Skull & Bones: Your Experiences?

[Insight]

I am interested to see if anyone has played Skull & Bones (Green Ronin), and what your impressions were, if any.

I've read through the product reviews on this site, and like all of the Green Ronin products I own, seems to be very well put together and full of useful information.

But my interest is more along the lines of how the game(s) played out, and your players' impressions of the game and/or genre.

 

[barsoomcore]

LOVE IT!!!!

Skull and Bones plays like a dream. Like one of those dreams where you can fly, not that one where you're at school in your undies.

The Story Hour based on my S&B campaign is linked in my sig. It was a BLAST. I combined a little bit of d20 Modern and CoC, but a lot of the core S&B stuff was the best. The background material is AWESOME, and the book is lovely.

Buy it.

 

[GMSkarka]

I love it....but then again, I'm biased.

 

[Wombat]

I haven't played it "straight, no chaser", so to speak, but as an adjunct to an AU campaign I am running.

The rules additions are great, although I have not used the loa/orisha yet. The group as a whole loves the naval combat additions.

 

[Aaron2]

I don't mean to threadjack, but what is the relationship between Skull & Bones and the PDF Corsair? Is Corsair just the ship rules pulled from S&B?


Aaron

 

[GMSkarka]

I don't mean to threadjack, but what is the relationship between Skull & Bones and the PDF Corsair? Is Corsair just the ship rules pulled from S&B?

You're partially correct. Corsair is the ship rules from S&B, plus the advanced ship rules which we published in our S&B support ezine, Buccaneers & Bokor, plus some additional material that hasn't appeared before (new ship types, notes on running the system in earlier/later historical periods and fantasy settings, some deckplans, etc.).

 

[GlassJaw]

Hmm, Skull & Bones looks very cool. Couple of questions for those with it:

What book is based on? D&D 3.5, d20 Modern?

Could it be combined with Grim Tales?

How different is the magic system from standard D&D? Can it be considered a low-magic setting?

Are there firearms?

It seems the Caribbean is the main setting. Would the Freeport stuff fit with it?

 

[GMSkarka]

I'm one of the designers, so I'll try to be of assistance here:

What book is based on? D&D 3.5, d20 Modern?

3.5

Could it be combined with Grim Tales?

I suppose. I haven't read Grim Tales, though. (No copies at my sub-standard Local Game Store)

How different is the magic system from standard D&D? Can it be considered a low-magic setting?

Yes, it's a low-magic setting. The magic system is based on Voodoo. The spell effects are the same as standard D&D, for the most part, but how you get the spells is where the difference occurs (petitioning of Loa, etc.).

Are there firearms?

Yes. The setting is the historical fantasy, set around 1700.

It seems the Caribbean is the main setting. Would the Freeport stuff fit with it?

I'm sure it would. I know some folks who have done just that (including one of my co-authors).

 

[barsoomcore]

It would work GREAT with Grim Tales. You'd have to choose which magic system to use (or just use both, I guess), but the Horror rules would fit PERFECTLY, and you could swap out either class system if you wanted. I used d20 Modern classes in my game, and converted the S&B classes into Advanced Classes -- you can see my website for an idea as to what was involved in that.

But yeah, the combination is a natural one. My campaign was over by the time Grim Tales came out, otherwise that's exactly what I would have done.

 

[Insight]

Thanks for the opinions, guys! And Barsoom, I plan to check out your SH.

I've been playing the new Pirates! video game, and it occurred to me that it might be fun to play a pirate RPG, so here we are.