Introduction

Zenobia is solidly set in a mythic Middle East in the years of the final decay of the Roman Empire. This is the time when Europe was slipping into the twilight of the Dark Ages, but the age when Arab culture was about to enter a sort of minor renaissance.

The semi-historical setting is probably the games most intriguing and least accessible aspect. A lot of players will be turned off by the obscure setting, others will no doubt salivate.

Mechanics

 Most action resolution is accounted for using either Fate, Might, Craft or Learning. The basic test of skill consists of Attribute + any bonuses + 2d6 to overcome a preset difficulty. Difficulty averages out around 10.

Character Creation

Character creation follows through on the generally rules-lite theme of Zenobia.

There are seven steps to character creation for Adventurers - the most common of the three character types (the other two are Crafters and Learneds). Once you have chosen a culture for your character you need to resolve Attributes.

Zenobia only uses five Attributes: Might, Fate, Learning. Craft and Hits. Everything that a character does which does not fall under any of the other Attributes falls into the sphere of Fate - the favour of the gods. Fate is probably the single most intriguing aspect of Zenobia¡¯s rules. By pivoting such things as resisting poisons, avoiding being capsized in a storm, escaping an ancient Aegyptian curse, on a single Attribute the game makes this one Attribute very important. And how is the Attribute improved? By sacrifice, prayer and dutiful devotion to gods. This one small rule changes the game from kill the mummy and take his stuff to kill the mummy, and then do everything you possibly can to please the gods about it.

After dealing with Attributes you next need to roll for Family Origins (Social Status). Next we have Previous Experience. These are basically background packages of skills and equipment. Sort of Classes-lite. The Previous Backgrounds include such options as: Bandit, Assassin, Caravan Guard, and Tribune.

Following Previous Backgrounds Zenobia deals with skills. There are not many skills and most are derived from Family Origins or Previous Background. Thus, skills are quite specialised: "Seek Audience" for a Noble, "Hard to Kill" for a Legionary. Again, the key-word here is Rules-Lite.

Characters begin play with some basic equipment and a pool of denarii to buy some extras. Nothing too surprising here.

The final step, Background Details, contains some excellent advice and help for players who just can't seem to get together an interesting character history. I'd be tempted to copy this section and hand it out to players of any fantasy game I was Games-mastering. Some of it isn't portable to other settings, but enough of it is to make it a worthwhile read.

The end of the chapter rounds off with some FAQs and some GM advice, including a somewhat tacked on paragraph providing rules for point-bought character creation. Still, as a dyed in the wool point-bought player, even tacked on rules are nice to see.

Advancement

Okay, either two pints and glass of wine are way too much for me, or Zenobia is missing something important. I can¡¯t find any reference to character advancement in the entire PDF document. Nothing listed in the Table of Contents. "Advancement", "increase" and "improve" all drew blanks from the search function. So, er, this is at best an example of poor layout, and at worst a completely missing aspect of most RPG rules. Okay, I could probably draw some character advancement rules up myself, and a lot of the advancement in Zenobia is presumably wealth and social based, but er, there should be some note on this.

Religion and Magic

Religion and the gods are an important aspect of Zenobia. Fate can be used in one of two ways. A basic test of Fate, a 2d6 roll + Fate can be required by the GM to overcome some force of nature or difficult challenge. Players can also chose to temporarily sacrifice a point of Fate to automatically succeed on an action. Fate is recovered through devotional acts. Sacrifice is dealt with specifically, but intense prayer or performing great deeds in the name of a god, temple-given quests, or donations to a temple might all make for equally good methods of Fate-recovery.

Zenobia deals extensively with gods and cults, and in with wonderful detail. The benefits, both social and magical, of joining a cult are outlined nicely, as are some appropriately religious "priestly miracles".

Zenobia also deals with the philosophical, alchemic side of magic. Zenobia's magicians fall neatly into the laborious, scientific class of sorcerer, and as such are less than ideal for player characters. As the rules for creating a philosopher are kept separate from those for creating an adventurer, I'd wager a guess that the intention is that philosophers serve more as NPCs than PCs.

Combat

Combat is handled by an opposed roll of Might + Weapon Bonus + 2d6 vs difficulty. If you beat the difficulty then your opponent suffers damage equal to the difference in totals. This is a reasonably elegant system, and as long as the base Might + Weapon do not spiral too high the mechanic works well. Inflicting 4 or more points of damage gives the player the option to do one of several listed "Crippling blows". Armour reduces the amount of damage the character suffers.

There are a lot of other peripheral rules including as rules for missile fire and unarmed combat.

Setting

First off, with almost seventy pages of setting information, with more scattered through the rules, Zenobia has a lot to offer. The intricate setting is what will most likely either make or break your interest in the game. To me the idea of wandering the deserts of a ruined empire, hunting through the tombs of long-dead pharaohs, intrigue in the court of Persian empresses¡­ well you can tell, this setting appeals to me. I¡¯d never had thought of it myself, but I sure like the idea.

That the Fate attribute links in well with the setting is a really good example of tying setting to mechanics in a way that works. Zenobia has kind of reminded me that generic systems can trade away a lot for apply-to-everything convenience.

Style

Zenobia is written in a very professional and friendly style. It is as easy to read and possibly easier to read than a lot of published RPGs. A few illustrations are always nice to see in a free RPG, and overall the look and style of Zenobia put it a cut above most RPG settings.

General Comments

I fell in love with Zenobia's setting from my first read-through. I can't overemphasize how much I like the idea behind it, but also, I've got to admit that it will not be everyone's cup of tea.

The system is a rule-lite's tour de force. Again, if you like a rules-lite approach then by all means go download a copy now. If not, you will not be so taken.

What I would like to see

Chracter advancement rules. Or if they are present a bigger heading so that I can find the damned things!

I'd be tempted to rearrange the PDF so that after a brief introduction character creation comes first, then perhaps Setting, then Mechanics. Or maybe Mechanics, then Setting. As it is, the Zenobia PDF has a lot of setting to page through before any RPG appears at all. Character rules tend to hook players right in - or at least do so for me - and should come early in the game.

I'd very much like to have seen some rules for gods of ill-favour as well as patron gods. The heroes of the old Greco-Roman tales often have a specific god or goddess who protects them, from the other petty, petty gods who for one reason or another have taken offence to said hero. Some sort of rules or guidelines covering that situation would be nice. On the other hand I could probably role-play this well enough, so perhaps just a pointer in the right direction somewhere in the gods section.

Otherwise it is hard to come up with any serious criticisms of Zenobia. It accomplishes what it sets out to do with flying colours; marry a semi-historic, mythic and magical setting or exotic strangeness to a fun and painless rules-light system.

Summing Up

Why would I play this game? Evocative setting and the elegant mechanics are at the vanguard of Zenobia's pros. The emphasis on religion, gods and cults, and some of the insightful religion rules also makes this a game worth looking at if you are at all interesting in running a game in a god-heavy setting. I'd go as far as to say that Zenobia is very close to being what Runequest should have been. Conversion to Glorantha would need a loosening up of the game's magic rules and a liberal interpretation of copyright, but, um, that aside, as a homebrew cross-over experiment Zenobia's system  would suit Glorantha wonderfully well. Zenobia could also potentially be converted to just about other religion-based settings from a mythic crusades game to a modern occult setting.

If any of this has sounded at all interesting then go check out Zenobia here.

Nothing beats a free game,

Chris Johnstone

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