Assenpfeffer
First Post
Okay, here's what I've looked at so far, and my own initial impressions, without going into any nitty-gritty analysis of mechanics (which I'm disinclined to do until I manage to track down a copy of FoB.)
Empire - Fair to Good scalability, but scales smaller than it seems to think it does - for the needs of some (read: me,) a kingdom-level game will need to be played at this book's "Empire" level, and some of the numbers might not make sense at that level, I think. Fairly vague in a number of places, but generally clearer than S&D. Nice, clear-cut action types and what looks to be a workable system for mass combat. If there's a quick-resolution mass combat system in this book (and it's implied that there is,) I have not found it yet.
Strongholds & Dynasties - The "Strongholds" part of the book is pretty good, an excellent and comprehensive building designer. The "Dynasties" part is not so good, and couldn't be used for a Birthright-style (in which domain management is the main focus of the game,) campaign without a good deal of additional rules work and a number of assumptions on the GM's part. Scale is supposed to be determined by the GM, but the assumtions made by the designers seemed to be the scale would be small - keep and nascent barony hacked out of the wilderness small. The economics system is flat-out broken, but not, I think, unfixable. In addition, many of the modifiers (for loyalty, control and so forth,) for the various actions seem out of whack, but I'm not sure that'd be the case during play. The core of an excellent Domain Management system is present here, but the fleshing-out doesn't seem to have happened properly.
A Magical Medieval Society - Found it unexpectedly today while hunting (unsucessfully) for FoB, so I can't say too much about it yet. It appears that it's not at all what I'm looking for to run Birthright-style Struggle of Kingdoms campaigns, but it also appears that it will be very valuable to the Ars Magica game I'm currently running, or to any Harn campaign I might run in the future. It's far better and more comprehensive than HarnManor even at first glance. It also looks superior (clearer, certainly) to the Chivalry & Sorcery rules for running manors and feudal states, pending looking closely at the numbers it provides for arable land, population fed by farmed acres, and so forth.
FoB - Sounds great - No One within 50 miles of me has it. I may end up ordering it online.
Feel free to add, raise additional points, or disagree completely.
Empire - Fair to Good scalability, but scales smaller than it seems to think it does - for the needs of some (read: me,) a kingdom-level game will need to be played at this book's "Empire" level, and some of the numbers might not make sense at that level, I think. Fairly vague in a number of places, but generally clearer than S&D. Nice, clear-cut action types and what looks to be a workable system for mass combat. If there's a quick-resolution mass combat system in this book (and it's implied that there is,) I have not found it yet.
Strongholds & Dynasties - The "Strongholds" part of the book is pretty good, an excellent and comprehensive building designer. The "Dynasties" part is not so good, and couldn't be used for a Birthright-style (in which domain management is the main focus of the game,) campaign without a good deal of additional rules work and a number of assumptions on the GM's part. Scale is supposed to be determined by the GM, but the assumtions made by the designers seemed to be the scale would be small - keep and nascent barony hacked out of the wilderness small. The economics system is flat-out broken, but not, I think, unfixable. In addition, many of the modifiers (for loyalty, control and so forth,) for the various actions seem out of whack, but I'm not sure that'd be the case during play. The core of an excellent Domain Management system is present here, but the fleshing-out doesn't seem to have happened properly.
A Magical Medieval Society - Found it unexpectedly today while hunting (unsucessfully) for FoB, so I can't say too much about it yet. It appears that it's not at all what I'm looking for to run Birthright-style Struggle of Kingdoms campaigns, but it also appears that it will be very valuable to the Ars Magica game I'm currently running, or to any Harn campaign I might run in the future. It's far better and more comprehensive than HarnManor even at first glance. It also looks superior (clearer, certainly) to the Chivalry & Sorcery rules for running manors and feudal states, pending looking closely at the numbers it provides for arable land, population fed by farmed acres, and so forth.
FoB - Sounds great - No One within 50 miles of me has it. I may end up ordering it online.
Feel free to add, raise additional points, or disagree completely.