I just got in on a group that's playing Reign. It's the same group that'll be playing in my Werewolf game I mentioned on here a little while back (alternating GMs).

I don't really know what to think of the system so far (it seems interesting but I'm generally system-ignorant), but I like the idea of the PCs being in control of a "company" and building it up. The guy running it said it's good for "A Song of Ice and Fire" type games.

What else...?

Ah: I don't think I'm a fan of the setting and I'd be happy to pay a reduced price for a print of just the ORE with the rules from Reign added.

What do you folks think about the game? And what other games are out there that are built with the same premise?*

* I ask this while being, as I said before, system-ignorant. I usually only stick to a few generic systems (Savage Worlds, Fudge) and occasionally WoD for my gaming needs, hammering out modifications for whatever I want to run.

I think it´s the WW-crowd take on strategic gaming. As that, it´s succesful.
Personally I´d say it´s way to shallow, and lacks the foundation of true strategic gaming: detailed, meaningful ressources & building blocks; grand picture/top level model that provides lower and upper limits.

Quote from: Settembrini;247854I think it´s the WW-crowd take on strategic gaming. As that, it´s succesful.
Personally I´d say it´s way to shallow, and lacks the foundation of true strategic gaming: detailed, meaningful ressources & building blocks; grand picture/top level model that provides lower and upper limits.

I tend to prefer rules-lite gaming, but different strokes for different folks you know.

If that's what you're saying.

And I don't really know what strategic gaming in this context is supposed to be. Care to enlighten?

I've only read Reign, not played it and it looks from the forums that there are some niggly elements that need house ruling about companies such as initiative.

That said I think the company system in Reign has a really good framework for modelling the feel of characters having access to a range of resources from a nation to a secret society without having to worry about all the little details. This does mean I think it needs a dash of common sense.  20 small villages shouldn't take on the Empire - instead they would need to work their way up from the local knight to a duke and so on. The rulebook talks about this but doesn't make it to clear, so I suppose thats a weakness but one I'm prepared to live with as games with detailed resource management send me to sleep. If that makes me a WW crowd then I suppose so, but it seems to me just one end of the spectrum.

I personally really like the setting which does try and do something different while not going completely gonzo. The last fantasy setting that appealed to me like that was TORG's Aylse realm but that was almost too different

Quote from: jswa;247860And I don't really know what strategic gaming in this context is supposed to be. Care to enlighten?

I was mainly commenting on tha company-rules, as I see them as the unique selling point of reign.

In regards to ORE in general and the specific setting, there´s definitely reasons for liking them.

The random character generation system is really quite nifty.  I'll be participating in a campaign using Reign next week.  We've made up our characters but haven't actually played yet and chargen was fun.  I started a thread down in The Craft of Gameplay and I'll be posting down there once we get playing.

*post deleted* was thinking of the wrong game

I've read Reign and prepped for a campaign that kind of fizzled before it got off the ground.  Overall I liked the concept and, with the exception of some holes, the execution.

As for what other games are similar, my mind immediately turns to Birthright. In fact, I kind of see Reign as Birthright done right.  Birthright was so tied to D&D mechanics and modes of play that it never quite felt right to me, even though the concept of the game appealed to me.  That is one reason I was jazzed about Reign out of the gate.

Another option for this kind of "high-speed, low-drag" simulation of complex organizational interaction would be Chris Engle's Matrix Game.  I've used it to run traditional style RPGs and high level political/military/economic simulations. You could easily do something that combined both.  This web site has a pretty concise summary of the Matrix Game structure, although the system used is an older version of the game.


TGA

I haven't read Reign - I have an allergy to ORE - so I can't comment on the game. I did write a game where the PCs control a company though: In Harm's Way: Wild Blue. The company is a modern mercenary company. The PCs control the resources, acquire assets, negotiate contracts, and then go in and kick ass.

-clash

Quote from: jswa;247840What do you folks think about the game?

I thought it was an overhyped dahling. The company rules were interesting, but I was expecting them to be meatier and, you know, more full of rules.

Seanchai

I heard that gravity in the setting is variable depending on the area you are. Any truth in that?

Quote from: JongWK;248537I heard that gravity in the setting is variable depending on the area you are. Any truth in that?

The direction that gravity acts in varies, the strength of gravitational doesn't.

The default REIGN setting - which is so easily ignored I had no hesitation about not using it for my own REIGN campaign - consists of two continents shaped like human beings lying side-by-side in the ocean. The flash animation on the main REIGN page is a useful diagram for visualising this. When you're on one of the continents, gravity is aligned so that "down" is always "towards the side of the continent you are standing on"; when you're on the ocean, it's "towards the bottom of the ocean". This means that piers have to be built at right angles to the ground, and when you go on them you have to endure an abrupt gravity shift.

It's fucking idiotic weirdness for the sake of weirdness; I think REIGN would be the best game out there if the default setting weren't such a blot (as it is it's a fantastic system which is easy to adapt to other settings, so I can forgive it). Stolze has put out in one of the (free) supplements an alternate map of the setting that's designed to fit with more conventional geography.

Quote from: Warthur;248568It's fucking idiotic weirdness for the sake of weirdness; I think REIGN would be the best game out there if the default setting weren't such a blot (as it is it's a fantastic system which is easy to adapt to other settings, so I can forgive it). Stolze has put out in one of the (free) supplements an alternate map of the setting that's designed to fit with more conventional geography.

Let's just put it this way:  I was cheerfully preparing to run a campaign with the rules and I never even noticed this "feature" of the default setting, which I ignored.  As Warthur says, the game system is not explicitly tied to the setting,  although as I recall the magic systems provided in the book were pretty setting-specific which was annoying.  Stolze may have provided a more generic version of the magic rules, but I haven't checked in on that for a while.


TGA

I was into it when I first got it, the rules I mean, never dug the setting but as others have pointed out it is easily ignored.  After playing a few sessions my enthusiasm waned, the system is a little too light for my tastes and not as smooth running in places as I would like.

I'm not happy with the organization of the book. For reasons I can't figure out, I had a difficult time with character generation because I kept not being able to find anything.  I think Stolze favours a more book-like style, where people just read from beginning to end.  But I like my chargen done in modules or easily visible chunks, with all the steps laid out on one page and then references to the deeper rules.

I think my character is neat and I'm psyched to get him into the world (which I think will happen next Tuesday) but the process was not as pleasant as it could have been.  I had a similar problem with Nemesis, actually, but that at least didn't have setting info in every other chapter.