Yeah it's an RPG alright.

I was wondering about the dot system though. For people who use Kanji dice, dots on the sheet don't immediately translate into kanji numbers on the dice so it's less immediately intuitive.

It would be nice if someone cooked up a sheet where instead of empty dots you had to fill in there were lines of 一 ニ 三 四 五 六 grayed out. When you got a rating in the skill you'd ink in as many symbols on the left as you had so when you rolled the dice you could immediately match the numbers.

Quote from: Dan Davenport;583519Of course, the company has informed me that they don't offer review copies, so I won't be able to tell you how it plays in practice.

But then, with a runaway success as this the game doesn't really need reviews anymore. Reviews are a marketing tool.

TBZ was "advertised" (teased at) for almost seven years - the target audience knew about it. It was just waiting for this Kickstarter to happen.

That said, I do expect lots of reviews from the buyers of the game, on blogs and in forums.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;583621TBZ was "advertised" (teased at) for almost seven years - the target audience knew about it.

Very nearly eight, actually: I first saw the translation announced in 2004.

I don't know about waiting, honestly the first time I heard about it was when a friend gushed to me about it on IRC after the kickstarter was underway. I think there are still a lot of people out there who don't follow such things and yet would be interested.

Quote from: RPGPundit;583496I wonder how many people will be disappointed when all the seemingly awesome cool stuff like mecha and taoist magic and samurais and all that end up being bridled to a Storygame system and not an RPG at all. The guys wanting to know how much damage their martial arts styles or missiles would do are going to be pretty pissed if it turns out that what determines that is how well they "present a kabuki-style theater performance" to the other players.

RPGPundit

Sorry, but it looks like just you.

I don't see anything unpleasant here at all.

Quote from: vytzka;583630I don't know about waiting, honestly the first time I heard about it was when a friend gushed to me about it on IRC after the kickstarter was underway. I think there are still a lot of people out there who don't follow such things and yet would be interested.

Yeah. I check the gaming section of kickstarter about once a week to see if there's anything that grabs my attention - that's how I heard about TBZ

Quote from: RPGPundit;583496I wonder how many people will be disappointed when all the seemingly awesome cool stuff like mecha and taoist magic and samurais and all that end up being bridled to a Storygame system and not an RPG at all. The guys wanting to know how much damage their martial arts styles or missiles would do are going to be pretty pissed if it turns out that what determines that is how well they "present a kabuki-style theater performance" to the other players.

RPGPundit

Oh, here we go again.

Quote from: GrimGent;583512Nah, the basic resolution system seems conventional enough, as illustrated by this comic. The other players can reward good roleplaying with a special currency, though, and the players of injured characters may choose to allocate the damage to either a brief loss of vitality or more serious wounds which however also grant a general bonus to actions.

I think that comic might be deceptive.  Let's consider:
-Its been translated by prominent individuals in the Storygames movement, who have an agenda.
-the description of the game in the kickstarter says: " action and combat is overlaid a deeper system of kabuki theater-style play: Focusing very specifically on play through Acts, Scenes, and Intermissions, the players of this game are both the actors and audience. As actors, they focus on role-play in a scene with other actors. As audience (much like the audience of a kabuki play), they focus on the drama that unfolds, rewarding the players for dramatic actions and cool ad-libbed lines. "

So there you are. One way or another, SOMEONE is being fooled here.  

You pick: is it the conventional gamers, who are being sold a game they think is supposed to be a regular RPG full of mecha and samurai action, and will instead get a Kabuki Theater pretentious-culturewank experience where you have to be "actor" and "audience" treating the game as a set of "scenes" with other actors rather than being allowed to Immerse in a character and treat the setting as a world?

Or is it the storygamers, who are being sold (by two of their heroes, no less) a game they think is all about getting to play out a Kabuki Theater Drama with all of the above and will instead get a conventional success-counting RPG?

It can't be both.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Dan Davenport;583519Yeah, I have to agree with GrimGent. I'm quite storygame-averse, but based on my Q&A session on the game, it sounds relatively conventional.

Of course, the company has informed me that they don't offer review copies, so I won't be able to tell you how it plays in practice.

That pretty much just proves that they're trying to hide something, doesn't it?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;584044It can't be both.

Not everyone believes the two styles to be mutually exclusive and you can have elements of both in the same game. In TBZ's case, it is predominantly a conventional RPG. But no one is denying that there are not also other elements involved.

Quote from: RPGPundit;584044Or is it the storygamers, who are being sold (by two of their heroes, no less) a game they think is all about getting to play out a Kabuki Theater Drama with all of the above and will instead get a conventional success-counting RPG?

It can't be both.

RPGPundit

Who cares, as long as it's fun?  I think you will boil in rage at that, Pundit.  I challenge you to *try* the game.

Have a beer, my friend.  Other people's fun is never bad.

CB

Quote from: RPGPundit;584045That pretty much just proves that they're trying to hide something, doesn't it?

RPGPundit

And if it turns out they are, this will be revealed by game play. If it sucks, people will ditch it. Who cares what their agenda is?  Write a better game that people will find fun if you want to prove your ideas are better than those in TBZ.

Awesome thing, that free market.

Quote from: RPGPundit;584044I think that comic might be deceptive.  Let's consider:
-Its been translated by prominent individuals in the Storygames movement, who have an agenda.
-the description of the game in the kickstarter says: " action and combat is overlaid a deeper system of kabuki theater-style play: Focusing very specifically on play through Acts, Scenes, and Intermissions, the players of this game are both the actors and audience. As actors, they focus on role-play in a scene with other actors. As audience (much like the audience of a kabuki play), they focus on the drama that unfolds, rewarding the players for dramatic actions and cool ad-libbed lines. "

So there you are. One way or another, SOMEONE is being fooled here.  

You pick: is it the conventional gamers, who are being sold a game they think is supposed to be a regular RPG full of mecha and samurai action, and will instead get a Kabuki Theater pretentious-culturewank experience where you have to be "actor" and "audience" treating the game as a set of "scenes" with other actors rather than being allowed to Immerse in a character and treat the setting as a world?

Or is it the storygamers, who are being sold (by two of their heroes, no less) a game they think is all about getting to play out a Kabuki Theater Drama with all of the above and will instead get a conventional success-counting RPG?

It can't be both.

It is actually neither. Neither side is being fooled because the game has both of those things.

(it is seriously hard to sum it up any better than that)

Wait and see.

Quote from: Skywalker;584104Not everyone believes the two styles to be mutually exclusive and you can have elements of both in the same game. In TBZ's case, it is predominantly a conventional RPG. But no one is denying that there are not also other elements involved.

From what I hear, that's pretty much the case with the entire Japanese RPG scene in general. They don't seem to have a separate "storygame faction", and practically every single one of their games is rooted in traditional mechanics. However, while some system details abhorrent to Pundit are relatively non-existent over there (for example, conflict resolution as opposed to task resolution), others have apparently been embraced as commonplace (for example, scene framing by players).

Also, keep in mind that Andy K was also involved with publishing the previous translated RPG from Japan, Maid, and that's not exactly heavy on "storygamish" elements, either.

Yeah, from what I have heard, most Japanese RPGs have a strong GM presence and run much like what we term "conventional RPGs". They don't share the divisions that some people feel strongly about here.