Grim Tales- Worth it?

[Henry]

Like others have said, Grim Tales is more of a "model kit" than a "complete game." When I say this, the building of a character (abilities, feats, skills, talents, etc.) is all there; however, equipment, spell lists, wealth systems, cyberware, firearms, etc. All these are designed in such a way that a few examples are presented, and then formulae to build your own is presented. You can, like a modeling kit with plastic trees full of parts, build it all yourself from ground up; or, you can (like using pre-colored and pre-done stickers with a model) use other sources to add in. It may not be perfectly balanced to do the latter, but it's close enough that it won't make much difference. You can build your own weapons, or use modern or D&D, or sidewinder, or other source; you can build your own spells, or you can steal whole-hog from D&D or other d20. You can use OGL Cybernet, or build cyberware using Wulf's rules.

That's the appeal to many people here in a nutshell. Two places to look at examples of Grim Tales in play are in the Playing the game forum: Slavelords of Cydonia, and Grim Hyborian Tales. They even have associated threads where character sheets can be found.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Best D20 toolkit around IMO.

Agreed!

 

[Old One]

Best D20 toolkit around IMO.

Agree 100%. GT has become my default toolset for all things d20.

~ OO

 

[Hammerhead]

Is it worth it? Personally, I love GT and use it for a d20 game whenever I don't use D&D. It's that good. It has nice magic rules, a cool EL Calculator, a way to figure out CRs for monsters, and it collects pretty much everything you need to make nearly any character in feats and talents.

However, if I had d20 Modern, I probably wouldn't find much use for the book. d20 Modern is a good game (subdual rules nonwithstanding) and you can get nearly all of the stuff you find in GT in d20 Modern.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Not really.

I mean, GT uses the core classes of d20Modern (Strong, Fast, etc) and includes the talents from D20M ... and quite a few more. It also contains alot of class features from fantasy and other genres as talents. The feat system is very much different, especially in the realm of how firearms are handled. Same with skills.

I often use parts of one or the other ... if I'm playing a Modern game, I usually use the skill system of d20M and the firearms feats, while using GT's AP rules and horror rules, etc etc.

--fje

 

[Flynn]

However, if I had d20 Modern, I probably wouldn't find much use for the book. d20 Modern is a good game (subdual rules nonwithstanding) and you can get nearly all of the stuff you find in GT in d20 Modern.

Personally, I have both D20 Modern and Grim Tales, and I find that Grim Tales offers me a lot more than D20 Modern does. The talent trees include abilities from D&D character classes, as well as the advanced and prestige classes from D20 Modern. You no longer have to worry about prestige class "power creep" in your games. Just take the abilities you like and make them into talents or feats. GT lends itself to more types of gaming than D20 Modern does, because of its diverse talent trees. The action point system is a great improvement over D20 Modern's, by far. I could go on, but suffice it to say, it is my opinion and my experience that I enjoy using Grim Tales over D20 Modern, and owning both, I find much greater use in my GT book than my D20 Modern book. Oh course, YMMV.

Hope that helps,
Flynn

 

[Hammerhead]

I agree with all of the points listed above: Grim Tales is better than d20 Modern. However, is it worth the $35 if you already have d20 Modern?

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Personally, I have both D20 Modern and Grim Tales, and I find that Grim Tales offers me a lot more than D20 Modern does.

I'll second Flynn on this. I had both d20 Modern and Grim Tales, and I actually sold d20 Modern because I preferred GT and felt I could get by with the SRD for d20 Modern. Kept Urban Arcana and d20 Future, though, to use with GT.

Nick

 

[Flynn]

I agree with all of the points listed above: Grim Tales is better than d20 Modern. However, is it worth the $35 if you already have d20 Modern?

I felt it was, but then again, I like that style of game play. I read reviews, and then the comments of fans (and non-fans) on ENWorld. I borrowed a friend's copy, to make sure I'd like it. I got Slavelords of Cydonia via eBay, and was just amazed. After all that, I decided to pick it up at Gen Con Indy 2005.

I paid full price for it. However, there's always eBay or even FRPGames, where you can pick it up for less than cover price, if the expense is your concern. (I'd suggest D20Books also, as I got good deals with them back in the day, but I think they've left the business.)

To me, yes, Grim Tales was worth the extra $35 having already had D20 Modern. There's enough out there for you to do your own research, though, and make your own decision on that. Soon, I understand that there'll even be an SRD for the character creation sections, which should pretty much make or break it for you.

Hope that helps,
Flynn

 

[Griffonsec]

Well, stopped by the FLGS last night, and no Grim Tales They had the Slavelords book, but no main book. I guess it wasn't meant to be. I'll stop by a different store or two tonight, but it's unfortunate that it's not at any of my favorite online retailers.

Worst case I asked the store to order me a copy, but I'm not good at this whole "waiting" thing.