Here's a game that does MORE THAN JUST ONE OR TWO OF THE THINGS IT PROMISES TO DO! (According to the description on the website.)
And, amazingly, most of it is available for free. Most. Like, they hold back a few pages here and there, I think.
I was sold when I saw the advertising:
"It would take a typical gamer weeks to fumble through the rules and attempt to play."
Check it out, yo:
Web Archive Link (original page down)Who's brave enough to play?
Comments
This site makes me question everything.
I have always prided myself on not being a dirty-hippy gamer. But, every time he wrote "master gamer," it made my skin crawl. I don't think there are levels of mastery in RPG gaming. Is that wrong? Does that mean I am a dirty hippy in denial?
Oh god, wait til my parents find out...
Dave M
You may or may not like this aspect of D&D, but it's still an acceptable design goal.
Also, I remember reading a psychology-of-play study that showed how play among young boys often naturally incorporates themes of mastery and dominance. Even when boys are asked to play cooperatively, they will watch each other for signs of confusion or poor strategy, and show their partner how to play "correctly," giving proof of their own mastery of the system. If you're selling a game to males, building an reward for mastery into your system isn't such a bad idea.
Not that I'm saying MetaScape II is any good. Ye gods, no.
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=354033 Not only that, they claim to hold a patent on it.
Edit: Ooh, found this: Ultimate Power Roleplaying SuperSystem. That... can't be real?
Did you catch that the game uses a proprietary d16? Every player needs one as does the GM, $4 a piece from their site. Incredible!
Bet they didn't count on an Elite Gamer (one rank beyond Master) coming along and breaking their revenue model!
So like one could say something like, "I'm glad the character sheet has room for 12 weapon slots. Because most games I play pussy out and only have like 3-5. Which doesn't let me bring my character 'Saberblade McGunDuffle' into its system." Sure. That's some low hanging fruit.
But, I challenge you to find the good stuff in the game. Frex, I honestly do like the concept of the set GM Rewards to the players (the Cards Ver 2.0.2 file).
For a while, I thought that this was another RPG that was suffering from a case of testostrone poisoning. Then I recognized it. Metascape 1 came out in 1993. The company that made it must have had more money than sense, because they had taken out an ad in an issue of Dragon Magazine that they had out on not one, but several pages. The whole thing just totally turned me off.
Which doesn't nullify the oxymoron of a 4-page character sheet. If I can ever get the time to read the rules and get them down I will DEFINITELY play this game IN A HEARTBEAT. And then, if I have fun, I'll play it agin. Anyone for a Metascape part at Gen Con this year?
Bow before the Master Gamers!
No, it doesn't. The probability curve is different, as is 5d4-4.
Here's what I'd do: use a d20. If a result comes up 17+, punish the roller.
I've actually got a d16, as well as a d24. We "should" play this at Camp Nerdly!
I'm really charmed by the indieness of it, as well, though I'm "charmed" at least as much by the use of the wrong tense throughout the copy. "Has ran" is not something we say in English.
(Cross-posted back a few)
Edit to give credit where credit is due: Earthdawn. That is all.
OOOOH I BET THAT BURNS!
Can't... CONTAIN...
So, yeah. Tell me how to do THAT with other dice! (well, apparently, they say how to do it in the rules, which i'm not willing to look through. that's cool. also, now that i look at it again, i note that it actually says every player and the GM should have one "to more easily" play the game. Not that they're actually required.)
Also, Andy, yes: it's hardcore indie. Sure. I guess. I mean... part of me wonders, given that a good chunk of the blather about what it means to be a "master" is centered on whether you've designed an award winning module or worked for one of the, oh wait, sorry THE biggest RPG company in the world. but... even so... ugh. i just... i just can't take it seriously. because it takes itself SOOO seriously, and yet the website has absolutely atrocious editing. I mean, I really don't think anyone has ever looked over the thing for basic readability and typos. My favorite one is right at the beginning after the "warning" that it's for "master RPGers" and the author then says "At least we can now present the rules with a clear conscious." A. Clear. Conscious.
I believe that there is good stuff in it. I really do. I mean, assuming it's true that 20 or so people have been playing it for 15 years, I really hope it's a great game. But I'm also pretty darn sure it's not the game for me, and if the text they've written specifically to sell people on it hasn't sold me, I'm not going to look at a 600 page document to be sure I'm not wrong.
I think I'll avoid a game currently undergoing thousands of rules tweaks. Besides no one can beat D02. It know no limit!
Seriously, you are WAY too forgiving.
Jesse
Hey! I just thought of something: if it was supposed to be 1-16, you could use a graphing calculator with a random number generator on it to "roll." Hell, you guys are pretty sharp: you could probably figure out how to do the whackadoodle custom d16 thing on a graphing calculator too if you worked at it.
Not me though. I thought my d10 + d6 would work, so that shows what I know, hehe!
I didn't know it was possible to layout the SEQUEL edition of your game worse than the first one, but they pulled it off.
Awesome.
Looks like something you'd find on a senior center bulletin board (Ice Cream Social on Tuesday. Dentures optional.)
Here's some sample text from the free cards (yes, GMs get cards to play)
What a NISH?
GM Award
Award:
Next Round, you get to tie the best Nish rolled by
the players.
GM Award
Award:
You regain 1 luck box now. If you have all, then
your first luck roll is free.
GM Award
Award:
Your next Atk hits.
GM Award
Award:
Your next Defense is at +100 to the roll.
WE used to do this in high school. I'm sure a lot of people here have tried it as well. Actually, we even wrote a game where you had to use your calculator as random number generator. We thought that this thing with discreet numbers gives far too little resolution, so we just used the calculator to make a number between 0 and 1 with a ridiculous amount of digits.
Oh, it was such a great game. (No, not at all.)
:-)
Edit: That is, the same curve as a normal d16 labeled 1-16. Their d16 is some crazy layout, which is probably impossible/impractical to emulate with another set of dice.