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[DT] What System to Use
#1
Question 
So, my girlfriend wants to kill me in Jim Ward's Monty Haul's Lesser Tower of Doom but we need to settle on a system.

The system in the module is the Eldritch Ent generic system. We want something simple to convert from there for a novice GM with zounds of creativity and potential.

Legendary Adventures, Spellcraft & Swordplay, and Castles & Crusades have all come up as well as an untested homebrew set of rules.

I have all the LA books and the older editions of S&S. I only have the PH of C&C, first printing I think. SCHWA is also a potential system and a distant last would be Savage Worlds. The Eldritch RPG would be nice but I simply don't understand how to play it yet.

I'm seeking some thoughts and spitballing!
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#2
Believe it or not, but I wouldn't recommend Sorcerer Character Has Warrior Adventure for new GMs; it's a rather fiddly and unforgiving system. Just look at the 200+ point hit that Mighter didn't make. And he's a beginning character.
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#3
I've been leaning toward C&C, although I considered SCHWA a bit as well. I was never really a fan of C&C although I didn't hate it. I'm not sure if she can run LA and if the adventure she wants to run is easily converted to LA. S&S is cool, but I have an old version and the new one is only available at DTRPG and I've been having a hassle there lately. I wish Jason would make the current S&S available elsewhere as well. OAD&D may be a viable option and she can get a copy of OSRIC easy enough.

C&C
S&S
OSRIC
LA

My homebrew ruleset I created - we'll call it DSoL for the time being - is workable but who knows what kinks we'll run into.
"Save inches for the bathroom; we're using feet here." ~ Rob Kuntz (2014)

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#4
Adventure needs to be converted from Eldritch Enterprises generic system.

C&C - Simple, modernized without much glut, close enough to 4e which the GM has played, both of us supported the recent Kickstarter. Don't have M&T or the CK guide yet, I've only played it once, CK has never played it.

S&S - Old school fun, GM has never played it, I know it fairly well, I have multiple copies of the original rules. The new rules have changed and I don't have them, it may be hard for the GM to convert into, the interesting bits being in a separate book is a pain.

OSRIC - I know it inside and out and inside again, I think the adventure was designed with 1e in mind, author recommends 1e, free PDF. GM has never played it, the rules can feel illogical at times, it's nostalgic but I feel I've moved past it.

LA - Freeform, new gamers fall into it easily, I know it inside and out, LM has played it, I have multiple copies of all the books, will get to use the Spelunca Ability. Not sure how the EE system will convert to it, but possibly easier than any class based system, we need another copy of the Essentials rulebook, may not work well in dedicated dungeon settings.
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#5
(06-04-2014, 05:16 AM)Kersus Wrote: I feel I've moved past it.
That said, playing with Rob Kuntz did reinvigorate me with regards to 1e/OSRIC.
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#6
Of course you may have noticed I use HackMaster 4e. It's a dozen years old but I do it for the humor.
Tracy Johnson

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NNNN
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#7
Love 4e. Used to love the forums. Been over 10 years since I got perma-banned. It had been going downhill even before that. No idea what it's like today.
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#8
Yeah, I loved HM4e but was turned off by the official forums. I remember once being hopeful for an edited PH with the errata in hardcover.

If it wasn't so hard to teach a complete newbie, i'd probably go back to it. I really enjoyed a Hacked Holmes D&D I ran years ago (starting with a C&C adventure I hacked up).

It was the humour that I loved. The parody. I was so disappointed they could never embrace it. In the end I wonder if WOTC is what made it great since they insisted on the parody.

Heh, I recall posting the Aardvarkian as a player race, albeit a fairly weak one compared to the official races and was hounded for a long time because I wanted to add something like that to my personal game.

This forum in no small way came from the HackMaster mailing list I ran for years. The company I started with got bought out twice before eventually being snagged by Yahoo.

Ah, the memories.

I still flip through Aldrazar and the Pixie Fairy books from time to time.

I've never tried 5e.

I put together a very rough sourcebook for OSRIC essentially turning it into HM but never tested it. I'm not even sure where my notes went.
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#9
(06-05-2014, 12:27 PM)Kersus Wrote: In the end I wonder if WOTC is what made it great since they insisted on the parody.

Not really. If you've read Knights of the Dinner Table you know that the guys at Kenzer have a good, and broad, sense of humor. The problem came about partially because WotC didn't expect HM to do anything after being forced to license out AD&D (remember the Dragon Archives that WotC had to pull off the shelves? That was because they didn't have, or couldn't prove they had, reprint rights for much of the material in Dragon. When WotC announced the Archives, Kenzer contacted them to let them know that they specifically did not have those rights for the old KotDT strips. WotC printed them anyway. A bit of free advice: when a copyright and trademark lawyer tells you that you do not have printing rights, believe him.) let alone win Game of the Year, so they were a little pissy about that, then the liason at WotC kept changing, each worse than the next. Think Bruno Kirby in Good Morning, Viet Nam. "That's a joke. I get it." Then imagine his brother; the one without a sense of humor.

So almost every time after the first or second year when Kenzer would try to contact the liason, they'd have to deal with someone new. "We already have approval for this," Kenzer would say. "Well, you didn't get approval from me," came the reply. "This is supposed to be parody. How come I'm not laughing?" "I don't know. Maybe because you're an idiot who's incapable abstract thinking?"
Needless to say, by the time the license ran out, Kenzer & Co. were happy to see it go.
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#10
Yeah, I used to get KODT and quite enjoyed K:ILL as well as other comic offerings, but as HM4e picked up steam I found them exceedingly difficult to deal with and their purist loyalist friends were absolute jerks on the forums. I feel like they lost their way. At first the work was hilarious. They were attracting the old-school crowd with a fun look at classic ideas but it all started to get serious. "We're not a parody!" was yelled loudly over and over and each time my heart sank.

Ultimately I've come to terms and am willing to try 5e if the opportunity presents itself. The two GaryCons I've attended, it has yet to occur despite hanging around their table which sits in the prized Virtual Porch instead of with the other sellers of goods.

I didn't realize that Kenzer poked the bear with copyright issues and that led to the broken bridges and big walls with secret handshakes needed to enter.

Anyhow, Kenzer seems happier (I use Kenzer to say both David and Jolly) and I wish them well. I hope they bring back Aldrazar. I could never get into Kalamar. I also hope A&8s and HM5e do really well over the years. HM4e really, to me, was a catalyst in the old-school movement and revival commercially. Others took the bull by the horns but I give credit to Kenzer for at least pushing the boat a bit.

I still use the HackMaster Smartass Smackdown table.

---

I've been flipping through the C&C PH again and it occurs to me that the 1st level characters there are somewhat equal to 3rd level OSRIC characters. From a player perspective, there are more options in C&C and I love the Prime concept but I'm leaning more and more toward LA or trying something new like LotFP. Ultimately I want some more feedback from the GM as to her comfort with the systems. Maybe we should just use Holmes D&D. Holmes is nice because all those cool HackMaster ideas are so easy to plug in as necessary while keeping it simple. I quite like S&S as it was originally presented as well. It's evolved a bit and I'd have to really look at the latest incarnation to see if it's as good as the original.

Do you think a parody supplement for OSRIC would sell?
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