d10 > d20
The page for the new project is up — mostly to try out the design. As I mention there, I’m not going to go into too much detail just yet because a lot of the mechanics of the game are going to be revealed during the first session. That is the difference between Unhuman and Erul-Iton. While the latter is a world-building project with rule changes where necessary, Unhuman is a superpowers system I’m building from the ground up using White-Wolf’s d10 game environment. Yes, I realize I could just run a game of Aberrant, but I do have a few reasons why I’m not going to.
First, what fun is that? Just buy a game and play it straight away without months and months of preparation, errata, and silly blog posts? That’s hardly my style.
Second, while Aberrant is a really good game, the world is not exactly suited for what I want to do. The main reason I’m eventually going to attempt to run two games at once is because I was inspired by a friend to start a game in which the players are actually portraying themselves in an extraordinary situation.
This is interesting for a couple of reasons, but it serves my purposes particularly well because I’m not hanging out with the seasoned RPG gang I had in high school. I have a lot of first-timers and people who will likely only be coaxed into playing if it’s casual and easy to jump in. Playing yourself in the modern world is about as beginner-friendly as you get.
Aberrant takes place a while after the super-powered people emerged. The world has already reacted to their presence. International organizations dedicated to studying powers are already established, entire news and entertainment networks are devoted to covering their exploits, and a super-plant-man-hero has terraformed half of Africa. I want my players to be there when the superpower phenomenon begins. I want their actions to help shape the world’s reaction.
Finally, starting from scratch allows me to create a more succinct list of powers. I will not have to rely upon pages of silly meta-powers or throwaway abilities. Instead, each set is crafted specifically to balance utility and versatility while making some kind of sense when explained by the game world’s pseudo-science.
To be honest, I can’t wait to use White-Wolf’s system again. D20 has nothing on their elegant and adaptable d10-based setup. The same general format can easily be applied to a game in any time period, and nearly any power set can be added to the basic abilities and attributes.
D20 systems only feel simpler, but you start to notice the problems when you have advanced characters. The White-Wolf system avoids drastically inflated figures by spreading the chance out, while your level 40 D&D character has to go through a huge table to calculate all the bonuses for his many attacks. In addition, White-Wolf’s system also encourages more creative strategies as every stat reward does not have to be about murder or facilitating murder.
I would love to see them encourage third-party development with their system as Wizards of the Coast did with D20. However, White-Wolf’s catalog runs the gamut from vampires to ghosts to superheroes, so I guess they never felt the need to seek the community’s help with branching out.
Crippled Vulture Games 