Free League bros, is this worth playing?

>>96025738 (OP)
I dunno, post PDF

I kinda skimmed it. doesn't look all that special compared to the usual Free League Game™ with the fairly simple core rules and a handful of thematic stuff made to fit the thing they've licensed.

>>96025760
It's in the trove

Would I like this game if I dont like America?

>>96025863
>It's in the trove
Final version or the drafts?

>>96026657
It is very little about America and very much about the specific vibe of decaying hi-tech in vast rural areas.

>>96026736
I get Tales from the Loop vibes from it. Are they similar at all?

It’s worth stealing the Journey rules and any Archetypes that TWD don’t cover. It’s the Dice Pool and not Step-Dice version of MY0.

>>96025760
Use the catalog, newfag.

>>96027094
It's tales from the loop 20 years later, I think the pitch is that the loop failed and the economy went to shit to an apocalyptic degree

>>96025738 (OP)
1) Buy an ad
2) It's FLP; you played one of those, you played them all
2a) Especially when it's post-apo buld entirely on "cool" pictures

I genuinely struggle to grasp who is even supposed to be the target audience of their games. As in actual games, not just weirdos who collect even weirder art books.

>>96027801
That’s Things from the Flood, which 10 years after Tales.

>>96028286
You can mash them all up into your own Not-RIFTS

Why would I want to play a game based on a terrible movie?

>>96026736
>>96027094
Same creator and unfortunately I think the less Simon Stalenhag is allowed to say about his own art, the better. Problem is, he has said entirely too much and has endorsed a lot of creatively bankrupt bullshit.

>>96029365
In what way?

>>96029463
As art pieces, his stuff is evocative enough on its own to let you piece together stories just from the details present in the image. As books, he tends to keep things quite vague, but fills out enough of the stuff that can't be immediately apparent with imagery alone. However, this is also where too much information hurts the mystery and it opens up these settings for a lot of questions that undermine the mysterious air they had before.

And then there's the Amazon Prime show and the Netflix Movie. Tales from the Loop, the show, is vapid navelgazing bullshit that feels ashamed to be an extreme super science setting. It wants to tell really pretentious stories about life and death and being a gay black man in a rural town, but has nothing to say and all of the sci-fi shit is incidental, at best. Electric State is a movie so insecure about the setting and the storytelling that it has to hammer you in the face with a new version of the story that spells out everything explicitly, tacking on a race of oppressed robots, a kid who is so smart that his brain is the only thing powerful enough to run free VR for the whole world, and despite the horrors of the setting being very hyperconsumerist, they decided to use the entire movie as an advertising platform, including a fucking corporate mascot as a major character.

>>96029760
The same applies to the TftL game, half of it seems dedicated to making it as generic and boring as possible. The part about the movie I have to assume is Hollywood doing its thing.

The movie they tried to make based on this IP was so shit holy fuck

>>96028396
... and you are supposed to pay money for that "pleasure"?
I guess FLP is then a money laundry business

>>96025863
>with the fairly simple core rules and a handful of thematic stuff made to fit the thing they've licensed.
let me guess
you NEED more?

>>96030461
Nta, but let me ask you a simple question:
What's justifying the pricetag, given the "game" is literally nothing?
>inb4 poorfag
Way to miss the point, son

>>96030837
>What's justifying the pricetag, given the "game" is literally nothing?
that's a good question to ask with any new non-free OSR system release [basically dnd-pick-your-eddition with minor homebrew no one really asked for]
I fail to see how it relates to the reply chain, please elaborate
from what I've seen the core book gets you
>a proven mechanical foundation
>thought out mechanical tweaks that are setting and genre relevant and engaging
>some basic world-building to get the GM and adventure starting
>packaged in a great high value production book with top tier art
what exactly more do you expect if everything above is somehow "literally nothing"?

seriously what are your expectations when buying a ttrpg corebook and which IRL products fulfill those expectations?

>>96030901
>that's a good question to ask with any new non-free OSR system release [basically dnd-pick-your-eddition with minor homebrew no one really asked for]
Which is the question I always ask to OSR fags, so glad that at least you see the issue.
As for how it relates:
>Game is nothing burger, but has pricetag of an actual game
>Anon A points it out
>Anon B (you) try to slide it with "you NEED more?", missing the memo the game is still a nothing burger that still costs way more than it covers
>Anon C (me) points out there is no real point getting the game, because it offers nothing, but costs money
There, covered.

As for your list
>a proven mechanical foundation
Yes, a single-page system, except at a pricetag of a full rulebook covering vast different mechanics
>thought out mechanical tweaks that are setting and genre relevant and engaging
Not really, because it's just the baseline of a one-page system, so inadequate pricetag to both content and workload needed
>some basic world-building to get the GM and adventure starting
So effectively DIY kit at a pricetag of an actual, pre-existing setting?
>packaged in a great high value production book with top tier art
So you are paying money not for rules, game or even setting, but waxed paper and licensed art? That's past "retarded" and outright entering "brain-damaged" consumer behaviour
>what exactly more do you expect if everything above is somehow "literally nothing"?
An actual game, with actual system that does something either new, unique or interesting, or at least a lore book for a generic system (akin to those for Genesys, even if their price-to-content ratio is absurd)
What you've got is fucking nothing, at a price of a full game.

Which applies to a large section of modern gaming market, hence I always repeat the same fucking question:
What's justifying the pricetag, if you might as well just make your own for free or even the game outright expects you to do so?
What are you buying, then?

>>96030942
I know a free league published book I would agree on with everything you say, specifically Into the Odd 2ed
however that title is irrelevant to the discussion as it is its own thing and doesn't follow the >>96025863 principle
and granted I only skimmed through some pages in like 7 minutes it is clear you are vastly over-exaggerating, and there are plenty of both thought out thematic relevant rules in ES as well as other year zero based systems, and setting relevant information

I would also appreciate if you could provide a link of a specific ttrpg book you consider good value

>>96031077
>I would also appreciate if you could provide a link of a specific ttrpg book
>singular
That would be absurd.
I can give you instead a flowchart we always go through within the gaming club when managing our budget (half of which is municipality's grant, the other half membership fees, tax write-offs and random charity).
Those are all yes/no question, where "no" usually stops the rest of the process
1) Do we already have a game using this core system?
2) Did we try this game beforehand?
3) Does the game do something new, unique or special?
4) Does the game come as a whole package (not separated to expansions pre-requested to play)?
If a game gets 4 times "yes", then it goes through open-ended questions:
- does it use proprietary dice or special tokens or similar?
- if so, hard hard it will be to replace?
- is it a game (rules + lore + how to play + how to run) or a DIY kit for a game (bunch of ideas what to do with the mechanics)? There is no "wrong" answer here, DIY kits are fine, but needs to be exactly that: DIY kits, rather than a kit disguised as a game
- do we have a previous edition, if it's an edition thing
- if so, are they really that different or introduces some fundamental changes?
And then it's a consideration if we want to get that game or not and what sort of half-life we expect out of it (along if there will be a market to re-sell it if it still turns to be a dud).

And dozens of games get a pass through such vetting. What gets filtered is
OSR (other than a small selection we bought for the sake of represenation), expansion-centric money squeezes, vast majority of crowdfunded games (majority, not all), all kinds of political statement games
And to explain how just being a FLP game isn't enough to be disqualified: we did decide to ultimately buy Vaesen this spring, because it actually put up to its lore. That, and we had a discount that brought the pricetag to something reasonable - without it, it would be still a no-biuy

>>96031192
>1) Do we already have a game using this core system?
I just realised this question is in reverse in English. Oh woe me, the ESL.
Anyway, the point is that a system we don't have already has a much higher chance to be added to the library than a system (not game, system) we already have.

>>96031192
>please give me an example
>That would be absurd.
WAT? how is that absurd?
I really think this is borderline indicative of a disingenuous take ngl
>Vaesen
oh OK then
however I do feel even more confused now as I fail to see how vaesen corebook is a better offer compared to the ES

I just did a "reality check" to see if I remember something wrong or something
and read through the preview table of contents available on drivethrough
and turns out the ES book also includes a starter adventure and rules for solo-play
so overall the complete package really in one book

>>96030901
You sound like an obnoxious shill and you type like one too.

>>96031244
>Anyway, the point is that a system we don't have already has a much higher chance to be added to the library than a system (not game, system) we already have.
no worries, that's exactly how I read it
also
I have to notice it is irrelevant to the topic as your specific requirements for a game to be included are not indicative of a game book being "literally nothing"
they are reasonable don't get me wrong, it's just irrelevant

>>96031268
>WAT? how is that absurd?
Because you asked for a single title. That's retarded.

>>96031077
>>96031192
Some examples of how it went with specific titles:
>CoC, 7 ed
We didn't buy it, despite the club only owning 5.5 ed, which is older than many of its members.
The reason was simple: neither the system nor lore are changed in any meaningful way. The only new elements were luck points and pushing rolls, neither of which justifies buying a new book. What we did was printing the page with rules for pushing rolls and putting in into the 5.5 ed book's cover, while printing bunch of 7 ed char-sheets (so they incorporate luck).
>Outgunned
We did buy it, despite the club already owning Broken Compass.
The reason was simple: Outgunned isn't a new game, it's Broken Compass 2.1, fixing all the problems and woes of the original game and also adding some new stuff that works much better than the original. When people want to borrow BC, they are told to try it as a package with Outgunned to see how it improved on the core mechanics and solved issues they might find when playing BC
>Eat the Reich
We did buy it, despite it being a very weird board game dressed up as a TTRPG and also a meme game by itself.
The reasons were pretty diverse: the game does a lot of its own things and they all work perfectly; it is incredibly open-ended with player input despite limited scope; it can be used as both universal system and a teaching aid for newfags; it's reasonably priced when bought as universal (and it does work as one)
>1/2

>>96031407

>Pendragon, 6 ed
We did buy it, despite it being n-th edition of the same game
The reason was banal: 6 ed is the best edition by far, improving on every aspect of the game and making it also significantly more newfag friendly. Last time Pendragon had such jump in quality, it was the reprint of the 4 ed, 25 years ago.
>Conan 2d20
We didn't buy it, despite the club members liking 2d20 system in general
The reason was threefold: a) we already own 2d20 Achtung Cthulhu, which is fundamentally identical mechanically (including very awkward attempt to turn guns into archery), b) the book is written like ass, having about 150-200 pages of pointless padding (not just lore, just padding) that only makes it thicker and more expensive, but doesn't add anything of any value, just bloats page count. and c) we quickly figured AC can be used without any issues for Conanesque stuff
>BESM 4 ed
We didn't buy it, owning 2 ed
We found the 4 ed to be blatant copyright jump by a clueless third party, using recongisable name to peddle a product that doesn't do any of the advertised things. On top of that, it was trying to ape trends from both 5 ed DnD and PbtA, rather than being its own thing, so why bother
>OVA
We did buy it
Unlike BESM 4 ed, this one was doing its own thing and was competently made at that. It offered clear-cut, truly generic rules, that can be even divorced from the whole anime package and still works, broadening the use and application.
>Witcher
We didn't buy it, due to the extremely low quality of the game mechanics and design
Reason was very simple: it was a project that only came into existence via a contractual obligation and as such wasn't even half-assed. You know the game is bad when by the time it gets translated into your language, it has already a 42 pages of errata to cover holes in rules and said erratadidn't even cover for all issues that were known by then. Tie-ins are expected to be bad, but this game was shockingly poorly designed.

>2/3

>>96031426
>Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades
We did buy it
This game not only does its own thing on almost entirely unique set of mechanics, said mechanics work perfectly and enforce the advertised gameplay style and loop. If that wasn't enough, it is written in such a way that a complete greenhorn can pick it, and understand not only how to run and play it, but also why the game is designed in such a way and why it is aiming for specific style of play and outcomes.
Perfect buy.
>3/3

>>96031290
>I have to notice it is irrelevant to the topic as your specific requirements for a game to be included are not indicative of a game book being "literally nothing"
>they are reasonable don't get me wrong, it's just irrelevant
It is VERY revelant, because the subject was "why would you spend money on Electric State".
And the answer is: there is no real reason.

>>96028286
So FLP is basically another shovelware dev like Modiphius that just makes one game reskinned to look like whatever setting they were able to get the rights to this week?

>>96031481
... kinda
The difference is that Modiphius' 2d20 at least does some new, interesting things (momentum is fucking brilliant) and tried to experiment, whereas Year Zero simply is, with nothing going for it.

>>96031440
thanks anon, I really appreciate your effort
however, again you list reasons why this or that book is good or bad _for your collection_
and those that you chose to purchase don't really offer much value over tES _generally speaking_
I understand that they may bring more value _for your specific collection_
which is kinda pointless because obviously any book may have 0 value to some specific collection, say you are not interested in that specific genre or setting-style

>It is VERY revelant, because the subject was "why would you spend money on Electric State".
No, that was not the subject
the topic was you claiming that the book is "literally nothing" here >>96030837
>What's justifying the pricetag, given the "game" is literally nothing?
as I asked in >>96030901
>what exactly more do you expect if everything above is somehow "literally nothing"?
>seriously what are your expectations when buying a ttrpg corebook

so here is my bottom line as I see it
>the game book provides everything you need to start playing, including comprehensive and thought out rules that are setting specific but based on a proven [and possibly familiar] ruleset, an intro into the setting and tons of flavor text, a starter adventure and rules for solo-play all packed into a high value production book with nice art.
>obviously it's not "literally nothing for $50 + shipping + tip + donation for starving pandas"
>you don't see value in buying this book because you have a specific set of requirements for books you buy
I'm fine with that
hopefully you can also agree that your initial claim was exaggerated
or not
at this point I'm contempt and have fulfilled my curiosity

I'm glad /tg/ exists as it provides an arena for autists to have slap fights.

The artwork looks neat, I'll probably pick it up some time for that alone.

>>96031890
>A game with barely-there setting and crudely grafted generic system is worth to buy, because it's still a game you are buying
Nta, but nigga, there is brand loyalty, and then there is being just a twat.
By your logic, it is perfectly reasonable to buy d20 Modern games. After all, they all have some lore and some crunch in them, so perfectly reasonable purchase.

>>96032153
>brand loyalty
anon you're projecting is showing

>>96032066
>the art
>probably pick it up some time for that alone.
That's the reason 95% of people will buy it.
But they'll never play it.
DOA game.

>>96032153
I wasn't convinced he was a shill before, but I am now. Free League employee sperging out because the not-so-stealth shilling thread didn't result in instant praise and excitement.

>>96026658
Ever consider looking for yourself, dumb lazy fuck?

>>96030837
I believe most people buy one FL game and then make their own versions.
There is a weird design thing they do where a lot of the IP mechanics push you into playing a very specific game, so specific you can't do a second scenario after you're done with the one that came with the book. I heard that complain about Alien 1e a lot. 2e incorporated campaign elements, but it's interesing that it still doesn't feel like a fun game to run for months.

On your follow up post >>96030942
>Yes, a single-page system, except at a pricetag of a full rulebook covering vast different mechanics
Nah. They are robust enough games, but they could be 30-60 pages including cool art. I'm mainly taking Blade Runner as referece, I don't know if that was the highest peak they ever reached.

>So effectively DIY kit at a pricetag of an actual, pre-existing setting?
They include more than most 5e setting suplements. I've read some self published stuff that runs laps around it in terms of narrative potential, hooks, NPC and quest seeds, and so on. But it's not the bottom tier of the market.

> not for rules, game or even setting, but waxed paper and licensed art? That's past "retarded" and outright entering "brain-damaged" consumer behaviour
I don't know about this particular one in the OP, I'm pretty sure it's not the case with TotL, but some of their box sets have a variety of props. The Blade Runner one has an okay map (pointless, but more than Hasbro does for their own setting shit) and quite a bit of evidence you can interact with. It also includes a copy of just the rules to have on the table which adds to the page per dollar count and a dice set, not needed at all but a bit more product for the price.

For 40 bucks it's not a great price, not the worst thing on the market. I think FL stands in that "okay enough" range. No one loves them, not worth hating them.

>>96031481
yes and no, they have a small range of mechanics. Dragonbane is a full dice set d20, Blade Runner is a two die system with skills indicating which dice to use (bigger ones have more potential leves of success each), TftL is a dice pool defined by stat+skill with a single 6 being enought to succeed and extra successes rolling over future rolls.

They also publish other games that are more of their own thing and would exist without them, but their own catalogue tries to have some variation.

>>96033810
My mom has a book of photographs of old Chicago. She went there once, for work, and I've never seen her play any game set in old Chicago (or any other game). She doesn't seem angry about that purchase. Sometimes it's nice to have nice things.

>>96034583
>They include more than most 5e setting suplements
Different anon, but that's extremely low bar to pass

>>96034657
>t. consoomer

>>96037620
yeah, totally, but it also means it has more than the best selling stuff of their quarters. If we're judging whether it's worth the price I feel it kinda is, in cotext, if you're into it. A very strong 6/10

>>96037650
Best selling =/= high quality.
One of the best selling cars ever was Ford T, a complete mechanical clusterfuck with terrible design. I guess every other car is great, on the virtue of being better than Ford T.
Why do I even need to explain such things?

I'm very strong with this >>96031481 anon. FL games are meh/10. Not bad, not good - meh.

>>96032153
you are welcome to provide examples of a much better value for money non-free ttrgp books as well
>>96034238
>asking what justifies saying the "game is literally nothing"
>SHILLLL!!!
nigger get your head checked

>>96029825
It's cause it's a setting that critiques/parodies rampant corporatism and Netflix decided the best thing to do is a ton of product placement, including making a corporate mascot a major character in the movie.

>>96037721
Neither of them, but this thread is doing terrible job pretending to be genuine grassroot, and not just astroturf. You were told right off the bat to fuck off and buy and ad, and here we are, 50 posts later of "ok, maybe this game is lackluster, but it's still a game, so buy us, so we can fuck you"

>>96037721
... if you are not a shill, how can you justify your thread and bullshit in tune of those posts:
>>96037721
>>96031890
>>96031077
>>96030901
I especially adore the whole "point a better game" bits. Not just games, to make it a more natural question, but game, so it's having the classic eristic trick of "give me a target to mock" vibe all over it. Which, naturally, nobody fell for, due to how blatant it is.
>inb4 this thread is to discuss the game
Is it? Because as far as it goes, it's just "n-no no, please considering buying our product, even if its shit" in the most ham-fisted, totally-not-a-marketer tone

>>96037727
fuck off I never argued anyone should buy the game
>>96037757
>it's windmills and giants all over again
this is getting tiresome
>bullshit in tune of those posts
what's the supposed bullshit?
>Not just games, to make it a more natural question, but game
>the classic eristic trick of "give me a target to mock" vibe
this tells much more about you than it does about me
I never put that much thought into it and honestly asking for multiple links just seemed rude as it's proportionally more work
most importantly your entire narrative is crashing due to a simple fact that I haven't said a fucking word about any of the systems that were provided as a reply in >>96031407 or >>96031426
in fact I was respectful and thankful for the provided examples

just because being a disingenuous troll's dick is the only modus operandi you know doesn't mean everyone feels the same way
maybe it's time to admit your schizo-narrative is wrong and I genuinely only wanted to now what anons are actually expecting out of a commercial ttrpg book

>>96037929
>I'm not a shill
>Writes a shilling wall of text

>>96038160
clearly you have nothing to say at this point so why not gtfo

>>96034638
Dragonbane isn’t the Year Zero engine, it’s a roll under BRP-derivative like the older Drakar och Demoner games.