tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2600947515654238699.post4140829377728560158..comments2024-03-09T19:23:22.482-03:00Comments on The RPGPundit: RPGPundit Reviews: Machinations of the Space PrincessRPGPundithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17267330191433119298noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2600947515654238699.post-15560867129514734042015-01-29T04:28:28.419-03:002015-01-29T04:28:28.419-03:00No. I regularly repost old blog entries about once...No. I regularly repost old blog entries about once a week. It was just this one's turn. RPGPundithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17267330191433119298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2600947515654238699.post-56314622651025754302015-01-29T02:34:21.259-03:002015-01-29T02:34:21.259-03:00(originally posted November 28, 2013)
Why the rep...(originally posted November 28, 2013)<br /><br />Why the repost? Is there a controversy I'm missing or something?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08759499976909882483noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2600947515654238699.post-12962687328001799142015-01-29T02:34:16.736-03:002015-01-29T02:34:16.736-03:00(originally posted November 28, 2013)
Why the rep...(originally posted November 28, 2013)<br /><br />Why the repost? Is there a controversy I'm missing or something?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08759499976909882483noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2600947515654238699.post-32132508615011600212015-01-28T21:08:13.172-03:002015-01-28T21:08:13.172-03:00I agree that SWN is really well-written, but I hav...I agree that SWN is really well-written, but I haven't run it yet. I haven't run Machinations, or Hulks & Horrors yet, either. But of these, in the campaigns I have been running (of other games) I've made use of the SWN book only for the random name tables so far. I've made use of Machinations only for the random carousing tables. But Hulks & Horrors I've used quite a bit, for generating sci-fi dungeons.<br /><br />Make of that what you will.RPGPundithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17267330191433119298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2600947515654238699.post-19907354144810333712015-01-28T21:06:13.670-03:002015-01-28T21:06:13.670-03:00To me, RPG character creation has to be either ver...To me, RPG character creation has to be either very quick or REALLY interesting (usually involving some kind of well-done traveller-style lifepath system). If it's not fast and not interesting (usually involving point-buy or choosing 4 feats from a shopping list of 250), then it's bad. It's especially bad if the character you spent 4 hours making has a high chance of dying in the first combat of the game.RPGPundithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17267330191433119298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2600947515654238699.post-19366888518733392692015-01-28T19:45:12.877-03:002015-01-28T19:45:12.877-03:00This is going to read worse than I mean it, but I ...This is going to read worse than I mean it, but I feel like the art is the only new thing here. All the mechanics are just passed around at this point, but the art is totally worth buying the book for.<br /> Look, I really don't know why SWN works so well, but if you need an OSR sci-fi ruleset, that's the one. <br /> Then again, I'm one of those annoying people who think that Traveller and CoC don't count when it comes to the OSR, 'cause you can play the currently published edition with pretty much any other edition. (Well, except Traveller TNE, but that shit was sacrilege right there!)<br /> I guess I was posting about Machinations when I started, but I think I lost some focus there! :PCaleb Collinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12858260507123306044noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2600947515654238699.post-59787374401934035692015-01-28T18:48:10.463-03:002015-01-28T18:48:10.463-03:00Hmmm...a pretty good review, although I've nev...Hmmm...a pretty good review, although I've never understood the complaint about how long character generation takes. I supposed if you regularly play pick-up games, or you've got a fairly ADHD group that wants to play a different game every time they get together, then you'd want to be able to get through that part quickly. In theory, excluding character death, character creation should happen once and that's it. Since I started playing 30+ years ago, we've always had a "first night" where we all get together, hang out, create characters, drink, carouse, get to know each other better, and pretty much end with "Ok, you're sitting in a tavern when..." or whatever trope is being used as a cliffhanger for the following week. <br /><br />Now, agreed LotFP character creation is very fast, but from what I've seen of the published adventures, there's a damn good reason for that: it seems the main point of LotFP is killing characters as often as possible. :)<br /><br />I made the mistake of putting together a group of players to try out MotSP late fall last year, and then the holidays hit and we all got sidetracked. Anyway, the players created their characters fairly quickly, and there wasn't a single one that was significantly over-powered than any of the others. I did have one guy try, and although his giant, undead character with poisonous flesh was pretty tough with an extremely high STR & DEX, he had more than enough disadvantages to balance it all out (such as not being able to fit through many doors. We got around that by saying since he's dead, he can just disassemble himself as needed.).<br /><br />In the end, I've decided I REALLY like the race creation system in MotSP. My biggest complaint about modern games is the shear volume(s) of books with nothing but minor variations on this class, race or spell. A system like that in MotSP makes all of those unnecessary because you can create an infinite set of races with a few short pages of options. I will probably adapt it moving forward for other games.<br /><br />As for "old school", no, the character creation system isn't old-school D&D, but I tell you what it precisely reminds me of: Villains and Vigilantes. That was the first superhero RPG I ever played, and after playing that one, every other has seemed unnecessarily overly-complex. In V&V, pick a couple of powers, boom you're done. It once took my two days to try and convert my V&V character over to Champions because of all of the nuance that was involved. In terms of character creation, choosing race aspects in MotSP may seem complex on the face of it, but I find it to be the opposite.<br /><br />The "sexy"? I guess you had to be a pubescent teenager sneakily buying copies of Heavy Metal magazine back in the day to fully appreciate what he's going for there. :) This one doesn't quite have it, but it's come a shit ton closer than anything before.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18120667008441889262noreply@blogger.com