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Yeah. It's an issue with overexposure. If you want to tell Lovecraftian horror, you pretty much have to make up your own creatures and anomalies. Too many players recognize even the more obscure Lovecraftian beasties.
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Sep 30, 2015 01:43
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Evil Mastermind posted:Hard to say without seeing the full text, but it does seem to focus pretty much on teenage drama (proving yourself, growing into who others want you to be, discovering who you really are). That said, I think you could make it general drama with just a few tweaks, like changing the Moment of Truth mechanic. Fair enough, thanks. You know what I really, really like about Masks from a first cursory glance at the playtest material? The specific moves the GM can unleash against each different playbook. That's a truly amazing idea. Has no one ever done that before?
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Sep 30, 2015 02:07
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JackMann posted:Yeah. It's an issue with overexposure. If you want to tell Lovecraftian horror, you pretty much have to make up your own creatures and anomalies. Too many players recognize even the more obscure Lovecraftian beasties. This is what I mean by "mystery" in the previous post. The players should never be able to say "It's a Fungi". The burden is on the Keeper (Handler now I suppose) to keep the players guessing about what the Entity/monster is if there is one in the scenario. Fear dies if you can mentally apply a stat block to something or come up with ten citations off the top of your head for the monster.
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Sep 30, 2015 02:16
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Cyphoderus posted:Fair enough, thanks. I don't think so, but it is definitely a fantastic idea. Masks is looking better and better with every post about it.
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Sep 30, 2015 02:21
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JackMann posted:Yeah. It's an issue with overexposure. If you want to tell Lovecraftian horror, you pretty much have to make up your own creatures and anomalies. Too many players recognize even the more obscure Lovecraftian beasties. If you're going to make up your own monsters, why bother with Mythos? Like, that's the problem with the whole thing. A world of unimaginable horrors and human cults is great and suspenseful for page and screen; for a game, the very act of constructing a predictable game and sanity system undercuts the uncertainty, the fandom's cataloging (and depicting in art) of every creature even more so. There is no mystery and no suspense that you couldn't get from an equally-well-designed non-Mythos game. Dread (the game) is the closest to functional as a game of unfair madness and suspense and doom around even the mundane corners, but even then you might die before anything actually cultic happens. I get that there's a marketing piece to Cthuluizing, and I do like Pelgrane Press a lot for what they do and try to do, but ... yeah. Anyway, that's why I'm not backing it.
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Sep 30, 2015 03:17
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homullus posted:If you're going to make up your own monsters, why bother with Mythos? ... the point of the Mythos is cosmic horror. It's form is protean. Otherwise Cthulhu is just a goblin.
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Sep 30, 2015 04:01
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Looks like Mechdeck isn't going to reach its funding which is a bummer. It seems like such a cool idea I'm not sure why there's such lack of interest.
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Sep 30, 2015 13:29
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I do love Steve Lichman comics, but $20 for a 230 page hardcover? That seems...off.
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Sep 30, 2015 14:38
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Helical Nightmares posted:... the point of the Mythos is cosmic horror. It's form is protean. I mean . . . that's exactly what I was saying. If the form The Adversary is protean in your game, The Adversary doesn't need to be Mythos. If you're using Cthulu and Hounds of Tindalos and Arkham and blablahblah, it's a "monster of the week" setting, and player knowledge of the setting can detract from the feeling of incomprehensible horror. If you're not using those, why bother with Mythos at all? You are either actively using the thing that actually removes mystery due to its market saturation, or you are ignoring the depth the setting has. I guess you can use Cthulu and all the other usual suspects as a spice rather than a vegetable, usually making up your own threats, but occasionally giving players what they would have been expecting if you hadn't already broken their Mythos expectations.
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Sep 30, 2015 14:40
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homullus posted:I mean . . . that's exactly what I was saying. If the form The Adversary is protean in your game, The Adversary doesn't need to be Mythos. If you're using Cthulu and Hounds of Tindalos and Arkham and blablahblah, it's a "monster of the week" setting, and player knowledge of the setting can detract from the feeling of incomprehensible horror. If you're not using those, why bother with Mythos at all? You are either actively using the thing that actually removes mystery due to its market saturation, or you are ignoring the depth the setting has. I guess you can use Cthulu and all the other usual suspects as a spice rather than a vegetable, usually making up your own threats, but occasionally giving players what they would have been expecting if you hadn't already broken their Mythos expectations. I think that if a person is playing a Call of Cthulhu game, they're most likely gonna be okay with Mythos stuff showing up. If you're not playing CoC or Trail of Cthulhu etc. and you want to incorporate some Mythos stuff, seeing names like Yog-Sothoth or Sarnath come up should be an "oh poo poo" moment for players in the know. Of course this seems like it could flop if the players aren't down with it. I know my players are into Mythos stuff casually, so I sent them up against a Color Out of Space in my 4E game and they had a lot of fun kicking its rear end. I wasn't running a horror game, so it was more of a pop culture reference. It's all about having the players be onboard.
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Sep 30, 2015 14:52
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Serf posted:I know my players are into Mythos stuff casually, so I sent them up against a Color Out of Space in my 4E game and they had a lot of fun kicking its rear end. I wasn't running a horror game, so it was more of a pop culture reference. It's all about having the players be onboard. Out of curiosity, how did you have them defeat an incorporeal... thing, almost closer to a phenomenon than to a creature?
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Sep 30, 2015 14:58
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In Delta Green's favour, I just received the best bit of writing I've ever come across in a kickstarter update:quote:We get a lot of suggestions that open with "in this other Kickstarter I saw..."; and we're going to stop you right there — in the great scheme of things, our most important mission is to get you quality books. Many other companies chase a growing total to see how high it can go; we are not that company. Many, many (many, many) other Kickstarters end in financial disaster, either through malfeasance, or miscalculation. We've done this A LOT, and we worked hard to make sure we're not hanging ourselves promising something in the tiers that will come back and kill us in the end. 
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Sep 30, 2015 15:00
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Tippis posted:In Delta Green's favour, I just received the best bit of writing I've ever come across in a kickstarter update: Simon Rogers and Pelgrane Press are super-professional. Simon Rogers occasionally gives peeks behind the economic curtain on...a website that isn't this one. I don't remember. Anyway, if everyone in the industry were even half as professional, the "TG as an Industry" thread probably wouldn't even exist.
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Sep 30, 2015 15:05
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Radish posted:Looks like Mechdeck isn't going to reach its funding which is a bummer. It seems like such a cool idea I'm not sure why there's such lack of interest. The robots are pretty unimpressive looking
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Sep 30, 2015 15:05
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paradoxGentleman posted:Out of curiosity, how did you have them defeat an incorporeal... thing, almost closer to a phenomenon than to a creature? Can't speak for 4E but in Pathfinder a Colour Out of Space is essentially just a high level Ooze with a bunch of weird abilities, a high enough level party can deal with them with spells and stuff.
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Sep 30, 2015 15:05
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If you're joining a Call of Cthulhu game, you've got to expect that you're going to run into Mythos monsters, but isn't there an element of "you know what you're getting into but you play along anyway" similar to when you watch, or even rewatch, a horror movie? You already know what's going to happen, at least in broad strokes, but you let yourself be scared regardless.
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Sep 30, 2015 15:06
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paradoxGentleman posted:Out of curiosity, how did you have them defeat an incorporeal... thing, almost closer to a phenomenon than to a creature? Uhhh they had swords and magic? The fighter-types held off the husks of people drained by the Color, while the wizard cast a ritual to pull it mostly into the material plane, whereupon it was wrestled to death by a monk.
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Sep 30, 2015 15:07
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Radish posted:Looks like Mechdeck isn't going to reach its funding which is a bummer. It seems like such a cool idea I'm not sure why there's such lack of interest. It looked like a cool game, but I think it was pretty ambitious for a first project. Maybe if they redid it with non-modular minis or cardboard minis or something it might do better.
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Sep 30, 2015 15:14
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I think it needs the modular minis, that's one of the defining qualities. Plastic ones might have been too much though.
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Sep 30, 2015 15:18
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Now that I think of it, I don't think it did a good job advertising either. I only ever heard about it here.
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Sep 30, 2015 15:19
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Yeah I think that is part of their problem. Only reason I heard about it is Drew from GBC was big on it which is more than I've heard from the actual developer that has sent like one email out since starting.
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Sep 30, 2015 15:23
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As an immediate answer: the Mythos is there, it's a common point of reference-- like asking people if they want to play Tarzan or Indiana Jones, instead of a game based on the broad canon of adventure pulps. In the case of DG in particular, it's an interesting thought experiment that rises from a brief comment in a Lovecraft story: the government has had contact with the Mythos; how much does it know, and how does it react? I don't expect to be offed by a trademarked and copyrighted Mythos beastie when I play CoC, honestly. It's the tone, and the expectation that things are not going to end well. Despite the editor's stuffiness about including entities like Nodens or the Cthonians, there are a lot of CoC adventures that star weird one-off critters or non-Mythos entities.
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Sep 30, 2015 15:26
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EverettLO posted:I do love Steve Lichman comics, but $20 for a 230 page hardcover? That seems...off. Too cheap?
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Sep 30, 2015 15:29
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Indolent Bastard posted:Too cheap? Yes, it feels like there might be a problem fulfilling it at that price. It seems like an overly optimistic first outing into KS.
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Sep 30, 2015 15:46
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I hope Mech Deck comes to pass one way or another, but if it ends up being cardboard pieces I won't buy it. I backed it but obviously not confident that it'll hit the goal since we're not even a third of the way there and it ends tomorrow.
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Sep 30, 2015 16:03
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EverettLO posted:Yes, it feels like there might be a problem fulfilling it at that price. It seems like an overly optimistic first outing into KS. Acceptable Comics posted:This response has been way more than we anticipated! Thanks everyone! We wanna be totally transparent with the numbers so here is a very boring breakdown response to your question lol. Because we wanted the book to be a special hardcover first edition and have all the issues we could fit in it (230 pages), the cost per book from the printer is higher- around 10 dollars each if we order 1000. we intentionally decided to make way less on the book in order to get the first edition out to as many fans of steve as possible as cheap as possible, so the profit margin per book for us (after shrinkage, shipment costs from china, and mailing expenses with usps) is only about 4 dollars after taxes. we're really only making money off the 2 higher tiers, which are limited because of their higher cost. so yes, we will make some money for the book and audiobook, but as of yet probly wont be drowning in cash. this is less of a moneymaker for us and more of a way to get steve established so we can do more books in the future! I am cautiously optimistic and may risk the $20 fully expecting it to just vanish.
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Sep 30, 2015 18:00
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Helical Nightmares posted:This is what I mean by "mystery" in the previous post. The players should never be able to say "It's a Fungi". The burden is on the Keeper (Handler now I suppose) to keep the players guessing about what the Entity/monster is if there is one in the scenario. Fear dies if you can mentally apply a stat block to something or come up with ten citations off the top of your head for the monster. That's why I prefer cosmic horror where the thing itself doesn't appear. If it's there people will want to kill it. I tend to like vague unknowable forces that may or may not be manipulating your enemies, and at the end, you don't know if they even existed or if the antagonists were just mad. I just find that any threat the protagonists can deal with any degree of finality stops it being horrifying.
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Sep 30, 2015 18:47
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I'm watching the Rahdo Runs Through for 7th Continent, and it actually looks pretty cool; like a soloable Descent-like crawler game. The only things that are making me leery are the auto-death and lack of replayability.
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Sep 30, 2015 19:31
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Evil Mastermind posted:I'm watching the Rahdo Runs Through for 7th Continent, and it actually looks pretty cool; like a soloable Descent-like crawler game. The only things that are making me leery are the auto-death and lack of replayability. It also seems like a rather busy game. Lots of icons for utterly specific tasks and a strong possibility of it going off of the table. There definitely looks to be a lack of repeatability in the base game though and may have less replay than Betrayal, even if it's a more solid game mechanically.
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Sep 30, 2015 20:13
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Indolent Bastard posted:I am cautiously optimistic and may risk the $20 fully expecting it to just vanish. Hell, I backed it. I got my Sad Pictures for Children before the meltdown, so I'm hoping my kickstarter comic luck holds.
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Sep 30, 2015 20:16
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Xelkelvos posted:It also seems like a rather busy game. Lots of icons for utterly specific tasks and a strong possibility of it going off of the table. There definitely looks to be a lack of repeatability in the base game though and may have less replay than Betrayal, even if it's a more solid game mechanically. Yeah, I'm picking up on that too. Man, I just want a Descent-style delver that can be played solo and doesn't require a ton of bookkeeping. Is that too much to ask?  e: I think 7th Continent would work better as a sort of tabletop roguelike maybe? Evil Mastermind fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Sep 30, 2015 |
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Sep 30, 2015 20:17
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I was sad when I got home today and saw a package on my doorstep that upon opening was not Ryuutama. But then I saw it was the new volume of Cucumber Quest and smiled.
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Sep 30, 2015 20:37
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parabolic posted:Hell, I backed it. I got my Sad Pictures for Children before the meltdown, so I'm hoping my kickstarter comic luck holds. Care to elaborate?
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Sep 30, 2015 21:44
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Indolent Bastard posted:Care to elaborate? Just read this and enjoy. 
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Sep 30, 2015 21:47
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Sig: The City Between is a setting for the Spark RPG, which I don't know anything about, but it lists its primary influences as Planescape, Saga, Planarch Codex, and Kill 6 Billion Demons.
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Sep 30, 2015 21:50
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parabolic posted:Hell, I backed it. I got my Sad Pictures for Children before the meltdown, so I'm hoping my kickstarter comic luck holds. That whole situation sucks but, at the same time, is oddly not surprising.
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Sep 30, 2015 22:30
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LOL, the Wizard School game updated saying they reached all their stretch goals, but didn't say what those were, and just changed the description of the box to reflect whatever it was that happened, and din't put any notice of a stretch goal being reached on their campaign page
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Sep 30, 2015 23:13
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Xelkelvos posted:It also seems like a rather busy game. Lots of icons for utterly specific tasks and a strong possibility of it going off of the table. There definitely looks to be a lack of repeatability in the base game though and may have less replay than Betrayal, even if it's a more solid game mechanically. The rules actually address the table-space issue: Since the continent map is functionally fixed, you're often directed to "reset" the board, clearing all the cards except for your current location. Three things trigger a reset (which we know of): Travelling across one of the difficult "stair icon" paths, using the Save-Game system, and overrunning your table space. This actually leads to some interesting conveyance/verisimilitude in the exploration mechanic. Like, you distinctly remember that you passed a cave/statue/temple like two days ago and five cards thataway, but...poo poo, how did I get there again? As for replayability, the game relies on the sheer size of the explorable map, and trying to solve the different curses (three in the base game, three in the expansions). Like, the game is ultimately finite, given the general lack of randomness, but hopefully it'll take you quite some time to find that finite point. I've been REALLY hype for this game...up until about a week ago, when Serious Poulp announced the Kickstarter Exclusive expansion. That poo poo puts a real sour taste in my mouth, and now I'm hesitant to support this skeezy pressure-sell tactic. gutterdaughter fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Oct 1, 2015 |
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Sep 30, 2015 23:58
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Gutter Owl posted:I've been REALLY hype for this game...up until about a week ago, when Serious Poulp announced the Kickstarter Exclusive expansion. That poo poo puts a real sour taste in my mouth, and now I'm hesitant to support this skeezy pressure-sell tactic. I'm really curious whether or not it would actually get through to them if you sent a message to that effect. I know that there are threads on BGG about both the exclusives and the fact that early bird pledges ran out in < 5 minutes.
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Oct 1, 2015 00:06
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Evil Mastermind posted:Yeah, I'm picking up on that too. Probably best as a video game so random locations are more guaranteed and modularity is easier
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Oct 1, 2015 00:50
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