EmperorNorton
Legendary Pubber
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2018
- Messages
- 5,415
- Reaction score
- 15,219
Have you ever read an RPG book, gone "man, this would be great to run", but known there was no way you could actually expect anyone else at the table learn it from the book cause the book has godawful editing and organization?
I recently picked up Tears of the Machine, a small indie game written by Russell G Collins. It is basically Evangelion with the serial numbers filed off. The mechanics embrace this theme incredibly well.
The basic core of this is the Pilot Ego vs "Mecha's" Id interplay. Ego is a pool of points, from 0-5 that can go up or down during play. You do something tied to your motivation and succeed? You can gain ego Fail? You can lose Ego. (Same with your fears, do something and succeed over your fear, you can gain ego, fail, and you can lose ego. You also can risk ego in situations involving characters you have a strong relationship to). Ego is also used as a resource to bump up your rolls, that little extra "oomph" that you can put into something because you are believing in yourself.
Your Mech (which is a biological horror disguised as a mech, much like Eva) has an Id. When you are in your mech and a round goes by where your ego doesn't change, it doesn't go up or down at all,your mech's id goes up by 1. You can also spend Id like you do Ego, but only for violent actions, and when you do, it will be an INCREDIBLY violent action, with less concern for collateral damage. If the mech's id is ever higher than your ego, you risk losing control and it going straight up berserk.
This whole interplay of maintaining the mental health of your pilot vs the violent urges of the mech is really cool, really interesting, and clever game design. And the entire system has pretty clever ideas. The way it handles teamwork is interesting as well.
But my god the book itself. It's repetitive. There are two sections called rules overview and rules details. And they mostly repeat the exact same information, only the details section includes a little more detail. The rules on how GM characters work are hidden in the GM section, but those rules are referenced repeatedly in the rules detail section that occurs much earlier. For instance, it mentions boosts from an Antagonists rolls, but in the rules details section it doesn't even tell you that antagonists roll dice, or what dice.
The rules on how Id is accrued is brought up 4 separate times in the rules, and 3 of those times it is written so vaguely that until I found the 4th time it was mentioned that I understood how it was supposed to work.
This game is really interesting. The mechanics are cool. The setting I'd probably make a few changes to, but that is normal for me, overall its a solid starting point. But my god the editing. I think the book could be about half the length, with the same amount, if not more information, and way way more clarity.
What books have you had this issue with. Where you like the game, but you feel like you have to fight the book to run it?
I recently picked up Tears of the Machine, a small indie game written by Russell G Collins. It is basically Evangelion with the serial numbers filed off. The mechanics embrace this theme incredibly well.
The basic core of this is the Pilot Ego vs "Mecha's" Id interplay. Ego is a pool of points, from 0-5 that can go up or down during play. You do something tied to your motivation and succeed? You can gain ego Fail? You can lose Ego. (Same with your fears, do something and succeed over your fear, you can gain ego, fail, and you can lose ego. You also can risk ego in situations involving characters you have a strong relationship to). Ego is also used as a resource to bump up your rolls, that little extra "oomph" that you can put into something because you are believing in yourself.
Your Mech (which is a biological horror disguised as a mech, much like Eva) has an Id. When you are in your mech and a round goes by where your ego doesn't change, it doesn't go up or down at all,your mech's id goes up by 1. You can also spend Id like you do Ego, but only for violent actions, and when you do, it will be an INCREDIBLY violent action, with less concern for collateral damage. If the mech's id is ever higher than your ego, you risk losing control and it going straight up berserk.
This whole interplay of maintaining the mental health of your pilot vs the violent urges of the mech is really cool, really interesting, and clever game design. And the entire system has pretty clever ideas. The way it handles teamwork is interesting as well.
But my god the book itself. It's repetitive. There are two sections called rules overview and rules details. And they mostly repeat the exact same information, only the details section includes a little more detail. The rules on how GM characters work are hidden in the GM section, but those rules are referenced repeatedly in the rules detail section that occurs much earlier. For instance, it mentions boosts from an Antagonists rolls, but in the rules details section it doesn't even tell you that antagonists roll dice, or what dice.
The rules on how Id is accrued is brought up 4 separate times in the rules, and 3 of those times it is written so vaguely that until I found the 4th time it was mentioned that I understood how it was supposed to work.
This game is really interesting. The mechanics are cool. The setting I'd probably make a few changes to, but that is normal for me, overall its a solid starting point. But my god the editing. I think the book could be about half the length, with the same amount, if not more information, and way way more clarity.
What books have you had this issue with. Where you like the game, but you feel like you have to fight the book to run it?