Fireborn

[Master of the Game]

Best. Game. Ever.

Seriously, some people may be put off by the proprietary system, but play it once and you'll see why it works so much better than d20. The combat is quick, intuitive, and descriptive. In 23 years of game play I've never seen a system that evoked the kind of excitement that Fireborn does.

My players were in no way interested in learning a new sysytem, but all of them who tested it with me went out and bought the book right away. They have a PDF that gives a pretty good overview, so anyone who is intersted should check it out.

 

[Crothian]

Yeah, Fireborn is always on my to buy list but it seems destined to stay on their... No one to play it with but I’ll probably pick it up soon anyways since its getting such love on a d20 dominated board.

I've been slowly going non d20 by highlighting some of the better games that have come out and people have probably not seen. Fight the d20 Power!!

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Fight the d20 Power!!

I'm not completely out to fight the d20 powers that be, I still think its seen so many books/settings out because it is a great system but my last set of RPG books purchases have been mostly non d20 for game such as WoD, Hero, Fantasy Warhammer.

There is a lot of good stuff out there to try.

How does the proprietary system compare to d20 and some of the other systems out there?

 

[Crothian]

I'm not completely out to fight the d20 powers that be, I still think its seen so many books/settings out because it is a great system but my last set of RPG books purchases have been mostly non d20 for game such as WoD, Hero, Fantasy Warhammer.

There is a lot of good stuff out there to try.

How does the proprietary system compare to d20 and some of the other systems out there?

There are plenty of good games to try, and I'm trying to try them all. But failing that.

It is a complicated system. I'm not completely sold on it, making up characters, even the dragons I found to be easy. But game play with the different die pools and the options of moving dice around gets a bit complicated. I have not played around with it much, so I'm low on the learning curve at the present time.

 

[Victim]

I like the system, and some of the concepts. However, much of the implementation of the setting ideas annoys me. Right now, I'm thinking about using it with Star Wars, especially for Force based characters like Jedi. Changing Karma to Force and taint based stuff to Darkside doesn't seem too difficult a change.

 

[Crothian]

I like the system, and some of the concepts. However, much of the implementation of the setting ideas annoys me. Right now, I'm thinking about using it with Star Wars, especially for Force based characters like Jedi. Changing Karma to Force and taint based stuff to Darkside doesn't seem too difficult a change.

I'm curious, what of the setting annoys you?

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

I have not played around with it much, so I'm low on the learning curve at the present time.

Hmmm does it have a learning curve like M&M? It is there, but it’s manageable or is it more like Hero? Grab a snickers bar cause your going to be at it for a while…

 

[Crothian]

Hmmm does it have a learning curve like M&M? It is there, but it’s manageable or is it more like Hero? Grab a snickers bar cause your going to be at it for a while…

In between. Character creation I found easier then M&M and much much easier then Hero. Playing the game though was harder to figure out then M&M and mayber a bit harder then Hero but that is becasue it is just different then anything I'd played. But not as hard as Capes.

 

[Master of the Game]

Hmmm does it have a learning curve like M&M? It is there, but it’s manageable or is it more like Hero? Grab a snickers bar cause your going to be at it for a while…

I would say more like M&M. It looks complicated, but once you get used to it the system is fairly intuitive.

You have four stats, one for each element.
Fire is physical actions.
Water governs physical reactions.
Air is Mental actions.
Earth is mental recations.

You swing a sword, you use Fire. You dodge a bullet, roll Water. When rolling you just roll the dice equal to your attribute.

As a bonus, skilled individules can move ranks from one attribut to another (no more dice can be moved than you have ranks in the appropriate skill). So, if you are shooting a gun, you would roll Fire, but if you have two ranks in the skill, you could move a couple dice from air (representing added concentration) or water (standing still and firing), or any combination. Because you can do this twice per round you can also switch dice back as needed (like to dodge counter fire).

This is where the Dragons really stand out. Normal people (read: NPCs) can only do this once, making them vulnerable to the heroes.

The real benifit of this system comes in the form of action chains....

But, I have to go, so more later.

 

[Master of the Game]

Ok, sorry about that.

Actions come in two flavors, Mental and Physical. All characters can do each of these once every round. For instance, Aim is a mental action, and firing the gun would be a physical.

Physical actions, however, can be chained together, to a maximum number of actions equal to your fire score. You can do the same action several times if you like (as part of a chain), but no more times than you have ranks in a skill.

So, a character with Fire 5, Air 3, Water 4, and Earth 3, and with skills in Melee and Athletics might do something like this:

Seeing an opponent across the room, our friend the Scion (a dragon in human form, ie a character) Runs across the room, draws his sword, stabs at his opponent, then follows up with a punch and a kick. This would be five actions, his maximum. He could, if he chooses, attack with his sword twice, but using the same weaopn more than once in a round requires that the Scion tak an action to ready the weapon again. Switching to punch and kick bypasses this requirement.

The action chain would look like this:
Dash (run across room) + Ready (draw blade) + Sword Slash + Left Fist Strike + Kick.

The Scion then rolls dice equal to his Fire, plus whatever he has transfered from other attributes based on his skills (for chains that use multiple skills use your lowest skill in the chain to determine how many dice can be moved). If he gets at least five net successes (after an opponent's defense, which I can go into later) he pulls off each action. He needs five sucesses, because he did five actions. For each success he accomplishes one action.

In the example above, if the scion has only three net successes he would pull off the first three actions (get to the enemy, draw his blade, and hit his opponent with the sword).

It sounds harder than it is, and everyone I've shown this system to got it the first time they used it in play.

To help determine chains, the game presents several martial arts with examples of chains, and if a character pulls off one of these chains he gets a nice little pay off, like automatically knocking out his opponent or even killing him outright for really difficult chains.