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Overlight
Overlight: Core Book
Overlight is a fantasy roleplaying game of kaleidoscopic journeys: a visceral, dangerous, and brightly-colored setting. Characters will search for personal meaning among a fantastic, sometimes violent, and overwhelming world. This 333-page full-color hardcover book will show you everything you need to start your own adventure in this beautiful world.
- GenresFantasy
333 pages, Hardcover
Published September 1, 2018
2 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 19, 2023
Overlight is a game that's been described as "kaleidoscopic fantasy" and having read this, it's a fitting though admittedly vague summary of what you get in this book.
The setting is a shattered world, the remains of our Earth after humans did Some Foolish Things and inverted the universe. Now there's only the endless Overlight above, a vast sea below, and floating continents to live on. Said continents float in mid-air, arranged almost like a shaky, shifting pillar; the top one always bathed in light and the lowest one rarely seeing any, except for rare moments when the ever circling landmasses above align just so.
On these continents live people and creatures not seen on Earth, except for humans who now go by another name. Some individuals of the sentient people are known as Skyborn, supposedly touched by the Overlight and given magical powers called Chroma through this connection. As a Skyborn, you are more or less destined for a life of conflict and adventure. This book gives you the tools to enjoy a campaign or a oneshot as a chosen of the Overlight and all the thrills and dangers that entails.
Over all, I'm sold on this setting. Beautiful illustration bring to life trippy, fascinating places and a world where it's easy to make varied characters who still have something in common. Skyborn have a long list of possible powers to work with, while all share the experience of being Skyborn. This allows you a steady unified 'base' to launch any kind of group constellation from. There is a clear over all setting but with enough gaps left open for the game master to spin things the way they'd like to take the adventure. A setting made for fantastical sights, with a flexible game system to lean it all on. I'm looking forward to leading a game in this setting soon!
What keeps this from being a five star book for me is the formatting and general 'layout' of the book. While I appreciate the larger text font (very helpful for people with visual problems), the paragraphs often break off at odd places. It's by no means impossible to read the text, but it's distracting to have to double-check what you were reading because you had to pause two lines into a new element of the setting or rules to flip to the next page, or you thought a paragraph continued further down when it's actually jumped up to the right.
I'm also missing a clearer overview of the different creatures/"Folk" you can play as. Early on in the book there's a gorgeous, zoomed out visual of the different continents and how they're arranged, with the endless light above and the endless sea below. That made grasping the setting's nature and geography simple and quick. The player characters don't get the same easy presentation. There are plenty of illustrations of them in the book, yes, but no early "here's a line-up of your options" image, which would have made telling the options apart a much quicker affair than it currently is. When you're making up player character options that are unique to your setting, getting the reader on board with what those options are can be the thing that gets a new player invested in the game or not. I've ended up writing my own summaries of what the Folks are, to give to people I'm hoping to play this with, so they don't bounce because of the walls of text they'd otherwise need to read to understand their options beyond "these are the names of the things you can be".
All in all, give this game a go if you think it sounds like fun. Maybe check out this How To Play video and an actual play of the game before buying.
The setting is a shattered world, the remains of our Earth after humans did Some Foolish Things and inverted the universe. Now there's only the endless Overlight above, a vast sea below, and floating continents to live on. Said continents float in mid-air, arranged almost like a shaky, shifting pillar; the top one always bathed in light and the lowest one rarely seeing any, except for rare moments when the ever circling landmasses above align just so.
On these continents live people and creatures not seen on Earth, except for humans who now go by another name. Some individuals of the sentient people are known as Skyborn, supposedly touched by the Overlight and given magical powers called Chroma through this connection. As a Skyborn, you are more or less destined for a life of conflict and adventure. This book gives you the tools to enjoy a campaign or a oneshot as a chosen of the Overlight and all the thrills and dangers that entails.
Over all, I'm sold on this setting. Beautiful illustration bring to life trippy, fascinating places and a world where it's easy to make varied characters who still have something in common. Skyborn have a long list of possible powers to work with, while all share the experience of being Skyborn. This allows you a steady unified 'base' to launch any kind of group constellation from. There is a clear over all setting but with enough gaps left open for the game master to spin things the way they'd like to take the adventure. A setting made for fantastical sights, with a flexible game system to lean it all on. I'm looking forward to leading a game in this setting soon!
What keeps this from being a five star book for me is the formatting and general 'layout' of the book. While I appreciate the larger text font (very helpful for people with visual problems), the paragraphs often break off at odd places. It's by no means impossible to read the text, but it's distracting to have to double-check what you were reading because you had to pause two lines into a new element of the setting or rules to flip to the next page, or you thought a paragraph continued further down when it's actually jumped up to the right.
I'm also missing a clearer overview of the different creatures/"Folk" you can play as. Early on in the book there's a gorgeous, zoomed out visual of the different continents and how they're arranged, with the endless light above and the endless sea below. That made grasping the setting's nature and geography simple and quick. The player characters don't get the same easy presentation. There are plenty of illustrations of them in the book, yes, but no early "here's a line-up of your options" image, which would have made telling the options apart a much quicker affair than it currently is. When you're making up player character options that are unique to your setting, getting the reader on board with what those options are can be the thing that gets a new player invested in the game or not. I've ended up writing my own summaries of what the Folks are, to give to people I'm hoping to play this with, so they don't bounce because of the walls of text they'd otherwise need to read to understand their options beyond "these are the names of the things you can be".
All in all, give this game a go if you think it sounds like fun. Maybe check out this How To Play video and an actual play of the game before buying.
January 18, 2024
It's good. I like most of it but I'm left wondering why this isn't just a D&D campaign setting. The dice rolling is a little much (seven dice every turn? not many people own that many of the same die). Rolling a d20 plus the Spirit Die in this seems fine instead. That's my only complaint. The art is a wonder. The species and world worth exploring. The rules lite nature leaves me a little lost as to how to DM but my players will probably just screw around anyway. May give it a try someday
December 24, 2018
I was very pleasantly surprised. I remember the Kickstarter, and I remember reading over it and thinking this just wouldn't be all that interesting to me. Boy, was I wrong. They've created a very interesting world, filled with wonderful creatures and interesting locales. I have doubts as to whether I'll really enjoy the core mechanics, but I'm certainly willing to be proven wrong.
December 8, 2019
Beautiful artwork and large font. Played a session a few nights ago and the rich world really comes alive. I even like the mechanics (though it took a while to find how the heck the Fury pool works since it's buried in a paragraph). Otherwise, the index is good and very helpful for looking up a specific chroma.
April 15, 2020
Excellent world and magic system. Would love to get a group together for this!
October 15, 2024
2.5/5 Nice idea, barely fleshed out and with no real direction for campaigns. Would make for some nice one shots though.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews