Pyramid #3/60: Dungeon Fantasy III

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Langy

What kind of stuff was left out? It seems like a pretty full article already!

Wait, there's more?

(looks up-thread)

Wow. I have to see this extra stuff. I have a bunch of D20-import traps up on Jürgen's wiki that I think I want to get up to these standards.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Langy

What kind of stuff was left out? It seems like a pretty full article already!

Originally Posted by Rasputin

Wait, there's more?

(looks up-thread)

Wow. I have to see this extra stuff. I have a bunch of D20-import traps up on Jürgen's wiki that I think I want to get up to these standards.

Oh, you know, things. A ton more examples, a few new trap types that I had to condense to a single example or cut. Y'know, things. ;-D

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Thanks for the description (and the email from the author). That does sound pretty useful - I will try to check it out.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Peter V. Dell'Orto

Thanks for the description (and the email from the author). That does sound pretty useful - I will try to check it out.

Dammit, we need a Designer's Notes for that one.

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by chandley

The Imbued Souls, Eldritch Tether, and the new imbuement skills, in roughly that order. Also, it may sound silly given its not exactly "new", but including Weapon Master and making power items explicitly allowed is nice, from a "see, it is there in the template" point of view. I doubt anyone actually disallowed either, but it is a nice validation.

Yeah, I missed including that in the original article, together with Striking ST. I took advantage of the occasion to remedy it. Again, I did a number of rookie mistakes in the original article.

The new skills tried to fill the gaps I found in the original book. On the perks, the original ones were mostly lifted from Magical styles, while here I went a little wilder. The souls just felt right, though I had been iterating for a while one some kind of innate buff for Imbuement users. Originally it was an ST buff that costed HP and that had a fixed duration, meaning that once you activated it, you had to keep it going even as it drained your health. It was both too limited and too powerful.

[Greg 1]

This Pyramid is superb. I pretty much read it in one go. Everything was either crunchy and useful or thought-provoking and interesting.

A lot of the crunchier stuff deserves to be in DF books. Who couldn't use a Trap Tables book to generate useful ideas? (See also, Monster Tables!)

[SCAR]

I really loved the Mysic Power-Ups.
The Mystic Knight was nice application of Imbuements (from PU1) to Dungeon Fantasy, basically a magic-Knight - but it never really grabbed my interest. These Power-Ups bring it alive, and give the whole archetype some real character.
The Soul Imbuements are great, and the concept could be ported as a Power-Up for Elementalists, and maybe other; Imbuement-Resonant is a really cool way to make the MK's gear a personal part of the character; and Weapons/Armour of Pure Magic are cool. Separating those from Imbue would make a great Power-Up for others too.

It's a Trap! is very crunch with so many tables. More ways to maim or kill delvers than Grimtooth! It could really use a random generator spreadsheet or app.

In another short but sweet Eidetic Memory, Mr Pulver manages to supply a whole load of ideas in just a couple of pages. I wasn't really convinced of the idea, but now I can really see some mileage in the concept.

Wizardry Refined tidies up the Wizards spell list, and fixes a whole variety of bits and pieces. The 8+ pages of basic spell lists didn't do anything for me, and I'm not sure how much it would help a player choose their spells. There really must be a better way to organise the spells, I can't help be feel that Magical Styles could do some really good here.

Having read and enjoyed all the session write-ups for Sean Punch's Dawn of Magic campaign (from before DF was released), I can see where a whole load of DF stuff came from. More templates are always fun, the Beastmaster seems too close to being one side of the Druid template - and not quite Fighty enough to be the Druids 'Holy' Warrior.

This months Random Thought Table was fun. Take something simple, change it just a little and get something quite different, repeatedly. I really like number 6!

Odds and Ends Bonus Trap was fun (for similar reasons to why I liked Random Though Table No.6), and the Eldritch Initiate lens is an excellent addition for Henchmen.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Greg 1

A lot of the crunchier stuff deserves to be in DF books. Who couldn't use a Trap Tables book to generate useful ideas? (See also, Monster Tables!)

Thank you! There may be a DF book with some other stuff, but I don't know yet. The pipeline is still clogged all to hell.

Originally Posted by SCAR

It's a Trap! is very crunch with so many tables. More ways to maim or kill delvers than Grimtooth! It could really use a random generator spreadsheet or app.

I just hope not too many tables. I thought about doing a spreadsheet then I remembered I suck at spreadsheets. I wouldn't be against some enterprising GURPSer to make one and send it too me, I might be able to get it bundled into the Pyramid. :-)

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by SCAR

I really loved the Mysic Power-Ups.
The Mystic Knight was nice application of Imbuements (from PU1) to Dungeon Fantasy, basically a magic-Knight - but it never really grabbed my interest. These Power-Ups bring it alive, and give the whole archetype some real character.
The Soul Imbuements are great, and the concept could be ported as a Power-Up for Elementalists, and maybe other; Imbuement-Resonant is a really cool way to make the MK's gear a personal part of the character; and Weapons/Armour of Pure Magic are cool. Separating those from Imbue would make a great Power-Up for others too.

Glad you like it. Again, the base template was my first work, and well, let's say that it was certainly not my best work. Still, compared to the templates in DF1, it was well within the norm, style-wise. It was only with later books (notably DF3 and DF 11) that they gave the templates their flavor.

Soul Imbuements seem to be getting a very good reception. The concept had been bounding on the inside of my skull for a while, but the current incarnation was a late addition (You've got to thank Ghostdancer for the second level, and for a lot of tweaks on them). I feel they work very well at reinforcing the elemental knight concept, and they serve to add damage without needing to pump ST. Mind you they sort of work against the concept, because they don't add to imbuements that depend on damage (crippling blow/stupefying blow/strike of negation/vampiric blow/etc)

Weapons and armor of pure magic were a neat idea too. Given how dependent mystic knights are of their weapons and armor, giving them a last ditch option is something I felt they needed. Also, together with the soul imbuements, they show how to use powers to simulate enchanted gear.

[panton41]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

TI just hope not too many tables. I thought about doing a spreadsheet then I remembered I suck at spreadsheets. I wouldn't be against some enterprising GURPSer to make one and send it too me, I might be able to get it bundled into the Pyramid. :-)

I've been looking to do a programming project just to sharpen my skills and, honestly, once you have the engine for this finished all of the other similar tables (like from DF8 or the Cyberpunk Pyramid issue) fall into place.

The trouble is I'd probably use C# which has limited utility outside of Windows. I know Mono is supported cross-platform but I'd probably use a Windows Form which, once again, has limited utility outside of Windows.