Ok, I've seen some mention of "Stuff!" for EABA, and it looks attractive. I've downed the preview of the weapons section, and wondered if anyone had reviewed the whole thing anywhere. I checked the pnk pit, no luck. They had a coupla EABA prods, but not Stuff.

I'll go looking for some reviews but wanted to ask if anyone had seen one. I'm thinking of it as an altertnative to gurps ultratech 4e.

EABA has never got that much love online, not sure why or why not.

Is it any good?  I mean, it's possible tons of people are playing it, but I don't know much about it and it is rarely posted about.

If someone held a gun to my head and said: you must play GURPS, HERO, Tri-Stat, or EABA, I would pick EABA hands-down. That's the kind of system it is, though, a smoother and more streamlined generic.

I really like Greg's settings. Ythrek from EABA is a very enjoyable post-apocalytpic setting, and his old game Epiphany is a fun setting read as well.

Greg generally does excellent work. I haven't got it, but I would personally take the chance without a review, based on what he's produced before.

Did you read Mike's review of the Big Book o' Tech on the front page? It might fit your bill as well as Stuff!. It's available in pdf or in print.

-clash

I have Ythrek too, and I like it a lot. That reminds me to get the other EABA settings--they're very cheap, and the previews look very good. EABA itself is sitting on my shelf half unread (I have a hard copy). I just don't need a generic ruleset that's weighed towards modern games right now. But Greg Porter is a really really good writer. Very concise, in the best GDW tradition (he worked on Traveller, and I wish he'd write T5).

I will admit that what ultimately stopped me from reading EABA through is that it's a dice pool system. I just can't deal with those. So I'll get CORPS instead, I guess.

Quote from: Pierce InverarityI will admit that what ultimately stopped me from reading EABA through is that it's a dice pool system. I just can't deal with those. So I'll get CORPS instead, I guess.

I keep seeing people say "X is a dice pool system=bad" and I'm not quite getting it. Now I don't know how many dice are rolled in EABA, but if it were 3 let's say how would that be different from GURPS? HERO? The reason why I ask is that systems that don't count successes (such as SilCore) IME are pretty solid.

As for EABA, for some reason BTRC games are like me and Linux. They look really interesting and I know some time I'll get around to buying them, but what I currently use suits me just fine.

I thought Ythrek was a fantasy setting?  Could anyone describe it for me?

Wil, it's true that usually you don't roll more than 3 dice in EABA. For me it's a purely subjective issue, and it's about stats, not number of dice rolled. I like my PC's stats to be constant, not variable. That way the PC just feels more "defined." So, STR 16, not STR 2d6. (Stats are actually fixed numbers in EABA, but they translate into dice pools for task res.) Also, I suck at computing probablities on the spot. A roll-over-TN system is much easier to "get" for me.

Ythrek is a desertified Europe with a poison sea, after a cataclysm. It's sort of low fantasy/sci fi with summer and winter years, radiation, ancient artifacts but also villages that you could almost mistake for medieval poking out of the waste hear and there.

It has the same kind of vibe as a lot of those 70's-80's science fantasy novels I love and it could easily be used as a basis for all kinds of fun adventure gaming. There's also an underdeveloped conception of nanomagic (reminding one of the second half of that old Algis Budrys book...) that seems like it's got some fruitful potential for making a 'realistic' but really powerful form of magic.

There is magic of one kind or another, though, and so this is a 'fantasy' aspect. Greg offers three possible interpretations (nanomagic, psionics, and something more standard IIRC) so you can tailor to fit your tastes. Though it still has the same problem as Fantasy HERO that you have to make up all your own spells and such out of the point buy system.

Quote from: CalithenaYthrek is a desertified Europe with a poison sea, after a cataclysm. It's sort of low fantasy/sci fi with summer and winter years, radiation, ancient artifacts but also villages that you could almost mistake for medieval poking out of the waste hear and there.

It has the same kind of vibe as a lot of those 70's-80's science fantasy novels I love and it could easily be used as a basis for all kinds of fun adventure gaming. There's also an underdeveloped conception of nanomagic (reminding one of the second half of that old Algis Budrys book...) that seems like it's got some fruitful potential for making a 'realistic' but really powerful form of magic.

There is magic of one kind or another, though, and so this is a 'fantasy' aspect. Greg offers three possible interpretations (nanomagic, psionics, and something more standard IIRC) so you can tailor to fit your tastes. Though it still has the same problem as Fantasy HERO that you have to make up all your own spells and such out of the point buy system.

I just bought it, I'll see how it works for me.

Nox, Greg Porter owes you a beer or something, since without this thread I doubt I would have bought any of it.

I own EABA and think it's a very good system.  Rolling 4-6 dice is average, and it's unlikely you would be rolling more than 8 dice unless you're playing an epic or superpowered game.  However, once you roll the dice, you only add the highest 3.

Any math is usually done before the dice are rolled.  If a hunting rifle does 5d damage, and a Level 3 Bulletproof Vest has a protection of 4d, then you only roll 1d for damage.

It is harder to calculate probabilities on the fly, but there's a chart on the BTRC website that gives you the actual probabilities. (Small PDF of chart here.  Certainly not intuitive, as you say.  That is a problem I tend to share when it comes to dicepool systems.  For a long time, this was my biggest sticking point with the EABA mechanics.  Over time, though, its flexibility and its rather elegant mechanical undertrappings have won me over.  Unfortunately, I haven't had a real chance to run it since playtesting finished.  I may get to run it again in the near future.  I hope so, anyway.

Mechanically, I do tend to prefer CORPS.  Very simple to figure the probabilities.  However, I've found EABA to be better for more cinematic games, with some very nice features lacking in CORPS.  Plus, EABA has an excellent power system, very flexible and capable of describing spells, cyberware, psionics, etc.

Stuff! Is a good resource for designing things...weapons, vehicles, armor, gadgets, creatures, civilizations.  There are downloadable PDF spreadsheets that automate a lot of the design process.

Here's a rundown of the Table of Contents, in case you would find it useful:

I. Introduction (4 pages)
Introduction
To Think About
Ground Rules

II. Weapons (49 pages)
Introduction
Basic Weapons
Let's See if it Works
Advanced Weapons
Let's See if it Works
Magical Weapons
Reverse Engineering
Weapon Costs
Ammunication Costs
Weapon Parameters
Weapon Checklist

III. Vehicles (70 pages)
Introduction
Basic Vehicles
Let's See if it Works
Advanced Vehicles
Power Plants
Secondary Power Plant Topics
Vehicle Size
How Tough is It?
How big a Gun?
How Many Gizmos?
Body Armor
Powered Armor & Robots
Hyperdrive
How do I Blow it Up?
Altered Scales
Final Thoughts
Let's See if it Works

IV. Gadgets (42 pages)
Introduction
How Does it Work?
Attributes/Skills
Information
Communication
Mitigation
Other Modifiers
     Armor & Hits
Multifunction Gadgets
Gadget Power
Gadget cost
World Building

V. Creatures (23 pages)
Introduction
Design Principles
Attributes
Let's See if it Works
Other Basic Concepts
Advanced Creatures
Gestation/Maturity
Skills
Tractability
Let's See if it Works
Consistency
Ecosystems
Designing Character Races

VI. Civilizations (28 pages)
Introduction
Modifiers
Side Cases
What Does it all Get You?
Civilization
Where Are We At?
Death & Taxes
Infrastructure
Urban Area
Let's See if it Works
Final Notes

VII. EABA Universal Scale (2 pages)
VIII. EABA Damage Conversions (4 pages)
IX. Index (1 page)
X. EABA Open Supplement License (2 pages)

Quote from: CalithenaYthrek is a desertified Europe with a poison sea, after a cataclysm. It's sort of low fantasy/sci fi with summer and winter years, radiation, ancient artifacts but also villages that you could almost mistake for medieval poking out of the waste hear and there.

It has the same kind of vibe as a lot of those 70's-80's science fantasy novels I love and it could easily be used as a basis for all kinds of fun adventure gaming. There's also an underdeveloped conception of nanomagic (reminding one of the second half of that old Algis Budrys book...) that seems like it's got some fruitful potential for making a 'realistic' but really powerful form of magic.

There is magic of one kind or another, though, and so this is a 'fantasy' aspect. Greg offers three possible interpretations (nanomagic, psionics, and something more standard IIRC) so you can tailor to fit your tastes. Though it still has the same problem as Fantasy HERO that you have to make up all your own spells and such out of the point buy system.

Ythrek can be a post-apocalyptic Earth, or not Earth at all.  As you say, Greg doesn't specify the nature of the disaster, and doesn't officially confirm or deny that it's Earth.  You only know that there was an advanced civilization about 1000 years ago (the Ancients), and that some type of cataclysm destroyed just about all civilization (and most people) around that time.

Although you can certainly design your own spells, the Ythrek book does provide about 60 of them, pre-written and ready to go.

Thanks everybody.

I may snag stuff and even look at big book o' tech as alternatives to gurps ut 4e until I can get it used.

I don't love dicepool systems, the last I used was in OWoD. Still EABA sounds decent, and has conversions to gurps and batlelords, which makies it one of the few games to talk about battlelords.

I looked up both Stuff! and Big book o' tech on cessna's sandbox and neither of them were reviewed. I found very little BTRC stuff in the review section there at all.

I was just going to suggest that people here who like them might want to post reviews on the purple toilet just to see if they get any attention.

BTW, I know that BTRC has conversion guidelines to convert their stuff to gurps, does big book o' tech?

QuoteYthrek can be a post-apocalyptic Earth, or not Earth at all. As you say, Greg doesn't specify the nature of the disaster, and doesn't officially confirm or deny that it's Earth. You only know that there was an advanced civilization about 1000 years ago (the Ancients), and that some type of cataclysm destroyed just about all civilization (and most people) around that time.

Although you can certainly design your own spells, the Ythrek book does provide about 60 of them, pre-written and ready to go.

TomB's comments are correct. One really neat thing about the setting is that it's very flexible in terms of how you interpret it but the core elements are clearly spelled out and give you good, playable material.

There are several spells detailed, but most of them are for the most standard kind of magic detailed. I wanted a Nanomagic Grimoire and as I recall there are only a few spells written out specifically for that subdiscipline.