I recently put together a beta playtest version of a sci-fi game I've been working on, and would be interested in getting some feedback from the community.

I have made it available for download for free from DriveThruRPG...

Book 1, the Rules:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/252250/Irregulars-Core-Book-1-The-Rules-Beta-Playtest

Book 2, Hardware:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/252252/Irregulars-Core-Book-2-Hardware-Beta-Playtest

Any and all comments/feedback/opinions/suggestions will be welcome  

Here's my thoughts;
1)   The first thin\g I look at is the character sheet. This one is terrible. The green color reminds me of mint ice cream (not in a good way). It's boring. The skills area is too busy. 4 pages is a lot for the basic character sheet.
2)   Strength of Mind should be Resolve...
3)   The D8 is in interesting choice... Also, will not be common for people to have 20 lying around.
4)   Dice pools over 10 are cumbersome and annoying.
5)   OH MY GOD THE GREEN IS EVERYWHERE. Apparently, you hate human beings. Which, I totally understand... your choice of colors is a bad way of exterminating us. I would devise a biological weapon using this color and change the color in the book. Please. I prefer a fast death.
6)   The strange poser art is horrible. I mean, it hurts my feelings just looking at it. You would be better off ditching the crap poser art and go artless until you can afford some art. It's really super bad. Save up $1000, hit the intertubes for freelancers and go hog wild.
7)   Why the need for base stats AND prime stats? It really seems arbitrary... Can you increase prime stats to get better at prime stuff? Are their skills that increase your prime stat stuff? So confusing.
   I like the idea of Strike Value and Target Numbers. With a pool of d10's this mechanic could be nifty (closer to 1st edition Vampire). I like how the Strike Value is based on your skill ranks.
9)   Also, overflow is a cool idea/term.
10)   Well, critical failure math is not broken, so kudos on the "rolling half or more" ones AND rounding up on the half. If ones cancelled out Strikes, we couldn't be friends anymore.
11)   You should count every two dice over a pool of 10 as an auto-strike. Then the additions/multipliers thing is icing on the cake.
12)   Combat is detailed, and some thought went into it. Crunchy but not tedious.
13)   Wound system is a save like system with levels, location and deterioration. Very gritty, detailed and leaning on the complicated side. But not as crunchy as GURPS.
14)   Ahh, Fatigue rules. Definitely leaning on the gritty side here...
15)   Detailed skill list. Crunchy!
16)   Psionics! Also. Crunchy!
17)   Creature Creator. Nice touch. Looks... scientific.
18)   Just perused the Hardware book. TONS OF STUFF!! Crunchy. Gear. Porn.

Well, I thought this was going to be a train wreck when I first downloaded it BUT I was pleasantly surprised. Crunchy, well detailed labor of love here. Here are my "level up" suggestions.

1) Create one beta book regardless of the size of it. Offer if on Google Drive or something. Don't abuse DTRPG with your beta release.
2) Use different colors and NEVER use that green again. Ever.
3) Ditch ALL the artwork. Make the BETA without art.
4) Hire an editor.
5) Find 3 groups of playtesters. Offer them a $50 Amazon gift card and a free copy of the finished book. Then playtest it for a year. I imagine it's going to look a little different after that, but you have a bunch of good ideas here that just need some polish.

After you tune it up, hire someone to do a real layout.

Also, with what you have, with some polish, you could crowdfund this for say $2500, and wrangle up all the professionals I just suggested for your freshman offering. Not yet however. It needs more polish.

Good luck! Keep going. You're already further than many of us...  :-D

Thanks for that! Exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for, lots of good points for me to consider as work goes on  

Hi.  I intentionally didn't read the post above me before I looked at the game cause I didn't want any sort of confirmation biase when I was looking at it.  There were some issues and there were also some things I thought were pretty cool.

Fist off.  I think there might be a bit too much going on here, at least for my taste, but if I were looking for a sci-fi game it would be a mark against it.

At first, I thought that 10 base stats was too many, but then you kinda saved it when you combined those to form the prime stats.  On the one hand I feel like that was genius and on the other hand, I feel like, why not just simplify it down to the prime stats from the beginning?  I dunno.  I have mixed feelings about it.  

Next I feel like there are way to many skills.  Normally I see this in games going for a super nuanced and detailed scale.  But then not of you choices just say that you get +1 in all these skills.  So you even loose the nuance.  If I were you I would simplify it. One of my most favorite games of all time is alternity and it had a ton of skills.  But they are broken down into groups and your class just gives you cheaper access to skills from specific groups...for the most part.  The Battle Star Galactica gives you a few very basic skills, with the option to specialize at higher levels.  Either of these options could do what I think you were trying to do better.  

Also.  You seem to have a very generous opinion about military training.  In basic training for the navy for instance, you "learn" fire fighting, damage control, first aid, small arms. Pass a super simple swim test and a pretty simple fitness test.  Its honestly more about teaching you how to dres yourself than do anything actually effective.  Of course the different branches are going to focus on different things. Once you get into specific rates and jobs it gets a lot more specialized.  

Also, I noticed you seem to equate air force with pilot.  In the actual airforce only a few small percentage are pilots and the rest are support crew and technical people.  I would expand your description of that branch or just rename it "fighter pilot" or something like that.  Also keep in mind every branch has an air wing.  Even the marines have fighter pilots and bombers. As well as helicopter pilots. All that being said, actual pilot culture in the different branches are pretty different from one another, so there is some merit to keeping them separated by branch.

I kinda liked your core rule set and I though the inclusion of awards and medals was really neat for a game like this.

The art was kinda neat.  Not sure if you are going to keep these or if they are not place holders.  I would maybe put some sort of generic background on them so that they aren't just floating in white space though. Look at the old console rpg phantasy star 2 and its battle screen for an idea of what I am thinking of.  I did like how they started out in their skivies and then were in full gear after they've got their career going.

Also, the character sheet is confusing and hard to follow.  Is it supposed to be mint green?  I thought something was wrong with my screen for a bit.  But even with the color, there are a lot of initials and abbreviation on it and honestly my brain just sort of gave up on it after a second or so.  Simplifying the system a bit might help this a lot.

But then again, I kept getting the impression that this game was made for people who arnt me.  I felt like I was listening to a type of music I am not familiar with.  Like I recognize the parts and kinda saw how they fit together, but it didn't come neutral to me, so it could just be that I am unfamiliar with this type of game so it feels off to me but someone else could jump right in.  

That's just me though. Best of luck.
-James

Also, didn't see any kind of administrative skill to cover things like paperwork. This is an often overlooked aspect of military life that I huge.  Like stupid huge.

Need to file an after action report?
Request gear?
Get special clearance?

A guy good with paperwork is a godsend to a unit.  They are basically wizards.  You ask for stuff. And stuff arrives.  Magic.

Need to explain that you didn't commit international kidnapping....magic.

I would relegate all skills like administration and knowledge to "background" skills that enhance other more "active" skills. Most players don't want to deal with mundane activities.

Quote from: trechriron;1057533I would relegate all skills like administration and knowledge to "background" skills that enhance other more "active" skills. Most players don't want to deal with mundane activities.

Totally fair.

Thank you for your comments
I really appreciate anyone taking the time to look over the game and post their thoughts.

Quote from: JSS;1057551Thank you for your comments
I really appreciate anyone taking the time to look over the game and post their thoughts.

I get it, getting feedback on a project is hard.  Even if you choose to throw out everything I said, I hope it was at least helpful in the sense that you considered it and chose to not do it for a reason that makes sense for your game.  I hope that makes sense.