Anyone check out Radiance RPG yet?

[Summer-Knight925]

I've been trying to figure how not to swear in this post, but I must.

So excuse my words.

But Holy ing .
This game.

I was having a bad day, read the pdf, instantly back to happy.

I'm going to get this, this looks amazing, perfect for my group, and right in the genre for us. All the races are good, as a racially diverse group is always fun (we played a game once where everyone was human, not because we needed to be, just how it ended up, wasn't that fun) and with the sheer number of class, I feel things can actually be fun and unique and never dull...at least not as fast as some games.

I like this, and I'm only at the Medicant write-up currently.
Good stuff.

 

[AncientSpirits]

I've been trying to figure how not to swear in this post, but I must.

So excuse my words.

But Holy ing .
This game.

I was having a bad day, read the pdf, instantly back to happy.

I'm going to get this, this looks amazing, perfect for my group, and right in the genre for us. All the races are good, as a racially diverse group is always fun (we played a game once where everyone was human, not because we needed to be, just how it ended up, wasn't that fun) and with the sheer number of class, I feel things can actually be fun and unique and never dull...at least not as fast as some games.

I like this, and I'm only at the Medicant write-up currently.
Good stuff.

You are most welcome .

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

I ran Radiance last night for the first time. I found my D&D for the next several years most likely as long as things don't bog down too much at higher levels.

We used 0 level PCs to learn as you go. It worked really, really well. Combat was tense and challenging but not too long or drawn out. We didn't use a battlemap (I used a piece of paper with range bands on it).

The PCs basically went primitive or tech with a somewhat hostile view towards arcane magic. I'll be writing about building a world using the rules in my rpg.net column and I'll do a review as well.

Can't wait to get my print copies.

 

[AncientSpirits]

I ran Radiance last night for the first time. I found my D&D for the next several years most likely as long as things don't bog down too much at higher levels.

We used 0 level PCs to learn as you go. It worked really, really well. Combat was tense and challenging but not too long or drawn out. We didn't use a battlemap (I used a piece of paper with range bands on it).

The PCs basically went primitive or tech with a somewhat hostile view towards arcane magic. I'll be writing about building a world using the rules in my rpg.net column and I'll do a review as well.

Can't wait to get my print copies.

thank you for sharing Kravell. Regarding your setting and experience, is this your site:

http://www.rpg.net/columns/brave/brave86.phtml

Cheers.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

thank you for sharing Kravell. Regarding your setting and experience, is this your site:

http://www.rpg.net/columns/brave/brave86.phtml

Cheers.

That is my column.

And my review is up:
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15757.phtml

 

[Option]

Wow, this is a great game packed with good stuff.

If the author is still watching over this thread, I did have a couple of question come up while reading the creature info that starts on page 245. Specifically, when looking at a creature's stats, do the skill bonus values already include the bonuses from attributes and abilities? For example, if an Ergo (lvl 1) makes an endurance check does he get a +13 to his roll or is it +21 (+13 skill +3 Attribute + 5 Base Ability)?

Also, can you give an example of what kind of situation would call for the characters to roll against the monster's generic DC? Is that just for Lore and Bypass checks?

Oh, that just brought up one more question. Is Dungeoneering the only skill used to learn things about monsters?

 

[AncientSpirits]

Wow, this is a great game packed with good stuff.

If the author is still watching over this thread, I did have a couple of question come up while reading the creature info that starts on page 245. Specifically, when looking at a creature's stats, do the skill bonus values already include the bonuses from attributes and abilities? For example, if an Ergo (lvl 1) makes an endurance check does he get a +13 to his roll or is it +21 (+13 skill +3 Attribute + 5 Base Ability)?

Also, can you give an example of what kind of situation would call for the characters to roll against the monster's generic DC? Is that just for Lore and Bypass checks?

Oh, that just brought up one more question. Is Dungeoneering the only skill used to learn things about monsters?

Hi Option!
I'm watching

For creature stats, the skills listed include all possible bonuses.

Besides Lore and Bypass, a PC might try an unusual action not covered by the rules, including non-combat actions. Players can be very inventive sometimes! That said, skill checks tend to cover most actions.

Dungeoneering is mostly good for generic information, that dragons fly, aberrations have mental powers, devils use infernal contracts, and so forth.

Certainly, when attempting a lore check, a GM is free to ask or let a PC try Arcana, Dungeoneering, History, Nature or Religion (or conceivably other skills) in lieu of d20 + 2*level. It's pretty contextual to what the PC is asking about.

The standard lore check reveals 3 specific statistics from a creature's stat block, such as "DR 4" or "Damage +6". Skill checks don't normally give that much detail as seasoned adventurers are the ones who tend to recognize these things from experience.

 

[Option]

Hi Option!
I'm watching

For creature stats, the skills listed include all possible bonuses.

Besides Lore and Bypass, a PC might try an unusual action not covered by the rules, including non-combat actions. Players can be very inventive sometimes! That said, skill checks tend to cover most actions.

Dungeoneering is mostly good for generic information, that dragons fly, aberrations have mental powers, devils use infernal contracts, and so forth.

Certainly, when attempting a lore check, a GM is free to ask or let a PC try Arcana, Dungeoneering, History, Nature or Religion (or conceivably other skills) in lieu of d20 + 2*level. It's pretty contextual to what the PC is asking about.

The standard lore check reveals 3 specific statistics from a creature's stat block, such as "DR 4" or "Damage +6". Skill checks don't normally give that much detail as seasoned adventurers are the ones who tend to recognize these things from experience.

Great, thank you for the clarification!

I noticed that one of the goals you had when creating Radiance was to reduce DM prep time and complication. With that in mind, do you have any plans to release a list of concise/abridged creature stat blocks? With the way monsters are currently laid out, it seems like it would require a lot of page flipping and page searching for a DM to run an encounter with multiple creatures. I think it would be very convenient if there was some way for the DM to copy/paste the condensed stat blocks for a few monsters onto one page.

 

[AncientSpirits]

Great, thank you for the clarification!

I noticed that one of the goals you had when creating Radiance was to reduce DM prep time and complication. With that in mind, do you have any plans to release a list of concise/abridged creature stat blocks? With the way monsters are currently laid out, it seems like it would require a lot of page flipping and page searching for a DM to run an encounter with multiple creatures. I think it would be very convenient if there was some way for the DM to copy/paste the condensed stat blocks for a few monsters onto one page.

Each creature appears on its own page, so yes, if you're running encounters with several different kinds of creatures, you either bookmark those or -- like I do -- print the ones you plan to use.

Like 4E, I put all of a creature's info on its page. So when a creature needs to grapple, the GM doesn't need to look up how grapple works, it's right there. For each creature on its own, there should be no page flipping.

That said, like 3.5, creatures has various abilities that extend beyond combat, sometimes significantly so, reflecting social role-play options.

I'm unsure how to make significantly condensed stat blocks for the creatures as given. Consider the drake, for example, beyond its basic stats, it has breath weapon and bull rush. So we can shorten the whole thing somewhat, but it's not like the dragon fits on an index card in any case. If you have an idea for how to condense further, I'm all ears >o<.

 

[Option]

Each creature appears on its own page, so yes, if you're running encounters with several different kinds of creatures, you either bookmark those or -- like I do -- print the ones you plan to use.

Like 4E, I put all of a creature's info on its page. So when a creature needs to grapple, the GM doesn't need to look up how grapple works, it's right there. For each creature on its own, there should be no page flipping.

That said, like 3.5, creatures has various abilities that extend beyond combat, sometimes significantly so, reflecting social role-play options.

I'm unsure how to make significantly condensed stat blocks for the creatures as given. Consider the drake, for example, beyond its basic stats, it has breath weapon and bull rush. So we can shorten the whole thing somewhat, but it's not like the dragon fits on an index card in any case. If you have an idea for how to condense further, I'm all ears >o<.

Well, I don't know about dragon stats as I'm looking at the player handbook but I did throw something together in Excel for the Ergo and it's variations. I would not attempt to replace your full page descriptions with these stat blocks, they are only for combat quick reference and don't make a lot of sense if you haven't first read the full creature explanation (especially the abilities)

Also, I figured it would be nice if each variation was given a full stat block of it's own to save all future DM's the trouble of manually building each variant themselves every time they use one which I imagine would be very frequent. I understand your method saves a lot a space allowing you to cram more variations into a book but what if the stat blocks were an additional download available to anyone who purchased the relevant product? If each stat block could be copy/pasted independently then DMs could gather all the monster types for a given encounter onto one page.

Full disclosure: I've never played any DnD earlier than 4e so maybe I'm just spoiled as I've never had to take time to build monsters.