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Thursday, September 3, 2015

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Denizens 1: Barbarians

"Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, Conan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow. It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!"
- Conan the Barbarian



Now, out in the wild, is the "crude" and "rough" supplement that Dr. Kromm hinted I was writing.

It's the first of the Denizens line of Dungeon Fantasy books. First and foremost, it's a collection of templates and lenses for barbarians in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. It's a collection of all of the previously written material on barbarians, too, no matter where in the supplements it was scattered.

It's a "splatbook" in the sense that it's an expansion of your options, but much of this was already an option - this book just pulls it all together into a one-book solution. It also adds some new options, previously unavailable in Dungeon Fantasy but available in GURPS (if you were pulling material from other supplements like Low-Tech Companion 2 or Martial Arts). And it adds some new options, entirely new to GURPS and especially valid for barbaric delvers, the likes of which you see in movies, comics, video games, and pulp novels.

If you've followed the adventures of Honus Honusson, Raggi Ragnarsson, and Bjorn Felmansson in my games, you will recognize some of this. If you've been wondering just how Bjorn gets away fighting nearly naked, or why Honus is so effevtive at short-range slams, or why Raggi's foes melt away after his Cleaving Strike instead of standing around to fight more (and why his axe does so much damage) . . . here are your answers.

Let me say it's a privilege to get to launch a sub-line of books, something I have managed to do in Dungeon Fantasy twice now (DFM1, and now DFD1.) If the sub-line does well, I have another one I can kick out, too.

11 comments:

  1. can't wait to get my grubby little hands on this one!

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  2. I did not catch that it was a sub-line. That rocks.

    DFD3: Grapplers. :-)

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    1. My copy of DF1 seems to lack the Grappler templete. Odd. Some folks might have to fix that!

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  3. Hmmm DFD trolls m7iht need writing. It is slightly less ambitious than a racial guide... let me get drafting....

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    1. I am so available to playtest that!

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    2. That actually sounds promising...
      Orcs - covers half-orcs, orcs and ogres
      Goblin - covers hobgoblins as well
      Elves - all the elves
      Dwarf - covers gnomes
      Fae creature - all the magical races

      Each could give options for each race, different power-ups, maybe even race specific templates, magic items, etc.

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  4. Oh boy. There's a perk or two (or 10) in there with Bjorn's name written all over them. Magic items also. Wow... Very, very nice work. I'm enjoying it a lot.

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    1. Thanks for giving some of the contents a very critical playtest! The templates you used got tweaked based on how your character ran in play, so you really deserve access to those perks.

      Still cost 1 point each though.

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  5. Why do I hear giant barbarian hobbits in their mead-holes singing of food?

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  6. Congrats on the publication! One more for my blacklog haha!

    M.

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