Just what the subject says. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this system and its various games.

Thanks!

Quote from: Dan Davenport;450161Just what the subject says. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this system and its various games.

Thanks!

I've played Coyote Trail. It is a really good Western RPG that is simple to learn and easy to run. The combat can be scaled from gritty to spaghetti level depending on what you are looking for in your westerns. Two supplements are fantastic: The Cowtown Creator book and the Knuckleduster Firearms Shop. The American Indian supplement (PDF) was also surprisingly good. I wasn't expecting as much depth in such a small package.

The only downside that I've experienced with the system is the tendency of Fitness to be the "Uber Stat." Since so many skills and combat characteristics involve the Fitness stat, it tends to get most of the points at character creation. Since most people want to be rough and tumble cowboys, outlaws, or lawmen, Fitness seems important enough to those types not to worry too much about this. A minor quibble for me to be sure....

Quote from: PaladinCA;450183The only downside that I've experienced with the system is the tendency of Fitness to be the "Uber Stat." Since so many skills and combat characteristics involve the Fitness stat, it tends to get most of the points at character creation. Since most people want to be rough and tumble cowboys, outlaws, or lawmen, Fitness seems important enough to those types not to worry too much about this. A minor quibble for me to be sure....

Does the combination of strength and agility/dexterity annoy you at all? Or does the system have a way of dealing with that? IIRC, some genreDiversion games have perks to make characters stronger/more agile/etc. than their Fitness stat.

Quote from: Dan Davenport;450187Does the combination of strength and agility/dexterity annoy you at all? Or does the system have a way of dealing with that? IIRC, some genreDiversion games have perks to make characters stronger/more agile/etc. than their Fitness stat.

I'm actually more bothered by Fitness being Strength/Agility/Health. There may have been an option to gain greater differentiation between the three areas, but I might not be remembering it correctly. It has been a couple of years since I last looked at it. The method for doing so, if it exists, must not have been to my satisfaction or it was enough of a complication in character creation that I didn't want to mess with it (for a one-shot) at the time.

I'll have to go back and give it another look.

The two games I have played with it, one as player and one as GM, were great fun. The gunfights have a very cinematic feel to them. We chose to play it gritty and lethal. It certainly was that. When the bullets started flying, anything wood or better yet stone/brick was worth getting behind for some cover. Our group survived a fight with 4-1 odds against us, but we had long range rifles and red desert rocks to take cover in. It made a huge difference! I wouldn't want to get caught out in the open in Coyote Trail, especially if it was at short range against a shotgun. But that is pretty realistic!

GD games are among my favorites - especially Hard Nova ][, Stormrift, and Coyote Trail. the system is slick, fast, light, and flexible; and the settings are very good to superb.

-clash

What games actually use the 3rd edition rules, and how hard are the older games to convert?

Quote from: Dan Davenport;450241What games actually use the 3rd edition rules, and how hard are the older games to convert?

I don't have a link but I recall reading something somewhere (PIG's forum?) about conversions being really easy. The core mechanic was not altered in a way that makes them completely incompatible. Stats, Skills, and Traits carry right on over into GD3.

The two games I have (Hard Nova II and Coyote Trail) are GD2. I'm not sure which of the newer games are GD3. I've not been keeping track of the releases. I'd imagine that anything coming out a while after GD3 was published would be based on that instead of GD2.

I'm sure that Brett can give better information here.

Quote from: Dan Davenport;450241What games actually use the 3rd edition rules, and how hard are the older games to convert?

The older games are a snap to convert. It's basically adding some new stuff over the solid existing structure. GD is a framework system, and everything snaps in and out as you please, which is why it is so damn flexible.

-clash

Quote from: Dan Davenport;450161Just what the subject says. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this system and its various games.

Thanks!

I thought it was "alright" until I reviewed Ghostories...now I really, REALLY wanna dig into the system good and deep. The expanded version of Ghostories just seems so, so great.

Stormrift is also really well done. The only other ones I've read are Bold & Brave and Mean Streets. I'm not 100% convinced it works incredibly well for supers, and Mean Streets sounded great in concept, but I made the mistake of reviewing it RIGHT AFTER reviewing Ghostories, and Ghostories left a big impression on me.

Keep in mind gd2 is roll under while gd3 is roll over. In play I've found gd2 to be much more gritty while gd3 is much more cinematic. Neither version requires you to do a lot of page flipping which is a huge plus for me as it allows you to concentrate on the action. Bold and Brave (supers) and Stormrift (alien invasion) are the only two gd3 games I'm currently aware of. Bold and Brave is an add-on that requires the gd3 rules book while Stormrift has the gd3 rules built in. I'm looking for reliable reviewers for the Stormrift PDF so pm me if interested.

Pete

So I've got a review copy of GD3e now and am looking over the rules.

One thing I've noticed is that while there are scaling rules for damage, the attributes for monsters seem to be on the same scale as humans. (A dragon, for example, has a Fitness of 6.) Does this mean that a dragon is limited to human-scale feats of strength?

Quote from: Dan Davenport;450339So I've got a review copy of GD3e now and am looking over the rules.

One thing I've noticed is that while there are scaling rules for damage, the attributes for monsters seem to be on the same scale as humans. (A dragon, for example, has a Fitness of 6.) Does this mean that a dragon is limited to human-scale feats of strength?

Actually, it can be anywhere from 4 to 8. 6 is the typical value. If you want a stronger dragon, just scale the ability to extra, super, or epic.

Quote from: brettmb;450390Actually, it can be anywhere from 4 to 8. 6 is the typical value. If you want a stronger dragon, just scale the ability to extra, super, or epic.

So is it accurate that a typical dragon's Fitness of 6 is no better or worse than a human's Fitness of 6, regardless of the dragon's scale, unless you scale the ability as well?

Quote from: Dan Davenport;450397So is it accurate that a typical dragon's Fitness of 6 is no better or worse than a human's Fitness of 6, regardless of the dragon's scale, unless you scale the ability as well?

Yes, except that a human can't normally have a fitness of 6.

Quote from: brettmb;450401Yes, except that a human can't normally have a fitness of 6.

Hmmm... Okay, let me put this another way, then, to make sure I have this right.

Let's say we have a typical giant. They typically have a Fitness of 5, IIRC? And let's say it's a super-scale giant. The giant tries to grapple a human, also with a Fitness of 5. Does the giant's sheer size alone give him any advantage in this situation?