Other Worlds RPG

[Archivist]

Does anyone have any thoughts on the OtherWorlds RPG? It seems a lot like HeroQuest

[David Scott]

It seems to be another multigenre game of which there are certainly a few - I play HeroQuest, Fate and TORG to name three. It's certainly got some of the language and structure of HeroQuest and does note that it's influenced by HeroQuest (along with Burning Empires, and Sorcerer & Sword)

Conflict Resolution is sort of similar, but then it kinda goes off into a complex % structure to do tasks - You can download a free preview from Drivethrough : http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/98108/Other-Worlds-Free-Preview-Edition

Personally I wouldn't use that, although I'm always on the look out for new backgrounds to play. My main problem is that on seeing a game like this I immediately see how it works in HeroQuest. Same thing happened recently with Monte Cook's Numenera - superb book, fantastic background great adventures - I really enjoyed it. Awful system (Cypher System - Free Preview), I could see instantly how it would be easier in HQ.

There's a review and thread here on RPGNet by @Lev Lafayette : https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?636561-RPG-Other-Worlds-reviewed-by-Lev-Lafayette-(3-3) 

Here's part of the resolution system for reference:

 

Quote

 

Conflict Resolution

1:frame the conflict

• Player describes his character’s actions.

• Player describes his goals – what happens if the character wins?

• Player and GM agree the stakes – what happens if the character loses?

2: Allocate Screen time

Decides whether to roll or make it an automatic success.

3: Calculate your total rating

• Choose a base ability and use its full rating.

• Choose a supporting ability and add 50% of its rating.

• Choose up to 2 further supporting abilities and add 10% of their ratings.

• Each assisting character may provide 1 additional supporting ability modifier.

• Highest negative trait subtracts 50% of its rating.

• Other negative traits subtract 10% of their ratings.

• GM may apply context or circumstance modier of up to +/- 20.

4: Determine the Opposition rating

• If the opposition is a fellow player, they calculate their total rating as above.
• Otherwise, the GM determines the total rating of the opposition.

• Standard = 1 x the base power level of the game.

• Challenging = 2 x the base power level of the game.

• Very Difficult = 3 x the base power level of the game.

5: Determine the Winner

• Each side rolls d100 and add their total rating to the score.

• If the scores are equal the result is a draw.

• If a side wins by 1 to 9 (ones) they gain a partial victory.

• If a side wins by 10 to 99 (tens) they gain a standard victory.

• If a side wins by 100 (hundreds), or on a double, they gain a critical victory.

GM describes the nal result of the conflict.

6: Count the Consequences

• GM may apply one of the following options:

• Either: The losing side gains a flaw equal to the winning side’s total rating.

  • A partial defeat means that the flaw is only temporary.

  • A critical defeat means that the character also gains a restriction.

• Or: The winning side gains a temporary ability equal to the losing side’s total rating.

• Any characters who provided support are also eligible to receive consequences.

 

My main query is how the Flying fish with the gondola lands!

 

[Archivist]

Ha. it seems pretty cool. I'm only mentioning it because I just got it and people say it's like HeroQuest.

[SDLeary]

4 hours ago, Archivist said:

Ha. it seems pretty cool. I'm only mentioning it because I just got it and people say it's like HeroQuest.

IIRC, it grew out of an early third edition proposal that didn't pan out. The author then took it and finished it off themselves, significantly changing things by publishing time. Its a lot more crunchy than it was during the playtest that I was in.

SDLeary

[Newt]

I ran a quick two session game during the playtest. It took the "define everything" idea of HeroQuest to the extreme, which I found very draining as Narrator. We worked up a very nice game of War of the World meets WW2 meets Transformers, i.e extreme mash-up, which I suppose was its strong point. However, the contest system fell down very badly when we came to the climactic struggle against the Alien War Machines.

Overall it appeared inspired on paper, but it was too much work to have to come up with a whole narrative setting and then have to constantly be improvising details. Then to have the central mechanic fall down on us. Nope!

That be said there's plenty of posts on Rpg.net if you go digging where people have run the game over several sessions and loved it to bits. 

[Mankcam]

From the outset this rpg system sounds pretty cool - kinda like FATE or HQ, except using a D100 roll for actions?

I wonder if it is a D100 roll (like Rolemaster/HARP), or a D100% roll (like BRP)?

If the later, then the mechanics will be a winner for me. If it's just rolling a highest-number-wins kind of thing as opposed to a roll-under percentile then that's just too cumbersome for me to do maths over that broad range, it might as well be back to a D20 for simplicity. Also having a quick look at the conflict resolution indicates a bit more complexity than what I would envision for this kind of game.

Not sure how much support the system will get however. Not much point getting into anything if the support for it is too slim, I might as well just do my own homebrew otherwise

I think I will take a look at the preview when I get time. Happy to check new ideas out!

 

Edited November 16, 2017 by Mankcam

[Archivist]

Newt, how does HeroQuest avoid the narrative exhaustion you mentioned. It seems like it should have the same issue..

[Newt]

7 hours ago, Mankcam said:

Not sure how much support the system will get however. Not much point getting into anything if the support for it is too slim, I might as well just do my own homebrew otherwise

 

1

The main core book came out in 2011. To date, there have been none of the setting books that the author annouced. 

There's a G+ group that gives fan support.

[Newt]

7 hours ago, Archivist said:

Newt, how does HeroQuest avoid the narrative exhaustion you mentioned. It seems like it should have the same issue..

It mitigates it by the expectation that it keywords,  should be firmly set up before play (not part of play as Other Worlds does ) and a very light way of quickly drawing a ton of background to draw on (if you are playing either Glorantha or rolling your own from an established piece of literature, say the Dune series).  Also, HQ doesn't expect you to define abilities for every damn aspect of the setting, being the player's abilities or the reoccurring npcs.   It crept up on me eventually after a good ten years of playing it rigorously though

Edited November 16, 2017 by Newt

[JonL]

On 11/15/2017 at 9:13 AM, Archivist said:

Does anyone have any thoughts on the OtherWorlds RPG? It seems a lot like HeroQuest

Be sure to put a space between "Other" and "Worlds" when discussing HQ's cousin. Otherworlds™ is an entirely different game by Vincent Baker (Not Apocalypse World author D.(avid) Vincent Baker, this entirely different Vincent Baker.) I got to try out Otherworlds by accident at Gen Con this year when I saw in the event catalog that Vincent Baker was running Otherworlds and immediately bought a ticket, only to discover upon arrival that the event was for both a different  game and different Vincent Baker than I was expecting. Despite this practical illustration of the importance of trademarks, I had a lot of fun playing Otherworlds with (No-D.) Vincent Baker.

[Ian Cooper]

On 11/15/2017 at 9:50 PM, SDLeary said:

IIRC, it grew out of an early third edition proposal that didn't pan out. The author then took it and finished it off themselves, significantly changing things by publishing time. Its a lot more crunchy than it was during the playtest that I was in.

SDLeary

I think it was an early attempt to take the engine from HQ1e and create a generic ruleset, that took a long time, stuttered, and was then forked into something quite different. Heroquest Core also essentially replaced any Other worlds project as the generic version of the engine.

[SDLeary]

2 hours ago, Ian Cooper said:

I think it was an early attempt to take the engine from HQ1e and create a generic ruleset, that took a long time, stuttered, and was then forked into something quite different. Heroquest Core also essentially replaced any Other worlds project as the generic version of the engine.

Yes, your right. In my mind HeroWars would be first edition, HQ1 second, and so on. Thats how I was numbering it. 

It was supposed to be more than an attempt at creating a generic rule set. It was supposed to be a full on revision. With a separate Glorantha book to come out later. So an early attempt at what became HQ2

SDLeary