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..."As great as d20 variants go", you mean:thumbsup:.
 
Isnt d20 Modern generally thought highly of? At least for the d20 3.x era?
I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, knowing something was based on D20 Modern really didn't tell you much about the quality of the end product. Some designers knew how to work it, and some didn't. And games by the latter were really very mediocre.

Edit: I should hasten to say, I’m not saying this about Etherscope. I don’t rightly remember where it fell on the d20 modern scale. It seemed like the world building was cool, but never played it and don’t remember any obvious flaws.
 
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The Hero's Journey up today - it's a neat little OSR title from Barrel Rider Games, tilted towards the Hobbit/fairytale style of fantasy. And that Viking expansion is news to me.
What a bundle! HJ2e is one of my favorite OSR games (the first one is still a classic). And Skaldic Sagas is fantastic too. If you like Vikings then I'd highly recommend this. But it's low magic. And one cool thing is that you get experience by recanting your tales in front of the community. :smile:
 
The Hero's Journey up today - it's a neat little OSR title from Barrel Rider Games, tilted towards the Hobbit/fairytale style of fantasy. And that Viking expansion is news to me.

What a bundle! HJ2e is one of my favorite OSR games (the first one is still a classic). And Skaldic Sagas is fantastic too. If you like Vikings then I'd highly recommend this. But it's low magic. And one cool thing is that you get experience by recanting your tales in front of the community. :smile:
Can you tell us all a bit more about it mechanically and setting wise? I see they have a mechanic for personalized weapons that grow as you grow which sounds cool. What other things does it have that make it stand out as different and cool?
 
Can you tell us all a bit more about it mechanically and setting wise? I see they have a mechanic for personalized weapons that grow as you grow which sounds cool. What other things does it have that make it stand out as different and cool?
Sure (I had to check the rulebook as I’ve not read it in months).

The attributes are a little different. You’ve got Might, Finesse, Resolve, Insight, Bearing, and Weal.

Insight - awareness, and reasoning.
Bearing - Charm, charisma, and leadership.
Weal - Your mark of the Norns (you touch of destiny). This gives you advantage X amount of times in the game session.

For a start, there’s a lot about building communities and one’s standing/profession within that community. So whatever your profession is you’ll get ‘advantage’. Basically, your character is defined by your profession first (who then goes off on adventures).

You also get to make income rolls as well as part of your profession.

As I mentioned it doesn’t use a trad. experience system. At the end of an adventure, you have to attend an ‘Althing’ basically a large community gathering. Glory is effectively your experience points and you need a certain amount to get to the next level. As gained by telling stories and recounting your tales.

You’ve also got ‘Frith’ which is basically a measure of the bonds you have with your family. It can vary so you’ve got to be careful with it. If you lose to much of it you’ll be shunned.

There’s also Urdr this reflects one’s destiny and once chosen it cannot be changed. Basically, one’s character is bound to a rune. This will have an effect on the character's life (grants small bonuses where applicable).

You’ve also got a section on runic weapons.

All in all, it’s a very slick system and it got a lot of details about the setting. The whole community aspect adds another dimension to the game.
 
The Hero's Journey up today - it's a neat little OSR title from Barrel Rider Games, tilted towards the Hobbit/fairytale style of fantasy. And that Viking expansion is news to me.

Thank you, and Rob too. I saw this pop up and was intrigued. With a couple of positive comments and under $15 this is an easy one to snag.
 
Thank you, and Rob too. I saw this pop up and was intrigued. With a couple of positive comments and under $15 this is an easy one to snag.
No problem! Just happy to share the love. :smile: It's a fantastic game as well as tHJ2e. Basically, I'm a bit of a James Spahn fanboi.

Let me know what you think when you get a chance to check it out. Cheers!
 
Maybe but you'd probably have to wade through a ton of Doctor Strange related stuff before you found it.
What if you combine the search with the screen names of Pub regulars:grin:?
 
Cypher system is a d20 roll high system. The DM selects a Difficulty between 1 & 10 and the corresponds to the Difficulty number times 3 (so a Diff of 4 is 12+ or a 9 is 27+)

Skills lower the Difficulty by one or two and you ability scores are a pool of points and if you spend 3 points (for the first adjustment and 2 for each additional adjustment) you lower the Difficulty by 1 as well. Characters are an Advective, Noun, & Verb.

A Strong Warrior who Fights Dirty or a Curious Expert who Grows to Towering Heights.

The DM doesn't roll as the rules are all player facing and monsters are based off of their Level.

If I have a hellhound at Level 3 it has 9 Hit Points, attacks at a 3 and deals 3 points of damage.

Cyphers, weird items, are everywhere and are designed to be used often and cycle through them quickly.

Its a good game but there is something about it that bores me and two of my groups.

I would gladly run the setting of Numenera in the future with Worlds Without Number or Modern AGE.
 
Let me ask the obvious question. What is the point of setting a difficulty between 1 and 10 and then having to multiply it to get a target number? There might be a point, IDK, I'm actually asking.
 
Ptolus is monte cooks high magic city.
Let me ask the obvious question. What is the point of setting a difficulty between 1 and 10 and then having to multiply it to get a target number? There might be a point, IDK, I'm actually asking.
I believe the number is used multiple ways sometimes multiplied by 3 and others not.

Also damage comes off stats as I recall. experience can either be spent to improve your character or expended to change rolls. These two rules often cause people to bounce off the system as I recall
 
Ptolus is monte cooks high magic city.

I believe the number is used multiple ways sometimes multiplied by 3 and others not.

Also damage comes off stats as I recall. experience can either be spent to improve your character or expended to change rolls. These two rules often cause people to bounce off the system as I recall
I also wonder if the x3 is to provide meaningful differences in steps using a d20, though then why not use a d6 or a d8 instead? But yea, if sometimes the multiplier is x2 then it might also make sense. Consider though that MOST games that have suggested difficulty numbers have steps of 2, 3, or 5.
 
Ptolus is a city and tent pole dungeon setting all in one book. Monte Cook developed it while writing 3rd Edition and ran sessions in it twice a week for four years and then weekly after that for a few more years. Attach is an excerpt about the feel of the setting from the free player's guide.
 

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Ptolus is a city and tent pole dungeon setting all in one book. Monte Cook developed it while writing 3rd Edition and ran sessions in it twice a week for four years and then weekly after that for a few more years. Attach is an excerpt about the feel of the setting from the free player's guide.
Beyond that it's a well designed reference guide.
Good index, good glossary, nice color codes side markers. Nice sidebars. Its a huge product so this is all necessary.
 
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