Also open to anyone else who has the game obviously. Maybe Third Eye Games could make an appearance.

What are the mechanics like?

Is the timeline intrusive?

Can you ignore the timeline?

If you ignore it, is it a case that the game falls apart (ie the mechanics are linked to the timeline)?

I gather from the bits i can find that it's not really a 'build a hero' game but more like choose a Strain (almost a superhero class really, like Blaster, Tank etc). Is it limiting? Personally, i think it sounds like a good idea, sometimes you can get 'analysis paralysis' in supers games (and point build in general).

I also gather that the power level starts quite low and raises to slightly lower. Is that correct?

Anything else you fancy telling me!

Nothing seems to tie the timeline to the mechanics. AMP:Year Two just adds a few new powers and advantages, mechanically.

As far as intrusive? Well, no. Not mechanically. But three god damn quarters of the book seems to be a fucking almanac written by aliens who seem to think 1 year is a lifetime.

I can't recall the basic dice mechanic off the top of my head, but powers:

Yeah, there are six 'flavors' of hero, including 'physical guy' and 'psychic guy', but you get three individual powers, so you can play mix and match. There are advantages to sticking to your strain... total power levels and xp costs as I recall, but mix and match seems to be pretty common.   At the default, despite pre-built power trees it does seem to offer a decent amount of choice, but I imagine over long running games you'll quickly see everyone with any given tree pretty much will wind up with... all the tree, so there is that.  

Hmm... well, each Strain seems to start with roughly six trees to chose from, some are dumber than others, and AMP Year Two doesn't offer new strains, so the total number of possible trees is flexible. BUt you need Year Two for gadgets and 'non-super' characters worth a damn.

Quote from: Spike;942652As far as intrusive? Well, no. Not mechanically. But three god damn quarters of the book seems to be a fucking almanac written by aliens who seem to think 1 year is a lifetime.

Thanks mate. The bit quoted above is a bit scary. I was kind of expecting maybe 20 pages explaining the meta-plot, but 3/4 of the book! :eek:

Well, mine's a PDF, but I don't think its a very big book, if that helps.

Well not quite 3/4 of the book.  Hyperbole abounds.  
Chapter One: Year One - Major events of AMP: Year One = pages 11-37
Chapter Two: Forged In Fire - Character Creation Rules and Options = pages 35-73
Chapter Three: Strains and Powers - Details on Super Abilities possessed by AMPs = pages 74-163
Chapter Four: Superpower Systems - Mechanics behind AMP: Year One = pages 164-197
Chapter Five: Put to the Test - Antagonists and Enemies = pages 198-235
Chapter Six: The Immersive World - Info for telling stories in AMP: Year One = pages 235 -245

Game is based on a d20, If you can play D&D AMP is a nobrainer
Page 164. Two-Skill Checks
The DGS-Combo System uses a combination of Skills to complete tasks. Most tasks are performed by rolling 1d20 (one twenty-sided die) and adding the character’s relevant Primary and Secondary Skill Levels being used during this check. Compare the total to a Difficulty (target number) determined by the GM based on the circumstances surrounding the characters’ current place in the story. The Skill check is successful if it meets or exceeds the Difficulty. For every 5 they roll over their Difficulty, the player receives a Boost (pg. 166) for additional positive effect.

Page 8 Rolling the Die
> Two-Skill Check: Most checks are made by taking the value of two different Skills, putting them together and then rolling 1d20 to get your total check. For instance, Repairing a computer would require Crafts (to show you are fixing it) and Technology (because of what you are fixing).
> Single-Skill Check: Sometimes only a single Skill affects the outcome. In this case, the player receives x1.5 of the value for their Skill to perform the check. For instance, throwing a straight punch uses the Fighting Skill only. If the characters had Fighting 4, they would actually roll 1d20 with a +6 bonus (4 x 1.5).

There are 9 strains with 6 powers(sets) to choose from, A character can have up to 3 different powers(powers cost more if outside your strain)  Powers have have augments and tricks
Example
Travelers
> Barrier (pg. 155): Create force fields
> Chronos (pg. 157): Manipulate time itself
> Flight (pg. 159): Soar through the air
> Portals (pg. 160): Create linked doorways between locations
> Telekinesis (pg. 161): Move objects with one’s mind
> Teleportation (pg. 162): Instant travel from one location to another

Looking at Barrier
Barrier pg155
Check: None.
Range: (Barrier + Discipline) x5 ft./x10 ft./x20 ft.
Duration: (Barrier) Rounds
Resistance: None
Core Ability: AMPs with Barrier creates invisible force fields, able to act as walls or other useful things. To start, the AMP receives (Barrier/2, rounded up) as Temporary Integrity at all times, reflecting their power’s ability to protect them instinctually.....

Augments pg156
Enhancements
> Bigger and Better (E1): Double the sizeof the force field.
> Durable (E1, +1 per Juice): Barrier is more durable, providing AR 1/1 for 1 Juice. They can raise this up to AR 5/5, adding +1/+1 per additional Juice spent.

Tricks pg156
Platform (T2)
Check: Barrier + Crafts
Range: Core Ability
Duration: Scene
Effect: Must have Slowed Descent. Makes a floating platform to elevate others or float through the air. This platform travels at +5 Movement and holds up to (Barrier) x100 lbs.

Cheers mate. Looks like about 40 pages of meta-plot then. I can live with that.

Quite tempting really, it's available on Amazon for a reasonable price at the moment. Year 1 and year 2 for around 30 squid.

Quote from: One Horse Town;942651Also open to anyone else who has the game obviously. Maybe Third Eye Games could make an appearance.

What are the mechanics like?

Is the timeline intrusive?

Can you ignore the timeline?

If you ignore it, is it a case that the game falls apart (ie the mechanics are linked to the timeline)?

I gather from the bits i can find that it's not really a 'build a hero' game but more like choose a Strain (almost a superhero class really, like Blaster, Tank etc). Is it limiting? Personally, i think it sounds like a good idea, sometimes you can get 'analysis paralysis' in supers games (and point build in general).

I also gather that the power level starts quite low and raises to slightly lower. Is that correct?

Anything else you fancy telling me!

I'm not a big fan of the timeline either.  It's okay for a supers game, but it's just way too fast for my tastes.  Yes, you can ignore the time line.  We stretched the timeline out almost a decade.

A Blaster who has the Bolt power set(think Cyclops) Their Bolt does 5B at rank 10(max) [true this is base and yes you can add juice to increase damage and blah blah]
vs
Pistol(light) 3B
Revolver(heavy) 6B
Shotgun 8B

Quote from: One Horse Town;942651Also open to anyone else who has the game obviously. Maybe Third Eye Games could make an appearance.

What are the mechanics like?

Is the timeline intrusive?

Can you ignore the timeline?

If you ignore it, is it a case that the game falls apart (ie the mechanics are linked to the timeline)?

I gather from the bits i can find that it's not really a 'build a hero' game but more like choose a Strain (almost a superhero class really, like Blaster, Tank etc). Is it limiting? Personally, i think it sounds like a good idea, sometimes you can get 'analysis paralysis' in supers games (and point build in general).

I also gather that the power level starts quite low and raises to slightly lower. Is that correct?

Anything else you fancy telling me!

We played through all of AMPS Year One premade adventures after i kickstarted AMP Year 3.

We put the bulk of our thoughts up here
https://atrusilk.podbean.com/e/amp-year-one-off-topic-final-thoughts/

The jist is that AMP is basically "Indie Aberrant". Like where it doesn't take homage from it carbon copies directly from WhiteWolfs Cronenberg Superhero game Aberrant and does absolutely nothing special with it. You have a metaplot and a barrel of Important NPCS that the game disincentives you from mucking about with and that further books make apparent are Important and are Necessary for the proceeding books to work properly. The factions are carbon copies of the factions from Aberrant. like the "Good Guy" faction literally gives out helpful drugs that secretly sterilise the superheroes because of reasons. Just like the main Good Guy faction in Aberrant.

This could have been exciting because Aberrant is Old Now so a game that fills its unique niche would have brought something to the table, but then it didnt change up anything and shortly after Onyx Path proclaimed that a second edition of Aberrant was coming out.

The powers are highly ad hoc for balance and power. My PC was able to take "Turning water to wine" and make us an infinite amount of pure LSD, Nitroglycerine, and Sulphuric Acid for whenever the situation demanded it. a later errata from the developer changed "Water to Wine" to "You can change the colour, taste, and odour" so if we ever played again that character goes from a broken level of utility to kinda useless.

There isnt a lot of framework for guessing what new powers should look like due to the above mentioned swing-eness of how the powers are written.

As for the adventures. They were all right. We wanted to play them because we never use premade material and wanted to see what the AMP material looked like. Many can be solved in an hour with the right set of PCs, and others have that Scripted Conclusion factor written into them where your choices dont matter that much and stuff happens off screen that your characters never find out about but you may and make you feel resentful.

It needs an editor, a second edition, and for the metaplot to be condensed into a single book so you dont have to guess whats going to happen next and ruin the metaplot. Because your obviously playing for the Metaplot if your using this and not another superhero rpg.

Interest waning. No, scrub that. Interest dead.

Haha. Seems like I arrived too late.

Let me know if you want to discuss further.

EDIT: I will clarify that 26 pages of the 256 pages of AMP Year 1 relate to the timeline. So its roughly 10% of the book.

Quote from: One Horse Town;942683Interest waning. No, scrub that. Interest dead.

That's too bad.


 
The Aberrant connection is so thin it's useless, like to the point that every supers game is a version of aberrant.
The "Good Guy" faction doesn't sterilize AMPs.  The sterilization is a side effects after x amount of treatments and that is only for their faction.  If you are not part of their faction you don't have to worry about it.  
Sure they give you premade NPCs, like every frelling games out there does, then OMG, they use those premade NPCs in their game.  WTF are they thinking?
Water to Wine (T1)
Check: None <-this is the problem
Range: Touch, (Water) x10 gallons
Duration: Permanent
Resistance: None/Fortitude
Effect: Must have Water Walking. Change the makeup of water in any way they wish. Changing water to wine is the most famous, but they can also use this to purify stale water or turn the water into a poison that deals 3B damage if ingested.

Super powers have always been swingy, what one group finds as subpar another group finds overpowered, all depends on the individual groups.

Quote from: One Horse Town;942683Interest waning. No, scrub that. Interest dead.

We really wanted to like AMP. I kickstarted it even at year 3. But the fun we had (and there was a  lot of fun) had more to do with us making the best of an aggressively neutral tool set. I even was reached out to by other backers and game runners from Year 1 and they let us know that they're experiences mirrored ours. The game apparently wants to be something else but it never accomplishes that. The worst thing that happened was Aberrant coming with a second edition because it absolutely invalidates any of the niche or relevance this game could have occupied or grown into.

The game needed to give you the whole metaplot first, for a few reasons.

One is that you cant really fuck with the NPCs without risking them being crucial later, which means your players need to do what the NPCs want or what the book says is the best way to go because if you want to commit to the whole metaplot then certain dominoes need to be setup. You really can only play AMP for its Metaplot when Year 5 comes out so you can read it all ahead of time and know how to adapt. And if you decide to ditch the Metaplot then why are you playing AMP? The Setting and Metaplot are 80% of the gameline.

Two is you cant make informed decisions about what your Superhero is going to be before all the mechanics are released. Year 3 introduced being freak mutants ala aberrants from Aberrant (yes with a low case 'A', the weird high taint mutants Novas can become are called aberrants) and more powers. but you only get Three power selections ever it seems like. So if in Year One you pick all three then its very vague on if you can ever pick up more later or change them, it feels like your "Build" is done. Thats why my PC only ever took Water Control. We thought of going all the way to year 5 and i had this feeling i should hold out in case better abilities get released. (The vision i had was of the character eventually mutating into a catholic water hydra serpent, old school dragon that believed he was from the garden of eden because he was /crazy/). So your hands are tied for advancement until all five books are out if you dont have a very clear vision at the start of what abilities youll take. and the rules really make it feel like you cant buy more then 3 power trees.

The Juice (your fuel resource for powers) feels like a less polished Fate Economy. You get them for being dynamic, they eventually bleed off, theres a limited number you start with, major powers need them. So its like the game is incentivising you to stunt ala Exalted but either you make a character that almost never needs Juice to pull off his abilities or you are pulled towards building one that can quickly accrue juice to end the fight because theres a fair amount of lethality in the game.

It has a very rough feel over all. I think it would have been a hit maybe 15 years ago but many of the things AMP tries to do feel like they have been done already.

Quote from: Skywalker;942688Haha. Seems like I arrived too late.

Let me know if you want to discuss further.

Your thoughts are still welcome, old chap!

Maybe someone else will benefit from them.

Quote from: One Horse Town;942651What are the mechanics like?

The base system is roll d20 and add two stats. There is no attribute and skill divide, just 20 stats. Difficulties are 10, 20, 30 etc.

I find the base system to be simple to use. The only hurdle for me was the need for two stats in each roll. The idea is to promote creativity with rolls but it can be tiresome. Fortunately, you can still use one stat at x1.5

Quote from: One Horse Town;942651Is the timeline intrusive?

Can you ignore the timeline?

If you ignore it, is it a case that the game falls apart (ie the mechanics are linked to the timeline)?

The timeline takes up 10% of the first book and around 20% of the supplements.

The game is very setting light as its just our world today. For some that is a feature and others a bug.

The timeline works to provide an example of the setting in action and provide many story seeds. If you want to stick to it 100% then this will prove difficult, but given the power level no PC action should make it entirely redundant.

The factions in the setting all come out of the timeline, but factions have little impact on play or mechanics, so they can be used as inspiration or ignored.

The timeline also provides a vehicle to introduce new mechanical concepts that fill out the system such as power suits. This means that AMP Year Three can be useful mechanically even if you ignore the timeline.  

Quote from: One Horse Town;942651I gather from the bits i can find that it's not really a 'build a hero' game but more like choose a Strain (almost a superhero class really, like Blaster, Tank etc). Is it limiting? Personally, i think it sounds like a good idea, sometimes you can get 'analysis paralysis' in supers games (and point build in general).

I also gather that the power level starts quite low and raises to slightly lower. Is that correct?

Yes. Power level is low and superheroes have limited power themes.

I am a fan of exception based powers. I don't like free-form play or effects based powers (I have a damage power which I reskin as a fire attack or heat vision etc) as seen in M&M. I like my powers to have a defined effect. I think AMP Year One does a good job of breaking down broad powers into various effects that allow for both customisation and, more unusually in a super RPGs, advancement.

As such, the appeal is that you can play a more traditional RPG storyline with AMP with the PCs starting as normal people and developing powers that grow in power over time. Given that I struggle to run super RPGs generally given the genre assumptions, this ground up approach is good.

As Tavel George says, its not perfectly balanced or groomed. 3ED is a one man band with add-ons, but I think that the mechanics are a relatively solid base. I particularly liked how definite mechanical effects that were applicable in play were given for more usual powers like dream walking, time travel etc.

Quote from: Sommerjon;942690That's too bad.


 
The Aberrant connection is so thin it's useless, like to the point that every supers game is a version of aberrant.
The "Good Guy" faction doesn't sterilize AMPs.  The sterilization is a side effects after x amount of treatments and that is only for their faction.  If you are not part of their faction you don't have to worry about it.  
Sure they give you premade NPCs, like every frelling games out there does, then OMG, they use those premade NPCs in their game.  WTF are they thinking?
Water to Wine (T1)
Check: None <-this is the problem
Range: Touch, (Water) x10 gallons
Duration: Permanent
Resistance: None/Fortitude
Effect: Must have Water Walking. Change the makeup of water in any way they wish. Changing water to wine is the most famous, but they can also use this to purify stale water or turn the water into a poison that deals 3B damage if ingested.

Super powers have always been swingy, what one group finds as subpar another group finds overpowered, all depends on the individual groups.

Not only is the sterilisation from the first dose on but its a drug they give out to every AMP they encounter as a Gift. They have a strong mirroring of Project Utopia from Aberrant. Most factions mirror a faction from Aberrant. Its not a superhero thing its that AMP is a Croenenburg Horror story masquerading in the skin of a Superhero game, which is Exactly what Aberrant is. The problem is it doesn't do much at all to differentiate itself from that game.

Quote from: AMP Year OneConspiracy #2:
The Choice
When the Seekers of Enlightenment offer AMPs a choice, what is it they are choosing? An AMP is given the choice between two injections, one that takes away abilities after about a day and a second that boosts their immune system to fight off possible mutations involved with the process of developing powers. Both are harmless, but unbeknownst to anyone except those in Doctor Luminous’ trusted circle, it may not be exactly as advertised. The blue vial offers a chance at a normal life. It stops the aggressive DNA realignment caused by becoming an AMP and returns the person to being just a normal human. The injections need to be administered quickly, as they become almost useless if performed too long after frst signs of powers. The red vial, however, is given as a courtesy. The AMP who has chosen to accept
their new way of life is warned of the possible mutations that are all but inevitable, and this shot is important to stave off these terrible side effects. Both serums, however, are mixed with radioactive iodine to track the position of any AMPs the Seekers have contacted, as well as a fertility reducer making it almost impossible to reproduce. The red serum has a half-life of about six months, so regular visits are suggested. It is the hope that Doctor Luminous will soon be able to solve the mutation and remove the need to keep AMPs from reproducing.

Now granted the very last line says Dr Light /hopes/ to one day not have to secretly sterilise the people coming to him for help in good faith but then again Hes the ostensibly Good Guy Faction that helps the new mutants with thier powers while having a Dark Secret about controlling them for The Greater Good. Which is Project Utopia. That isn't the only blatant parallel to draw.

granted i take it in good faith that none of this was intentional so much as either the creators wanting to put a new spin on a neat game concept. Aberrant basically created a niche of dark conspiracy superheroes and had a good chunk of Social Media prediction in it. But if AMP is supposed to live in this niche it needed to do more to not only distinguish itself from Aberrant but also have enough content that holds your interest beyond its Metaplot.