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Monte's 3.75? (A sequal is on its way)
- Thread starter TerraDave
- Start date
TerraDave
5ever, or until 2024
Monte Cook put a blog post up on this...denying its his "3.75"...(and saying some other interesting things):
Book of Experimental Might
This book is going to be released in pdf at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow tomorrow morning. If you haven't been following, it's sort of a one-shot foray back into releasing Malhavoc products just for fun. My day job is still the novel (2nd draft is going very well).
This book is the result of some experimenting I've done with the rules for my home campaigns. Hence the name. It's not, as some people have said, my "3.75 edition." And here's why: If you're going to do a whole revision to a game you approach it very differently than you do with a supplement. A supplement institutes changes and additions but changes only what is absolutely necessary for the additions to work. With a new edition or a revision, all bets are off, and everything's fair game. The game is a mass of interconnected pieces. When you change one, you have to be aware of how that affects all the others. With a supplement, you want the impact (the "footprint," if you will) to be absolutely no bigger than it needs to be. With a revision or edition, it doesn't matter how much you change (to a point), you just need to be aware of all the ramifications.
It's also not any kind of indictment on the current rules, of which I'm still very proud and very happy with. It's just me playing around with things. In a way, it's like Arcana Evolved in that way--it's a different way to do things, not a condemnation of the existing way. When I wrote about greenbonds and warmains in AE, it wasn't because I didn't like clerics and fighters in the core rules.
The book has a lot of variant rules, but it really hinges around two concepts. One is that there are 20 spell levels, corresponding to character level. This is both a big change (because it has a lot of ramifications) and a small one--because once you learn how simple it is to convert back and forth, it's easy. Basically, you just double the existing spell's level, and if it's a weaker spell, you subtract one from the result. So fireball is now a 6th level spell. This book, of course, does that work for you, providing a framework from the core rules. However, in so doing, I found I had to flesh out the spell list with new spells. The book contains a number of spells from Complete Book of Eldritch Might, Book of Hallowed Might, and AE (converted to core rules). I know some of you have those books, but not everyone does, and I always want the system to be complete. Plus, I created a lot of entirely brand new spells. Lastly, I changed some core rules spells and presented all new versions of them, just because after all this time I think a few of them needed a little work.
The other concept the changes center upon is to allow characters to go longer without needing to rest. To that end, recovering hit points is a bit easier, and spellcasters have so-called "disciplines" that grant them minor powers that are not expended the way prepared spells or spell slots are. In other words, once the wizard casts all his spells, he's still got a few things to do. As an interesting added effect, this also means that a cleric need give up none of their spellcasting resources in order to heal his friends.
If you're playing d20, I hope you'll check it out. I must say, it's been kinda fun to stick my toe back into game design.
One last thing. While this will be available as a pdf on Thursday, next week sometime we're planning on playing around with lulu.com for a print version. So if you really prefer print to pdf, look for that announcement next week.
This book is going to be released in pdf at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow tomorrow morning. If you haven't been following, it's sort of a one-shot foray back into releasing Malhavoc products just for fun. My day job is still the novel (2nd draft is going very well).
This book is the result of some experimenting I've done with the rules for my home campaigns. Hence the name. It's not, as some people have said, my "3.75 edition." And here's why: If you're going to do a whole revision to a game you approach it very differently than you do with a supplement. A supplement institutes changes and additions but changes only what is absolutely necessary for the additions to work. With a new edition or a revision, all bets are off, and everything's fair game. The game is a mass of interconnected pieces. When you change one, you have to be aware of how that affects all the others. With a supplement, you want the impact (the "footprint," if you will) to be absolutely no bigger than it needs to be. With a revision or edition, it doesn't matter how much you change (to a point), you just need to be aware of all the ramifications.
It's also not any kind of indictment on the current rules, of which I'm still very proud and very happy with. It's just me playing around with things. In a way, it's like Arcana Evolved in that way--it's a different way to do things, not a condemnation of the existing way. When I wrote about greenbonds and warmains in AE, it wasn't because I didn't like clerics and fighters in the core rules.
The book has a lot of variant rules, but it really hinges around two concepts. One is that there are 20 spell levels, corresponding to character level. This is both a big change (because it has a lot of ramifications) and a small one--because once you learn how simple it is to convert back and forth, it's easy. Basically, you just double the existing spell's level, and if it's a weaker spell, you subtract one from the result. So fireball is now a 6th level spell. This book, of course, does that work for you, providing a framework from the core rules. However, in so doing, I found I had to flesh out the spell list with new spells. The book contains a number of spells from Complete Book of Eldritch Might, Book of Hallowed Might, and AE (converted to core rules). I know some of you have those books, but not everyone does, and I always want the system to be complete. Plus, I created a lot of entirely brand new spells. Lastly, I changed some core rules spells and presented all new versions of them, just because after all this time I think a few of them needed a little work.
The other concept the changes center upon is to allow characters to go longer without needing to rest. To that end, recovering hit points is a bit easier, and spellcasters have so-called "disciplines" that grant them minor powers that are not expended the way prepared spells or spell slots are. In other words, once the wizard casts all his spells, he's still got a few things to do. As an interesting added effect, this also means that a cleric need give up none of their spellcasting resources in order to heal his friends.
If you're playing d20, I hope you'll check it out. I must say, it's been kinda fun to stick my toe back into game design.
One last thing. While this will be available as a pdf on Thursday, next week sometime we're planning on playing around with lulu.com for a print version. So if you really prefer print to pdf, look for that announcement next week.
TerraDave
5ever, or until 2024
I started this thread to compare to what we know about 4th ed. Note, I do not think Mr Cook "borrowed" from 4E. I am open to ideas going the other way. But what I guess really happened is that these guys talk about various problems, think about them on their own, and come up with their own take.
Just to summarize:
-More HP at first level
-Faster feat progression (though we know now that this relies more on feats then 4E)
-Self healing
-A "bloodied/grace" type condition
-At will abilities for spell casters
-(thanks to the above) Clerics can use more of their spells for non-healing stuff
-Spell/Power level tied to charecter level (an idea that apparently came from the dev of 3E)
As an aside: Monte really seems to love magic. Of course this has new spells and disciplines for spell casters...but thats not a bad thing.
Just to summarize:
-More HP at first level
-Faster feat progression (though we know now that this relies more on feats then 4E)
-Self healing
-A "bloodied/grace" type condition
-At will abilities for spell casters
-(thanks to the above) Clerics can use more of their spells for non-healing stuff
-Spell/Power level tied to charecter level (an idea that apparently came from the dev of 3E)
As an aside: Monte really seems to love magic. Of course this has new spells and disciplines for spell casters...but thats not a bad thing.
Nellisir
Hero
Have it, skimmed it, like it. I'd give it a 9/10 for what it is, which is a collection of optional rules to make the game a little easier, disciplines for spellcasters, and a reworked spell level system. I like the changes to poison; I like grace/health; I like the fact that the character, not the healer, determines how much magical healing they can receive per day (and I like that it includes potions); and I like disciplines.
I think I like WotC death/dying over Monte's, but that's an incredibly minor issue, since I prefer Monte's to the current official system.
It is not a complete "3.75"; there's no mention of races; nothing for fighters, thieves, monks, barbarians, etc; and sorcerers are made even more redundant (since wizards now have every round powers). There is a new class (runeblades) because Monte is obsessed with building the perfect non-gish gish, and not because it really has anything to do with the rest of the book (it doesn't use disciplines or conventional spells, though I assume it uses the same death & dying rules).
I think I like WotC death/dying over Monte's, but that's an incredibly minor issue, since I prefer Monte's to the current official system.
It is not a complete "3.75"; there's no mention of races; nothing for fighters, thieves, monks, barbarians, etc; and sorcerers are made even more redundant (since wizards now have every round powers). There is a new class (runeblades) because Monte is obsessed with building the perfect non-gish gish, and not because it really has anything to do with the rest of the book (it doesn't use disciplines or conventional spells, though I assume it uses the same death & dying rules).
