Roleplaying Games | Game Design

D&D Can’t Emulate John Wick or Venture Bros

7 LEGO-like RPGs you can turn into whatever you want

This was going to be a list of RPGs that emulated John Wick. Then I found a bunch of articles that just shoehorned John Wick into D&D.

Then I saw the clip from the upcoming Venture Bros movie. Again I looked for a suitable game. Again, someone tried to make it work with D&D.

Wrong-headed weirdos insist that you can use 5e, or any D&D edition, to emulate any genre. Superheroes. Horror. World War II. And on and on and on. All one has to do is tweak half a dozen rules or make up ten new classes or use two or three third party hacks or just make a high-level Rogue and say its John Wick.

Trying to turn D&D into anything other than kitchen-sink fantasy will never be worth the effort. Just play a different game.

The same goes for commercial hacks. 5E is too dialed-in on kitchen-sink fantasy AND it’s unbearably clunky. Better license-able systems are out there.

There are games that sorta capture the spirit of John Wick (Hollowpoint) and Venture Bros (Staged Heroism), but now this is about bashing D&D. That’s always fun. Here’s a rundown of games that CAN do different genres and styles.

Cortex Prime

“Imagine a world-building tabletop RPG system where you and your players choose the genre, build the game, and forge the story from a set of modular rules mechanics.”

Ridiculously modular system. Build rulesets as minimalist or as maximalist as you want. All about dice pools. Includes neo-classic fantasy, near-future disaster relief, and modern police procedural settings. Can easily handle supers, modern heists, hard sci-fi, etc.

Cortex Prime’s problem is that you can’t get the PDF on DriveThru or Itch. You have to make an account on its dedicated store, which only has the one item. It also lacks a generic character sheet but has sheets for the three settings.

Cortex Prime has a commercial license, but I think you have to request it and I don’t think it’s “open” like D&D’s.

Does it John Wick? Probably, with minimal Traits and Mods, and focus on Distinctions.

Does it Venture Bros? Mostly. It can model anyone from Rusty to Red Death, and anything from a flying sphinx to Meteor Majeure. You can even change up the rules between session as the tone and scope shift. But it might not capture to dumb zaniness of a world of LARPing taken WAY too far.

Index Card RPG: Master Edition

“This newest edition, the MASTER EDITION, combines ICRPG’s numerous worlds, streamlined D20 rules and critically acclaimed GM know-how all in one high quality hardback, all revised and updated...”

Expertly refined d20 system. Easy to read and grok quickly. Great art. Plenty of explainer illustrations. Loot-centric improvement. Fascinating monsters! Ideal for new game masters. Includes fantasy, sci-fi, ice age, street-level superhero, and weird-west settings. Each setting adds more options to the core rules.

If someone removed all the crap rules from D&D, then optimized what was left for maximum adventure, you’d have ICRPG. GMs can mash up the settings and rearrange the various sub-systems for whatever they have in mind. ICRPG has at least half a dozen first- and third-party supplements, which add even more tools to the kit.

ICRPG is Creative Commons.

Does it John Wick? Yes and no. The inexact distances and locations work great, and ICRPG captures the pace of John Wick’s universe, but the loot rules don’t fit.

Does it Venture Bros? Oh yeah. Uniquely dumb monsters and goofy bad guys are easy to build, and it was made to house Brock using a prehistoric magic spear against a space robot.

Risus: The Anything RPG

“For some, Risus is a handy “emergency” RPG for spur-of-the-moment one-shots and rapid character creation. For others, it’s a reliable campaign system supporting years of play. For others still, it’s a strange little pamphlet with stick figures. No matter what you think it is, there’s no wrong way to play.”

Exceedingly lightweight game. Characters are collections of Cliches. Meant for comedic games, but that can be anything that isn’t tragedy. No included settings, but who cares? Make ’em up. The core rules are 4 pages and free. Rules companion is $10.

I’ve covered Risus many, many, MANY times. Imagine “Cowboy Ninja Viking: The Roleplaying Game” but without the dissociative identity disorder and you’d have Risus. It can handle any genre that has SOME comic element.

Risus doesn’t have a third-party license.

Does it John Wick? Yeah, because John Wick is hyper-violent slapstick.

Does it Venture Bros? Yeah, because Venture Bros. is a massive pile of subverted cliches.

Unbound

“Grab your friends — you’re going to make something beautiful together. Unbound will give you the best session zero you’ve ever had... Unbound also utilises a unique playing card-based cinematic-tactical combat system which allows for tactical play and wild descriptions of the action.”

Pulp action game. Poker card mechanics. World building is part of the game, and involves all the players. Delicious art. Straightforward rules. Flexible powers. Short campaigns. As long as the central genre is about punching, it’ll work.

Unbound plays like a mashup of Fate, D&D 4e , and Castle Falkenstein. The mechanics aren’t modular, but the setting elements sure are. Players write on the cards as the campaign plays out. But card decks are cheap, and you get an artifact at the end of the campaign.

Unbound has a community license.

Does it John Wick? No. Too fantastical.

Does it Venture Bros? Only the super heroes/villains part. The adventure and super-spy aspects would fall flat.

Other Universal RPGs

Some universal games come with baggage.

Fate Core

Highly narrative. Player characters start off as major heroes. Flexible core rules. At least three Toolkits covering sci-fi, horror, etc are also out there, plus several first- and third-party settings.

Uses specialty dice but you can fake it with normal d6s. Fate should be more popular than it is.

Fate can be licensed via OGL or Creative Commons.

Does it John Wick? Yes, with the System Toolkit for all the Stunt options.

Does it Venture Bros.? Yes, again with the System Toolkit for superpower, monster, and squad rules. But Fate might not reflect the setting’s fatalism or cynicism well.

Genesys

Same system as the Star Wars RPGs. Very narrativist. Rules-heavy but not math-heavy. A lot of stuff is abstracted away by specialty dice. Talents add a dice-manipulation element to gameplay.

The baggage is the specialty dice. You can fake it by drawing or painting on more common dice, like with Fate, but you’ll need to do that with multiple d6s, d8s, and d12s.

You can make and sell Genesys stuff through DriveThruRPG.

Does it John Wick? I suppose, but there are better options.

Does it Venture Bros.? Maybe, with third-party stuff. But it doesn’t reflect the madness or mystery or mayhem of the show.

Universalis

Exceedingly narrativist GM-less game. Players spend a meta-currency called Coins to add Facts to or delete Facts from the game. People, places, things, and events are all Facts. Even rules are considered Facts, and can be added, removed, or changed. Very “Baba is You” only completely different.

Text is dry as toast. Artwork is sparse and dull. There are a lot of examples of play but NO example settings. Because everyone is constantly changing the plot, it’s possible to have a game NO ONE is happy with.

Universalis has no third-party license.

Does it John Wick? Sure, but limit changes to adding new contacts, new locations, and new in-universe rules to the underworld system. Otherwise it’ll start going sci-fi and occult before you know it.

Does it Venture Bros? Yup. Venture Bros. always adds new details that have always been true but no one knew about beforehand.