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| Art that simply captures the imagination |
Yes, you read that right. "700+ diverse player techniques." 19 character classes. Three branching skill trees. You know how some folks say "more is better." No it's not. This seems like needless overkill that will bring even the crunchiest players to their knees.
I'd much rather see new settings for already established systems, as you have a built in audience that only has to learn the setting, not the rules, but maybe that's me.
I just figured that if a group wanted a system with "700+ diverse player techniques" they already had it - it's called Pathfinder.
And there's just two small paragraphs on the setting of Purgatoria: City of Angels, which in my mind would be the hook. The rest is vaguely about the system itself. Surprisingly, we don't get an example of the task resolution or even a hint of the dice used. It might be over at the development blog for the game, but don't you think the very basics should be on the page where you are asking for money?
Apparently the book is already written, which is good. It's also their first Kickstarter project (and possibly their first rpg project at all) so you need to keep that in mind. They talk about all of the art to be used in the project, but show none of it on the Kickstarter page. Actually, it's a pretty bland page. They are offering a 320 page hard cover for $30 - not sure if that includes shipping as shipping is not mentioned. They are not using POD but a local printer, so they will be shipping this out on their own.
Tip of the hat to +Reid San Filippo for bringing this to my attention.
Every once in a while you get someone who says "Pathfinder is great and all, but the problem is that there aren't enough skills, feats, and classes in it!", or "Wouldn't BRP be great if it had as many Skills, Feats and Classes as Pathfinder?"
ReplyDeleteOh, and we have a setting too. It's basically like the Forgotten Realms, but we don't have Drizzt, because he's lame.
I don't like gaming with those people. I hope they have fun with their games.
Well, in fairness, Drizzt is fucking lame.
DeleteIf Pathfinder isn't enough, there's always Palladium's shelves 'o options.
DeleteI actually don't mind lots of options -- so long as the *core* itself is tiny. B/X + the OSR community fits that. You can find a thousand alternate classes and drop tables for all kinds of weird stuff. But when you add one, you're adding that *one*, not having to flip through 300 pages for the basic options.
And, I must admit, Palladium might be clunky and disorganized, but it is actually pretty easy to run. :)
DeletePalladium has awesome combat rules.
DeleteI don't even know what they mean by a "player technique." Or what a Drizt is for that matter.
ReplyDeleteI think these guys would have done well to have a look at Jamey Stegmaier's Kickstarter Lessons. E.g. the part about helping the community first, backing lots of Kickstarters, talking to blogs, getting feedback well beforehand, and showing totally what the project is about (and what backers will be getting).
ReplyDeleteThere is a bit of a trick with KS videos to try to keep them short and sweet, without making them short and empty... but if you don't give any real content... then there just isn't any, eh! I've fallen into this trap before (though thankfully not on a Kickstarter). Slowly learnt how to show people what the setting was about (you wouldn't think it would be that hard eh).
Interestingly though, they're halfway funded and with 27 days to go. It will be interesting to see where this project ends up.
Oh btw @Matt Celis, Player Techniques, I believe, are different attacks that characters can perform, which will have different effects. And Drizzt is Drizzt Do Urden, a character from a popular series of books on Forgotten Realms (check it out on Amazon).
Ah, that's what I get for not getting into later editions and supplements. We played Basic, Advanced, and a little 2nd for a while. Haven't played anything but Basic and Advanced since the early '90s as far as D&D goes. As for fiction, never been much into fantasy outside of Conan.
ReplyDelete