[PR] S.T. Cooley Publishing releases the OGL-Fantasy Lite Basic Player's Guide

After several delays, S.T. Cooley Publishing is proud to announce the release of our latest product, the OGL-Fantasy Lite Basic Player's Guide. It is available for immediate purchase download at RPGNow.com by clicking on this link. A "Print-On-Demand" hard copy version is in the works and we will announce when that is completed here as well. Please note that this is for "beginning gamers" - or for those who want something to introduce "beginning gamers" to the Core system, or for those who want a simpler, faster game for themselves. It is not for the "advanced gamer" who wants more options in his game.

The product description follows:

Quicker. Easier. Streamlined.

Remember when playing fantasy role-playing games was "quick and easy?" Remember the nostalgia you first felt at playing in a game? The "kinder, simpler" rules that make the game accessible even to younger minds? When plots were simpler and the story was heroic - "protect the kingdom, slay the dragon, rescue the princess?"

Simplicity is back. While trying to introduce someone to a role-playing game can overwhelm them with options and rules, this work is designed to keep things simple and presentable. You can drop this work into the lap of an 8-10 year old who has never played RPGs before and get him an understanding of and an ability to contribute to a game, completely by the rules, in an hour or less. More experienced gamers will already be familiar with the material in this work, but may wish to use it to introduce their friends into gaming. Show them that gaming is fun!

This product is intended to bring to the table a "core" system compatible with the World's Most Famous Role-playing Game that is so simple and streamlined that you can drop it into the lap of an 8-10 year old who has never played RPGs before and get him an understanding of and an ability to contribute to a 3/3.5E game, completely by the rules (albeit with less tactics since I have deliberately excised some of the options in favor of simplicity) in an hour or less. That's a tall order, but I think it can be done.

Note that this is focused on players, not GMs, so you will need to have an experienced GM to run things, but this is very much an "introductory" product designed to get the newcomer to the game up to speed in a minimum of time and with a minimum of effort.

Cool, how easy is it to convert characters? Either direction? I have some friends that might actually prefer something a little easier. That, and it would be kind of nifty to look at down the road for my little boy as he grows up.

THis sounds like a good product, good to see you back!!

BardStephenFox said:

Cool, how easy is it to convert characters? Either direction? I have some friends that might actually prefer something a little easier. That, and it would be kind of nifty to look at down the road for my little boy as he grows up.

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To put it simply, it's a smaller subset of the "Core" rules. You can "convert" regular characters to the "Lite" version simply by removing some of the options they normally have. You convert "Lite" characters to the regular rules by adding options.

For example, the "Lite" version doesn't support multiple attacks in combat - its focus is on character levels 1-4, so BAB never goes high enough to get iterative attacks, and all Feats, fighting styles (e.g., two-weapon fighting), and so forth that give multiple attacks in a round are gone. Attacks of opportunity aren't included either. Thus, a combat round for a given character is simply, "Move/Swing" or "Swing/Move."

So to convert to "regular", you simply teach about "iterative attacks" or show how Rapid Shot works, etc.

Basically, this is the SRD rules with a lot FEWER options than usual so as to give the smallest possible chance for confusion... and allow people to easily "find" their roles. Obviously, adding more options - especially one rule at a time - is easy.

The idea is that you have characters that are 100% "Core Compatible" but you simply cut out a lot of the extra options to make game play simpler. It should take about an hour to read the book and create a character the first time through... and 15 minutes tops to create a character after that. Combat is de-complexified (is that a word?) so that each character's combat round takes only a few seconds instead of a couple of minutes. The "close in, swing your sword" variety of combat (the dullness of which hopefully de-emphasizes combat a bit).

Think the "Basic Set" in the old red box compared to "1st edition" and you're on the right track. That level of simplicity, with all of the "seeds" there to allow you master the "Lite" system quickly and easily - and to have a pretty decent handle on the "Core System" once you've mastered the "Lite" system was what I was shooting for.

Basically, get someone into RPGing without the huge learning curve of the Core Rules... and yet get them far enough along that curve so that when they tire of the limited options and reach for the "real thing," they don't have to make a big jump.

Of course, it would really help if I could knock out a Basic GM's Guide in short order, too...

--The Sigil

What else do you having coming down the pipeline?

What was your basic philosophy on simplifying the magic system?

What character classes do you have?

Crothian said:

What else do you having coming down the pipeline?

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Well, now that this is out the door, I'm going to be turning my attention to these products...

1.) Buy the Numbers - In some ways, the "reverse" of this "Lite" product... a system for "buying" your special abilities, saves, hit points, spells, etc. with XP directly, rather than using the "class & level" system. It will be (admittedly) mostly a re-shuffling of SRD material, basically with different mechanics for "how you get this" (e.g., instead of getting one Feat every three levels, you can spend your XP to "buy" as many Feats as you want - for a cost of xy where x is the total number of Feats you have and y is some constant)... you keep track of both "unspent XP" and "total XP earned" - total XP earned lets you figure out the "level equivalent" of your character, while "unspent XP" is just that - available for you to spend on stuff. In theory, a character who has earned (and spent), say, 8,000 XP will fall somewhere between a 4th (6,000 total XP) and 5th (10,000 total XP) level character in power and abilities... though this system lets you create, for instance, a crappy-saves, no-BAB, two-hit-points spellslinger with 9th level spells (the "crazy old hedge wizard who has spent 56 years locked away in his tower").

2.) The Enchiridion of Eldritch Energies - Combining descriptors and doing new and strange things with magic spells. It will probably also incorporate some heavy "magical theory" as to how magic works, why it works, and what consequences (in game terms) this can have on your world. I'll probably structure it similar to a "textbook" with several "introductory-level course" chapters followed by a couple "upper-division course" chapters that "build" on things found in the earlier chapters. I know what I want to do with it mechanically, but the execution in turning it into anything other than a horridly dry read is proving difficult.

3.) Adventure Modules! - Hal Greenberg tells me he's mentioned this in some IRC chats, so hopefully I'm not "spilling the beans" here - I am working on several adventure modules that I originally wrote and submitted to him for the Bluffside campaign setting - they got pushed to the back burner for various reasons, so I asked for them back so that I could do them... and MEG graciously agreed. They were originally submitted as "raw text" (so he could have them formatted however he wanted) so they need some cleanup, they need updating to 3.5e, and of course layout work (and looking at them after a year and a half away from them, the writing is a bit weak in some places), but it looks like we're talking six adventure modules here, and since most of the substantial writing is done, odds are good these will be the next things out of the chute... my goal is to get all of them "cleaned up" and published by the end of the year (which, given my ability to hit production deadlines, means you should see the first one in 2007 LOL).

4.) Cybernetics - Though I dislike the "Bit O' Book" trend - making just a few pages available for a buck, I have developed a pretty nice (I think) cybernetics system. This one will probably run somewhere around 16-24 pages, but I can't really justify "fluffing it up" much past that, so I'll probably release it as a "Bit O' Book." But it's not just for cybernetics in "high tech" - it can also be used to handle "animated metal arms" in a fantasy milieu (let's be honest, the game mechanics can be the same and the flavor text different - a mechanical arm and a 'human-sized steel golem arm' work about the same way from a mechanical standpoint. They're actually surprisingly easy to handle!

I expect at least some of the Adventure Modules and Cybernetics will be completed first, with the Buy the Numbers and Enchiridion of Eldritch Energies probably farthest away time-wise (in that order, too). I'm NOT saying these are even speculative release dates (we know my track record), but if I had to make a guess at what I really hope I can get out there with a lot of hard work, I'd say look for one adventure module per month starting in June and running through November, with the Cybernetics book some time in July. Buy the Numbers should be in around Thanksgiving-ish, with the Enchiridion of Eldritch Energies seeing the light of day January of next year. Realistically, it will probably take me twice as long as I think it will.

--The Sigil

tmaaas said:

What was your basic philosophy on simplifying the magic system?

What character classes do you have?

Click to expand...

Easy question first:

Classes... Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Wizard.
(Races... Human, Dwarf, Elf, Halfling.)

The philosophy on this is that for a "beginning" game you want roles to be somewhat limited and well-defined so that everyone "knows their place" quickly. Once the role-playing skills are developed somewhat, you expand the options given and allow for overlap, because people will know better how to roleplay.

It's easier to tell someone new to roleplaying, "you're a fighter, like Conan" or "you're a wizard, like Gandalf" than it is to say, "well, you can be whomever you want and then build a character around that concept." Again, for a BASIC game - with "training wheels on" - you want to limit choice somewhat so as to keep the new player from being overwhelmed. Once he's comfortable with the options given him, you give him more.

Harder question second:

My philosophy on simplifying the magic system was, "make casting spells as easy to use as attacks."

Verbal, Somatic, and Material components (with an exception or two for "costly components") went out the window immediately. Any spell with a casting time other than "standard action" went out the window immediately (again, with one or two exceptions). Now it's like the old "Boxed Set" days... you say, "I cast a spell" and that's all you need to know. Someone can try to disrupt it, of course, with a readied action (but since there are no Attacks of Opportunity, that's the only way).

The second way of making things easy was to pare down the spell selection considerably. This meant figuring out a "theme" for clerics and wizards each and sticking to it. Cleric spells chosen are "healing" and "blessing" spells - spells that enhance others' ability to affect things, but don't directly affect things themselves; wizards, OTOH, got offensive spells and "direct effect" spells.

Schools of magic and descriptors, while flavorful and in some cases useful from a game mechanic perspective, were scrapped because they didn't add enough to the "basic system" to justify their complexity.

Basically, spells now have a name, a range, a duration, and a saving throw entry, and of course a description of what they do - that's it. That makes them pretty simple to use, IMO. It satisfies the "who, what, where, when" and just enough of the "how" to work.

--The Sigil

Wow, that actually sounds like a really good idea. I have always found that the number of options just in the PHB can be overwhelming to new players, not to mention the mountain of options in the multitude of splatbooks...

The "Buy the Numbers" also sounds very interesting. The freedom in character creation is what I have always liked about GURPS, but my players didn't want to learn to use another system. Besides, I actually like many of the built in assumptions in D&D, so I'd prefer to play that. With your "Buy the Numbers" system I should get the character creation freedom i want, while it lets other players use the standard system, right?

Those Bluffside adventures sound pretty sweet too, good thing MEG let you publish them, instead of not getting them published at all.

All in all, I'd say it sounds like you're going to be pretty busy

darklight

So, how did you handle feats? Did you just take away some of the more complex feats, as with the spells, to pare things down? Or have you made feats predetermined, taking away some of the decision-making for players?

And same questions for skills.

This looks like an excellent product, and it is probably even more useful than the "basic" set that WotC has coming out. And it is more affordable.