Grim Tales in Play?

[JoeGKushner]

As I'm clearing out a few hundred books and working on this whole Ennies thing, I'm reading through Grim Tales.

How different is it from say, D20 Modern? I haven't done a line by line comparission to d20 Modern or anything but a lot of it looks like it's quickly designed from d20 Modern's bones.

Not a bad thing mind you and I haven't come close to finishing it, but the whole character creation bit, only the twenty level difference between the core classes seems really different. Talents still resemble class abilities from standard d&d.

Am I completely off here? How does it run? What's the big difference? Have the action points been different? They've not quite the same as they are in a standard campaign.

I guess one of the things I was looking for in character creation would be appropriate rankings for the talent trees. For example, the book provides three different assumed eras (fantasy, modern and apocalyptic) but doesnt' break the talents down into those eras. I would find it a little silly for someone to bust out with the smite in a modern d20 game against an evil gangster.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

How different is it from say, D20 Modern? I haven't done a line by line comparission to d20 Modern or anything but a lot of it looks like it's quickly designed from d20 Modern's bones.

Well, I certainly wouldn't say it was quickly designed.

As for how different it is from d20 Modern, and most of the rest of your questions/concerns, it's entirely dependent on the kind of game you are running.

The sheer number of possible permutations of historical and fictional settings with various levels of "magic" really makes organizing the talent trees impractical. Can you imagine Buffy the Vampire Slayer with "Smite" or "Favored Enemy?" Pretty easily. I can also imagine that the Punisher (or a more good-aligned crusader of your choice) might smite an evil gangster. That's the GM's call to make, and it's certainly not going to break your game or your verisimilitude if you allow Smite into a very straight-up Modern game. The mechanic is fine-- rename it for flavor if you must.

What you will find (as you advance farther into the book) is that I made every attempt to separate large chunks of the most genre specific game mechanics from the "core" system-- Spellcasting, Firearms, Horror, etc.

Someone earlier pointed out to me that I made reference to the Extra Turning feat, but forgot to put it in. Such an error can be directly attributed to earlier (misguided) attempts to segregate every feat and talent along some impossible axis of "fantasy-vs.-reality" granularity.

To attempt to address your larger concerns, Grim Tales is a "core" rule system, and it should "feel" exactly how the GM wants it to feel. If you are playing a fantasy game, it will "feel" like a fantasy ruleset. If you are playing a modern game, it should "feel" modern. The rules have no feel or flavor of their own; rather they'll pick up whatever feel or flavor the GM imparts to his campaign.

Wulf

 

[JoeGKushner]

That's a good comment about a Buffy style character using a Smite Wulf. I haven't even considered it before you posted. I guess i get kind of stuck in the D&D = Fantasy and D20 = Reality. I'm probably one of those few GMs who chucks out the mystic side of D20 Modern and didn't go for that campaign setting they generated.

I guess part of what I'm looking for then, is advice on how these talents and abilities would be represented through the three eras. The Smite for example, perhaps due to its origin with the Paladin, seems to have some religious/holy context to it.

Don't like the monetary system thus far though. (Still reading!) Like how you snagged the Mooks rule from M&M and the disabled and dying rules from AU.

But have any other people played the game on the boards here? What's the experience? What genre did you emulate?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Don't like the monetary system thus far though. (Still reading!)

Well, you have two to choose from. I am not a big fan of the Wealth system, but the fact remains, it's the better choice for a "non-acquisition-based" game.

Like how you snagged the Mooks rule from M&M

Umm, no I didn't.

But it's nice to know I was close.

and the disabled and dying rules from AU.

More from the 'net really, though I was sure to credit AU.


Wulf

 

[JoeGKushner]

So no one running the Grim Tales yet? As it's still relatively new, I can dig it. I'm just trying to see what people are doing with it. Are they running pulp era games, Conan style games or d20 Modern with a twist?

 

[BryonD]

So no one running the Grim Tales yet? As it's still relatively new, I can dig it. I'm just trying to see what people are doing with it. Are they running pulp era games, Conan style games or d20 Modern with a twist?

I've just started a D20 Modern/GT game. The GT tweaks were enough to get us to move from talking about something other than D&D and actually do it.
I am running a sorta Talamasca inspired campaign with some heavy Harry Dresdon influence. So far the party has been trying to track down the source of a couple of new particularly deadly street drugs. They have learned so far that these drugs give the users some strange abilities, but also cause so pretty horrific OD effects, such as melting or spontaneous combustion. Next week they will head to the abandoned chemical plant where the evil wizard and his quasit are making the stuff.

The party consists of a Martial Arts instructor whose student got mixed up in these drugs and disappeard, a PI who was hired by the parents of that kid to find him and a member of the Talamasca-inspired group looking into the string of spontaneous human combustions.

One session in it is going very well.

We also talked about doing GT conan-style fantasy when we move back to fantasy. To early to decide what we will want to do on that yet, however.

 

[Piratecat]

I'll be running a Grim Tales western at the upcoming EN World Boston game day. I'm finding that the rules fit the genre much better than the iffily-adapted d20 Deadlands.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Well, of course I have used the rules several times myself, but didn't know if you wanted my input.

There are several folks from right here on ENworld (nemmerle, Doc Midnight, Gospog, Sagiro, just to name a few who are better known to me) who have played Grim Tales. Nemm has the distinction of having played twice (one LXG 6th level, one LXG 12th level). Here's what I've done:

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (6th level)-- An adventure with guest Gentleman James West (Wild Wild West) to save Nikola Tesla from H.G. Wells-inspired aliens. Ran this one twice, actually, with two different groups.

League (12th level)-- Just ran this one, guest Gentleman was Aleister Crowley (played by Sagiro) to showcase spellcasting. This one went very well, and though the party did not get as deep into the adventure as I hoped, there were zombies and proto-Nazis and evil occultists aplenty.

Fallout-- A post-apoc game. The PCs were lifted straight from the CRPG: Vic, Cassidy, Goris, Lenny, Marcus, and the Vault Dweller. They were investigating Brahmin mutilations-- they didn't find the lethid who were ultimately behind it, but they did get in a big ol' firefight with some mobsters who were colluding with the aliens.

Wulf

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

They have learned so far that these drugs give the users some strange abilities, but also cause so pretty horrific OD effects, such as melting or spontaneous combustion.

Ephedra?

 

[BryonD]

Ephedra?

Pretty much, I just added the Fiendish template.