[Edit from 2021: there's a new revision of "RBV" available]
Every now and then, I'm compelled to circle back to the vast cooling deposit left over from the early 2000's D20 eruption, and poke through it once more for salvage. "There's so much here," I think as I pry apart compacted layers of feats with a geology hammer, "so much meticulously crafted work, all free for the taking. There just has to be something I can make from it."
As is usually the case, the affair begins with The Core Elements Toolbox, an obscure 2005 work by James D. Hargrove and Butch Curry that tried to distill the d20 SRD down into an intense liquor of fast easy role-playing. It doesn't quite work at that goal, for reasons I can't fully articulate, but that may be why I keep coming back to it, trying to figure where the fix needs to go. Which leads me to rifling through the standard SRD's (Fantasy D20, D20 Modern, D20 Future and the "true romantic" SRD derived from original Blue Rose). And it's usually around True Romantic that the fatigue starts to grow, since even that lightened version of the system is a lumbering mechanical behemoth compared to the systems I generally prefer, and I start to doubt if anything D20 can be redeemed.
So then I bounce out to Mocrolite20 to get some breathing room. Which is refreshing at first, but by laying bare the core bones of D20, Microlite rather starkly forces me to (again) realize the central problems with that whole school of design. Mechanical character optimization and min-maxing as a primary mode of play, lunk-headedly linear resolution and modelling, and constant built-in roadblocks and speed-bumps intended to wring player initiative through a sieve of incremental advancement. Somehow, the whole manages to be both burdensome yet insubstantial, a expansive act of running in place to look busy.
Unsurprisingly, I always end my latest D20 tangent frustrated and jumping to some other project to clear my head of the affair. What I'm saying is, this is why I re-wrote Searchers of the Unknown over the weekend. So here's Rusty-Bladed Veterans.
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| Click the image to download the PDF |
There's a lot to like about SotU, but I perceived issues with it. The language was loose at the cost of clarity. And while the stated goal was B/X style play, it introduced several eccentric elements leading to a much more combat-focused experience. Because I'd just been trudging through D20, it was clear that the original writer of SotU had carried over a few 3E-era assumptions upon creating it. All of which were things I wanted to change. Additionally, I aimed to make the rules thoroughly compatible with B/X resources without conversion; I wanted to be able to send a "Rusty-Bladed" party through B2 The Lost City using every line of the adventure's text as written. Also, I wanted to be able to run standard B/X classes alongside those characters, if it so happened old-hand players showed up for such a session.
On top of that, I threw in some elements from other SotU hacks I liked, the clever spell-casting system from Microlite20 and a means for characters to learn spells from scrolls (which weirdly I had assumed was already part of the original SotU; wonder where I picked that notion up).
I'm really pleased with how Rusty-Bladed Veterans came out. I dare even say I'd prefer using it over full B/X, since starting all characters on the same foot eliminates a lot of the disorienting disparities players have traditionally had to deal with (thief skills in particular come to mind, and demi-human abilities), doubly so for new players. Plus I prefer magical abilities earned as a consequence of play rather than as preordained advancements. I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out at the table.
Thanks for this; I'll check it out.
ReplyDeleteSo is the HP loss from spellcasting recovered only from other healing magic or gaining levels?
ReplyDeleteHP loss to magic-use should be assumed to recover in full between sessions. The ban against rest-recovery is so spell-using characters are less comnbat-able, and to avoid any cast-rest-cast exploits.
DeleteJust stumbled upon this. A nice improvement upin SotU; I like it a lot. I've been giving a lot of thought lately to how one might remove dedicated spellcasters from the game without removing PC and - bam - there you did it!
ReplyDeleteMy only counter-thought is the bit about armour training. What does that solve/improve over SotU's system? That is, would it be so bad if your man-at-arms had the option of taking off his plate to sneak around or your Grayish Mouser could put on some heavy armour when he knew he was about to get into a melee?
My aim was to maintain a small bit of niche protection, so the guy who wants to be the sneaky-guy gets to be the go-to sneaky-guy when sneaky situations come up,rather than everyone in the party just shucking off their armor to become snaky-guys, too. Likewise, normally lightly-armored characters who want to armor-up still have that option, but it means giving up their niche for a bit.
DeleteThis looks very interesting. Did you ever get around to trying it out?
ReplyDeleteI've run an SF game largely based on this, and I think some time ago I may have played a session of the original "Searchers of the Unknown," but so far haven't had the opportunity to use my version.
DeleteAfter a brief tryout my main concern is the role of AC. Since AC now determines how well you perform stunts and manoeuvres, heavier armour is now much less desirable than it used to be. If you wear plate, you’re losing a lot of movement distance (as in the original rules) but you also have a reduced chance to perform mobility based feats and saves (this is something new)
ReplyDeleteMy feeling is that you might need to change the AC numbers to compensate for this. Also you’d need to differentiate how much of AC comes from armour and how much comes from Magic or other factors, as Bracers of AC4, for example, shouldn’t negatively affect your stunts.