Arilyn
Hero
Was that the one with stones representing energy? If so, it had problems. You ran out of energy way too fast. Cyclops could easily run out of energy, which meant no eye beams. Cyclops!
What is, in your opinion, the single WORST RPG ever made, and why is it so bad?
SteveC
Doing the best imitation of myself
Yes it was. You would succeed with a task if you had sufficient resources (stone) applied to the task. I remember in one of the interviews with the designers they said "you don't have the stones to attack Doctor Doom!" and it was a pretty funny comment. The game did horribly and soon vanished.
Thomas Shey
Legend
Given its been decades, and I likely rolled my eyes and walked away, no.
Yep. No dice. No random element at all!
That makes the game about the player's choices rather than about the vicissitudes of chance.
SteveC
Doing the best imitation of myself
The game was about resource management, not exactly deep player choice. As a gateway into RPGs (as Marvel games are) was this really a good idea? Considering how well the game did, I don't think so. I've played and run a number of diceless RPGs and I wouldn't recommend any of them as a game to get started in RPGs with.
I don't know if it's exactly what Thomas was referring too, but Vampire: The Masquerade definitely marketed itself in a 90's edgy, "this isn't your parents RPG" style. I can't say if they went as far as saying "we're the cool/dark/modern alternative to D&D" in official materials, but a know some players who described it that way at the time.
aramis erak
Legend
Not exactly...
FFG Star Wars
The dice in FFG SW come in 7 flavors... 3 good, three bad.
Yellow d12: "Proficiency" - they include the Triumph symbol, and are for skill and attribute overlapping.
Green d8: "ability" - the non-overlap of skill and attribute.
Skye Blue d6: "boost" - one to three per advantageous condition.
When you roll, yellow dice equal to the lower of skill or attribute, green equal to the difference.
All three have at least one blank face, some with successes, some with advantage (beneficial side effects), one with both; only yellow have Triumph, which also count as a success
Purple d8: base difficulty.
Red d12: high risk difficulty. has the despair.
Black d6: diadvantageous conditions.
All three have failures, threat, blank, and red and purple have fail and threat. Despair on the red carries a failure.
If the action is opposed, the target's pool is figured, then blue, green and yellow become black, purple and red in same numbers.
White do only force points. They only matter for using force abilities.
You roll the mess, once the GM sets the difficulty. You then cross cancel success and failure; cross cancel threat and advantage; in both cases, the remainder of threat or advantage get spent - threat by the target/victim, advantage by the acting character. All rolled triumph get spent by the acting character, all rolled despair get spent by the target.
FFG L5R5th
Key terms:
Rings - half attribute, half description of how the character can use certain methods.
Skills - specific areas of ability.
Both cap at three for starting PCs, and 5 for experienced.
Strife: one of two "damage tracks" representing social damage and/or frustration and/or mental impairment
Wounds: the other damage track.
Either damage track can take you out of the scene. Strife, you can instead "Unmask" - doing something visible and potentially dishonorable, to recover your strife track. One PC, a a female Togashi Monk (think along the lines of Wushu warrior monk of one of the non-shaolin traditions) in light armor, would shuck down to the fundoshi (loincloth) as her unmask. Not so much dishonorable as borderline suicidal on the field, save that they were bloody hard to hit... When they did so in the Emperor's court, however, the dishonor was mighty!
There are two kinds of dice: white d12, black d6. All rolls are black d6=ring, white = skill. difficulty is required successes. A number of dice equal to the ring
both kinds of dice have 4 symbols... the single cicular stroke (success) the asterisk-like mon for Opportunity, the triple strokes chasing in a circle (explosive success) and the flame shape for strife. Strife never appears on its own; it always appears with others. The white d12 has two explosives, one with strife, one without; in general, it has less chance of strife. The Black d6 has one explosive, which has a stress.
Because stress is a damage-like track, and which can take one out of a given scene, the choice of keeping success+strife and opportunity+strife results is often important. I've seen players opt to fail and keep advantage or even blanks to avoid a strife-out.
| Die | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| White d12 | — | — | O | O | O | S+$ | S+$ | S | S | S+O | Ex+$ | Ex |
| Black d6 | — | O+$ | O | S+$ | S | Ex+$ |
It's a VERY different feel.
Further, some actions require certain amounts of opportunity to trigger an ability to actually happen; if you met the difficulty in successes but not the opportunity for the needed ability, you have failed the effect; the declared action goes off but has no effect; if any opportunity were generated, they can be spent on other triggers. Opportunity kept can always be spent, even if the primary action fails.
There's no provision for fumbles, extra successes often matter, opportunity always matters.
Damage is the weapon's base plus the extra successes minus the armor of the target.
Strife attacks generally ignore armor, but are opposed rolls, and the difference is the strife inflicted.
Very different in practice. Similar in concept, but very different feel. Somewhat superior, as well, IMO. If I could have the choice of system to be used for the next Star Trek or Star Wars, I'd use the FFG L5R core.
For comparison: older L5R was roll (att+skill)d10, keep attribute d10s, 10's open end unless unskilled, total the kept dice, compare to TN in the range of 0 to 100, normally around 15-30. Rings were less important, and four were derived from a pair of attributes each; the 5th was its own attribute, and was used almost exclusively for meditation and magic.
I've run more FFG Star Wars than L5R total... but my longest two campaigns this millenium have been FFG L5R. Mostly because it's been out less. My players have dropped hints they want another L5R... One player, who never bought dice for Star Wars, discovered a few weeks in that L5R was worth two sets of dice.
I do use conversion mats for players who don't want to borrow dice nor buy dice. If using the die roller, I require the device to be flat on the table and roll only after I give the ok. Largely, this is because of the kibbitz factor. I've also run parties up to 9 PCs comfortably with FFG's L5R.
Yes, for me, it does.
aramis erak
Legend
Mavel Universe RPG, by Marvel Comics Group.
@Thomas Shey was referring to OSR and "story" games, that were responses to 1990s and 2000s RPGs. So I don't think that V:tM would be an example.
Bedrockgames
Legend
Tons of games did this sort of thing. There was another one, and I can't recall which is was, that had as its marketing "Stop playing a 1st level loser". But I mean these were competing products, it isn't like there isa rule the have to be polite to each other. Some of the attempts were funny (like the first level loser one that still makes me laugh) and some were more eye rolling or just aged weird)
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