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Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 9436932" data-attributes="member: 6779310">D&D was first, EPT was second, Met. Alpha and T&T essentially tie for third, as Boot Hill wasn't an RPG until a later edition...Ken's even mentioned that EPT beat him to the punch. Moreover, Ken also released Starfaring the same year.5.0, actually, not 5.5It's the the earliest non-D&D game to go directly after the Dungeon Fantasy fanspace. DF, as a genre, was essentially absent until D&D, and other games didn't start trying to do it until around 1980...with the exception of a few very local games that read as wargames (way more so than D&D) and which have only come to any public notice since the turn of the century.EPT wasn't aimed at DF; RQ got used for DF type play, but that wasn't Not too much. It stuck with a lot of D&D-isms. The 6 stats, the 3d6 for each of them... 3 classes at outset (D&D's were Fighting Man, Cleric, and Magic User), mutliple uses of "level"... (Spell Level, Character Level, Dungeon Level, Saving Roll Level)...The novelty of the doubles roll over, and the combat mechanics, yeah, very avant garde.The move to only d6's? Frank Chadwick made it about the same time, in En Garde!, which is now from Margam-Evans...The biggest novelties come in later... the stunting, the playable berserking rules, the use of all attributes for saves, not just Lk, the TARO for attributes... Deluxe is as innovative as any other edition of T&T - part of a constant series of "Where is Ken leading?" and then fans arguing about its value...1st, 4th, 5th, and Deluxe are all available in PDF at DTRPG. 5.5 isn't.Further, Monsters! Monsters! is the same core mechanics, and still available. In the purchases, Ken never gave up his rights to M!M!, so it's still in print. They may even have a few left in dead tree. It's also available on DTRPG in PDF.Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes is a derivative of T&T 5e... and still up for purchase in PDF.Why? The solos kept the core rules relevant and thus the cores selling despite up to 15 years in print for 5.0... if they hadn't been known, the game likely would have disappeared entirely... the stream of solos kept FB Inc in the T&T business.Many fans of T&T never liked that.Solutions from the early internet period:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Some like it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Some grumbled but used it as it was written</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Some switched to Luck</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">A few switched to Constitution</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Many created a Power/Wizardry stat specifically for powering spells.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Some used a split; if the kindred's ST multiplier was under ×1, they powered off of luck; if ×1 or better ST, they used ST. I've used this, it's amusing, and it makes Fairies downright DANGEROUS; Leprechauns go several shades of potent.</li> </ol>I'd say it's probably the most divisive issue besides ≤ 5.5 vs ≥ 7.0; that latter issue is big as that's where the advancement changed from AP (Advancement Points) get you character level, which gives more attribute points to AP buy new levels of attributes, and sufficiently high attributes add character levels. The stuff for earlier adventures assumes lower damage by MR, lower PC weapon damages, and no spite.stuff for 5e (which is most of what's there) assumes the higher damage by weapon, and a different curve of MR. Stuff for 7th assumes higher attributes by character level.¹: these appear to be math errors, I thing they're supposed to be 76-90 and 91-110From where I sit, it looks like Deluxe has more fans than 5th, even on sites run by OSR guys, but not by a huge ratio. Ken prefers Deluxe, too. But hard numbers on total T&T sales to 4th ed are probably non-extant, due to the various licenses (GW, Corgi, Hobby Japan, some Italian company, some french company) and the liquidation of Flying Buffalo probably including old sales records.Note that some statements made at GenCon 2024 (as quoth by folk at the Trollbridge forum) imply a radical change in combat in Rebellion's forthcoming, to a count successes model instead of a roll and total model for combat. Ken retains the original T&T engine (with minor changes) for use in M!M!; Rebellion has left (at least for now) 1st, 4th, 5.0, and Deluxe up on DTRPG; I wish 5.5 would be uploaded, or at least the addenda. 7.0 and 7.5 are still in the files at DTRPG, but not available for purchase. For those who've not played it, it's worthwhile to try as a change of pace, if not a good D&D replacement.</blockquote>

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