Dolmenwood & Necrotic Gnome Productions

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Baulderstone said:
Backers have been given the main PDFs on DriveThru (not the Advanced book yet), and they are gradually getting updated with more art over time. I'm not sure if pre-orders involve the same set-up.
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Yup that's what I'm getting.
 
My blog use to have my DoctorDuckButter name, but I decided to drop it for my real name. It confuses people. :sad:
 
dokel said:
Woohoo got my early access pdf of the rules tome through. Definitely up for a b/x game :smile:
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I've been getting updates on all these books multiple times this weekend. I guess Gavin is trying to avoid pulling a Monte.

I'd be extremely up for a PbP B/X game if anyone wants to run one. If nobody wants to run one, I might be willing to try.
 
I've only had a little skimming with the the Advanced rules book. My one big observation so far is that I am happy to see that the Barbarian class isn't built around a rage ability that they turn on. That just never really worked for me.
 
Baulderstone said:
I've only had a little skimming with the the Advanced rules book. My one big observation so far is that I am happy to see that the Barbarian class isn't built around a rage ability that they turn on. That just never really worked for me.
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Also I very much like the gnome and other advanced races rendered as classes. It makes them so much more meaningful.
 
Actually all these new classes are very well thought out. The bard is a nice surprise (I usually dislike bards) - they are now basically Druidic storytellers. Gone are thieving skills and spells as songs. They can still fascinate and enthrall with their music, but they aren't musical mages. Like the barbarian, this is much more historically authentic. The half-orc is also nicely conceived - basically a fighter-thief thug. This is really good stuff.
 
Baulderstone said:
. My one big observation so far is that I am happy to see that the Barbarian class isn't built around a rage ability that they turn on. That just never really worked for me.
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That is a huge pet peeve of mine in D&D. The classic Howardian barbarian is a fighter. The D&D "barbarian" is a berserker.
 
Edgewise said:
Actually all these new classes are very well thought out. The bard is a nice surprise (I usually dislike bards) - they are now basically Druidic storytellers. Gone are thieving skills and spells as songs. They can still fascinate and enthrall with their music, but they aren't musical mages. Like the barbarian, this is much more historically authentic. The half-orc is also nicely conceived - basically a fighter-thief thug. This is really good stuff.
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Bards are finally... Bards! :grin:

And yeah, the Advanced Fantasy classes are pretty cool.
 
I'm also happy that none of these go over 14th level. Probably my biggest issue with Labyrinth Lord as a retro-clone was scaling things to 20th level. There are so many great classes in Labyrinth Lord supplements, but they are hard to integrate with actual B/X because of the level difference.
 
Baulderstone said:
I'm also happy that none of these go over 14th level. Probably my biggest issue with Labyrinth Lord as a retro-clone was scaling things to 20th level. There are so many great classes in Labyrinth Lord supplements, but they are hard to integrate with actual B/X because of the level difference.
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There is a table for extrapolating out to level 36 if you want though.
 
Jetstream said:
There is a table for extrapolating out to level 36 if you want though.
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There are also rules supporting a race/class dichotomy, but all that stuff is optional and set to the side. I think OSE has replaced LotFP as my go-to B/X clone.
 
Jetstream said:
There is a table for extrapolating out to level 36 if you want though.
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Oh, I don't mind that as an option at all. The original B/X Expert book has guidelines for advancing characters further. I like it as an option. I just kept encountering classes in LL books that were spread across 20 levels, and condensing them down to 14 levels or less is a pain.
 
Got my copy of Old-School Essentials last week. Forgot I was also getting The Hole in the Oak adventure so that was a nice surprise.

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OK, I don't like nitpicking but why do people keep typing Dolemwood instead of Dolmenwood?
 
3rik said:
OK, I don't like nitpicking but why do people keep typing Dolemwood instead of Dolmenwood?
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For the same reason people mix up rouge and rogue? Or February and Febuary?
 
Jetstream said:
For the same reason people mix up rouge and rogue? Or February and Febuary?
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The only thing worse is "nucular." Although on Long Island you may be advised to go to a "libary" to borrow books, but that's regional.
 
Edgewise said:
The only thing worse is "nucular." Although on Long Island you may be advised to go to a "libary" to borrow books, but that's regional.
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I've heard at least one American president say "nucular". :ooh:
 
Alright, so I'm reading this thread. I'm really tempted by the game in the near future. I like race distinct from class though. Does it have a roll high option? (I'm asking because my players really hate old school ThacO.) Me? I'm good either way. Though right now I'm considering a game of my own where level impacts how hard you are to hit/damage, Unique racial spell lists and Armor soaking damage. Other than that it would be AD&D/D&D in some form. So basically sell me on this?
 
Silverlion said:
Alright, so I'm reading this thread. I'm really tempted by the game in the near future. I like race distinct from class though. Does it have a roll high option? (I'm asking because my players really hate old school ThacO.) Me? I'm good either way. Though right now I'm considering a game of my own where level impacts how hard you are to hit/damage, Unique racial spell lists and Armor soaking damage. Other than that it would be AD&D/D&D in some form. So basically sell me on this?
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It has an ascending AC option, yes. The ascending AC value will typically show in square brackets next to the "thac0" value. A basilisk, for example is AC 4 [15]. But by default ability tests are roll low.
 
Silverlion said:
Alright, so I'm reading this thread. I'm really tempted by the game in the near future. I like race distinct from class though. Does it have a roll high option? (I'm asking because my players really hate old school ThacO.) Me? I'm good either way. Though right now I'm considering a game of my own where level impacts how hard you are to hit/damage, Unique racial spell lists and Armor soaking damage. Other than that it would be AD&D/D&D in some form. So basically sell me on this?
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The advanced fantasy books have options for race and class being separate.
 
Silverlion said:
Alright, so I'm reading this thread. I'm really tempted by the game in the near future. I like race distinct from class though. Does it have a roll high option? (I'm asking because my players really hate old school ThacO.) Me? I'm good either way. Though right now I'm considering a game of my own where level impacts how hard you are to hit/damage, Unique racial spell lists and Armor soaking damage. Other than that it would be AD&D/D&D in some form. So basically sell me on this?
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Sell you on it? Okay. As already mentioned, the game already has you covered on separating race and class, as well as getting rid of THAC0.

Adding to that, one reason that B/X is so popular in the OSR is that it gives you clean, simple rules for everything that D&D needs to do, and that is about it. If you are looking to make your own variant, it is a perfect place to build out from. I find it's easier to add things to a simple frame than to have to modify a more complicated variant like AD&D. LotFP, ACKS, and the Sine Nomine games, some of the most popular games in the OSR, all are variants of B/X. Having a copy of the core game they were built out from gives you a lot of insight into hacking together your own variant.
 
These are freaking beautiful. I own all the Wormskin zines and can't wait to see Dolmenwood as a complete set of books.
 
Nick J said:
I could have sworn deep gnomes were in Unearthed Arcana as a playable race? They were definitely written up in the Fiend Folio.
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Hey Nick J Nick J, will it be okay if your players pick up the Domenwood Player’s Guide. Do you think it would be useful for us?
 
Voros said:
Gavin has posted an update on the Dolmenwood Campaign book. I think simplifying his plans is a good idea. Really looking forward to it and think I'll splurge on the extra adventures as well.

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Very smart move, imo. With a 300 page setting plus adventures, doing it for two systems sounds like a recipe for disaster. Frog God does that a lot, but they’re also larger and more established.
 
Ronnie Sanford said:
Hey Nick J Nick J, will it be okay if your players pick up the Domenwood Player’s Guide. Do you think it would be useful for us?
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Sure go for it. If you do get it I might caution you to see it as the product of an unreliable narrartor, because of how much stuff I reskin and repurpose or plain ol' change.
 
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