Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game Discussion Thread

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

I expect it's an equivalent to Henchmen, allowing for lower value delvers.

I would hope a Fiendish Foes would be out to make foes of any power level fast, but I appear to be the only fellow begging for it.

[dbm]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

If it's "Bestiary," that isn't DF-specific, and certainly not something that can be knocked off fast.

I think DF significantly increases the probability of a bestiary. You always want more monsters for a dungeon-delving campaign in my experience. And since one of the issues of having a generic bestiary is that some people want aliens whilst others want demons the focus of DF resolves this issue.

And who says the bonus PDFs need to be quickly delivered? Many Kickstarters deliver stretch goals for an extended period following the release of the base product. Most Monte Cook Games Kickstarter campaigns work this way, and they are currently running their eighth highly successful campaign, so they clearly know a thing or two.

[Nemoricus]

Originally Posted by Dungeon Fantasy RPG Stretch Goals

A new, as yet unwritten Dungeon Fantasy pdf will be delivered to all backers in 2017.

While 2017 covers a fairly large timeframe, I expect that they'll shoot for May 2017 to match the ship date of the boxed set.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by dbm

I think DF significantly increases the probability of a bestiary. You always want more monsters for a dungeon-delving campaign in my experience.

"Bestiary" in GURPS-terms has always had a focus on real-world animals. The delay with such a book has always been that it needs point costs for each animal. Kromm has said this many times.

GURPS Bestiary 4e isn't something that will be knocked out because a DF Kickstarter met a stretch goal. Were it, it would be out already.

[kmunoz]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

"Bestiary" in GURPS-terms has always had a focus on real-world animals.

Not really. There were three major bestiaries in 3E: Bestiary, Space Bestiary and Fantasy Bestiary. Only one of those contained real-world animals. The great (if not vast) majority of animals/creatures in 3E and in 4E are imaginary.

The delay with such a book has always been that it needs point costs for each animal.

That seems unlikely. Point cost are trivial to put together. I could go back and calculate points for every single one of the 660 creatures I put in the encyclopedia (which contains Bestiary, Space Bestiary and Fantasy Bestiary, plus others) and I doubt it would take me more than a week. And that's without using GCA (because I do most of my work on a Mac). It takes me longer to write a description than it does for me to point-stat. In the time that I've been back in GURPS world (about 40 days) I have built over 50 creatures from scratch, and I'm only working on all of my GURPS stuff for maybe an hour a day. The greater difficulty, I think, is in the production value needed to make it commercially viable. Good descriptions, clear layout and - biggest issue of all - quality art.

GURPS Bestiary 4e isn't something that will be knocked out because a DF Kickstarter met a stretch goal.

Agreed. If it hasn't happened already, I don't think the DFRPG Kickstarter is the critical catalyst to make it happen. I'd like to be wrong, but I don't think I am.

[voodoo54]

Does anyone know what the GM screen will be made of? Will it be a hardcover book stock like the pathfinder gm screen or thinner like the old GURPS GM screen?

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by voodoo54

Does anyone know what the GM screen will be made of? Will it be a hardcover book stock like the pathfinder gm screen or thinner like the old GURPS GM screen?

Last thing I heard, 2mm thick cardstock

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

Last thing I heard, 2mm thick cardstock

This from Phillip Reed says 2mm chipboard.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by kmunoz

That seems unlikely. Point cost are trivial to put together. I could go back and calculate points for every single one of the 660 creatures I put in the encyclopedia (which contains Bestiary, Space Bestiary and Fantasy Bestiary, plus others) and I doubt it would take me more than a week.

Funny you should say that, because I did just that, at least for the 200 beasts in GURPS Bestiary 3e. (I own all three of GURPS Bestiary 3e, GURPS Fantasy Bestiary, and GURPS Space Bestiary in dead tree.) There are loads and loads of traits you missed (I used your work as a guide for the ones you did), and frankly I'm still not satisfied with the behavior traits. But the time involved was not a trivial matter. There are things like how long an animal sleeps, its tendency to hang out with others, its lifespan, its senses … lots of things. This isn't as big a deal for fictitious animals, though you want to be consistent.

And we have it from Kromm:

Originally Posted by Kromm

Which compels me to emphasize that this general sentiment is what has delayed the project for so long. Were we convinced that we could sell Third Edition-style bestiaries, with seat-of-the-pants stats blocks and no point costs or complicated advantage builds, there would've been Fourth Edition bestiaries years ago. By our fairly careful estimates, adding in the need to build beasts on points multiplies the workload by three or four. More harshly, that need narrows the pool of writers from "dozens" down to "one or two we'd really trust to get the stats and formatting right."

(Odd you don't remember that one, looking at the thread. Please, if you want more on this, send me a PM. No sense further derailing this thread.)

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by GM Joe

Yesterday was a good day, considering how far we're into this Kickstarter's pledge period. Another $2,162 was pledged and 24 more people joined the cause.

As of this writing, we're at $80,825 and have a little over 19 days to go!

It's a steady climb. I've been posting DF stuff on my blog (mostly by my wonderful guest authors) to draw as much attention to the kickstarter as I can so i'm doing my part. :-)

Originally Posted by evileeyore

I missed out on all the other GURPS Edition Wars, I may as well kick this off personally!

Heh.