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The other thing that irks me about the cube is that it looks like it'd be a huge bitch to store. It's wider and taller than normal books since it has to contain all that other junk--I already hate RPG books that feel they need to be a special size or print horizontally or some other physical gimmick and this one is just bloated. eta: I guess how could he not look like that, really.
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Sep 19, 2017 15:23
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Video game nerds will shell out $30+ extra for a fancy box, a strategy guide, a t-shirt, and a cereal box toy, so good on him for trying to get on that gravy train. I wish Monte's games were more risibly bad. Mostly they are aggressively mediocre. People have been doing a crap job of adding the latest narrative mechanic to their game since the early 90s.
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Sep 19, 2017 15:24
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Speaking of Monte Cook kickstarters: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/montecookgames/numenera-2-discovery-and-destiny quote:But Numenera Discovery is not a new edition. We will make virtually no changes to the way the game plays mechanically—and none of those changes affect the way NPCs, creatures, or items like cyphers or artifacts work. We also won’t be making changes to the setting. So if you already play Numenera, your bestiaries, adventures, card decks, character portfolios, and books like Into the Night, Technology Compendium, and Jade Colossus will not be affected by these changes. We will not issue any “second editions” of the existing supporting titles—and if you choose not to get Numenera Discovery, future Numenera supplements will work fine with your existing Numenera corebook. Your ongoing campaign will flow smoothly through the change in corebooks. You will even be able to mix existing characters with those from Numenera Discovery into your game. In fact, the game can be played with both the existing corebook and Numenera Discovery in use at the same game table! There's a bunch of high-concept "shared community" stuff in the pitch, but I guess that explains why I couldn't find any changes to the rules: there deliberately wasn't any. This is all setting stuff.
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Sep 19, 2017 15:27
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occamsnailfile posted:The other thing that irks me about the cube is that it looks like it'd be a huge bitch to store. It's wider and taller than normal books since it has to contain all that other junk--I already hate RPG books that feel they need to be a special size or print horizontally or some other physical gimmick and this one is just bloated. I'm not sure 'Shady vaguely supernatural Snake Oil salesman from a low budget Western' is the look you should go for when pitching a 300 dollar RPG in a box.
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Sep 19, 2017 15:29
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Halloween Jack posted:Video game nerds will shell out $30+ extra for a fancy box, a strategy guide, a t-shirt, and a cereal box toy, so good on him for trying to get on that gravy train. Pfft, yeah right who would do that? Oh... right... that. But I do think there's a big difference. You don't need the T-Shirt, cereal box toy, and fancy box to play the game in the digital age. The strategy guide is easily replacable as well. You *need* the $300 fancy box for the baseline play experience with Invisible sun.
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Sep 19, 2017 15:29
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unseenlibrarian posted:I'm not sure 'Shady vaguely supernatural Snake Oil salesman from a low budget Western' is the look you should go for when pitching a 300 dollar RPG in a box. I'm not saying it's the right choice, I am just terminally unsurprised.
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Sep 19, 2017 15:32
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For some reason the junk inside the Black Cube just makes me think of the System Mastery review of Everway.
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Sep 19, 2017 15:32
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The mystique that attached itself to Everway is basically what he's going for, yeah.
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Sep 19, 2017 15:35
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Leraika posted:
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Sep 19, 2017 15:41
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gradenko_2000 posted:You joke, but there's no shortage of "and then ... he rolled a natural 20! oh man it was the best!" stories across this hobby. Having a dice mechanic that can create dramatic moments is fine, it's half the reason we use dice at all. It's more that locking any interesting mechanics and decisions behind rolling high that sucks.
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Sep 19, 2017 15:43
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Strange Matter posted:Wow, so Monte Cooke is the person that parents in the 80s assumed was teaching their kids how to commune with the devil using DnD. That's not Monte Cook, that's Sean K "speculative experiment" Reynolds.
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Sep 19, 2017 16:02
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I have to admit I was incredibly tempted to back Invisible Sun just so I could have it to review, because there's literally NO WAY it isn't a massive, pretentious shitfest. I'd be willing to bet money on it. But then I realized that I'd be giving these fuckheads my money and the appeal rapidly vanished.
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Sep 19, 2017 16:55
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PurpleXVI posted:I have to admit I was incredibly tempted to back Invisible Sun just so I could have it to review, because there's literally NO WAY it isn't a massive, pretentious shitfest. I'd be willing to bet money on it.
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Sep 19, 2017 17:02
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Alien Rope Burn posted:That's not Monte Cook, that's Sean K "speculative experiment" Reynolds. Is it? Woops, my bad.
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Sep 19, 2017 17:21
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Angrymog posted:I'm sure there'll be second hand copies in.a while I see what you did there.
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Sep 19, 2017 17:47
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Alien Rope Burn posted:That's not Monte Cook, that's Sean K "speculative experiment" Reynolds. The best part about 'feat points' was the awareness that maybe some abilities are worth more than others, combined with the additional confirmation that SKR had no loving clue which ones or why. Didn't it put fuckin Weapon Focus way up there because 'you can always get that +1!'?
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Sep 19, 2017 17:52
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drat, Monte, that really does look like it's not too difficult to learn. There are only, what, six separate decks of cards?
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Sep 19, 2017 17:59
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I would be interested in shelling out some to get Invisible Sun for a DM. But I need a promise that they are willing to both do a full F&F of it, and a YouTube unboxing video where they explain in detail why each of the components is dumb.
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Sep 19, 2017 18:01
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Leraika posted:Is it? Woops, my bad. Here's Moonte Cook: 
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Sep 19, 2017 18:03
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Mors Rattus posted:In fairness, Blades in the Dark lets you take stress to get bonuses, too, but it does it...actually well? Sorry I'm behind, but yes, BitD does it well for two reasons: 1) The bonuses matter. It's not "oh, I get to do an extra point of damage", it's stuff like getting extra dice to your pool (Blades is "roll dice, keep the highest" so that's useful), increasing the level of success, narrate a flashback ("Before we went on this mission I paid a guard to leave some emergency weapons here in case I needed them."), even doing something while incapacitated. Everything you can voluntarily take stress for has an impact. 2) When you fill up your stress meter, you're not killed. Instead, you're taken out somehow (knocked unconscious, you break and run, whatever) and get a trauma. Between heists you have the option of going out and working off your traumas, because if you get too many your character loses their poo poo and "dies", but if you play your traumas in-game you get more XP. In Blades, you can never take a willing point of stress and still be good at what you do, and it ties into an actual risk-reward resource management system. In Numenera, you (which is to say, the fighter) has to take damage to do anything fighter-related. (Man, if I wasn't so buried in Torg reviews and work I'd love to write up Blades)
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Sep 19, 2017 18:04
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Here's Moonte Cook: In my defense, I couldn't imagine someone else wanting to pose with that ridiculous-rear end game.
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Sep 19, 2017 18:49
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ARB you should include a "recommended reads" for inklesspen's archives. I just got done reading through Hc Svnt Dracones and it was pure-strained  .
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Sep 19, 2017 18:59
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Speaking of the inklesspen archives, I think some posts for the Warhammer core book got mixed up with posts from Night's dark Masters and some stuff got left out because it seemed to jump from gods to vampires very abruptly. Did Night ever get around to review the insanity system besides saying "it's bad?" I have wondered what an alternative mechanic should be.
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Sep 19, 2017 19:02
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DalaranJ posted:I would be interested in shelling out some to get Invisible Sun for a DM. But I need a promise that they are willing to both do a full F&F of it, and a YouTube unboxing video where they explain in detail why each of the components is dumb. I'm tempted to take you up on that, but am in the UK, so shipping would be even more stupid.
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Sep 19, 2017 19:10
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Leraika posted:
Alien Rope Burn posted:Here's Moonte Cook: tbh I'm blown away that neither of these guys looks like a real-life version of the comic book guy from the simpsons. any time I ever imagine what somebody involved in trad games as a business looks like, it's always comic book guy. or maybe the guy that does the art for penny arcade because I recall seeing him on some old 4E D&D webisode thing and he also looked like he was wider than he was tall.
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Sep 19, 2017 19:34
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OutOfPrint posted:drat, Monte, that really does look like it's not too difficult to learn. There are only, what, six separate decks of cards? All the fun of the Arkham/Eldritch Horror board set up experience is now available to your roleplaying group.
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Sep 19, 2017 19:37
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Freaking Crumbum posted:tbh I'm blown away that neither of these guys looks like a real-life version of the comic book guy from the simpsons. any time I ever imagine what somebody involved in trad games as a business looks like, it's always comic book guy. or maybe the guy that does the art for penny arcade because I recall seeing him on some old 4E D&D webisode thing and he also looked like he was wider than he was tall. Compare with the best trad game man, Greg Stolze: 
Strange Matter fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Sep 19, 2017 |
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Sep 19, 2017 19:37
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SirPhoebos posted:ARB you should include a "recommended reads" for inklesspen's archives. I just got done reading through Hc Svnt Dracones and it was pure-strained Maybe just an option for people to upvote reviews in the Inklesspen archive, that'd probably be the easiest way to do a "recommended reads"-list.
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Sep 19, 2017 20:55
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Freaking Crumbum posted:tbh I'm blown away that neither of these guys looks like a real-life version of the comic book guy from the simpsons. any time I ever imagine what somebody involved in trad games as a business looks like, it's always comic book guy. or maybe the guy that does the art for penny arcade because I recall seeing him on some old 4E D&D webisode thing and he also looked like he was wider than he was tall. Strange Matter posted:I think you're thinking of the writer. The artist is a reedy dude with too many teeth in his mouth. The writer is a stout bald feller. From the 'wider than he was tall' bit, it's more likely he's thinking of Scott Kurtz of PvP comic fame, who also appeared with the Penny Arcade guys in those things back in the day.
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Sep 19, 2017 21:01
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PurpleXVI posted:Maybe just an option for people to upvote reviews in the Inklesspen archive, that'd probably be the easiest way to do a "recommended reads"-list.
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Sep 19, 2017 21:13
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Deptfordx posted:From the 'wider than he was tall' bit, it's more likely he's thinking of Scott Kurtz of PvP comic fame, who also appeared with the Penny Arcade guys in those things back in the day.
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Sep 19, 2017 21:20
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PurpleXVI posted:I have to admit I was incredibly tempted to back Invisible Sun just so I could have it to review, because there's literally NO WAY it isn't a massive, pretentious shitfest. It's not so often you find a game where pretense lead to mechanics that are astoundingly bad, like Everlasting letting you bet special points on every combat roll, or Carcosa making you randomly roll literally everything all the time.
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Sep 19, 2017 21:26
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I still remember the 5e preview stream where Mearls personally DMed a game for the PA/PVP crew, and Kurtz's hopes being dashed against the rocks once he discovered he could no longer be a 4e style cleric and spending the rest of the game despondently doodling on a notepad.
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Sep 19, 2017 21:26
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Kurieg posted:I still remember the 5e preview stream where Mearls personally DMed a game for the PA/PVP crew, and Kurtz's hopes being dashed against the rocks once he discovered he could no longer be a 4e style cleric and spending the rest of the game despondently doodling on a notepad. Lemme tell you, that really didn't instill a lot of hope in the game for me from the beginning.
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Sep 19, 2017 21:29
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Kurieg posted:I still remember the 5e preview stream where Mearls personally DMed a game for the PA/PVP crew, and Kurtz's hopes being dashed against the rocks once he discovered he could no longer be a 4e style cleric and spending the rest of the game despondently doodling on a notepad. Was there really that much difference in cleric gameplay? You're still hitting stuff and casting spells right? I would have thought gameplay for both editions, I'm talking specifically for clerics here, was quite similar. N.b. I'm spitballing here because we skipped 4e as we have a weird setup where half of us are in the room and half of us skype in over the internet. It works suprisingly well, but it does make battlemap and/or figure use impossible, which is kinda a dealbreaker for 4e.
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Sep 19, 2017 21:42
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Deptfordx posted:Was there really that much difference in cleric gameplay? You're still hitting stuff and casting spells right? I would have thought gameplay for both editions, I'm talking specifically for clerics here, was quite similar. N.b. I'm spitballing here because we skipped 4e as we have a weird setup where half of us are in the room and half of us skype in over the internet. It works suprisingly well, but it does make battlemap and/or figure use impossible, which is kinda a dealbreaker for 4e. The thing is, that 4e clerics didn't have to choose between hurting the bad guys and helping their allies. Almost all of their attacks were both hurting a dude and helping their bros, and most healing spells were minor actions, so they could waste a dude, give all their buddies a buff to wasting that dude, and also get the bard up off the floor in one round. Previously, you were either helping OR fighting, but not both. Also, there was a lot of variety in 4e clerics, so you could have a cleric who is constantly on the front line applying their hammer to evil's skulls, or you could have one who stuck around behind the front line and shot a lot of holy lasers and targeting lasers from the back.
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Sep 19, 2017 21:52
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Deptfordx posted:Was there really that much difference in cleric gameplay? You're still hitting stuff and casting spells right? I would have thought gameplay for both editions, I'm talking specifically for clerics here, was quite similar. N.b. I'm spitballing here because we skipped 4e as we have a weird setup where half of us are in the room and half of us skype in over the internet. It works suprisingly well, but it does make battlemap and/or figure use impossible, which is kinda a dealbreaker for 4e. in 4e your bread and butter healing abilities were all minor actions, meaning that you could spend your turn healing *and* hitting things, the 5e cleric's "minor action" heal is so poor that it might as well be a waste of a spell slot. So if you want to meaningfully heal someone that's your entire turn. e: Forgot that 5e brought back MAD for melee clerics, which is something 4e tried to get rid of. Kurieg fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Sep 19, 2017 |
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Sep 19, 2017 21:54
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Also the cleric's minor is an encounter level resource, which isn't a thing spells can be in 5e and that's a pretty big deal.
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Sep 19, 2017 22:34
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marshmallow creep posted:Speaking of the inklesspen archives, I think some posts for the Warhammer core book got mixed up with posts from Night's dark Masters and some stuff got left out because it seemed to jump from gods to vampires very abruptly. Did Night ever get around to review the insanity system besides saying "it's bad?" I have wondered what an alternative mechanic should be. There isn't much more to say about the Insanity mechanic besides 'it's bad'. Part of the problem is that it's a very standard older insanity mechanic, so it's very much 'You gain these crippling penalties or lose control of your PC in various ways', and again: most of them will render a player character very disruptive to a group or unfun to continue playing. And RAW you can gain IP really goddamn fast, especially if you deal with Chaos at all. The funniest part is, you gain these even if you're playing as Chaos: A Chaos PC gains a shitload of insanity every time they mutate or gain Rewards, which means most Chaos PCs are going to become a crippling bundle of phobias and weird compulsions that all come with terrible mechanical penalties. Similarly, the one way to really deal with Insanity is just 'know a Shallyan or a Gold Wizard'. They can both reduce it reasonably easily. The real problem is how lazy the IP system is. It's a simple crutch to try to give some weight to some of the 'horror' elements in the setting and tries to use the threat of permanent mechanical damage to make things scary, rather than trusting that the situation it's presenting will be horrifying. It just ends up being a cheap shorthand for 'this is supposed to be the scary part'. I'd just strip insanity as a mechanical concept out of Hams entirely. It's something best left to roleplaying and the tones a player group prefers, rather than something you can easily enforce mechanically in a game that is already trying to be darker in tone, but more towards a heroic or early modern mixed with swords and sorcery vibe. I can play my PC being horrified by discovering the true face of the Athel Loren or the machinations of a mighty vampire lord or whatever just fine without having a tacked on 'roll against being so scared you lose your mind' mechanic.
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Sep 19, 2017 23:09
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They often ignore Insanity in later systems, in Black Crusade the players are already completely bonkers and the same goes for Dark Eldar in Rogue Trader.
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Sep 19, 2017 23:16
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