SAGA Rules System

Amalgam · May 28, 2013, 01:27:19 PM

Anybody play this: http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=2179

I was wondering, since it was published by TSR, if WotC picked up the ownership of it or not.

Also, are there any campaign supplements anywhere? I picked up a used copy that seems complete for $16 the other day and i'm itching to play! Reading through the rules it seems they've done a lot of the things i've tried to do with my homebrew.

daniel_ream · May 28, 2013, 01:33:06 PM

Yup. Mostly the Marvel Superheroes version, but I have scratch notes on using a tarot deck to replace the Fate Deck the DL game comes with.

WotC absolutely owns the rights to it, but has shown no interest in doing anything with it. You can find the various books released for it on Amazon and eBay for close to their original retail price. The rules in the base set are a bit thin; to get a well-rounded set of rules you really need all the "Heroes of..." supplements.

Amalgam · May 28, 2013, 02:16:27 PM

awesome! thanks.

The system does a lot of things i've been trying to do in my homebrew, so when i started reading it i felt immediately at home with it. Too bad WotC is just sitting on the rules. There isn't an OGL or SRD license for it is there?

I'm almost contemplating borrowing/plagiarizing some mechanics from it, but without license to do so...

daniel_ream · May 28, 2013, 02:46:57 PM

Quote from: Amalgam;658166Too bad WotC is just sitting on the rules. There isn't an OGL or SRD license for it is there?

Not that I've ever heard of. The system was not very popular in either incarnation; the fan sites for both SAGA lines are basically ghost towns now. That said I suspect no one would care what you stole as long as you avoided any specifically trademarked terms.

Tommy Brownell · May 28, 2013, 07:08:38 PM

Quote from: daniel_ream;658207Not that I've ever heard of. The system was not very popular in either incarnation; the fan sites for both SAGA lines are basically ghost towns now. That said I suspect no one would care what you stole as long as you avoided any specifically trademarked terms.

Especially in the case of Marvel, I think the problem is less "popularity" and more "it relies on a set of unique cards, which are increasingly more difficult to find"...people have tried to hodge podge it with dice or playing cards, but nothing's gotten the feel quite right.

In any event, to the OP: I quite liked Fifth Age, but I don't give one lick about Dragonlance.

Marvel SAGA is my favorite supers game of all time, and my second favorite system of all time (behind Savage Worlds).

Silverlion · May 28, 2013, 07:11:34 PM

I'm rather a fan of both. A major issue with the game systems were reliance on propriety cards, that basically meant that you had a losable/not replaceable component.

It has kept the game from continuing to have a small but rabid following.

Plans on in the works though...

Amalgam · May 28, 2013, 08:57:15 PM

Yeah, i was thinking of some generic cards done in the same fashion, or replacing cards with colored dice. Instead of having a hand of cards, you'd have a pool of random dice as hitpoints/actions.

RPGPundit · May 29, 2013, 03:56:57 PM

It was actually a fairly good system as I recall. Unfortunately it was pretty much doomed to obscurity right from the start.

RPGPundit

RPGPundit · May 30, 2013, 07:34:28 PM

To start with, being shackled with Dragonlance at the absolute low-point of its popularity.

Tommy Brownell · May 30, 2013, 09:19:29 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit;659006To start with, being shackled with Dragonlance at the absolute low-point of its popularity.

That was the only point at which I liked the setting at all...because all of the "More Important Than You" heroes were out of the way.

Silverlion · May 31, 2013, 01:32:58 AM

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;659029That was the only point at which I liked the setting at all...because all of the "More Important Than You" heroes were out of the way.

Me too, and dragons not being big flying horses...
But /world shaping powers./

Tommy Brownell · May 31, 2013, 01:42:13 AM

Quote from: Silverlion;659064Me too, and dragons not being big flying horses...
But /world shaping powers./

Oh yeah...dragons are TERRIFYING in that game.

RPGPundit · June 02, 2013, 04:37:02 AM

I don't know, it seemed to get rid of some of the metaplot heaviness you're talking about, but it also got rid of some of those few things that were really worthwhile about the setting.

But of course, I never much cared for Dragonlance at all, aside from Taladas, which was awesome (but basically a totally different setting anyways).

RPGPundit

Tommy Brownell · June 02, 2013, 05:28:03 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;659403I don't know, it seemed to get rid of some of the metaplot heaviness you're talking about, but it also got rid of some of those few things that were really worthwhile about the setting.

But of course, I never much cared for Dragonlance at all, aside from Taladas, which was awesome (but basically a totally different setting anyways).

RPGPundit

That was my deal, I think. I never cared about Dragonlance, so people telling me how they ruined Krynn left me with a big "So What?"

I enjoyed the *system* a great deal, and the setting was what it was. I used it because, at the time, I never got around to converting another setting to it.

(And the images on the cards were so meaningless to me, since I wasn't a fan of Dragonlance, that they could have been generic fantasy art, for my purposes.)

Opaopajr · June 02, 2013, 06:24:05 AM

Well, I've been bequeathed a 5th age SAGA product, but with no conversion notes on the base system it all reads like Greek to me (and my Greek is so terribly rusty... I'm still working on pronouncing the influx of new yogurt brands).

Any good websites with system basics up online? Too much is lynchpinned to a singular base product with proprietary resolution tool. Proprietary dice and card decks for running RPGs is an idea that needs to die in a fire already...

So, what's the skinny on mechanics so I can at least read this stuff and fudge it with a deck of cards. Lord knows I have more than enough tarot, regular playing cards, CCGs, etc. to substitute just about everything they could throw at me.