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Seas of Blood: Fantasy on the High Seas
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<blockquote data-quote="Nail" data-source="post: 2009260" data-attributes="member: 224"><p>....Okay, so others like this book. Big deal.</p><p></p><p>After reading through it a few times, I was left cold. There's good stuff in here on <em>some</em> of the game-relevant mechanics of sailing the high seas. And there are plans of ships (if crude and of only one deck). Spells, feats, Prcs, yada, yada. (Do we really need a sailor core class? Nope.)</p><p></p><p>But nothing felt particularly inspired, here. And....I can't say this enough....there was just <strong>NOT ENOUGH CRUNCHY BITS!</strong> To be clear: Flavor text and "setting th' mood" is great, but not that helpful to me, either as a player or a DM. Game mechanics stuff, "how to use this" stuff, detailed ship maps and building rules; that's the stuff I need. That's th' crunchy bits people keep talking about.</p><p></p><p>Think about it this way: Most people (like me!) are buying supplements to fit into existing campaigns. I need the structure and raw mechanisms and game-mechanics to do that. For example: How does a ship work in a fantasy setting? What do I need to know to make it act (<em>game-rules</em>) and seem (<em>game outcomes</em>) real to the players? What kinds of things might I use this ship for? Show me some stat blocks, show me some combats, show me some merchant trade set-ups. Armadas...how might those work? Give me some way to stat that stuff out: What do I need to pay attension to, and what can I leave behind or make-up on th' fly? (Think DMG town generator, for example.)</p><p></p><p>Now, to be fair, <em>Seas of Blood</em> does much of that. It just doesn't do enough of the work for me. (Yep, I'm lazy....that's why I buy the book! Otherwise I'd jus' get on-line and go into research mode. I'm a University-library regular.) The art is decent, the lay-out nice, and the content is okay.........but it jus' doesn't go th' extra mile to make it a "4" or a "5". To use it, I'll have to fill in th' blanks.</p><p></p><p>I was also more than a little dissapointed at how magic was handled. It seems people in a fantasy world with real magic and combat spells build and man ships the same way as they do in the real world. (I have the same beef with castles and fortifications on land.) I wanted to see a section like: What do non-magic-users do to protect themselves against magic-users? (you know, the flying, fire-ball casting kind your PCs like to emulate.) Covered ships? Bound dire sharks? Attack seagulls? Anything?</p><p></p><p>I'm giving this an "average" score, that is, this book does an fair job at covering it's assigned niche. But to be great: More crunchy, please!</p><p></p><p>(inside joke: Do I sound like the Hasbro Bean Counters, or what?)</p><p></p><p><span style="color: red"><strong><strong>-Nail</strong></strong></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nail, post: 2009260, member: 224"] ....Okay, so others like this book. Big deal. After reading through it a few times, I was left cold. There's good stuff in here on [i]some[/i] of the game-relevant mechanics of sailing the high seas. And there are plans of ships (if crude and of only one deck). Spells, feats, Prcs, yada, yada. (Do we really need a sailor core class? Nope.) But nothing felt particularly inspired, here. And....I can't say this enough....there was just [b]NOT ENOUGH CRUNCHY BITS![/b] To be clear: Flavor text and "setting th' mood" is great, but not that helpful to me, either as a player or a DM. Game mechanics stuff, "how to use this" stuff, detailed ship maps and building rules; that's the stuff I need. That's th' crunchy bits people keep talking about. Think about it this way: Most people (like me!) are buying supplements to fit into existing campaigns. I need the structure and raw mechanisms and game-mechanics to do that. For example: How does a ship work in a fantasy setting? What do I need to know to make it act ([i]game-rules[/i]) and seem ([i]game outcomes[/i]) real to the players? What kinds of things might I use this ship for? Show me some stat blocks, show me some combats, show me some merchant trade set-ups. Armadas...how might those work? Give me some way to stat that stuff out: What do I need to pay attension to, and what can I leave behind or make-up on th' fly? (Think DMG town generator, for example.) Now, to be fair, [i]Seas of Blood[/i] does much of that. It just doesn't do enough of the work for me. (Yep, I'm lazy....that's why I buy the book! Otherwise I'd jus' get on-line and go into research mode. I'm a University-library regular.) The art is decent, the lay-out nice, and the content is okay.........but it jus' doesn't go th' extra mile to make it a "4" or a "5". To use it, I'll have to fill in th' blanks. I was also more than a little dissapointed at how magic was handled. It seems people in a fantasy world with real magic and combat spells build and man ships the same way as they do in the real world. (I have the same beef with castles and fortifications on land.) I wanted to see a section like: What do non-magic-users do to protect themselves against magic-users? (you know, the flying, fire-ball casting kind your PCs like to emulate.) Covered ships? Bound dire sharks? Attack seagulls? Anything? I'm giving this an "average" score, that is, this book does an fair job at covering it's assigned niche. But to be great: More crunchy, please! (inside joke: Do I sound like the Hasbro Bean Counters, or what?) [color=red][b][b]-Nail[/b][/b][/color][b][/b] [/QUOTE]
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