Autumnal
Bruce Baugh, Writer of Fortune
I really wish Cortex worked better for me. My brain keeps turning off somewhere in the process of creating and applying dice pools. It’s not like they’re complex, I just have the kind of trouble that others do with Fate. I should give this a look, though, since sometimes things percolate through after repeated watering.Tales of Xadia (a Cortex Prime game based on the Dragon Prince series) gives me much of the same setting kicks that D&D does while not really focusing on attrition or detailed spells. I get ancient empires, conflicts between fantasy creatures, primordial dragons, magic items, various form of spell casting with esoteric fictional differences, but get to run a game that is just as focused on the emotional/social layer as the physical/exploration one. The scenarios really do a good job of backing that up.
It's not really tactical at all, but when I'm reaching for it that's part of the point.
@Thomas Shey , the above is a good roundup of things I like about D&D. See my comments to Morrus and Reynard below for some context.
Oh, I believe it. Vintage BRP stuff is fun for me, and the author of the most recent Magic World is a good friend.BRP Classic Fantasy has a very D&D like feel when we used it for a one-shot. It was actually surprising how close it felt.
Im certainly not going to argue against them at as a valid generalization, but it’s not true at all in my particular experience. The furthest I ever got from 1st level is 4th, and the only times I ever got to double-digit levels were starting from 3rd or 5th. D&D as I have been able to play it is a game of zeroes or heroes, and I’m interested in more hero-type experience.D&D’s primary core defining tropes is the zero-to-hero thing which it accomplishes via a 1-20 level progression.
If I did want to recreate the whole arc, I expect I’d do it with Fate Accelerated and focus on modifying aspects to mark progress.
I’m a big believer in solo play for getting exactly the mix you want.For the last 8 months, I've soloed BX 1981 (using OSE + Advanced OSE) to quell my D&D nostalgia symptoms. I run five characters (magic-user, fighter, cleric, thief and a ranger). I've used parts of BX and AD&D modules to create the adventures. Characters started level 3 and are now level 5 or 6. I have a few house rules, and since I'm The Soloist, no one can argue with me about my changes to the game.
That’s based on Cthulhu Dark, right? I really need to check that out.I'm a big fan of Trophy Gold for this sort of application. It's pretty rules light but was designed to fill this precise design space. I've used it run original D&D modules converted on the fly and it's been grand (although that does take some experience GMing the system). There's a great dark forest sort of setting book that goes with it called Trophy Loom that is quite brilliant. Loom entirely based highly evocative and tightly themed random tables. I would highly recommend both books, but especially TG for as an answer to the OP.
I’ve talked with friends about doing something like this for years, and would love to give it a try. Consider this an invitation to reminisce with tips.If I wanted kitchen sink high fantasy adventure with competent to powerful heroes I would likely use Mutants and Masterminds or Hero (depending on how fiddly I wanted to get; I have run "high level D&D" with M&M before and it works great).