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theironjef posted:You're right there. If they hadn't hidden them behind a wall of "promise to tell a bunch of bad jokes" stuff I would have loved it to just have an extra ten points. Overall, I think we both came out more or less liking that book, despite a few 90s-y misgivings (the art, the relentless inclusion of template PCs, the merits/flaws) and of course we didn't like the tone. I'm not a Buffyverse expert (I've been watching it and I'm up to season 4) but the other guy has seen 'em all and knows the material. The book doesn't really reflect the tone of the show, it has a sort of ... trying too hard flair. We were big fans of the simplified enemy creation system and the clever model to create a game where playing Xander wouldn't be extremely terrible. Young Freud posted:I'd have to see which came first, but this sounds very awfully like how FATE handles disadvantages. quote:However, it used Value/Measures, so you would need to translate between a real-world measurement to find it's value. TORG is probably a cleaner example, since it used Values based off metric measurements instead of Imperial units like in Underground, which allows anyone to quickly remember a value without having to look at a chart, since it used a logarithm where every 5th Value would be x10 in Measures, so Value 10 is actually 100 m/kgs/anything in a real world count, or 20 is 10,000 and 30 is a million. TORG kinda blew it with how you actually rolled to get Values, since you would roll a d20, consult a chart, then add or subtract that cross-referenced number from your skill
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Apr 1, 2014 20:54
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theironjef posted:Gonna take that one as a challenge. Men in Black, going on the to-do list! Yes, moreso than Crash Course Manual. At least that book tried to take things in an interesting new direction. Whether it did it well is a whole different discussion, but at least it didn't ignore everything that made the setting fun in the first place.
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Apr 1, 2014 21:44
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theironjef posted:Here you go, goons. Episode 16 - Scion: Hero. You know, Part-Time Gods (which I reviewed back in the first thread) does handle the Plant powers/everybody else quite well by not tying powers to elements but instead letting you apply the generic power to an element. So if you want to get all Poison Ivy up ins, in PTG you just buy the "Animate" power and say it works on whatever it is you're the god of. (Plant gods in Scion don't get anything actually useful until 4 dots, and can't do anything Poison Ivy-ish until 9 dots out of 10.)
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Apr 9, 2014 21:04
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I surprised that nobody's linked the Ninja Burger commercial yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVVcYvMVkso
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Apr 20, 2014 21:15
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FMguru posted:It's approaching "The Japanese Ghost Story game about Japanese ghost stories" levels of redundancy and repetitiveness and redundancy. Speaking of which, has anyone ever done Kaiden: A Japanese Ghost Story for these threads? Because I feel like it should be done even if it's not utterly terrible.
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May 20, 2014 21:23
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Tough Love: I use PocketCasts, and never have a problem. I'm pretty sure you can search for the podcast name or just paste the XML feed link into it.
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Jun 18, 2014 03:12
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Bieeardo posted:I'll keep that in mind if I manage to find copies on the cheap, because whatever else I do think the concepts she's presenting are really nifty. I've got a copy of Nobilis 2e that I cracked open like twice. PM me if you're interested.
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Jun 18, 2014 15:59
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inklesspen posted:Currently I've got a database containing every post from all three threads as well as all the indexes Syrg Sapphire has so generously maintained on the wiki, and I can automatically keep this archive up to date going forward. There's also probably some way I can make the indexing job easier. Happy to talk about that too. Now the Rules Cyclopedia and TORG, on the other hand... (Man I need to get back into the writing groove)
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Jul 11, 2014 15:55
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The best thing about Alternity is that the four presented "power" types (cybernetics, superhacking, psionics, and mutations) map directly to the Galaxy Rangers.Halloween Jack posted:A lot of the games I've read about in this thread seem like they're crying out to be redone in a more narrative system, or at least a more focused one. Playing D&D 4th edition was a real eye-opener for me, because I later realized that it was very different from other games I had played that were similarly focused on combat, weapons, and a mission-oriented structure. It was different in that it was actually tactical. A lot of games I played in high school and college had a whole lot of rules devoted to combat, but they didn't contribute anything to gameplay except busywork. Well, most of the games we talk about in this thread were written in the mid-to-late 90's or early 00's. The idea of a game supporting a theme with anything outside of MORE NUMBERS hadn't really come up yet. Hell, most games didn't even like the idea of handwaving things (c.f Torg's "you can calculate how much damage the Death Star can do!") because the whole point of the rules was to simulate the game world's physics.
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Jul 24, 2014 15:49
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JamieTheD posted:Three of those I see, but Mutations? Wasn't the main dudebro's laser arm just... Well, a cybernetic arm? Ah, doesn't matter, all the mooks have 6/3/1 skills at shooting anyhoo. But y'know what? That's as good a segue as any to finish up the PHB with... The Vehicles and Starships chapter, yay! Goose was genetically modified, which is close enough to "mutation" for the game's purposes.
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Jul 24, 2014 18:31
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My personal favorite example of a licenced RPG completely missing the point mechanically was the Ghostbusters RPG, where the example of how to make skill checks was "let's say you wanted to eat a telephone". Of course, that had just as much to do with WEG not understanding what makes things funny, which killed a few of their game lines.
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Jul 24, 2014 23:57
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I think I talked about this a thread or two ago when we were discussing Paranoia 5th Edition, but when it got right down to it WEG's writers didn't see the difference between dark comedy, intelligent comedy, or slapstick. Everything got dumped into that category eventually. There's a Paranoia 5th module that I swear to god reads like an episode of Family Guy. unseenlibrarian posted:I can forgive the Ghostbusters RPG for a multitude of sins for basically being the game that invented Plot/Brownie/Drama/Hero etc etc points as a -thing-.
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Jul 25, 2014 00:17
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FMguru posted:Paranoia 1E/2E modules from the 1980s are some of the most brilliant comedy RPG writing this hobby has ever seen. theironjef posted:Ray Stantz, being targeted by a ghost that fails to slime him but rolls a ghost die in the failure, gets slimed anyway, flies out a window, bounces off an awning, then another, flies through a window, and lands in the hot tub of a linebacker, frightening off his date. It is implied that he then gets beaten up. It really is the cartoon, only with less Slimer. The Brownie Points were a decent mechanic, though they were sort of awkward to use (the book seemed to emphasize using them to bargain down the penalties of being seriously wounded), and that Ghost Die did nothing but gently caress up the players. It was literally just a big ol' gently caress you mechanic that the players had to roll, every single time.
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Jul 25, 2014 00:30
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Asimo posted:I will never get the love for WEG that still lingers in the RPG community. Having played a lot of them back when they were contemporary, their games were always horrible. I guess a slick presentation, excellent presentation, and big-name licenses go a long way. Of course, when they lost the Star Wars licence and all the good Paranoia writers left, that's when things started falling apart. JamieTheD posted:Except that FATE is a generic system. PDQ is a generic system. Savage Worlds, while intended for a genre, is still a generic system. Unisystem, GURPS 4th... While designers have learned how to do thematic gaming better, it is nowhere near true that "generic" systems have undergone a downfall... If anything, they've had an upturn.
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Jul 25, 2014 14:27
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kaynorr posted:They've tried to change that in the last few years with the Dungeon Fantasy and Monster Hunter lines, which are roughly analogous to buying a LEGO kit that you can make into an X-Wing or a Camaro or what-have-you. It's a valiant effort, but doesn't really play to GURPS' strengths which are largely in insanely flexible character creation. Infinite Worlds or Transhuman Space did far better jobs of that, but just didn't sell enough. Man I thought that was about the Capcom Monster Hunter games and I got all excited. 
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Jul 25, 2014 17:11
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kaynorr posted:You could probably do Capcom Monster Hunter without too much effort, because close-range melee/ranged combat with lowtech weapons is one of those things that GURPS does really well. The only real jarring part is that like most tabletop RPGs the numbers don't get really big, so you can't slowly whittle down the health of a giant bag of hitpoints. It would be about avoid attacks and making a lot of low-chance hits until someone gets lucky. Another of GURPS virtues is that a single hit can have a lot of knock on effects such as shock, knockdown, limb crippling, etc. - so the nature of the fight slowly changes as you make significant hits. Yeah, but for real MH goodness you need to have some sort of mechanics for carving mosnters and turning them into gear. And possibly a little town management on the side.
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Jul 25, 2014 17:34
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FMguru posted:Note that the "sense of entitlement" he's railing against is "an expectation of something in return for the $50 I ponied up a year ago, even if it's only an honest explanation of why I haven't gotten anything yet." At least we still have GMS championing that stance.
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Jul 25, 2014 18:42
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You forgot that you're supposed to play yourself as a reawakening Immortal.
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Jul 30, 2014 05:29
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While I fully admit I am ridiculously behind on the Torg megareview, I do want to point out that it looks like all the Torg books are available on DriveThru now, with the news that "there will be new Torg titles forthcoming in 2015", whatever that means (please be a new game line). e: Gah, looks like it's a bunch off stuff except the core cosm books. What's the point of that? 
Evil Mastermind fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Jul 31, 2014 |
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Jul 31, 2014 20:41
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:I have all of those in hard copy. Yeah, I have all the cosm books, plus the three "sub-cosm". None of the adventures, though, because they were all garbage.
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Aug 1, 2014 23:11
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theironjef posted:
Haven't listened to this one yet (I'm behind on both the podcast and the thread in general), but man I love Car Wars. The little plastic box basic set was one of the first games I ever bought, and me and my friends used to build cars during our classes in middle school. I still have the Autoduel box set that came with the boat rules, and the first two Uncle Al's catalogs. The catalogs are great; they're like the Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog of insane car-mounted weapons.
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Sep 5, 2014 16:22
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theironjef posted:Spoiler alert: We found it rich with overly complicated rules, but also rich in dumb charm. quote:Though after getting terse comments from both Car Wars and Tales from the Floating Vagabond creators, I'm eager to go hunting for even testier whales in the RPG seas. I wonder if we can lure Simbieda out of his cave with a pissy review of Palladium Fantasy 1st edition, or Macross. I'll never understand why people who can't handle people being negative about their games putting out stuff to the public, some of whom will be negative about their game.
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Sep 5, 2014 16:50
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FMguru posted:Car Wars is a very 1980 design. Oh god, you're right...I was in middle school, it had to be the mid-to-late-80's. I'm old.
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Sep 5, 2014 19:01
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Stop making me feel old! (The one I first bought was indeed the pocket box version, so about 1982 or so.)
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Sep 5, 2014 19:12
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Ratpick posted:Alternately I'd go with the Watchful Golem route of a character obsessed with another character (because that character reminds the Ghoul of the warmth of life and love and poo poo) in a really creepy fashion. Again, it's creepy and unsympathetic, but it's a relatable kind of unsympathetic, and one that lends itself to more nuanced drama than "My character is a murderous cannibal." I do wish there was a Golem playbook based around being laser-focused on one particular person; the Ghoul and Hollow get close but I feel like their other moves and such get in the way.
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Sep 20, 2014 19:20
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Paizo's having a big sale on a bunch of old and out-of-print stuff. There's a lot of Ars Magica, Over the Edge, and, most importantly: Nexus Live Action Roleplaying.
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Oct 2, 2014 20:19
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theironjef posted:10 bucks? We got that for 3. We just need 44 copies and we can run that game. Well, copies for 44 players. You'd also need three more GM and some
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Oct 2, 2014 21:31
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The big problem with DH's math is that it's built with the assumption that you're going to be doing the minor actions that give you bonuses to hit, like aiming, taking cover, and so on. Thankfully, they fixed that in RT, but it's still a pain in the rear end because if you're expected to always take time to aim, why not just increase the base weapon skill?
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Oct 10, 2014 04:17
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Plague of Hats posted:I like the FFG 40k games well enough. I think the worst part are the weapon and critical tables, though, which is kind of a huge deal for this type of game. They're fiddly enough you can't memorize them easily unless you're a freak like me, but they're small enough that they can start to feel pretty samey after only a couple months of gaming. It's at least not a deal breaker level of problem. I dunno, I think the psyker fumble tables are pretty fun.
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Oct 10, 2014 04:23
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Kai Tave posted:Well I suppose you could argue that as a character rises in personal skill and capability that it gives them more of an opportunity to say "screw carefully aiming and single-shotting all the time, I need to move over thataway and shoot as many rounds as I can at that rear end in a top hat" and still maintain a reasonable chance for success. Though that players and group are likely to consider a reasonable chance for success is one of those things where you ask ten different people and get eleven different answers. Well, given the core idea is that you're supposed to be an Inquisitor's elite (or at least on the fast track), it's pretty embarrassing to keep missing early on.
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Oct 10, 2014 05:53
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Kai Tave posted:Also, characters always seeming to fumble and fail all the time seems to be an issue with d100 systems in general where there's no bell curve and even an expert doctor with Surgery 80% is still cutting the wrong leg off one time in five whenever he has to roll for it. It's amazing. I've played 40k RPGs like five times and I've never seen so many 90+'s rolled in my life. It's like our dice knew.
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Oct 10, 2014 14:29
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theironjef posted:Haven ...City of Violence.
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Oct 11, 2014 06:09
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Midjack posted:For any game, has there ever been a game or supplement focused on love/romance/sex that hasn't been completely loving terrible? Apocalypse World, because it deals with sex as just "when two characters have sex, here's how it affects their relationship". Likewise Monsterhearts.
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Oct 11, 2014 17:51
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Tsilkani posted:You guys need to find a copy of SenZar and review that. It's supposed to be even crazier than Synnibarr. I actually own a copy of SenZar that I managed to get at a reasonable proce. It is nothing but walls of text. I really want a copy of original Synnibarr to place next to it.
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Nov 13, 2014 16:30
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First. I want the original undistilled crazy.
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Nov 13, 2014 17:27
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Flavivirus posted:I remember when I took over managing the local university rpg society's book archive there was a copy of The Autumn People there, in perfect condition. The weirdest thing was how high quality the production values on the book are - glossy pages, full colour throughout, quite a bit of art. Was that common for oWoD books? Not for oWoD books in general, but for Changeling they did every book as full-color glossy. They sunk a shitton of money into that line (remember the CCG?) but I doubt they got that much of a return on their investment.
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Nov 14, 2014 17:42
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Night10194 posted:Every single time they try to make a Hunter type character a villain in White Wolf games, they almost always seem to come off as the hero. That police officer is the actual protagonist, these loving faeries need to get brained. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1VxaMEjRU
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Nov 14, 2014 23:10
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It's interesting to note that the Barbarian for DW lets you swap a d6 for a d8, but only under specific circumstances, and with a risk of more danger.quote:Herculean Appetites The Giant, meanwhile, don't seem to have anywhere near as much risk while at the same time having no thematic reason for the die boosts. Near as I can tell, only one of the Giant's drawbacks would have an immediate effect on things (hurting someone). Breaking something has a good chance of just being thematic, and "terrified" doesn't mean much if people don't have a way to take advantage of it.
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Nov 27, 2014 17:52
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Wick used to be known as a killer GM, running Call of Cthulhu, but eventually he got sick of mulching character sheets. So he took up Champions, vowing never to kill characters. Of course, he still took characters out of the picture all the time, pointing the finger at the players for giving up. So he's the emotionally abusive boyfriend of GMs? "Baby, why you make me got to hit you?"
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Dec 3, 2014 02:38
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Alien Rope Burn posted:32 hours Hahaha ffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck this guy.
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Dec 3, 2014 05:31
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