https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/11/21/finding-the-tone/

I think this preview finally pushed me fully into believing (instead of merely hoping) that FFG is going to produce something special with Genesys. They really are exposing various adjustment levers and letting the group decide what works for the setting. "Tone" is appropriately vague as a term, but it encompasses any rule add-on needed for general checks in a setting (from fear/sanity effects to superpowers, in the article).

The article really didn't look much more crunchy than the other ones, but it felt like there was more info to be gleaned from it, although it again achieved the effect that the magic article did of teasing more potential than it actually commits to providing. Still, this was a welcome article at a time when I thought we'd have nothing but dead air.

Tone may sound too vague but using its writing version (as appropriate for something called Narrative Dice System), it's the right term

17 minutes ago, Dragonshadow said:

I think this preview finally pushed me fully into believing (instead of merely hoping) that FFG is going to produce something special with Genesys. They really are exposing various adjustment levers and letting the group decide what works for the setting. "Tone" is appropriately vague as a term, but it encompasses any rule add-on needed for general checks in a setting (from fear/sanity effects to superpowers, in the article).

The article really didn't look much more crunchy than the other ones, but it felt like there was more info to be gleaned from it, although it again achieved the effect that the magic article did of teasing more potential than it actually commits to providing. Still, this was a welcome article at a time when I thought we'd have nothing but dead air.

Exactly, while this article has me excited ,finally. We won't know till we get our hands on it and see how the system really works.

I like where they're going with this. Exploding pools for super-powers? I can think of some cyber/wizard/horrors that could benefit from the same mechanic.

Super characteristics? Neat idea. Happy to see Sanity in the system too, Trauma should be fun to hand out!

I agree with you that the article is vague in nature, but that the book also covers superheroes/supernatural abilities setting chars appart from the masses is what I hoped for! And a nice take with double damage and certain damage immunity from minion attacks (though Superman will still dio 200 times the damage ). Horror, sanity, fear, well they really cover much and if they handle the rest like those glimpses, holy poodoo!

I am so excited for this! Superheroes are a possibility! I was worried I wouldn’t be able to add my superhero-themed world to my OmniSphere setting.

I really like this - can't wait to see what all we get.

I could just see mixing them - a superhero horror game. Uses fear and sanity, but superpowers - so you make your fear check, but it's a superstat, and it explodes a few times "The Shuggoth sees you completely ignore it's otherworldly nature, and assumes you are one of the beings who crafted the elder sign and flees.

Or partially adopting them, or only in certain circumstance. Say you want to run a fairly normal fantasy world, but everyone freaks out and is messed up by undead - perversion of the natural order. So Fear (and trauma) come in to play when you run into undead, even the lowliest skeleton or zombie. Now you have a game where dealing with undead is a major undertaking, and not a zombie romp.

You want Swords and Sorcery - fighty types use superhero rules, and any mage has to use the horror rules in dealing with the violent barbarians.

You want High Fantasy with Heroes that stride across the world - they are Superheroes.

Have a SF adventure where the heroes land on a planet where the population is all weak due to genetic breakdown - they are supers, but only in dealing with things from that world.

Want a lighthearted horror game with a hero and their scoobies -no fear and the "main" PC uses superstats, and everyone uses the minion rules.

So much potential - not just in applying the ideas for a global campaign mode, but to re-enforce special situations within a game.

Fantasy Horror Superhero game: Van Helsing.

Or for an alternate, your all Greater Daemons ravaging the world of goodie two shoes.

1 hour ago, DarthDude said:

I agree with you that the article is vague in nature, but that the book also covers superheroes/supernatural abilities setting chars appart from the masses is what I hoped for! And a nice take with double damage and certain damage immunity from minion attacks (though Superman will still dio 200 times the damage ). Horror, sanity, fear, well they really cover much and if they handle the rest like those glimpses, holy poodoo!

They're all vague in nature, which is why I think it's by design.

I have to say though I love that even though it looks like a sci-fi power-armour suit in the picture, that it's a superhero landing in an article about supers is just brilliant. Love FFG for things like that.

I must agree this article gave me a better understanding of what I think they are doing with this system. Not to say that they needed to sell it to me (since I already preordered the book). But I can see here that this is a system that I can use with all of my gaming needs. Much like I did with Hero system in the 90s.

I feel more comfortable though being able to rope my players into this system now. Most of them are already playing EotE or AoR. And they believe it is the best Star Wars system they have ever played. BTW some like me have been playing Star Wars Games ever since WEG.

Based on all the updates, game mechanics aside, I am getting a good feeling that the book is really concise and will likely be chuck block full of information and not fluffed up.

It’s almost impossible to fluff-up a generic book, since fluff is basically world-info rather than game-info. The closest you can get is example worlds, I suppose.

While I’m still interested in GeneSys I admit that the super characteristics leave me cold at first blush. It’s too inconsistent for my taste. If I have the GeneSys version of the Hulk, I should reliably and consistently pull of incredible feats of strength. This seems unlikely with super characteristics as written. Also, without seeing examples of how to interpret Triumphs (how many are needed to throw a tank, bus, etc.) it’s all, at this point, vague fiat.

14 minutes ago, Alderaan Crumbs said:

While I’m still interested in GeneSys I admit that the super characteristics leave me cold at first blush. It’s too inconsistent for my taste. If I have the GeneSys version of the Hulk, I should reliably and consistently pull of incredible feats of strength. This seems unlikely with super characteristics as written. Also, without seeing examples of how to interpret Triumphs (how many are needed to throw a tank, bus, etc.) it’s all, at this point, vague fiat.

You have to assume talents exist to cover other aspects of the personality. Not just the exploding die pools.

Just now, Endersai said:

You have to assume talents exist to cover other aspects of the personality. Not just the exploding die pools.

I’m not assuming anything, actually. I do not know how Talents will couple with this. If a sentence such as, “Coupled with Talents, super characteristics allow characters to pull off absolutely amazing feats!” had been included, I would be more inclined to agree. However, the only thing I know for sure is that I have a random chance of being super heroic and I’m not very impressed.

27 minutes ago, Alderaan Crumbs said:

While I’m still interested in GeneSys I admit that the super characteristics leave me cold at first blush. It’s too inconsistent for my taste. If I have the GeneSys version of the Hulk, I should reliably and consistently pull of incredible feats of strength. This seems unlikely with super characteristics as written. Also, without seeing examples of how to interpret Triumphs (how many are needed to throw a tank, bus, etc.) it’s all, at this point, vague fiat.

I'd borrow a page from Fate with the concept of "Narrative Authority". The Hulk is super strong. That recalibrates what a feat of strength represents to that PC. The Hulk shouldn't make a check at all if lifting a bus. That's trivial. He should only roll when tossing it at Thor, and then it's not about whether or not he could lift it, only how well he can aim it. Now granted, a bad roll might simply indicate that the part he grabbed onto tore loose, but it surely wouldn't reflect the basic fact that Hulk won't even break a sweat lifting a bus.

Super strength is easier to resolve than super speed. Normally a ranged attack is a fixed difficulty and doesn't account for speed. Flash and Quicksilver are going to need some extra rules because they are extraordinarily hard to target, particularly with a projectile weapon.

If you’re going to base things off what amounts to narrative fiat, why use a game system at all? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for creativity coupled with rules (this system thrives on that), however the rules need to be clear and consistent. Your reasoning opens up a can of worms I wouldn’t want to deal with. It’s far too “Mother, may I?” for me. For example, I’m a super-soldier with the best training in the world. That’s my story. I choose Agility and Cunning as my super characteristics. I roll to shoot and miss. Now, by your reasoning I shouldn’t have shot at all, at least not when it’s against minions. This is an issue and brings me back to the thought of, “If I’m hand-waving large chunks of system, why am I using it at all?”.

21 minutes ago, Alderaan Crumbs said:

I’m not assuming anything, actually. I do not know how Talents will couple with this. If a sentence such as, “Coupled with Talents, super characteristics allow characters to pull off absolutely amazing feats!” had been included, I would be more inclined to agree. However, the only thing I know for sure is that I have a random chance of being super heroic and I’m not very impressed.

The evidence to date on Genesys has shown one thing only; a very guarded approach to revealing new information. So if they've developed a tone around supers, based on the designer's own love of classic supers, then it would stand to reason there's more mechanics we have not seen than have seen. As such, it would be premature to conclude it's just exploding dice pools - that's all.

2 minutes ago, Endersai said:

The evidence to date on Genesys has shown one thing only; a very guarded approach to revealing new information. So if they've developed a tone around supers, based on the designer's own love of classic supers, then it would stand to reason there's more mechanics we have not seen than have seen. As such, it would be premature to conclude it's just exploding dice pools - that's all.

Agreed. I’m sure there’s more, however if they want to sell me on a product, sell me on it. Don’t keep sprinkling vagueness. The only thing I know for sure concerning super heroes is that exploding dice are important to them. As a showcase mechanic set on its own I am not impressed.

1 hour ago, 2P51 said:

Based on all the updates, game mechanics aside, I am getting a good feeling that the book is really concise and will likely be chuck block full of information and not fluffed up.

This is precisely what I was hoping they'd do. I think I'll wait until I've read it to put more items into my backpack of posterior pain.

I like their description of horror and super heroes and two very different tones. It seems like Genesys is a very complete toolbox.