Re: [RPG]: Spirit of the Century, reviewed by Daniel C Ansell (4/5)
Sorry but your review is almost useless. Yes, you have something on the setting but what you describe is the minimum that could be espected from a pulp game set in the 20s. It can be found in any similar game. What makes this game better?
And all I got to know about the "superb" system is that it describes characters through "aspects" and focus actions on "scenes". Far, very far, from being informative.
This is not a review, it is just a personal statement about your feelings on the game. Unfortunately.
Re: [RPG]: Spirit of the Century, reviewed by Daniel C Ansell (4/5)
Quote:
Originally Posted by smascrns
What makes this game better?
Just to consolidate some stuff that's been said about SOTC onto this thread:
John Harper has said: "I am reading Spirit right now, and my jaw has not left the floor. There are eleven good ideas on every page, and it is *all* laser-focused on actual play. That's why it's so long. Every single thing is immediately tied into real play, and how to make game play better. It's a killer, killer book."
Excerpt from the above: "If you like pulp, then this game is something awesome. It gets the pulp genre (as filtered through RPGs) just right -- just the right blend of action, optimism, benevolent imperialism, and high weirdness that makes us want to game in it. It provides a thorough but simple guide to the pulp era, without getting weighed down with historical detail that is better left to history books and Wikipedia. There is a "default setting" (that is, a canonical reason why pulp heroes exist), and while it's interesting, it's also so unobtrusive that discarding it is a completely trivial matter -- unlike, say, the default setting of Adventure. I would go so far as to say that Spirit of the Century manages to do everything that Adventure tried to do, and does it better." (There's more that at least lightly gets into some system specifics; I recommend checking out the link)
Re: [RPG]: Spirit of the Century, reviewed by Daniel C Ansell (4/5)
Quote:
Originally Posted by smascrns
Sorry but your review is almost useless. Yes, you have something on the setting but what you describe is the minimum that could be espected from a pulp game set in the 20s. It can be found in any similar game. What makes this game better?
And all I got to know about the "superb" system is that it describes characters through "aspects" and focus actions on "scenes". Far, very far, from being informative.
This is not a review, it is just a personal statement about your feelings on the game. Unfortunately.
I have to agree...
Yes, what Iago (the Publisher) has posted is interesting enough (moreso than the review, itself, actually!), but I'd kind of like to see something more complete, and from an independent source...
As to 'aspects', I've seen this before, and I've never liked the concept.
I prefer something a lot more discrete, and well-defined.
Too often, the 'rules lite' approach seems less 'innovative', and more 'lazy, sloppy, and not even half-finished'! {Not talking about this one specifically, as we know nothing at all about it, from the review...}
Does this game really allow you to do all the crazy stuff that can happen in the Pulps? Or, is it more a "Well, you can do it, if the GM lets you get away with it, and if the GM doesn't know how to judge these situations before he reads the rules, then he shouldn't be running this kind of game!" kind of thing?
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William A. Peterson
WillyPete@Peoplepc.com
"There is nothing in the world quite so exhilarating as being shot at, and missed!" Winston Churchill
Re: [RPG]: Spirit of the Century, reviewed by Daniel C Ansell (4/5)
Very glad to hear that, especially since I just noticed you've got the license for one of my very favorite characters of all time {Hint: He's the only Wizard listed in the Chicago Yellow Pages...}!
But, really, I mostly want to see the 'reviewer' understand that he didn't do a very good job of reviewing your product, hopefully with an eye towards him doing much better next time!
{I don't suppose you still need Playtesters for the 'Dresden Files', do you?}
__________________
William A. Peterson
WillyPete@Peoplepc.com
"There is nothing in the world quite so exhilarating as being shot at, and missed!" Winston Churchill
Re: [RPG]: Spirit of the Century, reviewed by Daniel C Ansell (4/5)
Quote:
Originally Posted by WillyPete
Very glad to hear that, especially since I just noticed you've got the license for one of my very favorite characters of all time {Hint: He's the only Wizard listed in the Chicago Yellow Pages...}!
But, really, I mostly want to see the 'reviewer' understand that he didn't do a very good job of reviewing your product, hopefully with an eye towards him doing much better next time!
{I don't suppose you still need Playtesters for the 'Dresden Files', do you?}
We're not ready for them; we'll probably be floating a few concepts out to the Fate list (groups.yahoo.com/group/FateRPG) here and there for people to kitbash with Spirit of the Century so we can see if folks think they work well enough for Dresden, that sort of thing. If we get ready for a more formal playtest we'll be putting word out through the site (www.dresdenfilesrpg.com)
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