The adjustments to your attributes (basic wha-cha-ma-call-its) from abilities are kind of pointless. They're kind of interesting flavor, but there's very few cases in which they actually mean very much, because the bonus they give you is well within the slop of your initial choices for those scores. It's just extra complication for a small amount of flavor.
Hmm, i never found this overly complicated, and I agree it adds a flavor to the game. Not trying to argue here, but I found things like this enjoyable, and helped make making Avatars a little more fun as what you chose effected this, or that effected this in some way.
All and all I found it neat.
I don't think there's any old news to be had. I get the impression that for some people in my group, Gygax's name on something is more of a red-flag than a commendation. We all have things like that. (There are certain names that will cause me the same sort of reaction when seen on a RPG product.) Well justified or not.
In fact, I kind of felt that way about Gygax myself after my experience with Mythus. (^_^)
I think I had some of this explained to me, over at another forum. /shrug. It's not likely I'm going to let something like this turn me away from a good game. I guess it's like refusing to listening to really good music because they stand a certain way politically.
In any case, I would find LA a good system no matter who's name is written on the cover, be it Gygax, WOTC, TLG, Hasbro etc.
When I first got Essentials, I posted a long list of errata to a thread on the LA forums. Others joining in as well. The horrendous editing problems--no big deal. I only documented them to try to help the trolls out. The places where the rules were unclear--not much of a big deal either. It's a Gygax game; figure out what works for your group. Though it would be nice to know what the intention was.
But there were big things--like entire spell (...er...activation) descriptions missing. That's the kind of thing I really expect the publisher to address. Every time I've bothered to check the LA board or the trolls' site to see if they'd addressed them, I never found anything. I eventually gave up.
Which may very well keep me from bothering to pick up the "full" TLG version of LA whenever it appears.
I do have to admit that there are still a few errors in the book, but I don't' see anything as big as activatoins missing.
Ha, in any case, I guess they must of headed your call eventually, and chenged some of the problems with the books, and for that I'd like to say thanks for helping make the books more enjoayble for folks like myself, who got it latter on down the road.
No. I haven't even had a chance to run the quick start. I keep putting it out there as an option, but I've not gotten any bites yet. There's plenty of other stuff on my "to play" list, so I haven't really made an effort, though.
Eh, I'll be the first to admit that the quick start is kinda bleh. :\ and I'm emjoying things like Living the Lejend a quite bit more, and the newly acquired
They Who Watch is a pristine module, I have to say. Don't get me wrong the quick start is enough to get you an idea how things work, but it just left a beh feeling with me.
found True20 worked in a similar way: to relieve some of the same feelings, to re-ignite the love of roleplaying. . . and, funnily enough, to allow me see the good points of 3e all over again.
Sweet dude, never really played True20, but have heard some things about it and nothing bad.
picked up Dangerous Journeys in a store when it first came out (I am old, and grumpy) flicked through the rules and got extremely confused extremely quickly. Then I figured out that HP = Heroic Persona (which = PC to me). When I found the section on Dweomercraeft Castings, (that’s spells to me) I put the thing down. Your argument is flawed, because the great EGG put a bunch of new terminology into Dangerous Journeys too. That wasn’t why he was sued.
Fair enough. Like I said I'm not well traversed in the past of all this, just what I hear from here and there. Perhaps not being there for all the "issues" of the past have really let me not judge LA all that harshly because of the creator, which I'm greatful for, because I'd hat to think I was missing out on the fun I'm having now, because of it.
Thanks for the heads up, and I'll scratch that for a reason for the new terms from now on.
Well, when picking up the game I’d be much more likely to discard it because I don’t understand the jargon. ABC = Activity Block Count = (as far as I can tell - combat round)
Hehe, it's kinda funny that folks are willing to learn the ins and outs of a brand new system, how everything flows, how combat works, what goes where, a brand new campaign setting, the backgrounds of all their freind's Avatars, but if you tell them "turn=ABC" they get all flustered.
The terms never bothered me at all, to be honest, and I think they really did what Gygax, intended in my experience and that was help me realize this is a new type of RPG.
Just because I have to nitpick something... Armor as DR? Doesn't it make it so that daggers can't touch you anymore?
Good question. Nope. in LA dagger have the same max harm as any other bladed weapon, as explained above bladed weapons especially in LA are just as deadly as the next, but the game reduces the minimal amount of harm based on weapon type, due to not having to be as acurate to cause more harm.
[quoteI think the most interesting way I've heard of to make Armor as DR is Iron Heroes (IIRC) where the amount of damage reduced is random, although it adds one more roll to every successful attack.[/quote]
Does sounds interesting.
I confess this is the first time I hear about Legendary Adventures... BTW, after reading about your frustrations with 2e, 3e, C&C and in prospect with 4e I have to ask: why didn't you try OD&D?
To be honest, because LA found me first? I have read some stuff on OD&D recenetly and it does sound like a good system as well, and I imagine if I got intrerested in trying something new it would be that. Although from what I understand LA is better for campaign type play and OD&D is better for quick, one time play. (Could be wrong, as it being that I never played OD&D and just got this info off hand)
Maybe I'm too much of a spelling nerd, but I find myself put off immediately by the deliberate mis-spelling of "legendary".
Good questions and good suggestions guys.
