A Pro's Review of 2013

[Tegyrius]

I take no offence to the above comments and you are absolutely right.

Good, because none was intended. I will confess to a certain curiosity about seeing how The System That Shall Not Be Named plays at your table, but flying over to sit in on a session would cost more than I've made on 2013 to date.

Its just that in Australian society (much like in American society I suspect) if an adult male is openly verbally rude to another adult male they can very shortly expect a punch in the face. I've found that one of the benefits of getting older is that I have become less and less inclined to take crap from people. And if it comes to a physical confrontation my opponent had best be prepared to knock me out because once I'm pissed off I find it REALLY hard to back off.

Not so true in mainstream America as it used to be. The culture of emasculation and lawsuits is trying very hard to supplant the frontiersman/warrior ethos.

- C.

[kato13]

Not so true in mainstream America as it used to be. The culture of emasculation and lawsuits is trying very hard to supplant the frontiersman/warrior ethos.
- C.

I agree with this to a point. We still protect a lady. We are often expected to absorb insults against us or other men. But if you go after our women (physically or verbally), look out.

[Targan]

Not so true in mainstream America as it used to be. The culture of emasculation and lawsuits is trying very hard to supplant the frontiersman/warrior ethos.

That's sad. It is starting to go that way here too but it very much depends on the location and the social group, and bizarrely what sporting code you are into. In both Australian Rules Football and Rugby we don't wear padding and a certain amount of on-field "biffo" is kind of expected. There is no physical contact allowed in cricket so that crowd are kind of soft Of course there is no physical contact allowed in soccer either but there is that weird tradition of "soccer hooliganism" that I can't quite explain.

Quite a few of my friends are either ex-military or surfers or both so we handle disputes a bit of the old fashioned way, either "taking it outside" for a "fair fight" or, if things have REALLY escalated we move to what the army guys refer to as "big boys' rules". Then it can get quite nasty.

Unfortunately increasing number of Australian city boys are turning into pansies though. Out in the country it is a whole different ball game. You would have to be very hard, a bit stupid or just plain insane to pick a fight with an outback Australian male. Most of those guys are hard as nails.

[Mohoender]

I had a respectful request to remove the full text of the linked article from the owner of the originating website. For legal and just plain neighborly reasons I obliged them.

In general we should post snippets, but I understand Law's desire to not edit as not to appear to be adding his own bias. I also was reluctant to delete anything for the same reasons but I will respect this request.

I truly understand your point. However that attitude says it all about his honnesty in posting it in the first place. In my opinion that ends any further comment on it.

[Mohoender]

Why am I not surprised at this, given your stated position on the lack of completeness in certain parts of the book As I noted over in the 93GS forums (and in the original review's comment thread), I'm baffled by his insistence that the book is too big, given that every other size complaint I can recall has had to do with the lack of certain content on the military-heavy end of the scale.

- C.

I hope you took me right. What I meant is that I don't think it is a monster book. Tegyrius did you understand it that way or the other way As you might have noticed also, I haven't made much comment on the rules but as I said I'm not that much interested in rules.

Of course, I'll have plenty of critcs on some parts of the book itself but they are intended at getting answers and improvements. I expect this book to be a beginning and I would be unhappy to see it as a "one shot". When my own game went out three years ago it was also qualified to be a monster book (also it was almost 150 pages shorter than yours). Strangely, the comment we got on our game were almost word for word the same than the one I found in that "review" of his. Good for you, you seem better prepared than I was.

[Mohoender]

Its just that in Australian society (much like in American society I suspect) if an adult male is openly verbally rude to another adult male they can very shortly expect a punch in the face.

That is true for every society. Why do you think we end up talking about post-apoc games

[Mohoender]

Not so true in mainstream America as it used to be. The culture of emasculation and lawsuits is trying very hard to supplant the frontiersman/warrior ethos.

- C.

Just a modern variation of the previous ways.

[Mohoender]

I agree with this to a point. We still protect a lady. We are often expected to absorb insults against us or other men. But if you go after our women (physically or verbally), look out.

Of course, of course. But when you stop to protect the lady (somewhere at night in a street) and find out that she is in fact the one kicking the guy's face, you just get back to your car.

[Targan]

Of course, of course. But when you stop to protect the lady (somewhere at night in a street) and find out that she is in fact the one kicking the guy's face, you just get back to your car.

Wow. French chicks sound scary

[Jason Weiser]

I agree with this to a point. We still protect a lady. We are often expected to absorb insults against us or other men. But if you go after our women (physically or verbally), look out.

Yeah,
Ask the guy I shot in the eye with a nerf gun after he said something about my wife...I admit..if I wasn't so damn mad...it would be funny.

[headquarters]

T2013 - my harshest post to date .I havent tried the game - but I got a few remarks

Too big The book gets a negative for being too big

Wtf

Get with it please .

Too big is NOT a problem - too slim definently is .

You got a problem with a book being too big ,and that your computer dont do up the pdf quick enough you cant retain respect as a reviewer if you write this imo.

Playtesting the rules ,trying to use the artwork and material inside for actual sessions as a GM and get back to us please.(citisizing the critique here I know and a little less diplomatic about it but doing a review of a product in the fledgleing RPG business takes a certain tact imo ).

A lot of people here could come up with and publish a game if they took the time and effort - fact is that the T2013 guys did ,the rest of us didnt .You may -may not like the rules /timeline ( V1.0 rules kinda suck imo compared to V.2.0 and even V.2.2 that I dont like so much )
As for coming up with "fresh" rules you would be hard pressed not to include some element of odds calculation that havent been done before in other systems - how many ways to modify factors and calculate probability are there
Timelines discussion - if anyone truly believes that the first 2 timelines were so Dang sharp a gazilion analysts could be brought to the discussion to state why there is no way those timelines are realistic either ...much as the new one ..(no offense -please - I made our timeline for our game,its on our site , I dont doubt people will find it inplausible .I live in Norway ,I have my mental luggage as others have theirs and the way I view the world order is definently different from others --they are personal and can be countered at every turn -its speculation in a game setting .(Can I help that peopl ewill hail me as a nostradamus II after I am gone ).

As for the rest - until I playtest I got only this to say:

I thought the game was an old relic washing around in the minds of people that played it for fun in their youth -but here it is- a fresh publication .Love that the game is being kept alive .As for the new version (V.3.0) - I got to try it out before I comment as I said .

Each to his own taste in gaming I say

-I like the V.2.0 with our own house rule amendments.It is a little harsh on the characters but he who liveth by the pen and paper sword shall perish etc ..( on paper as well.)

Bringing "fistfights/lets meet up too se what happens " into the discussion doesnt sit well with me -its just negative is all .
Anyone got a problem with that come see me .

lol

I `ll get you a cup of coffee and help you get over spending 1100 US $ getting from where you are to my place

[headquarters]

I hope you took me right. What I meant is that I don't think it is a monster book. Tegyrius did you understand it that way or the other way As you might have noticed also, I haven't made much comment on the rules but as I said I'm not that much interested in rules.

Of course, I'll have plenty of critcs on some parts of the book itself but they are intended at getting answers and improvements. I expect this book to be a beginning and I would be unhappy to see it as a "one shot". When my own game went out three years ago it was also qualified to be a monster book (also it was almost 150 pages shorter than yours). Strangely, the comment we got on our game were almost word for word the same than the one I found in that "review" of his. Good for you, you seem better prepared than I was.

what was your game

link please

[Mohoender]

Wow. French chicks sound scary

Oops I forgot, she was Italian and that was in Belgium. The best part was that she was gorgeous and tiny.

[Mohoender]

what was your game

link please

The game's name was/is Orkeanur (sorry only in french) but there is no more website. However, I found it on sale on price minister and ebay (France). One is a destock by the editor and I found that funny as I'm the author and editor. LOL .

By the way, at last some people finaly read it or so it seems. The initial critics were on the universe and now they are on the rules. I'm thinking about remaking it (translating it to english) and to be honest I'll rework the rules entirely. That thread make my day, people are still playing in our universe and they even talk about adapting that universe to other rules . I'm gone I have to say that to my co-author.

[Mohoender]

HQ

That is just to say that I entirely agree with you on the comments you made on the review.