So can we just admit vs. Monsters is the One True Game and move on? :)

[DMH]

The SRD has rules for substituting d12s in place of cards (note that it isn't in vs Monsters or any of the supplements).

 

[moritheil]

Not if you have to have this preface:

If you don't know what I'm talking about

 

[Derro]

How did your sanity mechanic work? There are rules for fear in the deluxe edition, but they are very bare bones.

As I said it was another ability score. I don't remember how it was determined. I think it was equal to Thinking or Defending, which ever was lower. Anytime a mind-bending situation arose the player made a Sanity check against a difficulty determined by the severity of the situation. Failure cost a point or two. Getting to 1 San had some repercussions and at 0 you cracked up and ran screaming into the night. Not the pinnacle of elegant game design, I know, but it served for the few times we played.

 

[jdrakeh]

Well, while I'm taking a break from spiining wrenches, allow me to chime in on the positive merits of vs Monsters. I started off running it as 'the other game' that our group would play when somebody couldn't make it for the regularly scheduled C&C game.

After something like a month of C&C and two sessions of vs Monsters, the group very nearly unanimously (there was one hold out) voted to make C&C 'the other game' and play vs Monsters instead. This is where vs Elves originally came from.

I haven't had a chance to do much playing of anything lately, due to work (and today, due to an unexpectedly necessary heater core replacement), but vs Monsters is one of those games that I own in every printed version (minus the box set) and never plan to trade away.

[Edit: I also typically hate card-based RPGs. Starchildren, Castle Falkenstein, Dust Devils, et al. . . I dislike all of them. I disliked the card-based initiative in Deadlands. All of those systems, I felt, were horribly clunky and not very fun. I didn't at all expect to like vs. Monsters. But man. I like vs Monsters and what it does with cards. A lot.]

 

[philreed]

[Edit: I also typically hate card-based RPGs. Starchildren, Castle Falkenstein, Dust Devils, et al. . . I dislike all of them. I disliked the card-based initiative in Deadlands. All of those systems, I felt, were horribly clunky and not very fun. I didn't at all expect to like vs. Monsters. But man. I like vs Monsters and what it does with cards. A lot.]

I suspect a lot of that has to do with the fact that the card mechanic doesn't _feel_ like a card mechanic. In all honesty, it almost feels more like rolling dice.

There are a few tricks in the rules that wouldn't work with dice -- the "Bonus Card" under character advancement comes to mind -- but for the most part things would work just fine if you use d10s or d12s instead of the cards.

I'm still very happy with the initiative system.

 

[jdrakeh]

I suspect a lot of that has to do with the fact that the card mechanic doesn't _feel_ like a card mechanic. In all honesty, it almost feels more like rolling dice.

More importantly, I think, it doesn't feel like a gimmick. All of those other games that I mention (with the exception of Starchildren) make use of cards as a marketing device (Hey! My game is different! It uses cards!) and, as a result, their inclusion feels remarkably contrived, to the point that the designers frequently beat the reader over the head with the 'genre as justification' claims. Starchildren's system wasn't promoted like that -- it just wasn't very intuitive. vs Monsters manages to avoid both of those pitfalls, IMHO.

 

[jaerdaph]

The SRD has rules for substituting d12s in place of cards (note that it isn't in vs Monsters or any of the supplements).

I love that the vsM Engine SRD that palehorse did has little nuggets like this that aren't found in vs. Monsters or vs. Monsters Deluxe.

 

[jaerdaph]

I suspect a lot of that has to do with the fact that the card mechanic doesn't _feel_ like a card mechanic. In all honesty, it almost feels more like rolling dice.

It's very d20-esque and dice pool-like.

 

[philreed]

It's very d20-esque and dice pool-like.

Yes. I've heard comparisons to Storyteller from a few different people.

 

[jaerdaph]

Yes. I've heard comparisons to Storyteller from a few different people.

Yet the fact that you are using cards instead of dice adds a whole new dimension to what you can do - it's really quite elegant.

We played again earlier today at the local pub and tried out some new house rules I thought up that seemed to work quite well in play. I'm typing them up tonight and I'll post them here soon...

Now that we're getting serious with vsM, I'm thinking of using the system for a more serious horror campaign setting I've been working on called The Kills, which is set in British-occupied Queens and New York City during the American Revolution.