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I'm skimming Magic & Monsters as we speak, so to speak. It's special in that it really only covers the first 4 levels - after that, you're supposed to use whatever D&D or clone you feel like for advancement, spells and monsters. Oh, and it uses 3d6 instead of the usual d20 for resolution. So far it actually seems more like an add-on to existing games; It's almost like a FATE-ified version of D&D. As Sarah Newton is one of the authors of Legends of Anglerre, this may not be a coincidence.
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Jun 13, 2013 09:28
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| # ? Jun 5, 2024 07:45 |
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So the other day while working on my Wizard King game a co-worker walked by and noticed the PDF I had open, and we struck up a conversation about D&D. He doesn't play anymore, but he was really into it when he was younger. Today, he came in and dropped this on my desk: (that's a first edition deities and demigods, btw. Cthulhu AND Elric!)   I asked him how long I could borrow them, and told me I could keep them! I couldn't believe it, but I'm thrilled - I never had original copies of these, I was always borrowing them from people I knew. Also, the MMII is in such good condition I'd think it was just off the store shelves. The pages are unbelievably crisp and fresh. There's also an old character sheet in the PHB!
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Jun 14, 2013 21:08
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That's pretty awesome.
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Jun 20, 2013 20:15
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Per Mirthless's suggestion in the Wizard King thread, I've added a rule to TAAC that allows a CON save for PCs (and key NPCs) who are reduced to 0HP, rather than the previous "splat, dead" lethality of B/X. I'll update the PDF at some point, as I made a bunch of other little changes too. EDIT: the CON saves also get progressively harder with each round the dying PC goes untreated, and I added a 'healing kit' to the equipment list that can be used to bring anyone at 0HP up to 1. Small Strange Bird fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Jun 25, 2013 |
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Jun 25, 2013 16:13
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Payndz posted:Per Mirthless's suggestion in the Wizard King thread, I've added a rule to TAAC that allows a CON save for PCs (and key NPCs) who are reduced to 0HP, rather than the previous "splat, dead" lethality of B/X. I'll update the PDF at some point, as I made a bunch of other little changes too. A CON save sounds good. I think the two other ways I've seen this dulled a bit are giving characters negative HP equal to their level (which works well with the whole '1st level characters are tissue, but make it to 3 and you're more or less okay' way Basic already works) and the ACKS mortal wounds table. The ACKS table is interesting--it makes it very hard to die even as a first level character, but it also opens the door for lingering wounds that basically require the game's Raise Dead equivalent cast on you before you can return to adventuring. It makes for less death but more retired characters at low levels, which is actually pretty fun.
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Jun 25, 2013 16:26
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So can elves/halflings use shields in TAAC?
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Jun 26, 2013 02:50
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Payndz posted:Per Mirthless's suggestion in the Wizard King thread, I've added a rule to TAAC that allows a CON save for PCs (and key NPCs) who are reduced to 0HP, rather than the previous "splat, dead" lethality of B/X. I'll update the PDF at some point, as I made a bunch of other little changes too. 0 = unconscious -10 = last breath All negative numbers "bleed" 1pt/rnd con save ea round to avoid losing the point healing kit/skill/potion/spell set recipient to 0 THEN add points That gives a potential 10 rounds (1 turn) to save someone. If something slaps you below -10 then you deserved your heroic ooze/dinosaur/falling/creepingdoom fate.
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Jun 26, 2013 04:51
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I've been playing a lot of Chronicles of Mystara a lot lately and it's got me wanting to play some old-school D&D. The problem is, I'd like the classes to have a bit more combat flavour (like 4E or something). Are there any games/hacks out there that incorporate this sort of thing? I'm going for a beat-em-up style of class. I'll probably end up doing silly stuff like giving Elves unlimited arrows but it'd be nice if I didn't have to do everything from the ground up.
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Jun 26, 2013 05:18
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Dear You posted:I've been playing a lot of Chronicles of Mystara a lot lately and it's got me wanting to play some old-school D&D. The problem is, I'd like the classes to have a bit more combat flavour (like 4E or something). Are there any games/hacks out there that incorporate this sort of thing? I'm going for a beat-em-up style of class. I'll probably end up doing silly stuff like giving Elves unlimited arrows but it'd be nice if I didn't have to do everything from the ground up. In a lot of ways old school is more of a set of techniques you use in play than an edition, so depending on what you mean by 'old school' you could probably pull it off with almost any system. That said, are you looking for combat flavor of tactical combat depth? If you want tactical depth you probably want to just play a 4e dungeon-crawl with some old-school assumptions laid out for the group, but if you're looking for flavor there's already a lot baked into the system, and it's easy to add even more with a few houserules (like the elf arrow thing you mentioned).
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Jun 26, 2013 05:41
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Dear You posted:I've been playing a lot of Chronicles of Mystara a lot lately and it's got me wanting to play some old-school D&D. The problem is, I'd like the classes to have a bit more combat flavour (like 4E or something). Are there any games/hacks out there that incorporate this sort of thing? I'm going for a beat-em-up style of class. I'll probably end up doing silly stuff like giving Elves unlimited arrows but it'd be nice if I didn't have to do everything from the ground up. Dungeon Crawl Classics does this and I think ACKS does too.
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Jun 26, 2013 05:47
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DalaranJ posted:So can elves/halflings use shields in TAAC?
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Jun 26, 2013 08:41
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Arivia posted:Dungeon Crawl Classics does this and I think ACKS does too. Dear You, take a look at Heroes Against Darkness. It's sort of a 'greatest hits of all editions, including 4E-clone' that incorporates exactly the combat flavour I think you're looking for.
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Jun 27, 2013 09:51
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WHAT
Somebody fucked around with this message at 21:28 on Jul 1, 2013 |
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Jun 28, 2013 04:22
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Since there were no nominations for this month's game of the month, I am gonna sticky THIS as a companion to the current contest. THROWBACK JULY TIME.
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Jul 1, 2013 21:29
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TAAC has been updated! What do you get? • New abilities! Fighters can take one for the team with the Mighty Protector skill, and Halflings and Thieves can retake bad rolls with Rogue's Luck! • Critical Hits extended to Dwarves and Halflings, and Fighters now get them from L1! • New spells and powers! • Rituals! • Optional combat rules to minimise the "I roll to hit!" "Miss" treadmill, including something that in no way resembles 13th Age's Escalation Die! • Equipment packages for the gold-deprived! • Death saving throws at 0HP! • HP recovery after combat! • Clarifications! Errors corrected! Typos fixed! And more! If the Wizard King is still being a dick, this new version of TAAC is just what you need to make him detumesce.
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Jul 2, 2013 12:32
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And in even more great older D&D related news, the Rules Cyclopedia just got released on PDF. It's been out of print for a very long time, so this is quite welcome. Since the thread is stickied right now, I think this one deserves an explanation (which is also in the OP). The RC is the collected version of Basic D&D, as opposed to Advanced D&D. It has materials from most of the boxed sets (what is referred to as BECMI - note that this is distinct from B/X), some clarifications, and in one volume has all the rules you need to run a campaign from dungeon crawling to wilderness exploring to rulership to war. It lacks the rules for advancing on to full Immortality, but you can't have everything - it's remarkable enough that this book does all that while also being a monster manual and a DM's guide. A hell of an editing job by one Aaron Allston. I own this one in print, but I think it's more than worthy of consideration even today. And, oh yes, TAAC was based on it.
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Jul 2, 2013 19:04
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Rulebook Heavily posted:And in even more great older D&D related news, the Rules Cyclopedia just got released on PDF. It's been out of print for a very long time, so this is quite welcome. 
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Jul 2, 2013 19:47
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That's pretty exciting. I've heard lots of good things about BECMI. Now I can check it out for myself. Can anyone recommend some good adventures to go with it?
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Jul 2, 2013 19:58
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Evil Sagan posted:That's pretty exciting. I've heard lots of good things about BECMI. Now I can check it out for myself. Any of the B series is good to start with (they're all aimed at levels 1-3 or so). B3 Palace of the Silver Princess is fairly unique as D&D adventures go in feel, and provides a fairly heroic goal from the getgo. B4 The Lost City is one of my personal favorites, and involves a more "weird fantasy" style game with lost underground civilizations, corruption and rival factions, but it's not "complete": parts of it are deliberately left up to the DM to fill on their own. B5 Horror on the Hill is classic, a more Keep on the Borderlands-style excursion from a town into a monster-infested network of caverns and some hilariously out of place NPCs. B6 The Veiled Society takes place in Karameikos, making it one of the first adventures to have a specific setting (Mystara), and breaks up the dungeon gameplay with social intrigue and criminal conspiracy, the first module to do so. It also comes with some keen fold-up houses. Then there's B7 Rahasia, the debut of Tracy and Laura Hickman of Dragonlance fame, but I haven't read or run through that at all. I hear it's pretty good. I'd avoid B1 In Search of the Unknown, which is mostly empty and teaches you "lessons" like how some combats will just TPK a party by letting the party run into TPKs, and B2 Keep on the Borderlands is much more rules-heavy than most Basic adventures, an artifact of it having been written by Gygax for AD&D. It is a classic module, though, so go for it for name recognition if you like. Some of the later B-series products are also good but they move away from being introductory-level adventures.
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Jul 2, 2013 20:56
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Payndz posted:• New spells and powers! Whoa, whoa whoa, what's the big idea changing the number of spells at each level to non platonic numbers? How am I supposed to randomly generate spells? Seriously though, it's looking nice.
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Jul 3, 2013 05:38
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While I'm about it, have four new optional character classes for TAAC. Now you can be a murderer for hire, a vanguard of goodness, a robit mans, or a shouty healer! Do they work? Do they suck? Let me know either way.
Small Strange Bird fucked around with this message at 14:29 on Jul 4, 2013 |
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Jul 3, 2013 13:45
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I think that B11 + B12 are supposed to be the later introductory modules, and B10 - Night's Dark Terror looks pretty cool from a read through. Rahashia has added difficulty for the PCs in that you ideally want to take a lot of the opposition alive.
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Jul 3, 2013 15:29
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Oh yeah, B10 is a great introduction to wilderness travel, though for that I'd actually recommend starting a bit higher level and playing X1 The Isle of Dread. Jungle Island! Remote tribes to befriend! Dinosaurs! It's the first Hexcrawl adventure ever released. Starting at a higher level in Basic is a bit unusual in that you usually want to pick an XP total rather than state "everyone starts at level 3". Some classes level faster and all that. Other than that detail, it's good to go.
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Jul 3, 2013 16:12
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Thanks for the recommendations, guys. There's a lot of cool stuff out there I had never heard of before. Getting pretty eager to give this a shot.
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Jul 3, 2013 16:15
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Horror on the Hill (B5) is like my all time favorite D&D module. It really holds up pretty well, even today, which is not something I can say about many TSR modules really.
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Jul 3, 2013 17:10
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Winson, I'm fedora-ruling you. You can't say that and not run it. Dooooo it.
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Jul 3, 2013 17:46
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I'm playing in a PbP of Horror on the hill on RPGnet atm and it's pretty cool.
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Jul 3, 2013 18:56
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Rulebook Heavily posted:Oh yeah, B10 is a great introduction to wilderness travel, though for that I'd actually recommend starting a bit higher level and playing X1 The Isle of Dread. Jungle Island! Remote tribes to befriend! Dinosaurs! It's the first Hexcrawl adventure ever released. Notably, a remake of isle of dread can be found in the d&d next playtest packet if you want to take a look at it.
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Jul 3, 2013 23:32
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Winson_Paine posted:Horror on the Hill (B5) is like my all time favorite D&D module. It really holds up pretty well, even today, which is not something I can say about many TSR modules really.  edit: you know what gently caress it. I have a group that is in a suspended game around level 4. Maybe Ill re-write some of the A stuff to make it work for the next phase.
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Jul 4, 2013 06:51
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In honor of throwback july, here is my dungeon world-esque alignments that I made for my od&d game. Knight - Play a Knight if you want to find or live up to a place in society. Knights gain XP every-time they help a community. Delinquent - Play a delinquent if you are torn between good and bad. Delinquents gain XP every time they attract negative attention to themselves. Quester - Play a Quester if you strive to become better, faster, stronger. Gain XP every-time they put themselves in danger. Bookworm - Play a Bookworm if you are in the pursuit of a particular branch of knowledge. Bookworms gain XP every-time they figure something out for their friends.
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Jul 4, 2013 11:09
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Wow, Rules Cyclopedia made it to hottest item on Drivethru. I like where this is going. It's also such a relief to finally be able to talk about it and then be able to point at a place where you can buy it and read! This D&D Classics stuff may be a niche business but it's a good deal. On the topic of adventures, has anyone read the CM series of adventures (Test of the Warlords, Sabre River etc)? I realized I've never actually read or played any of them, or even heard people talking about them much at all.
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Jul 4, 2013 11:20
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Any chance they'll PDF the Immortals set, then? (Not Wrath Of..., that was different.) That set was full of the wackiest kinds of insanity! As I recall, everything was point-buy and you needed algebra (and maybe some trig) to work out your character.
JohnnyCanuck fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Jul 4, 2013 |
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Jul 4, 2013 12:35
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I really hope they'll give the Rules Cyclopedia a premium reprint at some point, it's one of the few retro D&D books I'd like to have in print, and it's very expensive on ebay.
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Jul 4, 2013 14:13
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I'm feeling generous: make it seven new classes for TAAC. Now you can also play as a tootling minstrel, a wandering hippie or a devil mans! 
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Jul 4, 2013 14:32
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Arivia posted:Winson, I'm fedora-ruling you. You can't say that and not run it. Dooooo it. You know what? gently caress it, I have tried running it in GURPS, BECMI, and one notably disasterous 4E run. Darker Dungeons, Horror on the Hill, PBP. I have a BBQ to hit today but I will get the recruit up tomorrow at the latest.
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Jul 4, 2013 18:18
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OH gently caress YES! I am so apping for that!
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Jul 4, 2013 18:22
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Swagger Dagger posted:I really hope they'll give the Rules Cyclopedia a premium reprint at some point, it's one of the few retro D&D books I'd like to have in print, and it's very expensive on ebay. Me too. I have a copy of it already, but I'd totally pick up a premium reprint because I love it so drat much. I did so with the 2E reprints.
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Jul 4, 2013 18:39
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Evil Sagan posted:OH gently caress YES! I am so apping for that! I really can't not play in it, since I fedora ruled him. 
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Jul 4, 2013 18:44
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Winson_Paine posted:You know what? gently caress it, I have tried running it in GURPS, BECMI, and one notably disasterous 4E run. Can I even app after what happened last time? 
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Jul 4, 2013 19:30
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Going to roll up a Lycanthrope then. I am really liking these TAAC new classes, especially the warforged and devilborn. Warforged almost seems like it could take the monk slot. Kind of feel like I should look at the Armor of my Fighter to see how they compare. AC 4 on my fighter, so only 1 difference.
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Jul 4, 2013 21:14
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