Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

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Raven_Crowking
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by Raven_Crowking »

When is this expected to hit RPG Now? I have money waiting to go to the creators!
SoBH pbp:

Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by Karaptis »

+1
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by Hoplitenomad »

imperialus wrote:Sweet merciful Christ! Tales has the single most awesome (and terrifying) magic item creation rules I've ever seen. Talk about gutpunching the 'magic Christmas tree'.

For those who don't have the book yet, basically it involves summoning a demon, and then negotiating/forcing it to bind its life force to the magic item. So many ways things could go so terribly wrong.

I'll be kicking off a PbP for this sucker ASAP (probably shortly after the PDF hits commercial release) I just need to finish digesting the book.

I would like to claim first dibs on a spot on your PbP game.
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by mythfish »

imperialus wrote:Sweet merciful Christ! Tales has the single most awesome (and terrifying) magic item creation rules I've ever seen. Talk about gutpunching the 'magic Christmas tree'.

For those who don't have the book yet, basically it involves summoning a demon, and then negotiating/forcing it to bind its life force to the magic item.
This is how Stormbringer from Chaosium did it. And that is one of my all time favorite RPGs, so now I'm even more stoked for Fallen Empire!
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by marshal kt »

I recall that magic in Stormbringer by Chaosium was all ritual magic and supposed to take hours.

I don't recall the magic item creation system. I haven't seen it in 30 years.
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by Rostranor »

Rad. Sounds like Sh*t just got real.
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by Rostranor »

So is someone going to post a review? I am curious to see how much drift from the rules as written has occurred to wrap this around a setting.
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by imperialus »

I'll give it a go.

So at it's core Tales From the Fallen Empire (Tales) is a setting book. It introduces a number of additional rules and rule variants to try and simulate a campaign setting with a very strong howardesque sword and sorcery vibe. In doing so it tramples a number of the 'sacred cows' of D&D but for those looking for a system that scratches that particular itch it does a fantastic job.

The PDF weighs in at 216 pages (including the cover OGL and all that stuff) with the actual content comprising 187 pages plus 2 small adventures a zero level funnel adventure that involves the PC's being cast as slaves and a second adventure being a 3rd level dungeon crawl with lovcraftian elements.

Prologue: This details the history of the world of Eld and the universe it resides in in broad strokes. It's well written and evocative, but it is somewhat confusing to try and keep up with who's who, and what's going on. Fortunately most of major players get more detail later on, but for me at least flipping back and forth between the prologue and the other sections while in a PDF can be a bit awkward. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on my physical copy so I can put bookmarks and sticky notes in for quick reference.

Section I: Characters

Chapter 1: People of the Fallen Empires
This is where the meat of the book starts. This chapter details the various 'races' to be found on Eld. These are races in the traditional sword and sorcery vein. With the exception of the Aesir they are all human and the differences focus instead on cultural heritage and background rather than stat modifiers. Each race also has a custom table of 0 level background appropriate to their culture as well as a short list of Cultural Traits and Idiosyncrasies. For example the barbarian horsemen of Khazahkaahn have the idiosyncrasy of "superstition" while having the traits "survivalist, horseman and stealthy" Most of this is focused on ideas for how to roleplay the various cultures rather than any mechanical benefit.

Chapter 2: Classes
This is where most of the mechanical changes between DCC and Tales sit. Most of the classes in the DCC core book are kicked to the curb. The only ones that really fill a niche that works in Tales are the Warrior and Thief. The demihumans just plain don't exist, being replaced by the reptilian Drakai who fill the role of a lightly armoured agility focused warrior, and the Man Apes of Ooruk. A major concern of mine with this section that it kinda plays havoc with the chargen procedure from DCC. There are no background rules for level 0 Ooruk or Drakai for example. Character generation in Tales is going to rely much more on player agency and DM fiat than chargen in the basic DCC game which can pretty much be left to random chance. There seems to be a strong encouragment to bypass the level 0 funnel and start PC's at level 1, and there is an nudge in the way of power creep via the suggestion to use alternative chargen methods like 4d6 drop the lowest and arrange to taste which may rub some folks the wrong way.

The Sorcerer and Witch and very cool takes on the spellcasting classes. The witch is a sort of hybrid priest/wizard that relies on patron (though they are optional) and serves as pretty much the only source of magical healing available as she has an ability similar to the priest's "lay on hands" and can brew potions starting at 1st level. The sorcerer is a badass. He works a lot like the Wizard but he MUST bind himself to a patron, and is significantly more likely to suffer ill effects due to corruption but in exchange they are more robust than their wizard counterparts.

The other classes offer some cool special abilities like the marauders black market ability and the Sentinel is a sort of weird (yet strangely cool) paladin/ninja combination.

One thing to note is that the armour available to the PC classes is almost all light. The heaviest armour available to the classes present in Tales is Chain, which can only be worn by Sentinels and Barbarians. This combined with the lack of magical healing may make the survivability of PC's an issue. This is somewhat mitigated by the new classes having higher HD (barbarians roll a D14 for example) but some house-ruling regarding healing may be necessary. It could also be dealt with by broadening the armour options with setting suitable alternatives like bronze brestplates, but it may be a challenge.

Chapter 3: Additional Character Options
This chapter basically just goes over how to implement things like Cultural Traits and Idiosyncrasies into the game and introduces and optional rule for narrative currency called 'coins'.

Chapter 4: Equipment
This chapter offers conversions from the traditional CP, SP, GP economy into a Ceramic, Bronze, Iron based system. It also has a few new weapons that fit the setting, and some other gear.

Section II: Optional Rules
Chapter 5: Lore
Basically insanity rules. If you want your sorcerers going all cray-cray then this is the chapter for you. It actually ties in quite well with the whole "power corrupts" theme that exists in the setting.

Chapter 6: Sea-Faring
For all intents and purposes it's a stripped down conversion of AD&D naval rules. Can save you some time if you want to involve things that float but it's probably not beefy enough to base a campaign around without some work.

Section III: Sorcery
Probably one of my favorite sections of the book.
Chapter 7: Ritual Magic
Gives players the option of casting certain spells under ritual conditions. Gives the ability to provide a butt-load of different modifiers to the spellcasting roll though everything from ritual components and human sacrifice, to dancing around in a circle waving a gri-gri stick. Definitely adds a lot of verisimilitude to spells like demonic summoning, invoke patron, and the like.

Chapter 8: Crafting Magic Items
Badass is the only way to describe this chapter. Basically you need to use a ritual to summon a demon and then force it to bind itself to the item you want to create. If/when things go wrong, they go horribly wrong. It does a fantastic job of making magic items genuinely rare, since any time a sorcerer tries to pull this stunt off he could die horribly, and even if he's successful he suffers automatic corruption and patron taint.

Chapter 9: Fallen Empires Grimoire
New spells. Haven't had a chance to look over them in detail yet, but they all seem evocative of the setting.

Section IV: The Malevolent and Benign.
Chapter 10: Patrons
4 new patrons. They seem good, and some of the patron taint/invoke patron spells are pretty cool. There's a rather odd bit at the end where there is a 1 and a half page bit of fiction detailing the horse goddess of Shesh that seems a bit out of place since there aren't actually any rules for using her as a patron.

Chapter 11: Gods
For the amount of space dedicated to the gods Tales really goes out of its way to remind you how unimportant they are. There are LOTS of gods. There are the dragons, the first gods, the Antivian gods, and upjumped mortals who acended to godhood. It's pretty crazy and more than a little confusing but it does go a long way to flesh out the setting.

Section V: Tales From the Fallen Empire
Chapter 12&13: Creation & The Ages of Man
This basically rehashes and goes into more detail regarding the stuff that was described in the prologue. Good job fleshing things out, but there is some duplicated information.

Chapter 14: Of Other Races
Details the history of the Ooruk, Draki, Sidhe, Ativans and Trul. Other than the Ooruk and Draki they aren't available as PC's but they do play an important role in the setting and offer lots of hooks for adventure.

Chapter 15: Nations of the Fallen Empires
Basically a gazetteer. Nicely written with lots of adventure hooks for the various petty kingdoms and city states. Tons of detail, but there is still room to make each one your own. A couple of standouts include the dying Ativan empire of Ithmyrr which has a very strong Melbornian vibe and the "Walking Market of Sheth" which is a mobile city carried on the backs of giant ancient golems.

Section VI: Judge
Chapter 16: Bestiary
Some cool stuff in here. Everything from Ativan Warlords who are basically 7 foot tall muscle bound elves with none of their weaknesses to the giant goloms that move Sheth around.

Chapter 17: Judges Advice
Some suggestions on how to actually run the setting. I've read an absolute ton of old pulp so I came into it with a pretty good understanding of the tropes that make the setting (hell that's why I threw money at this during the kickstarter) but it would be useful for anyone who's less familiar with the genre.

Chapter 18-19: Adventures
Can't comment too much on them as I haven't read them yet.

Appendix N:
Of course it has an Appendix N. It's got the stuff you'd expect like Howard, Moorcock, and Lovecraft but also includes Movies like the 7th Voyage of Sinbad, TV Shows like Xena, Music, Comic Books, and other RPG's.
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by Karaptis »

Wow. Honestly thanks for that review.
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by Rostranor »

thanks for the run down! I'll def check it out.
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by catseye yellow »

imperialus wrote:I'll give it a go.

So at it's core Tales From the Fallen Empire (Tales) is a setting book. It introduces a number of additional rules and rule variants to try and simulate a campaign setting with a very strong howardesque sword and sorcery vibe. In doing so it tramples a number of the 'sacred cows' of D&D but for those looking for a system that scratches that particular itch it does a fantastic job.

The PDF weighs in at 216 pages (including the cover OGL and all that stuff) with the actual content comprising 187 pages plus 2 small adventures a zero level funnel adventure that involves the PC's being cast as slaves and a second adventure being a 3rd level dungeon crawl with lovcraftian elements.

Prologue: This details the history of the world of Eld and the universe it resides in in broad strokes. It's well written and evocative, but it is somewhat confusing to try and keep up with who's who, and what's going on. Fortunately most of major players get more detail later on, but for me at least flipping back and forth between the prologue and the other sections while in a PDF can be a bit awkward. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on my physical copy so I can put bookmarks and sticky notes in for quick reference.

Section I: Characters

Chapter 1: People of the Fallen Empires
This is where the meat of the book starts. This chapter details the various 'races' to be found on Eld. These are races in the traditional sword and sorcery vein. With the exception of the Aesir they are all human and the differences focus instead on cultural heritage and background rather than stat modifiers. Each race also has a custom table of 0 level background appropriate to their culture as well as a short list of Cultural Traits and Idiosyncrasies. For example the barbarian horsemen of Khazahkaahn have the idiosyncrasy of "superstition" while having the traits "survivalist, horseman and stealthy" Most of this is focused on ideas for how to roleplay the various cultures rather than any mechanical benefit.

Chapter 2: Classes
This is where most of the mechanical changes between DCC and Tales sit. Most of the classes in the DCC core book are kicked to the curb. The only ones that really fill a niche that works in Tales are the Warrior and Thief. The demihumans just plain don't exist, being replaced by the reptilian Drakai who fill the role of a lightly armoured agility focused warrior, and the Man Apes of Ooruk. A major concern of mine with this section that it kinda plays havoc with the chargen procedure from DCC. There are no background rules for level 0 Ooruk or Drakai for example. Character generation in Tales is going to rely much more on player agency and DM fiat than chargen in the basic DCC game which can pretty much be left to random chance. There seems to be a strong encouragment to bypass the level 0 funnel and start PC's at level 1, and there is an nudge in the way of power creep via the suggestion to use alternative chargen methods like 4d6 drop the lowest and arrange to taste which may rub some folks the wrong way.

The Sorcerer and Witch and very cool takes on the spellcasting classes. The witch is a sort of hybrid priest/wizard that relies on patron (though they are optional) and serves as pretty much the only source of magical healing available as she has an ability similar to the priest's "lay on hands" and can brew potions starting at 1st level. The sorcerer is a badass. He works a lot like the Wizard but he MUST bind himself to a patron, and is significantly more likely to suffer ill effects due to corruption but in exchange they are more robust than their wizard counterparts.

The other classes offer some cool special abilities like the marauders black market ability and the Sentinel is a sort of weird (yet strangely cool) paladin/ninja combination.

One thing to note is that the armour available to the PC classes is almost all light. The heaviest armour available to the classes present in Tales is Chain, which can only be worn by Sentinels and Barbarians. This combined with the lack of magical healing may make the survivability of PC's an issue. This is somewhat mitigated by the new classes having higher HD (barbarians roll a D14 for example) but some house-ruling regarding healing may be necessary. It could also be dealt with by broadening the armour options with setting suitable alternatives like bronze brestplates, but it may be a challenge.

Chapter 3: Additional Character Options
This chapter basically just goes over how to implement things like Cultural Traits and Idiosyncrasies into the game and introduces and optional rule for narrative currency called 'coins'.

Chapter 4: Equipment
This chapter offers conversions from the traditional CP, SP, GP economy into a Ceramic, Bronze, Iron based system. It also has a few new weapons that fit the setting, and some other gear.

Section II: Optional Rules
Chapter 5: Lore
Basically insanity rules. If you want your sorcerers going all cray-cray then this is the chapter for you. It actually ties in quite well with the whole "power corrupts" theme that exists in the setting.

Chapter 6: Sea-Faring
For all intents and purposes it's a stripped down conversion of AD&D naval rules. Can save you some time if you want to involve things that float but it's probably not beefy enough to base a campaign around without some work.

Section III: Sorcery
Probably one of my favorite sections of the book.
Chapter 7: Ritual Magic
Gives players the option of casting certain spells under ritual conditions. Gives the ability to provide a butt-load of different modifiers to the spellcasting roll though everything from ritual components and human sacrifice, to dancing around in a circle waving a gri-gri stick. Definitely adds a lot of verisimilitude to spells like demonic summoning, invoke patron, and the like.

Chapter 8: Crafting Magic Items
Badass is the only way to describe this chapter. Basically you need to use a ritual to summon a demon and then force it to bind itself to the item you want to create. If/when things go wrong, they go horribly wrong. It does a fantastic job of making magic items genuinely rare, since any time a sorcerer tries to pull this stunt off he could die horribly, and even if he's successful he suffers automatic corruption and patron taint.

Chapter 9: Fallen Empires Grimoire
New spells. Haven't had a chance to look over them in detail yet, but they all seem evocative of the setting.

Section IV: The Malevolent and Benign.
Chapter 10: Patrons
4 new patrons. They seem good, and some of the patron taint/invoke patron spells are pretty cool. There's a rather odd bit at the end where there is a 1 and a half page bit of fiction detailing the horse goddess of Shesh that seems a bit out of place since there aren't actually any rules for using her as a patron.

Chapter 11: Gods
For the amount of space dedicated to the gods Tales really goes out of its way to remind you how unimportant they are. There are LOTS of gods. There are the dragons, the first gods, the Antivian gods, and upjumped mortals who acended to godhood. It's pretty crazy and more than a little confusing but it does go a long way to flesh out the setting.

Section V: Tales From the Fallen Empire
Chapter 12&13: Creation & The Ages of Man
This basically rehashes and goes into more detail regarding the stuff that was described in the prologue. Good job fleshing things out, but there is some duplicated information.

Chapter 14: Of Other Races
Details the history of the Ooruk, Draki, Sidhe, Ativans and Trul. Other than the Ooruk and Draki they aren't available as PC's but they do play an important role in the setting and offer lots of hooks for adventure.

Chapter 15: Nations of the Fallen Empires
Basically a gazetteer. Nicely written with lots of adventure hooks for the various petty kingdoms and city states. Tons of detail, but there is still room to make each one your own. A couple of standouts include the dying Ativan empire of Ithmyrr which has a very strong Melbornian vibe and the "Walking Market of Sheth" which is a mobile city carried on the backs of giant ancient golems.

Section VI: Judge
Chapter 16: Bestiary
Some cool stuff in here. Everything from Ativan Warlords who are basically 7 foot tall muscle bound elves with none of their weaknesses to the giant goloms that move Sheth around.

Chapter 17: Judges Advice
Some suggestions on how to actually run the setting. I've read an absolute ton of old pulp so I came into it with a pretty good understanding of the tropes that make the setting (hell that's why I threw money at this during the kickstarter) but it would be useful for anyone who's less familiar with the genre.

Chapter 18-19: Adventures
Can't comment too much on them as I haven't read them yet.

Appendix N:
Of course it has an Appendix N. It's got the stuff you'd expect like Howard, Moorcock, and Lovecraft but also includes Movies like the 7th Voyage of Sinbad, TV Shows like Xena, Music, Comic Books, and other RPG's.
do you feel that it would be easy, both setting-wise and rules-wise, to 'translate' adventures for dcc proper into totfe and vice versa?
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by imperialus »

catseye yellow wrote:do you feel that it would be easy, both setting-wise and rules-wise, to 'translate' adventures for dcc proper into totfe and vice versa?
A lot would depend on the adventure I think. Something with a lot of demihumans or even humanoids would be a challenge. A humanocentric adventure would work well, as well as anything involving undead, or demons but there are no Orcs, or Goblins mentioned in Tales. You could fit them in, but it would take a bit of square peg/round hole shenanigans. Fluff wise it'd be a bit like converting Greyhawk to Darksun in a lot of ways, doable, but probably more effort than it's worth.

Mechanically it wouldn't be too difficult. Turn any priests into sorcerers or charlatans, turn Wizards into Sorcerers, and the Thief and the Warrior both work well in the setting.
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by GnomeBoy »

imperialus wrote:...Something with a lot of demihumans or even humanoids would be a challenge...
Wouldn't the solution be to re-skin them to be far-flung races of humanity, or isolationist cults, or whatever? They'd all be humans instead of dwarves, orcs, or what-have-you, just exotic humans. Diminish or eliminate any "powers" that seem too far fetched, and be done with it.

I dunno -- haven't read the thing, so I'm asking. But that'd be the approach I'd expect to take... Seems simple enough.
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by Karaptis »

That is what Conan rpg did.
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by imperialus »

GnomeBoy wrote:
imperialus wrote:...Something with a lot of demihumans or even humanoids would be a challenge...
Wouldn't the solution be to re-skin them to be far-flung races of humanity, or isolationist cults, or whatever? They'd all be humans instead of dwarves, orcs, or what-have-you, just exotic humans. Diminish or eliminate any "powers" that seem too far fetched, and be done with it.

I dunno -- haven't read the thing, so I'm asking. But that'd be the approach I'd expect to take... Seems simple enough.
The challenge would be finding a way to slot them into the setting... Something like Orcs would work as a mad wizards experiment or some such but the sidhe and the Atavians kinda fill the role of Elves except that one is much more alien, and the other is pretty freaking evil, and a lot more powerful. They barely even view humans as being sentient. Think of the Atavians as being cut from the same cloth as the Melbornians and you'd be on the right track. The Sidhe on the other hand are ancient extremely powerful trees, who create human looking puppets called sidhe. Dwarves in the form of Dhurgur did exist, but they are long extinct, and the closest analog would probably be the Trul, though again they are probably just too alien for PC's to deal with in remotely the same way they would Dwarves. They actually remind me a lot of the Pnume from Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure. Halflings... would not survive long.

Not that you couldn't make the conversions work, I just think it would take a substantial amount of effort, and either the adventure, the setting or both would loose something in the translation.
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by GnomeBoy »

Just to clarify... Not all orcs would have to become the same thing, etc. The idea would be to switch whatever you don't want, into something as appropriate as possible.

And if you've got multiple races in the setting, what's the problem with just using them to best advantage to replace the races in something published that don't fit the setting? I mean, if the published thing posits that X race comes from a demi-plane and the course of the adventure takes you to that plane, but there is no such type of demi-plane in the setting, well, yeah, that's going to be a challenge to make that adventure work.

But if it just says 'hobgoblin' in the stat block, and you can substitute 'denizen of island X', that's done and dusted, eh?
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by Dumnbunny »

imperialus wrote:For those who don't have the book yet, basically it involves summoning a demon, and then negotiating/forcing it to bind its life force to the magic item. So many ways things could go so terribly wrong.
Very S&S, very reminiscent of Elric.
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by Hoplitenomad »

Raven_Crowking wrote:When is this expected to hit RPG Now? I have money waiting to go to the creators!

Likewise!
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by Karaptis »

I see it!!
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by Raven_Crowking »

Got it, and it looks to contain many interesting things to add to my own home game.

Query:

On page 183, Advancing Animal Companions (Optional Rule)

"Animal companions that are strongly aligned with their master to the point of being important characters in their own right, advance as their master does. Whenever their master gains a level, these animals also gain an extra Hit Die of their natural type. They do not gain other statistical increases, however."

looks like it was inspired by http://www.goodman-games.com/forums/vie ... 72&t=31075

If so, absolutely cool. If not, also absolutely cool. Just curious.

Second Query:

Can you send me a message letting me know how to go about referencing TotFE in other publications? For instance, I might want to use the dog stats (rather than reinvent the wheel) or make an NPC witch. Or even have reference spells for those who purchased TotFE (ex., a sword that can use one of the new spells if you have the book, or an alternate if you do not).

Mostly I am thinking about my ongoing work with Shanthopal, and I would like to have sections on using other supplements (CCD, TA, TotFE, VH) with the city (should I ever get it in a publishable format!).

Thanks, & great work!

Daniel
SoBH pbp:

Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by ragboy »

Raven_Crowking wrote:
Second Query:

Can you send me a message letting me know how to go about referencing TotFE in other publications? For instance, I might want to use the dog stats (rather than reinvent the wheel) or make an NPC witch. Or even have reference spells for those who purchased TotFE (ex., a sword that can use one of the new spells if you have the book, or an alternate if you do not).
Got it. Looks fun!

Their OGC is pretty clear -- everything that's not derived from or already in the SRD is copywritten (proper names, spell names, capitalized/italicized, etc etc. :

Designation of Product Identity: The following items are hereby designated as Product
Identity in accordance with Section 1(e) of the Open Game License, version 1.0: Dungeon Crawl
Classics, DCC RPG, Mighty Deed of Arms, spell check, Luck check, spellburn, mercurial magic,
corruption, disapproval, all spell names, all proper nouns, capitalized terms, italicized terms,
artwork, maps, symbols, depictions, and illustrations, except such elements that already
appear in the System Reference Document.

Designation of Open Content: Subject to the Product Identity designation above, such sections
of creature statistics as derive from the SRD are designated as Open Gaming Content. Some of
the portions of this book which are delineated OGC originate from the System Reference
Document and are copyright © 1999, 2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. The remainder of these
OGC portions of these book are hereby added to Open Game Content and, if so used, should
bear the COPYRIGHT NOTICE “Tales From the Fallen Empire, copyright © 2013 Chapter 13
Press, all rights reserved, visit www.chapter13press.com or contact info@chapter13press.com
Tales from the Fallen Empire is copyright © 2013 Chapter 13 Press. Open game content may
only be used under and in the terms of the Open Game License.
AKA Paul Wolfe
The Mystic Bull: Check out our two FREE prehistoric adventures: The Steading of the Nergalites AND The Tribe of Ogg and the Gift of Suss
In the Prison of the Squid Sorcerer (PDF) and softcover: 12 Short Adventures for DCC!
The God-Seed Awakens: 3rd Level Adventure for DCC. New patron, new spells, lots of new monsters and the living weapons of the Empire of Thal!
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ragboy
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by ragboy »

catseye yellow wrote:
do you feel that it would be easy, both setting-wise and rules-wise, to 'translate' adventures for dcc proper into totfe and vice versa?
No way -- they are brothers from the same mother, separated at birth. You slap some different clothes on the elves/dwarves/halflings and run it. Hell, if you're bringing in elf/dwarf/halfling PCs they could be "from a different world." Plenty of opportunities in the current set of DCC adventures to throw characters into this world (or drag characters from this world into your own.)
AKA Paul Wolfe
The Mystic Bull: Check out our two FREE prehistoric adventures: The Steading of the Nergalites AND The Tribe of Ogg and the Gift of Suss
In the Prison of the Squid Sorcerer (PDF) and softcover: 12 Short Adventures for DCC!
The God-Seed Awakens: 3rd Level Adventure for DCC. New patron, new spells, lots of new monsters and the living weapons of the Empire of Thal!
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Raven_Crowking
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by Raven_Crowking »

ragboy wrote:Their OGC is pretty clear -- everything that's not derived from or already in the SRD is copywritten
Which should not prevent them from having a policy to reference the work. After all, the more the work is referenced (without being reproduced) the more valuable it is to the purchaser. IMHO, anyway. If Chapter 13's opinion differs, then that's fine too. It doesn't hurt to ask!
SoBH pbp:

Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
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Raven_Crowking
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by Raven_Crowking »

Without having given the final version a thorough read yet, this does seem to set a "gold standard" for adapting DCC to a specific setting. Very different from Transylvanian Adventures, which is another "gold standard" setting sourcebook, and making this a quite exciting time for DCC aficionados.
SoBH pbp:

Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
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Re: Chapter 13 Press Presents: Tales of the Fallen Empire

Post by Karaptis »

So glad to score both this and Transylvanian Adventures. With these and all of the excellent adventures put out by Goodman and the third parties, DCC is the overlord of all RPGs!
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