03-14-2020, 03:01 PM | #61 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2
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03-19-2020, 03:03 PM | #62 |
Join Date: May 2010
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2
Just bought the PDF on Warehouse 23? Have only done a quick skim, but I like the way the centaur is built, and the "villains" chapter has some interesting examples of sympathetic villains, antiheroes, and the like.
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03-19-2020, 03:32 PM | #63 | |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2
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I'm glad you like the centaur build. I know there are competing schools of thought about how to construct centauroids, but this one struck me as being the most playable. Because centaur PCs are a thing. I definitely fudged Bulky to fit, but I think it's fair if the GM plans to be strict about logistics. Even if the GM is slack about that, a lot of the other traits this pays for aren't first-tier special abilities. As for the villains . . . my aim was to avoid villains who are only interesting because they're super-optimized killers, and who nobody would hesitate to kill rather than make a deal with. Most of them aren't really any more murderous than the average delver (granted, that isn't saying a lot). I suppose that some could even be played as high-powered PCs.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
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03-19-2020, 09:56 PM | #64 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2
Just got my PDF yesterday, so I've only taken in bits and pieces. For anyone sitting on the fence, I'll just note here that there's a lot of value in this. As in x magic items and y monsters and z villains, yes, but then there's everything hinted at in the easy-to-overlook "Bonus!" blurb on the back cover:
64 pages, but it feels like a lot more. (Note for future supplements: Villains, or any detailed character write-ups, seem a great way to introduce lots of new stuff to the game while simultaneously showing how the stuff actually gets used.) Quote:
A few other notes: ・The split Move scores on some of the monsters left me confused; if there's a note in the book on what it means, I'm missing it. The answer is squirreled away in the Enhanced Move write-up in Monsters. So it's not a mystery, but all the same, I think it'd be good if the "Reading Monster Stats" box in this book and in Monsters explained split Move scores. I think that's where perplexed readers are going to look for an answer. ・I don't suppose this was intentional for any reason, but all of the monsters are mundane (with one animal). No demons/faerie/undead/etc. Which, since DFRPG doesn't complement the Naturalist skill with an Unnnaturalist counterpart (something I'd kind of like to see), leaves me wondering what skill would cover knowledge of elastoids and osisizos and other things that are "mundane" and yet anything but. ・As with the entire game line so far, all the text to aid GMs and players really stands out: the scenario ideas and adventure seeds, the detailed noted on what to roll if the monster uses this attack instead of that attack, the monster and villain combat tactics – all the advice on using stuff. More than any rules simplifications, I think this is what makes DFRPG "GURPS for fantasy, but simpler". ・For those following the POD situation: Just after I got the notice of my download, I saw the notice about Amazon POD distribution. I took a peek at Amazon Japan without expecting anything, figuring the book might be US-only for a while – but no, there it is already, available for POD purchase. Which I think I'll do; as I reported earlier, I gave POD a test shot with Magic Items 2, and was pleasantly surprised that it looked (nearly) identical to the regular DFRPG books, with color and glossy pages and all that. So I expect Companion 2 will be the same. Anyway. The book is looking like a great resource. I look forward to putting it to use at the table.
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T Bone GURPS stuff and more at the Games Diner: http://www.gamesdiner.com Twitter: @Gamesdiner | RSS: here ⬅︎ Updated RSS link | This forum: Site updates thread (occasionally updated) (Latest goods on site: GLAIVE Mini levels up to v2.4. Update to melee weapon design tool, with more example weapons and commentary.) Last edited by tbone; 03-19-2020 at 09:57 PM. Reason: typos |
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03-20-2020, 01:23 AM | #65 |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2
Everything Tbone said, especially
The book is great, but the "bonus" make it awesome, and, I think, ideally suited for people discovering DFRPG as well as old Gurpser (Gurpsist ? ). |
03-20-2020, 05:55 AM | #66 | |||||
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2
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-3 + -1 + -2 + -4 + -5 + -20 = -35That is, a 15-point rebate for the fact that the DFRPG neither offers the Size limitation nor gives a Basic Move bonus to cancel the downsides of SM +1, plus the disadvantage of having to buy and carry lots of rations (very relevant to the DFRPG). All the mean stuff the GM could do to you because you're big – charge more for armor, have bridges break, etc. – is why Size is a limitation. That is, it's built into the rebate, not a separate thing. (And yeah, there's the dangling question of not applying Size to later ST, HP, etc. My feeling there is that someone who buys another 10 levels of ST won't much feel the effects of carrying extra rations, essentially wiping out the Increased Consumption . . . so they'll actually come out ahead.) Quote:
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And thank you for the kind words in general!
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
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03-21-2020, 12:42 AM | #67 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2
Thanks for the detailed peek inside that Bulky trait. It all seems sensible, including the workings of Increased Consumption. Good thing centaurs are accomplished hunters, or they'd have to spend all day grazing. (Which is probably the sort of crack that centaurs don't appreciate.)
(I always liked the Inconvenient Size disad that 3e had; in an ideal world, I think centaurs' forms would be built using that, plus a hefty point value for what SM does to them as attack targets, and then other details as you've added. But working from what the existing game actually offers, your build looks good to me, with a neat point cost as well.) On split move: Quote:
I'm familiar with the split Move stat from Monsters (even if it doesn't get a lot of use in that book), but when skimming Companion 2, I simply forgot what the split means. Momentary brain freeze. (I was looking at the war hog entry, and thought, "What's this, Move with and without rider? No, that's discussed separately . . .") So I thought, "Where would a newbie look for an explanation if it's not in the write-up?", and went to the "Move" entry in "Reading Monster Stats". No explanation there, in Companion 2 or in the two Monsters books. Monsters does hold the answer, of course, but I think a newbie has to do a bit of detective work to get there: Deduce that the answer might involve a trait, note that monsters with a split Move score all have Enhanced Move, and look up that trait to find the explanation. In short: I think the most intuitive place newbies will look for an explanation is "Reading Monster Stats". In any future monster books, following "Move is ground Move except as noted" with "A split Move score denotes the Enhanced Move trait" would be a tiny but helpful improvement, IMO. Just a simple suggestion. Too many words to get there. : / Re mundane monsters: No complaint here that they're all mundane (+ an animal); nothing wrong with further rounding out that class! As for identification skills: Yeah, it's a quirk of the game that, by the books, delvers and staid townspeople alike can automatically identify elastoids and other really bizarre "mundanes". But any time that feels unsatisfying, it's easy enough for the GM to wing something. (And while I do like a hypothetical Unnaturalist skill to cover such stuff, along with the subterranean versions of skills like Survival from GURPS Underground Adventures, I haven't introduced those into a DFRPG game yet. Because as much as I like the idea of skills that better distinguish weirdo delvers from normal above-ground naturalists and survivalists, I also think that even DFRPG has enough skills as it is . . . ) Well. Back to enjoying the new book.
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T Bone GURPS stuff and more at the Games Diner: http://www.gamesdiner.com Twitter: @Gamesdiner | RSS: here ⬅︎ Updated RSS link | This forum: Site updates thread (occasionally updated) (Latest goods on site: GLAIVE Mini levels up to v2.4. Update to melee weapon design tool, with more example weapons and commentary.) |
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04-29-2020, 11:52 AM | #69 |
Join Date: Apr 2017
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Re: Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2
Got my print copy of this via Amazon yesterday (and Magic Items 2 arrived this morning) - delighted with the contents, and wow - full color on the PODs! :)
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