Has anyone actually tried Ascendant?

[Rich McGee]

This Ascendant, that is - 2023 supers RPG from some company called Autarch.  One of the supers groups I play with is considering dropping the current system (Sentinel Comics we've been playing long enough for the advancement system to start breaking down) for Ascendant and I'm having trouble finding a detailed review, much less an actual play.  I remember flipping through the core book at the FLGS when it first dropped and not being impressed, but that was mostly the art and an uninspired table of contents combined with a high price tag.  

 

I can't deflect everyone to Champions or anything else I feel confident in, and I'm wondering if I should stick or just walk away now.  Still have two other supers games I'm in, although they're looking shaky as well.  Opinions from anyone who's played, or at least owns the game?

[Alcamtar]

I backed the first kickstarter but have never played it, honestly only skimmed it since it's a pretty thick tome with a lot of rules, and I'm getting lazy. Based on ACKS, Macris does a great job on solid bulletproof mechanics and I know he is an obsessive math and spreadsheet geek, and tends to attract similarly math-obsessive fans, so I don't doubt the Ascendant rules are well designed. I just haven't had the time or reason to really dig in.

 

He did do a second successful kickstarter for a "platinum edition" with some sourcebooks so it must have fans.

 

(Personally I am a Fantasy Hero fan, and was mostly interested in Ascendant from a fantasy/universal standpoint. It arrived during a long COVID induced lull in gaming, and these days everyone in my circle only wants to play OSR...)

 

Honestly the best place to ask is probably on the Autarch Discord, which is extremely active and has half a dozen ascendant channels. I don't know the rules for posting discord invites here, so if you want an invite PM me. (I'm not much of a Discord user either, just pointing you to a place you can get more info.)

 

Here's a superhero AP, run by the designer. It has some combat so you can maybe get a feel for how much dice and rules feel in play.

 

Edit: For what it's worth, if you just want the "takeways" from players new to the game (this was a demo), skip forward to 1:58:50

Edited January 25 by Alcamtar

[Old Man]

Ascendant the game seems to get mid-to-good reviews depending on whether you mind charts.

 

It's hard to find reviews of the game through all the controversy swirling around Macris, though.  I have to say, getting yourself banned from rpgnet is something of an achievement.

[Duke Bushido]

And thia is how I learned about RPG.net.

 

 

Neat.

 

 

[Rich McGee]

9 hours ago, Old Man said:

I have to say, getting yourself banned from rpgnet is something of an achievement.

It really isn't.  To paraphrase from a certain youtube creator, it's no trouble at all, barely an inconvenience.  That said, Macris has been banned from a lot more than just that site.  You have to work at it to get both the rpg.netheads and a fair chunk of the OSR crowd to shun you.

 

I'm not even sure the group is aware of any of that, and I'm reluctant to bring it up because we all agreed to a set in stone "no politics, no religion" rule and it's effectively impossible not to bring politics in to the discussion when talking about him.

 

9 hours ago, Alcamtar said:

(I'm not much of a Discord user either, just pointing you to a place you can get more info.)

Thanks, but I avoid Discord altogether.  I'll mention it to the group and point them at the video, though.  The two folks pushing hardest for it (who are also the only ones who've actually read it completely) seem to be in love with the log scale aspect of the game, and all I can think is how that didn't work out the last time I played Mayfair's DC supers rules way back in the day.

 

Appreciate the help folks.  More info than I had, anyway.

 

[Chris Goodwin]

It's fairly easy to get banned from from RPGnet.  They have a comprehensive list of rules there.

 

Alexander Macris has the almost singular distinction of having any discussion at all about him or his games banned from there.  Basically, he threatened to sue RPGnet.  I don't know any more details than "he threatened to sue", and talking about the guy at all makes me feel dirty, so I'm leaving it at that.