Quote from: K Peterson;626041Couldn't find a d30 that looked worth a damn, so if I get around to trying out DCC I'll have to use a control dice.

They're as big as golf balls... but it seems like one of their main uses is rolling up the weird spell effects, so I bought a purple one with gold numbering.

Yeah, I saw the Koplow behemoths.

Quote from: Votan;626057I wonder if it depends on how you play them.  I suspect that a Gandalf type (very reluctant to cast spells) is likely to be able to use luck to avoid the worst parts of casting.  

Traditional wizards live fast and then mutate into otherworldly creatures.  This feels a lot like the Lankmar or Theives World in that respect, so this may be a feature and not a bug.

So far, it seems like the dangerousness of magic has tamed the magic artillery phenomenon.

From reading the game. It looks like UNLESS the mage makes deals with otherworldy powers they will end up unplayable eventually.

Quote from: Silverlion;626117From reading the game. It looks like UNLESS the mage makes deals with otherworldy powers they will end up unplayable eventually.

I take that as a good thing. I bought the new Patrons book so there'd be some more options.

Quote from: Votan;626057I wonder if it depends on how you play them.  I suspect that a Gandalf type (very reluctant to cast spells) is likely to be able to use luck to avoid the worst parts of casting.  

Traditional wizards live fast and then mutate into otherworldly creatures.  This feels a lot like the Lankmar or Theives World in that respect, so this may be a feature and not a bug.

But are they gimped otherworldly creatures? Or still extremely powerful otherworldly creatures?

RPGPundit

Quote from: Simlasa;626134I take that as a good thing. I bought the new Patrons book so there'd be some more options.

What's it like?

Quote from: One Horse Town;626283What's it like?

It's pretty neat.
A collection of 13 Patrons (about 100 pages) with their backgrounds, spells, taints, minions.
There are 3 new spells per Patron (one has 4), some have small bestiaries that are related to them... so there are new creatures.
One patron gives the caster aid in the form of elements of an undead army... so the caster can end up with wraith weapons or undead knights at his side.
One lets you summon dinosaurs so there are stats for those.
 
There are also stats for giant insects, a petting zoo's worth of Lovecraftian creatures, bog monsters, alien robots and rabbit swarms.

The Patrons are of better and worse natures... some are just plain evil. A few are direct threats to the entire world, some are only a threat to the caster... a few are just gonna put the caster to work, giving quests and obligations.
One might turn you into a rabbit, another might compel you to raise a family.
There's one that might eventually turn the caster into an alligator-man.

My favorites are Hecate, Goddess of Witches (she's on the cover), and Logos, the Perfect Form.
Hecate is dark and chaotic... her bonded casters will end up lurking in dark places, waiting for the full moon to come out so they can seduce men to do their bidding (Hecate is one of two who favor female supplicants).
Logos is a Lawful alien menace who wants to set everything in order... by sucking all the energy out of the sun and getting rid of all these messy biological lifeforms. It's got massive OCD and uses a hive-mind army of platonic solids to build bases to leech power off the sun. They've eaten many suns already. Its bonded casters slowly turn into these things...

Some of them I'd expect to only see in use by NPCs... their taints are so nasty. Some will surely kill the caster eventually, or remove him from play through madness or loss of self.
An enemy magic user with some of these spells would be pretty scary. One gives its followers the ability to shove enemies through/into solid objects... another can banish foes to other dimensions.

I'd most likely re-skin most of them to fit my own setting better... change name/appearance/etc.
I'm not sure what I'll do with the Angel, she's pretty much straight-up Christian crusader motif... maybe I can tweak her into a Deva.

The art is OK, nothing special. There's a drawing of each Patron.
I think, like the DCC core, it's meant to evoke the old D&D art.

The introduction has some thoughts on how to use Patrons as more than just power sources for wizards. Logos and Set-Utekh are good for Big Bads that need stopping. Radu, King of Rabbits seems like he might have something to offer Thieves.

Overall there's a bunch of good stuff in it. Spells, monsters, villainous NPCs. I'm quite happy with it.

Thanks for the potted review!

Doesn't sound like it'd be of much use to me tbh.

This sounds awesome.. I hope I might be able to get a review copy of this one too...

RPGPundit