My channel is focused on tabletop rpgs you might not have heard of before. This channel is created for fun and hope that if anyone is interested in my insight that they will leave a comment and let me know.
I cut my teeth on TRPG using World of Darkness, I always feel like DnD devolves into "I hit it with my axe" - I play DnD because it's the only game people around me are willing to play.
Its so hard to judge a horror game without the full picture, but Im definitely more intrigued after this video. The Mechanics feel a bit crunchy right now, but I feel like ai could get the swing of it after a few sessions. i feel like uing Cursed Dice as a juice stat is definitely something Id have to tey out before I fully get it. I really hope its a big enough hit to get this in game stores again. The RPG horror scene is leaning a bit far into splatter-punk right bowm we could use a bit more gothic and psychological horror
I will probably back this, but some of the theming like “found family” and “all the adults are WRONG” feels forced. I want to be presented with a dark world and have the game just say “This is the world. What are you going to do about it?” That said I can see some fun in the other themes like curses being passed down or passed on. I definitely want more spontaneity in how people become monsters, which this game seems to be doing. I will say I think Curse Dice do not work for me, just let dice be dice for crying out loud 😅
@@HorizonSilver they replaced All Adults are Out of Touch with “Your Elders are Out of Touch”. And the Familial curses aren’t necessarily hereditary. Sorcerers in the latest can pass their Curse to spouses. Some families only trust blood relations though like the Spawn of Vodnik and Nephilim.
@@AwkwardGMCorbin yeah but it was created in the 1900's and early 2000's. Its also had - Magicians/ Sorcerers - Bast (Feline Shapeshifter) - Psychics - Necromancers - Sentinnels (like hunters that can invoke Divine InsMiracles) - Undead (Vampyres or Relentless Dead) - Ferals (werewolves, werebears, werehyena, werejaguars, werelions, weretigers, etc) - Spirits (either Ghosts who are lesser spirits or Phantasms who are greater spirits) - True Immortals
@@AwkwardGMCorbinI'm genuinely surprised you don't know the game. It was a somewhat popular horror game that was the basis for the unisystem (All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Conspiracy X, Army of Darkness, etc) back in the 90s. It was often accused of being a World of Darkness knock off. Mechanically you had Attributes, skills, points buy, Merits and drawbacks, very analogous to the Storyteller system. It differed in using a single d10 roll plus relevant skills and attributes vs a difficulty rather than a dice pool. The fact that it was a horror game where you played the supernatural didn't help the comparisons. I'd recommend checking it out if you ever get the chance and the time. I was more of an All Flesh guy, but it had it's charm. Kind of a WoD without the meta plot, and somehow even more 90s cheese. Felt a bit like if Chill and WoD became best friends over their shared love of the Crow.
Well, the system looks good from what I know so far. That said,, some stuff bothers me with the system itself. First, I feel that the powers became a lot simpler, in a bad way (In my opinion, of course), a thing I loved in CofD, is that most powers were really open-ended, like mesmerize, which was a really flexible tool, or even some supernatural merits, like psychokinesis, it felt much more like a tool that you could adapt. The powers as far as I read, were much more specific. Not even sorcerers have a flexible casting similar to Mage the Awakening. So the system overall feels much less flexible in my opinion. Another thing I haven't seen yet is something akin to integrity, humanity, and such. While I don't hate it if it is removed, I feel that, would need something similar to feel the gap, to better represent mental consequences for your actions. Another thing I would love to see, it's the possibility of creating a "regular" human character, I really like the CofD Blue line, and Hunter the Vigil, so I would miss a lot that possibility. And lastly, something that worries me too, it's that because they are doing everything in one book, I am afraid that each family feels more like a class instead of their own thing, and worse than that, is that each Family ends up not being flashed out enough. That all said, there's some very promising stuff that I like, first, as far as I can tell, I really liked the Curse Die mechanic. Every splat being part of the "same" game, is something I really like too. To be honest, I really like the idea of crossover games, so that simplifies a lot, but as I said before, I worry a bit about it too. I they are not doing "high-level" rules yet, I hope that comes out in a supplement soon. TL/DR: I have some worries. about the system yet, but there's some stuff that I am really excited about already. I will probably support Kickstarter, but I am not completely sold if it will replace CofD in my heart yet.
My personal opinions from what I've seen so far: 1. Powers aren't as simplier in my opinion. The only ones we've seen so far are the Foundational spells which are basic spells, Ascendent and Ultimate spells are the next level. I doubt we'll see something like in CofD where abilities had Failures/Dramtic Failures/Success/Exceptional Success because they don't use that format for abilities in SPU, the additional effects are up to the Storyguide in that regard. On a personal level, I'm fine leaving he flexible spell casting to WoD/CofD. If I want to go back to that, I'll just play WoD/CofD. 2. Integrity/Humanity/etc... is kind of tied in with the Curse Dice. Though its not a 1 to 1. For instance, we know if you as a Dead reach 0 Curse Dice and are unable to find a new body to return to you can eventually turn into a Phantasm which is a chaotic unthinking ghost. 3. Regular human characters if not an option in Curseborne will likely be options in Storypath Ultra Core. 4. For me, so far it seems that the core rules for each Accursed is different enough that they feel different from each other, with the exception being Curse dice and Damnations. But the Practices/Spells also add to the variety. Of course in CofD you did have some abilities that crossed over with Splats. In My Pocket in DtD and Discreet Summons in CtL acted very similarly, though with slight changes where Changelings could do things differently with different Kith types. I'm hoping the Kickstarter does well enough that we see more supplements in the future. We know a setting book is going to be included at some point based on the Curseborne OPP Con panel. I feel like Lineage specific books, Antagonist supplements, historical setting supplements, novels, etc... are a possibilities.
@@AwkwardGMCorbin nice to hear your takes 🙂, about the points. 1. My issue is not that I feel the spells are simpler, or weak, or nothing like that, is it just if you compare, with let's say Auspex 1, that is the first step of a discipline, I feel that I have much more freedom in how to use it, compared to the spells in curseborne, although I admit that I have seen just the ones from ashcan, and was a quicky glance. But In the first instance, I felt that way, and one of the biggest selling points of CofD to me, is how flexible it is. About the point, to play a game with flexible spellcasting I would just play WoD or CofD, I don't agree with that, the same could be said of almost the entire CofD franchise compared with WoD, or even Curseborne, compared with CofD, why should I learn Curseborne or why would I play a Vampire in Curseborne, if I can just play Requiem or Masquerade, or something like that. Awakening and Ascension having a flexible spellcasting, I don't feel that should be a reason for Curseborne to have or not a similar system. 2. Honestly, I feel that curse dice, works much more like a resource to be honest, I am not sure if it is able to occupy the same space, of raising the stakes for more "moral" decisions But again, I am not really against it, maybe it will just be more in the side of storyteller and players handle it how they seem fit. I just feel that if it's not, may feel that don't really has stakes for become a complete monster, for instance, or balance to keep, stuff like that. 3. Yeah, I heard about it already, but I feel that it should be in the same book, to be really the same game like they are doing with the others. But I am not very familiar with storypath ultra, but maybe Trinity could be a good approximation. 4. I don't think it's bad right now, but they feel very similar to me. But to be honest I meant more about options, I guess. Right now every Vampire feels very similar to me, with the differences being basically which spells you take. I know that the Ashcan version is far from the complete version, because that is more like a fear that ends up like that, than pointing out something that I don't feel is good. I may sound a bit harsh about the game, but I am really hoping that ends up a good game, and that the Kickstart goes really well, what I have seen so far, seen like has a lot of potential to be something that will hook me into it. But of course, taste is really subjective, for instance, not having flexible spellcasting is a weak point to me, but it is a selling point to you. That said, I am tempted to say that I prefer the take of Sorcerer in Curseborne, being addicted to magic, over Mage the Awakening, "world is a lie" stuff.
So... I have a question about the rule, does the game still have?: Success Exceptional Success Failure Dramatic Failure And the new Wicked Success/Cruel Failure are AN ADDITION to the old formula?
SPU has: Success Success with Complications Failure Failure with Complications You only get With Complications if you fail to buy off a Compliciation, which usually imparts some sort of downside without affecting the Success/Failure of the desired effect. So if for instance wanted to lockpick a door with an alarm, getting through the door would be the result I want, but accidentally triggering the Alarm would be the Complication which will alert guards I'm in the area, but not immediately result in combat. Example of how I'd write this out: Lockpicking a Door (Difficulty 2, Complication 1: Alarm is Triggered)
Well, well, this actually look pretty promising. A bit streamlined compared to CofD, but that might not be so bad given it gives an easier system rather than having to struggle with various books for crossovers :p
Yeah, if you've tried out the other Storypath Games like Scion, Trinity Continuum, and They Came From... you'll see the improvements OPP has done from what they learned with CofD. Big thing for me is that I don't see a lot of Dead End or Must Take abilities, but that may be because we haven't kicked the system's tires as much as CofD.
I'm gonna be honest, I'm kinda disappointed in what I've seen so far, aside from the mechanics that feel needlessly convulted, I really don't dig the general mood, not dark enough, the cursed are shown as Buffy style heroes instead of actual monsters like Chronicles of darkness, the whole "punch up, not down" thing and the whole social justice aspect are also weird and, quite frankly, ridiculous in an horror game. I was hoping this would have been a valid substitute for CoD but I feel it falls short on too many things, a shame really.
For me I think the more antagonists that get revealed and plot hooks the more the horror get revealed. I really like some of the example liminal spaces and advesaries they've put out. The Red RIding Hoods are very grim dark, hunters who wear parts of Accursed to get power. I think there is still a lot of time to see where Curseborne goes in the final release. And once we see people playing it the tone can be seen better. For me I'll be trying to get a stream or a recording up soon of an Ashcan playthrough. I think the first time I played it the tone shifted halfway through. Towards the end it was a lot more grim and dark than the beginning.
@@AwkwardGMCorbin I would be happy if it changed but, unless they show some actually scary stuff, I don't think I'm going to back this, I was hoping for a mature horror game but all I got so far are teen drama vibes. The liminal spaces do look interesting but I have the feeling that they are not going to be as developed...
@@paulll47 They reworked the Ashcan to get away from tne teen drama elements. Liminal spaces have at least two examples I know of one from the ashcan and the Grand Hotel from the preview blog post. But its tough because it is hard to help alleviate concerns and first impressions. Personally I wish I could get ya Paul to see Curseborne how I see it, but I understand it may just not gel with you and I hope that anything I post about Curseborne helps alleviate any concerns you have about it. 🥺 And barring that I'll still be doing some CofD as I need to get the character creation videos out and I want to do quiz streams again soon. 😅
Social Justice aspect?! How does that game have any social just- you know what never mind. I make myself of not taking complains about that sort of thing seriously. personally I still prefer Chronicles, but I do find this interesting and kinda would be tempted to try it. Admittedly my bar is low because main thing I got to contrast it with is Vampire the Masquerade 5th edition, and I hate that.
@@AwkwardGMCorbin I will of course keep watching your videos, maybe a let's play will help convince and, if it doesn't, I still have CofD to play (unless Paradox decides to wipe it off the face of the Earth entirely, something that is unfortunately not out of the question).
Thank you so much for doing this video. I don't think anybody on RU-vid is as committed to supporting CofD as an integrated gameline as you are. You just seem to 'get' the spirit of CofD. Indeed, I think 'crossover' is a bit of a misleading term, because all CofD lines are designed to be compatible with each other. One of the things I love about CofD is that the setting is flexible, but also extremely rich, not burdened by the incompatible cosmologies that stop oWoD games from properly integrating from each other, or the vast metaplot which is great for novels but makes it hard for players to feel like they 'own' the story they're in. One question: how do you justify, in-game, suspending Disquiet for the player party? I'd love to see more videos on this topic (I have seen your more recent Q&A). Do you think you could do a video with your Mage player about how they can show self-restraint in a way that is in-keeping with their character, rather than just arbitrary? Mage is always the splat that people seem to find most difficult to integrate into 'crossover', and I have to say that if I was running a multi-splat game, that would be the one that I'd be most tempted to ban.
You 'hearted' this comment (which is the first time I've ever received that!) then I foolishly edited it to be more consistent and reduce the number of times I used the word 'crossover'. Sorry!
I read the Ashcan and I like the look of the game. I'm one of those oWoD players that Onyx Path managed to win back with their CofD 2e edition! Kind of a shame that they can't free up the CofD, but maybe it helps the popularity of the game to make it all one clear gameline instead of a separate line of books for every monster type? Probably will help give it a distinct character and world as well. I'm looking forward to this.
