Agon RPG - Review

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Great point about how there should be more rpg reviews by players instead of GMs. Agon sounds like a neat game, and I like the looks of the art. My main group tends to favor a crunchier rule system, but I know other role-players that might like this game. The island campaign sounds promising. I have actually recently been pondering an island crawl (as opposed to hex crawl) campaign, with the idea that each island could present a distinctive set of challenges ranging from societal to natural to supernatural.

Man, we really enjoyed Agon when we played it 10 or so years ago. Clever in how it's one of the few RPGs that tackles what Ron Edwards called "gamism" and seeking competitive challenge.

It sounds like there's been some significant revisions here beyond the core. The travelling island to island sounds like it's riffing on Dogs in the Vineyard.

Yeah it definitely has a Dogs in the Vineyard vibe. I haven't played the original version, but the GM had and much preferred this more streamlined version. It's less adversarial between GM and player, but players still compete for Glory.

I loved 1e and was a backer on 2e, but cancelled my pledge when I read the alpha rules and saw that it was going in a much different direction. I really liked the crunchier combat and the GM budget for building encounters. The new version sounds like a fairly generic story-ish system (like Fate) but with a coat of Greek paint.

Traveling island to island was in 1e. I think it's a riff on Prince's Kingdom, which was a hack of DITV by Clinton R. Nixon, aimed at kids.

Wow, great review and fantastic point about the need for a player's perspective when analysing RPG's. As someone who primarily runs games I'm always interested in the impressions of my groups, not just on the sessions themselves but in the possibilities enabled by a system and their thoughts on the 'feel' and dynamism they might either create or inhibit. This game only recently hit my radar and it looks utterly gorgeous. I also appreciate the potential for cool self-contained one shots enabled by the island hopping. Often in lengthier campaigns there is a preponderance of sessions that can feel like a prologue or an aside if handled poorly. In my experience the less opportunities you give players for faffing about in taverns the better hahaha

I wouldn't compare it to FATE at all, and I've run a fair bit of that in various forms. It definitely has a system you could adapt to other situations, but the way the game plays out and the sort of story it encourages really lend it that Greek Tragedy feel.

It could definitely be used as a one shot with very little issue, and that would be a great way to try it out. I would say that it took us a few islands to really bond as a group and get the game really slick. It takes a bit of a change of mindset to really cut to the action and get the best out of the system. Like a lot of John Harper games it really needs to be played as close to as written as possible.