|
My wife has played a ton of computer rpgs over the course of the pandemic - pillars of eternity 1 and 2, pathfinder wrath of the righteous, divinity original sin, KOTOR, fallout, etc. She loves these style of games and has been wanting to play a tabletop rpg that would hopefully recreate the feeling of playing those games. But specifically in terms of the class fantasies of the characters, the relationship drama, and the big choices mattering over a large swath of internal political strife. Is there a game that focuses on that kind of thing? Maybe with some sort of kingdom management or other minigame style element? It would need to be fantasy based and ideally have some familiarity with basic D&D tropes, although there's no need to cleave too closely. I'd be happy to run a game like this and have run more tactical games before, but I've exclusively run games like 4e, LANCER, etc. If it's not minis-based combat I basically don't care. So some sort of game that has a big pre-set campaign path to go through would probably be ideal. Or one that can offload a lot of the plot development to the players, or otherwive give me inspiration for the world of the thing. She doesn't really care about tactical combat and finds it actively annoying to pay too much attention to, so something that is more theatre of the mind or otherwise abstract in combat is fine. Preferably quick as well, but defined enough that big fights feel climactic. (Dungeon world is probably too fluffy, 4e is definitely too crunchy.) Having character classes or options that are a trap is a problem, too.
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2023 22:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 12:19 |
|
|
Impermanent posted:My wife has played a ton of computer rpgs over the course of the pandemic - pillars of eternity 1 and 2, pathfinder wrath of the righteous, divinity original sin, KOTOR, fallout, etc. She loves these style of games and has been wanting to play a tabletop rpg that would hopefully recreate the feeling of playing those games. But specifically in terms of the class fantasies of the characters, the relationship drama, and the big choices mattering over a large swath of internal political strife. Maybe one of the Resistance games like Spire? Our Stormy Present sounds like the closest fit thematically.
|
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2023 23:21
|
|
|
Definitely check out the Spire books
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2023 01:20
|
|
|
Impermanent posted:My wife has played a ton of computer rpgs over the course of the pandemic - pillars of eternity 1 and 2, pathfinder wrath of the righteous, divinity original sin, KOTOR, fallout, etc. She loves these style of games and has been wanting to play a tabletop rpg that would hopefully recreate the feeling of playing those games. But specifically in terms of the class fantasies of the characters, the relationship drama, and the big choices mattering over a large swath of internal political strife.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2023 01:34
|
|
|
D&d 3.5 
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2023 01:42
|
|
|
REIGN is absolutely the right call
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2023 01:59
|
|
|
Oh wow reign looks great! The Spire games also look good but maybe a little opinionated in terms of storytelling style. It looks like there was a kickstarter - is there a way to get a physical book of the second edition?
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2023 02:04
|
|
|
im going to run a dark sun campaign and plan to start in a month or so. do i need to force my players to learn 2e? i dont really want to attempt to convert it to 5e because it’s always more work than i anticipate and i dont really like the new art style and would prefer not to have the 5e books on the table. 5e is the only system that anyone i play with is going to be familiar with. is this doomed to fail? i’m not super familiar with 2e but i’m down to learn it if that’s the easiest way to go. i’ve run OSE before and that went generally fine for people.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2023 18:22
|
|
|
jarofpiss posted:im going to run a dark sun campaign and plan to start in a month or so. do i need to force my players to learn 2e? Re: 2E: If you have any recent (3.0 or later) D&D system mastery, then the biggest step with 2E will be forgetting things: BaB/positive to hits & AC, saving throws that make sense, Rogues that can actually do anything of use, Bards that make sense, etc. Reviewing the combat & saving throws section of the DMG & the character classes section of the PHB should be enough to get you up to speed. If you're not willing to go back to 4E, and I understand it's not for everyone, I'd really advise you to reconsider your stance regarding 5E, which is at least not unbalanced and clunky in the way 2E is. As to the art style issue, when I ran my 4E campaign, I just printed out a bunch of Dark Sun art and plastered it everywhere: PC handouts, maps, I even got a "fill it in yourself" DM screen and had the outward side loaded with Brom art. I preferred the old school Dark SUn art and just flooded the table with it, using almost none of the 4E Dark Sun art except when it came as part of a handout for an adventure or what have you.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2023 19:01
|
|
|
yeah please don't subject yourself to 2E. even sticking with 5E would be better, although the ideal here is definitely either 4E or maybe some non-WotC alternative and just jacking the setting if you're up for the work of conversion
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2023 20:29
|
|
|
It sounds like they very specifically are not up for the work of conversion, so yeah 4E or some non-WotC alternative is OP's best bet.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2023 20:30
|
|
|
i’ve done some basic conversion stuff in the past, but the biggest issue i run into is not being able to roll up loot/monsters/etc that work on the fly. and i don’t want to have to basically build a comprehensive conversion that ill only refer to a small fraction of in any given session 5e is definitely familiar and smooth in its mechanics, but it feels kind of inappropriate for dark sun because of how hard it is to die. it seems like if i were to convert the material over, id be opening with a ton of house rules about death saves etc trying to reset expectations about how the system will work. i was thinking 2e being unfamiliar to the players would let me set them up for a high stakes campaign without them just assuming they know how everything works and getting mad when they make bad decisions and immediately die of heatstroke in the desert. but i also don’t want to run a clunky system just for the sake of doing it. i’ll check out 4e. i have the core rulebooks but have never played it and am totally unfamiliar with it so maybe it’ll be a better fit
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2023 21:22
|
|
|
this will be a fresh group that doesn’t have a history of playing together or with me dming so that’s what im thinking about with 5e. if it were a regular group that i’d run before i would know what their expectations are so id be more comfortable converting to 5e
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2023 21:27
|
|
|
jarofpiss posted:5e is definitely familiar and smooth in its mechanics, but it feels kind of inappropriate for dark sun because of how hard it is to die. it seems like if i were to convert the material over, id be opening with a ton of house rules about death saves etc trying to reset expectations about how the system will work. 4E is really meant to evoke IMO heroic fantasy along the lines of old-school Conan (as an example), where he's in a running fight to escape a city onto a ship, and he barely makes it, having cleaved through a half-dozen guards on the way and with several gushing wounds, including an arrow sticking through his neck; he'll bandage himself up and drink some brandy, and be ready to fight off pirates the next day. It's definitely got more of that flavor from the get-go and continuing through the levels (though characters do of course get more powerful as they advance) than the old-school "suck until you're about 9th level, then you're kings of the world" D&D feel. IMO the real brutality of Dark Sun is that you're alone in this hazardous world without support systems, without the rule of law, without friends, without gods, subject either to the whims of uncaring sorcerer-kings (or more correctly their corrupt templars) or the blind wastes of the desert. Where in this world are you going to find help? In the cities? You'll find a knife in your ribs. From the elves? They shun outsiders. From the halflings? They'll cook you and eat you. Your trusty longsword? Swing it too hard and it may shatter on you. But that's all right, you'll pull another weapon or just pick up a bleached thigh bone and start clubbing your opponent with it. (4E has great rules for ignoring magic items while keeping characters up-to-date with bonuses on attack and defense, "Innate bonuses".) If you really want to feature death as a frequent occurrence in your game, I'd definitely look at an OSR-type ruleset instead of 4E. I'd be annoyed to put in the time to create, e.g., a ranger, and die because I blew a Nature skill check and didn't realize it was a vampire cactus I was cutting open for food or die of thirst because a silt runner got a critical hit and instead of doing double damage ripped open my waterskin with its attack.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2023 22:09
|
|
|
I ran Dark Sun in 5E for a while and it was alright, there are a lot of conversions already floating around out there, but I found a very real problem of 5E being an extremely high powered game in general, so it was nearly impossible to hammer home any kind of desperation for subsistence and resources, as it felt like many classes had ways to handwave it. My party always had excess food and water. I also had difficulty figuring out what treasure should be when metal isn't really supposed to exist and everything breaks constantly. Ultimately I just don't think Dungeons and Dragons is a very good system for modeling the flavor of fantasy that Dark Sun wants to model. I kinda suspect some mutation of DCC might be a better fit? But then you're back to the drawing board on figuring out what you want to convert, and how.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2023 22:22
|
|
|
I was talking about Ken Rolston's influence on The Elder Scrolls series, and it got me wondering, what's the best "off the rack" option for playing D&D style fantasy in BRP/Runequest/Stormbringer? There are a lot of different versions of BRP.
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2023 16:03
|
|
|
I'm thinking about putting together a game in kind of a weird setting-- a homebrew world I tinkered with obsessively like 20 years ago that was a big old rip off of a game called Archamedian Dynasty / AquaNox. Basically it kind of split the difference between space opera (lots of individual ships and dogfights, big clashes of national armies) and cyberpunk (loosing yourself to the machine, grimy af, hopelessness, tracking money is important, megacorps) but with a more biopunk edge. The big difference is the whole drat thing is underwater, set in a future where the surface is inhospitable. There's some handwavy bullshit in the game about why personal submarines operate like fighter jets that I'm perfectly fine replicating. I'm still in the scouting phase, but was hoping people might suggest systems to me. I'm looking mostly at Scum and Villainy, FATE, and PbTA games because I have more fun running narrative heavy games, but I'm open to other ideas. For example I just picked up the newest edition of Traveler, it seems fun but probably not right for what I have in mind. I've run a few short FATE games and while there's a lot I like there's stuff that doesn't work for me either. I find FATE core/condensed to have a few too many skills, especially since there are ones that affect stress tracks. It's hard to convey the difference between the various "social attack", "social defense", "social intuitive", and "social perception" skills, for example. On the other hand I feel like FATE Accelerated's approaches are a little too broad for the kind of feel I'm going for. One of the FATE games I ran was technically a space game but we didn't do much with the ship, I'd like something that can handle it. Bonuses to the FATE column is there are at least two well received space games I know of, Bulldogs! and Disaspora (anyone have an opinion of which to steal from first?) and, weirdly, an actual submarine game (Deep Dark Blue, which I read and found probably useful but a bit slim.) I've run a short campaign of BiTD and so feel like I'm not totally cold going into SaV, but to be honest I was only starting to get the hang out of the tempo of the clocks and deciding roll difficulties / situations when the campaign fell apart. I feel like SaV might be the right amount of crunch I'm looking for and I like the core loop and ship upgrades. Downsides are I'm still a little new with the system, I'd have to majorly hack out magic (and maybe replace it with something? or homebrew a new playbook?) and I heard it trends a bit towards the heroic where I'd like something pretty evenly split between heroic and dangerous. I've also heard of a FiTD Mecha game called "Beam Saber" which might work with the idea of replacing mechs with personal ships, but it's also apparently very tied into Gundam style gameplay about being a bit player in a larger war machine. Anyone know how hackable that one is into more of a tramp freighter kind of thing? For PbtA games, I've read and listened to some actual plays of The Sprawl. I like its core loop and grime but I worry it might break down when throwing in some space opera elements and it has some real "early PbTA" vibes like having a playbook that mainly is about getting gigs. I also have both Uncharted Worlds and its companion. I think the character creation is pretty clever but the systems seem pretty thin and it doesn't have a great reputation online. OTOH it could be that its reputation is due to it having a lot less of a locked in theme than most PbTA games, which might make it what I'm looking for. Anyone have any advice on this? Experience with any of the systems I mentioned? Suggestions of where else to look?
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2023 17:51
|
|
|
I sound like a broken record I'm sure but do give a look at Cortex Prime. Their website should have a good rundown of what that system is like, and I believe it has the setting Hammerheads up for full exploration, which may be useful to you because that's a heavily sci-fi-vehicle based game. The thing about the Cortex Prime book, though, is that it's not a setting. It's kind of not even a game, right out of the box? It's a really elegant series of optional pieces of a game, all of which can interlock and play together to give you the game feel you want. Like, it could run cosmic superheroics or it could run shell shocked mecha trench warfare where the trauma of what you're doing eats away at your ability to maintain the relationships which keep you from tipping over the edge or it could run the cutthroat intrigue of an old money familial dynasty where everyone plays a scion gunning for the inheritance and digging up the skeletons of their siblings and forming/breaking alliances. It can do all these things very well, because it leads you through a series of questions about what is important to your game concept, and then suggests which modular elements to include and which to exclude. It also has a truly exceptional Discord server with a lot of very savvy devs and homebrewers that love to help people theorycraft their concepts.
|
|
#
?
Apr 16, 2023 19:55
|
|
|
I'm looking for a fantasy (or neutral) system, moderate-to-light crunch, decent ToTM support (at least to the point of not being broken without a grid), and reasonable support for lengthy campaigns in terms of character growth. I don't need it to go 40 levels or anything, but something that allows for relatively long-term play would be ideal, as opposed to something aimed at one-shots or short (~5 levels in D&D terms) campaigns. Anyone have any thoughts?
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2023 18:36
|
|
|
Hypnobeard posted:I'm looking for a fantasy (or neutral) system, moderate-to-light crunch, decent ToTM support (at least to the point of not being broken without a grid), and reasonable support for lengthy campaigns in terms of character growth. I don't need it to go 40 levels or anything, but something that allows for relatively long-term play would be ideal, as opposed to something aimed at one-shots or short (~5 levels in D&D terms) campaigns. Neoclassical Geek Revival. Is written by a former LotFP contributor, if that matters to you.
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2023 19:32
|
|
|
Arivia posted:Neoclassical Geek Revival. Is written by a former LotFP contributor, if that matters to you. That's an interesting recommendation, thank you.
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2023 20:37
|
|
|
Wrong post.
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2023 09:56
|
|
|
What’re some good recommendations for investigative horror these days? I’m willing to learn a new system if it’s good, or this might be a decent time to try out Unknown Armies 3e. The idea would be that it’s a mostly serious but sometimes darkly comedic spin on In the Mouth of Madness : the PCs are sent by a publishing house to track down a missing author and his latest novel. Specifically it’s George R. R. Martin and the PCs must plumb the dark depths beyond mortal ken to find the manuscript for Winds of Winter. I mostly am pretty collaborative, but I want to do some actual proper writing for this one (because someone should), so I’m looking for something that does a strong session zero and planning, but leaves good-sized chunks to fill in later. As is I might bolt UA’s corkboarding onto whatever I pick no matter what. Has anyone here got experience running UA3 and can comment on how well it’d work for what I have in mind? Something obvious I’m not thinking of? I don’t anticipate too much mystery and a lot more hijinx, so I’m not immediately leaning in a GUMSHOEish direction.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2023 04:25
|
|
|
Xiahou Dun posted:What’re some good recommendations for investigative horror these days? I’m willing to learn a new system if it’s good, or this might be a decent time to try out Unknown Armies 3e. UA3 would be absolutely perfect for this.
|
|
#
?
Jul 24, 2023 14:49
|
|
|
Weird request: is there something inbetween Fiasco and Paranoia, i.e. a system for comedy-of-error one-shots with quick character generation focused more on I like Fiasco, but it's a bit hard to pace the middle acts, and I think having some things left up to chance might help - at the same time, I really like the premise of Paranoia, but you do need to get people on board with it first. RULESET: Lite SUPPORT: User-generated CHARGEN: Quick SETTING: Universal overeager overeater fucked around with this message at 13:30 on Aug 19, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2023 12:35
|
|
|
So, I've been thinking of using either Mothership or Alien RPG for a horror two-shot. Could anyone walk me through the pros and cons of each system?
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2023 12:23
|
|
|
I can't really speak for mothership, but Alien is ideal for a 2 (possibly 3) shot via it's cinematic mode. This mode has a set of published adventures, mostly quite bad, but the first one, Chariot of the gods, is really strong. This is in the starter set and it's probably the way I'd recommend to play it. In the cinematic mode, players don't create characters, instead there's a selection of pregens with deliberately conflicting ideals and goals, some of which are set to reveal at specific points in the adventure. These are all really classic tropes from the alien movies with a few twists to keep them from being too obvious. Some scenarios have extra twists you can drop onto characters to mix things up further. I can't really overstate how well this worked for us in terms of getting the adventure playing out like an alien movie, setting characters at each other throats, creating shifting alliances, tension, and setting unexpected twists in motion - At the same time, the descriptions are loose enough for players to have leeway in how they play the character. It's really good at evoking the genre at the system level too - Mechanically it's a pretty typical dice pool where you roll (SKILL RATING) in d6s, trying to get enough 6s to succeed. The fun part is when your character gets stressed out by seeing awful poo poo, they start to add extra stress dice to the check. Stress is sort of beneficial, as 6s on these count normally, but any 1's that come up mean the character freaks out and something goes wrong as hell. Usually they'll roll on a panic table, which might see them freeze or run off on their own to get chomped, or maybe the module decrees they just fumble the fuel cell they were trying to fix and die instantly, ruining their spaceship. Whatever it is, it makes the dice roll something to get nervous over, particularly once people are starting to stress badlyt Character attrition is very high (it's alien, so obviously) and a few bad dice can kill a character outright - if that happens players can just drop into one of the unused characters (who become NPCs if there are less than 6 players) or theres an optional event midway through Chariot to bring new characters into the setting. I had some caveats about it - - With lower player counts it's quite hard work for the GM - the leftover characters all still have important parts to play and there's a surprising amount of things to track at a given time. - Some of the threats, out of the box, might just kill everyone too aggresively if the players aren't super paranoid. In particular in Chariot there's an infection that might just get everyone killed as written. I'd limit the number of people who get infected rather than making it automatic - perhaps leaving it open for the uninfected people to be secretly spreading the disease if they survive the adventure, or being dragged away by the government to be experimented on as a coda - The stress mechanic is great, but sometimes it just isn't appropriate for it to trigger, use GM discretion. - Similarly, creatures in the game roll on a table for how they attack, and that can cause huge swings in lethality, where an alien decides to just stand and yell at you, or to exclusively use their insta-kill things. Again, use discretion and probably just pick the most dramatic roll. - As written, players get given information on their goals every act, on cool little cards for the purpose. However there are a few roles that should probably get some extra information earlier - If you think in terms of the movies, imagine if burke was doing everything he could to destroy alien samples in the first act, because he didn't realise just how much of a traitor he would be in act 2. - Finally, I guess this is a licencing thing, but the adventures are as much prometheus and covenant tie ins as they are about classic alien stuff. Chariot of the gods is easily the best published module but it doesn't feature a classic alien at all. This doesn't actually hurt the adventure at all, but I guess if your group wants the big giger gribbly they might be disappointed. ShineDog fucked around with this message at 18:18 on Aug 31, 2023 |
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2023 18:09
|
|
|
Crossposting from the chat thread: if you were putting together a sort of RPG charcuterie plate for people who have only ever played D&D, and you wanted to provide a sampler for the modern landscape of the hobby, what would you put on it? For context, I recently completed a seven-year-long 5e campaign which was the first roleplaying experience for a bunch of kids who are now all late teens and young adults. We've talked for years about wanting to try a bunch of different games after this campaign ends, and now that the time has come, I’m putting together a shortlist. We'll probably do a few months’ worth of stuff in this vein, one to four sessions per game at about four hours each, with the "con game" expectation that not every story we start will see a conclusion. At the moment, my shortlist is something like: Apocalypse World 2e. It's the foundational game of the modern era of RPG design. Nothing else comes close to being as influential. Lancer. This is what a game built around good tactical combat looks like, and it carries on the genetic lineage of 4e – which is not a game I care for, tbh, but it’s worth seeing what something like that looks like. The King is Dead or Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands. GMless, hyper-focused, with a structure of play wildly divergent from the norm. Tales from the Loop. An investigative game is a must for this project, but it needs an accessible hook. For adults I’d probably go with Night’s Black Agents or Delta Green, but Stranger Things is ridiculously popular with this crowd, so TftL fills this role well. Other possibilities: Agon 2e, Torchbearer. I’d include Blades in the Dark on this list as well, but we’re already settled on that being the next campaign-length thing we do; likewise Dread and Starforged, which they’ve gotten some experience with, and The Quiet Year which we’re currently playing. Meg Baker’s 1001 Nights would also be an auto-include if we were playing in person, but since that’s not an option and it loses so much atmosphere when played on a VTT, I’ve reluctantly pulled that one from the list too. Other honorable mentions lost to the necessity of a VTT: Ten Candles, Polaris, and Sleepaway. The intent isn't just to showcase a bunch of my favorite games, but rather to undo a mistake I made years ago of locking this group into 5e, and not giving them enough exposure to the rest of the art form before Critical Role took over their brains. It is physically painful to see the astonishing, "you could publish this and I'd buy it in a heartbeat" creativity coming out of some of these kids, and watching them struggle with having a mental model that begins and ends with a d20. With all that in mind, what else should I consider putting in here to showcase meaningfully different facets of the hobby, that you can get a decent idea of in 1-4 short sessions, with five players?
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2023 03:56
|
|
|
I saw this thread on Reddit on a very similar topic that seemed very helpful: https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/18etikw/differentunique_ttrpg_systems_to_try/
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2023 04:29
|
|
|
Maybe add in some microgames as well? Grant Howitt's series of them on itch has some great ones, and a wide variety of mechanisms. I really love Reverse Beastmasters from that run.
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2023 04:32
|
|
|
You might want to look into Apocalypse World: Burned Over, which is Apocalypse World as partially rewritten by and for the couple's own teens. Torchbearer suffers a bit on the VTT because of the combat scripting, but Agon's a good pick.
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2023 04:57
|
|
|
My group tried Apocalypse World back in 2014 (1e) and absolutely loathed it to the point where three players asked me if I was insane that I seriously wanted to play that poo poo. This was before 5e was released, too. Contrary to what many goons think, not all players like the more freeform aspects of games like Blades or PitA. I have managed to get them into Beyond the Wall, but that took a lot of effort.
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2023 20:12
|
|
|
Humbug Scoolbus posted:My group tried Apocalypse World back in 2014 (1e) and absolutely loathed it to the point where three players asked me if I was insane that I seriously wanted to play that poo poo. This was before 5e was released, too. That's fine and all, but the goon in question is trying to show the variety in the hobby, so running a one shot of a pbta to expose their players to it seems reasonable enough
|
|
#
?
Dec 11, 2023 20:18
|
|
|
Useful stuff here, thanks folks!Glazius posted:You might want to look into Apocalypse World: Burned Over, which is Apocalypse World as partially rewritten by and for the couple's own teens. Good point re: Torchbearer. I've run a lot of Burning Wheel on VTT and have my own custom setup for it, but I do not relish the idea of doing all that work on the scripting assets for a demo. Burned Over has been on my radar for a while, and some people with serious design chops (John Harper among others) have praised it to the skies, but I've yet to play it. I'm up in the air on that one, because I kind of want to show the kids the OG version so they can see the DNA of it in Almost Everything Else That Gets Published, but Burned Over is intriguing. Have you or anyone else here gotten to actually play it? Curious about people's impressions of it compared to the original.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2023 04:52
|
|
|
Isn't Burned Over just AW2e with the Gen X sex poo poo removed?
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2023 05:29
|
|
|
Putting aside the uncharitable description, no, the playbooks, equipment, and moves are significantly changed, too.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2023 05:47
|
|
|
Yeah, the playbooks are greatly changed, pretty much across the board. Even the ones that are superficially similar tend to have at least one move or bit of fictional positioning that is a substantial departure from the original. There's some changes to the basic moves that seem huge, too, although as mentioned I haven't seen them in play yet.
|
|
#
?
Dec 13, 2023 06:02
|
|
|
Are there any games that take inspiration from Ars Magica or that, in your opinion, scratch similar itches? Doesn't need to be in the pseudo-historical fantasy setting either. The important 'itches' are: - Troupe roleplaying and rotating PCs, everybody gets to be in the spotlight at different times and characters aren't strictly "yours" - Emphasis on building up some form of "home base", alliances, resources etc. rather than being wandering murderhobos - Emphasis on creating your own powers/abilities/gear, with creative freedom but still a sense of progression (preempting the obvious: the WoD Mage games only check out the last box) If you ask "why not just run Ars Magica", that is indeed my plan. But since the current edition is exactly 20 years old, I figure there's a decent chance something else in the same space has since come out that I had never heard of, and I should check those out before committing.
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2024 22:18
|
|
|
no 
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2024 22:36
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 29, 2024 12:19 |
|
|
NihilCredo posted:Are there any games that take inspiration from Ars Magica or that, in your opinion, scratch similar itches? Doesn't need to be in the pseudo-historical fantasy setting either. The important 'itches' are: Blades in the Dark sort of qualifies: Troupe roleplaying/rotating PCs: not as such, strictly speaking. However, players will often have access to alternate PCs because their primary ones are out (imprisoned, lost in their vices, etc) and these PCs could be shared in common; further, the 'prime' PCs are leaders of a crew allowing access to temporarily roleplay a bevy of characters. As to rotating spotlight, that's definitely the case, but the GM is encouraged not to let it linger too long on any one character. Home base/etc.: A key component of gameplay is building up your crew/lair/shared assets/resources, with a central focus on your relationship with the different factions, and how your choices and actions affect your relations with them. Creating your own powers/abilities/gear: perhaps the most constrained, though with a fair amount of freedom. You start with a playbook that has some assigned gear, some choices for gear, a shared list of 12 actions (skills) to allocate points to (some will be preallocated based on your playbook choice), and a unique list of abilities that let you 'break the rules' in some way (of which you pick one). When you advance, you can either allocate more points to skills or select a new ability. The ability can come from any playbook; it doesn't have to be your own, so there's lots of flexibility. As to gear advancement, you either acquire it through jobs (adventures), or more commonly through investing time and money during the downtime between jobs. The other major limitation is, "What if I don't want to run a game based around magitech steampunk criminals in notLondon?" Well, there are other Forged in the Dark games to look at that also hit these marks, some in differing ways: Scum & Villainy (Star Wars, Firefly, or Cowboy Bebop, depending on how you frame it), Band of Blades (a defeated army on the run from aberrations tries to score last-stand victories and retreat to their final redoubt -- very Black Company if you've read that), etc. I don't know Ars Magica so I don't know if there's one that maps closely to the game world, but in terms of the metamechanics, FitD games sound like a good match.
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2024 22:54
|
|