Love Vaesen. Great game if you will (the gm) put in the effort and work. Not something I always want to run but when I do it always leads to A very fun time.
I just discovered this video and this channel, instant subscribe! Watching you review this game, I was wondering: Have you ever heard of an older indie RPG called Mythender (c. 2013)? It's one of my personal favorites to pull out every now and again, and I'd love to know your thoughts/experiences on it.
One of my favorite things to do when I find a new game is to nix the setting. I basically take the systems and cannibalize them into my own setting. This system looks fucking PERFECT (from an outsider's perspective, who's never actually read any of the books, though I intend to absolutely) for my idea for a campaign called the City of Labyrinth. The idea being that it takes place primarily within a City built on the outer limits of an immense underground labyrinth. The original settlers were adventurers who figured out how to capture and hold areas of the labyrinth, preventing the horrors inside the maze from reclaiming their property. Now it exists as a trade hub, where adventurers come to claim riches found within the depths of the maze, maybe even conquer further sections within it. Anyway, as much as I want to do that, and I probably still will, the setting itself looks intriguing enough that I think I wanna do a heart campaign without touching a god damn thing.
This PC drive to have the character die in as interesting a way as possible reminds me a lot of Infinite revolution. And I rather enjoy that one, I'll definitely check out Heart!
Hi! I am a little mermaid and while I am sworn to keep my and my merple's existence a secret to the humanfolk, I do enjoy coming to the surface to watch these tabeltoop arpeejees being played on decks of ships. What I wouldn't give to be able to roll those - what are they called? - diiiiice! Please don't tell anyone you read this comment. Thanks.
Fantastic Broken Tales reference at the end... And Valraven is also coming at the English speaking people right now 😎 If you are a fan of Berserk Manga, and you love games focusing on a mercenary company, then you'll have a great time!
Totally appreciated that little segment regarding Metamorphosis Alpha, which I remember being advertised in old Dragon magazines. There sure were a lot fewer RPGs in those days, and some were definitely derivative.
It seems like the Gumshoe system in general, and Esoterrorist in this specific situation, have solved some of the problems. Using a resource-spent system to guarantee success, but making it harder and harder and overall having 30+ investigation skills so even a group of 5 people all 5 people can be in the spotlight a decent number of times. You had Trail of Cthulhu in there. Does Vaesen help in explaining a successful investigation? In Esoterrorist solving the mystery and hiding the mystery from the public is often enough without a forced showdown. Although Robin D. Laws intro to investigation pnp is pretty good at explaining the difference to dungeon crawling.
Hello Quinn! Considering how enthusiastic you were about Investigative Urban Fantasy here, may I suggest down the line reviewing a game called “Eureka!” by ANIM RPGs? It’s still very much in development and it’s Kickstarter is near its close, but as is it has a lot of interesting mechanical decisions that really encourage failing forward and succeeding fantastically. It’s something worth checking out. It has a system for retroactively finding clues on failed rolls fueled by failing several rolls as a clever bounce back system, a composure mechanic that heavily encourages downtime and even forces monstrous characters to act monstrous, and discourages combat while still having complex combat rules as an option so that if you really go to that last resort you can be as tactical about it as possible to minimize losses rather than just “you picked the wrong option, so you lose half your Composure and Health and have 3 long terms scars”.
"You & I are getting distracted" But, huh, what did I do? ...I maybe did start thinking about my mashup campaign of the Finnish and English versions of DnD. You don't know me Quinns!
Just a quick question: where's the Pay It Forward for this one? All of the other Quinns Quest reviews had an opportunity for the designers to mention books/games they think other people should check out, but not for this one... Just curious! Great review (and great that FLP responded to your review!).
I fully agree with the criticism of the system, many rules are sub-par. We converted what we could to D&D 5e to allow the DM and players flexibility and options. Our play is rules-light with almost no combat, and we keep true to the original game intent. We focus on the character's background and dark secrets and we have a lot of drama and plot. As the GM, I use Vaesen mysteries but always triple the NPCs, flush them out, and add additional plots. My players could solve most written adventures in 2 hours. Now it takes 12 hours and is satisfying. We try and stick to the game descriptions and abilities for Vaesen, and the setting in particular.
Our D&D 5e changes are that the History skill also covers cultural knowledge, and Medicine and Persuasion can help heal damage. We slowed rest-healing, dropped class hit points (after level 1) to a third, and slowed levelling (milestone). We keep things low magic and conceal special abilities. Pushing a roll grants inspiration at the cost of taking exhaustion. Mementos can grant Inspiration once per adventure. The players try to connect their character abilities to their overall background - this is challenging but do-able. Backgrounds are vital. A character's profession generally grants situational advantage for their specialities. We use the Everyday Heroes 5e weapons.
The "dungeons" that Gavin Norman et al. Are putting out for OSE are so lovely, they've got fantastic little substories that just pull players in so effectively. The little extra touches of weirdness result in some super memorable moments, one of my players was an 18YO girl who'd never played an rpg before and decided to put her characters penis in a hole in wall that transformed another players hand into a claw. Her random roll meant that her penis doubled in size and ive never seen someone so excited. Her character brought it up TO EVERYONE SHE MET for the rest of the campaign, rpgs are really at their best when shits a little weird
Citizen Sleeper was a real surprise for me when I played it. I had no idea what to expect. It is incredible. Probably the most human game I've ever played.
I only played a one shot of Vaesen. I liked the atmosphere but the rules felt awful. I didn't roll a 6 for the entire session. Mostly our investigators felt really inept. Which is quite funny, because playing Tales from the Loop I didn't have the same complaints despite the similarities in the 2 systems. I guess that's because of ludo-narrative dissonance. If I'm playing a kid I don't mind failing a lot. If I'm playing a competent investigator it bothers me a lot more. It also puts a lot of pressure on the GM to still give you a measure of success despite failing. So in a sense I guess it is a "no but" system.
I would love to see some content on Castaway and maybe even a playthrough of it. Some of these more "simple" RPGs are quite daunting just due to the lack of handholding. I want you to hold my hand haha.
Sounds like he doesn’t understand many things in the core rulebook and about vaesen. Never had these problems with Vaesen at all (and I’ve played all published scenarios save for the lost mountain saga) 🤣
I recently stumbled into your channel and I'm loving your style. Your candid way of explaining concepts and mechanics is quite easy-to-follow (and funny). I find you delightful.
Fantastic review as always Quinns, it’s really refreshing to see new RPGs out that arent DnD (having played it so long) , good or bad super cool to see anything new and different. I’d like to see your thoughts on DIE rpg!?
