ACKS II, Preview PDFs

I really like the ACKS II rules, and I have been following the Kickstarter and have the art-free PDFs to read. They removed all OGL content from the game, and the game is better for it. D&D has enshrined certain immersion-breaking tropes into the genre, and I noticed all ESP is gone from the game. Displacer cloaks, invisibility 10' radius, and detect secret doors are gone. Wizard eye and spell storing (spell and item) are gone. Wands of detecting secret doors and traps are gone.

A few ability scores have been renamed; intelligence is now intellect. Wisdom is now willpower. Clerics are now crusaders. The race-as-class entries are thematic and tighter-tied to the world.

One of the most exciting aspects of the changes is the removal of problematic, game-breaking spells and magic items. This shift requires players to engage in more strategic dungeon-crawling, relying less on spells and magic items and more on their own wit and skill.

If you make the SRD a golden idol over fun gameplay, you will inherit all of its flaws and weaken your game. If you approach fantasy gaming with a "completist" attitude, where you must have everything, you will bring broken things into your game and hurt the player experience.

Another improvement here is tightening the official world to the rules and eliminating the assumption of a generic world. I have enough generic B/X systems, and seeing something different is refreshing.

Of all my B/X games, this one looks like my "last one standing" after I put many in storage.

Game Designers

Any version of D&D and almost every OSR game shares the same flaw. They assume the game designers can do a better job than you. This one thing kills my interest in both the OSR and Open 5E, and it sucks.

I am proficient with GURPS and other classless games, like Runequest, Basic Roleplaying, and Open Quest. I look at all these new 5E games, and it feels like a bunch of Seattle game designers all arguing about who has the best implementation of each class - a set of assumptions based on stereotypes that define your role in the game.

They are trying to sell games to people with strong senses of personal identity, and the message is, "Please conform to a class."

Who says that a game designer knows who you are at the table?

Aren't YOU the best expert on who your character is?

It is hard to get excited about new versions of 5E, like Tales of the Valiant. I love what they did with this game. It is one of the best versions of 5E out there, evenly matched with the excellent Level Up Advanced 5E, which brings a flat math model and old-school sensibilities to 5E.

This even hurts old standbys like Castles & Crusades and some of my OSR favorites. All of them are fatally flawed. Who says my bard has to take these choices and nothing else? Why do I need more "killing power" if I never use it? Why do these games give me powers I never use or am interested in? Do the game designers "expect" me to follow some script through "discovery" that they know far ahead of me "discovering" it, and I can't form my own combos of skills, powers, and abilities?

Class-based games feel like this big railroad.

Yes, a class-based game is more accessible to sell to a group. You aren't all going in a thousand directions during character design. They are quick. You have established party roles built in.

But for solo play?

Why?

I get bored of these games and their safety rails and train tracks. I know what every character is and will do, and they never develop organically.

Games that give me power interests me more, and they are killing my interest in the offerings of "expert game designers."

You will know the day you look in a mirror and realize you are the same thing.

Level Based Games vs. Character Builders

I like Community 5E; I really do. It works well for stories with larger groups with more cookie-cutter characters. But the entire "level track" with "pre-picked options" really sucks for me. I still find myself drifting away from 5E and towards games that allow me to build a character through play.

I don't like how 5E "forces you to get better at killing" and how it puts classes in tightly restrictive boxes. The designers tell you, "This will be all that you can do," and there is no freedom or ability to grow in ways outside of that box.

If all my bard does is social stuff, why is he getting better at killing and casting magic?

Character Builder games like Runequest, BRP, Open Quest, GURPS, and Dungeon Fantasy capture my imagination. I can play these solo and have my character progress organically; if all they do is social roleplay, they will start growing in those areas. If all they do is combat, they will grow there. I will spend points on thief skills if they only do stealth and roguish activities. If they need to be skilled in culture, history, and specialized knowledge, guess what? That is where they focus their improvement. And they can fall behind in every one of those areas. If they only use magic and concentrate there, that is what they become better at. 

They can choose to be "good enough" in combat and defense if that is their thing.

They can fall behind in every area, too, but improving those abilities requires using them. Even in a point-based game such as GURPS, it is easy to say, "If you did not use it, pay for training, or somehow find a reason to say why you got better in an area - you can't improve it." BRP is a more direct system of putting checkboxes by things you used and rolling for improvement.

5E sucks like AD&D sucked, especially in forcing characters down "set paths." It sucked in the 1980s, and it still sucks today. There was a reason everyone quit AD&D and played GURPS through the 1990s. Class-based games sucked. They were relics of the 1970s. That is the way almost everyone saw them back then.

If you play D&D for the "nostalgia flashback" to the 1980s, you will eventually drop the game for GURPS. We all got sick of D&D. Roll your retro-flashback clocks forward to 1988, and you will see what I mean. And many were playing Runequest and Rolemaster, too. Oh, and there was always Rifts. The Stranger Things kids would be playing Rifts in the sequel series. You play Rifts because everyone you know hates it, making you the cool kid.

By the end of the 1990s, you will have given it all up for Vampire, BattleTech, and Magic the Gathering. Most just left for video games and MMOs and never looked back.

Character-builder games are superior in every way to class-based games. With a class-based game, I can "see" the progression ahead of time. It is boring. I know what I am getting. I look at the next level, and nothing surprises me. In fact, I look at the next level and see how I will not improve in an area - such as social skills - so I give up doing social-skill stuff. Let the bard do it. I will never get any better at it as a fighter. Even with the "new style" background, heritage, etc., generation systems in 5E still fall short. So I can pick a few things before I get on the rollercoaster; it is still the same ride.

With a character-builder game, the adventures I have will shape my character.

With a class-based game, my class tells me what adventures I should go on.

Open Quest Redux, and GURPS

Open Quest has put Mythras in storage. This is just the more accessible and complete game, especially compared to Classic Fantasy Imperative and the base Mythras book (still too small type to read easily). I want Mythras to rock, but as they convert to the ORC license and get material reprinted and cleaned up, it does not feel like either Mythras or Classic Fantasy is there.

Open Quest stands out for its simplicity and directness, a design choice that sets it apart from other games. Its most intriguing aspect is the absence of traditional classes, which paves the way for a unique gaming experience. This is akin to the fun and diverse play options offered by GURPS, where the lack of classes opens up a plethora of exciting possibilities.

The one thing that keeps me from using 5E for many stories is classes. I will have a more social or story-based campaign, and a character that should not be "becoming more and more of a killer" is suddenly becoming one and not improving social and story skills. I like the concept of a character "falling behind" in fighting power because they aren't getting into fights and having to go back and train to compensate for the lack of combat ability.

All of this is slowly pushing me back into GURPS. Open Quest is a great game, one of the best BRP-style dungeon games on the market. But for how I play, it would still fall short. It would be better than 5E for me, but GURPS is the king of character builders. GURPS also lets you design a 1,000-point historian with zero combat power; in that element, they would be the best in the world.

I get it; 5e is fun from a "structured play" aspect.

But when I tell stories, they are never structured. Do you mean to tell me that if my mage spends six sessions in social situations, talking, solving problems, and not casting a spell - the XP will be enough for them to get a level and be a better killer and user of magic?

I didn't even use one spell!

Now I know more?

What is even dumber is that I have zero social skills and problem-solving abilities. Here is some killing power! Thank you for being social and solving all those problems!

I have a game in which I am doing X, Y, and Z, which gives me more power to do A, B, and C.

That sort of "no reward play" leads me to quit. I will never get rewarded for XYZ (social and problem solving), never do ABC (combat and killing), and at every level, it gets worse. Nothing helps me do XYZ, and I get worse at it as my combat power goes up like some JRPG character on a preset, hardcoded into the ROM progression track. They will never be good at anything other than making a damage number go higher and higher.

Some classes force you into killing. My fighter isn't given many social skills since the game has a built-in death bias towards some classes. This bias is lame and has been the fatal flaw in D&D and class-based games for 50 years.

This is why we left D&D in the 1980s for GURPS.

If the king sends my character to stop two warring tribes, I can approach it however I want. I could get history books, spend character points on specialized history skills for each tribe, and come at them knowing everything they are about. Your tribe did this 300 years ago, but this tribe still holds your sacred hunting ground; let's make a swap and figure this out peacefully.

Or I could go combat, get tactics and battle leadership skills, pick a side, and wipe the other out.

I could go stealthy and subterfuge.

I could go 100% diplomatic.

I could use history against them.

Anyway, there is a skill that can support my problem-solving.

You get a typical 5E module, and it is either an OSR-like "dungeon atlas" to kill through, or all of the above solutions have to be "thought of" by the writer of the adventure and put in there as options they choose for you - since 5E characters kill first and think later. 5E Adventures presents killing as the first solution and has to go out of its way to show a few non-violent options (if they do at all, since combat is "fun," just like a video game).

Open Quest would do this style of play nicely in a d100 BRP-style framework. You control your advances. Thus, you control the areas in which your character improves.

GURPS is still the master of this style of play. It has everything Open Quest doesn't, but in some ways, doesn't need. However, I still like being able to design characters down to the point, buy advantages and disadvantages, and specialize in skills most games would dismiss as "needless, pointless detail."

If I am playing a game where needing to know specialized things matters?

It matters a whole lot.

Solo (Zoser)

The Solo system for Cepheus Engine has always been strange to work with, and it differs from the more popular Mythic Solo tools in a few significant ways. For one, in Solo, you make a plan, determine the difficulty and danger level, tally up the modifier to the roll, and then roll the dice.

Success means the plan worked, and you are done.

Failure means the plan failed, and now you must adjust.

Consequences are rolled for either result. If the plan succeeds, this has a positive modifier and can include results where characters get killed, with a greater chance of this on a dangerous plan that fails.

Then, you write a story answering the question, "What happened?"

It is a strange system because I don't see the need for skill checks. You just determine if you have the skill, which is a positive modifier. It is like I don't need characters at all, just plans. Skills play into positive modifiers, and characters play into plans, but I don't see too much of a need for characters.

The system is innovative in that I haven't seen too many "plan-based" solo play systems.

Myself? The future is not predetermined. If a plan signals a failure, and something terrible happens, I will start the end of the mission in media res and have characters fight to avoid that fate or make it worse. Most "easy-peasy" plans, yes, just say what happened, but there are times when I want to know what went down, have a chance for characters to play a few turns of combat, and try to salvage a bad situation for the better.

Something worse could happen. A result where nobody gets killed could be that half the party gets wiped out. That is the price for trying to change history. Could they change history, turning a failed plan into a success? It may be possible with a few critical success rolls, but that adverse fate will haunt them later.

Is the failure or success still predetermined?

Yes. A failed plan is still a failed plan.

How it fails will be how you play it out. The same goes for success. You may get to the end and wonder how you could fail, but you still do. You could lose it all, yet that roll for success means you still won. It may fail or succeed in a way you did not expect.

The consequences can change more drastically. You tried to change fate. Or maybe you did.

I like to use my starship combat systems, run interpersonal combats, and do my Car Wars battles. I don't want an abstract system taking it all away, only for the boring parts. So "be kind, rewind" is still how I use the system to lay out what happened. I go back and fill in the middle. But that is when I start playing if I so choose. If I don't like the result, I can change things. Maybe.

But I always leave the door open to return to the critical moment, set up the scene, and begin a short play session to figure out what happened. This has full combat, skill rolls, exploration, and all the other parts I love using. A character may be able to talk themselves out of trouble. They may have failed the mission, but what damage did they inflict?

It is a different take on solo gaming, but I like deciding when it is "play time" versus "plan time" and letting the dice fall where they may.

Autoduel GURPS/Champions 2024

I am working on converting Classic Car Wars to a 3d6-or-less system, such as GURPS or Hero System. The ideal goal is to use the 3d6 system for the to-hits, while everything else—damage, handling, combat, and vehicle designs—still use the Car Wars system and keeps the "metal underneath" the same.

Damage is going to scale. Car Wars to Champions is a 3-to-1 scale, so 1d6 Car Wars is 3d6 Champions. Car Wars to GURPS is more like 18-to-1, based on the 0.50 cal. M2HB (7dx2) and the 66mm LAW (6dx6). So if a LAW in Car Wars does 2d6, that is 36d6 in GURPS, and the 0.50 MG in GURPS does 14d6, which is close enough to 18d6, so 1d6 in Car Wars, which matches the MG damage.

To-hit modifiers in both games are doubled. So, if firing at the front of a car is a -1 in Car Wars, that is a -2 in Champions or GURPS. Use Car Wars for all to-hit modifiers, with the only exception being the OCV and DCV modifiers in Champions - the driver's OCV and target driver's DCV do apply to the to-hit roll (if they have Combat Driver skill otherwise it is zero), as they do in Champions. This was a cool rule in the Autoduel Champions days, where a driver's abilities could make the vehicle harder to hit.

Do not do size and range modifiers with either system! Stick with Car Wars' range and to-hit to calculate the final CW to-hit modifier, then multiply by two.

To-hit modifiers for weapons are based on a Car Wars 7+ to-hit number. Every point above or below is a +/-2 modifier to hit when using the gun. Targeting computers factor in as usual, so a hi-res target will give a -4 to-hit modifier (lower is better).

For handling, use the Car Wars Control Table. If you get a 'safe" result, do not make a driving skill check. If you get a number 2 through 6, that is your negative modifier to your driving skill check to avoid a roll on the Crash Table. So if your vehicle is at 60 mph, and you have a current -2 HC, the number on the chart is 2, so you need to make a driving skill roll at a -2 to avoid a Crash Table roll. HC resets as it does in Car Wars.

With GURPS, the combat turn is one second, and you usually get one attack, so this is a very clean conversion. The Hero System rules use a Speed system from 1 to 12 and a 12-second turn. This does not work that well in Classic Car Wars, and the old Audoduel Champions' way of handling it is allowing characters to make a vehicular weapon (not hand weapon) attacks every second (like SPD 12) but zero out OCV and skill bonuses on non-acting phases.

This means an SPD 4 character in the Hero System who acts on phases 3, 6, 9, and 12 and gets their full skill and OCV bonuses on those phases only. They can attack in phases 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, and 11, but at an OCV or zero.

Hero System DCV always applies; this helps balance the "firing every phase" issue below!

Stick to the Hero System phases when making hand weapon attacks or using superpowers. So that SPD 4 characters can make a hand weapon or superpower attack every 3 seconds. This is a change from Car Wars, but given the games, it makes sense. This also puts people on foot at a more significant disadvantage than vehicles since they can get fired at every phase.

This has stayed the same since Autoduel Champions, and letting characters keep their full DCV (even in non-acting phases) helps balance this out and keeps superheroes from being sitting targets by a stream of per-phase machinegun fire. Haying for a DCV of 6 is going to be a huge benefit when the attacking vehicle is acting off-phase, and the attacker can't use their OCV and skill bonuses.

Movement should be done in Car Wars, with everything in mph, including foot movement. I know this will mess up Hero System movement rates, where characters only move during their phase, but we are entering "simulation land," where all foot movement is done per phase.

Hero System uses meters, so do a rough conversion and multiply by 3 for feet. For simplicity, assume Hero System "meters per turn" equals "miles per hour." Most characters in Hero System move 12m, which is about 12.5 mph in Car Wars, which is running speed foot movement (Car Wars Compendium). If a character has a running superpower of 40m per turn, he runs at 40 mph, and all movement is done according to Car Wars (every second).

Speaking of Autoduel Champions, we were sort of inspired by this project since we played it a lot in the 1980s. We had our own Traveller-like system for our game, but having Champions' superpowers convert easily was a huge plus. It allowed us to do the mixed superheroes and Car Wars campaign we loved.

And you can tell we played many of these games since these conversions are very natural for me to bust out as I think through how the games are played.

If I were to do our game today, our Traveller-inspired 2d6 system, I would skip all the newer versions of Cepheus and go straight for the digest-sized Cepheus Light. The skills are 99% compatible with Car Wars and are all 2d6 and N+ compatible. The personal combat rules can be used instead of the ones in Car Wars. The only rules I would add are the optional Traits system (30 XP to buy a new one) and the Cepheus Enhanced Edition rule for raising an ability score (3x new level in XP).

Why Cepheus Light and not one of the newer versions? I don't need anything in the newer versions. It is digest-sized and feels like a Car Wars book. The game even has a "cargo" system that works directly with Car Wars to haul loads between cities (Grav Vehicles would be Auto Parts or the cars themselves).

https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/257644/cepheus-light

https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/262129/cepheus-light-traits

https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/342060/non-random-character-generation-for-cepheus-light

Those three are really all you need. Another benefit? If you need a simplified RPG for Battletech, that works just as nicely. For Battletech, you may want to use a more complete and modern edition since you will get a lot of extra "sci-fi stuff" you will use, but for Car Wars, Light is all you need.

Goodbye, Pathfinder 1e

My Pathfinder 1e books are in storage now.

I tried running a GURPS campaign, but meh. I was fighting the world more than I was having fun. With this much work, I would create an original world and have fun there instead. Dungeon Fantasy needs its own world and setting, which I have and will talk about soon.

Theme park worlds were excellent in the 2010s. Today, it is a cultural appropriation city. I would rather have a dedicated Egypt setting and Fantasy Africa than this. Everywhere you go, a Fantasyland, Adventureland, or other Disney-like little theme park area sits there and says, "Not Ravenloft, not Egypt, not Vikings, not science-fantasy, but close enough!"

Dedicated settings where it is one world, all Norse, with races and cultures that fit in that world, are far more immersive than this messy mix of everything, every culture, every race, and every culture. They end up being buffets of low-quality food but with great choices. At the end of the meal, you end up feeling sick.

Theme park worlds are also a source of the rot within the hobby, inviting in endless expansion books, grift opportunities, and encouraging every player to pick an "alien" background and nothing fits together; no one has to be a part of the culture of the world, and everyone is a special something or another. Pathfinder 1e was going there with the Advanced Race Guide, and there were far too many player races in the game by the end of the edition.

I would rather play in a Norse-themed world, where I have to read about the cultures, understand the diverse peoples, and make some hard choices on who my character is in this world. You play D&D or Pathfinder 2, and you will get the person at the table wanting to be a talking plant or Muppet and be the goofball when everyone else is trying to play seriously.

Theme park worlds invite everyone to be "the outsider," and they just feel touristy. Once you get the tourist, the planar crowd is not far behind, and then everyone is a particular "someone from somewhere else," at that point, I don't care about their characters since the players are not showing any effort to care about the world I am running.

One of the most toxic trends in modern gaming is escapist identity marketing; the game has to support being an anything tourist, and everyone that plays wanders through a theme park.

At this point, most locals look at the PCs like the locals look at tourists who wander through, destroy things, and take all the parking places.

Runequest's Glorantha killed the Pathfinder Golarion theme park for me. There are "elder races" here, but most of the backgrounds are a variety of diverse humans and mixes in between. There is much diversity here; you must read and care about the world to unlock it.

The world has a few themed areas that aren't blatantly "theme parky" like other worlds. These cultures may mirror some on Earth, but they are ultimately their own, with history and plenty of detail and flavor. And there is a ton of history to read. Runequest describes the world in one book, and there is a unique two-volume set if you want to dive deeper.

The Great Wheel and Pathfinder's Golarion have become far too cartoony and childish for my taste. I outgrew them. They are turning into this mass market; look at the cute things, smug heroes with attitudes, and mass market experiences that any 3D Hollywood animated movie for kids is these days. Both feel like Pixar or Dreamworks animated movie games; the worlds are bland, too much steampunk, and uninteresting. Some of the worlds rely too much on the old guard remembering them, and they are currently unsupported and left to decay.

Pathfinder 1e was visually appealing because of the "rule of cool" art. All of that has been erased and feels like a hangover in the setting today, a party the company wants to forget happened. The art can't carry a campaign setting alone, though. It is also dated and a little silly, and I prefer stylistic realism with a more serious tone. Even the remastered art tries too hard, feeling strangely surreal and unrealistic. Final Fantasy swords larger than a body belong in video games for kids. This is fantasy, but I outgrew that style when I gave up my PlayStation 1.

Give me a serious-toned world with history and a defined set of cultures and backgrounds, and let me enjoy digging in deep and being rewarded for my research.

And I was a super fan of Pathfinder 1e, and it all fell apart. I realized I had outgrown it, and there were better things to spend time with. The whole theme park thing made me cringe. I don't want to play in a rip-off of ancient Egypt, and Castles & Crusades has a Fantasy Egypt campaign guide where you can play in the actual setting in a fantasy context. There is far better out there, and a dedicated setting will make players invest in the setting with their background choices rather than play "another Dragonborn."

I am not selling the PF 1e books, but they are stored away and out of my mind.

14mm d6 Dice

I like the 14mm d6 dice.

Standard dice are 16mm; either the boxy board-game style or the rounded Chessex-style ones (12 to a case) are familiar.

Then there are the tiny 12mm dice, typically sold in blocks of 36. These are small for gaming but great for games that require you to roll handfuls of six-sided dice, like Tunnels & Trolls.

Then, there are these mid-sized 14mm d6 dice. These highly playable, perfectly sized, light, but still readable dice make me want to play 2d6 games. The giant dice are so heavy they can disturb cardstock counters or cardboard pawns, while the lighter dice don't feel like they are large enough to feel like a meaningful 2d6 roll.

The 14mm dice, with their unique appeal, make me want to play. I am still determining what this is and where this feeling comes from, but the mid-sized dice have a special place in my gaming experience.

I don't get this with the 12mm dice; they are a bit on the small side and can be easily misplaced. On the other hand, the 16 mm is a bit large and can be cumbersome to handle.

But these have the right feeling and size to make me want to roll them.

HARP: Spells are Skills

HARP has a unique spell mechanic, where each spell is a skill. This reduces the number of spells a character can learn, which is generally a good thing. The spells magic-using professions know there will be fewer, and characters will focus on a few to rise to higher levels of skill ranks.

In games like Against the Darkmaster (AtD) and Rolemaster, the focus is on each 'spell skill,' a list of spells that grants you more and different related powers as you level up. Among them, Rolemaster takes the crown for its intense spell system. Each spell skill reaches its pinnacle at level 50 of power, unleashing insanely powerful, world-changing effects that top the list.

HARP has spell scaling, where you can add effects from a list in the spell to add abilities, damage, functions, or targets to the spell being cast. Each of those costs extra power points, which raises the skill level needed, and also armor will add to the power necessary to cast a spell. Against the Darkmaster has these spell scaling effects, which they call warping. Rolemaster does not (AFAIK).

Against the Darkmaster's magic system is the most straightforward, offering a sense of simplicity and ease. With the least amount of bookkeeping required, players can focus more on the game and less on managing their spells.

Rolemaster is the most in-depth, with the most potent magic systems that scale insanely. Rolemaster is the "power caster" sort of game, while HARP is a close second when you factor in unlimited levels in both games. I feel HARP can scale power higher once spell scaling is appropriately abused. I say abused because that is the fun of the spell game with those scaling effects.

HARP is in the middle, with more bookkeeping since each spell is a skill. But this reduces the number of spells overall, with a suggestion of half-casters having 15 spells maximum while casters have 30. That is still a significant number of spell skills to track at higher levels, and I can see needing a supplemental spell sheet once a caster gets up past level 6.

HARP and Rolemaster have no maximum level, while AtD has a maximum of 10.

Other games that use individual spells as skills are GURPS and Dungeon Fantasy, though the level to cast and power point costs aren't usually changing as a casting factor, nor are they used to power up - though some you can cast with more power points to increase the effects.

I like spells as a skill and being able to level them up. If I play a wizard who specializes in fireball, raising the level of that high while mostly maintaining other spells at practical levels, that is my choice, and it makes my wizard unique.

In HARP, I can specialize in the arcane bolt spell, which costs 3 PP to cast for its 1d10 and 50' range, which takes a minimum skill level of 3 (matching the power points needed). For +3 PP, I can increase the damage by +1d10 (5d10 max). I can spend +4 PP to hit an additional target. Adding +1 PP will get me an extra 50' of range. So, at a skill level of 20, I could cast one mana bolt out to 500' doing 5d10. Or, I could do 1d10 damage to 5 targets out to 100'.

I paid the development points to make my arcane missile awesome; why can't I enjoy the benefit of specialization? A higher skill level will increase your chances of getting spell results that double or triple your spell's damage or effect, especially when modifiers are added to your roll for situational modifiers. That level 20 spell is a +70 modifier on the table, plus your stat bonuses and doubled effects start at a roll of 151+.

In HARP, becoming a gunslinger with arcane bolts and dishing out 10d10 or even 15d10 crits is not hard.

That is cool.

That makes me want to play a caster.

And unlike a game like Dungeon Crawl Classics, those high-end results do not need specialized random charts to create. These are built into the task resolution system.

But, the Most Technology is the Most Fun!

Do I really want to play in a Bronze Age setting?

But I will need more technology than that to play fantasy!

There were no colossal sailing ships, crossbows, plate armor, lances, saddles, catapults, windmills, gears, water wheels, compasses, universities, banks, blown glass, printing presses, gunpowder, playing cards, or even iron smelting.

Even though Runequest has more magic than D&D, many people get hung up on the lack of iconic fantasy equipment when trying to play in a setting like this. It is a challenge, and if you put yourself in a "Conan" mindset, things start to make a little more sense, giving you a frame of reference that people can watch movies about and get an idea of what is going on.

It isn't Conan directly, but when you tell them Conan, people don't think of Arthurian Knights and catapults, so it is a good starting point. Another good starting point is Greek culture, movies like Hercules, and films set during the time of Greek gods. Again, this isn't Ancient Greece, but that level of technology and civilization gives people something else to think about and keeps Merlin and Gandalf out of their minds.

Too much fantasy these days is this sloppy stew of Renaissance concepts, Robin Hood, King Arthur, Harry Potter, Ren Faire, Final Fantasy, and even Lord of the Rings. You get fantasy art with people with modern haircuts and hair dye and that smug movie-poster look on their faces doing something impossible in that rule-of-cool style art, holding a sword outsizing their body, which means nothing. I am not against fun and expressing yourself, but most of today's fantasy art is this commercialized, childish, comic-book-style, Instagram-influenced, AI-art-looking tripe.

It is meant to sell you collector's market books.

A Bronze Age setting lets you strip that all away. Even in Runequest, the setting is primarily human but has a wide variety of actual diversity. Many games say "diversity" but hide it with anthrophonic animals, planar races, puppet races, intelligent plants, cat-headed fur-covered humans, or dragon people. Do you want to be diverse in Runequest? Pick a culture, race, and skin tone; there you go—you are diverse. There is no hiding under a sports mascot costume or foam rubber alien mask.

This game is not about your gear, funny shape, planar origin, or silly animal voices. Sometimes, I feel 5E has become "the cosplay amateur theater game" more than it is about stories, quests, dungeons, monsters, treasures, exploration, or even the world. The selfish notion of "identity" is the only thing that matters, followed by hamming it up with a funny voice. I like creating unique characters and acting in character, but many streaming shows take this too far to the point of clownery.

And when the game becomes all about "you," the people of the world, world, story, and even death take a back seat.

Similarly, people get wrapped up in gear. The typical "dungeon outfitting" of sorting through gear lists and adjusting encumbrance takes over the game, where you get into this puzzle-game-inspired gameplay. Hammer and spikes solve the "jam the door shut" puzzle. A ten-foot pole solves the "pit trap problem." The rope solves the "climb down the shaft" puzzle. Runequest has some of that, but in most situations, you will use skills, roleplay, cast magic, and avoid fights. The OSR "puzzle shopping" isn't as important here.

The list of Runequest equipment includes only a dozen tools and pieces of exploration gear, plus a few pages of prices for other common (non-adventure) goods and services. Even in the equipment book, adventure gear goes a page and a half, and it isn't the sort of "stock your pack" lists that many OSR games get into where you need to start buying dozens of ordinary items just to be able to have an adventuring pack.

But what is there to do if the game is about something other than the gear or technology? If I had to be human, I would be bored! I need to travel the world, to go to the outer planes, to have fun!

D&D teaches you many bad habits. The D&D 4E "planes at level 10" has to be one of the dumbest ideas Wizards has ever foisted on the hobby, which is still being pushed today. Everyone has to be a special something. Campaign settings are boring. Plane-hopping is the only fun. Magic is like superpowers.

The truth is, you will have more fun with less.

Your family, your kin, your home, your tribe, or your town are the heart of who you are. Who is your blood? Who are your people? You can play a loner and wanderer type, but establishing a connection somewhere becomes a goal. Are your people building a settlement in a new land? Do you look different from others in the tribe? Are you an outsider? How do you win their trust and become accepted? Are you being chased by people you escaped? What is happening today that threatens your home?

With the distractions of magic superpowers, gear shopping, steampunk technology, unique backgrounds, and planar travel out of the way, you can focus on the story.

Your story.

The story of your people.

The story of events in the world.

You can care so much about options and choices they bury you.

There are times I find players who need all those colorful ornaments, rules, plate armor, classes, and backgrounds to hide behind, so they have to come out and get into their character more. I had a player who only played Dragonborn forced to play a human, and he discovered he enjoyed being forced to make something he thought was uninteresting into something he loved. The same thing happened with a player who only played plate-wearing paladins. Who are you without the armor and holy powers?

What is your story?

Strip it all away and tell me who you are.

Westlands

Westlands is an interesting 2d6 game. It does traditional fantasy fantastic, but it has a few issues.

The Unskilled penalty, a significant minus 3, can be challenging to locate as it's only mentioned in the sorcery chapter in an example. This needed to be mentioned early on when skills were discussed.

The character creation lays out a Stamina and Lifeblood statistic (Stamina taking damage first and healing the fastest, then Lifeblood), and the damage system talks about subtracting damage from END first, then STR and DEX. Then, the monsters have no Stamina or Lifeblood values. The game started with this new life pool resource (STA + LB); it sort of wasn't edited cleanly in the damage chapter (and both systems were included), and by the end of the book, it was forgotten, and things fell back to the three-stat damage tracking system.

To avoid confusion, ignore Stamina and Lifeblood and use the three statistic damage tracks laid out more clearly in Sword of Cepheus.

This is a bizarre game. It seems like a game created to patch issues in Sword of Cepheus since it is very similar, but it does its own thing in some places. It is not a waste of money since many areas, such as new talents and races, are expanded. So, if you play Sword of Cepheus and want house-rule expansion material, this is a solid book.

The game works well with Sword of Cepheus, and SoC seems better proofread and tested. At times, Westlands feels like the author's notes on how their group played SoC, and at other times, it doesn't. A second edition of SoC is coming out very soon (July-August 2024), and here is the Kickstarter to track progress:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/482738549/the-sword-of-cepheus-second-edition/description

Westlands has more traits and better monster statistics, which SoC 2 is also implementing. The original SoC rules do monster stats in a very hard-to-use UPP, such as C7G456, where Westlands lists the easier-to-use statistics.

Westlands does more straightforward sorcery (skill checks), whereas SoC relies on Talismans (casting bonus) and Foci (spell charges). If you don't like either system, mod it to something you like, such as having magic drain a mana statistic you calculate (INT + Sorcery skill level) at 1 point per circle level. Then, it damages the character after that pool is drained.

In comments on the DTRPG page, the Westlands author says he is demoralized by the OGL disaster. It is tough when games like this, which people poured their hearts into, are destroyed because of Wizards and their greed - for games far removed from any d20 ruleset! This is a 2d6 system and has nothing to do with Wizards or the SRD, yet it used the OGL and here we are. SoC 2 looks like the way forward once the Kickstarter is done, but WL is still an excellent game that needs a lot of love and fixing. I don't know if it will ever get it.

The OGL issue caused actual harm to many people and communities. It was far worse than any "words cause hurt" issue and wrecked the dreams of thousands of creators and even more people in those communities.

D&D died the day they pulled the OGL.

I have moved on to better things.

Wizards can put anything into the Creative Commons, and I thank them for being so generous. It will be a long road back, but the hurt is still here. What needs to happen is an OGL 1b license that adds two words - perpetual and un-revokable, and grandfather in everything published under 1.0a.

This needs to be fixed to heal that hurt. Even if Wizards abandoned the OGL forever, they should set it free, along with every work of art that used it. This one thing would end the OGL hurt forever and make it right. And they have no reason to hold onto the OGL anymore, they are moving on with what they do best.

And this would unlock the door for me to look at books from Wizards again.

The world of 2d6 gaming is like Linux, you have dozens of great games, all with the same base, and they keep revising and coming up with new ones all the time.

Foci are strange in the Sword of Cepheus game. Still, if you remember the old AD&D "spell components," this could just be said: "foci are components" and then allow for the rechargeable foci that SoC has added to the game, while the one-use ones are traditional components. A fireball spell in AD&D needs sulfur and saltpeter as spell components, so in SoC, you could say that one-use foci for fire spells are the same.

Westlands is like a "reaction game" to the original Sword of Cepheus, trying to expand and patch the first version into a more traditional fantasy game. Sword of Cepheus 2 is the next game coming down the road, and it looks to one-up them both with the lessons learned. I still like Westlands, flaws, missing rules, inconsistencies, and blemishes regardless.

Both work together well and are great inspiration and source material for 2d6 fantasy gaming.

Again, like Linux, 2D6 gaming is what it is: all compatible with minor differences here and there. Pick a distro and play.

Kickstarter: Voidrunner's Codex

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/enworld/the-voidrunners-codex-sci-fi-box-set-for-5e-and-level-up-a5e

The Voidrunner's Codex has launched a Level Up A5E version of science fiction, and I backed this since I like 5E sci-fi games and am still looking for a solid one. If they have the A5E improvements to social and exploration, that will be perfect, and they will support hex-crawl sci-fi games. If not (and I don't see why they wouldn't), those are easy enough to port in.

A solid CR+0 5E sci-fi game is something of a rarity. What I like about this is equal attention is being paid to starships, and many 5E sci-fi games ignore that part of the game or just do a few pre-built ships and say, "Meh, it is not really important."

One whole book is starships and rules. That is serious support.

Level Up Advanced 5E is one of my pair of Community 5E games, and I am currently supporting in my campaigns. This is not a high-power CR+1 5E like ToV and "all books" D&D. This is the 2014 balance level, and it feels good. To have a sci-fi game like that is my Starfinder replacement.

We're Not Playing the Same Game

The Battlezoo ancestries products are not just another set of 'alt ancestry' products for 5E. They offer a unique experience, allowing players to step into the roles of dragons, monsters, mimics, and even dungeons, a concept that sets them apart.

However, these products highlight the rift between most of 5E and the rest of roleplaying.

5E is becoming a heavily identity-based, non-human, and almost cartoonish game solely interested in escapism. It is practically an opiate-level of escapism in some social circles, where players get addicted to this "complete break" from reality, and these heavily antihomophobic ancestries only seek to highlight the disconnect between reality and fantasy.

This explains much of 5E's divergence from the role-playing I grew up with, which is mainly reflected in the OSR. In my time, we would all play humans or human-like backgrounds and "sim the character" through a heroic life. 5E is moving towards an almost story-game-like level of disconnect and escapism from reality. This also explains why characters can't die, the over-emphasis on safety tools, and the "you can't do that to my character" feeling that is going on.

While 5E can do "traditional roleplaying," where players play mostly human-like characters and "sim" a heroic story, that is not the direction of the game and what is popular.

When people talk about tabletop roleplaying and 5E, it pays to figure out what you are talking about before you get involved, and this is true with communities, too. You will join a primarily "identity roleplaying" group and expect to be talking about traditional heroic simulator gaming. You will be blindsided by people wanting to take on the identities of talking flowers and plush toys.

I also like this "identity-based" roleplaying genre, so I am not downing it.

I don't mix the styles since they are focused on very different things. I can, at times, but the mood in each deserves to be the game's sole focus.

But I do see a clear difference here.

There is a lot of friction between these two play styles, which causes issues. I grew up with the more "heroic life simulator" - like The Sims game, where mostly human-like heroes struggle to save the world, better themselves, and fight the demons within. Star Wars is a good example. This is your typical OSR-style play.

Then you have those who want to "live another life" in a humanized anthropomorphic form, who play not for the "heroic sim" but more to escape reality, put on a cosplay costume, and assume a role far removed from their human body in this world. This is where 5E (and Pathfinder 2 is like this) is going and is heavily anime-influenced.

It may be time for 5E to abandon the old-style "hero sim" entirely and adopt the more identity-based play genre. Make it so you buy your form, abilities, and a few special powers with a point pool and have no "preset ancestries" the game ships with. Like you buy a dragon form, wings, claws, breath weapon, and armored scales with your ancestry points - and just "say what you are." If you want to be a talking flower plant person, buy that form and powers, and just "say what you are." You could create a human, too, if you wanted, but the game, by default, should allow you to build any "talking form" you want and play that.

Identity 5E is a game different from Traditional 5E.

While the rules are the same in both, players can cross over between games, and the expectations of what a character or adventure is differ so wildly that the two groups might as well be living on two different planets.

Classic Fantasy Imperative

Classic Fantasy Imperative (CFI), a one-book game with readable print, makes all the difference in the world. To play the original, you needed to sift through an original Mythras book (with small print) and a Classic Fantasy (CF) book to work out the differences between the games and constantly flip back and forth between them to learn the game.

The third printing of the original Mythras book has made significant strides in addressing the print issue. While it may not be flawless, it's a marked improvement over the original version and worth considering for a more comfortable reading experience.

But playing the original Classic Fantasy Mythras-based game was a massive pain, as you had to learn the core system and the add-on game. The new Classic Fantasy Imperative book puts everything in one, so you don't need other books to play.

Maybe.

Since the Imperative book is mostly core rules, you will likely want the original CF book since it contains many more spells, classes, magic, treasure, and monsters - all compatible with the new game, but this will become your sourcebook. Until they develop an updated Classic Fantasy sourcebook, Imperative will be your rulebook, while the older Classic Fantasy book will be your expansion.

Nothing else is needed to play and have the entire experience.

Note that Imperative introduces Hit Point and Action Point bonuses for rank-ups! Since these are the same for every Imperative class, you must let them use these rank bonuses if you want to use an original book class (Bard, Cavalier, Paladin, Ranger, etc.). The CFI book only has the base four classes (fighter, mage, cleric, and rogue). Still, the original CF classes add many more (bard, berserker, cavalier, druid, monk, paladin, ranger, and multi-class characters).

The nice part about this setup is that you do not need to touch the original Mythras book or learn that game to play it. Though Mythras is a great game, it has a similar setup with the updated core of the Mythras Imperative and the original book used as the expansion. The MI book is more of a BRP-style generic game book with too many genres jammed in the short page count. Still, it establishes the new ORC-based baseline and lets 3rd party publishers continue to support the game under a much better license.

Also, Classic Fantasy tends to be more pulp and over-the-top than the core Mythras rules. Specifically, those Action Point, Luck Point, and Hit Point bonuses as you rank up are substantial game changers since action points are used as "actions during a combat turn," and Pathfinder 2E copied this mechanic for its action economy. Moving is an action while attacking is also an action, and you can spend all actions on attacks. So a character that begins with 3 Action Points can get two more in rank-ups and potentially have 5 at the highest rank.

Classic Fantasy characters are amped and heroic to the level of a Gray Mouser or Conan, compared to their more grounded Mythras counterparts. Imagine 5 actions a turn in Pathfinder 2! Also, they are far more potent than Runequest, Basic Roleplaying, or Open Quest characters.

CFI and the original CF book make for a solid, heroic, high fantasy d100 game with a realistic feel and solid core system.

Mail Room: Classic Fantasy Imperative (Mythras)

Mythras is in a strange place right now. Many people love this fork of the Mongoose-flavored BRP system, which initially powered Runequest 6. Right now, they are converting everything over to the ORC license, and they started with two core books, Classic Fantasy Imperative and Mythras Imperative.

Mythras Imperative, The Design Mechanism's multi-genre response to Basic Roleplaying, is set to redefine the Mythras setting. This versatile core book will serve as the foundation for a new, dynamic version of the game. The Classic Fantasy Imperative, on the other hand, powers the traditional fantasy aspect of the system, offering a diverse gaming experience.

Both books cover the basics, but you need the older OGL license core books for Classic Fantasy and Mythras if you want the entire game. So they are stuck in the middle of their license conversion but need core books with a license so third parties can continue to support the system. Players must use the older books to fill in the missing parts.

New players can start with the latest books and have the basics while pulling in older content as needed. I wish I had the expanded content, but this is an excellent workaround to support 3rd parties and give players something to work with.

At my table, Classic Fantasy Imperative is in a contest with Open Quest since they cover the same ground, and Open Quest is currently a complete game in one book. The Mythras rules interpretation has many fans, and the combat is excellent with skill and tactics, but you need to use two books, one new and one old.

I will give CFI plus the older book a look, there is a lot to like here.

The Mythras forks of the BRP rules are excellent and have many fans. Many exciting games, including sci-fi games, have been built with them. The BRP side of the hobby has a surprising number of choices, especially when most 5E players just see Call of Cthulhu and think that is the best the system offers.