Endless Realms Role-Playing Game

Endless Realms (Lunar Games)

I’m a bit of a gamer. Board games, video games, role-playing games… I’ve got a bit of an addiction. Grew up playing Palladium’s Transdimensional TMNT and moved into AD&D and d6 Star Wars and Shadowrun. Spent my childhood with Beyond the Supernatural, Ninjas and Superspies, and Rifts. Hit the Street Fighter game by White Wolf before moving into Mage, then Vampire and Werewolf and Changeling. I started working on my own mechanics when I was still in grade school, scrapped that early system and tried again when I was fourteen and had something workable that eventually became the Triune Legacy. I am constantly on the lookout for new and exciting stuff. Dungeon World, Torch-Bearer, even Mouse Guard.

What I’m getting at is that I’ve been around the block a few times, seen some stuff and played some wild times. I want you to understand that when I call Endless Realms one of the coolest games I’ve gotten the chance to play that I’m talking as someone with a wealth of experience. That said…

When I head to conventions I look for new things to try, and this time I hit the jackpot: a new kickstarted start-up game called Endless Realms that has some gorgeous art, incredible fluff, and some seriously cool crunch.

The art is done by the incredibly talented Jocarra, and you can see her artwork by clicking here. The main book takes advantage of her artwork to flesh out their world and give the sense of something that veers between steam and lunar punk, mingling high fantasy with some interesting technological insight and overlapping worlds.

It’s eye-catching, but we’ve seen eye-catching stuff that falls apart in the past: games that look neat but lack the depth to make them worth playing. Endless Realms has your back on that front, though, covering nine playable races and ten playable classes – all with variants – right out of the main book. The races are a pretty varied lot of creatures that are very much like nothing you’ve ever seen and do things you might not expect, presented with mechanics that support their lore and give them unexpected and deeply cool advantages.

Likewise, the classes have a good deal of variety in them and are more than you might expect. Nothing is what it seems, and every career brings a unique perspective to the table. The Animancer takes the place of necromancy, for example, but instead of merely focusing on death, the Animancer balances the scales with powers that draw on life. They’re gatekeepers that balance the scales of transition, with deep traditions that complement their powers. For those that prefer to swash some buckles, the Dandy class allows for varying sorts of swordplay and sass that make one feel like the hero in some sweeping pirate or musketeer epic.

And a big part of why this all works is the crunch: most rolls are determined by contested d10s that are rooted in two different sorts of attributes, some that you can improve and some you cannot. There are skills, yes, and mechanics that reward knowing the lore and playing in character, but the crunch is easy to pick up and pass on while still offering a good amount of strategic and tactical thinking.

Here, I’ll let them explain it:

Endless Realms has been taken to conventions for a while now and their parent company, Lunar Games, has a Kickstarter launching for physical books and more that starts on April 24, 2018. If you’d like to try their game, you can follow them on Facebook by clicking here and seeing what conventions they’re going to.

Highly recommended.