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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Old One" data-source="post: 1794637" data-attributes="member: 83">My Thoughts...Thanks to AIM-54 and Rodrigo for chiming in...Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:Scenario DesignThe scenario was designed around 6 7th-level PCs and set in pseudo-historical Britain in 501 AD.  The Romano-British warlord, Artorius, and a small band of trusted retainers have traveled to the mist-shrouded Isle of Mons to retrieve some ancient artifact(s) to help them turn the tide against the Saxon horde.  PC line-up was:Artorius (Strong 1/Charismatic 5/Fast 1) - Party LeaderLeudonus (Strong 7) - Gallic Adventurer from the ContinentOthic (Strong 1/Tough 6) - Renegade Saxon warrior and Artorius's shield-bearerBronwyn (Smart 5/Fast 2) - Trusted agent/spy of ArtoriusCai (Tough 5/Smart 2) - Master Huntsman of ArtoriusBrother Temerius (Smart 1/Dedicated 6) - Christian priest from Constantinople and only spell-caster in the partyI had 4 mini-quests prepared, plus a climactic battle against the Saxon horde.  The 4 mini-quests where: (1) Encounter with a single, very tough creature that could be side-stepped with negotiation; (2) Encounter with an undead druid and his zombie menions; (3) Puzzle encounter where the PCs would re-assemble a statue while being tormented by sprites; and (4) The trap-filled resting place of the Holy Grail and shade of Joseph of Arimetha.As it happened, we only got through 1 & 2 and had to "hand wave" much of the final battle due to time constraints <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />!From a design standpoint, GT makes prepping encounters a breeze!  The CR to EL and EL to CR conversion mechanism is a GM's dream and almost worth the price of admission by itself.  I simply decided how hard I wanted to make each encounter, used the charts provided and went "CR shopping".  I made each encounter moderate-to-hard, but also gave the PCs a mechanism to reset hps and ability point loss between encounters (although action points did not reset).CombatI really like the "Fewer Dead Heroes" variant, using armor as damage conversion to non-lethal damage.  This would be particularly important in a setting with no or very limited supernatural healing and makes armor very important.  If I was using GT as an on-going campaign rule set (which I plan to do in the future), I might house rule the class defensive bonus by capping it at the DEX bonus worn, then allow a feat to exceed the cap.Running the combats was fairly smooth.  The first encounter included a big firbolg giant with good armor, reach and the "awesome blow" feat.  Watching the PC fly through the air like heroic golf balls was kind of fun.  Massive Damage Threshold (MDT) worked well...we had one PC (with one of the lower MDTs) get squashed and fail the check.  Fortunately, the blow knocked her out of threat range, so the pious Brother Temerius was able to save her.  I used the 1-skull version of MDT (CON + armor bonus + shield bonus) to be more forgiving.The undead druid/zombie encounter did not go as well as I would have liked (from a DM stand-point).  I forgot to use the "Fight or Flight" option as the zombies emerged from the Pond of Doom and I should have had the zombies (who outnumbered the PCs 3-to-1 in the immediate area - 1 PC ran off to engage the druid and one failed his horror check) grapple instead of flail around ineffectually.  The best part of the encounter (and funniest of the entire session) was nearly having half the party drown trying to retrieve a bronze dagger from the pond!  Rolling natural 1s on swim checks and having the GM inflict critical failures with action points is fun!  Fun for the GM, that is!MagicI echo most of the points Rodrigo made.  l would love to see a GT Magic Book, or some creator guidelines with 3-skulls for the magic system.  As far as design goes, I basically provided a utility spell and a healing spell for spell levels 0 and 1 (Light,Cure Minor Wounds, Bless and Cure Light Wounds), a utility spell at level 2 (Bull's Strength) and a 6th level utility spell designed for use in the final encounter (Wind Walk).Brother Temerius was handicapped a bit in that he only had the Magical Adept talent, without any Improved Caster talents.  I purposefully did this to gauge how difficult casting even minor spells would be and how hard it would be to hit the DC for higher level spells.  As noted above, he basically had a 50% chance of failure on 0, 1st and 2nd level spells.Unfortunately, the spell burn dice where not kind to him, so he ended up burning through ~ half his STR in the 2 mini-quests we completed, IIRC.  Since I had a "reset" mechanism between quests, this wasn't as debilitating as it would be in a normal campaign.  As discussed in another thread, if I was using the GT rule set in a more "traditional" fantasy setting, I might use a "1-skull option" to allow quicker spell burn recovery (maybe 1/hour or even prime stat bonus/hour).Action PointsBoy, Howdy...did we use these!  As others have noted, AP use was high for two reasons: (1) One-shot event and (2) LOTS of natural 1s rolled <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />!In virtually every instance, I awarded action points for failures and flubs...but that is because I am a meany <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />!  This led, literally, to half the party almost drowning the the Pool of Doom.  If I was running a regular campaign, I might be a bit more circumspect about awarding the APs to confirm critacal hits and critical skill failures against the PCs...but then again, maybe not.I actually did expand the AP usage a bit, based on some things I do in my home brew and ideas I have picked up other places.  They include:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> 1 AP to add an extra 1d6 of damage on a successful hit</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> 1 AP to activate a "Heroic Surge" if you roll a natural 20 on your initiative die.  This can only be used in conjunction with your first action.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Try something nutty.  Come up with a creative or hare-brained idea?  Ask the GM...if he says OK, spend an AP and go forth!</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Spend 2 APs to activate a "Heroic Surge"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Spend 2 APs for a re-roll</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> Spend 2 APs to add 1d6 to another player's d20 roll (lend them your grace/luck) or subract 1d6 from a DM's d20 roll</li> </ul>Closing ThoughtsAfter having used the GT rule set "in action", I like it even more.  Scenario design, creature design and adventure awards are all laid out logically and make it very easy for a GM to design appropriate encounters.  I have never been a huge fan of Prestige Classes...and the basic classes/skills/feats/talents interplay pretty much obviates the need for them if you don't want to use them.  The design flexibility for characters is enormous, although there are always trade-offs, especially when it comes to those very valuable Advanced Talents.After 23 years of playing D&D, the "paradigm shift" needed to move to the spell-casting system is considerable.  A GT caster, even at high levels with loads of advanced talents and feats, will not measure up to even a mid-level traditional caster.  That said, the elegance and the utility of being able, as a GM, to have complete control over the access and proliferation of magic in the campaign is very attractive for control freaks like me <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />!I would certainly like to see an expansion of the magic system, with more options and the ability to scale along a 3-skull scale like many other variants.As I have stated in numerous other threads, if GT had been around when I started my Faded Glory campaign, I would have made it the basis for the rule set.~ Old One</blockquote>

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