Does anybody else dislike the Warrior cat adventure game?

[Puxido]

Ok, for those of you who don't know, I'm referring to the tabletop rpg made by "Stan!" (Steven brown, not too familiar with his works myself. He apparently made d20 modern which I'm personally ok with.) and illustrated by James L. Barry, which itself was based of the Warriors series, or the Warrior cat series as some know it as. First of all, don't judge me for reading children's books, I've been reading the series since I was much younger. Second off, I have always been disappointed in "Stan!"'s attempt at bringing the Warrior cats into a tabletop roleplaying game. My major problem with it, is that it only has 3 stats. Strength, intelligence, and spirit. This comes into problems myself with a few things. First of all, I think it would limit the variety of characters that could be produced out of this system, though "Knacks" (Basically feats, for those of you who are familiar with pathfinder and dnd) fixes this problem a little, but even those are limited to 25 different knacks, and a good few are knowledge skills. My biggest problem with this though is the fact that sometimes the skills stats don't exactly make sense. For example, see is a skill, and it uses an Intelligence check, and jump is a spirit check. My next problem with the game is the fact that you level up by aging. This sounds good at first before you realize that the only way to level up is to grow old, meaning you are required to take the benefits and disadvantages of growing old, including gaining spirit and losing strength by leveling up. They also request that you wait a real life month before leveling up, which you can ignore but just gets me. My last problem is with his example adventure you can play, which has a pointless boss. You can choose to fight a twoleg (human being), but you cannot kill him and you always lose because of it. The advantage of this game to be honest is that it's easy to learn the rules compared to pathfinder and other games, and might be easier for younger audiences to learn, though personally I would just take the time to teach my younger relatives the rules rather than play a overly simple game which doesn't make all that much sense. What do you guys think think of the game if you are familiar (or not) with it? http://warriorcats.supadu.com/games-and-extras/games/adventure-game Here is the link to the rules itself if you want to formulate an opinion.

 

[taichara]

I think it doesn't need to have any more than it does; it's a simple framework for youngsters who might want to play as characters from their favorite stories. It doesn't need more stats or more knacks, or anything else like that, because it's all just as I said, a framework for young fans to take and run with.

The idea isn't a fully detailed rpg. It doesn't have to be one.

 

[Puxido]

I think it doesn't need to have any more than it does; it's a simple framework for youngsters who might want to play as characters from their favorite stories. It doesn't need more stats or more knacks, or anything else like that, because it's all just as I said, a framework for young fans to take and run with.

The idea isn't a fully detailed rpg. It doesn't have to be one.

I stated that I understood that, though if I am not mistaking, this was made for older fans of tabletop gaming, though I could still be wrong. I understand and respect that its simple for younger audiences, but I would have at least added agility for skills such as pounce, so they don't use intelligence, which doesn't make much sense. Spirit seems to be a combination of wisdom and charisma, but I don't think the two should be connected, I could see the reasoning, but I personally don't prefer it.

 

[Umbran]

It sounds like a Tri-Stat variant. That core was originally created for an anime-style game, called "Big Eyes, Small Mouth" (BESM).

Different game genres call for different levels of detail. I am not sure you need huge amounts of detail to play a cat, for example.

 

[Puxido]

It sounds like a Tri-Stat variant. That core was originally created for an anime-style game, called "Big Eyes, Small Mouth" (BESM).

Different game genres call for different levels of detail. I am not sure you need huge amounts of detail to play a cat, for example.

I understand. I guess I'm just not a fan of the Tri-stat variant of rpg, just bugs me though. The stats (In most games, not all though) try to capture "the human nature" in a way that can be calculated in numbers. Even though their cats, they interact in a very human nature throughout the series, so I feel this applies. Pathfinder has six and I don't feel that's really enough, and I use that system.

 

[fjw70]

Never heard of the tri-stat system before (but it looks interesting). My daughter just expressed an interest in this series of books.

 

[Umbran]

I understand. I guess I'm just not a fan of the Tri-stat variant of rpg, just bugs me though. The stats (In most games, not all though) try to capture "the human nature" in a way that can be calculated in numbers. Even though their cats, they interact in a very human nature throughout the series, so I feel this applies. Pathfinder has six and I don't feel that's really enough, and I use that system.

I look at it this way - no set of usable numbers will be enough. Not three, not six, not nine, not a dozen... and above that you're getting non-usable for game purposes.

Moreover, a game like Tri-Stat does not *try* to catch human nature in the stats. The nature of the character lies in how they behave, how they are portrayed and are played, not in numbers.

Numbers tell you *what* the character is. If that's the major question for you, then yes, Tri-Stat will fall short. If you are more interested in *who* the character is, with the what being somewhat secondary, then Tri-Stat can have its place.

 

[Puxido]

I look at it this way - no set of usable numbers will be enough. Not three, not six, not nine, not a dozen... and above that you're getting non-usable for game purposes.

Moreover, a game like Tri-Stat does not *try* to catch human nature in the stats. The nature of the character lies in how they behave, how they are portrayed and are played, not in numbers.

Numbers tell you *what* the character is. If that's the major question for you, then yes, Tri-Stat will fall short. If you are more interested in *who* the character is, with the what being somewhat secondary, then Tri-Stat can have its place.

I can respect that, like I said, it's just not my system, I just wanted to see if anyone else felt the same. Personally, I would just do pathfinder and use Ponyfinders fingerless rules, thought it would probably end up being nothing like the books.

 

[Umbran]

I can respect that, like I said, it's just not my system, I just wanted to see if anyone else felt the same. Personally, I would just do pathfinder and use Ponyfinders fingerless rules, thought it would probably end up being nothing like the books.

And that last is part of the point. I don't know the books in question, but often for YA literature - the game to emulate it probably doesn't need huge amounts of stats-detail. Such games are often best when you pare away everything that isn't really directly needed to do the genre.

3e/Pathfinder and 4e have a lot of rules for tactical combat - they are for players for whom tactical combat games are a draw, and show our wargaming roots. But, are the books really about making a ton of small choices to optimize performance? Probably not. Is a kid who wants to play a warrior cat really into tactical wargaming? Probably not. So, why should a game that is supposed to emulate the books have those elements?

 

[Puxido]

And that last is part of the point. I don't know the books in question, but often for YA literature - the game to emulate it probably doesn't need huge amounts of stats-detail. Such games are often best when you pare away everything that isn't really directly needed to do the genre.

3e/Pathfinder and 4e have a lot of rules for tactical combat - they are for players for whom tactical combat games are a draw, and show our wargaming roots. But, are the books really about making a ton of small choices to optimize performance? Probably not. Is a kid who wants to play a warrior cat really into tactical wargaming? Probably not. So, why should a game that is supposed to emulate the books have those elements?

Well, with that point, it's hard to explain the books themselves. There are clan battles, so large combat is acceptable, not sure how many on each side to be exact. I guess it's just being a fan of the writer and the series, I expected more from the tabletop variation. I can understand that if you want a younger roleplayer to make his cat, he could use this system and it would work. But personally, if I were good at this sort of thing and decided to make a roleplaying system for something along the lines of, let's say Percy Jackson, I would have given it more than three stats. I would personally have given agility its own stat, and kept all physical skills and abilities on the physical stats, mental skills on mental, and so forth, and I would have added classes, though that makes more sense in Percy Jackson than in the Warrior cats, though contradictory I really don't like not having classes, though it's acceptable in Warriors.