Thanks. Yea, I've had a lot running through my head...time traveling Conquistadores, or a lost Tsolyani Legion in Meso-America, PCs finding themselves back in Humanspace, Demons galore, Rockets, abandoned spaceships crash landed and part of the underworld...It's just a matter of deciding what first.Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya
H:0)
Yeah, but I tend to forget that. It's my fault, really, but I was in the - apparently mistaken - belief that wargame books were supposedly in the hundreds of pages, although usually in the low hundreds.
Note taken.
Funny, that, when you consider that most of my favourite games are "short and to the point". Not all, for certain*, but I like games where I can take the core mechanic and run wild with it. Be it Dragon Warriors, Traveller, or A Dirty World - which is almost "the Pendragon of the noir genre" if you can live with the abstraction - most of them have rules that are well under 100 pages. Sometimes well under 20 pages.
Of course, the setting can easily take another 1000 pages spread across the corebook and a couple of supplements. When it's not resulting in an integrated system, I approach this as the "pick and choose" option. At other times, I use the whole of it - but then those pages have actually served a goal.
*I'm running LotW, because people asked me to, therefore it's a given that I can live with long rulesets if I see a point in the complexity. In fact, I'm of the opinion that the Weapons of the Gods Companion is almost an attempt to introduce the "high-level game with people's location being tracked" back to RPGs. Except it's easily in the hundreds of pages.
But because I don't see the point in the complexity, I refuse to run Pathfinder, though I've been asked to. And the more I read D&D 5e, the more I think that the same fate would befall this one as well.
Well, that's something on which I agree wholeheartedly with the indie movement. They tend to dislike the supplement mill about as much as you do.
Funny, I've been thinking how similar it is to some themes in Pendragon as well... well, some themes in Pendragon and some themes of Artesia, but Pendragon is likely to be much better choice. Also much closer to the amount of mechanics that the average group wants to see, not to mention in less need of houseruling.
Although I'm not using either, so maybe I'm not the guy to talk about it. I'm still running it in the system mash-up that Gronan has inspired (and it counts as an active game, despite being on hiatus due to scheduling).
We'll see what Tony Bath could add to this when or if his book arrives.
But I'll support what Gronan said. I picked Livyanu for the starting point because I wanted a less developed part of Tekumel, where I could insert my own views and impose the tone I want. I also know that the tone I want is a mix of urban fantasy, medieval spy thriller and dynastic novel. Thus, Jakalla only features episodically, but I've got exactly what I want.
Last edited by AsenRG; 10-12-2015 at 01:32 PM.
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward." - Rocky
Oh, why not go for broke? The entire Riftwar series by Raymond Feist, and all three of the Empire Trilogy; 'Daughter of', 'Servant of', and 'Mistress of.' There are differing opinions as to the use of Prof. Barker's material in the books, however.Heir to the Empire by Raymond E Feist and Janny Wurts.
I'll see what I can do. More later...
To be fair they ripped off James Clavell almost as much as they did Prof. Barker.
Quite probably; wasn't it Shakespeare who said there are only 26 basic plots?
As an aside, I talked to Mr. Feist about this in 1988, and he told me that he'd talked to TSR about the use of the EPT material with one of the Blume brothers and been given TSR's blessing. He was not pleased to find out that they didn't ask Phil about it.
Meaning no disrespect to anyone, I personally think that some things are kind of the basic foundation of what those guys were thinking of, back then, and deserve repeating.
Hammer horror movies; Sir Fang's primer for being a vampire. Fritz Lieber, Jr., with his pair of rogues - not the class, the prototypes. H. P. Lovecraft, for eldritch horror. R. E. Howard, for sword-swinging adventure. A. E. Merritt, for "The Moon Pool" and "The Ship of Ishtar". E. R. Burroughs, for Barsoom. Ray Harryhausen, for making them all come to life. Douglas Fairbanks, both Sr. and Jr., and their colleague Mr. Flynn. Sinbad the Sailor, both in the movies and in the original. The Arabian Nights - get a good translation, for choice. Omar and his quatrains.
And my very personal favorite 'player character' movie: The very rare and very hard to find "The Adventures of Hadji Baba". Your brain will quietly explode.
This is rare background information for "modern" players to set their imaginations in.
This is why I keep thinking that anime may be more likely sources for "current" players.
Wish I knew what were the anime equivalents.
=
Interesting story abut asking permission I had never heard that before and it doesn't sound surprising. It's true there aren't that many plots but I'll just say you probably won't ever see Shogun and Servant of the Empire in the same place at the same time.
If it's any help, Uncle Hugo's SF Bookstore here in the Twin Cities does do mail order on their used books; most all of my list is usually available, and for cheap.
Anime ideas would be welcome; I don't watch them, myself, so I have no suggestions in that direction, sorry.
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks