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I found Ultima tabletop rules!

Started by J Arcane, November 04, 2006, 07:55:22 PM

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J Arcane

Two of them in fact!  

Ultima: Resurrection and Ultima: Prophecy.

I'm not sure I like Prophecy though.  It uses a very strange approach to the system design that I'm not fond of, and doesn't really feel much like Ultima to me, as a result of said design.  

Resurrection is a much more traditional approach though, and I'm liking what I've read so far.

I am filled with glee at these findings however, as I've always wanted a tabletop Ultima game.
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jrients

Cool!  I haven't followed the series in years, but Ultima IV had a profound impact on me as a yute.
Jeff Rients
My gameblog

J Arcane

Well, I finished reading Resurrection.  For the most part, it seems quite nice, but the magic system seems kinda fucked up to me.  Mainly because it isn't really a system at all.  They ditched the spell lists from Ultima 7, in favor of a very half-assed attempt at a free-form system, with an added BS backstory to explain why.  The old spell set is listed in the back, but with no actual descriptions as to what they even do, you have to try and make sense of the freeform system, and then basically reverse engineer the effects from there.

The alchemy rules are just as much of a poorly explained mess, and make a similar attempt at a free form system, though it's at least a little better explained, and includes some clear examples that one can go off.  

The initiative/turn system seems like it'd be a bit of a pain to get the hang of, and I may have to consider rewriting that somehow as well.
Bedroom Wall Press - Games that make you feel like a kid again.

Arcana Rising - An Urban Fantasy Roleplaying Game, powered by Hulks and Horrors.
Hulks and Horrors - A Sci-Fi Roleplaying game of Exploration and Dungeon Adventure
Heaven\'s Shadow - A Roleplaying Game of Faith and Assassination

J Arcane

Also, I must state that I really just don't like Ultima: Prophecy at all.  The guy basically took one of the things I didn't like much about U:R (the chunkiness of the skill effects), and spins an entire system aroudn the concept, combined with some bizarre attempt at an effects based system and an overly convoluted die mechanic.

U:R is a pretty decent system that feels well enough like U7, but needs some houserules.  U:P is a bizarre mess of a thing that really has no place even calling itself Ultima, it's more someone's wierd experiment that happened to evolve from U:R, and the author hasn't bothered to drop the pretense yet.

It's also a terribly dry read, worse perhaps than even Alternate Realities, the game for math majors.  U:R's tone can come off a bit amateurish at times, but it's at least a pleasant read.  U:P just bores the goddamn hell out of me.
Bedroom Wall Press - Games that make you feel like a kid again.

Arcana Rising - An Urban Fantasy Roleplaying Game, powered by Hulks and Horrors.
Hulks and Horrors - A Sci-Fi Roleplaying game of Exploration and Dungeon Adventure
Heaven\'s Shadow - A Roleplaying Game of Faith and Assassination