The Year Zero Engine: What is it, why is it, and can I use it to solo?
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- čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
- All these answers and "more" in this less-than-concise (1h10m) video that very well could have been five minutes long. But honestly what else do you have to do? (Probably a lot, but watch anyway). And oh yeah....A NEW OUTROOOOO (don't cheat you have to watch the whole thing).
Enjoy this meditative reflection on the year zero engine, one of my favorite TTRPG engines by @FreeLeaguePublishing
Year Zero Engine SRD: freeleaguepubl...
Free League Summer Sale: us3.campaign-a...
Video 17 (of 25) of me liking and then commenting on every new upload to lead the people to a Cy_Borg or Pirate Borg playthrough. PEOPLE, please cast your vote by either commenting “Cy_Borg” or “Pirate Borg” below!
As of right now, there is no real CLEAR leader in this race. We have a couple votes both directions and the Game Master is unamused.
HBD!
HBD!
There's a definitely not smurf morg Borg on Kickstarter that looks fun.
Smork Borg
Pirate Borg!!
cyborg is great as long as its not another lucky flight or reaper repo, seems to be all the cyborg i see.
Absolutely Cy_borg. Unless you can make Pirate borg in space
"From jiggle to release" may be the most evocative and most disgusting thing that has been said on this channel 🤣
Twilight 2000’s solo rules is what got me into solo role playing.
It’s very very crunchy when it comes time to do combat, but the encounter really gives room to connect the dots.
Parts per million’s solo rules on drivethru is a great pdf with really helpful concepts. Cool drama clocks and some nice behavior randomization.
Last night I thought to myself, "It's been a while since I saw a Man Alone video." Then, today, new Man Alone video. The only thing that I can conclude is that I control the universe with my thoughts.
Love M:YZ and the Year Zero Engine. It is fun, fast, and easy to expand outward. I'm excited to see what your solo conversion rules are!
I'm working on a STALKER inspired solo and cooperative GM-less game using a mash-up of the Mausritter (Into the Odd) and Year Zero Engine. I think the paper-inventory system mixed with the gear usage mechanics (push your luck included) is something that players would enjoy bringing to table.
*Edit - You are correct on the misprinted dice. The d12 (Feat) die for The One Ring came with 1 and 12 as the special icons, not the 11 and 12 like it should have been. Free League did offer (probably still do) replacements for those dice.
I heard disturbing rumors of a man alone running in a semiferal state screaming "I have no Internet! This is year ZERO! Human civilization has fallen! We are but animals who were unlucky enough to understand their own existence!" Can you confirm or deny said rumors?
Hey man, since your birthday may have passed the moment I write this comment, I will not wish "happy birthday" but instead I wish you "many years and good health" as we do in my country.
🎉
Very well spoken and thought out video as always👍. Regarding custom dice I must say that I am not touching any game anymore that uses strange custom dice. I am not talking about the lovely green Dragonbane dice, I am talking about dice with weird symbols. Also a favorite tactic of FFG. I hated the dice rolling in their Star Wars system, I despise the dice rolling in Imperial Assault but this is what I play with my group, so I have to stick with it but I sold off all my FFG Star Wars stuff. Takes forever to figure out a result and using an app is a no go for me.
I am currently making the scifi game our group will be playing next using the YZE SRD.
I tested it with my 7 year old yesterday. I wanted to see how he found the dice pool mechanics. he loved it. he did have a little trouble with holding a bunch of dice when he had a large pool, but he LOVED it, he was so excited to roll all those dice at once so even that was not a negative.
He learned the game in the first 10 minutes.
"okay you want to shoot the robot? grab your 4 reflex dice, your 2 shoot dice, and your laser rifle is quite good so have an extra 2 dice. any sixes mean you shoot him, extra sixes are more damage".
by his second roll he was doing it himself.
I think there is something to be said for the visual recognition of adding and removing dice for difficulty that some people really enjoy.
They sell you the cheeseburger (boxed set) at cost and make bank on the fountain soda (dice). Mcenomics dude. Personally, I'm back to BECMI.
Would you like fries with that survival check?😅
*waves to fellow BECMI player*
The Walking Dead Universe is an amazing Year Zero game with good built in solo rules. Even if you don't like The Walking Dead specifically, it is just a good post apocalyptic survival rpg.
If you disliked The custom dice in The One Ring, you'll loathe FFG's Star Wars RPG. It felt like I was being punished for playing. I tried to like it, I really did, but I finally used a phone app that rolled the dice for me and then tallied up the results. No endorphin rush or dopamine hits from that, but it didn't take 90-120 seconds to figure out if I succeeded or failed.
My sides hurt. Yeah the dice suck for FFG Star Wars/Genesys. However, over the past 6 months or so my group has been playing Genesys and now that we have it under our belt we’re having a hard time moving to a new system. I’ve been listening to “Finding the Narrative” podcast and has really helped with the learning curve.
34:25 my name is Dale and you made me cry.
Brilliant knowledge about difficulty being the hardest thing in solo! I feel like this video helped me think about solo RPG in a very healthy way.
I've argued for years (with the sort you might imagine having an argument about this) that using an old-school manual typewriter will filter your writing through a percussion instrument instead of the ghostly digital supposition generator called Microsoft Word. Same brain changes that might obtain, for example, in the shift from playing a virtual flugelhorn to xylophone. Dice are the xylophone of fate, dude.
This is making me wonder if there could be some sort of app/word processor add-on that does typewriter noises as you type. You'd use it with a mechanical keyboard, also, for the physical-ness.
*FIRST TIME FLUGELHORN HAS MADE ITS WAY INTO A COMMENT HOPEFULLY NOT LAST* (also wholeheartedly agree)
This channel has some interesting commenters.
@@buddhawasright “interesting” is an interesting choice of word 😅
@@RJ3040 Maybe 'eccentric' is a better description? Strong Monty Python vibes in this channel.
Thank you for talking so kindly of Trapped Within, I poured a lot of love into it, so I'm glad people can feel that.
I'm Kickstarting a SOLO project called NECROVENGE next month, but don't tell anyone ;).
Great points on rolling dice in RPGs and intuitive understanding of probability.
The One Ring is not Free League’s to control or design. They are the publisher. Francesco Nepitello’s design can hardly be a criticism for YZE. Especially since it was designed in 2011 - Free League started YZE in 2014.
To everything there is a season, including rage quitting your internet. It came with a price but you're still the envy of everyone who has never had the courage to tell their ISP what for. Also, Happy Birthday.
@ 12:03, I know that Twilight 2000 has the Recon skill for things like that. It's also used for determining how hidden your camp is for use in opposed rolls by those passing by. Cool stuff.
Happy birthday, and thanks for this present!
@amanisalone HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DUDE! 🎉
Could you make a video deep diving year zero engine
22:26 okay you convinced me I'm going to make custom dice for my game that have the successful sides marked in red so you get your dopamine hit unimpeded.
I need my dopamine! Where are my RED DOPAMINE DICE!!
ah, this is why you were asking why don't more people use Year Zero for solo (in community tab). I did buy a set of d6 dice last weekend specifically in case I end up playing a year zero game. And I just realized that I bought Strider mode and the One Ring the next day, but I don't remember if I made the mental connection until now.
When you said Sauron's Menorah, you made me chuckle, somewhere there must be a document called the Protocols of the Elders of Mordor a document that proves that the one ring was actually made by a rabbi....😂 And yes, by the way, I am Jewish and this is funny to me, so everybody calm down.
It was also a mixup because he called Gandalf's rune "1/5th of a menorah" earlier, which is what it looks like, but then mixed it up with the Eye of Sauron later on (maybe intentional as a joke). (I'm overthinking it.)
@@drivers99 could be either with his sense of humor.
Waf... No, I won't waffle! Waff... No waffle! Waffl... NO! WAFFLE! ....Waffle...
To be fair the custom dice in The One Ring is easy to skip. The D12 has a auto success symbol and one failure symbol. For the D6 the 1-3 doesn’t count when you have a negative status effect and the 6 is a success symbol.
Hey Man Alone,
I've been a proud French Manalooney (bonjour 🥐) for a little while now, I couple months I think, but never took the time to comment on your videos.
Your content is amazing, I love your humor and practical tips, and also the rambles.
When playing solo, I am often able to make progress in my story, but (a) my sessions can get long and tiring, and (b) I fail to draw conclusions to plot threads. So I thought I could try to spice things up by using progress clocks tied to an actual clock. Like, roll progress dice every 10 or 20 minutes or so. I want to try this out in my next session, what do you think about this idea?
Thanks for your content, happy birthday, congrats on the move, etc. 😅
This is a very interesting idea… I’m about to eat lunch and I will think about it while chewing. just to be clear you’re saying that every 10 to 20 minutes while playing you roll this dice and then referred to a table that adds a new variable or element? That could be really cool.
Very interesting as a creative pressure/ motivator.
If like me you don't really like skill lists, you should have a look at Year Zero Mini, which is sort of a blend of Year Zero and Fate. Skills are replaced by a high level character concept, conviction and impulse, and if they apply to the roll, they add to the dice pool.
I also like how with Year Zero dice pools you can choose to use different coloured dice to represent the different aspects contributing to your dice pool (attributes, assets, etc) and depending on which die/dice get 6s, it might contribute to the narration of the result. e.g. If I roll to save from rolling off a cliff's edge, was it through sheer athletic ability, or was it because at the last moment my companion was able to reach out and grab my hand? Or maybe a combination of both?
Not sure why you’d expect the Strider mode to mention Year Zero, shouldn’t it just expect you to use the rules of the game?
You need more Tricube Tales in your life, manalone.
I just played it for the first time last night, and it was a blast.
I have it! Maybe I need to read it again. I just browser but wasn’t able to see the thing that makes people go gaga over it. I’ll give it a look again this week
@@amanisalone I think it takes a fair amount of mentally "buying in" to the system to see its charm.
It really clicked for me when i saw a few actual plays and saw how people use the perks and quirks. It really is far deeper than it looks when you first read it.
Also, if you don't have the solo rules and microsettings, I'd call them practically necessary.
After watching this video, I really like the concept of just looking for the 6s to know if you have succeeded. One of the issues I have had with solo RPGs is setting the Difficuly value for games that are roll high (DCC, D&D, Interlock/whatever). I used to enjoy gurps and herosystem for this reason, however I am gravitating more towards Rules lite/Medium Systems. Shadowrun is a favourite of mine, and the later versions have similar dice mechanics, but they are far too involved for newer players.
So anyway, my question is, have you used the Year Zero SRD to make any games?
And I thought I'd also share a mechanic I borrowed and developed for D20 difficulty value games (I think it was in crawlJammer originally, but I have added a twist) This would also make the issue with rolling 2 dice for Solitary defilement obsolete....
For an easy task it would be 2d6 added together (one of a different colour) Weak Success is over the first dice, Strong success is over both die values. This continues up the spectrum so 3d6 average (over 2d6 weak, 3d6 Major) 4d6 Hard (over 3d6 weak, 4d6 strong) Very hard (4d6 weak, 5d6 strong) I actually use a D7 as my Strong success dice as the average roll is slightly higher and I have the cool DCC dice.
Any way, good work. Love the ramblings. Don't ever change
Happy belated birthday!!
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Great vid, thanks!
I must admit to some aversion towards dice pool systems and as I heard your points on it I realised I was doing exactly as I had previously regarding playing cards. I simply do not possess nearly enough experience to form an opinion-also, I do love the tactile feeling of the dice and I have an infinite amount of d6's.
Nice to see you back in my feed!
I like d6-systems ... a lot.