The good news is that I was able to locate my Lejendary Adventure manuals. The bad news is that the manuals are actually loaned out to someone that is very interested in the system at the moment. I'm not going to ask for them back just to do a little section by section examination for my blog; besides, I can do that at in a later post. The examination of Perilous Journeys continues...
Character Customization
After the selection of race, your character can be customized with the selection of edges, flaws, and contacts. Edges are basically advantages while flaws are basically disadvantages. Contacts are NPCs the character knows that may be able to give assistance to the character. This section is where I run into my first issues - one minor quibble and one somewhat irritating inclusion - with the game system.
I just do not "get" the open eyes edge. I understand that the character can sleep with his eyes open but I just wish there was a little more guidance on this one. Is the character harder to surprise? Does the character wake up quicker? I am not sure BUT I am also not too concerned about it because it's not a deal breaker at all; not even close. On the other hand, I find the inclusion of the gas edge to be irritating and somewhat of a mood killer. Yes, I know it is a game and we are all just trying to have fun here. Maybe it is just me but I would rather it not be included - not because I think it is offensive or anything like that. I always seem to game with somebody that will take something like that and just try to be as goofy as possible with it. I admit that the irritation with that flaw may entirely be just me; besides, I can always outlaw it in my games.
Other than those two issues, this section is well done. There seems to be quite a bit of variety without bogging down with a bunch of rules covering every little circumstance and exception.
Back To The Good Stuff...
Unlike Lejendary Adventures, I have no confusion over the determination of the first ability of a character. It is simply the ability with the highest score generated during character creation. I knew that much from LA but was unsure of when and how to determine all of the point additions to the ability score.
Abilities are similar to skills in other games. There are 38 abilities to choose from during character creation. The abilities serve several purposes in Perilous Journeys. First, each ability grants bonus points to one of the core attributes when it is chosen. Second, each ability is linked to a core attribute and can not be increased over the score of the score attribute without using extra points to do so. Third, each ability also generates a selection from the equipment lists -low, middle, high, and magical.
That's it for now. More later...
FYI: If you look in the LML book under quirks, there is one called Poor Digestion. It is #65 I believe. It gives a similar affect to the gas flaw. It says something like you pass gas for 1-3 hours. Just wanted to point out that I am not the only one that had the idea to include it :)
ReplyDeleteI see your issue with the open eyes thing and might make a clarification. For my purposes, it is just that they appear to be awake when they aren't, but I can see it permitting people to avoid being surprised while they are asleep.
There are 200 knacks/quirks in LA and I really did not like how they were done in terms of how they were written, what they did, and how they were selected (d100). I wanted something more traditional to what you find in GURPS or White Wolf games. Maybe in an updated edition I will include more and try to give more guidance on things. Not sure if I will remove gas though ;)
@Darius: I don't have my books at the moment but I do not doubt you at all. Besides, there is a game (Expendables, I think) that has a skill listing for "proctology" so there are worse things to include...lol. Just to be absolutely clear on the gas flaw, I am more irritated by my old buddies I used to game with running with something like this. They would find stuff like this in a game and just run it into the ground. I don't you including it was necessarily a bad thing. It could definitely be detrimental to someone trying to sneak around some guards ;-). I still think you have done a tremendous job with Perilous Journeys.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the knacks/quirks listed in LA. They were not well written and I didn't like the random roll assignment of them either.
I think I have met those gamers. When someone read over the rules before I released it, he suggested something like that the GM should have fun with the "gas" flaw. So I am sure it is not just your buddies thinking of how to turn something into a running gag throughout a game.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I am looking forward to your comments on the guild system.
LOL...that sounds about right!
ReplyDeleteComments on the guild system coming soon...