Skull & Bones: What do you think?

[Pbartender]

I'm considering picking up Skull & Bones by Green Ronin in the near future. I've read all the reviews (which seem universally good). I've taken a good look through their free preview material. Unfortunately, none of the nearby FLGSs have the book, so I've been unable to page through the actual book yet.

Does anybody own it? What do you think of it?

 

[Yellow Sign]

I have it and I am planning on starting a Pirate game in a month or two.

It is a very nice book and just what I was looking for in running a "Pirates of the Caribbean" type game. There is also a good system for incorperating Voodoo into your game.

I highly recommend it!

 

[Wombat]

Well, I picked up the book a couple weeks ago now and I can say what I have said over several Green Ronin products: I never feel Buyer's Remorse.

Much like Testament there is a real effort in this book to make a supplement that will both appeal to those who have a knowledge of the place and times and yet also appeal to gamers. You get enough information concerning the Golden Age of Piracy to have fun, but there is also a healthy does of Errol Flynn style swashbuckling, voodoo-inspired magic, and the like. Even on these two counts there is a strong nudge towards accuracy mixed in with the fun -- there are, for example, three duelling PrCs that are both very, very tasty (a rare commodity for most PrCs, in my book), but also very accurate, in that they reflect fencing styles of the era (one for the "Spanish" School, one for the "English" School, and one highly moldable PrC for the "Continental" School of swordplay). And the material on voodoo is not something drawn out of some 1930s shocker film; while it is not 100% accurate (and the authors are careful to point this out), it is much more in line with Santeria, Voudon, and Okunda than any other treatment I have seen to date.

The setting is very Low Magic (something I truly enjoy), but superstitions are everywhere.

There is a good amount of material on ship-to-ship combat (and, even more importantly, ship chases), as well as merchant routes and like treasure to be found in such prizes (you will be selling a lot of tobacco and grain, in all likelihood). There are also rules for your crews, with the double problem of running a pirate crew -- to be at their best, they should be sober, but if they are sober, they are much more likely to mutiny.

I could go on, but suffice it to say that if you are looking for material for a piratical or swashbuckling game, this book is fantastic; if you are not looking for that, you may still find very useful material within its covers.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

Hey pb!

I love Skull and Bones! It's a huge book, with lots of new roleplaying concepts, some great fiction, and some interesting history thrown in.

As mentioned in other places, you'll get the most use out of this book if you use it as intended - a whole new campaign. But your players will be very interested in the game after you explain to them the setting sepcific rules, such as multiple lives ( when you "die", you roll on a table for a defect, like losing your leg or eye etc...) - you have an unspecified number of lives that only the DM knows - and using your constitution score as "extra" hit points ( similar to VP/WP) -Commoners don't have HP they just use CON score.

These new rules are designed to balance the game in a low magic setting, and seem weel designed to me.

The Voodoo magic system, and the fighting style options really make the book.

The only thing about the book I have not fully embraced conceptually yet is the money system with attempts to more closely resemble the coinage of the day ( dubloons, pieces of eight, etc... ). This is a good idea, just a strong mechanical departure from my 25 years of D&D training where CP/SP/GP/PP. Could be fun to use it though, I haven't made up my mind about this yet.

 

[Desdichado]

BFG -- just curious, though -- were you going to borrow the material for a pirate-like D&D game, or use it for a truly Pirates only game? Seems like the money is important to the latter but probably not useful for the former.

 

[Pbartender]

Thanks guys... That's good to hear. These are a lot of the points that drew me to this particular suppliment in the first place.

One question... I have one player who's a little adverse to anything that's not D20 D&D fantasy. How easy do the new rules fit in? Are they easy to learn? How big an affect of they have on the standard D&D rules?

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

BFG -- just curious, though -- were you going to borrow the material for a pirate-like D&D game, or use it for a truly Pirates only game? Seems like the money is important to the latter but probably not useful for the former.

You caught me... My sourcebook 'aholic nature is showing.

I would definitely agree about the money issue.

Here's the full story: I was perusing the newest d20 swag at one of my FLGS' a week and a half ago, and got into a conversation with a fellow there who turned out to be one of the principal designers for Skull & Bones, Mr. T.S. Luikart. After learning who he was, I of course asked him about his book, and specifically about how I could steal material from it for my homebrew.

And there is a LOT of material in the book that I can use for that purpose, aside from running the setting as presented in the book. But T.S. is such nice guy, and is so passionate about his work, that I consumed the next 20 minutes of his time speaking with him about S&B. His fervor and detailed explanations of the books contents and cool unique rules really made me want to play the setting as a stand alone Pirates game.

Will I ever run it that way? I don't know. It's unlikely for the short term considering my involvement in current games, both long running and the side games im in. But I'm glad I have the book ( again, it's a really good read ), and will look forward to playing a strictly Pirate S&B game someday.

Thanks again for your time T.S.. ( I know you will see this thread.) It was great to meet you, and your enthusiam is indeed infectious!

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

Thanks guys... That's good to hear. These are a lot of the points that drew me to this particular suppliment in the first place.

One question... I have one player who's a little adverse to anything that's not D20 D&D fantasy. How easy do the new rules fit in? Are they easy to learn? How big an affect of they have on the standard D&D rules?

S&B's IS D20 D&D Fantasy, just low magic with a few easy to learn rules thrown in.

T.S. explained to me that in his playtesting, the Players had a lot of fun getting into the cinematic nature of the setting using the new rules, especially the "multiple lives" thing. But after they lost a life, and were maimed in some way - they became a lot more conservative with their PC's... The cool pasrt is not knowing how many lives you have. Could be two. Could be as many as 9 with the help of a feat and some good luck.

There ARE monsters ( included in the book ), it's just that you will encounter them less frequently, and there are, of course less racial choices too...

 

[Pbartender]

What about the parrying mechanic that they introduce... How well does that work? Did your players use it often?

 

[Macbeth]

After reading this thread, I'm even more interested in this book, but I would also like to know more about the parrying mechanic, sinec I already have a parry mechanic in place and I need to know how seriously this would change my campaign.