Twenty-five years ago, Over The Edge released its conspiratorial island Al Amarja in the Atlantic Ocean. Fraught with all sorts of shenanigans from paranormal entities, mad scientists, and secret agents. One of the first games to use a dice-pool instead of attributes and skills, Over The Edge was one of the most distinguished indie RPG’s for years and was a perfect game to play with copious amounts of caffeine. How else are you supposed to handle an island district patrolled by thugs with baboons?
After inspiring countless campaigns on the island, Over The Edge returns to Kickstarter with its already successful campaign by Atlas Games and a veteran squad of RPG makers and artists. Now heading into stretch goal territory, let’s talk about this island and why you should run it.
Al Amarja
Al Amarja is an independent island state in the Mediterranean sea… and it’s been basically colonized and conquered by everyone from the Greeks to the Castilians and decided it really didn’t want to be part of the United Nations either. You see, those drawn, or run to Al Amarja do so because they are… alien to the rest of us. A jet-setting grifter there to pull off the greatest caper in modern history, or psychic super-children, to reincarnated Atlantean priests all find their home here—and still use American currency.
Atlas Games believes you’re going to me more invested in a unique character you create yourself, so they crafted a system to allow you to do that, while giving storytellers a rich sandbox to run. Focus is spent on developing the city and islands, with transportation guides, turf wars, popular attractions and more. This is a godsend to storytellers trying to tie everything together in one campaign under a city. After all, knowing that the poorest neighborhood is still the turf for Lucifer’s Glorious Lords of Passion, a metal head gang that uses music to solidify their hold on the district writes its own campaign.
The Team
Jonathan Tweet, one of the games original creators, returns after working on a few other games you may have heard of; Ars Magica, Everway, Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, Omega World, and 13th Age to name a few. In between teaching game design at the University of Washington, he found time to relaunch his game and answer a few questions along with Art Director James Mosingo (Witches of the Revolution, Eclipse Phase, 7th Sea, Shadowrun, and more). I had a chance to ask Johnathan Tweet himself what thing he geeks out most about in the new edition, here’s what he came back with:
Style and artwork offer hints to the games new meta, mirroring things that happen in our own modern society and according to James Mosingo:
Already funded, they are well into stretch goal territory you can find everything on their Kickstarter. The base core book should be in the range of a 264-page book, hardcover or digital with all the fanciest of fancy hyper-links.
Including temptations for a Retro Pack, a back catalog of all previous Over the Edge books and supplements from previous editions, dice sets, retailer packs and more.
Have you ever played Over the Edge? If so share your stories below!
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Featured Image by: Over the Edge Kickstarter and Atlas Games.
Rick Heinz is the author of The Seventh Age: Dawn, and a storyteller with a focus on LARPs, Wraith: The Oblivion, Eclipse Phase, and many more. You can follow game or urban fantasy related thingies on Twitter or Facebook.
