Tell me about Spirit of the Century

[Mallus]

(please)

It looks like my gaming group is play some SotC over the summer. I've started reading the rules. We've started brainstorming characters (it looks like we'll all be detectives; a thawed-out caveman detective, a little girl detective, and a hyper-evolved detective who's basically a floating brain that can punch you). So far, so good. Unless, of course, we change our minds and make totally different characters.

But tell me, how does it play?

 

[Lackhand]

(please)

It looks like my gaming group is play some SotC over the summer. I've started reading the rules. We've started brainstorming characters (it looks like we'll all be detectives; a thawed-out caveman detective, a little girl detective, and a hyper-evolved detective who's basically a floating brain that can punch you). So far, so good. Unless, of course, we change our minds and make totally different characters.

But tell me, how does it play?

"wonderfully" -- given what of your personality I've been able to glean from your posts, I'd be amazed if you didn't enjoy it

The rules-light nature can sometimes get on my nerves a little ("Whaddya mean I don't get a bonus for attacking from above without expending a resource?!"), but in a suitably pulpy game, that shouldn't matter too much ("Sorry. Mutated Renaissance Gorillas care not from whence your blow derives if it's only a couple steps up on the staircase. Now, if you wanted to maneuver onto the banister...").

On a related note, I keep fighting the trappings -- I don't want to play pulp 1920s, I want to play the campaign-world of D&D with a different ruleset! -- so I'm kind of annoyed at its lack of explicit support for the supernatural. The fireball-toting/lightningbolt-throwing/teleporting/charm-person-ing supernatural, anyway; it captures minor hedge-talents pretty well as writ.

Aspects, however, are awesome and it's now very hard for me to play any game that doesn't have them. Similarly, the bidding around them is also neat.

You may find the damage track is hard to fill, especially if everyone's a brawler and thus has nearly max ranks in Fists/Weapons/Athletics. A suggestion I've seen which seems to help is to change the damage system such that any hit that would fill in a box of stress above the character's track (whether it rolls up there or just starts there) takes the character out.
HOWEVER, a player may opt to take a consequence to decrease the stress of a blow by the size of the consequence, minor = 2 points, moderate = 4 points, severe = 6 points.

Thus, a player will probably aspect out of a hit or two, start running low on fate points so take a hit, realize that if they take another rollup will start to be a real danger, and start taking consequences.
In Fate as writ, however, they tend to take hits, realize that rollup is going to start happening, and start fate pointing out of hits, then take their 3 consequences. This is unfortunate because losing Fate Points isn't a great consequence -- consequences are! -- so discouraging this order of ablation is a Good Thing. Besides, is any one character ever going to get that beat on? Really?

I also play with only 3 stress instead of 5.

But what is it that you really want to know?

 

[Rechan]

On a related note, I keep fighting the trappings -- I don't want to play pulp 1920s, I want to play the campaign-world of D&D with a different ruleset! -- so I'm kind of annoyed at its lack of explicit support for the supernatural. The fireball-toting/lightningbolt-throwing/teleporting/charm-person-ing supernatural, anyway; it captures minor hedge-talents pretty well as writ.

Wait for the Dresden Files RPG to come out. Same guys who wrote SotC are doing it. The title character is a Wizard, so that should fill your "Throwin' lightning and fireballs" quota.

Aspects, however, are awesome and it's now very hard for me to play any game that doesn't have them. Similarly, the bidding around them is also neat.

I definitely would like to see trying to get Aspects into other games. It's more a matter of trying to get it into my head to use them in stock d20 fantasy, and make it complicated.

Me, I've never played SotC (unfortunately), but I'd like to run it. However, I feel unfamiliar with the rules. Reading the SRD is one thing, but I'd like to see an example of a full combat, start to finish, to be able to grok how everything fits.

That, and I also just cannot come up with ideas for adventures, for some odd reason.

 

[Mallus]

But what is it that you really want to know?

Nothing specific, just impressions, potential issues, etc. Thanks for the reply.

I haven't gotten to the combat section yet, so some of what you wrote was lost on me. The gist of it is that tough-guy characters might be a little too hard to knock out, right? This is important, as my proposed PC will have the aspect "Tough as a Caveman".

 

[Mallus]

I definitely would like to see trying to get Aspects into other games.

Our last 3e game used Aspects without knowing it. For instance, one PC, Burne the Alchemist was 'Really Good at Making Bizarre Magical Items' and an 'Elitist Pyromaniac'. These impacted game events quite often, even though they weren't formally described using game mechanics.

 

[Rechan]

Our last 3e game used Aspects without knowing it. For instance, one PC, Burne the Alchemist was 'Really Good at Making Bizarre Magical Items' and a 'Elitist Pyromaniac'. These impacted game events quite often, even though they weren't formally described using game mechanics.

Well, among other things, I really like the act of Compelling an aspect. "Here's an action point. Do something to complicate matters. Mwahaha."

 

[coyote6]

That, and I also just cannot come up with ideas for adventures, for some odd reason.

I've only played SotC at cons, but one answer some GMs have used is to have the players do it. During character creation, the players write up the blurbs about their pre-game "novel"; those inevitably include info about villains, motivation, and the like. So, snag some bits from there, and have Villain A team up with Villain B to do something that crosses Motivation C, and that'll drag in most of the PCs. Between SotC assuming all the PCs know each other, and pulp sensibilities ("Why yes, Character Who Has No Intrinsic Reason To Be Involved, you do just happen to be on the scene when mayhem erupts. What a coincidence; roll for initiative"), that should drag everyone in. Then they kind of wing it from there.

 

[Mallus]

I've only played SotC at cons...

Did you like it?

 

[Lackhand]

Wait for the Dresden Files RPG to come out. Same guys who wrote SotC are doing it. The title character is a Wizard, so that should fill your "Throwin' lightning and fireballs" quota.

Oh, I'm waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Also waiting for Turn Coat to come out in paperback, for that matter.

I've been toying in my free time with making up my own Menace Manual for SotC -- annotated fantasy bestiary with aspects & skill layouts. The only thing that's stopped me is that, as Rechan points out, DFRPG is coming (some day!) and will provide a slightly classier chassis for what I want it to do.


Compelling and invoking for effect are incredibly awesome. Rewarding a player for allowing their character to come to harm plays out very well -- the short term penalty is (or should be) enough to discourage metagaming, but the long term payoff of a little extra FP later is a very nice encouragement.

Do not skimp on character generation if you have the time. Set aside a session, or most of a session, to build your characters together. There's a lot to be said for the interconnectedness their 5 phase system creates and the plot threads that can be left dangling.

Consider preserving a few aspects -- 2 or 3 -- to be selected in-game. I've found that I often don't need all 10 aspects (6 seems to be my magic number) and the wildest, wackiest things about most RPG characters are uncovered in play.
Especially for the first time you're playing, it can be daunting to come up with all your aspects out of nowhere, with most of my D&D-players-to-SotC-players having a lot of repetition in their aspects.

 

[Rechan]

Say. Is there a bestiary anywhere for NPCs/Villains/etc in SotC? Or does the DM make them all up?