FFG's Star Wars RPG beta (discuss)

crkrueger · August 19, 2012, 09:23:44 PM

The dice I don't mind really, Jay Little running the thing I mind a great deal as I know right there this game will not be for me.

Rum Cove · August 19, 2012, 09:31:25 PM

Quote from: CRKrueger;573866The dice I don't mind really, Jay Little running the thing I mind a great deal as I know right there this game will not be for me.

What aspects would you say defines a "Jay Little project"?

Skywalker · August 19, 2012, 09:45:04 PM

Quote from: CRKrueger;573866The dice I don't mind really, Jay Little running the thing I mind a great deal as I know right there this game will not be for me.

I don't hold a lot of faith in the man to design RPGs I like either.

Novastar · August 19, 2012, 10:25:53 PM

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;573848Doing some math here... $70 x 3 books... Hmmm... vs buying D6 Star Wars for dirt cheap somewhere.

I've been finding d6 books more difficult to find, over the last 5 years.
The spining is just starting to give out on the "perfectbound" copies, which makes me happy I bought hardbound books, when possible.

Age of the books (my original Star Wars RPG is 25 years old now), is requiring me to destroy the books and make PDF's, else risk losing the content forever.

crkrueger · August 20, 2012, 12:45:37 AM

Quote from: Rum Cove;573869What aspects would you say defines a "Jay Little project"?

Jay Little is a big supporter of Forge and Ron Edwards opinions, ask Dan White aka One Horse Town, a WFRP Freelancer if you don't believe me, or look it up here on site.

As a result, he brings a narrative style to his games, that even if aren't full-blown Shared Narration or Conflict Resolution, have a higher proportion of metagame elements about them usually couched in "Story" terms. Examples would be WFRP3 and the more Storygamey parts of Deathwatch.

Shawn Driscoll · August 20, 2012, 05:02:07 AM

Quote from: CRKrueger;573916Jay Little is a big supporter of Forge and Ron Edwards opinions, ask Dan White aka One Horse Town, a WFRP Freelancer if you don't believe me, or look it up here on site.

I just read this article by Ron Edwards that mirrors exactly my own experience about what "D&D" was/meant to me and my local gamers in the late '70s.

Because for years now, whenever I say "D&D" to someone, it encases a few years of doing an activity involving some strange social groups. The term did not specifically refer to one single product version of D&D.

Skywalker · August 20, 2012, 05:23:13 AM

Quote from: CRKrueger;573916Jay Little is a big supporter of Forge and Ron Edwards opinions, ask Dan White aka One Horse Town, a WFRP Freelancer if you don't believe me, or look it up here on site.

As a result, he brings a narrative style to his games, that even if aren't full-blown Shared Narration or Conflict Resolution, have a higher proportion of metagame elements about them usually couched in "Story" terms. Examples would be WFRP3 and the more Storygamey parts of Deathwatch.

It's worth noting that though he may be a big supporter of those ideas, he shows a general failure to understand them and an inability to design mechanics that convey them. Honestly, whatever you may think of the ideas he espouses, he is just a plain poor designer first and foremost.

Kiero · August 20, 2012, 05:25:05 AM

Meh, lost interest in Star Wars and it's total lack of internal consistency a little while ago. Not only that, the only interesting bit, KotOR was unceremoniously dumped (comic series cancelled, some shitty MMO made in place of KotOR III) so there isn't really anything that appeals to me any more.

My group isn't exactly hot on Star Wars anyway, and we much prefer Mass Effect for soft-ish sci-fi.

Ghost Whistler · August 20, 2012, 05:33:37 AM

Quote from: Kiero;573953Meh, lost interest in Star Wars and it's total lack of internal consistency a little while ago. Not only that, the only interesting bit, KotOR was unceremoniously dumped (comic series cancelled, some shitty MMO made in place of KotOR III) so there isn't really anything that appeals to me any more.

My group isn't exactly hot on Star Wars anyway, and we much prefer Mass Effect for soft-ish sci-fi.

That would have been the license I would have pursued, had I (rightly) been in charge of Fantastic Fuckup Games. Star Wars is obviously still popular, people will buy this beta bollocks in the droves. On the other hand a decent Mass Effect game would be more interesting. SW has lost all it's steam imo. When you have Half Maul running around with his robot legs swearing vengeance on kenobi you've not just jumped the shark you've done the kessel run in 12 parsecs over it.

Ghost Whistler · August 20, 2012, 05:36:33 AM

Quote from: Skywalker;573952It's worth noting that though he may be a big supporter of those ideas, he shows a general failure to understand them and an inability to design mechanics that convey them. Honestly, whatever you may think of the ideas he espouses, he is just a plain poor designer first and foremost.

Sadly, that seems to sum up FFG's staff abilities.

I used to have a hell of a lot of respect for them. Knizia's LotR boargame is great. Even despite being broken out of the box (which actually is a big deal), the Game of Thrones boardgame was a lot of fun. But lately they just don't know what they fuck they are doing: rules are routinely poorly written and incomplete, Elder Sign, frx, was a mess. Their rpg writing staff need to get a clue. Surely it cannot be hard to find competent staff; they had a call for submissions several months ago. Did they not find anyone capable of game design?

crkrueger · August 20, 2012, 06:00:15 AM

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;573951I just read this article by Ron Edwards that mirrors exactly my own experience about what "D&D" was/meant to me and my local gamers in the late '70s.

Because for years now, whenever I say "D&D" to someone, it encases a few years of doing an activity involving some strange social groups. The term did not specifically refer to one single product version of D&D.

crkrueger · August 20, 2012, 06:01:51 AM

Quote from: Skywalker;573952It's worth noting that though he may be a big supporter of those ideas, he shows a general failure to understand them and an inability to design mechanics that convey them. Honestly, whatever you may think of the ideas he espouses, he is just a plain poor designer first and foremost.

BTW, is there a game on earth you would say actually possesses narrative mechanics?

Shawn Driscoll · August 20, 2012, 06:39:16 AM

Quote from: CRKrueger;573959BTW, is there a game on earth you would say actually possesses narrative mechanics?

I want to say Zork I.

Kiero · August 20, 2012, 07:50:19 AM

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;573954That would have been the license I would have pursued, had I (rightly) been in charge of Fantastic Fuckup Games. Star Wars is obviously still popular, people will buy this beta bollocks in the droves. On the other hand a decent Mass Effect game would be more interesting. SW has lost all it's steam imo. When you have Half Maul running around with his robot legs swearing vengeance on kenobi you've not just jumped the shark you've done the kessel run in 12 parsecs over it.

It definitely benefits from having been designed with some nod to internal consistency in mind. Quite clever in a way how everything springs from just one item of taking license with reality: element zero and the so-called mass effect.

Plus all the "magic" is basically nuanced telekinesis, which avoids all the mystical mumbo-jumbo that plagues the Force in Star Wars.

Of course, as always, there's plenty of scope to just mod your preferred system to do it. We're playing an nWoD hack to great effect.

Shawn Driscoll · August 20, 2012, 08:23:17 AM

I'm looking through some GURPS Star Wars rules that have been posted on the net to see how "the force" is handled in that game system.