AU - first impressions?

[jester47]

This book completely meets my expectations.

Thats why I am not buying it. It is too far from what I like and what I expect. Some of the stuff in there is just brilliant. The classes especially. But I will never use them. Right now I am trying to get to the point where I have less books to reference at the table, and since the book is sar far in left field I feel I would have to do more work to make sure everything fits with it.

I look at this work as a collector of Baroque art would look at a Picasso. I can appreciate the talent and the mastery and I can acknowledge that the work is a good one. But I will never buy it.

Aaron.

 

[Maraxle]

In his Design Diary at GenCon, Monte said that technically the whole book is OGC, but you have to apply for a special liscense (which is free, you just have to ask first) in order to use the whole book as OGC.

I'm sorry, but I think you might be mistaken. You can't put special restrictions on OGC. That's the point of the Open Gaming License.

 

[EricNoah]

Monte's got a mix of open and closed material, as usual.

However, "Malhavoc Press invites you to inquire about our free limited license to use the Product Identity material from AU in your products." So that's more like an AU version of the D20 license agreement than anything.

 

[Macbeth]

I have not read AU yet, but I do not believe it to be "different just to be diffrent" it is an alternate PHB set up not just to be different, but to be an example of adding flavor to everything from races to base classes to spells. The PHB trys to stay away from implying to much about a setting, and at that it succeds, but AU is a PHB with heavy flavor, an advanced PHB that assumes you have used all the standard classes, and that now you may want something with a unique twist built in. For example, AU includes a vaguely druid like class called the greenbond. The greenbond is not "different just to be different" it takes aspects of the campaign and reflects them in the class. If this was just to be different, he Monte Cook could have created any number of variant druids, but the greenbond is uniquely adapted to AU. I think that the differences in AU are perfectly justifiable.

 

[Kevin O'Reilly]

I will undoutably have to pick this up...

but; little concerned on the setting, not a big fan of hero points - my games don't assume the characters are heroes and "get to break the rules"... and a I'm interested to see how the "giant" class plays out.

I know where points from other games, but the combat system in D+D is not really fatal for high level characters...only high level characters with poor judgement.

The magic system interests me, alot. Anyone any idea when Monte is releasing the pdfs?

 

[EricNoah]

PDFs go on sale Aug 7th I believe.

 

[Tuerny]

I will undoutably have to pick this up...

but; little concerned on the setting, not a big fan of hero points - my games don't assume the characters are heroes and "get to break the rules"... and a I'm interested to see how the "giant" class plays out.

I know where points from other games, but the combat system in D+D is not really fatal for high level characters...only high level characters with poor judgement.

The magic system interests me, alot. Anyone any idea when Monte is releasing the pdfs?

Hero points are largely optional. Its entirely up to the DM to decide when and where he is giving them out. So if the DM decides he isn't giving them out then they aren't used.

There is a .pdf that describes the giant on Monte Cook's web page.

The other .pdfs are supposed to be released next month.

 

[thundershot]

I've been playing some BESM d20 and those characters seem a lot more powerful to me. What's your take on it thundershot?

Ah, basically I take them one attribute at a time, conversion wise. The player tells me what he/she's interesting in ahead of time, so I can look it over and determine what needs changed. The big one has been Speed and Flight. I use +10 ft. for each rank of speed, and I made a new chart for Flight.

Um... but I don't want to hijack this thread, so I'll leave it at that for now. ;D

As for AU, what seem to be the biggest problems in using it for a regular d20 game?



Chris

 

[Barcode]

Barcode,

I think Monte has anticipated your complaint, that you are paying for a lot of core mechanics, and so a large percentage of the original material in the AU book will be released as 3 pdf's over the next few weeks. I think one is about the fighter types, the second one about magic, and I forget the third one (reliability of what the PDF's have: low, but the info's out there). So, if you just want to get your hands on the spell system and related stuff, you can just buy that PDF.

Good to know. Thanks. Anyone want a gently used copy of AU?

Nah, I'll probably keep it on the shelf for ideas, though I suspect mixing in most elements into an otherwise straight 3.0/3.5 game would be difficult without some nerfing. As I said before, I liked the races, and I might use some elements of the magic rules in my houseruled magic system for my D20 Modern/Urban Arcana game. I also liked the hero points, and will probably use them as is. I can't say much about the classes, since I didn't read them carefully yet, but they did not seem at first glance to be generic enough to use outside the context of a Diamond Throne campaign without also using a couple of the 3.x classes.

While I am edified by Ray Silver's point by point denigration of my impressions, which I believe were expressly solicited, I must reiterate my feeling that the major problem with this book is that too much of it is old news. When presented in the same format and price as say, the Books of Eldritch Might, as I assume the PDF's will be, it will be a fine enough buy.

I find the publisher's argument that they are saving us from having to lug around our PHB's to be somewhat specious. I would suspect it is a rare table that will play without a PHB of one version or another, and they are in fact asking you and I to lug around a bigger book of AU variants, with a B&W printed copy of the 3.0 SRD mixed in to fluff up the page count.

My advice would be to buy the AU hardcover if you want to give Monte or your FLGS some extra money. I suspect the better value for most folks is down the PDF route. The new stuff is very deliberately different and reasonably interesting, but I can't say it lives up to the hype.

 

[Tuerny]

I find the publisher's argument that they are saving us from having to lug around our PHB's to be somewhat specious. I would suspect it is a rare table that will play without a PHB of one version or another, and they are in fact asking you and I to lug around a bigger book of AU variants, with a B&W printed copy of the 3.0 SRD mixed in to fluff up the page count.

My group will be one of those rare tables.