Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Dark Conspiracy Returns in 2018…
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Lord_Blacksteel" data-source="post: 7721268" data-attributes="member: 53082"><p>It was a cool setting with some mixed rules issues. It's definitely "dystopian" but it's not strictly cyberpunk (if you were a cyborg the tech was put there by aliens, typically against your will) and definitely not post-apoc in the sense of Twilight 2000 or Gamma World. The "big problem" of the setting was that there was a "Greater Depression" that ruined a lot of people and damaged the ability of institutions like government to run things as they had before. Then the creepy x-files stuff starts leaking in and making things worse.</p><p></p><p>Rules-wise it started out with GDW's then-new d10-based "house system" - it was really swingy and had a limited range of possibilities. For example, a difficult task is roll under half of your rating in that stat or skill. Considering the skill/stat range is 1-10 and that you're rolling a d10, you're looking at needing a 2-3-4 for most characters even if they're good at something! Outstanding success or failure was judged on being 4 over or 4 under - as you can imagine this was pretty hard to do on anything other than an easy check (double your skill or attribute). So to get an outstanding success on a difficult task you would have to have max skill (a 10), halved to 5, then roll a 1. It was pretty unforgiving. This is the same system that pretty much killed Twilight 2000 second edition.</p><p></p><p>They later came out with the "PC Booster Kit" which updated it to the newer d20 version of the GDW House System that was used in Traveller the New Era and while it was an improvement a lot of people I knew had already dropped the game. </p><p></p><p>The setting was one I really liked, and it was different enough to be interesting, and while I liked the "not easy mode" approach to the mechanics in theory in practice it was hard to sustain a campaign. I played it some and tired to run an ongoing game but even shifting the difficulty to "average = double skill" it just was not something my players enjoyed enough to keep going.</p><p></p><p>New mechanics and a new push might actually breathe some life into this one.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lord_Blacksteel, post: 7721268, member: 53082"] It was a cool setting with some mixed rules issues. It's definitely "dystopian" but it's not strictly cyberpunk (if you were a cyborg the tech was put there by aliens, typically against your will) and definitely not post-apoc in the sense of Twilight 2000 or Gamma World. The "big problem" of the setting was that there was a "Greater Depression" that ruined a lot of people and damaged the ability of institutions like government to run things as they had before. Then the creepy x-files stuff starts leaking in and making things worse. Rules-wise it started out with GDW's then-new d10-based "house system" - it was really swingy and had a limited range of possibilities. For example, a difficult task is roll under half of your rating in that stat or skill. Considering the skill/stat range is 1-10 and that you're rolling a d10, you're looking at needing a 2-3-4 for most characters even if they're good at something! Outstanding success or failure was judged on being 4 over or 4 under - as you can imagine this was pretty hard to do on anything other than an easy check (double your skill or attribute). So to get an outstanding success on a difficult task you would have to have max skill (a 10), halved to 5, then roll a 1. It was pretty unforgiving. This is the same system that pretty much killed Twilight 2000 second edition. They later came out with the "PC Booster Kit" which updated it to the newer d20 version of the GDW House System that was used in Traveller the New Era and while it was an improvement a lot of people I knew had already dropped the game. The setting was one I really liked, and it was different enough to be interesting, and while I liked the "not easy mode" approach to the mechanics in theory in practice it was hard to sustain a campaign. I played it some and tired to run an ongoing game but even shifting the difficulty to "average = double skill" it just was not something my players enjoyed enough to keep going. New mechanics and a new push might actually breathe some life into this one. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Dark Conspiracy Returns in 2018…
Top