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Pen & Paper Roleplaying Central => Pen and Paper Roleplaying Games (RPGs) Discussion => Topic started by: ZWEIHÄNDER on July 29, 2015, 02:41:44 PM

Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: ZWEIHÄNDER on July 29, 2015, 02:41:44 PM
http://thewitcher.com/news/view/1086

Very cool. I love the Interlock System, curious if they will be porting it into the tabletop RPG as well...
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: Anglachel on July 29, 2015, 03:44:04 PM
Oh please please please, if you have to use this old and dusty rulesset at all, use the Hero version of Fuzion (3d6) instead of the Interlock version (1d10).

I very much want a Witcher RPG, but why do all the interesting licenses always go to such ... weird publishers?! :-/
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: Crabbyapples on July 29, 2015, 03:50:25 PM
Quote from: Anglachel;845134Oh please please please, if you have to use this old and dusty rulesset at all, use the Hero version of Fuzion (3d6) instead of the Interlock version (1d10).

I very much want a Witcher RPG, but why do all the interesting licenses always go to such ... weird publishers?! :-/

The publisher choice isn't that strange or unexpected.

I am assuming R. Talsorian are using their connections with the Witcher video game developer, CD Project Red, which also is developing the Cyberpunk video game.

I am more shocked by R. Talsorian's attempt to rise from the ashes with a new product.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: LouGoncey on July 29, 2015, 06:05:39 PM
The post I read said it was to be the Fuzion system.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: The Butcher on July 29, 2015, 06:14:13 PM
Fuck it, is RTG still even a thing?

And if so, where the fuck is Castle Falkenstein? :mad:
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: thedungeondelver on July 29, 2015, 06:19:02 PM
Quote from: The Butcher;845147Fuck it, is RTG still even a thing?

And if so, where the fuck is Castle Falkenstein? :mad:

Dude, where the fuck is <$_ROLE_PLAYING_GAME> from them?  No new Cyberpunk game in god knows how long, no new Mekton, no ... grr!  

DAMMIT MIKE PONDSMITH LET US LOVE YOU!
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: Armchair Gamer on July 29, 2015, 08:37:39 PM
Quote from: The Butcher;845147Fuck it, is RTG still even a thing?

And if so, where the fuck is Castle Falkenstein? :mad:

Available in PDF and POD from DriveThruRPG.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: JRT on July 29, 2015, 08:48:26 PM
The thing I keep wondering is that there are all these spin-offs like the Witcher Comics being licensed from CDPR to Dark Horse Comics, and now this RPG...

But The Witcher series is based and licensed from the books written by Andrzej Sapkowski, and there was an RPG released in the past directly from the books--so why are these new projects licensed from CDPR instead of directly from the author?  Usually you don't sub-license a license like that.  Or am I missing something?
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: JeremyR on July 29, 2015, 09:11:09 PM
It's kind of funny though, because at least the short stories are pretty clearly based on D&D
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: tenbones on July 29, 2015, 09:42:45 PM
I will say this - there is more than just the Witcher III RPG in the works. (but don't expect them anytime too soon)

:)
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: AxesnOrcs on July 29, 2015, 09:43:30 PM
Meanwhile Mekton Zero is in editing hell....
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: Bradford C. Walker on July 29, 2015, 09:52:18 PM
It's going to be Fuzion. That should tell you all you need to know as to how well this will do. There will be a hype-and-dumb based spike of sales on release, and then it's going to rot on shelves and lie unused on hard drives because the audience will realize that they can just use fucking D&D.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: JRT on July 29, 2015, 09:52:24 PM
Quote from: JeremyR;845169It's kind of funny though, because at least the short stories are pretty clearly based on D&D

Yeah.  There's some stuff that's clearly from D&D.  Doppler is just short for Doppleganger, but even more blatant is Dracolisk which I think didn't exist until Gygax coined the term, and the Dragon Villentretenmerth is sort of a Gold Dragon / Bahamut combination.  Supposedly Sapkowski actually released a Tabletop RPG in Poland (The Eye of Yrrhedes) if Wikipedia is correct.  So I'm sure at some point he played D&D.   It's also reported that Moorcock got a little annoyed when he first heard about Geralt being called "The White Wolf" (http://www.multiverse.org/fora/showthread.php?t=10894#4)

I've heard that the books are good takes on Slavic myth and have some good puns and inside jokes as well as the character being sort of a Raymond Chandler type protagonist in a fantasy world--but that doesn't appear to translate well from Polish to English.  

While I've enjoyed both the short stories and the games, there's a lot of the fans of the games who tend to think this is the most original setting ever, and that's a little annoying--if anything, his work is a bit more derivative while I think Elder Scrolls and Dragon Age have done more to differentiate themselves from standard D&D trappings that the Witcher Games.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: crkrueger on July 29, 2015, 10:01:52 PM
This is great and all, but now that Witcher 3 is out, Projekt Red can work on the REAL project. Best videogame trailer ever! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y9711pvZkc)
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: The Butcher on July 29, 2015, 10:08:26 PM
Quote from: Armchair Gamer;845158Available in PDF and POD from DriveThruRPG.

D'oh! Thanks for the heads-up!

Quote from: Bradford C. Walker;845176It's going to be Fuzion. That should tell you all you need to know as to how well this will do. There will be a hype-and-dumb based spike of sales on release, and then it's going to rot on shelves and lie unused on hard drives because the audience will realize that they can just use fucking D&D.

My feelings, sort of.

If there's good setting info it might sell as an unofficial setting bible. But system-wise? Meh. I'd use a dozen systems before Fuzion (personally I'd go with D&D 5e or Savage Worlds. Maybe RQ6) but that's me.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: Ratman_tf on July 30, 2015, 12:50:29 AM
RTal has a deficit of rpg cred at this point. Cyberpunk 3.0, Mekton Zero in dev hell, etc.

Lemme know when there's a product on the shelves.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: selfdeleteduser00001 on July 30, 2015, 05:52:57 AM
The novels are very mainstream tabletop like fantasy, but nicely done, with a dark edge. I'd not make too many assumptions about the translated English text versus the Polish, but we could ask a Pole.

Moorcock has gone from an anarchic rebel to a pain in the ass, does he really think he invented and owns 'Colour'+'Noun'?

I used to really grok RTG and I like Fuzion lite, but Fuzion heavy is a bit of a beast for modern gamers. I loved the Artesia books and loved the rpg, but can I be bothered with grappling the system to the ground and running it when I can just use RQ or Savage? Nah.

But it can be done and I may well bite when a book hits the shelf.

In the meantime you don't need an rpg book. Buy the setting book that Dark Horse put out, read the novels and take notes.

http://v.gd/51RkWE

Then run it with your preferred dark rpg, D&D would work, Dragon Age is quite a good fit with the dodgy aspects of sorcery mapping well, and WHFRP would mesh well with the Central European vibe.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: Dirk Remmecke on July 30, 2015, 06:54:20 AM
Quote from: JRT;845164The thing I keep wondering is that there are all these spin-offs like the Witcher Comics being licensed from CDPR to Dark Horse Comics, and now this RPG...

But The Witcher series is based and licensed from the books written by Andrzej Sapkowski, and there was an RPG released in the past directly from the books--so why are these new projects licensed from CDPR instead of directly from the author?  Usually you don't sub-license a license like that.  Or am I missing something?

"Usually you don't sublicense like that?"

All LotR games (from MERP onwards) are sublicenses of the movie license.
Lots of Harry Potter merch (including card games) are Warner Bros. licenses.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: JRT on July 30, 2015, 07:46:26 AM
Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;845241"Usually you don't sublicense like that?"

All LotR games (from MERP onwards) are sublicenses of the movie license.
Lots of Harry Potter merch (including card games) are Warner Bros. licenses.

Well, I'm familiar with that because it's a Hollywood thing, but in those cases I think they are using the artwork and film--I know with Tolkien sometimes they get a separate license from the Tolkien Enterprises directly for stuff that didn't appear in the films.  

This is the first case of it being from an RPG--in most cases when this has been done, the IP was owned by the CRPG maker like Dragon Age.  

It's possible that this is based on the "look and feel" of the Witcher games, but they've licensed comics to Dark Horse, and from what I've seen the look and feel of Garrett is pretty much akin to the book.  

All this is a long-winded form of saying I really hope Sapkowski isn't getting screwed in the deal by a poor license or something like that.  Maybe I'm worried about nothing, but it's been bugging me a bit.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: The Ent on July 30, 2015, 08:05:11 AM
Talsorian rocks. Can't see why they'd do a lame franchise like Witcher though.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: The Butcher on July 30, 2015, 10:07:35 AM
Quote from: The Ent;845253Talsorian rocks. Can't see why they'd do a lame franchise like Witcher though.

I'm not a big fan but I think I see why; it's a well-known videogame franchise. It does have some potential of bringing in new blood.

Nevertheless, I expected anyone new to the hobby who picks up RTG's The Witcher RPG to be immediately turned off when faced with Fuzion. I recognize that the system may have its fans, but generally speaking, I feel licenced RPGs are better served by more accessible systems.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: AsenRG on July 30, 2015, 10:36:24 AM
The Witcher has drugs, and PCs working as deniable assets, what could be a better fit than a company that already has experience with cyberpunk?
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: Bradford C. Walker on July 30, 2015, 07:00:44 PM
Quote from: AsenRG;845273The Witcher has drugs, and PCs working as deniable assets, what could be a better fit than a company that already has experience with cyberpunk?

One that actually delivers product promised, and demonstrates that it is a current, competently-run company.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: tenbones on July 30, 2015, 10:24:13 PM
I hear the Witcher is a pretty popular franchise in Europe? Eastern Europe? Can our residential Euro-badasses confirm? I heard the books were... okay.

Anyhow - the reason they're doing Witcher is because they're partnered up for CP2077 which they're spending the next year working on.

So in the meantime...
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: RPGPundit on August 01, 2015, 02:51:19 AM
Quote from: JRT;845164The thing I keep wondering is that there are all these spin-offs like the Witcher Comics being licensed from CDPR to Dark Horse Comics, and now this RPG...

But The Witcher series is based and licensed from the books written by Andrzej Sapkowski, and there was an RPG released in the past directly from the books--so why are these new projects licensed from CDPR instead of directly from the author?  Usually you don't sub-license a license like that.  Or am I missing something?

Was this a Polish-language RPG?

Do you know anything about what the mechanics were like?
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: kobayashi on August 01, 2015, 06:26:09 AM
Quote from: tenbones;845406I hear the Witcher is a pretty popular franchise in Europe? Eastern Europe? Can our residential Euro-badasses confirm? I heard the books were... okay.

In France the books seem to be successful, I have no hard numbers to provide but :

_all the novels so far have been translated (I read a lot about the english translation being awful though). This usually doesn't happen if the books don't sell well (The Laundry books translations didn't go farther than the second volume for example). Last book was published in may 2015.

_The Dark Horse artbook/worldbook based on the game has been translated as well (whereas the Dragon Age books aren't while the games are also quite succesful here).
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: Dirk Remmecke on August 01, 2015, 09:14:25 AM
Quote from: tenbones;845406I hear the Witcher is a pretty popular franchise in Europe? Eastern Europe? Can our residential Euro-badasses confirm? I heard the books were... okay.

In Germany The Witcher computer game seems to be big. We had a booth in the same hall as the Witcher publisher at Gamescom in Cologne (2013), and there was always a big commotion around the booth.

I am not sure if all those gamers read the stories, though. The books are published by one of our more respected publishing houses (dtv), not the ones known for fantasy literature.

I read the first two books and I really loved them. They convinced me (once more) that the ideal format for the fantasy genre is the short story, and not the "endless trilogy" format that has infected our publishing culture.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: AsenRG on August 01, 2015, 02:41:13 PM
Quote from: tenbones;845406I hear the Witcher is a pretty popular franchise in Europe? Eastern Europe? Can our residential Euro-badasses confirm? I heard the books were... okay.
Confirmed for Eastern Europe, though I haven't got hard data.
The books are much better than simply okay.

Quote from: RPGPundit;845676Was this a Polish-language RPG?

Do you know anything about what the mechanics were like?
The game is based on a book series written by a Polish author, with the original title being Wiedzmin, and only after it was popular, they made a PC game for it.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: Kuroth on August 01, 2015, 02:49:52 PM
Finally would be able to make my own character, rather than play Geralt.  So, that is something.  Don't like that part of that otherwise ok game.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: Christopher Brady on August 01, 2015, 07:15:07 PM
The issue I have with The Witcher series is all the stupid politics.  :D  Seriously annoying.  But I can accept that they're a reality.  And at least there, there's enough of a 'good/evil' axis that even if a bad person does some good things, there are still reasons to remove that person from the fantasy genepool.

And I just want to make a Witcher of my own, not play Geralt.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: jan paparazzi on August 02, 2015, 08:28:36 PM
And it's gotta have mechanics for sex! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56mHyC5m1qo)
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: 3rik on August 03, 2015, 02:03:51 PM
I might be interested in a Witcher RPG, but this Fuzion system doesn't sound like an awful lot of fun. They should do an OQ or BRP based one.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: Imperator on August 04, 2015, 04:12:53 AM
Quote from: tenbones;845406I hear the Witcher is a pretty popular franchise in Europe? Eastern Europe? Can our residential Euro-badasses confirm? I heard the books were... okay.

Anyhow - the reason they're doing Witcher is because they're partnered up for CP2077 which they're spending the next year working on.

So in the meantime...
In Spain both the books and the videogame are popular. The books are very good, IMO: not LotR-good, or Leiber-good, but very good. I recommend them.
Title: R.Talsorian Ggames working on The Witcher RPG
Post by: crkrueger on August 04, 2015, 05:42:11 AM
Quote from: jan paparazzi;846141And it's gotta have mechanics for sex! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56mHyC5m1qo)

Sounds like a job for Apocalypse World.