Darkness & Dread vs. Heroes of Horror

Aus_Snow · Nov 23, 2005

satori01 said:
I know I should listen to what my mother always said about not being able to say something nice about something, but I have to mention something.

I have participated at ENworld since it inception, since when it was Eric's alone. I have seen many a discussion get a bit heated, I have seen threads spin wildly out of control.

I frankly can not remember a poster go out of their way to out of hand dismiss anothers points, to cry foul, and be blind to the manner in which they are acting. Kudos to you Aus Snow, you get the Ruin Explorer prize for slavish devotion to arguing a person and not the point.

Sorry, I threw that in there, but when one see injustice and all...

That is entirely incorrect, to put it nicely.

I am sorry you feel that way, for all that it's probably not worth anything to you.

I'm tired of addressing actual wrongdoings on this thread, and having 'old-school posters' try to pass off their blatant hypocrisy as reason. Yours is by far the worst example so far. Kudos (I suppose) to you, the rudest and least informed of all posters I've had to deal with on *any* messageboard. That's *quite* some feat, as I'm sure you're aware.

Fortunately, not everyone else thinks as you do.

Peace all, out.

Psion · Nov 23, 2005

Crothian said:
Is the book more oriented for DM's or players?

Well, as is often the case with WotC books these days, it pays measurable homage to both. But I'd probably have to err on the side of calling it a GM oriented book; though it does have some character options suitable for players, many of them are more suitable for NPCs, and it has campaign and villain construction advice and rules variants (side note: I may have mentioned this before, but I love the ressurection variants) to boot.

Crothian · Nov 23, 2005

Psion said:
(side note: I may have mentioned this before, but I love the ressurection variants) to boot.

Ressurection variants? What are these? I am intrigued.

Psion · Nov 23, 2005

Crothian said:
Ressurection variants? What are these? I am intrigued.

Okay.

There is a short section of variants on death and ressurection, including curt variants such as "no ressurection magic" or making ressurection more difficult (which I am always in favor of). But the variant that appeals to me on sheer flavor is the "coming back wrong" variant. Returning the dead to life requires a spellcraft or knowledge (religion) check. Failure earns you a roll on the ressurection mishap table.

Some entries on this table are merely behavior quirks that the character gains. Others are more severe, like changing feats or multiple personality from a past life to being stalked by a shadow creature that wants to reclaim you...

mhacdebhandia · Nov 23, 2005

Crothian said:
Is the book more oriented for DM's or players?

The first four chapters are solely oriented towards DMs: Dread Encounters, Dread Adventures, A Horror Campaign, Rules of Horror. Chapter Five contains classes, prestige classes, feats, spells, et cetera, but that's pretty much it for players.

Dinkeldog · Nov 23, 2005

I'm going to leave this open for now.

At least one poster is going to take a couple days off. Continued heat in this thread will result in more posters getting mandatory vacations.

Should any misunderstand, the proper response to someone else being offensive is not to respond in kind, but to report the thread to the moderators and let us deal with it. Definitely the wrong response is to continue to respond in kind after one of the moderators (or an admin, at that) has asked you to cease and desist.

One of the most valuable skills for posters at ENWorld is the ability to disagree politely. If you feel you lack those skills, then look around and see how other posters handle themselves.

Gez · Nov 23, 2005

Psion said:
being stalked by a shadow creature that wants to reclaim you...

Very Earthseaesque.

Algolei · Nov 24, 2005

Dinkeldog said:
One of the most valuable skills for posters at ENWorld is the ability to disagree politely.

Or at least throw the occasional pie.

Gez · Nov 24, 2005

A p... p... pie? Thrown? You throw poor, innocent pies!?

I knew this thread was about dreadful dark horror, but still, this is a bit too extreme. What have those pies done to you to deserve such an inhumane fate?

Sigurd · Nov 24, 2005

Darkness & Dread

I haven't looked at heroes and horror at all.

I'm impressed with Darkness & Dread.

My overall impression is that it has a list of thoughtful, mostly power reduced, d20 classes that would function well in a lovecraftian\gothic horror setting. It has some discussion about the role of standard characters in horror as well.

It introduces a game mechanic surrounding fear and insanity. It assigns a fear number to a slew of creatures and talks of the effects on the players.

It has a selection of Black magic and fobidden magic feats and ablities that seem very appropriate.

It has some broad outlines of classic game genres and settings as well as some monsters and a template for "godlings". The principle setting presented is a town called 'Northwall' that seems well written.

Gamewise: The 'Use Me' appeal. Like some of FFG's better material this is a very useful book without some of the production values of a WOTC offering. The character classes are way useful if you need to populate a low level adventure with NPC's. If you believe the Warrior and Commoner classes are useful you will love the new classes. The Godling and the other horror monsters have a very Robert E Howard feel to them - frightful and not explaining much of their origins. The fear factor is a well thought out mechanic that is very reminiscent, imho, of the san rolls from Call of Cthulu. I like the mechanic but haven't had a chance to test it.

I hadn't looked very carefully at this book but I will use it a lot I think. I don't know if players will be eager to step down their magic and divine powers for the included classes (witness the heated debate on fantasy power level above) but I think this is an excellent book.

Sigurd

Hope that helps