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Anything set in Classical Greece is post-post-post-apocalypse when you consider the scale of the civilizations destroyed during the Bronze Age Collapse Which, yes, could probably be blamed on the Mycenaean Greeks, the man wearing the hot dog suit saying "we're all looking for the Sea People that did this"
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# ? May 4, 2023 21:17 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 15:06 |
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Apocalypse is a matter of perspective anyway, the founding of one of the most powerful nations on Earth sure was pretty apocalyptic for the Native Americans who were already there
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# ? May 4, 2023 21:23 |
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I see people have come around to my point of “AW is secretly great for historicals”.
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# ? May 4, 2023 21:29 |
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One of my favorite RPG blogspots is actually a setting blog for a post-apocalyptic fantasy colonial 17th century America where an unspecified apocalypse caused the British Elves to back out completely from their colonizing plans, leaving the natives and remaining colonists to fend for themselves
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# ? May 4, 2023 21:37 |
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Youremother posted:One of my favorite RPG blogspots is actually a setting blog for a post-apocalyptic fantasy colonial 17th century America where an unspecified apocalypse caused the British Elves to back out completely from their colonizing plans, leaving the natives and remaining colonists to fend for themselves …would anyone care to join my new campaign? I’m calling it The Last of the Modri-hicans.
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# ? May 4, 2023 21:40 |
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Genshin Impact is post-post-apocalypse, time to whip up some gacha playbooks
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# ? May 4, 2023 21:55 |
I like games with heavy player influence on worldbuilding because I am a forever GM who is lazy and just wants somebody else to pitch in for once /s For real though, there's something genuinely magic about having the story be this ball of lightning hovering above the table rather than a peep show the players are getting glimpses of. Definitely my favourite part of RPGs.
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# ? May 4, 2023 22:40 |
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If I recall correctly, This Is Normal Now might be post-post-post-apocalypse.
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# ? May 4, 2023 22:56 |
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CitizenKeen posted:Fragged Empire is space opera. Post-post-apocalypse is just marketing. Come at me. Space opera has operatic scale. Fragged decidedly does not, there's support for maybe being 20 guys if every PC takes the Squad weapon, and space battles are 1v1 (although the enemy "1" might be a big squad that's part of an even bigger off-map squad, or a tiny part of a death star). Nobody is crashing giant LoGH fleets into each other.
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# ? May 5, 2023 00:34 |
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Is it even an apocalypse if there are survivors
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# ? May 5, 2023 01:40 |
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Apocalypse means revelation. It's not an apocalypse if there are no survivors
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# ? May 5, 2023 02:16 |
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Speaking of Gacha games, I think I’ll start a living as a professional DM by making my players roll 3d6 in order for their stats but offer reroll packs at 10/$5
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# ? May 5, 2023 02:31 |
CitizenKeen posted:The inverse is kind of my point: all space operas have an apocalypse somewhere in their background. Once you get into space, you've left "post-post-apocalypse" and are squarely in "space opera". This did make me think about the number of apocalypses in the Lensman books, although in the end things settle down, mostly because they hit most of the bad guys' command centers with things like extradimensional antimatter planets moving faster than light in opposite vectors hitting them from multiple angles, simultaneously.
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# ? May 5, 2023 06:31 |
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Pendragon is post-apocalyptic, change my mind
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# ? May 5, 2023 10:50 |
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Halloween Jack posted:Apocalypse means revelation. It's not an apocalypse if there are no survivors Learning Apocalypse and Calypso had the same root word blew my tiny mind when I learned that. I found it easier to understand it as an "unveiling" rather than revelation but they're essentially synonyms. Maybe I'm stupid but it never occurred to me.
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# ? May 5, 2023 11:15 |
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CitizenKeen posted:Also enjoying Horizon: Forbidden West. not that it's a particularly high bar, but it's stunning how well Horizon pulls off post-post-apocalypse so much better than Numenera
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# ? May 5, 2023 11:27 |
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whydirt posted:Speaking of Gacha games, I think I’ll start a living as a professional DM by making my players roll 3d6 in order for their stats but offer reroll packs at 10/$5 You could start everyone as a human commoner from a dirt farm, then at the end of every session they get a roll or two on the big table of races, (sub)classes and backgrounds. Or they can buy rolls.
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# ? May 5, 2023 12:12 |
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Halloween Jack posted:Let us know how that goes! I skimmed SHIVER and thought it was pretty interesting; it seemed like a general-purpose system more than a horror-specific thing. I ran it yesterday. I decided to run Corporate Risers, a zombie horror scenario from the core rulebook that's pretty similar in its premise to the first Resident Evil movie: an unethical corporation has a large underground complex where they do all sorts of ruh-roh research and the PCs are all losers who are stuck working on the bottom floor of the facility, where the useless but unfireable employees get shunted off to and forgotten. Then zombies happen and they have to fight their way to the surface. (I also generated some portraits for the pregen characters if anyone else decides to run it at some point.) I enjoyed the experience and I think the players did as well. SHIVER is a funky die system where the dice have symbols for the attributes your character has, and you roll dice pools trying to get one or more symbol for the stat you're rolling. There are some clever mechanics around the symbols and on the whole I thought the dice worked better than in, say, Genesys. As an example, Strange is a stat you roll when you make Fear checks or if your character has paranormal abilities and tries to use one, but it's also the stat that increases the DOOM CLOCK if you get any Strange symbols on the dice when you fail a check for any other stat. The Doom Clock is another interesting mechanic: it goes 0 to 60 and every time you fail and get Strange symbols, or when you fail a fear check, or when your Weird PC decides to use one of their unnatural abilities it ticks up, and on every 15 minute mark things escalate and get worse. There are seven Archetypes for players to choose from, one for each stat and the seventh for the all-rounder Talent die you might be able to roll if you're really good at something. They're all pretty fun and juicy, but they also demonstrate one of the limitations of the system - I would say the system is definitely geared more towards action horror rather than investigative horror like CoC, and the Archetypes and their abilities you can take when you level up definitely reflect this, and there's not a lot of dials in the system that you can tweak to change the game feel. Still, that's a big range of fun horror stories you can do in this system - slasher, zombies, scifi, classic monsters. I will also say that the new setting they released, where each Archetype is a classic monster type fighting evil in a cool fantasy setting, looks pretty dope. Finally, the Foundry is functional enough to have played this one-shot but it's like a 0.1 version so I probably won't be running any more of this in the near future until the VTT implementation gets stuff like rollable weapon rolls and Fear states automatically affecting the rolls, etc.
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# ? May 5, 2023 13:51 |
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whydirt posted:Speaking of Gacha games, I think I’ll start a living as a professional DM by making my players roll 3d6 in order for their stats but offer reroll packs at 10/$5 You need to offer a pity mechanic too. Every 90 rolls or so you get a free 18
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# ? May 5, 2023 15:27 |
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CitizenKeen posted:The inverse is kind of my point: all space operas have an apocalypse somewhere in their background. Once you get into space, you've left "post-post-apocalypse" and are squarely in "space opera".
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# ? May 5, 2023 15:42 |
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I think 100% of that is built into whatever version of Gamma World you want to use.Megazver posted:I ran it yesterday. What's the difference between the Fool and the Survivor, besides reliance on a particular stat? Seems weird. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 15:46 on May 5, 2023 |
# ? May 5, 2023 15:43 |
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Pieces of Peace posted:Space opera has operatic scale. Fragged decidedly does not, there's support for maybe being 20 guys if every PC takes the Squad weapon, and space battles are 1v1 (although the enemy "1" might be a big squad that's part of an even bigger off-map squad, or a tiny part of a death star). Nobody is crashing giant LoGH fleets into each other. I probably misused the term. I meant "space opera" to mean "science fiction in space with a starship filled with aliens having adventures on planets, probably space magic". Maybe I should have used space fantasy instead For me, once you're running around in spaceships you've left post-post-apocalypse. Otherwise virtually every space fantasy setting is post-post-apocalypse and the term is almost meaningless. gradenko_2000 posted:not that it's a particularly high bar, but it's stunning how well Horizon pulls off post-post-apocalypse so much better than Numenera Aboslutely. As a TTRPG GM / worldbuilder, I think Horizon is best-in-class for cultures that aren't just historical cultures with the serial numbers filed off. Numenera has space magic and different races, and Horizon has neither, and yet Horizon just feels so much bigger and more thought out.
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# ? May 5, 2023 16:14 |
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CitizenKeen posted:I probably misused the term. I meant "space opera" to mean "science fiction in space with a starship filled with aliens having adventures on planets, probably space magic". Maybe I should have used space fantasy instead I don't agree, but I get it. Personally, the thing that makes Fragged Empire a weird fit for post-post-apocalypse is that the apocalypse is on an interplanetary scale, which means things didn't fall as hard or as universally as they do in your average post-apocalypse. It just has a different feel. I'd still call the setting post-post-apocalyptic, though. Too much of the setting is focused on the fall of a percursor country that exists in historical records but not living memory and the various ways in which people have adapted in response to that fall to do anything else. It's not a perfect fit, but it's close enough.
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# ? May 5, 2023 16:35 |
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There are different kinds of post-apocalypse--in movies, the fundamental division is between dystopias (Escape from New York) and total civilizational collapse (Mad Max). Either way, there's the conscious knowledge that you're living in the ruins of something. The Dying Earth is post-apoc, Fragged Empire is post-apoc. Mystara and Greyhawk aren't really post-apoc, insofar as ordinary people in the setting don't think about crashed starships or remnants of ancient wizard empires on their way to the market.
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# ? May 5, 2023 17:09 |
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Alderman posted:Pendragon is post-apocalyptic, change my mind Fall of the Roman Empire is pretty apocalyptic for western Europe, and the fall of the kingdom of Camelot is usually portrayed as just as bad for the Isles, so yeah, that tracks.
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# ? May 5, 2023 17:16 |
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Halloween Jack posted:I think 100% of that is built into whatever version of Gamma World you want to use. Different Ability Trees and Backgrounds. The way Shiver does characters is you have an Archetype; Warrior (Combat Types), Maverick (Thieves and Sneaky types), Survivor (Stupidly hard to kill), Weird (Psychics, Mages, Cursed...), Socialite (Cheerleaders, Priests, other social types), Fool (Incredible Luck), and Scholar (Doctors, Researchers, Mechanics) and each Archetype has a different Stat Spread and Skill Bonus along with a set of Backgrounds they can choose. Then the GM decides the level the characters are going to start at, and that Level is the number of points you can use to buy abilities with going up the (generally) three different paths per archetype (a lot like a computer game method) Shiver has really some clever systems, like mechanically building in raising the stakes like a slasher/horror movie with a Doom Clock. It's a really cool game.
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# ? May 5, 2023 17:21 |
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CitizenKeen posted:Aboslutely. As a TTRPG GM / worldbuilder, I think Horizon is best-in-class for cultures that aren't just historical cultures with the serial numbers filed off. Numenera has space magic and different races, and Horizon has neither, and yet Horizon just feels so much bigger and more thought out. I feel like, when you really get down to it, Numenera isn't really even a constructed world so much as a bunch of disparate bits of spectacle haphazardly thrown together. There's some interesting ideas in there to crib, but they're not really fit together into any sort of cohesive whole. Just an entire world of "Over here there's a weird, ill-defined idea, and then over yonder is a completely different ill-defined, weird mystery that has nothing to do with the last one". It's all writing prompts with no connective tissue. I feel like it's also kind of a shame that the Horizon series keeps getting overshadowed by other, bigger releases that come out around the same time. As other people have said: I really like the worldbuilding of that series and love to see more science fantasy mash-up properties being released, but Forbidden West had the unfortunate luck of releasing at around the same time Elden Ring did and was subsequently completely overshadowed by it.
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# ? May 5, 2023 17:47 |
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goatface posted:You could start everyone as a human commoner from a dirt farm, then at the end of every session they get a roll or two on the big table of races, (sub)classes and backgrounds. Or they can buy rolls. maybe brainbroken but it sounds kind of interesting to have a game where all these parts of a character are randomly generated assuming it doesn't repeatedly cough up unplayable trash.
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# ? May 5, 2023 18:25 |
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KingKalamari posted:I feel like, when you really get down to it, Numenera isn't really even a constructed world so much as a bunch of disparate bits of spectacle haphazardly thrown together. There's some interesting ideas in there to crib, but they're not really fit together into any sort of cohesive whole. Just an entire world of "Over here there's a weird, ill-defined idea, and then over yonder is a completely different ill-defined, weird mystery that has nothing to do with the last one". It's all writing prompts with no connective tissue. Breath of the Wild, Elden Ring... I can't wait to see what comes out at the same time as Horizon 3. On tabletop note, another game that sums up post-post-apocalypse perfectly: The Wildsea.
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# ? May 5, 2023 18:33 |
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PurpleXVI posted:maybe brainbroken but it sounds kind of interesting to have a game where all these parts of a character are randomly generated assuming it doesn't repeatedly cough up unplayable trash. A lot of OSR is like this, to some extent. In Silent Titans, for example you roll you three 3d6 stats and your 1d6 HP and then you compare them to this charming, inventive table to get your character: You'll probably notice how worse stats and HP are compensated by what the character starts off like and with. I think it's very neat.
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# ? May 5, 2023 18:37 |
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CitizenKeen posted:Breath of the Wild, Elden Ring... I can't wait to see what comes out at the same time as Horizon 3. Horizon really deserves better, those games rule.
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# ? May 5, 2023 18:48 |
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Magical gear would obviously also be in the gacha bin. You won't get it when you draw it, you get the ability to use it should it ever show up in game.
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# ? May 5, 2023 19:10 |
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I played in D&D 3.5e campaign where the DM actually used the random treasure tables. It was horrible. Anybody want a +2 siangham and a brass mug?
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# ? May 5, 2023 20:05 |
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Halloween Jack posted:I played in D&D 3.5e campaign where the DM actually used the random treasure tables. It was horrible. Anybody want a +2 siangham and a brass mug? Random treasure tables are great. It’s interesting friction against people just having their optimal builds, and it’s good worldbuilding too.
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# ? May 6, 2023 00:19 |
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Capfalcon posted:Fall of the Roman Empire is pretty apocalyptic for western Europe, and the fall of the kingdom of Camelot is usually portrayed as just as bad for the Isles, so yeah, that tracks. Just the fading ('collapse' is too sudden a term) of Roman influence in Britain brought and end to a way of life that had been in place for what, about 400 years? That's pretty apocalyptic, and that's the context Arthur is emerging in in most versions of the story.
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# ? May 6, 2023 00:45 |
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evenworse username posted:Just the fading ('collapse' is too sudden a term) of Roman influence in Britain brought and end to a way of life that had been in place for what, about 400 years? Don't forget the Swamp Krauts that first came as mercenaries for the warlords intercine fights now beginning to take over the smaller kingdoms themselves.
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# ? May 6, 2023 01:22 |
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neonchameleon posted:So it is entirely possible to make your starting playbook, advance twice in another playbook, take three stat advances, and then change entirely to a different playbook. I just do not understand this criticism other than that yes if you want something outside the rules you need a new class. Personally I would have settled for the capacity to play Spike in a game of Buffy; instead of having The Vampire be specifically Edward Cullen. MH doesn't even focus on external threats in the rules and fiction examples in the book, it's pretty much all driven by PC vs. PC action. So if you are trying to build a Buffy or Teen Wolf style dynamic of internal group drama and external threats you are frankly better off looking elsewhere. Like at an actual Buffy RPG rather than a Twilight RPG, with The Chosen feeling awfully lonely with Moves focused on external threats more than manipulating the other PCs. Teen Wolf would be a nightmare to Run in MH, multiple werewolves who are none of the The Werewolf, and the only normal human is definitely not The Mortal. So , from what I gather from responses I got switching Playbooks is supposed to be a lot more casual than I got from reading Apocalypse World, Monster Hearts, Impulse Drive, or Masks. It seemed like it would involve major character shifts because so many details of personality and appearance are controlled by the Playbooks. At the end of the day, I just don't get the appeal of the strict adherence to the archetypes of Mad Max or Twilight. None of those archetypes speak to me or mean anything to me, so the notion of just replicating them in other stories leaves me confused to say the least. Servetus fucked around with this message at 16:03 on May 6, 2023 |
# ? May 6, 2023 16:00 |
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Arivia posted:Random treasure tables are great. It’s interesting friction against people just having their optimal builds, and it’s good worldbuilding too. They're interesting if they don't just produce +X gear. If they cough up utility items like Decanters of Endless Sand, Drums of Irresistible Breakdancing, Grappling Hooks of Magnetism and Swords of Swamp Power, then they're rad. But I was also thinking it'd be fun to have random level-ups, like in a 3.x-adjacent system where you aren't guaranteed a specific class pick every time you level up, giving you a grab-bag of odd abilities rather than a min-maxed mix or a pure development.
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# ? May 6, 2023 16:12 |
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Servetus posted:Personally I would have settled for the capacity to play Spike in a game of Buffy; instead of having The Vampire be specifically Edward Cullen. MH doesn't even focus on external threats in the rules and fiction examples in the book, it's pretty much all driven by PC vs. PC action. So if you are trying to build a Buffy or Teen Wolf style dynamic of internal group drama and external threats you are frankly better off looking elsewhere. Like at an actual Buffy RPG rather than a Twilight RPG, with The Chosen feeling awfully lonely with Moves focused on external threats more than manipulating the other PCs. Teen Wolf would be a nightmare to Run in MH, multiple werewolves who are none of the The Werewolf, and the only normal human is definitely not The Mortal. Yeah, sure, that's called taste though. They're games designed to make certain experiences, and they do them very well at the cost of being less good at other things. "This shovel isn't a very good screwdriver" isn't a particularly valid criticism in the context of discussing shovels. Any game that can do Twilight well and actually work with its themes shouldn't be able to do Buffy. Buffy is an entirely different kind of story that just happens to also contain vampires. Spike and Edward Cullen are incredibly different except they both happen to be called "vampires".
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# ? May 6, 2023 16:40 |
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# ? May 25, 2024 15:06 |
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If I wanted all my role-playing games to be universal I'd play gurps (derogatory)
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# ? May 6, 2023 17:54 |