Review – Esoteric EBB – Gamerview

The act of voting can be considered the great equalizer between the people of the world, being a much broader and more complex topic than the Instagram and YouTube reels try to represent with phrases that Socrates, Plato and even Nietzsche were against the democratic act. is a TTRPG adventure that will take the player to explore politics in a magical world.

The game is produced by Christoffer Bodegård, who co-wrote an excellent Viking techno-horror that I wrote about in 2021. Now, in Esoteric Ebb, Christoffer brings a less terrifying, but more inquisitive and comical journey, where we follow the cleric Ragn through the city known as The Coast, in the kingdom of Jor, as he seeks to solve a crime and find out who to vote for.

A new breath

The plot begins with Ragn failing — something frequent on his journey — and falling from a bridge into the depths of the water. As his end would not be there, he wakes up the next day in the basement of Vilkem, the city’s coroner, who brought Ragn back to life through necromantic magic, something that will most likely come back to haunt him over time.

Ragn was sent to the Coast to solve a mystery related to the explosion of a tea house, a place of high political activity for one of the city’s parties. Upon awakening, he discovers that his spellbook has been destroyed by water, but, even with his cleric and barbarian vocation, he still manages to maintain contact with the esoteric.

Along the journey, Ragn will rediscover himself as a person and citizen, defining how he sees himself, whether as a barbarian, rogue, wizard or cleric. Everything is presented with fun and unusual dialogues that make us forget that this is a fantastic D&D story, where physical combat gives way to social and strategic chess.

The player, in Esoteric Ebb, will interact with different political groups and venture into the dungeons beneath the Coast, where he will encounter challenges and allies on comical expeditions in search of answers. However, it is not just orcs, dwarves, halflings and elves who influence this political stage; there are secrets that only the most curious will discover.

Digital data and smudge-free paper

In Esoteric Ebb, the player assumes his role in a CRPG similar to , but set in a world created within the 5th edition of D&D. As it is an adventure game, it uses point and click gameplay mechanics to interact with items, NPCs and elements of the scene, also allowing you to increase attributes, select advantages and use spells of different levels to deal with the world and its dangers.

Many of the secrets, clues and answers necessary for the missions arise only with the player’s curiosity and exploratory spirit, causing events to occur, truths to be revealed and laws to be broken. After all, if those who lie are in power, the laws in force serve precisely to protect them; Therefore, the player needs to be bold in certain choices in order to create his reputation in the city of Costa.

Esoteric Ebb also takes advantage of the dice rolling system of the tabletop RPGs that served as the basis for its creation. Do you need to take some action, such as an attempt at dialogue, a specific maneuver, intimidating or convincing someone? Dice rolls take into account your attributes, equipment, and certain modifiers. Even though some of the rolls seem rigged, maybe it’s just me who has a lot of bad luck in this CRPG!

You can even try to cheat by keeping a save to return and try again, avoiding spending Jor Fragments, items that allow the player to repeat a failed dice roll without having to wait for the next day or rest. As much as it works, it takes away some of the honesty of the adventure and Ragn’s comedic flaws, whether fighting monsters, trying to go unnoticed, or trying to seduce the various ladies of the city of Costa.

Fundamentals are always essential

As in any RPG, when starting Esoteric Ebb we have to define a past for our cleric; the player has a good number of backgrounds to choose from, each with their own initial attribute bonuses. Some examples are the Troll Slayer, which gives +3 strength; the Tower Apprentice, which grants +2 intelligence and +1 wisdom; or the Weirdo, the one who does everything to please others, thus gaining +3 charisma and a reputation as a boss.

As it is something that we can classify as an RPG with a political bias and low focus on combat, many may think that a build focused on strength is bad, however, if you want to play supporting a group like the nationalists, brute force can be used to threaten and frighten the opposition. Everything will depend on how you want to see things and manifest them in this world.

After all, we are talking about a political system that takes into account different creatures, such as bugbears, elves, dwarves, humans, sphinxes, among others. Another big reason to know exactly where to distribute your points is the different checks you will have to face. On my first adventure along the Coast, I used a mix of strength and wisdom and resolved many confrontations through conversation rather than brute force, even convincing an assassin that I was not his target.

Certain items in your inventory will add points to checks, acting as modifiers. In Esoteric Ebb, you have a helmet slot — after all, the cleric never shows his face —, two weapon slots, one for a book and three for miscellaneous items, such as rings and Bag of Holding. However, unlike other RPGs, your companions here cannot carry their weapons or personal items.

Who said that!?

The cleric of Esoteric Ebb, like all of us, has a conscience, but, contrary to what is expected, he does not have just one inner voice, but six! Each of them serves as an avatar for one of the attributes on the character sheet. In addition to influencing dialogue, these voices can reveal secrets of the Kingdom of Jor and offer different political views for Ragn.

The Force represents Ragn’s brutish and nationalistic side; Dexterity will always try to lead you to the path of rogue and trickery; the Constitution invokes its own value in an apolitical system; Intelligence will guide the player to the arcane path and a magicrat society; Wisdom demonstrates clarity and influences the socialist Azghalite side; and Charisma allows the cleric to use his charm to convince everyone that they should vote for him!

During important moments, the voices will clash, each trying to convince the cleric that their worldview is the correct one. They do not interfere with the player’s rolls when choosing actions, but they can create comical situations in serious moments. An example is when the player finds the Bag of Holding: each attribute allows us to interact differently with the relic, such as Charisma giving us the option of fawning over the item until it gives us something from the previous owner.

Having a wide selection of items in your bag is also essential to discover the secrets of the Coast in Esoteric Ebb, after all, some objects can be examined to reveal secrets, give gifts or curse the player. An example of this is the Deck of Many Things, which can be obtained after solving the riddle of the Ollzit sphinx — an extremely rare item in D&D that can grant both riches and blessings and terrible curses.

Always running from here to here

The art style and soundtrack by Esoteric Ebb fit perfectly with the story. Even though over time the main adventures become increasingly tragic and dark, the rest maintains the comical tone present in point and click adventure games like The Secret of Monkey Island. The different trails allow each scenario to be unique and memorable.

There are a good amount of quests to explore in Esoteric Ebb; some, after being completed, allow Ragn to enter into a moment of reflection. This state will make him dialogue with his avatars, who will offer him feats. These function as advantages, such as the Voice of the Gods, which allows, whenever a natural 20 is achieved on the die, a second die is rolled and added to the first.

There are external reflections too, found when talking to certain NPCs and which allow Ragn to access special abilities other than his spells. Magic in D&D cites certain strings that must be touched to use spells, such as the abilities of druids to interact with the natural world, thaumaturgy to explore the divine throughout the city, as well as spectral lights to illuminate secrets and astral hands to interact with the world of Esoteric Ebb.

There are several spells spread throughout the city that will serve to fill the cleric’s spell slots. Ragn can learn first-level spells to deal damage or speak to animals; at the second level we have spells such as opening locks, willow skin and influencing results. The third level ones are more powerful, including speaking with the dead and paladin armor. Greater spells can be offered by powerful NPCs who may or may not want to help Ragn.

Every journey deserves an end

Apart from the data that often seems to go against the player’s progress at certain points in the story, and the fact that Esoteric Ebb is heavily based on text without localization into Portuguese; Esoteric Ebb is something adventurous that I loved trying out. I needed to go to the end to fully understand what this political journey of mystery and conspiracy was about, and I admit that it was much better than I expected — not because it was epic, but because it was mundane and well constructed.

The construction I gave to Ragn’s backstory and the choices I made delivered an excellent story. In it, Ragn became THE CLÉRICO da Costa, a celebrity that everyone knows, capable of making a fortune through the Deck of Many Things, who seduced several ladies in the city (without dating any of them) and bought land inside the dungeon, believing that the area will soon increase in value.

Esoteric Ebb is an excellent experience with such a wide range of possibilities that it would be impossible to talk about everything here, but the game rewards all those willing to face the odds and face fate head on. Not in a purely combative way, but through words and good humor. Come and join this unusual RPG table that Christoffer Bodegård prepared for us!