Modiphius 2d20: this thread's momentum is doomed

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Modiphius 2d20: this thread's momentum is doomed

Tsilkani: Jul 28, 2013

Also, if you're interested in playing or running a Klingon game, the Klingon core rules version is real good.

# ¿ Nov 20, 2020 23:51

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 05:07

Tsilkani: Jul 28, 2013

aldantefax posted:

I got the Infinity RPG stuff and was somewhat bummed that it does not really map its rules to the parent franchise game, but it is not a big deal. The setting is ripe for mining, and the accessories that they put out with the whole Wilderness of Mirrors thing is the kind of stuff you'd put for a game where you have a group really comfortable with hidden role shenanigans. It would be a good idea to warm them up to it with a few rounds of Werewolf, Secret Hitler, or Coup.

The setting info is pretty good and also would serve as a good stand-in for LANCER's core setting if you want another "core worlds post-scarcity but outside of that Money and Tech Rule Everything" kind of deal.

I'm curious how you think the RPG could (or should) be more like the minis game.

I do not know if I could pull of an actual Wilderness of Mirrors campaign, but happily the game seems to support unified parties just fine. And I really do like the campaign setting. Some of the choices are a little goofy, but I'll extend at least a little respect to anyone who will resist the urge to make Muslims screaming barbarians.

aldantefax posted:

Conan's deal could best be demonstrated by using one of the Kickstarter boardgame maps of yesteryear, but having zones be like voronoi polygons is an interesting way of doing things.

The Conan boardgame tiles being perfectly compatible with the RPGs method of tracking battlefields was a nice bonus. I wish there were more tiles like that suitable for Infinity/Mutant Chronicles.

aldantefax posted:

Momentum is kind of a neat mechanic that I think serves Modi's games really well. I'm just not sure if I'll ever get the chance to actually play them online or in person, since they a little fiddly with their general approaches.

I'm in a Conan game right now on Roll20, and it works out pretty well. The premade sheet required a little fettling to work, but it does all the dice rolling needed, and the GM just has a momentum tracker on the battlemap.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2021 17:21

Tsilkani: Jul 28, 2013

aldantefax posted:

The main difference in Infinty RPG vs. Infinity N3, N4 etc. appears to be the action economy and action type. ARO is one of Infinity's core mechanics and to see it not really re-implemented (since momentum takes its place) generally means you have a game that is aesthetically the same but mechanically very different. Compare and contrast with, say, Iron Kingdoms RPG (1e and 2e) vs. Warmachine, where both things were clearly different interpretations of source aesthetic but had mechanical similarities to one another using Warmachine as its primary basis.

For Infinity RPG it also has "multiple combat modes" because you can do hacking, social, physical attacks to make the game more dynamic and flowing. I don't think (not super familiar, anyway) there are rules in Infinity N3 or N4 where you can hurl insults and make the opposition feel bad and they'll take enough self esteem damage to peace out of a tactical encounter.

Also, due to the eschewing of most of the rules that have to do with tactical miniatures combat in favor of a more cinematic rolling momentum-oriented scene to scene affair, each scene might have the same level of narrative impact but less on the tactical rigor portion, which is also kind of the point - Modi games want to be fluid situations that has a tug of war kind of thing going on, but in the "Modiphius" way.

Summary of what I think might be interesting to put in comes down to optional rules for tactical map engagement with ARO as a combat mode to use all the cool Infinity RPG minis, or even a nod in the rules to integrate Infinity RPG with Infinity N3 or N4.

Maybe they're more similar than it seems from reading through both rulesets in parallel, but the local Infinity group (and the Infinity RPG Discord) tend to see the divide in rulesets as also something where there's a missed opportunity in these aspects.

You can do most AROs with the various Reaction options. Dodge, attack back, hack the attacker, etc. Certain equipment can also simulate stuff like Kinematika.

The social stuff is an addon, sure, but I'd rather have it added in and be available than be left out to hew closer to the minis game.

You can still do pretty tactical combat, you're just breaking everything up into zones rather than measuring out by inches. I do think they need to make more zone maps available for people who don't want to draw it all out themselves, but I think it handles much better than, say, Iron Kingdoms, where you had to measure distance for everything just like in the minis game, which could slow stuff down.

I got into N3 first and bought into the RPG because of that, and I think it does a great job of feeling like the minis game while allowing the freedom needed as an RPG. I'd actually be upset if the RPG said to just go play the minis game every time combat happened. The old mechwarrior RPGs did that, and it was an incredible letdown. I grabbed the RPG because I want to have fun in the setting without having to resort to breaking out the minis game, you know?

# ¿ Jan 7, 2021 19:57

Tsilkani: Jul 28, 2013

Red Shoe posted:

After wrapping up our last campaign, my group was looking to play some sci fi and decided on Infinity after reviewing a handful of options. I have done a game with Infinity 2d20 before and ended up with mixed impressions of the system. I have made a few tweaks to smooth out the previous friction points but character creation is a complete mess and I think it deserves a ground-up rework. Besides actively resisting the player's attempt to implement a specific character concept, the resource used to guide decisions is valued extremely inconsistently. For instance, a life point to pick a youth event which probably has zero mechanical effect can also be used to buy an additional career which comes with 5 skill-ups and a handful of gear. One player rolled the "Chinese Curse" career event twice for the same career (1/3600 chance) which meant they had to roll a total of 6 times on the career events table for a single career, after which they were so tired of the process they didn't want to bother spending life points on additional careers and associated bookkeeping.

I also ended up doing an on-the-fly handwaving of the special "faction career" requirements after multiple players protested that they wanted them in their character backgrounds but didn't want to pay a premium for a nominal mechanical benefit.

Anyway, every player survived (one character died) that process and we are all looking forward to starting the game itself next time. Do the other 2d20s use a randomized character generation process or is that just Infinity?

The random character process is great fun, and works pretty well for the regular group conceit the game uses (you are all people from wildly different nations working together for the Space UN black ops, and possibly working at cross purposes), but if you're wanting to run a single nation game, or some other tight theme, some fiddling will be necessary.

Mutant Chronicles and Conan also have random character gen.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2022 23:13

Tsilkani: Jul 28, 2013

CitizenKeen posted:

There's one more book in the line promised by the Kickstarter. I suspect Modiphius will be done then. I wonder if they're actually making money on Infinity, or they're just fulfilling a Kickstarter obligation gone slightly awry.

What book is being waited on? As far as I know the line is done with the last shipment they sent out last year, and the beast is finally done, years overdue. I highly doubt they're going to make anything more for it.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2023 21:39

Tsilkani: Jul 28, 2013

Leperflesh posted:

I'm gonna say if you and your whole group are unfamiliar with the game, you could just use the core rulebook. Each of what I'll call the "themed supplements" below add a gazeteer style overview of an additional region on the map, some character options set to a particular theme, and some GM resources for running adventures and various enemies for that theme/region. If your group can choose a theme, it can make sense to add in the rules from that book. For example, Conan the Pirate obviously adds some nautical-themed stuff: character archetypes, castes, talents, stories, gear, sorceries. And then it also adds stuff for the GM: some events, encounters, enemies, some rules for pirate organizations, some rules for ship combat, carousing events, and so forth. If your players want a piracy campaign, definitely use it; if they just want to go on a sailing trip as one game night of a campaign, use it as a GM resource. If one player in a game not about piracy/sailing wants to have a sailorish background, you could borrow an archetype from the book and ignore the rest... but also they could just play a Pirate out of the core book and call it a day. Do that to avoid having more books you might need to bust out and reference in the middle of a game night. This generally applies to all of these themed supplements. There's ten archetypes in the core book and along with all the background and skill and talent options you already have quite a lot of flexibility to sink your teeth into as a gaming group.

I made a big mistake when I ran my PbP game here on SA and just told the players to use all the expansions available in the character builder. It made for some excessively random stuff across the party, too many references for me to look up and figure out what the hell the characters even were, and no cohesive theme.

The themed supplements are:

Conan the Adventurer - The "not-Africa" regions south of the Styx, including Stygia. Archetypes include a sort of generic "adventurer", and some culturally-themed ones I feel are pretty interesting like Griot and Witch-Finder. This supplement is trying hard not to just be "Conan, but black people" and I think it mostly succeeds but I'm not really qualified to judge. This book focuses more on setting info than providing new mechanics the way some of the other themed supplements.

Conan the Barbarian - the frozen north, including cimmeria and nordheim. A system for raids, barbaric carousing, berzerking, being part of a tribe. Bard, Hunter, Raider, Slaver. If you have a whole party who all want to be Conans, use this book.

Conan the Brigand - sort of not-persia/mongolia? Steppe horsepeople. Raiding and plundering rules. Desert nomad camp stuff. Archetypes are Entertainer, Merchant, Torturer, and "Kozak" which is a special type of uh, brigand.

Conan the King - Aquilonia. Courtly intrigue! Titles and holdings. Rules for creating factions and letting them struggle (led or influenced by the PCs!). Of all these supplements this one is the most "different' I'd say - the archetypes (Courtier, Healer, Knight, Minstrel, Noble) could work in any game but I would not use any of these special rules unless you're specifically running a game that fits this theme, and if you are, you should really focus on it. I really like this supplement though.

Conan the Mercenary - the warring kingdoms and city-states of not-arabian/greece or maybe Italy I guess? This book is all about being a sell-sword and fighting in little wars. Archetypes include Captain, Messenger, Champion, Veteran, and Unseasoned Youth (lol). Rules for mercenary companies, sieges, camp followers, and running a large-scale battle.

Conan the Pirate - yo ho yo ho etc. etc. The coastal kingdoms of not-Italy (Argos), Stygia (again!), Shem, etc. I described this book above. Similar to Conan the King I think you would pull this book out if you want to do sea battles and poo poo and if you're adventuring inland you should mostly ignore it, although as a location sourcebook you might still want to reference the stuff about Shem or something.

Conan the Scout - Wilderness Adventures, But Conan. Jungle & forest adventures, including the Pictish wilderness. Archetypes are Explorer, Missionary, Scout, and Trader. Stealth, survival, animal handling talents. Rules for generating a border kingdom, which you could probably use or adapt to a different adventure or campaign if you wanted.

Conan the Thief - Stealing poo poo, The Game. Zamora, Corinthia, Nemedia, Brythunia - you know, the lands of the thieves or whatever. Archetypes include assasin, spy, fence, relic hunter, master thief. Rules for thieves guilds and how to run heists. A heist generator!

Conan the Wanderer - Oriental Adventures, But Conan. Not-Iran, not-India, and not-China. As with Conan the Adventurer, there's been at least a pass at cultural sensitivity here, and some success at moving past Howard's dip into mysterious orientalism, but I'm not the one to judge success. Horse nomads, ancient jeweled courts. Castes. Archetypes are Court Official, Beggar, Emissary, Horse Nomad, Mystic, and Vagabond. I feel like you could use these in any adventure. This book seems light on extra mechanics for the GM.

These two technically are intended to be played in a modified setting:

Conan the Exiles Sourcebook and Kull of Atlantis

Exiles is based on the video game, providing the familiar structure of character options and GM stuff drawn from that setting, and Kull is for adventuring in the age before the one Conan lives in. In both cases you absolutely can bring the character archetypes and at least some of the setting info into a regular Conan game, so you don't have to intentionally avoid them or anything, but they don't really fit the "thematic" pattern of the other Conan the X books, but some of the character stories won't make sense in a regular game, the setting info isn't useful otherwise, etc. so I'd just avoid these unless you're short on ideas and want to mine them for a few. Or if you just want to run a game in ancient Atlantis!

There's also some supplements that are generally more focused on giving the GM options:

Ancient Ruins & Cursed Cities - an adventure resource for uh, ancient... ruins, and cities that have been cursed. Conan: Indiana Jones Edition. Some detailed locations, a ruins generation system, enemies, some rules for like dodging traps, some loot, and a treasure horde generation system.

Horrors of the Hyborian Age - Mostly a monster manual, but also adds beast and beastmaster archetypes for PCs that you could use in most any of the above settings/themes.

Jeweled Thrones of the Earth - Six full adventures that can be joined into a campaign or run individually, plus a bunch of mini adventure seeds.

Nameless Cults - basically Deites & Demigods but for Conan; really useful sourcebook to use as a reference for a particular nasty otherworldly foe or influencer, to help PCs who are like priests with details about their god, etc. also adds some cult-themed archetypes for PCs. Regardless of what theme you're running this can be a useful book to pull out to add some texture and flavor. I used it to help explain to PCs what's going on with the whole tension between Mitra and Set, for example.

Shining Kingdoms - kind of a mini adventure pack, with three short modules of stuff you could use to fill a game night or two on short notice. I haven't read it.

The Book of Skelos - a sorcery expansion that provides a lot of additional stuff for PCs, refines and adds ot the sorcery rules, etc. and I'd say to not use it right away until the players and you are solid on how sorcery works from just the base book. But once they've got that down, you could do a deep dive and there's a lot of stuff here that improves sorcery. Sorcery in Conan is very different from magic in D&D, and that makes it quite interesting. It also destroys characters, inevitably, so if you want a game to play more like Call of Cthulhu this could be a good way to get your whole party thematically oriented that way.

Treasure House of Jaizin Kaa - a standalone adventure, intended to be run for characters built with Conan the Thief. It's a heist. Coool. I haven't read it but it looks fun to me.

And lastly there's the Players Guide, which I honestly haven't bothered to thumb through but on a glance I'm pretty sure it's just excerpted rules for players so they don't have to buy the whole main book if they aren't going to GM.

This is a late response to this summary (which is really good), but one thing you might find useful in the Conan the Exiles Sourcebook even if you're not using that setting is that it has expansive rules for crafting buildings and settlements that could be useful for any sort of campaign where you grow beyond simple wanderers.

# ¿ May 4, 2023 20:32

Tsilkani: Jul 28, 2013

Sure, go ahead. There's also some stuff in there about map exploration and survival rules... basically everything you'd need to do a Westmarches hexcrawl in Conan.

# ¿ May 4, 2023 20:41

Tsilkani: Jul 28, 2013

Ammo being a constant concern has been in every Fallout, I'm not sure why you think that's 4-specific.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2024 16:48

Tsilkani: Jul 28, 2013

There are some games out there where detailed resource tracking works for the setting, and I think post-apoc is one of them. We already have plenty of more fast and loose PA games out there, I don't mind Fallout being crunchier.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2024 20:07

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 05:07

Tsilkani: Jul 28, 2013

Leperflesh posted:

One thing that a number of RPG publishers have figured out over the year is that spending money on editing does not result in increased sales. Spending money on art and licensing does.

I have the entire Infinity collection, and you can practically see the life leave the editor's eyes as you get to the end of the line.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2024 21:01

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