Once, there was a War. Then…

Shar of the Mulong rises up to reforge his tribe of plantation slaves into cut-throat corporate pirates.

The technicians and scientists under “Mad” Doctor Bones vow to peel away the mysteries that shroud the secrets of the universe… whatever the cost.

Justicar André and his army of penitent monks teach the ways of peace, traveling by way of the fist.

And from the crashed battlecruiser Kingsrook comes wave after wave of Admiral Wargrave’s space marines, intent on winning a war already over.

…or perhaps it happens a different way.

Agora is a roleplaying game where you will lead refugees crash-landed on the forgotten planet Agora, the last untouched world left in the wake of a galactic apocalypse. Played from the fiery descent to the surface, through turmoil, suffering, and hard-won victories, all the way to the dawn of a new age of humanity, the game offers an epic experience of unprecedented scope.

The task is nothing less than the rebuilding of human civilization. The story is the reconstruction of the human soul.

I have been working on Agora: how shall we live? for over four years and through many incarnations. Version 3.0.2 has finally reached beta playtest: the game is ready to be unleashed on the world… and vice-versa. In many ways, this is the game that I’ve always wanted to play and always wanted to publish, and you can help make that happen. Agora needs playtesters interested in pounding out their own future history of humanity on the treacherous world of Agora, and in pounding out the last kinks in the rules of this massive game.

You can download the playtest document here.

Agora is competitive and cooperative, GMless, and procedurally dense. In each of five stages, new game procedures, options, and tactics are introduced to keep players on their toes. Part of Agora’s appeal is the challenge of mastering the game’s system — and then using it to outwit, outmaneuver, and outplay the other players at the table, all to fulfill your goals in shaping the future of the galaxy.

The playtest opens now and will close July 31st, 2009. Yes, that is a five month playtest window, because Agora is a big, long, epic game. By my best estimates, a full game will take about eight sessions of four hours each, at minimum. That’s eight sessions of exploring, exploiting, and fighting over your own Agora, and if everything works, that’s eight sessions of awesome. Because this is a pretty hefty social footprint, I’m making sure all of you fantastic souls who’d like to help out have the time to do so. (Just don’t put off starting till July!)

All the procedures and mechanics you will need can be found in the playtest document; in addition, you will need:

• four to six players
• a pile of dice (10-15 of each size: d4s, d6s, d8s, d10s)
• a stack of about 100 index cards
• a handful of pencils
• eight to twelve sessions of four hours each

Playtest feedback is essential to making a game sing, refining new ideas, and creating innovative play experiences. Which is a lot of big words to say that games need playtesters as much or more than gamers need games. Your help is beyond value. As with my previous games, I will be gratefully including the names of playtesters in a byline to recognize their sizable contribution to the quality of the game. I really can’t do this without you guys, and I can’t overstate my appreciation.

If you’d like to take part in the next chapter of Agora, the future of civilization, and my latest game, download the playtest document now.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at 11:44 am and is filed under Agora: how shall we live?, My Books and Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.