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Women-of-the-moon-but-who-actually-live-on-the-southern-continent was probably too wordy a name for our antagonist faction, but still, confusing without those notes. Dark Revelation is a d20 system RPG by Chris Constantin and Jason Cable Hall and edited by Joe Amon and published in 2014. Set in a twice post-apocalyptic world, it asks players to make their way in this hostile but still rebuilding landscape. It is available for free along with a host of expansion material and the developers blog Part 12: Modernist Combat So what do guns add to combat that bows and slings, already in the game, don’t? Multiple different kinds of misfires! Oh did you think energy weapons or flamethrowers were immune? Nope they can jam just like everything else. In combat this is a DC15 action that eats your movement for a turn which is somewhat forgiving, but again, every character can be carrying 7 other guns if they so desire so maybe save this for after the battle. What about your 41,000 G-Bill landmine that costs almost half as much as an APC? Great news! 5% of the time it not only doesn’t work, it actually loses 100% of its value. Yes, that is right, anything that is a consumable payload weapon, like grenades, mines, etc, has a 5% chance to not only not work, but to also become instantly valueless. Oh, and the LAW we mentioned earlier explicitly uses this rule instead of the rocket misfire rules which are massively more forgiving. I… I think it might still do the breath attack even on critical failure though, because that isn’t covered in these rules. On the note of rockets and missiles, when they misfire they comically plop into the ground one square in front of you. These misfires can then be shot which can cause them to explode as their standard attack centered on their square. In a game where you can full auto spray at every single thing in a spread in front of you, this is genuinely not terrible. Recovering the weapon is terrible since it has a 50% chance to explode in your face if you want to try, so better to use it as an improvised landmine.  I’m not sure all of these places are even discussed in earlier part, nor is Japan included in this map which was We then learn that grenades in Dark Revelations are Kantian. If you willingly jump on a grenade it will only harm you, but if someone is thrown onto the grenade it will explode as normal hitting everyone in a circle. This also, somehow, applies to all grenade types including those that spray out gasses. Intention is what matters, players, not your so-called outcomes or "physics". After this we get the various fire modes of guns explained with double shot, three kinds of full auto, burst fire, and single shot. These are all perfectly interesting, situational attacks that are nice to have on hand and make your non-wizards have some decision making on their turn. Well, the non-wizards who have fully automatic guns, anyway. Lastly we get the vehicle combat rules. These are fairly in depth and could be interesting to play around with, but their length seems to imply a lot of vehicular combat in a game that wants towns to cap out at around 1,000 people. Natural language also rears up here a bit where it says players “should” only have one vehicle per player, which means absolutely nothing if you have one player who wants to do nothing but buy vehicles. Amusingly, while the skateboard and scooter are denied from taking heavy equipment like guns or kitchenettes it doesn’t stop you from attempting any of the other maneuvers. While it is not particularly likely to happen, a particularly rad dude on a skateboard can technically do a pit maneuver on an APC and force it to come to a full stop. And that’s it for Dark Revelations. For its setting, too much of this book is taken up with just standard d20 material and fairly dry and dull item descriptions. It lacks much of a sense of identity beyond being a bit of a kitchen sink, and its combat rules don’t really do much to elevate it. I think it's most injured by the book of magic, where presumably they can get weird, is a separate book so the core rules are trapped entirely in the mundane and there are no monsters or adventure hooks in this core book to give you inspiration. Thanks Dark Revelations, mostly for never updating your core rulebook for 7 years so I didn’t have to redo this whole thing. Barudak fucked around with this message at 07:01 on Nov 14, 2023 |
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Nov 14, 2023 06:56
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I think I get a kick out of this image the most in the books thus far in my reading, though I'm kind of sorry we don't see anything from Afterparty (though the urge to draw the undead doing the Thriller dance would probably be difficult for the artist to resist). Bonus plot thread points for the mention of deities getting invites and sending "proxies"; one can imagine the look on a paladin's face to be given THIS holy assignment...
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Nov 14, 2023 10:20
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The Kantian Grenades remind me of one of the funny things from AoE weapons in Cardinal games: Since the combat there is based around opposed tests, and characters being attacked have a choice between Countering (trying to shoot/hit you first to stop you) or Dodging (Trying not to be hit, wins ties, adds cover), throwing a grenade at a group of people and thus attacking all of them means all of them can shoot you. Whereas if you just shot at one of them, or threw a rock at one of them, only that person would have the option to shoot you back. It's that way because it's necessary to give those characters a chance to evade getting hit and thus a consequence of the core combat mechanic (and because it's one of the risks of anything that targets more than one person since that's a big advantage in a system where you almost always only get one attack a round outside of very special cases), but it's also funny.
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Nov 14, 2023 13:51
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So there I was browsing some gaming aids when:  I don't believe I'll be buying from Hexplore Publishing.
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Nov 14, 2023 18:19
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MadDogMike posted:I think I get a kick out of this image the most in the books thus far in my reading, though I'm kind of sorry we don't see anything from Afterparty (though the urge to draw the undead doing the Thriller dance would probably be difficult for the artist to resist). Bonus plot thread points for the mention of deities getting invites and sending "proxies"; one can imagine the look on a paladin's face to be given THIS holy assignment... Pretty sure the reason they have the vampire party goer is cause it's called Sylvania (which is the same joke Warhammer Fantasy used for it's vampire homeland) though I think this place is going for Sylvan.
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Nov 14, 2023 19:36
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By popular demand posted:I don't believe I'll be buying from Hexplore Publishing.
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Nov 14, 2023 22:15
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Mirage posted:Yes, I'm from Bozom. Bozom in Hydrogenia? Sounds sort of ... inflated. srhall79 posted:That's not the cover of my book (which, like all my AD&D 1st edition books, was my dad's, handed down). Long, long ago, like probably before 2nd edition dropped, the pages of my Unearthed Arcanca decided to try living without the cover. Now, my Dungeon Master's Guide was lost (or stolen), but another I acquired is in fine shape with the original cover. The Player's Handbook is doing fine. The Monster Manual lost its spine, but the book stayed together. I've long suspected that the crisis of cashflow contributed to the Unearthed Arcana getting a substandard binding. You're probably right, Unearthed Arcana is infamous for binding that falls apart if you look at it funny. My copy lost its spine pretty quickly although the covers are still attached.
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Nov 15, 2023 03:50
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srhall79 posted:The recent posts on TSR management has me wanting to take a look back earlier, to when some miniature wargamers suddenly found themselves with a product pulling in millions of dollars a year. Ha, fascinating. Here's a post from Malizewski about a roughly similar period, and this comment was also very interesting: quote:Good stuff as always. However, I think you probably overstate the case for realism as the cause for the dramatic changes in Dragon Magazine during the period in question. I don't think it was an increased interest in realism so much as it was an increased concern within TSR over "officialness."
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Nov 15, 2023 03:51
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 at that Dervish business.
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Nov 15, 2023 04:16
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Nessus posted:
Hell, even the original dervishes in OD&D weren't portrayed as complete caricatures like that if memory serves; remember the Desert of Desolation ones weren't kill on sight murderers if you didn't profane any sacred places/items (of all faiths, to boot, they were sworn to protect every holy item/place not just a "true faith"), and could in fact be helpful to the PCs who were trapped in the desert. It's just that by the nature of the modules the PCs needed to enter several tombs (in the first one at the specific request of the spirit of the tomb's resident, later to get item(s) needed to save the area) which had an obvious inevitable problem there.
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Nov 15, 2023 08:01
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 Unearthed Arcana part 2 Comeliness reflects physical attractiveness, social grace, and personal beauty of the character. If there's one thing gamers have been misunderstanding since the start of D&D, well, it's hit points and taking damage. But if there's two things, it's the relation of charisma to physical attractiveness. I recall the Anti-Paladin, an NPC class in Dragon magazine, used a special rule to roll a d4 for Charisma, resulting in a 3, 4, 17, or 18; the anti-paladin was either hideously ugly or breath-takingly handsome. I believe Gygax even tried to separate the two in the DMG, pointing out that Hitler would have had a high charisma while not being good-looking. Well, gamers didn't listen, so he brought in Comeliness, the 7th stat. quote:While charisma deals specifically with leadership and interactions between characters, comeliness deals with attractiveness and first impressions. After determining your first six attributes, comeliness is a simple 3d6 roll (even though Method I for generating character attributes in the DMG was 4d6 drop the lowest). Ah, but we're not done there. Your charisma will affect your comeliness, which I suppose makes sense. Someone who is very charming might overcome some flaws in their appearance. If you're somehow at less than 3 charisma, your comeliness will drop by 8 points. A 3 charisma, will lower your comeliness by 5, then -3 at 4-5, -1 6-8, and 9-12 carries no adjustment. Higher up, a 13-15 will add 1, 16-17 +2, and an 18 gives a +3 bonus. If your charisma exceeds that, you can take a +5. After this initial boost, changes in charisma are reflected in comeliness on a one-for-one basis. It's Gygax, so race gets thrown in. Half-orcs will take a -3 penalty, dwarves and gnomes -1, humans and halflings sit at neutral, sylvan elves and half-elves gain a +1, and high and grey elves get +2. Errata added male dark elves to the -1 group, female dark elves to the +1, and wild and valley elves are +0. High comeliness denotes looking good and can grant spell-like abilities. At 14-17, you increase your reaction adjustment by a percentage equal to the comeliness score (Charisma of 13 or above would also be modifying this by 5-35%). Additionally, individuals of the opposite sex will seek you out (however much Gygax partied in California, he was still an occasionally observant Jehovah's Witness in 1985 so we're not letting any of the G-A-Ys into our game). Said members of the opposite sex will be under a fascinate spell unless their wisdom is more than half your comeliness. Descriptions range up to +30, with higher scores affecting more people with fascinate. If you're actively pursuing someone and you have a comeliness of +22 or more, they'll need an 18 wisdom (or 20 when above 26) to not be affected by the fascinate effect. Ew. Think we'll find any hosed up politics and beliefs at the other end of the scale? Comeliness bottoms out at -16 (or lower), although your least charismatic half-orc could only start with a -5 (which you're ugly enough to be shunned, and beaten on if the observer has a chance). At -16, you're so repulsive, viewers will run away or try to destroy you. Oh, but... "If both viewer and creature are of evil alignment, the effect is that of a positive comeliness of the same total." Welp, Belle's not finding any inner beauty here, ugly is the domain of evil. Funny how comeliness didn't make it into 2nd edition, nor was it picked up in any later versions. I think it just showed up here, and the rules re-printed in Oriental Adventures. Next time, expanding the possibilities with extended level limits, new multi-classing options, and new subraces.
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Nov 15, 2023 08:27
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Ive always liked Comeliness as a stat. Not because its good or useful, but because its a good example of a problem based on feeling and word usage getting an "obvious" solution that absolutely does not work and causes more problems.
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Nov 15, 2023 08:40
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sebmojo posted:Ha, fascinating. Here's a post from Malizewski about a roughly similar period, and this comment was also very interesting: Quite interesting. Gygax penned some infamous editorials about the right way to play and the right rules to use. I think one placed D&D as the more immature, free-wheeling game, like house ruled poker, while serious gamers would go with AD&D, where strict adherence to the published rules was necessary, maybe so your character would be tournament-legal? (which I have to guess was only a small percentage of players). I don't recall classes ever disappearing from Dragon, though the magazine runs together in my head. I remember classes almost always were presented as NPC classes, although with experience charts and everything you'd need to play one as a PC (the oddest in my memory was Len Lakofka's Death Master, a necromancer that he repeats must be an NPC, and if he found a PC death master at a con, well, he might turn evil himself. But the death master had things like, at 1st level, you got 1xp for every grave dug up and 2xp for every body stolen, and what DM is tracking this for an NPC? "Well, the players have been in this dungeon for two weeks, another day and Frank Stein will have dug up enough bodies to hit second level!")
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Nov 15, 2023 08:42
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Barudak posted:Ive always liked Comeliness as a stat. Not because its good or useful, but because its a good example of a problem based on feeling and word usage getting an "obvious" solution that absolutely does not work and causes more problems.
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Nov 15, 2023 16:10
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Unearthed Arcana was cowardly for not doing like Chivalry & Sorcery and having separate attributes for physical appearance and how nice your voice sounds. 
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Nov 15, 2023 16:25
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I miss playing C&S 1e 
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Nov 15, 2023 18:09
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srhall79 posted:Quite interesting. Gygax penned some infamous editorials about the right way to play and the right rules to use. I think one placed D&D as the more immature, free-wheeling game, like house ruled poker, while serious gamers would go with AD&D, where strict adherence to the published rules was necessary, maybe so your character would be tournament-legal? (which I have to guess was only a small percentage of players). Ad&d rules were so trash lol. My favorite is that monsters will attack someone's ac10 head on a 2/6, which implies rolling a d6 with every attack, as well as an entire locational armour system neither of which are found anywhere else in the game. This is tucked away in the armour crafting rules, naturally.
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Nov 15, 2023 20:39
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The thing about Gygax's editorials on The One True Way To Game is that Gygax was first and foremost a huckster who wanted to move product. Only Official AD&DTM Miniatures are good enough for your game! The idea of a "tournament standard" ruleset makes sense, but AD&D seems to have been an accumulation of house rules for D&D, which seem to have been made by a bunch of different people who were not necessarily playing or even talking to each other. And yeah, sometimes that resulted in important mechanics that were buried deep in the text, or different mechanics that didn't have clear interactions at all.
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Nov 15, 2023 20:46
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The Stan Lee Approach
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Nov 15, 2023 21:09
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Halloween Jack posted:The thing about Gygax's editorials on The One True Way To Game is that Gygax was first and foremost a huckster who wanted to move product. Only Official AD&DTM Miniatures are good enough for your game! Definitely the first rather than the last. I don't think he gave a single poo poo about coherent mechanics, because his mechanics weren't coherent. I mean in practice everyone just ignored the stuff that didn't work, which meant in practice ad&d was a collection of classes, spells and magic items and a couple of pages of combat tables
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Nov 15, 2023 21:16
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Well, this is one of the reasons that online conversation around the early OSR was so bitter--it's not like anybody has collected a lot of data about how people played in the 70s and 80s. But it seems like a lot of people playing AD&D were essentially using AD&D as a character creation module for Basic. Separating race and class, playing paladins and rangers, but probably not using initiative segments or weapon vs. armor tables.
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Nov 15, 2023 21:27
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Halloween Jack posted:Well, this is one of the reasons that online conversation around the early OSR was so bitter--it's not like anybody has collected a lot of data about how people played in the 70s and 80s. But it seems like a lot of people playing AD&D were essentially using AD&D as a character creation module for Basic. Separating race and class, playing paladins and rangers, but probably not using initiative segments or weapon vs. armor tables. Yeah, I'm an old and was playing at school in the late 70s. we ignored all that stuff. i'ma little retroactively bitter tbqh because BECMI is an objectively better system but there's no way we'd play something BASIC because we weren't BABIES. if weapons v ac had actually been a little better thought out it would have been a neat addition, and when an american dude came along with rolemaster (which has weapon vs armour type, but separates that from things like dodging and shields) we jumped ship to that immediately and played D&D with RM combat and skills.
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Nov 15, 2023 21:34
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 Angrymog posted:The person who did the Fabula Ultima review - the High Fantasy Atlas has been released in English and it looks pretty cool. Hey, I did see that! I grabbed it for some of the stuff in it, though I'm more interested in the Techno Fantasy book, since I can't wait to see the complete rules for Technospheres. Last we left off, rewards! Everybody loves getting STUFF in TTRPGs! Whether you're getting them from a grateful prince or finding them in an ancient ruin (the stuff, not the prince), new items allow a party more options, both in combat and in the narrative. It's also satisfying for Players! Having EXP or making a connection with a powerful person in their game is nice, of course, but treasure is a (not quite) tangible thing that shows they're making progress, that they're getting something that makes it all worth it. And Players can get VERY attached to these items! One big piece of GM advice since the dawn of TTRPGs is that if you really want to hit a Player where it hurts, don't kidnap love interests, kill off family, or threaten the adorable little kid the party is weirdly fawning over. Go after their items. Take or break them, sure way to make a Player rage. So how do we give the PCs neat new toys? Well, there's some guidelines. They're pretty simple: The first point is the level of the Party, or the highest level PC if the levels are uneven. Which they really shouldn't be without using the less savory optional rules mentioned before. The second point is the number of PCs in the group. Then you consult this table...  ... And there you go. The game notes this is the average value, though, not the exact number you are required to give them, no more no less. More powerful encounters or more lucky finds can result in better rewards, or maybe they get a little less because the challenges they faced were minimal. This isn't all just Zenit, though, splitting it up into randomly assorted items or IP refills is a great idea. If you don't think that's quite enough, why not throw a rare item or something on top of that? Just remember: Artifacts, which we'll see later, are a very big deal and shouldn't ever be in random hoards. Players should be getting at least one haul every session, but some sessions just don't support this. If they spend a long day in court trying to appeal to a hard-assed noble, they likely aren't getting anything of monetary value from the experience. And there are some occasions where they might come across multiple smaller treasures over the course of a dungeon dive, so you might take several session's worth of reward and spread it out across said dungeon. Now, what do you put into these treasures? Good Question! There's several things you might keep in mind for this. For instance, Players often like talking to other Players (or the GM) about items they really like. Well, that's easy enough, drop the item they want in one of the rewards they get in the future. In an earlier chapter, the book suggested using a survey or wishlist the Players can use to say "Hey, I'd really like this". Often, you'll get specific requests like "I really want Fuel Knuckles because they're the coolest item in the game", but you'll also see more vague notions like "I want more defense". A Player like the latter will be just as delighted to get a magic suit of armor as the former would be to see the coolest item in the game. Not biased at all. Rewards can tell a story. Like archaeologists, Players can tell a lot about what a group of people were like by what they valued ownership of. A painter's beautiful last work of art could fetch a precious sum in a big city, or it could be something one of the PCs hang on the wall of their headquarters. It was the last work she made of her wife, who was the tragic ghost they appeased that session. Maybe it was even the clue they needed to solve the situation in the first place! On that note, foreshadowing is a big deal in video games in general, when it comes to items. When you find a really unique treasure in an adventure game or a JRPG, and it just blatantly has "THIS IS A KEY ITEM" all over it, it's clear it'll be useful soon. Or maybe it's immediately obvious: A holy weapon in an abandoned gaol crawling with the undead. The book warns this can make a game feel "gamey" but that's eye of the beholder, to me. Legends and myths are filled with weirdly convenient contrivances, and if you think about some of them, it makes sense. Of COURSE there's a holy weapon in this prison, some crusader came to clear it of the affliction it had, and failed. Their body has joined the congregation of the damned, and only their weapon remains behind... it's old owner no longer able to touch it. Sounds like a boss fight coming. The book also notes here that if a Rogue uses Soul Steal, this does NOT detract from the total reward received in a session. This is on top of what you get normally. Usually, what you get from Soul Steal is a Rare Item, and Rare Items are usually great for rewards in general. Speaking of which, we've talked about those a lot, so let's actually get into them! As a refresher, a Rare Item are this game's equivalent of magic items. They're more powerful than normal items, even if that's just that they do more damage! Usually, however, Rare Items have special powers that makes them more fun to use, or at least more versatile. There's a LOT of Rare Items in the book, and many of them are neat! They should be given some proper consideration as things Players can have if you're struggling with how to fill out a reward. Or... You can make your own Rare Items. GMs can, at least, Players should probably ask first. The guidelines for this are... In my opinion, a little limiting, and I find this is a problem in much of Fabula Ultima, and one of the things that really makes me hesitate to say it's a 10/10: Mechanical effects are very limited in number because of how simple the system is, and the game offers few ideas or guidelines for narrative effects that won't demolish the game balance.. As may have been noticed, almost none of the Skills in the game are narrative in nature; even fewer Spells offer this as well. There's Rituals, which are almost entirely narrative, but items besides Artifacts are really just stat-blocks without anything truly unique to offer. How is this a real problem? Well, we'll take a look at that a little harder after looking at the book's advice for what NOT to do with Rare Items. It's been mentioned many times by other people in this thread, and by me myself, that this game really doesn't want to give bonuses to rolls. And the first piece of advice is dedicated entirely to confirming that. It claims Fabula Ultima has a "flat" math progression for Checks, and that even an innocuous-seeming +1 could make a huge difference! While the latter is true, I'm not actually sure the former is, and I don't think these bonuses are really as much a problem as the game thinks they are. In general, players will hit enemies most of the time. Missing is honestly pretty rare unless it's an enemy with an abnormally high Defense/Magic Defense, so those to-hit bonuses really only turn a major possibility into a guarantee. What matters more in FabUlt in my experience is how much damage you do, and while a bonus could really help there, unless you're going overboard and giving players +5 or more, the weapon they're using will be much more impactful than any other factor in their DPT. It's not actually that big a deal, especially since boss monsters can easily get into the hundreds of HP. Sure, every little bit helps, but it helps, rather than being the terrifying game-breaker that Miguel seems to believe it is. Honestly, it bears repeating that Projects are far more dangerous to the game's balance than giving out bonuses, and that's an entirely intended mechanic. Anyway, enough about that. The second piece of advice we get is one we've gotten before as well, but is much more sensible! Avoid copying spells or skills for Rare Item effects! It'd be kinda terrible if the Wayfarer could just be made obsolete (haha who are we kidding, Faithful Companion alone makes the Wayfarer irreplaceable) with equipment that just straight up copies their Skills. That said, I don't see the harm in an already powerful party being offered, say, a bow that automatically gives +1 SL in Crossfire or something. The third piece of advice is actually quite nice GM advice: If you accidentally made an item that's too strong, don't overreact! Talk to the party, adjust the effects together. They might even convince you that your fears are unfounded and the item isn't actually THAT much of an advantage. Some things NOT to do: Contrive ways to take the item away, or intentionally and consistently create situations where it's useless. It's a good challenge if a problem won't be helped at all by the item, it's just being petty if suddenly every problem won't. Here's an optional rule!  I like it in essence, but I feel a Tinkerer just kinda makes this obsolete when they could make another, similar weapon for cheaper. I'd understand if a PC has an emotional attachment to the equipment itself, though! Another image: Here's the rules for making weapons!  So, here's part of the problem, as I mentioned. If we take these at face value, no house-ruling, then the rules for this are rather restrictive, and offer no room to come up with your own stuff. And, of course, the game restricts bonuses on weapons to +1. No more. Another fun thing is that you can reduce the size of a two-handed weapon by reducing its damage... And then for only 200 Zenit more, immediately have that damage back. And come on, we can't have two-handed throwing weapons? Sorry, Yuffie fans, this isn't the game for you! The game acknowledges that weapons that rely on the same Attribute for both sides of an Accuracy Check are stronger than other weapons, but 50 Zenit doesn't really feel like enough of a price increase for that. The qualities are all quite powerful, and useful, but... I kinda wish there were guidelines for making your own. I know I already complained about that, but... Well, I don't want to post the tables of Sample Rare Items, because there's 10 for every category. And there's 10 categories of weapons, so that's 10 full-page tables for 100 items... And that's just the WEAPONS, not the armor and accessories. It's not a lot of work, but I don't really want to crowd the entire screen. What are your thoughts on this? Do you want me to show them off instead of taking my word for it? Let me know.
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Nov 15, 2023 23:55
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Show a couple representative items. Like the Fuel Knuckles
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Nov 16, 2023 00:07
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How do review friends! Just wanted to toss out a quick update that I've put the review of "Immortal Eyes 1" on the back burner for a bit. I need a break and I want to flex my creative writing skills a bit more, so I've started writing a bit of WoD fiction that I'll likely post over on my site with a link when it goes up for anyone interested, since it's not really applicable to this thread. I'll likely be back on reviews by late December or early January.
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Nov 16, 2023 03:47
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I know you were very down on the Arcanist when you started the review. I recently found a playtest document from the game creator completely redesigning the Arcanist and how Arcanum work. Have you seen it, or have any thoughts? Short version: arcana cost 30mp, and have a Pulse effect you can do every round you leave them summoned to make them not just huge spells.
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Nov 16, 2023 05:26
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 Hero Kids is a light hearted, stripped down D&D inspired role playing system and setting intended for children 4-10 and the adults who game with them. Designed by Justin Halliday, its available for purchase Right Here. This review covers both the core rules and the setting book, The Brecken Vale Gazetteer and a module Basement O Rats. Part 1: Simplified Dungeons and Dragons Tabletop roleplaying is often a type of game that gets very, very complex. Piles of loot, special abilities, derived skills, maneuvers, devious puzzles, intricate dungeons, webs of intrigue, hunger tracking, players not showing up during the one time a week we all agreed we were free, and sessions where you accomplish absolutely nothing but creating new in-jokes in the four hours you played are common features. Hero Kids is an RPG system designed to take all that and not so much throw it out as make it appropriate for kids 4-10, and honestly, it succeeds pretty well at that.  Legally distinct clones Hiiccup, Raapunzel, and Zuuko Art by: Eric Quigley https://www.ericquigley.com Before we go any further, because of how Hero Kid’s rules are designed, we’ll be doing a review of three books of the Hero Kid’s line; Hero Kids Fantasy Role-Playing Game for Kids Aged 4-10, Hero Kids Brecken Vale Gazetteer, and Basement O Rats. These books are the core rules, the core setting fluff, and the first and most basic adventure module respectively. It should be further noted, one doesn’t actually strictly need the fluff book to play the game, Hero Kids adventures are perfectly playable on their own, and all of them are designed to be extremely breezy with a goal of being finishable in about 30-45 minutes of playtime. Having played Basement O Rats, it holds pretty well to its target, and its something I think games for Adults should probably consider as well. So first, the core rules. Something Hero Kids does a very good job of, from the art, to the tone, to the introduction of the core rules is re-enforce that this is a game for kids aged 4-10 and that the kids playing this are the heroes both in and out of this game. The player characters aren’t adults, they’re kids, and the stories are tuned and toned for such stories to be empowering and not too frightening. If you are thinking you’ll be running players through Schindler’s List: The Interactive Storytelling Experience you need to look elsewhere. The world of Hero Kids is one where goblins steal prize pigs from a festival and precocious kids have to blast them with arcane firebolts until the pig is returned. Learning the true meaning of friendship is optional. Hero Kids uses only d6 dice to help simplify things but does rely on grid based movement and combat encounters and, frankly, cute little character cards and tokens to help keep everybody in the spirit of the adventure. All of this is printable and cut outable with scissors, so your favorite small or large barbarian can get into character while setting up. It also notes that the rulebook isn’t really for the kiddos playing this game, it is for you, an adult, who can presumably handle the heavy burden of remembering that six is bigger than 5 and how to make as many funny voices for the NPCs as you can. Combat in Hero Kids is a relatively straightforward affair. There are only three types of attacks in the game, of which characters only have access to one, and each character class has one special effect they can add to their attacks under certain conditions. With only one universal defense stat, there is not a whole lot of option paralysis. After about the first combat, every kid will instinctively “get” what their character is supposed to do and can start strategizing about how to do their one bonus thing as often as possible.  A complete character. If you are curious what the dragons in the corners mean you’re probably too old to be playing one of the Hero Kids Art by: Eric Quigley In terms of actual mechanics, everything is a simple opposed roll. Roll the number of D6 your attack gives you, your opponent rolls the number of dice their defense score gives them, highest individual number wins. In case of a tie, the attacker always wins. Winning an attack means you deal one point of damage, losing means you do nothing. Example: My two attack Warrior attacks the one defense Rat Knight rolls 2d6, getting a 3 and 5 Rat rolls 1d6, getting a 5 The Knights 5 ties the Rat’s 5, dealing one point of damage Player characters all have 4 hp and most monsters have 1-2 HP, so the game is a bit rocket-taggy but heavily in the players’ favor. It is important to note healing flows pretty freely in this game, almost every encounter ends with a note you can take a full rest afterwards, players can carry multiple full-health potions, and cleric characters exist. Don’t be expecting to dish out TPKs with any regularity, and the game explicitly encourages you to absolutely not do that. After the brief combat rules we get the skill check rules and skills. Skills are basically condensed D&D abilities with each character having a single skill they are trained in, but all characters can attempt all checks so everybody can have a chance. Skill checks work exactly as you would expect, same resolution as combat but against a fixed target number. Magic characters are still better, in general, for skill checks as they get a generic bonus to the most checks in the game so the littlest power gamers among you will still likely be building Wizards.  If not friend, why friend shaped? Art by: Eric Quigley Items are relatively simple in Hero Kids. There are only 5 of them, and 4 of them are effectively generic puzzle game items and the fifth is the previously mentioned healing potion. There are also unique weapons kids can get, but it is not something they can start with so you, as the brilliant game master, can choose when to add complexity to the game and/or start the arguing over whose unique item is cooler. The game then provides the basics of combat as the game master, which are basically just “read the notes”, “follow the cards”, and “do not describe the monster the players defeat as exploding into a flower of putrid gore”. Afterwards is a very nice page on how to encourage kids to be confident role-players as well as some tips on how to be flexible and encouraging as a game master.  Legally Distinct and Non-Actionlable Reedwall DLC, now with incredibly out of it mini-warthog Art by: Eric Quigley After that we have a section of “Advanced Combat”, which the game encourages you to not start with and save for after the players have some adventures under their belt. The advanced combat is a very mild increase in complexity, mostly just adding things like “line of sight” and a small handful of status effects. One amusing thing is the game has rules for being knocked down, but being knocked down does not explicitly make them move any slower. Parents of toddlers will agree a child wriggling at full movement speed is accurate and realistic. The very last thing in this book which is what I want to highlight the most is the “Hints and Tips” section. Here it recommends keeping sessions to an hour or less, making funny voices for characters, to play nice and not try too hard to defeat the heroes with your advanced Fatal and Friends tuned mind looking for broken enemy interactions. I like this little section because it both reinforces the tone and purpose of the game, but also because it is genuinely good advice that a lot of game masters could benefit from even when running Grim Dark: The 50th Millenium of Madness. Next time: A Place Where a Kid can be a Kid Barudak fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Nov 16, 2023 |
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Nov 16, 2023 05:59
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About 8 years back, I set out to run an AD&D game, but I was going to do it right, I was going to use all the rules, even the ones we glossed over (though most of my pre-3rd edition gaming was done in 2nd edition, or 2nd edition with parts of 1st lifted). One thing I was set on was I was determined to use the weapon vs. AC rules. I was convinced that this was how weapons other than the long sword (which besides being drat good at damage is also the most common sword you'll find as a magical weapon) were justified, or why someone would ever use a heavy crossbow when a bow was available (2-5/2-7 damage for a heavy crossbow, while the bows are 1-6/1-6 damage, but the crossbow fires once every other round, while the bows can fire twice in a round). And they more or less did. Like, the crossbow is +1 to hit over the long bow against any armor type. But then I started applying it to humanoid monsters and... I think 3rd edition broke something in me with monsters created the same way as PCs. An orc has an AC 5 in the Monster Manual, cool, must be wearing chain mail, use that column for weapon attacks. Except, that would mean no orc ever had a dexterity bonus. I could deal with that, but, a certain percentage of orcs would have shields. So should they be AC 4? Still AC 5 but wearing worse armor? Then what happens if they don't have the shield. Probably would have ditched those charts if the game hadn't ended for scheduling issues.
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Nov 16, 2023 09:23
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I used the time unit rules for combat for.... a session. Then we all agreed it was so much busy work for introducing so many more annoying things to juggle and think about that maybe just having a general turn was a good idea.
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Nov 16, 2023 09:30
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Weren’t the weapon vs. armor charts mis-converted from Chainmail, and Gygax admitted that he never used them himself?
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Nov 16, 2023 16:53
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Silver2195 posted:Weren’t the weapon vs. armor charts mis-converted from Chainmail, and Gygax admitted that he never used them himself? This article goes into that, especially the math issues http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-big-mistake-in-weapon-vs-armor.html?m=1
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Nov 16, 2023 17:06
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srhall79 posted:About 8 years back, I set out to run an AD&D game, but I was going to do it right, I was going to use all the rules, even the ones we glossed over (though most of my pre-3rd edition gaming was done in 2nd edition, or 2nd edition with parts of 1st lifted). One thing I was set on was I was determined to use the weapon vs. AC rules. I was convinced that this was how weapons other than the long sword (which besides being drat good at damage is also the most common sword you'll find as a magical weapon) were justified, or why someone would ever use a heavy crossbow when a bow was available (2-5/2-7 damage for a heavy crossbow, while the bows are 1-6/1-6 damage, but the crossbow fires once every other round, while the bows can fire twice in a round). Weirdly: if I remember right, in OD&D and a lot of its clones/derivatives, the hand axe is the best melee weapon because it's as light as a sword, as cheap as a dagger, and can be thrown. Only advantage of
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Nov 16, 2023 17:14
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Kaza42 posted:I know you were very down on the Arcanist when you started the review. I recently found a playtest document from the game creator completely redesigning the Arcanist and how Arcanum work. Have you seen it, or have any thoughts? I have NOT heard of this! I did go to look at it when I saw this, and noticed that while the playtest document does list that in its bookmarks, the rework doesn't seem to actually be there yet. Maybe I'm missing something? Can you explain? Now, as promised, I'm giving some of the examples of the Rare Items in the book here. I decided to do one per category:  in order from top to bottom on left side, then on right side, we have Arcane, Bow, Brawling, Dagger, Gun, Flail, Heavy, Spear, Sword, Thrown. Oh yea! Those Fuel Knuckles are... Not... Actually that interesting...? I mean, the concept of flamethrower gauntlets are rad as hell, but the actual product, not so much. The examples I picked above are probably the most interesting examples of each table, and almost all the other offerings are either "gives resistance to X" or "Does extra damage to X". This is what I meant when I say the game isn't giving much room for making anything really that cool or unique. Hell, the game's terror of bonuses means that all some Rare Items get is a +1 to Accuracy Checks. The GM can, of course, come up with their own ideas, and some of the Rare Items in High Fantasy Atlas or the playtest documents are a lot more fun, but in general this is what you have to work with regarding examples. As stated, the game's simplistic nature makes it tough to create interesting mechanical effects, because there's not a lot of mechanics to play around with. As much as I think the focus on feeling gamey on purpose is actually a good approach to this, it's a severe weakness here. A GM shouldn't have to be creative in the stead of a game, but that's really what's happening when it comes to Rare Items. We haven't touched on armor and shields, so here's the tables for those:  Perfect Health is definitely underpriced because holy hell. I'll post half the Rare Armors and the Rare Shields:  Armors are a little more interesting, but the shields? Oof. Accessories are defined purely by what Quality they have, which are as follows:  There's a bunch of Accessories, most of which are boring. So here's some handpicked ones:  To fill out the rest of an otherwise fairly small update, let's talk about Artifacts next! Artifacts are a Big Dealtm. They are things of power, items that can change how the very world works. They are the kind of thing an entire arc, or an entire campaign, can center around. Each one, the book says, should be treated as something important to the story, rather than just a super powerful magical toy. And a very important note: You can't buy or sell Artifacts. They're simply too valuable to put a price on. If you need a great comparison to other TTRPGs, Artifacts in this game are the equivalent of 4-5 Dot Artifacts in Exalted. They're that powerful. I'll quote the book on three Artifacts from the list of examples: Astroscope: A large globe filled with stars and swirling clouds. Anyone who rests their hand atop this artifact and Dead Man's Zenit: Resembles an ancient gold coin, save for the skull on its back. Easily lost or misplaced, this unassuming gold coin appears worn by age. Many who see the shining skull on its flip side would laugh it out as a coinsmith's prank, but old sailors would urge them to let the thing sink to the bottom of the ocean: An old legend tells of an indestructible golden coin whose bearer may command an army of ghostly pirates in exchange for their own soul... Voice Shard: A fist-sized shard of glassy crystal. It is said that whoever holds this crystal fragment can hear voices whose wisdom leads to power, wealth, and prosperity. Some believe the voices belong to a pantheon of forgotten deities; others claim they are the voices of wise and generous people that lived in a past age (or will exist in the future!). However, the voicces can only be heard by the person who grips this artifact, which means others will have to trust their sincerity... 
Mecha_Face fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Nov 17, 2023 |
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Nov 17, 2023 01:04
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Unearthed Arcana part 3, a day at the races As will be evident from the tables and text that follow, new opportunities abound for player characters in the AD&D game Do you like choices? Unearthed Arcana brings lots of choices. This section opens with a chart indicating which races can be which classes. The class list starts out with the Cavalier, a new entry, followed by the paladin, previously a sub-class of fighter. Under fighter, ranger is joined by a new barbarian. And under thief, an acrobat has entered the picture. There are also multiple subraces. The difference between subraces qualifying for a class are slim to none, but a note tells us they're all written out to make clear these are available. Per the Player's Handbook, you could be a hill or mountain dwarf, and now gray. There's also a gray elf, joining the high, along with dark, wild, wood, and valley (fer sure). I think all of these got mentioned in the Monster Manual (and dark were expanded on in the Fiend Folio), except maybe valley (gag me with a spoon). Only the first three are eligible for cavalier. Ranger and druid are new options, although wild can't be rangers. Gnomes come in two flavors, surface and deep. Halflings are grouped in one column, as their three subraces were mentioned in the PHB. Besides opening ranger and druid to elves, all races can now be clerics. I mean, they could before, but cleric was only available to humans and their offspring could be cleric PCs. Clerics of other races were considered to be non-adventuring elders, so an elf cleric would have a starting age of 500+10d10. This was never modified, so your elf cleric would start well into middle age. Barbarian and monk are both human-only. In a change, paladin now opens to half-elves. At first glance, I thought UA also opened the bard class to half-elves, but flipping back in the PHB, I see that also allows them. Not sure how, since the 1st edition bard requires dual-classing, a class change that the rules only open to humans (other races can multi-class, which meant splitting experience between two or three classes). Multiclassing is expanded, with ranger and druid comboing with many other classes... and each other. This seems like a natural combo for the classes most associated with nature, but presents a problem in that rangers must be a Good alignment, while druids are always True Neutral. Many gallons of ink were spilled in the pages of Dragon magazine on this, before the eventual ruling that Ranger/Druids could be Neutral Good. Next up, level limits. For those who started playing in the d20 era, this concept needs some explaining. You see, this was still early in RPG history, and balance was more a theoretical thing, like turning lead to gold, rather than any science. AD&D's demihumans (as everyone PC race that wasn't human was called) were front-loaded, just piled with abilities. An elf was +1 to hit with long and short swords and bows. They were practically immune to sleep and charm. They could see in the dark and detect secret doors just by walking by them. Meanwhile, humans got... well. The way we balance these, 8 or 9 levels from now, the human can keep advancing while the elf will have been stopped by level limits. If the game reaches 8th level. If not, the elf got to enjoy all the benefits of their race, and no cost for it. Level limits may be exceeded by single-class characters, who can go up 2 extra levels , if their class was available for multiclassing. Also, if your main attribute is high, that can add potential levels. And by high stat, we mean, 17, 18, maybe 21 or 22. Subraces Gray dwarves are also known at the duergar, previously presented as an evil race. They have some of the same bonuses as dwarves, but also are immune to illusions and non-natural poisons. They're also twice as likely to be psionic. It's sounding like a sweet deal, but they also suffer penalties in sunlight. Elves Gray elves are not an evil race like the duergar. Instead, they're identical in game rules to the standard high elf, except they also get +1 to intelligence. I guess it's convenient, you don't have to try and gauge which abilities are better. Flat out, gray elves are better than high elves. Not by much, but a free +1 intelligence is still something more. They are rarer than high elves Wood elves aka sylvan, are closer to balanced. They get the high elf suite, can talk with burrowing mammals, but that's the only language beyond common and elven. They get a +1 to strength (up to 18, other stat modifiers can exceed the limit, but strength stops at 18 for PC races), which is countered by a -1 to intelligence. Wild elves aka gurgach, are xenophobic, so of course perfect to offer up for a game where you join an adventuring party. Again, the high elf suite of abilities, although only elvish for languages (and maybe some common for PCs). They get +2 to strength (limited to 18) but don't appear to have any penalty . They also get to act as though they have animal friendship running when talking with woodland creatures, and have a 90% chance to set pits, snares, and natural traps (and now you're wondering the chance that other characters have to set these, or what these do, or any rules beyond this percentage. Tough, AD&D isn't answering your questions). Valley elves (like, oh my god) are pretty much gray elves that live in the Valley of the Mage, a place in the Greyhawk campaign setting. They can do all the things a gray elf can do (although more limited in class selection), plus gaining gnomish to converse with their neighbors. Why this needed its own entry is one of those mysteries. Dark elves aka drow, another evil race giving a PC option. They get a most of the standard elven kit. While drow out in the wild have 50% magic resistance, PC drow lose that but do get a +2 bonus on saves vs magical effects. While retaining the elf secret door detection abilities, they also have the dwarf ability to notice new stone construction, depth underground, and other things useful in a dungeon or cave. Drow are the one race with differences between the genders (besides strength scores). Drow women have a movement of 15", while males (and everyone else who isn't a short, slow race) have 12". Drow get a number of innate spells, starting with dancing light, faerie fire, and darkness. At 4th level, they gain more, with drow women getting even more spells. The gender differences also show up in level limits, with drow women superior as clerics and fighters, but men are more inclined to magic-users. Drow don't get the high elf bonus on swords and bows. Instead, they can fight with two weapons without penalty, as long as they can wield each weapon in one hand. Two-weapon fighting was available before this, but your off-hand could only manage a dagger or hand axe, and you suffered penalties if your dex wasn't high enough. THIS, this is why Drizzt dual-wields, because he's a drow. It wouldn't be seen as a part of the ranger kit until 2nd edition. They suffer the same light penalties that gray dwarves have. Gnomes Deep gnomes or svirfneblin (the advice I remember on pronunciation was to imagine the Swedish Chef saying it. Bork bork bork!). They're another underground race, though not inherently evil, which maybe is why they take milder penalties in light. They lose out on many abilities that NPC deep gnomes would have. One that they keep is the ability to summon an earth elemental starting at 6th level. There's a 50% chance that the earth elemental will be 12 or more hit dice, up to 24. Even if not that good, you still get an 8 hit die elemental, or maybe a xorn, with just a 10% chance the conjuring fails. Next time: we start in on the classes with a high class class that might have been made while someone was high. srhall79 fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Nov 17, 2023 |
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Nov 17, 2023 11:25
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Thanks to Kaza42 for sending me the Arcanist Playtest. It looks really good, actually. I'm impressed with the improvements. More on that later, I'll probably put a post out about it today.
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Nov 17, 2023 18:23
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You have wood elves getting the half elf bonuses, is that a typo for high or are they just weird like that?
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Nov 17, 2023 19:59
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Mecha_Face posted:Thanks to Kaza42 for sending me the Arcanist Playtest. It looks really good, actually. I'm impressed with the improvements. More on that later, I'll probably put a post out about it today. I'd also love to see this - I just started a game where someone was playing an arcanist and we've had to heavily homebrew to make it feel Worth
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Nov 17, 2023 20:00
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When I was first learning D&D ages ago, one of the players could not for the life of him pronounce Svirfneblin and our plot featured a bunch of them, so he just called them Sniverbaldis. It's somehow no less nonsense.
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Nov 17, 2023 20:08
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Kurieg posted:You have wood elves getting the half elf bonuses, is that a typo for high or are they just weird like that? D'oh. High elf, fixed it.
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Nov 17, 2023 20:31
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Elves are easier to mutate than fruit flies. We should run experiments.
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Nov 17, 2023 20:35
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