EAB - Everyone's A Badass: An RPG Playtest for Novices and Veterans
- Thread starter Xethreau
- Start date
GMMichael
Guide of Modos
I got to page 11. Here's what I saw:
What is an RPG section: great description, but your document doesn't need it.
Attacker roll needs to beat defender roll: yes! Welcome to the post-D&D gaming era.
Bonuses and advantage: D&D Next introduced an advantage mechanic to eliminate as many bonuses (and penalties) as possible. Can EAB survive without one or the other?
Dice higher than d12: the 2d8 and 3d6 rolls are less-than-attractive options, given the triangular and bell curves that their outcomes resemble. The 3d6 should probably be 2d10, or better yet, d20.
Quirks, traits, karma, stunts: I was excited about the fast, flexible, minimal rules - until I came across all of these things.
And what you'll want to hear the least (sorry): there are a handful of typos by page 11 (out of 161). It might be time to do the dreaded line-by-line proofread again.
What is an RPG section: great description, but your document doesn't need it.
Attacker roll needs to beat defender roll: yes! Welcome to the post-D&D gaming era.
Bonuses and advantage: D&D Next introduced an advantage mechanic to eliminate as many bonuses (and penalties) as possible. Can EAB survive without one or the other?
Dice higher than d12: the 2d8 and 3d6 rolls are less-than-attractive options, given the triangular and bell curves that their outcomes resemble. The 3d6 should probably be 2d10, or better yet, d20.
Quirks, traits, karma, stunts: I was excited about the fast, flexible, minimal rules - until I came across all of these things.
And what you'll want to hear the least (sorry): there are a handful of typos by page 11 (out of 161). It might be time to do the dreaded line-by-line proofread again.
Xethreau
Josh Gentry - Author, Wanderer
Thanks for the feedback DMMike!
RE RPG: Operative phrase being this document, I should think. And fair enough; people in the playtest need not read it necessarily. It is definitely intended for the end-audience. And thank you for the complement.
RE Advantage: This is of course banking on the idea that DDN will be under the OGL. If not, I think the system could be adjusted to take advantage of a form of "roll along" somehow. With regard to the either-or, bonuses only exist as a benefit of magic items, so yes I think the game could very well do without.
RE High dice: You make an interesting point. At this juncture, those are really placeholder mechanics that need testing. Understand that most characters and monsters do not actually get that strong. (Colossal creatures are the most frequent creatures who break into the 2d6 realm.)
Re Character Building: The complexity of the system is face first. I appreciate it is several terms, but you may come to find they are straightforward mechanics. At least that is my hope for you after page 11.
Given, the "minimal" is a good criticism - How would one accurately describe this rulesset in terms of lite-ness? It is certainly more lite than 3rd or 4th edition D&D (and I wager also DDN). And yet it is no 3-stat system. (In my opinion, it is "absolutely minimal" for what the system hopes to achieve.)
RE proofreading: Appreciated. Also appreciated are in-line suggestions emailed to me, if possible. Did I mention I am dyslexic?
RE RPG: Operative phrase being this document, I should think. And fair enough; people in the playtest need not read it necessarily. It is definitely intended for the end-audience. And thank you for the complement.
RE Advantage: This is of course banking on the idea that DDN will be under the OGL. If not, I think the system could be adjusted to take advantage of a form of "roll along" somehow. With regard to the either-or, bonuses only exist as a benefit of magic items, so yes I think the game could very well do without.
RE High dice: You make an interesting point. At this juncture, those are really placeholder mechanics that need testing. Understand that most characters and monsters do not actually get that strong. (Colossal creatures are the most frequent creatures who break into the 2d6 realm.)
Re Character Building: The complexity of the system is face first. I appreciate it is several terms, but you may come to find they are straightforward mechanics. At least that is my hope for you after page 11.
Given, the "minimal" is a good criticism - How would one accurately describe this rulesset in terms of lite-ness? It is certainly more lite than 3rd or 4th edition D&D (and I wager also DDN). And yet it is no 3-stat system. (In my opinion, it is "absolutely minimal" for what the system hopes to achieve.)
RE proofreading: Appreciated. Also appreciated are in-line suggestions emailed to me, if possible. Did I mention I am dyslexic?
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It's not bad and aligns with your intention of making a game where you can make many different characters. I would say however that it's not very simple or rules light. You might be better served by writing up some guidelines on how to create a quirk or profession or what not instead of lists.. Lots of lists.
Dethklok
First Post
Actually, yeah. I second this. In fact Mike, I think this is the first time I've read something you posted that didn't make me wish I were drunk.
Yes, the lists are excessive.Meatboy said:
Ryuken, probably what you want to hear even less than DMMike's objections is the fact that there are thousands of RPGs out there, and learning any one of them takes time. In and of itself, EAB doesn't look bad at all. But a good game in this circumstance either piggybacks off of common mechanics, or is simple to learn. This doesn't mean the game needs to be simple - even a complicated game can have stacking complexity that's introduced over the course of time. But players of EAB have a lot of text to read through before they know what they're doing.
With that in mind, my suggestions are:
* Include a quickstart,
* Include premade characters and a starting scenario that walks the GM through likely mechanics in each situation,
* Introduce rules through examples, and
* Trim rules where possible
Quirks, Karma, and Stunts are probably places to look at to trim. When you consider a rule you have and think, "this is a necessary rule and EAB needs it," remember that you can play a fun roleplaying game with all the options in the world using Monopoly dice and matchsticks. Rules don't give options; those were there to begin with. What rules give are restrictions.
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