Riggs
First Post
I knew nichts of BCCS or Grim Tales before signing up to play Vercinius. I relied on past d20 play to fake that part and read the BCCS I bought to fathom the magic phase...
I quickly realized that while I had less limits on my casting in some regards (like the spell definition, the augmentations and the blending of spells if I chose), I had new limits that I wasn't as used to worrying about, such as casting time/prep, drain, and storing spells and minding props.
I noticed that at level 9, which I consider a relatively high level, I was looking at Magic Use skill of 17 and DC's of 45+ (Verc wasn't the primary wizard since he was part healer), and was making these largely due to prop use. In a one-off game like this, I wasn't shy about using up the props, especially the XP ones, but take away even a third of those props I used and save them and my casting for the day is curtailed significantly. Oh, and with Drain hitting you fail or succeed on the cast, it really sucks to blow the MU roll. I was tailoring my casting math to use props to all but guarantee success, but in a campaign I might need to save resources and miss more casting rolls.
Also, using the BCCS healing rules, healing is really limited since it's true to the books. One thing I noticed playing the Physician is that when Henry was drained enough to nearly match his lethal with non-lethal damage and go under; I couldn't help him at all, since healing simply turns L into N-L damage, which was worth nothing until rest time. Just a note.
One other thing I did that I found essential for a newbie was to go through and make example spells with the math behind them so I could easily ramp up or down to fit the need. For instance, I listed on a page the math for healing one person 10' away converting touch to ray for 3d6 points. I did another for a ranged burst. I frequently turned to those examples and worked out how to do less but at longer range (could I heal Myrwyn from downtown? no! ) but I worked out the math for healing all of us and soldiers a bit if we huddled close... The Enchant spell to cloud the minds of the Scythians I had worked out already and just changed variables. Two examples for each Spell Talent worked for me, and by looking at the casting time and DC for them I could guess at how bad I would be pushing things.
I still really like how wizards 'feel' in the BCCS magic system. Much like I thought of Gandalf--even though I rarely saw him "cast" anything, I knew he could dish up something frightening if he wanted to, and that aura was fun. In BCCS, any wizard can dish up one good blast of magic given time and material aid.
Aside from magic, I like the MDT and the various house meshes I have read here on that, and the battlefield events for Initiative 1's, etc. Also the degrees of equipment is cool and essential if playing only BCCS since money and magic items are lessened.
So a word about Grim Tales...let's say that I had a great time playing and didn't notice snags, hiccups, oddities or rule weirdness....so it works great I guess! Or OO just kept it really smooth for us, and he did.
I plan to run a BCCS game in the future, and will likely use mostly BCCS rules but bend ones I like less rather than combining systems...but then I might do all the 'bending' to match what I am comfortable with in d20 or D&D rulesets, so same difference as blending.
Cheers to Old One and all my fellow players for a great game and time. Would I recommend a GT/BCCS hybrid setting or play in one? Absolutely.
I quickly realized that while I had less limits on my casting in some regards (like the spell definition, the augmentations and the blending of spells if I chose), I had new limits that I wasn't as used to worrying about, such as casting time/prep, drain, and storing spells and minding props.
I noticed that at level 9, which I consider a relatively high level, I was looking at Magic Use skill of 17 and DC's of 45+ (Verc wasn't the primary wizard since he was part healer), and was making these largely due to prop use. In a one-off game like this, I wasn't shy about using up the props, especially the XP ones, but take away even a third of those props I used and save them and my casting for the day is curtailed significantly. Oh, and with Drain hitting you fail or succeed on the cast, it really sucks to blow the MU roll. I was tailoring my casting math to use props to all but guarantee success, but in a campaign I might need to save resources and miss more casting rolls.
Also, using the BCCS healing rules, healing is really limited since it's true to the books. One thing I noticed playing the Physician is that when Henry was drained enough to nearly match his lethal with non-lethal damage and go under; I couldn't help him at all, since healing simply turns L into N-L damage, which was worth nothing until rest time. Just a note.
One other thing I did that I found essential for a newbie was to go through and make example spells with the math behind them so I could easily ramp up or down to fit the need. For instance, I listed on a page the math for healing one person 10' away converting touch to ray for 3d6 points. I did another for a ranged burst. I frequently turned to those examples and worked out how to do less but at longer range (could I heal Myrwyn from downtown? no! ) but I worked out the math for healing all of us and soldiers a bit if we huddled close... The Enchant spell to cloud the minds of the Scythians I had worked out already and just changed variables. Two examples for each Spell Talent worked for me, and by looking at the casting time and DC for them I could guess at how bad I would be pushing things.
I still really like how wizards 'feel' in the BCCS magic system. Much like I thought of Gandalf--even though I rarely saw him "cast" anything, I knew he could dish up something frightening if he wanted to, and that aura was fun. In BCCS, any wizard can dish up one good blast of magic given time and material aid.
Aside from magic, I like the MDT and the various house meshes I have read here on that, and the battlefield events for Initiative 1's, etc. Also the degrees of equipment is cool and essential if playing only BCCS since money and magic items are lessened.
So a word about Grim Tales...let's say that I had a great time playing and didn't notice snags, hiccups, oddities or rule weirdness....so it works great I guess! Or OO just kept it really smooth for us, and he did.
I plan to run a BCCS game in the future, and will likely use mostly BCCS rules but bend ones I like less rather than combining systems...but then I might do all the 'bending' to match what I am comfortable with in d20 or D&D rulesets, so same difference as blending.
Cheers to Old One and all my fellow players for a great game and time. Would I recommend a GT/BCCS hybrid setting or play in one? Absolutely.