Another GDW line gets revived

[ReHerakhte]

He had been really hyped for it and was pitching an Alien game to the group. Then he got the book, read it, and decided to run Call of Cthulhu instead.

He could always get the Cthulhu Rising monograph and have the best of both worlds. The CoC rules modifications in that are a bit shaky at times (I think they're actually derived from RuneQuest) but nothing you can't resolve yourself using the main CoC rulebook. Background is pretty good though.

I'll pass along the recommendation although I don't know when he's next likely to consider an Alien type game. We finished the sessions that he wanted to run for CoC and then he pitched a Ravenloft game as he had a hankering for some Gothic horror.
I'm not discouraging him because I am hoping that the longer we're away from any Cthulhu style game, the less feeling there'll be that DarkCon is too much like CoC.
Then maybe I can finally get this gang into a DarkCon game,

[Linden]

I think you could use the Cthulhu Rising background to run a straight "BRP" powered Aliens game without mentioning the mythos at all. The Cthulhoid stuff in it is fairly broadstrokes and unintentionally hilarious at times - the big bads behind one of the galactic wide conspiracies is...wait for it...The Masons! And cue The Simpsons Stonecutters song...

Zozer's Outworld Authority/Kosmos 68 setting is a nice free alternative if you've got Traveller.

[ReHerakhte]

NOTE: See EDIT below for update.

If you have access to Twitch, here follows an "interesting" interview about the current thoughts about rules mechanics for Free League's Twilight: 2000.
I am very curious about the material they want to produce but the more I hear about the rules the more convinced I am that I would not use them.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/627759700

EDIT for 26th May 2020: The twitch video linked to above is no longer available for public viewing but basic information about what was discussed in the video can be found in the following thread on the Forum Juhlin website for Twilight: 2000
https://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.php?t=6086

[ReHerakhte]

Well the kickstarter for the newest edition of Twilight: 2000 has opened and by now it's pretty obvious... runaway success is an entirely appropriate label.
As of my last check about one minute ago it was as follows: -
Au$133,713 pledged of a goal of Au$15,992
Backers - 1299
Days left - 22

As much as I dislike the Year Zero rules, I'm tempted to back the project to satisfy the collectors urge I have for certain GDW games.

[Morthrai]

I wasn't sure that the new version would grab my attention, but with so many of the Stretch Goals already done it's become more or less a bargain! I'm definitely going in at the boxed set level and probably adding the Ref Screen - damn you Free League

[ReHerakhte]

I understand entirely, that deluxe edition has been calling to me all day... "Buy me, buy me, you know you want to..."
There's still 21 days to go but I'm not sure if I can resist the urge to get it.
I'll admit I'm being a bit of a victim of marketing, the metal box is pretty nifty and I want it for... uh well... "reasons"... and not because I'm a complete fanboy for certain GDW games (why yes, I do have every published edition of both Twilight: 2000 and Dark Conspiracy along with copies of all the books & modules released for them, including fan released items and I also have the short-lived Cadillacs & Dinosaurs RPG, why do you ask?)


I have a half-baked idea to run a sort of crossover game with players starting in the Tales From The Loop world and the mad science of the Loop causes things to go awry which leads on to the global war of Twilight: 2000. I haven't found many people in my part of the world that wanted to play Twilight: 2000 but a post-apocalyptic world with some science-fiction elements (robots!) might be enough to hook them in.
Having said that, the success of the kickstarter (they're even advertising it has having been fully funded in only seven minutes after launch) might bring a whole slew of new people to the table who actually do want to play T2k.
I'm still not keen on the Year Zero rules even though Free League are modifying them to better fit T2k, however I might be convinced to try them...
So yeah, resisting the urge to jump onto the kickstarter, I'm not dealing with that particularly well haha!

[Linden]

I'm still not keen on the Year Zero rules even though Free League are modifying them to better fit T2k, however I might be convinced to try them...

I've been playing in a game of the Alien RPG. I don't find the Year Zero rules too bad, although the GM is slower than a wet week in Goole and we're about to embark on the third session of an adventure that should be done in two - however, I digress...

I think for those of us with experience of old school, technical type games of the type GDW used to put out something like Year Zero can feel a bit abstract. It seems to borrow a bit from story telling games, which admittedly I've always struggled to get my head around. I'd say Year Zero works better than Mothership, but i'm stil not mad about chucking all those dice around every time your character tries to do something.

[ReHerakhte]

The "special" dice in particular is something that I have no love for.
Apparently in one other Year Zero game, for any consumable supplies you have, you roll your gimmick die to determine if you have reduced your supply of said consumable. In the example I read, I think you start with one d12 and if you roll under a certain number you have used up a certain amount of consumables and you also reduce your die to d10. It continues in that vein until you are left with one d4 and when that's gone you are out of said consumable.

It's quick, it's easy, it's simple and in my opinion utter garbage. It's for all those people who don't want to do even minimal book-keeping to track their supplies. It comes across to me as being lazy and more to do with "roll" play than "role" play.
So yeah, not keen on the Year Zero system but I'm willing to give it a look although I don't truly believe I will ever run anything using them. I think there's better rules systems on the market that give a faster gameplay without making it lazy and simplistic for all those people who claim they don't have enough time to play rules-heavy but still seem to find the time to play games ... (and post on the internet about it).

[Linden]

The "special" dice in particular is something that I have no love for.
Apparently in one other Year Zero game, for any consumable supplies you have, you roll your gimmick die to determine if you have reduced your supply of said consumable. In the example I read, I think you start with one d12 and if you roll under a certain number you have used up a certain amount of consumables and you also reduce your die to d10. It continues in that vein until you are left with one d4 and when that's gone you are out of said consumable.

Yes, I've experienced that with air supply in when wearing a vacc suit in Alien. I think the reducing dice version comes from the "Black Hack" derived games? It certainly appears in "The Cthulhu Hack". I'm not a big fan of it, but then I tend not to run games where supplies are an important factor. For me that's not where the drama lies. Part of my dislike for the GUMSHOE system stems from much the same feeling - I don't find resource management very interesting in the RPG context.

Agree there's a lot of people on the internet talking about games rather than playing them. I sometimes find myself thinking "just get on with it, and play the bloody game."