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WIR: The Everlasting (1)
I was browsing the RPG shelves at Half-Price Books and found 1.5 editions of an obvious World of Darkness knockoff called The Everlasting. So I guess that's what I'm talking about now.
The back cover confidently proclaims that The Everlasting is "more than a role-playing game," and then describes the most White Wolf urban fantasy premise this side of Onyx Path. I got the Book of the Unliving, the first of four "foundation books," all of which contain the base system, but focus on some specific thematic slice of the setting. The Book of the Unliving is the vampire/zombie/ghost/frankenstein book, the other three foundation books include werewolves, angels, sin-eating gargoyles, and more... including elves dwarves and orcs, for some reason.
I've got two books here: The Everlasting: Book of the Unliving (1997), a black-and-white paperback; and The Everlasting: Book of the Unliving (2005), a full-color hardcover. There's a copyright for a 1994 version of the text but on a quick search, this may not have ever hit mass production, so I'm comfortable calling these "first edition" and "revised edition." The most obvious difference between the two is that the art and layout are all different, but a quick look at the intro material points to the game as a whole coming under new management. The original creator, Steve Brown, is still credited as the designer and writer, but the revised edition replaces his dedication with one from a new owner, Chip Dobbs. furthermore, the Bible is no longer on the "special thanks" inspiration section.
First edition follows the table of contents with microfiction introducing us to various supernatural characters of different origins. Revised edition neglects to include this, possibly because it ended on a "to be continued" that continued across multiple books in the gameline.
Next time is more intro material!
The back cover confidently proclaims that The Everlasting is "more than a role-playing game," and then describes the most White Wolf urban fantasy premise this side of Onyx Path. I got the Book of the Unliving, the first of four "foundation books," all of which contain the base system, but focus on some specific thematic slice of the setting. The Book of the Unliving is the vampire/zombie/ghost/frankenstein book, the other three foundation books include werewolves, angels, sin-eating gargoyles, and more... including elves dwarves and orcs, for some reason.
I've got two books here: The Everlasting: Book of the Unliving (1997), a black-and-white paperback; and The Everlasting: Book of the Unliving (2005), a full-color hardcover. There's a copyright for a 1994 version of the text but on a quick search, this may not have ever hit mass production, so I'm comfortable calling these "first edition" and "revised edition." The most obvious difference between the two is that the art and layout are all different, but a quick look at the intro material points to the game as a whole coming under new management. The original creator, Steve Brown, is still credited as the designer and writer, but the revised edition replaces his dedication with one from a new owner, Chip Dobbs. furthermore, the Bible is no longer on the "special thanks" inspiration section.
First edition follows the table of contents with microfiction introducing us to various supernatural characters of different origins. Revised edition neglects to include this, possibly because it ended on a "to be continued" that continued across multiple books in the gameline.
Next time is more intro material!