|
Maddman posted:Off the top of my head I'd say Dresden Files would be up your alley. Its modern fantasy rather than D&D clone, but the system really lends itself to the type of gameplay you're looking for. I've heard a lot of very good things about Dresden and LoA actually, but since I'm unemployed, I'm holding off on buying the books (getting the whole set would severely cut into my funds) until I can really find out if it's something I'd get a lot of mileage out of. There's also the issue that we're playing over Skype. One of my players is my girlfriend so she can borrow my books whenever she likes but our other player is in the US (we're in the UK) and I don't want her to miss out because she doesn't have books, nor do I want her to have to spend money she doesn't have to. If I recall, the site you can buy Anglerre from does have a pdf edition but :files: and all that. On that note, lately I've been considering switching from D&D to...well, something else. I only recently got into TTG and D&D is a great gateway but some things about it have bothered me for a while. 4e is very well balanced but I really dislike ...a lot of things, actually. Let me bore you with a list! - Ability scores. An untrained sorcerer is somehow more intimidating than a trained fighter just because of their high Charisma score. I do not like that at all because no matter what they do, the fighter will never be as intimidating as their sorcerer teammate despite the fact that they took up a class skill to do it. It makes no sense to me. - Reliance on magic items. 4e is a lot better about this than 3x is but it's still there. Everything just assumes that you'll have magic items at some point and personally I don't like that. Magic items should be a joy to find, a real reward. Not trash you can find in the blacksmiths bargain bin once you hit level 10. - This one is obvious given my last post in this thread, but focus on combat. I like to throw in a lot of diplomacy and social encounters into my games because I find it fun and so do the people I play with. But 4e is very much centred around the combat. I don't mind that at all, and it does what it does very well. Unfortunately, what it does is not what I do, and I find a lot of the rules support for noncombat encounters a little lacking. Not to mention that the classes and class roles are chiefly built around utility in combat. - Speaking of class roles, official monsters and combat encounters are built around a four person striker/defender/controller/leader party. Balancing encounters for a two person group comprised of a sorcerer and a cleric is...difficult to say the least. Not mechanically, but it's hard to justify why these people seem to only ever fight lots of mooks instead of one or two big guys. Again, it's something that makes no sense to me but it's unfair of me to list it here I guess since it's not specific to the system. - Finally, I dislike character classes. I recognise that in some systems it's a necessity but personally I would prefer a system where you get to say "My dude is good at x, y and z" and build it up from there, much like how character progression works in videogames like Fallout. Like I said, I haven't been into TTRPGs for very long so I honestly have no clue what's out there and what it's like. I started with 4e but over the past year or so, those things have really grated on me and I'm thinking it's time to branch out to a system that works for me instead of trying to force 4e to do things it's not built to do. I'm willing to try anything of any genre and any setting but because of the aforementioned unemployment I really want to be sure before I dive right in. I know it's a lot to ask you guys, and maybe I should make a new thread for this since I don't want to hijack this one and I know finding a new system will be a long process, but does anyone have any ideas? I will happily accept any link, description, website and synopsis you can throw at me so let me have it, and thank you in advance 
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2011 20:34
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 17:53 |
|
|
It sounds like Legends of Anglerre is what you want. I'm doing a read-through in the "FATAL and Friends" thread if you want more info.
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2011 20:40
|
|
|
After reading through just the first couple of chapters of that (thank you for doing that by the way, those "let's read" things must take forever) it definitely sounds like my dream system, and from what I'm understanding, if I like that, I'll like most other FATE based games. It looks really easy to plug into just about any setting so yeah, I am definitely liking this. I guess it's time to drop some money on these fine people, thank you so much!
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2011 21:39
|
|
|
Faerie Fortune posted:After reading through just the first couple of chapters of that (thank you for doing that by the way, those "let's read" things must take forever) it definitely sounds like my dream system, and from what I'm understanding, if I like that, I'll like most other FATE based games. It looks really easy to plug into just about any setting so yeah, I am definitely liking this. I guess it's time to drop some money on these fine people, thank you so much! Thanks for the kind words. And yes, if you like LoA, you're going to enjoy other Fate-based games since they all use about 90% of the same core system.
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2011 22:08
|
|
|
Hmm. Gumshoe does investigation type stuff pretty well, and there's a Lorefinder supplement for Pathfinder that's essentially the Investigation bits of Gumshoe grafted onto the Pathfinder system, as written by the people behind Gumshoe. Alternatively, there's Crimson Empire (a fairly obscure game that I may do a Lets Read of on the FATAL thread once I've finished the Riddle of Steel one) or Legend (formerly known as Mongoose Runequest 2, right up until Mongoose lost the Glorantha rights). Both of these come with the advantage of being rather cheap: Crimson Empire is just over a fiver and requires only one book, though the Trauma book may be useful and costs a similar amount, while Legend is less than a quid, but you may find a setting book or two useful, though these are fairly inexpensive if memory serves.
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2011 23:21
|
|
|
OK, I have had it with space games where you play Jedi/space wizards/space popes. I want a space game where you cruise around, searching for safe jump spots, take work where you can find it ferrying people and tools, search for minerals to sell and generally eke out a miserable, meager existence. Basically I want Firefly meets EVE Online, with a dash of Battlestar Galactica and a small side of Borderlands. Preferably with some sort of "Random Planet Generator" and more focus on kitting out the ship than necessarily advancing characters. I am willing to do a lot of the work myself in terms of world-building, so if anyone can suggest a universal conflict-resolution and involved character/ship-customization system that hopefully play nice together, I'll be in your debt. The next person to say FATE gets a kick in the balls. Man-Thing fucked around with this message at 08:15 on Jan 4, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2012 08:11
|
|
|
Man-Thing posted:OK, I have had it with space games where you play Jedi/space wizards/space popes. I want a space game where you cruise around, searching for safe jump spots, take work where you can find it ferrying people and tools, search for minerals to sell and generally eke out a miserable, meager existence. You know, I was recommended Traveller on the previous page, and having checked it out, it actually looks like it could work for you. Detailed ship building, robust planet/planetary system creation, and one of the core assumptions is that you bought your ship on credit and you're gonna have to work your tail off to pay it back.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2012 08:25
|
|
|
InShaneee posted:You know, I was recommended Traveller on the previous page, and having checked it out, it actually looks like it could work for you. Detailed ship building, robust planet/planetary system creation, and one of the core assumptions is that you bought your ship on credit and you're gonna have to work your tail off to pay it back. I'll give it a deeper read and then see about feeding all the RNG tables into a spreadsheet and generating 10,000 planets or so and then assigning them star co-ordinates this weekend.
|
|
#
?
Jan 4, 2012 08:29
|
|
|
Man-Thing posted:OK, I have had it with space games where you play Jedi/space wizards/space popes. I want a space game where you cruise around, searching for safe jump spots, take work where you can find it ferrying people and tools, search for minerals to sell and generally eke out a miserable, meager existence. GURPS Space has random planet and star system generation, and between the Spaceships and Ultratech books you'll have as much wiggle room between extreme realism and space magic as you want. It's also a system that puts most of the work on the GM which seems fine for you.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2012 08:24
|
|
|
Lynx Winters posted:GURPS Space has random planet and star system generation, and between the Spaceships and Ultratech books you'll have as much wiggle room between extreme realism and space magic as you want. It's also a system that puts most of the work on the GM which seems fine for you. Not only does it have random planet and star system generation, it also has random alien creature generation! There's a couple examples somewhere in FATAL and Friends.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2012 08:32
|
|
|
Re-skin Poison'd.
|
|
#
?
Jan 7, 2012 20:28
|
|
|
What you're asking for, man-thing, is essentially Traveller. The way to think about damage in that game is the way you'd think about it in real life - getting shot loving sucks; avoid it if at all possible. In every other respect, it's exactly what you're after. Oh, and some guys on the Mongoose board were working on a generic HP based damage system for the game, because they don't like wound penalties either. Me, I kinda like the idea that you can win a fight and still be in a worse position than before.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2012 02:07
|
|
|
If you're looking for anything universal and involved, GURPS is the game but understand that it's a toolkit, not something that should be played out of the book. You have to comb over everything and cull what doesn't work and what you think will introduce problems. GURPS Space, Ultra-Tech, and Bio-Tech are the definitive sources for sci-fi with Space taking a lot of material from GURPS Traveler and Transhuman Space. I use GURPS sourcebooks religiously and I don't even play GURPS.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2012 22:17
|
|
|
What I wanted, in theory, was a good post-apocalyptic-friendly system; something like this sounds good: RULESET: Between Lite-Normal and Normal-Crunchy SUPPORT: User-Generated or Established CHARGEN: Quick or Involved SETTING: Any, really! I already am running the campaign where I would have sought advice from this thread (started in Call of Cthulhu D20, ported it to Savage Worlds Realms of Cthulhu once it proved popular enough to continue), but while I do love Savage Worlds, it does not lend itself terrifically well to "oppressive" (Realms of Cthulhu certainly helps with that, though it obviously is not intended for post-apocalyptic scenarios). I hear lots of good things about Apocalypse World, except it does not sound like it would be very good for a gritty dark comedy game where everyone plays themselves. Or maybe it is perfect for that, who knows.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 07:24
|
|
|
Quarex posted:I hear lots of good things about Apocalypse World, except it does not sound like it would be very good for a gritty dark comedy game where everyone plays themselves. Or maybe it is perfect for that, who knows. Hahaha, oh my god, you have to try this. I have to try this. I mean, the game is essentially "class-based," and the classes are not things which anyone real is likely to be, much less anyone who plays RPGs, but it seriously sounds like a fantastic way to not take the whole thing seriously, even as the rules fore you to face deprivation and bleak hostility.
|
|
#
?
Jan 16, 2012 08:50
|
|
|
I'm looking for something that could be described Post apocalyptic Harnmaster in short. Crunchy, involved, brutal, short-lived characters, gritty, etc. but post apocalyptic, not low-fantasy. I'm considering running the game using google-maps/street view real-world locations and distances, but I'm looking for realistic yet-not-absolutely-anally-slow rules for guns, automatic weapons, etc. as well as good basic mechanics, character creation and such. I'd be up for a good post apocalyptic RPG in itself, but even a good basic ruleset would get me far.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 13:13
|
|
|
Quarex posted:What I wanted, in theory, was a good post-apocalyptic-friendly system; something like this sounds good: Super-easy character creation, decent support, post-apocalyptic setting, tennis racquets as gear.
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2012 20:30
|
|
|
Tark posted:I'm looking for something that could be described Post apocalyptic Harnmaster in short. Crunchy, involved, brutal, short-lived characters, gritty, etc. but post apocalyptic, not low-fantasy. I'm considering running the game using google-maps/street view real-world locations and distances, but I'm looking for realistic yet-not-absolutely-anally-slow rules for guns, automatic weapons, etc. as well as good basic mechanics, character creation and such. I'd be up for a good post apocalyptic RPG in itself, but even a good basic ruleset would get me far. GURPS is good if you're willing to do the legwork; much like Harnmaster, almost all of the rules are optional, and there are many "extra realism" options. Damage is unfortunately hit point based (not a huge fan of this), but a high damage roll from a 9mm is enough to take the average human to below 0 hp, which will often put them on the floor. Alternatively, there's also Cyberpunk 2020 with the setting stripped out; the Friday Night Fire Fight combat system is crunchy, has some fairly simple rules for bullet penetration (including the use of people as cover), and getting shot in this system really loving sucks. So does getting stabbed. The combat is based around the use of miniatures, facing is important, and movement is measured with a ruler rather than squares.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 00:39
|
|
|
hectorgrey posted:GURPS is good if you're willing to do the legwork; much like Harnmaster, almost all of the rules are optional, and there are many "extra realism" options. Damage is unfortunately hit point based (not a huge fan of this), but a high damage roll from a 9mm is enough to take the average human to below 0 hp, which will often put them on the floor. Also sometime soon SJG is coming out with After The End, which will be a post-apoc supplement in the same "instant game" style as Dungeon Fantasy, Action!, and Monster Hunters which are all really great. It will also help make chargen faster since everyone makes their dudes off one of the provided templates, which really helps make GURPS less intimidating to new players.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 02:28
|
|
|
I have two questions for the thread, hopefully someone will have some way to help guide me into something fun. Firstly, I'm looking for a game with some sort of base or city building minigame (maybe a starship or space station?) with some mechanical benefits to improving it. I'm backing Flatpack on Kickstarter, but I'm not sure it's exactly what I'm after. The idea would be to have players recruit specialists and get buildings built. Flatpack covers those admirably, but I don't think it's really crunchy enough. It's also not nearly gritty enough, but the optimism is part of the charm, so that really can't be held against it. Also, we've basically proven that my gaming group really enjoys going head-to-head. 3:16 turned into a mutiny on an alien-infested space station ending with a dead Sergeant and we figured the best way for a player to leave our 4e game was trying to kill another player (his brother, specifically) and everyone loved it. I'm looking into Paranoia, since I think it's a PERFECT fit for these guys, in that it's not all that serious and encourages dickery and doubletalk. What other sorts of games encourage backstabbing or outright aggression and violence between players? If I could get both of these answered with the same game or a way to slot the base-building into Paranoia, I think that'd be the best thing ever. Or I could just say gently caress it and have us play Happy Birthday, Robot! I'm honestly a little afraid of what would happen if we did that, though. That would be a foul, awful story.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 05:28
|
|
|
I just picked up Reign with the intention of re-purposing the Companies mechanic to simulate a head-to-head game of fantasy Risk + Game of Thrones. Is there anything crunchier that I might use for something like this?
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 20:04
|
|
|
Hmm... Just for the companies, or for actual characters walking around? In the latter, Harnmaster or GURPS are both quite crunchy, and can easily be made to suit the setting very well. Just for companies, on the other hand, I can't think of aything.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 20:13
|
|
|
I think I'll be scrapping characters all together for my game. I'll want detailed heads of state, and might even stat them out, but I don't especially care have them impact the game in a major way. edit: So yea, I'm basically looking for a way to give companies more depth and crunch, although I'm starting to think Reign might be just the thing.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 20:36
|
|
|
Companies were designed to be interesting background while individual characters did stuff. If you want your countries to be the characters, then just give them complete character sheets with stats, skills, health bits, techniques, etc.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 21:41
|
|
|
I understand that Companies weren't designed for the game I'm trying to run, but I do like the mechanic for a number of reasons: 1) Espionage and Unconventional warfare. 2) There are situations where inaction is the best action. The pacifist victory is completely viable. By spending turns passively improving your Company, you can grow into a Company so powerful, your opposition is unlikely to challenge you. 2) The challenge of dividing up resources, especially the dice penalty for each successive time you use a Quality during a month(turn). In a multiplayer game, if someone gets big and scary, he can't defend all fronts and continue to be an aggressor. If you prioritize spying on your enemy, your sources at home take a penalty. I'm not especially inclined to reskin characters as Kingdoms. Maybe I'm not being creative enough. I'm certainly willing to entertain more on that idea, if anyone has insights.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 22:46
|
|
|
I was having a private conversation with a guy I know who wants a gaming tie-in to his movie (I know how that sounds, but he has already seen multiple films through from start to finish and shown them at legitimate festivals) and he asked if I had any suggestions for whether they should design their own system or license a pre-existing one. I thought "OH I KNOW JUST THE THREAD!" Here is what he is looking for: Dark Sun meets Blade Runner, if that makes any sense. I thought about contacting the publishers of Dark Conspiracy to see if I could use their rules framework. I need something that can handle various levels of tech, has a decent melee system, and can incorporate psionics. It seems a lot easier to adopt a pre-existing system but...I don't know...maybe it'd be better to design something new. Thoughts? (From what I know of his game/movieworld, it all takes place on a largely uninhabitable planet that was colonized as an Earth outpost. It seems like Earth is destroyed or otherwise irrelevant, and that androids significantly outnumber people. Also from what I remember of Dark Conspiracy I feel like he is potentially interpreting "an awesome setting" as "awesome rules," which could be a problem [oh god from the Wikipedia entry "For common tasks and situations the rules are very direct, but the rules that govern more unusual situations, such as explosives, become extremely complex, requiring the use of square roots and decimal fractions"].)
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2012 22:18
|
|
|
What's the movie about?
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2012 00:07
|
|
|
Doc Hawkins posted:What's the movie about? I am only like 75% sure he would not mind me asking the general public, so I was a little leery to go there; while surely someone dedicated enough could already figure it out, it would be challenging and provide little reward, but if I gave out too many details, it might be much easier. Of course, he also did mention publicly once that he was interested in a gaming tie-in ... His finished short film in this world was either about a person who believed he was an android or a malfunctioning android (I only saw previews thus far), and I think the uhh half-feature-length? one he is working on now is about a workers' resistance movement rising up against the oppressive regime that runs the colony. So, you know, futuristic dystopia, but with more post-apocalyptic overtones via the minimal number of actual human beings versus synthetic and presumably evil-overlord-subservient lifeforms. The way you know he is both a gamer and a socially competent human being is that when describing his movie world to normal people, he calls it "Mad Max meets Blade Runner" instead of "Dark Sun meets Blade Runner."
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2012 19:26
|
|
|
Okay, rising up against a dystopic regime, I think I can get that. The thing is, there are a million games which could be used to play in that setting, but each one would be a different game, because the setting isn't what distinguishes a game, so if you would like to taking another system wholesale, choose one that you'd like to play and work with, and that has a permissive license. I'd recommend FATE, since it's becoming ever-better-known, and I think it's free or libre or creative communal or whatever. But no matter how much or little you borrow from existing systems, you're still going to be designing a game, so lets start at the beginning:
|
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2012 22:33
|
|
|
Mongoose Traveller has a fair bit of useful stuff for that kind of thing, and the system is OGL if I recall correctly, so that might be worth a look. On the other hand, its melee isn't particularly good, as I recall. There's another system called DICE that, while not open content, the creator would probably be willing to work something out with you. It has pretty decent melee and as it's designed to be used for most settings (though currently the only one available is Crimson Exodus), so I'd imagine it could handle multiple tech levels fairly well. Finally, GURPS has everything you could possibly want, but you'd need to contact the creators to get a license to use the system and you'd need to do a lot of reading to find which books have the various goodies you want to include in the game. Edit: Actually, I take that back; while the melee system in Mongoose Traveller is nothing special, it's also no worse than that of D&D 3.5 and its ilk. hectorgrey fucked around with this message at 23:11 on Jan 25, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jan 25, 2012 23:01
|
|
|
What game(s) would people recommend if I was looking for something similar to D&D 4e's level of fun, tactical combat?
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2012 07:55
|
|
|
Sad Mammal posted:What game(s) would people recommend if I was looking for something similar to D&D 4e's level of fun, tactical combat? Savage World's combat uses minis by default and they even broke the combat system out to spin-off a skirmish war game. It's not as complex as 4E but it can be pretty fun.
|
|
#
?
Feb 1, 2012 12:48
|
|
|
Looking at options for my PbP group. We've been playing D&D 4e, but the necessary stuff to handle maps and general initiative turn-taking isn't working the way we'd like. So looking for, roughly: Ruleset: normal to crunchy Support: whatever CharGen: anything with enough fiddliness to allow customization and some optimization Setting: works fine for a homebrew but unsurprising D&D world I'm not really sold on Legends of Anglerre; much of us are also in an AIM Kerberos Club game and I'm not looking for another FATE game. What other options would fit? I'm just considering options to replace the mechanics and keep the same campaign, hopefully.
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2012 03:36
|
|
|
Mongoose Runequest 2 (now known as Legend) is pretty decent, and has support for the standard D&D lineup of races. By default everyone has a little bit of magic, but that's easy enough to remove without screwing up game balance, and the classless nature means that the characters can be good at whatever you want them to be good at. It's also just as easy for new players (if not easier).
|
|
#
?
Feb 5, 2012 17:09
|
|
|
Is there anything out there designed to replicate the feel of beat em up/hack n slash games where its a few dudes vs dozens/hundreds of mooks? Unified resolution mechanics and other modern mechanics preferred but not necessary. I'm thinking of homebrewing something for a Dynasty Warriors esque game but I'd rather not put a lot of effort into it if someone else already did all the hard work.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2012 01:12
|
|
|
Whatever system you're using, you're probably using mooks as some sort of singular entity or a few big groups of mooks to avoid rolling dozens of dice at a time. D&D 4e can be adapted to this sort of thing if you use swarms to represent mooks while standards/elites/solos represent the more important people.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2012 02:03
|
|
|
Which style of hack and slash are you after? The Dynasty Warriors approach, where you wave your sword vaguely left and five people die, and being surrounded is great because it makes hitting things easier, or the Ninja Gaiden approach, where you need to avoid being surrounded and poo poo like that? Reign is probably the closest system I can think of for the former, because not only does it have mooks, it has multiple tiers of mooks. For the latter, I'm tempted to suggest Iron Heroes, a d20 varient by Monte Cooke that's designed around mostly melee characters kicking rear end. Edit: Also, what that guy said.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2012 02:15
|
|
|
TK-31 posted:Is there anything out there designed to replicate the feel of beat em up/hack n slash games where its a few dudes vs dozens/hundreds of mooks? Unified resolution mechanics and other modern mechanics preferred but not necessary. Why don't you try to reflavor something like 3:16? Instead of aliens you could wade through hordes of poorly trained mooks.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2012 02:22
|
|
|
The former approach, I guess this is the last nudge I needed to read REIGN in depth. A quick lookup of 3:16 sounds like it would fit if I can nudge my group more towards the storygame side, thanks guys.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2012 04:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 17:53 |
|
|
Here's a question - I rewatched mighty morphin' power rangers because I was really loving bored. I was wondering what system people would use for this; it would need to handle basic humans just as well as superpowered characters (since they have no powers in their suits), which rules GURPS and HERO out, since GURPS doesn't handle superhuman characters very well, and HERO doesn't handle regular humans very well. I'd prefer pretty crunchy, since combat would be a fairly major portion of the campaign, and a decent level of realism on the human level (that is, a human can't take a solid hit from Goldar's sword without needing emergency medical treatment, and so forth), and naturally it'll need to handle vehicles reasonably well. So, any ideas guys? Incidentally, I'd also use a few ideas from the movie, wherein the suits also have enhanced vision modes and poo poo like that. Also, the guns that the Rangers get would hopefully actually see some use.
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2012 01:15
|
|