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<blockquote data-quote="Akrasia" data-source="post: 9300537" data-attributes="member: 23012"><p>Having played a lot of VsD over the past several months, and having played a lot of MERP back in the day, I pretty strongly disagree with much of the above two posts. </p><p></p><p>Regarding the system: I found the initiative system in VsD to be pretty straightforward and easier to use in practice than the standard (5e D&D) initiative system. Once it was explained clearly to my players, they all had no problem using it as well. Among other things, it has the virtue of rendering intelligible why spears and polearms are so useful in combat, and why a human with a spear typically will have little to fear from any animal.</p><p>The "Wealth level" system may not be everyone's cup of tea, but (back when I was running 5e D&D) I found keeping track of gold pieces and answering questions about "how expensive will it be to stay in the inn tonight?" regularly rather tedious. So the abstract system suits the kind of campaign I like to run.</p><p></p><p>Regarding using old MERP material: I very much disagree with the sweeping generalizations made about the quality of ICE's Middle-earth products. Many of them do suffer from the problems mentioned, but others are quite excellent and include interesting adventures and settings. With a few exceptions (e.g., the epic <em>Palantir Quest</em>), ICE campaign and adventure books are very much "sandboxes" in terms of their organization (as I explain <a href="https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2023/12/my-original-fantasy-sandbox-ices-middle.html" target="_blank">here</a>). There's a lot of cool stuff to be uncovered and used in those books! (And of course they have the most beautiful maps ever created for a RPG.)</p><p></p><p>One of the two VsD campaigns I'm running now is set in 1964 (Third Age) Arthedain, and makes use of ICE's campaign and adventure modules set in Eriador (<em>Bree, Rangers of the North</em>, <em>Cardolan</em>, <em>Tharbad</em>, etc.). If anyone is curious, information about this campaign is available <a href="https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2023/08/against-witch-king-adventure-index.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p></p><p>My other VsD campaign is set in a homebrew setting ("Ukrasia") but draws heavily upon ICE's <em>Court of Ardor </em>campaign module (which is very cool but not very "Tolkien-ish"). Information about that campaign can be found <a href="https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-world-of-ukrasia.html" target="_blank">here</a>. (A few years ago I discussed the original <a href="https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-court-of-ardor.html" target="_blank"><em>Ardor </em>module</a>.)</p><p></p><p>In my experience, VsD is a great game. It's lower powered and more gritty than 5e D&D. Characters who are wounded <em>will </em>feel it (they will not be back to full health after a mere "long rest"). But the lethality is mitigated by the Drive Points system. The combat system is pretty involved, there's no way around that, but the added detail (those critical hits!) pays off IMO. Smart players will minimize combat, as it is exciting but risky. And the open-ended rolls can lead to all kinds of great (and even hilarious) outcomes.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Akrasia, post: 9300537, member: 23012"] Having played a lot of VsD over the past several months, and having played a lot of MERP back in the day, I pretty strongly disagree with much of the above two posts. Regarding the system: I found the initiative system in VsD to be pretty straightforward and easier to use in practice than the standard (5e D&D) initiative system. Once it was explained clearly to my players, they all had no problem using it as well. Among other things, it has the virtue of rendering intelligible why spears and polearms are so useful in combat, and why a human with a spear typically will have little to fear from any animal. The "Wealth level" system may not be everyone's cup of tea, but (back when I was running 5e D&D) I found keeping track of gold pieces and answering questions about "how expensive will it be to stay in the inn tonight?" regularly rather tedious. So the abstract system suits the kind of campaign I like to run. Regarding using old MERP material: I very much disagree with the sweeping generalizations made about the quality of ICE's Middle-earth products. Many of them do suffer from the problems mentioned, but others are quite excellent and include interesting adventures and settings. With a few exceptions (e.g., the epic [I]Palantir Quest[/I]), ICE campaign and adventure books are very much "sandboxes" in terms of their organization (as I explain [URL='https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2023/12/my-original-fantasy-sandbox-ices-middle.html']here[/URL]). There's a lot of cool stuff to be uncovered and used in those books! (And of course they have the most beautiful maps ever created for a RPG.) One of the two VsD campaigns I'm running now is set in 1964 (Third Age) Arthedain, and makes use of ICE's campaign and adventure modules set in Eriador ([I]Bree, Rangers of the North[/I], [I]Cardolan[/I], [I]Tharbad[/I], etc.). If anyone is curious, information about this campaign is available [URL='https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2023/08/against-witch-king-adventure-index.html']here[/URL]. My other VsD campaign is set in a homebrew setting ("Ukrasia") but draws heavily upon ICE's [I]Court of Ardor [/I]campaign module (which is very cool but not very "Tolkien-ish"). Information about that campaign can be found [URL='https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-world-of-ukrasia.html']here[/URL]. (A few years ago I discussed the original [URL='https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-court-of-ardor.html'][I]Ardor [/I]module[/URL].) In my experience, VsD is a great game. It's lower powered and more gritty than 5e D&D. Characters who are wounded [I]will [/I]feel it (they will not be back to full health after a mere "long rest"). But the lethality is mitigated by the Drive Points system. The combat system is pretty involved, there's no way around that, but the added detail (those critical hits!) pays off IMO. Smart players will minimize combat, as it is exciting but risky. And the open-ended rolls can lead to all kinds of great (and even hilarious) outcomes. [/QUOTE]
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