norse
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
And it's cold, so cold at the Edge of Time.
Posts: 233
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Post by norse on Mar 7, 2011 17:22:44 GMT -6
Woah. I just read the review on Board Game Geek. The man really has no idea. At all.
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Post by xerxez on Mar 8, 2011 14:43:32 GMT -6
I owned this in the eighties. I know where two copies are sitting on a used book shelf and have been thinking about snagging them. One is large size, the other is a smaller version, both are in mint condition and only a few bucks each!
I always thought the system itself was magnificent and we did roll up characters once.
I think it would have been thoroughly playable but if a player has even a modicum of traditional religious belief the magic mechanics could unsettle them a bit.
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norse
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
And it's cold, so cold at the Edge of Time.
Posts: 233
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Post by norse on Mar 8, 2011 15:31:21 GMT -6
Get both! It's always handy to have one the players can go through if necessary. I have the English edition (what with being English), so I can't say for certain, but apparently the larger of the US editions had a number of printing errors. So if you only get one, I'd make it the smaller one.
One of those (many) systems I've never gotten around to running and really want to. Now I've been pointed toward these excellent charts I shall definitely attempt it.
Aye. Oddly, FW does a treatment of mine (I'm asatruar). But we tend to be fairly easygoing about such things and it doesn't offend me. I think it's a pretty good treatment of it. Even to the extent of the interaction between indigenous beliefs and the incoming white christ.
Despite some of the comments I've seen in places, only major inaccuracies in the essays that form the front of the book stem from a lack of practical research in the use of weapons before the 90's. The bastard- or long-sword, for example, come about because of the defensive and leverage capabilities of a hand and a half sword, rather than because it provides more power to smash through armour as stated in the book (which wouldn't work, although it was better at piercing armour when stabbed with). But all this can be excused. History has changed since this book was written!
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Post by talysman on Mar 8, 2011 15:51:43 GMT -6
I bought it back in the day, but never got around to playing it, just toying around with the magic system and considering adapting material. My friends and I loved working out the DLs of spells like an asteroid strike. The essays are actually worth the price of the book, I think, even if they're a little shrill at times. I never thought the system itself was unplayable or incomprehensible, just more trouble that I thought it would be worth.
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Post by thorswulf on Sept 26, 2011 21:36:29 GMT -6
Be warned! The larger edition is missing one page of weapon statistics, which makes for numerous headaches!
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Post by xerxez on Jan 11, 2012 18:19:08 GMT -6
Well, I finally got around to sneaking back by that old bookstore and now, after almost thirty years, once again possess Galloway's F.W.
I agree with those who have written that the book is worth owning simply by virtue of the essays--I know they impacted me as a kid, shaped my dungeon design, and helped provide a much more realistic medieval motif to our early games, thank's to the generous historical detail Galloway provides.
I will admit that at fourteen, the rules themselves seemed incomprehensible, though I am amazed that I was able to digest about half of them then.
After a week of re-reading the book, I do grasp them at last and they are actually quite simple, and I would love to play.
I will not use all of the religious and magical material as it hits a little close to home in the domain of my private beliefs but it is easily adaptable to any campaign and the magic system is a bit of true genius.
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Post by xerxez on Sept 16, 2018 8:52:52 GMT -6
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Post by Finarvyn on Sept 16, 2018 9:23:20 GMT -6
A double-necro. Once from 2008 to 2011 (three years), then once from 2012 to 2018 (six years). I wonder if the PBP game ever got underway. It's so long ago, if it happened here I've totally forgotten about it.
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Post by xerxez on Sept 16, 2018 12:16:00 GMT -6
No PBP yet, but I will! There are a few darkspots in it for me but I have a pretty good grasp overall. Designing a setting for it and that's almost done, I'd like to draw the map and then I will pitch it! I'm creating a setting under the Asgardian pantheon, sort of an alternate Norse history, called Tyrislan. Skyrim was an influence, as well as the book here and Norse mythology. Give me a few days more!
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Post by Punkrabbitt on Sept 16, 2018 16:38:16 GMT -6
I love this game. I couldn't play in it, because I was the only one of my group who understood the rules in our pre-teen years. But as others have mentioned, the background information alone is well worth the price of purchase. I was particularly fond of the astrology rules.
These days, I want something much, much simpler (hello, S&W WB!) but as I grow my campaign background I see how a lot of "Fantasy Wargaming" ideas will sneak their way into the world.
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 17, 2018 6:32:22 GMT -6
This book is interesting because it was one of the few non-TSR hardcover RPG books to make it into general bookstore distribution (and IIRC, there was also a book club version). Other than Mayfair's Role-Aids, which were all softcover, it is the only non-TSR book I remember being on the shelves at the mall bookstores Waldenbooks and B. Dalton.
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EdOWar
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 315
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Post by EdOWar on Sept 17, 2018 10:08:23 GMT -6
I remember seeing this on shelves in my youth, but could never make heads or tails of it. I always thought it was just a kind of generic supplement for all fantasy RPGs, rather than an RPG in its own right. Now I regret not picking it up back then.
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Post by xerxez on Sept 17, 2018 16:00:53 GMT -6
Still some affordable copies online EdOWar, if the sellers are reliable. I own two copies, one large and one small from the Sci-Fi/Fantasy book fo the month club. They were both at the same book store a while back and I grabbed them, I may purchase one more if I can find a mint but some of those have high price tags. Haven't checked Noble Knight yet. It's definitely a worthwhile shelf-have!
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Post by Stormcrow on Sept 17, 2018 17:22:41 GMT -6
Note that there is a third edition that nobody ever mentions: the original Patrick Stephens Limited edition. Its size is in between the large version and the book club version. The cover is red and it has a dust jacket with the usual image on it. It took me a while watching eBay before I found one. It does not have the printing errors of the large version. The biggest difference is that all prices are in pounds, shillings, and pence instead of Florins, and the value of the various coins that DO appear in the other versions are also given in pounds, shillings and pence instead of being equated to each other. Unfortunately, the references between the warrior table and the armor table are just as borked as in other editions.
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Post by xerxez on Sept 17, 2018 20:24:32 GMT -6
Yes! I would be very interested in that. I mentioned only the American printing, I think I need to own that now...
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