Hey, I'm currently looking into running a system based on the worm/wards universe created by Wildbow. I'm not sure if there is a popular opinion on Veeky Forums regarding the webseries itself, but I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions regarding what system to use. Obviously weaverdice was made specifically for worm, but given it is actively incomplete I'm a bit iffy about using it given superhero campaigns have quite a few options available.
So are there any specific systems anyone would heavily recommend for something like this? Whether specifically meant for superhero stuff or something more generic in design. Ideally I'm looking for something that is a bit more on the rules lite side of things as while I'm personally a fan of HERO, it tends to be a bit crunchy for most people. It also prevents much in the way of improvisation, which is something I'm trying to keep open given it is quite useful for anything even remotely off the rails in terms of design.
Weaver dice is pretty good for randomly creating characters, but incredibly lethal (or so I've heard).
Probably take the character creation aspect, then play in a system you enjoy.
Cooper Myers
And just to give a suggestion FATE(/Accelerated?) could work for the more narrative side, as could Worlds in Peril or MASKS (although, these latter being PbtA means they have a different focus than you might want)
Carson Morgan
I ran a mutants and masterminds game using a world and power system similar to worm. It ended early due to group drama, but it worked pretty well. It was closer to free-form RP tho, I rarely used any of the rules except during combat, and even then it was pretty light.
I chose to do it that way to encourage creativity and improvisation amongst my players. Sadly tho, too often it came down to "shooting first" :P
Wild Talents has the customization to craft pretty much any power and a decent level of lethality to have consequences for liberal use of those powers.
Nathan Price
I'll need to look into seeing if I can effectively meld that aspect of the system with something a bit less overtly lethal (granted I'm not opposed to death being a factor, I'd just rather it be meaningful to the plot rather than purely down to bad luck), and ideally also more fully fleshed out. Still the character creation is one of the more fleshed out parts so it could definitely be worth using, thanks for the suggestion on that front.
I do enjoy M&M but I'm honestly a bit worried it might be too close to the crunchy side of things, still it could work in a pinch. Sorry to hear your own game ended prematurely, it's always a shame when things end do to drama.
I'll need to skim those over, I'm honestly not a huge fan of FATE or heavily narrative oriented systems as I normally prefer something crunchy, but given I am looking for rules lite stuff with this it would definitely be a major option to look at. I'm not familiar with Worlds in Peril or MASKS so I'll need to skim through them, maybe one of them will be just what I'm looking for. Thanks for the suggestions mate.
Owen Cruz
How do I become a giant head with spider legs?
Andrew Hughes
>I'm not sure if there is a popular opinion on Veeky Forums regarding the webseries itself There's either people really liking or loathing it, never seen anything inbetween. Worm threads on Veeky Forums usually devolve into weird hybrid threads where one half is merciless shitposting about how bad Worm is while the other half is tries to discuss the story. It's strange, I've never seen anything like it on Veeky Forums.
That being said I second suggestion of using Wild Talents, it's gritty and lethal, exactly right for the tone of Worm.
Worm is skub, plain and simple. I, for my part, love skub.
MM best girl!
Dominic Reyes
The freeformity of how a person can wield their mutant abilities in paranoia meshes beautifully with how one wields parahuman abilities. You could run a mad stealth game with paranoia.
>Weaver dice is pretty good for randomly creating characters, but incredibly lethal (or so I've heard). I dunno how true that is.
Weaver Dice is written on the assumption that the core of a session is a fight between roughly peer level fighters. A parahuman against another, a team against a team. This fight is, then, the only fight in that given session. You /might/ have two in a row, but that would definitely be pushing the player character(s) - you're expected to rest in between every fight.
A game like D&D is written on the assumption that you will grind through a bunch of chumps. Equal level CRs are nominally calibrated to exhaust like 25% of your party's resources, not put them in a life or death mirror match. You are assumed to be able to wade through multiple fights before needing a break to heal and recover - WD absolutely does not assume that.
WD's mechanics make it fairly difficult to accidentally kill someone or just plain die - but if you are going into a fight with a peer and unwilling to change tack, stop, or back down, it is not an accident when somebody dies.
For what it's worth, I've never died in WD, and I don't think I've ever accidentally killed anyone either (as a consequence of the system, at least, like attacking somebody and then going oh shit when they die). I've played in a number of campaigns with different GMs and powers, and been generally aggressive, so it's not like it's cowardice/baby GM/OP power at play on that subject.
Jose Stewart
It varies from GM to GM. Wildbow's sessions are more like roguelikes, and are generally more high-lethality.
Hudson Mitchell
This is the first time I've seen a thread here that doesn't exclusively shit on Weaver Dice, have I just been meme'd on and WD isn't actually a piece of shit?
Jordan Clark
Who's your favorite PC in Weaver Dice so far?
Liam Butler
Like all other RPGs ever, it really depends on who you play it with. Weaver Dice is basically an RPG made for one-on-one sessions on IRC, and it works pretty well for that.
Jace Long
Wildbow's sessions' lethality aren't really about the system, but about his GMing style. He expects problem solving from players and kills them if they fail to provide it. This is most obvious in the Rainbow Idol session in Lausanne where due to (poor rolls/too many enemies/whatever other factors), Rainbow's getting shat on constantly, but survives the end anyway because a powerful NPC decides to train her, since Wildbow liked how the player was doing.
Lincoln Anderson
I dunno. Slither?
Luis King
Slither's life is all about suffering.
Asher Cooper
It's not actually a piece of shit. Like most RPGs, people who shit on it the most have not actually played it.
WD is playable and functional, which puts it a step above a lot of systems. The character creation method is clever and useful and has non-obvious benefits, and the system has a lot of decent QoL-type decisions in it. The issues it has are not obvious to a person who does not have experience with actually playing it.
Brandon Johnson
I know that there's a list of all Weaver Dice campaigns that happened over the IRC but which one of them features Slither?
Anthony Lee
It's an incomplete system that is fairly rules light, and is pretty amateurish. I like the Tarot tables and the rolling for disadvantages/advantages, but personally I loathe the group aspect of the character creation. Too easy to get slapped with something you have no desire to play, and no investment in.
Andrew Turner
Then make a Cauldron character, which also has rules and allows you much more control.
>goosestep your character into a certain type of background just so you can have a degree of creative control over your character in a setting that revolves around personal stories and where your power is deeply tied to what you've experienced and who you are Pass. And the alternative rules aren't any better.
Luke Harris
You have plenty of creative control over your character. I've played a half-dozen WD characters generated from random triggers with powers I didn't influence, and none of them weren't "mine" in terms of personality and characterization and backstory. Triggers and powers are jumping off points, not characters in and of themselves.
You just want TOTAL creative control over every element of your character. Which is fine. But acting like this is a failing of the system rather than your personal taste is stupid.
(Also I am mystified by the idea that Cauldron character creation "isn't any better" in terms of control. You get to completely set every element of who your character was, and then pick at least a general type of power.)
Brandon Hughes
>You just want TOTAL creative control over every element of your character. >I LIKE the Tarot tables and the rolling for disadvantages/advantages
>But acting like this is a failing of the system rather than your personal taste is stupid. >but PERSONALLY I loathe the group aspect of the character creation lrn2read.
>(Also I am mystified by the idea that Cauldron character creation "isn't any better" in terms of control. You get to completely set every element of who your character was, and then pick at least a general type of power.) I said the rule where you make a bunch of capes and toss them into a pool isn't any better, although being a Cauldron cape isn't a very good alternative either, since it essentially cuts out the drama of having a trigger just so you can have a say. Triggers, which are massively influenced by what your character has experienced, and affect and shape your character on a deeply profound level. If you treat them as anything less, you aren't playing triggers as they are in Worm.
Jason Rogers
So how is Ward? Does it match Worm in terms of worldbuilding and is the world post Gold Morning interesting enough to use as a setting?
>lrn2read. I did read, your insanely sarcastic rewriting of my post, which certainly did not seem to merely be a statement of opinion.
>I said the rule where you make a bunch of capes and toss them into a pool isn't any better, although being a Cauldron cape isn't a very good alternative either, since it essentially cuts out the drama of having a trigger just so you can have a say. A Cauldron cape can absolutely experience terrible things. They just don't get superpowers from them (other than indirectly) because most people who undergo horrible things in Worm's setting don't.
>Triggers, which are massively influenced by what your character has experienced, and affect and shape your character on a deeply profound level. If you treat them as anything less, you aren't playing triggers as they are in Worm. A thing can profoundly affect people in different ways.
For example, there's a pair of twins in San Raul (one is dead now) who got the same basic trigger: abusive partner, divorce that the abuser wins, etc.
One is a basically good person who's trying to get divorced and is in the middle of a manic episode so is acting in a very unsafe and haphazard fashion, and the other was a compulsive liar and general scumbag who tried to undo her divorce so she could have her husband killed and get everything, and also killed a bunch of people to get in good with the Elite.
Cameron Morris
Yes, albeit its only the beginning. There's so much of the world to cover in Ward.
