The Future of the Game

Don't worry, it's not bad!

I've been contemplating next steps and moving forward with the game, and there are a few things I want to bring up and get everyone's opinion on.

1. I will be going on vacation from July 12th-20th to various points of the Canadian Rockies (Banff and Jasper National Parks, mostly). I'll have access to GP and to Discord, but I won't be posting much. As some of you know from other games, I say that often, but this time I mean it. :)

As a result, I'm anticipating a significant slow down in the game around that time.

We'll see where we are in the story when we get to that point, but I'm anticipating that we're going to be reaching the end of a chapter sometime soon, so it seems a good time and place to take stock of how things are going and where we'll be going from there.

2. I've expressed some frustration on the Discord recently with the Pathfinder system and how it fits with the game world I've envisioned. Chances are, had I known more game systems when I first opened the game, I probably wouldn't have chosen Pathfinder. However, I only had familiarity with Pathfinder and D&D 5E (and that just barely), so Pathfinder it was.

I saw it expressed somewhere recently that a system like Pathfinder is more geared toward optimizing character builds to be able to defeat enemies, and I realized that this was a large part of my dissatisfaction. One, that's not the game I wanted to build, and two, while I've played some Pathfinder over the years, my rules knowledge is limited to only those things I've directly used or experienced with my own characters... of which there have been two in the six years I've been playing Pathfinder (long campaigns, no character death). So I often find myself not really knowing what rule I should apply, or worrying that I'm missing something I should have thought of.

The kind of game I want to run is, as we've established several times, is more freeform and improvisational. Do you want to do something you think is cool? I'll probably go for that. But how do we fit that into the PF rules? Hm... well, there isn't a spell for that, there's no rule for it, how do we work it into the framework?

So I've been kicking around the idea of possibly changing the system the game runs under to one that is simpler mechanically and more openly embraces improvisation and flexibility in tying narrative to rules. I've recently joined a couple of games here that run under the Cypher System (Numenera is probably the more well-known Cypher-based setting) and in reading the rulebook, it feels like a much better fit.

My question to you all is this: would changing the game system be a deal-breaker for you? Would you be so opposed to such a move that you would leave the game?

If we did change, I would work with everyone to adapt their character (and their plans for their character, if any) to the new system as much as possible. I would also rework the character creation documents to reflect the new system.

Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Sunshine and butterflies? This would also be a good thread to comment on anything about the game you'd like to see discussed. I'm doing it here rather than Discord so that the commentary doesn't get lost amid the usual channel chatterspam. :)

I have enjoyed the game very much and I would say about 5% of that is the rules system. 95% is you and my fellow players. Pick a system and I am in

I am in the same boat as Machiabelly: While I don't contribute as much RP wise as I'd like the majority of the fun is the group dynamics and your efforts 78RPM.

If you decide to change the system to Cypher or 5e (I'd like to throw my suggestion of 13th age in) I'm definitely still on board.

System doesnt matter to me. I've never used Cypher but would be happy to learn. If you want me to give you the lowdown on Genesys I'd be happy to as well. Its a really simple system once you get past interpreting the dice (which is built into the roller here on GP.) I've ran/played in sessions with RPG newbies at conventions and they have it down by the end of one session easily.

Side note: I will be going out of town tomorrow, and not returning for 8 days! Feel free to act on my behalf, I trust you with Krav. Just don't kill Shiloh!

I would be fine with changing systems, especially to something that doesn't take a multidimensional flowchart for me to decide what to do!

I’d love to hear more about Genesys. I’ll do some looking of my own, but I’d love to hear your take.

Player's Dice
Green - roll one of these for each point you have in STR, AGI, etc
Yellow - roll one of these instead of a green if you're trained in something
Blue - roll these as little extra boosts for things like environmental effects

GM's Dice
Purple - roll one of these for a difficulty set by the DM (1 for easy, 2 for average, etc)
Red - roll one of these instead of a Purple if the challenge is exceptionally difficult, for example you're fighting against a trained soldier
Black - roll these as little extra setbacks for things like environmental effects

Your tally up your net results, and see what you're left with. You either succeed or fail, and you can also have advantage or threat along with it. So you can fail at shooting your gun at a dude, but if you have advantage it's up to the player to narratively explain what that advantage is. Maybe they missed but hit a light and now its dark in the room. Or maybe when the enemy dodged they left themselves open for the next attack. Just examples, the game will dictate what they are based on what the situation is and how creative the players are.

I'll roll an example below and explain in an edit. Edit: so you can see the symbols there, but the net result is i didnt succeed or fail, just got advantage. Now I would have to figure out what to do with that.

If you're already comfortable with the other system, that's probably for the best. This one has always inspired the most character interaction in games I've played is the only reason I bring it up.

I found a copy of the Genesys core rulebook through a subscription I have. I'll read it through.

Safe travels, kona!

I can find a way around if I have to, but I am colour blind and those dice are a little problematic for me.

I could roll them and you guys could interpret them. But if you said...roll 4 yellow, that could be a problem.

An excellent point. I think we'll just avoid that problem, then. :)

Ah! The dice are different sizes in real life so that would not have been an issue. Something I hadnt considered though!

Hmmm, I’m a little torn. A big part of joining the game was because it was Pathfinder. Outside of online, I’m currently playing or GMing 5 different Pathfinder games, so I’m a fan, but I can also see how the intricacies of it aren’t great for every sort of game.

I am enjoying the game, but do have some anxiety about whether timewise I could learn a new system. Thankfully I have quite a few Numenera books from a bundle deal a while back.

My posting would probably slow down a fair bit for anything requiring the rules, as I’d be limited to where I can access the rules, which is really only at home currently. At least until I absorbed enough to feel confident about it. With Yelnar’s mum rescued though, he’s back to being a bit more passive anyways for now, so could work.

If there’s a gap coming up where I’d have time to futz about with it I guess why not?

Let's roll! I like this crew, and the story is why I'm here.

Since weekends are usually slow, here’s a link to the Cypher System rulebook if you’d like to take a look, see if it sparks any thoughts.

Cypher

Note that this is a setting-agnostic system, so there are bits for modern, superhero and sci-fi settings in there as well.