2021 Day 21: Overlight
Overlight bills itself as Kaleidoscopic Fantasy and harks back to traditional fantasy tropes. I think this means that they want to have a game with a large variety of perspectives, tropes, oddities and melancholy. Reading the authors’ notes, it seems that the world came first and the mechanics second and it does feel that way.
A quick synopsis: the people of the world … broke it. You now have seven floating continents all sitting under the flow of the nebulous Overlight. What Overlight does is quite vague: it affects all things (which is your excuse to have the weird and wonderful everywhere you look) but it mainly creates the Skyborn (uplifted characters like the PCs). Each continent mostly has one folk which calls it home, although spreading has happened. You can play sophants such as the winged Teryxian, giant Pyroi or the peculiar animal/plant hybrids that are Banyari. Each folk has a different culture, and most have cultures within cultures.
One thing I really love about Overlight is that the PCs are overt exceptions to their cultures. Each playable folk is linked to one of seven key virtues. Skyborn must take a different key virtue to their folk’s default. So, the Teryxians value Logic above all else and you can safely assume that is true of any you meet. But if you played one you would be disconnected from them because you might value, say, Might instead. You don’t necessarily start with more of your key virtue, although you will likely increase it, but your special powers only come from your key virtue and folk.
As a counter to Troika!, Overlight has a very clear idea that, even if you start with mission-based episodes, you will be moving onto character-led stories. And with a broad canvas to pick from there should always be something to pique the characters’ interests.
The base mechanic is unusual. Each stat is assigned a dice (d6, d8, d10 etc). Each roll takes two stats (depending on what you are doing) and you roll three of each’s dice type plus a d4 spirit die. So if you were pushing through a snowstorm you would take your Might (d8 and your Resistance (d6) and roll 3d8, 3d6 and the 1d4 spirit die. You are aiming for 6 or more, with more successes being better. You can spend Spirit points as small bennies and the spirit die can give you similar options if you roll a 4. (The spirit die can also be used as a randomiser or random countdown mechanism for certain types of roll.)
The special powers of the Skyborn are called Chroma and, from the corebook, each PC will have a choice of 21. That number doesn’t increase over time, although presumably you can make them up or get more in supplements. The powers are varied and mixed, and remind me of more detailed versions of Werewolf: the Apocalypse gifts. Because they are all the same level, I am not really blown away by any of them. For instance “Balance of Light” might give your group a small advantage on some Chroma tests for a period of time. The cost is always a random number of Spirit Points (from the Spirit die again!) and if you overspend Bad Stuff happens.
Overall I was disappointed by Overlight. Not because it's bad but because it has so many wonderful elements yet I walked away uninspired. I think the problem is that it suffers from Tell not Show, whereas games like Spire and Troika! thrust wackiness upon you everywhere you look. Then, because I am not excited by the rest of the world, I was looking to the Chroma to give me something that says “Build around me” and … well I didn’t. Which meant I look upon the overspending rules and wonder if that would ever really happen. (I would have also liked summary charts of the Chroma so I don’t have to trawl through dozens of similar-looking pages for something to catch my eye.)
I can totally see how you can create interesting and unusual adventures in Overlight, but without the excitement I probably won’t. I don’t know what I feel about the mechanics, but they seem reasonable. What I can say is that if you want to branch out from D&D this is definitely a game you could look at. It should be familiar enough conceptually with the right balance of crunch.
Urksag is one of the giant Pyroi from the lowest, darkest and most fiery continent. The land there is tough and violent, and the Pyroi generally respect Might in a ritualistic manner which allows them to cope with their lives. However our hero was marked as different from a young age and found it hard to take a life. He could hunt in other ways, but he could not finish off a Shovel-Tusk. However, he was liked because he always supported his people - and besides which the Pyroi don’t take it to heart. It was kindly suggested that he take a less martial (but still tough) journey. So he was tried as an Emberheart, a fire poet who converts the harshness of the continent to words; but his wanderlust pushed him to be an Embertongue, a diplomat. I suspect he still is, but as a young man I doubt they mind him going on adventures.
Virtues: Wisdom, Logic, Will, Vigor are all d6. Might d10, Compassion (core virtue) d10
Skills: Athletics D6, Beastways D8, Brawl d10, Inspiration D10, Intuition D6, Perception D6, Persuasion D8, Survival D6, Windlore D6
As a Pyroi he has more health, but can’t use Spirit in tight places.
Wealth rating D12, Wealth 16 (although I think he is quite abstemious in his own needs)
Chroma:
Emerald Salve (Compassion + Vigor, can heal people quickly if you charge it up correctly)
Speakers Fire (Wisdom + Compassion, makes people relaxed around you)
Urksag's character sheet
Urksag's Chroma
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/344306/Overlight-A-Fantasy-Roleplaying-Game-of-Kaleidoscopic-Journeys