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Best System for a West Marches Game?
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<blockquote data-quote="jasonbostwick" data-source="post: 5046676" data-attributes="member: 34924"><p>I've been hemming and hawing over this recently myself.</p><p></p><p>Low level 3/3.5E has the granularity that is necessary for player progression, but I would hate to DM it again. I just don't want to run a system without completely self-contained monster entries. </p><p></p><p>4E would certainly be the easiest to design encounters for, and I love how it handles monsters. I worry though about the length of time combat can take - I want to be able to have random encounters en route to a destination, but not have it take 45 minutes to kill a pair of owlbears.</p><p></p><p>In addition, lethality is a hallmark of WM style games, so I'd like a system that has quick and simple character creation. </p><p>Power selection in 4E can take some time, and if you want to print out power cards to speed up combat, it can take even more time. </p><p></p><p>I want to play my WM style game with newish players, so I want a system where they don't have to worry as much about tactical minutiae and character builds as they do about the exploration.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>One possibility I've just started looking into Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3E. </p><p>I haven't played it yet, but I got a copy for Christmas and have been looking it over. </p><p></p><p>Character progression is fairly granular, with experience used to purchase various advancements, providing a good motivation for exploration. Character creation seems fast and can be somewhat randomized.</p><p></p><p>Magic items are limited (only one is given in the core rules), meaning that treasure can be mostly monetary and randomly generated. There isn't any need for a +2 longsword to be able to hit monsters of your level.</p><p></p><p>Gridless combat means that maps of dungeons and bandit encampments only need to be roughly sketched out, saving a lot of time in prepwork. </p><p></p><p>WFRP is fairly gritty, so the threats of death and danger that Ben Robbins talks about are certainly there. Lasting, critical wounds can complicate a long foray away from town.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The major limitation seems to be the monsters.</p><p></p><p>It might be difficult to gauge the difficulty of monsters to put in each encounter area. There is no numeric level, CR, or hit dice to compare monster strength, just a rough estimate of difficulty ranging from one to six skull and crossbones.</p><p></p><p>Monsters are fairly limited in variety as well, with the core rules only containing 33 monsters across 11 'types'. If I were to set up WM style sandbox for WFRP3 play, I'd have to draw up a fair number of monsters stats myself.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Interestingly, the WFRP3 system doesn't seem to be designed for sandbox, WM style play at all. 1XP is rewarded per session (regardless of what was accomplished) and the DM's book presents adventure building from a strongly narrativist angle, with suggestions of a '3 act structure' to comprise each 'episode' of gameplay.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jasonbostwick, post: 5046676, member: 34924"] I've been hemming and hawing over this recently myself. Low level 3/3.5E has the granularity that is necessary for player progression, but I would hate to DM it again. I just don't want to run a system without completely self-contained monster entries. 4E would certainly be the easiest to design encounters for, and I love how it handles monsters. I worry though about the length of time combat can take - I want to be able to have random encounters en route to a destination, but not have it take 45 minutes to kill a pair of owlbears. In addition, lethality is a hallmark of WM style games, so I'd like a system that has quick and simple character creation. Power selection in 4E can take some time, and if you want to print out power cards to speed up combat, it can take even more time. I want to play my WM style game with newish players, so I want a system where they don't have to worry as much about tactical minutiae and character builds as they do about the exploration. One possibility I've just started looking into Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3E. I haven't played it yet, but I got a copy for Christmas and have been looking it over. Character progression is fairly granular, with experience used to purchase various advancements, providing a good motivation for exploration. Character creation seems fast and can be somewhat randomized. Magic items are limited (only one is given in the core rules), meaning that treasure can be mostly monetary and randomly generated. There isn't any need for a +2 longsword to be able to hit monsters of your level. Gridless combat means that maps of dungeons and bandit encampments only need to be roughly sketched out, saving a lot of time in prepwork. WFRP is fairly gritty, so the threats of death and danger that Ben Robbins talks about are certainly there. Lasting, critical wounds can complicate a long foray away from town. The major limitation seems to be the monsters. It might be difficult to gauge the difficulty of monsters to put in each encounter area. There is no numeric level, CR, or hit dice to compare monster strength, just a rough estimate of difficulty ranging from one to six skull and crossbones. Monsters are fairly limited in variety as well, with the core rules only containing 33 monsters across 11 'types'. If I were to set up WM style sandbox for WFRP3 play, I'd have to draw up a fair number of monsters stats myself. Interestingly, the WFRP3 system doesn't seem to be designed for sandbox, WM style play at all. 1XP is rewarded per session (regardless of what was accomplished) and the DM's book presents adventure building from a strongly narrativist angle, with suggestions of a '3 act structure' to comprise each 'episode' of gameplay. [/QUOTE]
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