Messageboard Golem
First Post
In Brief
From the earliest days of Superhero 2044, D&D has consistently defeated attempts to adapt it for use as a Superhero role-playing game. Whether it's the first, second or third edition, the D20 System contains subtle elements which defy the conventions of Superhero gaming. Over the past few years there has been an explosive growth of D20-based superhero systems, but virtually all of them have to adapt the system so heavily that it becomes another sort of game altogether. Mutants and Masterminds, Godlike (the d20 edition) and 4 Color are all fine systems, elegantly worked out in elegant detail, but none of them actually feel like D&D. Out of the few attempts to make a class/race/level based system, Deeds Not Words is the best. It does a magnificent job of capturing the full breadth of superhero adventuring, yet it is clearly and solidly grounded in the existing d20 3E .system.
The Basics:
Deeds Not Words is a class/level based d20 superhero game, available only in Adobe Acrobat format. It is huge, more than 200 pages in length, and it has to be. The author's approach is to meticulously work out level progressions for every conceivable type of superhero and then assign them as Classes, carefully balancing their powers and abilities against one another. It's an incredibly daunting, labor-intensive way to do the job, and he does it meticulously. Superpowers are basically jumped-up feats or class abilities. They fit surprisingly well into the existing framework of d20 rules, and each one has been crafted with evident care.
This system departs as little as possible from the standard rules, and requires you to learn an absolute minimum of new stuff. All the familiar concepts are there, just tweaked a little to make them more suitable for 20th Century heroic play. Running a battle in Deeds Not Words doesn't feel like a Champions fight, it feels like an AD&D battle with superpowers.
There is no standard superhero universe o continuity for Deeds Not Words, nor are there any published adventures for the system. There are reasonably priced sourcebooks which contain villains, villain groups, organizations, etc. These sourcebooks are always constructed with the aim of showing the DM how to build their own villains, organizations, etc. although the material in them is always perfectly usable "out of the box"
Although there is no "Deeds Not Words Universe" there is a strong feeling of continuity between the various published works, which all integrate well and are very consistent in tone. This is hardly surprising-this scrappy little game company consists of one guy with a copy of Adobe Acrobat and some time on his hands. For an outfit with so little access to the traditional channels of distribution (even Green Ronin is huge by comparison) Cryptosnark Games has done remarkably well for itself with their one lone product, owing largely to the quality of the work.
The Things I Liked: A copy of Deeds Not Words will cost you $10, which is astonishing for a work of this length and quality. The supplements all cost around $5, and all the ones I've seen weigh in at more than 100 pages.
There is very little puff material in the text. It's all jam-packed with rules and examples. We get clearly thought out game mechanics, rather than the back-story of some lame, fake comic-book continuity which never even existed in the comics.
The writing style is funny and cordial, clear and literate. The author has a sense of humor about himself and the genre, but also knows how to write clear, cogent expository prose. The text is very clean, very free of typos and grammatical errors. The author has wit and style, but never lets them get in the way when it's time to show us how the system works. It isn't stiff and awkward like Mutants and Masterminds, or sloppy and loose like Vigilance. It's just right.
The system itself is extremely well-balanced A character's level is much more important than their specific superpowers in determining the outcome of a fight (assuming they fight well and use their powers to their best advantage), which is as it should be..
I have sometimes wondered what the point is in coming up with a d20 superhero game that has to invent so many new rules that it's barely even d20 anymore. Make no mistake, I like Mutants and Masterminds (a lot). But it's only vaguely a d20 game, and plays more like a stripped down version of Champions than anything else. Deeds Not Words manages to have it both ways. It is clearly, definitely the old D&D engine we all know and love, but with the parts that don't work for superhero gaming smoothed off.
It also appeals to me that such a tiny company is trying so hard and doing so well, relying almost exclusively on the strength of the product rather than the skill of some publicist. Surely something this good deserves to flourish on its own merits.
The Things I Didn't Like: I accept and understand that Cryptosnark doesn't have a lot of resources. That's actually part of its charm. But from a strictly objective standpoint, I can't help but ppoint out that this book doesn't have a lot of illustrations. What artwork it has is good, and not at all amateurish, but the game's creator clearly couldn't afford very much. In fact, Deeds Not Words is perhaps the first superhero game I've seen that doesn't have any superheroes on the cover.
The legal requirements for an Open Game License make the book's explanation of how to roll up character stats a little awkward. But this is WoTC's lawyers' fault, not Cryptosnark's.
In Conclusion: Deeds Not Words is the best, most thorough attempt I've seen to construct a class/level based superhero game around the d20 engine. To do this seems to have taken the author untold amounts of time and effort. This was obviously not an easy project to write. It's clearly a labor of love-the kind of thing I would have tried (and failed) to write myself if I had the skill, talent and time. Go out and grab a copy right now. You'll be grinning like a fool in no time, I promise.
From the earliest days of Superhero 2044, D&D has consistently defeated attempts to adapt it for use as a Superhero role-playing game. Whether it's the first, second or third edition, the D20 System contains subtle elements which defy the conventions of Superhero gaming. Over the past few years there has been an explosive growth of D20-based superhero systems, but virtually all of them have to adapt the system so heavily that it becomes another sort of game altogether. Mutants and Masterminds, Godlike (the d20 edition) and 4 Color are all fine systems, elegantly worked out in elegant detail, but none of them actually feel like D&D. Out of the few attempts to make a class/race/level based system, Deeds Not Words is the best. It does a magnificent job of capturing the full breadth of superhero adventuring, yet it is clearly and solidly grounded in the existing d20 3E .system.
The Basics:
Deeds Not Words is a class/level based d20 superhero game, available only in Adobe Acrobat format. It is huge, more than 200 pages in length, and it has to be. The author's approach is to meticulously work out level progressions for every conceivable type of superhero and then assign them as Classes, carefully balancing their powers and abilities against one another. It's an incredibly daunting, labor-intensive way to do the job, and he does it meticulously. Superpowers are basically jumped-up feats or class abilities. They fit surprisingly well into the existing framework of d20 rules, and each one has been crafted with evident care.
This system departs as little as possible from the standard rules, and requires you to learn an absolute minimum of new stuff. All the familiar concepts are there, just tweaked a little to make them more suitable for 20th Century heroic play. Running a battle in Deeds Not Words doesn't feel like a Champions fight, it feels like an AD&D battle with superpowers.
There is no standard superhero universe o continuity for Deeds Not Words, nor are there any published adventures for the system. There are reasonably priced sourcebooks which contain villains, villain groups, organizations, etc. These sourcebooks are always constructed with the aim of showing the DM how to build their own villains, organizations, etc. although the material in them is always perfectly usable "out of the box"
Although there is no "Deeds Not Words Universe" there is a strong feeling of continuity between the various published works, which all integrate well and are very consistent in tone. This is hardly surprising-this scrappy little game company consists of one guy with a copy of Adobe Acrobat and some time on his hands. For an outfit with so little access to the traditional channels of distribution (even Green Ronin is huge by comparison) Cryptosnark Games has done remarkably well for itself with their one lone product, owing largely to the quality of the work.
The Things I Liked: A copy of Deeds Not Words will cost you $10, which is astonishing for a work of this length and quality. The supplements all cost around $5, and all the ones I've seen weigh in at more than 100 pages.
There is very little puff material in the text. It's all jam-packed with rules and examples. We get clearly thought out game mechanics, rather than the back-story of some lame, fake comic-book continuity which never even existed in the comics.
The writing style is funny and cordial, clear and literate. The author has a sense of humor about himself and the genre, but also knows how to write clear, cogent expository prose. The text is very clean, very free of typos and grammatical errors. The author has wit and style, but never lets them get in the way when it's time to show us how the system works. It isn't stiff and awkward like Mutants and Masterminds, or sloppy and loose like Vigilance. It's just right.
The system itself is extremely well-balanced A character's level is much more important than their specific superpowers in determining the outcome of a fight (assuming they fight well and use their powers to their best advantage), which is as it should be..
I have sometimes wondered what the point is in coming up with a d20 superhero game that has to invent so many new rules that it's barely even d20 anymore. Make no mistake, I like Mutants and Masterminds (a lot). But it's only vaguely a d20 game, and plays more like a stripped down version of Champions than anything else. Deeds Not Words manages to have it both ways. It is clearly, definitely the old D&D engine we all know and love, but with the parts that don't work for superhero gaming smoothed off.
It also appeals to me that such a tiny company is trying so hard and doing so well, relying almost exclusively on the strength of the product rather than the skill of some publicist. Surely something this good deserves to flourish on its own merits.
The Things I Didn't Like: I accept and understand that Cryptosnark doesn't have a lot of resources. That's actually part of its charm. But from a strictly objective standpoint, I can't help but ppoint out that this book doesn't have a lot of illustrations. What artwork it has is good, and not at all amateurish, but the game's creator clearly couldn't afford very much. In fact, Deeds Not Words is perhaps the first superhero game I've seen that doesn't have any superheroes on the cover.
The legal requirements for an Open Game License make the book's explanation of how to roll up character stats a little awkward. But this is WoTC's lawyers' fault, not Cryptosnark's.
In Conclusion: Deeds Not Words is the best, most thorough attempt I've seen to construct a class/level based superhero game around the d20 engine. To do this seems to have taken the author untold amounts of time and effort. This was obviously not an easy project to write. It's clearly a labor of love-the kind of thing I would have tried (and failed) to write myself if I had the skill, talent and time. Go out and grab a copy right now. You'll be grinning like a fool in no time, I promise.
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