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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Old One" data-source="post: 2119786" data-attributes="member: 83">Pangias,Check out this thread over on the Green Ronin Forums:<a href="http://www.greenronin.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5939" target="_blank">Actual Play</a>The parent forum for this thread - "Mythic Vistas" - has a number of BCCS threads in it.  Although I haven't run a true BCCS session yet, I am playtesting the magic and damage system for a Grim Tales/BCCS hybrid 1-shot I have coming up at an EN World game day in about a month.Here are my thoughts (in no particular order):1) Combat: Combat is deadly!  If played straight up - the suprise round, MDT/Grievous Injuries, limited magical healing and lethal to non-lethal conversion for most healing magic - make getting a sword shoved through your gut a really bad thing.  This mean strategy and tactics become much more important for long-term PC survival.  Scouting, ambush, trickery, overwhelming force brought to bear at critical points and knowing when not to fight and/or when to retreat become very important.  Playing a BCCS PC in the same manner as a typical 3.x PC - "Hey...I will fight down to 1 hit point because I have that handy-dandy heal potion or Bob the Cleric is right behind me pumping healing spells into me." - will get you killed pretty quick.This is intentional.  The BCCS is designed to capture the flavor and spirit of the books, in which, as others have noted above, characters fall with frequency to weapons, vile sorcery and just plain bad luck.  I think some of the suggestions made above make sense, like using a 2-3 deep PC tree.  Kinda like "The Company is eternal, but members come and go".  That said, if you like the ruleset, but are worried over a player revolt with too many PC deaths, change things a bit.  Ditch the infection rules, allow physicians and wizards with the Healing Talent to heal real damage, introduce magical curatives, etc.  One change I am making is "Armor as Damage Conversion".  It fits with the whole lethal/non-lethal damage approach and leads to fewer dead heros (to quote Wulf from Grim Tales).2) Magic:  This is not your daddy's D & D 3.x magic system.  I am not sure what you mean by "balanced".  If you are expecting "normal" 3.x effects at "normal" PC levels - such as a 5th level wizard hurling 5d6 lethal damage 20' radius fireballs - you will be disappointed.  This system essentially requires you to toss your preconceived 3.x notions out the window.  It is flexible, open-ended and fun to use/design once you get past the 3.x mental roadblock (which isn't easy to do <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />).I gently disagree with Khorod...the magic system works perfectly fine in the context of the BCCS setting.  If you are using typical 3.x magic as a benchmark, it comes off as a poor cousin, but does an excellent job of approximating the magic in the books.  Lower level wizards (levels 1-7 or so) are somewhat "weaker" than their 3.x counterparts, but can create some pretty impressive effects once they hit the mid-range levels (8-15).  What's more, with proper pacing, good feat selection and a bit of luck on their spell drain die rolls, they can litterly cast spells all day long.  As with combat, magic requires a significant shift in perspective from 3.x, but works very well in the BCCS system.3) DMing: I think BCCS could be a challenge for an inexperienced DM, particularly if you are relying on "published" adventures and "standard" CR/EL.  If you are shooting for a contiguous story line and PCs that last a while, you will need to be a bit more circumspect about what you throw at them and how you pace the campaign.  That said, if players insist on playing in the same "Damn the Torpedoes - Kick the Door Down" style as many do in 3.x, they will die, often and messily <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />!~ Old One</blockquote>

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