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.
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
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
