Awesome! Thanks for the heads up. As I mentioned above, that sounds like it could be a blast to run. I’m very likely in after I look at the campaign and what they offer.
It’s at 60K with 6 Stretchgoals unlocked, including Cosmic Horror, Space Opera and latest of Myth and Men. next up: Urban Legends!
The game is really tempting but I have 3 issues with the campaign:
- If I didn’t have your feedback, I would know very little about the game system and whether it’s any good just looking at the page. There is a small blurb about the dice rolling and the cinematographic Fortune System, but still very little about how it plays. No download for the quickstart rules, which is a bummer.
- No sample session, playthrough, review video from the previous season (and apart from one or 2 in Italian, very little on Youtube).
- It would cost me €69 to dip my toes or €150 (early bird price) to get the books but also some of the accessories (like the GM screen and dice, for example).
I was hoping they would make it a bit more enticing with some video showing off the game and how it plays; also slightly lower prices to get some of the accessories without necessarily getting all the adventures. I’ll need to ponder whether it will get played before I dive in.
There is a big image with “Click here for the Quickstart rules” where they are available though. There sadly simply aren’t any videos in english except a few unboxings. Their english is OK but they are not yet confident enough to play a session online in English. They know it’s an issue and work up the courage to do so. Said such in a recent life chat. The reason for the pledge levels is simple. They are 4 main people who do everything, writing, art, Layout, translation etc. Besides their main jobs. The shipping included. This way every backer of a level has mostly the same things and the boxes are the same size. It’s a compromise they did so they can actually get the shipping done fast and reliable. Otherwise it would be a nightmare. They are a tiny European indie without a warehouse or such.
I do understand your position of course. I suggest getting the Quickstart if you haven’t yet and give it a read, that should clarify a lot. Broken Compass – Two Little Mice
Yep, fair points. It kind of annoys me having to sign up for a newsletter to download sample rules during a campaign, but I just did that.
I think the lack of videos is what I really miss. I hope they can remedy that, or maybe get people like DiceBreaker to play a one shot during the campaign if they aren’t confident in English. Considering this is their second campaign, they should have had time to organise that.
As for value and ability to parcel rewards and add ons, that’s very subjective. They are a small outfit and making a living out of this. So you can safely ignore my tired grumblings about that yesterday. It will be up to me to decide how much I value the system after I read the rules. I’d still be sad if I can’t be an adventurer with a GM screen, for instance. I love GM screens.
I agree on that, they are kind of shy in English and not very well versed or connected in the English language RPG sphere. Its a miracle they worked up the courage to start even doing live talks in English, a few weeks ago only! So yea, they need some connections and get better at marketing. On the other hand they are at 100k so they are doing something right!
And they just asked me if I’d be willing to join a streamed game in English. Probably Friday. So yay! Old White Dude Alert!
Nice! I’ll watch that.
Update with the info for tonight.
Update Nr. 14: LIVE PLAY - with the Authors & Friends! Broken Compass: Adventure is Back! by Two Little Mice » LIVE PLAY - with the Authors & Friends! — Kickstarter
Cool! I’ll try and catch it live if possible. If not, I’ll definitely catch up on it afterwards.
I’m 50’ behind, in the opening scene still. But it’s been great fun so far. Fun characters getting in trouble from the start, fun Fortune Master and I love the roof distraction.
Thanks, I hope we kept being entertaining! I was Jake, If you have any questions please ask away, I am happy to answer.
Oh yes! I caught up and the whole episode was great fun. You made a pretty spectacular entrance. :)
I do hope you all play the next episode at the end of the campaign. I’ll happily watch it.
I had to skip the very start of the session, but I assume you were given premade characters? I did like what was said about character progression between episodes. Very centered on tweaking your hero to your taste and gaining more expertise, but not just inflating values.
Seems like it’s up to the Fortune Master to then decide how well those seasoned adventurers can tackle each challenge and the villains.
Thanks man, that means a lot. It was a surprise question as we did not discuss it beforehand but hell it was a fun group to play with, so yea, it is probably going to happen.
We used the pregens from the Quickstart, yes. The GM also used an Episode from the Golden Age Season and changed the context to make it work in 1999 and Venice. All Adventures are flexible like that with Keywords like “Chase in the [Wild Place].” where Wild place depends on the context. Can be a bad part of town. A Park. A Jungle, Desert or in the deep sea. Love that approach.
The tweaks only happen after the Pilot usually and then you have mid season with 2 Diamonds and Expertise and Finale with 2 Diamonds and an expertise. You can never gain more then 6 Diamonds and 3 Expertises but can then start to move them around and change them as befitting the characters story. But honestly the game is not a numbers go big game so having the option is always on the table. Why force you to play something you are not happy with?
Anyone ever noodle with this?
Recruiting aka “Nerds is flakes”
Looking for one player.
So I have a last-minute flake out for a soon to be newly beginning Mongoose Traveller Campaign. The campaign is an Imperium Intelligence/Covert Ops campaign. Tone is taut action/intrigue in a sci-fi setting not heroic Space Opera/Science Fantasy.
Sessions will be from 1-5 PM Sundays EST virtual. We plan to start next Sunday but we can easily delay a week if we get a new player.
For more information, questions or elaboration please PM me.
Yes, I found it too structured, huge and unwieldy for me. Legendkeeper is pretty much Notion for RPGs and much more to my liking as it does not assume what I need or want and let’s me set up everything how I like.
However a lot of people like World Anvil for the templates and prompts it provides. World Anvil is free and LK is not as it’s still under development right now.
Thanks! Yeah I think I’m gonna give anvil a whirl, paid (Its not a ridiculous price and I’ve found with toolsets like this, you don’t really get to judge the experience without using all the tools). It has a lot of sci-fi options, which lightkeeper doesn’t seem to have. If I hate it I’ll report back here (and cancel).
Legend Keeper is absolutely System Agnostic. The Examples are Fantasy you see but its just an empty Notion like tool, it doesn’t assume anything so it works for everything. But yea, it does not have any queries and such. Here is one I set up for our Wrath & Glory game.
I subscribed during a Dec. 2020 holiday sale (at the second paid tier, I think there are four tiers or so). I did it not for RPGs but just for worldbuilding for my fiction. Unfortunately, I have done little more since then than noodle around, creating some basic pages and so on. I need to get back to it. Their discord is very active and everyone there is very helpful. They even hand-held me through some css tweaks to a template. When my year expires, I will probably drop back to the free level because I just am not fully devoted to it.