So the Atomic Robo game has been going well and I’ve really enjoy it. That said, I probably have about 2-3 issues (or 5-12 sessions) worth of ideas/interest left in me. Given the current rate of play, that probably means we’ll be wrapping up that game somewhere around June/July unless something goes horribly wrong, everyone is super jazzed to keep playing, an/or how-to-GM-Fate finally clicks into place for me on more than an intellectual level.
While I usually save most of my big picture thoughts on a game for after its finished, after having run Atomic Robo and Starforged as my last two games I don’t think I actually like telling pulpy science-fiction stories. I definitely love watching and reading those type of stories, but when it comes to putting together the pieces of those sort of stories for a game it just sort of feels off. Could also be that I just haven’t run those sort of games enough so I haven’t found my groove.
My current media intake has been a wide net of fantasy stories (Elden Ring, the Endwalker expansion for Final Fantasy 14, rewatches of Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle, the Castlevania and the Witcher TV series, reading through the Earthsea novels for the first time, and many others) and its really been getting me excited about the idea of magical lands where fantastic creatures lurk just beyond the forest and while the world is in decline, there is still hope for the future. The thing I liked most about the Starforged game was that the basics of its narrative was that the “end” of the world already came and gone, but the only thing that really ended was the old status quo and now our heroes are helping pick people back up and make a better tomorrow and I’d love to do something like that again.
The question is “what sort of game could do this?” I’m going to do my usual rambling about games I like, however, I am going to leave D&D and Pathfinder off this list even though they could run this sort of game simply because they’re D&D and Pathfinder, you don’t need me to sell you on those games. If someone is clamoring for a D&D game, I’m sure we could make that happen.
ICON
ICON is the latest game by Massif Press, creators of the mech combat RPG Lancer, and it ticks a lot of my boxes with its setting. Here is the base idea of the setting summed up in a couple paragraphs.
While this looks great, there are three major downsides with this game I see for our group. The first and smallest issue is that the game is still in playtesting. This didn’t seem to be an issue with Starforged, however, it does mean that the book is a bit rough in places and there are no Roll20 character sheets yet.
Second, the game is an odd mix of a narrative game and a tactical RPG. Both of these sections are completely divorced from one another to the point that you use different character sheets for each and your choices in one never affect the other. The book even says you could run the game entirely with only one or the other and have a perfectly fine game with the right group. I would likely run this strictly with the narrative game system, unless everyone was excited about grid-based combat.
Finally, the narrative game uses the core system from Blades in the Dark and Scum & Villainy, which our group previously had some hang ups with. While there are some differences (such as downtime not being the same as it was with S&V) it pretty much follows the high points and I think this would likely be an issue.
I do like this game and the ideas behind it, but I don’t think it would be a good fit for our group (though I would be pleased to be proven wrong).
- Pros: Game’s internal inspirations are the same as mine listed at the beginning of this. Can play as a little beetle person.
- Cons: Narrative/tactical game split could cause issues. BitD core system has issues with being fiddly. Work-in-Progress.
Rhapsody of Blood
I’ve written about this game before, but as a refresher Rhapsody of Blood is a setting/hack/spinoff of the game Legacy by UFO Press. In it, the PCs take on the role of both several families/factions/support-groups-for-cursed-souls who are in a generations long fight with the malevolent and corrupting Castle, as well as this generation’s champions of those groups.
The primary narrative arc of each game of Rhapsody of Blood is the champions of that generation assemble to fight the dark forces of the Castle and delve into its depths, hopefully defeating it for a time so the world can know an uneasy peace until the next time the Castle returns. Obviously this is not terribly deep and is very focused, but it definitely could work as an ongoing game returned to in between other, longer games as the occasional palate cleanser.
Not my first choice, but also not a bad choice either.
- Pros: Already familiar with the core system (PtbA). Strong narrative focus.
- Cons: Intended for several short campaigns which feature a different cast of PCs each time. Maybe too focused?
Warhammer: Age of Sigmar: Soulbound
Warhammer Fantasy is a game I have a long history with, but it also has a lot of baggage of the YIKES variety in its setting. About a decade ago, Games Work Shop rebooted the setting (for a variety of reasons, though one of the better ones was excising some of the yikes content) as Age of Sigmar which was initially poorly received due to burying a fan-favorite setting, but folks eventually warmed up to it (especially when GWS licensed the Warhammer Fantasy line to Cubical 7, who now make all of the tabletop RPGs based on GWS’ IPs).
The core concept of the game is very straight-forward, one of the gods of the setting has empowered the PCs into the Soulbound–a group of demi-god-like champions–to carry out some task. Similarly, the game system is very elegant–roll a number of d6s based on your skill, compare each die to the difficulty level (between 2-6) and each die that matches or exceeds that number is a success. The complexity does spiral out from there (there is a mechanic that allows you to add bonuses to dice, for instance pushing up a result of 3 up to a result of 4, 5, or 6) and I’d put it on the same level of complexity as D&D5E.
There is a bit of lore going on in the background, but the major point are the dark god Nagash destroyed the World-That-Was during the End Times, but that world was reborn was the Eight Realms where the mortals now live under threat by the forces of Chaos and Death. Each of the Eight Realms are a different world with slightly different properties (such as the Realm of Fire, with his blazing heat and sulfurous fumes, or the Realm of Beasts, with its endless forests and savannas inhabited by mega-fauna). If this all sounds a bit Nordic, it’s definitely on purpose. The titular Sigmar is a combination of Odin and Thor, who even has his own version of the Einherjar–the Stormcast Eternal.
- Pros: Simple core system. Broad world(s) to set the game in depending on player preference.
- Cons: Moderate amount of lore that runs behind the scenes. Moderate complexity. Those aren’t Dwarves, they’re Duardin. Hope you like semi-colons.
Now for some rapid fire ones that I don't have as much information about due to never running them/not reading the books to as fine a detail, but I figure I'll bring them up as possibilities in case any trigger someone's interest (it'll give me time to read into more in-depth):
- Beneath a Cursed Moon: PbtA but themed towards Castlevania. Was interested when it came out, but haven’t followed up too much since then.
- Monster Care Squad: Mostly bought this for the artwork, but the core concept sound cool: the PCs are a group of vets tasked with curing the ailment known as False Gold from the Monsters inhabiting the world.
- The One Ring: The new second edition is out and it looks interesting. I’ve never been a big Tolkien lore guy, but Middle Earth has always been an interesting world and the RPG has gotten some praise, so figured I’d bring it up. Just know, I will probably be the least knowledgeable of anyone here when it comes to any amount of lore.
That’s everything off the top of my head. There are probably games and systems I either don’t know or have forgotten about that could run the sort of game I’m imaging, so now I’m going to turn it over to you. Is there something I missed? Something that sounds interesting?
