Does Anyone Care? (Cosmere RPG)

[Parmandur]

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...

Yeah, I think Stormlight is going to do very well, but once Mistborn is up and active they will really be cooking with fire. Mistborn is less of a learning curve, and Era 2 is basically a perfect and easy to understand RPG Setting. Easy to understand rules plus that Setting will be huge.

And they have announced that there will be an Open License SRD (legal details pending...) and they have committed to 3 different generic Plotweaver books: "Generic" Fantasy, Modern, and "generic" Sci-Fi.

So once you have multiple licensed books from the most popular Sci-Fi/ Fantasy author of his generation, plus a bunch of generic books that don't require to buy in, plus the option for an independent creator market...

These rules are strong enough to take advantage of those things. It plays pretty much like 5E D&D in practice, close enough for the average D&D player. And what is different is because they unified resolution mechanics to be exactly like 5E Skill checks, which people who barely know the rules understand and love. This will be easy to get people to play when the rubber hits the road.

 

[Campbell]

Not sure about online, but at least in our local group there's a lot of interest. I'm likely to run it once one of our two active campaigns (Wraith, Final Fantasy 8 Cypher hack) is up. I am also starting to look at using the Plotweaver system as a basis for a Wheel of Time game down the round. The way surges work should be a good starting point for Weaves and the heroic paths do a very good job of covering less adventure-oriented player characters.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

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.

I agree. BUT one thing that makes me wonder..... Sanderson is known ONLY as an author. He has no following in any regard to RPG.... no actual play, no rpg podcast, even 99% of all his social media posts are just novel/film related.

SO with that said... I think there is a BIG storm brewing here.... We are talking about one of the biggest RPG Kickstarter ever = funded my a majority of NON-rpg players.

If things go how Sanderson wants them to = he does not join the RPG community = he makes a new one. (or well, becomes a big thing unto its own).

...

My Nostradamus bet is = he takes a few years but gets big enough to be annoyed by how much folks talk about it, but not like... kill D&D never play D&D anymore "big".

Folks... Folks... the system is solid. It is built for LOTS of diversity in play, time will tell if he made all the parts truly sing....


side rant = (double down on that bet = Daggerfall dies hard. It's damage mechanic and its complications mechanic are poorly done and hamhanded, the system has no "legs", and i don't buy the 'its for narrative players' rally cry - its really not a good narrative rpg...but again, this is just my guess..)

 

[sevenbastard]

I'm not a Sanderson guy, and I agree that it hasn't had a lot of impact. I've heard almost nothing since the KS. I'm glad to hear it seems like a good ruleset though. Maybe with time?

This.

If they put out a generic rules set maybe I will check it out, but im not going to buy it for the system and pay for a bunch of lore I don't care about.

 

[darjr]

Anyone know of locals playing it? Lock to yourself? I’m not sure I know of anyone, but that doesn’t mean a lot, not yet.

Except maybe upper end of how many maybe playing? I dunno.

 

[Retreater]

I would anticipate Cosmere to go the way of the Avatar RPG - huge Kickstarter purchased by fans of the IP but not widely played.
What little I know about it (using the Plot die to generate opportunities and complications) seems basically an overlap of the Duality Dice of Daggerheart. Daggerheart seems better designed for my interests - so for the somewhat crunchy/narrativist game that got released this summer - I think I'm going with Daggerheart.

(I think Draw Steel is going to be even more lost in the tidal waves of new games than Cosmere.)

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

I've been halfway in book one for 3 years now. I really would like to check the game out, but as I understand it, it's very spoiler heavy? (and I do want to read the books. Eventually.)

 

[Parmandur]

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.

And mass combat! After 10 years, 5S has absolutely no way to simulate a large battleamd this game had a coherent quick and easy system right out the gate ready to go.

Social and exploration encounters work as well systemized and easy to use Skill Challenges, it's amazing.

- 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.

The unified Class progression and generalized resolution mechanic and math means that multitasking is not a trap and just works. There is no martial/caster imbalance, because...Skills are Skills, whether it is social Skills, combat Skills, exploration Skills, or magic Skills. It all works together, every character can shine.

I gamed out a Level 5 Human who had each base Beroic Class for one Level (using the Human bonus), and...not only was it not broken, it made narrative sense.

 

[Parmandur]

This.

If they put out a generic rules set maybe I will check it out, but im not going to buy it for the system and pay for a bunch of lore I don't care about.

They are putting out a generic fantasy iteration of the rules, and a free open license SRD.

 

[Parmandur]

Anyone know of locals playing it? Lock to yourself? I’m not sure I know of anyone, but that doesn’t mean a lot, not yet.

Except maybe upper end of how many maybe playing? I dunno.

I mean, that is part of it, the Backers have only had the material for a week. Aside form some content creators on social media, that's a tight turnaround time for a lot of us to schedule a game, let alone get it going.

I do know they have a big presence at GenCon.