So You're Just Not "Feeling It" for 5e - What ARE you excited about?

[DrunkonDuty]

As for what differentiates Hero from Gurps... on the surface both seem very similar and both are point based character customization rpgs with a lot of player options but for me it's how the math of the games work. Hero System makes a lot more sense to me than Gurps does and Hero System has a much more robust Power creation system than Gurps, IMO. In the end I understand and grok Hero where I am confused with Gurps.

Yeah that pretty much sums it up for me too.

reason for edit: missed the quote I was referring to.

 

[megamania]

Not feeling 5e but was hoping the figures would be good. With the lack of info on them.... I am concerned. Fleshing out my 3.5 stuff and considering doing an Eberron comicbook to get that "fix" I require.

 

[Argyle King]

Yeah that pretty much sums it up for me too.

reason for edit: missed the quote I was referring to.

I had the opposite experience. I remember sitting at the local game store and trying to decide if I wanted to buy Hero (unsure what the edition was) or GURPS 4th Edition. I was looking for a non-d20 game to try. For whatever reason, GURPS made more sense to me on a brief flip through the books. I also liked that GURPS started with a more plausible base that I could add wahoo things to later rather than (what appears to be) the Hero approach of starting with a more wahoo base which the user can dial back for more grit.

Both are good games, but, of the two, I prefer GURPS. In either case, both allow me to do a lot of things that I had trouble doing with D&D. In particular; when it comes to GURPS, I liked that wounds and being hurt meant something more tangible than what D&D HP represent. In spite of the game having more details in the rules, I found that they worked in a more intuitive way and produced results which made more sense to me.



At any rate; to answer the OP, I'm anxious to pick up the newest Dungeon Fantasy installment. http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/dungeonfantasy/dungeonfantasy16/


Also, as I mentioned already, I'm excited to take a look at the new Edge of The Empire book. http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=245

I've also considering picking up a few of the Pathfinder monster books.

 

[Zhaleskra]

I've never found a generic system that can make what I want an ability to do the way I feel it should work. Having said that, some have come close. Between GURPS and Hero, I'll take Hero even with no exposure to the actual book. Without a comparison of GURPS4e and whatever edition Hero is on now, I won't know.

 

[Tonguez]

I went from basic to GURPS then D20 brought me back to 3e and Pathfinder. I'm doing more freeform homebrew now but
GURPS still makes more sense to me than Hero and despite allowing similar point buy flexibility isnt so mindscrewing as Hero. Of course Hero as a supers derived game works better for ultrapowerful beings which tend to break GURPS (or cost too much).

Plus GURPS has a supplement for EVERYTHING

 

[DrunkonDuty]

GURPS does indeed have a supplement for everything. Good supplements too.

But for system, I just prefer HERO. Maybe I've just been playing it too long but I don't find it mind screwy.

Now your DnD variants - them I find mind screwy.

 

[Dungeoneer]

My excitement for 13th Age is only growing. It is a clever, modern take on D&D that is willing to slaughter some sacred cows without losing the 'feel' of the game. It's got a small design team that really puts their unique stamp on things, but they do listen to the players. Basically, if you take D&D 3rd edition and 4th edition and extrapolate forward, 13th Age is approximately what you'd wind up with. To me, 13th Age feels like the future, while 5e feels like the past.

13 True Ways, which is basically an 'Unearthed Arcana' for the game, and the Bestiary are out (for all intents and purposes). There is a 'Book of Loot' just on the horizon, talk of an ongoing series of 'Dragon'-style supplements, several adventures in final stages and there are rumors of an Icon-focused book as well. Basically, the game is being treated as a supported system rather than a one-off experiment, and that makes me very happy.

 

[GrahamWills]

To me, 13th Age feels like the future, while 5e feels like the past.

This is how I feel too. 5e isn't bad, it's just I would have been so much more excited about it if it had come out as 3.5 -- it just seems a decade too late.

I do a lot of software design, and there's a real difference between things designed by one or two people and things designed by committees. The latter are typically safe, unexciting and reliable. The former are genius or disasters.

13th Age is genius. It just plain works, with the D&D feel we expect and simple, clever, no-nonsense rules. I'm very pleased to see a lot of support (in addition to the mentioned items, a big module / campaign is on the horizon too). In fact, at my next session, I'm planning to drop a small moon on one of the Archmage's power nodes, while the players are hiding there, so the resultant release of magical energy explains why the players now have access to multi classing rules from 13 true ways. I'm using one of the floating worlds in 13 True Ways to drop on the players. I figure if they get new powers and fun from the new book, I'm entitled to a little fun also.

 

[innerdude]

Oddly enough, a buddy of mine convinced my secondary group to drop their current HeroQuest Revised game and try a "gritty," low-level, bog-standard D&D 3.5 game. (My primary group has all fallen under the spell of Savage Worlds just like I have.)

And unsurprisingly, my feelings of having "moved on" from 3.5 to systems that just work better for my playstyle remain completely unchanged.

I was already on the fence when it came to 5e. I was at least considering picking up at the minimum a 5e PHB. But this "retro" attempt at trying 3.5 again is pretty much the nail in the coffin against it.

Frankly, I just don't like "D&D"-style RPGs much anymore, which is a monumental thing to say if you'd known me back in say, 2007. To say nothing of the fact that, good heavens, after nearly 15 years of people taking the opportunity to improve 3.5 at every turn--and a lot of people succeeding, like Fantasy Craft and Radiance--plain old 3.5 is just frankly, clunky.

It's obvious to me now that so much of what I thought was great about 3.5 was just that I didn't know better. The skill system now just feels clunky. The class progressions and save progressions feel clunky. Hit points feel more unrealistic and clunky than ever (it's probably my least favorite part of Savage Worlds, but I still vastly, vastly prefer Savage Worlds shaken / wound system to straight hit points). The whole concept of "armor class" now just bothers me (armor should be DR, and defense bonuses should be calculated separately).

And I never really liked Vancian casting, even when I was actively playing 3.5. Back then I mostly just tolerated it. Now what was once mild annoyance has blossomed into full-on, unabated disdain. I truly can't can't stand Vancian casting anymore.

At this point, the only scenario in which I could see myself running or playing 5e is if my primary group decided they wanted to try it. I'd be willing to go along, and at least pick up the starter set and a PHB. But frankly 5e is at best 5th or 6th on my "Systems I'd like to try out" list, behind The One Ring, Burning Wheel, FATE Core (or Legends of Anglerre), Night's Black Agents, or Runequest. Heck, as much as I have a love / hate relationship with Fantasy Flight as a company sometimes, I'd probably rather try out Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, or WHFRP 2e or 3e before I played D&D 5.

 

[TwoSix]

While I am reasonably excited for 5e, I'm also looking forward to the next GMC releases of the White Wolf games: Idigam Chronicles for Werewolf and especially Fallen World Chronicles for Mage.