I'm not a great reviewer, so let me save you some time - buy this.

The artwork is universally awesome. This is one of the most beautiful RPG books I've purchased in nearly 40 years of collecting.

The layout is excellent. Reminds me of Last Unicorn Games style - very clean and easy to read.

The world is exotic. There are some clever ideas here. Character Backgrounds (similar to archetypes) are strongly tied to the world - some examples are Serpent Keeper, Chain Dancer, or Storm Priest.

I haven't tested the system but it seems simple and workable and I didn't see any red flags.

This is not a typical indie effort. It is a high quality product with incredible production values and full of inspiration. Highly recommended.

Can't understand why people don't play good games instead of playing only the same games over and over. From the first readthrough, I can honestly admit this is a LOT better than most hyper known RPGs. Ok. Just reading through this. First: I only review games I like. Second: I usually love systems and short lore. I only encountered a few workds/games giving me so much from the get go. Altas: Age of Ruin is one of the most compelling, clear, deep and well written lorebook ever created. No kidding. I hate reading through most of the well known fluff, we pull out campaigns from two pages OSR tables or improvisation... But this game is sooo intriguing I can't wait actually playing it! Still digging into this and I really hope this will receive more love! Probably updating my review on my second full read through, but it deseeves all the stars. Special note for the aet: it's astonishing.

Altais is a great RPG. The setting is balanced and well imagined. Artwork and production values are top notch. The setting is medium in magic. Its a fantasy/sci-fi world, similar in background to Tekumel in that humans colonized thousands of years in the past and have now forgotten their origins. Now an ancient evil is returning to the world of Altais, and the players adventure against them, or not, they could just adventure. Lots of original creatures. You can dungeon crawl easily. All in all, Altais is a complete game. I recommend it to anyone, and to anyone just getting into RPG's and GMing, it provides a decent system and excellent notes on running adventures.