Firehawk Games
Firehawk Games RPG Products => Novus RPG => Topic started by: IanPScheffler on January 05, 2013, 03:36:34 PM
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Hello fellow geeks,
My name is Ian. I'm a long time gamer with most of my experience as a GM for a whole host of games. I started my exploration of the hobby when a friend of mine (rest his soul) bought me a D&D Second Edition beginner's boxed set and he then ran my first game for me. I was hooked from that very moment! I still remember the adventure and my first character vividly. After that, I branched out into just about every genre one can think of. Tolkienesque fantasy and vampire dramas developed as my favorites rather quickly. Over the years I have noticed that so many of the offerings from the "big" RPG companies have lost the charm that had me so hooked in that first game.
So many game systems are so huge that they strangle under their own weight. If there are so many rules that I can't ever hope to remember them, what is the point of even having those rules? I don't mind referencing character creation rules or the odd weapon damage value, but the rest of a game needs to be dead simple and easily commited to the average memory. There are a few game systems that have come close to this such as Savage Worlds and Cortex. However, Savage Worlds is very swingy, rather limited, and many characters come out looking the same (odd for a classless system.) Cortex is an excellent narative system, but it is also a touch swingy and a bit mushy in the middle (I think it could have used another 15 minutes in the oven, if you know what I mean.)
I found Novus just a few days ago through a review on RPG.net. It sounded curiously like what I wanted, was inexpensive, and available. Hey, what gamer doesn't buy a score of products he will never use anyway, right? So I thought I would give it a whirl. Not being one to do things half-botoxed, I purchased the deluxe version along with a print copy. I opened the PDF... oh it's one of those...hmm that 2d10 mechanic is pretty nifty...hit points don't inflate like a sun-ripened orange ruffy...anime elves seem to have crashed the party...no classic damage rolls? kind of neat...multiple magic themes, maybe Gandalf could be hiding in there somewhere..and this went on for about two hours.
The entire time I kept trying to relate all of my wants for a solid base for Tolkienesque fantasy to what I was reading. Most of it seemed to jive pretty well and I fell in love with it pretty rapidly. In a couple of days I am going to try running a one-on-one game with my nerdy girlfriend (yes, I really have one of those neener neener!) and see how it works out in play. I am optimistic that this will be a positive experience. Any tips, tricks, or things I should look out for in my first game? It will very likely be set in Middle-earth as I want to test the system before I go through the pains of creating an original setting.
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First of all, Welcome!! And I am glad that you are finding Novus to your liking.
As for initial suggestions....
Try a few sample combats (i.e. outside of actually roleplaying) to a feel for how combat flows and the various things that you can do in combat. This will also give you a better idea of how to setup combats (i.e. the number of and strength of foes to use) as it isn't all that cut-n-dried, especially with exploding dice. There are several pre-made characters in the NPC gallery of the Downloads section that you can use for this (they also go to show how characters could be made as well).
One of the nice things about the Boon/Snag points is that it allows the GM to control the level of lethality against the players without having to fudge dice rolls. And extremely high roll doesn't often mean instant death, as the GM you can spend those Boon points on options other than additional damage. Keep that in mind.
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I just bought a copy of the deluxe pdf over the christmas break. Looks to be a very nice game. I really like how they break up the various magic classes. Had I known about the sales going on, I would definately jumped and bought the hard copy as well!
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Well, starting tomorrow, and lasting for a week, DriveThru/RPGNow will be having a New Year-New Game Sale, and Novus Deluxe will be 40% off (and I will make the print version of the Novus Deluxe 40% off as well). Plus, tomorrow morning (when I post about the sale), I will also be posting a coupon code on the main page of the FHG website that will grant you an extra 15% off your purchase!
BTW -- Welcome to the forums!!!
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Gah! I purchased the full copy right between your two sales! Ah well, such is life right?
Thank you for the reply, I hadn't really pondered much on the implications of the Boon/Snag system yet. Now that you mention it, it is a flexible way to handle unusual amounts of success or failure. I'm still very excited to try it out and I probably will on Monday night. I'm so reved up about it that I started working on my old home brew campaign setting again, I've always ment to finish that sucker.
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I know what you mean.
Tyrlon, which is to be the official Novus setting started out (in a much, much different format) as a home brew setting (part of a shared world with a different GM running each separate continent). While I have reworked it from scratch, multiple times, I have always kept the name, while often totally reworking the entire concept (except that it was always simply a small continent) as I simply liked it. (http:///bigsmile.gif)
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I had been looking over Novus for a while and considering buying it. Your sale tipped the scale and I bought the Deluxe version and Libram Libray in PDF this morning.
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Great! I hope you enjoy them!
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I get paid Friday. My order will be placed Friday night!
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I get paid Friday. My order will be placed Friday night!
I hope you enjoy it for many years to come!
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Unfortunately, I was unable to test play Novus as soon as I had hoped. However, after discussing our future gaming plans with my girlfriend she made an interesting choice.
I got a bunch of books out and asked her which game she would like to play the most for a long term game with other friends joining in. I had gotten out Savage Worlds (she has played this one for over a year), Iron Gauntlets (which I have since found to be quite a broken game), WEG Fantasy d6, and several others. After only a few minutes of discussion, she quite firmly chose Novus as her favorite candidate and I agree with her.
The more I become familiar with Novus now that my print copy has arived, the more I am impressed with it. It seems to support Tolkienesque fantasy better than rule sets that were specifically designed just for that. The only thing I'm not quite sure about is the lethality of the system (which you touched on in your reply above.) My favorite brand of fantasy requires there to be quite a few "mook" type enemies. The common orc in your short bestiary has a rather respectable 65 hit points. Creating some sort of mook rule for easily killable enemies seems like the only house rule I will have to make so far.
However, I have only run one small little mock combat on my own. Perhaps when I test it out better I will find that I don't need such a rule afterall.
Edit: I forgot to mention that sometimes the two of us game without a devoted GM by using the Mythic GM emulator. While the Mythic RPG system is excellent on it's own, I believe that Novus has serious potential to work well with the emulator also. I will have to try that out too.
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As a suggestoin for a "mook rule", perhaps add a "Kill a Mook" option for 1 Boon Point. This would allow for quick kills of mooks without making it too easy. And don't forget that you can also always adjust the armor worn and the level (and thus the number of ranks) in weapon skills (which in turn will also reduce their DEF as well).
For example, an Orc is level 5. If you want some first level Orcs, just take the Kobold and swap out his stats for the stats of the Orc. This would require making minor adjustments (for the different stat bonuses), but that is easy enough to do since monsters are basically built in the same manner as characters are.
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Hey there!
This seems to be the introduction topic (http:///smile.gif)
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Welcome to the forums!
I will continue to produce material for Novus, have no fear. Be sure to let others know about it and invite them to come on by! (http:///bigsmile.gif)
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I was about to start a "Just bought Novus" thread but I spotted this one (http:///smile.gif)Keep up the good work.
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Yes, the plan is to eventually consolidate them into various POD products. For example, the first issue of Libram Novus (which has the spell creation rules), the second issue of Libram Novus and the 4th would go wonderfully together, along with some NEW material, to create a Spell Caster's Compendium of some sort.
However, I won't be working on creating such POD products until I get Tyrlon (the Novus setting) released, once I do that, THEN I can concentrate on trying to do a full fledged print product containing those sections. The same sort of things apply in other areas as well...
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Speaking of compendiums, I would like very much to see a Combat Companion of some sort with more options for combat: special effects, weapon reach in melee, variable APs based on initiative, more weapons, minimum strength and/or dexterity to wield some weapons...
I have begun an expanded list of weapons with more weapons, reach for each and some effects (difficulty to parry chain weapons for example). I had to imagine rules to close in melee (use a speed save and require use of AP for example). Minimum stats requirement incurs a penalty to AB...
All this is progressing very slowly but who knows, some time it may be completed.
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BTW, speaking of Middle-Earth, I have made some conversions of the per-made PC from The One Ring and found it very easy and realistic. Most of the PCs are scouts with one fighter and one minstrel.
IanPScheffler, if you wish, I can post those characters on the forum.
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BTW, speaking of Middle-Earth, I have made some conversions of the per-made PC from The One Ring and found it very easy and realistic. Most of the PCs are scouts with one fighter and one minstrel.
IanPScheffler, if you wish, I can post those characters on the forum.
If you do that, please post them in the "Other Game Systems" forum, and tag the posts with "[Conversion]" in the subject line to indicate what they are.
Thanks
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No sweat, I'll do it. I can also send them by e-mail if you think it breaches any copyright rule or whatever.
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As long as you are only posting stats (with maybe the name, and not a lot of background on the characters), that should be okay
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I will erase names to leave only professions, races and cultures.
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names should be okay -- just don't post a lot of background information.