Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Book

I concur with Shadowvyper's points. Ultimately, the point that really lost me was the quartermaster system, where PCs have to roll for equipment at the start of a mission...I don't have the GIJoe game, but this feels like it must've been a direct lift from GIJoe. And even GIJoe really didn't do the mission load-out thing in the cartoons. So much o...Read MoreRead more about I concur with Shadowvyper's points.

f the book is focused on gear that to work around it would almost require writing an entirely new game based on the "D20 but more random because we add extra dice instead of static bonuses" system. Ultimately, this feels like someone wanted to write a Sci-Fi soldier game and then just sort of skinned it with Transformers. I don't see a way to play "nostalgia G1" or "IDW G1" games with it.

The only reason I give it two stars instead of one is that I can see a few places where this might work without rewriting the whole game, just reskinning a few parts. For instance, the PCs have all "volunteered" to test Wheeljack's new gear, so the Quartermaster phase if more like a Paranoia-style visit to R&D. This isn't really "G1 Transformers" either, but it could be fun.

Note: I purchased this through the crowdfunding campaign, along with the My Little Pony game. The MLP game wasn't as poor a fit to the property as this game, but falls WAY short of the River Horse game. Read LessRead less about I concur with Shadowvyper's points.

Okay I’m a long time DM, I’ve played in everything from D&D 2e to 5e, Pathfinder 1 and 2e, World of Darkness Story Teller, Shadow Run, and a few other minor systems.

I see what Renegade was trying to do; they were trying to create a new universal gaming system for Hasbro’s licensed properties. Unfortunately in their attempt to create ...Read MoreRead more about Okay I’m a long time DM, I’ve played

a simplified and universally applicable system the result was a Low HP system that is excessively random, dose not play well between the different properties, and is incredibly easy to cheese such that I had several players make accidently unkillable characters.

So first off, the skill system. Renegade took the core stats from the world of darkness story teller system, you put points in those stat’s (Essences), speed, intelligence, strength, etc. and you are able to buy skill ranks equal to your essence score (have 8 speed? You can spend 8 points between the various skills under the speed title). That’s not bad, it works quite well in many respects and is a good system defining a character and their specalizations. The problem is, you do not get a bonus on this and you are not rolling a dice pool. You could top out your ranged weapons ability and you roll a d20+1d12. If you got a specialization ranking you’d be rolling a d20, and a d2 to d12 taking only the highest result to add to your d20 roll. Unfortunately this system is entirely luck based.

Now, compare it to the Story Teller system they got the idea from and you are actually rolling a dice pool 5 ranks in ranged weapons? You roll 5d6. The math while similar on the surface actually slants towards the players advantage the more ranks and specialization they gain in a skill as their result of hitting high rolls goes up slightly with each additional rank because more dice are being rolled and the difficulty is based on rolling only the d6 from the start.

Next, the low HP. Low HP systems can work incredibly well for a realistic game, and I think this system works fairly well for GI Joe. The problem is Transformers and Power Rangers are not low HP characters as depicted in media. Both take solid beating and there is frequent back and forth.

Now we get to the fact they do not play well together despite that being the intent. On the surface it looks like they should mesh fairly well; they use the same Essence system; the skills are roughly the same between each game system with a few specialty skills replacing each other along the way. Unfortunately, that’s where it ends. In practice a GI Joe character with a combat knife or a pistol can kill a transformers character in just a few rounds and the transformer has as very low chance of hitting said character if they have an even moderately good build. By being larger, the transformer is easier to hit (makes sence) by being smaller the human is harder to hit (logically consistent) however there is no form of inherent damage mitigation for the transformer to make up for this; and since it’s a low health system, your strongest bot might enter the fray with 12 HP, your weakest might have only 4. Most weapons deal between 1 and 3 damage.

This problem is made far more obvious in power rangers; canonically they should be fighting a large group of mooks and a single boss that grows and requires them to summon their zords. First problem; the army of mooks. It’s easy to overwhelm your team by giving them just two mooks each to fight, and the boss. Assuming a team of 5 rangers, that’s still going to overwhelm them because the dice will favor the house (GM). All that needs to happen is a few hits and the team is down. But if they get past that and the boss monster grows and the party is focused on healing it actually becomes unnecessary to summon the zords (which need time to arrive, I’ve house ruled that away and my party still didn’t need to use the zords if they survived the mooks). The reason being is the Monster of the Week is so large it’s almost impossible to miss. And they are so small by comparison he has almost no chance of hitting them.

Now back to the character creation and these systems not playing well together. There is a crossover book that was meant to help mesh these systems together and it has rules for Transformer Power Rangers and GI Joes and vice versa. Unfortunately while the character creation Origin’s which determine a lot of a character’s skills and abilities are compatible between Power Rangers and GI Joe they are not compatible with Transformers characters as their alt-mode is determined by their origin rather being kept separate. And it’s pointless to have power ranger pick a Transformer origin because much of the benefits of that origin are tied up in their alt-mode. There are ways to rule around this, but the Origin system falls apart entirely in the Transformers book because quite frankly it was never meant for them, it was meant for the GI Joe and Power Ranger human characters.

Then we move on to the classes. The GI Joe book did this one right. it is perfect in that book. I could nitpick but honestly they knew the assignment and got it right the first time. A good arrangement of classes, a good selection of class archetypes. Mission Accomplished. YO JOE! Sadly the same can not be said for Power Rangers or Transformers. The power ranger classes are incredibly similar to each other, there are no class archetypes, and it feels like a rushed homework assignment a teenager wrote up in an hour before class between fighting monsters. The Transformers book clearly tried to ape what was done in the GI Joe book, unfortunately there was not much effort put into this; it was clearly done to a minimum level because the writers were struggling to figure out how to make diverse classes for the giant robots, the classes are functional, but honestly you are better off picking one from the GI Joe book instead and making a few allowances for being a Transformer.

On to Equipment. Again GI Joe dose it right. there’s a meaningful selection of armour, weapons, and modifications for both. Enough to really give you some variety and a goal to work towards in building up your character’s personal kit. Advancement in GI Joe really feels like I am growing a character from a random green shirt who managed to be selected into a full fledged Joe from the comics. That is not the case in either of the other books. Transformers do not have armour (this makes sense to an extent) but the modification system for a transformer is woefully underdeveloped such that it doesn’t feel like there is any point in even looking at the list of modifications because you’ll never bother with them. The weapons selection is however passable there’s not enough for the characters to stand out from each other, but at least there’s a few choices. Power Rangers however comes in last place. It has a huge list of weapons but they all functional identically. The armour which should have been a diverse selection and lists armour from the Might Morphing to In Space era’s has ultimately only 3 armour’s. Light, Medium, and Heavy. Despite the names differing and there 3 medium armour’s they have the same stats and no unique abilities. All the fun of a cosmetic skin without being even a cosmetic difference.

So, in closing.
GI Joe: a well put together book, a low HP system that works for the characters and setting, and if you can live with the problem that your skills will always be random and determined by the d20 result it’s a worthwhile book to get and fun to run a campaign in.

Transformers: Minimal effort was put into this book and it shows. Everything is on a technical level passable but you can tell the team writing it had no real love for the franchise and honestly only did it under contract. You are better off home brewing this in the system you and your table are most comfortable with.

Power Rangers: Rushed out the door, poorly edited, poorly designed. The core book is a hot steaming mess with few if any redeeming qualities to it. That said, I have been getting all of renegades books as they come out. If you don’t mind spending a lot more then you should for a decent power rangers game, the other books do actively work to correct the mistakes of the core book and across the stars & a jump through time do redeem this one. It’s still not as good as GI Joe but you can tell the development team really do care about Power Rangers and were tragically rushed to meet an unrealistic publishing date that did not take into consideration the need to make a new system from scratch, play test it, and balance it. Read LessRead less about Okay I’m a long time DM, I’ve played