[Regis Furor] Ronnies feedback

Hello,

Jacob X's Regis Furor almost got disqualified. For one thing, both "rat" and "hate" are quite weak, little more than labels for game mechanics like "powers." There's room for fixing that, though. For another, the author's name may be a pseudonym or handle, and I consider that to be dishonest and lame, if it's the case. However, I don't know for sure. So the game stands as an entry, and that's good, because it has some neat stuff in it.

The basic idea is familiar: psychic agents whose emotional drives fuel their various powers. Although I keep thinking of Mr. Furious in Mystery Men, I shall firmly set that image aside and move on. What I started looking for, then, as with Alien Angels, was elegance, intensity, and some aspect of setting-based Situation. Without that, "play a guy with traumas and powerz" is way too familiar. I was an X-Men fan as far back as the mid-970s.

The first thing I ran into was extremely and unnecessarily layered player-character scores. Let's see if I have them right.

Badge - Codename, Arsenal, Sidearms, Parameters (with 6 scores and 6 health tracks)
Rat - King Rat, Vermiform, Curses, Mind Fragments (6 scores)

Wow ... that is a whole lotta derivation and detail. Consequently, keeping track of bonuses throughout play seems like a serious pain in the ass. I also think that you might consider a form of resolution in which NPCs don't have scores, just target numbers to beat for when they attack and for when they defend. (See the games Legendary Lives and The Whispering Vault, as well as Alien Angels here among the Ronnies.)

I do like the damage system, and the interesting scope of possible conflicts that arise from it. It's neat to imagine a game in which all the characters were damaged in different ways, affecting their emotional states and options accordingly. That's cool.

Unfortunately, the overall context of play seems to be to run missions for the Company. This has Shadowrun and similar games' smell all over it (is our boss throwing us to the wolves again? gee, I dunno!) and doesn't fly at all for a game which is supposed to be about inner conflicts brought out by external ones.

I'm not sure we're going to have a meeting of minds about this, though. The RPG description and discussion throughout the text is dramatically at odds with nearly everything I think about how role-playing works, and when it fails. Jacob, let me know if you want more dialogue about this, because I don't want to aggravate you with my views.

Best,
Ron