sdavies2720

Sorry to spam, but if anyone here remembers computer RPGs fondly, there is a remake of the Ultima Underworld games getting funded over at Kickstarter.  Original team, about 1/2-way through the campaign and about 2/3 funded.  Looks like it should be good, and I'm hoping they get to the stretch goals.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/othersidegames/underworld-ascendant

Thanks.  Now back to regularly-scheduled pen-and-paper gaming.

Steve

Do you expect to have print copies of Shores of Korantia available for purchase? If so, I might wait and pick it up there to save postage!

Steve

Pansophy, yes I'm using Adobe -- either/both Reader XI and Acrobat 9.5. I think I tried printing in both, but I'll double-check.

SDLeary: No, I didn't try highlighting and printing. I wanted to print out a chapter double-sided so I did a range of pages. I'll try the highlighting and see what happens.

Steve

I needed to print a few pages of the Advanced Sorcery PDF today and ran into a problem -- the images printed but not the text. Even the text on top of graphics was not printed -- I just got a whited-out area where the text should be.

I finally found a solution, I printed each page as an image, and that worked ok (albeit slowly). You can find that option under the Advanced print settings in Adobe.

Did anyone else hit this problem, and is there a better (or faster-printing) solution?

If it matters, my PDF was from DriveThruRPG.

Steve

Ahh, I see. Fooled by the DrivethruRPG technique of crossing out an imaginary "full price". "Was $23.95 now $13.17" even though it's never been $23.95. What shonks.

Heh. I agree. I retaliated by putting everything I want on my wishlist and tracking prices on a spreadsheet. When there's a sale I check everything against that (and enter prices). Now I know what a 'good' price is, and DriveThru has trained me to only buy on sale...

Steve

Wow. Full price on the Chaosium web site, half price on drivethurpg....

That's not what I'm seeing -- I see $13.17 each place for the PDF. You get rewards at Chaosium. I went with DriveThru just because I have a lot of PDFs there and re-downloading has always been super-easy.

Steve

I bought it last night, I'm liking what I see but have to wait until I've finished things like taxes this week before I can spend some quality time with it.

But so far: really nice job. Worth waiting for.

Steve

And for those who need a direct link: http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_info.php?products_id=6930

or http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/128316/Advanced-Sorcery

Should I wait for PDF version?

What do you advise me?

I'm in the same holding pattern. I went back and looked at Mythic Iceland to see when the print & PDF versions were added to the catalog, and in that case the PDF was available BEFORE the print version. So I'm flummoxed. I want the PDF but I also want it now...Chaosium is torturing us.

Steve

I couldn't find a PDF available for purchase, only hard copy. Waaaah. I have to wait.

Does anyone know if Chaosium ever bundles the physical copy and PDF? I definitely want the PDF, and maybe the print if it's as great as I hope. If there's a bundle I might just do both at the same time.

Steve

Whoohoo!

Can someone decode what "as soon as the PTB return from GAMA" means in human speak? I'm hoping to get a PDF...

It reminds me of the Monte Python bit during the Spanish Inquisition Sketch, where the messenger said something like, "one o the flay rods gon out askew on treadle," then had to admit he had no idea what it meant either. (and then made the mistake of saying he didn't expect a Spanish Inquisition...)

Steve

Thank goodness this is finally heading to press! I'd given up all hope.

I laughed at this -- the Beast Mode is one of the few groups that I'm buying extra of -- exactly for Broo.

I've found that Bones are also more durable for gaming than metal -- the paint stays on and the slight flexibility means they bend instead of break. Detail is only slightly less sharp than metal.

Steve

Thanks for your update from the future on your website News Update October 10, 2014 but I was disappointed not to see anything about the next installment of the Kingdom and Commonwealth adventure arc for Clockwork & Chivalry.

My players are about to start Quintessence, and if another episode isn't in the wings, I need to start planning now!

Thanks -- it's been a great story arc for us.

Steve

Like the zombie apocalypse, back from the dead: I'm really (really!) looking forward to this, so I'm trying a commune with dead. Any update 2 months on?

Stoatbringer, thanks! Both for the update and inferred editing.

I'll hope that it finally comes forth.

Steve

Can anyone provide an update on Advanced Sorcery? I've been interested in this since it was first announced several years ago. But it seems to always be on the side burner. With the current successful Kickstarter campaigns, is Chaosium ever going to push this out the door?

Steve

Your review makes it sound great. I'll see if I can pick up a copy based on your succinct but informative post

LOL. It is great, but my review (and the time I've had with it) is so brief as to be worthless -- you can get as much from the previous discussion. I admit to being a little peevish when I got the "where's the review" message within 24 hours of getting it.

Ending is good, the text reads well. I hope to get a minute to look through the magic section this week.

Steve

Where's your review then?

Ok, I've had it for a day, I've looked at it for 15 minutes while waiting outside a store. So, here's a comprehensive, cross-checked, and accurate assessment:

* It's good. Lots of material for a campaign.

* Lots of background -- most of what I've read is background, 'what's different' and feel.

* There are monsters, a couple of which I've read.

* There is a section for Cthulhu that I haven't read.

* There's a map.

* There's stuff on magic. There are backgrounds.

There you go.

Steve

Got mine today. Looks very nice!

Steve

Well, now DrivethruRPG is having a sale. From now to the 27th you get 25% off anything that was on your 'wishlist'. I only had two items, and one I had just added yesterday. The sale pushed one item down from $15 (where I was debating getting it) to $11.25, which makes it a near certain purchase.

Edit: FYI, you cannot add items to your wishlist and get the discount. I tried.

Thanks for that! I have a bunch of things in my wishlist -- not all of them are discounted, but many are. I can tell that I'll have to pick up a few.

The challenge will be staying within budget with both the DtRPG and Chaosium sales at the same time!

Steve

Thanks for the heads up -- there are a couple of books I've been waiting to buy.

Man I hate the Chaosium catalog. One of the books I wanted was "Mythic Iceland." I head to the BRP section. It's new, I would think it would be highlighted, but no. I wander through page one, no Mythic Iceland. I wander through page 2, no Mythic Iceland. I go to...wait there is no page 3?! What the deuce? Maybe it's in Cthulhu...nope. Ok I search and find it, but I still don't know how to browse to it.

And the other books I want? I don't really remember, but I know I wanted a couple. But browsing didn't show me anything else I was missing.

So, I suspect Chaosium is going to miss getting some of my money, just because I can't browse to stuff I want. Urgh for both them and me.

Steve

I've had a look at the links and have to say the Factions in the Rennaisance SRD is looking quite good. However, rather than have RP's as presented, I'd combine that with the Allegiance scores.

I like the beliefs. My thinking had not come this far, but it makes a good template.

We've been playing the Clockwork & Chivalry scenarios for a while (the sourcebook that prompted creation of the Rennaisance game/SRD), and the factions work pretty well. You don't have to have everything defined ahead of time and you don't have to have diametrically opposed factions. You just need situations that force characters to come up against their beliefs. I would think the allegiance score would work perfectly instead of righteousness.

Steve

I agree with Rust, probably with an exclamation mark: The rules are good and interesting, but hard to scale or connect to day-to-day roleplaying. Basically the system is abstract, so (for instance) it's hard to know how much cash a Barony with a Wealth of 10 throws off in a year. And it doesn't scale from small (i.e. the player's barony) to large (conflict between empires) -- it works well for the empire v empire, or Barony v Barony, but connecting them together requires a lot of hand waving.

With some work, it could probably be done, but Empires is more for running the backdrop of the campaign.

One thing that I do specifically like is the porting of MRQII's combat maneuvres to conflicts -- so you get some color (as well as specific effects) based on relative successes during the conflict, and type of conflict (armed warfare or religious conflict).

Steve

I haven't done this but I've thought about it a lot. There are a few systems out there that look good, but I have a couple of (probably obvious) observations:

First, the different systems all have different levels of complexity. If your campaign centers around political conflict, you're going to want a fully fleshed-out system that gives the players interesting tactical choices. If the politics is a backdrop, you just need enough detail to allow interaction with that backdrop. While many of the systems available are cool, they mostly add detail and complexity. Just be sure to find something that is the right size.

First, keep the core BRP conflict structure: Each entity has an attack skill, a defense skill, armor, and hit points. You could do this as easily as having an "Oratory" skill for the faction that is used for attack and defense, some measure of "Dogma", "Righteousness", "Tradition" or similar to act as armor, and Hit Points based on the size of the organization and zeal.

So whenever there is a conflict, run a couple of rounds of combat and see which side loses hit points -- reflect that as a loss of influence, members, etc. When one side drops to zero, they are defeated. Each organization heals at a slow pace, and events in-game can determine how often the conflicts take place.

To connect this to game action, perhaps the "Oratory" skill of the organization is equal to the best orator in the faction. That way there is a reason to convert/kidnap/kill the best orator on the other side. The pace of inter-organization conflict could be determined by PCs, and skills could be changed (slowly) by PC actions.

There are a bunch of systems to add detail and complexity. Some that I've liked (not all in the BRP family): Dynasties & Demagogues (Penumbra I think); Empires (MRQII), Guilds Factions Cults (MRQ), Age of Treason (MRQII)

Steve