So my friend and I sat down and rolled a completely random character using the lifepath. We came up with:

Freelancer (Capitol)
Martian Nomad
Upper Class
Clerical Education (Weak Willed)
Corporate Worker (Media Star)
Beat Cop (Nemesis)
Luna PD (Solved a High Profile Case)

That's skipping belongings and skills and whatnot, but the background that this gave us is as follows:

Hailing from a Bedouin tribe on Mars, was the child of the tribal leaders.  Showing a knack for sums and more detail oriented work was sent to the city to pursue higher education. However, away from home led being exposed to certain....temptations that were not available before.

Acter school, got a management position with Capitol, were be was tapped for a leading role in an office based reality show (think Steve Carrel in the Office, just not an oblivious dumbass). After becoming famous, got assigned a cop to play security after some disturbing fan craziness and decided that since the corp life just meant more media work that he felt to be completely meaningless, he'd become a cop.

At some point he either busted or pissed off someone that revenge was sworn before joining the Luna PD, where he gained the favor of a senior detective for work on a big case.

Currently 35 years old.

Quote from: Moracai;853191Ditto.

From what I know of him, he is the source of unnecessary and unelegant mechanics. In this case I'm looking at Momentum and Chronicle points.

Chronicle are Fate Points really, not all that different from games going back to WFRP.

Momentum is basically extra successes combined with a kind of Stunt, with the options being +1, +2 and Some Cool Thing.  Starting to get Wonky and busy.

It's Dark Symmetry Points that for me at least, stake this thing.  Pure OOC metagame narrative control.  For example, character creation above left poor Oleg Pepsi a little fucked up in the head, he always goes last for initiative, unless a Dark Symmetry Point is spent.  

In other words, when the player of Oleg Pepsi wants to, he can choose to change how Oleg works, with the full knowledge that he just really made Oleg's life harder down the line because the GM is going to throw that Dark Symmetry Point back at him for example by having that Dark Prophet shoot lightning out of his eyes (something he can only do when the GM has enough Dark Symmetry Points to power the ability).  

Yes, Virginia, if you don't want to do cool things to the story then the GM can't hurt you too bad. (and yes, the handcuffs on GMs are deliberate, and are a design goal, I can quote the designers if you really need me to).

But wait, you say, Dark Symmetry actually exists in the MC setting, it's a sentient evil force, so aren't all these choices really the players and GM "playing the Dark Symmetry character".  Ok, you wanna see it that way, I'll give it to you.

But rename Dark Symmetry to Threat and now it's in Conan. :banghead:

Does the game say anything at all about the flora and fauna to be found on the various planets?

Quote from: Caudex;854144What would happen if you were to drop the thing about buying extra dice?
I.e. you always roll 2d20.

Does that mess with too many other things in the system?

You can, thanks to Skill Focus, gain two successes per die rolled, although rare it could happen.
If you left Chronicle Points in, which are limited unlike Dark Symmetry, then you could get extra successes there as well.

In combination, a PC could then hit 5 successes, which is the hardest difficulty level, a "Luke hitting the thermal exhaust port" level of success, without Dark Symmetry.

The GM would have more work on the adversary side of things, because for adversaries, you don't get "the Red Dragon breathes fire 3 times per day, and needs 2 rounds between breath" you get "the Red Dragon breathes fire by expending a Dark Symmetry point, with an escalating Dark Symmetry point if the breaths are sequential".

Quote from: CRKrueger;855626Chronicle are Fate Points really, not all that different from games going back to WFRP.

Momentum is basically extra successes combined with a kind of Stunt, with the options being +1, +2 and Some Cool Thing.  Starting to get Wonky and busy.

It's Dark Symmetry Points that for me at least, stake this thing.  Pure OOC metagame narrative control.  For example, character creation above left poor Oleg Pepsi a little fucked up in the head, he always goes last for initiative, unless a Dark Symmetry Point is spent.  

In other words, when the player of Oleg Pepsi wants to, he can choose to change how Oleg works, with the full knowledge that he just really made Oleg's life harder down the line because the GM is going to throw that Dark Symmetry Point back at him for example by having that Dark Prophet shoot lightning out of his eyes (something he can only do when the GM has enough Dark Symmetry Points to power the ability).  

Yes, Virginia, if you don't want to do cool things to the story then the GM can't hurt you too bad. (and yes, the handcuffs on GMs are deliberate, and are a design goal, I can quote the designers if you really need me to).

But wait, you say, Dark Symmetry actually exists in the MC setting, it's a sentient evil force, so aren't all these choices really the players and GM "playing the Dark Symmetry character".  Ok, you wanna see it that way, I'll give it to you.

But rename Dark Symmetry to Threat and now it's in Conan. :banghead:

Thanks. You summarized my thoughts pretty much exactly, and even remembered to include Dark Symmetry Points; the one thing I forgot to include in my list of icky things.

The game sounds terrific. I don't get the big hair and shoulder pads thing. How important is that to the setting?

Quote from: PencilBoy99;855878The game sounds terrific. I don't get the big hair and shoulder pads thing. How important is that to the setting?

It's not at all important to the setting, but it is important to understanding how the game designers view the setting, ie. from a distance removed, through a metagame narrative layer.  MC3 is essentially a narrative genre game, where the genre being emulated is the original MC RPG.

that system.......

I'll judge it in play personally.

I'm not up to speed here, but I'll go through the rest of the chapters when real life decides to give me a breather.

Quote from: Dan Davenport;855627Does the game say anything at all about the flora and fauna to be found on the various planets?

No. I suspect the mutantflora/fauna, along with other planetary peculiarities, will be covered in supplements.

Quote from: PencilBoy99;855878The game sounds terrific. I don't get the big hair and shoulder pads thing. How important is that to the setting?

Mutant Chronicles is terrific! The actual game-part not so terrific, IMO. And I don't really get the hair either, but the shoulderpads are vital!

Quote from: CRKrueger;855936MC3 is essentially a narrative genre game, where the genre being emulated is the original MC RPG.

Brilliant! Now where's that "IP's that The Butcher likes"-image?

Quote from: Warboss Squee;855955I'll judge it in play personally.

And speaking from limited experience, it does play better than it reads.
Better might not be the same as good, but every Squee for itself.

Quote from: Warboss Squee;855955I'll judge it in play personally.

Whaaaa... You can't try something and see if you like it! You just dismiss it out of hand and assume your opinion is fact while making snide comments.

One thing I will attest to is there needs to be a solid editing run before printing. A few other bits needs some polish, but overall it looks to be fun. I never played WHFRP3, I dismissed Star Wars right off until I played it (it's now my favorite system) and a read-through makes me think MC3 will play well.

And yes, big hair and shoulder pads are a must or none of it works!

Quote from: Alderaan Crumbs;855968Whaaaa... You can't try something and see if you like it! You just dismiss it out of hand and assume your opinion is fact while making snide comments.

)

I'm trying something different today.

Quote from: One Horse Town;853049This looked really interesting, so i looked into and came across the speed-bump that is named Jay Little.

Shame. I'll leave you to your lets read.

what is wrong with Jay Little?

Quote from: remial;856062what is wrong with Jay Little?

There's nothing wrong with him. I just don't like his game designs.