Quote:
|
In reality it is just another fantasy rpg, so you may have more traditional players asking why you're not just playing D&D. Sigh....shall we just shoot them now?
|
You can try, but I dodge rather effectively.
My problem with this game, as described in two reviews now, is that it seems to provide nothing that I can't do with any other setting, including any standard D&D setting.
Take Forgotten Realms, Eberron, what have you, imagine what happens after a cataclysm, and voila, you have the same thing as what Desolation provides: A post-apocalyptic setting designed by me.
Is the pre-apocalypse setting particularly evocative or conducive to constructing an interesting Life After the Bomb campaign? If not, it's not really a buy for me. Because I have all of those D&D settings already and can apply my own creative desolation afterward.
How gritty are the rules? Is character mortality a real issue in combat? That would be a good improvement over D&D, especially for a game about survival in a bleak and torn world, but I haven't heard anything about that yet, either.
And how much is included on how to create the proper environment and tone for a game about survivors in a ruined world? Again, something that I'd be looking for out of an effort like this. Sure, leave the results open-ended. But some Kenneth Hite-type effort about the crucial elements to brew up a post-apocalyptic fantasy world would be nice.
The magic system is make your own, too. I have to admit I don't see that on the surface as creative freedom. I see that as paying for a lack of design, especially when considered in conjunction with the fact that the nature of the apocalypse is build your own and the post-apocalyptic results on the world are build your own, as well. Is it simple to construct your own spells? That's what would make a free form magic system appealing to me, not the fact that it is free form (which has already been done in Fantasy RPGs many times...Ars Magica being one of the more famous examples).
It sounds like there *is* an element of the chaotic, devastating, and unexpected in how spells go wrong, which is something I would be looking for in such a game where something most likely *did* go wrong with magic on an epic scale. You know, like the backlash that Pskyers face in Dark Heresy or Hucksters face in Deadlands making special powers a risky proposition rather than just another form of getting things done routinely. Sounds like the fact that magic shouldn't be trifled with is part of the system, which is on the plus side for me.
But I'd really like a review that sums up the basics in a paragraph and then gets on to how those basics are supported.
Something like:
"Desolation is about survival in a bleak, post-apocalyptic fantasy world. A background setting is provided, but the designers have left the actual nature of the apocalypse as well as the specific results on the background setting largely up to the GM. The magic system is open ended, relying on players to come up with their own specific spell effects, and supports the concept of backlash if things go wrong."
No harm intended. It's just that if it is such a great effort, I'd like to see that put forth a bit more convincingly.
Cheers,
Tom
Re: [RPG]: Desolation , reviewed by JoystickJunkies (4/4)
Linear Mode
