There are three things I bought this month because I thought the OGL kerfuffle might cause them to be removed from play, so I thought I’d give you capsule reviews of them, because why not.
Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy Rules Tome
297 page PDF by Necrotic Gnome, available here for $20 at the time of writing but I’m not sure how long it will stay there.
This is essentially B/X D&D with the text clarified and tightened up, and a layout better suited to modern sensibilities. The world and its dog are playing D&D 5th Edition these days, so maybe I should compare it to that…
- Everything is simpler, and the game relies on GM spot rulings at least as much as on the Rules As Written.
- The game focuses more on player skill than on character stats.
- There are only seven character classes, three of which are elves, dwarves and halflings. Demihumans have extra abilities, but humans can advance to higher levels.
- There are only a few dozen spells, 6-12 per level and only 5-6 levels.
All of this means the game is about 1/3 the size of 5E. The one thing I would add from 5E is rolling with advantage/disadvantage, which is an extremely elegant mechanic. I’d also switch to ascending armour class, which is more intuitive.
I’d happily run this if I could find the players. Maybe later.
The Waking of Willowby Hall
32 page PDF by Ben “Questing Beast” Milton. Currently available here for $7.50.
This is an OSR adventure so I can’t say much without spoilers. I will say, though, that it looks like a lot of fun; the author says he specifically wrote it to maximise the opportunity for player shenanigans, and that is credible once you read it. Imagine taking Jack and the Beanstalk, Heat, and Dog Day Afternoon, throwing them into a blender, and then garnishing with PCs once you’d made a fairytale/heist-gone-wrong movie mashup. I have to try this one.
Cepheus Deluxe Enhanced Edition
219 page PDF by Stellagama Publishing. Currently available here for $10.
This is the clarified and tightened-up version of Cepheus Deluxe, with improved layout and colour art. Therefore, it’s essentially a simplified version of Cepheus Engine, which in turn is basically Mongoose Traveller 1st Edition with the serial numbers filed off.
Compared to most versions of Traveller – look, we can call it “2d6 OGL Sci-Fi” if you like, but we all know what we’re talking about – it gives players a lot more control over how their PCs turn out, the opportunity to give PCs ‘traits’ – equivalent to advantages, edges, feats or talents in other RPGs – and a simplified ship/vehicle combat system. Additionally, there’s no requirement for power plant fuel, which is more in line with current views of fusion power plants – that means ships have about 10-20% more tonnage available for payload – and no more sneaky jumping into empty hexes on the starmap; there has to be a star system at your destination.
Traveller’s weak spot as a game has always been character advancement. In this version, in big handfuls you get one experience point per session, and improving a skill costs 10 experience times the target level, with the design aim that a PC should increase one skill by one level each game year.
The most unique thing about the game is that all of the deck plans – one for each of the standard starships and small craft – are tail sitters, with the thrust axis at right angles to the deck plates. Probably more realistic, but not often seen.
I was originally drawn to Cepheus Deluxe because it trimmed out all the bits I didn’t like about Mongoose Traveller or the Cepheus Engine, and left me with something closer to the Classic Traveller I love. I am less enamoured of this version, because it’s heading back the other way; more complexity, more page count, less of the freebooting simplicity I like in a game. Maybe they will revamp Cepheus Light along similar lines; that would appeal to me more.
Coda
Every so often I flick through my Little Brown Books from the White Box D&D set I bought in 1977, or the Little Black Books from the boxed set of Traveller I bought the same year, and think: What the hell am I doing? Why am I not still running these with a couple of house rules? Man, the fun we had…
I think the real answer is that I miss being twenty-something and hanging out with all my twenty-something friends. That ain’t coming back whatever I play.
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