So, just saw OGL Steampunk (Mongoose) and Dragonmech (Goodman) at the FLGS. Took a while to flip through them and, as expected, they seem to cover a lot of the same ground, though in different ways. My initial impressions (remember, just skimmed a bit, read a few things that jumped out at me, looked specifically at some other things):
OGL Steampunk uses some of the good of D20 Modern, and i like the extension of talent trees into general feat trees that more than one class/race might qualify for. Buying races with background poinst, which otherwise can be used for extra feats, ability points, or other things, is very cool--didn't take the time to figure out if i think their numbers are balanced. Still think D20 Modern action points are anemic compared to Spycraft action dice. But here's the thing: i put it back down. It just utterly failed to grab me. I read a couple of class descriptions, looked at some racial and class abilities, read some magical feats, looked at the steamtech stuff, and the only part that has me even considering it is the steamtech. Dragonmech, OTOH, instantly appealed. Despite the horrible choice of titling typeface (particularly bad for the pagenumbers). OGL Steampunk seems to exhibit the worst facet of genericism: blahness. Dragonmech is just dripping with cool flavor.
But all of that is just initial impressions, so i thought i'd pop over here and see what people think. How do they compare? Tech, character stuff, magic? What are their relative strengths and weaknesses? And, while i'm at it, i may as well compare Sorcery & Steam (Fantasy Flight), since it, likewise, is trying to do roughly the same thing. Am i right? Is Dragonmech the best of these, or is it just the only one with a full-blown setting attached?
OGL Steampunk uses some of the good of D20 Modern, and i like the extension of talent trees into general feat trees that more than one class/race might qualify for. Buying races with background poinst, which otherwise can be used for extra feats, ability points, or other things, is very cool--didn't take the time to figure out if i think their numbers are balanced. Still think D20 Modern action points are anemic compared to Spycraft action dice. But here's the thing: i put it back down. It just utterly failed to grab me. I read a couple of class descriptions, looked at some racial and class abilities, read some magical feats, looked at the steamtech stuff, and the only part that has me even considering it is the steamtech. Dragonmech, OTOH, instantly appealed. Despite the horrible choice of titling typeface (particularly bad for the pagenumbers). OGL Steampunk seems to exhibit the worst facet of genericism: blahness. Dragonmech is just dripping with cool flavor.
But all of that is just initial impressions, so i thought i'd pop over here and see what people think. How do they compare? Tech, character stuff, magic? What are their relative strengths and weaknesses? And, while i'm at it, i may as well compare Sorcery & Steam (Fantasy Flight), since it, likewise, is trying to do roughly the same thing. Am i right? Is Dragonmech the best of these, or is it just the only one with a full-blown setting attached?
