So the Dragon and Immortal are out to backers, and I’m SUPER curious to hear what everyone thinks!

So the Dragon and Immortal are out to backers, and I’m SUPER curious to hear what everyone thinks!

So the Dragon and Immortal are out to backers, and I’m SUPER curious to hear what everyone thinks! Are they winners? Are you jonesing to play them? Will the Immortal finally let me play as a mummy?

10 thoughts on “So the Dragon and Immortal are out to backers, and I’m SUPER curious to hear what everyone thinks!”

  1. I’m not really digging the new Immortal. The Schemes list seems a little more elegant, but I honestly have no idea how Schemes are supposed to work now.

    Before, they were all set to clocks, which was pretty straightforward. They advanced when a move told you they advance, and when they hit 12 they come to fruition.

    But now, your start of session move can advance a scheme, but that… doesn’t actually have any mechanics behind it. I guess the GM is supposed to hand you pieces of fiction at this point, and then just… kind of hand wavily decide when your scheme is complete? But the Schemes are also called ‘projects,’ so maybe you’re supposed to give them requirements like a Workspace project?

    And on a miss, Schemes can be ‘interrupted,’ and you have this list of potential angles for that. I don’t know how that’s supposed to work either, because one section advises you to pick 3 of them and assign them to Schemes however you like, but a) that means you can have a scheme with no potential interruptions, which doesn’t make sense, and b) in another section it says the GM will tell you how your scheme was interrupted so the list doesn’t really seem to carry any mechanical weight either.

    Move-wise, the option that lets you ape a Mortality move because you spent time as a mortal is now tied to you having a mortal lover at some point, which strikes me as unnecessary thematic baggage. Not every immortal has to be brooding over a dead lover, guys. I thoroughly dislike the ‘dead lover as motivation’ trope in general, and in this context it’s kind of a dead horse too.

    They also get a version of the Scholar’s collection as a move, which of course means everyone can access the Scholar’s shtick now.

    That also means half the playbook’s moves are just about taking moves from other playbooks. The other three are a +1 move, a stat-substitution move, and a ‘do other factions’ magic tricks’ moves (which is a starting move, so you have to take it. Screw you, Connor MacLeod, you’re a wizard now!).

    The Corruption moves aren’t great, either. A +numbers combat move that doesn’t really tie into anything, a ‘say no to another player’s roll’ move, another stat substitution, and one actually legitimately cool move which lets you temporarily raise and interrogate the dead.

    I dunno, it just feels so damn flat. It has very little of its own identity, and what little it has is really hard to mechanically parse. I assume the GM advice will clear up some of the Schemes game, but even at that I’m super uninspired by the playbook.

    Depending on your vision of a mummy, you could probably use it to play a mummy. Personally I’d use the Vessel or Vamp, but it’s really a matter of taste.

  2. James Etheridge That’s… more than a little distressing. I was really excited for that playbook, and hearing that it’s made up of parts of other things is a letdown. Is the Dragon looking any better?

  3. I was pretty indifferent to the Dragon as a concept when the first version came out, so I haven’t given it as close a look. But at first blush, it looks really cool. They get to bring a Storm that’s hunting them into the game from session one, the reincarnation extra is pretty well done, and the moves list is mostly filled with really cool stuff.

    The themes of greed, fire, ancient splendor and past mistakes coming home to roost really shine through. Kinda reminds me of Ryan Lambert from Lost Girl, come to think of it.

    I actually really dig it.

  5. I like the Dragon updates, did not read the Immortal yet. I have never been drawn to the Immortal, but I should look it over. I still grouse that they did not update the King.

  6. A friend of mine let me peek at these, and I have to echo the other comments here; The Dragon is outstanding and super evocative, but I’m beyond disappointed in The Immortal.

  9. Would anyone be interested in seeing me take a shot at The Immortal? The official playbook was something a letdown and went in a pretty different direction from what I imagined; I was picturing a more “seen it all before” world-weary take, not the invisible mastermind.

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