This game has potentiality, however there are many things that should be playtested more, or plainly fixed. One of the easiest thing to fix are the Playbook stats: almost all PbtA games have a sort of theme, so a single Playbook usually has a single stat that is "fixed" at +2, reinforcing the theme. Here (v.1.1) the stat lines have few meaning, they are almost random, and they don't reinforce a theme.
Also, the mechanics to advance them are sometime broken. See the Veteran for example.
I hope Rosemary will spend more time polishing the game, it could be very interesting when refined.
If I can, I'll try to give more feedback about it (are you still using Reddit?)
I love this game and this Thursday I’m gonna play Basket with this, and the next week Voley.
Also, I look forward to your updates, and if you need some layout or something, I’m willing to help.
Amazing game.
Varsity! looks on the surface to be a pretty standard take on PbtA but, like the sports shonen team dynamics it emulates, hides a lot of tidy, cool stuff under the hood. The playbooks and moves are *fantastically* evocative of this specific genre of fiction and it's difficult to read it without immediately thinking of characters, teams and memorable scenes from Slam Dunk! or Haikyuu!!
Without having playtested this at all, I'm a little daunted by the game having twenty one Moves but the fact that they're broken up into out-of-match and in-match surely makes it far more manageable than it seems at first.
The collaborative team-creating section (with suggested styles/reputations/traits corresponding to different colors) as well as the brief but very feature-dense Referee chapter, as well as the Pressure track come together to make this an exciting game that I cannot wait to get to the table. I also want to laud the "Key Moment" mechanic as a brilliant abstraction of the game playing played, allowing players to focus on the characters and their BIG personalities rather than on boring play-by-play scorekeeping.
The layout is functional and simple. It is very easy to read but the game is begging for a full Masks-style layout and art treatment, as well as the fancier bells and whistles of longer books like examples of play and full (maybe community-created?) playsets to laser-focus on specific genres or even specific anime.
In summary I'm incredibly hyped to be able to play or run this and 100% glad I decided to browse New on itch.
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It's really not clear to me how you win/lose a key moment, could someone enlighten me ?
Hi! I'm translating to spanish, and I have some doubts. Can I someway contact with you? Thanks!
Mate, i love your Anime can I use it for my sevenxsports website ??????
This game has potentiality, however there are many things that should be playtested more, or plainly fixed.
One of the easiest thing to fix are the Playbook stats: almost all PbtA games have a sort of theme, so a single Playbook usually has a single stat that is "fixed" at +2, reinforcing the theme. Here (v.1.1) the stat lines have few meaning, they are almost random, and they don't reinforce a theme.
Also, the mechanics to advance them are sometime broken. See the Veteran for example.
I hope Rosemary will spend more time polishing the game, it could be very interesting when refined.
If I can, I'll try to give more feedback about it (are you still using Reddit?)
Hi Rosemary, thanks for this game. I contacted you thru Reddit, let me know if you receive the messages.
Andrea
This is an incredible PBtA game!
Really get the feelings and atmosphere of sport anime right through the playbooks, rules and the moves!
I love this game.
I love this game and this Thursday I’m gonna play Basket with this, and the next week Voley. Also, I look forward to your updates, and if you need some layout or something, I’m willing to help. Amazing game.
(reposting my review as a comment for visibility)
Varsity! looks on the surface to be a pretty standard take on PbtA but, like the sports shonen team dynamics it emulates, hides a lot of tidy, cool stuff under the hood. The playbooks and moves are *fantastically* evocative of this specific genre of fiction and it's difficult to read it without immediately thinking of characters, teams and memorable scenes from Slam Dunk! or Haikyuu!!
Without having playtested this at all, I'm a little daunted by the game having twenty one Moves but the fact that they're broken up into out-of-match and in-match surely makes it far more manageable than it seems at first.
The collaborative team-creating section (with suggested styles/reputations/traits corresponding to different colors) as well as the brief but very feature-dense Referee chapter, as well as the Pressure track come together to make this an exciting game that I cannot wait to get to the table. I also want to laud the "Key Moment" mechanic as a brilliant abstraction of the game playing played, allowing players to focus on the characters and their BIG personalities rather than on boring play-by-play scorekeeping.
The layout is functional and simple. It is very easy to read but the game is begging for a full Masks-style layout and art treatment, as well as the fancier bells and whistles of longer books like examples of play and full (maybe community-created?) playsets to laser-focus on specific genres or even specific anime.
In summary I'm incredibly hyped to be able to play or run this and 100% glad I decided to browse New on itch.