Thoughts on GR's Black Company Campaign Setting - 1 Month Later

[Old One]

OK...I picked up the BCCS exactly 1 month ago as a Xmas present to myself and wanted to toss out a couple of thoughts on the tome (as well as elicit feedback from others). Random thoughts, in no particular order:

(1) Great "Data Mine" - There are so many individual pieces of the book that would fit wonderfully into a mainstream D&D campaign. Items that I really like include:

• The magic system - I can't decide whether I like the BCCS or the Grim Tales magic approach the best ! The imminent flexibility of the system very cool, although I can see it being a bit intimidating to a casual or inexperienced player. One thing that immediately jumped out for my homebrew would be to have various magical orders, cities, religions or other entities that taught the various magic talents. While initially weaker than a "standard" D&D mage, BCCS wizards can become incredibly powerful.
• Backgrounds and Allegiances - The background and allegiance system works better than standard class background skills and alignments (which, after 24 years of gaming, I am ready to consign to the dustbin). That said, I still prefer the Grim Tales background system for maximum flexibility. I am still trying to figure out a way to marry the two. All-in-all, one of the most innovative magic systems to come down the pike in many a moon.
• Core Classes - A couple of the core classes could easily be dropped into a typical D&D campaign. My favorites include the Academician, the Jack-of-all-Trades, the Noble and the Ranger.
• Prestige Classes - Although specifically designed for the BCCS, the Artificer, Nightstalker, Sword Master, Topkick and Veteran are quite interesting.
• Skills - The treatment of the Speak Language skill is far more interesting than in standard 3.x. Also, the Research Skill is pretty cool (although I would probably add a synergy bonus for 5+ ranks in Knowledge: History (local, ancient, etc) when researching in that area.
• Mass Combat System - Fairly easy to learn and use. I am reserving full judgement until I see what Slavelords of Cydonia's system looks like.

(2) Don't get too attached to your character! This is especially true if you play a typical "kick-down-the-door" D&D style ! Stealth, ambush and overwhelming force are passwords of the day if playing a straight-up BCCS campaign. If I either run a BCCS campaign or pull a bunch of elements from it, I would be very tempted to take a page or 2 from Grim Tales in using the GT Action Points system and the armor as damage conversion alternate for few dead heroes. Adding the shield bonus to the MDT is also something I am looking at.

(3) Campaign Styles/Integration - Pages 198 through 213 have excellent ideas on either integrating the BCCS into an existing campaign or porting standard D&D classes into the BCCS. There are some good general campaign arcs for a military-themed campaign at the end of this section as well.

I am interested to hear on how others plan to use the book...either to run a tight or loose BCCS game or integrate elements into their on-going campaigns. I may end up running a couple of BCCS one-shots just to get a better feel for the system and test some alternatvies. The Green Ronin Mythic Vista's Forum also has some good BCCS discussions Here.

Now I just need to lock Wulf and the Green Ronin brainstrust in the same room until they come out with a Grim Tales/BCCS hybrid I can call my own !

~ Old One

 

[JoeGKushner]

I'm running Slavelords of Cydonia with the adventure written as is, but the player's being members of and using the rules from the Black Company campaign.

The first week went well. I am a little worried that the players still aren't doing enough stealth and recon though as they continue to fight through most encounters and are spending days healing aftewards. Of course the days will become longer as the PC's go up in level...

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I'm currently using a reverse-engineered BCCS magic system in my own Grim Tales game. One of my players was very interested in it, and it seemed flexiible and workable enough that it slotted into my homebrew campaign perfectly. Unfortunately Amazon decided to push back my ship date to the END of this month, and we wanted to start playing two weekends ago. Couldn't find it in any local stores.

I had to whip up a custom Talent or two, but otherwise we had the bones of the system and it seems to be working out quite well. You're right, at 4th level, even with (I assume) more HP than a BCCS wizard would have (at 4 Smart levels) our Wizard finds himself in great demand BETWEEN combats but scurrying about in terror during combat. Starting off quite a bit weaker, but he's forever having fun thinking about what, exactly, he'll be able to do when he's got enough power to start blending a few spells together.

--fje

 

[Old One]

Hehe...

I'm running Slavelords of Cydonia with the adventure written as is, but the player's being members of and using the rules from the Black Company campaign.

The first week went well. I am a little worried that the players still aren't doing enough stealth and recon though as they continue to fight through most encounters and are spending days healing aftewards. Of course the days will become longer as the PC's go up in level...

Joe,

I have been following your posts over in the SoC thread...

I have nearly come to the conclusion that the only way to get many players used to the "typical" D&D video game reboot/respawn style of play is to either:

(1) Really spell it out for them in the beginning, or...

(2) Give them a very painful lesson early on, or...

(3) Some combination thereof !

~ Oldie

 

[Old One]

I had to whip up a custom Talent or two, but otherwise we had the bones of the system and it seems to be working out quite well. You're right, at 4th level, even with (I assume) more HP than a BCCS wizard would have (at 4 Smart levels) our Wizard finds himself in great demand BETWEEN combats but scurrying about in terror during combat. Starting off quite a bit weaker, but he's forever having fun thinking about what, exactly, he'll be able to do when he's got enough power to start blending a few spells together.

Heap,

I assume you are using the BCCS casting sytem within GT, yes? Keep us informed on how this progresses, especially after you get your hands on the book. That is one approach I had considered, simply yoinking the BCCS magic system and dropping it into GT (since I love the rest of GT so much).

Thanks for sharing with the class !

~OO

 

[JoeGKushner]

Joe,

I have been following your posts over in the SoC thread...

I have nearly come to the conclusion that the only way to get many players used to the "typical" D&D video game reboot/respawn style of play is to either:

(1) Really spell it out for them in the beginning, or...

(2) Give them a very painful lesson early on, or...

(3) Some combination thereof !

~ Oldie

It's funny but they don't get it!

During the hunt for the reed to cure the disease, they fell into at least one Sutu pit trap with spikes and still fought like madmen.

During one random encounter, the bandits where hidden and took out the Sword Master before initative had even been rolled with the surprise rules in place.

Ah well. It's a good thing more than two people have the core book.

 

[swrushing]

Well, i was a playtester so i have had more than a month of messing with this stuff, and my impressions have gotten even stronger favoring it since my copy arrived.

Current plans are for me to start one campaign in july and possibly another in January next year. interest around here is high and i almost wish one of my current games was ending sooner.

Right now both campaign ideas germinating betwixt my ears involve running in the north post-spike. i am fairly fascinated in the potential events post-lady in the old empire and think their is great room to play.

One notion would be set in oar, following spike and dfraw heavily on those events. Another idea is to use juniper and a funny notion taking root is to have the player sstart out in a very bad area as not BC guys at all, but have them uncover some old BC stuff and the idea is that they would begin their BC days as a bluff, a lie their tell, a scam they employ to save their backsides. Then they get more and more caught up in the lie and have to keep it up thru various adventures until finally, they are for all intents and purposes living the BC roles.

Still just notions.

As for keeping PCs alive, i went thru this a little in playtest. two suggestions...

1. use a few quick one-off scenarios, possibly with pregenned characters, designed to spotlight the richer characters and the tactical differences.

2. In the early going with "real PCs", don't have it be a "PC" in charge. maybe have a PC as second in charge of his team. The "squad-leader" starts as an NPC and he sets the more basic elements of "we surprise, we don't fight up front" and so forth. Its a bit of a balancing act between setting up "we just follow orders" and "we follow orders but the decisions we make makes the story" but it can be done, especially for just a few scenarios. This way they don't get to try the "fools rush in and die" maneuver before they see the absolute benefits handed by the new ambush rules. Then, after about three eps or so, have a stand-up fight or even a "sarge screwed up, you guys were the victims of an ambush" scenario where, of course, the NPC SL pays the ultimate price for his or his superior's error, which creates an opening for a PC promotion, yahhdee, yahhdee...

just some things that worked for my guys.

 

[Yuan-Ti]

In the early going with "real PCs", don't have it be a "PC" in charge. maybe have a PC as second in charge of his team. The "squad-leader" starts as an NPC and he sets the more basic elements of "we surprise, we don't fight up front" and so forth. Its a bit of a balancing act between setting up "we just follow orders" and "we follow orders but the decisions we make makes the story" but it can be done, especially for just a few scenarios. This way they don't get to try the "fools rush in and die" maneuver before they see the absolute benefits handed by the new ambush rules. Then, after about three eps or so, have a stand-up fight or even a "sarge screwed up, you guys were the victims of an ambush" scenario where, of course, the NPC SL pays the ultimate price for his or his superior's error, which creates an opening for a PC promotion, yahhdee, yahhdee...

That sounds like excellent advice and an excellent approach. I think it also opens up to my players the "you get to elect which character is the new squad leader" dynamic. Should be fun.

 

[swrushing]

I think it also opens up to my players the "you get to elect which character is the new squad leader" dynamic.

Thats very true to an extent.

One thing we noted, however, was that the presence and use in game of command skills and feats and also profession soldier meant that those traits in the character were easily used to "assign a leader". Mostly i used them as "what do the NPCs think of their leadership so far" and so it often earned one player the "you are in charge of this mission. Pick three guys and make it happen."

Now, while their skills will get them the command opportunity, their ongoing performance determines whether they keep it. Their skills will help there in terms of "make a prof-soldier roll" or "make a command roll" calls by the Gm when he feels the character is doing something out of whack. make the role, Gm makes sure you "understand this is going to mean a and b and c" or "normal tactics call for..." and so forth.

 

[Yuan-Ti]

Yes, another excellent point. I intend to let the players (not the PCs, though) elect which character will be the squad leader. However, I also intend to make it clear at character creation the importance of having command skills for promotion. Some of my mission ideas involve leading platoons of auxiliaries... obviously, it makes more sense to have the squad leader do so. Worst case, the squad leader assigns a squad member to lead them, however.

Of course, I am still struggling to find players...