A Godlike Reign
Jul. 1st, 2007 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHi,
So I just finished reading through Reign, A Game of Lords and Leaders by Greg Stolze. It's a new RPG that Mr. Stolze put out on the Ransom method. The Ransom was met and now anyone can pick up a copy.
Reign is put out by Lulu Press, which is doing this as a print-on-demand title. It took me a little under two weeks to get my copy, which wasn't too bad. There has been some grumbling about copies being warped or sub-standard and I will say that for a $50 hardback game it's no White Wolf book. However, I think early production problems have been smoothed out because my copy is very good. The binding seems nice and tight, the cover is clean, the interior pages look pretty good. Also, Greg was especially good about handling the bad copies -- I believe he personally took back some of the defective copies and had them replaced (and Lulu replaced the rest). So I think the quality issue is something you don't have to worry about too much. The only question is if the content justifies the higher-than-average price.
Short form? Yeah, this is pretty darn good. Reign is a fantasy game that uses the One Roll Engine (ORE) as it's core system. ORE is the system used by Godlike (the game of WWII super-soldiers), but Greg has put in a few twists and tweaks. In particular, the book shows that Greg has been paying attention both to the criticisms and flaws of Godlike and the various developments in RPG games since Godlike came out. Reign builds off of Godlike's system and includes elements of Riddle of Steel, Burning Wheel/Empire, HeroQuest, and Aria.
So in ORE, you roll a pool of d10s equal to your Stat + Skill. You're looking for matches. Matches have a width and height. The width is the number of dice in the match (so a pair or a triple or four-of-a-kind or whatever) and the height is the value of the match (so in a pair of 4s, the height is 4). You can have more than one grouping of matches if your pool is big enough. The height and width are consulted to adjudicate the results. Wider sets go before narrower sets. High sets are more effective than low sets. In combat, width indicates damage done and height indicates location. It's a really slick system.
There are also a couple of special types of dice (Expert dice and Master dice) that improve your odds of getting a match (or getting the match you want). In Godlike, this system turned out to be a little broken (if I'm a super soldier with a lot of special dice in Sniper, I'm the ultimate killing machine). Reign limits the number of special dice you have and seems to have a better handle on it. So no more super-snipers just blowing your head off.
Greg takes time to get into the math behind the dice pools and explains the difference between the different types of special dice and when they're more effective. It's really useful because the system isn't quite as obvious as a d20 or percentile roll.
So with this system you build up your character. You get Stats and Skills and then you can add on Martial Arts (which are like Feats in d20) and Esoteric Studies (which would be like having Feats for skills in d20). Then you can layer in magic for people who like to use it (and it's kinda ala carte where you buy spells individually and can then use them over and over again).
So far, it's pretty standard stuff. But the game's tagline is "a game of lords and leaders". This is where Companies come in. Companies are nations, societies, organizations, and financial concerns that the PCs are a part of (or connected to somehow). They have a set of five stats and there's a system for the various actions that Companies can take to affect one another. The thing is, the dice pools of more Companies is pretty small. Victory can be a very uncertain thing. So the arrangement is that a.) PCs can spend XP to improve their Company and b.) the various actions that PCs undertake on behalf of their Company can produce a number of bonus dice for the Company to use when it takes it's Company level action. So your PCs run around and have adventures and advance the cause of your Company and then you take a few rounds of Company-level actions that take advantage of the bonus dice you gained while adventuring. This connection between the PCs (who are the movers and shakers of their Company) and the success or failure of the Company as a whole is satisfying and very much what Burning Empires seemed to be missing.
There's a bunch of background stuff for a default world setting. It's certainly interesting, and the overall geography of the planet is completely fascinating (the ocean meets the land at a right angle). But, of course, it's assumed you can roll your own if you want.
Of course, what I really want to do is run an Amber game under this system. Maybe for an ad-hoc night. Overall, a very good implementation of an interesting system and the high-level leader of men seems like a great addition.
later
Tom
So I just finished reading through Reign, A Game of Lords and Leaders by Greg Stolze. It's a new RPG that Mr. Stolze put out on the Ransom method. The Ransom was met and now anyone can pick up a copy.
Reign is put out by Lulu Press, which is doing this as a print-on-demand title. It took me a little under two weeks to get my copy, which wasn't too bad. There has been some grumbling about copies being warped or sub-standard and I will say that for a $50 hardback game it's no White Wolf book. However, I think early production problems have been smoothed out because my copy is very good. The binding seems nice and tight, the cover is clean, the interior pages look pretty good. Also, Greg was especially good about handling the bad copies -- I believe he personally took back some of the defective copies and had them replaced (and Lulu replaced the rest). So I think the quality issue is something you don't have to worry about too much. The only question is if the content justifies the higher-than-average price.
Short form? Yeah, this is pretty darn good. Reign is a fantasy game that uses the One Roll Engine (ORE) as it's core system. ORE is the system used by Godlike (the game of WWII super-soldiers), but Greg has put in a few twists and tweaks. In particular, the book shows that Greg has been paying attention both to the criticisms and flaws of Godlike and the various developments in RPG games since Godlike came out. Reign builds off of Godlike's system and includes elements of Riddle of Steel, Burning Wheel/Empire, HeroQuest, and Aria.
So in ORE, you roll a pool of d10s equal to your Stat + Skill. You're looking for matches. Matches have a width and height. The width is the number of dice in the match (so a pair or a triple or four-of-a-kind or whatever) and the height is the value of the match (so in a pair of 4s, the height is 4). You can have more than one grouping of matches if your pool is big enough. The height and width are consulted to adjudicate the results. Wider sets go before narrower sets. High sets are more effective than low sets. In combat, width indicates damage done and height indicates location. It's a really slick system.
There are also a couple of special types of dice (Expert dice and Master dice) that improve your odds of getting a match (or getting the match you want). In Godlike, this system turned out to be a little broken (if I'm a super soldier with a lot of special dice in Sniper, I'm the ultimate killing machine). Reign limits the number of special dice you have and seems to have a better handle on it. So no more super-snipers just blowing your head off.
Greg takes time to get into the math behind the dice pools and explains the difference between the different types of special dice and when they're more effective. It's really useful because the system isn't quite as obvious as a d20 or percentile roll.
So with this system you build up your character. You get Stats and Skills and then you can add on Martial Arts (which are like Feats in d20) and Esoteric Studies (which would be like having Feats for skills in d20). Then you can layer in magic for people who like to use it (and it's kinda ala carte where you buy spells individually and can then use them over and over again).
So far, it's pretty standard stuff. But the game's tagline is "a game of lords and leaders". This is where Companies come in. Companies are nations, societies, organizations, and financial concerns that the PCs are a part of (or connected to somehow). They have a set of five stats and there's a system for the various actions that Companies can take to affect one another. The thing is, the dice pools of more Companies is pretty small. Victory can be a very uncertain thing. So the arrangement is that a.) PCs can spend XP to improve their Company and b.) the various actions that PCs undertake on behalf of their Company can produce a number of bonus dice for the Company to use when it takes it's Company level action. So your PCs run around and have adventures and advance the cause of your Company and then you take a few rounds of Company-level actions that take advantage of the bonus dice you gained while adventuring. This connection between the PCs (who are the movers and shakers of their Company) and the success or failure of the Company as a whole is satisfying and very much what Burning Empires seemed to be missing.
There's a bunch of background stuff for a default world setting. It's certainly interesting, and the overall geography of the planet is completely fascinating (the ocean meets the land at a right angle). But, of course, it's assumed you can roll your own if you want.
Of course, what I really want to do is run an Amber game under this system. Maybe for an ad-hoc night. Overall, a very good implementation of an interesting system and the high-level leader of men seems like a great addition.
later
Tom
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Date: 2007-07-01 06:16 pm (UTC)Minor Correction
Date: 2007-07-02 01:26 am (UTC)