Once again Banesfinger showed up and inspired me again with his comments on the old Savage Worlds: Whiff & Ping. This got me thinking about the crunchy bits of games and who I choose what rules to use for which campaign.
Since these thoughts started with Savage Worlds, I’ll start there. I totally admit that I love Savage Worlds but I also know that it’s not the best fit for every game. Savage Worlds is great at handling big fights. The combat is quick and easy to manage. Most folks think that it’s just a pulp style game and it works great for that. You throw all the cinematic options and it can be a fun and high speed game. But it also works great if you to the opposite end of the spectrum and go total gritty. I’m talking you need to show up with three ring binder full of characters just in case. Just look to Realms of Cthuhlu to see some nasty tips on turning the screws. It can be a fast and bloody game, too.
Of course, I can’t really do this without talking about a few other games too. Yeah, Dungeons and Dragons and it’s current forms. I’m including both 4th Edition and 3.55/Pathfinder in this. Here’s the thing. As D&D has evolved it’s become it’s own genre. Yes, there are house rules and third party supplements that barely change the game when it boils down to it. It’s still pretty much the same game with its own unique feel. There’s nothing wrong with this. As a friend of mine says, “It is what it is.”
And a little on one of my new favorites. Of course, I’m talking about FATE. I’m also including it because it’s so different than Savage Worlds or D20. Fate is not tactical or minicentric. You’re not planning feat trees to optimize your character. The basic rules are very lite and lean towards narrative or story type games. Yes, you can tell stories with any game. It’s just FATE has good mechanics to encourage this and back it up.
Let’s take high fantasy, D&D’s normal genre. For Savage Worlds, you can take Hellfrost and the Fantasy Companion and there you go. A High Fantasy Campaign. Let’s use Legends of Angelerre for FATE. Now as Game Master you can create the exact same game world with each these but end with vastly different campaign atmospheres. None of them is better or worse than the others. Just different. Pick and choose what is important to you and players and run with it.
I’ve been around the game table a time or two and know that just because you love a set rules it may not be the best for the campaign. Sometimes you just have to pick which of your children are your favorite.
I promised a few more thoughts and well here they are. The Pathfinder RPG is pretty darned and cool my group has been playing since the beta test and we’re all pretty happy with it. This book turns it up to 11.
First chapter is Character Races. This is pretty neat stuff. This is alternate racial bennies based on Favored Class. Finally, something besides an extra Hit Point or Skill Point. Some the benefits are pretty powerful like human sorcerers gaining a spell. But it’s livable and a good additional option.
Next chapter the New Base Classes. If you’ve been following Paizo they released beta tests of the new classes and there have been a few changes to final versions. We’ve tested the Witch, Oracle and Inquisitor. And I think these classes did pretty well. Personally, my favorite is the Oracle. But then I’m a fan of spontaneous casters. The GM did throw us a curve ball too. He used an Alchemist as a villian. We found the encounter interesting and were thinking “What the hell is this guy?” We eventually figured it out. So, the new classes are pretty cool. We haven’t messed with the Summoner or Cavalier yet but their mechanics seem decent. Overall, more goodness.
Third Chapter is archetypes for the Core Classes. This really reminds of the kits from Second Edition (Yeah, I’ve been playing that long.) Basically, these let you customize your class even more. It boils down to this. You gain a new class ability but lose something else. In our Spelljammer, the Kender Bard has swooped down on the Court Bard. He doesn’t give us bonuses but gives the enemies penalties. Personally, my Changeling (Eberron type) Rogue/Fighter is now a Spy/Two Weapon Warrior. As a Spy, I gain a bonus to Bluff and Poison Use but lose Trap Finding and Trap Sense. The Two Weapon Warrior loses Armor Training and Weapons Training but picks up bonuses to hit, damag and AC while fighting with two weapons. Most classes got some great stuff. Rangers and Barbarians did very well. But I think sorcerers got the short end of the stick. Just some new blood lines and none of them really impressed me. I got to say this is one of the best chapters in the book.
Next up is Feats. All I can say is OMFG! Good feats abound no matter your race, class or concept. This is just awesome and there’s just too many neat things in this chapter. Let me put this way. You remember all those splat books you bought for 3.5. There were like three dozen feats in each of them but each book had only about two good feats. Imagine they took those two feats from each of those books and just put them into one book. That what it is like.
Next Chapter covers Equipment. This is lamest chapter. If you picked up the Adventurer’s Armory then your covered. Over than that nothing really grabbed my attention.
Then comes the Spells Chapter. This is pretty good but not to the level of the Feats Chapter. The spells are good and there are some that are mostly for villians. Like Cup of Dust which is basically a curse that makes you die of dehydration. Most adventuring parties won’t wait around around that long for their enemies to die. This is a solid and useful chapter.
Of course, we have to have a chapter on Prestige Classes. I never really like PrC’s, so this was just meh. But it’s there so take it as you will.
And more Magic Items, too. Most of the items presented are linked to either new feats or classes from the APG. So it’s kind of necessary. Like the Spell Chapter this is solid and useful.
And there’s some new rules, too. The main gem is more Combat Maneuvers. This adds to your list of things you can do in combat besides just “hit it”. Before we had Bull Rush, Disarm, Feint, Overrun and Trip. Now add Dirty Trick, Drag, Reposition and Steal. This should make combat much more interesting. There’s also a Hero Point system presented as an optional system. This is pretty much your usual Action Point/Karma Point/Fate Point/Bennie type system. Useful and handy if no other system suits your fancy or just need to have something that is “official”.
So that’s about it. It’s damn good book. If you’re already playing Pathfinder, you should have already picked it up. If you aren’t playing Pathfinder then heck just give it chance and then maybe pick this up.
I don’t often shill products but once in a while I hear about something that I just think is a really cool idea.
LPJ Design has this pretty neat setting for Pathfinder. It’s called Obsidian Twilight. It’s a cross between Ravenloft and Dark Sun, a post apocalyptic horror setting. It’s actually pretty cool. He’s planning on to a supplement to add the Cthulhu Mythos to the setting. It’s called A Place Beyond Hell. Like any small publisher, sometimes you need a little help to get a project from concept to consumer. Mr. Porter is doing this as a Kickstarter Project. And yes in this is a case, I have put my money where my mouth is and backed this project.
I’ve bought a bunch of his stuff; Haven: City of Violence, some d20 Modern stuff, and various other d20 products. And I’m happy with what I got. So just go and check it out.
A Place Beyond Hell Kickstarter Page
Louis Porter’s Blog
Let me get the formalities out of the way. I don’t know Louis Porter Jr. And the only connection I have with LPJ Design is they occasionally buy some ad space here. This has been an unsolicited plug for this project. I just think it’s freaking neat.
I thought that this was going to be cool. I was wrong. It’s just fantastic.
If you’re playing Pathfinder just pick this up and drop every one of your old 3.5 splat books. You won’t need them. I’m still trying to digest all the info that is in this book. Tweaks and new abilities for the original base classes, the new base classes, new feats, new spells, new gear, more options in combat, character traits. Like I said, Paizo crammed a ton of information in this one book. There’s something for everybody here.
Of course, the power gamers, munckins and rules lawyers will dissect it with clinical precision. For those of us who like to run with character concept and worry about plotting out feat progressions and calculating probabilities there’s plenty of options to easily build the character you want.
Yeah, I know this is short review. Just go out and get the book already. It’ll give you something to read while all the cool kids are at GenCon.
Just got the Plot Twist Deck today and it’s pretty darned sweet. If you’ve stopped by here enough you’ll know that I’m one of those story over rules guys which makes this right up my alley.
Here’s what you get. Fifty-one cards with nifty bits of inspirational artwork. Each card has a title and four plot twist seeds. Additionally, there’s one themed game mechanics option. Here’s how it works. At the beginning of a campaign each player gets one card. They get another card every time their character levels. The player can play the card to gain the mechanical benefit or play it and make an appropriate plot suggestion to the GM. The GM can accept, modify or decline the suggestion. If the suggestion is interesting enough then the GM can award the player another card. That’s basically it.
You can use this for pretty much any game. The plot seeds may have to be adapted a very little bit to fit a particular genre or setting but overall they are pretty generic. They’re designed that way to give some free form cooperative storytelling opportunities. Many of the mechanical benefits would need to be tweaked if you’re using something other than a d20 based game. A +10 bonus to Perception really wouldn’t make much sense in a FATE or Savage Worlds game. But it would work fine for any 3.5 game (of course), 4th Edition, Stars Saga Edition or even one of the retro-clones.
This is neat and simple little product but I think it’s going to add so much to our games. Now, they might be a pain if you’re running with a large party and everyone tries to go off on their own sub-plots but a group of around 4 to 5 or less, this could make things interesting.
Wow, haven’t done that in a long time. We wrapped up the Council of Thieves campaign last night and it pretty much took all night.
Things got a little bogged down and one of the players was running late due to family commitments. But we survived barely. Things got out of hand a couple times and by the end everybody was punch drunk. I think we’re getting too old to do things like this. This was a pretty good adventure path. We did have a fairly social party and that made some encounters easier.
Next week begins the homebrewed Spalljammer campaign. As I mentioned earlier, we going to have an interesting party. A Kender bard, a beholder, a warforged crusader, a changeling rogue, a goblin druid and I’m not sure of the other player. But that’s the plan. Right now. still operating on only a few hours of sleep and getting the old gaming bag re-equipped for the new campaign. Now time to grab a nap and get all those little project done for next week.
As you can tell by rambling rant, the brain still sleeps.
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