Skull & Bones: What do you think?

[barsoomcore]

Yeah, it looks great -- I'm interested in both the parrying mechanic and the voodoo. Built a voodoo magic system for a James Bond System-based cyberpunk game (long story, bad idea, but FUN), and so ended up doing all sorts of research into voodoo-type stuff.

Creepy...

 

[TSL]

Allo, mates -

We're obviously pleased so many gamers are enjoying Skull & Bones. It was designed to be enjoyable to read, but I'm glad so many people have said that we succeeded.

BFG - It's easy to be enthusiastic if you have an enthusiastic audience.

Parrying - Bunch of you lot asked about the Parry, neh? The Parry was introduced to S&B because of the near-total lack of magical armor / defenses that most D&D games presume. There are, in fact, a number of such concepts, the fast healing and the multiple lives were all intended to lead to a certain style of play, namely swashbuckly, or as one poster put it (quite well) - Not "grim & gritty" more "bold & bloody".

Parrying is basically giving up an attack in favor of rolling against one's attacker's total in order to deflect a blow. What makes parrying really interesting is the various Feats that are connected to it, e.g. ripostes and so forth. In the games I've run, my players generally only parry when they're being attack by a) monsters & b) nasty looking NPCs. Several of them make a point to never parry Cannon Fodder {which is actually more dangerous then it might sound}.

Psion, I think, made an excellent suggestion for those that don't wish to include the Parry system: you can borrow the defense addys from one of the other d20 games.

 

[Renaissance Man]

I'm probably opening myself up to flames galore, but I wasn't too impressed with Skull & Bones. Perhaps my expectations were too high. But I think it went too far - too many new mechanics, especially, which as one reviewer noted makes it difficult to port into a standard D&D campaign. I love the idea of D&D in a psuedo-historical 17th century setting... I just wish they had provided high-fantasy alternatives.

 

[TSL]

I'm probably opening myself up to flames galore, but I wasn't too impressed with Skull & Bones. Perhaps my expectations were too high. But I think it went too far - too many new mechanics, especially, which as one reviewer noted makes it difficult to port into a standard D&D campaign. I love the idea of D&D in a psuedo-historical 17th century setting... I just wish they had provided high-fantasy alternatives.

Well - I won't flame you, so hopefully, nobody else will.

But, just for the record - we didn't wish to provide a high-fantasy alternative. There are a number of products on the market that do just that, including Green Ronin's own Freeport setting. The closest we came to high-fantasy was the "Nine Ways to Run a Skull & Bones Campaign" section, which does have a few higher-fantasy alternatives.

Ultimately, I believe it is far easier to add fantasy, then to subtract it, and Skull & Bones was designed with that in mind.

 

[GMSkarka]

I'm probably opening myself up to flames galore, but I wasn't too impressed with Skull & Bones. Perhaps my expectations were too high. But I think it went too far - too many new mechanics, especially, which as one reviewer noted makes it difficult to port into a standard D&D campaign.

I wouldn't expect flames--your argument was reasonably stated (or maybe I'm just too used to RPGnet, where the level of discourse was a bit....ah....more heated.).

I know I'm biased (as one of the designers), but I have to admit that I have yet to completely wrap my brain around that criticism--it has come up in a couple of reviews now, so apparently it is a consideration, but, to me, the product was clear in it's intent. Buying a historical setting book and then criticizing the lack of portability into a standard D20 fantasy campaign strikes me as a little bit like buying an apple, and then criticizing the lack of citrus flavor.



But, as I said...a couple of folks have said it, so it is something that we at Adamant are thinking about as a possible article in our Buccaneers & Bokor bi-monthly support pdf e-zine.

GMS

 

[Jack Haggerty]

Behold the dangers of multiple user-names, and uncleared cookies!

 

[Renaissance Man]

Buying a historical setting book and then criticizing the lack of portability into a standard D20 fantasy campaign strikes me as a little bit like buying an apple, and then criticizing the lack of citrus flavor.

Sweet.

The closest we came to high-fantasy was the "Nine Ways to Run a Skull & Bones Campaign" section, which does have a few higher-fantasy alternatives.

Exactly - I loved that section. That, and the gazeteer of the Caribbean toward the back. But the new core classes and what-not - I have to wonder if a similar effect could have been achieved using the mechanics that are already there.

In the end, I guess it's all about expectations, and personal tastes. I was looking for the Caribbean-as-campaign-setting, and just enough crunchy bits to evoke the pirate genre. I got that, and more... I just wish the "more" were a little easier to extract from the rest of it.

Anyhoo, capital job, guys. No buyer's regret here. I'll definitely get some use out of this book.

 

[Renaissance Man]

Oh yeah, and I'm with PBartender on this one. Nothing cooler than getting it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

 

[Pbartender]

Man, that's why I like hanging out at places like the ENBoards... Say the name of a source book three times, and the designers appear from thin air.

Thanks for chiming in, guys.

I'm probably opening myself up to flames galore, but I wasn't too impressed with Skull & Bones. Perhaps my expectations were too high. But I think it went too far - too many new mechanics, especially, which as one reviewer noted makes it difficult to port into a standard D&D campaign. I love the idea of D&D in a psuedo-historical 17th century setting... I just wish they had provided high-fantasy alternatives.

Flames... Feh!

Half the time, a single well-written negative review tells me just as much if not more than unending and universally glowing praise.

Unfortunately... It is that very historical-ness, if you will, that drew me to the setting in the first place. I was looking for a piratey game set in the proper period. I also wanted a system that had the characters focused more on their M4d $w4$h8ucKL1n9 $k1LLz!, rather than building their characters on magical items and gear.