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Well, I can't speak to mr. Tito being an rear end in a top hat or not because I've never met him. But ACKS really hits my nostalgia sweet spot, so I'd like to say a bit about the class/proficiency stuff - the stuff that really works for me. Firstly, the classes aren't quite as functionally named as their BECMI counterparts, and there are more of them. Sure, the fighter and the wizard are still around, but there's also fun classes like the explorer (ranger) or the bladedancer (some sorta cleric). Fighty classes in general get a small damage bonus to keep up with the Joneses. And when you get into the non-human classes the classes get downright colourful; we're talking about elven nightblades (thief/wizard) and dwarven vaultguards (tunnel rat) here. Fluff, but I like it. Secondly, proficiencies. They're sort of a mix between skills and feats, although not quite as powerful or versatile. There's a bunch of general profs that all classes can use, and separate sets of class profs for each class. Most of them will give you a small bonus on a die roll, or allow you to bend or break a rule in some minor way. They seem to be fairly well designed and are overall nice-to-have-not-need-to-have. IMO no feat tax here. Also, you don't have a lot of them. You start with 2-5, and add a new approximately every 2-3 levels, depending on your class. Even a name level wizzard will only have about 8-9 profs. So it's not too unwieldy. Honorable mention: The healing prof is pretty neat; assuming you buy it at least a couple of times, successful uses will let you Cure Light Wounds or Cure Disease on the subject. Instead of coming up with rules for that, they just took the existing rules for the spells thus keeping it simple. Neat. Bonus niceness: The profs are detailed in less than 11 pages, so it's not like you have to slog through most of the book. But it really comes into focus when you add the ACKS Companion. Besides 16 new classes, it (crucially! IMO) also adds character templates. Templates is how ACKS avoids analysis paralysis. A template is essentially a kit from 2.5 ed, and every class has 8 of 'em. they consist of A) a cool title like 'Servant of Fire' or 'Pathfinder', B)pre-selected profs, and C) starting equipment and money. So no more waiting around for guys to optimize their characters out the wazoo; Roll stats, pick class, roll template, write stuff on sheet, and you're done. I really like that.
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Jul 19, 2012 18:35
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C&C isn't bad at all, although I had the first printing which was full of errors. I've certain enjoyed some of their adventures. But I can't recall - what does Combat Dominance do?
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Jul 19, 2012 23:40
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OK, that's what AD&D called Multiple Attacks, IIRC. My current game, ACKS, does it by letting fighters Cleave (like the 3E feat) 1 whack per level, ½ level for clerics and thieves. And wizards don't get to Cleave at all. Oh, and fighters also get a +1 damage bonus at 1. lv, plus another +1 every 3-4 levels or so.
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Jul 20, 2012 00:10
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Rulebook Heavily, may I suggest that Crypts & Things be added to the OP? It's a swords and sorceryfied S&W clone, a pretty decent one too.
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Jul 20, 2012 00:16
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Neito posted:I was actually just reading the super-sexy AD&D reprint edition, which semi-seriously suggests killing non-DM players who read or mention having read something in the DMG. 
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Jul 20, 2012 23:45
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ForteMaster posted:On another topic, is anyone here familiar with Dark Dungeons and its variants? It's my Basic-loving buddy's favorite retroclone, although I know he's partial to ACKS. It certainly seems to have a lot of neat qualities to it, though I'm not sure if those qualities are unique to DD or are just Basic-based in general. (I also haven't read the Darker and Darkest versions.) Come to think of it, Rules Cyclopedia/Dark Dungeons is the only one-book D&D I can think of - the other editions are usually spread over three books. This may or may not be significant.
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Jul 20, 2012 23:56
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Fenarisk posted:I'm looking for more mechanical aspects of hex crawls. Hex-based campaign design. More hex-based campaign design. And the best mapping tool.
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Jul 22, 2012 02:45
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Max HP at first level, that's a popular one for all editions. Keep the race/class restrictions, and don't worry too much about demihuman max levels. Elves can't be raised, remember! As for initiative, any homemade kludge will be better than what's in the book. And there's Philotomy's Simple Initiative Rules, which were originally meant for OD&D but which works really well with AD&D too. (IMO that is true for most of the stuff on his site) What you really need to houserule is how to generate stats. In AD&D you need at least a 15 to get a bonus in a given stat - and Gary himself recommends that characters have at least two such stats. There's a shitload of crappy dice-rolling schemes in the book, but I'd recommend using the ol' three best out of four d6, and some DM finagling to get a reasonable character. A modified method IV, if you will. Or give your players an array to spread around. That would work fine too. As long as you don't get into Unearthed Arcana chargen you'll be fine. I'd also recommend you some of Kellri's references for running the actual game, although they're more useful in a sandbox context. If you're gonna blaze through the classic modules you won't need them.
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Jul 30, 2012 18:53
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Can't see why not. You may want to reroll initiative every round instead of letting it ride, though. It could get rough on spellcasters.
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Jul 30, 2012 20:05
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Red_Mage posted:Hey I actually need this thread's help. Being as it is of dubious legality to provide straight AD&D stats for monsters, if I were converting an adventure, what retroclone would probably provide the most universal base so lots of retroclone players could use it. I am leaning toward S&W, but if anyone has a better idea, I'd love to hear it.
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Aug 1, 2012 22:14
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Hellequin posted:Thanks everyone for the quick and informative replies, I really appreciate it. We will be sandboxing it, and I've already got a campaign idea going and the world map all drawn up. Everyone rolled up their characters the other day (one person even managed to roll a 18/00 for their fighter). I'll let you all know how the first session goes.
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Aug 1, 2012 22:15
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I'm mostly a BECMI and AD&D man, so I can't really tell you much about what S&W is like in play compared to OD&D. FWIW it's supposed to be 99% restated OD&D with much better organization and layout. In any case, the core rules are available for free so you can always check them out.
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Aug 5, 2012 21:37
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I never had the opportunity to read or play the LBBs myself, so it's nice to know that S&W is the original, more or less. So thank you for that, Evil Mastermind. It's my impression that the new release is really more of a deluxe edition with a leather cover than a "new" D&D. Of course, it's easy to use S&W as a base for one's own D&D variation - example: Crypts & Things, which is essentially Newt Newport's swords-and-sorceryfied, houseruled and annotated S&W.
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Aug 8, 2012 21:22
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Yeah, Fantasy Trip was a cool little RPG. It works pretty well with Heroscape too...
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Aug 15, 2012 14:09
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Interestingly enough, the original version of Carcosa was available in a expunged version where all the rapemurder was less lovingly described - by all accounts, it read more like ordinary Chaosium Call of Cthulhu evil ritual stuff. Which can admittedly still be pretty squicky.
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Aug 15, 2012 23:13
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Bob Quixote posted:Huh, thats actually pretty cool. I'd imagine it would get expensive playing like that though since Heroscape is out of print.
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Aug 15, 2012 23:18
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My impression is that Joe Goodman has a very clear idea of how he likes his D&D, and wrote DCC to conform to his personal preferences. He's very open and upfront about why it's designed the way it is and how you're supposed to play it for maximum enjoyment. Admittedly DCC is not my cup of tea, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game either. It's a dungeon-crawl RPG aimed at a distinct segment of roleplayers, and I applaud the author for communicating his intent so clearly. That intro right there tells you what DCC is about in no uncertain terms. And say what you will, but there's no rape in DCC. :0
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Aug 16, 2012 22:40
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I dunno man, I'm not too worried about the dice - a lot of us old farts actually like weird dice! Besides, it's no longer uncommon to see people using various smartphone apps for rollin' them bones. As for spells needing more than 3 steps to resolve - that's new to me. I was under the impression that DCC spells required a form of skill/success roll to determine how well - if - you pulled it off, another roll for effect/damage, and maybe a third roll to determine weird magic stuff, depending on how well you aced/fumbled that initial success roll. If there's even more rolls than that, yeah, that's a bit excessive, even for me. Though I must admit that when you say "bad RPG", I'm thinking more along the lines of FATAL or Wraethu. VacuumJockey fucked around with this message at 09:19 on Aug 17, 2012 |
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Aug 17, 2012 09:16
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In the spirit of staying on track, I'll distract you guys with this observation on ACKS: I think it's the D&D clone where mages are the least overpowered. The characters in my ACKS hexcrawl are still fairly low level, but the effects of minor tweaks like cleaving for all non-mages, and a small damage bonus for fighters has certainly been noticeable.
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Aug 17, 2012 14:21
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We haven't gotten that far yet, but the rules for it look pretty decent. The designers notes over at Autarch go into some detail about the endgame. Also, there's this blogpost, which you might find interesting.
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Aug 18, 2012 08:48
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Got another clone to add to the OP: Blood & Treasure. From my cursory scan of the Players Tome, it looks like a decent SRD clone - the author's clearly picked his favorite parts of the editions preceding 4th. Personally, I'll be mining it for spells for my ACKS game.
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Aug 24, 2012 11:41
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Everybody speaks well of Swordbearer but sadly I've never tried it. You can still buy it from FGU too!
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Aug 27, 2012 08:18
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I think that FGU and Palladium are now the only old-school RPG producers still around.  Edit: Maybe Steve Jackson too, although I'm not sure if GURPS qualifies as proper old-school. I dunno, really. 
VacuumJockey fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Aug 27, 2012 |
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Aug 27, 2012 15:33
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Yeah, you guys are right about SJG and Chaosium - they're pretty old-school, although strictly speaking the Fantasy Trip/Melee/Wizard was published by some other, now defunct company. But Ogre packs a lot of old-school cred, as do Car Wars. Would Games Workshop qualify? Although they're all about minis today, they used to publish WFRPG and the Judge Dredd RPG too...
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Aug 27, 2012 20:17
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Hellequin posted:Also the random dungeon generator is the best drat thing ever and I have no idea why they didn't include it in subsequent editions. All the dungeons you'll ever need in one link. 
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Sep 3, 2012 18:17
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JohnnyCanuck posted:So I guess I'm playing Labyrinth Lord? Can anyone tell me where it differs in any way from B/X or B/E? I like your houserules BTW.
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Sep 7, 2012 13:04
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Looks pretty cool. This one's not as fancy, but it works pretty well. And it's free.
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Sep 17, 2012 22:32
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Swim Good posted:Wondering if you guys in the know would be able to help me. I want to play an old school sandbox that is less focused on dungeons and more on going from village to village getting into mischief. What do system do you suggest for that sort of game? S&W whitebox or B/X? If you're looking for some structure to your village crawl, you could take a look at An Echo, Resounding. IMO it's a fantastic sandbox resource for all kinds of D&D.
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Jan 1, 2013 15:49
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I use Ready Ref Sheets for inspiration to this day! Combined with another overlooked classic, TSR's Monster and Treasure Assortment Sets 1-3 you're good to go in almost any old D&D or clone thereof. 
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Jan 25, 2013 21:25
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mllaneza posted:I reviewed the Ready Ref sheets and some of the other supplements (like the Villages and Islands books) in some detail for the F&F thread. Short version: if you want as old-school as it gets, eBay copies of these RFN. RRS VB1 VacuumJockey fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Jan 26, 2013 |
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Jan 26, 2013 15:55
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EC is pretty cool, and it is also a perfectly playable joke game - but yeah, Mutant Future is probably more what you're looking for for Earthbound. MF is awesome, that's for sure.
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Feb 6, 2013 17:45
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IMO it sounds gloriously silly and good-natured. I do think that you should have a slightly larger wilderness, because that way you could have an elven village for recruiting elven classes, a dwarven mountain fort for recruiting dwarven classes, etc. Or maybe that's just my preference for sandboxes talking. And yeah, ACKS with the player's companion is probably the overall best D&D there is. Alternatively you could steal a page from GW's Mordheim game and set the campaign in the ruins of a recently nuked metropolis. Every session would then revolve about finding a good ruin/dungeon, plundering it, and then getting home in one piece. With a good random dungeon generator, and stuff like that found at wizardawn.com, it wouldn't even take all that much prep.
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May 24, 2013 13:56
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Ratpick posted:Stealing from Mordheim is a brilliant idea though: for the longest time I've wanted to use Vornheim's urban-crawling rules to run something like a D&D version of Mordheim, and some of ACKS's classes already have that "ruined cities blasted by magical nukes" thing written into their background that they'd be a perfect fit. I wouldn't even have to change too much about my initial plan: the town location would be the shanty-town/military camp that has sprung up around the ruined city, the wilderness would be the sprawling streets of the town and the dungeon would be the various major buildings and landmarks of the city waiting to be looted. Ruins of the Undercity, while meant for solo play, is what amounts to a D&D version of Mordheim set in a sort-of-gothic fantasy Arabia. Substituting RotU's random dungeon tables with a dungeon generated from, say, wizardawn.com, you'd pretty much be ready to go with just about any OSR D&D clone. With a copy of Vornheim to fill out the gaps you've got the cornerstones of a kick-rear end city-based campaign.
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May 24, 2013 22:17
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Halloween Jack posted:I'm starting to hear good things about DCC on this forum, both regarding the Deed mechanic and the way spells work. I've skimmed the book, but I can't get past the As you're here in the retroclone thread, you may well find DCC worth a look. IMO it certainly rubs a certain subset of grognards sweet spot. The printed DCC is full of great art and is overall an attractive book. That may or may not be important to you, but it is a drat impressive tome.
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Jun 11, 2013 20:03
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intro where it says you're not allowed to play if you don't dream about Gary and Erol having a swordfight in your mouth. Is it really worth checking out?
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I'm skimming Magic & Monsters as we speak, so to speak. It's special in that it really only covers the first 4 levels - after that, you're supposed to use whatever D&D or clone you feel like for advancement, spells and monsters. Oh, and it uses 3d6 instead of the usual d20 for resolution. So far it actually seems more like an add-on to existing games; It's almost like a FATE-ified version of D&D. As Sarah Newton is one of the authors of Legends of Anglerre, this may not be a coincidence.
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Jun 13, 2013 09:28
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Arivia posted:Dungeon Crawl Classics does this and I think ACKS does too. Dear You, take a look at Heroes Against Darkness. It's sort of a 'greatest hits of all editions, including 4E-clone' that incorporates exactly the combat flavour I think you're looking for.
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Jun 27, 2013 09:51
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DalaranJ posted:The only thing I've heard about T&T was something vaguely about how the combat could be condensed into some small series of rolls. I have no idea if that is accurate, or some weird houserule I'd caught wind of. What is the system like? From Flying Buffalo's website: "The combat rules for the T&T fantasy role playing system are really quite simple. You get to roll a certain number of six sided dice, according to what kind of weapon you are carrying/using. [A scimitar, for instance, gets 4 dice]. You get to add a number to your total called "adds" [which can be a negative number] which is based upon your personal characteristics: strength, dexterity, and luck. For each number over 12 on each of these, you get one "add" and for each number under 9 you deduct one "add". Thus if your strength is 6, and your luck is 12, and your dexterity is 18, your total "adds" would be +3. [Deduct 3 because you are pretty wimpy, and don't add anything for your somewhat average luck, but add 6 because you are extremely agile]. You also could get bonuses for a magic weapon, or poisoned weapon; and there are special rules for magical combat, ranged weapons (bows) and for "going berserk" but ignore them for now. The monster gets to roll a certain number of dice depending on his "monster rating." He gets one six sided die for each 10 points of monster rating, plus one. [i.e. for 1-9 he gets one die. For 10-19 he gets 2 dice. For 20-29 he gets 3 dice, etc]. Plus he gets "adds" of one half of his current monster rating (which may change during the combat). Thus a monster with a "rating" of 24 gets 3 dice, plus add 12 to whatever he rolls on those 3 dice. You roll your dice, and add the "adds" to it for a number. The monster rolls his dice and adds his "adds" to that roll. Subtract the smaller number from the larger, and the difference is the number of "hits" taken by the fighter who rolled the smaller number. Any "hits" taken against the monster reduce his monster rating [and thus his future combat rolls]. If you get his monster rating to zero, you have killed him. Any "hits" taken against you reduces your constitution by that number of hits. If your "CON" gets to zero, you are dead. However, you may be able to reduce the number of "hits" you take by wearing armor. [For example, leather armor will reduce the number of "hits" against you every combat round, by 6. If you are wearing leather armor, and the monster gets 4 "hits" on you, you take no damage. This doesn't damage the armor either, so you could take up to 6 hits every combat round and never get hurt at all.] You will notice that whoever wins the first round of comat is probably going to continue to win, which makes combat in T&T very quick. If the monster is losing, he will lose even faster as his monster rating goes down. And if you are losing, you probably should run away, or try something else [such as magic, if available]. Questions? e mail to rick at flying buffalo dot com" What throws people off about T&T combat is the collective combat system: You basically just add the sides up and roll them off against one another. 4 MR 30 monsters would roll 12d6+60. If for example the party could only muster say 10d6+47 from their 3 guys, chances are they'd lose this fight. To upset those odds, they'd have to come up with some daring and appropriate stunts, but that's another story involving what T&T calls 'saving throws'. Oh and another thing: When damage is scored, it is assigned arbitrarily by the TM. If, using the example above, 25 points of damage went through to the party, the TM could assign it as justified by the fiction. That really threw me off at first, but these days I see it as a proto-Dungeon World feature. :0
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Oct 18, 2013 13:27
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Xir posted:1. If I wanted to play D&D as a pseudo-board game, sorta like recreating HeroQuest but with a little more depth, which version should I look into? B/X, BECMI (RC), one of the clones, AD&D? 1. I'd stick to the race-is-class-based nature of B/X or any clone thereof. It seems right for this type of game. 2. IMO the BECMI RC is the one-book solution you're looking for. The one thing I don't like about the RC is weapon specialization - I find it far too overpowered - but WS is a freestanding rules module and easily discarded or modified. It is in no way a dealbreaker. Also, check this out. It's a set of extra classes that worked very well for our RC campaign.
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Oct 18, 2013 13:50
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Ravendas posted:I pick and choose rules from the PO:C&T and PO:S&M, skipping Skills and Powers entirely as it's terrible. Class handbooks are in, race handbooks are out.
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Oct 23, 2013 18:58
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AlphaDog posted:Was there a class-building thing in BECMI or B/x? I think I remember one, but gently caress if I can find it.
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Nov 12, 2013 14:06
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