Can't wait for DMG: alternatives

[Primitive Screwhead]

My apology for not being clear. I appreciate subjective reviews.. after all reviews are about opinions. I am not looking for a details breakdown or lengthy mechanic vs mechanic comparisons.

But I am looking for reviews that I can glean a perspective from the subjectivity. Take a second look at the questions I asked:

What makes it 'not anemic' {whatever that is}. This doesn't really tell me anything about the game system as I am not sure what 'anemic' means to you.

How is it not too out there {with shades of Old ones and tech lurking at the fringes of your review}. To me having high-tech and 'Old Ones' seems pretty out there. Compared to Dungeon Crawl Classics, which I have played.. I thought DCC was pretty 'normal'

How is the system better than playing 2e? Key question here. You said that OSR games tend to pick good parts from game systems. What are the good parts you have found?

How much time is eaten at the table looking up tables for results, is it half as bad as Rolemaster? You mentioned lots of tables. Rolemaster has lots of tables as well, critical hit charts by weapon type and all that. It takes hours to run short combats.

What is the magic system like? Psionics? Ki powers? Magic systems tend to be the most varied in gaming systems. Is this a book that a spell caster would be interested in?

how distinct are the classes? You mention tons of classes. But if you have 5 'I swing a sword and cast spells' classes, what makes it worth having 5?


In short, I am asking for some details in order to join in on the idea that, as you said, ... "This post was meant to potentially spark discussion"

The sparks are dying my freind.

 

[VengerSatanis]

My apology for not being clear. I appreciate subjective reviews.. after all reviews are about opinions. I am not looking for a details breakdown or lengthy mechanic vs mechanic comparisons.

But I am looking for reviews that I can glean a perspective from the subjectivity. Take a second look at the questions I asked:

What makes it 'not anemic' {whatever that is}. This doesn't really tell me anything about the game system as I am not sure what 'anemic' means to you.

How is it not too out there {with shades of Old ones and tech lurking at the fringes of your review}. To me having high-tech and 'Old Ones' seems pretty out there. Compared to Dungeon Crawl Classics, which I have played.. I thought DCC was pretty 'normal'

How is the system better than playing 2e? Key question here. You said that OSR games tend to pick good parts from game systems. What are the good parts you have found?

How much time is eaten at the table looking up tables for results, is it half as bad as Rolemaster? You mentioned lots of tables. Rolemaster has lots of tables as well, critical hit charts by weapon type and all that. It takes hours to run short combats.

What is the magic system like? Psionics? Ki powers? Magic systems tend to be the most varied in gaming systems. Is this a book that a spell caster would be interested in?

how distinct are the classes? You mention tons of classes. But if you have 5 'I swing a sword and cast spells' classes, what makes it worth having 5?


In short, I am asking for some details in order to join in on the idea that, as you said, ... "This post was meant to potentially spark discussion"

The sparks are dying my freind.

Ok, I'll try to take on your questions as best I can...

"Not anemic". Unfortunately, I'm not exactly sure what I meant when writing that. I think it may have been something like this - the author wasn't afraid to talk about devils, demons, black magic, and very home-brewed story elements that he's into. An example almost came to me but then disappeared. I don't have the book in front of me.

"Not too out there" - yes, it mentions laser guns and Old Ones but rarely. The book isn't crammed with scifi and Lovecraftian artwork like DCC.

Better than 2e? I haven't played 2e since 1993. So, I probably can't answer that very well. Whenever I play any kind of old school D&D type game, I'm always internally editing the rules so that it plays fast and loose. FH&W didn't get in my way. That's about all I can say.

No time at all is spent looking for tables. There's one critical hit and one critical fumble (just a d4). Put a bookmark in each one and there's zero table hunting.

Magic has white, grey, and black. With only one person playing a spellcaster each session, I haven't noticed anything unusual with the spells - except for a couple new ones in the black magic section. I don't remember seeing psionics anywhere. There is a "scary monk" class. It doesn't mention "ki" that I recall but works similar to the AD&D monk.

There's about 2 or 3 classes for each specific type: Thief, Mage, Warrior, Cleric/Monk, Druid, Ranger, Barbarian, Bard, etc.

I'm afraid the conversational sparks died when this thread was moved to the OSR ghetto from the 5e board. Above discussing FH&W, my original goal was to get 5e fans to start thinking about (or just paying attention to) the OSR.

Regardless, I hope that I clarified a few things for you.

VS

 

[fjw70]

if your target audience is 5e fans then maybe do a new thread that compares and contrasts FH&W to 5e. I would be interest in reading that.