Eoris Essence: a brief introduction in the form of Socratic-esque dialogue

As I was out having fun one day I overheard two literary characters discussing a role playing game. Since this role playing games thing seems to be interesting to like the one person who reads this, I figured it would be relevant to their interest. It went about thusly:

Ken: Are fighting games technically literature?

Ryu: I dunno. But check out this cool tabletop RPG I got!

Ken: No way! Is Numenera out already?

Ryu: Actually, I don't know. This is Eoris Essence, the Columbian RPG that kind of failed to create enough interest and has been sold for cents on the dollar to clear the warehouses lately. It has a number of interesting ideas and really gorgeous art, although I don't know if it's $100 kind of gorgeous?

Ken: So, is the system basically Exalted with serial numbers filed off?

Ryu: It's pretty similar. You roll dice pools of d20s, 15 and above are successes, 1 subtracts one success and 20 is a double success. Also you designate one die as the Essence die and if it rolls 20 or 1 you can be really awesome, really suck or kind of awesome but kind of suck at the same time. And vice versa. Although there are STMs on top of that.

Ken: ST-Whats?

Ryu: STMs, or Standard Threshold Modifiers. Like, being a Red XIII makes you maybe stronger than a regular human (I don't remember) so you would get a -2 Standard Threshold Modifier to Strength attribute related rolls. That means you succeed not on 15, but on 13. Some STMs can also make things more difficult instead, like if you're really tiny or young.

Ken: I'm not tiny!

Ryu: Well, you get the idea.

Ken: It's kind of confusing, though. Aren't there a lot of STMs to keep track of?

Ryu: Well, most people will not have many of those, and you can have a maximum of two STMs applying to any roll - one for attribute and the other one for skill. If they're both positive or negative, then you simply take whichever is better for you (the lower one, that is), if one is positive and one negative then you add them together and sort of get the average that way.

Ken: I don't really get it but let's move on. So you have attributes and skills, just like in White Wolf? And when you attack someone, do they get... DV?

Ryu: Nah, it's more like 1e Exalted. You roll your Dodge versus the opponent's attack, or if it's a ranged attack and you don't have superhuman dicepool you have to just stand there and take it, or roll Barrier which is sort of Dune style powerfields for magical people (they don't work against melee attacks). If they STILL hit, you can roll your Parry dice and add that to your previous defense score and maybe you don't get hit anymore, but on the other hand it consumes your next action. Although there is some variable action points thing, the quickstart rules rather sensibly do away from them so I think we'll do that too when we next play, Ken.

Ken: Sweet! What about magic? I heard it was Saint Seya inspired, but I didn't quite get how.

Ryu: Haha, not quite! Magic in this game is called Saeia and it's usually performed by singing songs! There are different types of Saeia, which are tied to a type of skills called Saeia essences and they deal with different things. Like, if you have any dots in Isthenia, you can use a basic magical energy attack because Isthenia is tied to destruction.

Ken: Just like that, without spending permanent resources? Kinda like the at-will abilities in 4e.

Ryu: Yeah, like in 4e. Saeia basically only costs actions while you keep making activation rolls. When you fail, you get some negative consequences.

Ken: That's interesting, although it might have balance problems. We shall see. You mentioned something about Red XIII, though, were you serious?

Ryu: Yeah, there is actually a race that is pretty much Red XIIIs. And the other that is White XIIIs, so to speak. Several similar species of human-like characters and some weirdness like the squirrel-Yodas. That's for Xylen, who have the most variety.

Ken: okay... Wait, what was that about Cylons?

Ryu: Xylen are basically mortals of the setting. In addition to them you have Sil, who are sort of like angels that teach people and are looked up to, and Kalei, who are a wholly different and sort of emo class of... also angels. The latters' big goal is killing God...

Ken: Makes sense.

Ryu: ...by God's explicit request.

Ken: ...I need a drink.

Ryu: We're not done yet! Did you have any more questions?

Ken: This all looks a lot like Final Fantasy so far. But I feel like we're missing something... I can't quite remember what.

Ryu: Limit Breaks?

Ken: Limit Breaks!

Ryu: There are Limit Breaks.

Ken: Wooo!

Ryu: Several types of them, in fact. The exact number accessible to your character depends on their spiritual power, but you can spend Energy points for extra actions, extra dice, a spontaneous energy attack if you're powerful enough, and custom limit breaks you can design yourself, like damage mods or Aeris' Healing Wind. Xylen recover energy points simply with the passage of time (in-game or out of game, as is more convenient), rolling 1s and 20s on the Essence die or taking damage in combat.

Ken: That's pretty Limit Break-y!

Ryu: I know, right. Let's get drunk.

Ken: Woo!


To be continued?..