Critiquing the Conjunction : Forked from the Great Conjunction

[twistnack]

The Awakening

I'm trying to reread all of the other entries and write something about them. Forgive me if they're a little on the skeletal side.

The Awakening
By David S. Percival

I like the setting. It strikes a nice balance between focus and openness. After the world falls under a mystic sleep for an unspecified amount of time, the PCs awake to a fallen world. Some people have also awakened and built enclaves for mutual protection, others are still trapped in their mysterious slumber (where they babble prophetically), and an unlucky few have been swallowed by their dreams and stalk the urban centers like animals on the hunt.

There's a place for most of the most common types of adventure in Awakening's post apocalyptic Pacific Northwest. There is untamed wilderness with strange creature to encounter, enclaves of survivors to interact with, and ruined cities where nightmare runners (zombies) protect the badly needed resources to scratch that dungeonering itch.

Characters have percentile-based skills, which are self explanatory. Figure out your chance of success and then try to roll under it on a d100. I haven't played many percentile based games, but the system seems solid enough. Most new characters will have a less than 50% chance to succeed with most skill, but since PCs are expected to be average people, these values make sense.

I like that the game has a barter skill which opens up the ability to buff or fast talk. In a game with a different focus bartering might be part of another skill, but in a post apocalyptic setting it is required for survival.

Characters are Awakened, which means they have a randomly rolled Psychic power. Powers of activated through a skill roll (there are four groups of powers with a skill for each group). The powers don't seem crucial to the setting, but I think they fit with the themes presented in the introduction. Though I do feel a little bad for the character that rolls wall climbing, which seems weaker than the other powers.

The number of skills and power provided are fairly low, but there are examples of other skills and powers that could be added to the game. This encourages groups to make the game their own, and makes the system as a whole more flexible.

Skills are improved as they are used--an idea that doesn't get used as often as it should, and is a natural choice for a percentile system (since they have a built in chance of failure which can be used as a chance of improvement). During my first read through I didn't catch that you used your character's base skill for improvement checks, which lead me to become slightly confused when I got to the skill section.

In combat, initiative is handled by drawing cards, which seems like a speedy way to handle things. Players can hold up their cards rather than having people shout out their initiative count at once (a pet peeve of mine). There's also a system for multiple actions that seems both workable without inviting abuse.

At the end of the book there are some example antagonist and enclaves. I really liked the last enclave, Saltspring Island, because the description explains who lives there and suggests the kind of conflict that can be found there. I hate to admit it, but part of me wants to see bartering information (what they have and what they always need) for each enclave.

Conclusion
Awakening is a game that I can easily see myself running or playing. Though I might end up running it set somewhere I'm more familiar with. Luckily, the northeast isn't totally dissimilar to the northwest.

Some minor issues/comment
- I'd get rid of Very Easy as a category of difficulty. Things that easy probably shouldn't require a roll, and you don't have to point out that a character can't get an Improvement check from a Very Easy rolls
- I couldn't find any rules for healing Health Points without a power.
- I would spilt the entries for limbs on wound location chart (page 11) so each limb had its own entry rather than flipping a coin to pick a side.
- Making different headings look a little less like each other would make the book a little easier to navigate.
- To see all of the effects of Adrenaline Points you need to look at two different parts of the book, page 10 and pages 17-18.
- It occurred to me that improvement checks could be replaced by ruling that any roll that goes below the character's base skill improves the skill as another optional rule.

 

[Wik]

Awesome review, Twist! I'm really loving my feedback. I've set aside saturday to get at least one review done myself. I know I'll be using 95% of the feedback I've received so far -it's very helpful!

I am going to make some responses to your issues. Not because I don't think you're correct, but more to make "official" clear-ups. I will work to fix these issues to make them clearer in my next run-through of the rules.

Some minor issues/comment
- I'd get rid of Very Easy as a category of difficulty. Things that easy probably shouldn't require a roll, and you don't have to point out that a character can't get an Improvement check from a Very Easy rolls

Yeah, Very Easy is an obvious one. But then, it's in many games, and +40% doesn't necessarily mean an obvious success. A character with a low score (say, 20-25%), will still only have a 65% chance performing a very easy action. Since the difficulties are considered against a skilled person taking the action, a character who is not skilled could have a big trouble performing a "very easy" task. For example, someone without first aid training could try a Heimlich Maneuvre, but it's going to be a lot harder for them than it would be for a paramedic or doctor (probably a 100% success chance). Of course, these untrained people aren't really learning much, but just trying random stuff to get the job done, so there's no real potential for self-improvement on Very easy tasks.

- I couldn't find any rules for healing Health Points without a power.

under "health points", page 11, it mentions that Health Points automatically fully restore at the end of every combat. I should make that clearer in the next draft - I had trouble finding it, myself.

- I would spilt the entries for limbs on wound location chart (page 11) so each limb had its own entry rather than flipping a coin to pick a side.

Yeah, I would too. It was really a space-saving technique .

That being said, if a character is half-covered, I figured simply saying "arm" would mean the GM would say "Hey, since only your left arm is visible..." rather than having a re-roll (and giving the attacker another shot at the head).

- Making different headings look a little less like each other would make the book a little easier to navigate.

Done. Makes great sense. I just wanted a good visual look, and I like that font. I can mess around with things a bit.

- To see all of the effects of Adrenaline Points you need to look at two different parts of the book, page 10 and pages 17-18.

Not to mention all the uses for adrenaline points in the skills chapter! Yeah, a master list of adrenaline point uses is a good idea. It'll be done.

- It occurred to me that improvement checks could be replaced by ruling that any roll that goes below the character's base skill improves the skill as another optional rule.

It'd make an interesting, fast-playing optional rule. The only problem being that it creates an inverse of the existing method. As it stands, the higher your base chance of success, the LESS likely you'll level it on an improvement check, since you need to actually fail against your base chance of success on an improvement check to increase it. Getting a skill to 30-40 base skill is a lot easier than, say, getting it from 75-80.

As an aside, the first draft I had didn't have base chance of success, but simply had flat bonuses from abilities and skill modifiers. So, if you had a 45% modified chance of success, you have a 55% chance of improving it on an improvement check. The problem with that (and the reason I went with the current Base Skill + Modifiers for overall chance of success, rather than the simpler method) was that creating a character was essentially saying "these are the skills I want to start being good at... but they won't level as fast because they start higher". The problem being that, in a long-term game, all PCs would eventually be the same.

 

[twistnack]

Eightfold

Eightfold
By Kevin Crawford

Eightfold takes place six-hundred years after the fall of a magical civilization. The PCs are Servitors, the heirs to what's left of that civilization's magical tradition, trying to make their way in a fallen world of savage wilderness, warring city-states, and demon cultists.

Character creation takes very little time. I expect most players will take more time trying to figure out which of the eight Octants (types of magic) they want to use, than making their characters. Characters have four attributes (Might, Grace, Clarity, and Spirit), each attribute is the base for a second trait (Physical Defense, Physical Condition, Mental Defense, and Mental Condition). Action tests are performed by adding one attribute to a d8 verses a difficulty of between 7 and 16 (or one of a character's defense scores).

The system itself is fairly simple. The combat system takes only two pages, but it enough to get the job done.

The magic system is where Eightfold really shines. There are eight Octants divided into opposing pairs: Body and Mind; Earth and Sky; Iron and Wood; Ravel and Twine. Starting characters have one primary Octant and two secondary Octants (which can't be the opposite of their primary).

Each Octant is described with a number of degrees and spells that require various levels of mastery in that Octant. Degrees are special abilities that can be used without any sort of risk on the Servitor's part, but are difficult to learn. Spells are more difficult to perform, have shorter lived effects, and are easy to learn. Each Octant has a theme, but there's enough variety within each to make an interesting character based just on that particular Octant.

In addition to skill with an Octant, some degrees and spells require a character to have a certain amount of connection with the Octant's source. This connection is referred to as the character Rank in that Octant. In general, Servitors have the Rank in a Octant as their surroundings, which is generally 1 though there are areas with higher. Servitors have Flux Tokens, which they can use to temporarily raise their Rank above the ambient level.

Characters can find or build magical equipment. A number of interesting examples are presented.

The book finishes up with a description of some common antagonists, some information on demons, and three sample cities. I'm slightly surprised not to see an example demon cultist.

Comments
- The advice on action test (page 26) is good stuff.
- I'd like to see an example of a full combat to make sure I'm not missing anything.
- The style of the book is inconsistent. Sometimes new paragraphs are indented, other times they are created with new lines, and other times there's nothing to break up paragraphs. This makes the book more difficult to read than it would otherwise be.
- I'd change the name Rank to something a little more descriptive. Using such a generic term, makes it easy to confuse Rank with the character's general proficiency with the Octant.
- I find the details of the setting's back story a bit uninteresting. Luckily, the setting itself is interesting.
- Part of me really wants to steal some ideas from the magi system to make a Dragonball-type martial arts game.

Conclusion
A really interesting magic system and an open world to play around with--Eightfold seems like a perfect game for a Sandbox style game.

 

[EP]

DEEP BLACK

The concept for this one is cool, but somehow weakened by inconsistencies. Nothing impossible to fix without overhauling, but worth a revision or two.

The System
I’ve had to re-read these rules a few times, mostly because I was getting lost in the Juice. If I pull out a gun and shoot someone, I will “inflict” the most on my opponent as if I had punched him or compelled him not to pull the trigger. And without any hit or body points, a bullet does as much “damage” as a slap across the face. If certain equipment or attacks could grant the winner “double victories” or anything similar, then this could be more feasible.
Then there’s the stick. In total honesty, I don’t understand the point of the stick. You can choose between injury or blacking out and missing all the action completely (thereby saving you the trouble of ever being killed by your enemies). And what if the rest of your comrades stay awake to finish the fight by holding the stick? Do you remain blacked out until they put you in a hospital bed or do you wake right back up? These are very obscure techniques which seem unable to adapt to a variety of situations or for any lengthy campaign. It definitely needs work and needs to be test thoroughly.
Like I said before, nothing impossible to adjust, but there are too many questions and uncertainties in what exists at the moment.

Magic
It’s missing. There’s text there stating these characters have mystical powers, but there’s nothing to make them work. No minimals, no limitations.

The Prophecy
I agree with previous comments about the risk of conflicting prophecies – it’s risky. If the GM can find a way to make it work, terrific, but it will only be a matter of time before player start revealing theirs because we’ve all yelled at TV characters for not sharing a secret clearly important to share with others.

The Ruined City
Didn’t see any here, so I’m assuming there is none. All the danger exists on an ethereal level.

An Ever-Present Threat
Seems lost when the CIA just up and lets these guys quit their day job to pursue their prophecy. Without any hint of mysterious pizza vans parked outside their hotel rooms all night or a single cohesive prophecy, it’s just not there. The Conspiracy just seems like a bunch of guys banding together to act spooky and be protagonists but are still working on a slogan.

Overall
There’s a lot of pieces missing at the moment, but they can be expanded to make something truly sweet to play. I know it seems like dumping, but there’s still much to cover and detail before you can toss players into this setting and let them run loose without a leash. Allowing players to go unrestricted is good, but the GM needs guidance on how it all works with more detailed rules, concepts, and examples before giving it a shot.

 

[EP]

EIGHTFOLD

This one definitely comes across as a game where the rules have been built around the story and that makes for an awesome roleplaying game. And I mean role-playing.

The System
Personally, I like more attributes (or ability scores, whatever they may be called for whichever game), but the use of Defenses and Conditions seems to offset that need. An expanded selection of talents also makes up for this and grants plenty of room for adaptation and personal growth as time goes on. Combat is simple and straightforward with an obvious benefit to using magic through power actions that non-magic users do not have. Equipment is reduced to window dressing as they all do the same damage and this means all non-magic users will be alike – only their stats will stand out and the base numbers are fairly low for any true variety.

Magic
I like the idea of the octants, but something about numerical ranks and designations takes away from the medieval fantasy tone. It’s not distracting, but I was hoping to see the octants’ ranks divided by names and titles keeping with the spirit of the magic. For example, beginning octants are known as primals.
The flux tokens took a second pass to grasp and this is something that could really make this particular magic system stand out. It actually allows the octants to become more powerful as the servitor builds up his power in combat or the power grows according to the environment. Recharging octants at certain times of day is interesting too and could have intriguing quirks and cultural habits for the servitors. Throw in the degrees and you have an interesting magic system I wouldn’t mind trying out some day.

The Prophecy
I never caught any reference to a prophecy in Eightfold.

The Ruined City
It’s more of the reverse, really. The world has been ruined and there are cities built and maintained by the servitors to protect the people from demons after falling from greater glory due to the Great Ones’ hubris. It makes a great place to start from and easily allows players to enter the realms of the damned.

An Ever-Present Threat
A world overrun by demons and devils with power hungry men seeking them out is a nice touch – the entire campaign setting is a moral dilemna. This game can make incredible use of alignment, drama, and choices.

Overall
I like it. If anything, I want to see more of what already exists and want to see what else can be done with this.

 

[EP]

THE AWAKENING

First off, I liked the concept. Stephen King writes the 4400. I have always loved using lost memories and a sense of entering a new, unexplored world to invite players to a new game – it puts them on equal footing with their characters. With that, I was curious to see how the system would work.

The System
Percentile dice can always make for a powerful sounding RPG. “Don’t worry, I have +40 when jumping!” Locking them into 10% intervals takes away from it in the long run, but it is a safer way to start. As time goes on, expand the rules by working in 5% increments as the truth unfolds and their powers unlock.
I was a bit confused by using playing cards for initiative, but I understand the idea of introducing chaos to the fight.
Actions threw me off at first and I wasn’t too sure about them. After a second pass (while writing this critique, as it were), I’ve come to like them a lot more. Having a sense of unlimited actions, each harder to achieve as you strive to do more and more, is quite empowering and it would be interesting to see how it plays out at the table. I wonder if altering the cumulative penalty for additional actions should go -10%, -20%, -40%, -70%, etc.
Health points sounds misleading for what is achieved here – stamina points or something similar would sound better and clearly indicate its role in the game, particularly when players first start. Love the wounds. I use them in my d20 homebrew.
Improving skills works as well and grants a personal touch to the characters as a way to look at improved scores and remember how they came to pass. Once again, this would be something requiring extensive playtesting to ensure appropriate power at higher “levels.” Even to include natural 01s and 02s for automatic skill improvement would work as well.

Magic
They’re brief, they’re simple, and they’re expandable. It works. Nothing singularly powerful that all characters will rush towards it and the limit of only one power allows the players to form an appropriate group. The powers are similar to roles in 4e but much more functional.

The Prophecy
“The prophecy has not been fully recorded…” seems far too vague for me. It almost comes across as a last minute sneak thrown in by the publisher without the design team knowing it. There isn’t even any sense of vision for good or evil and it can easily be ignored by GMs and especially players.

The Ruined City
Pluralizing this requirement is a good way to expand the impact of your drama and it’s nice to see Canada getting screwed in a psychic apocalypse (for which all Canadians, such as myself, just like to see a little recognition… no matter how we get it).

An Ever-Present Threat
This one never needs a name, just a presence. It comes across in the text and the format of the rules and major focus of the game. While I did find the prophecy was weak, creating a presence is better established by being vague because tension comes in the unknown. It’s the prophecy and point-of-origin (or the point-of-destination many post-apocalyptic stories have) giving it guidance to motivate the players into action as they learn the rules, characters, and intricacies of the game.

Overall
It’s a good start and can easily be expanded into something fun to play. Quick to start with room to grow for any die-hard fans. And a larger role for any Chris Carter-level prophecies and conspiracies.

 

[CardinalXimenes]

Ignition

I've been slacking with the Conjunction reviews lately, but example has provoked me to put up another one. This review is for "Ignition", a game of near-future arcane forces and the powered armor that channels them.

Layout:
The layout is clean and straightforward, five pages of setting fiction and background followed by the game. A glossary is one of the first items given, which helps to stave off the problem of introducing terms before definitions. This is important due to the density of the system in comparison to the other submissions.

System:
Ignition is a departure from the submissions I've looked over thus far in being a fairly crunch-heavy offering. The basic task resolution mechanism is a simple opposed d20 roll, but the modifiers and action qualifications around that roll seem very dense. Some elements seem puzzling, but I'm not sure how much of that is inconsistency and how much is my failure to wholly grasp the math terrain. For example, page 17 says that Strain damage is taken only on opposed roll close calls, while page 14 gives 1 point of Strain as the cost of an extended action.

Ignition made me think seriously about why I had such trouble getting a feel for its system, one conveyed in only 40 pages or so, when I felt no difficulty at all in understanding 4e D&D's system, with hundreds of pages of crunch. Practically every power of every 4e class creates an exception to the rules of some kind, so why was I struggling with Ignition's special-case handling?

I've come to the conclusion that it has to do with the scope of Ignition's specific cases. 4e is chock-full of fiddly bits, but the number of fiddly bits I as a player have to worry about are restricted to a dozen or so specific actions. The existence of a thousand or so other unique cases isn't a problem for me because I can ignore them. With Ignition, however, I feel hesitant trying to imagine how a standard combat would go due to the complexity of the modifiers, opposing rolls needed, and specific talent usage guidelines- things that I'm going to have to deal with the first time I decide to run directly up to an enemy and shoot him.

Because I'm not really solid with the system, some tactics are looking strangely optimal. For example, the "dead lock" rule indicates that any use of a ranged weapon against an adjacent enemy gives the attacker three levels of automatic success before the opposing roll is made. As a consequence, the best tactic for hand to hand combat appears to involve grabbing an assault rifle, using your movement to close with a target, and then using the Spray option to hit the target three times automatically unless their opposing rolls are vastly superior to your attack.

On the whole, I'm not sure I'm comfortable enough with the system to pass judgment on its effectiveness. I suspect an exploration of its math would bring up some interesting finds.

Setting:
The setting for Ignition is the near future, 2050, with the PCs playing power-armored soldiers that channel "radiant energy" through their suits. The energy's origin appears to be in some form of refined solar power discovered in the course of a city-leveling accident. The major world powers deny that they're meddling with these Strange Forces, but your PCs are proof contrary.

The very structured context of soldiery seems a good way to focus the game's setting, which is relevant for such a short development cycle. The soldiers themselves are left a little indistinct, with few details about their normal lifestyles as black operatives or their unit structure. It seems pretty clear that the military used here is of the traditional fictional variety, as ranks are used analogously to experience levels and additional ranks provide additional personal prowess and minions in the form of regular troopers. I don't dock it points for this; I can't think of any way to replicate a more realistic command structure that wouldn't do serious violence to the typical RPG gaming group dynamic of "Everybody do what they think is right while aimed in the general direction of the party's goal". Prussian discipline is not going to happen.

One thing I think the setting could have used more of is premade conflict hooks. There's a lot of implicit tension in the setting, but there's no clear antagonist-figure to aim new games at. The near-future setting does mitigate this to a degree, however- all you really need to do is open up a newspaper, pick a global hotspot, and add power-armored PCs.

Summary:
I'm not sure I can really give a good assessment of the game. The density of the mechanics defeated me, though I can see the outlines of something quite interesting for someone able to keep an adequate number of special cases in mind at once. I'd advise a fairly ruthless revision pass over the thicket of rules to minimize the number of things a player has to remember in order to take an action in-game.

 

[EP]

Thanks for the critique. There's still a fair bit of work to be done (which is why I'm in favour of a revised draft rather than an additional handbook for the next round) and I will work on the clarity of the rules.

The idea behind Ignition was to create a magic system that was as open-ended as possible, but it does require fuller guidelines for the base rules. What I've noticed in other games is how actions are extremely limited to a select few options and options such as powers, abilities, and other character concepts are restricted to following those actions. What I was looking for was a system in which there are different types of actions available should you choose to take them, but anything beyond the core action types come with a cost. For me, that allows players to take actions that are not limited by the rules, but by their imagination. Especially when using guns - I've never like it when you can fire one shot or spray a room but nothing else.

After other critiques come in (hopefully), I'll make some notes and make some revisions to clarify what does exist and even streamline things that are needlessly confusing.

 

[CardinalXimenes]

When I read over the rules for it, what ended up stumping me was figuring out all the modifiers involved for a typical round of combat. I could track the talents used for a particular mode of attack, and the opposed roll, and the degrees of success were easy enough to determine if I wrote the scale down on my character sheet. But once I started adjusting for movement, cover, multiple actions, fatigue checks, and the like, I got lost. Really, I don't think the total number of modifiers is necessarily excessive. It's just that I couldn't get a quick, one-stop tally of which ones I ought to be applying.

 

[CardinalXimenes]

And some commentary on your useful critique:

Equipment is reduced to window dressing as they all do the same damage and this means all non-magic users will be alike – only their stats will stand out and the base numbers are fairly low for any true variety.

This bit did concern me during development. The mechanics are just plain boring for completely nonmagical PCs, and any PC that doesn't emphasize development on building their Octant powers is going to run out of interesting mechanical ways to develop in a hurry. I was willing to make that bargain because the game was supposed to be about magic, but that doesn't make life any more interesting for the mundane types.

I like the idea of the octants, but something about numerical ranks and designations takes away from the medieval fantasy tone. It’s not distracting, but I was hoping to see the octants’ ranks divided by names and titles keeping with the spirit of the magic. For example, beginning octants are known as primals.

It's true that Octants need an extra helping of Flavor rather badly. I had to squeeze things hard to fit it within fifty pages and two months, so if I come back to revise this, I'll have to think more about flavoring.

The flux tokens took a second pass to grasp and this is something that could really make this particular magic system stand out. It actually allows the octants to become more powerful as the servitor builds up his power in combat or the power grows according to the environment.

I really should have spent more time calling out the consequential effects of flux tokens. The original system I had in place was a rather intricate affair of powers that boosted and sapped Octants to result in two Servitors dueling to get the magic they needed to unleash their major powers on each other. It was also a combinatorial nightmare that probably had a trivially optimal tactic to anybody willing to look hard enough and severely punished PCs who were playing a GM who was much better at the minigame than they were.

What ended up left over was the flux tokens. The idea is that PCs can't simply open up with their strongest powers. They have to boost their Octant ranks to access them, and they can only do that so often each day. Furthermore, the process of boosting ranks is 'noisy', and liable to alert Servitor enemies that somebody's buffing up. Because many Degrees and spells use up a character's power action for the turn, the PC is given the choice of either firing off a weaker Degree/spell or boosting ranks to launch a more potent one later in the fight. This is emergent behavior, though, and I really should've pointed it out in the text.