[RPG]: Noumenon, reviewed by Jocelyn Robitaille (5/4)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12877.phtml

Jocelyn Robitaille's Summary:

The weirdest RPG ever published, which will not be everyone's cup of tea... yet Noumenon beckons. What will you see in the ink?

Go to the full review for more information.

[C.W.Richeson]

Great review, Jocelyn! I especially like how you explain the meaning of the strange terms the game uses.

I'm not entirely clear on what characters do in the game, however. What's the goal of the PC group? Is it just to explore the environment they find themselves in? I think that's a neat idea, playing up the adventure/mystery aspects of roleplaying, but how much replayability is there?

Do you think the system works well with the games themes, or is it really just a simple system for task resolution generally unconnected to the game world (which is what I get from the review)?

This game got some negative attention for being too strange, but your review makes it sound wonderful. How difficult do you think this game would be to sell to an average gaming group?

Hmm, I'm definitely giving this game a second look now. Thanks!

[Agent Roscoe]

It took 13 authors to write this game? I'm...boggled.

As for the subject matter, I'm thinking controlled substances were involved.

[Emprint]

Originally Posted by Agent Roscoe

It took 13 authors to write this game? I'm...boggled.

It's a bit of an anthology, with individual rooms from many different authors.

[Jocelyn Robitaille]

Originally Posted by C.W.Richeson

I'm not entirely clear on what characters do in the game, however. What's the goal of the PC group? Is it just to explore the environment they find themselves in? I think that's a neat idea, playing up the adventure/mystery aspects of roleplaying, but how much replayability is there?

The goal is basically to explore and figure out what the hell is up. In other words, explore, deduce, reflect, and ultimately solve the nine enigmas and get out of the Silhouette Rouge pronto.

As for the replayability, it depends. If you're talking about replayability of the various places within the span of a single campaign, it varies with each room. Some feel replayable, others are clearly one-trick poneys. Also, the rooms (no matter of their basic replayability) can be used by themselves, or serve as the stage for dealing with an NPC or somesuch. For instance, there's a room called "Scorpio" which is an odd nightclub of sorts. One adventure in room Scorpio could be figuring out the meaning behind the room, another could be trying to find and communicate with a specific NPC inside Scorpio, and yet another adventure could be all about having to fight off the Surgineers (I love that name!) during a reality spasm, with room Scorpio as the stage of this conflit.

If you're talking about multiple campaign replayability, I'd say it's very high. As Noumenon is all about filling the gaps and giving meaning to the cryptic material, you basically end up with a very different story as soon as you change your interpretation of the setting. I'll use two examples I presented briefly in my review.

Noumenon as Cube: The Sarcophagi are prisoniers sent for no particular reason in a weird prison (the Silhouette Rouge). As the prison is some sort of scientific experiment as well, the campaign involves remembering who they were, figuring out that it's a prison, and decoding the logic of its construction so they can get the fuck out of there. Other questions bear asking. Are the Others part of the prison? The prison guards, messing with their minds? Prisoners themselves? How about a bit of both? And what gives with the Logos? Is it a sort of super-intelligence, born of the Sarcophagi's interconnectedness, which can help them decode the prison code whereas no individual could? Or is the Logos actually the warden of the prison, the mad experimenter, goading them to get as involved as they can in the experiment, like rats in a maze?

Noumenon as Jacob's Ladder: The Sarcophagi are the fragments of one man, caught in the dying dream (the Silhouette Rouge) of one man. In those last instants before death, he is caught in an intrapsychic schism, caused by the denial that he is dying. The Silhouette Rouge, his last dying moments, is a sort of eternal limbo - and he must come at peace with who he is in order to pass into the afterlife. The campaign revolves around the the PCs discovering who they are, discovering that they are in fact one person. Freedom comes through reconstructing the facts of their life, and finally discovering and accepting that they are in fact dead. The Silhouette Rouge is the unconscious. The Sarcophagi are the freudian Ego, as are some of the Others. Meanwhile, others among the Others are the freudian Id, and others yet are defense mechanisms, forces of denial that try to keep the PCs from figuring it all out. The Logos is of course the freudian Superego, while the Surgineers are manifestations of the doctors operating (and shattering the person's psyche) while Nowhere is the fear of death. Something like that.

See how that works? Same themes, same rooms, same NPCs, same PCs, but two very different campaigns. With Noumenon, it really is all about how you understand and interpret the setting.

Do you think the system works well with the games themes, or is it really just a simple system for task resolution generally unconnected to the game world (which is what I get from the review)?

Actually, yes but no. The mechanic itself is rather bland. This said, I imagine that using dominoes instead of dice can put emphasis on the strangeness of it all. Where the mechanics really serve the game, though, is the whole "group actions" thing. Since making a chain of dominoes is that you're aiming for and considering that anybody can place dominoes at any given moment, the mechanic really underline that you're stranger as a group. For instance, even if you're the one with the highest stat, it just might be that the character with the lowest will be the one to draw the domino you needed to start the chain. Considering how solidarity or somesuch is one of the main themes of the game, I find the choice of mechanic serves the game quite well, even though it is somewhat akin to a very bland poney with one very impressive trick. Moreover, I'm not sure if the blandness apart from that central schtick is not a feature rather than a bug. Noumenon is not the kind of game you're likely to play to get your gamist kicks, so having a very unobstrusive system that lets you go on with the roleplay can be a wise design choice.

This game got some negative attention for being too strange, but your review makes it sound wonderful. How difficult do you think this game would be to sell to an average gaming group?

It really is an awesome game, albeit with a very very very narrow focus. Within that focus, I believe it is wholly playable. As for selling it to an average gaming group, that would require that we define average - and boy am I not openning this particular can of worms. Here are, however, a few characteristics that a group should have in order to play Noumenon (IMHO) :

• They should be experienced roleplayers.
• They should feel like playing a game that will be mostly serious.
• They should be the kind of players who like to develop their character in-game rather than through back stories.
• They should be a very pro-active group that doesn't wait for the GM to hit them with the cluebat each time.
• They should be prone to discussing abstract issues of the game (meaning, symbols, ethics, etc.).
• There should be a very strong trust between the players and the GM as the game heavily relies on the GM slowly revealing secrets.

If you know a group like that, then Noumenon can be a great game. Even though I've never played or read it, I have this nagging feeling that Noumenon will appeal to the same people who liked Wraith : The Oblivion.

Originally Posted by Agent Roscoe

It took 13 authors to write this game? I'm...boggled.

I think the fact that a whole bunch of people wrote it really helps the game to be about what you make of it. Generally, when a single RPG author tries to leave space for his readers' own interpretation of the setting, you always end up feeling that the author himself had a particular interpretation in mind - the setting is skewed just a tiny bit. I don't know what the writing method for Noumenon was, but I suspect that they basically gave a short pitch to each author, plus a list of themes and motifs, and let them have their way with it. In any case, the varying styles of writing and underlying assumptions really help with the feeling that there's no "true" answer before you decide what is the truth.

Plus, if you keep with the whole Rorschach analogy, sewing together the works of 13 writers is bound to produce something that's about as random as dropping ink on paper and letting it blot by itself, which is how the Rorschach images were produced.

As for the subject matter, I'm thinking controlled substances were involved.

For the record, I mentionned drug-use in my review as a wink to the influence Borroughs seems to have on some of the motifs, as a recognition of the game's utter weirdness, and just to be tongue in cheek.

I don't really think it was written on drugs. Creating a game is a long process, and no game designer can afford drugs for that long.

[C.W.Richeson]

That's a hell of a response and it answers all of my questions. Thanks!

[Emprint]

Originally Posted by Jocelyn Robitaille

I don't really think it was written on drugs. Creating a game is a long process, and no game designer can afford drugs for that long.

Day jobs. That's why we have day jobs.

[GrimGent]

Originally Posted by Jocelyn Robitaille

I think the fact that a whole bunch of people wrote it really helps the game to be about what you make of it. Generally, when a single RPG author tries to leave space for his readers' own interpretation of the setting, you always end up feeling that the author himself had a particular interpretation in mind - the setting is skewed just a tiny bit. I don't know what the writing method for Noumenon was, but I suspect that they basically gave a short pitch to each author, plus a list of themes and motifs, and let them have their way with it.

Didn't someone at RP Open once mention that they deliberately prevented the authors responsible for the various rooms from learning what the others were up to, so as to get as much variety as possible?

[Jocelyn Robitaille]

Originally Posted by GrimGent

Didn't someone at RP Open once mention that they deliberately prevented the authors responsible for the various rooms from learning what the others were up to, so as to get as much variety as possible?

I don't remember reading such a statement, but it definitely wouldn't surprise me one bit.

[Abstract Nova]

Jocelyn,

Thanks for the review and taking the time to write a follow-up post.

GrimGent,

You're recollection is spot on. Each writer was given a few words and/or symbols and told to write whatever they wanted from whatever perspective they wanted. Each writer worked in isolation from the other -- no one had a clue what the game was about or what the others were working on. After the fact. there were a few minor tweaks here and there to build some internal cohesion, but nothing too major. This approach was used for all the rooms and a few of the NPCs.

I'd be happy to answer any questions about the game, but Jocelyn's probably already done so

Best,
Lee