Reply To: Interesting News From Monolith

[onlyonepinman 18062xp 0]

D20, and it’s successors (D&D and Pathfinder)needs a specific type of game, not a specific setting. I can name several examples of variants of d20 that are not fantasy based and all of them work.  As a game it is geared towards high action games and doesn’t really do very well when you slow it down to more investigative types if game like call of Cthulu.  However there is absolutely no reason at all why you can’t use the d20 mechanic to run a game in a much darker setting like Warhammer or Call of Cthulu, you could even argue that it has already been done with the likes of Ravenloft and Darksun.  A games ambience doesn’t come from it’s rules mechanic.

This principle can be applied to almost any rules mechanic- it’s not going to work for every type of game and Monolith’s engine is no different.  It’s definitely not going to work for an investigation type game, but it will absolutely work for high action swashbuckling adventure game.

I am not going to comment on the specifics costs and pricing. Monolith are touting it as a way to make it cheaper for players to buy into multiple settings and I am prepared to take them at their word until we actually see otherwise.  If it doesn’t actually make it any easier or cheaper, if a saving  is not passed on to the consumer, then it will be a failed endeavor.  If this doesn’t lead to an increase in sales then they are ploughing money into something that isn’t going to pay for itself.  I suspect Monolith might not pass 100% of any savings on to their customers but we won’t ever know the details of that.  But I suspect they will pass some on.  I think you will start to see options on their kickstarters of miniatures only deals where you just get miniatures and stat cards, which are cheaper than buying the whole package.