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TurninTrix posted:Bluh, not feeling Fate either. I don't own them so I can't give details, but apparently there are these cool new Star Wars games out (we've got a thread for them). If the setting is handled anything like the computer games, it's already got systems in place for different races, different "classes", medieval weapons and armor, something close enough to magic, and hi-tech equipment and spaceships. A little bit of reskinning might make it go your way. I doubt it plays anything like D&D, though.
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Jan 13, 2015 12:13
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TurninTrix posted:Bluh, not feeling Fate either. Savage Worlds has a setting called Evernight which is basically sci-fi aliens invade a fantasy world. You could easily file the numbers off of it.
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Jan 13, 2015 12:32
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TurninTrix posted:Bluh, not feeling Fate either.  Or Tékumel or Jorune. Actually, isn't this basically Numenera? I'm not as familiar with that one.
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Jan 13, 2015 13:28
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Kai Tave posted:FantasyCraft is a very solid game, certainly much moreso than the D&D it's based on, but you have to really, really, really be in the market for "like 3.X, but better, but also approximately 1.5 times as fiddly and with interlocking parts and modifiers and flipping back and forth between chapters to figure out how it all fits together." It's a lot less fiddly in my opinion after running it for years - it just seems like it because it shifts the mechanical weight of the game towards the player end and not the GM end. So player characters get a lot more powers, but things like the magic system, magic items, combat, terrain & environment rules, monster statblocks - all of that is simpler. (Some stuff, like conditions and damage, are more complex, mind.) And the kicker is that PCs tend to be more complex... except for spellcasters, which are actually a lot less complex... though still pretty complex, it's not the 150+ pages of magic rules Pathfinder contains. Not that I'd necessarily recommend it, you very much have to want "D&D 3e revised with an eye for actual design", but unlike Pathfinder, it's not a game that feels it is necessary to have rules for berms. (Pathfinder has rules for berms, for those who have a greater need for detailed berm simulation.)
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Jan 13, 2015 14:36
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Rockopolis posted:Sounds like Synnibarr? It's not a new idea, see Gene Wolfe's The Shadow of the Torturer from 1980, just to mention one of the more influential books in that regard.
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Jan 13, 2015 14:41
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Siivola posted:Just play Atomic Robo, but rename the modes Fighting-Person, Magic-User, Cleric and Thief. The Fate Freeport Companion actually has a reasonably good take on "play D&D in FATE" already. Although it's Fate Accelerated rather than Core. The D20 abilities are represented as approaches. Things like classes and races are just handled with aspects (you can be an elf without a related aspect -- what the aspect signals is that you want your race to be important to the game rather than just a thing). Spells are just a couple extra stunts some people have. I remember liking it last time I read the thing. Edit: It claims to be Fate Core if you go to the product description, but it's literally just lying to you -- it's FAE. Gazetteer fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 15:22
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There's also Dying Earth and Shannara. The former is our world in the not too distant future where humans have unlocked reality hacking through memorizing mathematical formulae (i.e. Vancian magic) and the latter is our world in the not too distant future centuries after a nuclear war wiped out all of human society which has now been rebuilt in a medieval feudal style and also there's magic and elves and poo poo. On the video game side we've got Phantasy Star and the aforementioned Might & Magic series. Hell, even early D&D flirted with science fantasy with Expedition to Barrier Peaks and poo poo. The idea that a by-the-numbers fantasy setting could just be a sci-fi setting where the locals can't tell the difference between super science and magic isn't all that novel. Another example comes to mind: even though GW keeps Warhammer Fantasy and 40k pretty much separated fluffwise these days, at one point you could easily read Warhammer Fantasy being just another planet in the 40k universe where the influence of Chaos has resulted in a world that looks like a traditional fantasy setting.
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Jan 13, 2015 15:27
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Basically there's no reason to play D&D anymore because there's tons of better options out there.
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Jan 13, 2015 15:34
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TurninTrix posted:Just had a dumb idea of doing a DnD campaign set in superficially fantasy world that's actually a ruined worldship in space Arthur Clark'd with high-tech artifacts and nanotechnology for spells. Or Might and Magic, basically. Beyond the great suggestions already made, take a look at Metamorphosis Alpha. It just has a dash of science fantasy but it's cool because it's indeed a worldship. Also, the CRPG series Wizardry is in that style of 80s science fantasy as well. Evil Mastermind posted:Basically there's no reason to play D&D anymore because there's tons of better options out there. That's a bit of an overstatement, unless you're saying specifically don't play 5e, which is a position I agree with but I've seen a lot of "Don't play any permutation of D&D because Dungeon World" posts out in the wild. Lightning Lord fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 15:40
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Lightning Lord posted:Beyond the great suggestions already made, take a look at Metamorphosis Alpha. It just has a dash of science fantasy but it's cool because it's indeed a worldship. Also, the CRPG series Wizardry is in that style of 80s science fantasy as well. Oh yeah, Wizardry, that's another one I forgot! And yeah, even as a fan of DW I don't see it as a panacea to all the problems people might have with D&D. It's good for satisfying a type of playstyle some people (myself included) might want out of D&D, but because D&D is such an amorphous game there's no single playstyle you can identify as being the D&D playstyle. To some it means fantasy Vietnam where you have to earn your fun, to some it's about tactical squad-based combat but with elves and dwarves, and different editions of the game satisfy different playstyles. The strength of DW comes from the fact that it satisfies a playstyle (at least to me) that almost no edition of D&D is really built for, which is quick play with lots of room for emergent narrative and improvisation.
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Jan 13, 2015 15:48
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Rockopolis posted:Actually, isn't this basically Numenera? I'm not as familiar with that one.
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Jan 13, 2015 15:48
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Yeah, fantasy novels/settings where the big catch is that its actually a SF setting or set in the far future of a fallen earth were a 1970s staple (gasp! the Gods turned out to be an ancient supercomputer!). Tekumel is another former SF world that became a fantasy world, so was McCafferty's Pern setting. Rolemaster's Shadow World setting has the Gods statted up as SpaceMaster characters complete with grav-belts and energy-pistols and psionic-amplifying helmets. Even Harn has mysterious ruins that are actually super-high-tech dimensional gate devices built by a long-departed SF race. That poo poo was everywhere back in the day. e: Ratpick posted:Oh yeah, Wizardry, that's another one I forgot! FMguru fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 15:58
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Yeah, this is definitely not a new idea, I just got an itch to play/run something in that vein. Probably with less 70s/80s strapped on to it; had something more like Endless Legend in mind. These are all great suggestions, by the way. Gonna stock up on books to read. 
Mitama fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 15:59
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Lightning Lord posted:That's a bit of an overstatement, unless you're saying specifically don't play 5e, which is a position I agree with but I've seen a lot of "Don't play any permutation of D&D because Dungeon World" posts out in the wild.
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Jan 13, 2015 16:09
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FMguru posted:Yeah, fantasy novels/settings where the big catch is that its actually a SF setting or set in the far future of a fallen earth were a 1970s staple (gasp! the Gods turned out to be an ancient supercomputer!). Tekumel is another former SF world that became a fantasy world, so was McCafferty's Pern setting. Rolemaster's Shadow World setting has the Gods statted up as SpaceMaster characters complete with grav-belts and energy-pistols and psionic-amplifying helmets. Even Harn has mysterious ruins that are actually super-high-tech dimensional gate devices built by a long-departed SF race. That poo poo was everywhere back in the day. Yeah, that was EVERYWHERE during the 70s and 80s. Take superhero comics, where it even happened in the 60s - the Inhumans from Marvel being a product of tampering by the alien Kree. And then again in the 70s with Jack Kirby's Eternals, where he was playing with that "Chariots of the Gods?" zeitgeist, with the Celestials, superpowerful alien colossi who engineered the titular Eternals and made them the inspiration for much of classical mythology. It's interesting that despite Von Daniken being a punchline and direct "Secretly, the gods were aliens!" being old fashioned in sci-fi, this continues to resonate throughout pop culture. The Marvel Cinematic Universe's approach to gods and magic is deeply heavily influenced by this, with Thor saying that what humans would consider magic is science to the Asgardians, and the Celestials themselves showing up in Guardians of the Galaxy. Is it just because of the original comics or is this still a popular idea? MadScientistWorking posted:No he's actually right. There are so many permutations of D&D that honestly 5e is the Johnny come lately of so many other games. I think you read my post backwards. Lightning Lord fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 16:10
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MadScientistWorking posted:No he's actually right. There are so many permutations of D&D that honestly 5e is the Johnny come lately of so many other games. Yeah, I pretty much meant 5e. e: There's no reason to really play D&D anymore because there's so many other games that do the same thing, only better. Evil Mastermind fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Jan 13, 2015 |
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Jan 13, 2015 16:18
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Lightning Lord posted:I think you read my post backwards.
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Jan 13, 2015 16:19
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FMguru posted:Yeah, fantasy novels/settings where the big catch is that its actually a SF setting or set in the far future of a fallen earth were a 1970s staple (gasp! the Gods turned out to be an ancient supercomputer!). Tekumel is another former SF world that became a fantasy world, so was McCafferty's Pern setting. Rolemaster's Shadow World setting has the Gods statted up as SpaceMaster characters complete with grav-belts and energy-pistols and psionic-amplifying helmets. Even Harn has mysterious ruins that are actually super-high-tech dimensional gate devices built by a long-departed SF race. That poo poo was everywhere back in the day. What about the other way around? Gasp! The supercomputers were actually avatars of Hüelmir, the god of travel, communication, and knowledge! Are there any permutations of that? Should be fun, at least to invert the trope that magic is a subset of technology.
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Jan 13, 2015 16:34
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Cyphoderus posted:What about the other way around? Gasp! The supercomputers were actually avatars of Hüelmir, the god of travel, communication, and knowledge! Are there any permutations of that? Should be fun, at least to invert the trope that magic is a subset of technology. Mage: the Ascension comes to mind. Superscience, as practiced by the Technocracy and the Sons of Ether, is actually magic.
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Jan 13, 2015 16:39
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Cyphoderus posted:What about the other way around? Gasp! The supercomputers were actually avatars of Hüelmir, the god of travel, communication, and knowledge! Are there any permutations of that? Should be fun, at least to invert the trope that magic is a subset of technology. Zelazny's Donnerjack does that, with the VR internet becoming unified with the collective unconscious and filling up with genuine deities.
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Jan 13, 2015 16:39
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Cyphoderus posted:What about the other way around? Gasp! The supercomputers were actually avatars of Hüelmir, the god of travel, communication, and knowledge! Are there any permutations of that? Should be fun, at least to invert the trope that magic is a subset of technology.
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Jan 13, 2015 16:43
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Has anyone ever actually PLAYED Metamorphosis Alpha? I even backed the new Kickstarter for $1 just for its own sake, but I have no idea if it was just "D&D on a Worldship with mutations" or if there was more to it.
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Jan 13, 2015 19:49
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Quarex posted:Has anyone ever actually PLAYED Metamorphosis Alpha? I even backed the new Kickstarter for $1 just for its own sake, but I have no idea if it was just "D&D on a Worldship with mutations" or if there was more to it. It's basically a beta version of Gamma World, so that answer depends on how you feel about GW.
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Jan 13, 2015 19:49
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Quarex posted:Has anyone ever actually PLAYED Metamorphosis Alpha? I even backed the new Kickstarter for $1 just for its own sake, but I have no idea if it was just "D&D on a Worldship with mutations" or if there was more to it. There's a kickstarter for Metamorphosis Alpha? I should pay more attention to such things. I'm a big fan of the setting. However I never got around to playing it.
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Jan 14, 2015 06:26
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I played Maid tonight. poo poo is actually really fun.
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Jan 14, 2015 09:52
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Rand Brittain posted:Zelazny's Donnerjack does that, with the VR internet becoming unified with the collective unconscious and filling up with genuine deities. I was a bit soured with Zelazny after being underwhelmed by the first Amber book, but later I read Lord of Light and was pleasantly surprised by it. Maybe I'll check this out, thanks. e: I know we've had specific threads for reading specific series, but does it make sense to create a general book club thread where we'd discuss the things we've read and how they inspire/inform our games, and traditional games in general? Cyphoderus fucked around with this message at 11:39 on Jan 14, 2015 |
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Jan 14, 2015 11:20
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Reene posted:I played Maid tonight. What kind of story did you actually do? When Maid came up in the FATAL thread I basically said I could only see two non-super-creepy ways to play it, one being excising anything remotely skeevy and going full PG-13, and the other being as some kind of sex comedy, which I guessed would be too awkard to play. I'll accept that the game can be fun, but I'm genuinely curious about what you'd actually do to make it fun and it sounds like you did.
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Jan 14, 2015 12:19
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There's not really much in the way of sex stuff unless you go out of your way to put it there in which case you need to play with less creepy people. My character was a cool/lolita vampire that went on binge eating sprees when stressed, another player was a pure/pure kleptomaniac catgirl with a rivalry with my character, and the other was a sexy/pure albino. The story was set on a space station mansion located on the moon and our master was an 8 year old boy heir to Scientology that loved aliens. The game was all about us trying to plan for his birthday party in a week and try to win the most favor by the end of the game, which ended up with a lot of crazy poo poo happening including the catgirl nearly driving the space station into an interstellar minefield, a failed attempt at poisoning an alien mutating it so it nearly ate the space mansion, and my character repeatedly attempting to feed everybody blood to turn them into vampires. The game ended with the albino player winning by writing a sequel to Battlefield Earth for the kid's birthday just before my character successfully turned the master into a vampire thrall. You have to be willing to be silly and run with whatever traits you get because nearly all of your character's traits are rolled for rather than chosen but if you don't mind doing that then it's great for one-shots.
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Jan 14, 2015 12:34
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Maid strikes me as the sort of game you only play with people that you can trust enough not to get creepy about it AND not to hold against you the fact that you are suggesting playing a game about anime maids.
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Jan 14, 2015 14:01
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paradoxGentleman posted:Maid strikes me as the sort of game you only play with people that you can trust enough not to get creepy about it AND not to hold against you the fact that you are suggesting playing a game about anime maids.
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Jan 14, 2015 14:11
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Squidster posted:I'm not sure the Venn diagram for that can be seen without a microscope. If you can't trust yourself or your friends to not be creepy you need new friends. If you and your friends don't like anime what are you even doing here 
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Jan 14, 2015 14:32
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ProfessorCirno posted:If you can't trust yourself or your friends to not be creepy you need new friends.
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Jan 14, 2015 15:03
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ProfessorCirno posted:If you and your friends don't like anime what are you even doing here My friends like Ouran Host Club, so I don't know where they fall on this scale.
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Jan 14, 2015 17:53
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I don't actually like anime, like...at all. It's me, I'm the grognard.
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Jan 14, 2015 18:01
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Zurui posted:My friends like Ouran Host Club, so I don't know where they fall on this scale. Uh...I like that show too. Is that good or bad? 
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Jan 14, 2015 18:02
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I'm not surprised about that.
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Jan 14, 2015 18:15
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Error 404 posted:I don't actually like anime, like...at all. Reported.
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Jan 14, 2015 18:17
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Reene posted:My character was a cool/lolita vampire that went on binge eating sprees when stressed, another player was a pure/pure kleptomaniac catgirl with a rivalry with my character, and the other was a sexy/pure albino. The story was set on a space station mansion located on the moon and our master was an 8 year old boy heir to Scientology that loved aliens. The game was all about us trying to plan for his birthday party in a week and try to win the most favor by the end of the game, which ended up with a lot of crazy poo poo happening including the catgirl nearly driving the space station into an interstellar minefield, a failed attempt at poisoning an alien mutating it so it nearly ate the space mansion, and my character repeatedly attempting to feed everybody blood to turn them into vampires. The game ended with the albino player winning by writing a sequel to Battlefield Earth for the kid's birthday just before my character successfully turned the master into a vampire thrall. So that actually sounds pretty funny, in a "crazy poo poo keeps happening and I don't even know what I'm doing anymore so gently caress it, let's just go" way, and playable. I think I still wouldn't do it in real life, personally, but that's probably more to do with the company I keep than the game (most of 'em they're the non-anime-liking kind, not the creepy kind).
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Jan 14, 2015 18:25
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Error 404 posted:I don't actually like anime, like...at all. how dare you
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Jan 14, 2015 19:31
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Evil Mastermind posted:Yeah, I pretty much meant 5e. I miss 4e.  Is there any game that does 4e but better? I sometimes long for that kind of tactical combat.On a completely different note, is it just me or is board game/RPG journalism just nonexistent? Like, I was going to do a writeup of top games of 2014, then realized I've only played one (One Night Ultimate Werewolf, which, to be fair, is pretty awesome) and I think a large part of that is just I don't hear about anything new coming out, except for companies like FFG that are too huge to ignore. I just want to know about cool games coming out in 2015 without having to scroll through a list on BGG or check several different permutations of sites, podcasts, and Kickstarter pages. It kind of feels like a chicken/egg scenario, really, because without proper journalism, it feels like the board game and RPG industries won't get enough exposure to grow, but on the other hand, the industries aren't big enough to support journalists. There is no Intel or nVidia to sell advertising to prop up sites to hire journalists to report on this stuff. And I'm not sure what's to be done about that, unless people volunteer their time and energy, but there is only so much that can be done with that before people (rightfully) want to be compensated for said time and energy. Anyhoo those are my random thoughts about game industries.
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