A little more about my gaming choices.
Oct. 11th, 2010 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreWhen I listed my top games (that I actually own) the other day, there were only two fantasy games on the list. Not even traditional swords and sorcery types of games. So I thought I'd go into a little more detail why I like these two so much.
Ars Magica 5th Edition
Traditional FRPGs treat mages as walking field artillery and support units. Blasting fireballs and conjuring phantasmal forces, they are important parts of the battle, but miss a lot of the traditional mystery and scholarly lore that marks the actual basis for the stories of wizards. A mage is going to spend most of his time in his laboratory, researching spells, examining artifacts, crafting items, and arguing fine points of the craft with his fellows. Ars Magica gets that. The default setting is a Covenant, a place where a group of mages have set up shop for mutual aid and defense along with their hangers-on and hirelings. AM is deliberately set up to be the antithesis of the "never-ending quest" style of D&D and its clones. It is intentionally episodic, with weeks or even years passing between adventures.
Another reason I love this game is the concept of Troupe style play. Each player in an AM game controls several characters. One mage, as they are the most complex and powerful of the characters. A handful of Companions, the highly-skilled adventurers who orbit the Covenant's mages. These can be exceptional warriors, clergy, academics who lack magical talent, alchemists, anyone who can hold their own out in the howling wilderness beyond the Covenant's walls. Finally, Everyone generates several Grogs. These are the fairly normal folk who populate the Covenant and do the hard work of making the place run. The guards, the horse grooms, the major-domo and his house staff (although the major-domo might be a fun Companion choice) the cooks and his/her assistants, a herbalist, beekeeper.. anyone you'd find in a Medieval village will come to work at a Covenant... assuming they get over their fear of the mages.
The great thing about Troupe play is it offers endless variation on adventures. Normally, only one mage will be spared from his/her studies to handle a mission, and Companions will be chosen based on the needs of the mage. So say the city Boyars of Pskov are complaining of werewolves plaguing the country side. The obvious choice to deal with this situation would be your mage from House Bjornaer (who specialize in animal magics) along with a stout hunter and tracker, some good sword arms, and a priest to end the threat of reincarnation by the fell beasts. This style also allows the GMing responsibilities to be passed around the table, as there are enough characters and situations to allow everyone to get some playing time.
The drawback is the game is a bit jargon-heavy. But the game system really flows once you get used to it, and it is well supported.
HârnMaster 2nd Edition
Yeah, I'm a few editions behind. This is my favorite version. One cannot speak of HârnMaster without first speaking of Hârn, possibly one of the best detailed settings ever created for any RPG. The late N. Robin Crosby was a fellow cartogrophile and medieval enthusiast who wanted to build a realistic fantasy world based (loosely) on Medieval Britain. The result was the mist-shrouded island of Hârn. Almost unique for it's day, it was released as a generic supplement with no game stats at all. It wasn't until a few years later that we got the first edition of HârnMaster.
So how detailed is Hârn? I currently have about six large binders holding rules and setting details going back to my first purchases in the early 1980s. You don't just get a map of the city, you get detailed maps of important buildings, notes about important personages, and map symbols that let you know where and what the chance is for guards at any given point. Religion (a loose pantheon) and magic (the Shek-Pvar) and equally detailed. The entire thing can become overwhelming, but if you keep the campaign focused, it can be great fun.
But onto the game. HârnMaster wins in that it has possibly the best combat system ever written for a FRPG. Rather than arbitrary "hit points" HM uses competing die rolls to generate actual wounds. For example, an Knight of Agrik swings his mace at you, and you attempt to block it with your shield. He rolls a moderate success, you roll a moderate failure. Oops. His blow lands on your right shoulder, covered by your chain mail and cloth undercoats. The result on the combat table is A★1 The mace has a blunt impact of 6, and 1d6 is rolled to add to that. I got a four. Total impact is 10. Mail+cloth provides 3 armor against blunt attacks, so the total impact coming through is seven. Looking at the table, we see that is a Serious Fracture, adding two penalty points to any skill roll and requiring a roll to avoid dropping whatever you're carrying in your right hand.
It sounds complex, but all the charts are well organized and right in front of you, so combat flows nicely. Combat between two heavily armored opponents usually ends when one of them drops from exhaustion, which is how such things tended to happen in reality. The combat tables provide quick results that cover all the odd things that can happen in combat. I know SCAdians who love this system. The weapons and armor lists are complete without being pedantic. One very nice touch? Magical healing is rare, and gangrene is always a threat. HM is not a game for combat monsters!
Magic, like that in Ars Magica, is divided into several schools covering different types of magic. Hârn is actually a popular setting for AM games for this very reason. Religion is more than just window dressing and cheap healing. The churches and their patron deities have goals and internal politics. The various nations of Hârn and Western Lythia (the near-by continent) are vibrant and alive. How can you not love a game that addresses global weather patterns?
There are a few flaws. The push for realism forces some tweaking to get actual adventurers instead of a typical group of peasants. I recall one early game where the character generation process led to a group that would have been hard pressed to get pigs to market. The perceived complexity might also put people off, but I've found that once play begins, people find the rules work well with a little practice.
So there you have my feelings on my two favorite Fantasy RPGs. Thoughts?
Ars Magica 5th Edition
Traditional FRPGs treat mages as walking field artillery and support units. Blasting fireballs and conjuring phantasmal forces, they are important parts of the battle, but miss a lot of the traditional mystery and scholarly lore that marks the actual basis for the stories of wizards. A mage is going to spend most of his time in his laboratory, researching spells, examining artifacts, crafting items, and arguing fine points of the craft with his fellows. Ars Magica gets that. The default setting is a Covenant, a place where a group of mages have set up shop for mutual aid and defense along with their hangers-on and hirelings. AM is deliberately set up to be the antithesis of the "never-ending quest" style of D&D and its clones. It is intentionally episodic, with weeks or even years passing between adventures.
Another reason I love this game is the concept of Troupe style play. Each player in an AM game controls several characters. One mage, as they are the most complex and powerful of the characters. A handful of Companions, the highly-skilled adventurers who orbit the Covenant's mages. These can be exceptional warriors, clergy, academics who lack magical talent, alchemists, anyone who can hold their own out in the howling wilderness beyond the Covenant's walls. Finally, Everyone generates several Grogs. These are the fairly normal folk who populate the Covenant and do the hard work of making the place run. The guards, the horse grooms, the major-domo and his house staff (although the major-domo might be a fun Companion choice) the cooks and his/her assistants, a herbalist, beekeeper.. anyone you'd find in a Medieval village will come to work at a Covenant... assuming they get over their fear of the mages.
The great thing about Troupe play is it offers endless variation on adventures. Normally, only one mage will be spared from his/her studies to handle a mission, and Companions will be chosen based on the needs of the mage. So say the city Boyars of Pskov are complaining of werewolves plaguing the country side. The obvious choice to deal with this situation would be your mage from House Bjornaer (who specialize in animal magics) along with a stout hunter and tracker, some good sword arms, and a priest to end the threat of reincarnation by the fell beasts. This style also allows the GMing responsibilities to be passed around the table, as there are enough characters and situations to allow everyone to get some playing time.
The drawback is the game is a bit jargon-heavy. But the game system really flows once you get used to it, and it is well supported.
HârnMaster 2nd Edition
Yeah, I'm a few editions behind. This is my favorite version. One cannot speak of HârnMaster without first speaking of Hârn, possibly one of the best detailed settings ever created for any RPG. The late N. Robin Crosby was a fellow cartogrophile and medieval enthusiast who wanted to build a realistic fantasy world based (loosely) on Medieval Britain. The result was the mist-shrouded island of Hârn. Almost unique for it's day, it was released as a generic supplement with no game stats at all. It wasn't until a few years later that we got the first edition of HârnMaster.
So how detailed is Hârn? I currently have about six large binders holding rules and setting details going back to my first purchases in the early 1980s. You don't just get a map of the city, you get detailed maps of important buildings, notes about important personages, and map symbols that let you know where and what the chance is for guards at any given point. Religion (a loose pantheon) and magic (the Shek-Pvar) and equally detailed. The entire thing can become overwhelming, but if you keep the campaign focused, it can be great fun.
But onto the game. HârnMaster wins in that it has possibly the best combat system ever written for a FRPG. Rather than arbitrary "hit points" HM uses competing die rolls to generate actual wounds. For example, an Knight of Agrik swings his mace at you, and you attempt to block it with your shield. He rolls a moderate success, you roll a moderate failure. Oops. His blow lands on your right shoulder, covered by your chain mail and cloth undercoats. The result on the combat table is A★1 The mace has a blunt impact of 6, and 1d6 is rolled to add to that. I got a four. Total impact is 10. Mail+cloth provides 3 armor against blunt attacks, so the total impact coming through is seven. Looking at the table, we see that is a Serious Fracture, adding two penalty points to any skill roll and requiring a roll to avoid dropping whatever you're carrying in your right hand.
It sounds complex, but all the charts are well organized and right in front of you, so combat flows nicely. Combat between two heavily armored opponents usually ends when one of them drops from exhaustion, which is how such things tended to happen in reality. The combat tables provide quick results that cover all the odd things that can happen in combat. I know SCAdians who love this system. The weapons and armor lists are complete without being pedantic. One very nice touch? Magical healing is rare, and gangrene is always a threat. HM is not a game for combat monsters!
Magic, like that in Ars Magica, is divided into several schools covering different types of magic. Hârn is actually a popular setting for AM games for this very reason. Religion is more than just window dressing and cheap healing. The churches and their patron deities have goals and internal politics. The various nations of Hârn and Western Lythia (the near-by continent) are vibrant and alive. How can you not love a game that addresses global weather patterns?
There are a few flaws. The push for realism forces some tweaking to get actual adventurers instead of a typical group of peasants. I recall one early game where the character generation process led to a group that would have been hard pressed to get pigs to market. The perceived complexity might also put people off, but I've found that once play begins, people find the rules work well with a little practice.
So there you have my feelings on my two favorite Fantasy RPGs. Thoughts?
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no subject
Date: 11 Oct 2010 21:11 (UTC)By now I've been playing (and mostly GMing) for so long that system per se has less meaning overall; I once ran a game in which two characters were using D&Dish rules, one was using Shadowrun, and the fourth was using GURPS.
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Date: 12 Oct 2010 03:15 (UTC)HM on the other hand we used to run two separate campaigns. One was a revamp of a campaign setting previously run under a different game system, adapted and adapting HM to re-create our setting with more realistic, less legendary effects than we'd previously had. The other was a world two hundred years after Science crashed and was replaced by Magic, with medieval society keeping the spark of civilization alight from the fortress city of Chattanooga. That GM was into serious realism where possible, and detail-oriented as well. He was a lover of maps, too, now that I think about it.
no subject
Date: 12 Oct 2010 04:56 (UTC)Have you heard of Riddle of Steel by any chance? I'm given to understand that, like HarnMaster, it aims for realism and can be particularly lethal.
Well, either one of those two systems sound fascinating, and certainly worth learning for a game!
no subject
Date: 12 Oct 2010 12:24 (UTC)I've never even read AM, but I know people who have played it for years. They seem to like it.
Too bad you're far away. I could squeeze one more game in my schedule, but the small pond and some land there is a bit too much for monthly travel...