Subtle Brilliance...

[Teflon Billy]

Teflon Billy,

Did you edit your review to upgrade the rating from 4/5 to 5/5?

I did, yes.

 

[Garnfellow]

I did, yes.

After really digging into the book this week, I think you made the right decision.

 

[Teflon Billy]

After really digging into the book this week, I think you made the right decision.

Me too

 

[jonrog1]

Home run. Recently, I'd been having a problem balancing my encounters for my party they've either gotten blown out or walked through it. Using the EL system within GT, I've noticed that in the last two weeks the combat's felt dead right. This chapter alone -- these four little pages - should replace the byzantine explanation of EL in the SRD.

Using the CR system, I gave one PC a set of symptoms from "magical contamination" which so far are not unbalancing.

I contributed to the chase rules (and have refined them since, but that still must wait for the website...) and may be biased, but the chases runs smooth as silk.

The magic system is spiffy, and the magic item construction rules MAKE SENSE. There's an UNDERLYING LOGIC. As much as I love Monte's Arcana Unearthers, I think Ben edged him out here.

Only being burdened with the crappy unarmed combat rules from D20M keeps this from being flawless. It's damn close to the immortal quest of D20 GURPS. This is, frankly, as good as the D20 rules are going to get within their current structure.

Now, if Ben were to do Feats and skill based FX like Green Ronin's Pyschic Handbook -- which until now I would have said was the release of the year -- I'd never use a core book again. Being locked into named spells rather than FX (rather like M&M) is the only thing keeping this from being my first crush and prom date all wrapped up in one.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Home run.

Hey jonrog! Thanks... If you weren't so difficult to get a hold of, I would have made sure to send you a copy in consideration of your contributions to the Vehicle section.

I'll make it up to you...

Recently, I'd been having a problem balancing my encounters for my party they've either gotten blown out or walked through it. Using the EL system within GT, I've noticed that in the last two weeks the combat's felt dead right. This chapter alone -- these four little pages - should replace the byzantine explanation of EL in the SRD.

Well then you're really going to love the Excel spreadsheet. Drop me a line, I'll send you a beta.

Tip of the hat here to Upper_Krust-- most of the hard work on this section was his.

The magic system is spiffy, and the magic item construction rules MAKE SENSE. There's an UNDERLYING LOGIC. As much as I love Monte's Arcana Unearthers, I think Ben edged him out here.

Again, credit where credit is due-- there's a good portion of Monte's AU stuff in that section. Renaming the items as Single Use, Constant, etc. That's all his, and should have been the way D&D did it. I actually had to do some significant re-writing to get the low-magic GT spellcasting to work in Monte's framework.

Only being burdened with the crappy unarmed combat rules from D20M keeps this from being flawless.

Whatchoo talkin' about? The combat section is from the 3.5 SRD-- there should be no "unarmed combat" artifacts from the d20M SRD. I assume, here, you're talking about d20M's very odd handling of subdual damage, which I believe is trumped in the GT rules with the non-lethal damage treatment from 3.5. Please let me know if it's not so.

It's damn close to the immortal quest of D20 GURPS. This is, frankly, as good as the D20 rules are going to get within their current structure.

I hope folks remember me kindly and get the word out around ENnies time.

Now, if Ben were to do Feats and skill based FX like Green Ronin's Pyschic Handbook -- which until now I would have said was the release of the year -- I'd never use a core book again.

I've heard enough about this book that I will almost certainly adopt it for a future spellcasting/FX supplement.

Wulf

 

[d20Dwarf]

Would Grim Tales be useful for a d20 Midnight game, or would you have to run a GT Midnight game (which is probably not a bad idea either?). From the looks of things, I'm going to have to check me out some Grim Tales.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Would Grim Tales be useful for a d20 Midnight game, or would you have to run a GT Midnight game (which is probably not a bad idea either?). From the looks of things, I'm going to have to check me out some Grim Tales.

If you want to start with Midnight, you could use Grim Tales to bolt on things like Firearms, Vehicles, maybe Horror.

If you want to start with Grim Tales as the baseline for character creation, spellcasting, etc., you could certainly use the Midnight campaign setting right along with it.

Everything d20 will work just fine in Grim Tales; not everything Grim Tales will necessarily port out into another d20 ruleset. Hope that makes sense!


Wulf

 

[RangerWickett]

Now here's a task. Find a way to combine low-magic Grim Tales with high-magic Elements of Magic, and I'll be perfectly happy. A contradiction, I know, but I work under a different assumption of why spellcasting hurts people in pulp fantasy stories.

See, in my mind, most of the villains in the pulps are mid-level mages, trying to cast high-level stuff. If they stuck with charm spells and polymorphs, there'd be no problem. But when they try to kill someone with a word, they're using powerful stuff, and it can kill them. That's just me, though.

I want flashy magic and anime-esque power levels, while still having a flexible class system and a wound system that makes PCs not be able to fight armies alone.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Aw man... FX, D20 Modern and balance all at the same time...

So, for anyone who's used the system, just how well did the non-spellcasting and spellcasting classes balance with each other?

 

[RangerWickett]

There aren't spellcasting classes. Theoretically, anyone could try to use magic, with the right feats.