StanTheMan
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Posts posted by StanTheMan
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So, recently, I went to a LFGS in London and bought Shadow of the Beanstalk. Is it policy with FFG to give a pdf with purchase, or is that a separate cost?
(For the record, I bought Genesys through Amazon, so, didn’t expect anything there; the FLGS told me FFG is part of the Bits and Mortar scheme).
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Basically, I'm taking a trip soon, and one of the FLGSs I'm looking at has some Genesys stuff. I'm interested in the system (I already have the base book and some dice), and according to my budget, I've got enough cash to buy another set of dice and either Realms or Shadow. So, my question is, as far as getting "more bang for my buck", which sourcebook is the best? What I mean is, in terms of getting more variant rules or equipment or ideas, or seeing ways to apply things towards my own hacks, which sourcebook is "meatier"? There is a chance, in the future, I'll end up buying the other sourcebook anyway (say, in October or at Christmas, but that's far in the future), but, which one is juicier now? My intention is to pitch a Genesys game in the near-ish future (around the end of summer really).
Folks? Your thoughts and convictions? -
17 minutes ago, Suneisha said:I think from memory that the people of the Empire of Lorimor are said to have darker skin tones in general than the citizens of Terrinoth.
Remember though it's your game, the entire human race (and any other species you like) can be darker skinned if you desire.
They deliberately leave the lore open ended and you can make the world anyway you wish besides.
Is true, I know, but I have folks in my group that also care about such, and will look at "official" things if we play a game and I use Terrinoth. They'll look at the art especially and judged based on it. Like, we did a Forgotten Realms game a while ago and two of my players REALLY wanted "non-white" characters. Just something they had in their heads (for the record, one guy was Hungarian and wanted to play something "Arabian-esque" and the other guy Chinese and wanted, well, someone Chinese looking). Pouring over the Sword Coast Guide helped in that regard (as did the main D&D 5e book; just having such pictures there was enough to push/help their imaginations and such not).
SavageBob and Ringskipper reacted to this -
15 minutes ago, ESP77 said:Terrinoth is very much a Europe ananlog as a continent. The Al Kalim empire is a north Africa/ Middle East analog. Zanaga has a sub-Saharan Africa tone but humans don’t seem to be a native species there.
I’m not the best go to guy for lore in this setting but those were the impressions I got from the book.
The chapter breaks are done as journal entries from a Tarik Al Farabi of Al Kalim. “People of Color” in Terrinoth proper wouldn’t be unheard of but definitely foreigners.
Hope that helps.
Yes, that helps quite a bit, actually. Very good to know. As I don't have the book yet, I didn't know there were other settings implies (such as Al Kalim). That's the analog place I'm looking for. Thanks for that!
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1 minute ago, Bellyon said:It's hard due the system numbers to have a wide array of specif weapons cause in some point they'll have a very similar set of statistics and qualities.
I think it's more up to us create new things and some variations, but it's really important to keep in mind that there are many ways to create the same weapon, mechanically and that a lot of different weapons can have almost the same stats.
This is good but problematic at the same time, cause there are many "true" ways to do something.
True enough. The range (5 steps I guess?) IS pretty short. Though the item qualities add a lot.
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Okay, pardon the title, but I wasn't sure how to phrase it. Basically, according to the lore of the setting and such, are there any darker/asiatic type looking people in the setting? I've looked at some of the art/illustrations online and that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm going to be buying the book soon and, as a person of color, I always like to know, setting-wise, if there are folks that look like me in a particular setting. Probably buy it anyway for the rules and such, but FFG did SUCH a good job in this regards in the Star Wars lines that I wondered if that philosophy extended to their own fantasy setting (whereas I'm sure, by the art, it does to their sci-fi settings, for example; mind, I mostly mean from the main Genesys book, but still...).
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Pretty spot on. I DO think the carious genre sections do give, roughly speaking, enough weapons and armor to hang your hat on, but year, it'd be nice to have more gear. It's my main (and really only) complaint about the game as a whole, and why I waver between it and GURPS.
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I know no one else said anything but thanks for this! One my issues is that I'd love a sheet I could modify myself, but I haven't set it up myself, and now you have (and I agree; I find something like this a lot less hassle than a PDF reader thingy).
Jasper the Wasp and player3187278 reacted to this -
19 hours ago, 2P51 said:The system gives me a far greater number of avenues for rewarding my PCs in different ways that they enjoy, while really not creating a balance issue ever. It gives me a greater number of ways to provide character advancement options for them using xp.
That part...can you elaborate what you mean? It’s interesting to me! Does it mean because of die results (so giving cool story things base on Advsntages/Threats, or what?
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(cross posted from the Big Purple by me but I'd love to here people's ideas here; I posted this over on r/genesys in Reddit as well)
What I mean is, where does it shine? For example, while it can be dialed all over the place, GURPS seems to work best when you want something "gritty" or "low cinematic", with the option to shovel in detail as you wish. You CAN make it much more cinematic (and there are rule for that both in the core and in supplementary books), but the sweet spot seems to be "real-ish" stuff. At its heart, it's a simple system; I roll the dice, maybe modified, and we roll under the skill number usually to see what happens. Everything is more or less a single roll for each instance.
Savage Worlds, on the other hand, is definitely a pulpy action game; again, you CAN dial it down to make it more gritty or whatever. Like GURPS, you do single rolls for most things, though there are rules for "dramatic" rolls, making certain things longer contests, though again, definitely pointed towards the action genre (defuse the bomb!; codify complex negotiations into three dramatic yelling matches!).
So, by comparison, where does Genesys fit? Pulpy action? Gritty? Something else? This isn't to say you can dial it to move in other places, but the die system and core are set to...what?
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Not played yet but going to in probably 3-4 months, so slowly working on what I will pitch to my group. Two scenarios stand out:
1. Late Republic Rome. I’ve talked about this on the forum before and it’s my long time obsession. Something set during the Socii War, for example, end as Sulla becomes Dictator of Rome.
2. Traveller. No lifepath stuff. Just a straight Traveller game, like, PCs are the crew of a ship, maybe working for the sub-sector Duke at the start of the Fifth Frontier War.
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43 minutes ago, SavageBob said:I think you've pointed out a shortcoming in the rules, so I'm glad you brought this up. You're right that convincing someone of something isn't always a one-encounter proposition. Another example of this might be a court trial, which can stretch on for days and shouldn't all come down to just one hour-long social encounter. So here are some ideas:
Idea 1) Abstract things a bit more. Follow the social encounters rules as is, but tell your players that the back-and-forth of structured turns represents days' worth of effort rather than one single encounter. The advantage of this is that it lets you keep the rules as written without significant tweaks. The downside is that it likely removes some of the drama from these sorts of scenarios.
Idea 2) Adapt the Mass Combat rules from Star Wars. This abstracts everything out while still giving your PCs a prominent role in the scenario. It would take some tweaking and adjusting to use those rules, but it might be a fun way to represent a full social press of a large-scale debate involving multiple people, with the PCs playing some key roll in the negotiations that can be played out in more detail.
Idea 3) Do something akin to what Padre suggest above by dividing the debate up into different propositions, each of which gets debated on its own, and each of which is its own social encounter. So, for a trial, say, you wouldn't just run it as one encounter, with the defense arguing the guy's innocent and the prosecution arguing that he's guilty. Instead, you'd have a social encounter with each witness, over each key piece of evidence, and then finally at the end for closing arguments. Maybe keep track of who wins each point (like Padre's Debate Points idea) and use that to give boosts (or even upgrades) on the closing argument roll. This strategy would make Talents like Grit and Rapid Recovery really valuable, which your social characters will probably appreciate.
Some food for thought. Let us know what you come up with!
I thought about Idea 1 (something similar happens in Diaspora for Fate; their social conflict system is neat, but seems to be set up to take lots of in-world time, and for the players to not do things in-between the hours or days long turns that can exist). So, that's my issue there.
Two is right out I think but I see where you're going for. I MIGHT think about it though; I can imagine certain sorts of social engineering are more like battles than even social encounters (say, getting people to adapt to and accept your rule as Principes Inter Pares, who's been secretly supplanting the function of the state for years...
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2 hours ago, PadreBoniface said:My little idea for you. You could introduce some kind of "Debate points" (call it as you want) to your game. Say, to force a law that makes you go to war your players need to get the advantage of 3 Debate points. So,
- Day 1, your players start to convince the Senate - you use normal rules with Strain... and PCs win - meaning they have earned +1 Debate point. So the mood is OK and the talks continue on
- Day 2 - PCs win resulting they now have +2 Debate points.
- Day 3 they lose which means they go back to +1.
- Then on days 3 and 4 they win and have +3 Debate points meaning the Senate agrees to go to war.
A nice tweak would be each Debate points grants a boost die to future checks. Maybe some laws are already so unpopular that the talks start at -2 Debate points. Maybe during the evening some news about enemy activity has reached the city-state and on the next day all checks get difficulty reduction and so on
Hope it helps
It does help indeed! It reminds me of the social conflict thingy in Savage Worlds, actually. Hmm. That WOULD be simple. And effective. and keeps all the rules where they are more or less, which I like...
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As some may know, I've got lots of historical and political games on my mind. One of the settings I've pretty much finished working on is a Roman Republic game. Next on my list is a Warlords of Alexander game (based on the super-excellent fan-made PDF by one of the main writers of BRP, Paul Elliot) set in an ancient Greek city-state, where politicking will happen. In both cases, I'd like players to be of the sort that will try to push through laws and such, or get large scale agreements with government, such as it is.
First off, I REALLY like the social encounter rules; fills a hole which sadly many RPGs have, and since I like politics and the like in games, I love such mechanics and ideas. In general, for what I need, they'll work splendidly since the "social encounters" will be one off things (canvasing for election on election day, pushing through a contentious, emergency measure in the Senate; both of those are "in the moment" things, or encapsulate a lot of background things into one main roll, in my opinion).
However, one thing I noticed is that the part where it talks about "defeating" the opponents or reaching compromises is based on Strain (or Strain/Wounds for NPC faceless crowds). There will be times when debates really will be over time; a law can have several discussions, over time, as details are hammered out and feathers unruffled. Perhaps a measure is so unpopular (and opposition so fierce) that it'll be a lengthy battle to get it done (say, arguing the Senate around to going to war with Carthage). In these cases, the Strain rules for social encounters don't really work, since, surely, Strain would be healed with a day or so. The rules don't really say what to do about healing in the case of "minions", since they don't encapsulate ever needing them past the initial encounter they're in. Like, I've visions of a demagogue type PC haranguing crowds for days on end before finally working them up enough to storm the King's palace or whatever.
So, how to deal with this? As far as I read it, the Social Encounter rules don't. The only fix I've in mind, at the moment, is to declare that the strain (hah!) of dealing with trying to pass contentious legislation doesn't allow proper rest, and so Strain stays between encounter "rounds" of passing said legislation. Only problem is, that leaves the door open to engaging a character in, say, a fist fight, knocking off some Strain, and that guy getting taken out the next day in the council chamber from a searing bon mot. Doesn't seem fair (and before you say it, yes, i know there's a direct link between one's stress and one's ability to give attention to things - I've read Kahneman as well, but still...).
Thoughts folks? How to simulate what I'm trying to? Or am I pushing too far?
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Also haven't run Genesys yet (but it will 70% be the next game I run), in which case, I've already mostly completed a Roman Republic adaptation (thanks to folks on this forum), and I've a mind to try a few other re-skinnings for something Honor Harrington or Traveller.
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Okay all, FINALLY got some time to do some work on this, and here's what I tentatively came up with. It does come with a few caveats: 1. I didn't want to really add rules; 2. These things should be (mostly) within reach of starting characters; 3. I wanted something fun, that added a little spice, but as said, doesn't get in the way or main characterization; 4. Boiling down centuries of cultural practice into a few lines is hard...
The Rules
All players should choose one of the four basic archetypes: Average Citizen (Average Human), The Athlete (The Laborer), The Scholar (The Intellectual), and The Orator (The Aristocrat).
Average Citizen:
Brawn – 2; Agility – 2; Intellect – 2; Cunning – 2; Willpower – 2; Presence – 2
Starting Wound Threshold: 10+Brawn
Starting Strain Threshold: 10+Willpower
Starting Experience: 110
Starting Skills: The Average Citizen starts with one rank in each of two non-career skills at character creation. They obtain this rank before spending experience points, and these skills may not be increased higher than rank 2 during character creation.
Ready for Anything: Once per session as an out-of-turn incidental, you may move one Story Point from the Game Master’s pool to the players’ pool.
The Athlete:
Brawn – 3; Agility – 2; Intellect – 2; Cunning – 2; Willpower – 1; Presence – 2
Starting Wound Threshold: 12+Brawn
Starting Strain Threshold: 8+Willpower
Starting Experience: 100
Starting Skills: An athlete starts with one rank in Athletics during character creation. They obtain this rank before spending experience points, and may not increase Athletics above rank 2 during character creation.
Tough as Nails: Once per session, your character may spend a Story Point as an out-of-turn incidental immediately after suffering a Critical Injury and determining the result. If they do so, they count the result rolled as “01.”The Scholar:
Brawn – 2; Agility – 1; Intellect – 3; Cunning – 2; Willpower – 2; Presence – 2
Starting Wound Threshold: 8+Brawn
Starting Strain Threshold: 12+Willpower
Starting Experience: 100
Starting Skills: A Scholar starts with one rank in Knowledge during character creation. They obtain this rank before spending experience points, and may not increase Knowledge above rank 2 during character creation.
Brilliant!: Once per session, your character may spend a Story Point as an incidental. If they do so, during the next check they make during that turn, you count their ranks in the skill being used as equal to their Intellect.
The Orator:
Brawn – 1; Agility – 2; Intellect – 2; Cunning – 2; Willpower – 2; Presence – 3
Starting Wound Threshold: 10+Brawn
Starting Strain Threshold: 10+Willpower
Starting Experience: 100
Starting Skills: An Orator starts with one rank in Cool during character creation. They obtain this rank before spending experience points, and may not increase Cool above rank 2 during character creation.
Forceful Personality: Once per session, your character may spend a Story Point as an incidental. If they do so, during the next skill check they make during that turn, your character doubles the strain they inflict or the strain they heal (you choose before making the check).
Classes
After this, each player should choose a career that reflects their take on being a Roman Noble. That is, where do they see themselves as a person in Roman Noble society?Politicus (Politician)
The politician is a person who is either in the Senate, or dreams of doing so, and is sort of a jack-of-all-trades; they can fight, lead soldiers, speak in public, and in general serve in the many offices of the Republic. This is a person who expects to move up through a combination of bravery in battle, oration, wealth and family connections.
Career Skills: Charm, Coercion, Cool, Discipline, Leadership, Melee, Negotiation, RidingSacerdos (Priest)
While any Roman may be called upon to be a priest of the state (as a Minor Priest, Augur, State Priest, or Special Flamen, or other religious functionary), a character taking this class has really studied the lore of the gods and spirits, and understands that there is real power in learning the rites and sacrifices that please them. They may even forsake regular work or duties to become an expert in sacral things.
Career Skills: Charm, Coercion, Cool, Discipline, Divine, Knowledge (A god/goddess/spirits), Negotiation, RidingSciolus (Dilettante)
These people are that don’t have the wealth or inclination to seek higher positions or offices, or conversely, don’t care about it, and are more concerned with attending parties and enjoying the fruits of their wealth, or pursuing personal areas of interest. They may or may not seek offices, or spend their lives as idle backbenchers if in the Senate, happy to exercise their vote with their feet, never allowed to speak.
Career Skills: Charm, Cool, Deception, Knowledge (whatever catches your fancy), Negotiation, Perception, Streetwise, Vigilance.Vir Militus (Military Man)
This is a person that has decided the best way to climb society is with the edge of their sword. They constantly volunteer for military appointments and spend more time outside Rome fighting her wars than in Rome. For them, political offices are not a goal in themselves, but a means to an end of being able to hold great commands (often given after being Praetor or Consul).
Career Skills: Athletics, Brawl, Coercion, Melee, Perception, Riding, Survival, Vigilance.
Special Talents
The following Talents can be chosen in addition to the talents shown in the Genesys corebook.One note: For reference, money works like this: 4 sesterces (bronze coins) equal 1 denar (silver coin). One talent (a common measure of money) equals 6000 denarii or 24000 sesterces. It takes roughly 3 sesterces to survive for a day. All players start as either a slave, freedman citizen, or Roman Head Count, as they wish.
Higher Class
Tier: 1
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
You are a recognized member of the Roman Fifth to Second Classes, with an official census of between 2500 - 25000 sesterces. You can vote in the assemblies and for higher magistrates. Despite this, you are considered more dependable that most under Roman law, and your word carries more weight than members of the lower classes. You can move yourself up into the Equestrian Class, if you manage to accumulate enough wealth to do it (in essence, you can upgrade this Talent for that Talent if you can spend the XP needed). This also let’s you ignore one when arguing against a lower class person.Patrician
Tier: 2
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
You are a Patrician, a member of Rome’s original noble class. You can trace your ancestry back to the early days of the Roman kingdom, when your ancestor served as one of the 100 advisors to Romulus himself, and as a member of the first senate after the fall of the last king and the beginning of the Republic. As a Patrician, you gain one upgrades whenever you make your roll for elections. You are, however, barred from certain offices (like Tribune of the Plebs).Higher Class (Improved)
Tier: 2
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
You have a census of at least 400,000 sesterces in wealth, lands, or business interests, and more importantly, are considered a member of the Equestrian Class in Rome. You have the right to vote in the Assemblies. You can try to run for political office in Rome, but you will need to make sure you have the wealth to fit a Senator’s Census by the next election (in essence, you can upgrade this Talent for that Talent if you can accumulate the XP needed). You also have extra cash of 400 sesterces (100 denarii) per session, given to you at the beginning of each game session by the GM. Any time you must interact with the lower classes, you gain one if using Charm or Negotiate.Higher Class (Supreme)
Tier: 3
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
You have at least 1,000,000 sesterces in wealth, land, and secret business interests, and more importantly, are considered a member of the Senatorial Class in Rome (meaning that at least three consecutive ancestors of yours were Consuls). You have the right to vote in the Assemblies, and to run for political office in the Cursus Honorum. You also have extra cash of 800 sesterces (200 denarii) per session, given to you at the beginning of each game session by the GM. Any time you interact with the lower classes, you gain if using Coercion or Deception.Wealthy
Tier: 3
Activation: Passive
Ranked: Yes
You are quite wealthy for your social class. For each rank of this Talent, your personal census status increases x10. You also receive another 400 sesterces per session, on top of your other income from other Talents, if applicable. You may take this twice. You are wealthy enough to try to sway elections with bribery; anytime there is an election, you add two bonus dice to any election checks, either for your own character or for another character.Creosus
Tier: 4
Activation: Passive
Ranked: No
You are one of the mega-wealthy of Rome, so rich (and so many owe you or depend on you) that there are probably only a handful of people at your level or wealth in the Republic. At this level, you always have money to bribe, even on the scale of influencing elections or supporting a legion or two on your own. With this Talent you can add two bonus dice to election rolls, as well as for passing legislation.So, that's off the top of my head.
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I'm in Hungary, but I ordered the book from GamesLore (and indeed, the book is out there, as I see now). I got some Star Wars dice recently from the US Amazon, and the sending wasn't even terrible. Maybe there? Price is 45 GBP for the Genesys CB (about 32 quid, so close to the price you stated?). Dice are $20 (so, 14 GBP). Don't know if that's reasonable for you? Wackily, Star Wars dice are cheaper! Sending price I assume is better to you than to me here in Hungary. That's what I sometimes do if things run out elsewhere (to wit, I bought Force and Destiny from US Amazon, iirc).
Good luck!
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I live in Hungary, so less "mainstream" Europe than you. That said, I used Games Lore (already mentioned above) for the book, and Leisure Games for the dice (https://leisuregames.com). Both are based in the UK, and gave VERY GOOD prices, and shipping was pretty cheap overall. GL is generally cheaper, overall.
I've also used Amazon UK to good effect for gaming (and bought some of my Star Wars dice there); prices also generally okay. Avoid Amazon Germany for gaming; they seem to have this idea that gaming material=gold, and must thus be priced through the sky.
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10 hours ago, lyinggod said:As I said, my universal system experience is with the HERO system. The CRB has about 30 powers (analogous to Genesys' vague spells) plus about 30 each of power advantages and limitations (similar to what GURPS uses) which are used to modify the powers. The powers are then skinned to be spells, superpowers, cybernetics, vehicles, or other items. These powers/mods are all in the core book. The core book then touches on just about every genre that you can think of, with examples of psionics, potions, magic, sci-fi gear, etc. The genre books add very little in the way of additional powers or power modifiers. To me, this is a complete toolkit. I don't expect Genesys to be as thick (400+ pages) or crunchy as the HERO CRB but I did expect it to, at the very least, touch the major aspects of all major genre tropes. Perhaps HERO has spoiled me as to what complete means. However I agree that Genesys is as complete as Savage Worlds.
However I don't like their dice stat vs skills system but that's a discussion for another day.
Ah, I see. I had Hero (FRED, to be precise) and yeah, it was "complete" in that you could build anything (and there were LOTS of worked examples in the core book, and the genre books were good about that too; Fantasy Hero and Space Hero were gold mines). That said, for me, the problem is Mass Combat. Here we'll have to disagree, but I tend to run political games, which means mass combat shenanigans at some point. I like having at least the option to run a mass combat. In Genesys, I can use Star Wars stuff (and someone has already done a mass combat write-up for Genesys as a fan made thing, I think based on Battle of Arda or whatever that supplement was), so that suits me fine. Savage Worlds had it baked in, which is why I ended up using it as long as I did, though it isn't even close to my favorite (as you say, the dice stat vs skill system is...special).
As always, things never quite fit us all, though I think we largely agree!
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23 hours ago, Grimmerling said:I would appreciate a lot your sharing any improvements, if you didn't mind.
Definitely! Just need a chance to actually sit down and think. Sadly, in the midst of class planning, so, I hope today or tomorrow to get around to it. I don't think it'll be hard to put something together though.
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20 hours ago, lyinggod said:I wasn't saying that Genesys (NDS) wasn't inflexible. I was saying that most games are inherently inflexible in their approach to outcome resolution and their system mechanics. When I first was introduced to Star Wars, after playing a variety of simulationist and narrative games for many years, I recognized what the Advantage/Threat mechanic was meant to be. It was FFG's attempt to encourage simulationist game players (d20 and the most other games) to think far outside the box, which is to say play narratively and not in the typical binary manner. I wasn't aware, at the time, that Star Wars's NDS was an evolution of FFG's WHFRP 3rd edition.
Yes, I realized that this is a tool kit, as are Gurps, Hero, Fate, Fudge, Otherworlds, and Cypher, to name a few. They are designed to be pick and choose type systems. This concept is what makes them so great. The problem is that the core Hero 1st+ (aka Champions 4th) edition and Gurps 3rd Edition+ (to a lesser degree) books are complete games. This is not from a world perspective (ie Forgotten Realms) but mechanically. The ability to create, design, and do just about everything is completely covered. Genesys is more akin to Fate, Otherworlds, Fudge, and Cypher. Your given basic examples of a few things and then told to essentially "wing it". On the plus side, when GURPS 1st edition came out, it was less defined then even Genesys.
Don't get me wrong, I like Genesys a lot but it seems to me that a lot of was purposefully left out to be placed in upcoming source books. Example: Persistent non-spell abilities such as superpowers ,cybernetics, crafting in any form, and personal flight, are a examples of some of the things that immediately come to mind.
I have had a chance to look at LOT of roleplaying games and many are designed to be simulationist. Success and failure is absolute. They also have an extremely detailed economy regarding character sheets and tracking Hit Points, Ammo, Spells used per day, and a variety of other items. The World of Darkness was one first games designed to be narrative but was dismissed by many because it wasn't about the dungeon crawl and killing for XP. Slowly more games have come out that more narrative to various degrees (Fate, Otherworlds, Cypher, Fudge) but these still in the minority but the minority is growing.
Limited by imagination: I agree and I have always included numerous narrative aspects in all games I have run. My group has (unfortunately) elected to play
PathfinderMathfinder. The same GM also runs Star Wars and is pretty good at it. However He is a long time D20 player and I am trying to get him to treat 1s and 20s as being more then simple fail or pass, but his response is "it's not in the rules". Too many GM's lack imagination and can't escape the ridged mind set of "Rules as Written".As a long time GURPSer and FUDGE/Fate person, I have to disagree. FUDGE (and Fate to a lesser degree, though this changed in Core somewhat) left an incredible amount up to the GM. In FUDGE, you had to make up EVERYTHING, including the names of the stats or skills you'd have in the game (should we talk about vehicles or magic?). All you got with that book was a "here's a rolling system and some ideas about different genres; good luck!", and that's only if you got the 20th Anniversary edition. Cybernetics? Supers? Hahahahaha...
Fate Core is not complete. Again, lots of decisions about weapons and gear (and if so, there are no guidelines in the book on how to do it except "Make it an Aspect" or "You can have numbers for weapons; no, we have no inclination to guide you on whether or not a pistol should equal a bazooka". In both games (and GURPS, and Genesys for that matter) they don't have mass combat rules unless you buy them separately (for GURPS; for Fate/Fudge, good luck with that, though the Fate Toolkit does outline two different system for fights involving mass groups, so, you'd have to get it separately; to their credit, you can download the PDF for it for free). And again, Supers; anything I ever tried to come up with was a mess. Venture City fixed that, but again, it's a separate supplement.
In almost all cases, you have to define what your magic system smells like. GURPS does this for you, as long as you like spells as skills and like the idea of spells working better the more you know particular spell; you want anything else, you gotta get a supplement book, or figure it out as Advantages; possible, but harder without the Powers book). Also, there are wacky point-break places in GURPS where it's hard to model certain fictional abilities in terms of their "difficulty"; in Star Wars, telekinesis is had by everyone and their grandmother; in GURPS, that's expensive (I remember, very clearly, trying to figure out how to get a starting character at Yoda's ability to lift a tie fighter; and Yoda's implication that Luke could have done so with just the right mindset...).
So, to me, Genesys is as complete as anything else. Savage Worlds is pretty good in these terms; it touches, at least, everything you might expect to some small degree, even social contests and such, which I think GURPS misses out on. Though I'm not a fan of SW die system, but that's a thread for another day.
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15 hours ago, Grimmerling said:For a possible Song of Ice and Fire Setting I had been planning on making Status a quasi-Characteristic (Commoner 1, Retainer 2, Noble 3, Minor Lord 4, Middling Lord 5, Greater Lord 6, etc.); the initial Status would have depended on the Archetype but could have been raised during creation, Dedication once with GM-approval.
In certain situations checks might have been based on Status, especially for equipment acquisition and allowance (available money for one session).
Here's my first draft copied/pasted for whom it may interest:
STATUS
Status is another characteristic, separate from the others but working similarly; the highest achievable rank for a PC is 5, Dedication has to be narratively justified and approved by the GM.
How the different ranks translate into a certain rank/title derives from the Green Ronin ASoIaF RPG Status table. Status comes into play in various situations:
Social Encounters/Interactions: When interacting with others, relative Status is most important; depending on the circumstances, the character’s approach, the target’s disposition etc., the difference in Status to the target is factored in adding Boosts or Setbacks, e.g.: Coercion/Leadership against a lower Status normally result in Boosts (and vice versa); impersonating someone from a different Class is always harder; Deceiving/Flattering one’s superiors might be easier.
Funds and Acquisition: Normally, people of higher Status have deeper pockets and better access to equipment; to be elaborated on later.
Befitting Equipment: In a society, distinguishing class so strictly, there are rules and expectancies what is befitting a person of a certain Status and what isn’t; most pieces of equipment (i.e. weapons, armour, clothing, mounts, and jewellery) have a suggested Status. It is considered inappropriate to carry anything, that’s suggested Status differs from the character’s Status. Inferior items have a Status reduced by 1, Superior ones the opposite; there’s the new item Quality Ornate, acquirable for example with the Ornament Attachment (costing 250 per Encumbrance), increasing the Status by another 1. When determining Boosts/Setbacks in Social Encounters
ARCHETYPES
There are three Archetypes, representing the PC’s initial Status. All regular Characteristics start at 2; one can decrease a single characteristic to 1, in order to gain an extra 20 XP.
Everybody is starting with 10 in both Thresholds; if during creation one of the respective characteristics has been increased to at least 3, one may increase the corresponding threshold by up to 2 while decreasing the other by the same amount.
Commoner
A Commoner is just an Average Human with a Status of 1.
Retainer
A Retainer’s Status is 2; their starting XP are 100; they get one Rank in any Career Skill (limited to Rank 2 during creation).
Livery and Maintenance: Once per session, the Retainer may spend a Story Point as an Incidental to increase their Status by 1 for the remainder of the encounter.Noble
The Nobles Status is 3; their starting XP are 90; they get one Rank in Riding (limited to Rank 2 during creation).
Class Snobbery: Once per session, the Noble may spend a Story Point as an incidental to use Status, instead of the according Characteristic, for one single Social Skill check.I like this rather a lot, now that I've looked more carefully. The Archetype thing I mean. There's some goodness in there, for sure.I'll have a think. Combined with some Talents to show even more Wealth or Influence, this could be what I need!
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50 minutes ago, saethone said:Actually, I plan to use the "Wealth Points" as rewards sometimes. If they find a huge stash of drug money, or gain some notoriety and bring in more business, etc etc. The PCs work for a private detective agency in the game so the "wealth" represents their normal pay and any side ventures they have, it's just abstracted. I didn't want to have to say "this job pays $500 a day" or "$20 an hour" or anything like that, and make them handle all the minutiae of calculating their hours, splitting the money, etc etc. Easier to just say "on average, you make this much between the stuff we handle in game and the background stuff"
That could work, in which case, each Talent represents a level of "general wealthiness". I can imagine something like 6 levels of Wealth (0 being what all characters have). If my players are fine with just being all noble, then I can angle the Talents towards that. Heck, the Talents could talk about a level of wealth, and bonuses to, say, Influence rolls or something like that. I'll think, but it's interesting.
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Over on the old Burning Wheel forums there were some questions that GMs should ask themselves when building a world. I'll post them here; I've always found them helpful and use them for almost every game I've run for any system. Mind, I like "focused" games that have particular themes and such, even if there isn't a plot.
What's the Big Picture?
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Campaign Setting and Style?
Where do you want to play? In an Urban, Pastoral, Mountainous, Archipelago, Seafaring, Subterranean, Arboreal, or a Hellish milieu. What does the world look like? Idyllic pastures, or dark, brooding metropolis?
- What's going on in this setting that makes it ripe for adventure? What's changing, evolving, declining?
- What's the world's culture? What are the cultural analogs? Analogs can be taken from historical earth, current events or fantasy works.
- What's the conflict in which the characters are involved? What are the sides? What's wrong?
- What physical place does this conflict take place in? What ecology, environment, location?
- What's the name of the most important place in this setting? Not the capital, but rather The Place where all the action goes down?
- What's the name of a faraway place that folks talk about, dream about or mutter under their breath about?
- Who are the antagonists? Who is opposing the goals of the characters?
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What is the prevailing Climate? Is there more than one?
Desert, Tropical, Rain Forest, Temperate, Arctic, et al. -
What is the weather cycle like?
Static, Seasonal, Random, or approaching crisis. -
What is the technology level of this area/world?
Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Dark Ages, Middle Ages, The Renaissance, Age of Discovery, Modern, etc? -
Which Character Stocks are allowed? Which is dominant locally? Globally? Which others exist?
Man, Elf, Dwarf, Orc, Troll, Great Wolf, Spider, any others? -
Do monsters exist? How? What kind of myths and legends exist?
Are there.. angels, demons, zombies, vampires.. bullworks? What kinds? Is it common knowledge? Are the myths and legends real? -
Does magic exist, and how?
Is magic prevalent in the setting? Does it exist at all? How about divine and demonic powers? Are the Gifted and Faithful Traits allowed? -
Which cultural analogies exist to our own world (for reference)?
Anglo, Arabic, Japanese, Aztec, Germanic, French, Roman, Mongol, Slavic, Norse, Afrikaans, etc. -
What is the dominant local government like?
Monarchy, Republic, Theocracy, Democracy, Mercantile, Anarchic, Occupied Territory, Colony, Military Rule, Mageocracy, etc. -
Are there factions that should be prevalent?
Minority Races, Cultures, Religious Cults, Criminals, Mageocrats, Mercantile Guilds, Criminal Guilds, Military, Rebels, Slaves, Conspiracies, etc. -
What's the local situation like?
What's going on? What is the conflict that the protagonists and antagonists are fighting over? Who are the main players in this situation?
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Campaign Setting and Style?
Hope it helps
Name change request?
in Support
Posted
Don't know if this is the right place but...
I haven't seen anything on the forum, but I'd like to change my forum user name for legal/business reasons. I'd like to change it to Poppyseed45 please. Again, this is needed because my current user name will be used for something else professional, so I'd like it NOT associated with my hobbies.
If this isn't the place to make this request, please let me know where or to whom I should. Thank you!