Quote:
Originally Posted by capnzapp
From my limited view-point, could it be that Trails represent a (rather) new outlook on rpgs (a different "school" as it were) and that you perhaps didn't fully realize this before writing your review, 2097?
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Trail has more game-like elements in it, like resource management and similar tactical choices. I was aware of that while I did my playtest and I adress this in the review. This can be considered a bug or a feature depending on your perspective.
From the "roles-first" perspective, does it get in the way of the story, the way of the action? Yes, to a large extent. It also adds to it, tremendously. Is it worth it?
From the "I like games" perspective, how
good are these game elements? How well is it balanced and how does it play out? Thinking of how this game would stand up without its story elements: you roll a six-sided die to beat four (or other numbers depending on the situation, but four's common&emdash;a 50% chance), and you have points you can spend to affect that role and these point "refresh" in certain situations. It's up to the GM to add or remove game stages and constantly balance the game to be just exciting enough -- too easy and you might as well be a generous freeformer, too hard and you're not going anywhere, you'll be killed in three seconds.
The "game-like" elements in some RPGs can make or break the game. I've often played without them but from what I hear, they can really add something; Risk. Danger. Surprise.
I made an effort to play
Trail of Cthulhu as written (except the pure/pulp icons, I mixed and matched). To call for stability rolls for unsettling events. Sense danger in dangerous locations. Using the spend system, combat system, and chase rules. I studied the book for a day (it's a bit messy) before we started. Taking care of mapping my "spines", "hooks" and "horrible truths" as per Laws's suggestions.
It went well. It wasn't a disaster at all. But did it pull its weight? Did it add more (it did add some excitement, enjoyment) than it took away (it required constant attention and some cheesy situations occured)?
It's a role playing
game; just like
Rune,
Feng Shui, BRP or
D&D. I've read about games like this and that's why I got
Trail of Cthulhu. The question is, is it good enough? I'm a math geek. I can't help seeing games like those as excercises in coin flipping.
Trail of Cthulhu encourages a style of play where it's not how you get the clues, it's what you do with them that counts, whether or not you can put two and two together. That's great, but that's not unique to Trail. Still good, though. I have no beef with the automatic success parts. The "spend" part turned out to be problematic for me since my scenarios are usually very fast already, and spends allow some players (usually the more forward ones, since they're the ones that have the motivation to use rules like this, even though they're the ones in the group that needs it the least) to speed it up even more.)
The rules for general abilities, combat and so on worked fine. It seems fair in a human vs human fight or most reasonably tense situations. But it's weird.
Let's take as an example a fight between some ultra fighter with athletics 20 and scuffling 20, and a good human (a:8; s:8). It doesn't matter if the ultra fighter spends three or twelve or all twenty on her rolls. The human just have to spend enough to meet or beat the ultra fighter's hit threshold of (usually four) and deal enough damage to wear the ultra fighter's health down.