BRP: Classic Fantasy (Was Sword & Spell)

[threedeesix]

I do want to say one more thing I like about the book. I really enjoy the descriptions of the humanoid races and also the clerics with real world gods. This is the most useful stuff for me. I want to have a lot of information on how to incorporate many different deities into one game world and also how to have Cthulhu style horror in my dungeons. Chaosium makes the best adventures and I would love to have some for Classic Fantasy. Stormbringer was one of my favorites along with Pendragon. In Search of the Trollslayer was a very interesting adventure too. I hope there will be a lot of adventures for Classic Fantasy.

Right now I'm too involved in the second book to think about adventures. For the time being I have just been dusting off my old AD&D stuff and using those adventurers. My home group is about to be run through the "Against the Giants" series. Their characters are found throughout the numerous examples.

But that said, I may include a small adventure or two in volume II. If that isn't possible due to space limits, I still hope to support my Classic Fantasy line with some old style adventures as well.

For the time being I may also "leak" a monster or two every month just to give those interested something to play with other than those in the BRP core book.

Rod

[Trifletraxor]

Congrats threedeesix!

Classic Fantasy now has its own thread in the Supplements & Monographs subforum. Please continue further discussion of Classic Fantasy there.

For those who have bought it, please consider helping your fellow members by writing a review for our review section.

Cheers!
Triff.

[RosenMcStern]

Apparently, Classic Fantasy is attracting "Old School" D&D fans:

Akratic Wizardry: Chaosium's 'Classic Fantasy'

[frogspawner]

Well, that's good.

Let's hope not too many potential converts from xD&Dx to BRP are put off by Krank & Co's incompetence as publishers...

(I mean, missing off the Table of Contents and Index! How could they!? What the heck do they do??)

Seriously, Chaosium once again appear to be BRP's worst enemy. Budding authors would be best advised NOT to trust their lovingly-crafted masterpieces to those clowns.

[RosenMcStern]

I do not think this kind of comment is fair, nor useful. Seeing a better graphic package (and editing) for both Classic Fantasy and Fractured Hopes would have made us happier, this is undeniable. But at least the supplements are there, and players can use them. :happy:

We all know what happened to Chaosium lately. They can no longer count on one of their oldest employees, who had been involved in anything that had to do with Glorantha, Cthulhu, Stormbringer and such for more than two decades (maybe three?). Chaosium isn't a big corporation, so this sort of things can hamper their production capabilities. We all wish that they could put the same effort into BRP that they put into the CoC line, but no one except those who have the responsibility of paying the bills (and the salaries) can judge whether they did "all they could do" for these products.

For my part, I am happy that I can help writers and contributors to publish their wares with a graphic format that gamers seem to appreciate. Bashing Charlie and his employees - whether they deserve it or not is uninfluent - will lead us nowhere.

[frogspawner]

It's useful to tell other potential buyers what they'd be getting. (We shouldn't only give universally good reviews, should we?) It's also useful to be able to vent spleen sometimes. At least it shows this forum isn't a mindlessly pro-Chaosium 'House Organ', like White Dwarf magazine degenerated into for GW at the end of the Good Old Days of roleplaying...

Yes, it's sad that the Great Old Ones of RP are now leaving us. So let's try to be positive, and do the best we can for gaming.

Chaosium could fix the problem by adding a ToC & Index into the PDF version, and put them up as a Free Download (like they have with the 'Beyond the Mountains of Madness' ToC). Has anyone who's in touch with them asked for that? If so, what did they say?

(If they won't do it, maybe Rod/threedeesix could? I see from the sub-forum Tedopon is working on some-such.)

[naturaltwenty]

From a constructive criticism standpoint I'd love to put together a primer section on the Monograph side for active fans who have a great idea but may not have the technical wherewithal to put it together (I'm just a dabbler and not a professional by any stretch of the imagination).

Some basic layout templates including use of Styles (Title, heading 1, heading 2, normal) and stat blocks could work wonders.

After emailing Rodney some tips* that I would have used I'd really like to see some minimum standard set for monographs regarding layout that wouldn't require alot of oversite but would produce usable documents.

* see my re-edit of the Dwarf entry from the Classic Fantasy pdf - I performed it in about 5 minutes so it's not optimized for anything really (size, web viewing, publication, etc)

http://www.naturaltwenty.com/downloa...age_layout.pdf

[kaddawang]

The monographs have always been about content before beauty. And so far, the BRP-mono's have been generally good.
That being said, Chaosium will soon find that they have dug themselves a hole they won't be able to climb out of unless the get some quality control in place.
After all, they sell these products. And not very cheaply either. The monograph idea is very good, but they need to exercise a minimum of editorial control on them.
Just sayin..

And on the Classic Fantasy-mono..brilliant content:thumb:

And, naturaltwenty, color is not gonna happen;-). But very nice layout.

[NickMiddleton]

Yes, it's sad that the Great Old Ones of RP are now leaving us. So let's try to be positive, and do the best we can for gaming.

Let us also bear in mind that Chaosium have never claimed the monographs were of the same standard as their full distribution books - and whilst every customer is entitled to heir own opinion as to what is acceptable quality and what is not, flatly ignoring the fact that the seller warns you up front that the monographs are NOT full distribution books seems a little unreasonable.

Chaosium could fix the problem by adding a ToC & Index into the PDF version, and put them up as a Free Download (like they have with the 'Beyond the Mountains of Madness' ToC).

My own experience with them (before and after Outpost 19) was that they were generally very approachable and Dustin at least was quite active in pursuing good ideas such as this. He is however still on the road relocating from Colorado to Texas IIRC

Has anyone who's in touch with them asked for that? If so, what did they say?

(If they won't do it, maybe Rod/threedeesix could? I see from the sub-forum Tedopon is working on some-such.)

I would expect (see above) that Dustin would think it an excellent idea - I'd suggest emailing both him AND Charlie so there's a chance it will get looked at before Dustin arrives in Texas.

As for Naturaltwenty's comments - could we start something in the Monographs forum and get Triff to split it off in to a sub-forum or something
when he's back from Leng or wherever it was? There used to be a sub-forum for that purpose at Yog-Sothoth.Com but it was under utilised - here I think it would thrive and I for one would find it very useful.

Cheers,

Nick

[naturaltwenty]

sigh - I know... I was just bored and testing out some new backgrounds and layouts for stuff I'm trying to produce (it's always been easier for me to work with somebody else's content than actually create my own )

And, naturaltwenty, color is not gonna happen;-). But very nice layout.