Search results

The lighter character creation system of Castles and Crusades suggests (to me) that players should be easily able to maintain two characters apiece. That also allows for the odd casualty without seriously disrupting the flow of the game (as it turns into a one on one game otherwise). There are...

Grognardia is where I started with blog reading. It's got some clear flaws but it is a nice summary of many of the ideas and attitudes that seem to characterize the old school renaissance.

I am generally skeptical of discount schemes. But if yo do go this way you can probably just discount to the Amazon price and point out the customer will get the product faster than with the notoriously slow super saver shipping.

Recent Rolemaster sessions have focused on the trials and tribulations of a party of elves trying to travel through dwarf territory. Dealing with local toughs gets a lot more tricky when the local constabulary is just looking for an excuse . . .

Some of the classic AD&D monsters are absent from Castles and Crusades due to copyright issues (Mind Flayers and Beholders, for example). But one classic type of monster seems absent: demons and devils. There seems to be a couple of very minor examples in Monsters and Treasures (e.g. the Imp)...

It's true that there are a wealth of options out there but that doesn't prevent another edition that has a fresh or interesting take on the game. There are some real improvements in the later editions of the game (although I will always have a soft spot for AD&D 1E). These days I have been...

It is a good point. I think I can like the "look and feel" of Castles and Crusades and still think Paizo does a good job with Pathfinder. I subscribe to their adventure paths and have had a fun time refereeing them. The art is really good (although the font size seems a bit small to old guys...

My apologies, please substitute the word "surprise" for "initiative"; in the 4th printing this is on page 128; it is a wisdom check for surprise. Clerics and Druids are more likely to have wisdom as a prime (rogues with low wisdom are stereotypical) and to have high scores for their wisdom...

I had never actually considered this solution to the issue of the astral plane. I wonder how hard it would be to actually make Hell into an actually decent place for the afterlife. If I ever did an epic 4E campaign I might just steal this idea. I really do like the cosmology of 4E -- it has...

Does that still work after the first half dozen levels? I'd start think that an 18th level BECMI character would be a lot tougher than a 9th level AD&D character. The spells in BECMI are a lot more balanced but the raw damage would seem to overawe the opposition. . .

I think that it depends (at least a little bit) on the emphasis of the game. A game that has a complex character generation system (like late 3rd edition D&D) would be difficult to recruit players to (if everyone did not already have a copy of the rulebooks). I would also worry about damaging...

One of the things that I wish they would errata is the initiative rules for some of the classes: I think that rogues and rangers should add their level to their initiative rolls. That way clerics don't end up with the best initiative rolls for all encounters (it becomes high level rogues and...

DaveMage: Sure; you are welcome to borrow them as well if you wanted to glance over them in detail.

I thought Bioware did a very good job of implementing a very faithful adaption of 2nd edition AD&D in the Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 games (well, with the possible exception of Throne of Bhaal). So a class based system seemed to doable. That said, 3rd edition dungeons and dragons was...

Nor am I. The first glance at the CKG seems to confirm what I epxected when I purchased the product: some really good ideas but some grim text as well (the winner, so far, was a very confusing sentance about WWI ace fighter pilots -- the idea was neat but the execution really required...

I think we can agree that we have different opinions of the TrollLord games products. I rather like C&C as an interesting take on the game. I agree that the writing has issues but I would also argue that Paizo has some of the best production quality out there. Many companies would suffer by...

This seems to be an odd qay to enjoy a game unless the game is to have a group of normal people become heros despite their flaws. Maybe the archer left civilized life for a reason?

I do think Pathfinder and Castles and Crusades have different business models as the Pathfinder SRD is pretty complete and available online. I think Paizo is trying to sell a system (which they support with subscriptions) whereas TrollLord is trying to sell gaming books. That said, the price...

From my view, this is the best advice so far. Do note that to make this strategy work you need to have a realistic idea of what all of your costs are going to be like. In particular, employees seem to be a major issue for many gaming stories . . .