Preview of H&A for Crusader 12 and 13 *crunch*

[Fiffergrund]

Matthew asked me to give a sneak peak in another thread, so I figured I'd start a new one here instead of derailing that one.

H&A for issue 12 is another installment in the ongoing campaign setting series, but this one deals with house rules.

It contains modifications to:

Assassins (skills and alignment)

Rogues (skills)

Fighters (this is probably the biggest change in terms of crunch - attack progression, specialization, combat dominance - all changed, with more added)

Clerics (turning undead the big change here)

Wizards (weapons and armor allowed, spell list, spells per day)

Rangers (favored enemy and combat marauders changes)

It also has a simple but effective Weapons vs. Armor table.

H&A for Crusader 13 will contain some arcane magic-related rules, as well as a sample spell list for levels 0-9. My plan is 4 spells per level, so that should provide 40 spells that are either modified or entirely new. Some of the spells will allow extrapolation, too. For example, if a second level spell has a 7th level "big brother" with greater effect, I don't waste space on two entries - it's covered in the first.
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Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

[serleran]

Interesting. I'll have to compare to some of the things I've considered (or posted about.)

[Matthew]

Sounds interesting! Are the skills for Assassins and Rogues combat related?
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[Fiffergrund]

serleran wrote:
Interesting. I'll have to compare to some of the things I've considered (or posted about.)

I've tried to avoid threads that I knew ventured into the territory. I didn't read the weapon v. armor stuff at all until I submitted the copy. I figured that was just prudent and I definitely don't want to borrow ideas from anyone, even accidentally, and pass them off as my own.

matthew wrote:
Sounds interesting! Are the skills for Assassins and Rogues combat related?

No, its just a simple method by which assassins and thieves can specialize their skills.

[Fiffergrund]

Also, I should probably clarify that most, if not all, of the house rules simply build upon or just slightly tweak what is already in the core rules. There are some new things, to be sure, but the rest may be underwhelming if one is expecting a wholesale redesign of some of this stuff.
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Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

[Matthew]

Fiffergrund wrote:
No, its just a simple method by which assassins and thieves can specialize their skills.

Right you are; I will try to curtail my curiosity until I have a copy.
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It is a joyful thing indeed to hold intimate converse with a man after ones own heart, chatting without reserve about things of interest or the fleeting topics of the world; but such, alas, are few and far between.

Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350)

[serleran]

Quote:
I've tried to avoid threads that I knew ventured into the territory. I didn't read the weapon v. armor stuff at all until I submitted the copy. I figured that was just prudent and I definitely don't want to borrow ideas from anyone, even accidentally, and pass them off as my own.

Absolutely -- just interested in seeing what you came up with, so I can compare to what I came up with.

[Fiffergrund]

Well, I *can* drop more hints. We haven't seen #11 yet so #12 is at least a month away.

The Assassin/Rogue customization thing is based on an idea I pitched during the C&C design, back in the day. The method in the article is how I wanted the core rules to look. It was one of those things that was easy to abandon in favor of the simple core method, and I could save my energies for other battles. It's nothing special, believe me. Dozens of people probably came up with the same idea spontaneously - that's how common-sensical it is.

I'm happy with my fighter alterations. I've always felt that weapon specialization as a skill did a disservice to the class. The real strength of the class is the ability to use any weapon and any armor. My modifications downplay specialization. It's no longer the default ability at 1st level, though it can be chosen as part of a list of options. Some of the other choices include Marksman, Tactician, Florentine, and Sword and Board.

The Ranger is barely touched. It just better reflects the particulars of the campaign setting.

Clerics are pretty much as described in issue #8. No big surprises there.

Wizards took some thought. They are really a specialist necromancer class. I don't call them Necromancers, though, because that is not their name, in-game.

Weapon v. Armor has several general categories of weapon applied against the usual armor types, rather than armor class. Types are general, and include natural armor. Categories of weapon include missile and melee, and blunt, piercing, and slashing. Pretty standard stuff. The table itself isn't remarkable. What is remarkable is what naturally happens to the fighter class (or any other class that has a variety of weapon choices) when this thing is used.
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Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back

[moriarty777]

This sounds AWESOME.

Thanks for giving a taste of what's ahead!

Now is only if issue 10 could show up. When were these sent out again?

*grumble*

I'm beginning to despise my postal service.

M
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[Treebore]

That is the kind of stuff I'll enjoy reading.
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[Fiffergrund]

I hope it is enjoyable. It's pretty obvious where most of my inspiration comes from for this stuff, (1E), and it's nothing terribly cerebral. It's just meant as an example for CKs that may want to try their first homebrew. A CK can make some simple changes to the baseline and really change the feel of the game. Lots of us know this already, but there's nothing like seeing it in black and white.
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Sir Fiffergrund, Lord Marshal of the Castle and Crusade Society.

He Who Hides Behind The Elephant's Back