Category: Reviews
Last article published: 29 March 2018
This is the 53rd post under this label
Makers: Atlas Games (written by Jonathan Tweet, 1992; further editions in 1997 and 2019)
What is it?
Over the Edge is a somewhat surreal role-playing game "of secrets and conspiracies" that takes place on the mysterious Island of Al Amarja (the Edge is one of its three cities), and takes its cues from such things as William S. Burroughs' fiction (think: the Naked Lunch movie), The X-Files, and Vertigo comics. I suppose you could say its genre is "Weirdness". The system is closest to Fate - the players can create their own traits to fit any concept, any concept at all, each represented by a dice pool. It's quick and flexible, the actual complexity in the setting itself and figuring out how to use it.
Neat stuff
-The core book is a treasure trove of ideas. We're out of the introduction and rules by page 36, leaving almost 200 pages of places, people, factions, mysteries, weird threats and fringe powers.
-They really do mean it when they say you can create any concept. When examples include talking cats and reincarnations of Atlantean high priests, you know they mean it.
-Baboon patrols? Al Amarja is one of the richest, weirdest settings in role-playing history.
Bad stuff
-The products are hard to track down. I have a couple of adventure books, but the apparently very useful Player's Survival Guide still eludes me.
-The advertised conversion notes to other games only converts to similarly niche games like Corps, Bureau 13 and Fringeworthy. This edition published before the days of open licenses, I get it, but they couldn't throw a popular generic rule set like GURPS in there? (Not that using another game would be as satisfying as the free-form system presented in the book, so it's all a little pointless.)
-For some GMs (and players), it may be too offbeat. I've read a lot of testimony pointing to gamers having trouble figuring out what to do with it as unlimited choices either create a "party" that is too disparate to work cohesively, or it's difficult to dangle adventure hooks before the PCs because of lack of structure (which is why so many RPGs are "mission-based". So while the rules are pretty simple, it may still work better for veteran gamers.
Quote
"Communion is not physically addictive, but many users become compulsively lost in a life devoted to [...] following the instructions of God they get while on it."
How I've used it
Once attempted to get a campaign off the ground with a couple of my DC Heroes players. We made characters, but it didn't go further (a vaguely remember one of them being Elvis, in hiding on Al Amarja). I nevertheless played through the "you wake up in a creepy asylum" adventure Welcome to Sylvan Pines with a different group. I wouldn't mind investing in something more long-form since the "improvisational" feel of the game is something I've made strides towards pretty steadily since then. I think the reason I lost faith in it first time around is that the PC concepts didn't grab me and I didn't trust the players with the tone. It probably needed more of a group-think in terms of concepts. I'd be better prepared now.
In conclusion
I've little doubt Over the Edge inspired such games as Fate and settings like AD&D's Planescape (Sigil as Al Amarja) and Unknown Armies - it was a game-changer (literally). Newer editions than mine are available, with the latest having been Kickstarted only a couple years ago, in full color, etc. I don't think the rules have changed much at all, so all these products should be compatible. I think you could probably adapt material from Unknown Armies, Call of Cthulhu, In Nomine, etc. to Over the Edge, not that the core book is lacking in imagination and story ideas. A worthy addition to any RPG collection as it hasn't dated the way some other games of the era might have, but if you plan on using it, settle in for a long read to really get the setting to work for you. It's not Skyrealms of Jorune or anything, but it's still pretty heady.
Anyone else ever read it or use it?
Comments
The first two editions of the game are fully compatible. The third (current, and probably last) edition uses a new set of rules altogether and radically alters the setting, making most of the previous material difficult to use without adaptation, even as simple background detail. Also isn't receiving much support at all, just one adventure book and no further setting material. OTOH, it does give advice on how to avoid some of the pitfalls you noted, particularly the "party too disparate to work together" thing.
As far as I can tell everything ever printed for the game is up on DTRPG, so the stuff you're having trouble locating is actually readily available. Even the players' guide.
Theoretically, you could provide the players with a suitable Primer, hence the Player's Survival Guide development I imagine, but that kind of defeats the comedic 'fish out of water' immersion trope behind it all.
All I know is that in a game where I managed to create the only approachable, sociable character within an intended investigative scenario, feeling suitably thrust centre stage as it were, I felt I was simply being dicked around by the setting where literally anything could be the rationale behind the murder being investigated.
Daft: I think that whatever's in the setting as such, the GM should pick and choose and not overwhelm players. Just because anything can happen doesn't mean it should.
FWIW, the On The Edge CCG that spun off from the RPG was a pretty decent lightweight card game. Also did a lot to showcase the RPG setting's bizarre residents and factions for the (relatively few) people who played it, I know I grew a few players for teh RPG who camein through the CCG. Around here it was one of the more successful not-Magic options during the mid-90s CCG boom, although I think we were the exception not the rule. Or maybe I'm wrong - it did get several expansions before the boom ended, and Atlas printed it in fairly large numbers. You can still find most of it cheap, including on the Atlas site last I looked.
Worth a look for fans of Al Amarja, or for people interested in CCGs from the glut era in general. It's no Shadowfist (the CCG that spawned the Feng Shui RPG) but it's not half bad.