Praise and "Pulp Urban Arcana" Questions

[Beastmaster]

Brand new member here, had to join the Trolls' boards so I can talk about Amazing Adventures.
I bought all the PDFs for this line a bit back & loved what I read so much I just purchased the whole lot in hardcopy from the TLG store (Core, Companion, Modules, Screen, Character Sheets & Manual of Monsters)! I also added hardcovers of C&C Classic Monsters: The Manual & Monsters & Treasure of Airdhe because you can NEVER have enough monsters, right?

I would've picked up Monsters & Treasure, but the TLG store only has it in 4th printing a/k/a color... No good for me - sorry, not sorry.
Part of the awesome for me is that old-school look & feel, color interior ruins that imagery and illusion IMHO.
I did find a 3rd printing w/ b&w interior on a used store sight, though - Yay me!!!

Anyways, I was wondering if the author or another kind forum member could lend a hand answering a few AA questions.
I saw in Appendix 2 of MoM some guidelines on Monsters as Player Characters. This is what sweetened the AA pot for me, personally and prompted me to buy the whole line all over again but in dead tree this time around (truth be told)! I started dreaming up a world where magic, races, mythical creatures, etc. were always real and evolved into the pulp era... So, what classes would be appropriate for each of the following:

Catfolk, Centaurs, Dwarves, Elves, Half-Elves, Halflings, Pixies, and Satyrs?

I just HAVE to have a "Pulp Urban Arcana" for Amazing Adventures! I know without doubt that this is the right system to pull it off unlike d20 Modern/Past. Better Classes, no complicated or rules-heavy mechanics, no F/X stuff, etc. etc. ad nauseam!!!
Quite honestly, wouldn't this idea make a killer small PDF add-on document for the game, Jason?
I seem to recall seeing somewhere on these boards where Steve was wanting you to contribute small digital content?

Either way, can I just get the class ideas from you for the races I mentioned above (please Jason, oh pretty puh-leeeaze)?!?
I'm planning on running this very soon and would be happy to provide feedback

[koralas]

A lot will depend on how you view those races. What are you using for your source for them? In my mind I would go something like this -

Catfolk - Acrobat (for a more combat oriented Duelist/Acrobat, for "stealthy" Hooligan/Acrobat)
Centaurs - Feral or Archer
Dwarves - Soldier
Elves - Archer or Archer/Arcanist (Int)
Half-Elves - Raider or Duelist/Arcanist (Any)
Halflings - Hooligan or Gumshoe
Pixies - Hooligan or Hooligan/Arcanist (Cha)
Sprites - Hooligan or Hooligan/Acanist (Wis)
Satyr (Greek depiction, Human like with horse tail, ears, and well I wont say - Socialite/Acrobat
Satyr (Roman depiction, like a faun, goat legs) - Socialite/Hooligan

Note that I would use Class and a Half rules for those so identified.

[Beastmaster]

Thanks for chiming in, koralas, much appreciated!
How I view them? I was kinda just picking everyone's brain,
hoping to mostly piggy-back races from fantasy to suitable pulp counterparts
(with some liberties taken here & there, based upon feedback).

Catfolk make good thief-rangers in my eyes, so wasn't sure if I should go acrobat, archer, hooligan... Do you think Hooligan/Acrobat still or Hooligan/Archer? Can there be an Acrobat/Archer or too buff?
>>>Remember, I'm a noob, don't know all the do's/don'ts yet.
Centaurs I can see as Feral, and they're good at archery as well, so I can dig the Feral/Archer.
Dwarves as Soldiers? Dead on, they're fighters in any plain fantasy game.
Elves Archers/Arcanists... I like, but man, lots of Archers already though... Anything we could alter?
Half-Elven Raiders? I would've never thunk it, but makes sense
For Halfling, couldn't Gumshoe/Hooligan be combined or would that not mesh very well?
Pixie Hooligan/Arcanist - NICE!
Satyr Socialite/Hooligan? I suppose I can see that -- and yeah, the half-man/half-goat, btw

Classes I would've loved to seen my races used?
Gadgeteer, Gunslinger, Pirate, and Pugilist.
Are Pixies as Gunslingers or Pirates doable? I bet they'd be lethal with a (bit on the wee-sized) smokin' gun.
A Pixie Arcanist/Pirate? Whoa! Wouldn't that be sweet?!?
With no Gnomes in my setting, I'll probably work something to where Humans and Dwarves (who are good at creating fantasy weapons) feed the Gadgeteers their wonderful toys.

All are just thoughts, and I'd love to see what else you (and anyone else, for that matter) can help me crazy up in such a strange setting as this.
So, sincerely, THANK YOU KORALAS for some very valuable input (didn't know if anyone would ever respond )!!!

P.S. -- Sorry, finarvyn, just saw you removed my font color and bold text. Didn't know that was wrong to do when posting, just assumed it was safe though, since the option is there & all. I already edited this post myself and removed it all before you had to.
Again, All Apologies if I (unknowingly) crossed any lines

[Jason Vey]

I'd recommend for what you want to do, to pick up the C&C Castle Keeper's Guide, if you haven't already. The current edition of AA is 100% compatible with C&C and the Companion includes guidelines for mixing the two. The CKG, then, has pretty detailed sections on creating new races for your game. Plus, it's just an all-around great resource for both C&C and AA!

[Beastmaster]

Yep, picked up the CKG 1st Ed (b&w) & C&C player's Handbook 4th ed (the last edition in b&w) when I bought my used Monsters & Treasures
Anyway, the CKG is cool but, it doesn't tell me what races are appropriate for which pulp classes in AA,
which is the advice I'm seeking. Building a race is easy for me, bc the info exists already,
finding a modernish class to pair 'em up with, however, isn't.
I'm very thankful that at least some kind member chipped in with a few ideas,
it'd be nice to know he or she isn't the only helpful member of this community.
Again, I'm new & I just shelled out over $200 to TLG...
Couldn't the fan base or authors give me some free ideas at the very least???

[Beastmaster]

Wow, what a stellar community!
A mod that introduces himself to newbies without words or welcome, he just edits the colors of your post for his only "Hello".
An author whose work and publishing efforts you help support has no useful free advice to give (but I'm sure he'll be happy to keep pocketing any incentives from the money you dish out).
No, the only person that offered up anything helpful at all was a solitary fan.
Sad that even with all the folks that live here on these 'boards this community has but a single, decent member that cares about how they're all perceived.
It's hilarious that I got e-mails asking for my purchases to be reviewed.
Maybe I should? I'll be just as sure to tell everyone at the FLGS shops I game at not to expect any support if purchasing Troll Lord products...
Perception is reality in the eyes of a customer, after all,
and the way I see it is: "We'll take your money, give you what is already written, but don't expect any further support."

[finarvyn]

Wow, what a stellar community!

Sorry that you have had such a poor experience on these boards. This really is a wonderful place, but at the moment it seems like not so many folks are posting here. (sound of crickets in the background)

A mod that introduces himself to newbies without words or welcome, he just edits the colors of your post for his only "Hello".

Hello, and welcome. My edit of your post was not intended to be offensive. You didn’t “cross any lines” but you’ll notice that folks stick to standard font size, standard color, and so on. I was trying to be unobtrusive and not call you out or anything like that.

An author whose work and publishing efforts you help support has no useful free advice to give (but I'm sure he'll be happy to keep pocketing any incentives from the money you dish out).

In Jason (Grey Elf)’s defense, he did make a suggestion for where you could find some guildelines which are already published. I agree that it’s not as helpful since you need to acquire another rulebook, but I think that most folks discover AA through their exposure to C&C and I suspect he was trying to point you in the direction of a rulebook that he probably thought you owned already. Jason’s a great guy but he doesn’t pop in here often, and I’m sure he will be disappointed to find that you felt that he blew you off in his reply.

No, the only person that offered up anything helpful at all was a solitary fan. Sad that even with all the folks that live here on these 'boards this community has but a single, decent member that cares about how they're all perceived.

Koralas did a great job in his suggestions, actually. I read his thoughts and didn’t feel like I had much to contribute. I suppose I could have posted a “me too” thing, but I felt that Koralas summed up things quite nicely.

It's hilarious that I got e-mails asking for my purchases to be reviewed.

I’ll bet that it’s an automatic response function of the TLG store. It’s certainly not connected to the boards.

Maybe I should? I'll be just as sure to tell everyone at the FLGS shops I game at not to expect any support if purchasing Troll Lord products...

Perception is reality in the eyes of a customer, after all, and the way I see it is: "We'll take your money, give you what is already written, but don't expect any further support."

So your thought is that if you ask a question on a company’s boards and don’t get much of a reply, then you should stop supporting that company? I’m sorry that this was your conclusion.

How about a bit of a do-over?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey, Beastmaster! Welcome to the boards! Your experience is a lot like mine, except that I found C&C first and this led me to purchase all of the AA products that I could find.

I saw in Appendix 2 of MoM some guidelines on Monsters as Player Characters. This is what sweetened the AA pot for me, personally and prompted me to buy the whole line all over again but in dead tree this time around (truth be told)! I started dreaming up a world where magic, races, mythical creatures, etc. were always real and evolved into the pulp era... So, what classes would be appropriate for each of the following:

Catfolk, Centaurs, Dwarves, Elves, Half-Elves, Halflings, Pixies, and Satyrs?

I think that I would divide races into general piles, and then select classes that fit those piles.
1) Fighter types -- centaurs, dwarves, half elves, satyrs
2) Stealthy types -- catfolk, elves, half elves, halflings
3) Spellslinger types -- elves, half elves, pixies

At least, that seems to be the way I see the races off the top of my head.

I just HAVE to have a "Pulp Urban Arcana" for Amazing Adventures! I know without doubt that this is the right system to pull it off unlike d20 Modern/Past. Better Classes, no complicated or rules-heavy mechanics, no F/X stuff, etc. etc. ad nauseam!!!

I have the d20 Urban Arcana rulebook and think that it’s pretty easy to convert d20 materials to C&C or AA since the basic rules system was built on the 3E SRD. It would be a nice book to have, and I would certainly buy one, but most of what you need is already in print in the d20 version. I'd like to have something that would allow me to run some sort of Harry Dresden campaign.

I'm not sure what sourcebooks that Jason is working on at the moment, but yours is a great suggestion!

Maybe that helps a bit?

[Jason Vey]

Yeah, sorry, I somehow completely overlooked your thoughts about monsters as PCs. I really think Koralas nailed it. My suggestions would be right in line with his, save that Centaurs wouldn't work very well as ferals since they'd have a tough time with the whole "Swinging through trees" bit.

I don't know why, but I kind of love the idea of a centaur gumshoe, though...

Also, as Fin said, I wasn't trying to blow you off at all. Sorry if it came off that way. I'm working 3 jobs these days which doesn't leave me as much time to post as I once had. Also, I don't get any cash incentives. What I do as a freelancer is work for hire, so no, I'm not "pocketing" any extra money from your purchases.