Tacky. Tasteless. Insulting to Mr. Easley.
It is commendable that Mr. Easley took the high road. I think I'm going to buy some prints from Mr. Easley's site this year.
This just affirms my decision to not buy a ticket to go see the D&D film. Don't reward bad behavior / decisions!
Alternatives to D&D
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Necron 99
- Level 8: Noble
- Posts: 2092
- Joined: December 5th, 2018, 1:43 pm
- Location: Jacksonville, FL
Level-based advancement isn't a great mechanic.
Been reading through some rpg systems lately, and, I think I'm reaching or have reached a point where I find the standard d20 level-based advancement in RPGs to be less fun and a bit more annoying than other systems. This sort of struck a chord with me the other day when we were wrapping up our last session, and Jared mentioned his elf needing 4000xp to hit 2nd level. That, and the death of Littlefoot, whom I think many really enjoyed having in the party also seemed to be a bit of a bummer. Running a low-level BD&D game is sure to invite death, it's almost inevitable, but it still seemed kinda tragic in a way.
In part, I think much of the fun I had at GaryCon, was simply the fact that I didn't have to worry about the meta-mechanics of the games I was playing while there. I didn't have to worry about character leveling or the new abilities that came with moving up the ranks. It was just sit down and play and have a fun game session with the character chosen at the table.
All of the games I played at the con were d20, mostly DCC with C&C and D&D sprinkled in, but the fun of those games was primarily from the fact that I just sat down and played. I didn't have to worry about leveling up a character. We had the abilities available to us on the character sheets, they were already low-to-mid level characters with fun stuff to throw down and have fun with. Not dealing with the meta-mechanics of the systems was a benefit, one that I didn't really think about until just recently as I started thinking about ideas for adventures to run next year, GC2024.
Call of Cthulhu uses a skill-based d100 system, as do systems like Warhammer Fantasy, HarnMaster, Mythras, and MERP. Characters can surely start out "new" but you don't have the chasm of "peasant to hero" that you have in D&D/C&C. And yes, I know this has been a topic of discussion since the 80s, but it's never been something that really struck me until more recently. Other systems like The One Ring, use d6s and d12s, some newer systems that I have, personally, use skill and trait or talent aspects with d6 dice pools for resolution. Other games like Lex Arcana use a full set of polys, but with a combination of dice per roll (3d4, 2d6, or 1d12).
The character's skills advance and grow, but the character itself does not "level up" in the same sense as a D&D character. In the event of character death, often, a newly created character can fit right in with other characters that have been played for some time and having advanced, with only the skills possibly being less further along. This goes a long way to helping the player feel like part of the party without the long slogging road to gaining exps and levels to catch-up and hold their ground compared to high-level characters.
I think this is one reason why I appreciate DCC RPG for playing and running the "d20" system. Each encounter is designed to elicit experience in the amount of 1-4 experience points (average of 2xp/encounter). According to the leveling chart (which all classes use) it only takes 10 points for any character to hit 1st level (or automatically for a 0-level completing their first funnel) and 50 points to hit 2nd level (110 for 3rd, 190 for 4th...). Even with character death, character classes are much more tightly knitted together, with less skew between HPs and character abilities of varying levels. The smaller XP requirements and one-shot-ish styled adventures are designed to get at the meat of the "dungeon crawl" and adventuring aspects of the game without drawing it all out like (A)D&D does. Most characters peak in DCC around levels 5-6, assuming they live long enough and max level is 10.
In bygone days of yore, when the world, and I, were young and without modern distractions (i.e. streaming entertainment, plethora of video games, social media, etc.) it was nothing to whittle away the time with leveling up characters during long weekends of playing (A)D&D. I had a lot of fun in those many years. But now, as an adult with more duties, distractions, and less time, I find myself spending down time reading up on other games and systems.
Been reading through some rpg systems lately, and, I think I'm reaching or have reached a point where I find the standard d20 level-based advancement in RPGs to be less fun and a bit more annoying than other systems. This sort of struck a chord with me the other day when we were wrapping up our last session, and Jared mentioned his elf needing 4000xp to hit 2nd level. That, and the death of Littlefoot, whom I think many really enjoyed having in the party also seemed to be a bit of a bummer. Running a low-level BD&D game is sure to invite death, it's almost inevitable, but it still seemed kinda tragic in a way.
In part, I think much of the fun I had at GaryCon, was simply the fact that I didn't have to worry about the meta-mechanics of the games I was playing while there. I didn't have to worry about character leveling or the new abilities that came with moving up the ranks. It was just sit down and play and have a fun game session with the character chosen at the table.
All of the games I played at the con were d20, mostly DCC with C&C and D&D sprinkled in, but the fun of those games was primarily from the fact that I just sat down and played. I didn't have to worry about leveling up a character. We had the abilities available to us on the character sheets, they were already low-to-mid level characters with fun stuff to throw down and have fun with. Not dealing with the meta-mechanics of the systems was a benefit, one that I didn't really think about until just recently as I started thinking about ideas for adventures to run next year, GC2024.
Call of Cthulhu uses a skill-based d100 system, as do systems like Warhammer Fantasy, HarnMaster, Mythras, and MERP. Characters can surely start out "new" but you don't have the chasm of "peasant to hero" that you have in D&D/C&C. And yes, I know this has been a topic of discussion since the 80s, but it's never been something that really struck me until more recently. Other systems like The One Ring, use d6s and d12s, some newer systems that I have, personally, use skill and trait or talent aspects with d6 dice pools for resolution. Other games like Lex Arcana use a full set of polys, but with a combination of dice per roll (3d4, 2d6, or 1d12).
The character's skills advance and grow, but the character itself does not "level up" in the same sense as a D&D character. In the event of character death, often, a newly created character can fit right in with other characters that have been played for some time and having advanced, with only the skills possibly being less further along. This goes a long way to helping the player feel like part of the party without the long slogging road to gaining exps and levels to catch-up and hold their ground compared to high-level characters.
I think this is one reason why I appreciate DCC RPG for playing and running the "d20" system. Each encounter is designed to elicit experience in the amount of 1-4 experience points (average of 2xp/encounter). According to the leveling chart (which all classes use) it only takes 10 points for any character to hit 1st level (or automatically for a 0-level completing their first funnel) and 50 points to hit 2nd level (110 for 3rd, 190 for 4th...). Even with character death, character classes are much more tightly knitted together, with less skew between HPs and character abilities of varying levels. The smaller XP requirements and one-shot-ish styled adventures are designed to get at the meat of the "dungeon crawl" and adventuring aspects of the game without drawing it all out like (A)D&D does. Most characters peak in DCC around levels 5-6, assuming they live long enough and max level is 10.
In bygone days of yore, when the world, and I, were young and without modern distractions (i.e. streaming entertainment, plethora of video games, social media, etc.) it was nothing to whittle away the time with leveling up characters during long weekends of playing (A)D&D. I had a lot of fun in those many years. But now, as an adult with more duties, distractions, and less time, I find myself spending down time reading up on other games and systems.
“He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.” - Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien
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Ancalagon
- Level 8: Noble
- Posts: 1734
- Joined: December 5th, 2018, 5:42 pm
- Location: Bellevue, NE
Emphasis mine.Necron 99 wrote: ↑June 28th, 2023, 5:40 pm Level-based advancement isn't a great mechanic.
Been reading through some rpg systems lately, and, I think I'm reaching or have reached a point where I find the standard d20 level-based advancement in RPGs to be less fun and a bit more annoying than other systems. This sort of struck a chord with me the other day when we were wrapping up our last session, and Jared mentioned his elf needing 4000xp to hit 2nd level. That, and the death of Littlefoot, whom I think many really enjoyed having in the party also seemed to be a bit of a bummer. Running a low-level BD&D game is sure to invite death, it's almost inevitable, but it still seemed kinda tragic in a way.
In part, I think much of the fun I had at GaryCon, was simply the fact that I didn't have to worry about the meta-mechanics of the games I was playing while there. I didn't have to worry about character leveling or the new abilities that came with moving up the ranks. It was just sit down and play and have a fun game session with the character chosen at the table.
All of the games I played at the con were d20, mostly DCC with C&C and D&D sprinkled in, but the fun of those games was primarily from the fact that I just sat down and played. I didn't have to worry about leveling up a character. We had the abilities available to us on the character sheets, they were already low-to-mid level characters with fun stuff to throw down and have fun with. Not dealing with the meta-mechanics of the systems was a benefit, one that I didn't really think about until just recently as I started thinking about ideas for adventures to run next year, GC2024.
Call of Cthulhu uses a skill-based d100 system, as do systems like Warhammer Fantasy, HarnMaster, Mythras, and MERP. Characters can surely start out "new" but you don't have the chasm of "peasant to hero" that you have in D&D/C&C. And yes, I know this has been a topic of discussion since the 80s, but it's never been something that really struck me until more recently. Other systems like The One Ring, use d6s and d12s, some newer systems that I have, personally, use skill and trait or talent aspects with d6 dice pools for resolution. Other games like Lex Arcana use a full set of polys, but with a combination of dice per roll (3d4, 2d6, or 1d12).
The character's skills advance and grow, but the character itself does not "level up" in the same sense as a D&D character. In the event of character death, often, a newly created character can fit right in with other characters that have been played for some time and having advanced, with only the skills possibly being less further along. This goes a long way to helping the player feel like part of the party without the long slogging road to gaining exps and levels to catch-up and hold their ground compared to high-level characters.
I think this is one reason why I appreciate DCC RPG for playing and running the "d20" system. Each encounter is designed to elicit experience in the amount of 1-4 experience points (average of 2xp/encounter). According to the leveling chart (which all classes use) it only takes 10 points for any character to hit 1st level (or automatically for a 0-level completing their first funnel) and 50 points to hit 2nd level (110 for 3rd, 190 for 4th...). Even with character death, character classes are much more tightly knitted together, with less skew between HPs and character abilities of varying levels. The smaller XP requirements and one-shot-ish styled adventures are designed to get at the meat of the "dungeon crawl" and adventuring aspects of the game without drawing it all out like (A)D&D does. Most characters peak in DCC around levels 5-6, assuming they live long enough and max level is 10.
In bygone days of yore, when the world, and I, were young and without modern distractions (i.e. streaming entertainment, plethora of video games, social media, etc.) it was nothing to whittle away the time with leveling up characters during long weekends of playing (A)D&D. I had a lot of fun in those many years. But now, as an adult with more duties, distractions, and less time, I find myself spending down time reading up on other games and systems.
If I had to pick a non-d20 game today to sit down and learn/play/run, it would be Mythras. It's a skill based % game, not quite as crunchy as HarnMaster, but definitely more in-depth than the d20 games with very appealing fiddly bits and tactical options. I've been flipping through the Mythras core book again and re-entertaining the idea of running some combat demos at Gary Con next year.
Here's an example of 1 v 1 combat between 2 samurai: https://elruneblog.blogspot.com/2020/12 ... thras.html
Me being me, I'd house rule a couple of things, of course, but I like the tactical examples of maneuvers and special options.
“Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” - Carl Sagan
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Necron 99
- Level 8: Noble
- Posts: 2092
- Joined: December 5th, 2018, 1:43 pm
- Location: Jacksonville, FL
Prof. Dungeon Master and WotC/D&D Sales:
“He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.” - Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien