D&D 5E The Spy Game is a 5E-Powered Espionage RPG

Water Bob · Jul 7, 2019

If you do a search for me and "2d20", you'll find several posts where I give examples.

Jay Verkuilen · Jul 7, 2019

Water Bob said:
If you do a search for me and "2d20", you'll find several posts where I give examples.

It's totally cool to not like a system but "worst evah!!!" seems like hyperbole. I did search and without going into tedious point by point quotes, I think some of them come from a misunderstanding of the system. Admittedly, Momentum and Threat read weirdly, but they work quite well in play.

For example, when dealing with a complication, the GM is totally free simply to add Threat. In fact, in my experience both running and playing both Conan and STA that's hands down the easiest thing to do rather than coming up with some immediate complication. If you don't have a good idea, just take some Threat and move on. It's not the Wild Die of Star Wars D6 or botching in the old Storyteller systems in that regard, because there's a very easy default for the GM to take. I found the Wild Die one of the most annoying aspects of D6 games, which did not scale particular well, and botching in Storyteller really messed up the math.

I really suspect 2D20 would be a very good match for a spy genre type game. It's got a lot of good fits: Stress mimics the way damage works in scenes, as does Wounds. STA posits little or no character advancement, which I think is a much better fit for, say, Mission Impossible or movie Bond than would a level based system. The characters in that kind of setting don't typically gain new skills.

lyle.spade · Jul 7, 2019

I am curious: why the discussion over 2d20 when this game is clearly based on 5e and is not from Modiphius? It seems an odd place to debate the (entirely subjective) merits of a system that has nothing to do with the content of the post.

And for what it's worth, I think 2d20 is THE BEST EVAAH!!

Jay Verkuilen · Jul 7, 2019

lyle.spade said:
I am curious: why the discussion over 2d20 when this game is clearly based on 5e and is not from Modiphius? It seems an odd place to debate the (entirely subjective) merits of a system that has nothing to do with the content of the post.

I think it's because the designer of the Spy book also worked on 2D20.

And for what it's worth, I think 2d20 is THE BEST EVAAH!!

Heh.

I actually think it would be a much better match for an espionage type game than a 5E-based ruleset, but you're right, not applicable to this product.

Morrus · Jul 7, 2019

Guys, this isn’t a Modiphius product, and it’s not 2d20. We’re not going to hijack it into yet another patented Water Bob 2d20 hate thread. Stay on topic, please. Water Bob, if you want to rant about your personal dislike of 2d20 yet again, start your own thread. Thanks.