So I spent thirty seconds reading the DriveThru blurb. Why should I play this instead of BattleLords of the 23rd Century, which I already own?

Quote from: Dumarest;1011720I'd rather play what I was envisioning.

Me too. I'd play the shit out of that.

Quote from: DavetheLost;1012022Me too. I'd play the shit out of that.

If I had any idea where to begin, and the patience for the research required, I'd write it myself, stealing liberally from Flashing Blades and Boot Hill for mechanical ideas. Coonskin Cap: The Roleplaying  Game.

Fitzhugh Lives in the Woods

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1012036Fitzhugh Lives in the Woods

From Journey issue 5?

Heh heh heh.... deathie!

(well done)

A thread about my game! Apologies for taking this long to get here.

First of all, a big thank you to anyone taking the time to check out my little game. I know first-hand that free time is the most precious thing in the world. Also, super excited that people are talking about it!
So the story behind the game is that a few years ago I spent most of my free time playing Borderlands (still am to a more reasonable degree) and noticed that there aren't any tabletop RPGs with a similar feeling. Some get close, but not close enough for my taste so I started writing a game of my own. That game became The Frontier.

As you have no doubt noticed already this is a VERY barebones game. No "What is an RPG" section. No GM advice. No GM tools. The part about taking all that crap out to make room for more guns was just my way of conveying that message to a potential buyer. But there are a lot of guns in the game; that part is absolutely true.

Despite all this, it is very much a playable game that doesn't need anything else if the GM can put in the work. I guess it is pretty similar to the Amazing Engine or similar small RPGs of the 90s. You get a sample setting, the basic rules to run it, and then push you in the deep end.

Setting-wise, you get a simple enough kind-of-post-apocalyse setting of colonists in an alien planet left to fend off for themselves after all communication with Earth has been shut off. It encourages explorattion of alien ruins, surviving in the wilderness, trading with distant settlements and of course fighting a lot of bandits and nasties. Now, the setting is entirely optional; the game is not married to it. You can use the rules, classes and equipment to run games about space marines sent to fight aliens on farway planets, or setup your own campaign in the Fallout universe (just add rules for radiation and ghouls.

System-wise, if you have ever played a d20-based game (from DnD 3+ to Talislanta), you already know how to play this. Roll a d20, add your relevant attribute and beat a target number. Note that this is NOT a d20 system game, and doesn't use the OGL. But it's close enough to be instantly familiar.

Old school has influenced this game, but this is not a game that emulates one of the DnD versions of the past. The OSR influence is restricted to things like attributes as skills, linear character class progression, a lack of rules covering every little things that encourages GM rulings and the like.

Character generation is extremely straightforward and takes about 5 minutes: assign points to attributes (or roll 5 dice for random values), pick a class, write down your starting gear and off you go. There are four classes (Commando, Shadow, Telepath and Wirehead) and each one favours a different style of play. There are 10 levels of class progression and you gain a cool ability on each one of them.

There's enough adversaries and even more loot to keep the players occupied for some time. Bandits to fight, alien monsters to kill, the forces of the ex-colonial government to fool. And things like legendary sniper rifles that make people explode on a killing shot.

Regarding the lack of GM tools, which a lot of people seem to like, I'll be brutally honest. I don't use them a lot and wouldn't know how to write them. Loot tables in particular would quickly become obsolete, as there is a lot new loot released over the last few months since the game was published.

Enough with me talking however. The best way to see if the game is for you is to check the Starter Edition on DriveThru/RPGNow, which gives you all the rules you need to play up to the 3rd character level. And if you have any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them here.

I have not read this game. But I will say this: a lot of times the "what is RPG" or "how to GM" sections are a self-indulgent waste of space on behalf of designers who want to imagine they're reinventing the wheel.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1013192I have not read this game. But I will say this: a lot of times the "what is RPG" or "how to GM" sections are a self-indulgent waste of space on behalf of designers who want to imagine they're reinventing the wheel.

Id say more like 25%. The rest are usually just being smart and assuming that not everyone who picks up their game knows what an RPG is or how to run one. BGG is the posterchild for this problem.

Personally I think its a good idea to have a short what is and how to section.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1013192I have not read this game. But I will say this: a lot of times the "what is RPG" or "how to GM" sections are a self-indulgent waste of space on behalf of designers who want to imagine they're reinventing the wheel.

Bullshit, of course, presumably  based on your own inability to write a good section explaining RPGs.

Quote from: Dumarest;1013263Bullshit, of course, presumably  based on your own inability to write a good section explaining RPGs.

Having seen some "how to" and "what is" sections in RPGs... Some designers shouldnt have.

Quote from: Omega;1013265Having seen some "how to" and "what is" sections in RPGs... Some designers shouldnt have.

Well, people being bad at making something really doesn't address whether such a thing should be required for a game.

I am of the opinion that games who intend to be marketed to anyone who hasn't played an RPG before really should have a 'DM how to' section, and those who wholeheartedly acknowledge that their audience is people who already have a shelf full of games, 'but are looking for one with/that ______' don't need one.

Still, some basic help tools along the lines of D&D's random encounter or rumor tables are always helpful, as is a cohesive vision of what a baseline game session for said game would be like is very helpful. I know the first edition or so of Shadowrun, Cyberpunk (core book specific), and the White Wolf games were criticized for a small number of stated out NPCs and poor explanation on 'what is a character supposed to do in the game?' and had little help in how to facilitate such things.

This game, at least, appears to be cohesive in stated actions: find things, kill them, collect loot.

Quote from: Dumarest;1013263Bullshit, of course, presumably  based on your own inability to write a good section explaining RPGs.

Bitch, please. I wrote a whole book on how to GM, and unlike 90% of "how to GM" sections it wasn't just a rehash of the same stupid milquetoast advice over and over again.

Almost every single "what is an RPG" section is the same as almost every other "what is an RPG" section.

But since you're not a writer or a game designer, I guess it's understandable you wouldn't know that. I'm assuming you've never actually bothered to read these sections in an RPG, because no one does. Because they're useless.

Quote from: Willie the Duck;1013274I am of the opinion that games who intend to be marketed to anyone who hasn't played an RPG before really should have a 'DM how to' section, .

In Current Year in the current hobby, unless your name is "Wizard O. T. Coast" or Paizo, if you think you're marketing to newbies, and that newbies will form a sizable percentage of your game's readership, you're either mentally defective or lying to yourself.

Quote from: Omega;1011810One thing I didnt like was that they sectioned off things like more classes and equipment into little PDFs. Like how FFG does with some games.

Sorry for the necro but all Frontier expansions are currently free and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

This adds another 70+ pages of classes, monsters and Even More Guns(TM) to those already included in the core book.

Still no treasure tables or GM advice.