|
Yeah, no; I failed to put it in my original post but I am not looking for generic games on this one. I do have Monsterhearts, but there aren't any playbooks for "the 15 year old kid whose sheep get stolen by raiders and who falls in with a band of mercenaries when he goes to try to get them back and then ends up going on an adventure".
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2014 14:20
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 18, 2024 03:30 |
|
|
Honestly, very few games really handle a complete beginner joining a party of seasoned veterans very well. Runequest does it reasonably well, just because more often than not, the only difference between a beginner and a veteran is skill level. It's pretty flexible, though it does assume a Bronze Age-Renaissance type of setting.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2014 14:31
|
|
|
hectorgrey posted:Honestly, very few games really handle a complete beginner joining a party of seasoned veterans very well. That's also not what I'm going for. I just want a system that supports that genre of fantasy where a protagonist goes out as a teen and returns home as an adult. The protagonist has changed; the world has changed.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2014 14:40
|
|
|
Hmm. What kind of adventures are you after specifically? Something akin to the Lord of the Rings or the Belgariad, where the entirety of the campaign would basically be one adventure, followed by the aftermath of said adventure? In that case, I'd definitely recommend a game like Runequest. The GM would have to do the gradual changes to the setting by fiat, but it would work pretty well. Even if you randomly roll a character, putting no thought into the character's history or anything like that, you still end up with a pretty well rounded character, complete with family and friends. Also, the way the skill system works means that there are many things you can potentially be good at, most of them potentially useful depending on the situation, with combat being only one option among many.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2014 14:59
|
|
|
inklesspen posted:I'm looking for systems that would work with traditional D&D settings but expressly support different stories being told than the ones D&D tends to be used for. Don't know if it's too specialized towards younger kids, but there is "Grimm" and "Little Fears", two systems about kids murder-hoboing monsters. If anything I'm sure you could just tweak the ages.
|
|
#
?
Aug 21, 2014 23:36
|
|
|
Morpheus posted:Don't know if it's too specialized towards younger kids, but there is "Grimm" and "Little Fears", two systems about kids murder-hoboing monsters. If anything I'm sure you could just tweak the ages. I'm clearly not explaining this well, then, because I want games about doing things in D&D settings that are other than murder-hoboing. Leverage is a game about doing heists, right? You can do other things with it, but it's about doing heists. Spirit of the Century (as distinct from FATE Core) is about doing pulp adventures. Golden Sky Stories is about having heartwarming emotional connections in a magic-realism Japanese town. Can we agree that these are genres or moods which these game systems mechanically encourage? I want to find some game systems which would work with a D&D setting but which mechanically encourage things other than murder-hoboing. For example, Reign would be great for political games. But that's the only example I have here.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2014 00:18
|
|
|
Lorefinder tweaks the Pathfinder ruleset to work for GUMSHOE investigations. Golden Sky Stories, which you mentioned, has an upcoming module about small D&D fantasy towns.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2014 00:25
|
|
|
Ah, I see what you mean now. While D&D and variants thereof are the only systems I've played that directly mechanically encourage being a murder hobo (XP being directly tied to combat and, in some older editions, nothing else), there are very few that directly mechanically encourage other things in that sort of setting. Typically in other games, it's up to the GM how they encourage certain behaviours.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2014 13:52
|
|
|
inklesspen posted:I'm clearly not explaining this well, then, because I want games about doing things in D&D settings that are other than murder-hoboing. You could make Golden Sky Stories take place in Eberron or the Forgotten Realms.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2014 14:43
|
|
|
inklesspen posted:I'm clearly not explaining this well, then, because I want games about doing things in D&D settings that are other than murder-hoboing. Well, do you have a specific activity in mind? Right now you're saying "not murderhoboing" and "not politics" but knowing what you want the rules to really do would help. I can think of two suggestions in any case: One is another ORE game: Monsters and Other Childish Things. The idea of growing up is implicitly worked into the game; kids at the start have monsters, but as they get older, they eventually lose them. At least in the core book, how/when/if this happens is really up to the group. Because monsters are so powerful, combat between them and anything else is usually going to be pretty simple. Combat between monsters is where it gets more crunchy. I'd seen someone suggest using MaoCT for a fantasy game in the past - where, for instance, the protagonist children have befriended a group of dungeon monsters and are either going on adventures or running the "dungeon" like a theme park to make money for their town. My other suggestion (which I think is stronger for what you may be trying to do) is Mouse Guard. Combat can happen, but it uses the same resolution system that major arguments or either conflicts do. In my experience, there's really more emphasis on exploration and the use of skills than on murdering other animals. And Mouse Guard (or possibly The One Ring which has some similarities in feel) makes the journey somewhere feel like an actually interesting and important part of the game. That's just in the system; it could very easily be refluffed to any number of fantasy settings. It's been a while since I read the book, but I believe the Winter season is a time where the players are encouraged to reflect on their characters and how they've changed and developed in the last year, which seems like it would fit your coming of age idea.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2014 17:03
|
|
|
Hm. I've read that Mouse Guard sort of requires a "nonhuman" attribute for Nature to work right, but The One Ring's fellowship rules seem interesting. I'll look into that.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2014 20:52
|
|
|
Couldn't you exchange "nonhuman" with "non-child", write some new Nature descriptors, and just have it be a measure of maturity or whatever? You could take a look at Realm Guard or Torchbearer to look at some examples of (demi-)human descriptors or even Burning Wheel for full Nature replacements. If that's the kind of theme you want to go for, that is.
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2014 23:42
|
|
|
I think exchanging Nature (Mouse) for Nature (Child) is a pretty good straight swap. If it gets too high, you chicken out and run home, never to be seen again. If it drops too low, you lose your childish innocence and grow up.Mouse Guard posted:The Nature ability is unique among all the other abilities. While it has a rating like other abilities and skills, it is tagged by the animal it belongs to and includes three or four aspects or descriptions. For Mouse Guard characters, it’s Nature (Mouse). For mice, there are four aspects to their Nature: Escaping, Climbing, Hiding, Foraging. These aspects describe the situations in which you can use your Nature without penalty. If you use your Nature in situations outside of escaping, climbing, hiding and foraging, you risk losing a bit of it. The higher your Nature rank, the more mouselike you are. The lower your rank, the more “human” you are. Substitute Creature for Animal, Child for Mouse, and Adult for Human, and it works pretty well. For Children, the four aspects are probably Hiding, Exploring, Charming, Distracting or something similar. UrbanLabyrinth fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Aug 23, 2014 |
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2014 02:43
|
|
|
Hey goones. I'm thinking about running a Superhero game. Something not quite street level, not quite four color. Kinda like regular X-men, or Spiderman. So far, my options are M&M 3ed (I used to play 2nd ed a lot, haven't read 3rd yet) or Icons (I love Fate, but I'm not sure if Icons is too rules light). I also backed World in Peril but I haven't had a chance to read it, yet. Any other game I should consider? Or sell me on one of those systems? I'm looking for two things. Fast and exciting fights (the more varied and tactical, the better), and easy to learn (two to three guys are going to be new to RPGs). For reference, I love the combat in DW but I hate that it's pretty random. I like how fast Fate can be, but it usually feels samey, and the character creation and combat in m&m 2nd are top-notch, but it's a bit complex and the fights usually take too long.  help me!
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2014 11:15
|
|
|
Might want to check out the Cortex Plus Hacker's Guide, aka what's left of the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying System post-license. It's really good at simulating the beats of a comic book story, including the fights.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2014 11:33
|
|
|
InShaneee posted:Might want to check out the Cortex Plus Hacker's Guide, aka what's left of the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying System post-license. It's really good at simulating the beats of a comic book story, including the fights. Or just get some of the remaining copies of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying that Amazon's selling
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2014 14:50
|
|
|
I'm looking for a Low Fantasy, preferably even No Magic system with None or Quick Chargen. I really like the concept of Iron Heroes, so a less crunchy version of that, I guess. EDIT: Apparently there is a Microlite20 variant called Iron Heartbreakers! Carry on then! gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 05:51 on Sep 10, 2014 |
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2014 05:47
|
|
|
Hugoon Chavez posted:Hey goones. Aberrant is my personal favorite X-men style game. Your mileage may vary based on how much you like late-90's White Wolf games and late-90's era X-Men comics since it heavily cribs both those things. As far as combat goes it's slightly more complex than oWoD but less finnicky than Exalted. Speaking of that, there is also Exalted 2nd Edition combined with the expansion book Shards of the Exalted Dream, but that hinges on how much tolerance you have for Exalted combat. If your group is new it tends to go fast but it can get long, verbose and complex really fast once you get into the meat and potatoes that exists beyond the base book melee tree (actually probably one of the better combat trees in the whole game, but I digress).
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2014 06:39
|
|
|
El Estrago Bonito posted:Aberrant is my personal favorite X-men style game. Your mileage may vary based on how much you like late-90's White Wolf games and late-90's era X-Men comics since it heavily cribs both those things. As far as combat goes it's slightly more complex than oWoD but less finnicky than Exalted. Oh, man, noooo. Exalted is a pretty cool game but I hate the mechanics. Aberrant I can take a look at, but the oWoD system is not my taste (at this point, back then, sure!) Now, if OPP launches a new Aberrant, I'd be all over that. So far I'm leaning towards Icons, but those remaining, cheap, marvel heroic RPG books in amazon uk are mighty tempting.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2014 08:05
|
|
|
Hugoon Chavez posted:Oh, man, noooo. Exalted is a pretty cool game but I hate the mechanics. Aberrant I can take a look at, but the oWoD system is not my taste (at this point, back then, sure!) Well, it's not if, but when- OPP bought the Aeon trinity outright instead of licensing them and they're working on a new edition of all three, with a "Corebook"+ Setting/time period book model.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2014 11:31
|
|
|
Is there a system out there that has explicit abilities/combat options for Martial classes, but has them laid out in a straight path per-level instead of making the player pick-and-choose between numerous feats/talents? Another way to say it would be a system with martial classes that are as interesting as 4E's, but with character progression that's still completely locked-in. The only one I've seen that's like this is Heroes Against Darkness (and I'm considering just going with that). Are there 4E or even 3.x books that support this? All retroclones, of course, just give the Fighter extra attacks and/or a cleave against 1 HD monsters, which is a shame because Castles and Crusades otherwise looked simple enough to be good.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2014 12:37
|
|
|
I highly doubt it. You could of course take 4th edition and then house rule it such that it works that way (i.e. select all the powers in advance for a given class), but that's entirely up to you.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2014 16:16
|
|
|
inklesspen posted:Yeah, no; I failed to put it in my original post but I am not looking for generic games on this one. I do have Monsterhearts, but there aren't any playbooks for "the 15 year old kid whose sheep get stolen by raiders and who falls in with a band of mercenaries when he goes to try to get them back and then ends up going on an adventure". The type of game that think you're going for seems like a fit for Whispering Road.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2014 18:28
|
|
|
I just read about Fiasco which sounded really interesting, but I don't think my group (which is more boardgamers than RPGers) would so much go for the collaborative storytelling side of things. However, I've been wanting to do some roleplaying again for a while and enjoy GMing but just don't have the time to write content. Are there any systems that have: - One-off or short campaign play - Very quick chargen, particularly systems that prompt players to develop relationships/histories etc the way things like Fiasco does - A decent amount of easy-to-GM premade modules that don't require too much prep/pre-reading Horror-themed would be a definite bonus.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2014 00:47
|
|
|
Monsterhearts has all of those things except for the pre-made campaigns, but it's a system designed to be player driven and to give GMs the tools to improvise and create stories on the fly.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2014 01:11
|
|
|
Dread? The jenga-as-RPG-mechanics thing works really well for horror, the character generation can be what you describe, and there are definitely a few "modules" out there, even if it's super easy (and super fun) to make your own one up. On the other hand, if Fiasco is too "collaborative storytelling", Dread probably will be too.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2014 01:55
|
|
|
I'm looking for a system with good crafting rules. If it's a subsystem I can steal, fine. If it's a whole game set around crafting, fantastic. I'm looking to run something between the Atelier and Monster Hunter games, where the goal is to find/kill poo poo and turn it into better stuff to find/kill poo poo with and so on. Adventuring mechanisms are a plus, but crafting is a must.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2014 07:49
|
|
|
Last Stand is pretty much what happens when Monster Hunter and EDF get together.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2014 08:08
|
|
|
Thanks for the suggestions. Dread in particular sounds pretty much like what I am looking for since although it seems to have a bit more of a collaborative-narrative thing going on, it seems like it would be easily possible to play as a more active GM.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2014 08:34
|
|
|
Our dread games are not really collaborative-narrative in the style of say Fiasco. They're fairly traditional setups where the GM sets the scene and the players interact with it. The GM describes the actions of the NPCs and the players engage with them. That said, you can break Dread over you knee just by refusing to ever interact with anything, so if you think someone would want to do that (...but why?) then it's going to be poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2014 09:29
|
|
|
Yeah that won't be a problem at all - it's just that some of the people I play with would struggle a bit with having to co-create overall scenes etc, but will have no problem engaging with a plot I put in front of them.
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2014 10:39
|
|
|
So I have a "which system should I use?" question. I hope everyone doesn't toss out the *Worlds because I don't particularly care for those. I have an idea for a TMNT game. Players would create their own mutant or human and run around fighting the Shredder and doing all of that nonsense. I don't know which system to use for this. I know TMNT had its own system a long time ago, but I've heard that it's based off Rifts, so gently caress that nonsense. As far as systems I know of pretty well, there's all of the various Star Wars systems, d20/3.5/Pathfinder, and WFRP. I'm pretty good at learning a system quickly if I have access to the core book, though. I have Fate, but I've never actually played in a Fate game, so I don't know if I'd do the whole Aspects thing right. Also, Fate's whole damage mechanic is nutty and I can't wrap my head around it. So I guess I'm wondering if anyone has run a game like a TMNT kind of thing before and if so, what system they've used. I'm not going for the happy-go-lucky style turtles. I want a world that's kind of based around the 'realistic' art that people sometimes do about comic book guys, so sort of dark and dank and smelling constantly of a sewer while you stab people with ninja swords.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2014 18:35
|
|
|
M&M 3rd edition/DC Adventures (same system) would probably be easy for you to pick up quickly. You can pick the power level everyone's working under, it's pretty flexible as far as character concepts go, and you can tailor it to be deadlier (or more four color) with included optional rules.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2014 20:52
|
|
|
So I have a friend who's looking for a Superhero system, and was wondering if you guys had any ideas. RULESET: Freeform->Normal, maybe Crunchy. SUPPORT: Doesn't matter really, more the better I guess! CHARGEN: Quick, though could be Involved if it was easy to learn, crunchy probably wouldn't work. SETTING: Any is fine.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2014 21:04
|
|
|
Pladdicus posted:So I have a friend who's looking for a Superhero system, and was wondering if you guys had any ideas. While sadly out of print, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying allows you to jump in pretty quickly and has an easy learning curve. Your friend could snag a used copy of the rulebook for about ~$10 on Amazon. Obviously support for the system is all from fans at this point, but honestly, it really isn't that tricky to learn. Mutants & Masterminds 3rd ed. is fun, too, and still supported, but definitely more on the crunchy side. (Not as ridiculously so as HERO, though.) If your friend already is used to D20, then it probably wouldn't be too much work learning the system.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2014 21:18
|
|
|
There's also this Powered by apocalypse superhero-system that was kickstarted and is almost ready for release. The final draft before release is free to download and is supposed to be more or less complete.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2014 21:28
|
|
|
A few more options Capes, by Tony Lower-Basch GMless scene based RPG, mildly competitive but in a fun/friendly way. With Great Power... by Michael S Miller, Has a GM, meant specifically to feel like a silver age superhero comic, so it's all angst and suffering and triumphing over that and what it means to be a hero, etc. Both are fairly freeform.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2014 22:20
|
|
|
There's also ICONS which is kinda based on FATE. The chargen is quite fast (and random, although there's an optional point buy system) and it has a lot of support.Andrast posted:There's also this Powered by apocalypse superhero-system that was kickstarted and is almost ready for release. The final draft before release is free to download and is supposed to be more or less complete. I actually backed that but never got around to play it, has anyone played it? how is it?
|
|
#
?
Oct 7, 2014 07:46
|
|
|
I'm trying to figure out what first systems to use for RPGing between my wife, myself, and anybody else we might be able to suck into it that sometimes come to our board game nights. I'm actually thinking we'd want maybe two different kinds of games going on: a group one, and something that's possible to do with just my wife and myself--with maybe just somebody else just thrown in before. I haven't played a tabletop RPG before, but I have been amusing myself with the catpiss stories. I have played RPG video games before, and have some grasp of the mechanics. My wife hasn't really played an RPG of any kind since Secret Of Mana. I will try to work with the specifications of the first post: RULESET: Freeform to Normal (Crunchy if ... tool-assisted, I think. I do not think my wife wants to get into stats at all.) SUPPORT: User-Generated to Established CHARGEN: None to Involved SETTING: Universal to Established, and I really, really doubt Inseperable except for Paranoia. We really, really, really, want to try Paranoia. It looks like Mongoose took down all the PDFs since they're going to publish a new edition at some point. This really bums me out, since the best I can find is ultra-expensive, used manuals on Amazon. I don't know if I like the game yet, and I don't want to be stuck with a used manual that may or may not be sprayed with Cheetos. I wish they'd just put up a pre-order deal where we can get to old PDFs while the new one spins around. Anyways I think my wife does not want to play ye' olde murderhobo regularly. My first pick would be contemporary settings, and go in the horror direction, but not necessarily in the Call of Cthulu mythos. We have some of that already, and we don't want to play that kind of game where the end objective is to kind of go as crazy as possible. I am thinking instead something like X-Files: Monster Of The Week. We would consider some kind of silly stuff like some kind of D&D High School or some such goofy stuff.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2014 05:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 18, 2024 03:30 |
|
|
Rocko Bonaparte posted:I'm trying to figure out what first systems to use for RPGing between my wife, myself, and anybody else we might be able to suck into it that sometimes come to our board game nights. I'm actually thinking we'd want maybe two different kinds of games going on: a group one, and something that's possible to do with just my wife and myself--with maybe just somebody else just thrown in before. I'll be the first to pitch the *world games and FATE. The *World games are usually very ingrained with the type of game, more than the setting. For something silly like D&D High school, there's Monsterhearts, which is kind of a play of Twilight and other YA romantic novels: Teenage Monsters. It's a lot better than it sounds and the system is pretty fun. Appart from that, Dungeon World is indie Dungeons and Dragons that can become quite crazy, super easy to pick up. As for community support, the thread on this very forum is amazing and there's always something new coming up for the game. It IS kinda murderhobo, but more in a "constant action" way and less "kill everything". Unless your players just roll that way. FATE is really easy to pick up, and more "traditional" than the *World engines. It's also free and very generic so using the same rules for a variety of games is totally ok. There are a couple of books that include mini-settings for you to use, with their own rules variation. If you want to play a Paranoia-like game, FATE should work extremely well with a little work. There's also a more rules light version of FATE, called FAE, which is great on its own. Everything I said applies to FAE as well.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2014 10:48
|
|