Looking At Genesys From Fantasy Flight Games

The quest for a truly universal RPG system has been bubbling away for decades, and while Genesys won't be to everybody's taste it certainly carves out its own niche in the middle-ground between lighter systems and their monolithic, crunch-heavy cousins.

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On a first flick through the book it looks a little shallow, but once you get your head wrapped around how it works and begin picking the rules apart you can uncover a surprising amount of depth. Be warned, however, that getting the most out of the game will require both players and a GM that feel comfortable improvising through scenes and occasionally tinkering with rules.

The game - though it would perhaps be more accurate to refer to it as a toolkit - is built on the chassis of Fantasy Flight's recent Star Wars RPGs. Its core mechanics are fuelled by the same same 'narrative dice' system that ditches traditional dice in favour of its own unique set carved with symbols that determine everything from resounding success to absolute failure.

It can be annoying when games insist that you buy new equipment for it and it alone, but it's hard to imagine Genesys working any other way - if it really drives you up the wall you can always fall back on a free dice roller app or an admittedly clunky chart that translates conventional dice rolls into symbols.

Succeeding on a task, whether it be picking the lock in a monster-filled dungeon or hacking a corporate firewall, simply requires your roll to spit out more successes and failures. Better skills allow you to roll more positive dice, loaded down with success symbols, while the difficulty of the task ups the number of failure-filled negative dice added to the pool.

If that was all there was the system would be a little too simplistic, but depth comes from the fact that there are symbols on the dice beyond mere success and failure. Rolling up an advantage symbol gives you that chance to succeed beyond your original aim, turning a successful shot into a critical blow, while threat loads the players down with a stroke of bad luck - not only does the door stay locked, but you snap your pick in the mechanism.

The range of unexpected situations this little twist can throw up is huge. The juiciest of these come when a failed check comes with an advantage, or a successful one with threat. Spinning the results of these rolls into the story can be a challenge, but when they pay off it's a wonderful addition to a role-playing session.

Indeed, as simple as the system is on paper, actually running a session needs the GM to be on top of their game. If nothing else, they'll likely have needed to do some work on the setting before the game even begins.

The core rulebook makes it fairly simple to create worlds from scratch, however, and devotes almost half its page count to guidelines working in genres ranging from present-day investigations to space-opera and even a Lovecraftian 'Weird War'. Some come with their own skills-sets - you'll find it hard to play a wizard outside of a fantasy game - and character archetypes, but it also talks about the tone and types of games that feel appropriate to each world.

Some GMs and players will find this approach instantly appealing, as it gives them a chance to flex creative muscles in a system designed to take a few knocks and still play right. Others may find the amount of blank space they need to fill in themselves overwhelming.

If you and your gaming group are happy to tinker with both rules and realities, and feel unsatisfied by the setting-free games out there, Genesys may be just what you're looking for.

contributed by Richard Jansen-Parkes

 

[Jacob Lewis]

Let the revolution begin! Just as soon as I'm done with Star Wars... (Ha! Never!)

 

[aramis erak]

Major Changes from FFG SW mechanics:
Talent/Trait acquisition - no more trees!
Vehicle scale to hit difficulties. Now based upon range, not size.
Paranormal Abilities: no more force dice! (Skill driven, instead.)

A couple of small changes to modifier lists.

 

[The Fighter-Cricket]

After having DMed and played D&D for about 18 years I'm looking now for less combat oriented system that also has a more open or maybe spontaneous feeling to it. Thought about getting Genesys but am now getting into Fate Core and Accelerated.
Has somebody played both systems and could tell me how they both feel in comparison?

 

[Jacob Lewis]

I can tell you right now Fate has a lot more to offer in terms of supplements and support. Genesys is still fresh with only one sourcebook currently announced for support at the moment. The core Rulebook is more of a toolbox to help you come up with your own worlds and settings, which range from fantasy and sci-fi to horror and mystery. Even the forthcoming Realms of Terrinoth is provided as an example of fantasy setting using their own IP (Runewars), but with equal consideration given for those looking to create (or recreate) their own personal settings.

As for the actual mechanics and gameplay, I can only speak to one. I have not used Fate, though I am familiar with the concepts and hear good things about it. That said, I am far more familiar and comfortable with the narrative dice system, which does exactly what I like. Really, really like.

 

[Ratskinner]

I'm kinda the opposite of Jacob. I've played plenty of Fate, but I am quite intrigued by this system. There's plenty written about Fate, but not having played Genesys or SW...::shrug:: I would say that Fate can be deceptively complicated...or maybe just weird...for players of D&D and traditional games. IME, the "Create Advantage" action creates the most trouble.

I will say that I find Genesys somewhat seductive. I like the idea of not simply 1-dimensional resolution. However, I'm not sure that a similar result to Genesys couldn't be obtained by rolling a "Threat/Advantage" die alongside whatever dice you would roll in a more traditional game. (For example, in D&D 5e, you might roll a d6 alongside each d20. If it comes up 6, then you get a Genesys-style Advantage, and if it comes up 1 you get a threat. Regardless of the result of the d20. I suppose you could pick bigger dice if you want to reduce the frequency.) If there is some greater intricacy to the Genesys dice-system, it hasn't been explained to me sufficiently.

Then again, I'm a system tourist. I'll probably end up getting Genesys at some point.

 

[do_u_even_gif_bro]

I ran a post ww2 spy game set in east/west Berlin as a test run of this system. Overall,once everyone got used to the dice/resolution mechanic we enjoyed the system. I plan on using it again for future one shots.

 

[Whithers]

I like what is described. My own trouble in creating universal approaches has been the balance between AOE and Melee vs. real world. Which in my own military experience is not nearly so independent in a tech setting as they become in a fantasy one.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

However, I'm not sure that a similar result to Genesys couldn't be obtained by rolling a "Threat/Advantage" die alongside whatever dice you would roll in a more traditional game. (For example, in D&D 5e, you might roll a d6 alongside each d20. If it comes up 6, then you get a Genesys-style Advantage, and if it comes up 1 you get a threat. Regardless of the result of the d20. I suppose you could pick bigger dice if you want to reduce the frequency.) If there is some greater intricacy to the Genesys dice-system, it hasn't been explained to me sufficiently.

That is not even in the same ballpark, but I can explain why easily enough.

For starters, every die used in the narrative dice system for Gensys and Star Wars systems has a specific name which describes exactly what it represents. Collectively, they represent the Ability, Proficiency, Difficulty, Challenge, Boosts, and Setbacks of an attempted action. These are also the exact names for the kinds of dice used, also not by accident. Ability represents the natural ability of a character (Characteristics OR Skill Ranks), while Proficiency accounts for an upgrade in ability through training (Characteristics AND Skill Ranks). They generate positive effects, such as Successes, Advantages, and powerful Triumphs. Difficulty and Challenges work similarly, and oppose both Ability and Proficiency, generating negative aspects which cancel the positives to produce a net sum result. These negative results, Failures, Threats, and Despair have the same value as their counterparts (i.e. Failure counters Success, and Threats counter Advantages). This makes it a lot easier to mentally translate values into more descriptive, narrative results as opposed to interpreting flat numbers.

Next--and this is an important difference--every single die used in a dice pool is uniquely accounted for. Your character has Intellect value of 3? Use 3 Ability dice. His Computer Rank is 2? Upgrade 2 of those dice to Proficiency. He is also using a personal datapad which helps access computer terminals, so add a Boost die. Now, it's an average task, so add 2 Difficulty dice, but the group has alerted the facility earlier, so upgrade one of those Difficulty to a Challenge die because the place is on high alert. And so on.

Hopefully, this should make it more obvious why rolling an arbitrary d6 along with another number-generating die is nothing like it. Its just random, and not really a part of the game. Might as well be flipping a coin to see if you won the game.

 

[Unpossible E]

Thought about getting Genesys but am now getting into Fate Core and Accelerated. Has somebody played both systems and could tell me how they both feel in comparison?

I've played and run both Fate Core and FFG Star Wars. In broad terms, I think of Fate Core as providing narrative control to players at a strategic level. Players use the Fate Point economy to manipulate the overall flow of the story. The FFG mechanics operate at a tactical level. Narrative effects are introduced within the flow of a given scene, but do not define the scene.

As someone steeped in traditional mechanics Fate Core has never become second nature to me. That's not to badmouth it, because the system can really sing in the right hands. But the emphasis on story flow really takes a different mindset to run and play to good effect.

FFG's mechanics, however, introduce narrative effects within a pretty traditional system. The FFG die mechanics provide all sorts of cinematic complications (negative and positive), which helps make combat more interesting and less predictable. As a GM I like the mechanics because they provide plenty of hooks for improvisation. You could argue that any system can be cinematic if played with sufficient imagination, but in my experience the die mechanics do make it easier.