[Sell Me On/Off] Modiphius 2d20

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Dammit Victor

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How does it work in play? What kinds of effects does it generate?

What are the differences between how the system works between different game lines?
 
Based on Conan, Trek and Mutant Chronicles (QS is not really enough to judge John Carter by) the setting work and material is outstanding.

As to the system, based on reading it and some other people’s (CRKrugers for one) I think it looks solid and as long as your not vehemently against some quirky dice rules I’d say give it a go. I like the system and think it’ll give the games a unique and appropriate feel.

It’s one of only three systems I’m still interested in and four companies I still buy products for so take that as you will.
 
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High level of detail in content. That's always welcome.
Lots of meat-on-the-bone in regards to game mechanics, which is either a boon or a flaw, depending upon how you like your rpg systems.
Art direction looks great for all products
Have not had time to really grok the mechanics yet
 
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I think the system is great for some who can grok the rules. I have seen YouTube videos extolling the virtues of both the rules and setting. And the settings are amazing.

I may not be smart enough to play it though. I tried playtesting Star Trek, read the following, and I was out:

When rolling [CD] against an Extended Task, the character may spend one Momentum (Repeatable) to add +1 to the total rolled, or to reduce the Resistance by 2, increasing the amount of Progress marked off and making Breakthroughs more likely. Alternately, a character may spend one Momentum to reroll any number of [CD] rolled.

I am better with the roll under % and every 10% under is another level of success. My basic rule of thumb is if I likely can't understand the rules after two beers it will not work for me.
 
When rolling [CD] against an Extended Task, the character may spend one Momentum (Repeatable) to add +1 to the total rolled, or to reduce the Resistance by 2, increasing the amount of Progress marked off and making Breakthroughs more likely. Alternately, a character may spend one Momentum to reroll any number of [CD] rolled.

Terminal Capitalized Game Terms Syndrome turns me off quickly.
 
If it weren't for the settings they're buying up, and how nice their books look, would anyone be raving about the system?
Or are people choking down the system to get at the cool IP and graphics?
 
I played in a friend's Mutant Chronicles 3e campaign for a number of months... until he could no longer stand 2D20, and dropped it in disgust. (The term, Zones, is a profane word in our gaming group now. It gets heavily ridiculed).

While I liked the lifepath chargen, task resolution was annoying to me, and always seemed to reinforce an adversarial conflict between players and GM. I never felt encouraged to push fate (or whatever the term was), which strengthened the resources of the GM. I ended up playing in such a conservative manner because I'd rather starve the GM's resources than let him have a boo-yah moment of unleashing his wrath with a large dice pool.

I also didn't like the vast amount of abstract-complexity that 2D20 (Mutant Chronicles) stuffed into the core book. Normally when you think of rules abstraction, you expect it to lighten the rules and speed gameplay. But MC's abstraction led to so much extra page content, and base-covering, and trickle-down effects that features like not-keeping-track-of-ammo led to more complexity than just f-ing keeping-track-of-ammo.
 
If it weren't for the settings they're buying up, and how nice their books look, would anyone be raving about the system?
Or are people choking down the system to get at the cool IP and graphics?

I think the system works. But it has many many moving parts. My biggest challenge was the 2d20 system didn't seem very Star Trek to me. Too complicated and to focused on the back and forth struggle between PCs and GM challenges.

In my opinion and very limited playtesting the system was in the forefront and not in the background. Not what I want. Momentum and threat does not seem very Star Trek like to me. Trading bits of currency back and forth with the GM does work in some systems (Coriolis does this quite well). But that doesn't seem like Star Trek to me either. In Coriolis, the player currency was their faith and the GM currency was the dark between the stars, the bad side. Light versus dark and the push and pull between the two. That doesn't apply to Star Trek.

Threat was not my favorite thing:
For the most part, Threat will grow because players take action; players can pay for additional dice to bolster their chances of success, and to take Reactions that improve their ability to survive. Threat will shrink when the Games Master does those things with NPCs, or activates abilities on some foes. In this way, the amount of ‘pressure’ the player characters apply to a situation provides NPCs with the means to push back commensurately, ensuring that situations remain challenging, and adjust themselves to the players’ choices.
Beyond serving as a mirror of the player characters’ abilities, the Games Master can use Threat to trigger sudden changes in the environment, bring in reinforcements on the fly, or create or exacerbate Complications and other problematic circumstances.

The game will also have splat books. Setting books too, but also splat books. Not really my thing and you could use just the core without splats of course.

However, a guy called the Complex Games Apologist on YouTube loves the system. He has a couple of videos about it.
 
If it weren't for the settings they're buying up, and how nice their books look, would anyone be raving about the system? Or are people choking down the system to get at the cool IP and graphics?
Maybe. In my situation I may not have time to really get my head around the mechanics, and my players may not want to either. In which case I'll port CONAN to BRP (BGB or Mythras), and probably port John Carter to Fate. Star Trek could go either way, I don't have the 2D20 book but Star Trek Next Gen strikes me a good fit for Mythras M-Space, whereas Classic Era Star Trek may be better for Fate, given the level of pulpiness. I would like to give 2D20 a go first however, but at the end of the day I bought the books for a read and setting conversion. We'll see.
 
Maybe. In my situation I may not have time to really get my head around the mechanics, and my players may not want to either. In which case I'll port CONAN to BRP (BGB or Mythras), and probably port John Carter to Fate. Star Trek could go either way, I don't have the 2D20 book but Star Trek Next Gen strikes me a good fit for Mythras M-Space, whereas Classic Era Star Trek may be better for Fate, given the level of pulpiness. I would like to give 2D20 a go first however, but at the end of the day I bought the books for a read and setting conversion. We'll see.

I like 2d20 enough to give it a go but I have to admit I went all in for the source material
 
3.5 is never a better solution for anything...had you said Mythras we’d have an accord :smile:

You gotta give Mongoose, despite all their historical misgivings, credit for taking a wrench to the d20 SRD and beating it into something vaguely Hyborian-Age-shaped. It’s one of the better d20 variants IMHO.

Nowadays, of course, Mythras would be my default as well.
 
You gotta give Mongoose, despite all their historical misgivings, credit for taking a wrench to the d20 SRD and beating it into something vaguely Hyborian-Age-shaped. It’s one of the better d20 variants IMHO.

Nowadays, of course, Mythras would be my default as well.
It’s probably the only time I’ve ever credited them with anything lol

One of the reasons I went all in with the Mophidius KS after closure was the chance to pick up all the mongoose books too.
 
3.5 is never a better solution for anything...had you said Mythras we’d have an accord :smile:

How about starting a Mythras thread detailing its strong points and weak points?

I was given a copy of the game but haven't played it. It seems very dense.
 
How about starting a Mythras thread detailing its strong points and weak points?

I was given a copy of the game but haven't played it. It seems very dense.

I could not get Mythras to work for my group. The combat literally killed the game for everyone.

But I can certainly see the appeal of the game for that gamer ablt to make it work.
 
How about starting a Mythras thread detailing its strong points and weak points?

I was given a copy of the game but haven't played it. It seems very dense.

Good idea. I’ve been toying with the idea for a while to help with my system mastery.

It’s definitely dense but the core of the system is fairly intuitive and you can add in quite a bit as and when or if required.

Lol I still have that Conan box set somewhere.
 
There's a retroclone of the game by the name of ZeFRS. You can download the PDF for free here.
And I'd be willing to bet the Conan background book is floating around somewhere in cyberspace, but if you've read the stories it's not really necessary.
 
I like 2d20 enough to give it a go but I have to admit I went all in for the source material
I picked up the Star Trek 2d20 game. I liked a lot of things about it, but the rules themselves are extremely opaque and badly presented. Not to mention very bitty, with not one but three types of meta currency on the table between Threat, Momentum and Determination. It can get a bit much, based on a read through.
 
I picked up the Star Trek 2d20 game. I liked a lot of things about it, but the rules themselves are extremely opaque and badly presented. Not to mention very bitty, with not one but three types of meta currency on the table between Threat, Momentum and Determination. It can get a bit much, based on a read through.

They could definitely use someone to add clarity to the rules in writing. Meta currency doesn’t bother me.

I enjoyed reading the Conan book but I wouldn’t feel comfortable playing on just one read through.
 
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