Games Inspired by 4e D&D (+)

[Aldarc]

what in the Rob Schwalb games do you think is inspired by 4e?

Tiers of play as well as some of the paths and ancestries are pretty rooted in 4e (e.g., Commander/Warlord, Warden, etc.). Schwlab did also say that his stat blocks and spells were inspired by 4e formats. He was afraid to put them that way at first because he said that the 4e hate was still fresh but that died down by SotWW but that's what the playtesters voted for. Those are off the top of my head.

 

[overgeeked]

I thought I saw somewhere that the anime RPG Break!! was inspired by 4E but I can’t seem to verify that. I don’t see it in the book at least.

 

[timbannock]

I thought I saw somewhere that the anime RPG Break!! was inspired by 4E but I can’t seem to verify that. I don’t see it in the book at least.

I can't think of anything obvious, but if you squint real hard there are some Skill Challenge-like elements here and there, and the monsters do have a few abilities that err on the side of probably being inspired by more grid-based combat stuff. But only very loosely, if at all.

 

[cbwjm]

I wouldn't have thought that Fabula Ultima was inspired by 4e, nothing in it seems reminiscent of 4e's system, but I guess inspiration can take many forms. I mean, if they've listed it in the book as an inspiration then it must have been, but it just doesn't show in the game to me.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

I wouldn't have thought that Fabula Ultima was inspired by 4e, nothing in it seems reminiscent of 4e's system, but I guess inspiration can take many forms. I mean, if they've listed it in the book as an inspiration then it must have been, but it just doesn't show in the game to me.

It does draw a very sharp line between the "combat" and "not in combat" sections of the game, which is a feature (or bug, depending on one's opinion) that made 4e stand out quite a bit when it was new. You see the same divide in Lancer and Icon - and of course in many JRPGs and MMOs, which is where 4e drew inspiration from itself. So kind a of loop there - 4e came up with ways to adapt some WoW and JRPG mechanics to the table, which FU then used for their own tabletop simulation of JRPG tropes.

There's also little stuff like "in crisis" being "bloodied" in all but name.

It's still not as obvious a connection as (say) 13th Age, won't argue with that.

 

[cbwjm]

It does draw a very sharp line between the "combat" and "not in combat" sections of the game, which is a feature (or bug, depending on one's opinion) that made 4e stand out quite a bit when it was new. You see the same divide in Lancer and Icon - and of course in many JRPGs and MMOs, which is where 4e drew inspiration from itself. So kind a of loop there - 4e came up with ways to adapt some WoW and JRPG mechanics to the table, which FU then used for their own tabletop simulation of JRPG tropes.

There's also little stuff like "in crisis" being "bloodied" in all but name.

It's still not as obvious a connection as (say) 13th Age, won't argue with that.

I had forgotten about being in crisis, that is definitely the same as bloodied and now that you've brought it up I do recall there are some skills that come into effect while in crisis which is also common in 4e.

I was thinking about the stats, spells, combat and had completely forgotten about crisis. I could maybe see rituals and projects being inspired by 4e, even if the FabUlt rituals are created freeform.

 

[Aldarc]

Note: If I don't have the book, then I will definitely need a citation for any explicit or author-stated 4e influence.

I had forgotten about being in crisis, that is definitely the same as bloodied and now that you've brought it up I do recall there are some skills that come into effect while in crisis which is also common in 4e.

I was thinking about the stats, spells, combat and had completely forgotten about crisis. I could maybe see rituals and projects being inspired by 4e, even if the FabUlt rituals are created freeform.

Additionally, Ema has said that it's things like monster design, skill challenges (incorporated with clocks), and a number of other things. The FU Discord has a hefty amount of 4e D&D talk, including from Ema.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

I had forgotten about being in crisis, that is definitely the same as bloodied and now that you've brought it up I do recall there are some skills that come into effect while in crisis which is also common in 4e.

Yeah, there's some real utility to delineating between "feeling fine" and "this is getting dire" no matter what you call it, since you can hang all sorts of interesting mechanics off your state of health - or a monster's health, for that matter. Lot of games have adopted something similar instead of staying with the old "only the last HP matters" paradigm. You could go farther and get into locational hit points (eg Runequest) or elaborate critical damage charts (eg Rollmaster) but for many folks a simple binary state seems to be the popular compromise between too littel and too much detail.

Personally, I've got a soft spot for the GYRO system from Sentinel Comics (and soon GYRO Shooter), where your health is split into three stages - Green, Yellow and Red (well, and Out, but that's just you almost entirely out of action for the scene). Most of your abilities are gated behind your GYRO status (either your personal Health or how many turns the scene has been going - tension ramps up toward Red) so your most potent abilities aren't immediately available for alpha strikes. Pretty much a step beyond fine/crisis, and integrates more mechanics into your status as well.

 

[Breaking Star Games]

Gamma World 7e is probably the OG 4e inspired game - taking it's mechanics and simplifying them.

 

[jian]

Gamma World 7e is probably the OG 4e inspired game - taking it's mechanics and simplifying them.

Yes, I preferred GW7e to 4E generally because of that.

Another game I think (from reading, not playing) has 4E ancestry is Valor, a more structured grid based mostly-combat RPG system.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/147938/valor-the-heroic-roleplay-system