What do people here think of Numenera (Monte Cook Games)? Did you have campaigns with it yet?
Quote from: joriandrake;1012492What do people here think of Numenera (Monte Cook Games)? Did you have campaigns with it yet?
Nice coffee table art book.
Nice setting; I've been into "far future fantasy" since Dying Earth and Zothique.
The system does nothing for me. Don't see the appeal.
Only ever played a pick-up game of it. Seem to recall the world was fine, but there was something about the system I didn't like... but I can't remember what.
Quote from: Caesar Slaad;1012557Nice setting; I've been into "far future fantasy" since Dying Earth and Zothique.
The system does nothing for me. Don't see the appeal.
I also like the setting, what I don't know anything about is the system. Why are you disliking that?
Quote from: joriandrake;1012621I also like the setting, what I don't know anything about is the system. Why are you disliking that?
Mostly, the attribute/resolution system. I'm not too keen on systems that have you spend points from you attributes to be good at the attribute, not am I keen on having damage and other resource pools being the same.
It also conflates short term boosts (bennies/fate points) with long term XP, but that's easier to house rule.
Quote from: Caesar Slaad;1012557Nice setting; I've been into "far future fantasy" since Dying Earth and Zothique.
The system does nothing for me. Don't see the appeal.
Seconded.
I ran a campaign of it for a while. We really enjoyed it and it was very easy to run. Everyone enjoyed the system / mechanics. The only complaint I have is that I had trouble grasping what the world was really like. While you're eating at a tavern (are there taverns, do taverns exist), does your chair turn into an intelligent robot? Why not? It's gonzo and anything can happen!
Quote from: PencilBoy99;1012747I ran a campaign of it for a while. We really enjoyed it and it was very easy to run. Everyone enjoyed the system / mechanics. The only complaint I have is that I had trouble grasping what the world was really like. While you're eating at a tavern (are there taverns, do taverns exist), does your chair turn into an intelligent robot? Why not? It's gonzo and anything can happen!
Interesting. Well depending on era and location really everything could happen
As for the system, I have no idea about it as I don't have the books yet, that's exactly why I asked about opinions, I don't know much about the mechanics except for some demo stuff I read earlier. I was invited to an online beta campaign but nothing came out of it (cancelled). My character would've been pretty basic, something like an awoken (from cryo) soldier/knight in the current time, with his full armor being an artifact (something like a power armor). In any case, I missed out on the playtest and decided to not purchase after that.
That's why I hope forumites here could give more details.
I think the rule set is fine, light to maybe mid-crunch depending on your preference, and played a few start-up games but prefer The Strange omniverse setting more.
Saw the Numenera "starter set" at my local game store today and passed on it, hoping that I could get a better feel for the game here before I spent any money on the game. For those who are familiar with the setting and/or system, can you give a few more details about it/them? What's good? What's bad?
Quote from: Caesar Slaad;1012742Mostly, the attribute/resolution system. I'm not too keen on systems that have you spend points from you attributes to be good at the attribute, not am I keen on having damage and other resource pools being the same.
That was it! Doing something you are good at means you are no longer good at doing it. On one hand, that's not unlike primordial D&D (where hp are the base mechanism of being good at combat, and unnecessary fighting means you use up your hp, so the best way to always be the best fighter is to never fight), but this system just called that out a little too much. So it was a matter-of-degree type thing.
Setting is interesting, the system kills it for me.
I also think Monte Cook's original game-designs generally are overrated. Nothing against him personally, I liken him to Brian Sanderson in fiction. I don't get the hoopla. (Though I liked Ptolus - but it's more of a well developed setting piece than some super-original game-design).
Edit: I think Monte does awesome fluff. Bad crunch.
Quote from: tenbones;1012922Setting is interesting, the system kills it for me.
I also think Monte Cook's original game-designs generally are overrated. Nothing against him personally, I liken him to Brian Sanderson in fiction. I don't get the hoopla. (Though I liked Ptolus - but it's more of a well developed setting piece than some super-original game-design).
Edit: I think Monte does awesome fluff. Bad crunch.
I agree with both points. And I did like Sanderson's WoT books far more than his original stuff.
Owned it and sold it.
The setting is kinda cool, but it is both gonzo and serious, and that is a tough buy in. Also, there is a lot for players to learn about the setting, it's very creative but there's nothing familiar. Again, it's a tough buy in.
System is mediocre to poor, IMO.
It's kind of a ballsy game, and not many try to tackle science fantasy, so kudos to Monte for that.
Quote from: Willie the Duck;1012905That was it! Doing something you are good at means you are no longer good at doing it. On one hand, that's not unlike primordial D&D (where hp are the base mechanism of being good at combat, and unnecessary fighting means you use up your hp, so the best way to always be the best fighter is to never fight), but this system just called that out a little too much. So it was a matter-of-degree type thing.
I'm trying to recall, do you 'have' to spend attribute points to be 'good' at it? I thought it was an option but is hardly required. Wouldn't Effort be more common than burning attribute points?
Quote from: Voros;1013185I'm trying to recall, do you 'have' to spend attribute points to be 'good' at it? I thought it was an option but is hardly required. Wouldn't Effort be more common than burning attribute points?
I guess maybe two people who can't really remember the game are great people to be discussing it, huh? :p
I seem to recall having to climb a rope ladder to some floating skyship, and doing so required you to spend (let's say) 1-5 dice from a pool of something like 10-20 dice from your non-combat, non-magic pool. Maybe we played it wrong, or I am remembering it wrong.
Quote from: Voros;1013185I'm trying to recall, do you 'have' to spend attribute points to be 'good' at it? I thought it was an option but is hardly required. Wouldn't Effort be more common than burning attribute points?
No, you don't have to spend points. Spending points is putting Effort into the action, which makes your chances of succeeding better or doing more damage if it's an attack. Edge reduces the amount of points you need to put in for Effort. For example, 1 level of Effort is 3 points. If you have an Edge of 2 in that stat then 1 level of Effort only costs 1 point. You just need to make some choices. Do you use your Effort to make sure you hit or do you think your chances are good enough and put it into damage.
"Powers" are also fueled by your attributes. Again though, you can use Edge to negate the cost which eventually makes certain abilities free to use every round but add another choice to the mix: do you use your Edge to pull off the special ability, make your odds better or do more damage.
The whole "doing your thing makes you worse at doing your thing" never made much sense to me. The attributes are more of a fatigue pool then anything. If you are doing routine things all day, or fighting low level enemies, you shouldn't be spending many points at all. If you are attempting something challenging or fighting tough enemies, well yeah, that's going to take something out of you. You get rests that take an increasing amount of time to refill a bit of your pools, but again, after so much in a day you are going to want to stop and get a good night's sleep.
The biggest problem we had in the game was armor. It really doesn't scale with the damage output of... well... anything. NPCs, PCs, monsters, everything eventually puts out so much damage that getting to negate 1-3 points of it isn't worth the penalties armor imposes.
I know the new "revision" of the game is suppose to address some issues of the original, but we'll have to wait and see what it actually does.
Quote from: Willie the Duck;1013237I guess maybe two people who can't really remember the game are great people to be discussing it, huh? :p
I seem to recall having to climb a rope ladder to some floating skyship, and doing so required you to spend (let's say) 1-5 dice from a pool of something like 10-20 dice from your non-combat, non-magic pool. Maybe we played it wrong, or I am remembering it wrong.
Depending on the situation, you could be right.
Difficulties go from 1 to 10. You multiply the difficulty by 3 to get your target number. Every level of Effort you put into an action can reduce the difficulty by 1, which reduces the target number by 3. Effort costs 3 points for the first level and 2 points for each level after.
If you are just climbing a rope ladder, I wouldn't even make you roll. It's a Routine task according to the book that has a Difficulty of 0.
At most I would make it a Difficulty 2 which the book describes as "Typical task requiring focus, but most people can usually do this". Rope ladders are tricky for some people. Now you need 6 or higher on a d20. Remember that skills also reduce the Difficulty by 1-2 points. So it's a good chance that you might only need a 3+ or maybe you reduce it to 0 and don't need to roll.
If it was windy or the ship was moving while you were trying to climb, maybe that would be a Difficulty 3 or 4 (TN 9 or 12). So here you may want to start spending points. So, apply any skills you have first then spend Effort. Let's go with the Diff 4 and TN 12. You have the Climb skill at 1 because there is a good chance an adventurer would, so now it's a Diff 3 (TN 9). You put in 1 Effort level by spending 3 points from Speed and now it's a Diff 2 (TN 6). If you have Edge in Speed then the cost is lowered by however much Edge you have.
So yeah, climbing a rope ladder dangling from a moving skyship took a bit out of you. Once you are on board though you can use your action to make a recovery roll and get 1d6 points back if you want.
Unrelated I know, but ... wow, an owlkitten!
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