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Sell me (or not) on Bash UE :)

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 3:33 pm
by Merlyn
Hello Everybody

I have a question and I would like (if possible) unbiased answers. Because our roleplayers are pretty passionnate people sometimes :).

My experience with Bash UE is null. I have found the book last year in a RPG store in Paris (France, I am french) and I bought it, I have read it a few weeks ago ans was pleased with what I read. So I even bought the PDF on Drivethru (and beside the PDF is also very well done).

It has been weeks now that I became obsessed (for whatever reasons I have not found yet) with finding the "best" superhero RPG, if some of you are on RPG.net, they have probably saw my polls on it (nickname = "Merlyn").

(Thanks to Bashman to have created my account here by the way :) )

I have always been a fan of superhero RPG but for a long period of time my game of choice was always Mutants & Masterminds. I have discovered it with 1st edition (I can proudly say I was one of the first M&M 1E french fan) and never gave it up until now.

Now I have discovered that I am getting busy with work, with a girlfriend and old. I have also discovered that I am not as fan of crunchy games as I was when I was younger.

So at this time, I need a game which is easy to GM, easy for players to play, easy for them to design whatever characters they fancy, easy adaptable to any power level (let's say from Street-Level to Cosmic).

So Bash UE is one of my choice and the reason I post here.

Why I like Bash in theory (not fan of multiplications but I appreciate good ideas in Bash like not be constrained to a budget (earning hero dice/setback in exchange), I like also the GM part with all the settings and optionnal rules. But I have other games who can do fast too : I have Icons Assembled, I have the SPC 2E and I have Prowlers & Paragons and I am a bit torn between all these games because they are also good for others reasons you see.

I would like unbiased people (if possible) to sell me Bash (it should be easy because we are on the official forum so I guess everyone here is a fan :D )

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 4:40 pm
by BASHMAN
Well one thing I can say is that if you don't like using the multiplication method of task resolution, the book offers a number of alternatives as Optional Rules.

Playing Cards (which was the original rules method during playtesting) plays very fast and easy. The downside (if you consider it one) is that a person with a x1 has a much higher chance that they would with dice (if they get a lucky draw).

d12 or d10 Dice Pool (just total up the rolls; this has a flatter bell curve for the dice results, and it is less cinematic possibly).

d6 Dice Pool success count. Roll 1d6 per multiplier (so 5d6 instead of x5). Every 4-5 is 1 success, every 6 is 2 successes. (Alternatively, you could do even numbers are a success, and a 6 is 2 successes).

Fudge Dice (or you could just do 1d6-1d6). So there are a number of options here.

Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 5:07 pm
by Sijo
First: Welcome to the BASH Forums Merlyn!

Second: full clarification- I'm a BASH fan (as can be seen from the number of threads I have started in here) and have co-published one book for the system so I cannot claim to be 100% unbiased. On the other hand, I am honest and will try to evenly cover both negatives and positives.

Negatives first: This is mostly a pet peeve, but I prefer games with pregenerated powers (as in Mutants and Masterminds 2nd edition) to ones that are just a collection of effects (as in Champions). BASH is actually somewhere in the middle- most powers are single effects that can be re-skinned, but others like Growth and Shrinking, have very specific effects.
Another thing is that, while UE is complete and playable by itself, lots of new Traits are listed in the spin-off books such as BASH Sci Fi that would round out the system even more (BASHMAN has hinted that these might be included in a future update)

Positives: BASH is very balanced- its neither too simple not too complicated. You control the amount of detail that goes into character creation. And yes, you can pretty much emulate any setting with it, not just super heroes.

Additionally, I have made threads for the specific purpose of helping quick creation (or adaptation) of characters. see here: http://bashtalk.org/modules.php?name=Fo ... pic&t=1796

Posted: Sun May 20, 2018 2:19 am
by Merlyn
Thanks for your answers :).

I have made yesterday a Google Sheet to choose my game with my prerequisites and you will be glad to know that Bash is the winner :).

Posted: Sun May 20, 2018 8:57 am
by Sijo
Hope you enjoy BASH! If you have any questions post them here and we'll get to them ASAP.

Posted: Sun May 20, 2018 9:01 am
by Merlyn
I will.