Detailed review

Branduan breaks down Brandon's new game Heroes & Other Worlds in detail.  A good and detailed review for those curious about my new fantasy RPG.

 Heroes and Other Worlds is, by today's standards a simple and rules light RPG that comes all-in-one in a handy booklet with a sample adventure and a sample dungeon included. I would heartily recommend it for someone wanting to replace their worn copies of Melee/Wizard/TFT or for someone wanting a simple game to try out on their kids that won't cost an arm and a leg yet could be played for years if they get to liking it. Likewise, though it may have some odd things for the current gamer to get used to, it's a good system in a small package for a reasonable price

Experience

Handling XP's is one of the most difficult parts of gaming for the designer, referee and players.  The system used to award XP to players says much about how the designer views the primary activities during play and what is most important to successfully play the game.  Thus, XP (and levels) are the yardstick in a game to determine a player's individual success. Adventure games are unique in this just as they are for not having a singular winning condition.

In classic D&D, XP is rewarded for killing critters and picking their pockets clean.  As you increase in experience, you fight tougher monsters (more XP) who give you more treasure (more XP). So the game is an ever increasing ladder of tougher creatures and bigger hordes of treasure as the characters gain XP. So what does this tell the player about kind of game they can expect to play? What does this tell the referee about the kind of game they should be creating?  Is there room in such a system for being anything but murder hobos? Conceptually yes, on terms of rewarding player efforts in the game  for doing so? Not so much.

When I was designing Heroes & Other Worlds, the question of awarding XP was troubling.  My own prejudices against treasure being a dual reward (better/more equipment & XP reward) meant no XP would be awarded for treasure.

Second, while I agree that tougher foes means better loot, that is also in itself the reward for the risk.  At one point in design, the XP of a foe was equal to the creatures ST. Yet, that did not last long in play test.  It worked, but it did not fix the original limitations I saw in D&D.  XP awards for the death of foes only leaves the range and options for players to interact/defeat foes rather one dimensional.

Last, being a game with a range of skills, I needed to insure every skill from sword fighting, to spell casting to tracking or acting had an equal XP weight in the game and the equal opportunity of being rewarded.  In other words, when all options or actions provide the same potential XP reward, then the adventure design potential becomes wide open for a referee, and the possibilities for players to act also becomes unlimited.

In Heroes & Other Worlds, you roll 3d6 for a test.  The sum of the roll is compared to the total of the Hero's Attribute+Skill level.  Roll equal to or lower...and you pass the test.  Each test passed earns you 3XP. That's it clean and simple.  Any test from casting a spell to freeze a Yeti, using a bow to slay a dragon, or juggling fruit for coins in the market, all provide the same XP reward.  This is the basic reward system. There is an advanced option the changes the reward amount for a success, but the system for rewarding XP is the same.

My goal as a designer was to reward action, and XP is rewarded equally for any successful action a Hero may choose to make.  There is no XP weight in the game towards combat, non-combat, or spell use. The system rewards successful actions of any kind equally. With this flexibility it is my hope Referees will be free to design adventures and situation open to multiple resolutions, and knowing this, Players will also feel free to pursue any option they can think of.

Review part #2

Geordie Racer has just posted the 2nd part of his review of Heroes & Other Worlds. 

Zip on over to his blog Bite the Bulette and read part #2 now, or start with part #1 of his review to get his whole take.

I am thankful to Geordie for his time and effort to present a fair and honest appraisal.

Ready to gt your own copy of Heroes & Other Worlds?

You can buy Heroes & Other Worlds on lulu.com and get 20% off right now by using the promo code: DECBOOKS12

Heroes review

Geordie Racer has just posted the first half of his review of Heroes and other Worlds.  You can find it on his cleverly entitled blog Bite the Bulette.

Where Robert Saint John's review comes from the perspective of a TFT player, Geordie's look is from the view of someone with no familiarity with The Fantasy Trip, Melee, or Wizard.  So if you have no particular knowledge of, nor remembrance of, those old Metagaming classics, Geordie's review will be of particular interest.

I am looking forward to the second half of both reviews soon.

Mini-Review

The following is the first part review of Heroes & Other Worlds by Robert Saint John.  The second part will come after play testing an adventure or two.  Then Pt 2 will provide more insight into actual game play and his thoughts on them.  Thanks RSJ for taking time to craft this first review of Heroes & Other Worlds!

Mini-review for Heroes & Other Worlds - Pt 1

I don't have a general gaming blog, but I wanted to share my initial thoughts about Christopher Brandon's new game Heroes & Other Worlds. This is only based on two read-throughs, one quick and one leisurely, and I'll follow up with a lengthier review (probably on RPGGeek and RPGnet) after I get some play time in on it this weekend.

Short version: a worthy successor to The Fantasy Trip, but introduces some smart and unique twists that make it much more than a clone. Much more fleshed out than Legends of the Ancient World and Dragons of Underearth, and somehow captures the spirit of the Moldvay Basic Set. At 120 digest-sized pages, a surprisingly complete game that is well-organized, slickly presented and will appeal to fantasy gamers old and new.

Details: Although I referred to it in yesterday's post as a retro-clone of my personal favorite FRPG, Metagaming's The Fantasy Trip (1980), Heroes & Other Worlds (HOW) is more like the "missing link" between TFT and GURPS that never existed. It's completely compatible with TFT and its weird offspring Dragons of Underearth, and Dark City Games' more recent Legends of the Ancient World (and, as a result, compatible with all those programmed modules from both Metagaming and DCG). Heroes are either Adventurers or Wizards (with a flexible blurry line between them), and character generation is a breeze with a point-buy system to build the attributes of Strength, Dexterity and IQ. Based off the attributes, players choose spells and skills. XP is gained during adventuring to be spent later. Combat and task resolution is basically 3D6, roll-under attribute.

Where HOW diverges from its predecessors is the introduction of a fourth attribute representing health/fatigue, Endurance. Similar approaches have been adopted by TFT players over the years as a house rule (for various reasons), and Steve Jackson did something similar with Health for GURPS. Only Heroes have Endurance, monsters and NPCs do not. Endurance basically stacks on top of Strength and is depleted through damage or spell-casting. When Endurance is gone, damage starts hitting Strength, but Endurance points are recovered much more quickly than Strength.

Another notable divergence in HOW is that Heroes do not improve attributes over time. XP is applied to improving Skills and Spells, much like in Traveller. Choose those initial attributes wisely! And realize that as the adventures and monsters become more challenging, NPC hirelings (well-detailed in HOW) are going to be essential.

Combat, weapons and armor are much like they were in the other games, but not necessarily so dependent on the use of counters/miniatures and a map.

That's the first half of the book, basically a Players Guide, including 3 pages of Skills, 15 pages of Spells (IQ8-IQ18), and plenty of examples throughout. The rest of the book is Referee Resources, with 20 pages of Terrors (monsters), Treasures and Magic items, a solitaire adventure (Dark City's "Orcs of the High Mountains"), guidelines for building and stocking dungeons (with optional random tables), a 7 page sample refereed dungeon, tables of weapons and equipment, and very compact character sheets (like TFT, a 3x5 index card will do just fine). The entire book (POD from Lulu) is digest-sized, very nicely laid out, and illustrated profusely with art that ranges from very good to excellent. Fans of the original TFT are in for quite a treat when they see some of these illustrations, and I'll leave it at that.

Verdict: $15 PDF, $20 paperback. Pricier but comparable in almost every way to the Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox Rules. A great introduction to adventure gaming, but especially appealing to players like me who thought TFT was a more "logical" approach to fantasy gaming than OD&D, and never quite got over the fact that TFT met a premature demise.

More info: http://heroworlds.blogspot.com/

UPDATE: Now Available!

UPDATE: get 30% off HOW on Lulu using the promo code DELIRITAS this weekend only!

It is done, commence quaffing of beer to toast the release of Heroes & Other Worlds.

 Thanks very much to those who have supported this effort over the year with their feedback, enthusiasm, and comments.  I am especially indebted to my lovely wife and to Mr. Beau Chambers for his eagle eyed editing and efforts to make the game great. I's also like to give special thanks to the fine folks at Dark City Games for allowing one of their programmed adventures to be included in the rules book.

If you are interested in purchasing your own copy of Heroes & Other Worlds, follow the link below to purchase:

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/heroes-other-worlds-adventure-game/13374617

You can use the coupon code NOVBOOKS12 to get a 20% discount through the end of the month! 

Now that Heroes & Other Worlds is done I plan on enjoying the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday! I next plan on creating a zero issue of The Cauldron as a free download PDF, a holiday gift from me to you.

If you purchase the game and take time to review it just let me know!  I hope you will enjoy the game and I look forward to seeing where and how far this little journey takes us.

Before

As Heroes & Other Worlds gets set for release, I thought I'd take a post to say a bit about what it is and is not.

It is inspired by Melee/Wizard/ TFT system as well as by the Moldvay edition D&D Basic Rules book.
So what does that mean exactly in terms of the game?

1) Only d6 are used
2) There are two broad scope character classes: Adventurers & Wizards
3) Each Hero has 4 attributes and tests are made by rolling 3d6 versus your attribute. Roll equal to or lower and you succeed, roll over and you fail. No AC or charts.
4) You build your character, both attributes and selection of skills/spells.
5) Combat can be played tactically using a map (squares or hexes), but it is not necessary.
6) Armor hinders the Dexterity of the wearer and subtracts from damage done to the wearer.
7) The basic tropes of dungeon creation, exploration, creature catalog and treasure tables are all included.

If I had to compare it to something, I would not say TFT. Instead an idealized Dragons of Underearth by way of Moldvay D&D.

Now I know some people say they dislike skills based systems, and I can't help but wonder why.  If you play D&D, you are playing a skill based system already.  The various classes or race based classes with special abilities are really just light skill systems.  Indeed they are often presented in a different wrapper, but they are skill based just the same.

What HOW endeavors to do is to be a sensible and simple game system.  Where TFT and later GURPS took a detailed/simulation system path, HOW seeks to retain the original simple resolution but adding a Moldvian sense to game play.

How well it succeeds will be up to players to decide.  TFT/GURPS players may not find it crunchy enough while D&D players may find it not d20 enough.  Even so I really enjoy it and hope others will as well.

So the HOW Rules book comes out and then what?

DARK CITY GAMES
Well first, I am happy to say HOW has the support of Dark City Games. The systems are compatible and they are allowing inclusion of one of their short programmed adventure in the rules book.  More importantly for the HOW player, this also means a tremendous amount of programmed adventures are immediately available to support playing the game at launch.

BLADES & BLACK MAGIC
This will act as a sort of  Expert Rules book for HOW. It will include a few additional character options such as faults and favors.  It will include more spells, more treasures, more creatures and wilderness/ hexplore rules and charts. A simple sample Hexplore will also be included.

THE CAULDRON
This will be a (ideally) quarterly 'zine to support HOW.  I will take player submissions as well as creating original content.  Dark City Games has already discussed including additional sample programmed adventures, and any optional rules for HOW going forward will be done via The Cauldron.

GRIM VENTURE
This will be a programmed adventure I write inspired by Death Test adventures.

All of this is done without a single Kick Starter except my own gumption and the frequent and kind aid of some very generous souls: my wife, editor Pastor Beau, artists Richard Luschek and Luigi "Artkid" Castellani and the fine folks at Dark City Games.

I hope to make Heroes & Other Worlds available for purchase via lulu.com tomorrow.

Almost ready

Well my print test book arrived this week!  Damn I can't believe Heroes & Other Worlds is almost ready for release, because then I can finally get back to playing it!

I have some tweaks and minor additions to do, but at this point I think Sunday night it will be available to purchase on lulu.com.

Warm up your D6's and put away the rest of your dice because it's almost ready!

Heroes & Other Worlds

creation complete

print and approval commence

restless and eager

Heroes Progress

My wife kindly went through the near final HOW rule book...and it's going to take me longer to get the edits done then I had anticipated.  Thankfully the edits are not major, but inconsistent spacing is a plague which I am seeking to cure.  I am thankful to Pastor Beau for his eagle eye and intensive major editing just as I am thankful to my wife for adding a little more polish to the final product.  I am trying to get the edits done this weekend, but completitng by 11/17 seems most likely.

Then a print test, final review...and then it goes up for sale!

Thanks for your patience!

Final Approach

The final polish editing and adjustments are underway for my Melee/Wizard/TFT inspired adventure game Heroes & Other Worlds.

Layout should take place this weekend and then a print test next week!  It feels like an idea of what could have been regarding these rules has long haunted me over the years.  I really wanted to like TFT more and wanted to love GURPS, yet it all became so overly detailed it lost me.  Maybe you felt that way too.

So inspired by Melee & Wizard & the Moldvay Basic Rules Book I have labored months to produce Heroes & Other Worlds.

No Kick Starter, no funding goals, and it's not another OGL game.  It may never garner any more players than those that gather at my own humble table with a handful of d6, but if you feel inclined to spend your time reading and even playing a non d20 fantasy game, I sure hope you find your time well spent playing Heroes & Other Worlds.

I'll let you know when its available, should be (if everything goes right) sometime during the week of 11/12. 

Dungeon Heroes

Recently WotC re-released the classic board game Dungeon! At the time when I was a kid, this was a lot of fun and I am glad to see it back.  What I want to point you to though is a new Kickstarter game that kind of takes this dungeon crawl board game idea into the modern age as a 2 player, head to head 30 minute strategy game.

Dungeon Heroes

In a nutshell, one player controls 4 heroes exploring a dungeon with a goal to find the 3 treasures.  The other is the dungeon lord attempting to stop the the heroes from succeeding.  It is a unique strategy game with a cool theme that could be played by kids and adults! Some prototype reviews of the game are up already and this link takes you to a great one. Below is the game play overview video so you can see what it is all about:

Inspired by the Dead

Walking Dead that is...

A few years ago I whipped up a zombie pocket mod game.  I'd always considered fleshing it out, and for what ever reason my time spent watching Walking Dead marathons while I am sick finally motivated me to just get the damn thing done.  So here its, a simple to play but very expandable game of zombie survival: Zombies Attack.

Note, it is already sized at 8.5 x 5.5 and is ready to be printed in booklet form from PDF.

Season 3 of The Walking Dead starts tonight! 

Getting closer

Heroes & Other Worlds