In this review we want to tell you about Epigoni, a mythpop RPG by Nicola Santagostino. Just the author and the publisher, Nessundove, we want to thank you for sending us a copy of the game.
Anyone wishing to buy Epigoni, can find it on BackerKit; the PDF is available for 17.50 euros, but it’s also included in the purchase of the physical version, for 35 euros. In both cases you will find free Notti Mitiche, an appendix that creates a new game scenario and provides various ideas.
Review of Epigoni: the Manual
First things first, let’s start from the handbook. Even if in a small format, slightly larger than an A5 sheet, we are still talking about a volume of 306 pages. The paperback cover is therefore easy to manage, and the flaps help to consult the manual without damaging it. Mythic Nights has instead a smaller foliation, 68 pages, but since it is an attachment it is decidedly more than substantial.
The manual, though paperback, is pretty solid; Nessundove knows how to work on its products and isn’t afraid to prove it. The layout is in one column and, given the format, maintains high legibility even from mobile devices; the narrative parts instead, given that each chapter is opened by a highly evocative short story full of lore, are in two columns, with a black background which increases the detachment from the more purely “technical” part.
In general, it is really good work, practical to read, and very clean. The illustrations are on average of very high quality, even if some are more beautiful than others. Dutiful applause goes to Alessia Sagnotti, illustrator but above all art director, for having managed to give a single and coherent theme to the entire volume. The yellow-gold manages to stand out with the black and white of the illustrations and in general of the pages in a unique way, underlining the other elements and enlivening a volume that otherwise would have been a bit too flat.
What Game Are We Playing?
Challenge Fate to find out who you are
These words open the volume of Epigoni, but it is not a cliché or a generic premise. Fate is the main adversary that the player characters will face in Epigoni. Fate is not an NPC; it’s not even a sentient adversary in the strict sense. We, therefore, need a small premise on the characters themselves.
In the words of its author, Epigoni is a mythpop game. This is because the intention is precisely that of creating a great shared imagination, in which everything that is an “idea”, everything that is a story, acquires a conscience and consistency. Beyond the Veil of Maia, ancient divinities, the idealization of historical figures, mythical creatures, and actual embodied concepts weave their own plots. A dense world, in which favors are used as currency and interests intertwine, creating a network of contacts, alliances, and information in which the Epigones move.
Sons of one of these figures called Entities, the Epigones are creatures of the material world but are also able to move in that of Myth. And this is where Fate intervenes. Each Epigone chooses an Archetype, the ideal figure he wants to become; instead for him, fate chooses a Stereotype, the degeneration of the identity of the Epigone himself. A flat and depersonalized figure, completely taken by his role; and lost in it. But be careful: Fate is not an element of the game plot. It always remains external to the narrative, however central to the character.
Struggling Against Fate
Fate is moved by the narrator, and effectively acts as the opponent of the player characters. It is not, as mentioned, a sentient creature. The Epigones frequently face the creatures of myth, which draw on mythology in the strict sense or pop culture (hence the definition of mythpop game). But regardless of the stories they are involved in and their cut, Fate is their ultimate adversary. It is Fate that wants to snatch their will and personality to make them become Empty.
Analyzing the fight against Fate requires a brief overview of the game system. The core is very simple and refers to the Copperhead System created by Santagostino with Antonio Rossetti. The character sheets do not have statistics, but a series of descriptive elements inherent both to his worldly life and to his life beyond the Veil. When Epigones take on a Challenge, the amount of all items on the sheet they can use determines their Rank, which is compared to the Challenge Rank itself.
A number of eight-sided dice equal to two plus the difference between the Epigone Rank and that of the Challenge Rank are then rolled. If the latter is positive, the player can choose the two highest results; if it is negative, he will have to choose the lower two. Depending on the outcome the action will be a failure (or a success but with negative implications), a partial success or a complete success. The system is articulated on a series of more complex cases, but at its core, it can be summarized as follows.
Review of Epigoni: Win or Lose
Well yes, in Epigoni you can win. Or lose. Not in the traditional sense of the term, but you can lose the challenge against Fate. It is in fact possible to appeal to it to automatically overcome a Challenge, when necessary; in this case though one step closer to the Rewrite. A process divided into eight phases that leads the Epigone to get closer and closer to the Stereotype that Fate has decided for him. Conversely, when a Challenge is considered a Stage, a turning point for the character, a Fateful Challenge can be declared, which if won allows you to advance along the eight steps of the Path.
Rewriting and the Path are two opposite processes. By completing the first one, the character becomes a Vacui, a puppet of Fate. Completing the second instead the Epigone completely frees himself of the prophecy that hangs over him, returning to a normal human being, although able to see beyond the Veil. So as said, in Epigoni it is possible to win or lose; not winning the game itself, of course, but the fight against Fate that hangs over the character. And the whole meaning of the game is based on this struggle and its result.
A Delicate Game of Balance
Epigoni is a captivating and highly interpretive game. It echoes a lot of references to pop culture, even more than to mythology which is also a stronger theme. The influence of the works of Neil Gaiman, especially American Gods, is not bulky but oozes evident from every page; and draws a smile with the description of the Boons as the currency of the Entities, a cornerstone of Vampires: The Masquerade.
However, these are never passive suggestions; they are all extremely alive elements within the game. Posted to be exploited and not just to make a good impression with cultured quotes. The hooks are never lacking, which is not a given in such an introspective game. Of course, we are not talking about perfection; Epigoni has some flaws, related to the nature of the project. In my opinion, the manual gives way too often to the temptation of overly sophisticated language; it is fine in the narrative passages but would have greatly benefited from a drier if not downright schematic style in the more technical passages. And in the long run, the simplicity of the mechanics could risk turning into little depth, becoming repetitive.
By the way, Epigoni is, as mentioned earlier in this review, a Kickstarter game. And we are not talking about a pre-sale passed through crowdfunding but about a real Kickstarter. It is a project that the author conceived, wanted, and developed with his strength, with the technical support of Nessundove. So we talk about purely editorial defects, perfectly normal and in line with the game, which in any case is not designed for extremely long campaigns: sooner or later all the Epigones have to deal with what Fate wants to impose on them, by evading or giving in to it.
Review of Epigoni: Cues
Nearly a third of the game manual is devoted to solutions for the storyteller. In addition to the canonical series of tips and instructions on how to prepare the game, there is a ready-to-play setting full of ideas. Gods of London provides a setting, precisely that of London, which allows you to immediately identify with the context of the game. All Entity factions in play in the metropolis are presented; from the Mab (a play on words between “Queen Mab”, the fairy queen, and the “Mob”) to the Merrymen, Robin Hood’s cheerful cronies. Or the Big Bad Company, the idealization of the great oppressive corporation, and the Sons of Camelot, the knights of the Round Table in motorcycle gang sauce. Maybe the Lost Saints of St. Patrick, of Irish origin, or the XMas Inc which has claimed all that is Christmas in a commercial key.
Each of these cues has a description of the faction involved, its business, and an adventure proposal, divided into three acts. Also given the purely narrative nature of the game, one must not have in mind the classic adventure “à laD&D“. These are very generic tracks, where the technical data sheets of the Challenges and Entities faced are accompanied by passages at a very high level. After all, this is precisely a characteristic of Epigoni: the game is always held at a very high level, without ever addressing the individual elements of the setting in too much detail, to allow each table to set the game well on their needs.
Mythic Nights: an Appendix of Epigoni
Complimentary with the manual Epigoni is the free appendix Mythic Nights, both in digital and physical format. Basically it is the equivalent of the third part of the manual, which however focuses on a local scenario. In fact, if in the basic manual we talk about London, Mythic nights describes the Italian Entities and above all the factions into which they are divided, in constant struggle with each other.
The scheme is exactly the same, where the Narrator will find the Arcana, the incarnation of the Tarot themselves, and the literates of the past (it is important to underline that in Epigoni, historical figures are not real people, but the embodiment of their figure in the collective imagination). The Giovinastri and the Vecchiardi, progressive and conservative forces of the Bel Paese. And finally Guitti and Mestieranti, traditional figures of Italian culture. And for each of these teams, there is an adventure proposal divided into three acts.
It’s an exception Between Scilla and Charybdis, an adventure written by Matthew Dawkins. Calling the mythological figure of Poseidon into play, Dawkins writes a decidedly more complex adventure, in which the Epigones are called to follow a story that develops in many more steps and, above all, they have to face a series of choices.
Review of Epigoni: Conclusions
As you can see from this review, Epigoni is certainly a very particular role-playing game, which escapes many of the more classic schemes.
It is proposed with extremely light mechanics but seeks great narrative and interpretative depth. Epigoni was born as an author’s project but developed with various professionals. Yes, it certainly has its flaws, but at the same time, it tackles the central theme decisively and courageously. Above all it proposes a style of play that will appeal to lovers of urban fantasy, but doesn’t end there; indeed, it would have cutthroat competition if it did. But by shifting the focus to the fight against Fate, yet making it internal and completely detached from the plot, he achieves an insight that creates a game worth watching.
If you love contemporary stories and the stylistic code of Neil Gaiman, and if you are looking for a game that is not crunchy at all, Epigoni is something that you definitely want in your library.