Green Ronin's Advanced Players Manual?
- Thread starter Stone Dog
- Start date
Nellisir
Hero
Macbeth said:
Like it. It's not Unearthed Arcana, but it's far better than SSS's advanced book. I just printed out the Races chapter to help me configure my homebrew races (its' worth noting the races chapter was written by Robert J. Schwalb, not Skip Williams, and I REALLY REALLY hope the Advanced Race Codex incorporates this material in, as sidebars or something).
The book is an odd mix of new material and different ways of looking at the same old stuff, but never both at once. There are no new skills, just different ways of using the old ones, and all new feats with no discussion of the old ones. The classes are all new, but the only new races are the greater dwarf and half-dwarf (plus a planetouched template). No mention of new ways of using the original 6 scores, just a new Luck ability score (which might be cool; I've barely skimmed it).
The Eldritch Weaver gets my vote for most likely to cause discussion and controversy. For those who remember the "never-quite-became-official" path system of magic from Dragon magazine and Wolfgang Baur, "threads" (what the eldritch weaver weaves) are paths. In my brief reading, the two are very, very, very similar. The Eldritch Weaver is presented as a kind of wizard, but I'm going to try and work some changes and use it inplace of the sorcerer instead. Most of the "Spells" chapter is the list of spell threads and thread powers (each thread has an associated minor and major power). Each thread has between 1 and 3 spells per spell level (I think they all have 3 at 1st-3rd; cantrips are their own thread); you automatically learn a certain number of spells at each new class level selected from threads that you know; you can learn new threads by researching them or learning "warp spells", spells that belong to multiple threads.
I haven't read the mass combat system, and frankly wish it weren't in the book. I would've bought Cry Havoc if I wanted a mass combat system. (Incidently, if any scholars of the mass combat systems want to make a comparison of this one vs the Black Company one, I'd be interested in seeing it).
I'm mixed about the psychic appendix. I have the Psychic's Handbook, so this isn't new material either for me, but it's probably been upgraded to 3.5 or something. I would rather have seen it compiled and expanded with the rest of the Master Class books in some sort of Advanced Class Codex.
It was a great purchase for me. There's alot of material here that will be lifted and adapted for my "under-construction" campaign setting (which would be closer to being done if there wasn't a sudden surge of very stealable material coming out now), and the fact that it's a pdf makes it infinitely simpler to use and adapt. I don't have Cry Havok, and while I might prefer that the mass combat chapter not have made an appearance in this book, it did, I'll read it, and I very well might use it someday. Overall, 4 out of 5.
Hope that helps,
Nell.
Crothian
First Post
Macbeth said:
Hit and miss. some of the classes are cool, I might try out the luck ability at some point, and the race point system is nice. The large scale combat seems good, but I'm not a fan of large scale combats in gerneal. The feats and skills are interesting and might get used. Too many new spells though, its over a third of the book. I'll have to do agood read through of them to see which and how many I like. I hope there are some nice none combat ones. The new psychic class I like, I like the skill system for psychic it uses over the psion. The alignment system is interesting but might prove to complex for my liking.
rpghost
First Post
If nothing else, at least you guys can support a publisher who is willing to TRUST it's customers and not DRM/watermark their book. If GRR's sales are great, they'll tell others and others may join them. Esp if there is no negative effects on the print books and such. So please support GRR in their move to support RPGNow.com!
James
James
BradfordFerguson
First Post
The comment about the art just shows that there are some people who refuse to let themselves get enjoyment out of anything. They have to nitpick it to the point of them hating it.
BiggusGeekus
That's Latin for "cool"
BradfordFerguson said:
I respectfully disagree.
The art in ShadowRun and Planescape made half the setting for me. Both settings had, well, a questionable ruleset. Especially 1st edition ShadowRun.
Arcane Runes Press
First Post
frankthedm said:
Women don't wear cargo pants and long sleeved shirts on your Earth?
She looks plenty feminine to me - as a crazy guess, I'd say the drawing looks like a very stylized Nicole Lindroos. But I could be wrong.
Anyway, looks like a pretty good book, all around, though I'm not that excited by so many new spells. I don't own the psychic book, or the mass combat book, so this could be a good way to get both in one package. Nice.
Patrick Y.
BryonD
Hero
Krieg said:The inclusion of Chapter 7 & Appendix 1 bugs me a bit as I already have Cry Havoc & The Psychic's Handbook.
That alone downgrades the book from "pick up sight unseen" to "be sure to look at and then decide".
I'm in the same boat.
However, I don't mind pdfs at all, so an effective 50% off made up for that.
I'd agree with the "hit or miss" comment above. Luck and scaled alignment seem underdeveloped to me. I really like a few of the classes and others seem a bit bland. Haven't thought the feats through much. Skills section has some nice stuff, but also wastes some space on pretty obvious stuff. On first review the spells seem above average in quality.
Overall I'd give it a B or a B-. Not awesome, but I got my money's worth. Which is all you can fairly ask for in the end.
I noticed that the Advanced GM Guide says it has a "quick" mass combat system. It seems odd and somewhat disappointing that they would put Cry Havok in the Players book and then put a "quick" system in the DM book. Oh well. Other stuff hinted at in that book still sound very good so I'm 99% likely to buy it.
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