Does Anyone Care? (Cosmere RPG)

[BrokenTwin]

I've only read a couple of Sanderson's books, but in general, IP games tend to give me the ick. With some notable exceptions, they tend to feel like they're using the IP as a crutch to prop up a middling system.
I remember when the Avatar RPG was announced, so many people (including myself) were over the moon excited, but then the product arrived, and the general enthusiasm just died. Nobody talks about the Avatar RPG anymore, because (in my opinion, obviously) once you got past the IP, the actual game itself was mid. Not terrible by any stretch of the means, just not able to compete with the high quality that a lot of currently existing games bring to the table.
So when I heard about this project, I admit I immediately got a sense of aversion towards it. And while it sounds like it's a better game so far than Avatar is, I'm still not sure what the draw is here for non-Cosmere fans.

 

[Parmandur]

I've only read a couple of Sanderson's books, but in general, IP games tend to give me the ick. With some notable exceptions, they tend to feel like they're using the IP as a crutch to prop up a middling system.
I remember when the Avatar RPG was announced, so many people (including myself) were over the moon excited, but then the product arrived, and the general enthusiasm just died. Nobody talks about the Avatar RPG anymore, because (in my opinion, obviously) once you got past the IP, the actual game itself was mid. Not terrible by any stretch of the means, just not able to compete with the high quality that a lot of currently existing games bring to the table.
So when I heard about this project, I admit I immediately got a sense of aversion towards it. And while it sounds like it's a better game so far than Avatar is, I'm still not sure what the draw is here for non-Cosmere fans.

This is decidedly not the case here, though I know ehat you mean in general terms. Brotherwise Games, based on theor past board games as well, doesn't believe in half-measures or phoning a project in.

It is hard for me at this point to judge how a non-Cosmere fan would perceive it, but already several posters here without that background seem to have good things to say about the rules system, so I would look to those voices. The rules are very, very good, while also not being overly tied to the IP. I can easily see how Brotherwise will be able to make the more generic Plotweaver game based on the same rules. It isn't overly jargon-y and obtuse like Avatar unfortunately ended up being (thianrule system would be great for that Setting, actually...), and should be easy for gamers and even non-gamers to pick up and play.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

????

It seems like you're saying you're unfamiliar with the Cosmere but want to make some extreme claims on how much lore there is and so on?

No.... I am saying that I know nothing about any Sanderson book, never ready any. And picking up the Cosmere rpg, and making characters and talking plots and reading its campaign books = was easy.

I never felt like I was reading an RPG that was missing info to the point I needed to go read a novel to complete it.
The books have setting and lore and metaplot, and its all packaged into the RPG books such that you do not need any external sources.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

I've only read a couple of Sanderson's books, but in general, IP games tend to give me the ick. With some notable exceptions, they tend to feel like they're using the IP as a crutch to prop up a middling system.
I remember when the Avatar RPG was announced, so many people (including myself) were over the moon excited, but then the product arrived, and the general enthusiasm just died. Nobody talks about the Avatar RPG anymore, because (in my opinion, obviously) once you got past the IP, the actual game itself was mid. Not terrible by any stretch of the means, just not able to compete with the high quality that a lot of currently existing games bring to the table.
So when I heard about this project, I admit I immediately got a sense of aversion towards it. And while it sounds like it's a better game so far than Avatar is, I'm still not sure what the draw is here for non-Cosmere fans.

Good point!

I have been tracking Cosmere because of the system its self. I wanted to see how an author with no RPG mechanic design pedigree would make what is one of the hardest games to make = high fantasy.

I think the rules are fantastic. It's open enough to define your Cosmere You Way... which Sandy says is very much the point. He wants you to take his ideas and run off with them, but also he gives a lot of setting stuff too (hence why the setting books are sold separately. They are not needed to play)

This is a VERY well built system and once we get done with our many may other games, i will push for our group to do an actual play to demo this against PF2 and D&D5e

 

[Parmandur]

So, Johnny O'Neal of Brotherwise Games posted a summary on reddit of the genCon panel, which was not recorded unfortunately, photos and link below and a couple of neat information highlights:

"We confirmed that in addition to new heroic path specialties, the Mistborn Handbook features a whopping 34 Metallic Arts Paths (17 Allomantic, 17 Feruchemical). Some of these paths are quite short, but we're giving you a lot of options."

...

"Will we ever license with independent storytellers to publish adventures in the Cosmere?"

"There are two ways to get involved in creating Cosmere RPG content. One is to release materials for free under the Fan Content Policy, like the excellent Heart of Kholinar fan campaign. The other is to work as part of the Cosmere RPG team. (We're past our latest round of hiring, but you can submit your application here to be considered for future rounds of recruiting.) Due to licensing/IP rights, any paid content needs to be official. But if you want to make money off content using the underlying systems, you'll be able to do that with Plotweaver as early as this time next year!"

 

[Thomas Shey]

That's the gig at the end of the day; a popular IP is only going to get you so far; a game system that doesn't work for people isn't going to work just because its wedded to an IP people like. If well integrated it might push up a system that is functional but flawed.

 

[DarkCrisis]

IP games are generally a flash in the pan with fans buying them and that’s it.

I’ve had the Walking Dead starter via Kickstarter for a long while now and have yet to even read it.

 

[Parmandur]

No.... I am saying that I know nothing about any Sanderson book, never ready any. And picking up the Cosmere rpg, and making characters and talking plots and reading its campaign books = was easy.

I never felt like I was reading an RPG that was missing info to the point I needed to go read a novel to complete it.
The books have setting and lore and metaplot, and its all packaged into the RPG books such that you do not need any external sources.

I am really glad to hear that, gives me a lot of hope.

 

[plecostomus]

I don't understand people (not necessarily on this thread) who are saying having to learn the Cosmere IP in order to play this game is a huge impediment to play.

I mean... learning a world setting has been an impediment to play for every rpg with a setting, ever. I don't think that's a big deal.

I do think, though, that famous IP tends to involve obsessive fans who tend to make running the setting a lot more difficult than it needs to be. These people love pointing out setting and continuity errors because they have such an intimate knowledge of the setting. I comment upon this with love, though, as I'm a fan-boy of the Tolkien legendarium and the Arthurian Mythos who has to bite their tongue whenever someone gets a setting detail wrong.

This year I decided to DM my first ever campaign. I chose the Dragonlance setting, which is a setting with I think over a hundred books? All of which I have never read. It took me about 2 months to wrap my head around what I wanted the setting to contribute to the actual campaign (Quests From the Infinite Staircase). For players, who I am 100% certain will not want to spend 2 months reading about Dragonlance, I made 5 slides conveying the 5 points about the setting that I thought were most important to character creation.

So on the player front, I think as they can distill the setting down to a few slides, everything's cool. The bigger buy-in is from the DM, who kind of has to know how the world works. Luckily, DMs are more likely to want to read great big books about settings.

For the Cosmere RPG specifically, the warning sign for me is that my current DM, a huge Sanderhead, is not interested in it. He talks about the books a lot. He apparently repurposes some of the characters for our current campaign. His interest in the books is so great that I read the first Stormlight Archives book just to see what was up.

And when this RPG launched, he never said anything about it. I had to bring it up one day before our session, and he just kind of grunted? He said he wasn't sure and hadn't read anything about it. Seems ominous to me.

 

[Parmandur]

This year I decided to DM my first ever campaign. I chose the Dragonlance setting, which is a setting with I think over a hundred books? All of which I have never read. It took me about 2 months to wrap my head around what I wanted the setting to contribute to the actual campaign (Quests From the Infinite Staircase). For players, who I am 100% certain will not want to spend 2 months reading about Dragonlance, I made 5 slides conveying the 5 points about the setting that I thought were most important to character creation.

So on the player front, I think as they can distill the setting down to a few slides, everything's cool. The bigger buy-in is from the DM, who kind of has to know how the world works. Luckily, DMs are more likely to want to read great big books about settings.

For the Cosmere RPG specifically, the warning sign for me is that my current DM, a huge Sanderhead, is not interested in it. He talks about the books a lot. He apparently repurposes some of the characters for our current campaign. His interest in the books is so great that I read the first Stormlight Archives book just to see what was up.

And when this RPG launched, he never said anything about it. I had to bring it up one day before our session, and he just kind of grunted? He said he wasn't sure and hadn't read anything about it. Seems ominous to me.

The main thing that indicates is that the RPG has not yet reached the full potential of juat Sanderson fans: which makes sense, the Stormlight novels alone have sold over 10 million copies, which divided by 5 is still representing something like 20 times greater than the number of people who backed the Kickstarter.

The even more successful "Secret Projects" novel Kickstarter got national news coverage, and Sanderson says he constantly meets people who love his books who say they never heard about the Kickstarter...and those books actually sold more copies in bookstores than they did in the crowdfunding.

Just because your DM didn't jump on the bandwagon doesn't speak much to the quality of the game, maybe more his not really hearing about it or maybe being skeptical about the results.

But we have the books now, and as game rules they are great.