I got it and if anyone is interested in anything about it, shout out. If not, cool. Either way, I really dig it so far and am happy with my purchase.

What the hell are you talking about? At first glance at the title, I thought that this thread was meant to be a parody to my always-humorously-named Last Sun campaign updates.   Which would have been really freaking weird.

For the Pundit and all of our curiosity, can you link us and give us the summary? It know it's an RPG kickstarter from Monte Cook games with a thick veil of mystery surrounding it...

https://www.montecookgames.com/store/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Black-Cube-All-Components-2017-07-11.jpg

Gives me the same feeling as when I saw the WHFRP 3rd box contents.

Oh, my bad! We had a thread about it a while back and even I chimed in on being skeptical about the game. I figured folks remembered.

It's a premium game MCG did that was in fact, shrouded in mystery. Now that I have the 12", almost 30-pound cube on a shelf and have cracked it open, I get the reason, as it were. Mystery and secrets abound and are a core theme to the game.  It's shrouded in the surreal and secrets, but so far nothing is annoying or unnecessarily mysterious or obtuse. There's no metaplot or such.

As far as being like WH3E, I cannot say as I didn't get that game. I will say that the components...of which there are many...are beautiful! Did it need to be made this way? No, perhaps not. However, it's very, very cool and handy that it was. The bits and bobs are evocative and convenient. Several, if not all, of the components exist in-game, to include the Testament of Suns (the resin hand that holds the Sooth Deck, which are divinatory cards that fluctuate magic), the Sooth Deck itself, all of the spell/object cards, all the way to the Back Cube itself. It's pretty cool.

I absolutely love surreal stuff, so this game really hits a sweet spot. It's very focused on character-driven plots, which I enjoy in pretty much any game. There's a ton of strange but very cool aspects to a character, such as figuring out your living arrangements/social standings all the way to who and what is in your neighborhood. One interesting bit is that each PC has their choice of house but the other players create the people, places and strange occurrences around that PC's house. It's collaborative setting-building in a microcosm and the rest is up to the GM.

For those who dislike meta-currency, there isn't any that I've found. The closest thing I've seen is in one of the advancement currencies called Joy and Despair. You need one of each to create a Crux which lets you raise certain aspects of your character. You get Joy or Despair if something impactful happens to your PC, such as the death of a friend (Despair) or creating a Vancian spell with your name on it (Joy). The GM can do a GM shift to twist the narrative, granting either Joy or Despair. That's about as weird as the meta-currencies get, as far as I have seen.

The magical orders are cool and evocative. The Order of the Vance (the one I was initially least excited for) has quickly become one of my favorites. I just like how they handle magic with a sheet that has your character's "magical headspace". You then fit spells into them, more powerful spells taking up more space. Weavers create spells from concepts, Makers craft magical objects (one guy turned God into a gun), Goetics (neck-in-neck with Vances for my favorite) summon and bind angels, demons and other things. Finally, Apostates forsake the Orders, going their own way.

Oh, much like Cypher your character is create through a sentence, but it's got more parts. The final part is your Forte, the "special thing you do". Things like "Hosts a Legion" (demons inhabit your flesh), "Warps Space and Time" (exactly what is says), "Fuses Nightmare into Fist" (punching people with bad dreams) and so on.

A lot was said about how it doesn’t do anything new. By its individual concepts, perhaps not. Many of us do several of the things it does (collaborative setting-building, gaming away from the table, etc.). However as a whole it’s really slick to see these parts baked-in, even going so far as to having an in-game reason for players not showing up or having to leave mid-session.

The components are onvenient, evocative and as we like tactile bits, fun. This isn’t a board game hybrid, in fact the Path of Suns board is there for an evocative way to track the fluctuations in magic. It's more robust than Cypher but has the ease of GMing Cypher has, which is a HUGE draw for us. I dunno, I just really like it so far. We haven't played yet, but as it's got "Cypher DNA" I can clearly tell I will love it.

And it’s an expensive, giant cube full of cool stuff!

And we could have had a video unboxing...

Quote from: Warboss Squee;1054792And we could have had a video unboxing...

Nooooope! This is as much of an online presence as I want.

Quote from: Alderaan Crumbs;1054825Nooooope! This is as much of an online presence as I want.

I'd have editted it first.

Quote from: Warboss Squee;1054837I'd have editted it first.

It's not as if we can't show stuff now.

Oh...houses. Your character's house is an important thing that you can upgrade. One of the options is a room that lavuishes you with praise whenever you're in it. I love it!

My concern about this game is if its very successful than it becomes the model for other games, that in order to play an RPG you have to spend (and continue to spend subscription style) inordinate amounts of money. Hopefully the free market will continue to produce traditional games despite the success of invisible sun.

Quote from: PencilBoy99;1054852My concern about this game is if its very successful than it becomes the model for other games, that in order to play an RPG you have to spend (and continue to spend subscription style) inordinate amounts of money. Hopefully the free market will continue to produce traditional games despite the success of invisible sun.

I doubt it. To much production went into this to viable for more than a few companies.

Quote from: PencilBoy99;1054852My concern about this game is if its very successful than it becomes the model for other games, that in order to play an RPG you have to spend (and continue to spend subscription style) inordinate amounts of money. Hopefully the free market will continue to produce traditional games despite the success of invisible sun.

I highly doubt this will become the norm, even for MCG. Monte had a dream to create a game like this and felt it was a good time to do so. Otherwise, they're still hammering out affordable, quality products.

"Have to" spend? Is the basic game itself not playable?

Quote from: RPGPundit;1055098"Have to" spend? Is the basic game itself not playable?

It's absolutely playable with nothing but the Black Cube. There's a LOT of stuff in it, both conceptually and physically.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1055098"Have to" spend? Is the basic game itself not playable?

That reference is to the cost of the game.  The Cube I think is going for MSRP of $250 (Kickstarter folks paid $197).  I think the concern is not so much potential supplements, but that such a premium product, if successful, might bring more imitators and inflate the cost of gaming in general.  (MCG recommended group purchases, rather than everybody having a copy).  The full rules are not available in PDF either.