Kickstarters Thread

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I like the system (loved the fact that drawing your character used to be a mandatroy part of the rules) but I don't really get the setting, I'm probably to literal minded. I don't get Twin Peaks either.

It's definitely a setting you get or you don't. I'd never bother trying to convince someone of the setting virtues.

Also, from a European point of view there is nothing less exotic than the Mediterranean which is all about ugly seaside hotels and German tourists.
So the Mediterranean is sort of Europe's Florida?
 
So it has now exceeded its goal and has 33 days to go. I wonder how high it will go?
 
Just filled out my pledge survey for rewards. £447 total. Damn that's a chunk of change.
 
Also, from a European point of view there is nothing less exotic than the Mediterranean which is all about ugly seaside hotels and German tourists.

That's why the French translation (Conspirations) relocated Al'Amarja to the Carribbean.
(Beautiful new cover by comic artist Andreas, who is known for the weird and cthulhuesque graphic novel series Rork, Capricorn, and Raffington Event.)
 
Better hope itsa good game then! :O

Doesn't matter much. A crapload of Hellboy miniatures is what I was after, and what I got. If the game's fun, nifty, if not, I have dozens of other games to put them to use.
 
Guys I’m backing this one so expect it never to come out.
I've backed two of their campaigns before - Feng Shui 2 and Unknown Armies 3rd Edition. Both came out as clockwork on the dates set. Atlas Games remains the only game company I have backed on Kickstarter to achieve this.
 
Baulderstone said:
So the Mediterranean is sort of Europe's Florida?
Sort of. The Mediteranean Sea encompasses all of Southern Europe and North Africa. I always thought that Over The Edge was a bit like a weird Casablanca.
 
The system is minimalistic. You can see it here, used for the fanmade Thundarr The Barbarian game: Under A Broken Moon.

I don't know why they want to change from WaRP to something that vaguely resembles PbtA - but maybe that kind of catering to RPG's "hipster crowd" is already the answer.

But the new system doesn't seem to address one of the main "problems" of the old system: the free style traits.
I like trait sytems very much; RISUS, I played Inter Alia/Thema for a short while, I toyed with my own 2d6 adaptation of WaRP (around 2005), and what I learned from all that was that a free style trait system works best with settings that are well-known by all players - either well-known specific settings (like Dune or LotR) or a setting with strong genre conventions.
A gonzo kitchen sink like Al'Amarja is pretty much the opposite.

A setting that works like breeze with WaRP is Star Wars: Over the Empire
 
I don't know why they want to change from WaRP to something that vaguely resembles PbtA - but maybe that kind of catering to RPG's "hipster crowd" is already the answer.

But the new system doesn't seem to address one of the main "problems" of the old system: the free style traits.
I like trait sytems very much; RISUS, I played Inter Alia/Thema for a short while, I toyed with my own 2d6 adaptation of WaRP (around 2005), and what I learned from all that was that a free style trait system works best with settings that are well-known by all players - either well-known specific settings (like Dune or LotR) or a setting with strong genre conventions.
A gonzo kitchen sink like Al'Amarja is pretty much the opposite.

A setting that works like breeze with WaRP is Star Wars: Over the Empire
Well, it seems to resemble PbtA, by way of Fate with at least a passing nod to the old MET system (which has always had a very understated influence on a lot of these games, if people are honest). It is possibly a moot point, but the presentation of the characters may end up being pretty much the same - which means the new book is quite possibly compatible with the WaRP system. The main criticism I have is actually the manner that they address your criticism, actually. Character generation is longer because they have put a whole load of directions in order to work out the traits in a balanced way - making them less freeform to a degree.
 
But the new system doesn't seem to address one of the main "problems" of the old system: the free style traits.
I like trait sytems very much; RISUS, I played Inter Alia/Thema for a short while, I toyed with my own 2d6 adaptation of WaRP (around 2005), and what I learned from all that was that a free style trait system works best with settings that are well-known by all players - either well-known specific settings (like Dune or LotR) or a setting with strong genre conventions.
A gonzo kitchen sink like Al'Amarja is pretty much the opposite.
That's pretty subjective. Over the Edge came out in 1992, a year after Naked Lunch was adapted into a movie and made Burroughs trendy again. While The X-Files was still a year away, the conspiracy zeitgeist of the '90s was already beginning to buzz. I'm not going to say any of these things were truly mainstream, but the people I hung out with at the time were all conscious of them, and Over the Edge was a game that my group got instantly.

In a general sense, I agree with you. Freeform traits require a player to have a better handle on the genre (although Over the Edge did a pretty good job with its list of character ideas). I just had players that already had a handle on the genre.

I think one of the keys to Atlas' long-term success has been making nichey games with strong followings rather then trying to go for the most popular ideas. Over the Edge, Ars Magica, Feng Shui and Unknown Armies are all games that were unlikely to ever be the next D&D or Vampire, but they were all the kind of games that develop a stong cult following. The people that have issues with the free-form character generation because they don't get the genre aren't the people they were selling the game to.
 
That’s how I feel about it too. Even if the game turns out to be lousy, we’ll have lots and lots of cool toys to use in other games.
 
I've backed two of their campaigns before - Feng Shui 2 and Unknown Armies 3rd Edition. Both came out as clockwork on the dates set. Atlas Games remains the only game company I have backed on Kickstarter to achieve this.

I’m just telling you that when I back something bad stuff happens.
 
Weren't the rules for this posted online? Perhaps a play test document?

I'm sure someone linked it to me for reasons I now can't recall
 
I don't know about this new edition but I found the original's system to be exquisitely simple and elegant. Really underrated design.

I do like that new cover art, though. Quite striking.
 
If "just simplified" means throwing out WaRP completely and going with another 2d6 system. Cam outright says it's an all new system and what they're describing isn't very close to OtE in the resolution department.
Looks like they went Full.Story in both setting and system.

What they're terming "static" about the old setting I'd call "true about the setting whether or not the players interact with it", ie. a Living World in Motion around the PCs. What they're describing now sounds more like "this doesn't exist until the players encounter it directly".

For me, this one's definitely a "don't buy until I read it" because right now I don't see any reason at all to get the new version.

Al-Amarja in the 1600's though, waiting for that one eagerly.
 
If "just simplified" means throwing out WaRP completely and going with another 2d6 system. Cam outright says it's an all new system and what they're describing isn't very close to OtE in the resolution department.
Looks like they went Full.Story in both setting and system.

The difficulty of resolution is set either by the ability of the NPC opposing them or the difficulty of the task (Using the example in the chat, investigating the tax problem is level 4.). The difficulty of tasks don't seem to be shaped by story/narrative concerns.

What they're terming "static" about the old setting I'd call "true about the setting whether or not the players interact with it", ie. a Living World in Motion around the PCs. What they're describing now sounds more like "this doesn't exist until the players encounter it directly".

The museum literally doesn't exist when the campaign starts, allowing the opening of the museum to be an event that occurs, making the city feel alive beyond the actions of the PCs. Having ongoing events in the city for the players to respond to is just solid sandbox design.
 
Well, it seems to resemble PbtA, by way of Fate with at least a passing nod to the old MET system (which has always had a very understated influence on a lot of these games, if people are honest). (...)
The main criticism I have is actually the manner that they address your criticism, actually. Character generation is longer because they have put a whole load of directions in order to work out the traits in a balanced way - making them less freeform to a degree.

When I mentioned pbtA I was kind of teasing. Using 2d6 is not the defining trait of the Apocalypse - that would be the Moves and the 6-9 result.
What is the MET system you mentioned?

Giving guidance to the freeform trait generation sound like a good idea to me. Some players need rails, or else they suffer from choice overload.

I don't know about this new edition but I found the original's system to be exquisitely simple and elegant. Really underrated design.

Original WaRP was very nice but I found the combat system with its multiplication ... not very elegant. That's why I went with Reimer Behrend's Inter Alia (which he later renamed THEMA) that was basically the same RISUS/OTE style trait system with (IMHO, more elegant) house rules.
GMshoe Q&A said:
[20:32] <+CamBanks> Same as everything else. There’s another wrinkle (hi John!) and that’s if you “take damage” you get three strikes and you’re out.
For instance, Inter Alia/THEMA was the first game that I read that discarded hit points in favor of a three strikes and you're out rule.

If "just simplified" means throwing out WaRP completely and going with another 2d6 system. Cam outright says it's an all new system and what they're describing isn't very close to OtE in the resolution department.
Looks like they went Full.Story in both setting and system.

What they're terming "static" about the old setting I'd call "true about the setting whether or not the players interact with it", ie. a Living World in Motion around the PCs.

I am not seeing Full.Story from those Q&A bits. In a Wilderlands hexcrawl the museum could have been a typical (static) hex location/encounter waiting for a PC party to be triggered.
Here it sounds like the GM chapter will have more suggestions instead of descriptions - which is actually my favourite way of presenting a setting.
These days I don't like canonical settings anymore (Forgotten Realms, Shadowrun's Sixth World, Star Wars EU), and I wish more games were designed in a way that demanded decisions from GMs. That way every new GM would learn by example that they can build/fine-tune/hack their own version of the setting instead of adhering to Read-Only canon texts.

The new system sounds indeed simpler - and nothing like pbtA.
 
When I mentioned pbtA I was kind of teasing. Using 2d6 is not the defining trait of the Apocalypse - that would be the Moves and the 6-9 result.
What is the MET system you mentioned?
Mind's Eye Theatre is the system used in World of Darkness games for live action roleplaying. Most LARPs are for Vampire: The Masquerade, although they have been adapted for pretty much all the game lines now. They were something of a gaming phenomena in the 1990s when they originated, to the extent that even Gary Gygax acknowledged their validity as a development from his own model of roleplaying (he usually gave short shrift for every other rpg other than D&D).

The rules of MET actually have gone through several different systems, but it's mainly the original that I'm refering to because it was based upon spending freeform Traits from a list to enable contests and Abilities providing 'rerolls'. You could refresh spent Traits by expending a Willpower point. In fact, the game didn't have any rolling of dice (later versions did), but simply used rock/paper/scissors to resolve contests. However, you could use an Ability to force another challenge if you didn't win the first time around. Fate sort of uses it's Aspects in similar ways, and so does this new version of OTE.
 
If "just simplified" means throwing out WaRP completely and going with another 2d6 system. Cam outright says it's an all new system and what they're describing isn't very close to OtE in the resolution department.
Looks like they went Full.Story in both setting and system.

What they're terming "static" about the old setting I'd call "true about the setting whether or not the players interact with it", ie. a Living World in Motion around the PCs. What they're describing now sounds more like "this doesn't exist until the players encounter it directly".

For me, this one's definitely a "don't buy until I read it" because right now I don't see any reason at all to get the new version.

Al-Amarja in the 1600's though, waiting for that one eagerly.
Yes and no. Even though the system is completely different, and your tastes may vary, my current understanding of the rules (which are fully available in manuscript for backers, btw) is that the numbers describing the characters are similar enough in presentation that you could actually just use the original rules with them. The new setting material, therefore, doesn't require much work to be backwards compatible. I may have to re-read certain bits, and look at some pregens to be sure, but that is my reading of it, currently.
 
I was alerted last night to a new Kickstarter campaign by Monte Gook, "Your Best Game Ever!" It's a two-for-one Kickstarter campaign in that it is kickstarting both a new book about tabletop role-playing games, and a new edition of the Cypher RPG core rulebook.

Your Best Game Ever is not your typical RPG sourcebook. It’s not a book with adventures, spells, creatures, or magic items. It’s not a book for characters at all, but a book for players! If you play or run roleplaying games, this book is for you. Inside this gorgeous hardcover book, suitable for your coffee table or your gaming table, you will find advice and suggestions for enhancing your RPG experience at the table and away from it. This is an insider’s look at everything that goes into the hobby—finding a group, making a character, running a game, creating adventures, finding all the right ideas, hosting a game…and that’s just for starters.

[...] Your Best Game Ever is divided into three major sections: general game topics, being a player, and being a game master. There’s even a section on designing your own game, and getting it published. And this isn’t just a stuffy book on theory, either. You’ll find actual suggestions you can use to create better characters with character arcs, real recipes you can make for game night (and even spruce them up for your genre of choice), specific suggestions for music and ambiance depending on genre, plot ideas, character ideas, and other ready-to-use material.

The book will have contributions by Matt Colville, Stacy Dellorfano, and about a dozen others.

It looks interesting, and since I like to read and hear about different perspectives on GMing I pledged for just the Your Best Game Ever! book.
 
I'm thinking of doing the same. I would have gone in for both books but 53$ CAD for two PDFs that I'll get sometime next year is a bit much.
 
I loves me some Monte Cook. I saved this campaign, as I'd like to see what stretch goals get unlocked before I commit at the $100 level in order to get everything in pdf. The Stars Are Fire, the first stretch goal, sounds pretty interesting as a sci-fi Cypher system book, but there needs to be more unlock than that for me to commit at that level.

I just got a couple more pdfs from the Numenera 2 Kickstarter yesterday, which I also pledged at the $100 get everything in pdf level. I've been very impressed with the books coming out of that KS, so I'm sure this one will be great as well.
 
Kind of torn

on one hand, i like Monte's settings, and the advice book has lots of good authors
on the other hand, I dislike cypher quite a bit. I hate the whole intrusion thing and how inconsistent it was in Numenera.

but then there is
b36c7f8a377822be71fad166ecb6d277_original.jpg


and I tend to be pro-octopoda, and there is a whole octopoda race in Numenera. and they seem to be addressing things (subtle cyphers and more consistent intrusion mechanics, for example).
 
The idea of a book to teach you how to GM or (role-)play sounds weird to me, as I think it's something that changes according to, and should be communicated by, each game with it's specific design goals and structures. Call of Cthulhu asks different things from players/GMs than, say, D&D or Amber or Apocalypse World or Golden Sky Stories.

Except if we are talking basic social norms like be respectful, avoid showing up late, etc. But do we really need a book for that?
 
The idea of a book to teach you how to GM or (role-)play sounds weird to me, as I think it's something that changes according to, and should be communicated by, each game with it's specific design goals and structures. Call of Cthulhu asks different things from players/GMs than, say, D&D or Amber or Apocalypse World or Golden Sky Stories.

Except if we are talking basic social norms like be respectful, avoid showing up late, etc. But do we really need a book for that?
Have you stepped outside? Yeah a book for that would be useful if only to hit some folks up against the head. Hardcover is definitely a plus!
 
Seriously. I read the assorted gaming subreddits and it's scary how lacking in basic life skills the people who are getting into gaming right now are. DMAcademy, one of the most newbie oriented D&D subreddits, has a stickied flowchart about how to talk to your group like adults...

 
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Seriously. I read the assorted gaming subreddits and it's scary how lacking in basic life skills the people, largely Millennials, who are getting into gaming right now are. DMAcademy, one of the most newbie oriented D&D subreddits, has a stickied flowchart about how to talk to your group like adults...

https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/8ndg1u/the_how_to_talk_to_my_group_chart/
That chart is great, and valid for any social activity, from the football group to the jiujitsu group to the poker group, etc. Now, do we really need to pay money on an RPG book to learn that? Really?

Raleel said:
now, don't do that. when you were the millenials age, you probably weren't any better. same for the previous generation, etc. we get the benefit of an extra 20+ years of mistakes
Now don't do that too. Or you really think social conflict is somehow exclusive of teenagers or young adults? :shade:
 
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now, don't do that. when you were the millenials age, you probably weren't any better. same for the previous generation, etc. we get the benefit of an extra 20+ years of mistakes

You're right. It's a bit unfair of me. My gaming group now is all Millennials and they're fine.
 
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