Synnibarr vs WotC

[Faolyn]

If the books actually look like the sample pages... well, that's just sad. Maybe he just picked bad pages for the samples, but that they do not live up to the gonzo nature of the original game.

 

[James Gasik]

Yet another reason for me to kick myself for not picking up the Primal Order when I saw it back in the day.

I recently ordered a copy, print to demand, and got a pdf to go with it, since my original book managed to get itself vanished somehow over the years.

 

[Jaeger]

Hey, the whole Far West fiasco has been comedy gold for a decade, it might have been great.

Say what you will about synnibarr as an rpg, McCraken has managed to write and release three editions of the game.

Far West however...

 

[Blue Orange]

I just took a look at the sample pages of the PDF. ::eyes widen:: ::covers mouth in horror::

Oh. Oh Raven. Oh no.

::lowers head:: ::shakes head slowly::

This is a monstrosity. The first edition was a paragon of clean layout and presentation compared to.. to whatever this is.

Just one example. You misspelled "movment" (sic) in your introduction to the Movement rules.
View attachment 261471

So highest advantage number goes last for movement and first for action.

Someone needs to just keep the amusingly bizarre fluff [the setting, characters, and monsters] and move the crunch [the rules] to a suitable system. FATE maybe? I doubt McCracken's ego would let him.

 

[darjr]

Say what you will about synnibarr as an rpg, McCraken has managed to write and release three editions of the game.

Far West however...

💀 Necro - Far West PDFs being delivered to backers and available on DriveThruRPG | Tabletop Roleplaying Open

As reported on Tenkar's Tavern, GMS has started the process of delivering something of the new D6-driven Far West to his backers. So far what's been received are pre-layout PDFs of the front matter, forward, an introduction (which includes an overview of the D6PLUS system) and the character...

forum.rpg.net

Update 255: Long-Awaited News · Far West: Western/Wuxia Mashup adventure game

This update is only viewable by backers of this project

www.kickstarter.com

 

[Mannahnin]

also, "lowerst".

View attachment 261475
That's not what 2d10 means.

I don't mean to turn this thread into a "pile on Raven's writing/layout" but good Lord the 3rd edition is a mess. I will clutch my beloved first edition until the end of time!

View attachment 261478

Yes, those excerpts look sad. The book you're holding in your hands is the third edition I've owned, though. That's the one from 1993.

The 1991 edition with the cheesecake Winged Warrior on the cover (art by comic artist Dameon Willich) was a bit simpler. For example, the other two character generation methods apart from the Classed Adventurers hadn't been introduced yet. It was also a big perfect-bound paperback, though. Similar format.

The first edition which I bought (probably in 1991, before the DW cover edition came out), which I haven't been able to confirm the publication date of yet, was in a big dark blue three ring binder, and all black & white.

I haven't been able to confirm any earlier editions, if any exist, but the new one which just came out and is officially labeled 3rd edition is actually the fourth I've seen and had a copy of. I just noticed that the Kickstarter page, under the Risks and Challenges section, says "I have published this by myself, eight times from 1980; I will do it once more. This time I have a GREAT TEAM to assist me; we shall not fail."

Say what you will about synnibarr as an rpg, McCraken has managed to write and release three editions of the game.

Far West however...

At least four, and possibly as many as nine, per Raven's account! Though Wiki still only records the existence of the 1991 and 1993 editions, and a 2012 Kickstarter.

So highest advantage number goes last for movement and first for action.

Someone needs to just keep the amusingly bizarre fluff [the setting, characters, and monsters] and move the crunch [the rules] to a suitable system. FATE maybe? I doubt McCracken's ego would let him.

Yes, higher initiative getting the advantage of moving last and acting first has been a thing in a lot of games. The most prominent more recent example I remember seeing is in Star Wars: X-Wing, the miniatures dogfighting game, though I've definitely also seen it in other dogfighting games and in some older RPGs.

The idea is that movement is actually simultaneous (like it ostensibly is in D&D), so the winner of initiative actually moving their model or character second allows them to see and react to the enemy movements after they're committed to them- a huge advantage. Then you get to take/resolve your action/attack before the enemy as well.

 

[Faolyn]

Say what you will about synnibarr as an rpg, McCraken has managed to write and release three editions of the game.

Far West however...

A friend of mine is still upset about the Far West kickstarter.

 

[Jaeger]

💀 Necro - Far West PDFs being delivered to backers and available on DriveThruRPG | Tabletop Roleplaying Open

As reported on Tenkar's Tavern, GMS has started the process of delivering something of the new D6-driven Far West to his backers. So far what's been received are pre-layout PDFs of the front matter, forward, an introduction (which includes an overview of the D6PLUS system) and the character...

forum.rpg.net

Update 255: Long-Awaited News · Far West: Western/Wuxia Mashup adventure game

This update is only viewable by backers of this project

www.kickstarter.com

11 years and a manuscript with no art or layout. Not even a PDF yet...

McCracken is an RPG creating machine by comparison.

GMS game design better deliver, if not, the punchline that is Far West will become more legendary in the retelling...

 

[Autumnal]

Cross-genre play was a staple of many people's experience from the mid-1970s on.

Empire of the Petal Throne (1974) gave off an unusual gravitas thanks to Barker's attention to detail, but the guts of it are planetary romance, which has been about throwing science and fantasy together in a blender since the dawn of the 20th century. (Ditto for Lin Carter and Scott Bizar's Flash Gordon And The Warriors Of Mongo (1977); arguably, a pulp game is at least halfway to a general action game.)

Arduin (1977) wasn't a fluke so much as a common set of ambitions pursued with more than usual determination, because Hargrave was like that, and a big spread of genre options is part of that commonality.

Lee Gold's Lands Of Adventure (1983) isn't quite multi-genre, but was intended to cover the spectrum of historical fantasy, with included source books for classical Greece and post-Roman Britain.

And so on. I didn't hear about Synibarr until later, but if I had, I'd have recognized it as a game with lots of company.

 

[Blue Orange]

And so on. I didn't hear about Synibarr until later, but if I had, I'd have recognized it as a game with lots of company.

What was unique about Synnibarr was the over-the-topness of the whole thing. It's not just flying bears, it's flying bears that shoot laser beams from their eyes. It's Rifts up to 11^11.