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#1 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Obligatory positive comment: I really like the barbarian, everything about it. I'm suspicious of the lack of breadth of weapon skills, but that's easily fixable with Quirk points and experience, if you also feel a little uneasy about that.
Anyway, I've finished chewing through the bundle I purchased. Overall, the game has a strong central conceit and works well for that purpose. For instance, I like that virtually anything bad can simply be handled at The Temple for cash. As it should be! Just like in Pool of Radiance (OG). However, I find myself a little thrown off by the tone. There seems to be several distinct voices in DF, jumbled together.
In keeping with the GURPS ethos of being a toolkit, I guess it makes a certain level of sense. You can obviously bend the tone in one way or another, depending on your campaign. But I found the lack of tonal focus a little strange for a pre-packaged setting, even one without explicit world-building. Overall, I don't think it detracts much from playability (I can make my own halflings, and nunchaku could be "Temple-crafted" I suppose), but I'm kind of at a loss at who this is aimed it. It has kind of the unsteady feel of Gen X writing trying to aim at a Millennial audience. There are parts where I wish it was either more earnest, or more meta-aware. So. That's just one reaction I got from these books. Last edited by pawsplay; 12-12-2023 at 09:09 PM. |
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#2 |
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: San Rafael, CA
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Personally, I love the humor. I loved Knights of the Dinner Table and loved Hackmaster when it was a parody. For me, it doesn't detract from the game itself. It is true that there are a lot of genre conceits embedded in the humor; i.e. "The King" and "The Devil" etc., and I can take or leave the genre conceits without interfering too much with how the game works when actually played. I find the base mechanics of the game lend themselves to genre tinkering quite well. YMMV.
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#3 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saskatoon, SK
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I allow all melee weapons to default to any melee skill-5 and buy them up for 5 points. IME, vanilla, you need a Cleric or to the D&D 5 minute work day, DF says hold my beer. I allow Bards and Druids to pick up some minor healing spells. That and potions can extend the work day a bit. I agree with your comments on tone. I think DF is doing itself a disservice by implying/stating that it's just a 'kick down door, kill monsters, take their stuff' kinda game. IME, it's been years/decades since this described a typical D&D game. Personally, I use DF as a core ruleset for anything vaguely fantasy/low tech - Deadlands, Victorian Monster hunting, renaissance musketeers, etc.
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MiB 7704 Playing: GURPS Nordlond Dragons of Hosgarth Running Savage Worlds Slipstream (Flash Gordon style pulp) |
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#4 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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It's all my voice. To me, "snide and cynical" and "heavy metal" are exactly the same take on fantasy here – exaggerated to match how fantasy is exaggerated in modern sources, which often isn't consistent in any way beyond being just a tad try-hard – while the "munchkin voice" is how that same exaggeration sounds when discussing abilities and gear rather than mood, tropes, and conventions. "Playing it straight" is there to help people who haven't fully absorbed the exaggeration understand the exaggeration, with little winks as you say to keep the interest of those who have fully absorbed it, and what you call the "GURPS voice" is how that sounds when discussing abilities and gear rather than mood, tropes, and conventions. It's what writers call "nuance."
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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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#5 |
Join Date: May 2011
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At the risk of sounding all gushy, it's my favorite thing Sean Punch has written, tonally. I like that it reels from earnest explanation to self parody, and clearly likes the genre while seeing the silliness. It's almost camp rpg writing, I love it. I suppose I might have liked more of a setting, but Kromm has said a lot of times that he doesn't feel he's good at writing that kind of thing, so, I mean, fine. There's a good chance I'd have chucked it and used my own setting anyhow.
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#6 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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https://papermenplasticmonster.blogs...n-fantasy.html
My thoughts about this, at least for GURPS DF, but I think it applies to DFRPG too. |
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#7 |
Join Date: May 2007
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For what it's worth, Pawsplay, you're not completely alone. On first reading the early GURPS:Dungeon Fantasy books, I felt rather as if the authors were insulting my taste for choosing to use their products. Later books have bothered me less- I'm not sure if the authors have toned it down, or if I've just grown a thicker skin.
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I predicted GURPS:Dungeon Fantasy several hours before it came out and all I got was this lousy sig. |
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#8 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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One must remember to distinguish between the tone of the rules and the tone of your own game. You don't have to make munchkinly jokes and speeches all the time; you can take your own game as seriously as you like. Rule books are just things you read when you're not playing.
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#9 | |
Join Date: May 2007
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I predicted GURPS:Dungeon Fantasy several hours before it came out and all I got was this lousy sig. Last edited by ravenfish; 12-27-2023 at 01:01 PM. |
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#10 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saskatoon, SK
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MiB 7704 Playing: GURPS Nordlond Dragons of Hosgarth Running Savage Worlds Slipstream (Flash Gordon style pulp) |
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