Next Gen Games?

[Aldarc]

Which non-D&D TTRPGs published within the past 5 or so years do you think represent the leaders of next generation games and publishers that will (or already are) influence future game design? I would like to leave out D&D of this discussion, because as the 800-pound gorilla industry leader, D&D will always exert an influence on future game design.

 

[Scott Christian]

Numenera. (Around 9 years old?) Not because the mechanics are great. But because it is an interesting setting with a big name behind it.

 

[Dormammu]

I don’t know about predicting the future, but I like a lot of what Free League does.

 

[Aldarc]

I don’t know about predicting the future, but I like a lot of what Free League does.

Free League was one company that I had on my mind when I created this thread. However, I have not yet seen the echoes among designers that their system is producing. I'm not aware of any 3pp that use the engine, but the OGL for the Year Zero Engine only came available in 2019, so that may be why.

Even if we were to name Free League as a forerunner for future design, I'm curious what those design elements are that make people gravitate or take note of the Year Zero Engine. What does the YZE do well that make it unique or stand out from other systems?

 

[Umbran]

I'd say the new toolkit systems like Cypher and Cortex Prime may be a large chunk of "next gen" gaming as well.

 

[Morrus]

I think the next gen stuff is more about platforms and tools rather than rules design per se.

 

[Aldarc]

I'd say the new toolkit systems like Cypher and Cortex Prime may be a large chunk of "next gen" gaming as well.

Nice choices. Cortex Prime is relatively new, though it (much like Fate) had a number of precursor systems. It does seem to be garnering a following among many of the people who also like Fate, so I will definitely be paying attention to the ripples that Cortex Prime makes.

I am also waiting for someone to take the Cypher System into a new bold direction that builds on the meat and bones of the system in ways that Monte Cook has not considered, but I'm not sure what that would look like.

One of the games I had in mind is Blades in the Dark. I have seen what feels like an explosion of indie game design using the Forged in the Dark engine. There is a Kickstarter now for Brinkwood, a vampire-hunting FitD game, as well as a Kickstarter for Sig, an off-brand Planescape FitD game.

I think the next gen stuff is more about platforms and tools rather than rules design per se.

Maybe, but then we see games like Apocalypse World that trigger a fairly significant wave of design in its wake. And Apocalypse World resulted in the spin-off games of both Blades in the Dark and Ironsworn, both of which have been making waves of their own.

 

[Scott Christian]

The designation between rules and platforms versus unique worlds is an interesting one. I can see the argument both ways. Rules that stick seem to steer the aircraft carriers of design. But worlds, like The Witcher, leave an everlasting impression on audiences as a whole. Basically taking the ship to new and interesting ports of call.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Even if we were to name Free League as a forerunner for future design, I'm curious what those design elements are that make people gravitate or take note of the Year Zero Engine. What does the YZE do well that make it unique or stand out from other systems?

Free League has really impressed me. I’ve only actually played two of their games, but I’ve looked at a couple more, and they all seem solid. Their production value is certainly top notch.

Both games I’ve played use the Year Zero Engine, though I didn’t even realize that was the case until later on. Looking back at them now, it’s easy to see the similarities, and to see that the core mechanic is indeed intact. But each game had its own things going on, and they’re also so thematically different that it was kind of easy to not notice that the core was the same.

Tales From the Loop and Alien are both very solid games. Easy to grasp the essential rules and mechanics, but each one tailored to fit the genre and feel they’re going for. Any system that can so easily deliver an authentic 80s Spielberg kids in trouble vibe, or the ever-escalating paranoia of the Aliens films is doing something right.

One of the games I had in mind is Blades in the Dark. I have seen what feels like an explosion of indie game design using the Forged in the Dark engine. There is a Kickstarter now for Brinkwood, a vampire-hunting FitD game, as well as a Kickstarter for Sig, an off-brand Planescape FitD game.

I agree that Blades in the Dark has inspired a lot of variations and hacks. It’s interesting to see what people can do to tweak the core system and deliver a slightly different experience.

The Forged in the Dark system seems to have both strong appeal and hackability. There are different areas of the rules that you can revise to try and deliver a new experience or a different kind of fiction. In that way it’s very much like Apocalypse World, which is a clear inspiration for the game.

Sig sounds interesting. I may have to back that.

Beyond seconding Free League and Blades in the Dark, I’ll just say that the explosion of indie design on Itch.io is pretty amazing. Not that every game is great or to everyone’s taste, but the sheer scope of games and topics and the obvious energy that many of the designers have is just remarkable. Chances are if there’s an interesting topic, someone on Itch.io has made a game about it.

 

[Aldarc]

Tales From the Loop and Alien are both very solid games. Easy to grasp the essential rules and mechanics, but each one tailored to fit the genre and feel they’re going for. Any system that can so easily deliver an authentic 80s Spielberg kids in trouble vibe, or the ever-escalating paranoia of the Aliens films is doing something right.

So apart from its quality production value or its ability to emulate different genres of fiction, what would you say makes the system unique in terms of its novelty or appeal? Or is it that it provides a simple and elegant dice pool system with a pushing mechanic? Or to put it in another way: let's say that I was a designer shopping around for which system would work well for their next project. Why should this designer consider the Year Zero Engine over another system?

Please don't construe this as skepticism or an interrogation, but I'm trying to suss out the strengths of the system.

I agree that Blades in the Dark has inspired a lot of variations and hacks. It’s interesting to see what people can do to tweak the core system and deliver a slightly different experience.

The Forged in the Dark system seems to have both strong appeal and hackability. There are different areas of the rules that you can revise to try and deliver a new experience or a different kind of fiction. In that way it’s very much like Apocalypse World, which is a clear inspiration for the game.

IMO, BitD is an impressively tight and ingenious game. It takes the 2d6 resolution system of PbtA and turns it into a dice pool system that further layers the failure/complication/success mechanic by introducing position and effect. The fact that the GM is tasked with providing position and effect means that the game forces the GM to think about what failure and success, respectively, look like in the fiction for a player action. And the occasionally convoluted list of moves of PbtA are replaced by a list of 12 actions that inform the player how they are expected to interact in the fiction. This effectively offloads responsibility of tracking the triggering of moves in the fiction to the player from the GM, whose responsibility in this regard pivots to position and effect.

I also like how BitD takes the idea of playbooks and gives one for the entire group, which gives them a clear rallying purpose.

I'm almost waiting to see when someone takes BitD and combines it with Fate, though Rob Donoghue appears to have been considering this mashup for some time.