Random Links for 1/29/2021

It's Friday, time for my usual list of things I think people might want to take a look at. Or things I want to say things about.

- GURPS Furries came out. I received a complimentary copy. I couldn't imagine why until I checked the credits - Additional Material. Aha, re-use from GURPS Martial Arts. I'm not sure I'll read it . . . I don't generally like "Furry" stuff. There is some anthropomorphic animal stuff I enjoyed, but in general, it's not in my area of interest. Still, if you like furries, odds are Bill did a good job of covering them.

- I'm not sure why I don't have Wargaming Girl on my Blogroll, but I'll fix that after this post:

Dredd vs. Death

- James Mal didn't like Artifact of Evil. Basically, not a hero-centric pulp novel. Me, I liked it a lot. Here is what i said:

"I'll have to agree with some of the other comments on Artifact of Evil - it really reads like our "high" level (8-10th level or so) AD&D play. Powerful characters, magic items all over the place being used to get out of bad situations, some big battles, and dungeons few and far between. I got something out of all of the Gygax Gord books . . . maybe they're not really "pulp" but they were very fantasy game-like when you compare them to how we played."

It's very AD&D, really. I found "Saga of Old City" reminds me more of Rolemaster. The sequel, though, yeah . . . it read like our games and it certainly influenced them subsequently. I think the desire for a more low-magic pulpy game is why people find D&D has a "sweet spot" of 5-7th level (or a little lower.) But coming into it natively, we really got going around 5-7th level and then just kept rolling. Had high school social issues not split the game up I bet we'd have gotten people well past the 9th-12th level they mostly ended up at.

- I like this Guide to the Bodak. I always thought the one in S3 was an excellent placed encounter.

- Does my sort-of by-the-book Segments system for AD&D count as "phased?" I'd say yes. I used to like Rolemaster's point-based system in Rolemaster Companion, and Champions speed-based phased system, too.