Numenera: Monte Cook's new 'Space Fantasy' rpg.

[Gambler738]

I'm WoD player, so I tend to like less rules heavy and 'abstract systems' whatever the fuck that means...

Does not compute

WoD is p. rules heavy. The fiddly resolution system (Variable difficulty! Variable dice pools! Variable degrees of successes! Variable types of tests!) is enough to give pnp hipsters a nightmare

NWoD. I should have been more clear on what i was talking about. The variables aren't that freaking hard to figure out, even if nWoD makes things 'easier', if you just take 15 minutes to actually read and use logic to know what constitutes variable dice pools. I guess I have little empathy for PnP Hipsters.

 

[Echo Mirage]

How much art/lore does the book contain ?. Since I coughed up $80 towards Torment I was thinking of just getting it to learn all I can about the setting.

 

[Jack]

How much art/lore does the book contain ?. Since I coughed up $80 towards Torment I was thinking of just getting it to learn all I can about the setting.

I've just skimmed it briefly but at a glance it seemed like Cook didn't skimp on the art, much or most of it is in colour and it manages to keep the quality pretty even. Can't really make any statements regarding the setting itself yet but it seems to be a fair amount of lore in there.

 

[Alchemist]

How much art/lore does the book contain ?. Since I coughed up $80 towards Torment I was thinking of just getting it to learn all I can about the setting.

Well the PDF is 418 pages. I'd say at least around 300 pages are devoted entirely to lore, setting material, item descriptions, bestiary / NPCs, and 5 separate adventures. You could totally ignore the game mechanics and still have a ton of stuff to absorb about the world of Numenera.

And art content is indeed very rich - in fact it's one of the most art-rich RPG books I own. Nearly all illustrations are high-quality, full color and convey many aspects of the setting very nicely.

 

[Blaine]

I'd say that 2/5ths of the artwork is fantastic, 2/5ths of it is good, and 1/5th is either so-so or very amateurish. Examples:

Fantastic

Spoiler

Good

Spoiler

So-so (the most difficult category to sort into)

Spoiler

Very Amateurish (mostly Eric Lofgren's stuff)

Spoiler

The above is my opinion, although I've based my assessment much less on the aesthetics I prefer (though that's a small factor), and much more on my perception of the artist's expertise, skill, and uniqueness of personal style. Also, as a quirky aside, lots of the weapons, numenera, and powers depicted in the character creation section glow blue....

After I finish reading the core rules, I'll be working on a review for submission to the Codex.

 

[Alchemist]

Very Amateurish (mostly Eric Lofgren's stuff)

Spoiler

I think Lofgren's work can be quite good if he sticks to black & white pen & ink. His color work could definitely use a lot of improvement. Here's a B&W piece of his that I like:

Spoiler

It's more of an old-school feel though, which maybe doesn't quite fit in with Numenera.

He's done some great B&W work for Lamentations of the Flame Princess lately (which is old-school oriented):

Spoiler

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Old friends called me and asked if I would like to start a campaign of this. I said yes.

I will be able to experience the decline first hand, and I will report back.

 

[Ninjerk]

His patches are so fucking distracting wtf.

EDIT: Lofgren I mean.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Sorry for not posting in a while. Also, I am not very cognizant or centered around gameplay mechanics.

I did have fun, but I definitely have mixed feelings about the game.

My biggest gripe is that there's too much random weird/creepy stuff, from the objects, to the landscape, to the lore, the fauna and flaura... it has no coherence whatsoever. It has a feel of everything and the kitchen sink to it. I told the GM it was like being in a Salvador Dali painting, and he agreed, saying that Cook had Dali as one of his influences. The problem is that it turns you off the game when it has no coherence, and is just weird and random for the sake of it.

Combat is very very limited, and I don't like how the experience system and pretty much all combat variety is based around using wierd magical objects you receive, it feels forced and makes character customization and building limited, random, and not compelling.

Also this is another game based on "boosts/destiny points", which I don't like. It doesn't add anything particularly compelling or which encourages strategy.

The only things I really liked are the slick gameplay system and the emphasis on exploration, but then again the Dragon Age pnp game showed you can make a system that is simple and doesn't feel like a popamole system only good for stories and spamming destiny points.

One of the other guys offered we'd play gurps instead. We all salivated while making our characters and discussing the setting. NOW we're talking. Enough with this faux edgy popamole fluff.

 

[Whisky]

My rulebook came in today. Haven't read much, but I'm very disappointed in the combat system, especially the lack of weapon damage rolls. Still, the setting looks cool, so maybe I'll end up using that one day.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

The combat literally feels like spamming skills in WoW

 

[Darth Roxor]

This system is almost absurdly bad

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

And they're making a torment game out of this? Nice one, manboons.

 

[Echo Mirage]

Well they did say in one of the updates that they were altering the system for the game. If it really is bad then I will take altering to mean fixing.

 

[nikolokolus]

I was really on the fence about backing the Numenera kickstarter way back when and after getting the Player's Book with as part of the Torment kickstarter I have to say I'm glad I abstained. Everything about it is so damned "fiddly" and min-max oriented.

If I want to play a Jack Vance inspired game I'll just dust off my copy of Pelgrane Press's Dying Earth RPG and be done with it.

 

[Infinitron]

Roguey http://feministing.com/2014/04/09/s...of-numeneras-love-and-sex-in-the-ninth-world/

 

[TigerKnee]

NecROmantic.

You could be forgiven for not noticing that, however, if you roamed the danker corners of some online RPG fan forums. It is not uncommon for men in such forums to bloviate about how the social and relational dimension of roleplaying games is a mere distraction from the good, honest work of slaying monsters in a dungeon. But they reserve special ire for romance: sex, partnership, lust, and love are poison to any “true” RPG, they say, and are the stuff of horny teenagers, girly men, and romance-novel besotted women.

SHE KNOWS

 

[Ninjerk]

I can't imagine sitting around a table with a bunch of people roleplaying sex.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

 

[Major_Blackhart]

So, have the rules changed much or is it still shit?

 

[Severian Silk]

Why won't anyone make a(nother) Farscape RPG?

 

[Misconnected]

My rulebook came in today. Haven't read much, but I'm very disappointed in the combat system, especially the lack of weapon damage rolls. Still, the setting looks cool, so maybe I'll end up using that one day.

I'm all for scaling damage with to-hit rolls, but as far as I'm concerned the absence of damage rolls is a selling point.

I can't imagine sitting around a table with a bunch of people roleplaying sex.

I might have been able to, if there'd been a supplement like this around back in my teenage days when we tried to. But there was no such supplement around, and we were teenagers, so the game broke the light speed barrier on the way to Awkwardville. Not an experience I ever want to have again.

We've had lots of success with non-explicit stuff, though. In our last homebrew campaign, each player ran their own city state-like dynasty over the course of a few centuries. We had everything from Romeo & Juliet type stories, to Don Juan spies. Fading to black at the right moment makes all the difference.

Why won't anyone make a(nother) Farscape RPG?

There actually is a FarScape d20 RPG, based on the occasionally brilliant TV series of the same name. But I'm guessing you meant the AD&D2e campaign setting PlaneScape?

EDIT: Assuming you did mean PlaneScape, I'm afraid not. As far as I'm aware, the setting has been retconned out of existence. I'm sure one of the resident D&D players can explain.

 

[Ninjerk]

I can't imagine sitting around a table with a bunch of people roleplaying sex.

I might have been able to, if there'd been a supplement like this around back in my teenage days when we tried to. But there was no such supplement around, and we were teenagers, so the game broke the light speed barrier on the way to Awkwardville. Not an experience I ever want to have again.

We've had lots of success with non-explicit stuff, though. In our last homebrew campaign, each player ran their own city state-like dynasty over the course of a few centuries. We had everything from Romeo & Juliet type stories, to Don Juan spies. Fading to black at the right moment makes all the difference.

Yeah, when I was still roleplaying I wouldn't have known anything about sex, but if I were to do it now and someone said something that betrayed their inexperience I don't know if I could help but laugh.

 

[Misconnected]

Yeah, when I was still roleplaying I wouldn't have known anything about sex, but if I were to do it now and someone said something that betrayed their inexperience I don't know if I could help but laugh.

That's actually something I can sort of imagine roleplaying could be used for, if I try very hard not to cringe. It's a relatively safe way to explore sexuality.

But like I said, it'd pretty much be my personal idea of Hell.

 

[Ninjerk]

I guess I could see that, but I feel like you'd really just have to be prepared to go the distance at that point.