gribble
Active Pubber
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2020
- Messages
- 34
- Reaction score
- 46
I played in the UKGE session tonight. It was a play through of the QS adventure, using the QS pre-gens, run by one of the developers (Alex... someone?)
First up, it was a really fun session, and "felt" a lot like I'd expect a Hellboy game to feel in play (though bear in mind I'm not overly familiar with the comics).
I think the devs summed it up well when they said it was similar enough to 5e to be familiar, and yet different enough to feel... strange. The session certainly didn't feel like 5e dungeon crawling (even though the scenario could easily enough feature in a D&D adventure).
The ingenuity and doom mechanics worked well... even better than I expected. Rolling the extra d10 really wasn't too much of a chore, and it pretty quickly became second nature. The numbers needed to score doom/ingenuity changed throughout the game as well, so you actually do need more than a d10 with one "good" and one "bad" face unfortunately, but even that wasn't too cumbersome.
It felt like there were a fair few things to track during play - most abilities had limited uses, hp, injuries (and their effects), ingenuity points, changing numbers needed on the ingenuity/doom die, etc, but that could have just been because it was an online game. I think it'll flow better in person.
It did also feel a little more complex than standard 5e, with all of the above new dials and mechanics, and the sheer number of options available to PCs... and I actually feel that starting at level 5 rather than level 1 was a big contributor to that. One of the good features of level based systems is that the character complexity increases as the player skill/familiarity improves, and it did feel a little overwhelming at first, though by the end of the session most of the players understood their characters well and things did kind of click/hum.
As expected, there was certainly a lot more teamwork and interaction between characters. The number of abilities that keyed of reactions and/or affected other team members meant you were always paying attention to what was going on, even when it wasn't your characters turn.
The characters all felt very different in play - even the three with the same "class" (leader, medic and... "standard" investigator I think). Certainly much more differentiation in abilities than there would be for a party of three fighters or rogues (even with different archtypes), and the new equipment and guns were really interesting and mechanically seemed to work well.
The characters all felt very powerful and like competent investigators, and yet each had their niche. I was a little worried at one point that my character might be a tad overpowered, and then the other characters all pulled off something equally powerful or impressive. All in all, given the level of change over standard D&D and the higher power level of the characters, it felt pretty balanced.
Finally the ritual rules were really nice. They really had the feel of slowly building up power, but with a very real risk/price. They even managed to somewhat keep the 5e "overcharging" mechanics (i.e. casting a spell with a higher level slot). The tension of racing for successes while bad stuff was going on around you was very real, and it really captured the feel of racing to complete a ritual while the other team members kept the bad guys off your back. They really nailed this aspect, and I could see using the magic system to emulate a more swords and sorcery / Conan-style game in D&D, rather than D&D spells.
All in all, although it had a few rough spots, I'm really looking forward to the final rules and playing it more.
First up, it was a really fun session, and "felt" a lot like I'd expect a Hellboy game to feel in play (though bear in mind I'm not overly familiar with the comics).
I think the devs summed it up well when they said it was similar enough to 5e to be familiar, and yet different enough to feel... strange. The session certainly didn't feel like 5e dungeon crawling (even though the scenario could easily enough feature in a D&D adventure).
The ingenuity and doom mechanics worked well... even better than I expected. Rolling the extra d10 really wasn't too much of a chore, and it pretty quickly became second nature. The numbers needed to score doom/ingenuity changed throughout the game as well, so you actually do need more than a d10 with one "good" and one "bad" face unfortunately, but even that wasn't too cumbersome.
It felt like there were a fair few things to track during play - most abilities had limited uses, hp, injuries (and their effects), ingenuity points, changing numbers needed on the ingenuity/doom die, etc, but that could have just been because it was an online game. I think it'll flow better in person.
It did also feel a little more complex than standard 5e, with all of the above new dials and mechanics, and the sheer number of options available to PCs... and I actually feel that starting at level 5 rather than level 1 was a big contributor to that. One of the good features of level based systems is that the character complexity increases as the player skill/familiarity improves, and it did feel a little overwhelming at first, though by the end of the session most of the players understood their characters well and things did kind of click/hum.
As expected, there was certainly a lot more teamwork and interaction between characters. The number of abilities that keyed of reactions and/or affected other team members meant you were always paying attention to what was going on, even when it wasn't your characters turn.
The characters all felt very different in play - even the three with the same "class" (leader, medic and... "standard" investigator I think). Certainly much more differentiation in abilities than there would be for a party of three fighters or rogues (even with different archtypes), and the new equipment and guns were really interesting and mechanically seemed to work well.
The characters all felt very powerful and like competent investigators, and yet each had their niche. I was a little worried at one point that my character might be a tad overpowered, and then the other characters all pulled off something equally powerful or impressive. All in all, given the level of change over standard D&D and the higher power level of the characters, it felt pretty balanced.
Finally the ritual rules were really nice. They really had the feel of slowly building up power, but with a very real risk/price. They even managed to somewhat keep the 5e "overcharging" mechanics (i.e. casting a spell with a higher level slot). The tension of racing for successes while bad stuff was going on around you was very real, and it really captured the feel of racing to complete a ritual while the other team members kept the bad guys off your back. They really nailed this aspect, and I could see using the magic system to emulate a more swords and sorcery / Conan-style game in D&D, rather than D&D spells.
All in all, although it had a few rough spots, I'm really looking forward to the final rules and playing it more.