Quote from: Spinal Tarp;501141That sounds cool.  In the 15 page PDF preview, they do it differently.  I guess Newt decided to change it last minute.

Originally I used the Hit Points as Spell points system as written in Akarasia's house rules. However in a con game one of Magician players repeatedly cast Sleep, because this system allowed him to do so, and it really exposed the weakness of using the S&W spells as written with a system that allows multiple casting. Rather than review and rewrite the spells, I decided to fall back to the 'Vancian' system, with the Black-Grey-White systems to give it a fun twist.  However low level Magicians in C&T don't suffer from the 'oh you've spent your spells for the day, that's you standing at the back doing nowt' syndrome that some D&D games suffer from, since they can do extra stuff using the skills system and can use swords (admittedly at lower damage and lower chance to hit).

Quote from: Spinal Tarp;501141Although I was never a fan of Vancian magic and would've liked to seen it done away with, I still like some of the changes I see.  The sacrificing thing is cool because now the evil sorcerers you encounter performing all their dark rituals and sacrifices now have an actual in game reason to be doing them; they're preparing a black magic spell!

In the playtest games two of my players played Black Magicians and with the mandate of "lets see how quickly we can mess up these characters", and the answer was very quickly if we cast Black Magic exclusively and drink all those powerful but sanity sapping potions

I deliberately left out an alignment system and allowed Magicians free choice from the three spell lists,so that players could decide themselves whether they wanted to go for the powerful but ultimately damaging black magic, get creative with Grey Magic or play it safe with White magic.

Quote from: The Butcher;448057Nonetheless, a small part of me believes that, notwithstanding the fact that variety is a Good Thing, this is quite a bit of glut for three games (Jim Raggi's LotFP, Jeff Talanian's upcoming Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, and now Crypts & Things) occupying the same niche... and that it would be really, really awesome if these three awesome people (Newt, Jeff and Jim) joined forces instead of each going at it his way.

LotFP, AS&SH and Crypts & Things aren't the same games. I don't think they "compete" against each others. You might as well see all three of them as supplements to each other and/or all of them as supplements to the O/AD&D tradition. I think aficionados are going to own all three of them in the long run, rather than one at the exclusion of the other two.

Quote from: Spinal Tarp;501105P.S.  In the 15 page PDF preveiw, the spell Protection from Evil ( 10 ft radius ) is listed as a 3rd level and a 4th level spell.  Was this typo fixed?  I ask because curiously this same typo is in Akrasia's rules too which I just found to be odd.

I like Newt, but his proofreading skills are atrocious. I suspect you will find a fair amount of this kind of stuff in the book.

One of the big wins about doing the pre-order was that it got a real good proof read by a ton of good hearted folk.  So unlike OpenQuest, its not something I'll be fixing up to a year after

Wow, 10 months later people decide to reply to my post. I'm kind of flattered.

Quote from: Akrasia;501038C&T deviates from standard OD&D/S&W more than LotFP and (I think) ASSH.  Nonetheless, the core rules of C&T are close enough to core OD&D/S&W that material for OD&D/S&W (and B/X D&D, AD&D, etc., and the relevant retro-clones) can be used with C&T with little work (simply rework or redescribe orcs, goblins, etc., as brigands or serpent men or whatever).

I own and like LotFP, and I like what I've seen of ASSH, especially the setting of 'Hyperborea'.  Mix and match among the systems as you see fit! :cool:

Quote from: Benoist;501173LotFP, AS&SH and Crypts & Things aren't the same games. I don't think they "compete" against each others. You might as well see all three of them as supplements to each other and/or all of them as supplements to the O/AD&D tradition. I think aficionados are going to own all three of them in the long run, rather than one at the exclusion of the other two.

As usual, you gentlemen are right. It's just that I'm a cheap bastard.

But honestly, I'm glad that we get to have a variety of games to pick and choose from.

Right now, AS&SH looks the most likely to see actual play at my table, but I can't get the pledge site to work.

I haven't picked up LotFP because the shipping is insane, but I'd love to.

I'm still curious as to what DCC in its final form will look like.

And I'm even more intrigued by Adventurer Conqueror King, because since the D&D RC I've always been a sucker for the much-talked, but seldom played, D&D endgame.

As for Crypts & Things, the initial announcement and blurbs got me very interested, but now... to be honest, it does look a bit like Newt basically took Akrasia's houserules and packaged them with a genre-appropriate setting and bestiary, plus the Barbarian class. Which might still be an awesome product and worth every penny (I'm waiting for the reviews to roll out), but I'm not sure yet.

What's your problem with the ASSH pledge site, dude? PM me if you think the public thread isn't appropriate for us to work this out.

Quote from: Newt;501154In the playtest games two of my players played Black Magicians and with the mandate of "lets see how quickly we can mess up these characters", and the answer was very quickly if we cast Black Magic exclusively and drink all those powerful but sanity sapping potions

  So drinking potions cause sanity loss?  Interesting.

QuoteI deliberately left out an alignment system

  Thank God.  The most useless 'mechanic' in D&D IMO.

Welll only this particular potion which is the main treasure in the adventure they are playing.  C&T Magic Items have the design philosphy that yes they give you great power but at a terrible cost

I expand here

http://sorcererundermountain.d101games.co.uk/2011/04/07/magic-items-in-crypts-and-things/

I like such idea for potions - that, or making them sometimes not so reliable as the label'd suggest. Especially when bought from fishy alchemists .

Quote from: Spinal Tarp;501105...
  P.S.  In the 15 page PDF preveiw, the spell Protection from Evil ( 10 ft radius ) is listed as a 3rd level and a 4th level spell.  Was this typo fixed?  I ask because curiously this same typo is in Akrasia's rules too which I just found to be odd.

Crap, I hadn't noticed that!  :mad:

(It's a consequence of 'Protection from Evil' being both a magic-user and cleric spell, but of different levels in S&W; I overlooked the duplication when I merged the two spell lists.)

Quote from: The Butcher;501344...
As for Crypts & Things, the initial announcement and blurbs got me very interested, but now... to be honest, it does look a bit like Newt basically took Akrasia's houserules and packaged them with a genre-appropriate setting and bestiary, plus the Barbarian class. Which might still be an awesome product and worth every penny (I'm waiting for the reviews to roll out), but I'm not sure yet.

There is a lot more to C&T than my house rules.  The section on magic items and the bestiary are worth the price alone, IMO (and can be used with other games, naturally). :cool:

(And I write this as someone who is not profiting in any way from C&T, and who has no 'formal' relationship with d101 Games.)

Quote from: Akrasia;502331Crap, I hadn't noticed that!  :mad:

(It's a consequence of 'Protection from Evil' being both a magic-user and cleric spell, but of different levels in S&W; I overlooked the duplication when I merged the two spell lists.)

Yes it has been fixed, and all the other typos you might have spoted in the preview.

When I get some computer time tonight, I'll post an updated preview and a special bonus freebie from the book

Quote from: Akrasia;502335There is a lot more to C&T than my house rules.  The section on magic items and the bestiary are worth the price alone, IMO (and can be used with other games, naturally). :cool:

Aah, now that's more like it!

I'd love to read a full-fledged review, though.

Quote from: Newt;502386When I get some computer time tonight, I'll post an updated preview and a special bonus freebie from the book

  Sounds great!  Let us know when it's up.

This is the first time I find a clone/derivative of D&D tempting. Coming from an anti-D&D guy like myself, this is very high praise indeed.