Evil Hat Productions Agon

Agon is a curious set of rules, designed to provide epic storytelling in the style of the Greek myths. This is the second edition of the game and almost completely changes the rules from the first edition. The book is nicely presented with some beautiful stylised art throughout.The game is partly written by John Harper, who created the Blades in the Dark game and spin offs, and although the rules are very different to those systems, it does once again show his original approach to roleplaying games. Rather than create a set of rules to recreate a D&D style game in a Greek mythological setting Agon provides a much more abstract approach.Players make up hero characters who are stuck on a voyage home from war similar to Odysseus. Before they can return they have to go on a number of quests to gather glory and appease the gods. Each quest involves visiting an island, facing a series of challenges and prevailing, then moving on to the next island.A number of ready made islands is included with the rules, each providing its own detailed challenges. There are no maps or NPC statistics as you might find in a traditional RPG but instead details a series to contests for the GM to present to the player characters. As a result there is little preperation required before running a game of Agon, just a familiarity with the rules and the specific scenario/island.Contests usually involve a roll of a particular dice, with the higher scoring dice representing a higher level of skill proficiency. Players roll the dice and then narrate what happens in the story. In that way the players help shape the story as much as the GM.This abstract system will appeal to people looking for something a little different from your typical RPG, as well as those looking for an easy game to run with virtually no preperation. There is however very little crunch to this game, no feeling of strategy or tactics beyond a few simple skill checks and a willingness to get involved with the style of storytelling. I can predict after playing it a few times that most people will become bored with the repetitive nature of the system and the lack of freedom in the story arc.