AEG Empire, how is it?

[Psion]

Hm, did the revised T20 ever come out?

I understand it's out, yes.

 

[jasamcarl]

Psion, why would you be baffled? Cry Havoc, though good, doesn't cover the kingdom managment ground at all and Empire is by all accounts of dubious quality.

 

[La Bete]

while i cant speak for Psion, I would assume the fact that FoB has been delayed/rumoured for two years is reason enough to be baffled that people are still waiting for it.

I see people still panting over it, and am somewhat startled myself.

 

[Vrylakos]

while i cant speak for Psion, I would assume the fact that FoB has been delayed/rumoured for two years is reason enough to be baffled that people are still waiting for it.

I see people still panting over it, and am somewhat startled myself.

Maybe they wanted to wait to make sure it was 3.5 compatible?

Vrylakos

 

[johnsemlak]

I understand it's out, yes.

Hm, I hadnn't heard of that...

It says here the T20 traveller's handbook has been reprinted. Is that possibly a 3.5 revision (doesn't sound like it ot me)?

http://www.rpgrealms.com/cgi-bin/catalog/pview.pl?action=view&stocknum=t200001

 

[Buttercup]

Hm, I hadnn't heard of that...

It says here the T20 traveller's handbook has been reprinted. Is that possibly a 3.5 revision (doesn't sound like it ot me)?

Having played it, I don't actually see that it merits a revision. I mean, it isn't D&D, it's more like D20 Modern.

 

[Shalewind]

Fields of Blood is a fair book, but if you are looking for something massive and sweeping, you may be out of luck. It has more crunchy bits than Empire or Cry Havoc (both of which I like), but most of this revolves around unit combat. There are good rules for domain managment (more detail but they don't work quickly). However, it isn't what I expected. I still like the product though.

Maybe they wanted to wait to make sure it was 3.5 compatible?

That was a minor part yes. Mostly it had to do with a lot of author switching.

 

[Vaxalon]

While I haven't used Empire yet, it looks workable.

Yes, it's going to take some work, but what doesn't?

I'll let you folks know what happens after I use it.

 

[Psion]

Psion, why would you be baffled?

1) I certainly have no reason to think it will be better.
2) A bird in the hand is better than almost-vaporware in the bush.

Cry Havoc, though good, doesn't cover the kingdom managment ground at all and Empire is by all accounts of dubious quality.

By all accounts?

I heard a lot of people raving about Empire (among them, Chris Aylott). You have a strange definition of "all accounts."

That said, it's up on the top of my review queue right now. Still digesting it, but so far I gotta say: the scale system, while a good idea, needs better defined. If this is going to represent the results of war in the game world, I need to know what a "city" or a "castle" represents (and it is obvious that given that population units and damage units represent different things at different scales, that cities and castles do too.)

Despite this, I have no reason to think Fields of Blood will be better. I am hearing the ad copy say things like "a complete wargame", which makes me very leery. I want a system that supports my game; when that stops being the goal, it is bound to serve less well in that capacity (instert painful flashback to the supposed "mass combat" system in the Minis Hanbook here.)

 

[Silveras]

That said, it's up on the top of my review queue right now. Still digesting it, but so far I gotta say: the scale system, while a good idea, needs better defined. If this is going to represent the results of war in the game world, I need to know what a "city" or a "castle" represents (and it is obvious that given that population units and damage units represent different things at different scales, that cities and castles do too.)

Agreed. I worked out a match-up from the Village / Town / and City at each scale to the SRD Settlement sizes.

At Barony scale, an Empire "Village" covers Thorp into Hamlet, while the Town and City are also still Hamlets. While Empire makes a distinction among the sizes, it does not map well to the SRD.

At Kingdom scale, an Empire Village is equivalent to a Village in the SRD, an Empire Town is a Small Town, and an Empire City is a Large Town.

At Empire scale, an Empire Village is a Small City, an empire Town is a Large City, and an Empire City is a Metropolis.

I think, overall, I would have preferred a more generic Small / Medium / Large settlement in Empire, with a reference on the "Scale System" to indicate what they correspond to.

This also makes, for the RPG side, the minimum settlement sizes for the upgrades look a bit silly. I can't put a Craftsman's Guild in the Village of X on Kingdom scale, but if we cut back to Barony scale the same place becomes a City and I can put one in ?

The changing scale helps keep the numbers more easily managed, but I think it suffers a lot in other ways. I'd have preferred a consistent scale all the way through.