PoS: The Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG

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PoS: The Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG

Post by fectin »

"The Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG" is up on kickstarter. As far as I know, it's mostly notable for being done by Jenna Moran (ne Rebecca Sean Borgstrom).

Here's the core of the pitch:

"It’s an RPG that strives, as its first principle, to make it worthwhile to spend your time on both the little things and the big ones — a game that’s meaningful and fun whether your characters are drinking tea with their friends, exploring their new home, doing their daily round of chores, or hunting horrors in the dark. It’s a work that strives, as its second principle, to bend but not break when the same people who were sweeping or arguing over television shows a few minutes before start throwing around godly powers, breaking the world with their poorly-phrased wishes, and heading out into the dark to challenge Death."

Why do I care? Because it advertises itself as having a robust and meaningful tea-party system, and because player pluripotence seems to be the default assumption.

Anyway, it's up at http://kck.st/12jtkWM , if you want to see for yourself. I think it's too pricey, but not insultingly so. I may end up picking up the PDF; if so I'll review it.
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.
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Post by Chamomile »

Evidently we've found a second Koumei. Color me interested.
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Post by Prak »

$60 for a hard copy book is insanely overpriced. Seriously, unless there's several thousand pages, or it comes with an actual anime tea maiden to blow me under the table as I sip oolong, that's absurd.

Sounds cool though. If they had priced their pledge rewards better, I'd contribute. As it is, I look forward to hearing about it.
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Post by Chamomile »

Unless I'm misunderstanding what "ePub" is, you can get an electronic version for $15. That's a little steep, but not horrible. I used to want all my RPGs in hardback cover but the convenience of being able to switch from pdf to pdf quickly and easily has won me over. I will miss turning pages once they're finally gone, though.

Plus, so long as the Kickstarter gets funded you can always just wait a few months after release and then snag yourself a pdf at the low low price of crime.
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Post by Koumei »

I'd actually pay the sixty dollars, I'm okay with doing that, I just don't have enough faith in the author to fund it - I want to see the finished result before I buy it. Mainly because the author's criminal recordcredit list includes Nobiles, In Nomine and "stuff for Exalted".
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Post by Prak »

Sure. I like to at least have a hardcopy of the core book, though.

edit: also I consider $15 too much to pay for an ebook.
Last edited by Prak on Sun Jun 02, 2013 8:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by fectin »

IMHO, $40 is the top end of reasonable for a hardcover like this, and $80 is where it turns insulting.

Also, this:
recent update wrote: "Issues" are another game element that I really enjoy. They’re like little trellises for your character plotlines to grow on. They keep hard numeric track of what can sometimes be really subtle and marginal character bits to push things to develop in a dramatically interesting way.

For instance, let’s say you spend a lot of time staring off at the sunset and drinking tea.

Maybe you’re in a game where this is a great thing. Maybe it’s a failure mode. I don’t know! But either way, all this staring off at the sunset and drinking tea and stuff is likely to build your Something to Deal With Issue.
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Post by Voss »

Issues and chores and diceless too? This sounds really... something. Banal, I think. But hey, good use of buzzwords, and cult followings of things 30somethings aren't supposed to like but do.

But I guess I'll ponder what 'cutting-edge game' design actually is, while wondering what funding is even for when everything is done but the layout.
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Post by Archmage Joda »

Why is it that that recent update reads to me like someone trying to make "flavor text" or "character quirks" or whatever you wanna call it into a mechanical stat? That doesn't exactly strike me as the zenith of good game design...
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Post by fectin »

It's diceless and Borgsrommantic. You probably drink tea until you're angsty, use your nihilism to bind ghosts to your sweeping chakra, then use your righteous janitorial skills to clean up the town.
That might not even be a pun.

Reading her un-contracted work is about like watching the Mighty Boosh or something.
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.
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Post by Whipstitch »

don't you dare besmirch future sailors like that
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Post by fectin »

I enjoy both the reading and the watching. That wasn't a dig at either.
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.
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Post by Chamomile »

It's a shame this thing is apparently on a course for terrible execution. I've always been interested in RPGs which have combat mechanics as a sidenote. If you look at the actual movies and television shows we watch, the vast majority of the good ones have all but the most monumental combats concluded within one or two minutes of actual screentime, surrounded by 10-15 minutes of non-combat buildup or conflict on either side.
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Post by Rand Brittain »

Voss wrote:But I guess I'll ponder what 'cutting-edge game' design actually is,
Mostly it refers to the system Jenna designed for making afternoons sharing pizza bagels and feelings with your friends just as important, mechanically, as fighting a golden serpent up on the roofs of Fortitude.
while wondering what funding is even for when everything is done but the layout.
Art. Layout. Printing.

Given how unhappy people were with the quality of the art in Nobilis 3e, Jenna has gone to some pains to make sure this book is visually impressive.
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Post by Schleiermacher »

Chamomile: Terrible execution? You didn't like Nobilis?

Or do you mean something other than the mechanics? Because those are pretty solid IME, and the design intent is actually fairly well communicated, too.
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Post by Chamomile »

It's a diceless game, something I've never seen executed well, and it seems to be marketing itself on the strength of its buzzwords rather than any actual content. This is not promising, though I'm still hopeful it might turn out alright.
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Post by Rand Brittain »

Well, the rough draft is now available to anybody who backed for the PDF, if you want to find out more about it. So far, reader reactions seem to be pretty positive.
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Post by Chamomile »

The new Sim City got pretty positive initial reactions too. Good reactions from random strangers on the internet who may or may not have been using the actual rules at all don't inspire a whole lot of confidence. Does anyone here have the rulebook? I'd be interested in seeing a review.
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Post by Koumei »

Yeah, I'm not actually surprised to hear that people who read that and bought into the "cutting edge of RPG design!" bullshit and also thought Nobilis was a good game (which would be the majority of "people who backed this") thought the preview release was good.

I mean, if I marketed erotic asphyxiation, there are people who are into that and will talk about it until they're blue in the face. They'd be the people who signed up for it, and they'd probably give reviews of "she strangled me and I passed out, it's just what I wanted!"

Actually, truth be told I'd probably get it all wrong by utilising a chokehold that wasn't very sexy. I just wanted to make that "blue in the face" gag.
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Post by fectin »

There's a draft available on the honor system, which apparently means you're only supposed to skim it, unless you're buying a PDF. Personally, I still haven't decided what to do about that yet.

I doubt that I would ever play it, and if I'm buying something just to have it, I prefer physical stuff. On the other hand, people whose opinion I otherwise respect (people through whom I was introduced to the Tomes) have given Nobilis rave reviews, and I do like Morani's style.
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.
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Post by Longes »

Has anyone actually read this thing and formed an opinion? Because Chuubo confuses me. It seems like it wants to be a rules-light diceless game... Except it's almost 600 pages. And the setting is basically this:
Image

I just don't get it. It's as long as Exalted 3e, and somehow has even less content.
Last edited by Longes on Thu Jun 09, 2016 11:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by virgil »

I'm curious as to whether anyone read it and got an opinion as well. I'm particularly curious as to the value in the XP system, which seems to have each group have a group quest and a personal quest as the source for XP.

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Post by Mask_De_H »

There was way the fuck too much to read for what was basically the bastard child of Homestuck and Touhou with a resolution system that happens to be near literally Magical Tea Party. The Decemberists level of weaponized twee in the writing made me want to napalm the writer's house as retaliation.

That quest XP system would be nice if you still used XP for things, if XP mattered for anything in the game, and if you also didn't get XP for being disruptive and "cute".
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Post by virgil »

Longes wrote:Has anyone actually read this thing and formed an opinion? Because Chuubo confuses me. It seems like it wants to be a rules-light diceless game... Except it's almost 600 pages.
From what I've been able to glean so far, the actual 'rules' can be written on ~30 pages. The rest of the doorstop is the list of quests, XP-actions, etc. Actual action resolution is make a declaration of what you're doing, you have an Intention equal to the appropriate stat/skill minus the strength of the Obstacle. If your Intention is 1+, you succeed at your declaration (with MtP results on the MoS). If you don't think you'll succeed with base effort, you can spend points of Will to raise your Intention. Your Will refills every so often, based on the narrative pace of the game, frequently 1/day. Opposed effects are straight comparisons, higher Intention wins, and an Edge adds to their Intention (Edge 5 = you're Bilbo in the What's In My Pocket game).

The core element, that takes up the entire freakin' book, is the XP system. It's more than XP though, it's the format and outline of how the adventure/campaign will progress. XP comes from the following sources:
[*]Basic Quest - Your running background behavior, like pointing out the silver lining or doing something over the top. You can get this reward 1/15min (book says 1/hr is more typical), and every 15xp you get from this you get a token you can spend to refresh your Will.
[*]Emotion XP - An emotion you attempt to invoke through your actions, such as making someone face palm, or do that hand motion showing your disapproval. Essentially your signature catchphrase. You get this up to 1/15min (book says 1/hr is more typical).
[*]Storyline Quest - The actual story. Completing the Main Quest automatically activates the next Main Quest. Here's a sample:
  • Settling In
    You get 5xp per major goal fulfilled, once each.
    Major Goal I You've found a place to live less temporarily than a hostel.
    Major Goal II Everyone has one of: a job, a source of income, started attending School, or established themselves as the person who relies on the largess of others for survival.
    Major Goal III You spend a scene reminiscing about the Earth that drowned, and what you left behind.
    Major Goal IV You hear the full story of Jade Irinka's death.
    Quest Flavours are optional actions you can do concurrently with other sources of XP, which you can gain up to 1/day. The ones for this are the following: Discovering something you've never seen before. Struggling to get by, or running out of money. Introducing yourself to your neighbors. Thinking about the kind of life you'll make here.
[*]Issue - This is more of a background conflict that the DM slowly doles out hints of their nature as the story progresses until it reaches a tipping point. As an example with the Mystery issue, the first card you give says "There's some mystery about you, or some mystery that you'll have to face. What is it?", and the last card (after failing to resolve the penultimate one) says "The mystery is deep but...you still know what you have to do, right? And what doing that will mean?" - successfully resolving your issue gets you 4xp and a Miracle Point.

The DM can also have Affliction sets, which let them invoke certain events, and will grant PCs additional Will or Miracle Points if they're adversely affected by them.

When you earn 120xp, you go up a level, or Arc as the game calls it. Various sets of abilities and the like have unlocks based on what Arc the PC is at.

PCs get Miraculous Abilities, which are basically roughly described abilities that just plain happen unless someone else uses their own Miracle Power with a higher rank. They can be narrative imperatives, or even super powers. You accrue Miracle Points to fuel said powers when you complete quest lines (not sure if all or not).

You have various features that can modify stuff; accessories, bonds, skills, etc. They can improve your base skill where appropriate, give you additional Will to spend as it pertains to the feature, etc.

Basically, it's a rather detailed and comprehensive story building game. You select your personal archetype and character arc, then interact with others' own archetypes and character arcs as well as the episode's primary plot itself; each having hallmarks of knowing when to progress through the story.
Last edited by virgil on Mon Apr 03, 2017 8:37 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by Longes »

So, how does this doorstopper stack up against FATE? Or even Apocalypse World?
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