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those covers bring back memories. I still recall the days of going to Powell's with a new paycheque and walking home with a stack of GURPs supplements
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You know she was in the news just maybe a week ago. She turned 70 and continues to look hot. I told one of my friends that either Botox or surgery must be her secret but my friend says it’s more likely witchcraft!
That they are. Looks like all of them are available.I played a lot of GURPS back in the day when I just started roleplaying. All it takes to enjoy and appreciate GURPS is a GM who can make it run smooth as butter. I am far from such a GM, but as a player it was really good. I hear the GURPS Conan books are available print-on-demand?
Hey I have those Cthulhu tokens as well in both small and large sizes. Don't know what they were for originally but I have a ton of them.Old of me found new to me. Bunch of documents, minis, etc from 1983 to 2000ish.
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Good pick up. I have no idea where they came from. Even the stuff I hand made is a mystery to me.Hey I have those Cthulhu tokens as well in both small and large sizes. Don't know what they were for originally but I have a ton of them.
Interesting...Picked up Alone against Fear (I never played 4 against darkness, the author's other game, but it seems it got quite a following)
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What is it: basically a solo horror rpg: create a character, roll a mission and then go explore the town (map is in the book), each "block" you explore, you roll on different tables to see what happens. It's meant to be played as a campaign where your objective is to close the gates to hell/horrible dimension/whatever
I don't usually play solo rpg games (its easier to turn the PS4 on, shame on me) but I wanted to see how the author pulled it off and I must say I'm impressed: the rules are straightforward (usually, roll a d6 and try to get a high result) but meaty enough to allow for character growth and development.
There's quite a lot packed into these 104 pages,. There's already a scenario/campaign that's been released (Village of Dolls). If you're interested in any of the themes (solo play and/or horror) I would recommend it.
Yeah, I wouldn't go for new-style D&D with an 11-years old, either.My son loves looking through the monster manual. I'm not sure it would be an easy game to teach him (he's 11 and never played RPGs before).
I'd disagree, here. Mythras can be (and is) summarized in a 40-pages book - Mythras Imperative, a.k.a. the Quickstart! That's how "crunchy" it is...I don't think Mythras would be a good start for him either (I always rated it as crunchier than D&D but I'll have a better idea when I read it).
The core book does have everything you need, but I think a lot of people will want at least one setting book as well. Running with just the core is going to require more assembly work than some people will want to do when trying a game for the first time. Even then, it's very instructive to look at pre-made setting to get fleshed-out examples of cults and fighting styles, and how they can all fit together.Mythras strikes me as a Rules Cyclopedia type book. This is a good thing. I also bought this on sale for about £21 delivered with the PDF thrown in. I can't stress how much of a good deal this is. One book solutions weren't about when I was in school and I remember lugging about 1e AD&D, Oriental Adventures and a few other tomes as well as BECMI and whatever other games we fancied playing when at school. There was hardly any room for schoolbooks. Games have bloated massively since the 80s (Hero system, hang your head in shame) and I'm all in favour of one book solutions. Sure, there are expansions, splatbooks, more of everything available but a book + dice being all you need is to my mind, the best way to be.
D&D 5th Edition's background pattern reminds me of awful website design from the '90s. Your photos also highlight just how average their layout is when it comes to the text. It checks all the basics of design. I'd get a passing grade if I turned them in for an introductory layout design class. That's all I can say for them.My overriding impression of D&D 3e is 'Brown'. lots of brown or tan on every page. They may have gone for the aged tome look but it switched my brain off for some reason.
Whether you like the art in the book is another thing. I love old school artists with clean, simple lines. Jeff Dee, Erol Otus, Larry Elmore, Bill Willingham, Liz Danforth, Gary Chalk, Russ Nicholson and more besides with the overriding theme that black and white/greyscale art is my favourite, no contest. There's some lovely art in the D&D books, but I'm not sure it adds to the game whereas I remember some of the pictures from my youth and the artists even now decades later.
The Mythras book has less art, is (I think) print on demand and has a very small font. It's harder to read and makes me wish for stronger glasses. I think a slightly higher art budget and a point or two more on the font would make me like the book more. As it is, the clean clear layout and less cluttered look appeals to me.
You can tell which pages are from which books:
This is a first glance from an appeal/look/design point of view. I have no doubt that both games play well and are written by people at the highest level of their craft. No doubt. Both games do the same thing (Fantasy gaming) in a different way and right now I would say Mythras is more likely to be read and played by me. I think D&D has changed a lot since I played it. It's easier on the eye, professionally laid out and very glossy. My son loves looking through the monster manual. I'm not sure it would be an easy game to teach him (he's 11 and never played RPGs before). Maybe the starter kit (which I have) is a better bet. I don't think Mythras would be a good start for him either (I always rated it as crunchier than D&D but I'll have a better idea when I read it).
From a personal point of view:
Mythras - bigger fonts, get one (or more!) of those artists I listed on board for some old school feel art (though the stuff in the book is nice, there's not a lot of it. Understandable with a lower budget for art.)
D&D - less is more sometimes. I'd be all over a refresh/reissue of BECMI and in any case I still have those old books (I think I have half a dozen complete sets of BECMI books but some of those are well battered) and am more likely to want to read/play that version of the game. AD&D always (to my mind) felt like it had an 'option creep' going on over time. You start with the core, then there's this book with these options, new classes, monsters etc that we use and before you know it there's half a dozen weighty tomes making the table and floorboards underneath it creak.
Each to their own, playing any RPG is good! Well, apart from FATAL and a few others
The wordiness in 5E is also a big obstacle. The Player's Handbook opens with a step-by-step summary of character generation. In most books, this would be an outline for you to consult, but WotC writers never use a word when 50 will do. Step One in the summary is "Choose a Race". Seems simple enough, but this book takes four paragraphs to explain the concept. Despite taking all this time, it never tells what races what are available to choose, or even what page to look on to find the races you are choosing between. Of course, once you find that chapter, it leads off with another section called "Choose a Race" which again spends another four paragraphs explaining the concept, while saying even less than the version in the "summary".
I don't think it works quite that way though. Don't the companies say I want and X thousand word book which the writers then write to? I couldn't as a writer boost income by padding with wordiness because the company would just say my limit is X words so cut out stuff
Very nice. I keep reading a lot of good reviews on the DCC Lankhmar stuff. I'm very tempted.Greatest Thieves in Lankhmar box set arrived today. It's thicker than the Lankhmar box, but doesn't seem to have as much inside, owing to the fact that some of it is die-cut counters, plus a book of handouts. A single adventure with options for tournament scoring and what looks to be some cool puzzles and minigames, like a rooftop chase with a special map. Pretty jazzed about this. I bought DCC specifically to play Lankhmar. Not saying it doesn't look like a hoot anyway, Lankhmar or no, but Lieber's stories are my favorite fantasy tales, and DCC nails it in a way D&D couldn't.
Hard to go wrong with the original Lankhmar box set. It's $45 on Amazon with free shipping. And it's packed full of stuff. GM screen, players' and Judges' guides, setting book, adventure 2 and maps. More impressive than the newer box set, tbh.Very nice. I keep reading a lot of good reviews on the DCC Lankhmar stuff. I'm very tempted.
I know Modiphius 2D20 isn't the coolest kid on the block in this establishment, but oh yeah those books sure do look great!
I have read that the next edition of Mythras (no firm plans announced yet) will likely have some colour to the title pages and edgings and such, but the general format will be more or less the same. This would be consistent with the more recent publications such as the most recent version of Mythras Imperative and the Mythras Companion. They are a touch more colourful and more appealing with today's market, but essientially the same clear common sense read that the DM usually prints. So that's good.Mythras arrived today. I was late to the D&D 5e party (bought it about a month ago, haven't cracked the book open yet and the PHB is still in shrink) so imagine my joy when a new edition was announced. Yay.
I thought I'd put up a comparison about the Mythras core book and one of the core books of D&D. It's like comparing, say, a Spider Monkey to the 800lb Gorilla in the room (to my mind at least). Online Mythras gets a lot of love on all the forums I frequent but D&D is the game most discussed and played of course. Does that make it better? I'd say (on this forum at least) there are plenty for whom D&D is not the first chocie for fantasy gaming, and that's a situation partially of their own making with the edition warring and OGL.
This is a 'first glance' review. I've not read the rules but played both games in previous incarnations (I think Mythras stems from Runequest/Legend and 1e AD&D, BECMI and some 2e AD&D). I own previous versions of D&D (1e-4e) and the Runequest/Legend (Chainmail Bikini version, the GW version and another one, off the top of my head) game so know some of the terminology and can probably pick up the gameplay reasonably quickly in both cases. I hope.
The book itself:
Mythras strikes me as a Rules Cyclopedia type book. This is a good thing. I also bought this on sale for about £21 delivered with the PDF thrown in. I can't stress how much of a good deal this is. One book solutions weren't about when I was in school and I remember lugging about 1e AD&D, Oriental Adventures and a few other tomes as well as BECMI and whatever other games we fancied playing when at school. There was hardly any room for schoolbooks. Games have bloated massively since the 80s (Hero system, hang your head in shame) and I'm all in favour of one book solutions. Sure, there are expansions, splatbooks, more of everything available but a book + dice being all you need is to my mind, the best way to be.
AD&D (or just D&D these days) has always been a 'start with these three books' type game. Partially to keep the bullet stopping tome of intimidation from breaking bookshelves, partly because sell more books=more profit. Flicking from one book to the next has never been an enjoyable experience for me. When we played Rolemaster that seemed crazy when MERP as a one book solution could cover what we needed to do. MERP got the nod whenever I got the choice (and as GM, I had a fairly big say though we tried stuff I didn't want to GM but did anyway on a lot of occasions too).
In terms of book quality there is no contest. WOTC has the production budget to dwarf all others. Some other game producers can come out with stuff to rival it but these days I don't think anyone could quibble about the quality of the AD&D books. Glossy pages, art on just about every page, a massive art budget and an easy on the eye layout. Where I struggle is background art. Aside from making PDFs ink intensive if you want to print them I simply find them harder to read. My overriding impression of D&D 3e is 'Brown'. lots of brown or tan on every page. They may have gone for the aged tome look but it switched my brain off for some reason. Whether you like the art in the book is another thing. I love old school artists with clean, simple lines. Jeff Dee, Erol Otus, Larry Elmore, Bill Willingham, Liz Danforth, Gary Chalk, Russ Nicholson and more besides with the overriding theme that black and white/greyscale art is my favourite, no contest. There's some lovely art in the D&D books, but I'm not sure it adds to the game whereas I remember some of the pictures from my youth and the artists even now decades later.
The Mythras book has less art, is (I think) print on demand and has a very small font. It's harder to read and makes me wish for stronger glasses. I think a slightly higher art budget and a point or two more on the font would make me like the book more. As it is, the clean clear layout and less cluttered look appeals to me.
You can tell which pages are from which books:
This is a first glance from an appeal/look/design point of view. I have no doubt that both games play well and are written by people at the highest level of their craft. No doubt. Both games do the same thing (Fantasy gaming) in a different way and right now I would say Mythras is more likely to be read and played by me. I think D&D has changed a lot since I played it. It's easier on the eye, professionally laid out and very glossy. My son loves looking through the monster manual. I'm not sure it would be an easy game to teach him (he's 11 and never played RPGs before). Maybe the starter kit (which I have) is a better bet. I don't think Mythras would be a good start for him either (I always rated it as crunchier than D&D but I'll have a better idea when I read it).
From a personal point of view:
Mythras - bigger fonts, get one (or more!) of those artists I listed on board for some old school feel art (though the stuff in the book is nice, there's not a lot of it. Understandable with a lower budget for art.)
D&D - less is more sometimes. I'd be all over a refresh/reissue of BECMI and in any case I still have those old books (I think I have half a dozen complete sets of BECMI books but some of those are well battered) and am more likely to want to read/play that version of the game. AD&D always (to my mind) felt like it had an 'option creep' going on over time. You start with the core, then there's this book with these options, new classes, monsters etc that we use and before you know it there's half a dozen weighty tomes making the table and floorboards underneath it creak.
Each to their own, playing any RPG is good! Well, apart from FATAL and a few others
I have both. The DCC stuff is more in-depth, but the Savage Worlds stuff is good- consider that the DCC is a full on boxed set, while Lankhmar: City of Thieves is a 96 page sourcebook. There's no way they can be compared.I believe there's some Lankhmar stuff available for Savage Worlds. I take it the DCC stuff is far superior?
Against the Darkmaster is currently on sale FYIIf I could transplant the artwork from Against the Darkmaster into the Mythras book, I think that would be perfection.
Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy is probably my favorite work of fantasy fiction, rivaling (and in some ways surpassing) the great Professor Tolkien's Middle Earth tales. Mythras, on the other hand, is way too crunchy for my taste. I see the PDF is currently on sale at DTRPG, I'll probably pick it up because I love the setting. Much as I love hardcover books, the price tag on this is awfully steep for something I'm unlikely to run.J Jenx you need to get Lyonesse by TDM. It is a thing of beauty! Best looking TDM product by a mile and is one of the prettiest books I’ve ever seen.
Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy is probably my favorite work of fantasy fiction, rivaling (and in some ways surpassing) the great Professor Tolkien's Middle Earth tales. Mythras, on the other hand, is waaay too crunchy for my taste as either a player or GM... I see the PDF is currently on sale at DTRPG, I'll probably pick it up because I love the setting. Much as I love hardcover books, the price tag on this is awfully steep for something I'm unlikely to run.