Anyone play it? What's it like?

I would be curious to hear about this as well

Ok. Did a little online research and this game is either brilliant or a compleat crock.

Its billed as, "Rockets, Robots, and Ray Guns".  It's a retro SF RPG. How much of an RPG I leave to you. It seems like a mix of improv class, party game, story telling game and standard RPG set against a Ray Gun Gothic universe.

Supposedly you can pick up the book and play in 15 minutes. The rules book is very thin. All that combined makes it seem very, very, very, rules light. You do get to roll dice to resolve actions, including combat.

I just don't know what to make of it. I love retro SF but was hoping to get more feed back before surrendering my hard earned cash.

Any help here?

Never read or played it either, but I looked at the Quickstart and it looks positively FATE-ish, i.e. further down the narrativist spectrum than I usually enjoy with its Aspect-like Cues and Tags.

Quote from: The Butcher;849207Never read or played it either, but I looked at the Quickstart and it looks positively FATE-ish, i.e. further down the narrativist spectrum than I usually enjoy with its Aspect-like Cues and Tags.

Explain that to a casual (me).

I have the game and it's few supplements.  It is pretty rules light.  You have a handful of stats that are basically a die type.  You roll that + a d12 + modifiers vs a d20.  Yep, the target number is a random number.

The tags and cues mentioned above are really just aids as they have no in game effect like a FATE game's aspects do (although I know a lot of people house rule them to give slight bonuses).  For the players it's a way to help figure out what their character would be doing if you are unsure.  For example, if you have the "shoot first and ask questions later" cue on your sheet and get into a tense situation where you, the player, aren't sure what you should do, you can look at the cue and go from there.  You don't have to, so it's not a straight jacket, but it help the more indecisive players.

The default play is to have a rotating Lead Narrator although the book points out it's just as easy and acceptable to have a single LN for the whole session.  By default, each scene sees the LN role move over to someone else who basically acts as a referee for that scene.  The tags are there to help that person stay on point and not have the session stray.  So, for example, if the tags for the current scene are things like angry martians, confused AI and falling debris the LN is welcome to use any of that stuff to make the scene move along.  What they shouldn't be doing is having the PCs all of a sudden dealing with a flooding compound or xenomorph queen showing up.

The books are thin, but they are chock full of pre-made missions to help with that up and running in 15 min feel.  A mission is basically 2 pages containing a mission brief, some cues and tags and a rough set up of the scenes for the missions.  One of the books, The Moon Must Be Ours, is a modular "dungeon crawl" style campaign while the Beyond the Gravastar is much closer to a setting/campaign resource.

Overall, if you like light games like Inspectres or Lacuna then this would probably be right up your ally.

Honestly, I absolutely hate the notion of a shifting "lead narrator."  That's a complete non-starter for me...

Quote from: Zevious Zoquis;849399Honestly, I absolutely hate the notion of a shifting "lead narrator."  That's a complete non-starter for me...

It was for my group too.  Which is why I pointed out that the book says that you don't have to do it.  Here is what the book says about it:

QuoteThe Lead Narrator
Cosmic Patrol does not require a gamemaster for play—instead the responsibilities of the LN rotate from player to player throughout the game.
However, an appointed LN isn't prohibited either. Ultimately, it's up to the player group. If the group performs better with a dedicated LN, appoint
one. But if the group doesn't require one, simply use the rules as presented.

There isn't anything you are going to miss out on if you don't rotate the LN role.

Fair enough.  The rest of the description of the game's mechanics leads me to think it's not my thing either though.

And that's fine.  It's not going to be for everyone.  I just didn't want people thinking that the rotating LN thing was something that was enforced or encouraged or whatever.

My group has played Cosmic Patrol twice.  We played it in a much more tongue-in-cheek mode, similar to Futurama.  The first time we had a single LN and had a blast playing.  It was something we just whipped out on New Year's Eve while hanging out. Inside of 20 minutes 5 people had made characters, I had gone over nearly all the rules they needed to know and I had picked a mission from the book, read it over and we were playing.

The 2nd time was for Halloween and it didn't go so well.  We tried out the rotating LN thing and let's just say some in my group just didn't get how that is suppose to play out.  Instead of following/building off of the mission brief and acting as the ref on their LN turn they decided to go ahead and start adding their own spin on things (see that xenomorph example I mentioned in a previous post).

In case people are wondering what a Mission Brief looks like, here is the one I made up for that Halloween game.  I used the same format the books do.  The core book has 7 of these and the Into the Cosmos book has another 20 or so.

QuoteMISSION: PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES

Incoming orders from Cosmic Patrol HQ:

Distress signal from Rocketship Kirkman received 1200 isopulses ago. Last known coordinates were heading toward Planet EL13 in the Bava system.

Situation is similar to the one under which Cosmic Patrol lost contact with Rocketship Mignola 1 year ago.

Redirect current course immediately and investigate. We will not lose another ship Patrolmen!

OBJECTIVES
> Safely navigate the electrical storms surrounding EL13 and land on the planet.
> Investigate the distress signal coming from the Kirkman.
> Retrieve the needed parts from the Mignola.
> Survive!

CUES
> electrical storms > mysterious planet > abandoned ship > dead bodies > vampire aliens > repairs needed > stranded > find the right part > bad weather > ghosts in the machine

TAGS
>> EA16155 > psychic vampires > missing ships > mystery/horror > rescue > scary fun
---

OPENING NARRATION
“Dear Crew, I like to start these with ‘Dear Crew’ because it’s cliché, just like most of the missions we’re sent on, really. Anywho, yet again we’re being tossed to the space wolves in the name of the Patrol. This time, surprise, surprise, we’re following up on a, /sigh, distress signal.

It seems like the Kirkman is having problems with their computers near EL13 in the Bava System. EL13, if you didn’t know already, is a supposedly Haaauuunnted Planet. We lost the Mignola there last year around this time.

Well, time to suit up and prepare because while I’ve been talking we’ve been heading directly into their upper atmosphere and there is an electrical storm playing havoc with our…. <>

THE SETTING
The Bava system is a dark, desolate cluster of planets. Most are considered uninhabitable but EL13 is a close match to Earth. EL13 is in constant dusk to night as its parallel orbit with EA16155 keeps it out of direct sunlight. EL13 is home to a race of psychic vampires whose sole goal is to possess those that land on the planet and attempt to escape on their ship.

ENEMIES/OBSTACLES
Scene 1: A dark and stormy night. The first problem the Patrolmen will encounter is the electrical storm surrounding EL13. Some expert flying is going to need to be done in order to land without much damage to ship and crew.

Scene 2: Exploring the Kirkman. The Kirkman, unfortunately, is beyond saving. Most of the crew has been killed off, either by the storm or possessed crewmates. Several “survivors” can be found but can they be trusted?

Scene 3: Repairing the ship. In order to get off the planet the crew will have to go to the Mignola and try to recover some of its electronics. The ship itself seems to be working against them and may be haunted. Does the Mignola hold the answers they need or something far worse?

Quote from: rgalex;849430the Bava system

Paging One Horse Town...

Quote from: Thanos;849084Anyone play it? What's it like?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTVaGsbROSg has a rundown of the quick-start book.

This discussion has been pretty useful to me. Thanks for everyone sharing about it.

Quote from: rgalex;849430And that's fine.  It's not going to be for everyone.  I just didn't want people thinking that the rotating LN thing was something that was enforced or encouraged or whatever.



In case people are wondering what a Mission Brief looks like, here is the one I made up for that Halloween game.  I used the same format the books do.  The core book has 7 of these and the Into the Cosmos book has another 20 or so.

Thanks! The mission brief example was helpful to get a feel for the tone of the game. It sounds like Cosmic Patrol could be a fun one-shot, party game kind of RPG. It seems way to light and loose for me to want to play a 3 year campaign with it though.