Era of Silence (Part 2)

Innovation in Pop Design?

his is the conclusion of the critical analysis of Era of Silence. You can find the first part here.

5. Disassemble Engine

Games have a flow, which, when you hit, the game pretty much runs itself. It is extremely satisfying. After examining the interactions of game elements, we single out the most important - the one that sets the pace of sessions, or even campaigns. We focus on how that engine works, how it makes the game move along, and what to do to make it do what you want to do - and how to keep it running clean.

Ludo

Modular systems that can be used for combat-centric action can have a problem connecting a framework with mechanics of all kinds, resulting in uneven models. Unfortunately, the same is true for Era of Silence: other than progression for progression' sake, the constant thirst for money to get better toys is the closest Era of Silence has to a systemic engine.

However, combat and its beat have a powerful internal engine.

The combat engine keeps pushing into hot action and raising stakes with the following subsystems:

Token based combat systems: Stamina determines what you can do; everyone starts with three Stamina and can use it to take any number of actions… as long as they have Stamina and then they need to recover. This allow careful actions and tactical bursts, making essential to have proper squad support and cover. Initiative, Willpower tokens system also keeps you in your toes.

Stance dynamics: stances (know as States) determine what you can do in a turn, and allow you to even communicate a desire to end a fight! They let you rest, reposition, duel someone, mount heavy weaponry, etc. And more important, getting caught surprised without a combat stance can result in an entire fight being decided by a successful ambush.

Injury system: get wounded forces you into a heavily disadvantage stand, making the first injury a character gets enough to decide a battle; getting enough causalities is the key the victory, rather than killing any percentage of enemies. Exhaustion levels also establish the pacing and the lingering effects of pushing yourself and injuries.

These systems work perfectly in tandem, assuring every fight in Era of Silence is the right flavor of action romp!

Brad

Secret Time? I love systems where getting new gadgets and gizmos drive to play, I loved it when Traveller did it, I love how Era of Silence does it. I genuinely can enjoy it in contrast to traditional XP progression. Lucrecia does a masterful description of why combat works so beautifully, so I am gonna focus on a couple of other lovely bits.

Era of Silence breaks down exactly what it takes and what happens when your players adopt an NPC (a huge recurring thing for my games) and makes this not just an easy process but explains how they should work mechanically and even when to use them, it also codifies a thing I was taught as an optional rule in Unknown Armies where players can drop and modify parts of their characters at any point so long as it still fits the character creation rules.

6. Essentials For Session One

So, you got this game, you going to play it, but you don’t have the time to read everything. Or even worse, your have read it and now it is all jumbled together. Here we break down the things that you absolutely want to try to get right and/or hit during your first session, so you get the felling of what makes this game stand out from similar art.

Lucrécia 

While it is difficult to see all about a modular system in one session

¹

, the following are my recommendations to have a single session showcase the best of Era of Silence:

• Skill (pg. 27)

• The most common tool of healing (pg. 81)

• Social Challenges (pg. 83)

• Willpower (pg. 84)

• Combat rules, in their integrity; it is was the game is all about, come on (pg 86)

• Magic rules in case you have a caster (pg. 102)

Creating some characters and pitting them in a fight against someone else will be enough of a trial of fire and you may get one or two fights done in a 2-hours session. Still, the introductory 10 minutes to North Point is a great action set-piece for the world of Vian.

Brad

I know this is going to sound bad and like homework but trust me here. Build two characters, or yank two pregens, or if your players built their characters in advance, grab two of them, and run a quick fight. Learn how this works, and you will go far.

Read the magic rules twice, and maybe make a handout for convenience if you are very organized, otherwise, like in any game with magic you will need to know it for the first couple of sessions.

7. Playing The Game Wrong

Games are played wrong. Rules will be misunderstood, interactions will be confused, the importance of certain tech disregarded; etc. This is good, and it is good to acknowledge for: you cannot have the designer at your time, and even if they were, they would be just another player - and entitled to play it wrong. After identifying stress points of the game, things that don’t connect that well, we think of the things that are more likely to be (our have been) “played wrong”. What happens when you forget a line in page 273 clearly saying this is impossible?

Ludo

Adjusting dice size and difficulties can be hard to get the hang on, and was the most point of confusion and roadblocks in the test sessions. While easy, yeah, most people are not used to roll under when coming from a pop background.

Armor Values and Armor Penetrations are simple rules but may be confusing for some, so take a moment to see if everyone at the table gets them when they show up.

Magic requires a lot of improvisation and those indulging in it are operating at a different tempo than the rest of the party; telegraph early that magic is all about high risk, high reward and requires putting resources ahead of payoff compared with the immediate benefits of other options.

Out of combat elements may not be the most developed in a game about skirmishes. Enemy design also takes a lot to get used to. One needs to become skilled at using Social Challenges and Trivia to flavor interstitial elements that may not be as well supported.

Era of Silence comes with Twists and Tools, a supplement of extra rules. You are likely to find there solid systems to improve your experience with the base version of the game.

It is a weird thing to remark, but the chemipunk setting of Vian is introduced in a somewhat chaotic manner; writing, layout and illustration sometimes clash, creating a fuzzy picture of the world. Players that wish to know the world better may benefit from keeping an eye for future material expanding it than rely only on its initial presentation.

Brad

Learning to adjust difficulty on the fly seems like a piece of system knowledge that will come with play, but expect a little bit of a stumble on it. I already addressed that the Magic System is going to take some getting used to, but can also confirm that once it clicks, there will be certain players who will become addicted to it.

I loved Twists and Tools and found a way to work vehicle combat into my first adventure because I adore them. In a long-term campaign, I would probably slam in the Degrees Of Success rules as well.

8. What to Steal

Experiencing good art is the most important step in making good art. We look back at the things that worked and did not work about this game, see what we learned for design work, interesting tech and just a general overview of things that we will take from this game and bring into others. Or more honestly: since many of us may not play this game and we have it in our library, this way we can get some use out of it.

Lucrécia

Many designers may be interested in giving the Thorne System for a spin. Many of us disappointed with games like FFG/Cubicle 7 Warhammer lines, Shadowrun and other pop games may find this system can give them the experiences they hoped for.

Trivia is one of the most ingenious things in Thorne. It is a neat complement to any kind of skill system, and gives a nice way to customize characters and quickly give them a bit of unique flair. Designers may benefit from studying how seamlessly it integrates with the other systems of the game.

I really love how the game handles equipment, specially making new weapons; the take on weight, availability and encumbrance of equipment are also a great implementation upon the pop model.

Above all, Era of Silence has this great effect upon me of being art that makes me want to do more art. I want to make more character options when I read archetypes, more toys when seeing gears, and all the kind of things that could be great using the Thorne System. Dark Heresy 3e in Thorne would be killer.

Brad

Do you love combat in TTRPG’s? I’m not talking about, “Oooh I Like Combat.” or “Combat can be fun”, if you are one of those players who live for combat in TTRPG’s, play Era of Silence, and then start dreaming of how you could adapt your favorite setting for it.

I genuinely never thought of Shadowrun in Era Of Silence until I saw Lu’s draft and now I want that so badly. You should steal its capacities to deliver what it promises (in this case Modularity and Fun Fights.) and focus on that for your designs.

Era of Silence is such a fun and unusual piece of design that it’s hard for me to say what to steal and what to leave untouched, but I can’t stop thinking about all the different micro settings you could put in Vian, in addition to all the wonderful settings you could make a fantastic Thorne System Game out of. So go out and do that.

1. And if the system is properly modular, you may never see a lot of it through whole campaigns.