For all you 2d20 fans out there: the Dishonored RPG

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3rik

3rik

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MODIPHIUS ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES
DISHONORED ROLEPLAYING GAME
(...)The game has been developed using a streamlined version of the company’s proprietary 2d20 System, popularized by its award-winning Star Trek Adventures and Conan roleplaying games(...)
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:wink:

link: DISHONORED - Modiphius

dishonored-tabletop-rpg-cover_1_orig.jpg
 
I don't know whether to be sad or happy about this news.

I'm not a fan of the 2d20 System, but maybe this streamlining they speak of will make it better.

I love the Dishonored games though. Dishonored is one of my favorite videogames of all time.
So the prospect of roleplaying in that setting, intrigues me.
 
Will it punish you for being assassin, like the first game did, despite claiming you are one? Will the mask be useless for anything other than magnification duty? Will you need magical abilities to do basic things like climbing?
 
Stevethulhu said:
I don't mind it, but it's not my first choice. I thought it worked ok for Trek, though.
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I don't hate it either, just find it a bit cumbersome at times.

I have only played in one Conan game using the system though. Don't know anything about the Trek verison.
 
Chris Brady said:
Will it punish you for being assassin, like the first game did, despite claiming you are one? Will the mask be useless for anything other than magnification duty? Will you need magical abilities to do basic things like climbing?
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So you didn't like the videogames huh.
 
The Mad Hatter said:
So you didn't like the videogames huh.
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I liked the world building, the characters, the steampunk Half-Life inspired visuals, although I would have preferred if Corvo had a 'voice' (even if he never spoke), the NPC spoke AT him, rather than TO him. But the game was a massive, half-arsed bait and switch to me. You don't give me the tools to be an unrepentant, vengeance driven killer and then punish me for doing what the game claims I am.

If Mophidius wants to mimic the world, they will have to reinforce that killing is bad, by having the corpses of the dead rise up against the players the more then kill/adventure.
 
Chris Brady said:
I liked the world building, the characters, the steampunk Half-Life inspired visuals, although I would have preferred if Corvo had a 'voice' (even if he never spoke), the NPC spoke AT him, rather than TO him. But the game was a massive, half-arsed bait and switch to me. You don't give me the tools to be an unrepentant, vengeance driven killer and then punish me for doing what the game claims I am.

If Mophidius wants to mimic the world, they will have to reinforce that killing is bad, by having the corpses of the dead rise up against the players the more then kill/adventure.
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I played it as a stealth game, but I love stealth games, only resorting to combat when absolutely needed. The combat system in the game was quite good actually.

The thing about punishing you for killing, I disagree with. I didn't feel it as a punichment because it made perfect sense in the backstory
of the game. The people you killed came back because of the plague.
 
Also, it reminds me a lot of Yoko Taro's thoughts on the endings of Drakengard: People who murder a ton of folks don't really deserve happy endings.

It was making a point.
 
The Mad Hatter said:
I played it as a stealth game, but I love stealth games, only resorting to combat when absolutely needed. The combat system in the game was quite good actually.

The thing about punishing you for killing, I disagree with. I didn't feel it as a punichment because it made perfect sense in the backstory
of the game. The people you killed came back because of the plague.
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I'm not talking about killing EVERYONE, I'm talking about being a professional killer, ignore the 'innocent' and only kill the proper targets. Which still gets you the 'Evil' ending, ironically enough. I was confused. I'm not going to leave threats to the Princess alive so that they can come back later, with their own vengeance, especially not the ones who conspired and managed to kill her mother, under Corvo's watch, in the first place. That's political suicide. But that's apparently being evil in that universe.

And you don't want to fight in Dishonored, the combat is TERRIBLE. It's sloppy, barely visible and just generally half-arsed, like most things by Bethesda. But let's be fair, most first person combat is terrible, the field of view is exceeding limited, the animations tend to have to be constrained in that cone...

But the biggest crime to me? The mask, they make such a big deal about and all it does is... Magnify one step. It should have been the Steampunk equivalent of Batman's cowl, have a scaling telescopic vision, maybe a magnifier for clues and low light capacity. Instead we got... That.

Which leads into the stealth mechanic, which was also lacking. Light and Dark had no effect on whether or not you were spotted, it was entirely based on sight line. I once hid under a stairway, in the complete dark, according to the graphics and had this been a competently designed stealth game like the original Thief series (From the NINETIES!) or the Chronicle of Riddick ones, which would have also had a light/shadow meter to show how well you are hiding, I got spotted by random goon because I was simply because I was in his vision cone. That got a checkpoint reboot.

It's a terribly put together stealth game with hints of promise and shackled to a premise it's clear that Arkane Studios didn't want. They wanted to do the next Thief: Dark Project, instead we got... Dishonored.

But for all the complaints I had with the game itself, I rather liked the world around it. The reason I actually finished the game was because I wanted to know how it ended. Also, I had no idea there was a second ending. But the idea of this world of whaling giant monster fish, using the oil as a fuel source, the ancient eldritch gods vying for an unknowable 'something' that stuff was cool.

So if nothing else, I'm curious as to what Mophy will do with the setting.
 
Chris Brady said:
Will it punish you for being assassin, like the first game did, despite claiming you are one?
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You weren't an assassin. You were the Empress' bodyguard. You are repeatedly called an assassin because you were framed for assassinating her. The challenge of the game is to not prove their slander.
 
Baulderstone said:
You weren't an assassin. You were the Empress' bodyguard. You are repeatedly called an assassin because you were framed for assassinating her. The challenge of the game is to not prove their slander.
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No, the people Corvo works for call him one too and expect him to kill the targets. You're a hired killer, with the sole goal or protecting the Princess. I'm beginning to wonder if we played the same game...
 
Chris Brady said:
No, the people Corvo works for call him one too and expect him to kill the targets. You're a hired killer, with the sole goal or protecting the Princess. I'm beginning to wonder if we played the same game...
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The people Corvo works for are not good people either. They are just using Corvo as a disposable weapon to take out their rivals for power. Sure, they want you to murder all these people for them, taking the heat in the process, but the game provides you the option not to.
 
As I said, the game was making a point. You have choices and you just don't have to blindly follow what people tell you. You can make your own choice.
 
Chris Brady said:
I'm not talking about killing EVERYONE, I'm talking about being a professional killer, ignore the 'innocent' and only kill the proper targets. Which still gets you the 'Evil' ending, ironically enough. I was confused. I'm not going to leave threats to the Princess alive so that they can come back later, with their own vengeance, especially not the ones who conspired and managed to kill her mother, under Corvo's watch, in the first place. That's political suicide. But that's apparently being evil in that universe.

And you don't want to fight in Dishonored, the combat is TERRIBLE. It's sloppy, barely visible and just generally half-arsed, like most things by Bethesda. But let's be fair, most first person combat is terrible, the field of view is exceeding limited, the animations tend to have to be constrained in that cone...

But the biggest crime to me? The mask, they make such a big deal about and all it does is... Magnify one step. It should have been the Steampunk equivalent of Batman's cowl, have a scaling telescopic vision, maybe a magnifier for clues and low light capacity. Instead we got... That.

Which leads into the stealth mechanic, which was also lacking. Light and Dark had no effect on whether or not you were spotted, it was entirely based on sight line. I once hid under a stairway, in the complete dark, according to the graphics and had this been a competently designed stealth game like the original Thief series (From the NINETIES!) or the Chronicle of Riddick ones, which would have also had a light/shadow meter to show how well you are hiding, I got spotted by random goon because I was simply because I was in his vision cone. That got a checkpoint reboot.

It's a terribly put together stealth game with hints of promise and shackled to a premise it's clear that Arkane Studios didn't want. They wanted to do the next Thief: Dark Project, instead we got... Dishonored.

But for all the complaints I had with the game itself, I rather liked the world around it. The reason I actually finished the game was because I wanted to know how it ended. Also, I had no idea there was a second ending. But the idea of this world of whaling giant monster fish, using the oil as a fuel source, the ancient eldritch gods vying for an unknowable 'something' that stuff was cool.

So if nothing else, I'm curious as to what Mophy will do with the setting.
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I disagree about almost everything in this post, except the last bit about the world.

But I don't really wanna debate each and every point with you. So let's just agree to disagree.

It doesn't bother me that you severely dislikes something I love.
I'm sensitive, but not that sensitive.
 
EmperorNorton said:
Me thinks you kind of missed the point of the game.
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Yeah, I played through the game barely killing anyone, made the ending quite easy but the game was still lots of fun.

2d20 is okay, just not well suited to being applied to every genre but then I don't find any system well suited to that, even supposedly universal systems like GURPS.

I very much liked Dishonored though, if they find a way of making 2d20 work within the setting I'm down to check it out. I hope they consider giving a framework for one-on-one play rather than insisting on party play (although party-based play should be there as well). I also hope they come up with a meaningful and interesting approach to stealth, which is central to the game.
 
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AsenRG said:
The title is a perfect trolling attempt...:grin:
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I didn't really intend to when I was posting it, though I did mean to express cynicism at Modiphius using their 2d20 system for yet another licensed RPG. And once again they're apparently streamlining it for the purpose.
 
3rik said:
I didn't really intend to when I was posting it, though I did mean to express cynicism at Modiphius using their 2d20 system for yet another licensed RPG. And once again they're apparently streamlining it for the purpose.
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Well...streamlined or not, 2d20 is 2d20 just like d20 is d20 :smile:.
 
The Mad Hatter said:
I'm not a fan of the 2d20 System, but maybe this streamlining they speak of will make it better.
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They have spoken of this streamlining of the 2d20 system for their other games as well. Did it make those better than the Conan one?
 
3rik said:
They have spoken of this streamlining of the 2d20 system for their other games as well. Did it make those better than the Conan one?
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IME, only marginally so.
 
We have to stop the assimilation. We’ll have to go back in time and stop Nathan Dowdell from ever playing Cortex.
Sounds like a perfect scenario for Star Trek...arghh Paradox...
 
I'm not that familiar with the game, but my older son is a big fan of it. I may have to get this for him.

I love the description in one review I ran across describing the setting as Whalepunk although I don't actually understand the reference.
 
I agree in part with C Chris Brady about Dishonored stealth system being too simplistic in comparison to more hardcore stealth games like Thiefs, Splinter Cells, Metal Gears, etc. That said, I think the fun in Dishonored is really the open-ended and emergent possibilities in traversing the maps.

Oh, and I really find Knife of Dunwall and Dishonored 2 (with DotO) much better than the first entry. The lack of a voiced protag hurt the first one experience for me. Daud and Billy are sooooo much cooler than Corvo because of it.

By the way, I would love to play a Blades in the Dark assassins crew as the Whalers led by Daud. Hopefully this book will give me the materials to make this happen. (Edit: actually the "Fog Hounds" in Blades seem like a serial numbers off version of the Whalers... but I'd rather play the official ones)

images
 
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3rik said:
They have spoken of this streamlining of the 2d20 system for their other games as well. Did it make those better than the Conan one?
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I don't know, but from what I've read on the internet not much.

I've only played in one campaign of the Conan one. In that group I wasn't the only one who disliked the system.
 
silva said:
I agree in part with C Chris Brady about Dishonored stealth system being too simplistic in comparison to more hardcore stealth games like Thiefs, Splinter Cells, Metal Gears, etc. That said, I think the fun in Dishonored is really the open-ended and emergent possibilities in traversing the maps.

Oh, and I really find Knife of Dunwall and Dishonored 2 (with DotO) much better than the first entry. The lack of a voiced protag hurt the first one experience for me. Daud and Billy are sooooo much cooler than Corvo because of it.

By the way, I would love to play a Blades in the Dark assassins crew as the Whalers led by Daud. Hopefully this book will give me the materials to make this happen. (Edit: actually the "Fog Hounds" in Blades seem like a serial numbers off version of the Whalers... but I'd rather play the official ones)

images
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Yes, I also agree that the individual systems of Dishonored wasn't as good, as other games.
But is was the whole open-ended way the missions were structured and how the choices you made affected the game world. That made the game stand out so much for me.

The Dlc and the second game was better in some ways, but the first game is still the best for me.
It's a bit like the Tomb Raider reboot for me, where I also like the first game the best.

I will probably get this game, if only for the info it might give about the setting.
 
How is this gaming company getting so many licenses? Holy shit... It's like FFG 10 years ago.
 
Necrozius said:
How is this gaming company getting so many licenses? Holy shit... It's like FFG 10 years ago.
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It is a cumulative thing, once you show you can handle on IP well and produce good looking books that sell reasonably well you have something to approach other IP holders with showing you know what you’re doing.
 
The pdf is out on Drivethru and the hardcopy is going to be available soon on Amazon in Canada. I'm intrigued enough to think on pulling the trigger on the hardcopy.

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com www.drivethrurpg.com
 
I will be very interested to hear if they have done anything innovative for stealth
 
dbm said:
I will be very interested to hear if they have done anything innovative for stealth
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That would be impressive and better than what the video game did... It didn't even use light and shadow, if the mob had line of sight to the player, whether or not you were well hidden in darkness, you were spotted.
 
I don't know the source media, but about 2 years ago one of the guys in my gaming circle ran a one-0shot based on it that was a lot of fun. For Xmas I got him an artbook from the game as inspiration for morew games in that setting.
 
TristramEvans said:
I don't know the source media, but about 2 years ago one of the guys in my gaming circle ran a one-0shot based on it that was a lot of fun. For Xmas I got him an artbook from the game as inspiration for morew games in that setting.
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You get extra XP, I hope?
 
I wonder how many people buy these books after they get kickstarted?

I've never even heard of this particular property.
 
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