Whats the best and most efficient way you have found to get a sense of how an rpg system feels to plays and if its for you?
Its honestly a hassle to set up a new game with a new system. you can read through a new system’s gamebook, but that can also take a while especially if its a few dozen or hundreds of pages and its largely theoretical knowledge.
Do you watch/list to other groups to get an idea of how something play? (a lot of more obscure games dont have that) do you bite the bullet and just play it? or do you have another way to test if its for you or not? Especially if its unfamiliar instead of essentially a slightly different version of a system you are already familiar with, like “dungeons and dragons but bonuses are represented by extra dice”
>Whats the best and most efficient way you have found to get a sense of how an rpg system feels to plays and if its for you?
By playing it.
fpbp, /thread
This is the answer to the overwhelming majority of shit ass thread questions created on this moron-infested board.
Just. Go. Fricking. Play. The. Game.
Nah, it's the least efficient way.
just look at the character sheet. you will know immediately.
Came here to post this. If the sheet looks like file related, you better are there for an autism simulator.
this looks cool tho, going to try to find it and dl
So you have examples of good character sheets?
*do
That's what I get for phoneposting.
"Do".
Huh. Works well enough on my machine.
You sure it's your phone that's the problem, namehomosexual?
>thinking sage is a username
moot died for this
Roll up a few characters and play out scenario and if the mechanics dont interest you, don't play it. any game can have good roleplaying and a good group can make even a bad system fun, but you won't know whether you hate the math and mechanics of something until you actually sit down and work it out.
Anything put in the "Name" field is automatically a name, because all the "Name" field does is display a name. That is the "Name" field's only function.
Get bent, gaybait.
>admit to making a typo because touch keyboards are hard
>assumes I'm blaming the phone
>sage in username
I don't know what's worse. That you're trying so hard, or that you're still failing.
Not my point. The character sheet tells at a glance what the creators of the game (or the sheet template) thought important. If you don't mind having four pages of sheets and 59 skills, maybe TDE is for you.
But that's only a first impression. For example I like this sheet, even though OSE as a system is trash.
Easy. Evade:
> 50- pages
> implication thet you need to make up a lot of crucial rules yourself
> 300+ pages
> impication that you may need a calculator or a PC
> PbtA
> BitD
> 5e
> There are only rules that ephatize combat from the very start
> The main selling point of the game is its specific theme, but the first thing you see is a str/dexy/int/cha set of attributes or rules on how to roll dice in a weird but obviously genius manner
> Tables to explain character progression
> No tables to explain paths of character progression
> You don't catch the big picture in first ten pages by reading titles and leadlines
> There are a lot of art but it could be as well just AI-generated
> Charsheet looks like tax return
> Charsheet is not an actual two-sided page
> "Roll for initiative in the action-oriented game"
> Pages have no background, but DO have images in headers as some Power Point presentation
> There are more then two pages with consequesive tables with no regular text
> The pdf is huge but have no hyperlinks build inside of it.
> Pages are not in two columns.
So, Mork Borg is perfect then?
Reading it's quick reference sheet/screen if it has one. Ideally it has something that breaks down the basic gameplay rules and procedures.
Skimming character creation, seeing if making one is worth doing for fun to get an idea.
Reading the introduction to see how fricking dumb it is. Not a consistent measure but if I can't make it through the introduction without rolling my eyes through the top of my skull I probably won't bother with the rest of the game.
>There are only rules that ephatize combat from the very start
>There are a lot of art but it could be as well just AI-generated
>Charsheet is not an actual two-sided page
>"Roll for initiative in the action-oriented game"
Not that guy, don't agree with some of his takes but you might want to read the game you're shilling.
>> No tables to explain paths of character progression
Got it so no Traveller. Opinion discarded, sorry.
By looking through as many free documents I can find, adapting things I think are cool to gameplay mechanics, and then playtesting or running calculations on those mechanics.
It doesn't matter how much of a "hassle" it sounds like, that's the only way you're going to get something that's suited to you.
You get out of this hobby what you put into it; you can't eat your cake and have it too.
Enter your mind palace and load up a mental projection of your gaming group, and run a few mental sessions.
>Watch an overview/review YT video (ideally 15 to 40 minutes) to get a grasp of all the key points and quirks.
>Now read the whole system.
It's easier to have the whole picture first and then learning the minor details rather than trying piece everything by yourself.
btw
>(a lot of more obscure games dont have that)
I don't bother with shit THAT obscure.
If it has has merit, then it should have at least a 1k video of a nobody explaining the system and a couple of livestreams.
-1 WIS
Read the rulebook, then play it.
Sorry I mean check the writer's twitter to see if they sufficiently hate the people I hate.
I immediately close anything that:
>is inspired by D&D, savage worlds, ptba
>says you don't need to care about rules and just make up whatever right at the start
>is boring and dry
>has bad art/aesthetics (much prefer a blank book)
>has globohomosexual art style
>the author goes out of his way to express any political message
>has CON, WIS or CHA as main stats
>has 1d20 roll as main res
>any other main resolution that clearly doesn't make sense
>the character sheet is way too ugly and cluttered
Whenever I do find a game that isn't pure shit I read it whole because it is a rare thing.
What resolution mechanic have you enjoyed the most?
2d6, 3d6 and dicepools
What about dice pools like Year Zero Engine?
Just read it right now. Yeah that`s exactly the type of thing I like. Simple, logical, also seems fun and gamey. Not so sure about the math of only counting 6s as successes, but I can see it being a design choice as it is faster and a more random this way.
I just grabbed it 5 minutes ago and could start GMing it in an hour no problem.
My method goes like this
>skim the system cover to cover
>skim it again to re-read any sections that caught my attention
>cover to cover proper read taking notes to summarize mechanics to help cement them in my head and ensure I understand them well enough to communicate to someone else
Supplement in some review and demo videos, if any exist. Talking to people who have already played the system can help a lot. Livestreams and actual plays are of minimal help, as they often ignore delving into mechanics and the group will always put their own spin on things for the sake of making a more watchable show.