Despite some initial misgivings, Black Monks of Glastonbury proves to be an interesting supplement describing the myriad of plots and stories around a diabolically corrupted abbey. Of interest to both Ars Magica fans and D20 players who like meaty settings.
Post originally by Alex White at 2003-07-14 17:54:49
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Just confirming the Open Game Content comments.
It seems as though most of the new D20 spells and magic items are indeed Open Source, but due to either formatting errors or choice, some of the D20 stats for the NPCs are not Open Source (such as Abbot William on p.33 and Prior Eustace on p.36). The Aegis spell is Open Source.
Post originally by Alex White at 2003-07-14 19:54:27
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It's entirely true.
The situation (since I feel compelled to explain myself) is that I hate the D20 rule set, and so have not bothered to learn the majority of the rules. Also, in my group there are at least two D20 rules Masters, who can answer any rule question I and the rest of the group care to name. Furthermore, I tend to run fairly rules-lite games, so when someone gets an attack of opportunity, a flanking bonus, reach, facing or 2/3s cover modifiers really doesn't bother me. I'm not down on the magical item creation rules because I restrict magic items in my game and would rather rip a magic item from somewhere else than make it up myself, price it and give it a Caster level prerequisite.
Most of my creative energy goes into my more serious Ars Magica game.
Post originally by John Nephew at 2003-07-15 08:49:30
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Those would be typos -- sticking the wrong monk icon on the sections of those characters, Abbott William and Prior Eustace. Both of those d20 stat blocks are indeed Open Game Content.
Post originally by Alan J. Labianca-Campbell at 2003-07-15 09:18:29
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Nah you're not lazy, you're just smart. D20 isn't a rules system for people who are more concerned about the story than miniatures war gaming.
I've been running a D&D campaign for three years the same way and my players love the story, my rules lawyers hate me as I often pre-empt them with what my interpretations are.
But screw them, if they don't want to play they don't have to.
Post originally by Jer at 2003-07-20 08:24:20
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> d20/D&D is a pretty solid system, but I
> wouldn't touch it for a rules lite style
> campaign. There are better choices.
d20 can be made to be fairly rules light. The combat system needs a lot of tweaking to remove the wargaming aspects and make it more abstract, but since the system basically boils down to "roll-a-die, add-a-modifier, check the DC", it really is fairly rules light. I've run CoC d20 games where the rules are hardly a factor at all (just like BRP CoC). There is only a single class, combat is very abstract and does not require minis, players generally don't get many "rules specific" spells (and of course, they never really want to cast them anyway), etc.
OTOH, I agree that D&D is rules heavy and that it is very hard to get around it. All of the classes, the special abilities, the various spells that work in very specific ways. While D&D 3e isn't the heaviest rule system I've used, it certainly isn't rules light by any means.
And of course you are correct, there are better choices for rules light gaming if you have a group that is flexible enough to want to use them. Unfortunately, all of my groups have always wanted to stick with either d20, GURPS, or Storyteller, and all three are at about the same level of "heft" in their rulesets...
Post originally by Peter White at 2003-07-21 00:21:10
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I more or less agree.
Certainly d20 + stat bonus + skill ranks is a reasonable start for a lite system. The detailed classes and spells are really two strikes against IMO, as you suggest.
It is quite plausible to create a lite version of D&D/d20 mechanics that fit on a page or two, by aggressively hewing out miniatures, spells, etc.
It seems to me that you would have something that more strongly resembles a Pendragon variant that anything produced by WotC at the present time. Therefore, I would advocate starting picking up the Book of Knights or FUDGE in the first place, and trying that out.
Post originally by Jer at 2003-07-21 04:49:57
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Oh, absolutely. Nothing I've played really beats FUDGE for rules lite-ness. I've never heard of the Book of Knights, though. I'll check it out. Thanks for the tip.
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