Only War is amazingly safe

For the last few months we've been playing in my Son's Only War campaign, and he in turn has been playing in an online Only War campaign (that's been going on for a bit longer). The setting was marketed as deadly and dangerous, and the fluff in the rulebook repeated that claim. So I was expecting at least a few dead PCs and mountains of Comrade corpses littering the battlefields.

In actual play however it's been one of the safest and easiest games we've ever played. In both ours and the online game there's not been one PC death, and only one Comrade has died (when I was guest GMing in our campaign).

There are a number of reasons for this, both mechanical and psychological.

From the mechanical PoV:

• The system has what is basically a D&D Style Hit Points (called wounds, typically 12 points or more). Until these are gone, your character if fully effective and 'safe'. This combined with the damage reduction provided by Toughness and Armor results in a very significant Buffer against common weapons. A well built and moderately equipment character can soak *a lot* of hits or even become all but immune to less than Heavy Weapons fire.

• The Logistics System allows characters to quickly attain high end armor and weapons further increasing their ability to suck up incoming damage while increasing their outgoing damage to levels opposing NPCs can't handle.

• The mechanics for teamwork and leadership are well done (i.e. they are suited to the genre and effective), however they amplify the above effects significantly. In any battle the PCs will defeat equally (and even better) skilled and equipped opponents due to the effect of these rules.

• If you do get into trouble, Fate Points will generally get you out of it.

Now naturally the GM is capable of throwing powerful enough foes at the characters to overwhelm them. However it's impressive just how much is required, We've seen players deal with dozens of foes outnumbering them 3 to one. How about heavily armored, conversion field protected, plasma gun armed robots of death with 60+ stats? Walked over. Three Killer Cans? Blasted into bits. Bloodletter? Tank? Shot to pieces. And this with characters who have just now reach 5K+ experience (something easily done after but 10 game sessions with these rules) and for most of the above had far less. I think the online game saw five players or so defeat a Chaos Marine and another time a Greater Demon (which just shouldn't be possible according to the setting).


This leads to the Psychological influences I mentioned. The amount of force needed to provide a serious threat is just too much for a GM to feel justified in using. For one thing, such opponents should be rare. And for another it just plain seems wrong to have your Guardsmen whacking hordes of foes more suited setting wise as Space Marine opponents.

In the end we're likely going to need to break through those Psychological influences and ramp up the opponents to levels that don't match the setting we thought the game was built for- just to feel that we're at risk.

Corporia

I was a bit surprised to get a press release for Corporia, a new kickstarter offering. I don't think I'm known as a fan of modern game design, but then again I do like urban fantasy style cyberpunk and this certainly fits.

So I looked it over,and it sparks some thought.

I *might* like the core setting concept. Most Urban Fantasy is a kitchen sink approach where anything and everything goes, but this one's focus on the "Once and Future King" elements of Camelot promises something less aimless than that. More over, there's a "fight the cyberpunk culture" vibe that is all but missing in that genre and I think it would be a welcomed addition (and mirrors my own re-imagined Shadowrun campagin).

Why did I include that "might" above? Well the most familiar version of Camelot is one strongly influenced by Christianity be it the Grail Quest itself or the whole "One God coming to replace the old gods" theme. But there are older far more pagan versions. And for me much depends upon which take if any the author took in for his setting.

I would have a interest in a strong Christian version, especially given the fact that Christianity is dying in the modern world. There's an appeal to the concept of its champions returning in a near future dystopia brought about by its absence.

But I doubt this is the case. Nothing seems to point in that direction and modern sensibilities being what they are I'd bet on a completely secular Camelot, or a pagan one.


On the system side of things...

Well, it looks like a typical example of a modern non-D&D based game, i.e. a low resolution trait + skill stat vs. target number thing. Very simple and uninteresting mechanics that aren't much of a game in and of themselves (and thus why should I waste any time using them?). A quick glance indicates that it also has a strong stat bias, something I've never liked in game design. A lot might have been missing in the preview certainly, but what was included wasn't impressive.

The lack of a Death Spiral is a good thing however. So there are much worse options out there.


Meanwhile the layout looks to be par with some of the better games out these days, but the photo art didn't go over well for me. Real people are just too real for fantasy, urban or otherwise. It might appeal to cosplayers, and of course such taste is personal.

One exception to that was the shower scene with the caption "Corporia what will the flux do to you" that appears in a small frame in the preview. Likely because it's a very light focus shot. Really nice that one.

In short, if you're one for light systems and urban fantasy check it out. This might suit and provide a alternative "light in the darkness" campaign in a gaming industry that mostly sees in shades of black these days.