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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Obryn" data-source="post: 4979963" data-attributes="member: 11821">I have the Gamemaster Guide now, myself, and am working my way through it.I'm still overall positive about it, but it seems more ... complex ... than I remember it being.  I'd put it at a little crunchier than 3e, but with lots of miscellaneous sub-systems.  Granted, they all use the same step die rolling and success tables, but the results required can be pretty random.Talents are also extremely varied, but in a lot of cases - just like with Earthdawn 1e - a lot of them do almost exactly the same thing...  The social talents are especially egregious here because there are about a half-dozen ways to improve someone's attitude 1 step. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Power - especially the most broken spells - has, indeed, been scaled back.  And yes, weapon-users are probably doing a lot more damage, but just like the 4e striker/controller divide, spells do a lot more special effects and "debuffs."  (Also, a whole lot more area effects.)  I appreciate that Willforce is no longer a Discipline talent (so no more Karma on those area effect damage rolls!) and that it actually costs Strain.Monsters are quite a bit more complex than I remember, and the list of abilities - each of which is almost a sub-system in its own - is lengthy.  Still, I'm very glad that they just have a straight-up number of actions now, rather than the former #Attacks/#Spells division.  I'd put it on a level - or a level above - 3e.Jhaelen - the GM's guide will mostly be familiar to you.  As near as I can tell, it contains the capsule history from the original book, plus the entirety of the text of the Barsaive box set.  It has the fluffy intro sections from the Monsters, Horrors, and Dragons books - but doesn't contain detailed fluff on individual entities, like those books had.  I wonder if that's in the GM's companion?  Regardless, I especially miss the short story Horror intros, and am glad I still have my precious ED 1e Horrors book. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />-O</blockquote>

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