Dicey Tales

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Lunar Ronin

Lunar Ronin

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Just as a PSA, Dicey Tales is finally available to the public here. No idea why it took eight months after Kickstarter campaign backers got their copies, but better late than never. :grin: I haven't played it yet unfortunately, but it looks like a great game for pulpy fun. It uses the Barbarians of Lemuria system. I've heard inklings of an upcoming rocket ship & ray guns setting book for it.
 
Yes, it was odd about the delay, particularly after I told people that it was 'coming very soon' and it didn't.

If you like the Barbarians of Lemuria system and want to use it for games outside of the Lemurian setting of the original core book, it's worth getting a look at Dicey Tales. The focus of the book is 1920s, 30s, and 40s pulp, but as said above there are plans to expand to other pulp genres. The book includes all the BoL mechanics, so it is a complete game, rather than a supplement requiring the BoL core book.

If you bounced off of Everywhen, the tool kit book for the BoL system, then you might find Dicey Tales (which sticks closely to BoL) more to your taste. And as with all BoL mechanics games, you can adapt bits from both to fit either book, as most mechanics are fairly modular.

I'll also mention the Sword & Sorcery Codex from 13th Planet Games which has stats for both BoL and Everywhen and offer new options for making either BoL or Everywhen run various styles of sword & sorcery.
 
They are working on supplements for Dicey Tales to expand it to over other eras as well although you could easily hack it as it is now.
 
Yep, I've had it since January. Don't have Everywhen, but I like it.
 
This would be up my street other than the fact I am already overflowing with generic rule sets and having games on the shelf left unplayed makes me sad.

Still is there are character sheet for this floating about I could look at? Just to get an idea how close to BoL it sticks.
 
PolarBlues said:
This would be up my street other than the fact I am already overflowing with generic rule sets and having games on the shelf left unplayed makes me sad.

Still is there are character sheet for this floating about I could look at? Just to get an idea how close to BoL it sticks.
Click to expand...

Aye.
 
What is the underlying Barbarians of Lemuria system?
 
Dumarest said:
What is the underlying Barbarians of Lemuria system?
Click to expand...

The game's core mechanic is 2d6 plus or minus modifiers for skill or difficulty, with a target number of 9.

A PC four Attributes (strength, agility, mind, and appeal) with values ranging from -1 to 5, getting four points to distribute between them at character creation.

They also have Combat Abilities (initiative, melee, ranged, and defence), again ranging from -1 to 5 and again with four points to distribute.

Characters also have Boons and Flaws. You get one Boon automatically and may take additional Boons in exchange for Flaws or reduced Hero Points. Most of them grant either a bonus die or a penalty die to specific rolls-- when one of these dice applies, you roll 3d6 and take either the highest two (for bonus) or the lowest two (for penalty).

Characters also have Careers, which I consider one of the most innovative aspects of the rules. There is no hard-coded list of non-combat skills. Instead, you pick four Careers your character has performed in the past, and distribute four points between them. Careers can have a rank of zero, and zero-ranked Careers still matter. Whenever you check a skill, you add one of your Attributes and any one relevant Career rating to the roll. Some Careers have additional benefits for higher rank.

This is the basic gist of Barbarians of Lemuria.
 
Thanks for the link.

That character sheet is a bit confusing. It took me a while to notice the the combat Attributes were all there, just
mixed with the other Characteristics and replaced Brawl with Initiative.
 
PolarBlues said:
Thanks for the link.

That character sheet is a bit confusing. It took me a while to notice the the combat Attributes were all there, just
mixed with the other Characteristics and replaced Brawl with Initiative.
Click to expand...

I also think the character sheet was a bit confusing, but Brawl got merged with Melee and replaced by Initiative in the Mythic Edition of Barbarians of Lemuria.
 
The Mad Hatter said:
The game's core mechanic is 2d6 plus or minus modifiers for skill or difficulty, with a target number of 9.

A PC four Attributes (strength, agility, mind, and appeal) with values ranging from -1 to 5, getting four points to distribute between them at character creation.

They also have Combat Abilities (initiative, melee, ranged, and defence), again ranging from -1 to 5 and again with four points to distribute.

Characters also have Boons and Flaws. You get one Boon automatically and may take additional Boons in exchange for Flaws or reduced Hero Points. Most of them grant either a bonus die or a penalty die to specific rolls-- when one of these dice applies, you roll 3d6 and take either the highest two (for bonus) or the lowest two (for penalty).

Characters also have Careers, which I consider one of the most innovative aspects of the rules. There is no hard-coded list of non-combat skills. Instead, you pick four Careers your character has performed in the past, and distribute four points between them. Careers can have a rank of zero, and zero-ranked Careers still matter. Whenever you check a skill, you add one of your Attributes and any one relevant Career rating to the roll. Some Careers have additional benefits for higher rank.

This is the basic gist of Barbarians of Lemuria.
Click to expand...

The genius is that you buy Attributes and Combat abilities from separate point pools and the the Careers which act like broad skills and provide a lot background colour do not affect yout combat skills. This really helps create interesting, well rounded characters without the players having to choose between having flavoursome skills and being effecitve in combat.
 
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The Mad Hatter said:
Characters also have Careers, which I consider one of the most innovative aspects of the rules. There is no hard-coded list of non-combat skills. Instead, you pick four Careers your character has performed in the past, and distribute four points between them. Careers can have a rank of zero, and zero-ranked Careers still matter. Whenever you check a skill, you add one of your Attributes and any one relevant Career rating to the roll. Some Careers have additional benefits for higher rank.
Click to expand...
13th Age has something similar, called Backgrounds, which are descriptors that cover careers/vocations/life phases, and mechanically replace Skill Bonues.

Its very good for supporting narrative descriptions regarding why a character is better at a particular action, often involving players further elaborating or creating aspects of their backstories during play.

I'm not sure how many other games brought this Backgrounds/Careers mechanic to the fore, but as far as I can see this mechanic remains solid. It should be considered a modern cornerstone mechanic, much like D&D 5E's Advantage/Disadvantage Dice replacing Modifiers.

It's very hard to return to straight-forward Skills are having a Backgrounds/Careers mechanic

I can see it working really well in pulpy games like Barbarians of Lemuria and Dicey Tales
 
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PolarBlues said:
the Careers which act like broad skills and provide a lot background colour never do not affect yout combat skills.
Click to expand...

I thought Career skills do not affect your combat skills.
 
Mankcam said:
13th Age has something similar, called Backgrounds, which are descriptors that cover careers/vocations/life phases, and mechanically replace Skill Bonues.

Its very good for supporting narrative descriptions regarding why a character is better at a particular action, often involving players further elaborating or creating aspects of their backstories during play.

I'm not sure how many other games brought this Backgrounds/Careers mechanic to the fore, but as far as I can see this mechanic remains solid. It should be considered a modern cornerstone mechanic, much like D&D 5E's Advantage/Disadvantage Dice replacing Modifiers.

It's very hard to return to straight-forward Skills are having a Backgrounds/Careers mechanic

I can see it working really well in pulpy games like Barbarians of Lemuria and Dicey Tales
Click to expand...
I believe Kevin Crawford’s Scarlet Heroes has a similar mechanic.
 
Not a fan of that character sheet. The writing space to bling ratio is too lopsided, and it looks like it would be an unpleasant mess on the printer.
 
Yeah, the character sheet is too messy. That's why I use 5x3 (or should that be 3x5?) index cards for BoL, Everywhen, and Dicey Tales. That's one of the things that attract me to BoL mechanics in the first place!

If a game used BoL mechanics but added so many extra mechanics to the basics that it couldn't fit on an index card, then I'd know the game wasn't for me. The beauty of BoL is in the simple elegant mechanics that do the job and give the game a real pulp feel. Add to much to the basics and suddenly it's not got the right feel for me.
 
I would love to see versions of or maybe genre supplements for Dicey Tales for the following genres:

Noir - covering classic movie noir and Sin City style noir and 'ultraviolence'

Age of sail - Master and Commander/Horatio Hornblower style with pirates, etc.

Old West - spaghetti western style

Sci-fi/space fantasy - akin to Star Wars

Rocket ship & ray-gun - in the vein of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon

What do you all think?
 
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Hornblower said:
I would love to see versions of or maybe genre supplements for Dicey Tales for the following genres:

Noir - covering classic movie noir and Sin City style noir and 'ultraviolence'

Age of sail - Master and Commander/Horatio Hornblower style with pirates, etc.

Old West - spaghetti western style

sci-fi/space fantasy - akin to Star Wars

What do you all think?
Click to expand...
That is their plan
 
Does anyone know if there are any pre-made characters out there for Dicey Tales to help in doing a demo of the games for some potential new players in order to make things as easy as possible for them to give it a spin?
 
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