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I have two questions for the thread, hopefully someone will have some way to help guide me into something fun. Firstly, I'm looking for a game with some sort of base or city building minigame (maybe a starship or space station?) with some mechanical benefits to improving it. I'm backing Flatpack on Kickstarter, but I'm not sure it's exactly what I'm after. The idea would be to have players recruit specialists and get buildings built. Flatpack covers those admirably, but I don't think it's really crunchy enough. It's also not nearly gritty enough, but the optimism is part of the charm, so that really can't be held against it. Also, we've basically proven that my gaming group really enjoys going head-to-head. 3:16 turned into a mutiny on an alien-infested space station ending with a dead Sergeant and we figured the best way for a player to leave our 4e game was trying to kill another player (his brother, specifically) and everyone loved it. I'm looking into Paranoia, since I think it's a PERFECT fit for these guys, in that it's not all that serious and encourages dickery and doubletalk. What other sorts of games encourage backstabbing or outright aggression and violence between players? If I could get both of these answered with the same game or a way to slot the base-building into Paranoia, I think that'd be the best thing ever. Or I could just say gently caress it and have us play Happy Birthday, Robot! I'm honestly a little afraid of what would happen if we did that, though. That would be a foul, awful story.
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Jan 18, 2012 05:28
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I've been trying to figure out how to turn Continuum into a fun, playable game. It's far too finicky and complicated RAW to really keep my attention. I feel like Span and Frag and the associated mechanics could be ported prettymuch wholesale, with a few minor things like adjusting what Frag does in terms of penalties. The system as-is really likes skills and I don't see a problem with that as long as the system I wind up with deals with them well, especially improving them. You don't usually need to track wealth at all, which is a plus. I'd like some crunch to the equipment, but ideally not too complicated. I'm sort of leaning FATE (why wouldn't I be for something like this?), but I'm not sure where to start or what things to pull from each current book. I definitely like Aspects for characters, with potentially a smaller number of stats, but more emphasis on skills. I like Strand's equipment having Aspects a lot, but I think the system overall is not the tool for the job. Maybe I'll just put it on the back burner again until Fate Core 3.0 comes out. I need to get things sorted for some Paranoia games anyway and the FATAL and Indie Games thread have me looking pretty hard at Mouse Guard. Anyone have any thoughts on how to do a fairly detailed time travel RPG? hectorgrey posted:The problem with 4e is more when the rangers aren't morphed. Besides, I've no idea how I'd use zords for that kind of game. Also, I'm one of those weird people who likes active defences and doesn't like class based systems very much. As to M&M, that's one of the True20 systems, isn't it? Check out Strands of FATE, it's got powers and such for shapeshifting. You get to shuffle your stats around, so you've got competent characters, and then you have a slightly more powerful form that you access with a Fate Point. Seems appropriate for a Power Rangers sort of game. This would also allow some customization in your players if they want to have their street-level characters good at things and have the rangers be tougher and faster and such. Shapeshifting with a limitation of needing a morpher or other gadget and only into a Ranger form is like 6 character generation points. They can then build martial artists, nerds, token minorities, what have you with advantages and differing skills. It's not perfect, but I'm sure you can find a way to make it work. Start at Metro class and see if that's enough to do the job. Only let players have super powers while Shapeshifted, maybe? Or just say gently caress it and just have two characters, one at say Hero level and a transformed Ranger character with most of the same abilities, but a few super powers starting at Metro Class like Super Strength and Super Agility. It also has pretty solid vehicle rules that I'm sure you could use for Zords.
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Feb 7, 2012 03:44
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CHaKKaWaKka posted:I'm looking for a system that can do pilots and their giant robots. I thought of using M&M but I ran a M&M game for about a year and now I just get instantly bored whenever I see a system that uses a d20 as its main thing. Is battletech a thing that would work? I've heard about it quite a bit but it seemed to be more of a wargame than a RPG, I think? Check out Remnants by Outrider Studios. Has a really cool setting and it's pretty rules-light. Even has rules for stunting for bonuses, which I quite like. Just a d6+Mods system for resolution, has a fair amount of customization, and seems like it should be pretty fun in practice. I can't recommend buying the hard copy, though. I ordered mine at the end of December and I still haven't seen it. They sent me a PDF copy of their other game once I sent my first email after 2 weeks, but the hardcopy still hasn't shown. Edit: It got caught up in customs. They're apparently switching to Drivethru's print service to avoid this sort of thing in the future. Echophonic fucked around with this message at 03:40 on Feb 17, 2012 |
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Feb 13, 2012 04:08
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Kemper Boyd posted:Dogs in the Vineyard to simulate brinksmanship. Don't know how'd it actually play out, but I like the idea. This is a really clever idea and I may have to steal it. Have your personal beliefs as usual and treat your platform as equipment and relationships with varying groups of constituents, other politicians, or PACs. Use the escalating combat rules to simulate more aggressive or negative campaigning or higher levels of corruption. Makes me want to try Transmetropolitan in it, actually. Hard-on for The Truth 2d8, Bowel Disruptor 2d6 anyone?
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Feb 22, 2012 02:34
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Strange Matter posted:I'd be interested to see that. Even if we don't end up using 4e, it would be cool to see how they approach it. There's also the Diaspora hack that I'm planning on using at some point. I feel you on the game, too. I want to tell some stories in the universe as a result since I doubt we'll be seeing any more good ones from Bioware. I'm also considering scoring the art book to give me some ideas, too. I'm also interested in that Gamma World hack, my group really enjoyed it.
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Mar 17, 2012 02:43
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From what I've read Stars is definitely more old-school inspired and crunchy. It also seems like it's more focused on exploration with the way it generates places to go. Diaspora is FATE and has a tighter focus on a much smaller system you generate a bit like a character (Fate Fractal, woo!), everyone gets input on what the cluster looks like. It's actually supposed to be the first session, chargen and system gen, not necessarily in that order. I haven't really read into either too much, but that's my quick-glance assessment.
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Mar 17, 2012 04:20
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saberwulf posted:I was stupid and forgot to mention in my post that my group is more story oriented, with less focus on combat. Combat (with weapons, at least) is absolutely discouraged in Unknown Armies. It's fast and deadly as hell and is not for any situation where someone/everyone dying isn't on the table. It much prefers investigation and exploration as a system, from my perspective on it.
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Jul 12, 2012 02:33
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There's always the Gumshoe system for that sort of thing. The systems that use it tend toward the supernatural, though. You'd probably want to check out Night's Black Agents for the whole "isolated spy" sort of game. I think the game would work just fine without the 'vampire' motif and keeping the huge conspiracy idea. Then again, AP is a game with a man who moves faster while he's on a shitload of cocaine, so maybe the supernatural bent isn't that off-base. Night's Black Agents also includes my favorite rule in any game: the Technothriller Monologue. If you're highly trained in Shooting, you can go all-out with the gunporn in your description of what you're doing in order to get a perk. Ever game needs Technothriller Monologue.
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Jan 27, 2013 06:11
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There IS an Apocalypse World hack for CthuluTech, if that's up your alley. http://www.scribd.com/collections/3035009/Aeon-World-a-Cthulhutech-Apocalypse-World-reskin
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Apr 1, 2013 04:13
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Lemony posted:So, I'm thinking of running a game set in the very early Victorian era where all the characters are gentleman adventurers and associated archetypes. Basically going for a game where the characters set off to deal with a man eating tiger that's halted the progress of a railway when suddenly they receive an invitation to a fancy ball from the governor's wife. It would be rude to refuse, so they divert to attend, only it turns out that a rival of theirs is also attending and they have to spend the evening being icily polite to one another, maybe getting into a duel over the treatment of a lady. Mostly I want to run things straight and semi serious, so a system that's tilted too heavily towards ADVENTURE! style play doesn't really interest me. Think more boy's adventure novel. A little over the top stuff is fine though, after all it is an adventure. I got pitched Castle Falkenstein in the chat thread. It may hit the points you want. It's steam tech (not all that over the top, I don't like steampunk very much and this is inoffensive) and magic in a Victorian era. Chargen seems simple enough, but I've just given it a skim, so I don't know how accurate that is. 3:16 is a fantastic game, though. One of my absolute favorites. Seeing it worked into a party situation would be hilarious. You have one guy working charm, one telling jokes to win people over, and another guy with a flamethrower.
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Apr 27, 2013 03:29
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Is there a good system for bullshit magical soccer or other sports in the vein of Inazuma Eleven or Shaolin Soccer? Something that does special move-based "this isn't even my final form" shonen nonsense would be perfect.
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Jul 7, 2013 05:22
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Fate Core sounds like it'd be a solid tool for that job. You'd also gain the ability to have players gain supernatural skills through the normal advancement. I do like the idea of 'pitch a historical game, horror out of nowhere', though. I think that'd be a lot of fun.
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Sep 19, 2013 16:05
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UnCO3 posted:For XCOM you could also use 3:16, tone down the alien-killing numbers and let the players vote between missions on engineering/scientific advances that give them better weapons, vehicles and equipment over time. This is really clever. I may have to use this idea sometime.
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Oct 15, 2013 17:15
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I've wanted to run a game of Microscope and use it as a jumping point for a bunch of one-shots for new systems (Torchbearer, FATE, Mutant City Blues, etc). It SOUNDS like a good idea, but I know in my heart that it's going to be a lot of work for little payoff.
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Dec 6, 2013 19:23
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Evil Mastermind posted:May I suggest Torchbearer? I'm not sure Torchbearer would be the best fit. It has that "you are going to die, over and over, in the rear end in a top hat of the world" feel that Dark Souls goes for, but I'm not sure how the skills or gear systems would work, thematically.
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Apr 16, 2014 17:29
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Actually, I think the combat is someplace where Torchbearer would fit for Dark Souls. It definitely would hit that 'gear matters' note pretty well, with how weapons interact with each other. The Burning Wheel combat system would actually hit the level of crunch I think you'd want. You could even script/flowchart out different enemies so players could learn them somewhat.
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Apr 17, 2014 00:06
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Gerbil_Pen posted:I want to start a space adventure (fantastical is OK, does not need to be hard sci fi) game for my small group, open-world sand-box style. My primary concern with picking a system is that I am terrified of working with something that is going to drown me in overly complex rules. I've looked ever-so-briefly at Diaspora (FATE), Transhuman Space (GURPS) and some other GURPS space set and ParaSpace. This sounds a lot like the game I put together for a short campaign. We used FATE Core for the nuts and bolts, but followed the system generation rules from Diaspora. Diaspora's system generation leads to some really kickass settings. I kind of wanted to hit a sort of Cowboy Bebop 'space western' sort of feel and we shook out a sort of gold rush-era sort of politics, with separatists, mining conglomerates, and 'big city' systems.
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Jul 7, 2014 01:44
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ibntumart posted:A fellow goon has a writeup of his group's experience running it: Hi, I'm that guy what with the post. I had a lot of fun running and doing prep for Monster of the Week, I think it actually helped me become a better GM since I'm I'm still new at the whole thing. I've only run it once, so I don't really know how campaign play works, but I feel like the game could really shine in a episodic format with arcing characters and plotlines, a la Fringe. This game is definitely on my list for any futher GMing in the near future, since my group has been talking about doing some one-shots and campaigns in various system. I think the playbooks are a lot more interesting than a bunch of the *World games. AW's are up there, too. They all do a pretty good job of leaving open-ended hooks for characters. Shame it didn't get the support that AW got, but the existing ones (including the promo ones) cover a pretty wide gamut. You definitely need to sit down and think about what each characters means for your game. We had a player drop in late with a Chosen with a crystal sword and it threw the mood a bit, since it was a pretty Fringe-y story up until that point, despite the luchador and his van with a giant devil on the side.
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Oct 14, 2014 22:03
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double nine posted:are there good rulesets/systems for creating fun universes? I'm not looking for a game to play, I just want to do some rulesbased world creation on my own? Diaspora's cluster generation is pretty good. My group had a lot of fun with that.
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Jan 23, 2015 21:31
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Is there a city equivalent to Diaspora's collaborative cluster generation? We used that for a campaign and I really liked it, but we've been talking about a near-future cyberpunk sort of thing and I was wondering if there's anything like that on a smaller scale, generating city districts and the like. I was hoping The Sprawl had something, but it doesn't seem that way.
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Apr 28, 2016 03:56
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Yeah, my group did Zeitgeist and I liked it a lot. Ended up accidentally making a character that fit the Epic plot perfectly.
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Jul 1, 2018 22:27
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poly and open-minded posted:Good tips everyone! I've decided to pivot and do something more common (an X-files esque type game except they work for a paramilitary wing of the IRS). Thanks This sounds like a job for either Monster of the Week (PBtA game about, uh, monster of the week TV shows, I did a Fringe knockoff that was pretty boss) or maybe even ExtraCausal which uses Trophy. Not incredibly familiar with the latter, but it's got a good style to it.
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Mar 16, 2021 02:59
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Rick posted:Oh I've heard some actual plays of this, it's sounds a lot of fun and is definitely the tone I'm going for.. Everyone already has characters which could be a problem, but this could be a potentially a funny twist that they all ended up voices in some guy's head. Turns out it's a REALLY small world.
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Feb 18, 2023 06:00
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