[DF] Loadouts

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by lexington

Its existence was "accidentally" leaked yesterday on Kromm's Livejournal.

And yesterday I accidentally missed the weekly update on Kromm's Livejournal ;-P

Thank you for remember it to me. So this DF: Loadouts is a book in preparation? Cool! Here I can see, too, the Low-Tech Companions are in review now.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

This is not a book of new equipment. That's what DF8 was.

To expand on what the good Reverend says: there is actually a scant handful of new items (including one which is, I feel, profoundly genre-appropriate and absolutely necessary for a certain DF character type), but those are just two or three boxes scattered over thirty-some pages. Almost the entire book looks like GURPS Loadouts: Monster Hunters starting at p. 14. Monster Hunters had to introduce new gear for its genre; DF: Loadouts already has enough gear to work with and can get straight into custom-built sets of equipment.

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

This is a book giving you an easy way to equip your deliver

This, if I may say, is the point of the book. I do the math (or rather, my database does the math) so you don't have to. When you pick a loadout, you're told which options you should take from the character template so you can use the gear, how many points worth of SG or starting wealth (if any) you'll need to afford it, where problematic Encumbrance levels can kick in, and so on. It's not as flat-out kewl as, say, DF8, but it's immediately useful at the gaming table, and for players as much as for GMs: pick your character template from DF 1-12, pick appropriate kits (all of which use absolutely legal gear, so players can pick it up and use it without worrying very much about what's allowed in the campaign) from among several choices for your template, and go.

[demonsbane]

Very good. Equipment selection can be so time-consuming as the 'actual' character creation, or even more given the fact that part of it is strongly aided, in Dungeon Fantasy, by templates, while the other part, gear, isn't. So I'll be looking forward to this book.

Another additional, non mechanical part would be the character background and such, but that's beyond the scope of this thread, and I know, many people regards it as unnecessary for dungeon adventuring.

[SCAR]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

When you pick a loadout, you're told which options you should take from the character template so you can use the gear, how many points worth of SG or starting wealth (if any) you'll need to afford it, where problematic Encumbrance levels can kick in, and so on.

This is excellent, and something which was 'missing' from the Loadouts: Monster Hunters. Although that isn't really fair, since the Templates which go with those Loadouts where published later in Pyramid. (Which also sort of makes them, the templates, not entirely 'core', as indicated by Kromm in relation to the Justicar and Mystic Knight Templates for DF!)
I used the MH Loadouts with the MH Templates from Pyramid, and there were definitely (minor) issues with Min ST for some Weapons, etc.