New Rules Tome: Thumbs Up!

Hardback arrived today! I can’t decide which adjective does it the most justice: beautiful, wonderful, fantastic, excellent, outstanding, magnificent, extraordinary, remarkable...

Martin, fantastic job on the Tome!

So many fine additions to an already excellent game.

Hard to say what my favorite is for now. I have read through all of the tome, and so far have added the Combat Experience tracker to my play. Next I plan to Tame a Beast Companion, then add Artisan skill.

For anyone interested, my unsolicited review:

Beast Companions. I love it!

Just to be sure I understand correctly: pg 6, Beast Abilities, Confuse - the monster’s “Attacks ability” is reduced by 1 point for the next combat round. At first I thought you meant the monster’s AV, but it must mean for when fighting monsters that have the Ability “Attacks #” where # is a number of attacks per round the monster gets, that # gets reduced by 1, right?

On Table Y, I like that the explanation of the abilities are listed. Just thinking it also might be helpful to have the Tame and Train formulae there too for quick reference.

Artisan Skill: this one may take some play time to get the hang of it, but your write-up seems pretty clear for a first read through and definitely a nice alternative to just selling unneeded found or looted items.

Investments Made Easy: Helpful table. Though I never really had much trouble figuring it, this will save some time.

Mapping Alternative: the square corners and black outline sharply contrasts with the colors making the exits and doors really easy to see. This may be especially helpful for us with older-eyes, but I personally like the original.

Combat Experience: this I really like! Am anxious to take advantage of the bonuses. Already accumulating pips. I am starting with my current quest, but was considering tallying up pips from prior kills as I have several Combat Tracker sheets already for my adventurer at this point.

Arcanist: looks like a great option as well. Already a Druid, I think this is a definite path for my current character to attempt. I especially like the idea of limiting armour and weapon types for a Magic user, and drawing upon a Magic energy source other than my precious few hit points that deplete all too quickly. I am a little worried about the prism though, and hope to not break arcane law or at least not get caught. Having put so many hours into my character, I would hate to lose him or see him so devastated.

Property! Great addition. For those of you who may have played that “original” RPG so long ago, this harkens to the time when leveling up and amassing gold was not just for better weapons and armour, but for earning a stronghold or castle, and eventually lording over a part of the realm to contribute to the fate of the world as more than just a monster killer and loot grabber.

Quick Adventurer: gave this a spin, rolling 70, 3, a Half Giant Sorcerer with S/D/I of 45/45/30, stars on Bravery +5, Int, Magic +5, Lucky +5. Added the 2 additional (non-starred) skills of Escape and Strong. Rolled a 21 on equipment, chose strength, picking up a Spiked Club, Scale mail boots, plate mail greaves, and buckler shield. In under 5 minutes I was ready to roll with a truly unique character with a combination I otherwise would not have considered. I can see following this with Adventurer Fast Track as well. I like it! And I do like the idea of making the Hero Champion roll-only and rare.

Special Blues: rolled for a few and they appear very challenging, but the rewards on Table TD are, well, Exceptional, and in some cases Doubly Legendary. Definitely something I will add when my adventurer has greater skills, and HP!

PS I rolled on 85-86 “Making a Connection” and noticed one tiny typo, third to last line toward the right, the word ‘trac,k’ has a random comma in it.

A final note, the Art is generally excellent. Some of it is a bit flat, 2-dimensional, like the adventurers on pg 17 and the champion on pg 26, some of the B&W sketches of potions, scrolls, and armour a bit simple, but most of it is terrific, evocative, full of color, and nicely rounds out an excellent tome.

I very highly recommend this Tome, maybe not for a brand new player, but definitely for anyone who has played for a while, has had at least a character or two gone through all the training quests and a good handful of other quests, maybe filled a combat tracker or two, and is ready for some new experiences and challenges to enhance their game.

Thanks, you will have to let us know how you get on and which of the rules you enjoy the most.