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I think the core rules set is excellent, as I think I mentioned in the video, but I do have more love for many of the splat books than most folks out there. Largely depends on what they are used for in my mind, munchkin metagaming? No thanks. But if something in a splat book actually helps a player realize a character they really want to play, I’m good with it. There was a second edition in the plans before Gary’s departure from TSR, he wrote about it in an issue of Dragon Magazine. That said, Gary’s ideas largely didn’t make the new edition, and there was definitely an added reasoning of eliminating royalties to Gygax in the way they did to Arneson with AD&D… in both cases the authors ended suing and I believe making some money on the deal. I’m actually also in the minority on NWP. I know that the balance isn’t there, and they vary wildly in effectiveness, but we used them and I always enjoyed them.

@@booksbricksandboards783 I know a lot of folks used the NWP, it just doesn’t fit my style personally. I can see their uses though. I mostly run Castles & Crusades these days, which is the system Gary Gygax was using when he died and he even said it’s a spiritual 2nd edition to his AD&D. I definitely recommend checking it out. Imagine 1e, rules light, with modern mechanics.

Oh, yeah I have had C&C since the second printing. I actually got it when I wasn’t even playing because the Trolls were at Gen Con and that was the year Gary had died. They told the story of Gary’s participation in C&C and his endorsement. Thanks for sharing sir!

@@booksbricksandboards783 anytime!

Thanks Pral! I enjoy Dragonbane thoroughly. If I had a group interested in that system, we would play it, but as is, it is a GREAT solo option.

Thanks! The system is really pretty brilliant. Familiar but different. Intuitive and still innovative. I’ve done a couple other videos on the game.

Thanks much! I think you have to approach solo very differently from a strategic point of view. Also, even though it didn’t come up in this play, failing forward is a very important concept. Early on I would paint myself into a corner with failures. Now I just find ways to move the story forward when the dice say no. Create interesting consequences and challenges, not dead ends.

Thanks, I might do some more of that in the future. As for the group play, I have not unfortunately. I very rarely get to run a group game outside of my main one right now, so I have to be very selective, and since I am able to enjoy Dragonbane solo, the last time it came up I ran Crown & Skull for my group as it would have been less likely to be played otherwise. I did have a group for a while that was just one shots and man that was a blast to run… so many different games and so many DCC adventures as well. I ran over 10 different systems with that group in a year. To comment on your conditions statement, absolutely! Even in my head I’m thinking, how do I justify being disheartened because I failed to evade the attacks, but I didn’t feel like sharing the justification on camera would make for good content. Maybe I should add that aspect. Thanks for the conversation!

@@booksbricksandboards783 "Even in my head I’m thinking, how do I justify being disheartened because I failed to evade the attacks?" One thing I've discovered when it comes to interesting narrative is that the answers to weird questions and situations like those can lead to really interesting story beats if you think about them for a while and follow them down whatever rabbit whole they lead. I'd love to see you do more roleplaying and voices in your play. I've watched a lot of Me, Myself and Die and Trevor Devall is brilliant (he is a voice actor) but after a while I realized it wasn't the voices that made the show so compelling, it was his fantastic understanding of where a narrative had to go to be compelling. Specifically the kinds of things compelling characters do. You don't need to do great voices to that and I think you already do that well. The role playing helps us to feel what the character is feeling and get into their head. At least that's what I think.

Thank you for the feedback! Appreciate it!

Yeah, I mean best is always subjective. For me, it hits all of the right buttons. Also, I’m a little biased because I had a great couple sessions where the group didn’t want to try anything and this worked so well, and the system made them get comfortable actually roleplaying their actions. Great stuff. Nothing wrong with MHR either though! I wish that the character creation rules were a little more in depth, and that the product line was longer lived, but the game is great!

@@booksbricksandboards783 Yeah I'm still pretty miffed that it got strangled just as I was getting into it. If only we'd gotten one more wave of product. That's the way it goes with licensed properties sometimes I guess.

Yeah I read somewhere that it came down to the price of renewing the license, and based upon the sales, it just didn’t make sense for a small publisher like MWP to wrap up all their resources. Agreed though, it was a good system, and a shame it didn’t take off.

@booksbricksandboards783 I wouldn't be surprised if it was a victim of the success of the MCU- that license probably shot up dramatically in price around that time.

Yeah, timing would be about right.

Well, hopefully it didn’t disappoint. I have another solo play of Dragonbane that shows a manually rolled hero as well. That might interest you too. If enough folks want to see the Excel randomizer method I can definitely do a quick video on that. Takes about 5 minutes of code and you can create as many stat arrays as you desire with a click.

Appreciate it Jay! I know I always pull the quote from Conan the Barbarian, but I actually enjoyed Conan the Destroyer and Red Sonja as well… pretty much everything Conan, read most of the R E Howard stories (which are quite removed from the movies), and even the Marvel, Savage Sword of Conan books. He tends to always find his way into my warrior archetypal heroes!

@@booksbricksandboards783 I don't know if you have heard of this channel but they do a Cimmerian September reading event. th-cam.com/video/IQysA5YDx40/w-d-xo.htmlsi=F2LskuZDoOP2Xn6M All things Conan.

Thanks Michael. Playing Dragonbane is always a good time. The solo procedure makes it surprising and unique every playthrough. The emergent narrative is really strong.

Sounds like my kind of game. Booksbricksandboards@gmail.com

Sent you a mail from our brand PrintN'Play Games :)

@@AndrejaPopovik awesome! I will take a look when I get a little time. Thanks for your interest in the channel.

Ok, we can call off the search party folks… Not Tim has been found!😀 if you are looking for a one product solo solution, Dragonbane boxed set is pretty hard to beat… great system, comes with dice, standees and a play mat, AND a great in box solo campaign. Best value in an RPG product in years! Welcome back Not Tim!

@@booksbricksandboards783 Brother Justin - big hugs to you! Yes sir, I've been busy! This game quickly became incredibly popular with my intimate gaming circle and we have been playing it (almost) exclusively weekly for the past 2-ish months. My wife enjoys it so much that she wanted her own core rulebook! I own every DB product and preordered their Path to Glory adventure set. I owe my introduction to DB to you - thanks for smartening me up to cool games!

@@iamnottim. hey man that is awesome for two reasons. 1) you got to try a cool new game. 2) more importantly you get to share it with your wife. That is priceless brother. You also just wisened ME up to this new Dragonbane release that is upcoming, because I have not heard of that. Also, if you haven’t picked up the extra “standee” set, it is worth the money. Have a good weekend buddy!

Dean, you were one of the folks I was thinking about when I decided to make this one.

You are very welcome. The cover art is in that pseudo old school style, that mimics but doesn’t replicate… I am not a big fan of the cover either, but the internals of the books are worth the covers. Also, they made their product line incredibly confusing with their numerous entry points, but once you understand the method to the madness, it really is a great way to do it!

Solitary Defilement is a great way to run Mork Borg solo. Best of both worlds?

You need to know both the player and GM side of standard Forbidden Lands, then Book of Beasts modifies those rules slightly to account for the lack of GM.

Depending upon who was writing the material, the cultural and technological era of the setting meandered from Renaissance to medieval and everywhere between. I think Greenwood’s original was more of a Tolkien Middle Earth, but as the additional writers added bits and pieces it started to share more and more with our own earth. Thanks for watching!

@@booksbricksandboards783 Damn new YT layout just ate my reply again. FR swings through the European Medieval and Early Modern like Tarzan. No quick Internet searches. There was nothing to find. So the library was it. We are not all Ed G. So I needed some help running a big city. Im terrible with NPC names. So I stole lots from historical books. I actually have not played for nearly 25 years. How time flies. We mainly stuck around the High Forest and Dessairn river valley from Secomber to Hellgate Keep and Llorhk. Long running campaigns with many characters.

@@Yandarval thanks for sharing! I know that when we first played in Waterdeep, we spent some time in Yartar and outside the city fighting trolls. I just remember that being the first time I was ever excited about what the Inn had to offer (besides some free hit points!)

@@booksbricksandboards783 The first time is always fun. Especially a new system. Were I to restart my campaign. Looking around. i would have to chuck 80% of official lore around Whats been going on in my part of the woods (ha). My new country, Earlannd, is where a lot of stuff happened in the lore since I played. We resurrected the old Earlann. Cleaning out the valley up to Hellgate Keep took a lot of real time. So things like the Black networks "Silk Road over Annaroch was broken a long time ago, in out campaign. Thankfully, The Silver marches did not impinge much. As our declared borders stopped at the mountain range above Hellgate Keep. We had a lot of rangers and Mielikki worshipers over the years. If you have the old Wilderness Survival guide and the underground version. We even went to the extent of rolling up what resources were in the mountains. Population was aways a problem. RPing the diplomatic stuff and encouraging people to come live out here. As one player was a bank manager. We even had a proper economy going. Inflation, tax flow etc, the works. The main high level toons were around long enough, game time to have kids and for them to start adventuring. The OG ruling toons were all max possible level for Elves and half elves at the end. I think I was a Cleric 18/Ranger 16 of Mielikki. Vangadahast was often exasperated with me. kept breaking windows in the Palace when I had to leave in a hurry. Plus needling him about the "Forest Kingdom" thing about Cormyr. We have the High Forest in ours :D This ramble shows how ingrained the game must have been. Vomiting forth all this a quarter century later. I still have my FR Adventures and The North somewhere.

Now the next step is to put that latent game knowledge to practice again! I agree on the changes being a problem. I play the lore up to 2nd edition. Still enough empty sandbox for me at that point. Eventually it just all got too prescribed and didn’t leave much to make your own. Hence why those old box sets are still pretty useful!

You are not wrong! Also completely cross compatible with all TSR D&D, as well as modern retro clone materials.

Appreciate it. I have lots of older material, so when I am deciding on a topic, it is always a fallback position to share some thoughts on items in my collection. Thanks for watching!

Thanks sir!

Well, when I was a kid I didn’t have Undermountain and now, knowing about the well, I will just run the well as the entry point from the Yawning Portal. There are others though, many others… caverns that descend off of forgotten sewer access tunnels… private wells that were dug too deeply… and perhaps some holes were dug up from below, not down from above!