Post originally by Tim Gray at 2004-12-17 03:59:35
Converted from Phorums BB System

Andy, thanks very much for the comprehensive and positive review. It's cool to hear about people having fun with the game. I certainly learned a lot designing it (including things to improve on in future).

I'd just like to unpick something a bit. A few times you say the system is very complex in play (though I'm glad you found chargen simple). Now, I set out to design a fairly traditional system that was solid and reasonably light and fast, not an innovative, superlight storytelling-oriented one, so of course it will appeal to some people more than others. I wouldn't say that it was unusually complex or detailed compared to the mechanics of most mainstream games. I'd put it closer to Savage Worlds and Storyteller than D&D. But of course my view is biased. Would you say otherwise?

You took the right approach in dropping Advanced Combat options to get a simpler game to suit you. Some of those options are important though - especially the Horde rules for simplifying fights with groups of low-powered opponents. Also, it's up to the GM how proactive Sources are in requiring characters to represent their values, which can be another thing to keep track of; when I've run they mostly just rumbled a bit at key junctures.

I wouldn't actually use "Lid Off" (exploding 6s) for LW - that's in an appendix as an idea for using the system with other genres. (In fact there's a specific power, Wild Luck, that gives you exploding 6s.) It tends to blur the distinctions between big and small dice pools, and in supers it's important to preserve the differences between ability levels. I don't think it would make the game more high-powered. Some of the Strength-related stuff already is; other things probably less so.

Regarding the adventure seed generator, a chunk of the credit should go to Gareth Michael Skarka: the basic structure was lifted (with permission) from 'Underworld', then squashed and adapted. I wanted *something* cos I'm rubbish at thinking of adventure ideas!

You're spot on about the pantheons: it would have been great to have lots in the main book, but I got to the point where I needed to get the thing finished. Plus, large page counts tend to put people off PDF products, and it's pushing the limit as it is. I kind of stuck to pantheons that the majority of readers were more likely to be familiar with, hence the "whitey" thing. If there's enough interest I'd certainly consider more supplements in the future.

As for layout - guilty as charged. If I were doing it now I'd do simple things to break it up a bit (and, in fact, am doing so for Albion). Fair point about examples too.

In the interests of plugging ;D folks can get a free download of Nugget from the website - this is a 2-page cut down, generic version of the LODE system (no supers stuff) to give an idea of the basics. That was reviewed here recently as well.



Tim Gray
Silver Branch Games
www.silverbranch.co.uk