Correction- I attributed the preface to Brian Blume, whereas it was actually dedicated to Brian Blume (big letters where the author signature often is). So that was my bad, and big thanks to Frank for pointing out the discrepancy!
Loving the series, I've had the Rules Cyclopedia for years but have just started reading theough BECMI. I've got 2 of 3 levels mapped and stocked for the starting adventure, it's been great!
There really is a lot of content that is lost in the compilation of the RC. The RC is really great, but the teaching tools and examples that didn’t make the cut are pretty significant. Thanks for watching! Glad you are enjoying BECMI.
Glad you are excited about it. Putting the Masters video on Christmas Eve, and then the Immortals box video next Saturday. I’m also fully committed to doing a Rules Cyclopedia video, and likely will do some Creature Crucible, Champions of Mystara, Hollow World and Dawn of the Emperors over time. For my solo gaming fans, I also intend to do a Ruins of the Undercity playthrough using BECMI as the rules set. I will probably do some non-BECMI stuff after I get done with the RC video, as I have a few topics that have been sitting on my proverbial shelf waiting for my attention.
I always viewed the Companion Set as offering more options for your later play throughs. The genius of BECMI is that each set builds upon the information from the previous one. Later play throughs let you apply the options you did not have before.
Certainly a way to look at it. I think players that started with everything in the Rules Cyclopedia were drinking through a fire hose. There is a lot of content in the BECMI line.
Great post as always, Justin! Enjoying learning about the development of the game. Glad to hear that you're almost back from the Plague :-) To echo others in the comments, I'm happy to hear more about Beck, and like your idea of doing some solo play. Looking forward to the Christmas Eve post, dude, but given your workload, amazed that you manage to fit it all in!
Dave, thanks for watching buddy! The trick is that I took a vacation this week… so between festivities I have time to film Monday morning to have it ready for Christmas Eve!
Didn’t hurt that I was ready to film this one right up until I got home last Friday and lost an entire weekend to the plague! Still not 100% as my voice showed in the video, but getting there. Hopefully Master’s video will be first back to 100%. Then I can get the Immortal video done prior to the end of the year maybe.
@@booksbricksandboards783 yeah, i could hear a bit of the strain in the voice. rock and roll! it takes me forever to do a video and edit it, so it always shocks me when someone does it so quickly, prepared or not! :D well done :)
@ it’s kind of a matter of necessity. 😉 between the wife, 2 kids, job, preaching (second job), game group, and volunteer activities… I have a real narrow window to make it all work. Last few videos I have had some added technical difficulties that put me closer to the deadline than I’d like! 😀
Ah, my apologies, it does say Dedicated to Brian Blume, I guess I was just used to the author signing off in that section… well that certainly makes the oft neglected leader comment sound a lot less surprising. Thank you for the correction, and for the years of gaming you provided to my table and many others. I nitpick some items, but I really am a big fan of your work. Have a Merry Christmas Frank!
Bring back Beck! Bring back Beck! 😂 Don't let anyone except you and your awesome, devoted fans guide your choices for the channel. 😎 Mentzer is not a TH-cam expert. Great video. Poor poor thieves.
Lol, Dean, your comment is noted! I’m honestly considering a later solo game on camera using some form of Beck to explore The Ruins of the Undercity (great solo product from Kabuki Kaiser). Of course I also have Ronin solo play to get to as well… so many games, so little time!
Hey Justin, I hope that you are feeling better after 'The Plague'. I just wanted to say that this is a great video. I love the diorama matching the cover. I, myself, never played BECMI as I started with AD&D but I love your history of the game. On a personal note, I would be interested in seeing a solo BECMI game to see how it plays, if you’re interested in such a thing.
Andy, thanks for chiming in! I played a lot of 2e myself, but with elements of 1e added. I am looking at reintroducing Beck from the earlier videos into a solo play in The Ruins of the Undercity, which would show off what you are looking to see (using BECMI rules of course). Not sure how soon I will do that, but it is in the hopper.
Really enjoying this series. I wouldn't mind seeing more from Bec. I liked how you integrated his story in the videos. I never got a chance to play the CMI portion of BECMI, so it is a treat to see all that great art and hear your thoughts on it. I've been intrigued to try a kingdom management style game, but also I'm terrible at book keeping and math. My strengths have always been the storytelling and NPCs of the game. So I'm not sure how good of a GM I'd be for those aspects of the rules. Anyway, looking forward to the next set and video!
You are in luck, as the math isn’t the strong point of those systems at any rate 😉. I’m told they are easily gamed and exploited, I find them best used as a means to drive the story you are talking about, and in that regard they are excellent in my optinion. Thanks for watching!
Thank you Jeff. I hated to have to delay a week to put this out, but the body just wouldn’t cooperate… glad that timing will still allow me to get all the boxed set videos done before the end of the year!
To you as well James! Thanks for watching. I’ll have the Master’s video on Xmas Eve, and the plan is to get the Immortal Set video out next Saturday… so all the boxes before the end of the year!
Thanks so much for this video series. It's a good place to point my friends when I tell them _WHY_ I prefer to run BECMI. I asked in the Expert video, but only just today: How did you print? Do you have a color printer? Did you take it to a printer? Also, what lsize is the binder and thickness of the sheet protectors? Thanks so much!!
Appreciated. I have a Canon Laser Printer. It is slightly more expensive than a standard printer, but I do a lot of printing. Per page laser printers are pretty cost effective. Binder is 4” and it just barely fits. Sleeves are Pen & Gear brand “heavyweight” sleeves. Be sure to check out the Master’s video which will release on Christmas Eve at 8:00 pm.
I picked this up in PDF form for war machine and…I just didn’t get it. But you do a good job showing why you like it and how it launched you into a fun new world!
Those rules are presented again in the Rules Cyclopedia, but I think they are pretty much same format. I know that people complained the formula took too long to calculate, but with the worksheet I didn’t think it was too bad. Sorry it didn’t click for you, you aren’t alone there.
@booksbricksandboards783 that would be awesome to watch, im thinking of starting a solo game with DCC soon. Your channel has been a great motivator for that
I have a bunch of comments on the various subsystems, but yeah, it would have been great to have these options earlier. By the time you are 15th level, the scale mail and even the banded mail are far far far in the past, with all fighters, clerics, dwarves and elves in magical plate mails more often than not. As for the Druid, I firmly believe that the option would not be unbalanced from 1st level onwards. Especially as the Cleric gives up the Turn Undead ability, which is VERY important ability that the Cleric has. To be honest, Druids work better as NPCs, IMHO, unless the campaign is very wilderness/exploration heavy.
I read somewhere that a writer asked Mentzer, “why wait until 9th for Druids?” His response was basically, Druids are harder to play, so he wanted more experienced players running them. Makes sense. That said, starting a Druid at level 1 should work fine.
Bob, thank you! I’m thinking about a solo series running Beck through the Ruins of the Undercity, using the BECMI rules of course. It would give the chance to see his further adventures and to further demonstrate the system.
War Machine It was an excellent system and a revelation when I read it the first time. That being said, it has some significant mathematic/reality check issues. 1. Level of the troops hardly matters. It is just +2 per level, meaning your troop of a hundred 8th level guys will end up fighting more or less evenly against 101 guys of 1st level, given equivalent training, equipment and leadership. FIX: Use the Total Level rather than the Number of troops for the Troop Ratio modifier later on. Thus, those 100 8th level guys would get 8:1 bonus against 100 1st level guys. 2. By contrast, the name level bonus is broken beyond belief if you have a team of elites. A pair of 9th level fighters would get a bonus of +200 from being a unit of 100% name level or above, and thus be able to beat up several hundred of 8th level fighters. By contrast, if the Dynamic Duo is suddenly joined by a troop of 100 1st level fighters, their bonus collapses to +4, and they struggle to fight against an equivalent group of 102 1st level fighters. FIX: Make it +2 per 1% OR a person, whichever is worse. Thus, those two 9th level guys would get +4, and hence their behinds handed to them by 100 8th level fighters, as they should. Now the name level characters act as officers and champions, as they should. 3. Troop Ratio calculation implies that merely having a 1% advantage in numbers confers the same benefit as having 50%. This seems way too generous. You should need a significant advantage of numbers. FIX: Make it that you need to have the ratio to get the bonus. Thus, 1.01 to 1.49 gets no bonus, 1.50 to 1.99 gets the +whatever, and so forth. 4. This is more of a personal gripe... I dislike how granular the Training BFR calculation is, requiring me to know exactly how many battles the unit has won or lost during the last year, how many weeks they were in training and months on duty, etc. I would much rather have these as a general modifier at the end to go to BR: Militia -20% of BFR, High morale elites +20% of BFR. Something like that. But this is more of a personal preference, as I said.
Nice detailed response… one note, the way attack tables progressed and the smaller hit dice does make the difference in potency between levels of fighter smaller in many levels of BECMI than other editions… but your point is still well made. As written, probably ready to be taken advantage of.
@booksbricksandboards783 I thought it was OK for what it was. Hard to recall 1992 tho. I think it was simple enough to handle, and moves things along. We were playing 2nd edition by then, and I don't recall if the 2nd Ed battlesystem was out by then, but I went with the companion set because I didn't want to learn a big complicated system
Ty, I’m thinking about doing a solo series with Beck exploring the Ruins of the Undercity (Kabuki Kaiser product). There have been a few of you that requested his return. I’d do the play through in BECMI rules.
Thanks buddy! You deserve as much credit as anyone. You sharing them on Facebook generated the buzz that has made them work. Appreciate it! Merry Christmas! Remember to check in on Christmas Eve for the Master’s book.
Dominion Rules Again, I liked these the first I saw them. However, I couldn't help but feel that the dominion disasters and the like were lacking guidance. A roll table for random events would have been much better than a mere list. Later on, I have noticed another issue: Dominion Income giving XP. I would remove this. First of all, at these levels, minor dominions do not give enough XP to matter. However, major dominions give so much XP that every baron should be already a max level in their class! Duke Stefan Karameikos has ruled for three decades a grand duchy whose population is in the hundreds of thousands. He must be clocking around 100 000 XP from dominion income per month! How come he is just on 15th level? In short, the dominion income giving XP is breaking the game world. I have the same issue with GAZ 3 magical research giving XP. I want to like it, I really do, but it becomes a way to either double dip (gaining XP for getting the treasure and then also for spending it), and worse, a way to launder your Dominion Income into XP that the other classes cannot do.
Correction- I attributed the preface to Brian Blume, whereas it was actually dedicated to Brian Blume (big letters where the author signature often is). So that was my bad, and big thanks to Frank for pointing out the discrepancy!
Loving the series, I've had the Rules Cyclopedia for years but have just started reading theough BECMI. I've got 2 of 3 levels mapped and stocked for the starting adventure, it's been great!
There really is a lot of content that is lost in the compilation of the RC. The RC is really great, but the teaching tools and examples that didn’t make the cut are pretty significant. Thanks for watching! Glad you are enjoying BECMI.
More BECMI? Excellent! 😀
Glad you are excited about it. Putting the Masters video on Christmas Eve, and then the Immortals box video next Saturday. I’m also fully committed to doing a Rules Cyclopedia video, and likely will do some Creature Crucible, Champions of Mystara, Hollow World and Dawn of the Emperors over time. For my solo gaming fans, I also intend to do a Ruins of the Undercity playthrough using BECMI as the rules set. I will probably do some non-BECMI stuff after I get done with the RC video, as I have a few topics that have been sitting on my proverbial shelf waiting for my attention.
I always viewed the Companion Set as offering more options for your later play throughs.
The genius of BECMI is that each set builds upon the information from the previous one. Later play throughs let you apply the options you did not have before.
Certainly a way to look at it. I think players that started with everything in the Rules Cyclopedia were drinking through a fire hose. There is a lot of content in the BECMI line.
Great post as always, Justin! Enjoying learning about the development of the game. Glad to hear that you're almost back from the Plague :-) To echo others in the comments, I'm happy to hear more about Beck, and like your idea of doing some solo play. Looking forward to the Christmas Eve post, dude, but given your workload, amazed that you manage to fit it all in!
Dave, thanks for watching buddy! The trick is that I took a vacation this week… so between festivities I have time to film Monday morning to have it ready for Christmas Eve!
Also, thank you for sharing thoughts on Beck as well!
boy, you were quick! well done! waiting for the master and the immortal, and then the sky is the limit :)
Didn’t hurt that I was ready to film this one right up until I got home last Friday and lost an entire weekend to the plague! Still not 100% as my voice showed in the video, but getting there. Hopefully Master’s video will be first back to 100%. Then I can get the Immortal video done prior to the end of the year maybe.
@@booksbricksandboards783 yeah, i could hear a bit of the strain in the voice. rock and roll! it takes me forever to do a video and edit it, so it always shocks me when someone does it so quickly, prepared or not! :D
well done :)
@ it’s kind of a matter of necessity. 😉 between the wife, 2 kids, job, preaching (second job), game group, and volunteer activities… I have a real narrow window to make it all work. Last few videos I have had some added technical difficulties that put me closer to the deadline than I’d like! 😀
Wups -- the Preface (by me) ended with a Dedication to (TSR co-founder) Brian Blume. He didn't write anything for BECMI tho.
Ah, my apologies, it does say Dedicated to Brian Blume, I guess I was just used to the author signing off in that section… well that certainly makes the oft neglected leader comment sound a lot less surprising. Thank you for the correction, and for the years of gaming you provided to my table and many others. I nitpick some items, but I really am a big fan of your work. Have a Merry Christmas Frank!
very nice and clean informative video Justin. I didn't grow up with this stuff but it's cool learning the history
Garaleos, thanks buddy! You are an honorary Grognard, even if your age would indicate otherwise.
@booksbricksandboards783 haha. good to hear!
Certainly
Bring back Beck! Bring back Beck! 😂
Don't let anyone except you and your awesome, devoted fans guide your choices for the channel. 😎 Mentzer is not a TH-cam expert.
Great video. Poor poor thieves.
Lol, Dean, your comment is noted! I’m honestly considering a later solo game on camera using some form of Beck to explore The Ruins of the Undercity (great solo product from Kabuki Kaiser). Of course I also have Ronin solo play to get to as well… so many games, so little time!
Hey Justin, I hope that you are feeling better after 'The Plague'. I just wanted to say that this is a great video. I love the diorama matching the cover. I, myself, never played BECMI as I started with AD&D but I love your history of the game. On a personal note, I would be interested in seeing a solo BECMI game to see how it plays, if you’re interested in such a thing.
Andy, thanks for chiming in! I played a lot of 2e myself, but with elements of 1e added. I am looking at reintroducing Beck from the earlier videos into a solo play in The Ruins of the Undercity, which would show off what you are looking to see (using BECMI rules of course). Not sure how soon I will do that, but it is in the hopper.
Thanks Justin! Never owned this set but thanks to your review I’ll pick it up before our characters pass name level.
Thanks for watching Karl, I am glad you enjoyed the video!
Really enjoying this series. I wouldn't mind seeing more from Bec. I liked how you integrated his story in the videos. I never got a chance to play the CMI portion of BECMI, so it is a treat to see all that great art and hear your thoughts on it. I've been intrigued to try a kingdom management style game, but also I'm terrible at book keeping and math. My strengths have always been the storytelling and NPCs of the game. So I'm not sure how good of a GM I'd be for those aspects of the rules. Anyway, looking forward to the next set and video!
You are in luck, as the math isn’t the strong point of those systems at any rate 😉. I’m told they are easily gamed and exploited, I find them best used as a means to drive the story you are talking about, and in that regard they are excellent in my optinion. Thanks for watching!
Fantastic video again! Love this series!
Thank you Jeff. I hated to have to delay a week to put this out, but the body just wouldn’t cooperate… glad that timing will still allow me to get all the boxed set videos done before the end of the year!
Great video my Brother! I would like to wish you a wonderful holiday season
To you as well James! Thanks for watching. I’ll have the Master’s video on Xmas Eve, and the plan is to get the Immortal Set video out next Saturday… so all the boxes before the end of the year!
Yessssss 🤘🏻🤘🏻🔥
Thanks for watching!
It's Xmas already!
Nah, this is the warm up… I have the Master’s Video in the works for Christmas Eve!
❤
Thanks so much for this video series. It's a good place to point my friends when I tell them _WHY_ I prefer to run BECMI. I asked in the Expert video, but only just today: How did you print? Do you have a color printer? Did you take it to a printer? Also, what lsize is the binder and thickness of the sheet protectors? Thanks so much!!
Appreciated. I have a Canon Laser Printer. It is slightly more expensive than a standard printer, but I do a lot of printing. Per page laser printers are pretty cost effective. Binder is 4” and it just barely fits. Sleeves are Pen & Gear brand “heavyweight” sleeves. Be sure to check out the Master’s video which will release on Christmas Eve at 8:00 pm.
@@booksbricksandboards783 I will definitely be there! A wonderful gift from Dungeon Claus!
We will see you there.
I picked this up in PDF form for war machine and…I just didn’t get it. But you do a good job showing why you like it and how it launched you into a fun new world!
Those rules are presented again in the Rules Cyclopedia, but I think they are pretty much same format. I know that people complained the formula took too long to calculate, but with the worksheet I didn’t think it was too bad. Sorry it didn’t click for you, you aren’t alone there.
@@booksbricksandboards783 the hobby is both wide and deep!
Bring on the Beck!
Lol. Thanks Ethan. How would you feel about a later solo series that used Beck to explore the Ruins of the Undercity, by Kabuki Kaiser?
@booksbricksandboards783 that would be awesome to watch, im thinking of starting a solo game with DCC soon. Your channel has been a great motivator for that
@@ethangrant5061 hey man that is fantastic to hear! There is no reason that schedules not lining up should prevent you from enjoying a good RPG!
I'm totally fine with Beck.
I’ve got a plan for Beck. I think I’m going to run a solo series with him (using BECMI rules and Ruins of the Undercity). Thanks for the input!
I have a bunch of comments on the various subsystems, but yeah, it would have been great to have these options earlier.
By the time you are 15th level, the scale mail and even the banded mail are far far far in the past, with all fighters, clerics, dwarves and elves in magical plate mails more often than not.
As for the Druid, I firmly believe that the option would not be unbalanced from 1st level onwards. Especially as the Cleric gives up the Turn Undead ability, which is VERY important ability that the Cleric has. To be honest, Druids work better as NPCs, IMHO, unless the campaign is very wilderness/exploration heavy.
I read somewhere that a writer asked Mentzer, “why wait until 9th for Druids?” His response was basically, Druids are harder to play, so he wanted more experienced players running them. Makes sense. That said, starting a Druid at level 1 should work fine.
Another great video, and I want to know “what happened to Beck!?”
Bob, thank you! I’m thinking about a solo series running Beck through the Ruins of the Undercity, using the BECMI rules of course. It would give the chance to see his further adventures and to further demonstrate the system.
@ that would be amazing to watch that!!!! Thanks for all the effort and work for these videos!
@ Bob, thanks for watching! Appreciate the input too!
War Machine
It was an excellent system and a revelation when I read it the first time. That being said, it has some significant mathematic/reality check issues.
1. Level of the troops hardly matters. It is just +2 per level, meaning your troop of a hundred 8th level guys will end up fighting more or less evenly against 101 guys of 1st level, given equivalent training, equipment and leadership.
FIX: Use the Total Level rather than the Number of troops for the Troop Ratio modifier later on. Thus, those 100 8th level guys would get 8:1 bonus against 100 1st level guys.
2. By contrast, the name level bonus is broken beyond belief if you have a team of elites. A pair of 9th level fighters would get a bonus of +200 from being a unit of 100% name level or above, and thus be able to beat up several hundred of 8th level fighters. By contrast, if the Dynamic Duo is suddenly joined by a troop of 100 1st level fighters, their bonus collapses to +4, and they struggle to fight against an equivalent group of 102 1st level fighters.
FIX: Make it +2 per 1% OR a person, whichever is worse. Thus, those two 9th level guys would get +4, and hence their behinds handed to them by 100 8th level fighters, as they should. Now the name level characters act as officers and champions, as they should.
3. Troop Ratio calculation implies that merely having a 1% advantage in numbers confers the same benefit as having 50%. This seems way too generous. You should need a significant advantage of numbers.
FIX: Make it that you need to have the ratio to get the bonus. Thus, 1.01 to 1.49 gets no bonus, 1.50 to 1.99 gets the +whatever, and so forth.
4. This is more of a personal gripe... I dislike how granular the Training BFR calculation is, requiring me to know exactly how many battles the unit has won or lost during the last year, how many weeks they were in training and months on duty, etc. I would much rather have these as a general modifier at the end to go to BR: Militia -20% of BFR, High morale elites +20% of BFR. Something like that. But this is more of a personal preference, as I said.
Nice detailed response… one note, the way attack tables progressed and the smaller hit dice does make the difference in potency between levels of fighter smaller in many levels of BECMI than other editions… but your point is still well made. As written, probably ready to be taken advantage of.
Bring back Bec.. Give the man a castle.
Lol. Beck has been … beckoned?
I did actually use the mass combat system a few times in my adnd games
Did you enjoy the Warmachine, or think it was just ok?
@booksbricksandboards783 I thought it was OK for what it was. Hard to recall 1992 tho. I think it was simple enough to handle, and moves things along. We were playing 2nd edition by then, and I don't recall if the 2nd Ed battlesystem was out by then, but I went with the companion set because I didn't want to learn a big complicated system
We only used it a few times. The warts would likely be more evident if we played it more.
Bring back Beck
Ty, I’m thinking about doing a solo series with Beck exploring the Ruins of the Undercity (Kabuki Kaiser product). There have been a few of you that requested his return. I’d do the play through in BECMI rules.
Great video Justin. Thank You for this perfect showcase and I am really looking forward to Master Set on Christmas Eve. 😊
Thanks Dangar! I have it all written out, just have to get it filmed and edited.
Loving these vids. Merry Christmas good Sir.
Thanks buddy! You deserve as much credit as anyone. You sharing them on Facebook generated the buzz that has made them work. Appreciate it! Merry Christmas! Remember to check in on Christmas Eve for the Master’s book.
@@booksbricksandboards783 look forward to it.
Thanks Matt.
Dominion Rules
Again, I liked these the first I saw them. However, I couldn't help but feel that the dominion disasters and the like were lacking guidance. A roll table for random events would have been much better than a mere list.
Later on, I have noticed another issue: Dominion Income giving XP. I would remove this. First of all, at these levels, minor dominions do not give enough XP to matter. However, major dominions give so much XP that every baron should be already a max level in their class! Duke Stefan Karameikos has ruled for three decades a grand duchy whose population is in the hundreds of thousands. He must be clocking around 100 000 XP from dominion income per month! How come he is just on 15th level? In short, the dominion income giving XP is breaking the game world.
I have the same issue with GAZ 3 magical research giving XP. I want to like it, I really do, but it becomes a way to either double dip (gaining XP for getting the treasure and then also for spending it), and worse, a way to launder your Dominion Income into XP that the other classes cannot do.
Lol yeah, gotta handwave the rules for NPC’s.