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WotC Reveal Exodus, a New Video Game from the Decelopers of Mass Effect and Neverwinter Nights
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<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 9214763" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>A full-on generic SF TT RPG would be a bad idea, frankly.</p><p></p><p>SF is a genre with a lot of really distinct sub-genres. Even space SF has a ton of highly distinct subgenres, which do have some crossover, but not as much as one might like. With a generic SF TT RPG you have to either target a subgenre, at which point you might as well have made a specific RPG, or you need to try and account for multiple subgenres, in which case you inevitably end up with either an incoherent mess of systems, or a game that is actually designed for a specific subgenre, but is masquerading as one that isn't. Alternity was the latter. The design of the rules leant towards a sort of fairly serious not-very-action-y exploration SF, whether planet-bound or on a ship. It was pretty terrible for space opera, military SF, or anything dynamic or action-heavy.</p><p></p><p>WotC would be much better off which a tightly-designed RPG with a specific vibe, which focused on being actually fun to play and think about. Which surprisingly, very few space SF RPGs have ever actually attempted (Mothership is kind of like that, for space horror, but historically it's rarely been the case that gameplay was even a major concern - I haven't played the Firefly RPG though, maybe that did it). That doesn't mean it necessarily has to be limited to a single setting, nor that it should have no levers or dials to tweak, but I'd suggest have have some strong opinions about what the system is for and how it should play is a good thing.</p><p></p><p>I'd also suggest that whatever default setting it uses, it's something modern, energetic, and carefully designed, like Mass Effect was, not something that's basically mindless nostalgia with a "who cares" attitude towards how appealing that setting actually is to a modern audience, and not something dour or delighted with it's own complexity.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 9214763, member: 18"] A full-on generic SF TT RPG would be a bad idea, frankly. SF is a genre with a lot of really distinct sub-genres. Even space SF has a ton of highly distinct subgenres, which do have some crossover, but not as much as one might like. With a generic SF TT RPG you have to either target a subgenre, at which point you might as well have made a specific RPG, or you need to try and account for multiple subgenres, in which case you inevitably end up with either an incoherent mess of systems, or a game that is actually designed for a specific subgenre, but is masquerading as one that isn't. Alternity was the latter. The design of the rules leant towards a sort of fairly serious not-very-action-y exploration SF, whether planet-bound or on a ship. It was pretty terrible for space opera, military SF, or anything dynamic or action-heavy. WotC would be much better off which a tightly-designed RPG with a specific vibe, which focused on being actually fun to play and think about. Which surprisingly, very few space SF RPGs have ever actually attempted (Mothership is kind of like that, for space horror, but historically it's rarely been the case that gameplay was even a major concern - I haven't played the Firefly RPG though, maybe that did it). That doesn't mean it necessarily has to be limited to a single setting, nor that it should have no levers or dials to tweak, but I'd suggest have have some strong opinions about what the system is for and how it should play is a good thing. I'd also suggest that whatever default setting it uses, it's something modern, energetic, and carefully designed, like Mass Effect was, not something that's basically mindless nostalgia with a "who cares" attitude towards how appealing that setting actually is to a modern audience, and not something dour or delighted with it's own complexity. [/QUOTE]
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