Finally, the review that I promised last week. First this is one heft book. The basics are simple. It’s the 3.5 rules reworked into the World of Darkness. So the basic mechanics are pretty much well known and not very revolutionary (except for the magic but more on that later).
Let’s start with characters. Other than the basics, characters have a type and a focus. First, there’s Type. This is meat. Gone are classes. Instead you chose from Awakened, Mage, Vampire, Werewolf or Demon. You get all your neat supernatural tricks here. The one that merits the most examination is the Awakened. You’re basically a mortal. No nifty magical tricks but you did get tons of feats and massive skill points. You get a few other mostly defensive tricks and that’s about it. I’m not sure how well they’ll stack up against the supernatural types. In my opinion, they could use a few other tricks.
Now there’s focus. This probably the one thing that I really don’t like. Players can choose a focus at each level. They get a stat bonus and this defines what are class skills. Whenever the focus is changed the stat bonus is changed and class skills change. It just seems that this is too much bother and for a modern game I really don’t like the concept of class skills. It ain’t D&D, it just uses the same rules.
There some improvements on the feat front as well. First, the supernaturals get their special abilities similarly to feats. Every few levels, characters gain a new trick. Pretty cool and looks like it keeps thing pretty much balanced. I do like what was done with the usual feats like Armor Proficiency. No more light, medium and heavy. Just Armor Proficiency. And now there’s just Exotic Weapons Proficiency. There are,of course, the usual feats to give you those extra maneuvers in combat.
The magic system is the real gem of this baby. It’s the one thing that just about everyone is talking about. So the basic fuel for spells is called Components. Mages get a pile of these to fuel their spells. To cast a spell it is a simple Spellcraft check. The DC is equal to the number of Components in the spell. After a few spells, the Exhaustion Rating kicks in making it more difficult to cast spells. There are a whole slew of charts giving the Component costs for various effects. From that you make whatever spell you need on the fly. Pretty cool. It’s kind of complicated so it may bog down the game until folks get used to it.
Now, I’m not that crazy about the fluff. The whole post apocalyptic thing is a bit over done but it wouldn’t be difficult to port this to your own background or even use the core World of Darkness setting.
Overall, it’s pretty good. I think the best thing about it is that there’s finally a decent urban fantasy/horror game out there for d20 players.
Monte Cook’s World of Darkness
The dust has settled a bit after the big announcement. So I spent some time composing myself and surfing through various forums trying to separate rumor from fact. What did I learn? Too many rumors and not enough facts. But there seem to be about four different camps to this debate.
First, we have the “OMFG, you assholes just want money! I spent $1,000 on 3.5 stuff”. Get over it. Over four years or so that averages about $20 a month. Some people spend that much just on toilet paper. So what they’re trying to make money. They are a BUSINESS. If game companies didn’t release new editions now and then we would get stuck with a bunch crappy supplements. Let’s face it. I wish PC’s advanced that slowly. But then I bet those guys are still using Windows 95.
Second, “They’re making it an MMO!” Relax dude. It’s not going to an MMO. There’s just going to an on line community and component. No idea how much that bad boy is going to cost but it’s becoming an MMO. But I will admit that it seems like they are being “inspired” by World of Warcraft when it comes to party roles. Tank, Healer, Blaster and Striker. We’ll just have to see what they release in the future. But just look at Star Wars Saga and Book of Nine Swords. WOTC is freely admitting that these were testing grounds for some of the new ideas in 4th Edition.
Third, “I will never change.” OK whatever. Not much you can really say to that.
Fourth, “Let’s wait and see.” That’s pretty much where I stand right now. I want to see more. I’m interested. There are many great ideas in Saga that makes the D20 system work smoother.
Now, on to Gleemax. I was really interested in this and I’ll still probably create a profile but I won’t be doing a lot of posting. I read the Terms of Use.
WTF?
“By posting or submitting any text, images, designs, video, sound, code, data, lists, or other materials or information (such User-submitted content, collectively, “User Content”) to or through a Site, including without limitation on any User profile page, you hereby irrevocably grant to Wizards, its affiliates and sublicensees, a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, non-exclusive, and fully sub-licensable license, to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such User Content (in whole or in part) in any media and to incorporate the User Content into other works in any format or medium now known or later developed. The foregoing grants shall include the right to exploit any proprietary rights in such User Content, including but not limited to rights under copyright, trademark, service mark or patent laws under any relevant jurisdiction.”
You want to give me blog then have the rights on everything I post. I don’t think so.
Don’t worry kids. Later this week, the review of McWoD! It will be much happier than this rant.
4th Edition D&D Announced
Wizards of the Coast has officially announced that 4th Edition will come out in May 2008. There will cool web thingies, quicker playing and all sorts of nifty tidbits. Later this year, they will release the preliminary stuff in the form of Wizards Presents: Races & Classes and Wizards Presents: Worlds & Monsters. Most rumors indicate that Star Wars Saga Edition and Book of Nine Swords. This sounds pretty damn except for the ton of money I’ve spent on books.
Every RPG goes through changes. It happens, it’s the nature of the hobby. But some of those rumors have me a bit worried. I shake my Magic 8 Ball and I see bad things. I see something that’s a cross between Heroquest, Pokemon and MySpace. I shudder in fear and anticipaton
The Truth About Ethan Haas
There was this site with a Flash game on it that unlocked various scratchy videos. I searched around the Internet to make some sense of it. I even spent a day play with various anagrams trying to figure out some sort of mystery.
Many folks theorized (incorrectly) that it was connected with JJ Abrams new movie. Mr Abrams came out and said that it had nothing to do with his movie but this didn’t stop folks from coming up with all sorts of conspiracy theories. Well, the cat is out of the bag and few folks are a little upset. It really doesn’t have anything to do with any movie. Not even a video game. It was for <
It looks interesting. And they seem to going with a mixed media type game. Hard copy books. Internet support including character storage and generation. More info is supposed to come out this month. We shall see.
NBC Reporter Gets Pwnd at Defcon
Never try to trick a trickster. So how does it feel to be on the other side of the camera? You know all that fear mongering. Creative editing and baiting and switching. A free press is a wonderful. We just need a more responsible press.
Why I write
I’ve talked very little about my various writing projects on the old blog so I figured it was time I said something. So why do I do it? I know there is very good chance that the stuff will never see the light of day on a book store shelf. I doubt very seriously that I will be having a book signing. But I still continue. Why?
It’s not that I have anything deep or philosophical to say. It’s not that I’m trying spread some sort of message. It’s like this. The books I read were pulps. (NO! I’m not that old!) I fell in love with that feeling of high adventure and slightly off kilter realities. Those books were entertaining. They were fun and I guess formed so much of personality and tastes in entertainment.
So here I am now, writing again after a long hiatus. Do I want to get my stuff published. Hell yes. Will happen I have no idea. But I’m doing it because I enjoy it.
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