Quote from: tenbones on January 12, 2022, 11:35:57 AM
But would anyone actually play a Forgotten Realms WEGd6 edition?

Yeah, I'd play that. I ran Primeval Thule Mini Six for a year and it worked great. I can imagine leaning into FR-specific tropes and turning down the D&D-isms.

Quote from: tenbones on January 10, 2022, 12:07:26 PM
Mechanics or Setting - What sells a game to you?

The first thing I do is quickly read the chargen, skill check, and combat sections of a book before I decide to buy or not. If I don't care for the die mechanics, I'll pass on the thing no matter how great the setting may be.

What really sells a game to me is how it executes it's premise. I would give a chance to a silly premise that's realized in an interesting or evocative way by it's rules. Eg: Maid, Fiasco, D&D. But I would never give a chance to a game with awesome setting but rules that feel like generic ruleset number 237 (or worse). And no, I wouldn't adapt it to other ruleset either because these days I don't time nor patience for this.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll on January 16, 2022, 02:48:23 AM

Quote from: tenbones on January 10, 2022, 12:07:26 PM
Mechanics or Setting - What sells a game to you?

The first thing I do is quickly read the chargen, skill check, and combat sections of a book before I decide to buy or not. If I don't care for the die mechanics, I'll pass on the thing no matter how great the setting may be.

For you - and others that do this -

How often do find yourself getting close enough to not being sure - but buy it with the intention of giving it a test-run?

Quote from: tenbones on January 17, 2022, 05:59:51 PM

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll on January 16, 2022, 02:48:23 AM

Quote from: tenbones on January 10, 2022, 12:07:26 PM
Mechanics or Setting - What sells a game to you?

The first thing I do is quickly read the chargen, skill check, and combat sections of a book before I decide to buy or not. If I don't care for the die mechanics, I'll pass on the thing no matter how great the setting may be.

For you - and others that do this -

How often do find yourself getting close enough to not being sure - but buy it with the intention of giving it a test-run?

I've done this several times. Sometimes to good effect, others not so good. I went into the 2d20 Conan KS blind, with  the examples from the KS as an indicator as to how the system worked. No prior experience with 2d20 mechanics at all...

Then I received the books. And hated the system completely after thoroughly reading it. But I received all of Wave 1 and had a ton of books that I wanted nothing to do with after reading the core.

So I got it in my head to keep the maps, sell the books, and use Savage Worlds for the system instead. Then SWADE came out and I'd really love to use that and am waiting for the Fantasy Companion update.

Edit: I was disappointed that the SPC was their first choice for an updated companion. Still got it, though.

Quote from: tenbones on January 17, 2022, 05:59:51 PM

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll on January 16, 2022, 02:48:23 AM
The first thing I do is quickly read the chargen, skill check, and combat sections of a book before I decide to buy or not. If I don't care for the die mechanics, I'll pass on the thing no matter how great the setting may be.

For you - and others that do this -

How often do find yourself getting close enough to not being sure - but buy it with the intention of giving it a test-run?

Sort of opposite for me: occasionally I spot or hear about a single mechanic that I'll buy a book to check out more fully for. I don't necessarily intend to test the system as a whole -- more likely just crib the one mechanic -- and I don't need the game's mechanics overall to be "close" to something I want to play.

Quote from: tenbones on January 17, 2022, 05:59:51 PM
For you - and others that do this -

How often do find yourself getting close enough to not being sure - but buy it with the intention of giving it a test-run?

I'm nearly always a late adopter, even on things that I have reason to believe that I'll actively play.  For something that is somewhat iffy, that I might do a test-run with, I'll check reviews, previews, etc. first.  However, my default is "pass".

I'm not an early adopter. I used to be.

Now - I watch from a distance. A cool buzz about a setting will definitely get me to look. But if the system doesn't hold up that setting well or has silly mechanics that are too cooked into the game to ignore or easily fix - I'll ignore it.

Recent purchases that are not mechanically universal for me.

FFG Star Wars - I've got PUH-Lenty of threads on this forum with me sniffing around it, and eventually checking it out. To my utter shock it worked very well with me and my group, playing it RAW. I've figured out flaws with the internal mechanics (crafting is not quite what I want) - I've come to enjoy it for what it is.

Symbaroum - Really cool setting. Mechanics seem to support the game. But I'm not sold on them. I did pick it up though.

Alien - Setting is shockingly good - in fact I look at it as a near perfect synthesis (discarding a lot of the silly shit in the movies by giving it a nod and moving on to more interesting shit). The system looks much better - but it's an unknown as I've not executed on it yet. Free League is a company I'm keeping my eye on, I'm digging their style, but I'm not sure on their mechanical design.

CPRed - Disappointment. Their "streamlining" seems to have thrown parts of the baby out with the bathwater. It's not so much that they overdid it - but they underdid it. They went for low-hanging fruit that ultimately changed the flavor. No gun-porn? BOO. Fixable.