I assume it's a half baked knockoff of a half baked edition, with no genuine improvements? Frankly this is my first time hearing about it.
Tell me why it's better than d&d 3.5; eclipse: the codex persona; and gurps.
What does this game do better (given the understanding that 5e does everything worse).
Post the pdf for a link to it, and I will give my take on it.
It’s the system Hasbro cooked up for their transformers, power rangers, GI Joe, and horseshit games. They were all over the share thread a long time ago.
They’re all poorly edited trash. IIRC the first one that came out was borderline unplayable but they got slightly better with each later book. Not good, but not as bad.
I still don’t understand why they made a whole new publishing arm for it instead of making WotC do it. Probably would have came out marginally better.
Yeah, the 4plebs link wasn't working when I checked an hour or two ago to get my hands on it. I still wouldn't mind having a pdf of it for my personal records.
Hasbro didn't cook it up, Renegade Game Studios isn't part of Hasbro, as far as I can tell. They've made a relatively well received Power Rangers Board game so they might just have the licenses for the three properties? It's kinda of a bizarre situation, but not that much, I doubt Essence20 could ever capture even a fraction of a percent of what D&D is pulling in. Plus, with the recent slew of layoffs, it seems like Hasbro wants to run Wotc as a skeleton crew anyway.
Better to take a deal licensing the rpg rights out than to spend the money in house to try and rework 5e for power Rangers AND transformers. It's why renegade also got the heroscope license after Hasbro failed to get enough interest to be made.
It's pretty solid for a class based Transformers system. The editing is pretty bleh, albeit not nearly as bad the PRRPG, but otherwise it's good. It diverges pretty heavily from 5e too. Initially E20 was just in the 5e SRD but they realised that was dumb and rebuilt a lot of the system. Worth a read to see if you're into it at least.
I think the 5e basis is more marketing and origin than anything in the system itself really. It's not got much of 5e that 5e doesn't have in common with most d20 games and it's got a fair few bits that are sufficiently unique to it.
A bit odd since it's a d20 shitbrew Hasbro licensed out
Their Transformers books have a lot of very bad probably AI art
Pretty sure it's all just art from the comics and books.
I found it extremely disappointing. Most of my issues are with how lacking character customization is, such as your alt mode being strictly tied to your background and the fact the classes and equipment list are very D&D-esque (that is to say, fixed equipment + bland classes with little in the way of actual customization). It really doesn't help the game's chances with me that before E20 was even a thing I had put together my own Transformers system that I've run a couple times and improved upon since. I see no reason to run Transformers E20 over my own game.
>such as your alt mode being strictly tied to your background
That's only sort of true, and the way it's true is how the setting work, and the way it's wrong is just a weird thing to imply. Your Origin defines your Alt Mode. Which is more or less just "your alt mode implies X function". Champions were built for speed and style, but what they did with it has little to do with that choice. Your "background" in a way most people would understand that in TTRPG terms is your Influence. Are you an Inventor, Security, a Racer, etc. Those two things are independent. A Racer Champion might be the most obvious pairing but you can pick whatever you want, and then whatever class you want on top of that.
[...]
[...]
[...]
That image is particularly funny because it's the wrong Steeljaw. On the Renegade Discord, the dev in charge of the book said he ordered the pic and the artist did the RiD Steeljaw instead of the Autobot cassette Steeljaw. But they decided to leave it in for lols.
I wish I was kidding.
It doesn't make the art better but it's an easy mistake to make
>Champions were built for speed and style, but what they did with it has little to do with that choice.
I.e., in D&D, elves are pretty good at being ranged/finesse fighters, rangers, and rogues due to having an innate +2 to Dexterity, but that doesn't mean you can't roll up an elf cleric or elf druid.
Likewise, a Seeker (alt-mode of a plane, like Starscream) gets a bonus to Speed and so are probably best suited to being a Gunner or a Scout, but nothing's stopping you from being a Scientist instead (like Starscream).
It's a way better take on 5e than it has any right to be but it's massively held back by the editing in the books. If that was cleaned up all three of those games would be very very good.
>probably AI art
Probably not, actually. Trust me, I've tried to get AIs to draw Transformers, specifically Starscream, but the only thing it seems to be able to do is Optimus Prime.
I think the 5e basis is more marketing and origin than anything in the system itself really. It's not got much of 5e that 5e doesn't have in common with most d20 games and it's got a fair few bits that are sufficiently unique to it.
[...]
Pretty sure it's all just art from the comics and books.
>probably AI art
Probably not, actually. Trust me, I've tried to get AIs to draw Transformers, specifically Starscream, but the only thing it seems to be able to do is Optimus Prime.
>You're seeing what you want to
I'm literally describing the image. There are too many mistakes to boil it down to simply a bad artist. Cope and seethe all you want, slopgay.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Anon, the reason I think you're being moronic is because AI is actually a huge problem. Attributing everything you don't like to AI is only beneficial to AI art.
>le wiki maymay!
Nevermind that it's talking about an entirely different concept, redditspacing moron.
3 months ago
Anonymous
It really isn’t. Transformers, especially the original cartoon, is *famous* for its animation errors, to the point that the very first frame of the very first episode has them.
Hell if I were making a Transformers comic or TV show I’d put in a few deliberate errors just as a reference to that fact. At least if the thing I was doing was G1 based, which the RPG broadly is.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Actually come to think of it I’m gonna be running a Transformers game at some point in the not to distant future, set between seasons 2 and 3 of the G1 cartoon. I should probably start thinking up ways I can actually work in “animation errors” for shits n’ giggles. Like gice Ramjet Starscream’s voice for one scene only or something.
3 months ago
Anonymous
Cartoon Action Hour is based around emulating Saturday morning cartoons. Simpler system, but a good alternative if Essence20 isn't suiting what you're looking for; also good for just stealing some mechanics. As I recall there's rules for commercial breaks, spending metacurrency for imitating continuity errors, and even rules for "movie" arcs where stakes are raised and characters are more likely to die.
Those are mostly mistakes AI doesn't make, in characters (the symbol and wires being wrong AI generators do as well). I would not be surprised if they just hired a bad artist.
I mean, it's not great art but it doesn't really look like AI. Most of the art is a fair bit better than that too IMO.
>You're seeing what you want to
I'm literally describing the image. There are too many mistakes to boil it down to simply a bad artist. Cope and seethe all you want, slopgay.
Anon, the reason I think you're being moronic is because AI is actually a huge problem. Attributing everything you don't like to AI is only beneficial to AI art.
That image is particularly funny because it's the wrong Steeljaw. On the Renegade Discord, the dev in charge of the book said he ordered the pic and the artist did the RiD Steeljaw instead of the Autobot cassette Steeljaw. But they decided to leave it in for lols.
I wish I was kidding.
What part of it sets up a coherent and consistent structure for the numerous aspects of roleplay?
bump
bump
>what's /tg/'s opinion on essence20?
"What?"
It’s the system Hasbro cooked up for their transformers, power rangers, GI Joe, and horseshit games. They were all over the share thread a long time ago.
They’re all poorly edited trash. IIRC the first one that came out was borderline unplayable but they got slightly better with each later book. Not good, but not as bad.
I still don’t understand why they made a whole new publishing arm for it instead of making WotC do it. Probably would have came out marginally better.
Yeah, the 4plebs link wasn't working when I checked an hour or two ago to get my hands on it. I still wouldn't mind having a pdf of it for my personal records.
Hasbro didn't cook it up, Renegade Game Studios isn't part of Hasbro, as far as I can tell. They've made a relatively well received Power Rangers Board game so they might just have the licenses for the three properties? It's kinda of a bizarre situation, but not that much, I doubt Essence20 could ever capture even a fraction of a percent of what D&D is pulling in. Plus, with the recent slew of layoffs, it seems like Hasbro wants to run Wotc as a skeleton crew anyway.
I wouldn’t be surprised Hasbro forces WotC to outsource all of its future design and development.
I wonder to where? India?
Hasbros hard up for cash.
Better to take a deal licensing the rpg rights out than to spend the money in house to try and rework 5e for power Rangers AND transformers. It's why renegade also got the heroscope license after Hasbro failed to get enough interest to be made.
It's overengineered license-of-the-month crap, written by contract freelancers who never emailed each other to figure out a common ruleset.
I assume it's a half baked knockoff of a half baked edition, with no genuine improvements? Frankly this is my first time hearing about it.
Tell me why it's better than d&d 3.5; eclipse: the codex persona; and gurps.
What does this game do better (given the understanding that 5e does everything worse).
>Tell me why it's better than d&d 3.5; eclipse: the codex persona; and gurps.
Official Transformers RPG license.
I see. And how good or bad is the transformers TTRPG?
It's pretty solid for a class based Transformers system. The editing is pretty bleh, albeit not nearly as bad the PRRPG, but otherwise it's good. It diverges pretty heavily from 5e too. Initially E20 was just in the 5e SRD but they realised that was dumb and rebuilt a lot of the system. Worth a read to see if you're into it at least.
Thanks anons.
I'll have to give it a read. 5e based, so I won't go in with high hopes, but we shall see.
I think the 5e basis is more marketing and origin than anything in the system itself really. It's not got much of 5e that 5e doesn't have in common with most d20 games and it's got a fair few bits that are sufficiently unique to it.
Pretty sure it's all just art from the comics and books.
I found it extremely disappointing. Most of my issues are with how lacking character customization is, such as your alt mode being strictly tied to your background and the fact the classes and equipment list are very D&D-esque (that is to say, fixed equipment + bland classes with little in the way of actual customization). It really doesn't help the game's chances with me that before E20 was even a thing I had put together my own Transformers system that I've run a couple times and improved upon since. I see no reason to run Transformers E20 over my own game.
>I made a transformers homebrew that's better
No kidding? Mind sharing it?
>such as your alt mode being strictly tied to your background
That's only sort of true, and the way it's true is how the setting work, and the way it's wrong is just a weird thing to imply. Your Origin defines your Alt Mode. Which is more or less just "your alt mode implies X function". Champions were built for speed and style, but what they did with it has little to do with that choice. Your "background" in a way most people would understand that in TTRPG terms is your Influence. Are you an Inventor, Security, a Racer, etc. Those two things are independent. A Racer Champion might be the most obvious pairing but you can pick whatever you want, and then whatever class you want on top of that.
It doesn't make the art better but it's an easy mistake to make
>Champions were built for speed and style, but what they did with it has little to do with that choice.
I.e., in D&D, elves are pretty good at being ranged/finesse fighters, rangers, and rogues due to having an innate +2 to Dexterity, but that doesn't mean you can't roll up an elf cleric or elf druid.
Likewise, a Seeker (alt-mode of a plane, like Starscream) gets a bonus to Speed and so are probably best suited to being a Gunner or a Scout, but nothing's stopping you from being a Scientist instead (like Starscream).
Their pony stuff is good
It's a way better take on 5e than it has any right to be but it's massively held back by the editing in the books. If that was cleaned up all three of those games would be very very good.
The duality of man.
It's somehow worse than 5e, and the transformers system is nothing but a massive disappointment.
I only played the MLP rpg and it was okay, better than Ponyfinder.
Post the pdf for a link to it, and I will give my take on it.
Mid.
https://ufile.io/7tommcii
Thanks!
A bit odd since it's a d20 shitbrew Hasbro licensed out
Their Transformers books have a lot of very bad probably AI art
>probably AI art
Probably not, actually. Trust me, I've tried to get AIs to draw Transformers, specifically Starscream, but the only thing it seems to be able to do is Optimus Prime.
I mean, it's not great art but it doesn't really look like AI. Most of the art is a fair bit better than that too IMO.
>it doesn't really look like AI
No scale consistency, everyone making fists instead of posing hands, bootleg autobot symbol, nonsensical power lines
Same reply, I guess. You're seeing what you want to because it's more damning than just a having a bad artist.
>You're seeing what you want to
I'm literally describing the image. There are too many mistakes to boil it down to simply a bad artist. Cope and seethe all you want, slopgay.
Anon, the reason I think you're being moronic is because AI is actually a huge problem. Attributing everything you don't like to AI is only beneficial to AI art.
>No scale consistency
In Tranaformers? Perish the thought!
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Scale
>Scale in Transformers is, not to put too fine a point on it, screwed.
>le wiki maymay!
Nevermind that it's talking about an entirely different concept, redditspacing moron.
It really isn’t. Transformers, especially the original cartoon, is *famous* for its animation errors, to the point that the very first frame of the very first episode has them.
Hell if I were making a Transformers comic or TV show I’d put in a few deliberate errors just as a reference to that fact. At least if the thing I was doing was G1 based, which the RPG broadly is.
Actually come to think of it I’m gonna be running a Transformers game at some point in the not to distant future, set between seasons 2 and 3 of the G1 cartoon. I should probably start thinking up ways I can actually work in “animation errors” for shits n’ giggles. Like gice Ramjet Starscream’s voice for one scene only or something.
Cartoon Action Hour is based around emulating Saturday morning cartoons. Simpler system, but a good alternative if Essence20 isn't suiting what you're looking for; also good for just stealing some mechanics. As I recall there's rules for commercial breaks, spending metacurrency for imitating continuity errors, and even rules for "movie" arcs where stakes are raised and characters are more likely to die.
Those are mostly mistakes AI doesn't make, in characters (the symbol and wires being wrong AI generators do as well). I would not be surprised if they just hired a bad artist.
That image is particularly funny because it's the wrong Steeljaw. On the Renegade Discord, the dev in charge of the book said he ordered the pic and the artist did the RiD Steeljaw instead of the Autobot cassette Steeljaw. But they decided to leave it in for lols.
I wish I was kidding.
Release a SRD already