Quote from: ForgottenF on January 02, 2023, 07:37:29 PM
EDIT: Ironic that this came up around the same time as the James Raggi thread. It looks like Helveczia is going for a similar tone to a lot of LOTFP products, and I have a similar problem with that game. I bought Carcosa a few years ago, and I still think it's an impressive product, but I've never run it, because I know what a hard sell it'd be to the players I have available to me.

A lot of RPGs are like that - they're sold on concept. It's fun to read about them, the idea, but when you think about how you'll get a group together to play it, it starts being unrealistic. I feel that way about Wolves of God - fortunately Kevin Crawford made it a very entertaining read, because that's likely all I'll ever do with it.

Quote from: migo on January 18, 2023, 08:11:25 AM
A lot of RPGs are like that - they're sold on concept. It's fun to read about them, the idea, but when you think about how you'll get a group together to play it, it starts being unrealistic. I feel that way about Wolves of God - fortunately Kevin Crawford made it a very entertaining read, because that's likely all I'll ever do with it.

I think this has to do with the fact that a lot of really cool story concepts make lousy games, like you said. I was reading Megaverse in Flames last night because I want to start a new Rifts game and yeah, this is cool, but wtf...how would you ever run this? The PCs would have about zero percent chance of doing anything significant, so what's the point? Grandiose ideas where the players have no impact are boring; might as well just write some fan fiction or something. Games where you're a viking and Ragnarok is about to happen so everything is so gloomy and fatalistic...BORING (looking at you, Yggdrasill). For all its faults, D&D at least has the possibility of the PCs becoming super badass and an actual challenge to the main antagonists, even demon lords and whatever.

Yeah. Robin Laws talked about this with Ashen Stars, how he feels the Star Trek crew with a hierarchy works really badly in an RPG context. Prime Directive with the Prime Teams actually solves it to an extent too, and it benefits from not being allowed to follow proper Star Trek canon. Having a hierarchy, the conflict that develops, someone deciding whether to follow an order or their own conscience, great story. Gamers would hate having to follow the order of another player. Or if there's a mythology, if you're playing a Robin Hood RPG, you're almost stuck being destined to split the arrow, if you're playing Robin. That's not nearly as satisfying as having something like that happen organically in a game not tied to any specific mythology.

Bit players are always more enjoyable to play, at least at the start. You gotta have something to strive for! You're not Hamlet, you're Rozencrantz or Guildenstern. If your Rozencrantz become the King of Denmark, you've earned it and it must have been a very satisfying and epic campaign. 

Quote from: Melan on January 18, 2023, 07:46:24 AM
Hey, thanks for the thread! Good to see the game is appreciated.

ForgottenF: If you ordered it from my store, I should have sent you a PDF link via DriveThruRPG (I do this when processing orders, so it may take a day or two). The e-mail sometimes gets filed as junk mail, so check your mailbox. Otherwise, just contact me at beyond.fomalhaut@gmail.com and I will resend it.

Now that's what I call prompt customer service! The DrivethruRPG emails came through today, so I'm downloading my PDFs to enjoy while I wait on the hard copies 

Quote from: Jaeger on January 01, 2023, 05:27:09 PM
HELVECZIA by Gabor Lux, is an OSR RPG set around the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, in a reimagined historical Switzerland.

Forgot to say thanks for posting this.

Thanks!

Facebook links expire after about 3 weeks, so the pics have all gone. Maybe upload to Pinterest?

Quote from: Jaeger on January 01, 2023, 05:27:09 PM
HELVECZIA by Gabor Lux, is an OSR RPG set around the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, in a reimagined historical Switzerland.

And it has a nifty Alignment system I haven't seen repeated anywhere else.

It comes in a boxed set, and is a complete game: 204 pg. hardcover rulebook. 70 pg. softcover setting guide with key areas keyed to the hexmaps, and a 32 card playing card deck:

Character Sheet:


On to Alignment:

Your "Alignment" is actually a 0-21 Virtue scale.

At the end of every session you take stock of your PC's actions and are assigned a number of points by the GM that move you up and down the Virtue scale.

The seven Virtues and Seven Cardinal sins are used a Guidelines by the players and GM to measure the PC's actions against and assign a point value:





As you can see one's virtue score can effect your saves and attacks - but at trade offs in other areas of the game.

Clerics and students are the two "spellcasting" classes in the game. (Cleric, and Student. There are also Fighters, and Vagabonds.)

Your Virtue score not only effects what spells that a PC can cast  - but it also determines who spells can be used against, and their potential effect. 

Here is an example of the type of spells in the game, and as you can see from this and the previous examples; Setting flavor is not something to be found lacking in the Helveczia RPG:



I really like that while this game only goes to six levels - Helveczia clearly delineates exactly what those levels mean for PC's and NPC's in the context of the game world:




Even the Saving throws get the Gabor Lux treatment:




Here we can see the proof that WotC would never have anything to do with this game:



Want to play a Gypsy, Jew, or an intolerant Dutchman?

Helveczia has you covered.

There is also the whole thing the game does where you can use a deck of playing cards, or a copy of the Holy Bible during play as meta mechanics.

The only thing I've seen even remotely comparable to Helveczia in terms of setting flavor integrated into every aspect of the rules is Lion and Dragon.

Anyway, any questions and all that - I'm here all week...

*EDIT* Aaron the Pedantic did a flip thru review a while back:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv6VYpXw4PU