The TSR Reprints I Want...

With all of these reprints from the old AD&D lines of various editions, I got to thinking what I would like to see if Wizards of the Coast just opened up the reprints to the entire TSR back catalog instead of the AD&D items.  Here is what I would like to see...

 

 

B/X D&D:  For many people this is the pinnacle of D&D gaming.  I would be happy with reprinted box sets that included the modules originally shipped with the product or even a combined hardbound book with the Basic rule book followed by the Expert rules.  Many of the old timers cut their teeth on these rules and I think many of them would jump at the chance to replace their old battered copies.  I know I would!

 

D&D Rules Cyclopedia:  I would personally rather see this reprinted than the individual boxed sets from the BECMI line of products.  Of course, I would like all of the errors fixed because there are a ton of them in this manual.

 

Gamma World:  My favorite version continues to be the original.  I have messed with most other editions but I have never even flipped through a second edition set.  I hear that second edition is actually just a better organized and cleaned up version of first edition.  If that is so then I would pick up a reprinted second edition.  Hell, just reprint both editions.

 

Unearthed Arcana:  Just because of the crappy binding from the original; mine literally fell apart after a short period of use. 

 

There is probably more that I would like to see reprinted but that is a good start.  That list above would probably keep me pretty satisfied for quite some time. 

 

What would you like to see reprinted if Wizards opened up the entire TSR back catalog?

 

 

 

 



[Re-Posted & Expanded] Second Thoughts About Second Edition

There has been several posts (The TSR Reprints Keep Coming and Second Edition Core Rulebooks to be Re-Released in May) at other blogs about the upcoming reprint of the AD&D Second Edition core rulebooks in May of 2013.  I thought this was a perfect time to re-post and expand one of my earlier blog posts about AD&D Second Edition.  The original post is presented as it orginally appeared while any updated thoughts will be presented in this format.

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I admit it - I'm taking the easy way out and doing a lazy post today. I'm taking this opportunity to say "I didn't give second edition a fair chance". Of course, the second edition I'm talking about is the AD&D second edition. I remember the buildup to the release in Dragon magazine. I was pretty excited and was looking forward to the new books.

 

I guess you  could call this a lazy post also but my life is so busy right now with work, school, kids, and whatever other random crap pops up that it is probably the easiest way for me to stay posting until the end of the semester.  I am excited about the 2E reprints and I will be picking them up.  I have not picked up the AD&D reprints but I seem to be able to find those pretty easy around here.

My buddy Jamie got the 2E PHB and we went through it cover to cover. I liked the clearer language and organization but I did not like what I felt was the "de-Gygaxing" of the rules. That pretty much sums up my impression of the core books. It felt sanitized and politically correct with the removal of Assassins, Barbarians, Half-Orcs, and many of the monsters. I never bought the second edition books and never played in a straight second edition game either.

 

Yes, I know that was pretty close-minded on my part.  I could have easily used" any AD&D material that I wished.  It would have been a matter of simple conversion to the updated rules.  In reality, it would have been a smoother transition between those two rules and later editions.  I could have used the guidelines in the DMG to attempt to standardize the bard, for example.

 

I have had the opportunity to look at the core books again and I must say that for the most part the game is better explained, organized, and presented. Plus, it's close enough to AD&D to add back in anything that got "left out". So, on a second look, I would play in a second edition game IF it was limited to the core books, certain first edition material added back in, & house rules. I do know for a fact that I would avoid the Complete series of books and kits altogether.

 

I still pretty much feel the same way after looking at several of the books full of kits.  I think they were a good idea that just snowballed out of control - much like feats and prestige classes in later rules.  I think that a short list of kits to personalize each class would probably be the best idea with the focus squarely on campaign-specific kits.

 

 

There it is - a quick and lazy post. I'm hitting the sack. Maybe I'll write more about second edition sometime if I pick up the books or maybe one of the 2E retroclones...

 

Like I said, I am planning on picking up the AD&D Second Edition reprints.  I have also looked at some of the 2E inspired games.  While M&M does have several vast differences, I believe it would make for a fine game.  Adventures Dark & Deep - if I am remembering correctly - is supposed to be a "Gygaxian 2E" and I would very much like to see it completed just for the interesting "what if" potential and the debates that would assuredly arise from that game. 

A Little Catch Up...

Ugh - It's been almost 2 weeks of silence on this blog.  The biggest reason for my lack of recent posts is simply that college commitments have been extremely demanding lately.  I will be extremely pleased when I am done with this degree and get out of school.  For all you younger people out there, please consider going to college soon after high school and before you get married, have two kids, turn 40, and are just generally tired.  School is much easier on the younger mind!  There, that's my good deed for the day.  Now, on to other topics.  I am just going to write about several topics in this post to serve as a little bit of catch up.  Here it goes...

 

The Presidential Vote

First, this is not a political blog so I am not going to delve into the realm of politics except to remind you to VOTE on Tuesday.  I do not care who you are voting for or why you are voting the way that you are.  That is entirely your choice and decision.  In fact, I already have decided on my vote but I am not even going to reveal who it is or why.  The only thing I want to get across is that you should vote.  If you do not vote, then you really should not complain about the direction this country is headed if you disagree with it.  [Okay, a little pet peeve of mine but the small rant is over.]

 

Movies

I have caught up on my movie viewing recently; instead of doing full reviews I will just share a few thoughts.  What else can I really say about the Avengers movie?  It was just as awesome as I read and was told.  It exceeded my expectations because I was expecting a mess of a movie when I heard it was being made.  The Cabin in the Woods was the best horror movie I have seen in a while because it explained why people in the typical horror movie do stupid things and also paid homage to several entries in the horror genre.  Dark Shadows was a pleasant surprise for me.  I was against viewing this movie because I did not like that it was taken in a comedic direction but the movie was pretty decent.  The fairest evaluation that I can give Prometheus would be good but flawed.  There are several things that could have benefited from another round of editing.  Quite honestly, some of the writing stunk.  I liked it but I feel like if they would have gone over the script one last time then they could have had an epic movie on their hands.  Instead, we got a good movie with interesting visuals that has flawed writing in parts. 

Gaming
I have not been able to concentrate on a lot of gaming recently due to school but I will return to gaming posts soon; the end of the semester is in 3 weeks and I am taking next semester off so I do not burn out.  I have several unfinished posts stacked up waiting on some free time to complete.  Expect to see several posts about doing fantasy gaming with USR because I am highly interested in using those rules.  I also have some ideas for Dungeon Crawl Classics.  I plan on using both of those systems to help flesh out my Toldara campaign world.  Finally, I got my son the new Skylanders GIANTS and we have been playing that together.

Professional Wrestling
I used to be a big fan of wrestling and would watch it all of the time.  I fondly remember when wrestling was on television 5 or 6 days a week and all of it was new.  I think what really killed it for me was the removal of the kayfabe aspect.  I remember when people used to get in heated debates about whether or not wrestling was "real".  It is so over the top and everyone is *wink, wink* in on the joke so it just sucks now.  Oh, there are some rare flashes of brilliance here and there but this is truly not your daddy's wrestling anymore. :-(

Television
Although I watch a fair bit of television, the only show that I regularly follow as it is aired is The Walking Dead.  I wonder if that says something about me?


That should do it for this post.  I will be posting more often soon. 
   

Jumping on the USR Bandwagon...

This is just a short post explaining that I am going to dig in to some serious work with the USR rules system.  I have the original version offered on the Trollish Delver site.  The document has been sitting on my hard drive for months and I just now got around to reading through the rules.  I am really impressed with the rules and I have several projects that I would like to use USR as the base rules system.

 

My Toldara campaign was originally developed for 3.x and Pathfinder.  After some time, I became interested in using a simpler rules set for the campaign.  I have dabbled with Castles & Crusades and several other systems.  I finally decided to look into doing a B/X version after recovering some old gaming items from my old room at my parents.  Then I discovered the Moldvay Era Classes in USR download available from Tabletop Diversions.  After I read that information I decided that USR looks like it would work remarkably well.

 

I also have several unfinished game ideas from my Old Gaming Notebook series of posts that I would like to complete.  The most likely are A World in Ruins and To The Stars... after I complete the Toldara conversion. 

 

That is a minimum of three downloads that I am developing.  USR is pretty much exactly the type of game I was attempting to develop with Quick Six and S.T.A.G.E. but I kept hitting stumbling blocks because I just could not seem to "get it right" on either one of these designs.  I am currently putting them both on the back burner and attempting to show some USR support.

 

More later...  

[Used Gaming] Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed

I frequent a few places that have used gaming products for sale.  I mostly visit the stores in Tulsa but every once in a while I make a trip up to Bartlesville.  When I do I always make sure to stop at Hastings because the in-store selection of Sci-Fi and Fantasy books always seems to be more in tune with my tastes than other book stores.  In short, I always browse the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and used gaming sections.  On my last trip to Hastings I picked up Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed.

 

I usually tend to avoid this type of product because it seems that there is very little bang for the buck.  It has been my experience that there are basically just a few changes here and there - like the removal or addition of just a few races and classes - that could probably just be handled by a small list of house rules instead of a complete rule book.  I noticed the price was only $5.99 so I flipped through the manual to look at those two sections.  I found enough information that I was actually quite interested and decided to purchase the book.  I have yet to play this game but I have skimmed through it and read some sections in a little greater detail in my spare time.  I get the impression that there is a lot more to this product than simply making a few alterations here and there to the 3.x iteration on the rules and calling it "new".  The following sections explain what I found in each chapter.

Races

The only standard PHB race included in Arcana Unearthed are the Humans; all of the other races are removed.  In their place are 6 new races - Faen (3 varieties of diminutive folk), Giants, Litorians (lion folk), Mojh (reptilian), Sibeccai (canine folk), and Verrik (red-skinned and human in appearance).  These replacement races do not appear to simply be the demi-human races with a new skin.

 

Classes

 None of the standard PHB classes are use in Arcana Unearthed.  There are 11 new classes to choose from - Akashic (skilled experts that tap into the collective knowledge of all beings for information and other things), Champion (defenders of a cause), Greenbond (masters of animism), Mage Blade (follows the paths of sword and sorcery), Magister (master spell casters), Oathsworn (devoted warriors), Runethane (spell casters that focus on the study and creation of magical runes), Totem Warrior (rural warriors that bond themselves to an animal spirit), Unfettered (warriors focused on speed and prowess in contrast to heavy armor and brute force), Warmain (the other side of the coin with the unfettered), and Witch (spell casters focused on the magical nature within themselves).  As you can see, the classes presented allow many other types of characters than the standard classes.  I am definitely interested in taking a closer look at each of these classes in the future.

 

Skills

So far I have just quickly skimmed through the chapter on skills.  No drastic changes or additions grabbed my attention so I can only assume that there are none.  That may not be the case and if someone notices any omission on my part feel free to correct me in the comments.  Skills are usually pretty dry reading so I did not take a hard look at them.

 

Feats and Talents

There are three types of feats used in Arcana Unearthed - General Feats, Talents, and Ceremonial Feats.  General Feats are the most basic type of feats and can be taken at the appropriate time by any character meeting the qualifications.  Talents are feats that represent an inborn gift instead of training and can only be taken at first level.  Ceremonial Feats are gained after participating in a ritual of power.  Again, this chapter made me take notice and grabbed my interest in taking a closer look.

 

Equipment and Playing the Game

Similar to my reasoning for skipping the chapter on skills I did so with the chapters on equipment and playing the game as well.  If I understand correctly, Arcana Unearthed is supposed to be highly compatible with the 3.x version of D&D so I should be pretty up to date on these sections. 

 

Magic

The chapter on magic has just as much or more to offer than the chapters on race and class.  It seems pretty familiar but there are some important changes.  Spells can be cast as a diminished spell (using a spell slot one level lower than normal), heightened spell  (using a spell slot one level higher than normal), and a laden spell (using two slots of the spells level instead of just one).  Of course, it is mentioned that using the spells in each of these manners has special effects and rules that correspond to doing so. 

 

The spells are also split into three categories: simple, complex, and exotic.  Each category determines the learning and casting difficulty plus how common the spell is among the various spell casters.  Simple spells are the most common and easiest of spells to cast; these spells are usually the ones taught to apprentices.  Complex spells are less common and more difficult to cast and learn because they require a real understanding of the way magic works.  These spells will require components and difficult gestures to cast.  All spell casters other than magisters require a special feat to cast these spells.  Exotic spells are the rarest and most difficult of the spells. 

 

Spells

I did not read through this chapter yet but for different reasons than skipping the earlier chapters.  It is my impression that this chapter may require a serious look with all the differences from the magic chapter.  Since I am just giving my first impression of Arcana Unearthed I believe that this chapter will be better done with a post devoted to it alone.

 

Final Thoughts

I will definitely take a closer look at this rule book.  I may post further about detailed reading of sections from the core book.  I would like to devote a short campaign to test driving the rules in play.  I did not feel that there were any glaring omissions so far but I would have liked to have seen a small section on the campaign setting setting and maybe a short selection of monsters.  As it stands, this book is golden.  The only real concern right now would be the acquisition of the rest of the line.  I am pretty late to the party on this one but I would like to see the complete line of books to evaluate the whole run. 

 

A few questions for anyone interested in answering:

 

Does this game play as well as it reads? 

 

Does it "feel" particularly different from standard D&D?

 

Are the rest of the books worth obtaining?

 

Are there any big differences between Arcana Unearthed and Arcana Evolved?

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Case You Have Forgotten

This is happening tonight!

The Last Week...

...was absorbed by mid-terms.  I had important tests in 3 of my college classes during the last week and neglected to post anything at all.  The tests are over and I am more than satisfied with the results so it is time to crank up on the blog posts a bit.  I have no master plan at the moment but I have sorted out some topics for future posts. 

 

 Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed

I recently found a used copy of this rule book for the awesome price of $5.99 at Hastings.  I expect at least two posts covering this because I am really enjoying what I see so far.  I always check out the used gaming sections of the stores I visit.  I am prone to buy stuff if the price is right.  I think this will be a recurring post; something like "new used gaming item" or something similar.  I already have at least 3 other items lined up for this.

 

Other Gaming Topics

I have several ideas I want to put out there and get some feedback on.  I know that I announced the Quick Six system that I was developing but I have decided to put it on the back burner for now.  In the middle of development I had another idea that I would like to develop.  I usually design in the rules-medium to rules-heavy area but I find myself really attracted to the rules-light approach.  I have never designed a complete rules set using the rules-light approach but I have been gathering some notes for a system called S.T.A.G.E., which stands for Simple Tabletop Adventure Gaming Engine.  With any luck, information will be posted here soon.

 

DVDs, Rentals, and the ROKU

I am an avid DVD collector and I like a good deal so I will post about several that I have gotten recently.  Of course, sometimes the movie posts will be about movies I rented instead of buying.  I also recently got a ROKU and have been pretty happy with it.

 

Miscellaneous

There are other topics that may show up with irregular frequency.  One such topic is autism.  My (almost) 6 year old son has autism and the experience is very thought provoking.  I may do a once a week post on some aspect of autism as some sort of FYI thing.  Other topics that may get some more exposure in the future include professional wrestling, horror, creative writing, my campaign world, and maybe a surprise or two along the way.  Who knows? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mobile Post] Bargain DVDs

We stopped by Big Lots yesterday. I always like to browse the bargain DVDs to see what they have. There were many horror titles that I was interested in buying. Then I found what I decided on - The Lost Boys, The Lost Boys: The Tribe, and The Lost Boys: The Thirst. It seemed like a no-brainer to pick up the entire Lost Boys collection for a grand total of nine dollars. Of course, the original movie is one of the old 80s horror standbys but I am curious to see how these sequels hold up. 

Support Just For The Sake of It?

I was watching Star Trek (original series) the other day on Amazon Prime and remembered a conversation I had with one of my friends.  Both of us grew up as Star Trek fans and would faithfully watch the episodes as they were aired on television.  Both of us enjoyed the original series and The Next Generation but as every new series was added, our opinions became drastically different about the state of Star Trek on television. 

 

I was - and still am - a fan of TOS and TNG.  I hold those two series as canon and TV Star Trek ends there for me.  My friend liked and watched all of the series from TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise.  I do admit to watching a few episodes of each of the additional series but they just were not for me.  We were discussing our differences when he stated that "with so little science fiction on television, it is our duty to watch and support it all so the networks will give more shows a chance." 

 

What do you think?  

 

I think it is a flawed argument.  Ratings are determined by the Nielsen viewing participants, right?  I have never participated in that but isn't that right?  Does anybody know?

 

I also think that if you support "bad" shows and the networks find relevance from those numbers then all that does is encourage more "bad" shows.

 

Does anybody else have any thoughts on this?  It does not have to be just Star Trek but any show you want to discuss.  Think of the difference between Battlestar Galactica and Galactica 1980 or something similar...      

Anyone Remember ENVOY?

I was a pretty regular readeer of Cryptych magazine from the early 1990s.  It was different from most other gaming mazines at the time because it was not a house organ of one company but was an actual industry magazine.  It was quite common to see newsletters from several different game companies in the pages of this magazine. I was not pleased that it was put on hiatus after only 8 issues.  A young Wizards of the Coast also gave the magazine a ton of support.  One of  resources that WoTC provided was the ENVOY rpg system.  ENVOY was described as a "Generic game system designed to be easily convertable to other systems on the market" according to the Cryptych index.  I am unable to locate my issues of Cryptych and was wondering if anyone has a copy of ENVOY in pdf or some other form?  My Google-Fu has failed me...