After my post last week, I put the time in to finish a playthrough of Esoteric Ebb. I don’t disagree with anything tulpa said about the game’s strengths and weaknesses, but I was too tickled by how closely the game mirrored my old GM’s priorities in building a campaign, from the kinds of monsters we’d encounter to the types of magic items we’d obtain—to the numerous opportunities we’d get to embarrass ourselves in front of exceptionally powerful entities. Having to decide which of three or four different eldritch beings from when the world was young to ask a favor of before telling them how I think they should vote in the upcoming election is still a pretty good time.
I have one disappointment: like many of these games, Esoteric Ebb presents choices that appear as though they are mutually exclusive, but I feel like it doesn’t hide its tracks very well when the outcome is the same either way. I’m thinking here especially of character creation, in which you get to pick one “background” that describes an episode from your upbringing which affects your stats, but all of those episodes are always simultaneously true. I suppose it’s for the best that only a few decisions lock you into a particular narrative track, but I’m starting to lose interest in the DE-style protagonist who can be anything to anyone and loses little through such inconstancy.