With a rekindled interest in swashbuckling 18th-century gaming, my attention has once again returned to Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies and PDQ#. I've mentioned it before, but I have a great fondness for that system. PDQ seems to be a spiritual cousin of Risus and with characters that are defined by cliché-like qualities (or fortes), many of the techniques that are described here and in the Risus Companion can be applied to PDQ as well. In fact, characters convert almost seamlessly between systems.
And that makes this Risus guy very happy. Risus is not for everybody and I know that I have at least two players in my regular groups that are not fond of the system for various reasons. One of the sticking points is the so-called "death spiral" and perceived predictability of combat. PDQ goes a long way towards addressing this and the dueling rules of PDQ# add additional depth to the combat system that I think might go over well with these players. The style dice mechanic in PDQ# also brings to mind the Awsome Points of Old School Hack, which my groups is quite fond of.
So yeah, I'm thinking of PDQ for my next campaign and will probably roll it out the next time we can manage a pickup game.
So, is anybody else doing anything with PDQ these days? I know there's been a lot of Risus activity lately and there is a lot attention paid to FATE and its variants. If you are currently playing, have recently played, or are thinking about playing PDQ. I'd love to hear about it.
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12 comments:
I've thought about PDQ before, but never really got beyond the "contemplation" phase, so I don't have anything much to offer, really.
I gave a lot of thought to (basic) PDQ at one time and personally I found it to be the unnecessarily complicated cousin to Risus. I have no experience with any of its setting specific iterations of the rules, so maybe they address the issues I have.
I ran a S7S game for a couple of months in '09, it was pretty fun. The one pitfall was a player who didn't like to lose... just like in Risus, losing in S7S isn't bad. In fact in S7S it's how you get better. Style dice added fun (I recommend using them in Risus now too). It's a good system, a bit more robust than Risus but much of that comes from the pre-defined sample fortes and magic system of S7S.
I like the look of PDQ, but I've never played it. The closest I've got is Cold City, which seems to be a distant cousin.
Check out "Cartoon Action Hour" (Season 2) especially, from Spectrum Games. Same "you make up the character traits" as Risus, PDQ and all the other games, but it's simply 1d12 + trait rating. Plus it has serial-numbers-filed-off settings for He-Man, G.I. Joe and Transformers (cartoon editions).
"and thank you so much for bringing up such a painful subject. While you're at it, why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice on it?"
Dude! Fling poo at me while your at it.
I folded tents on on all the systems, except Risus and Mini Six, when I started on my Retro-Clone PBP journey over a year ago.
Now I want to break out my PDQ notes for the D&D-ish game I ran, and fiddle with the damn thing.
I have played PDQ about a year ago and my thoughts were exactly "Risus' more complex cousin" and I thought it brought nothing new to the table. If you want something Risus, play Risus and if you want something a tad more complex then PDQ could be it for you.
I found it interesting but nothing so much that it made me want to continue playing it
So, how long will it take to look at PDQ? A long time, or will it go... pretty damn quick?
I'd thought about it for running a Planescape game, but I defaulted back to Risus.
It's simpler, lots of fun, and all round a better fit for the setting.
@Brent: I'm hoping the the added complexity is in the right places and that my players that don't like Risus will buy into it. That, and I'm prone to system crushes every now and then because sometimes, rules actually add something t play...
@gamer-geek: ... Like Style Dice. I'm seriously consideri importing these into Risus at the next next opportunity (or maybe second-to-next opportunity, given that I'll be running a con game and want t things simple).
@kelvingreen: Hmm, Cold City sounds fascinating (e setting at least). Sounds like Tim Powers' Declare.
@Dommo: CAH has been on my "need to check out" list for quite some time.
@Nero: I flung only the best poo here at Risus Monkey. :)
@Mstt: There's nuance tha appeals to me. But yeah, Risus is technically all you need (assume your players are amenable).
@Grumpy: :P
@Whiskeytangofoxtrot: Yeah, I could do Risus Planescape out of the box and. Dn't even know much aout Planescape. PDQ mig require some minor adjustments.
Risus Monkey said...
@Mstt: There's nuance that appeals to me. But yeah, Risus is technically all you need (assume your players are amenable).
Outside of PDQ being a great game in its own right, it can also be a gateway drug to Risus.
PDQ may be at the tipping point of crunchiness. When I was in Open Game Night, gamer that declined to use Risus, were fine with PDQ. And next time around a couple of the reluctant gamers gave Risus a try.
I don't know if I won any converts, but it's a step in the right direction.
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