Did You Back a Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarter? How's The Game?

PurpleHazy

Villager
From the list, I backed Coyote & Crow and MCDM, but MCDM, despite saying they'd have stuff for us in about a month over a month ago, still haven't shown anything to actual backers, so I can't talk about that.

Re: Coyote & Crow, it's sort of better and worse than expected. The setting is extremely cool, and well done, and whilst it is utopian, it's no more utopian than, say, Star Trek, and indeed, I'd go as far as to suggest it actually has quite a similar setup to Star Trek in some ways. One thing I think some people struggle with is that the main culture detailed is sort of anarchist-adjacent, but without being libertarian, and I think a lot of players (of all cultures around the world) don't have a good mental model for how operate inside such a culture. The Federation from Star Trek is more straightforward, like a sort of "What if there were routes to do what you wanted, whatever it was, but you had to apply and train and work" and so on, whereas this is looser and more open and more family/connection-oriented.

There are some silly criticisms made like "Omg non-native people can't play it", when even my dumb white ass could parse the paragraphs about that, which amount to "If you're non-native, please pick one of the fictional cultures/tribes", and that's easy because like, they're the majority of the what the setting is about - other tribes are basically elided to allow native players from those to do what they think is right!

I would say that it works so hard to portray the utopia that whilst it is extremely obvious that there is major, warlike friction (and actual wars etc. in the recent past) between the big cultures, it doesn't really explore how that would translate into actual adventures in a serious way, and the supernatural elements don't entirely jive with the rest of the setting (which makes sense given their seemingly-external origin, but still), and seem less inherently interesting than the conflicts between nations etc.

The biggest problem is the rules, which are kind of bland d12-based dice pool system. Yeah it works, but it doesn't have any flavour. Because they haven't really defined the conflicts of the game - i.e. it's not primarily a game about subterfuge, which it could very easily be with all the spies, smugglers, private investigators and so on who are around, and all the "cold wars" or competitions between nations and so on, it's not primarily a game about monster hunting, despite there being monsters/demons to hunt, it's not primarily a game about doing any specific thing, and because of that, it's not a tight and focused game, and the rules don't follow the message/ideas of the game. I mean, for example, they make an awful lot out of the cultural rituals and so on, and the way people behave (which is cool - it helps to avoid assumptions that things work the same way as our world), but there's not really any rules support for that, it's just generic stuff (it's hardly the first RPG to treat points in cooking or music as valuable as other skills, and doesn't really do more than others to justify that). The special/magical abilities are largely well-worn low-end superpowers with a slightly psionic vibe, that you've seen in a million games before, and don't really further the setting.

I kind of feel like what they should have done, in my infinite wisdom (or complete lack thereof), is worked out the setting, and then made a more specific and focus RPG within that setting. Focused down on specific elements, then supported that all with the rules. Given out some powers with a bit more bite and specificity.

Because the rules are so "meh" and I no longer have time in my life for games with "meh" rules (as a DM, anyway), I don't think I'd run it with these rules, though I could see using the setting.
I backed Coyote and Crow too. I agree with your d12 system comments. I appreciate the setting and, while it is a bit obvious in places, the effort to portray a new perspective on a typical setting is worth the read. For me, I think it is primarily a read for inspiration and perspective. I seem to do that more and more these days. I read a lot of systems and settings with no real intent to play it, just want to see what other people are creating.
 

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ngenius

Adventurer
Two that I backed do not get much play. 7th Sea had so much excitement, then the many communities that started around the second edition atrophied away and the game got little play and little chatter. A similar situaton with Avatar, that had over 50,000, but little chatter at games spaces, and the rules are more finicky than regular PbTA type games. I picked up two special editions of Ang and Korra from disinterested backers.
 


aramis erak

Legend
I think I saw that they're Kickstarting a campaign for Coyote & Crow which might give a tighter framework for play when it comes out.
They lost a bunch already due to the listing several options (not just the real world tribes/nations) under the Native Americans only rule. To be honest, thinks like "Two Spirit People" shouldn't have been in the core if they can't explain them well enough to be open to any player.
The Names thing also is a turn off, both the "don't use real names" and the "here's a conlang name system"...

They lost more with an unfocused setting. The corebook setting being unfocused cost them a lot of good will.

THey lost more with the very solid on first skim, but, apparently bland, mechanics. (I didn't get that far in the detailed read. They lost me after detail read of char gen.)

Not to mention that there are a portion not offended/off-put by any of the above, but for whom it just doesn't work as a whole, and they didn't realize it until they got it.

Follower attrition is normative, and that's without strong reasons for it. They have reasons for higher than normal. Be interesting to see how it goes.
 


All in on TOR 2e which I have played a whole lot until I realised I liked 1e better.

Pledged 1 dollar to SD to have a look, didn't see anything in the QS and progress to blow me away so haven't played it / bought into it.
 

Anon Adderlan

Adventurer
From the list, I backed Coyote & Crow and MCDM, but MCDM, despite saying they'd have stuff for us in about a month over a month ago, still haven't shown anything to actual backers, so I can't talk about that.

Re: Coyote & Crow, it's sort of better and worse than expected. The setting is extremely cool, and well done, and whilst it is utopian, it's no more utopian than, say, Star Trek, and indeed, I'd go as far as to suggest it actually has quite a similar setup to Star Trek in some ways. One thing I think some people struggle with is that the main culture detailed is sort of anarchist-adjacent, but without being libertarian, and I think a lot of players (of all cultures around the world) don't have a good mental model for how operate inside such a culture. The Federation from Star Trek is more straightforward, like a sort of "What if there were routes to do what you wanted, whatever it was, but you had to apply and train and work" and so on, whereas this is looser and more open and more family/connection-oriented.

There are some silly criticisms made like "Omg non-native people can't play it", when even my dumb white ass could parse the paragraphs about that, which amount to "If you're non-native, please pick one of the fictional cultures/tribes", and that's easy because like, they're the majority of the what the setting is about - other tribes are basically elided to allow native players from those to do what they think is right!

I would say that it works so hard to portray the utopia that whilst it is extremely obvious that there is major, warlike friction (and actual wars etc. in the recent past) between the big cultures, it doesn't really explore how that would translate into actual adventures in a serious way, and the supernatural elements don't entirely jive with the rest of the setting (which makes sense given their seemingly-external origin, but still), and seem less inherently interesting than the conflicts between nations etc.

The biggest problem is the rules, which are kind of bland d12-based dice pool system. Yeah it works, but it doesn't have any flavour. Because they haven't really defined the conflicts of the game - i.e. it's not primarily a game about subterfuge, which it could very easily be with all the spies, smugglers, private investigators and so on who are around, and all the "cold wars" or competitions between nations and so on, it's not primarily a game about monster hunting, despite there being monsters/demons to hunt, it's not primarily a game about doing any specific thing, and because of that, it's not a tight and focused game, and the rules don't follow the message/ideas of the game. I mean, for example, they make an awful lot out of the cultural rituals and so on, and the way people behave (which is cool - it helps to avoid assumptions that things work the same way as our world), but there's not really any rules support for that, it's just generic stuff (it's hardly the first RPG to treat points in cooking or music as valuable as other skills, and doesn't really do more than others to justify that). The special/magical abilities are largely well-worn low-end superpowers with a slightly psionic vibe, that you've seen in a million games before, and don't really further the setting.

I kind of feel like what they should have done, in my infinite wisdom (or complete lack thereof), is worked out the setting, and then made a more specific and focus RPG within that setting. Focused down on specific elements, then supported that all with the rules. Given out some powers with a bit more bite and specificity.

Because the rules are so "meh" and I no longer have time in my life for games with "meh" rules (as a DM, anyway), I don't think I'd run it with these rules, though I could see using the setting.
The most concise, insightful, and balanced analysis of this game I've seen yet.

The Names thing also is a turn off, both the "don't use real names" and the "here's a conlang name system"...
Either you offend by appropriating existing names or by replacing them with fake ones. Can't win.
 

aramis erak

Legend
The most concise, insightful, and balanced analysis of this game I've seen yet.


Either you offend by appropriating existing names or by replacing them with fake ones. Can't win.
False booleanism.
Giving a list of naming practices would be good.
THey decided racism is fine when it's anti white.
 

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