http://ift.tt/2b3Be0I
I am still literally reading through the new 2E Rulebook and I must say that I am very impressed so far!
Bottley (if you're the one responsible!) has already addressed a few of my original problems with the old system from Dungeoneer.
1.) Point buy System: I knew about this from before I opened the book and thought it was actually going to be a detractor. I have always loved playing RPGs where I could play characters who had extraordinary strength, intelligence and skills like the invincible paladins of legend, or Conan, who was as cunning and good at reading people and situations as he was a perfect physical specimen. I have also loved playing characters whose traits were almost entirely below standard. I had a half-starved holy man with a twisted spine and one arm. His face was maimed and tongue partially mutilated. He was weak, ugly to behold, unwise and given to fits of madness,with no particular offensive capabilities at all, only he lived half in the spirit world to begin with and had a great set of detection and scrying magic which he could use to provide vital direction and problem solving to the party.
I thought that point buy would really have a 'rounding-out' effect upon the character spread, where there would be no more characters who were great across the board or very poorly built. This is somewhat true, but I still see the potential for a huge spread in character design within the new system. Well done!
2.) Overpowered Heroes: I like the idea that the Hero's SKILL plays a far less vital role in determining the ATTACK ROLL. Where is was true that before, a Hero with a SKILL of 12 could safely kill endless legions of men with a SKILL of 5 or 6, since any rolls less than a perfect 6-6 were virtually impossible to score a hit with (and even then you were facing a deduction of 2 points or even 1 to a STAMINA score often in the 20s), now it seems that the 2d6 attack roll assumes a far greater importance than before.
**I know I just said that I loved the idea of being able to play an invincible Hero of Legend type was great, but only once in a long while since it is usually far less interesting and gets old fast.
I love the idea of reduced SKILL/STAMINA/LUCK scores. The difference between a SKILL of 4 and 6 is so much greater than the spread between a 10 and 12 when it comes to game mechanics.
3.) Armour! Another area where I thought it would detract from the absolute greatest appeal in the AFF system--its' simplicity! I have always considered this game as being a great introductory alternative to D&D or AD&D, but at some point, adding complexity to this system would simply leave me wondering why I wasn't just going to play D&D instead? Happily, ARMOUR rules do almost nothing to bog down the game (a mere single extra roll of a die!) and yet give us a great little method for addressing the previous problem of simply ignoring armour. Again, very well done, and I see great potential in this added ripple. For instance: it should be exceedingly easy to hit a 20 foot tall lumbering metal golem or Godzilla with an arrow, but causing it damage with one should be nigh impossible, whereas swinging a baseball bat at a weaving squirrel should be absurdly difficult to connect, but when it does, you'd expect the guts to squirt out of it. I love where this is going, but in my opinion, WEAPON DAMAGE should be even deadlier and ARMOUR should yield more protection. Honestly, I'd love to play a game which mirrored reality, where (if I am unarmored) a knife being stuck into my body probably means death or massive damage, whereas I could probably fall asleep in a suit of plate mail while the goblins hack and slash away at my steel tummy. A lightning fast bat or giant dragonfly should mean it can basically hit at will and be ridiculously tough to strike, but I expect that it cannot withstand more than one even glancing sword stroke. And I shouldn't even be able to reasonably consider hitting a giant wasp with a bow and arrow, yet in the old game, I not only could, but it was likely I had to hit it 2 or 3 times before it dropped.
Not to take anything at all away from the system so far, since AFF 2E has made a quantum leap forward in the AFF combat structure.
4.) Scrapping LUCK in Combat. Not sure if this is the case, since I have only the first peek to go by, but it appears that Testing for Luck to reduce/increase damage sustained or inflicted has been scrapped. This was always a nonsense mechanic to me and served to 'smooth out' combat into simple damage exchanges and an extra ripple of probability risk vs reward. It meant Luck was to be saved for combat against the big boss and was essentially an extra battle mechanism. Luck should be strictly non-combat in my opinion. I hope I will discover 2E has come to the same conclusion.
Again, incredibly impressed so far. The simple amendment to ARMOUR rules is so tremendous, I am really excited to dive into the game. Looking forward to learning the new magic systems!
PS: I hate to say anything negative, but I'm afraid the only place so far where the book is poorer than its' predecessor so far is the adventure. Dungeon's Xortan Throng mischief is sorely missed! He was a great introductory nemesis! And the art was terrific!
PPS: So impressed so far!
Statistics: Posted by GreatArc — Mon Aug 08, 2016 9:02 am
Gamebook blogs
http://ift.tt/2b3Be0I
via Arion Games Forums http://ift.tt/24Z8rMv
August 8, 2016 at 12:04PM
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.