Quote from: Brand55 on July 31, 2024, 01:32:36 AMThe books still are, though it's been a bummer having to deal with Butcher letting the series lie stagnant with little progress the past decade. We used to get a book roughly every year, but the pace of new releases has slowed way down to a new story every 4-5 years. I'm starting to have doubts that it'll ever be finished. The way things are going, it could take another 30 years for it to reach the conclusion.

He lost me with Peace Talks. After nearly triple the normal wait I get a novel with a huge opening and a piss poor "oh, my brother" plot.

Yeah, no.

Quote from: Brand55 on August 01, 2024, 11:07:26 AMYeah, I decided some years ago when I was running the original Dresden Files game that if I ever ran another campaign in that setting, I'd just use Angel + Ghosts of Albion and fill in the cracks as needed. Angel gives you the basics of supernatural creature creation, and GoA has a freeform magic system that could be adapted to Dresden's magic system fairly easily.

The nice thing about Cinematic Unisystem for Dresden that the others (except FATE) don't do well is making sure people other than the central character have something to do, which they needed for Buffy.

I don't have GoA. What does it add I don't already have with Buffy and Angel.

Quote from: PulpHerb on August 04, 2024, 10:12:16 AMHe lost me with Peace Talks. After nearly triple the normal wait I get a novel with a huge opening and a piss poor "oh, my brother" plot.

Yeah, no.

Peace Talks/Battle Ground were pretty divisive. I have a friend who was really upset with the big death in BG, and I think my biggest issue was the new Denarian. I'm not spoiling just in case you ever pick the series up again.

Quote from: PulpHerb on August 04, 2024, 10:15:45 AMI don't have GoA. What does it add I don't already have with Buffy and Angel.

Freeform magic. If you have The Magic Box for Buffy you don't need it, but the system is expanded and some more options are added.

Quote from: PulpHerb on August 04, 2024, 10:15:45 AMThe nice thing about Cinematic Unisystem for Dresden that the others (except FATE) don't do well is making sure people other than the central character have something to do, which they needed for Buffy.

How well does that mechanic actually work? It seems the solution is "they have extra hero points, but they're bad at stuff so they have to use them up, also there's no way for them to get more."

In re Dresden Files, I really liked the first couple of books - I loved the whole Noir Detective thing - corruption, double dealing, and an outclassed protagonist who kind of out-clevered his opponents. Then the power level kept going up, which is fine but not really my thing.

I would love to see a retroclone of Unisystem that collects all the different subsystems in one place and revises the presentation. I have no shortage of ideas for urban fantasy and conspiracy thriller settings inspired by the abandonware classics of yesteryear.

Cinematic Unisystem works very well for characters of different power levels, in my experience. A few things should be kept in mind. First, "weaker" archetypes aren't useless; they can still be very good at stuff, they just don't have as many points to throw around at character creation. Second, Drama Points can be gained a number of ways, not the least of which is being purchased with XP (and they only cost half as much for the weaker characters). And last, DP do more than just adding bonuses to rolls. They negate damage, allow for details to be added to the scene, and even let characters survive otherwise fatal scenarios. So having plenty of DP to throw around is a big help. Being able to bring in details in a scene is especially useful when you have a creative player who can make full use of it.

As for the Dresden Files, you should probably be glad you dropped it when you did. The power level is way beyond what we saw in the first few books, and it's likely only going to get higher.

This thread makes me want to take another look at Witchcraft. But as someone pointed out, I wish there was a Fae component.

Quote from: Aglondir on August 04, 2024, 09:25:46 PMThis thread makes me want to take another look at Witchcraft. But as someone pointed out, I wish there was a Fae component.

WitchCraft originally released in the late 90s/early 2000s before the old style fairies came into vogue in urban fantasy. Maybe if a new edition was written, but the rights are tied up.

I just bought this if you're curious: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/479971/wine-dark-nights

I will give it a read and then share my thoughts

I backed Wine Dark Nights, but was ultimately very disappointed with it. It is so rules-lite it is barely a game.  There is not much at all to the game other than a hunger mechanic.

Quote from: Batjon on August 23, 2024, 03:12:31 PMI backed Wine Dark Nights, but was ultimately very disappointed with it. It is so rules-lite it is barely a game.  There is not much at all to the game other than a hunger mechanic.

This is more or less how I feel. It's got rules, but there's no settings. There's only a very sparse implied setting and no options to modify it. It's not even explained if sunlight hurts vampires.

The only particularly original aspect is that skills are divided into predator and prey skills. Prey skills are capped by your humanity stat. Your current hunger applies a bonus to your predator skills. There's a rage stat, separate from hunger, that you can roll instead of another stat.

There's hit points (called "coil"), an age stat (this actually represents a combination of time and experience, in other words it's blood-potency), and a rank stat measuring status in the vampire community.

It's definitely a lot simpler and abstracted compared to ST.

According to the discord, the dev would only be interested in writing a setting book if it sold well enough to justify the effort. Figures.

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on August 04, 2024, 03:17:41 PMI would love to see a retroclone of Unisystem that collects all the different subsystems in one place and revises the presentation. I have no shortage of ideas for urban fantasy and conspiracy thriller settings inspired by the abandonware classics of yesteryear.

Yeah, that would be epic.

Quote from: Batjon on August 23, 2024, 03:12:31 PMI backed Wine Dark Nights, but was ultimately very disappointed with it. It is so rules-lite it is barely a game.  There is not much at all to the game other than a hunger mechanic.

How lite? When you say, barely a game ,could you elaborate a bit?

I like lite-rules but nothing that makes a game unplayable.

Ta'.

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on August 24, 2024, 07:51:26 AM

Quote from: Batjon on August 23, 2024, 03:12:31 PMI backed Wine Dark Nights, but was ultimately very disappointed with it. It is so rules-lite it is barely a game.  There is not much at all to the game other than a hunger mechanic.

How lite? When you say, barely a game ,could you elaborate a bit?

I like lite-rules but nothing that makes a game unplayable.

Ta'.

It looks playable to me so far, but it's bare bones, abstracted, and generally indie.

It has rules for social ranking and social interactions, including favors, allies, enemies, competitions and conflict. Older games left this up to roleplaying, but this is one of those games that provides concrete consequences and rewards for different types of interactions.