I look at all the 5E implementations of sci-fi and cyberpunk, and every time, it is a 300+ page book with too many rules, too many complicated subsystems, and half of the rules you will need to interact, and adventure in a near-modern cyberpunk city environment are nowhere to be found.
3.5E, 4E, or 5E can never have enough rules for everything. It was like this back in Pathfinder 1. I have thousands of pages of rules for everything, and I still have large gaping holes for relatively common fantasy tropes. I sit here and wonder if they can ever write enough 5E rules or if it will ever stop.
Some games are rules sponges, and they are built to sell you more rules. They lack generic mechanics where a simple, universal, and coherent rule could handle one thing.
5E was built to sell you the next book, and it will never stop. Even the classes are designed to be very book-dependent; you get one new subclass with this book, nickel-and-dime the design over a few hundred (or thousand) dollars of expansion books.
This is how the game was designed.
Everything from 3.5E on is like this.
It is a mobile game with stamina mechanics and particular currencies needed to complete basic actions. Only here, the rules are just generic enough to cover basic actions. Still, for anything exciting or radically different, the game needs an entirely new subsystem for things like monster training, car chases, vehicle combat, hacking, magical research, city building, hirelings, coffee shops, universities - and you need a sixty to eighty dollar book for each of those activities.
Play the game long enough, and you will need a book for something else.
Urban Fantasy? Taking elves, orcs, tieflings, magic, and monsters and mixing them with magic and cyberpunk? The closest thing I have to that is Starfinder, dozens of books I am not rebuying, and the story is the same. The core book covers 30% of what you must do as an adventurer but lacks many subsystems for specific circumstances. I bought books and books, and while I may get good coverage of most of the things I need - it will be a few thousand pages of rules.
I am done with games like that.
I hit the 5E wall with a desire to run a d20-based Cyberpunk or Shadowrun game, and I realized how difficult this would be to pull off without a few thousand pages of rules. If a game were relatively complete in one book, learning how vehicle combat, hacking, magic, monsters, and everything else work in a heavily structured game would not be worth the time and effort. The 5E design makes it even harder since a good representation of a few classes would take over 100 pages of rules, powers, and options - if you include magic and tech powers.
The time it would take to learn and apply these rules for a typically unsatisfying and overly complex result would not be worth the time and effort. I experienced that in GURPS: Traveller, where my starfighter combat turned out to be something between a mix of a physics simulator and a submarine warfare game, and the two fighters searched for each other in a vast void of space, never finding each other, and never being close enough after they made a guess where the other ship would be.
They were lost in space and could only fire when they were 2-3 hexes apart, with zero chance of detecting each other to get that close.
Many systems written in these d20 games for starship or vehicle combat aren't worth playing, and the hacking and other systems are the same. They are created for map combat, and everything else is an afterthought. NPCs do the vehicle combat and hacking, and the GM handwaves it. For urban fantasy magic meets cyberpunk game, I don't want 5E 'in-room combat' with a leather jacket, sunglasses, and attitude.
Cypher System handles the entire Urban Fantasy genre better, with more flair and ease of use. Motorcycle chase through traffic? The system does it easy; the enemy has difficulty, uses the traffic on the freeway as a hindrance, uses your skill (and possibly bike) as an asset, and you roll a d20. Apply effort as needed. I don't need to learn 20 pages of unworkable vehicle combat rules that will require battle maps, road sections, and for me to place down every car to move around.
Roll a 1? GM Intrusion, and you wreck your bike. Roll a 20? The one you are chasing does. Major and minor effects are covered in the same roll, along with extra damage.
GM intrusion? Chase complication. Player intrusion? Force the issue and push the story forward.
Hacking? Same. You have your skills and tools as assets, set the difficulty rating, apply hindrances to the situation, and roll a d20. Apply effort as needed. Done. I don't need to learn 20 pages of hacking rules that nobody will use.
Magic? Same. Summoning a trash golem? Same. Making a deal with the mega-corps? Same. Helicopter combat? Same. Disabling high-tech security systems with a remote drone? Same. Casting an illusion? Same. Creating a combat robot? Same. Retrieving deleted data from a secure system? Same. Understanding ancient magical rites in an unearthed temple? Same. Climbing buildings? Same. Starship combat? Same. Training cyber combat pets? Same. Being a race driver or rock musician? Same.
Thousands of pages of rules I don't need to remember or keep on a shelf and never use.
Dozens of books I don't need to waste money on or flip through, taking away play time.
Yes, having a detailed subsystem for chases, vehicle combat, hacking, magic, and every other thing is a 'nice to have' - but given most games get this sort of game design utterly wrong on the first design, and they are never fixed. The Starfinder ship combat rules were horrible in the first book, and they changed many of the numbers in later printings. Most 5E books don't get a second printing, and some - like Spelljammer - don't even include the rules for what they are promising.
90% of the time, for a narrative experience, the Cypher System rules do the job faster with more flair and flavor than anything I have seen designed in almost every 3E to 5E game ever printed.
For a setting that demands so many unique interactions and situations - having a system that simplifies everything under the sun will make the game a faster and more enjoyable experience. This worked wonderfully for my Cypher System 'Road War' campaign, and I could run a day's action in 30 minutes and be happy with how it played and the results. There was tension in the pool management and a real fear of failure when I played solo. I don't get that from many other games.
If one of my three pools drops to zero due to effort or injury, everything gets more complicated, and I wonder if my character will make it through the day. And I can't fudge the rolls or the rules, and it is pretty clear when I lose points in a pool and from what.
The roll stands, and my character's life gets more complicated.
But I can fight back by spending those precious XP. These pools have an abstract narrative nature, but they simulate hundreds of pages of complex subsystems in one roll with one number.
The system works, covers anything I can imagine, and saves me hundreds of dollars in books and days of time learning exploitative and broken systems. If I want to watch complex subsystems break and fiddle with numbers, I will play 5E. If I wish for an incredible story with a system that handles anything, I will play Cypher System and forget about those other games.
You need to ask yourself, what is the most important?
What gives me the most fun?
For me, the story wins.
No comments:
Post a Comment