Live from Gen Con 06: home of Elvis and the ancient Greeks

Twice today I’ve played very, very enjoyable subsets (meaning demo games calibrated to different levels of complexity) of John Harper’s combatty RPG Agon. This is the last kind of RPG I thought I would be having a blast playing at the show. Don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly an indie game that challenges assumptions, but it’s also a crunchy game focused on Greek heroes fighting monsters. The book is gorgeous – look for the big helmet! – and no bigger than it needs to be. Even better is the character sheet, which literally puts absolutely every option a player will ever need to consider right there in front of you, in an incredibly elegant and learnable structure. No tedious poring over the rule catalogs! Death to roleplaying as shopping, just cut to the chase! Piles of awesome. And even if your character dies there’s still character advancement.