FFG Talk Tone In Their New Role-Playing System, Genesys
November 25, 2017 by brennon
Building on their previews for Fantasy Flight Games' Genesys Role-Playing Game the team took some time to look at how Tone works in the game, with a focus on it overall and indeed how it works mechanically.
Tone can take on a number of different meanings but it's effectively the additional slice of personality you give to your game world. In the case of Genesys this might be something like Horror which they talk about in-depth within the article.
As well as setting the tone for your adventures, be they in the modern day or in a fantasy world, they also introduce mechanical effects like Fear and Sanity. This opens up the gambit of options available to you as a Games Master as you put your characters into different situations - reinforcing the theme with mechanics that feel apt with the game rules.
A second theme they highlighted was Superheroes. There are plenty of different genres that this could fall into and so they've made this an overarching theme with its own mechanical rule set in order to, once again, open up your options.
Above you'll see an example of this with your Super-Characteristics which reflect your higher-than-average abilities. I like the idea of this, introducing exploding dice into the mix to heighten the level of awesomeness you get when you can take on a test you excel at.
As well as that they have tweaks like changing the way basic attacks work, the amount of damage minion-like foes can do to you and more.
It all sounds fascinating and I can't wait to find out more!
Are you interested in Genesys?
"A second theme they highlighted was Superheroes..."
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I am really unsure on this one. I love Narrative driven games, but am not sure about games that force players and GMs to be narrative.
i think the exploding dice will work with the super heroes. or any setting were you can go OTT. sanity and fear are pretty standard fare for horror and i’m sure this interpretation will work just fine. i personally think the system is pretty clever from what I’ve seen but it’s not for the faint hearted. FFGs RPG dice mechanic is very good ,despite the general consensus, it just requires a different approach. you certainly need to up your game though. taking a sand box approach with a narrative alternative system like this though meens your going to need a… Read more »