Autumnal
Bruce Baugh, Writer of Fortune
Me too. I’m very comfortable with broad strokes when they’re just the right strokes for that character (scene, locale, etc).FAE and Risus, both for the same reason - flexibility with regard to character realization (in both system, I've found that I can pretty much build any character that I can imagine right out of the gate).
That sounds delightful. I’m very happy to read about someone actually doing it.Anyway: I wanted to do big epic high level D&D inspired by things like WoW cinematic trailers. I was going to do a 17th level D&D game until I realized that at that point the characters are just superheroes, so I went with M&M3 instead. Pregens were conceived of as high level D&D characters with all the requisite tropes, but then distilled to their main features which were then built as M&M3 powers. I did not try to emulate things like spells per day, but did try and make smite feel like D&D smite in the context of M&M3.
In play, it was a super hero story. The PCs were the High Guard: the high level.D&D party that saved the world then retired to their domains. They had rivals and character specific villains, making it very much a JLA vs Legion of Doom scenario with a world eating dragon problem at its center. I run these things with a broad outline and a bunch of nonsense in my head and just go, so it is never about "telling the players a story."
Absolutely agreed.As to specific tips: the most important one, I think, is aiming for the feel of D&D, not trying to recreate its mechanics. You don't need to give the super mage a spells per day limit. Instead you need to make his power pool feel like D&D spells.
I should give Hero another look and see how my learning disabilities with regard to acronyms and abbreviations are doing these days. I definitely don’t object to setup work that pays off in play.Yeah, if I was going to go lower power level I would be inclined to use Hero also. You can really drill down on what you want, character wise, in Hero and the complexity is all front loaded. Once you start playing it is a moderately crunchy medium tactical game.
It sounds interesting, but in my years as a commercial rpg author and developer, I saw enough work in progress to last me at least one lifetime. Post about your progress, though - this sounds like something I’ll want to read when it’s done-ish.I don't know if you want to go with Random Dude on the Internet (TM), but I am working on a classless, level-less D&D 5E. The key points to my redesign are:
Well huh. I thought ICRPG has both classes and levels. Someone better tell me about its other distinctive features or point me at a good review so that I can be less of an ignoramus.Index Card RPG: It's level-less. 2E leans more into classes; however, 1E progression is rooted more in magic items. There are pseudo-classes that are like starting packages.
I agree.Yeah, I tend to say that people who think Hero is particularly complex in play either are used to fairly lightweight games, or are going off reputation, not reality.
Always happy to join in with a good word for Magic World.Magic World might be worth checking out in general if it isn’t a version of BRP you already have looked at? It’s the Stormbringer system with the IP removed.