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Wizkid: The Cheapening
Publisher: Postmortem Studios
by David F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/07/2016 05:54:41

A game after my heart. Silly, weird, comical and completely off the knocker. Basically the equivalent of combining the Monty Python "The meanng of Life" scetch about sex-ed with the Harry Potter books. Easy to pick up and really adorable in detail. Sadly the cheapness does reflect a bit in the artwork and the presentation.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Wizkid: The Cheapening
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7th Sea Core Rulebook (Second Edition)
Publisher: Chaosium
by David F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/30/2016 05:10:29

I have backed this game on Kickstarter, I loved the 1st Edition of 7th Sea to death and I could not wait for the day when I got my fingers on it. And I am very, very disappointed by the final product. Now, I have to get this out right away: The art is amazing, the flavour and the setting is as good as the 1st Edition and it oozes creativity in so many ways that I truly like. Though here is the major problem: The rules are not fit for a long-time RPG. They seem to be made more for a small, 1 shot game like "Small Towns" or "Modern Fairy". They are very reductive, bland and focused on quickness over elegance. Especially combat has been "streamlined" down so much that fighting is handled in the exact same way as escaping a burning room or besting a storm and villains re no longer represented by individual character sheets, but rather by 2 numbers (Strenght and Influence) and their arcana (monsters get additional traits). Firearms are automatic hits that do dramatic wounds. Brute squads get slightly more variance, but they usuall fall to quickly to have personality. This completely removes the tactical element from combat. There is no more dice chain, no interuptions and no dodgint (since that is apparently boring). The attempt to remove slowness and possible confusion ended with an almost complete removal of effort on the player's side. It is completely viable to simply focus your hero points on the first few actions of a scene where you use a few different actions that yield the most dice and pray to Muffle to get the raises you need to push down the enemy. In this system, I simply don't see characters kicking over buckets of soap-water to change the villain's defense stat from "Parry" to "Ballance" and undermine their strenght. My next issue is the complete lack of inventory and belongings. The book states that it "does not matter what kind of weapon the hero wields" and only differentiates heavy or light weapons by having heroes use either brawn or finesse when using them. Speaking as a long time GM, it does matter to the players. Players love customizing and changing their weapons, giving them choices to tweak and nudge their equipment. 1st Edition only differentiated between "heavy", "elegant" and "fists" as well, but the nation books added weapons with special propterties (sich as the Zweihänder, magical blades, Castillian Steel aso). The Duelists Guild book even allowed you to add further tweaks, such as adding a different handle or using a heavy blade. Sure, those things can be done in the game, but they have no effect. It is just the player saying "my blade is special" and that was it. No change, no influece. That makes any customization of weapons feel very hollow. It also removes choices from the GM since I can no longer steal specific, beloved items from the players as a plot hook. (Players even have the choice go just "get back" their signature items by spending a hero point. No further effort required). Another rather misguided attempt at streamlining is the "Dramatic Sequence" system. Should the players decide to do a prolonged, risky endeavour, they enter the Dramatic Sequence. First the endeavour is set up, then players explain their approach, their rolls are chosen and then they use their raises to change the outcome of the scene when need be. The issue here is, again, a lack of choices. The example given in the book is about players infiltrating a party, some sneaking in, some gathering information on the streets and some just attending and questioning guests. The issue is that once the approach is set up, it is very difficult to rationalize players changing it on the fly. In this case, what if the one entering as a regular guest finds out about a secret in the basement and sneaks off to unveil it. Suddenly they use their "Panache+Etiquette" raises to crawl through the dust. Or what if the sneaking guy runs into the guard and pretends to be a drunken guest who lost his way. "Finesse+Athletics" to change the guard's minds. The game suggests that the GM uses their Danger Points to heighten the challenges when this happens but speaking as a seasoned GM, this WILL feel very arbitrary and mean to some plaers and GMs have limited Danger points. Lastly, the dueling system and the Sword Schools are terrible. Sorry, they just are. Progression in styles is completely gone. Players simply learn the style and its one bonus when they chose it. The devs explained that it was more about the character's personal journey and that they now should learn many styles and mix them to make their own. My answer: But now I can't become a true master anymore. When a player reached enough points to get to the next level of a school, they felt a true boost in their characters. They had something tangible to use in the next fight. This feeling of achivement is basically gone now. Influence is gone. Instead there is a corruption system. Every evil act gives the players corruption points based on how many they had before (1st act: 1pt, 2nd act: 2pt adding to 3, 3rd act: 3pt adding to 6 4th act: 4pt to 10). The GM rolls a d10 every time and when the roll is equal to or below the value, the character becomes a villain and the player loses control. I hate this. The loss of control over a character should never be handled by a dice roll. Moving on. Finally, Character progression is now tied to the character's personal story and how many "steps" on this journey they have made. Every character has one journey (or 2 if a special trait is taken). The end of the journey and the next step towards it is chosen by the player. To advance your character you have to have taken a certain number of steps on your journey. This (obviously) was supposed to give the players more agency in their character's decicions and goals and give them more control over the adventure. It also sets up a somewhat competetive climate among the players since it rewards players who aggressively pursue their goals and punishes those who help them by not giving them steps. The GM has no real way of rewarding the entire group, since GM stories are supposed to be kept seperately from the player ones. Ultimately, I will play the setting, but I will use the rules of 1st Edition. Many ideas and concepts of the game are amazing, but the rules really bog them down. I want to love this game and I am glad that I backed it, but it just won't love me back.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
7th Sea Core Rulebook (Second Edition)
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