Missive #34: Ennie Nomination Baby! Check out our Reviews

Howdy.  As you might imagine, I’m thrilled at our Ennie Nomination for Agents of Oblivion.  Such accolades have been a long time in coming, and it’s very nice to know that others recognize and appreciate our work.

Now if you have been wondering about Agents, but just haven’t been convinced to pull the trigger, I wanted to take this missive to share the reviews with you.

http://roleplayerschronicle.com/?p=20428

This great website quickly reviews Agents, Setting Rues, Gear, Setting, Missions and overall stated, “Agents of Oblivion is an awesome book. With a number of GM tool-kits and new mechanic implementations, games using the setting are bound to be exciting and filled with action and adventure. As a stand-alone setting, it’s a great romp of action and horror. As a tool-kit for other settings or something homebrewed, it’s a powerful tool-kit filled with gadgets of all type and plenty of content to get your adventures going. All-in-all, it is a very well-rounded publication.”

http://www.grogtard.com/agents-of-oblivion-for-savage-worlds/

The Geek Life Project reviewed Agents and said that it “takes advantage of all my weaknesses.  First, it’s for Savage Worlds.  Second, it covers two of my favorite RPG genres (Spies and Supernatural) and throws them into the martini shaker for damned near the perfect cocktail.”  The reviewer stated he really liked the SUDs (Single Use Devices) and the Resource Point system, but didn’t like the cybertech feel of some of the equipment options.  He also said, “The good news is that it takes sort of the tool kit approach to setting and give plenty of advice for GM’s to create the kind of campaign they want. Anything from bring Realms of Cthulhu and playing a Delta Green style campaign, to alien and terrestrial conspiracies, normal monster hunting or just plain mundane spies. There’s also advice on setting the feel of your campaign from cinematic to gritty. As I read through the book, my mind started to put together a weird that would end up being like a cross between Dresden Files and Burn Notice.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8lF-gbYFJA

Here Kurt Wiegel reviews Agents on Game Geeks episode #193.  It’s an awesome and detailed review and you should check it out.  He discusses the setting, equipment found, resource points, ways to play different levels of weird, groups, cults, organizations, adventure generator (“This one works really, really well.”), example adventures, combining Realms of Cthulhu and Agents of Oblivion (“Take the sanity rules out of Realms of Cthulhu, drop them into your Agents of Oblivion game and all of a sudden you have got a government agency that is out chasing Mythos monsters.”), and a lot more.  “I can’t recommend this highly enough.  If you like Savage Worlds, if you want to get into the espionage-horror genre, or aliens, or whatever you want.”

http://ronblessing.blogspot.com/2011/08/read-thru-agents-of-oblivion.html

Our long time friend and great gamester, Ron Blessing, also reviewed Agents.  He went through the book section by section and gave us another great review.  “The campaign section gives a lot of great advice on the genre and provides some clear direction for the GM. In addition it provides guidance on tweaking the setting elements, including, aliens, conspiracies, magic, horror, and tech. It really allows you to run anything from the default Mission: Impossible meets X-Files, all the way to G.I. Joe versus Cobra—no kidding!”

He ended with this caveat, “If you enjoy horror, espionage, modern action/adventure, or any other modern gaming, this book is a “can’t miss” for you. Don’t bother with the book if you are not into any of those things or detest fun in general.”

http://www.flamesrising.com/a-review-of-two-savage-rpgs/

Flames Rising is one of the best gaming websites out there and they reviewed Agents as well.  Agents “suggests a world where Jason Bourne gets put into a blender with HP Lovecraft and turns out rather interesting results.”

http://mostunreadblogever.blogspot.com/2011/10/tommys-take-on-agents-of-oblivion.html

Another great gamer, artist and friend, Tommy Brownell wrote “A great alternative for people who may have liked BLACK OPS or CONSPIRACY X but decided they weren’t fans of GURPS of Classic Unisystem anymore (like me!). The book is all about options, options, options, not about shoe-horning in a single way to play…(sometimes, that shoe-horning is fine, and sometimes, you just want options, options, options). And I do so love me some random tables, even more than I do Legendary Edges.”

http://solaceofsavagery.wordpress.com/tag/savage-worlds/

A relatively new and very cool website, they posted about our Cat’s Eye adventure stating, “The mission has a weird twist that suits the AoO style very well” and went on to say, “I love this setting….”

Best of all are our fans leaving their own reviews over at RPGNow.com.  Tim N stated: “I am a great fan of Savage Worlds and of the Laundry series by Charles Stross. AoO is a very nicely produced setting that allows you to play anything from a Bond movie to Spy-Cthulhu and X-Files to Men in Black, so I shall be using it to run a Laundry game as soon as I can find willing players. Crunch-wise, the setting has a built-in power-point-free magic system and a fast and furious “skill challenge” mechanic for complex multi-step tasks. A nice touch is the ability of the GM or “Director” to give agents Single Use Devices, these allow them to use any power in the rules ONE time, so you can give them the power to confront a dangerous foe without overpowering the players. Highly recommended.”

Michael S. says, “Great addition to the Savage Worlds line. Finally a usable core for creating a modern-horror hybrid setting.”

Lee L. says, “AOO has replaced all my other Savage Worlds settings as my current favorite. The combination of über spy tech, horror and espionage has really grabbed me. The setting allows for any kind of setting from 007 style games, too “xXx” style action spys, to X-files and even modern horror with psychic investigators! The book has one of the best covers ever in my opinion. There are several items on the cover that are an om-age to James Bond and Ian Fleming. The book has a very solid and clean look to it, with minimal [but amazing!] art by Cheyenne Wright [always a favorite] and no back texture to it. This not only makes for an easy read, but also makes it easy to print with out having to invest in new color cartridges for my printer. The “Powers” section is what has intrigued me the most, as it has removed power points from the setting and made it so characters can get powers that are above their Rank, with out making it impossible to play or deal with as a GM. It has inspired me to run an “Alphas” [Based on the Sci-Fi channel series] campaign. Reality Blurs and Sean Preston continue to impress me and I can not help buy purchase their games now as every one has inspired me to new ideas for my players.”

So.  To all the fans and supporters I say THANK YOU!!!  If you love Savage Worlds, Reality Blurs, Agents of Oblivion, Sean Preston, or me, please go vote, help us win that Ennie, so we can grow and continue to provide you with more products, more support, and more games!

Till next time,

Thanks and keep rolling Aces!

Ed