Hey lets talk about Shadows of Esteren.

Shadows of Esteren is TTRPG from Studio Agate, and its approach to existing as a TTRPG is different than how most things go about their business. Esteren itself is inherently different than other TTRPGs.

Many people come to RPGs to play a game with a role that we have crafted and can play out, to play inside of a story, and interact with it via choices that often times have mechanics.

Shadows of Esteren approaches its method of doing so differently, and does it beautifully.

Your character in TTRPGs are defined largely by Ability Scores and Talents/Skills, and for SoE, those are Ways and Domains/Disciplines. Ways take the place of Ability Scores, while Domains/Disciplines can be seen as General Skills and Specialized Skills, respectively.

Combativeness, Creativity, Empathy, Reason, Conviction.

These are the Ways of a character, and help shape the personality of who you play as.

To quote: "The Ways do not correspond to physical characteristics, nor is their aim to quantify brains or beauty."

Someone with high Combativeness may be full of energy, or may be nervous, or have strong character. Someone with reason may be thoughtful, not necessarily educated or quick-minded. Ways are just reflections of the personality your character possesses.

Beyond that, we have Domains and Disciplines. You can have a rating in a Domain for all Disciplines that belong to it, but if you want any of them past 5, you'd specialize. Ex: You'd use your 6 in Hiding, rather than your 5 in Stealth, despite the former belonging to the latter.

And your Ways affect your domains and skills. Your Combativeness affects your Feats Domain, which is all about athletics and agile displays. Erudition and Perception belong to Reason, while Stealth and Natural Environment belong to Empathy. It all boils down to who you are.

Which I think a lot of TTRPGs don't put a big focus on. Just because you have muscles big or lithe doesn't necessarily mean you'd be good at jumping or cartwheeling. You need to have the mentality, the readiness, to do it in order to do it. And that's what Esteren hammers home.

As well, many TTRPGs put shpeel down of how to play. They show this script of how the game may operate at a table, and they discuss how the game mechanics operate.

But Esteren? Esteren does something else.

It communicates with you.

Chapter 4, which is where all the stuff for character creation and the game system unfurls, discusses not character creation at first, or how the game operates, but about playing TTRPGs in the first place.

Which is the main thing stopping people from playing. "How do I do it?"

It talks about stereotypes vs singularities, of making someone who is still their own person, even if they have similarities to their peers. It talks about reading more about the culture your character may be from, to better understand them. Things many of us assume to do now.

But it also encourages you to talk with your Storyteller/Leader (person running the game) about what kind of character would be appropriate for the game. It suggests playing a social character if the game will revolve around negotiations, or a mercenary in a mountain trek.

To quote: "To sum it up, creating a Character requires not only focusing on the creation itself, but also taking into account the pleasure and interest one may have in playing that alter ego in the long term."

Esteren talks about this at length, and it came out in 2012.

It urged open communication with your Storyteller, of explaining expectations, of building for enjoyment, two years before D&D 5e came out.

It goes on for a few pages with similar, helpful encouragement and advice, many of it being things we in the community urge others to do.

One in particular is this. To quote: "The other Players are not your enemies or your rivals. There is no first or last place in a role-playing game. On the contrary, most of them will be glad to help you play your PC better. Shadows of Esteren depicts a universe without a...

"...nitpicky or excessive formalism. It requires no particular historical or linguistic knowledge. If you have never played a role-playing game, it is normal you should feel somewhat apprehensive, even more so if you do not, or barely, know the other people around the table.

"You may feel as frightened as if you should play a part in a theater scene. However, you have two advantages actors do not have: first, you write your part yourself, and do not have to render imposed dialogues and attitudes. Second, and most importantly, the other Players are...

"...your audience, in the same way that you are theirs. Do not hesitate to ask for a quick out-of-game break to think about the way your Character should or could act at a precise moment. Quite quickly, you will become more confident and such a need will fade.

"At the start, do not get too preoccupied about the interpretation of your Character. Nobody expects an optimal result from you right away. The essential thing is that as the sessions go on, this PC becomes familiar and increasingly easy to handle for you.

"Until the moment when you will be able to "put on your costume" without any difficulty for the time of the game, then put it back until the next session."

Read that again. I would have loved to have had that advice when I started playing TTRPGs. But I have it now, for others.

Shadows of Esteren puts itself forward as a Dark Romanticism RPG. It is not dark in the Warhammer way, it is not dark in the gritty way. It is dark by including in its core the strange, terrible, or sometimes misfortunate things that may happen to us or others in our lives.

Experiencing hurt, falling short of expectations, or in ways that misfortunes may come to us. All these things, and more, happen in the tone that Esteren possesses.

But next to it, it has healing. It has moving forward and learning. And it has helping others recover.

Esteren is dark, but beyond its shadowed sky are the crepuscular rays of the sun. Tragedy happens, but so do good things, like love, and hope. It doesn't shy away from what life can be like, because despite its trials and tribulations, good people and actions can still occur.

It had words of care about your comfort when delving into it for you as you turned its pages. It encouraged team spirit, and encouraged the storytelling before it informed you of the system used to play it.

And I think that's something we should take example from.

Why am I bringing up Shadows of Esteren?

Because they have an 8 year anniversary Kickstarter that ends in a week. You can get everything in pdf for a nice bundled price, and they finally have an art book in the works.

And I want more games of it. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1176616619/shadows-of-esteren-rpg-dark-romanticism