Christmas 2012: Part One
I felt bad about skipping a comic on Friday, so I decided to double up today’s comic as the Christmas arc begins.
If you’re not up to speed on the previous Christmas arcs check these out:
CHRISTMAS 2010
CHRISTMAS 2011
I have a good feeling about this year’s arc as Brett takes over the family business from the old man. We’ll answer a few questions about the Mantle, Santa, and where exactly Klaus Kringle has been since last year.
I hope you enjoy it.
As for Sam and his new setting/game, we’ll get back to that right after Christmas. I’m excited for the possibilities of what introducing a new game to this comic brings. I’ve had a lot on my mind over the past few days and I’ll probably talk about that at some point but for now: Christmas!
More on Wednesday.
COMMENTERS: Do you have a setting or system that you just cannot get into?
what the hell is wrong with RIFTS?!?!? besides the power creep….. and MDC……. nm, even I’d rather play PFRPG or even 4th ed
Hey, MDC rocks. It dates back to the classic Palladium games like Heroes Unlimited, TMNT, and Robotech. The idea that, unlike a person, no matter how many times you shoot a building with a handgun, you just aren’t going to knock it down.
I could actually never get into GURPS, because I spent basically all of middle school playing the Robotech RPG and hated that Steve Jackson basically took credit for “creating” the idea of multiple genre games whose characters could play in a campaign together. And yes, I did once play in a crossover with TNMT and Robotech characters at the same time.
The problem with MDC is not that it isn’t a good idea. The problem is that Rifts has Power Creep in a big way. When the only way you can do MDC is via carefully-placed satchel charges, tanks, or an orbital strike, then fine, ok. But when a little old grandmother can pack an MDC weapon in her purse, you know you’ve got issues. Add to that the amounts of resistance that the characters had – they can take a nuke to the face and keep smiling. And the numbers went slightly higher with each supplement, so in order to have the biggest, baddest, most awesomest character, you HAD to have the latest sourcebook.
The rest of Palladium I really wasn’t fond of. Game system was FAR too easy to munchkin – first-level characters should NOT be able to have six attacks a round, such that everyone else sits around bored when their turn comes.
Me, I like a setting where the PCs are NOT near-immortal demigods, striking down their foes with attacks that can sunder a city block. I want a game where I have to be clever in the use of what power my character does have.
Man you are not supposed to use all 6 attacks at once its round robin like hackmaster. That would explain the bordom…
WoD: Mage, I can’t open the book with out getting a headache.
Old or new? I’ll agree on the old one. New one is much more comprehensible, and power levels are much more in line with the other supernaturals of WoD. Mages are still very powerful, but they can’t, for example, turn an entire building into weapons-grade plutonium.
Man, I have never been able to get into WoD stuff. I respect the legacy and all that but the idea of playing Vampire: The Masquerade, Mage, etc. just never seemed to float my boat.
That asterisk in panel 4! Where does it lead??? I need closure!
You will have it! Patience, grasshopper.
Burning Wheel. It’s supposed to be great, but the system just came off feeling clunky and unusable.
On a podcast I used to listen to the host called Burning Wheel ‘The RPG bloggers play.’ I claim that nobody actually PLAYS Burning Wheel, they just name-drop it to hide the fact that they’re playing D&D just like everybody else…
I too wish to know about this asterisk. It’s bothersome… As for a game/setting I just can’t get into, CthulhuTech. I like anime and I like Cthulhu, so I thought I’d like it, but the system is clunky (and in places flat out wonky) and the setting made me constantly say, WTF, this is just all the bad guys from some 80-90’s anime with the names erased and “Cthulhu” tacked on.
That’s what I liked about CthuluTech.
RIFTS and Mouseguard. The latter is really odd sense I’m a huge fan of Brian Jacques “Redwall” series but I think that fandom actually makes me have an adverse reaction to aspects of the game that clash with what I know from the books.
That’s because it’s NOT Redwall! It’s based on the Mouseguard comics, which are very different. Still awesome, though. Should read them. Just make sure you discard and preconceptions from Redwall. It’s like being a Star Wars fan, then watching Star Trek and saying ‘But that’s not how Hyperdrive works!’.
much to the consternation of my wife and several friends, anything by white wolf.
the only time it’s ever clicked for me was when i went to a LARP at UW with a friend.
What setting or system couldn’t I get into? That’s an easy one: GURPS. Whatever the GM, whatever the genre, every GURPS game I ever played in turned into the same thing: out of a half dozen players five of us sat around essentially doing nothing all session because the one guy who knew how to game the system could do everything better than the rest of us put together.
Fo years, I would have answered this question with: Shadowrun! But these days, it’s one of my favourite systems.
Mechwarrior…now that is a system I still can’t muster any excitement about. And yeah, CthulhuTech.
Let’s see… I’ve been around a while, and while not greybeard-level, I’ve seen my fair share of stinkers.
Rifts and Palladium in general – Too much power creep, too easy to munchkin the system. A pity, because I DID enjoy their TMNT setting.
Empire of the Petal Throne – A ‘setting first’ system, where the actual RPG elements are buried under the weight of a complex setting.
BESM – It’s nifty, it’s cute, it’s flexible, but it’s a little too rules-light for a serious game around the table.
Anything written in ‘engineering’ notation – 1.2.2.36.. just no. This tells me it is going to be as dry as toast.
Anything with the rules buried in with the flavor text – White Wolf, I’m looking at you. If you have someone to explain the rules, it can be good, though.
Anything with a color chart for dice results – Marvel Super Heroes, Gamma World 3rd Edition… ugh. Just let me drop dice without having to look at a chart each time.
My perfect game? GURPS. GURPS Lite, 3rd edition, to be specific. Quick, easy, nothing crazy. If you want more skills and spells, sure, fine, use the sourcebooks, but the core game is summed up in 32 pages.
http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/Lite/3e/
Torg by West End Games. LOVE the concept, but the system is … awful.
Also, it’s a personal preference, just could never get into Robotech or Mech Warrior and those style of games.
And slightly off topic, just to balance the list, a few of my favorites are AD&D, Shadowrun and Chill.
I just couldn’t get into the system for Scion. The setting and concept was fan-freaking-tastic, but trying to figure the rules out gave myself (and my group) way too many headaches.
Strangely enough, I am also working on a homebrew game system and setting. So I can feel Sam’s pain on this one. Can’t wait!
Christmas Special!!!
😀
I’m relatively new to tabletop gaming. For me, the weak link so far was “Don’t Rest Your Head.” I don’t have the nerves for it, and it seemed to push the GM toward ‘GM versus players.’
I love RIFTS as a setting. And, the system actually isn’t terrible. It’s clunky, but no more than most other systems of its era. What kills RIFTS is that Siembieda is a control freak in all the wrong ways. Rather than nailing down the editing, or any consistency in the presentation, or anything resembling balance in the numbers, he just hand waves that stuff. I really think that if we could get a new edition put together that Siembieda had nothing to do with, it could be an awesome game. (Especially if you had an explicit way to turn the dials on how crazy you want the game to be.)
I’m with the rest of the group in not being able to “get” White Wolf. Among other things, I’ve never seen anything in the system that actually promotes “storytelling” any better than AD&D did.
I don’t think I noticed it before, but there is a distinct family resemblance between Santa and Brett – they have the same nose, cheeks and mouth. Their eyes are different, though – Brett must get them from his mother.
Shadowrun. I dislike “cyberpunk” games in general. “Steampunk” games, too. Just can’t get into the worlds. Put “-punk” behind any other reasonable word and I most likely will hate it.
The entire BESM system. Anything you try to do with it, I just… I just hate it. It irks me.
Megatraveller, Dark Conspiracy, and the rest of the horribleness of Games Workshop. Seriously, didn’t anyone playtest this drek?!
Also Mentioned: Renegade Legion: Legionnnaire. Loved Centurion, loved Interceptor… but Legionnaire was basically unplayable.
GURPS all the way, every GURPS game I get into ends up falling apart after the 3rd game or so. Mostly because the GM would always make the guys into making their characters for them, but never explain how the system worked. As for Rifts, I have never been a big fan. The idea is cool but Palladium has beat the hell out of that dead horse for decades now. The shame is Palladium has several titles they are putting out now that are awesome! However no one pays attention to them because Palladium never advertises them (ie Dead Reign, Splicers, Heroes Unlimited 2, After the Bomb and Nightbane).
Nightbane, Nightspawn as it was called first, is an awesome setting and makes for great Halloween games.
Any system that DOESN’T use a D20!
I love RIFTS… if you don’t want power creep, don’t let your players run the game. Bitches. 🙂
Love Rifts but agree that the system needs updating and a new creative lead. My friends and I would play Rifts, Robotech and Ninjas and Superspies from Friday night to late Sunday afternoon.
EAT it, fat boy! RIFTS is awesome. Remember, kids, there’s always SOMETHING bigger and badder than your shiny new just-out-of-the-new-sourcebook super-tool, and it’s *generally* out of the player’s handbook.