General Overview

Explore the land masses of Unkai (sea of clouds), a planet engulfed in clouds where its land masses float around the exposed core, such as Nisumari—one of the floating realms. You are an inhabitant of Nisumari, specifically an adventurer seeking the thrill of danger, the quest for fame, the wealth of treasure, or all of it and more.

The realm of Nisumari is a strange and wondrous land that floats through Unkai. Filled with exotic creatures, diverse cultures, and a place where technology has bridged the gap between magic and the mundane. Steam power rules supreme, slowly advancing cultures to new eras and heights. It is a world that you’re a part of, as you adventure out to discover the hidden treasures and mysterious mysteries of its inhabitants.

Through the study of energetics (magic), the people of Nisumari have been able to advance their civilizations in the fields of magic and technology. Thirteen major energies flow in the atmosphere and are used to create technological and magical aspects that are present throughout the world. From compressed steam canisters that power steam devices and weapons; to channelers (wizards) providing magical services to those in need; to adventurers (that’s you) tapping into their inner energy (essence) to perform supernatural feats and channel spells.

As a player, you create and tell the story of an adventurer living in Nisumari. Creating your adventurer is open and the only limitations are your imagination and the physics of the game world (i.e. rules and mechanics of the game). Pick from eleven different species that are broken up into a combination of over thirty unique sub-species. Select which culture within the world your adventurer is from and where they learned their language(s), skills, and cultural traits. Be a Vras orc raised in the land of the Ellarian forest elves or a half Vashi elf, half Myri gnome who grew up with the Raf’Shat Orcs of the Rafaite plains. The countless number of combinations that you can create with sub-species and cultures is all up to you.

As you play through the game, you collect experience points, levels, and money to further develop your adventurer as you see fit. Select from the many masteries, character traits, extensive equipment, and unique magic to mold and shape your adventurer to become the best they can be.

Be warned, Nisumari might seem like all fun, thrills, and glory, but the land is brutal and the creatures even more so. As death is permanent, and no amount of praying to the gods will resurrect you. Of course, unless you have angel wings.

What is this game?

This game is a role-playing game where you use your imagination, theater of the mind, and creative skills to create the aspects of the game and characters that live in a fantasy world.

In this game, you start as a new adventurer. You have no experience being an adventurer therefore; you don’t have any idea what to do. Your past has taught you some skills and abilities, but nowhere near enough to prepare you for what lies ahead. You start with very little and must earn the experience you gain. Each time you gain more experience and treasure, you can use it to improve your skills and equipment to take on more challenging adventures.

Improving your skills and developing your character is the most important thing you can do as a player. It helps with providing a more immersive experience and allows you to better understand how they would react to a unique situation.

This game helps you to roleplay a character in a fantasy world where you can essentially do anything your character feels like doing. Keep in mind the fantasy world still has limitations, just like the real world. The game rules represent these limitations.

Ultimately, this is a storytelling game that uses the mechanics to help you tell a story and play the role of its characters. The more in-depth of a character you have, the more exciting and immersive the story can become.

Energetics aka Magic

Essence and Energy has a system known as energetics, which is like other roleplaying games that use the term “magic” to represent it. The reason this game’s “magic” system is called energetics is because of the game’s lore. Energetics (magic) is the combination of energy in the atmosphere and your internal energy (known as essence) combining to produce a magical effect or ability, known as spells.

The energy used in energetics is all around you as the character. It makes up the world and the life that lives within it. It is not from some otherworldly dimension or special realm. Some inhabitance of this world worships the energy as gods while others study it as science. Either way, the energy used is within the same dimension, realm, existence, etc. that the character you play exists in. If your character has figured out how to channel this energy, they can create what commoners would refer to as magic and the educated refer to as energetics.

With the way people connect with the energy in the world, it is common for energetics to be part of people’s everyday lives. Technology within this game is the combination of mostly mechanical devices and energetics. The devices typically use energetics as a power source to fuel the device’s effect or purpose. Therefore, for example, arms (armaments or guns) powered by compressed steam are a common sight throughout the world. The energetics chapter has more information about energetics.

The world of energetics is a very vast experience you can choose to discover as you play Essence and Energy.

Experience Points

Experience points are a numerical value that is used to determine the strength and power of the player’s character. The more experience points the character has gained, the more powerful they become.

This game uses a combination of two types of experience point systems: the leveling system and the point buy system. Players will collect three types of experience points used to develop and grow their characters. The three types are: Knowledge Points, Reputation, and Talents.

Knowledge Points

You use this type of experience point for the crafting mechanics of the game. We gain them from performing different tasks and functions related to creating items as you play the game. Knowledge Points use the point buy system and do not contribute to the leveling system.

Reputation

We use this type of experience point in the social system of the game. We gain them from performing different social interactions and succeeding in them. Reputation uses the point buy system and does not contribute to the leveling system.

Talents

We use these experience points as universal experience that are used in any area of the character’s development. They are the key type of experience points rewarded and use both the point buy system and the leveling system. They are the only experience points that determine the character’s level.

The game master chooses how many, and the type of experience points to award you depending on the situation. See Experience Points in the Chapter 13: Game RulesGame Rules chapter for more information.

Levels

The more talents you gain, the higher your level increases. Each time you gain a level, you get additional bonuses on top of what you already purchased with your experience points. The maximum level you can achieve is ten.

Immersion Incentive

Players who stay in character by reacting to how their character would can earn special coins called Lucky Coins. The more immersive the player is, the more they can earn Lucky Coins. See Lucky Coins in the Luck section of the Chapter 13: Game RulesGame Rules chapter for more information.

Leave Meta Gaming at Home

There is lore that explains a lot about the creation of the world. Along with other explanations that the people of the world might not know. The lore provided in this book is for you to get a better understanding of the game world. It’s used to help you understand why and how the mechanics function in the world. An example of this is the mechanics and terms used for energetics (also referred to as magic), and how it is based on energy within the atmosphere, which also represents the deities of those who are religious.

When reading the lore, please keep in mind that just because you (the player) know the truth about the world, it doesn’t mean your character knows. Almost every character (NPC and PC) except for the gods wouldn’t know a lot of the lore provided.

For example, the people living on Nisumari do not know there are other floating continents with Unkai. They have no evidence to even think there is life beyond the clouds. People cannot explore beyond the clouds yet because of the lack of advanced technology in AGE vessels (airships). The technology in this world is still very primitive, so ask yourself “Would my character know this?” before roleplaying. Please keep this in mind when determining what your character would know about the world.

Terminology

Many terms can have multiple meanings. Some of these terms are interchangeable, such as energetics and magic. Please, when reading through the game, have an open mind and use common sense when interchanging different terms with the same subject.

The reason behind having different terms is based on the lore. For example, energetics and magic. Within the lore of the world, these terms are based on how educated the individual is. An uneducated commoner is more likely to call energetics, magic. While an educated individual will know that the proper term for magic is energetics.

What is a Role-Playing Game?

Players play a role-playing game around a table or online using a virtual tabletop with friends. Although you can have miniatures, maps, and other art to aid in the game, most of what happens is all in your imagination and theater of the mind.

A role-playing game has two positions: the players, and the game master. There are typically four players in a game, but some games can have more (or less) players if the game master allows it. It is also possible to have as little as one player, but typically role-playing games are more enjoyable with more people. Players are the main characters in the game master’s story. As a player, you create a fictional character and roleplay their life as an adventurer, set in the fictional world the game master provides.

As a game master, you control the world and roleplay non-player characters (NPC) that the players interact with. Being a game master is more complex than a player, as it involves controlling a story that the players have their adventures in. This story is sometimes pre-made by a publisher, or it is a homebrew adventure—a story you or another game master wrote—that puts the player’s characters through challenging quests and missions.

The game master must keep the story going, even when the players derail the story away from the plans they created (or a pre-made adventure-created). The game master must think on the fly and come up with new ideas and concepts when this happens, and it will happen often.

It’s kind of like the game master is the director of the movie and the players are the actors. Only there are no predetermined lines for the players to memorize and recite. The game master is the one with the story and you, as the player, change the story based on your character’s actions in the game world.

Role-playing games don’t have a way to “win” the game. The point of the game is to have fun telling a story that is created by its players and game master. It’s about enjoying the moment of gameplay and living the life of a fantasy character in an exciting immersive world while leaving the real world behind for a few hours and having fun with friends.