Hello, and welcome to the first post of this blog. We are the Adeptus
Evangelion: Project EYES development group, and today we would like to tell you
a bit about who we are, what EYES is, and some of the early design goals we've
established, as well a a glimpse into some of the systems we are working on.
We are a self-appointed successor group to Adeptus Evangelion v3, who formed
in January of 2017 to continue the game line. The project was started by Xenosan who
gathered enthusiasts to prevent Adeptus Evangelion from dying after Black Mesa Janitor (the
person behind Adeptus Evangelion v2 and v3) ceased work on it. As a hobby project, we do not
include any professional game developers, but we have a wide and deep pool of
developers who have been playing and running tabletop rpgs for years in a wide
variety of systems. And of course, we all have a depth of background with the
Adeptus Evangelion system in its various editions as both players and GMs.
Our overall goal for the project has been to create a fun and engaging
system that naturally creates and facilitates a strong narrative with a focus
on the pilots as characters. As such particular attention has been paid how
pilots grow (and yes, tumble down) as people. We intend to create a game that
translates the experience of fighting strange and exotic monsters with other
strange and exotic monsters in a satisfying manner. That captures the crushing
grind of the pressure placed upon the the pilots, who will
be tested as both pilots and people. Tests that will likely break them.
A key part of this is the identification of the themes of EYES and the
creation of systems to best convey these into the game. The first is that piloting a Eva is costly and taxing on the pilot. This takes the form of the
immediate risk of life, limb, and sanity of the pilots when combating the
angels and the overall stress of their situation. The second is the importance
of the bonds between people. Solace can be found in the gentle words of a
friend, but the closer you let someone in, the easier it is to get hurt. In
short, the hedgehog’s dilemma. We are keeping these themes in mind while
designing the game so that we can push them to the fore and reinforce their
importance via play.
Now onto the fun stuff, what is EYES actually going to look like as a game?
We have reworked the game from the ground up, and departed radically from
v3. We are more of a new system to continue the Adeptus Evangelion ideal rather
than a direct continuation of the previous 3 editions of Adeptus Evangelion . To be clear,
any and all of the following are subject to change, so do not take them as
final but as our current intention.
We are currently working on a new skill system, that uses a d10 over a d100.
The reason for this is that we felt the use of the d100 offered no real
advantages for our design goals and the reduction of pointless granularity
simplified things.
The Stress system has been reworked from the ground up, and now no longer
acts as a second health bar. It now works as a system that the player engages
with, rather than is engaged by, allowing them to better represent their own
pilot's decline in mental health. In doing so they become better at fighting, but worse off as people.
The Ego system as well has been reworked, now acting as a single intense
event that radically shifts a Pilot in a dramatic fashion, for better or worse.
Likely worse. We feel this is truer to the show, allows players to work
themselves out of a corner with regards to their character's development and just feels like a better narrative mechanic. It
also naturally hooks into the Berserk mechanics as a price option for the GM to
select.
Berserk remains more or less unchanged from v3, we felt its nature as a narrative fiat to defeat a angel, albeit at a cost, worked well as a safety net
for players and GMs while keeping in line with the source material.
The branch system will remain the same in overall shape, but we are going to
likely rework many of the branches.
AT Powers have been reworked as well, all AT Powers are now branches within the tree of life. The player
buys the power as a branch and gets a simple base ability, which they then
upgrade and customize to their preference. In short, all powers will look like
the Herald branch from v3.
We plan to move away from the Requisition system and replace it with a
system that allows players to select any weapon within their tech, but weapons
are all balanced against each-other. In short weapon are no longer a "Pallet Rifle +1" but a tactical tool with its own role and niche to fill.
Any systems not mentioned are undergoing review and discussion for what form they are going to take.
That's all for today, and thank you for your time. Further updates on the
project will be released as we continue our work. If you wish to join our
discord server to chat with us or discuss any ideas, you can find us at the
following link:
https://discord.gg/cXnGcZ2
