Experience with End of the World?

[aramis erak]

Specifically, anyone got experience with FFG's End of the World series/system?

For those unfamiliar, its a series of 4 corebooks: Alien Invasion, Revolt of the Machines, Wrath of the Gods, Zombie Apocalypse.

The system uses a small trait driven dice pool, with attribute setting the ≤ Attribute to keep good dice as successes; bad dice are used for difficulty, good for relevant traits plus an extra as base. After the roll, on a 1 for 1 basis, bad dice cancel good dice showing the same value; good dice in excess of the relevant ability are removed after the cancelling; bad dice remaining create stress.

I've got them, and I think I understand them, but I'm wanting to get more info before pitching it to my groups, and to get tips on system specific best practices...
Am thinking "Halloween one-shot"

 

[julie_centra]

The End of the World system’s dice pool mechanic is elegant and keeps things tense without getting too complicated. The cancel out rule between good and bad dice creates a nice balance making each roll meaningful. One thing to watch out for is how quickly stress can accumulate if the pacing is too fast it might overwhelm players so managing that tension build up is important. Also since the system encourages players to play versions of themselves it helps to have a good session zero to set expectations and make everyone comfortable. For a Halloween one shot the system seems like a great fit especially with the apocalypse themes providing a built in mood.
Just curious do you know if FFG shared any insights or intentions behind designing the system this way, especially the focus on real life traits and those specific apocalyptic scenarios? Also, if you’ve run or played it before would you be willing to share how you handled roleplay and backstory for your characters?

 

[aramis erak]

The End of the World system’s dice pool mechanic is elegant and keeps things tense without getting too complicated. The cancel out rule between good and bad dice creates a nice balance making each roll meaningful. One thing to watch out for is how quickly stress can accumulate if the pacing is too fast it might overwhelm players so managing that tension build up is important.

Yeah, I had concerns there.

Also since the system encourages players to play versions of themselves it helps to have a good session zero to set expectations and make everyone comfortable.

With my groups, no «bleep»ing way will we be doing that part. One of the players would immediately go into persecution mode... in each group.

For a Halloween one shot the system seems like a great fit especially with the apocalypse themes providing a built in mood.

That's part of the thought.

Just curious do you know if FFG shared any insights or intentions behind designing the system this way, especially the focus on real life traits and those specific apocalyptic scenarios? Also, if you’ve run or played it before would you be willing to share how you handled roleplay and backstory for your characters?

Nothing I've seen that's not in the books already. And it's not like FFG let the devs post on the FFG forums. So, the forums didn't give any insight. Not that they're accessible anymore, anyway... Asmodee made them close them.

They're rapidly approaching 10 years old...

To hazard a guess on the settings... Those 4 are ones the PCs can sink their (often bloody) teeth into and make a difference, and aren't done to death in other games. (yes, intentional pun.)

The ones I can think of not covered are nuclear holocaust, great flood, and non-zombie pandemic. And those are largely passive hole-up-and-pray settings... not much fun.

Edit to add: Welcome! A useful and appreciated first post!

 

[julie_centra]

Yeah, totally get that some groups just aren’t built for the “play yourself” thing and it can go sideways real quick if even one person’s not into it. And yeah your point about the 4 scenarios makes sense. They’re all active high stakes types where players can actually do stuff not just bunker down and wait to die. Never really thought about it that way but you’re right stuff like nukes or a straight pandemic would be kinda passive in comparison. If you want we can connect in DMs and chat more about your characters or what you're planning would be cool to hear how you're setting things up.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Specifically, anyone got experience with FFG's End of the World series/system?

For those unfamiliar, its a series of 4 corebooks: Alien Invasion, Revolt of the Machines, Wrath of the Gods, Zombie Apocalypse.

The system uses a small trait driven dice pool, with attribute setting the ≤ Attribute to keep good dice as successes; bad dice are used for difficulty, good for relevant traits plus an extra as base. After the roll, on a 1 for 1 basis, bad dice cancel good dice showing the same value; good dice in excess of the relevant ability are removed after the cancelling; bad dice remaining create stress.

I've got them, and I think I understand them, but I'm wanting to get more info before pitching it to my groups, and to get tips on system specific best practices...
Am thinking "Halloween one-shot"

I picked up some of the books for inspiration and maybe play, but eventually dumped them for being far too narrative for my tastes (hard to convert), and the setting detail wasn't special enough to make up for it.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I played one game of it at a con, and own the PDFs. My reaction was that the one game I played was reasonably fun, but on reading the books the rules portion is schematic enough and dependent on ad-hoc decision-making that I can't help but feel I could have gotten as good a results out of a number of other game systems. One can argue I am not their intended audience.

 

[aramis erak]

@Thomas Shey
I'm used to "here's a task system, and a labelled ladder for difficulties" - that was a conceptual revolution for me in the 80's... Twilight 2000 (1e) had a 3 label ladder, DGP used a 5 step ladder in their Classic Traveller supps, GDW used the DGP task system in Traveller:2300, WEG used a 5-6 step one in Star Wars... and D&D from 3rd on does, too, although many ignore that.

So, what I'm looking to see people's take on is really:

• At what point does it break down mechanically?
• Is it campaign suitable?
  • how long before god-mode?
• Does it take one jarringly out of the scene?
  • is it quick enough to not lose track of the scene?
  • is it simple enough to use with minimal verbiage?
  • is the outcome space useful?
• Is it too lethal or not lethal enough?

 

[Thomas Shey]

@Thomas Shey
I'm used to "here's a task system, and a labelled ladder for difficulties" - that was a conceptual revolution for me in the 80's... Twilight 2000 (1e) had a 3 label ladder, DGP used a 5 step ladder in their Classic Traveller supps, GDW used the DGP task system in Traveller:2300, WEG used a 5-6 step one in Star Wars... and D&D from 3rd on does, too, although many ignore that.

So, what I'm looking to see people's take on is really:

• At what point does it break down mechanically?

Doubt it really does.

• Is it campaign suitable?
  • how long before god-mode?

It should be usable for a while at least, and I couldn't see anything in the game that suggests a "god mode" is actually possible.

• Does it take one jarringly out of the scene?
  • is it quick enough to not lose track of the scene?
  • is it simple enough to use with minimal verbiage?

I'd say yes to both.

• • is the outcome space useful?

Hard to say. I'm not sure I think so, but as I said, I'm probably not its target audience.

• Is it too lethal or not lethal enough?

Its certainly not under-lethal. I'm not sure in the context of what its doing exactly what "too lethal" would mean.