Jump to content

Magic World Quick-start released!


NickMiddleton

Recommended Posts

Dowloaded. It's nice to have an introductory adventure. 

 

BUT

 

It seems there's quite a few issues with the rules section though. Or to be more brutal: the rules section is a lazy cut and paste work. 

 

Combat is not described in an intelligible way. The combat rules on page 10 do not even mention the attack-parry matrix on page 29.

Nowhere it says that armor is a dice roll.

 

There are weapons descriptions (page 11) and a description of soft leather armor  descriptions (page 12) but no table with stats for the described items. Neither there are stats amid the descriptive text. 

 

Characters for the scenario have armors that are not described.

 

This after a quick glance.

 

The great potential of the MW corebook was hampered by a not so nice book layout, bland to ugly art and too many typos and errata.

A quickstart that does not actually get you started certainly does not help to promote the line.

 

Personally, I much prefer MW to RQ6 as a fantasy ruleset. Both are very good d100 rules implementation but my tastes lean towards the ligther MW.  

But let's face it: RQ6 material is of much higher editorial quality. 

(And they give you a complete playable version of the game for free)

 

 

Smiorgan

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would stock up on Southern Reaches campaign supplements... if they were being sold. Sadly there's just not enough MW players, of like mind, to hurry such projects. Spread the word peeps!

Author QUASAR space opera system: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/459723/QUASAR?affiliate_id=810507

My Magic World projects page: Tooleys Underwhelming Projects

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I don't own the full system (or any BRP, although I'm a long-time CoC player, with multiple editions and source books on my shelf), but figured I'd try the quick start. I printed it out this week and skimmed the How To Play section. So far so good, I guess.

 

This noon, I started filling out character sheets from the stats in the Characters section on pp 32-35. My first comments are on how they interact:

- Page shows Power Points, but section refers to Magic Points. (I presume they're essentially the same thing?)

- Section refers to a Move stat, but I couldn't find any place on the character sheet to place it. (I stuck it in the blank space after Size.)

- It would be nice if the spell section had seperate underlined areas for name and cost of spell, keeping it tidy like everything else.

- It isn't at all clear at first blush what to do with Culture and Allegiance. I seem to recall reading in the editor's blog article that allegiance normally accumulates. If so, does Allegiance:Light mean the character starts with one tally in that column? Lacking further guidance, for now, I did that.

 

So much for Eoghain - on to Lord Byron. I'm hoping that this isn't indicative of the rest of the quick-start experience. :(

When I get two or three, I'll throw them into a mock-combat to try out the rest of the quick start rules.

 

Without filled-in sheets, this definitely isn't a candidate for the familiar "time-to-leave-for-game omigod-i-didn't-prep-anything hell-lets-try-this-hit-print where'd-I-put-my-coat" routine. That's usually when I run quick starts for new-to-the-crew systems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Other items:

- Armor - shall we assume no helmets to remove or same armor with or without?
- Byron Small Shield 82% (Skill % or Base %? Not clear in quick start alone.)
- Gweneth - Manipulation: Slight of Hand [sic]
  (a) should be spelled Sleight of Hand
  (B) No slot for it - Is this modeled as a Craft? If so, say so.

- Vevina - Sailing - 24%, I believe, not 245 :)

- Ruairi - Great Axe - Damage - 3D6+1D4, I think, not 326+1D4 (ouch! I mean he's big, but really! :) )

- Draega - Size 14 but no Damage Bonus and yet +1D2 and +1D4 on weapons.

- Draega through Ennea. From here forward, skills at default % were handled differently than before.

  From Eoghain through Ruairi, anything at default level wasn't listed.
  From Draega forward, skills were listed at default level, including Art and Craft (with no specialization).

- Morggan the Thief - likewise no Damage Bonus but Size 11 and 1D4 modifier to damage for both Sword and Shortsword.

- Draega through Ennea- As I finish Morggan the Thief, I notice that the character sheet has Sense before Search, i.e. out of alpha order.

Draega through Ennea have Search and Sense in Alpha order rather than the order in the character sheet.

In all the previous characters, the orders match.

- Draega through Ennea - Art says "05%" where Craft says "5%"

- Ennea shows no Culture or Allegiance

 

And that's the errata for just four pages. I can't wait to see what I find for the rest of it.

Having said all this, I was able to create the characters without a whole lot of ambiguity, i.e. it worked anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How to play includes virtually no numerics for combat - probably not great for noobs. I've played enough games that basic damage vs. armor is self-evident, but it wouldn't hurt to state it in a sentence or (better) give a one-paragraph example of a single combat within a round, as you did for a simple skill check.

 

One place where unintroduced rules are invoked is in the Heal spell. It talks about individual wounds.  Up to this point, it looked like just subtracting hit points. Maybe simplify the description of the spell for the quick-start? (Also Nit: Typo on Witch Sight with plenty of room for a fix)

 

Interestingly, the adventure itself seems really solid and will be fun to run.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Without filled-in sheets, this definitely isn't a candidate for the familiar "time-to-leave-for-game omigod-i-didn't-prep-anything hell-lets-try-this-hit-print where'd-I-put-my-coat" routine. That's usually when I run quick starts for new-to-the-crew systems.

 

If you can stand my sloppy handwriting, several of the characters are simply retyped from the sample characters in the Download section.

 

Eoghain the Sorceror == Sorceror
Lord Byron, a Minor Noble == Minor Noble
Ana the Hunter == Outdoorsman
Gweneth the Healer == Healer /Scribe
Jeromyn the Thief == Sneak Thief
Vevina the Merenary == Archer
Ruairi the Mercenary == Heavy Fighter
 
The file is here: 
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...