Alternatives to D&D

[Necron 99]

Found a nice series of videos that show off alternative game systems to official D&D.

Up first, a look at Hackmaster 5E.

[Ancalagon]

HackMaster 5th is a solid, crunchy as hell, game system. I've played in a few HM5 sessions at conventions (Origins, GenCon, GaryCon) over the years and even demoed HMBasic back in the middle GA days. I'd consider playing in a HM5 game if I thought the GM would do it justice but would not want to run one.

Something I noticed while listening to the speaker is that every few sentences he'd have a "spit smack" sound before starting a new sentence. After 29 minutes that became irksome. Hopefully the speaker will make an effort to eliminate the mannerism from his speech as it will improve the overall delivery of his message.

Look forward to seeing more alternatives!

[Necron 99]

In thinking about Hackmaster 5e, one of the most prominent mechanics is the initiative system, which uses a count-up based on seconds. Every action a character makes, costs a set amount of seconds. Characters act within a series of seconds that build onto the seconds of their previous actions.

For example, if a fighter has a drawn and readied sword, he may take his first action of attacking in say the first 3 seconds, so on count 3, the fighter would swing and roll to hit. If the weapon speed of the sword is 5, then 5 seconds later, on count 8 (3sec+5sec), the fighter gets to make his next attack. In Hackmaster, a Heavy Crossbow is written as having a Rate of Fire, of 60 seconds, which seems like a long time, but is probably fairly accurate.

Below is a video I came across that shows the differences between a medieval crossbow and a more modern one. The thing that struck me though, was the mechanism that is used to reset the older styled crossbow. Seeing the demonstrator pulling back the string with the ropes and crank, really hit home, the inefficiency of a character using such a device during combat. At most, I would think a character could get off one shot, before dropping the crossbow and utilizing some other weapon to continue the fight.

[Captain_Blood]

Energy is the messenger, Momentum is the message. That's a great and accurate phrase! 4kg/m^2 squared shrunk down to an arrowhead is going to be fantastic penetration on the armor of the day. If I do the conversion correctly in my head, thanks metric, that should be 400Kg/cm^2, and a square cm sounds like a good estimate for the impact size of a bolt to me.

[Ancalagon]

In thinking about Hackmaster 5e, one of the most prominent mechanics is the initiative system, which uses a count-up based on seconds. Every action a character makes, costs a set amount of seconds. Characters act within a series of seconds that build onto the seconds of their previous actions.

For example, if a fighter has a drawn and readied sword, he may take his first action of attacking in say the first 3 seconds, so on count 3, the fighter would swing and roll to hit. If the weapon speed of the sword is 5, then 5 seconds later, on count 8 (3sec+5sec), the fighter gets to make his next attack. In Hackmaster, a Heavy Crossbow is written as having a Rate of Fire, of 60 seconds, which seems like a long time, but is probably fairly accurate.

Below is a video I came across that shows the differences between a medieval crossbow and a more modern one. The thing that struck me though, was the mechanism that is used to reset the older styled crossbow. Seeing the demonstrator pulling back the string with the ropes and crank, really hit home, the inefficiency of a character using such a device during combat. At most, I would think a character could get off one shot, before dropping the crossbow and utilizing some other weapon to continue the fight.

The count up system is a cool idea. Every second something can be going on... definitely good for grid based combat for movement. However, I can see it getting much too cumbersome for the GM if he has a mass combat. Imagine tracking 15 individual hobgoblins in a skirmish unit v the PCs. Each hobgoblin moving each second...

Please don't think I'm poo-pooing on HackMaster. Far from it! I'd happily play in a game if one of you fine gentlemen wanted to run one.

I figure a heavy crossbow would be good for defending against a siege where time isn't so much a factor until the walls / gates are breached.

[Ancalagon]

Energy is the messenger, Momentum is the message. That's a great and accurate phrase! 4kg/m^2 squared shrunk down to an arrowhead is going to be fantastic penetration on the armor of the day. If I do the conversion correctly in my head, thanks metric, that should be 400Kg/cm^2, and a square cm sounds like a good estimate for the impact size of a bolt to me.

That momentum was quantified in AD&D by the weapon v AC adjustment. The base damage for the heavy crossbow was piss poor but the increased chance to-hit and range were the benefits.

[Necron 99]

Another video, an alternative to D&D, in which Marty talks about the Lone Wolf RPG. Lone Wolf game books took off back in the 80s, along side the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure (CYOA) and Fighting Fantasy popularity. Cubicle 7, working with Joe Dever, expanded the solo-books into a full fledged RPG, in which the players take up the mantle of Kai Lords (and other classes), continuing the fight against the growing evils in the world of Magnamund.

[Ancalagon]

And now... GURPS - Generic Universal Role Playing System



The core mechanic of GURPS



Review of the 3rd edition game book

[Necron 99]

GURPS has been a game that I've wanted to learn, but would love the chance to play a few times first to see how I like it. In theory it sounds like the perfect game to do everything, as is intended, but I think there is a learning curve that throws most people off. I have the newest reprint of The Fantasy Trip, which is essentially the precursor to GURPS, and I really like it for the simplicity and tactical elements it provides. It's a nice throwback to old-school, tabletop gaming.

[Ancalagon]

From my experience, the most difficult / time consuming aspect of GURPS is character creation. Since GURPS is a point buy system, there are some fiddly bits that will vary in cost based on the value of attributes. Once you get through that it's pretty straightforward on the player side.