Opinions on this Kickstarter game - Metanthropes?

[Juxtapozbliss]

I wasn't sure if this post should go under Promotions or here. Mods, please let me know if I should delete and repost. I have no association with this company or game, I just saw it shared today on the Foundry Discord channel, and it looks kind of cool. It seems like a superhero RPG without saying that. I'm a sucker for a slick Foundry system, but I'm not sure if the game maker is credible enough to prove out a good game.

Anyone have any insights about this game maker or system? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/legitamine/metanthropes-introductory-zine

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

It answers the superhero question right in the first FAQ question:

You can play Metanthropes however you want, much like any other TTRPG. If you want your Metanthrope to fight crime and wear capes, it is totally fine. The game features Metapowers (superpowers) but we view Metanthropes not as superheroes. Metanthropes are ordinary individuals gifted with extraordinary abilities. They are free to use their gifts however they want, from exploration, to political maneuvering, creating the engines of tomorrow, and countless more.

So, while it could be played using superhero tropes, it isn't the designer's intent and probably won't be explicitly supported as a play style. Closest you might get is more likely something like Aberrant, where your powers make you a VIP capable of changing society and reshaping the world on an inhuman scale rather than a more potent crimefighter. A lot depends on whether the game engine is a good mechanical fit for superheroic action tropes or if it's aimed more at exploring ethics, self-discovery, loss of human connections and similar themes - which they are explicitly calling out. It's not impossible to do both to some degree - Masks demonstrates that, as does Aberrant - but the descriptions at the KS sure sound skewed toward the latter.

I might be wrong though, that's just my take from the KS page.

 

[Legitamine Games]

I wasn't sure if this post should go under Promotions or here. Mods, please let me know if I should delete and repost. I have no association with this company or game, I just saw it shared today on the Foundry Discord channel, and it looks kind of cool. It seems like a superhero RPG without saying that. I'm a sucker for a slick Foundry system, but I'm not sure if the game maker is credible enough to prove out a good game.

Anyone have any insights about this game maker or system? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/legitamine/metanthropes-introductory-zine

Hello Juxtapozbliss, Legitamine Games here. Thank you for taking an interest in our game! We hope that you don’t mind us responding here and, you are quite right in pointing out that we might not be 'credible enough' - this is our first project after all. We have been developing Metanthropes for 5 years now and the VTT aspect of it for about a year. The game has been playtested over 100 times and the VTT modules a few dozen. This, of course, does not speak to the quality per se, however it does speak to our commitment to having something 'legit' to share with our customers.

You don't have to take our word for it however, instead you may check out our free demo, which is based on a slightly older build of our System & test for yourself some of our cool System features, like the responsive Character Sheet, the automated calculations of dice rolls, the different UI/UX options for Players/Narrators - just to name a few.

Also in our demo is a glimpse of the customizations we aim bring to the Foundry UI, albeit the majority of these features are in more recent builds that need further polishing. Our Modules are Premium Content Modules for Foundry VTT, and all Module Backers will gain access to the latest Early Access builds for all their pledges, by the end of March 2024 to run on their own FVTT. At the same time, we will release our Metanthropes System for Foundry VTT for free to all Foundry users, so you can see the latest version and decide if our game fits your table. You can access the demo over at https://metanthropes.com/demo (requires free registration on our website).

Thank you for your interest! Please let us know if you have any further questions.

 

[Legitamine Games]

It answers the superhero question right in the first FAQ question:



So, while it could be played using superhero tropes, it isn't the designer's intent and probably won't be explicitly supported as a play style. Closest you might get is more likely something like Aberrant, where your powers make you a VIP capable of changing society and reshaping the world on an inhuman scale rather than a more potent crimefighter. A lot depends on whether the game engine is a good mechanical fit for superheroic action tropes or if it's aimed more at exploring ethics, self-discovery, loss of human connections and similar themes - which they are explicitly calling out. It's not impossible to do both to some degree - Masks demonstrates that, as does Aberrant - but the descriptions at the KS sure sound skewed toward the latter.

I might be wrong though, that's just my take from the KS page.

Thank you Wofano for your comment and your interest in our game. You are correct, we don't feel that the 'superhero spandex + cape' trope captures our vision of having 'ordinary people gifted with extraordinary abilities'.

Design-wise we have always aimed for balance between the role-playing and the action of the game. The mechanic of “Arc & Regression” offers players re-rolls based on their roleplay. This is the part that keeps you tethered to your human passions and ethics and themes such as self-discovery shine.

We wanted to provide players with a vast list of superpowered options to enjoy the game however they like. The extensive list of over 500 metaphysical abilities we call Metapowers ensures players of all kinds can interact with the world in their preferred way. With Metanthropes you can enjoy everything from fast-paced Metapowered combat to the exploration of new dimensions, political maneuvering and more.

We want to deliver this breadth of options as part of the Core game experience, and it will take some time before we get there. That is why our focus is currently on our campaign for an Introductory Zine. In the meantime, you may take a look at our Instagram page, where you can see all the 100 Metapowers and a short description of what they can do, to give you a better idea of what we have in store.

You are also correct that our KS Page currently does not convey some messages very clearly, we will be reviewing and updating our page throughout the campaign. We will try to articulate our vision more clearly - as non-native English speakers it is somewhat difficult to summarize many years of labor into small & concise marketing messages - we will improve!

We would be more than happy to answer any further questions you might have or provide any additional clarification.

Thank you!

 

[Juxtapozbliss]

Hello Juxtapozbliss, Legitamine Games here. Thank you for taking an interest in our game! We hope that you don’t mind us responding here and, you are quite right in pointing out that we might not be 'credible enough' - this is our first project after all. We have been developing Metanthropes for 5 years now and the VTT aspect of it for about a year. The game has been playtested over 100 times and the VTT modules a few dozen. This, of course, does not speak to the quality per se, however it does speak to our commitment to having something 'legit' to share with our customers.

You don't have to take our word for it however, instead you may check out our free demo, which is based on a slightly older build of our System & test for yourself some of our cool System features, like the responsive Character Sheet, the automated calculations of dice rolls, the different UI/UX options for Players/Narrators - just to name a few.

Also in our demo is a glimpse of the customizations we aim bring to the Foundry UI, albeit the majority of these features are in more recent builds that need further polishing. Our Modules are Premium Content Modules for Foundry VTT, and all Module Backers will gain access to the latest Early Access builds for all their pledges, by the end of March 2024 to run on their own FVTT. At the same time, we will release our Metanthropes System for Foundry VTT for free to all Foundry users, so you can see the latest version and decide if our game fits your table. You can access the demo over at https://metanthropes.com/demo (requires free registration on our website).

Thank you for your interest! Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Thanks for chiming in. I'll watch the demo. What RPG system would you compare your rule set to? What is the closest level of crunchiness? Where does it fall in the narrative vs. tactical spectrum? I'm kind of personally on the spectrum between medium and heavy crunchiness, as my preference. I run 5e games as well as Blade Runner from Free League. And I'm trying to get a Champions Hero System 6e campaign off the ground as well. That rule set is super crunchy while Blade Runner is much simpler than 5e but still somewhat tactical. I do like the BR system a lot, however I my team primarily enjoys tactical map-based combat. It scratches a different itch for us, but I feel like we'll probably always need both types of games. More narrative game systems are probably not our cup of tea.

Can you provide any further info about your team's historical credentials executing RPG rule systems? Also, I've supported a few Kickstarters that have unfortunately failed to materialize what was promised and that's obviously very disappointing. Another risk here is how long term the support will be for the game--obviously you want to succeed but what confidence can you provide of future support for it?

 

[Legitamine Games]

Thanks for chiming in. I'll watch the demo. What RPG system would you compare your rule set to? What is the closest level of crunchiness? Where does it fall in the narrative vs. tactical spectrum? I'm kind of personally on the spectrum between medium and heavy crunchiness, as my preference. I run 5e games as well as Blade Runner from Free League. And I'm trying to get a Champions Hero System 6e campaign off the ground as well. That rule set is super crunchy while Blade Runner is much simpler than 5e but still somewhat tactical. I do like the BR system a lot, however I my team primarily enjoys tactical map-based combat. It scratches a different itch for us, but I feel like we'll probably always need both types of games. More narrative game systems are probably not our cup of tea.

Can you provide any further info about your team's historical credentials executing RPG rule systems? Also, I've supported a few Kickstarters that have unfortunately failed to materialize what was promised and that's obviously very disappointing. Another risk here is how long term the support will be for the game--obviously you want to succeed but what confidence can you provide of future support for it?

Thank you for your questions & interest!

One could compare our ruleset to the games of WOD (Vampire the Masquerade) when it comes to the Metapowers and their leveling/progression, Warhammer TTRPG games when it comes to the system (d100) and DnD 3.5 for the tactical combat (minus flanking & attack of opportunity rules) - but on a Hex grid instead of square.

Metanthropes is more on the crunchy side, closer to the tactical side of the spectrum. For those that enjoy tactical map-based combat, the plethora of Metapowers (each with its own type of targets/duration/range/aoe etc) complements the hexagon grid and offers many options. For our VTT System, we have already automated the majority of roll-type calculations and we have on our roadmap to fully automate the activation of all the effects, including targeting/damage/healing etc as well as Visual and Audio effects. For those that don't like tactical combat, as with most TTRPGs, the Narrators can use the descriptions of Metapowers for a more Theater of Mind approach to any given situation.

We have been developing Metanthropes over the past 10 years (full-time in the last 5) with the ultimate goal of being able to make a modest living out of this game & brand. We are not here to make a quick buck, nor to get a successful KS on our belt and move on to the next project. We have an expansive vision for this game and our first Kickstarter aims to Introduce our game to the world. This is just the beginning, and have felt the pain of backing projects that didn't deliver and were lost in obscurity. If Legitamine Games fails to become a profitable business and ultimately we can no longer support Metanthropes, we will be releasing all the content & source code to the community to do with it as they please.

We don't have credentials to show you, because we chose the path of bringing this particular game to life and not the path of first releasing various other smaller games that we were not emotionally invested in. This is the game we want to spend the rest of our lives building, the game to tell all tales.

 

[Juxtapozbliss]

Thank you for your questions & interest!

One could compare our ruleset to the games of WOD (Vampire the Masquerade) when it comes to the Metapowers and their leveling/progression, Warhammer TTRPG games when it comes to the system (d100) and DnD 3.5 for the tactical combat (minus flanking & attack of opportunity rules) - but on a Hex grid instead of square.

Metanthropes is more on the crunchy side, closer to the tactical side of the spectrum. For those that enjoy tactical map-based combat, the plethora of Metapowers (each with its own type of targets/duration/range/aoe etc) complements the hexagon grid and offers many options. For our VTT System, we have already automated the majority of roll-type calculations and we have on our roadmap to fully automate the activation of all the effects, including targeting/damage/healing etc as well as Visual and Audio effects. For those that don't like tactical combat, as with most TTRPGs, the Narrators can use the descriptions of Metapowers for a more Theater of Mind approach to any given situation.

We have been developing Metanthropes over the past 10 years (full-time in the last 5) with the ultimate goal of being able to make a modest living out of this game & brand. We are not here to make a quick buck, nor to get a successful KS on our belt and move on to the next project. We have an expansive vision for this game and our first Kickstarter aims to Introduce our game to the world. This is just the beginning, and have felt the pain of backing projects that didn't deliver and were lost in obscurity. If Legitamine Games fails to become a profitable business and ultimately we can no longer support Metanthropes, we will be releasing all the content & source code to the community to do with it as they please.

We don't have credentials to show you, because we chose the path of bringing this particular game to life and not the path of first releasing various other smaller games that we were not emotionally invested in. This is the game we want to spend the rest of our lives building, the game to tell all tales.

Thanks for the insight. I like what you are describing. I did try out the demo. The graphics looks super sharp, nice effects within the combat simulator. I couldn't intuitively find where attack powers were located. I ran it in GM mode and did a simulated group combat and the only "attack" option that I could was a fist strike. I think I looked at 4 of the character sheets and only saw what seemed to be described as defensive powers. So I was confused about using the metapowers. Of course, I was testing it without any real understanding of it, but I did get lost there.

But big kudos for the overall structure of the experience. It looked very sharp.

 

[The Orchestrator (qp)]

Thanks for the insight. I like what you are describing. I did try out the demo. The graphics looks super sharp, nice effects within the combat simulator. I couldn't intuitively find where attack powers were located. I ran it in GM mode and did a simulated group combat and the only "attack" option that I could was a fist strike. I think I looked at 4 of the character sheets and only saw what seemed to be described as defensive powers. So I was confused about using the metapowers. Of course, I was testing it without any real understanding of it, but I did get lost there.

But big kudos for the overall structure of the experience. It looked very sharp.

Hi Juxtapozbliss,

I am the developer of the VTT for Metanthropes, thank you for checking out the demo & for your great feedback! I am especially pleased that you liked some aspects of it! You are correct that we do not currently have any form of tutorial or guidance for the demo and in hindsight, we should have done it better.

I am currently working on finalizing the first Early Access build for the Metanthropes System/Demo that will be made available for free to all Foundry users. This will allow anyone to install and check it out on their own setup, so there are some tasks that have higher priority code-wise right now, however I will be including some form of a Tutorial/Journal as a guide to the features. Eventually we will be taking advantage of Foundry's Tour feature to guide new players and Narrators to the UI and capabilities of the system, however that is a bit further down the roadmap.

I am glad to share that by March 6th, which marks exactly 1 year since our first line of code, we plan to release it to the world! So I hope you will check it out then and let us know of your feedback!

Now as for the demo you experienced, I assume you picked the Protagonists that had the more defensive Metapowers, there are some like the Kineticist that hurls lightning bolts and others like the Utilitarian that come with some firearms on their Possessions tab. In any case, the animations and audio/visual effects are not fully incorporated to the system and it won't be automatic to see them being applied. What is more feature-complete, that you can test in the currently available demo, are the dice-related calculations for your rolls.

So for example you can left (or right-click) any of the Stats, Metapowers and Possessions to activate them, add modifiers to the rolls (if you right-click first) and the dice roll and chat message will do the math for you. In addition, you can also adjust any of the buffs and conditions from the Stats & Effects tabs via the drop-down menus and the ones that affect your dice roll results will be included in the calculations and chat message.

Also you could check how the various Buffs/Conditions that affect your Movement actually change the color indication of the available movement on the Canvas of your character, integrating with the Drag Ruler Module to show a color-representation of available movement on screen.

If you don't mind me asking - did you try out the responsive UI? Resizing the character sheet via the buttons on the header or manually? Can you give me your impression on this?

Thank you for your time and consideration and the great feedback!
Much appreciated!
qp

 

[Juxtapozbliss]

Hi Juxtapozbliss,

I am the developer of the VTT for Metanthropes, thank you for checking out the demo & for your great feedback! I am especially pleased that you liked some aspects of it! You are correct that we do not currently have any form of tutorial or guidance for the demo and in hindsight, we should have done it better.

I am currently working on finalizing the first Early Access build for the Metanthropes System/Demo that will be made available for free to all Foundry users. This will allow anyone to install and check it out on their own setup, so there are some tasks that have higher priority code-wise right now, however I will be including some form of a Tutorial/Journal as a guide to the features. Eventually we will be taking advantage of Foundry's Tour feature to guide new players and Narrators to the UI and capabilities of the system, however that is a bit further down the roadmap.

I am glad to share that by March 6th, which marks exactly 1 year since our first line of code, we plan to release it to the world! So I hope you will check it out then and let us know of your feedback!

Now as for the demo you experienced, I assume you picked the Protagonists that had the more defensive Metapowers, there are some like the Kineticist that hurls lightning bolts and others like the Utilitarian that come with some firearms on their Possessions tab. In any case, the animations and audio/visual effects are not fully incorporated to the system and it won't be automatic to see them being applied. What is more feature-complete, that you can test in the currently available demo, are the dice-related calculations for your rolls.

So for example you can left (or right-click) any of the Stats, Metapowers and Possessions to activate them, add modifiers to the rolls (if you right-click first) and the dice roll and chat message will do the math for you. In addition, you can also adjust any of the buffs and conditions from the Stats & Effects tabs via the drop-down menus and the ones that affect your dice roll results will be included in the calculations and chat message.

Also you could check how the various Buffs/Conditions that affect your Movement actually change the color indication of the available movement on the Canvas of your character, integrating with the Drag Ruler Module to show a color-representation of available movement on screen.

If you don't mind me asking - did you try out the responsive UI? Resizing the character sheet via the buttons on the header or manually? Can you give me your impression on this?

Thank you for your time and consideration and the great feedback!
Much appreciated!
qp

Hi qp,

Thanks for the detailed response. Congrats on the early access release.

It's quite possible i did pick the protagonists that have more defensive powers. I only tried it with 4 of them that I had selected at random. so I probably didn't choose one that had strong attack powers. Although I don't really understand the gameplay, it does seem like even the ones with primarily defensive powers should have some reasonable attack power in some format, for the purposes of a demo...it was confusing when all I could find were fist attacks. It made it seem like something was incomplete in those characters. I tried using one to punch another and they had a pretty low percent chance to hit so I just kept missing and missing when I tried. Perhaps for the purposes a demo to allow visitrs to test out combat, you should make the characters more rounded with clear attack and defense options. You might want to boost up their powers beyond starter levels to give a greater range of options to play with.

Right click, gotcha. I'll try the demo again and try that out with other PCs. I did do the punch attack and saw the total results--although I mostly just missed and missed. After like 10 tries, I hit. Since i don't know the damage system yet either, I wasn't clear if/how damage was applied on a hit. I was just kind of oblivious to that.

I don't recall if I tried resizing the character sheet. I'll try it if I do another demo trial. I did first try logging in as a player instead of GM and I think I was a bit confused because I didn't see a left hand menu with the measurement tool and other basic buttons. Maybe it was shrunk down and I didn't spot it?

Basically regarding my concerns about future updates, etc...do you have a rough priority roadmap of what you will release after the first Foundry module? Will there be an enemies guide with NPCS? Do you have adventure scenarios planned to release with maps and if so, what is the timeline on the first couple?

I do like homebrew...my 5e campaign is fully homebrew...but when I'm learning a new system I much prefer to run a module. Like for Blade Runner I've been running Electric Dreams, the first pre-written adventure, and I plan to run the second after too. Free League does an amazing job with the digital handouts and content for that scenario, it's a good model for what to include in an adventure scenario for Foundry.

 

[The Orchestrator (qp)]

Hi qp,

Thanks for the detailed response. Congrats on the early access release.

It's quite possible i did pick the protagonists that have more defensive powers. I only tried it with 4 of them that I had selected at random. so I probably didn't choose one that had strong attack powers. Although I don't really understand the gameplay, it does seem like even the ones with primarily defensive powers should have some reasonable attack power in some format, for the purposes of a demo...it was confusing when all I could find were fist attacks. It made it seem like something was incomplete in those characters. I tried using one to punch another and they had a pretty low percent chance to hit so I just kept missing and missing when I tried. Perhaps for the purposes a demo to allow visitrs to test out combat, you should make the characters more rounded with clear attack and defense options. You might want to boost up their powers beyond starter levels to give a greater range of options to play with.

Right click, gotcha. I'll try the demo again and try that out with other PCs. I did do the punch attack and saw the total results--although I mostly just missed and missed. After like 10 tries, I hit. Since i don't know the damage system yet either, I wasn't clear if/how damage was applied on a hit. I was just kind of oblivious to that.

I don't recall if I tried resizing the character sheet. I'll try it if I do another demo trial. I did first try logging in as a player instead of GM and I think I was a bit confused because I didn't see a left hand menu with the measurement tool and other basic buttons. Maybe it was shrunk down and I didn't spot it?

Basically regarding my concerns about future updates, etc...do you have a rough priority roadmap of what you will release after the first Foundry module? Will there be an enemies guide with NPCS? Do you have adventure scenarios planned to release with maps and if so, what is the timeline on the first couple?

I do like homebrew...my 5e campaign is fully homebrew...but when I'm learning a new system I much prefer to run a module. Like for Blade Runner I've been running Electric Dreams, the first pre-written adventure, and I plan to run the second after too. Free League does an amazing job with the digital handouts and content for that scenario, it's a good model for what to include in an adventure scenario for Foundry.

Hi Juxtapozbliss,

Thank you again for taking the time to provide us with your feedback, it's greatly appreciated!

In regards to the demo, yes in hindsight we should have prepared a much better demo experience, regardless, all the points you mention will be addressed in the System & Demo that will be made available as a free System on Foundry VTT in a few days, so stay tuned for more info soon™

In regards to your concerns about future updates, we do have an extensive roadmap planned and everything will be revealed soon after we wrap up our first Kickstarter campaign - depending on how many stretch goals we unlock, now that our first project is funded. You can see the milestones we have completed, since the game's inception, on the official roadmap of our website.

5xAntagonists (Enemies) and 5xNPCs are already part of the Introductory Zine & Module & they come with a guide on their abilities and capabilities and descriptions for Narrators. We also provide Early Access to our Website, with 500+ unique Metapowers, Antagonists, Possessions and lots of other content that is fully fleshed-out and play-tested by our Closed Alpha/Beta members.

We still label it 'Early Access' as we want to set the proper expectations, since much of the art is still missing, but most importantly, more player feedback, to be considered 'done & polished'. Some of this content will be released as part of the Core Module, while other parts will be integrated in upcoming Sagas (adventures/campaigns), Meta-Arenas (combat-focused-oneshots) and other similar type of releases.

In terms of content quality and packaging/features, the Free League content indeed deserves the high praise! Although we don't feel it's fair to expect this level of quality from a newborn startup's first project, we do strive for such level of quality, nonetheless! However, we do not plan to create a similar packaged offer just yet!

The reason is, that we want to first focus on delivering, the customized Saga experiences, to our Closed Alpha/Beta groups & those that pledged on the Saga-tier reward during the KS campaign. Think of those Sagas as a fully customized adventure experience, built from scratch based on the setting & style preferences of each of the 5 groups that will get this reward.

We have a plethora of assets and content to use & many stories to tell for those first official Sagas and after we deliver those sessions, we will focus on packaging and releasing our Sagas in a more 'structured/package' format. This should be wrapped up by the end of 2024, when we also plan to be finalizing the Core Module, so all future content we release in 2025 and onwards will require that Module as a base & deliver content on top of it.

Now if the KS ends without any Saga-tier reward pledge, we will still deliver the custom Sagas we have planned for our Closed Alpha/Beta members and most probably open up the invitation to the Backers of the Session-tier reward pledges instead. Still, it will probably accelerate the plan to deliver the more 'structured/packaged' content sooner, probably by late 2024/early 2025.

Again, thank you for your time & feedback!
qp