I will say that having two significantly different renderings of Blitzwing in the book is kind of a warning flare for me - the art is \"cool\" but not really \"consistent\" and I\'d hope that an art director or someone would want, you know, different images of the same guy to at least agree on what colors his face and forearms are...

 

Thank you for the recap! It looks pretty fun!

 

Weirdly, the inconsistent Blitzwing gives me opposite vibes. It makes me feel like they're going "Yeah, we're not trying to establish one universal setting cause when has Transformers ever had that? Do whatever you want, go nuts, any continuity is fair game, make up your own if you want to", like, say a DnD book showing off art from Forgotten Realms and Eberron.

I get that having one base setting to start with as an on-ramp for people who say, might be more into RPGs than they are Transformers is probably important, and, judging from all the evergreen stuff, it seems like that starter module may be Cyberverse-based, like how 5E's starter kit is Forgotten Realms, and the Lost Mines of Phandelver, but, the thing that's always made me feel like Transformers could be the best property to adapt into an RPG is the freedom of how many continuities there are to use as settings, and thats before you get into making up your own.

Like, just the Unicron Trilogy alone could fill an entire source book, because, youve got the shows, the Dreamwave comics, the Armada game, the Funpub comics, etc. And thats not even getting into the difference between UT in Japan vs America, or how Cybertron just.. doesnt fit, and could be a setting all its own. Wanna make a campaign where your all minicons trying to escape the Decepticons? Or maybe a campaign taking place after that "And the adventure continues!" bit at the end of Cybertron where the colony ships split up again to explore the universe. Transformers genuinely has more story, setting, and gameplay potential than Power Rangers and G.I. Joe put together and I really, really hope Renegade does it right.

 

The core rulebook for the Transformers RPG (as well as the G.I. Joe and Power Rangers RPGs) are available for preorder now. The rulebook retails on their website for $55.00 and comes in either a standard edition or limited deluxe edition with silver foil cover. Both editions are the same price. There are also a game master screen ($28.00), dice set ($15.00), and dice bag ($15.00) available for preorder.

Admittedly, $15 for a dice bag is a bit nuts, and even that $28 screen seems a bit wild, but the rest are pretty standard industry prices. While there’s no preview for the dice, the Power Rangers dice that they have revealed suggest we’ll see a standard array gaming dice set (d4-d20) with an Autobot logo in place of the highest number for each die.

You can check out the standard cover here:

Transformers Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook Pre-Order

All the other products can easily be found here:

Game World - Transformers - Renegade Game Studios

I’ve been a fan of Renegade for a few years now. They make some pretty solid products so I’ll probably be picking this game up.

 

The screen comes with a 32 page starter adventure, which assuming it has new internal art, helps explain the cost. No clue why they just don't put the dice bag with the dice though, spending an extra 15 for a bag seems a but out there

 

I really and truly wish they weren't using the evergreen designs for this. I know they want it to be, but that's not the Bumblebee everyone knows and loves.(and personally, I've just never liked that fender-shoulder look.)
It's particularly weird since the Evergreen designs have fairly limited availability ANYWAY and you have to figure the Target Audience for this is more likely to be familiar with either G1 or the live-action films.

kind of bizarre character choice and composition too – Prime's dominating the art, no balance between the bots and cons (not slagging the art at all, I think it's really nicely executed, more the art direction)

100%

 

Ah, I missed that. Well, $20 for a screen and $8 for a starter adventure is reasonable so I amend my previous statement. The bag and dice combo for $30 is still ridiculous, though. $15 for a dice set I get, but $15 just for a bag to put them in? No thanks.

 

Alright, so after watching part 2 the Power Rangers live play thingy it does definitely seem like the system's combat leans more towards narrative than tactical. Not as much as I thought, it does seem like certain attacks innately target one defensive stat instead of the defender trying to pick one. They have miniatures and maps, but it never felt super important, which could be them hand waving stuff to fit into the 90 minute time slot.. Combat did have a very cinematic flair, but that mostly comes down to the group. Most of my observations past that could be seen as specific to Rangers and not the core system, such as certain abilities or different special attacks.

 

Well, I'm in. I put in a preorder for the transformers core book (and dice and Deckbuilder!). Even if it gathers dust like my Marvel Civil War book that I bought in college, it'll be a nice part of my rulebook collection. But here's hoping I'll actually get to play!

 

TBQH I'm glad that it isn't a tactical miniatures game masquerading as a tabletop RPG. I'm much more of a "theater of the mind" GM and knowing that I won't have to have a fucking ruler on the table to adjudicate combat (and that the game isn't necessarily entirely combat-centered) is nice.

I want a system that can run "Buster Witwicky & the Car Wash of Doom" just as readily as it can run the Battle of Mission City or one of the chattier issues of Lost Light or a given episode of Rescue Bots, not just the soulless action slog of the WFC cartoons.

Hell, gimme a PDF BotBots expansion, just to see what they come up with for it.

 

By the way I find it funny they are still trying to pretend people care about Windblade by putting her on the cover. She's not the most popular or iconic female Transformers and hell she's not even that popular outside of a subset of the IDW fanboys. Anyway, weird side rant but I find it funny everyone on that cover is from the G1 era (all from the original toyline, except Chromia who was show-first) and then there's Windblade. What, is Hasbro ashamed of Arcee? Because I'm starting to think they are.

 

Windblade will always be the Transformer's version of Poochie to me.
They tried to manufacture a popular character, and that mostly NEVER works.

 

I see her more as Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel (as opposed to the original Carol as Miss Marvel).

 

Funny, a friend over in Germany and I had discussed back when BB's first launched how they BEG to be expanded into an RPG and boardgame...

 

good thing you aren't the entire fanbase, much less the entire casual audience, isn't it?

I think she's fine, as long as they can nail down some consistent personality that isn't just "The Other Girl"

 

The character made from a fan poll is the manufactured popular character... almost like a large group of fans used a popularity contest to create her... hmm.....


Windblade is great. She's a good addition to the franchise. Maybe a little too much spotlight too quick, but I enjoy having her around, for sure.

 

and we ended up with the Homer car. (same with the goofy combiner set they fan polled on)

I don't really have a problem with Windblade, I have a problem with the way Hasbro tried to cram her down our throats in every line and how IDW tried to make her just the bestest character ever who was ever-so-very important (she can talk to Titans!), except they forgot to give her an actual personality in the early appearances I read where she was totally outshined by her sidekicks.

they wanted her to be a popular new addition ala when Wolverine was introduced and became part of the new X-men, but my point is you can't manufacture that, it has to happen organically and nothing about the way Windblade was worked into the franchise was organic, it was manufactured corporateness at it's worst.

 

Last response, since we're straying very far from on-topic, but:

Because you didn't like her initial portrayal they slammed her down our throats?

I must not be a comic connoisseur such as yourself, I never had a problem with her portrayals in IDW, esp her mini-series. Yeah, she took some development. Talking to titans was an interpretation of her 'telepathy' ability in the fan poll. And gave way to a really cool character aspect that multiple characters have now.

They made toys of a character? *gasp* good thing they have never done that with any other character. Good thing I don't have a shelf of over 20 soundwaves. nuh-uh. Nope. they don't make toys of other characters guys. They didn't want to 'cram them down our throats' Transformers is saved!

In fact, in generations we've had 2 molds. (One of which was a retool)

Cyberverse had 2 molds

RiD 2015 had 2 molds

A character, who is 8 years old at this point, has had 6 molds? They must be cramming her down our throats!  


You're resentment sounds like someone pretending 'the man' ruined their childhood, when in fact you just don't like anything to change.

 

Has there been any more word on this?

 

Not a whole lot beyond "still in development coming early next year." Most of the live streams and Q&A's revolve around the Power Rangers rpg using the same core system, which makes sense considering its coming in January