Okay, what is exactly *is* Grim Tales?

[Sebastian Francis]

Is it a campaign setting for d20 Modern?

An OGL game, similar to OGL Horror or OGL Steampunk?

What?

I'm sick of hearing about Grim Tales and not knowing exactly what it is!

 

[Bobitron]

It's a generic book, not dedicated to any particular setting. It uses the D20 Modern classes, and fits them into fantasy/modern/future campaigns. Alternate rules abound, with some nice rules for low-magic adventures.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I'm sick of hearing about Grim Tales and not knowing exactly what it is!

You had to ask this the day after I took that huge long "What is this GRIM TALES I keep hearing about?" link out of my sig?

In a nutshell, Grim Tales is a low magic, high adventure rulebook-- beyond that, you can do pretty much whatever you want with it.

Do a search here for "Grim Tales" (make sure you use the quotation marks in your search) and see what turns up!


Wulf

 

[barsoomcore]

Grim Tales is basically a complete rewrite of d20 Modern -- it's an all-in-one sourcebook for DMs looking to run a campaign in a wide array of genres, but geared towards low-magic, "Grim" type of stories, where maybe a hero or two goes crazy from the horror, where casting spells saps your health, where the heroes might jump into an armoured vehicle (be that chariot, locomotive or hovercar) to pursue unsavoury bad guys.

It rewrites the fundamentals of the d20 system in such a clear and easy-to-read manner that it's quickly become my preferred reference book for in-play questions on things like AoO, environmental effects and so on. It has detailed material on creating creatures and how to calculate the appropriate CR for them, great Horror and Insanity rules, and the most truly customizable class system imaginable. It's a great hybrid between class-based and point-based chargen.

It's a really great book -- probably the best book I bought last year. Definitely worth the money for any DM who's interested in running non-D&D campaigns.

 

[Turanil]

One heck of a review, Turanil

This review is long and complete, and it is Here

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

So, if I read the review correctly, the main differences are the generic classes and the dangerous magic system, am I right?

How do the classes compare to other D20 classes? If, for example, I were to try and build a fighter or thief through talents and whatnot, would they be roughly the same as their D&D versions?

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

I've ordered Grim Tales as of yesterday. Eager to take a look at it.

 

[GlassJaw]

How do the classes compare to other D20 classes? If, for example, I were to try and build a fighter or thief through talents and whatnot, would they be roughly the same as their D&D versions?

They are basically 20 level versions of the d20 Modern classes. You can certainly build characters similar to the iconic classes but they'll be a little different. Strong Hero is essentially the fighter. But each class also has a defense bonus and the save progressions are different. A thief/rogue would basically be a Fast Hero/Smart Hero. So you can come close but they won't be identical. The caster classes will certainly be different (as there are none per se).

 

[Fenris]

What is Grim Tales?

It's gamer's crack that's what it is. Highly addictive.

I am a full fledged addict and proud of it. This is what GURPS d20 should look like, at least the G and the U of GURPs (Generic and Universal). You can do ANYTHING with this (you could even do high magic if you wanted). It's a tool kit to let you design the game you want. This is particulary valuable for persons who have low magic and exotic homebrewed settings that established rules sets don't adequately cover. But the whole system is about choices and flexibility. You really can craft the world you want with this. I know there are better than a dozen campaigns being designed by persons who have posted and each one will be dramatically different. But that's the great thing about Grim Tales; Wulf has broken down everything to "switches". You turn on the switches you want for your game and turn off what you don't want. Grim Tales pulls the curtain back on the Wizard of the Wizards of the Coast and exposes all their fancy gadgets for us to use.

Byrons Ghost: Yes you can build a fighter or a thief, but while comparable you can't replicate the Core classes. BUT you can come much closer to a character concept. I made a high level character for a recent game. Every one else was made using "traditional" sources. I made mine by GT. I loved him. A Charismatic/Fast hero who was a swashbuckler. I was able to make him the way I wanted without picking up extra stuff I didn't want. Had I gone "bard"/"rogue" aside from the immediate assumptions about him based on those titles I would have had all sorts of stuff I didn't want.

 

[Old One]

What is Grim Tales?

It's gamer's crack that's what it is. Highly addictive.

Hah!

Byrons Ghost: Yes you can build a fighter or a thief, but while comparable you can't replicate the Core classes. BUT you can come much closer to a character concept. I made a high level character for a recent game. Every one else was made using "traditional" sources. I made mine by GT. I loved him. A Charismatic/Fast hero who was a swashbuckler. I was able to make him the way I wanted without picking up extra stuff I didn't want. Had I gone "bard"/"rogue" aside from the immediate assumptions about him based on those titles I would have had all sorts of stuff I didn't want.

Agreed. This is one of the true beauties of GT. I ran a demo of GT at a Game Day a couple of months ago and had a great time building the Pre-Gen PCs for the scenario. With the combination of customized skill lists, non-class specific feats and class-specific talent trees, there is incredible flexibility in creating and developing characters. Wulf also removed much of the twinking that can occur in 3.x (such as multi-classing to another class for 1 level to pick up a bunch of free feats and/or abilities). The toolkit also allows you to build believable PCs for almost any genre/era - from fantasy to pulp to cyberpunk.

On the GM's side of the screen - it deconstructs things like the indecipherable (to me, anyway) CR/EL system and rebuilds it in an understandble and logical way. It also introduces a new spell casting system where magic isn't automatic, it is dangerous (even deadly) to untrained practitioners and where casters have to "work" to get their spells. The GM has complete control over the pace and level of magic introduced into the game.

It is not designed, IMO, to be used in a "standard" D&D Campaign (although it could be used to build a good, non-spell casting PC. Instead, it is imminently useful in campaigns where magic is rare, mysterious and dangerous and where PCs are defined by their skills, talents and character development choices - not their list of magical widgets.

Easily my best gaming purchase in the last 5 years.

~ Old One