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01-14-2010, 09:54 AM | #1 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners
E23 just released GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners for the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy series. Its 44 pages present four new caster archetypes focused on spirits: the demonologist, who summons demons; the elementalist, who conjures elementals; the necromancer, who raises undead; and the shaman, who negotiates with spirits in general. Each template comes with a spell list and a new power. Also included is a large bestiary of entities to summon and take as Allies. Rounding things out are notes on how to use spirits – especially insubstantial spirits – in hack-and-slash campaigns, and on taking things to the next level . . . specifically, into spirit realms and other dimensions. And gamers who prefer a more thoughtful approach to the genre will be happy to learn that while there's plenty of munchkin potential here, this supplement lends itself to serious game play more readily than do most of the previous DF volumes.Fear you not my charms?
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
01-14-2010, 11:27 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Feb 2008
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Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners
So... Taverns next week, then? ;)
Seriously though, this offering sounds like I can get a lot more out of it than I was initially thinking. It sounds like it can almost double as a minor monster manual. |
01-14-2010, 12:15 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Hessen
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Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners
It seems to be a bit short at 44 pages.
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01-14-2010, 12:21 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
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Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners
The other 78 pages inhabit a pocket dimension that is shipped with the book and can only be called from those chtonic depths by invoking the correct powers.
Say it with me: Iä! Shub-Niggurath! Iä! Shub-Niggurath! Hastur! Hastur! Hastur!
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Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! |
01-14-2010, 12:29 PM | #5 |
"Gimme 18 minutes . . ."
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Albuquerque, NM
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Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners
You know, sometimes you really don't want to read the book.
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01-14-2010, 12:30 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: The ASS of the world, mainly Valencia, Spain (Europe)
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Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners
I'm liking it, but I from a cursory read, I haven't found Powerups or cross-class lenses for the templates :(
I feel that, since DF, every template released should have those extra bit, since it feels a bit unfair, if you use templates, to give some players more "kewl stuff" than to others. |
01-14-2010, 12:47 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Göttingen, Germany
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Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners
wow, sooo cool! :)
...and I didn't even see everything yet. the elemental-templates with different lenses are really great and the customizeable demon, too :p the "Slayer-Training" is a nice idea and no to forget: there even is a new zombie-template in it *g* |
01-15-2010, 01:58 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
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Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners
Quote:
As for power-ups; given their penchant for binding squads of supernatural allies, and their access to powers, anybody who can't already see uses for as many extra points as these characters can vacuum up, making them appropriately more powerful and flexible, isn't trying and should go back to playing a fighter.
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-- Phil Masters My Home Page. My Self-Publications: On Warehouse 23 and On DriveThruRPG. |
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01-15-2010, 06:07 AM | #9 | |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners
Quote:
On the other hand, multiclassing Lenses will get out of hand, now that there are 17 rather than 11 classes. We're talking 272 possible combinations (if my "math" is correct, which it may not be, since I'm a bit stressed these days), thus 162 new cominations in addition to the 110 (if my "math" is correct) combination Lenses given in DF3. Not only that, but Kromm also won't charge full page price for such content, and so there's less incentive for him to write it in the first place. Overall I was very pleasantly surprised with DF9, relative to DF7, though. Lots of crunchy bits there (just no kewl upgrades for Summoner templates, as you say). The upgrade Lenses for the elementals are a bit confusing; it isn't clear to me if they can all be stacked or if I'm supposed to only ever take any one, and they all appear specific, without any "same, except more powerful overall"-type Lenses available. Beyond that I also have a lot of other quite minor issues (nothing like with DF7), but I'm reluctant to voice them yet, not having read the entire PDF properly. |
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01-14-2010, 01:54 PM | #10 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dobbstown Sane Asylum
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Re: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 9: Summoners
Short? Of the $7.99 price points, DF1 was 34 pages, DF2 was 34 pages, DF3 was 46 pages (and garnered complaints about all of the cross-lens stuff being "filler"), and DF5 was 30 pages. At 44 pages, this is actually one of the longest DF books (at the $7.99 price point) yet!
Quote:
EDIT: Specifically, this raises the number of book-official templates from 13 to 17 (not counting the two from Pyramid). That would mean 4 new lenses for each old class (52 total) and 16 new lenses for each new class (48 total), or 100 lenses needed to keep up. Assuming about seven per page, that's 14 pages of material that would need to be cut to squeeze that in. (And no, bumping the page count up by 14 pages and selling it at a higher price isn't an option -- see the complaints about filler, previous in this paragraph).
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