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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 8537991" data-attributes="member: 8461">And now we come to the book that everyone holds up as the epitome of the "Option" line: <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16863/Players-Option--Skills--Power-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Player's Option: Skills & Powers</a>. More so than any other title in this particular series, this book introduces changes and options that go to the very heart of the game. Strap yourselves in folks, this is going to be a wild ride.But before we go into what's here, I feel the need to issue some disclaimers with regard to this particular retrospective:First, I'm extremely suspicious (or "sus," as the young people call it) about the PDF copy of this that's for sale on DriveThruRPG. Specifically, I think it's a scan of the first printing of the book, which didn't incorporate <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/DnDPlayersOptionSkillsPowers2ndErrata.asp" target="_blank">the errata</a> that the second printing did. Now, while the sales page notes that the file was updated some months after being initially released, there's a comment that postdates that update by several years indicating that the file is of the first printing. Likewise, the very first point of errata (which is that the last line of the credits should be "Special Thanks: Brad Bolas") is not reflected in the storefront's preview file.I can't say for certain that the copy that's for sale now is the first printing, because I haven't bought the PDF they're selling. But if it is, that's rather inexcusable, to my mind. I mean, forget the issue of why they went with the first printing to begin with for their scan; the AD&D 2nd Edition Core Rules CR-ROM 2.0 uses the second printing of the book (I made sure to check), so why couldn't they do the same here? It's honestly disappointing.Second, I'm going to try to keep this confined to the book itself, rather than spinning off into various issues regarding "what makes D&D what it is?" When you get into issues that alter core (and Core) aspects of the game, it's easy to start getting metaphysical with regard to identity (in this case, of the game, rather than a person), and while both interesting and worthwhile, that's not what I'm trying to cover here. I will say that there's a good bit of this in Jon Peterson's excellent book <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/tracking-down-the-elusive-shift-a-review.677928/" target="_blank">The Elusive Shift</a> though, which - like everything Peterson writes - is a brilliant look back at tabletop RPGs in general and D&D in particular (except for Heroes' Feast; I'm sorry Jon, I adore your work, but lending your name to a cookbook? It's hard to see that as being anything except a quick cash-grab).So with all of that said, let's take a closer look at S&P itself.What everyone most remembers about this is the point-buy method of building characters (mostly with regard to classes, though it used this almost everywhere else as well), with sub-ability scores being the second most notable part of it. But there's actually quite a bit more here, ranging from the new take on psionics (also present in the <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17203/Dark-Sun-Campaign-Setting-Expanded-and-Revised-Edition-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">Dark Sun Campaign Setting (Expanded and Revised Edition)</a>) to alternative methods of ability score generation (among which are also point-buy options of establishing ability scores, in what I think is a first for D&D).Insofar as the sub-ability scores go...I feel like I want to like them more than I do. I mean, the idea behind them isn't without merit, it's just that once you consider the underlying philosophy long enough, you start to realize how arbitrary the entire breakdown is. Are twelve ability scores really better than six? Why not just have three (e.g. Physique, Deftness, and Discipline). The major issue then becomes why make the change if the results ultimately yield the same thing? To me, the most salient reason not to do this is familiarity/tradition, though I'll admit that excuse won't work for me in certain later sections...There's a bit of a head-scratcher for me in the racial breakdown. I don't just mean that they reintroduced the half-orc as one of the "standard" races, or even that they also slipped the half-ogre in there alongside them (the first and only time that particular race has been put upfront as one of the default options). Rather, it's the inclusion of almost all of the alternative races (with the saurials notably missing) from <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16998/PHBR10-The-Complete-Book-of-Humanoids-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank">PHBR10 The Complete Book of Humanoids</a>.Now, maybe I shouldn't have called it a "head-scratcher," since that implies I don't understand why they put these here, and I do. It's for the same reason the psionics rules this book introduced were reprinted in the aforementioned Dark Sun boxed set; nobody likes having to buy multiple books just to get everything you need to play. To that extent, reiterating things from other books saves consumers the extra charge, and saves people who like physical books from having to haul multiple volumes around. But at the same time, this still feels somewhat unnecessary; in a book about alternative rules, you'd think there'd be more of a focus on new options rather than aggregating what's appeared elsewhere.Which is when I realized, re-reading this, just how much that S&P really wanted to be a one-stop shop with regard to major alternative rules (for lack of a better term). Viewed from that angle, it's no surprise that this book collects material from other books almost as much as it invents new stuff. Races, kits, nonweapon proficiencies, weapon specialization; a lot of what's here are the "greatest hits" of AD&D 2nd Edition's variant rules.Now, that's not entirely fair; the book does put its own spin on a lot of what's here. The kits, for instance, have social ranks embedded in them now, and nonweapon proficiencies are presented alongside "traits" which subsume things such as Ambidexterty which were formerly NWPs, to name just a few of the smaller changes. So if nothing else, the book doesn't stop innovating, even when its retreading familiar ground.And then we come to the actual building of characters via Character Points.I'm going to digress for a moment in favor of a personal anecdote. "Bards on the Run" was a recurring but infrequent article in Dragon magazine back during the AD&D 2E days. Presenting gaming parodies of popular songs, I found it funny (much in the same way I find dad jokes funny now), and certain bits of pieces of those parodies have stuck with me over the years. One of which still reminds me of S&P. Specifically, when they presented the lyrics for "Can't Cast This Healin'" in issue #238, which had the following for the chorus:'Cause I can't cast this healin' any more.I've forgotten what we're down here fighting for.And if I have to call upon Great ThorAnd cast dimension door*Then I won't be here for healing anymore.Oooooooo . . .Notice that asterisk (*) there? That indicated a footnote at the bottom of the page which read "Yes, we know that clerics can't cast dimension door, but word of recall doesn't rhyme." I distinctly recall saying to myself "well, a cleric would be able to cast dimension door if they took the 'wizardly priests' option on page 57 of Skills & Powers." Looking back now, all I can think is that my younger self was nuts...dual-classing or multiclassing would have been the better option!All joking aside, this part of the book is, without question, the furthest that D&D has ever strayed from its use of character classes as a central pillar of game design. What's interesting to consider is - compared to certain other RPGs which use point-buy attributes for building PCs - the relatively conservative stance that this book takes. While it's not too surprising that levels remain intact, character classes are still here also. Instead, what you're buying are what we'd now call "class features" (though racial abilities are also purchased with Character Points, aka CPs, as well, along with NWPs and certain other aspects of a character), which are strongly segregated; your fighter can't buy thief class features unless they actually take levels as a thief, for instance. Moreover, the strictly-defined nature of each purchasable ability means that these lists are fairly restrictive in what they offer...it's no surprise that there were quite a few articles in Dragon magazine following this book's release that presented CP lists for Planescape (#235), Ravenloft (#264), Dark Sun (Annual #1), among several others.That said, I still loved this; compared to the level of customization available at the time, this was way beyond anything that mere kits offered. I mean, giving your fighter magic resistance? Entirely new thief skills? Letting divine spellcasters pick their spheres a la carte? The possibilities blew my mind.I can't quite say the same for the new wizard specializations that the book offered. Don't get me wrong, the option to be a shadow mage was cool simply for the name alone, and the song wizard always made me think of the Forgotten Realms' <a href="https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Danilo_Thann" target="_blank">Danilo Thann</a>, but the entire idea of alchemy never really grabbed me as much as it apparently did a lot of people. Likewise, the geometer (as in, uses geometry magic) seemed like an interesting niche, but left me wondering how much that really justified its existence. It would take until Spells & Magic came out for the "Option" series to really kick its spellcasting options into high gear.Lastly are the psionics. I've talked about my <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/complete-looking-back-at-the-leatherette-series-phbr-dmgr-hr-and-more.677493/post-8176726" target="_blank">love for psionics</a> before, and that was still true here, but I recall being less than enthused at having to relearn the entire system. Which wasn't to say that I disapproved of what was here; busting six disciplines down to five, making the various attack and defense modes (and the contact power) into proficiencies instead of powers unto themselves, having a MTHAC0 and MAC (where the "M" stands for "mental"), were all changes which I approved of. I just didn't like having to learn an entirely new system in order to do what was basically what I'd already been doing. But hey, this seemed like an overall upgrade in power for psionicists, so being an up-and-coming young powergamer, I liked them.Of course, at the time I somehow overlooked that the various new rules for psionics didn't integrate with the rest of the book (i.e. buying them with Character Points, sub-ability score listings, etc.), all of which were absent here. In hindsight, it's easy to see why; it made the copy-paste over to Dark Sun much easier, no doubt. But it shouldn't be surprising that there ended up being a Sage Advice column in Dragon #231.Overall, I have fond memories of S&P, mostly because I enjoyed having more possibilities at my fingertips. While I don't recall ever getting to actually use any of these, the potential alone was enough to excite my imagination. While it's tempting to look at its flaws and limitations now, within the context of AD&D 2nd Edition it still represents a huge departure from the norm, one that presents quite a few innovations (even if virtually none of them were ever seen again in D&D's future history). It's not a purchase I regret, and as much as people like to talk about its excesses and issues, I still wish I had a chance to run a game with it back in the day.Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.</blockquote>

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