John Carter 2d20

[Finarvyn]

I saw the Conan 2d20, played a demo game at a local store, thought it was okay but not great, decided to pass on the 2d20 system.

I tried the playtest for John Carter 2d20, did both alpha and beta, decided to pass on the 2d20 system.

I saw the kickstart for the John Carter 2d20 game, drooled a while over the options, decided to pass on the 2d20 system.

I downloaded the free quickstart for the John Carter 2d20 game, skimmed the rules, got all glassy-eyed, decided to pass on the 2d20 system.

I saw the physical book for the John Carter 2d20 game at a local gamestore, bought the thing. I couldn't help myself. It's Barsoom with John Carter and Dejah Thoris, not something similar with the names removed. It's my kryptonite.

Okay, so I have a copy of the rulebook. Anyone want to talk about it? I have a vague sense as to how 2d20 works but really don't "get it" yet. My understanding is that you roll 2d20 to attempt an action, or maybe more d20's if something influences the situation, and you want to roll low in order to earn "successes" and if you get enough of those you accomplish the action. I think you can spend something like luck to get more d20's to roll, but if you do you give something to the GM that can be used against you later on. (The terms escape my brain at the moment. Momentum and doom? Maybe I'm mixing JCoM with Conan.) Anyway, I think this works as a party pool of luck where anyone on the team can dip into it and give the tokens to the GM.

Even though JCoM 2d20 isn't really an "old school" style RPG, I'm hoping that folks here might want to talk about it or explain more about it.

[Vile Traveller]

I'm in the same boat, the licences are great and the physical product seems nice, but I remain unconvinced by the 2d20 system. But always willing to listen, even if learning is getting harder with the passing years!

[Finarvyn]

I agree that learning games seems to be a lot harder now than it used to be. That's why I like to sign up for "learn to play" events at my local game store. That way someone can show me a game and I can decide if I want to pursue it more or not. I participated in one for Fate a few weeks ago, and am scheduled to try the Firefly RPG later today.

As to 2d20, I fell deeper into the rabbit hole. I ordered a John Carter GM screen and dice (green for Thark, white for Helium, red for Zodanga) that were priced well on the internet. They arrived yesterday.

[Zakharan]

I've had an interest in this game for a while, but have a difficult time pulling the trigger on it. I've heard many mixed opinions about Modiphius' prior work, and my interest in 2d20 seems to depend wildly on the day. If you have any commentary on the system--especially given the dearth of play reports--I would love to hear about it.

[thegreyelf]

I can't even begin to express how much I loathe the 2d20 system. It's the worst kind of "leave the dice on the table and wait for Joe to figure out what he wants to do with his roll before moving on and starting over with Larry, next in line" system. You roll your dice to generate Momentum, then there's a freaking LAUNDRY LIST of things you can do with the momentum and it becomes this exercise in the minutiae of resource management while you try to maximize the results of your roll. Then there's this bargaining aspect back and forth with the GM where you can give THEM points in order to GET points, and then THEY can figure out from a list of things what they want to do with the GM points...ugh. It's just freaking painful. John Carter streamlines it a bit from Conan, but it's still just headache-inducing.

It's sad, because two of my favorite properties in the world--Conan and John Carter--have been ruined by it, and will be for the foreseeable future. Ugh. Well, at least I have my OD&D Conan and Barsoom hacks .

I actually ghost-edited an early version of one of the chapters in the John Carter book and was very unimpressed with the writing. Unlike Conan, they didn't bring on board a who's who of Barsoomian scholars for this one. In the end, though, that might be a good thing, because Conan reads like a history textbook. I dunno. I've got little faith in Modiphius at this point. Between the Vampire debacle with White Wolf and the subpar Conan and John Carter RPGs...it's sad that they're gobbling up all of the big American RPG licenses, and the video game money they've got behind them is going to keep those licenses right with them for probably a long while. I haven't even brought myself to LOOK at Star Trek.

[soundchaser]

May 6, 2019 12:49:46 GMT -6 thegreyelf said:

I can't even begin to express how much I loathe the 2d20 system. It's the worst kind of "leave the dice on the table and wait for Joe to figure out what he wants to do with his roll before moving on and starting over with Larry, next in line" system. You roll your dice to generate Momentum, then there's a freaking LAUNDRY LIST of things you can do with the momentum and it becomes this exercise in the minutiae of resource management while you try to maximize the results of your roll. Then there's this bargaining aspect back and forth with the GM where you can give THEM points in order to GET points, and then THEY can figure out from a list of things what they want to do with the GM points...ugh. It's just freaking painful. John Carter streamlines it a bit from Conan, but it's still just headache-inducing.

It's sad, because two of my favorite properties in the world--Conan and John Carter--have been ruined by it, and will be for the foreseeable future. Ugh. Well, at least I have my OD&D Conan and Barsoom hacks .

I actually ghost-edited an early version of one of the chapters in the John Carter book and was very unimpressed with the writing. Unlike Conan, they didn't bring on board a who's who of Barsoomian scholars for this one. In the end, though, that might be a good thing, because Conan reads like a history textbook. I dunno. I've got little faith in Modiphius at this point. Between the Vampire debacle with White Wolf and the subpar Conan and John Carter RPGs...it's sad that they're gobbling up all of the big American RPG licenses, and the video game money they've got behind them is going to keep those licenses right with them for probably a long while. I haven't even brought myself to LOOK at Star Trek.

Very much the same views toward 2d20. Not transparent in probabilities and a lot of weird stuff, laundry-list style as you mention. The way we work with the Conan game (which, well, Conan!) is to ditch the 2d20 clunk and just enjoy the new game books, with the whole thing grounded in a d100 mode. The system is way too crunchy as it is, though one thing we quite like the the method of assigning damage and effects with the d6 pool method.

[aramis]

Apr 13, 2019 14:11:17 GMT -6 Finarvyn said:

I saw the Conan 2d20, played a demo game at a local store, thought it was okay but not great, decided to pass on the 2d20 system.

I tried the playtest for John Carter 2d20, did both alpha and beta, decided to pass on the 2d20 system.

I saw the kickstart for the John Carter 2d20 game, drooled a while over the options, decided to pass on the 2d20 system.

I downloaded the free quickstart for the John Carter 2d20 game, skimmed the rules, got all glassy-eyed, decided to pass on the 2d20 system.

I saw the physical book for the John Carter 2d20 game at a local gamestore, bought the thing. I couldn't help myself. It's Barsoom with John Carter and Dejah Thoris, not something similar with the names removed. It's my kryptonite.

Okay, so I have a copy of the rulebook. Anyone want to talk about it? I have a vague sense as to how 2d20 works but really don't "get it" yet. My understanding is that you roll 2d20 to attempt an action, or maybe more d20's if something influences the situation, and you want to roll low in order to earn "successes" and if you get enough of those you accomplish the action. I think you can spend something like luck to get more d20's to roll, but if you do you give something to the GM that can be used against you later on. (The terms escape my brain at the moment. Momentum and doom? Maybe I'm mixing JCoM with Conan.) Anyway, I think this works as a party pool of luck where anyone on the team can dip into it and give the tokens to the GM.

Even though JCoM 2d20 isn't really an "old school" style RPG, I'm hoping that folks here might want to talk about it or explain more about it.

I'll happily answer what I can; I'm more familiar with other games in the 2d20 line, tho' I do have the JCOM PDF from a bundle.

Key terms, just so people have a reference:
Momentum: on a roll, it's the amount of successes over the difficulty, minimum 0. If you have more than you are allowed, the extra MUST be spent or lost. If you need more than you have, you may generate threat to make up the difference. You may, for special ability reasons, generate threat instead of using available momentum.
Threat: GM momentum. Has a few extra uses, too, that Momentum doesn't. Anything a PC does with momentum, an NPC does with threat. GM's cannot spend threat they don't have.
Trait: a labeled thing. Mechanically, they're created at scene duration for 2 momentum, or "as long as the story needs them" for 4 momentum. They have 4 key uses: (1) Enable a roll that you otherwise shouldn't be allowed to make; (2) disallow a roll you otherwise should be allowed to make; (3) Reduce a difficulty by 1; (4) increase a difficulty by 1.
Progress/Damage: rolled on d6. You get 1 damage on ⚀⚄⚅ and 2 on ⚁. used for extended tasks
Effect: On the same d6's as progress/damage. 1 each on ⚄⚅. Triggers the special effects of attacks or certain talents.
Damage Track: there are three standard: Confusion (mental), Fear (Will), and Injury (Physical). If you need one suited to a special situation, just create it based upon a suitable attribute. (Dune and STA are much more explicit about this)