so my gaming group wants to try out a game called frag empire and before i look too deep into it i wanted your opinions. so, is it good?
>>48149709
Fragged empire, sorry
Never heard of it. Do you have a link anon?
>>48152394
Here's a link to the kick starter
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wadedyer/fragged-empire-tabletop-rpg
i'll see if i can find a link to the book
>>48152781
heres to download for the pdf
>>48152892
>>48152903
wrong link sorry heres the right one
https://www.sendspace.com/file/ove68j
>>48152923
Cheers anon, checking it out now
>That lip-biting, freckled Kaltoran
fucking unf
>>48153000
thnx m8
ikr
>>48149709
It looks good, I've not played it and it's kind of far down the list in the queue for my group.
I like a lot of the ideas they've presented, and the system seems like it could be fun.
>>48149709
Looks interesting. Downloading the pdf now.
Really digging the aesthetics of all of the factions, or at least they seem like factions.
>>48153682
Alright, after reading two short stories I can report the following:
I fucking dig the back story of the world. Interesting, not something I've really seen before, and gives huge opportunities for whatever people want to do.
Second, the different species and their interactions between them reminds me of Elves, Men, Orcs, and Dwarves of fantasy. But without the hidebound lore that has followed since Tolkien.I personally love Tolkien, but variety, as they say is the spice of life.
C) Having the most direct progenitor race not interested in the ruins of those who made them is a good decision. It steps away from the tried and true themes of post apocalyptic Sci-Fi we've all grown to love. Easily gives room for growth while letting people be archeologists if that is their idea.
Last; the fact the species are all actually different, created for different things - for better or worse - is something I really like. Gives a good reason for different personalities, specializations, etc without it being "Human culture but X" that people tend to burst into sperg rages over.
Quickly rocketing to the top of my "want to play" list.
I want moreLegionart now.
>>48149709
A friend of mine has brought this up once or twice. I can't say that I've been able to play it but it is on the short list for the next game I run. Basically this anon >>48155451 hit every point that I was going to make.
Here's the pdf for Antagonist archives
http://www39.zippyshare.com/v/yBLX0dqR/file.html
Glad your enjoying the game I made :)
- Wade D
![174587_842868_8[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/iaPPjtz.jpg "174587_842868_8[1].jpg")
I really like it. The races all feel very unique and the new ones in the protagonist archive pre-release add some really nice flavour. I'm a sucker for great art in the books and the stuff in the books looks fucking amazing. I really liked the rules around miniature based combat as I've only really played Imaginationland rules prior. Theatre of the Mind rules seem good but haven't tried them.
>>48157251
Congrats on the ENnie nominations.
One thing I'm struggling to understand while reading this is why exactly the Archons genetically engineered so many species. The second short story it's said they made "hundreds of new species" but what was the point?
Well, excluding the Legion and Nephilim which were created for the same war and sure thats half the playable races right there, but for what purpose were the Corp, Kaltorans, and ~hundred other species created for?
>>48158735
Because they felt like it, I presume
>>48153000
Why are Kaltoran girls so beszt
I like the setting quite a bit. Manages to be unique in the sense that it uses traditional sci-fi tropes in clever ways. As opposed to, say, Eclipse Phase, where the setting does its best to alienate you and toss some dense concepts your way right off the bat. Goddamn I love Eclipse Phase but holy hell it feels like you need a Ph.D for that game sometimes.Or be one of those faggots that goes on Atomic Rockets way too fucking much
This is one of the few settings where I really like the justification of the "alien" races looking like humans, ie they were designed by a race that was in turn designed by humans. I normally like my aliens to look as non-human and weird as possible, but exceptions like this exist (the others being Defiance, Star Wars and Mass Effect).
I'll probably use Stars Without Number as a system, though.
>>48158735
Wasn't the whole point of the Archon's work that they were trying to create the 'perfect' race; and while knowledgeable, they weren't omniscient so had to experiment, hence the hundreds of random genetically engineered species.
>>48149709
I met the Dev at a con last year.
The system looks good but it's emphasis on tactical combat something I fucking love. But the settings is just kind of meh. It's apocalyptic Space opera science fiction at its most generic. There is it nice touches but It just feels really played out.
Perhaps this is explained in the pdf, which I haven't read yet, but is there a good reason that the corporation is called 'Corporation'?
>>48161767
From the Antagonists' Archive:
>As a Corporation professor, I am often asked why we call ourselves 'the Corporation'. I grow tired of hearing this question. We took the name Corporation for ourselves as a sign that we are a cohesive organization of people, not a race. Yes, we are predominantly of the Vargati genome, but we are defined by our culture, not our genetics. Each part, each company, within our social structure is independent, succeeding or failing purely on their own merits and ability."
>"But can a company be morally bad, while financially succeeding?"
>"A business is neither good nor bad. A business is profitable, or it is not. A business will either bring in the funds it needs to continue its, and by extension 'our', existence or it will not. We, as the Corporation, will always ensure our profits are high. We will always ensure our continued existence. It is our way. There is only one motive here: survival."
>"Many companies to terrible things. Where does morality fit in?"
>"What is morality? It is a code of ethics instilled by society to maintain the health of the whole. We have morality, just not the same as yours. We don't allows ours to expand beyond the confines of its core cultural function. As I told you, the only thing that matters is profit, and you don't seem to believe me. Profit equals survival and prosperity; everything else is secondary. We have those that act in the interest of the business, and those that do not. The ones that don't...the ones that cost the Corporation money...they are the immoral ones. They are the ones that threaten our survival."
>>48161767
Basically the Corporation is a faction that refused to be defined by their genetics, and instead established a society based on their interpretation of capitalism (which they in turn discovered from humanity).
>>48149709
That looks uninspired as fuck.
>>48152923
It says the file is not available, am I the only one getting this?
In any case, can someone reupload it somewhere else?
>>48149709
Shitty Tumblr trash.
>>48165200
>>48165405
You kind of just proved his point.
>>48165200
I don't get it.
>>48165171
How so?
>>48165543
Yeah so?
I just posted why it is called, it's not... Whatever the fuck is that abortion of a post...
It's called "Fragged Empire" for three reasons:
>Fragging: Representing that the lore about creators and their fuckups
>Fragmentation: How the remains need to put the shit or die
>Frag: A focus on "tactical squad based combat" so to say
It's not lets-put-this-cool-word, at least it has a reason why it's named like that.
>>48165722
YEAH RIGHT XD LETS RENAME DND "FRAG SWORD MAN" BECAUSE IT TOTALLY HAS POINT XDDD
>>48165718
Examples?
>>48165774
>>48165718
>>48165200
Number of shitposters in this thread is pretty high.
>>48152923
No file. Can you reupload?
>>48165774
>3 out of 4 characters have guns in the art
>it's called "fragged empire"
look, if it's got some high octane gun battling in it, it's a fitting name imo. at least, that's what I now expect out of it given the name and art.
But is it actually like that? Because all I see itt is fluff and it gives me too little confidence to bother downloading and reading the pdf someone posted
Looks painfully generic, and the PDF got DMCA'd so I can't see for myself, so I'll give it a pass.
Posting in a shill thread, Alright!
But yeah, Anon, I think you're going to have to wait a while before anyone here will have an answer for you, since it mostly seems to just be fluff at the moment and honestly you can do your own fluff.
The crunch is where it comes down to "A good game to play, or not".
>>48149709
what are the factions
what are the races
what is the setting
Looks like a pretty generic uninteresting space opera setting, unless it has a really great rule set I see no point.
>>48166730
>what are the factions
Space Humans.
Space Elves.
Space Orcs.
I'm not sure what the 4th one is but they looks like Space Dark Elves?
>what are the races
See the above.
>what is the setting
Space.
>>48166795
>space elfves
>space orcs
>space dark elves
welp i lost interest already
>>48166795
>Space Dark Elves
But they're more like Zerg,
>>48165935
>>48166755
It might look generic, but I think it's pretty good. Has some interesting takes on the tried and true tropes and what not.
Never got why people judge before actually reading stuff.
People want originality and easy to understand. They arn't space elves, irks etc... Someone should copy and past the intro paragraph for each of the races.
>>48167908
ok>Corp
Rejected by their creators (the Archons) as inferior, the Corporation
(formerly known as Vargarti) have grown to love the Great X’ion
War because it freed them from an existence of insignificance and
irrelevance. Discarding their racial identity, they are now eager to prove
themselves. Not a nation in the classical sense, the Corporation is
a massive corporate entity comprising millions of smaller, affiliated
business enterprises – a purely capitalistic society.>Kaltorans
Born with the genetic memories of their ancestors, Kaltorans
are an innately gifted and flexible race. They are eager to make a
new future for themselves, though they struggle with the “genetic
memories” of not only the Great X’ion War but the extreme measures
taken by their ancestors to survive it.>Legion
A physically imposing race, hastily created by the Archons to fight
their losing war against X’ion, the Legion now struggle to create a
stable society and to find meaning without a war to fight. In recent
times the Legion have formed a close economic relationship with the
Corporation, acting as enforcers for hire.>Nephilim
Nephilim: A junk-word term used to describe the diverse
descendants of X’ion’s genetically engineered army. Created to wage
war on the Archons and their creations, before being abandoned by
their creator, X’ion, once the war was won.
The Nephilim have an eclectic, primal, and often violent society
supported by advanced biological technology. While publicly no
longer loyal to X’ion, many Nephilim pursue genetic perfection at
any cost.
>>48167811
Because 90% of how interesting a setting is it's aesthetic not which person rules what kingdom that did x or whatever.
>>48168069
You know a setting is shit when the evil empire/race has both an X or Z and an apostrophe in it.
>>48168147
I disagree. The foundations of any setting, in my eyes, is context. Without that the what and who are meaningless, nebulous names without any connections.
On a far more flippant note: I'm sorry you can't read, have the attention span to understand, or have interest in things beyond the pretty pictures.
>>48168178
>sperg problems
>>48168178
i honestly can't tell if this is bait
>>48168201
The mood, themes, and material that players will interact with are ALL conveyed through the aesthetic and a few word synopsis of the setting, the history and stories within the setting do not make it much more interesting, they are either the meat to be consumed once interest is already captured or to be used as the jumping off points of a GM ideas. I can look at this image and immediately glean a very very large amount of information about Trudvang, everything I really need to know to play a game in it pretty much. I can watch one of the 2 minutes Degenesis trailers and learn basically everything important about the setting bar minutia. This alone is enough to decide weather the setting interests me or not just like the OP image is enough for me to see "oh hey a Science fantasy setting derivative of Infinity and AT-43, unless that has a really fucking good rule set I may as well use science fantasy games I already own because the setting is worth very little to me".
>>48168531
It may provide one mood, several themes, or the most generalized material.
The devil is the in details, as the saying goes. And it does apply. Beyond the surface the settling differentiates itself well.
But hey, your choice not to read it and write it off.
>>48168211
>>48168201
Because when the evil empire is called Z'althrax you are instantly saying "HEY GUYS THIS IS GOING TO BE AS GENERIC AS HUMANLY POSSIBLY, THIS IS PAINT BY NUMBERS GUYS" and unless that's the point it's going to be pointless.
>>48168586
Please point out a single setting with a generic high fantasy aesthetic that can not just be replaced with forgotten realms and change nothing but proper nouns.
>>48168608
So names are the most important thing in a setting?
I've heard this somewhere before... Do you happen to banish daemons as your day job?
>>48168645
Haven't played or read Forgotten Realms, so I can't. Someone else, though, probably could.
>>48168653
They aren't particularly important in and of themselves but they tell you how much thought was put into things. If everything is just generic as fuck typical fare it's enough to tell me the setting is probably also generic as fuck typical fare.
>>48168645
Pathfinder
>>48168723
That's a weak argument and you know it.
I'd rather generic as fuck names with an interesting setting that the other way around. Names don't make the man, men makes the name.
>>48168723
>a name is generic just because of a few letters and a punctuation point
in that case what name wouldn't be generic
>>48168772
Thats exactly the point.
The man who makes the uncreative names also most likely makes uncreative settings.
>>48168827
>The man who makes the uncreative names also most likely makes uncreative settings.
Again, weak argument at best. One has very little to do with the other. Names, in any case, should be an afterthought in my opinion.
Take the great writers that build modern Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Dune, as an example, revolves around Spice. I can't think of a more generic name for a substance than that, other than "matter".
>>48168794
A name is generic when I can already tell EXACTLY what the name is for despite knowing nothing about the minutia of the setting.
Without googling which of the following is the hyper capatalist one
Caldari, Gallente, Amarr, Minmatar, Jovian
Could be fucking any of them but probably not Minmatar, sounds to guttural.
Without googling which of the following the hyper capitalist one
X'ion, The Corporation, Legion, Nephilim, Kaldoran
Real Hard to guess that.
>>48168944
>obvious names are bad
Really? Would you rather the first splat book be a fucking translation dictionary?
>>48168862
Spice is a great name though.
It tells you "this is a valuable thing" but nothing else. Spice would be a generic name if the Spice was literally spice but it's actually a narcotic mutagen.
>>48168944
The I guess Star Wars is also generic trash because the two factions are called the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance in the original trilogy, and the Galactic Republic and Confederacy of Independent Systems in the prequels. And the Jedi Order are against the Order of Sith Lords
>>48168991
It is a great name, doesn't make "Spice" less generic. The fact that it is actually a narctoic mutagen is really cool.
But following the logic of the anti-Fragged Empire people, they would've of read Dune enough, or at all, to learn the truth about Spice.
>>48168982
No, I'd rather the names of entities unique to the setting have names unique to it.
Would lord of the rings be better if Rohan was called "Horse Land" Gondor was called, "The White Kingdom" and Mordor was called that fucking shithole"
>>48169041
Better? No. But unchanged. But it isn't because Rohan is a better name than Horse Land, its because I just like Rohan more at this point due to the fond memories I have of the name attached to land and characters.
But, you seem to be forgetting that is usually called "Rohan, realm of the Horde Lords." or "Mordor the Land of Shadow"
>>48168862
>can't think of a more generic name
It was additionally called spice melange or geriatric spice
>>48169085
Fuck, can't believe I forgot. Gondor's capitol Minas Tirith, is literally called "The White City". Other names for the city are: City of Kings, Tower of the Sun.
>>48169018
The interesting part of star wars are the jedi and sith, both of which have names that mean nothing outside of starwars, the empire and the rebels sans jedi and sith are in fact just generic sci-fi stuff.
>>48169029
Spice is not a generic name though, when you use an existing fairly vague word as a proper noun to describe something with only passing similarity to what the word is used for in reality you're being creative and descriptive.
If however "Spice" was literally spice it would not be particularly interesting at all.
"X'ion" would be a fine name in fact if it was the name of the space elves, but because it's the name of the evil empire it sounds generic and uninspired as fuck because "X'ion, Raz'kath, Al'xath, Z'Amak, X'anar so on and so forth is the copout name for an evil empire.
>>48169208
Those are titles, which should be obvious and generic.
If it was Something something, (The corporation) it would be fine.
It's Minas Tirith, The White City, not The White City, In the same way it's Chicago The Shithole, not The Shithole.
>>48169226
>but because it's the name of the evil empire it sounds generic and uninspired as fuck because "X'ion, Raz'kath, Al'xath, Z'Amak, X'anar so on and so forth is the copout name for an evil empire.
I don't understand your reasoning here. Does "X'ion" have a meaning out side Fragged Empire I'm not aware of? Seems a little contradictory to your point about Jedi and Sith.
Regardless, I don't think its that generic of a name frankly. It sounds alien enough, but human inspired enough. Especially given in universe context it makes it a lot better. Spice in Dune does similar things.
>>48169267
Titles, nicknames, you're splitting hairs. It's called the White City often without its proper name. Chicago is often called "The Windy City", Paris "The City of Lights" much in the same way.
>>48169314
Chicago is also "The White City" alla "Devil in the White City"
>>48169314
X'ion has meaning in the same way Barkevious does.
One means "evil fantasy empire" one means "Name made up by black mother in america"
>>48169692
>One means "evil fantasy empire" one means "Name made up by black mother in america"
I think you're confused about what "meanings" are.
>>48169226
I don't quite know what's been argued about, but my personal preference is against unpronounceable or uninformative names in fiction.
The word melange has no meaning to someone who hasn't read Dune, but the pretext of spice immediately makes it obvious it's a consumable powder of high value.
Likewise that name planet 'Arrakis' gives no image to the reader but the name 'Dune' immediately does.
Of course if you want to see something that's too descriptive look at Destiny. The everything has the most generic names imaginable. The taken, the The Fallen, the Traveler, The light and The Darkness.
Descriptive yes memorable no.
So you really need a mixture of the two.
Hence why Luke was referred to a *Jedi knight* in Star Wars.
>>48167811
>Never got why people judge before actually reading stuff.
Because there's so much stuff to try and not nearly enough time to try it all, so you either pick up shit at random or you judge a book by its cover.
