|
|
Post by J on Aug 3, 2014 15:38:25 GMT -5
I suppose it depends on what you mean by "lower power characters." I've played a lot of games over the years. Back in the day we played a lot of AD&D 1E, Rolemaster, MERP, and various version of D&D, all of them at various levels of play. One game I really enjoyed, and believe was ahead of its time, was Avalon Hill's Powers and Perils. An awesome game. The character creation system was involved, but again, awesome. I had fun just making characters, and that's rare for me.
|
|
|
|
Post by warren1965 on Aug 3, 2014 20:02:58 GMT -5
True everyone has their own ideal. I guess I was thinking along the lines of 2nd ed (perhaps 1E to far back and too similar) as a good character progression for relative power. Even at 4th your character could die so you needed to be careful. Unfortunately the characters were essential static only their gear changed, even the spell casters hit the 5th level XP wall and didn't change much. Of course it was much easier to run as a GM. 3rd never really hooked me because even as a player by 4th or 5th level it becomes work remembering all the rules to do everything they can do (think Order of the Stick and why the cleric would be a better fighter if he had a head for math).
We have played most of the systems but ended up with D&D because of inertia I would guess. Hero System is kind of cool but the DM needs to be a pro at the rules because you need to make everything up yourself more or less. We tried MERPS but got intimidated by the source material and the charts so I don't think we even tried Rolemaster, in fairness I don't think we tried them enough to form a justified opinion. We played Pallidium for awhile but I don't recall why we switched back. Traveller never caught on because none of us could come up with a campaign idea that was plausible enough for the group. Only one of our group was in to Gibson et al so Shadowrun/Cyberpunk whimpered into the darkness quickly. GURPS was slain by simple accountancy spend most of your points to get as high stats as you can and by default skill level for a point a piece.
With the advent of PDF publishing all kinds of games became available. I have a ton of indie games some we have tried some not mostly not as a couple of my friends have to do statistical analyses for their jobs and it gets applied to game systems. I don't think it is intentional but it does kinda put a buzzkill on a new game. Our group did help playtest Mike Desing's Mythweaver system which I really like but the equipment is kind of vanilla. As you know I tried QADD and it wasn't bad but it has very little to differentiate between characters. Altus Adventum has the Yatzee combat mechanic which could be neat but NPC/Monsters take time to make up. Retro-clones caught my eye briefly but BCEMI character really never change, I played ACKS in a campaign that didn't live long enough to see if the feat like add-ons made a difference. Barebones Fantasy by DWD I have and it looks alright but I am still deciding on the class as a skill idea. Eldritch RPG is pretty unique and I can't wait to get my new edition from the Kickstarter. NGS is a kickstarter I supported as well but the game is designed for (it seems to me) sitting around with a group of friends with slightly off senses of humor and having a way way out there game night not so much solo play which I why I started buying NRP Adventure Decks. I have settled in with grumblings on using Simply Roleplaying from Micotactix and am looking forward to O&U.
I have old Nexus gaming mags with ads for powers and perils but I have never played or heard it described.
Warren
|
|
|
|
Post by J on Aug 20, 2014 19:29:44 GMT -5
Hey, Warren, In case you haven't heard, Ogres and Underworlds is here! Let me know what you think. Powers and Perils was a trip. From what I remember, character creation determined starting experience, which was used to buy skills. Skills ranged from individual skills to things like "assassin" and "forester." You also accumulated experience in combat and magic, which you advanced levels in. If you spent experience points to learn how to be a type of spell caster, then you had so many points to learns magic skills and spells. The game was something. Sadly, we never played it much because we just didn't know what to do with it.  The game is just really different. Had a blast with MERP and Rolemaster. In MERP, a buddy of mine ran a pretty long campaign. I played the famous pole vaulting Rohirrim (sp?) Seemed like whenever the character was mounted, had a lance and room to charge, he'd fumble and pole vault. Also seemed like, regardless of system, my dwarves always died of poison. |
|
|
|
Post by warren1965 on Aug 22, 2014 20:14:32 GMT -5
<sigh> I am being forced to be all growed up and delay purchase until this coming Wednesday (my temp agency has an odd payday). Having just received my Arcknight map pack (Kickstarter I backed awesome looking maps if I can shill for another game company) I have 58 (some double sided) maps and will be fighting a number of different tactical situations to try O&U out on.
Warren
|
|
|
|
Post by J on Aug 22, 2014 20:25:22 GMT -5
Let me know how the try outs go.
|
|
The game is just really different.