D&D 5E Primeval Thule 5e

[Corwin]

I only wish they had taken it a little further and made it their own, instead of just laying a thin skin over generic 5e. They should have done more to foster the S&S feel.

But I still like it. Wish I could play it. Haven't had a chance yet.

 

[Hussar]

So, how is Primeval Thule 5E?

I just finally started my PT campaign. Just finished off our first adventure. I home brewed an adventure where the party was captured by slavers and sold to an arena. They fought off a group of beast men to start off. The adventure then featured a chariot race (complete with saber toothed cat pour encourajay les autres) that ended in an earthquake that destroyed a chunk of Quodeth and let the party break free.

Loving the setting. Seems to have grabbed the players fairly well, I think. We've already had one sanity check which resulted in at least one failure.

I've added a few house rules to the campaign, the biggest being no PC's with cantrips. We currently have an all human party of a 2 rangers, monk, fighter, paladin and Slayer (from Geeks and Sundry, based on Vin Diesel's character in The Last Witch Hunter http://geekandsundry.com/vin-diesel...-class-to-life-the-witch-hunter-class-for-dd/).

Really loving the flavor. Going to be running The Cavern of Golden Tears very shortly.

 

[GlassJaw]

I only wish they had taken it a little further and made it their own, instead of just laying a thin skin over generic 5e. They should have done more to foster the S&S feel.

This +1.

I love the setting, although it certainly isn't unique. That said, they've done a great job with the S&S feel.

However, the setting is begging for some new classes and rules, especially spellcasting. It gives you some basic rules on different materials for weapons and armor but that's about it. Thule was also released previously for others systems and was just converted to 5E. I understand why they didn't want to dive into setting-specific rules for 5E but it really needs it.

For example, the 5E Middle-earth RPG was a "conversion" of sorts of The One Ring but built from the ground up for 5E.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, I can see what you're saying. There's a definite 3e vibe going through the game and it shows from time to time. "Low magic" setting, yet, there's a ton of magic going on and you can still buy Potions of Healing at any local store. Low technology, but, 99% of the PHB is available.

I guess they didn't want to rock the boat too much and wanted to make the setting appeal to as wide a variety as possible. Also, this came out EARLY in the 5e run, so much so, that they were still working in the dark as far as OGL goes. It does show.

 

[Ath-kethin]

I absolutely agree that the standard 5e rules set isn't ideal for Primeval Thule in some ways. In my campaign I ban all casters except warlocks for this reason.

I think I might vary from that in the next campaign I start though. The Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG has an interesting feature where all spellcasting requires a casting check (basically a DC of 10+ the spell level, with the roll being d20+your level+your spellcasting ability modifier).

Depending on the results of your check, the spell can have standard, enhanced, or reduced effects, could just not take effect, and so forth. Adapting this approach would, in my opinion, address the too-much and too-easy nature of 5e magic.

 

[Hussar]

I absolutely agree that the standard 5e rules set isn't ideal for Primeval Thule in some ways. In my campaign I ban all casters except warlocks for this reason.

I think I might vary from that in the next campaign I start though. The Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG has an interesting feature where all spellcasting requires a casting check (basically a DC of 10+ the spell level, with the roll being d20+your level+your spellcasting ability modifier).

Depending on the results of your check, the spell can have standard, enhanced, or reduced effects, could just not take effect, and so forth. Adapting this approach would, in my opinion, address the too-much and too-easy nature of 5e magic.

Oooo. I like that.

 

[AverageCitizen]

So, how is Primeval Thule 5E?

Seriously, I really like the setting. Overall I give it a very consistent B throughout. I haven't had a chance to play it yet but I read it often. If you want to mix some pulp into your D&D you really can't go wrong with Thule.

 

[GlassJaw]

I absolutely agree that the standard 5e rules set isn't ideal for Primeval Thule in some ways. In my campaign I ban all casters except warlocks for this reason.

I think I might vary from that in the next campaign I start though. The Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG has an interesting feature where all spellcasting requires a casting check (basically a DC of 10+ the spell level, with the roll being d20+your level+your spellcasting ability modifier).

Depending on the results of your check, the spell can have standard, enhanced, or reduced effects, could just not take effect, and so forth. Adapting this approach would, in my opinion, address the too-much and too-easy nature of 5e magic.

Agreed, standard 5E, while lower magic than 3ed, still has too much casting for your typical S&S setting. I do think the core of the rules have more potential for low-magic than 3ed but it still needs to be reworked from the ground up, a la AIME.

I like the basis of your caster check idea. Certainly nothing new (there were a lot of variant casting systems for 3ed) but I haven't seen anything done for 5E yet outside of AIME. And AIME didn't really introduce a new casting system at all, it just uses a customized set of classes, none of which have outright casting ability.

 

[Hussar]

Sorry, what is AIME?

 

[Lanliss]

Sorry, what is AIME?

Adventures in Middle Earth