[Mythweaver: Reckoning] Vault of the Goblin Campaign
Joel P. Shempert:
Michael, my friend Jake bought your game the other day on RPGNow, and he's been saying it looks pretty good. So I'm genuinely wondering what it has to offer in the sea of "Fantasy Roleplaying" games out there. What's your elevator pitch? How can you sum up the cool things that you do when you play this game? I saw the RPGNow blurb about the mechanics, skills, magic, etc. but what's fun when these go into action? What was the most fun and memorable moment the last time you played?
I'd really like to know. it's not so much about design feedback, as you say, but about me as a potential reader and player. Why should I bother? If you don't want to share, fine, I guess. But I'd be mystified as to why not.
Peace,
-Joel
Michael Desing:
I suppose that’s one of the things I struggle with- developing the elevator pitch. I know it’s important, but I just can’t seem to work that out without it sounding hollow or fake.
What I like about the system is that it lets me do unexpected things in play. I was running a few friends through an encounter inspired by Beowulf, and they had to swim through a tunnel underwater, battle some carnivorous fish, and emerge on the other side. I had it all worked out how they’d make the skill checks while underwater, how long they could last while fighting, the penalties they’d take to spells. Then my friend (who was a frost caster) asked about cooling the water enough to hibernate the fish. I never expected that, but the magic system allowed him to do it and gave clear guidelines (or at least I thought so), the rules for setting difficulty targets made it easy for me to figure out how hard it would be, and he rolled. He then used the same cold magic to make the team resistant to the cold, and they were able to swim by the semi-hibernating fishies. It wasn’t a particularly dramatic or incredible moment- but it was fun to see the game allow for whatever he wanted, and not feel like I was ‘making stuff up’ on the fly to resolve a situation the game wasn’t designed for.
I like that it allows for cinematic combat without being a ‘cinematic system’. During a level 1 fight with a giant wasp, heroes were hanging from a rope bridge, kicking at the wasp with a free foot after dropping a weapon, throwing magic darts at it (trying to avoid the ally hanging from the rope) and collectively holding our breath to see if the hanging troll made his stamina roll to resist the wasp’s poison, because that 20’ drop into a gully filled with 2’ snakes was going to do him in.
I like that it allows for tactical combat without being a ‘tactical system’. During a fight with a large number of gnolls, the high-level group had to make constant decisions about when and how to use spells for maximum effect. Do they wait on the area of effect damage spell so that they can put up a wall later to cover their escape if needed? Do they target the primary caster, or try to stun him and worry about his minion who is dealing more damage? The combat required real tactical choices in the moment, with no clear ‘best’ path. Does the archer stay where she is and take a slight action penalty, or does she run 20’ to get a clearer shot? Does the myrmidon spend a hero point to up his attack roll, or bank it for later? The action presents clear options, but lots of them, with pros and cons to every choice. I can have four heroes take on 100 gnolls (literally) and have the combat over in under an hour.
I like that with a few simple choices, you create hundreds of viable character builds, all that feel and perform differently in play. Every time I develop a new character concept, the character plays differently than the other characters I’ve made.
I like it that it feels to me like my best D+D games used to feel, but it’s never hard to find a rule. In D+D (playing 2nd Edition in college), I ran a handful of memorable combats. In Mythweaver, I’m able to run combat that is just as memorable, but with fewer things to keep track of and fewer pages of stuff to look at.
Do any of these make Mythweaver more than just generic fantasy? What’s the ‘thing’ that sets it apart? What’s the elevator pitch? I’m still not sure, but I know that I really like playing the game as a player and game master. Does that somehow elevate it beyond fantasy heartbreaker? I think so, because I don’t see the heartbreaker in it.
I think that this is a tough market to penetrate, and you need to do something unique or innovative to really break through, and I don’t think the game is particularly unique or innovative. It is built around a solid mechanic, it scales well from level 1 to 20, and it allows for players to develop their characters in any way they want. I may have to accept it is always going to have a small audience. That’s okay. It’s never going to be the darling of the online rpg community. Okay. I’m over it.
I don’t have a regular gaming group to get together with any more, so it’s hard to actually play test with a group and tell you for sure, on a regular basis, how the game plays in social environments. I’ve played maybe a dozen times with my regular group over the last few years, and I’ve run a handful of demos for middle school students. The 12-15 year old demographic is probably the best target for the game, but I have no idea how to reach them- I am not sure how this can compete with W.O.W. for their attention. To the veteran RPG community of players like me who’ve been doing this a long time, I doubt if the game does offer something new under the sun. If you’re looking for that, you may not like it. If you’re looking for a simple, clean way to run D+D style games, it is probably a good choice.
Obviously, I’m not doing the best job selling my game right now, but running a hype machine has never been my strong suit. I published a small press comic for years, and I’d sit next to guys at conventions who would tell people they’d sold 100 books that weekend, when I’d sold 10- and I knew that I’d sold more books than they had. If people asked how many books I had sold, I’d show them my tally sheets. If I’m lying to impress other people with my stuff, I’m only fooling myself.
At the end of the day, I know that Mythweaver is a good game that is field-tested and that I’ve worked hard on, and I think it’s a bargain at $3. I’d like to find an honest, creative way to show that to people, and that part is still a work in progress.
I REALLY appreciate the feedback I’ve received here, and the willingness of this community to give me feedback to work through this- but I suppose that’s what the forge is for.
I hope I’ve answered the question.
-Mike
Jasper Flick:
Sounds like easy flexibility is a big point! Cool! Lots of different encounters, lots of ways to deal with them. Right there is something WoW can't provide, and it isn't the strong point of D&D 3e and 4e either.
A tangent, but I'd like to ask. Suppose the troll did fall. Would he die? Is death a real option? What are the consequences for the player?
Michael Desing:
The troll survived.
The mechanic works that at negative health, you need to make a stamina resist roll to survive the system shock. The lower your negative health, the tougher the roll. So, if you have -10 health, you have to roll your level die (which goes up the higher your level) + your stamina. In this case, he would have rolled D6 + his stamina (which was probably about 5). -10 would have been tough, but he could spend a hero point (if he had any) to add another D6 result to the roll, and hope for 10 (obviously, he'd have a better chance then).
If he fell into the pit, death was virtually guaranteed. He'd take 20 points of damage for falling 20', less the result of a level die + dexterity roll. Since he'd roll D6+3 for this, he'd take at least 11 points of damage, and at level 1, he had about 10 health to start with, so a 20' fall is quite dangerous if he's at full health, and probably going to kill him if he's already wounded. Then, the snakes would have been upon him. They can make en masse attacks, meaning that they all act together, taking a single attack roll with a bonus to the action equal to the number of snakes attacking- so if ten converged on him, they'd take +10 to attack and damage. He'd have no chance to prevent the attack, he'd be at 0 (or lower) health, and the snakes would probably score a critical success, doubling their damage. It would be bad for him.
If he failed his stamina roll at negative health, the hero would be dead. The player would have to create a new character.
- Mike
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