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N.O.W. needs N.E.W. and O.L.D. to be successful first!
well I'm so sure your kickstarter is going to go through the roof, I am already assuming your going to successed.
First Impressions & Feedback - N.E.W.
- Thread starter LucasC
- Start date
well I'm so sure your kickstarter is going to go through the roof, I am already assuming your going to successed.
Primitive Screwhead
First Post
First skim through and wanted to ask a question about starship combat. The base assumptions of a mid-SciFi setting {Star Trekish} includes FTL and technology that overcomes inertia for the fast-paced, blasters firing space combat we see on screen so many times.
I recommend an option to slide the scale over to the harder SciFi where space combat is more like submarine warfare with sensor/deception and torpedo/missile defenses, leaving blaster weaponry to the role of point defense batteries.
...and I will come back when I have actually read instead of just skimmed
I recommend an option to slide the scale over to the harder SciFi where space combat is more like submarine warfare with sensor/deception and torpedo/missile defenses, leaving blaster weaponry to the role of point defense batteries.
...and I will come back when I have actually read instead of just skimmed
Darth Quiris
First Post
My Initial Impressions after a first real glance through parts of the book.
Here's a first post of my initial opinions and notes that I have taken so far after perusing NEW for the last couple of days and this will be just a few things I noted.This won't be super detailed on the whole document as a whole. Alsoknow that I haven't really done any actual playing of the game yetand most of this is just a gut feeling on what I read and saw. (This is a copy and paste from my word processor because if I tried typing this here I wouldn't have the paragraph breaks... for some unknown reason when I type in the forums here my Enter key doesn't work).
Note: This is all based on the January22nd update.
First of all... this game has the potential to be really, really great. The dice system looks simple and how the Attributes and Skills are not linked like in most games really gives everybody a lot of freedom in their actions and how they want their characters to be and act.
In making character's here's some of what I noticed among the Species available:
Humans get 12 total points among listed Attributes, and when I compared this to the other species I noticed that ~
Ogrons get 12 Attribute points.
Venetians get 12/14 Attribute points...the extra 2 due to Psi (and I guess this species wouldn't be used in a non psionic setting but if it was than its Attribute Points would be 12).
Borians get 12 Attribute Points.
Androids get 16 Attribute Points.
Spartans get 12 Attribute Points.
Felans get 12 Attribute Points.
Where the Humans gain +1 to any Attribute, does this include REP and/or Cr?
Ogrons have only 4 Available Skills, which seems kinda low to me and when I compared their starting stats next to the Spartans the Spartans basically win across the board so I was thinking that perhaps the Ogrons could also have maybe some of these additional skills as Available Skills:
~ Jumping, Running, Armed Fighting (and/or maybe Gunnery)
Borians are described as the bartenders of this galaxy (more or less) and because they have to pick the Resistance Skill (since it's in Bold) and because they seem to always be “in the Know) so to speak... why not think of them starting witha REP Attribute of 1 and/or a Cr of 1 and then turning either END or CHA into a 2, or both. Them beginning with an automatic Contact seems like a natural fit for this Species.
Androids could maybe have a note saying they are unable to use Psionic Powers if Psionics are in the campaign... and maybe that due to how others perceive them that they suffer some kind of penalty in social situations where Androids aren't welcome. On the whole Androids statistically win across the board over all the other Species if going by starting Attribute Point Allotment.
My only other notes so far is that on page 67 of the playtest document that there seems to be some typo's regarding the examples. It looks like all the examples of rolling dice are based on an older playtest system and not the most current updated one.
The Party Dice Pool system is very coo lalthough when I read about them they seemed kind of confusing to understand.
My only notes on Careers so far is that both the Ninja and Assassin seem out of place (they are in the Military Careers section right now and both don't seem all that militaryish to me) and maybe could be in the Criminal Careers section.
I love how you have details on designing Starships, Planetary systems, Monsters and Aliens. These are going to be super useful.
Oh and the Countdowns system... totally amazing to me. Really different than other games. Makes every round tense (or so I hope).
All in all this game appears great. I will be getting to actually designing character's this weekend and next week and other things after that. I can see a ton of potential in designing my own Species and while you have a lot of versatility here among all these systems, none of them look daunting.
Here's a first post of my initial opinions and notes that I have taken so far after perusing NEW for the last couple of days and this will be just a few things I noted.This won't be super detailed on the whole document as a whole. Alsoknow that I haven't really done any actual playing of the game yetand most of this is just a gut feeling on what I read and saw. (This is a copy and paste from my word processor because if I tried typing this here I wouldn't have the paragraph breaks... for some unknown reason when I type in the forums here my Enter key doesn't work).
Note: This is all based on the January22nd update.
First of all... this game has the potential to be really, really great. The dice system looks simple and how the Attributes and Skills are not linked like in most games really gives everybody a lot of freedom in their actions and how they want their characters to be and act.
In making character's here's some of what I noticed among the Species available:
Humans get 12 total points among listed Attributes, and when I compared this to the other species I noticed that ~
Ogrons get 12 Attribute points.
Venetians get 12/14 Attribute points...the extra 2 due to Psi (and I guess this species wouldn't be used in a non psionic setting but if it was than its Attribute Points would be 12).
Borians get 12 Attribute Points.
Androids get 16 Attribute Points.
Spartans get 12 Attribute Points.
Felans get 12 Attribute Points.
Where the Humans gain +1 to any Attribute, does this include REP and/or Cr?
Ogrons have only 4 Available Skills, which seems kinda low to me and when I compared their starting stats next to the Spartans the Spartans basically win across the board so I was thinking that perhaps the Ogrons could also have maybe some of these additional skills as Available Skills:
~ Jumping, Running, Armed Fighting (and/or maybe Gunnery)
Borians are described as the bartenders of this galaxy (more or less) and because they have to pick the Resistance Skill (since it's in Bold) and because they seem to always be “in the Know) so to speak... why not think of them starting witha REP Attribute of 1 and/or a Cr of 1 and then turning either END or CHA into a 2, or both. Them beginning with an automatic Contact seems like a natural fit for this Species.
Androids could maybe have a note saying they are unable to use Psionic Powers if Psionics are in the campaign... and maybe that due to how others perceive them that they suffer some kind of penalty in social situations where Androids aren't welcome. On the whole Androids statistically win across the board over all the other Species if going by starting Attribute Point Allotment.
My only other notes so far is that on page 67 of the playtest document that there seems to be some typo's regarding the examples. It looks like all the examples of rolling dice are based on an older playtest system and not the most current updated one.
The Party Dice Pool system is very coo lalthough when I read about them they seemed kind of confusing to understand.
My only notes on Careers so far is that both the Ninja and Assassin seem out of place (they are in the Military Careers section right now and both don't seem all that militaryish to me) and maybe could be in the Criminal Careers section.
I love how you have details on designing Starships, Planetary systems, Monsters and Aliens. These are going to be super useful.
Oh and the Countdowns system... totally amazing to me. Really different than other games. Makes every round tense (or so I hope).
All in all this game appears great. I will be getting to actually designing character's this weekend and next week and other things after that. I can see a ton of potential in designing my own Species and while you have a lot of versatility here among all these systems, none of them look daunting.
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Darth Quiris
First Post
I'm going to back this game for sure. This game hits on all cylinders for me.
Darth Quiris
First Post
I was wondering if you have considered some kind of addition to character creation that simulates Life Events that happen either during a Career or in between Careers that give character's a bit more to their story? Like perhaps while entering his first Military Career he rolls on a Military Event chart and comes up with a result of a Bitter Rival, or a Chance Meeting with a Mysterious Person, or Survived a Major Battle... things like this.
Darth Quiris
First Post
Oh, one other thing I left off my initial impressions... Starting Health seems a bit finicky in that there is no option to take the Average of the die roll. If you hypothetically had 4 people making characters and two people rolled a 3d6 for Health, one rolled a 4d6 and one rolled a 5d6 and one person ended up with a 3 for Healthy and another ended up with a 27 due to these die rolls... that person with a 3 is going to be perturbed (possibly).
Hah! Very Traveller!
I have a draft that does exactly that, but I feel it makes things too clunky. I think it might be something best reserved as a web-enhancement.
One thing to bear in mind - and this is something the species format needs updating to reflect (and thanks for that - you made me realise it wasn't noted there!) is that Androids are Mechanoids. They have great physical stats, but electricity and ion damage hit 'em hard. Whether or not that's balanced - playtesting willl tell!
Darth Quiris
First Post
Actually I was thinking of the new Atlantis: the Second Age that is just coming out but Traveller works also.
Primitive Screwhead
First Post
Playtest report with three players of various experience with gaming
Character generation: 4.5 stars
This took three hours, mostly because of only one print-out and working our way through it carefully. We had fun building the characters, a feeling that was really helped by the players not knowing what the careers would do for them. I had them choose from the list and then read off the details of the career. I can see how players could pick and choose the right careers to hyper-focus their characters.
Androids: The attribute boost is too much, 'Slash' ended up with an INT of 8!
Careers: Some are really hot, most are not. Then there are the 'holy....' Rank III of Field Scientist allows you to MacGyver anything at a check that beats 1/10 the cost of the item? Blaster Pistol costs 40 cr, so a Rank III Field Scientist can whip one up out of whatever is laying around without breaking a sweat.
I do like the idea of having randomized results from the career tied to a 'this is what happened' sort of story. CP2020 and Fasa Aliens is where I saw this done, and in Aliens you could have a character die during creation!
Skills:
Nice system that looks like it could encourage narrative game play, however average humans have to be skilled to be reliably competent. A 'Routine' check is against a target number of 13, and 4D6 averages at 12 so that would be a 50% chance. The book references climbing a rough cliff wall and landing a ship as 'Routine', not something I would want to try with only a 50% chance of success. At least 70% reliability is prefered on a task where my life might hang in the balance.
Couple this with combat {see my notes in the 'weapon, weapon, weapon' thread} where a Thug has a defence of 25, now Average Joe needs to roll an exploding die in order to connect. Bar fights would never end!
So, either lucky strikes or focused character builds will be successful.
For some skill checks, it doesn't make sense for just one roll. There should be some notes about complex skill checks where a series of checks is required, like for instance manufacturing a weapon. A whole chapter could be devoted to crafting. Also a deeper social system should exist in order to make use of the carousing and flirting skills.
Equipment:
Lacking in the 'fluff' parts of the equipment list, my crew took weapons and armor. But is was an encounter night, so no worries.
Game Play: 4 stars
The narrative style was easy to slip into and was entertaining, I was able to run the encounter in the document very easily and build it up as part of a world. The non-combat portions of the encounter remained engaging.
One concern is the exploding die mechanic. Since this is for every die rolled, it means that characters with larger dice pools have a larger chance of getting lucky and racking up higher results.. which they don't need as much as they have the high dice pool to begin with. So it doesn't feel like a 'you have a chance even if you are not that skilled' and more like a 'if you are really good, you can be really really good'
Another concern is the progression of ability stat to dice conversion. a) I dislike conversion tables b) when progressing you have 'dead' levels where advancing a stat does nothing.
{This is a major change, so ignore me if you want.. just brainstorming... perhaps on odd levels you gain +1D and on even levels you gain a skill related to that attribute}
Combat: 2 stars
As posted in the other thread, the defense-health-soak-damage balance needs adjustment. You need a lucky hit or skilled marksmanship, and then the target is probably down. Basically its a game of whoever hits first wins. In tonight's game, the PCs hit first and the NPCs didn't get a chance to hit back.
Recommend dropping Defence to 5 + (AGIx3), granting SOAK equal to WILL, and removing bonus damage die from skills.
We will be playing again tomorrow, which means I get to try out creating bad guys!
Character generation: 4.5 stars
This took three hours, mostly because of only one print-out and working our way through it carefully. We had fun building the characters, a feeling that was really helped by the players not knowing what the careers would do for them. I had them choose from the list and then read off the details of the career. I can see how players could pick and choose the right careers to hyper-focus their characters.
Androids: The attribute boost is too much, 'Slash' ended up with an INT of 8!
Careers: Some are really hot, most are not. Then there are the 'holy....' Rank III of Field Scientist allows you to MacGyver anything at a check that beats 1/10 the cost of the item? Blaster Pistol costs 40 cr, so a Rank III Field Scientist can whip one up out of whatever is laying around without breaking a sweat.
I do like the idea of having randomized results from the career tied to a 'this is what happened' sort of story. CP2020 and Fasa Aliens is where I saw this done, and in Aliens you could have a character die during creation!
Skills:
Nice system that looks like it could encourage narrative game play, however average humans have to be skilled to be reliably competent. A 'Routine' check is against a target number of 13, and 4D6 averages at 12 so that would be a 50% chance. The book references climbing a rough cliff wall and landing a ship as 'Routine', not something I would want to try with only a 50% chance of success. At least 70% reliability is prefered on a task where my life might hang in the balance.
Couple this with combat {see my notes in the 'weapon, weapon, weapon' thread} where a Thug has a defence of 25, now Average Joe needs to roll an exploding die in order to connect. Bar fights would never end!
So, either lucky strikes or focused character builds will be successful.
For some skill checks, it doesn't make sense for just one roll. There should be some notes about complex skill checks where a series of checks is required, like for instance manufacturing a weapon. A whole chapter could be devoted to crafting. Also a deeper social system should exist in order to make use of the carousing and flirting skills.
Equipment:
Lacking in the 'fluff' parts of the equipment list, my crew took weapons and armor. But is was an encounter night, so no worries.
Game Play: 4 stars
The narrative style was easy to slip into and was entertaining, I was able to run the encounter in the document very easily and build it up as part of a world. The non-combat portions of the encounter remained engaging.
One concern is the exploding die mechanic. Since this is for every die rolled, it means that characters with larger dice pools have a larger chance of getting lucky and racking up higher results.. which they don't need as much as they have the high dice pool to begin with. So it doesn't feel like a 'you have a chance even if you are not that skilled' and more like a 'if you are really good, you can be really really good'
Another concern is the progression of ability stat to dice conversion. a) I dislike conversion tables b) when progressing you have 'dead' levels where advancing a stat does nothing.
{This is a major change, so ignore me if you want.. just brainstorming... perhaps on odd levels you gain +1D and on even levels you gain a skill related to that attribute}
Combat: 2 stars
As posted in the other thread, the defense-health-soak-damage balance needs adjustment. You need a lucky hit or skilled marksmanship, and then the target is probably down. Basically its a game of whoever hits first wins. In tonight's game, the PCs hit first and the NPCs didn't get a chance to hit back.
Recommend dropping Defence to 5 + (AGIx3), granting SOAK equal to WILL, and removing bonus damage die from skills.
We will be playing again tomorrow, which means I get to try out creating bad guys!
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