Anyone seen this ?

Looks like a mixture of Dishonored, Fallout and Hunter. The full game can be downloaded free from the link.

Cool idea, maybe a bit one dimensional? I haven't read the thing yet of course. Edit, aaand just saw apocalypse world system in there. What a pity. Still might be worth stripping out the useful bits of the setting.

Just read the whole thing and... wow these 4 pages oozes more setting and style than all Gurps books released all time together. ( ) Characters are "rail-cleaners" employed by the Empire to hunt spirits in the "electro-rails" that link together distant cities of a post-cataclism Steampunk world.

About the system, I like Apocalypse World, but if its not your cup, I think its perfectly replaceable for any other class-level based one, really (even D&D could do the job, I think). Its just 4 classes:

The Owl analyses the ghosts
The Anchor attracts and resists them
The Rook fights them
The Spider tricks and subdue them

(it seems its allowed to multiclass too)

One cool thing I noticed is that there seems to be a goal of making the characters retire from the job (that looks real harsh BTW - if I get it right, the characters take damage and "trauma" really easy here).

EDIT: oh, and found a nice fan pic..

Quote from: silva;633099Just read the whole thing and... wow these 4 pages oozes more setting and style than all Gurps books released all time together. ( ) Characters are "rail-cleaners" employed by the Empire to hunt spirits in the "electro-rails" that link together distant cities of a post-cataclism Steampunk world.

Stylish, yes. But how many people really want to play railroad workers who do nothing but battle ghosts? I mean, it sounds like they took that episode of the Ghostbusters cartoon and decided to base a whole game on that premise.

Yeah... I'm just not getting it.

Sorry.

Glad you enjoy it though

QuoteStylish, yes. But how many people really want to play railroad workers who do nothing but battle ghosts?

Jeremy, Ive only read it superficialy, but I got the impression that "cleaning the lines" is just one of many endeavors open to the characters.

The "rumors", "patrons" and "side jobs" tables suggest the cities are full of possibilities:

AW is a storygame. Moved.

Thank you! This is awesome stuff. I will be stealing much goodness from here for something more trad than AW.

Quote from: JeremyR;633102But how many people really want to play railroad workers who do nothing but battle ghosts?

I do! I'm not seeing long term campaign, but great one shots and a cool mini-campaign.

I like that D6/D6 charting and I'm gonna steal that too.

Well, Im a bitch for steampunk games. I loved Arcanum for PC, and Im loving Dishonored right now (in fact, I bought it after looking at Ghost Liners) so its no surprise that Im in love with this one.

About its "narrow scope" resulting in limited campaigns, I dont agre with it at all. Its the same case as Shadowrun (or any other game where the characters have a specific "job") really. The point is not what the characters do for a living, but whats around them - the world, their contacts, NPCs, factions, all with their own plots and ambitions for the players to entangle with. (and fuck look at the above table! Its a treasure trove of hooks! ).

Also, this game reminds me those great D&D campaign boxes (like Dark Sun and Planescape) with a strong premise but only broad strokes on the world, with the rest kept purposedly blank for the players to fill.

So, my group will play it this weekend. I ll try to post our impressions later.

One thing I noticed is the lack of the most iconic AW move, the "Act Under Fire" one (on sucess you do it, on half-sucess you do it but with some complication/GM gives you a hard bargain, on failure shit happens). Its really strange, Ill try to contact the author about it.

Apart from the Joy of Sex Moves, the weird/silly stat names (Cool, Sharp, Damp, Pointy), and this thread derail, what is it that puts people off about AW?

Its author is Vincent Baker.

The fact that the man designs are actually original, get lauded everywhere except here, and get surprisingly good sales numbers (for indie games), makes Pundit and sympathizers want to eat their hearts out.

And one time somebody fucked a cabin boy in the throat in an official playthrough of one of his things.  Let's not forget that and how shocking it is to see that come from an author whose first game was "Kill Puppies For Satan."

Quote from: This Guy;637817And one time somebody fucked a cabin boy in the throat in an official playthrough of one of his things.  Let's not forget that and how shocking it is to see that come from an author whose first game was "Kill Puppies For Satan."

I'm not talking about the man or Poison'd.

I don't know whether that incident occured in a game under his GMship. Certainly I wouldn't want to share a table with that, but that's been discussed many times before.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;637819I'm not talking about the man or Poison'd.

I don't know whether that incident occured in a game under his GMship. Certainly I wouldn't want to share a table with that, but that's been discussed many times before.

Many, many, many, many, many times, yes.  But some people don't like AW because of the author and his other shit.  Odds are that Poison'd would have come up.  Now it has, people can clutch their pearls in horror at the memory, and we can move on.