Does Anyone Care? (Cosmere RPG)

VenerableBede

Adventurer
This is not intended to be a downer post—at least, I hope it isn’t.

I don’t have time to play the Cosmere RPG, and, frankly, I’m not interested anymore. After backing that Kickstarter I discovered Shadowdark and fell in love. That said, reading through the Stormlight Handbook, I really like this take on d20/5e rules. If this game had come out while I was in college, I could see myself playing this more than anything else.

Having an interest in the system as an outside observer, I start looking around for conversation… And I can’t find it. Not in TTRPG circles, anyway. I find the occasional comment here or there (“This is what DnD 5.5 should have looked like!”), but no one coming from a TTRPG-first background really seems to care.

I don’t even see a lot of conversation in the few Cosmere circles I checked out, and a LOT (but not all) of that conversation revolved around lore introduced by these books, not the game itself, it’s rules, or playing the game (these books being 100% canonical). There’s some review videos, and a few Cosmere creators that gave it a try—but considering the massive success of the Kickstarter, monetarily anyway, I’m not seeing the ripples I’d expected.

I do see some issues with the Cosmere RPG not related to the rules. The world these books are set in are deep, and lots of players not already invested in Sanderson probably won’t think it’s worth the effort to learn a ton of lore just to play a TTRPG when they already have one that suits them fine. Also, because the worlds in the Cosmere are designed with epic fantasy novels in mind, not necessarily TTRPGs, I don’t think these worlds contribute to playing a TTRPG very well anyway.

The licensed nature of the Cosmere severely limiting (monetizable) creator content probably doesn’t help attract content creators who might otherwise deive interest.

There’s also the issue of there being so many spin-offs and “refinements” of 5e that even, in my opinion, a truly uniquely excellent one like this can’t stand out on those traits alone.

I consider this all unfortunate because, as I said, I really like the underlying rules for this game—the Plotweaver system, which I believe will eventually receive a setting-agnostic (or generic fantasy setting) rulebook separate from the Cosmere. I really want these rules to have legs, even if the Cosmere RPG itself, in the long run, I think will most likely end up collector’s items for Sanderson super fans and little more. I just think it came out in the wrong time and place for that to be possible.

Anyone here care to prove me wrong? Able to? Or does most everyone else keeping an eye on this game feel the same way?
 

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I care! I also thint this game will have legs, big time. Right now, I think a lot of people who are interested are digesting the rules or simply waiting to have the hard copies before going whole hog. The actual play reviews I am seeing on YouTube are promising.

Personally, I don't plan to run it until I get the physical stuff inside couple months, because I'm old fashioned that way. Love reading for now, but I want the physical stuff in hand to play.

Ironically, the main reason I think the system will have legs is one reason conversation may be muted: there are so few problems, what is there to say. "It's really good". They literally fixed all my problems with 5E.
 
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I care! I also thint this game will have legs, big time. Right now, I think a lot of people who are interested are digesting the rules or simply waiting to have the hard copies before going whole hog. The actual play reviews I am seeing on YouTube are promising.

Personally, I don't plan to run it until I get the physical stuff inside couple months, because I'm old fashioned that way. Love reading for now, but I wan the physical stuff in hand to play.

Ironically, the main reason I think the system will have legs is one reason conversation may be muted: there are so few problems, what is there to say. "It's really good". They literaokved all yummy problems with 5E.
Oof—I did forget to take into consideration just how early on everything is. Aside from the physicals for Stormlight not being out yet, Mistborn PDFs and physicals won't release until next year.

The number of paths in that game is going to be absolutely lunatic...
 


I have to agree that the game was released to a resounding… nothing. Usually when a game gets released EnWorld covers it and I didn’t even see that.

There have been a couple of videos on Knights of Last Call covering the game and it looks … fine, I guess. It’s a D20 variant with some narrative components added but as I’m not a huge fan of the books, it frankly looks like a lot of work to play for something I’m not that excited for.

But I do have to say that the publishers did the work to make it available to play: I can get everything for it, including a campaign, on Foundry and other VTTs at launch and that’s great! If only this was something that drew me in.

The two big issues are the time investment to learn the game, and the cost. It’s just too expensive for me because I’m not going to jump on it and play it a ton.
 

So is part of the issue the timing of the Kickstarter. 2024 and the mixed reception release for DnD'24 had people hungry for alternatives. And we got a lot of high profile attempts to push into the DnD space. Draw Steel. Daggerheart. Tales of the Valiant. And yeah, they all had to compete for attention and as a result they were taking attention from each other.
 


The world these books are set in are deep, and lots of players not already invested in Sanderson probably won’t think it’s worth the effort to learn a ton of lore just to play a TTRPG when they already have one that suits them fine.
Just to chime in, I would not consider Sanderson's world deep at all. The important parts can be learned at a glance.
Not having read the rules, I'd suspect his magic systems work well in an RPG.
And I am sure we will hear a lot more when people have their copies in their hands!
 

I think its great!

So clearly Sandy has been doing his research (and GMing of 12+ years working towards this system.)

- Its very refined: They have taken the time to consider the characters as being useful at "level 1" and then growing in ability and power from there.

- It's not complex, but its not PBTA either: They have clearly set this up for heroic combat and adventure, and the rules look like a very modern and clean progression of D&D 5e (but so much better in many ways)

- It has FULL rules for Social roleplay and social combat! As default! Clearly this game is built around competent characters who are more than "fighter with hit sword feats" or "wizard with harm murder spells". They have taken their time to create rules and mechanics for politics, intrigue and command groups.

- Fully 2/3 of the "Classes" are not murder hobos: ok, none of them are, but other than Warrior and Ranger, the rest are all very interesting and diverse classes that speak to a well rounded story, not just dungeon crawling murder combat.

- Combat is thorough. They have all the typical bits and bobs we are used to from Pathfinder and D&D, from feat like stuff, to reactions stuff. But its "Choose how aggressive you want to be to get bonus actions" is great!!!

....

I have never read any of his books, and I have had no trouble at all creating characters in the game. What they present the game is "Here are the types of races and classes you can play, and they have rich purposes and functions, but you don't need to know their backstory or ties to the novels. You can run with them however you interpret them"

There are only 2 Heritages (races) at this time, but certainly lots more to come, the game is built for expansion for sure!
 
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