I have mixed feelings on Corporia.

On one hand, the system is excellent, fluid and easy-to-learn. The way that pretty much any action you want to take is boiled down to a singly type of roll makes this system tremendously user-friendly and barely intrudes upon story-driven play at all. Furthermore, the mundane side of the setting is interesting and evocative, rife with opportunities for play.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the arcane and mystical side of things. Partly as a side-effect of the simple system and partly as a result of the down-to-earth presentation of the book - in particular the decision to use photographs as opposed to artworks and the way in which the book is presented almost like a company handbook - the setting is utterly lacking (from my perspective at least) in the mystery and intrigue of magic. Where are the Faustian bargains and otherworldy spirits? Where are the mighty magicians and potent relics of ancient times? Where are the dragons, the griffins and the Questing Beasts of Arthurian myth? Where is the wonder and horror of the return of magic to a mundane world ruled by monolithic mega-corporations?

I think that a great deal of this is lost by relegating magic to a few scant pages with each spell having only a list of statistics and a one or two line description of its effects, as well as giving such a bare-bones Bestiary and explaining the creatures (cryptids) therein with scientific terminology (It's a vampire, no matter how much you want to call it a 'sanguinuvore'). Even Excalibur, the Sword of Promised Victory, only has eight lines describing it and its scabbard, and most of that is composed of numbers and bonuses.

All in all, I think that Corporia could have been great, had its setting and presentation been more balanced between the systematic approach which was taken to the Corporations and the game system and the mystery which perhaps should have pervaded the more mystical parts of the book. I will play it and I will reccommend it to others, but for myself I will likely heavily alter the magical aspects of the setting to be more to my liking.

P.S. Something which was done excellently was making the writing clear and straightforward. Perhaps too much so, in places, but I have already made my opinion on thos eparts clear.

Immensely useful and intuitive. I have rarely been more satisfied with any RPG book. Along with the rules in the Godbound corebook for creating courts, factions and so on, this is easily one of the best systems that I have come across for creating interesting and engaing adventures.

Having spent some time reading both the starter book and the supplementary materials (the playbooks, for instance), I have found this to be a thouroughly enjoyable read, both mechanically and thematically. The idea that the 'magic' of the setting comes from stories, ideas, concepts, dreams and fears trying to enter the real world and to be is extremely interesting, especially from the point of view of the Master of Ceremoneies (GM). I've already got some ideass cooking away for using that in the game that I plan to run soon.

The characters detailed in teh book are interesting, the art and layout exceptionally clean and fitting for the tone of the thing and in general the whole book is a work of art. The integration and editing of the Apocalypse World system is well done and understandable, with the only real bit of ambiguity for me being Statuses and 'narrative damage', although i suspect that this is largely due to teh fact that I've only come across teh concept here and in Nobilis, a marvellous RPG with a bent for the philosophical and hard-to-understand.

I look forward to seeing more on this project.