery is solved in the core, which is good. But how the little mysteries fit with the big mystery gives me a headache. As such, I'm afraid that I have to buy the supplement if I want to run the game.

Which is, to me, the same as needing two books to play the game, which is not acceptible given H&E 3rd's pagecount.

[XON2000]

I'm not sure what to make of the big supernatural secret. It sounds a bit over-the-top and goofy, but maybe that's just because it was explained in a couple of paragraphs. Can anyone tell me whether the big twists come across any better in the full text of the game?

Shawn

[Abstract Nova]

Simple Man,

For good or ill, the little secrets are never explained. In a broad sense, they are byproducts of the unhinging of reality in the Potter's Lake area, something covered in the corebook. No other supplements will EVER be needed to play the game. All future supplements will ever do is expand the setting or add more background information; they will never invalidate the corebook material or be necessary to running the game. For example: the first supplement, Paradise Lost, introduces more townsfolk, more rumors, covers the history of the area in greater detail, etc.

GMs are free to explain away the little mysteries as they see fit or not explain them at all. Taking a cue from David Lynch, it's the mysteries themselves that are important, not their explanations.

Thanks for the interest, and sorry if the approach doesn't quite work for you.

[Simple Man]

Originally Posted by Abstract Nova

For good or ill, the little secrets are never explained. In a broad sense, they are byproducts of the unhinging of reality in the Potter's Lake area, something covered in the corebook. No other supplements will EVER be needed to play the game. All future supplements will ever do is expand the setting or add more background information; they will never invalidate the corebook material or be necessary to running the game. For example: the first supplement, Paradise Lost, introduces more townsfolk, more rumors, covers the history of the area in greater detail, etc.

Well, I apparently misinterpreted the nature of the sourcebook.



Oh well, I can be wrong once in a while...