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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9242815" data-attributes="member: 4937">Never played it, but everyone says that.  Lack of party cohesion is a generic problem that I've never seen solved in any SciFi game.  It's a shame with Shadowrun because I remember picking up the examples of play and thinking the game could be cool.Agreed.  I only played it once, thanked the GM, and made excuses as to why I couldn't come back.  Never played it, but have been underwhelmed by all my (admittedly limited) experience with 2d20.Like so many Indy games, it feels like a game that's best with a single GM and a single player and that is exactly all they did to play test it (if that).  As far as the game itself goes, I've never read a game that more misunderstands itself than FATE.  Probably the definitive example of game designed entirely based on a set of theorems rather than organically through the process of play and trial and error.  Also, FATE is a classic example of a rules designer not understanding their own math and doing what feels elegant without mathematically working out the results (or maybe not caring).   I don't have any direct experience with FATE, but wow do the rules not seem to understand what game they are making, and the examples of play I've watched on YouTube really bore that out for me.  Personally, I consider the design incoherent because what it made isn't suited for what it wants to do IMO.  PBtA is a better take on solving the same problems FATE wants to solve. I think that may be your most controversial take, because I've heard people say good things about the system.  But yeah, balancing the force with non-force users is inherently the martial versus spellcasters problem that any system with magic runs into.3.X is the definitive example of creating a great system and then the publisher running it into the ground in the pursuit of short-term profit.  The core of 3.0e is a really good solid system that could have been improved by slow laborious tweaks and revisions over time, and extended slowly with care to cover aspects of play it isn't good at (chases, mass combat, crafting, etc.), and filled out with great adventures and examples of play.  Instead, there was a mad rush of untested and dubious content in an effort to fill out a publishing schedule.  I played it once sufficient to convince me that the dice are absolutely necessary.  It's like trying to play a child's game of make believe without having any arbitration.  Everything is black or white.  Nothing surprising happens unless everyone agrees to it.  Turns out we have dice and fortune mechanics for a reason.</blockquote>

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