Would you play an OSR clone that only went to level 6?

Simon W · February 01, 2013, 11:58:28 AM

Woodland Warriors goes to level 6.

Melan · February 01, 2013, 11:59:25 AM

I am currently working on a game with 6 levels only, so the answer is 'yes'.

NYTFLYR · February 01, 2013, 12:06:10 PM

Quote from: Zachary The First;623687Yeah, I wouldn't have an issue. If I was really going to do long-term play instead of a shorter campaign arc, I might have to look at alternate progression, but that would be something I'd have plenty of time to work out. In short, not a deal-breaker.

for long term wasn't there a d20 variant that only went to lvl 6 then from that point forward it was just feats added on... I think it was called E6 or something like that. could use it for inspiration

Imperator · February 01, 2013, 12:11:19 PM

Sure, why not.

Tahmoh · February 01, 2013, 12:21:30 PM

Switch out the lvl numbers and give each level a title and nobody will ever need to know or care about it only having 6 levels, plus it'll give you a reason to use the old school named levels trope in a different way.

J Arcane · February 01, 2013, 12:40:28 PM

I have actually been thinking about adding title names. It's an old school touch that's often missed.

Spinachcat · February 01, 2013, 04:21:34 PM

Considering how much people actually play today, I say 6 levels is just fine.

I would not max monsters though. Perhaps if you figured out the max creature a group of six 6th level badasses could face at full force. Maybe that would be the max. It's fine for there to be the Moby Dicks of the setting who even the greatest heroes fear.

My fantasy retrowhatever is going to 10th level, but my scifi retrowhatever is being aimed for 6 levels with multiclassing options and "prestige" levels possible for some characters.

J Arcane · February 01, 2013, 04:29:41 PM

I think I may actually rejigger the monster scaling to go up to 12 in the example tables, just so GMs have the numbers there, and because it'll rebalance the lower HD monsters to be a little less threatening right out the gate.

I've also been debating codifying the post level 6 ranks in a sort of "alternate level" type thing, sort of like what I did for stats over 20.

RPGPundit · February 02, 2013, 01:56:36 PM

My personal feeling is that 6 levels is not enough. In my groups at least, it feels like the game is at its most interesting between levels 4-14 or so.

My albion game is definitely at its coolest phase so far, and the PC group are levels 5-7. In your game, if its only 6 levels, that would be the end point, and for my group we wouldn't feel ready for that end yet.

RPGPundit

TristramEvans · February 02, 2013, 04:45:33 PM

Quote from: J Arcane;623670Especially if it was Hulks and Horrors?

Right now, H&H Core goes to 6.

My publisher wanted to see more, so I was planning to expand to 12, but now it looks like I'll be self-publishing, so I don't have to do that anymore.

I think 6 is actually a pretty good number the way the game is written, if you want to keep things low-powered, and there are optional rules in the back to go past that and keep getting new HP and to-hit bonus at least, but no new spells, and the present monster scaling kinda caps out at 8HD meaningfully speaking.

What about you folks? I'm on the fence about it, personally.

Personally, I'd feel like it was crippleware (even if it wasn't), though thats admittedly a bias from many such products over the last decade. I'd much prefer a game that wanted to focus on "low level" play exclusively to do away with levels altogether.

jeff37923 · February 02, 2013, 07:14:44 PM

Fuck it.

You wrote Hulks & Horrors and based on the quality of your posts here, I'd buy it. Doesn't matter how many levels it has.

gonster · February 02, 2013, 07:20:46 PM

Quote from: jeff37923;624213Fuck it.

You wrote Hulks & Horrors and based on the quality of your posts here, I'd buy it. Doesn't matter how many levels it has.

Ditto.

danbuter · February 02, 2013, 07:29:21 PM

I think level 10 is a better stopping point.

J Arcane · February 02, 2013, 07:39:06 PM

It is interesting to me the difference in response between the three places I posed this query.

G+ and here were almost universally positive, while Facebook was quite negative.

Still, the consensus seems to be that it would be OK if done well and with room for extrapolation, and while I've not fully decided, it does easy my mind some. ^^

ICFTI · February 02, 2013, 08:30:39 PM

yes. but with such a limited range of levels, i would want some kind of defined end game in the form of a specific thing to be achieved post level 6.

Would you play an OSR clone that only went to level 6?

TristramEvans