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Yeah, I do really like Crawford's stuff, he's a great writer, but I really wish he'd at least try to move out of the OSR design space.
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Feb 24, 2016 17:00
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"Actually, d20 has more elegant mechanics", I find myself typing without a hint of sarcasm.
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Feb 24, 2016 17:33
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Kaza42 posted:Ah. Nevermind then, just another cool concept ruined by d20. Won't be backing after all, thanks for the link. Then I realized you were talking about Godbound, and I realized that "ruined by d20" is nearly universally true.
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Feb 24, 2016 17:35
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I mean if the alternative is playing Exalted, I'll take the d20, thanks.
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Feb 24, 2016 17:36
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For the record, Godbound uses an derivation of Kevin Crawford's normal system used in titles like Stars Without Number and Scarlet Heroes that has more in line with the OSR than the d20 system. I don't see why it using a d20 for resolution is an issue. It usually just uses it for combat and uses 2d8 for skill resolution to ensure player competence. From experience, the games play just fine and he's a pretty good designer. I don't really see the issue or why everyone thinks its the d20 system.
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Feb 24, 2016 18:00
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Godbound uses the d20 for all resolution, from what I've read in the pdf. Skills require you to roll 21-attribute or higher on a d20. My biggest issues with the d20 system (which are present in this version of it) are A)d20s have a huge swinginess, especially at low levels your skill will usually be less than half of the total result B)Levels provide a growth pattern I don't enjoy and C)The six D&D attributes are overused and not a good way to define characters. One specific issue I have with a lot of OSR stuff that isn't present in modern d20s is the random generation obsession. Rolling for stats is terrible, and even if included you should also have some sort of point buy. Standard Array is slightly better, but still miles below point buy. Now, all of these are absolutely personal preference, and I know that a lot of people have the exact opposite view and love d20s and levels and attributes and random stats. I wish them the best and hope they have fun, more than enough game systems to go around. I think Godbound would be a better game if it designed a system specifically around being powerful demigods, rather than just being d20 with some goalposts shifted in order to maintain compatibility with other OSR stuff (which Godbound explicitly says it does) EDIT: Just to be clear, the above is based on a reading of a game I have never played. It's possible that the system they designed works really well for the stories of Godbound, it's just not obvious from reading it Kaza42 fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Feb 24, 2016 |
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Feb 24, 2016 18:45
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I also like Crawford, I honestly cant decide between Godbound or 7th Sea though.
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Feb 24, 2016 19:22
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JesterOfAmerica posted:I also like Crawford, I honestly cant decide between Godbound or 7th Sea though. I'd still like a trip report on the quick play that's available.
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Feb 25, 2016 00:43
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I know it's dwarfed by 7th sea, but the Conan RPG kickstarter is closing in on £200,000 (It's above £197k now), with 24 days still to go. Kicktraq's trending projection suggests it'll finish with between £379k and £637k, which converts to US $528k to $887. Those projections are very unreliable, but however you smoke it, the Conan kickstarter is going to be another really big one. I'm still vaccilating about pledging. On the one hand, I doubt I know very many people who would actually want to play it. On the other hand, they're working with some of the same people that worked on the board game (which I went whole hog on), and promising cross-compatibility between the boardgame and the RPG, including new adventure tiles that will work with both. So it's a value-add to a game I've already bought into. Can anyone speak to "Modiphius’ 2d20 game system, also seen in the Mutant Chronicles, Infinity, and John Carter Warlord of Mars RPGs" they're using? Does it work? I know it's got... ugh, hit locations, but I don't know much more about it. Modiphius' own blurb about it: quote:2d20 is a very cinematic action orientated system developed by lead designer Jay Little as part of the Mutant Chronicles 3rd Edition design team. The game is built around a core mechanic of rolling under an Attribute plus Skill total on two twenty sided dice. Multiple successes are possible and can be used to create the cinematic action. Which doesn't sound terrible, by rolling two dice and adding them at least you get a bell curve result, unlike d20. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Feb 25, 2016 |
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Feb 25, 2016 01:23
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Leperflesh posted:I know it's dwarfed by 7th sea, but the Conan RPG kickstarter is closing in on £200,000 (It's above £197k now), with 24 days still to go. Kicktraq's trending projection suggests it'll finish with between £379k and £637k, which converts to US $528k to $887. Argh they're probably going to unlock the monster manual and then I'm going to have to pay for shipping, jerks.
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Feb 25, 2016 02:30
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Xelkelvos posted:I'd still like a trip report on the quick play that's available. He just released a revised quick play based on feedback too.
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Feb 25, 2016 02:35
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Leperflesh posted:Can anyone speak to "Modiphius’ 2d20 game system, also seen in the Mutant Chronicles, Infinity, and John Carter Warlord of Mars RPGs" they're using? Does it work? I know it's got... ugh, hit locations, but I don't know much more about it. Jay has said that he is very proud of the 2d20 system (he also did Blood Bowl Team Manager, X-Wing Miniatures, and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3E, which of course also became Star Wars: Edge of the Empire), but I've not used it myself. It was my understanding that the hit locations are optional. You aren't adding the 2d20 together, though -- each die is a chance for a success (first one is one success, if you land both you get three? maybe?).
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Feb 25, 2016 02:49
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I just read through the quick start rules, because I realized I was just being lazy. I didn't see any hit location charts. Maybe in the advanced rules, but I suspect it'd be a wound location chart, and wounds only happen when you're in dire straits. The system does derive something from D&D. You have ability scores, which mostly map to the old D&D ones, although not exactly; and you have skills tied to each of those abilities. You also have resource pools. The party (Momentum) and the GM (Doom) each have common pools, and as an individual, you have what are essentially hero points as well (Fortune), which are more powerful than the Momentum or Doom points. When you take an action that involves a test (which is both skills and attacks), you roll at least 2d20; you can spend Momentum to add more dice, up to a maximum of five, and you generate momentum when you roll very low (in this game you always want a low result on your D20s). Exactly how low depends on your skills: every character has every skill at the base level of its corresponding ability score, but you also have a few points to spread around that are basically training in those skills. So if you have (say) a base Agility of 9, and have also bought two points of Focus in Acrobatics, then when you roll your d20s, anything 11 (9 + 2) or lower is a success, but anything 2 or lower is an additional success. So on two dice, this character could score up to four successes. A character without any points in Focus in a skill can still attempt it, but can't get those bonus successes, since they have a 0 Focus. Moreover, you can add dice using Momentum, which just lets you roll another die; you can also add dice with Fortune, which adds a die that is automatically a 1. So if you have any Focus in a skill and you spend a Fortune, that's good enough to get two more successes in it. Difficulties range from 0 to 5, with the number representing how many successes you need to, uh, succeed. A trivial task is a 0, while the game describes difficulty 5 tasks as being "Epic" - overcoming a complex lock in a hurry, without the proper tools, in the midst of a battle; or researching cryptic secrets, lost to history; or shooting an enemy at extreme range in poor light and heavy rain. Natural 20s on the dice cause Complications (in addition to not being a success), so adding dice can actually increase your chances of causing multiple complications. The GM can immediately invoke those complications, or, he can add two Doom tokens to his pool for each unused Complication. If you have more Successes than you need, you generate Momentum, which you can immediately use (as part of that action), or they go into the party's momentum pool. The party loses one momentum at the end of every round. Players can all spend from the Momentum pool, but interestingly, they can also use the equivalent of a party momentum token by instead adding a Doom token to the GM's Doom pool. The GM spends Doom the same way the players spend Momentum, so he can use them up to add successes. The players can also ask the gamemaster to remove two Doom tokens from his pool when an NPC suffers a complication (although he gets the final say). There's a mechanism for opposed checks (struggles), players can cooperate on skill checks by designating a Leader who, if he gets at least one success, can add in successes generated by supporting player characters; and the skill system is leveraged for combat as well. The system doesn't play on a grid. Instead, encounter areas have loosely-defined zones, with a typical encounter having three to five. Other characters in the same zone with you are at Reach or Close range, Medium, Long, and Extreme. The scale of zones can be based on the type of encounter, so they could be very small in a cramped battle in a room, or huge when conducting a siege of a castle. Similarly, the system doesn't define exact lengths of rounds; they can be very fast for a tight melee, or be multiple minutes long for something like ships maneuvering and firing on one another at sea. In combat, you can engage in mental or physical combat, and all of the sample characters have the Steely Glare mental combat attack (which is an abstraction of threatening someone), so you can have entirely non-physical fights, which I think is pretty cool. Attacks roll dice just like skill checks, and may be unopposed or opposed depending on the opponent's action economy. Difficulty starts at 1, and then adds additional levels for range, cover, and other modifiers; or, it can be an opposed check if the defender is taking a Defense action. Sucesses let you roll combat dice (with the amount determined by your weapon and the associated attribute score), which are D6es. A 1 or 2 is 1 or 2 damage, and a 5 or 6 are 1 damage plus an Effect - every weapon having its own specified Effects, such as piercing or vicious. Armor or Courage soak hits (for physical or mental attacks respectively), plus sometimes cover or morale lets you roll additional soak. The remainder are damage, which reduce your physical or mental Stress (called Vigor and Resolve, respectively); except if there are at least 5 damage remaining, or you get pushed below 0 Stress, you take one Harm (which is either a physical Wound or a mental Trauma). Each Trauma increases the difficulty of awareness, intelligence, personality, and willpower tests (thats four of the ability scores) by one, while each Wound increase the difficulty of Agility, Brawn, and Coordination tests (that's three mental ability scores). 4 Wounds or 4 Trauma and you're incapacitated, while a fifth either kills you (wounds) or drives you permanently insane (trauma). Your stress recovers after each action scene. Harm has to be treated, which can be done once per day, and if successful, you recover at least 1, plus 1 more for each Momentum spent. But, if you take another Harm the same day, all the Harm you previously treated gets re-applied, representing the wounds re-opening etc., so that temporary treatment really is temporary. Permanent healing takes longer. There is also a Recover standard action which lets you take a Resistance or Discipline test, recovering 2 points of Vigor or Resolve (plus 2 more per Momentum spent), and you also get a bonus to any cover dice you roll. Speaking of, you get a Standard, Minor, and free actions each round. Other actions include the normal things you'd expect... dropping items, going prone, readying an attack, etc. There are also combat reactions like Defend, Protect, and Retaliate, but reactions require players to add Doom, with the first adding 1, then 2, then 3, etc. for additional Reactions for a given PC. NPCs spend doom the same way for reactions. There's no initiative. The PCs always go first, and can go in any order they want, with the NPCs going after; except the GM can spend Doom to interrupt PC turn order and let an NPC go early. The PCs have a menu of things they can buy with Momentum besides extra attack dice, including extra Morale Soak dice, Disarming an enemy, re-rolling damage, getting a Second Wind, gaining an additional action, etc. In addition to combat effects, Doom can buy a bunch of other stuff; it's used for NPC resources (healing poultices, ammunition, etc.), to activate NPC special abilities, triggering potential environmental effects (like some smoke rises, or the candlelight flickers) or anything that can require an additional minor or major skill test to overcome, spending extra Doom for bigger-deal complications. All told, I have a pretty good first impression. It's got some crunch, but a lot less than D&D, and is more loosey-goosey with the tactical combat simulation. It's definitely designed to keep the party being creative, proposing uses for Momentum tokens, deciding who should go first, even giving the GM free Doom in order to add something helpful to a scene. The GM is supposed to reward good play and objectives achieved with Fortune tokens, at a rate of maybe two an hour or so, which should give the players plenty of opportunities to mitigate lovely dice rolls or get themselves out of a scrape. The token system with the interacting pools of tokens doesn't seem too unweildy. I'm not sold on the ability scores and skills - my experience with all such systems is that some skills wind up being wasted points while others get used constantly. But the sample characters are all competent in and out of combat, and are not wildly different from one another, but each has some interesting things they can do, some small extra abilties like getting to reroll a die when doing certain skills, and generally feel like they fit the setting alright. I actually think this could be a really good system for PbP, given the players can go in any order during a fight, and it looks like fights should get wrapped up fairly quickly, plus there's no grid to keep track of. There are still action interrupters, so that has to be dealt with. The writing is decent and feels like it's been playtested at least a bit, although I did catch one or two minor typos. I think I'm gonna pledge.
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Feb 25, 2016 08:13
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Talking of overdue Kickstarters, my Click Clack Lumberjack arrived yesterday, with all the extras. I guess the European fulfilment company has their poo poo together unlike the US one?
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Feb 25, 2016 10:37
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That Conan game sounds pretty cool - like it's a streamlined version of Marvel Heroic. I'm actually slightly interested in the kickstarter now, despite having next to 0 interest in Conan!
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Feb 25, 2016 10:55
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Going through Godbound's fluff and not being that impressed. It's more Serious Age of Sigmar than Post-Apoc 70s Kirby. It has some interesting stuff, like Angels trying to drat humanity to Hell and Satan trying to sabotage that along with Viking witch-necromancers but its very Christian High Middle Ages in glaze.
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Feb 25, 2016 15:52
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Holy crap a kickstarer launched for a new edition of Kult.
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Feb 25, 2016 16:42
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Evil Mastermind posted:Holy crap a kickstarer launched for a new edition of Kult. Are we having a resurgence of 90's games with dumb metaplot? 
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Feb 25, 2016 16:45
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God, I hope so. Torg Eternity is supposed to come out this year too. 
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Feb 25, 2016 16:47
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Slimnoid posted:Are we having a resurgence of 90's games with dumb metaplot? If it gets Chill 3rd edition out I won't mind. Kult, though - it doesn't surprise me that someone has already pledged £1750 for the sole Demiurge edition.
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Feb 25, 2016 17:20
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Jedit posted:If it gets Chill 3rd edition out I won't mind. ??? Chill 3 is out though? and it doesn't look very good—there're like 20 individually rated attributes on top of a bloaty skill system
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Feb 25, 2016 17:39
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Slimnoid posted:Are we having a resurgence of 90's games with dumb metaplot? Golden age!
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Feb 25, 2016 20:34
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Latest update from 7th Sea has what I feel is a pretty endearing aside from Wick about the project as a whole and has left me feeling reaffirmed enthusiasm for the whole thing. Good stuff!
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Feb 25, 2016 21:00
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On further investigation, I was wrong on a detail: the Conan RPG very definitely does have a magic system available to characters. However, it's very Howardian/Lovecraftian in nature. Remains to be seen whether access to magic turns characters that have it into overpowered swiss army knives, but the descriptions suggest that sorcerers only ever have access to maybe a handful of spells, and that there's only one direct damage spell in the book - a horrifying, gruesome thing that likely does mental damage to everyone who witnisses it. Which seems about right, given it's modeled after a scene in a Conan story in which a dude rips out another dude's heart from across the room. Also, character generation is a system where you roll a bunch of dice and pick a bunch of things from tables, but explicitly, you're allowed and even encouraged to ignore any roll and just pick what you want. The "career" lifepath system from other Modiphius games is mostly eliminated, as an acknowledgement that in the Hyborian age, people generally don't go to school or have formalized careers as much. The comments discussed the concern for balance among choices, but the devs seem to at least be aware that choices need to be roughly equivalent to one another in terms of character power. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Feb 25, 2016 |
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Feb 25, 2016 21:05
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That Old Tree posted:??? poo poo, when did that happen? And how the gently caress can you make it about 20 discrete attributes when the core of the system was always multiple attributes contributing to each skill?
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Feb 25, 2016 22:29
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Leperflesh posted:On further investigation, I was wrong on a detail: the Conan RPG very definitely does have a magic system available to characters. However, it's very Howardian/Lovecraftian in nature. Remains to be seen whether access to magic turns characters that have it into overpowered swiss army knives, but the descriptions suggest that sorcerers only ever have access to maybe a handful of spells, and that there's only one direct damage spell in the book - a horrifying, gruesome thing that likely does mental damage to everyone who witnisses it. Just so you know your posts are not going into a vacuum, the extra stuff you dug up at least moved me from "no" to "remind me."
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Feb 25, 2016 22:34
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GaistHeidegger posted:Latest update from 7th Sea has what I feel is a pretty endearing aside from Wick about the project as a whole and has left me feeling reaffirmed enthusiasm for the whole thing. Good stuff!
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Feb 25, 2016 22:52
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Evil Mastermind posted:Holy crap a kickstarer launched for a new edition of Kult. I'd be curious but the PDF is the equivalent of $25 US, which is much too high for one sourcebook of a game I'm just curious about, and while that includes all the digital stretch goals so far they're all just "archetypes", which says "a few pages about a splat" to me.
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Feb 26, 2016 01:28
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dwarf74 posted:Yep, seems pretty humble, actually. Which is not what I always expect, but he seems to be taking the "boatloads of life-changing money" thing seriously. There seems to be a weird divide between 'oh you gave your character a family member they love WELL HEART ATTACK MUAHAHAHA I WIN DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS'' GM Wick and 'I have a job to do so I'm a professional rear end man' Wick. He still does dumb things at the latter like his scorpion waifu problems and all, but for the most part the dude, especially these days, seems to just want to be a professional who makes good poo poo and treats his fans well, and rock on for that.
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Feb 26, 2016 01:33
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Tell me about the scorpion waifu.
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Feb 26, 2016 02:15
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Okay.
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Feb 26, 2016 03:24
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That's a novel and a half, I ain't reading all that
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Feb 26, 2016 03:42
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boom boom boom posted:That's a novel and a half, I ain't reading all that tldr he wrote his self insert character having a scene of mild UST with a scorpion clan lady and then wrote about how it was like sex.
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Feb 26, 2016 03:44
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spectralent posted:tldr he wrote his self insert character having a scene of mild UST with a scorpion clan lady and then wrote about how it was like sex. And that Scorpion clan lady was based on an ex-girlfriend.
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Feb 26, 2016 03:45
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ok, Scorpion clan lady. Not an actual scorpion lady. I don't care anymore.
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Feb 26, 2016 03:47
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Yeah, that doesn't even come within a mile of creepy compared to Exalted.
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Feb 26, 2016 05:59
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Oh yea sorry she's just a normal lady in a clan called Scorpion. Like I said that kinda stuff is dumb but it's super minor 'lots of nerdlord game devs have done that' that doesn't take away from the fact that as an actual dev he's pretty solid and only has been getting better. It's just kinda weird to me that he spent a bit trying to sell stuff that boiled down to 'gently caress your players, lie cheat and steal to win D&D' when...none of his games actually reflected that kinda mindset.
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Feb 26, 2016 06:18
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Leperflesh posted:The writing is decent and feels like it's been playtested at least a bit, although I did catch one or two minor typos. I think I'm gonna pledge. gently caress it, sold.
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Feb 26, 2016 10:19
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I'm so tempted to pull the trigger on Villages of Valeria before it ends. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dailymagicgames/villages-of-valeria?ref=nav_search It seems to be a pretty well done tableu builder, but this would be the first time I kickstart something and I have no idea how shipping will work with regards to my country (Argentina). 
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Feb 26, 2016 11:04
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Azran posted:I'm so tempted to pull the trigger on Villages of Valeria before it ends. Well there's still a few days left, shoot a question to them through KS about it. If they've got any experience in that area and they're any good you should get a response back before the campaign ends.
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Feb 26, 2016 13:10
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