87 replies to this topic

[Ssnake]

Speaking of absurd episodes, I'm in the pharmacy, maybe three weeks ago. In comes a young mom, the two kids parked outside in her bike trailer. She breathlessly tells the phamacists that she thinks she has overdosed ... on chamomille D12 globuli (at which point I'm seriously struggling to keep a straight face) because she was prescribed D12 chamomille globuli for her cough, but the ones she was given (in error) were for menopause treatment, not for her cough, and can she return the bottle after she opened it and took the "overdose".

 

I contemplated telling her that the sugar pellets from the baking shelf in the supermarket were also super-effective, if she'd sort them by colors - white against headache, green against cold, red for blood rheumatism, ... but then again, I still want to buy my medicine locally, so I clenched my teeth, paid, left, and nearly died from laughter on the way home.

[Stargrunt6]

Heh. So I had this conversation at a role playing convention with developers of a new pen & paper RPG. The two dudes said they had spent the last 15 years "perfectioning" a game, and that it was made for people who thought that Rolemaster was undercomplex and needed more tables (literally!). At which point I wished them ... good luck.

Two games that come to mind are Eclipse Phase and the new version of Twilight 2000 that came out in the late 2000s. Both are table dense and if I ran either I would be ball parking dice roll modifiers like a mad gm.

[bojan]

Heh. So I had this conversation at a role playing convention with developers of a new pen & paper RPG. The two dudes said they had spent the last 15 years "perfectioning" a game, and that it was made for people who thought that Rolemaster was undercomplex and needed more tables (literally!). At which point I wished them ... good luck.

 

I never understood obsession with "table for everything" in the P&P RPGs.

 

I was always of the "If the mechanics get in the way of the good story - ditch the mechanics" school, but I have started with WH FRP and Call of Cthulhu which were both reasonably rules light.

 

If I want to play "highly detailed combat" I will play computer games. But "highly detailed combat" tends to look too much like work, and too little like fun after a while.

If I want "outside simulator" I will go camping.

I want my P&P to have a good setting, decent story and interesting NPCs, everything else is secondary. Heavens know how many decent adventures I have adopted from one system to the other even when their parent system sucked (top was I think some "weird western Mormon RPG" adventure that ended as a backbone for a Dark Heresy frontier world)...

Edited by bojan, 19 December 2018 - 2107 PM.

[Der Zeitgeist]

The way I see it, it's still all voluntary. We just need to walk away.

 

That's it.

 

I don't really get all the handwringing about bad games any longer. There is no reason to grow hysterical whenever a company pulls something like Bethesda did with Fallout 76. Just don't buy it, period.

 

Over the last decade, it has become very easy to simply not buy any games that are crap. Don't preorder, don't buy any season passes, wait for the reviews, watch some let's plays, read the user reviews.

[bojan]

+ a lot

[Mr King]

I agree don't preorder, don't buy season passes, and wait for reviews and lets plays from people who have not been bought off by the industry. However I understand people getting upset when they have been a fan of a franchise like the Fallout series for 20 some years, when companies like Bethesda go and shit all over the franchise and the fans to make a quick buck. 

[Der Zeitgeist]

I agree don't preorder, don't buy season passes, and wait for reviews and lets plays from people who have not been bought off by the industry. However I understand people getting upset when they have been a fan of a franchise like the Fallout series for 20 some years, when companies like Bethesda go and shit all over the franchise and the fans to make a quick buck. 

 

You may be a fan of a franchise, but a franchise will never be a fan of you.

[Harold Jones]

It seems like the older and more beloved the franchise the more likely each subsequent game is to turn into a naked cash grab.  It doesn't help that by the 4th or 5th iteration of the game most of the original team that created the game have long since moved on to other projects.

[Ssnake]

...XCom2 however proved that you can successfully revive a classic that was otherwise about as dead as Great Cthulhu in R'lyeh.

[Panzermann]

 

Heh. So I had this conversation at a role playing convention with developers of a new pen & paper RPG. The two dudes said they had spent the last 15 years "perfectioning" a game, and that it was made for people who thought that Rolemaster was undercomplex and needed more tables (literally!). At which point I wished them ... good luck.

Two games that come to mind are Eclipse Phase and the new version of Twilight 2000 that came out in the late 2000s. Both are table dense and if I ran either I would be ball parking dice roll modifiers like a mad gm.

 

 

 

At least the Eclipse Phase crew has intentionally written their system with percentile rolls in order to make conversion easy to ohter systems. I think there are several ports to other rules systems published made by fans. Really,because of the central element of resleeving (putting the character's mind into a different body) I found the rules too dense and not fit for purpose. If I were to play a longer campaign I would use Fate or FUDGE or something similarly lightweight. Or try the apocalypse world rules, because with changing the body often I see it turning into a bookkeeping nightmare in an instant. so far I have only played Eclipse Phase only at conventions and those games turned out rolling the dice only a few times anyway. So why bother with complex rules in the first place?

 

 

 

 

 

It seems like the older and more beloved the franchise the more likely each subsequent game is to turn into a naked cash grab.  It doesn't help that by the 4th or 5th iteration of the game most of the original team that created the game have long since moved on to other projects.

 

 

Past sucesses lures greedy managers in. The same as all those bad remakes from Hollywood. Wringing money from old well known names. Just like in Hollywood most of the money for AAA titles is blown on  marketing instead of developing a good film or video game. 

 

 

Luckily there is a living, breathing independent scene of video game makers. Sure most are bad, but that comes with the ease of publishing nowadays. with the demise of games journalism it is sadly harder to find the gems.

[Ssnake]

I bet it's got electrolytes.

[Stargrunt6]

heart conduction delay and fatty liver, yay

[R011]

I bet it's got electrolytes.

It's what gamers crave!

[Colin]

So i see WG is introducing new "WOWS 'special premium" which is only for WOWS. trying to milk the cow some more. One of the arguments I use to myself to justify premium time for the year is that it applies to both games, so it's money well spent. I hope they don't end that, because i have a hard time justifying 2 accounts. 

[Harold Jones]

Thanks, I bought it.  I don't play the other games anymore and I appreciate paying half price.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Best tanknet thread in years.

[Panzermann]

heart conduction delay and fatty liver, yay

 

Makes for great foie gras. Best served with fava beans and a fine chianti.

[Simon Tan]

Foie hommes. But you have to force feed them Doritos or something.

[Stargrunt6]

heart conduction delay and fatty liver, yay

 
Makes for great foie gras. Best served with fava beans and a fine chianti.

"Ready when you are, Officer Pembry..."

[Mr King]

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