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Covok posted:Also, anyone know the girl or guy who did the cover? I think it's the same person who did most of the art on The One Ring. Jon Hodgson, and yeah, he did art for The One Ring too.
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Feb 9, 2015 21:38
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gradenko_2000 posted:I read through the free version and am I right that you don't actually roll to attack? You just roll damage or perform some kind of maneuver with a Save? That is correct, there is no attack roll, and armor is applied as damage reduction.
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Feb 10, 2015 00:30
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DalaranJ posted:That is correct, there is no attack roll, and armor is applied as damage reduction. Got my PDF this morning, game looks amazing and the included adventure looks kickass. The damage thing threw me too, but it looks like it will work pretty well. I really can't wait to try this.
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Feb 10, 2015 00:34
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A quick note for anyone who ordered Into the Odd and went for the physical version. The books were printed but an error in the prints means that they had to go back and do a new print run and destroy most of the bad prints. So while they were expected to be out already there's a delay on that. As far as Into the Odd goes, it feels to me like it hits a similar design space to Dungeon World in some ways. And that may be due to my feeling of how the engine is meant to respond to the fiction. There's a suggestion that the GM shouldn't have people roll saves for things unless they are responses to what the characters themselves trigger, for example, and there are principles/an agenda that the designer writes. He groups them around settings and such but they are still there. Really catchy stuff too. Also, you can basically use your Arcana however you'd like once you get them. You only need to roll saves on them if you are using them in manners which they weren't intended for. There's also some stuff about hazards. I honestly haven't read the whole thing because I have a thing about reading long texts on a screen, so when I get my print copy I will be devouring it I think. But everything I see come out of the designer gets me excited. He's even been working on some rules for a sort of mass combat system that is abstracted. He's trying to prevent rules creep in the new stuff he writes, which is a laudable goal in my mind.
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Feb 10, 2015 06:13
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DalaranJ posted:Carcosa Ive never read it (or seen it in person), but is there a problem with it or is it just the usual "oh no there is a mix of sex and horror" reaction? I have no interest in getting it (or anything right now), but some people love the hosed up horror games and for them ... good for them I guess. Like google always gives me things like this: http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2012/02/review-carcosa-lotfp-edition.html quote:I largely stand behind by initial assessment, namely that Carcosa is a frustratingly eccentric work whose primary virtue is also its primary flaw: a rejection of the (often unstated) moral structure underpinning Gygaxian D&D. It's this rejection, I think, that's at the heart of much of the controversy surrounding Carcosa, which attempts to present a stark, even bleak, interpretation of Lovecraft as the basis for a gonzo science fantasy setting filled with serpent men, gray aliens, Great Old Ones, and Jack Kirby-style science-as-magic. Go ahead and read those original reviews, if you're unsure of the basic premise of Carcosa and what it includes. quote:No pussy-footing around it though: Carcosa mentions underage victims being sacrificed, and in one now infamous instance goes into an amount of detail that will make anyone suck in their breath for a second and cringe. Furthermore—and I don't know if this was part of the original PDF from a couple years back—in the sample adventure included in the book, the players can run across the body of such an unfortunate victim and learn that the sorcerer that did this has also found a way to keep her necrotically preserved for further ritualistic violations. Which makes it sound great for grindhouse horror weirdos but bad for black/white Tolkien people.
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Feb 10, 2015 08:08
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I'm not very sensitive to anything offensive, but the main reason why you should not buy Carcosa is that it's actually a terribly bad game. It tries to be serious despite being goofy as hell, most of the content seems like it's been done with a random generator, the content doesn't actually have any greater depth to itv and everything in the game is extremely superficial.
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Feb 10, 2015 08:20
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FRINGE posted:Why? From what I gather, it reads like something a 15-year old would write if he went out of his way to be as dark and totally gritty as possible. "To cast this awesomely EEEVIL ritual, you have to...RAPE A KID! YEEEAAAH!"   (Yes, the rape and murder of pre-pubescent children is apparently a requirement of certain ritual spells in Carcosa.)
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Feb 10, 2015 08:40
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DalaranJ posted:That is correct, there is no attack roll, and armor is applied as damage reduction. I'm definitely picking this up when I next get the chance, it seems really well done. Heck, they even have that stat increasing thing the thread was talking about earlier: Roll a d20 - if it's higher than your current stat, it goes up by 1 point. FRINGE posted:Why? What I picked up from the F&F writeup was that even if you were somehow okay with the setting, the actual mechanics aren't that great. The fact that the setting is pretty cross-legs-uncomfortable itself is just another ding against it.
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Feb 10, 2015 08:44
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Covok posted:I looked into this a bit and am a little confused. So, is the idea the playbooks give you a narrative role and customizes your class and character to better fit the role based on your responses/rolls on the chart? I was looking over the playbooks and that's the idea I got. As I understand, the playbooks are basically a character creation workbook that gives you class choice, your ability scores (through random rolls that determine your life events) as well as skills, spells and proficiencies. They also tie you to the rest of the group (a roll might determine that you spent a lot of time playing games with one of the other characters, giving you +2 Dex and the character on your right +1 Dex) and the town (which is basically created through character creation: if a roll on one of the lifepaths determines that you're off to be married to the Miller's family, it tells you that there's a Miller in town). It's such a neat system that I'm stealing some of it for my mythical Scandinavia game that I'm running for a bunch of kids at the school I work at.
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Feb 10, 2015 10:26
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I finished reading Into The Odd, and while it's a little less crunchy than I'd like it looks awesome. If you're curious or on the fence, have a look for the free "oddpendium". There's a
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Feb 10, 2015 11:32
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FRINGE posted:Ive never read it (or seen it in person), but is there a problem with it or is it just the usual "oh no there is a mix of sex and horror" reaction? IIRC the mechanic that I heard about it in a review that made me immediately drop the thought of ever buying it was at the beginning of every encounter everyone on both sides rerolls their hit dice and randomly determines the damage dice of their attack. At that point why even bother to keep D&D's combat system?
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Feb 11, 2015 00:50
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I'm not going to delve any deeper into Carcosa, but if you want to do a mix of science fantasy and planetary romance with Cthulhu thrown in, I suggest giving your money to Goblinoid Games: Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future are fully compatible and are easily mashed together, and they've also got Realms of Crawling Chaos which adapts stuff from the Cthulhu mythos into the Labyrinth Lord system. It gives you all the building blocks to make a Carcosa of your own.
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Feb 11, 2015 10:02
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Dungeon Crawl Classics does it rather well also, heck most Retroclones that aren't really setting specific can be modded to do this sort of thing rather easily
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Feb 11, 2015 11:29
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Ratpick posted:I'm not going to delve any deeper into Carcosa, but if you want to do a mix of science fantasy and planetary romance with Cthulhu thrown in, I suggest giving your money to Goblinoid Games: Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future are fully compatible and are easily mashed together, and they've also got Realms of Crawling Chaos which adapts stuff from the Cthulhu mythos into the Labyrinth Lord system. It gives you all the building blocks to make a Carcosa of your own. Back of the Mutant Future rulebook also has rules about mixing Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future titled Mutants & Mazes. They are not just easily compatible but the support is built right in to the rules. I also think lot of Mutant Future monsters are just plain better than stuff you encounter in Carcosa.
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Feb 11, 2015 13:49
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drrockso20 posted:Dungeon Crawl Classics does it rather well also, heck most Retroclones that aren't really setting specific can be modded to do this sort of thing rather easily When Mutant Crawl Classics comes out, it will do it extra better. There are also rayguns and stuff like that in Peril on the Purple Planet.
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Feb 12, 2015 07:21
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Lightning Lord posted:When Mutant Crawl Classics comes out, it will do it extra better. There are also rayguns and stuff like that in Peril on the Purple Planet. I'm intrigued: I actually looked at Dungeon Crawl Classics while it was still being playtested and liked what I saw, so I went ahead and bought a set of Zocchi dice. By the time it came out my excitement had lessened and when I saw it was a big fuckhuge book I ignored it. Is Mutant Crawl Classics going to be a self-contained game or will it require DCC to play? I'm actually debating whether I should get DCC after all. Even though I mostly play very rules light dungeon crawlers these days I also have a soft spot for old-school RPGs with very baroque rules.
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Feb 12, 2015 10:45
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Ratpick posted:I'm intrigued: I actually looked at Dungeon Crawl Classics while it was still being playtested and liked what I saw, so I went ahead and bought a set of Zocchi dice. By the time it came out my excitement had lessened and when I saw it was a big fuckhuge book I ignored it. Is Mutant Crawl Classics going to be a self-contained game or will it require DCC to play? Honestly the rules for DCC are not baroque at all. Most of the gigantic size of the book is due to all the spell tables that wizards and clerics roll on whenever they cast, which makes magic more interesting than just fire and forget. DCC actually does a decent job, now that I think about it, of capturing that idea I mentioned earlier, of a game that is about discrete powers for wizards and freeform physical stuff for warriors, due to the Mighty Deeds of Arms mechanic. You narrate doing something cool , and if you succeed on a Deed roll, you pull it off. No limitations, you can do it with every attack. Now, much of that is still up to the GM, but I honestly can't picture someone who is deeply interested in making sure that warriors can't swing off the chandelier and kick the monster off the cliff playing DCC, but that might just be me. I only witnessed a couple playtests of MCC, and I forgot to ask Jim Wampler about it, but if it's anything like the two other campaign books for DCC I'm familiar with (Tales from the Fallen Empire and Transylvanian Adventures, which are sword & sorcery and Hammer horror respectively) it'll probably require the corebook. DCC has really proven itself to be an interesting game, love it or hate it. I'm working on updating the synopsis for the OP of the thread, now that the shock of the goofy "Ye must proveith thine masterye of yon sacred ancient textes of Lord Gygaxe" intro has long worn off. Lightning Lord fucked around with this message at 11:00 on Feb 12, 2015 |
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Feb 12, 2015 10:54
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Dungeon Crawl Classics is not quite a retroclone, and it's not quite a totally new game. It's more about attempting to capture the essence of "Appendix N adventure" through a combination of mechanics both familiar and new than slavishly recreating any particular edition of D&D. It also does that job through art, tone and atmosphere. (How's this, RH? Would you like me to mention specific mechanics that support this idea?)
Lightning Lord fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Feb 12, 2015 |
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Feb 12, 2015 13:49
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By the way one of the ideals of Dungeon Crawl Classics that I think always gets obscured by the spell tables, the goofy dice and the funnel is that cool stuff isn't and shouldn't be cordoned off behind a gate saying "Level 10+" (It helps of course that the level cap is 10 and that each level is more powerful than in most D&D-alikes) Look at the intro for the Level 1 adventure Intrigue at the Court of Chaos for example: quote:Intrigue At the Court of Chaos embraces one of the fundamental differences that makes Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG unique among other fantasy role-playing games: There’s no need to wait for the PCs to become high-level heroes before embarking on adventures that span the cosmos! The PCs’ enemies in this adventure are not mere goblins raiding farm communities, but extra-planar entities, some of whom have a direct hand in the struggle between the forces of Law, Chaos, and Neutrality. From its very beginning, Intrigue At the Court of Chaos has the PCs traveling the multiverse, visiting the Planes of Chaos and Law, and negotiating (and often battling) with the otherworldly beingsthat call these dimensions their homes. A far cry from just another fight with kobolds over a handful of copper pieces! In the course of their multi-planar adventure, the PCs have the opportunity to earn the gratitude of powerful beings… and perhaps the animosity, too, if they’re not careful. However events unfold, Intrigue At the Court of Chaos is bound to be an adventure the players will remember—fondly or otherwise— from the early days of their adventurers’ careers. Lightning Lord fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Feb 12, 2015 |
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Feb 12, 2015 23:39
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Lightning Lord posted:By the way one of the ideals of Dungeon Crawl Classics that I think always gets obscured by the spell tables, the goofy dice and the funnel is that cool stuff isn't and shouldn't be cordoned off behind a gate saying "Level 10+" (It helps of course that the level cap is 10 and that each level is more powerful than in most D&D-alikes) I ran this for my players and friends and they loved it. Most notable was our Dwarf vomiting up a rainbow bridge. I echo what the above have been saying about DCC. The book looks huge only because of the Spells list. Take that out and I bet its about 160 pages of actual rules. Not bad at all really. obeyasia fucked around with this message at 00:38 on Feb 13, 2015 |
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Feb 13, 2015 00:33
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Honestly, my biggest problem with DCC is the way it treats armour - I mean, balance I can understand, but having worn chain and knowing people who've worn considerably heavier armour, I can honestly say that armour in general no where near as cumbersome as DCC would make it look...
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Feb 13, 2015 03:05
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What is Mutant Crawl Classics -- sci or supers? -- and is the playtest doc public?
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Feb 13, 2015 03:57
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hectorgrey posted:Honestly, my biggest problem with DCC is the way it treats armour - I mean, balance I can understand, but having worn chain and knowing people who've worn considerably heavier armour, I can honestly say that armour in general no where near as cumbersome as DCC would make it look... Could you go into more detail? The penalty to checks didn't seem too crazy to me.
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Feb 13, 2015 05:07
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DnDClassics is having a sale until Feb 22. Notably, the Rules Cyclopedia is as low as 5 bucks and a 1981 Basic and Expert books are even cheaper.
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Feb 13, 2015 05:39
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Lightning Lord posted:Dungeon Crawl Classics is not quite a retroclone, and it's not quite a totally new game. It's more about attempting to capture the essence of "Appendix N adventure" through a combination of mechanics both familiar and new than slavishly recreating any particular edition of D&D. It also does that job through art, tone and atmosphere. obeyasia posted:Here's my copy for DCC: You did it, You're in the OP...!
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Feb 13, 2015 08:36
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obeyasia posted:I ran this for my players and friends and they loved it. Most notable was our Dwarf vomiting up a rainbow bridge. The part where the adventure suggests the players get out some clay and mold it into shapes to represent primordial Chaos is particularly inspired. Covok posted:What is Mutant Crawl Classics -- sci or supers? -- and is the playtest doc public? It's essentially Gamma World for DCC, and it's being developed by Jim Wampler right now. He's run it at some cons, but there's no public playtest doc at the moment, since I believe it's going to come out some time in 2016. There is Doug Kovacs art though.  hectorgrey posted:Honestly, my biggest problem with DCC is the way it treats armour - I mean, balance I can understand, but having worn chain and knowing people who've worn considerably heavier armour, I can honestly say that armour in general no where near as cumbersome as DCC would make it look... If that's your biggest problem I take it you're a big fan of the game?  It only seems to come up during fumbles anyway.Rulebook Heavily posted:You did it, You're in the OP...! 
Lightning Lord fucked around with this message at 12:44 on Feb 13, 2015 |
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Feb 13, 2015 12:42
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Ratpick posted:Speaking of new OSR games, does anyone have any insights on Beyond the Wall? Beyond the Wall basically takes the 'adventure design' you'd normally associate with Dungeon World, where interesting leading questions are asked of the players so that their characters are tied to a setting in fairly involved ways and a lot of the adventure is simply built out of their answers, and marries it to OSR semi-random tables. So, you get the benefits of player-investment-in-setting and collaborative worldbuilding coupled with decently designed tables that do a lot of the heavy creative lifting that otherwise can make *W games a bit offputting to new players. I like it a lot, though frankly I usually just use Beyond the Wall for the setting-building and use the rules of Dungeon World or Whitehack for actual play.
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Feb 13, 2015 21:55
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I still want to try playing Beyond the Wall. I tried running it once or twice but it died real soon. Kind of surprising we don't seem to get more OSR/similar "retroclone" style games run on the forums more often. Since we have this thread that seems to be posted in fairly often.
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Feb 14, 2015 04:29
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The pro-click OSR generator site Wizardawn is back under a new host: http://wizardawn.and-mag.com/
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Feb 14, 2015 07:33
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Well, I learned that Ten Foot Pole is run by the dude who did that 4e book burning party, so I need to find another source of in-depth, critical reviews of old-school styled modules. Anyone got a favorite?Ryuujin posted:I still want to try playing Beyond the Wall. I tried running it once or twice but it died real soon. Kind of surprising we don't seem to get more OSR/similar "retroclone" style games run on the forums more often. Since we have this thread that seems to be posted in fairly often. Yeah, I really need to run DCC through here. gradenko_2000 posted:The pro-click OSR generator site Wizardawn is back under a new host: I've used Wizardawn so much that every part of my body is thankful that it's back.
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Feb 14, 2015 16:46
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Are there currently any games that emphasize the danger and hazards of long distance travel? I've kind of fallen in love with the idea of trying to find a way to smash elements of the Oregon Trail into hex-crawl style gameplay. The idea of an adventuring party travelling in a Conestoga wagon full of stolen treasure and barrels of beer and salt pork just seems fun to me. What could compare with the thrill of having your character successfully save vs. dysentery or the agony of watching 3 valuable barrels full of food get ruined after an ill-fated attempt to ford a river?
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Feb 14, 2015 19:51
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Bob Quixote posted:Are there currently any games that emphasize the danger and hazards of long distance travel? I've kind of fallen in love with the idea of trying to find a way to smash elements of the Oregon Trail into hex-crawl style gameplay. Torchbearer would probably be your best bet.
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Feb 14, 2015 20:18
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Bob Quixote posted:Are there currently any games that emphasize the danger and hazards of long distance travel? I've kind of fallen in love with the idea of trying to find a way to smash elements of the Oregon Trail into hex-crawl style gameplay. The One Ring: Into the Wild has an interesting set of journey rules. But the setting baggage is, for good reason, pretty heavy. So, Evil Mastermind posted:Torchbearer would probably be your best bet. I've long been obsessed with an Atari designer named Danielle Bunten because she designed games that were pretty RPGlike where combat wasn't the focus. So one of my backburner ideas has always been to make an rpg based on The Seven Cities of Gold or Heart of Africa (or even MULE). Preferably with less colonialism overtones though. My current take on this is that the player's will be the managers of a Chinese trading company on the silk road.
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Feb 14, 2015 20:54
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Lightning Lord posted:Yeah, I really need to run DCC through here. I'd definitely be down for that. Been wanting to try DCC as a player with a good group for a while, but it'd always seemed like a chore to run. It would be especially cool to run the 0-level funnel.
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Feb 15, 2015 10:03
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Hell is making a merfolk bard in AD&D 1st (It's apparently a "Thing" about AD&D that I missed the bard being this superclass, so basically the DM Is allowing me to roll with it by having a Druid with Bard Hit Die for untill I hit Lv 9) with a PDF that's corrupted on all the Bard Tables and the best next option is buying a £30 sourcebook when you're a big tablet and PDF individual. Thanks for nothing, WoTC. ConanThe3rd fucked around with this message at 12:04 on Feb 15, 2015 |
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Feb 15, 2015 11:43
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ConanThe3rd posted:Hell is making a merfolk bard in AD&D 1st (It's apparently a "Thing" about AD&D that I missed the bard being this superclass, so basically the DM Is allowing me to roll with it by having a Druid with Bard Hit Die for untill I hit Lv 9) with a PDF that's corrupted on all the Bard Tables and the best next option is buying a £30 sourcebook when you're a big tablet and PDF individual. You can get a "new" copy of the best PHB for only 70! http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Dungeons-Dragons-Players-Handbook/dp/0880387165/
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Feb 15, 2015 12:22
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FRINGE posted:You can get a "new" copy of the best PHB for only 70! http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Dungeons-Dragons-Players-Handbook/dp/0880387165/ Literally the only D&D book I ever got for free. e: Admittedly I ended up spending about 100x more on that edition than any other so joke's on me.
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Feb 15, 2015 13:06
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Somebody had one of those Judges Guild Revisited adventures on amazon for $5000 a couple of weeks ago, seems to have vanished now. Hopefully because it was a joke posting...
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Feb 15, 2015 13:10
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AlphaDog posted:Literally the only D&D book I ever got for free. edit: looks like Hellbound is the only one thats 300 right now.
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Feb 15, 2015 13:15
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FRINGE posted:I struggle with Planescape. Its not like I have time to play, but I cant bring myself to sell the stuff even when it hits 300-per on occasion. I've got the core set and planes of chaos and planes of conflict right here on the shelf and sometimes I think "a thousand dollars would buy me a really kickass bass guitar" but ain't no way I'm parting with these nerd books. e: Got pretty close last year when I needed to spend money on the car, but goddamn, planescape is my favorite. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Feb 15, 2015 |
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Feb 15, 2015 13:34
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