Thanks for the overview and for telling us about your C&S experience. 👍

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Not a problem, it was very fortuitous that two players that never miss a session were both absent on Sunday. Good excuse to get it on the table! Glad you enjoyed the video.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on C&S. I have the book on order, but hearing about your thoughts and experiences with the game has increased my desire to at least try it for solo play if not try to talk friends into giving it a go. Cheers!

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Fred, welcome back man! It is probably a little bit better equipped for solo than Forbidden Lands out of the box, which is really saying something. I used the very simple GM’s Apprentice deck just because there was really very little pressure on the Oracle. There are SO MANY tables for random encounters, between regions, landmarks, towns, and dungeons, you could play for years and never have close to the same experience. Lots of meat to this game!

Thank you! This was very insightful. Appreciate the content.

@booksbricksandboards783

4 ай бұрын

Thanks for the nice comment! Seemed like “The Thing” to do. 😉

Thanks for the Deep Delve on C&S especially on the solo/GM-less side since that reasurres me about doing my first solo TTRPG with it! I will try it very soon but with a small twist on my character being a sort of samurai (because I love the fact that he can become a true Ronin). I feel you on the layout issues but it is definitely pretty good nonetheless and it's a first edition. I bought it and I'm loving reading it, I will try the solo play soon. PS: I have discovered you quite recently and I love your tips videos and your reviews (binged your CWN reviews before watching this)! And we have the same name so that was a great surprise too!

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Justin, glad to see you are enjoying the content and that you are going to be running a solo in the North Holds! I don’t think you will be disappointed. On a side note, the Frog Kin have samurai and ronin in the North Holds, so your samurai will fit right in!

@juauke

5 ай бұрын

​@@booksbricksandboards783 Thanks for the quick answer, Justin! Your content is definitely top notch so I'm really happy having discovered you! I'm looking forward to it! And I didn't realize this about the Frog Kin, this motivates me even more about playing it!!!

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

The Frog Kin are a bit like a feudal Japan type of culture, so hop to it and create a samurai so you can make his enemies croak 😉. Good luck with your session!

@juauke

5 ай бұрын

​@@booksbricksandboards783 That sounds exactly like what I wanted so I will make them croak xD! Thanks for the advice and for telling me about the Frog Kin!

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Very welcome!

I have the Gold deluxe copy on route, amazing system with great unique features. I find a lot of good solo options as you did.

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Vortak, the dungeon exploration system (where you don’t move on until you roll a 4), was really a revelation for me… it made theater of the mind dungeon crawling a rewarding experience.

I don't skip a DND Campaign Session when any amount of players miss (as long as one attends). I feel like that rewards players who miss and tells the one (or ones) who show that they don't matter.

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

I can see that being valid. We have been playing this campaign for over two years now, and they are in the last few sessions. Felt like it would be unfortunate to cut them out so close to the end when they never miss.

@JScottGaribay

5 ай бұрын

@@booksbricksandboards783 That makes sense. Sounds like an exception. Thank you for clarifying.

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

No problem! Nothing wrong with either way.

Concise & informative, thanks for the review. I'm planning on running a Play by Post game on Discord, this will be my first attempt at DMing and I get the feeling this will be a forgiving system as apposed to 5E.

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Thanks Rick! I agree, but definitely give the players a little primer before hand to get them ready. If they go in expecting to play a traditional RPG it could be a system shock! 😀

@rikwilliams6352

5 ай бұрын

Roger that.@@booksbricksandboards783

Really excellent video, appreciate the report on your experience. I love that it's player-facing and so efficient in terms of prep. So you like the setting more Symbaroum?

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

I had trouble getting into Symbaroum’s setting. I loved the game mechanics, but the setting was dark but in a way that didn’t really pull me in. Probably a matter of personal taste, because the setting seems to be people’s favorite part of that game. Just didn’t click for me. So for me, North Holds is amazing. Hyperborea is bigger and more specific to things I am interested in, but North Holds is something that really makes me want to learn more. I’d place Hyperborea as a setting slightly higher, but with more time that too could change… it is really that interesting. I also really like that the mechanics push players from min/maxing and encourage clever play over good accounting. It’s not perfect, but it is really innovative and very good. Thanks for watching Paul, love seeing your name pop up in the comments!

Nice review. Thanks!

@booksbricksandboards783

Ай бұрын

Very welcome! Thanks for watching.

Sounds like a lot of fun! Gotta check that out at some point!

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Paavo, the PDF is a good start for a primer, but if you are a fan of well crafted books the print copy is great!

@paavohirn3728

5 ай бұрын

@@booksbricksandboards783 Yeah! It looks pretty nifty! But there's so much I'd like to have 😁 In currently dreaming of ordering some Merry Mushmen books. The Nightmare Over Ragged Hollow at least. Maybe a Knock.. But C&S has piqued my interest and was fantastic hearing about your early experiences.

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Paavo, there you go again, introducing me to new product lines 😀. Now I’m going to have to look up the Mushmen books. Have a good day buddy!

@paavohirn3728

5 ай бұрын

@@booksbricksandboards783 Oops! Sorry about that 😆 The creativity in indie rpg's is crazy! Merry Mushmen sure have good reviews for everything they produce. Really cool mostly OSR stuff!

@paavohirn3728

5 ай бұрын

@@booksbricksandboards783 and a good day and weekend to you too!

Haven't played yet but curious how smooth tracking the ebb and flow of a characters current defense number is, as equipment and skills fluctuate in the attrition system.

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Good question, not bad at all. Typically a piece of armor gives 1-3 points of defense, and by the time you get skills, weapons and a core ability, there is not much room for extras. You definitely scribble a lot (marking out skills and equipment and bumping numbers down). Not nearly as much math as tracking HP in a more Traditional game. Most of the time it was the player’s choice to lose the armor (some random in there), so they are thinking about that impact when they choose it. Oh, and many of the monster attack values are so high they are making you roll 5 or less even with armor to defend😀

really appreciate your coverage of interesting "smaller" games, particularly with a glance to solo play! C&S seems like a great solo book. its chunky, but I see it as a thing to slowburn, and immerse oneself into fully vs. super rules lite delve sessions? thanks for the vid

@booksbricksandboards783

Ай бұрын

I think, yes and no. It certainly builds upon itself to create a GREAT story through the emergent narrative, however, it is such a slog that I feel like attrition is going to be a natural deterrent to long term play for some… you will have some beat up well worn adventurers by the time you get some time under your belt!

@booksbricksandboards783

Ай бұрын

Also, thank you for noticing the small run games I try to cover. They don’t always get many eyeballs, but C&S did very well for me.

Thank you for the video. I liked this Book a lot more than you did but I appreciate your take.

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Hey Scott, thanks for watching. I like Crown & Skull quite a bit, that’s why I made the video suggesting everyone give it a try lol. You just must like it even more.

@JScottGaribay

5 ай бұрын

@@booksbricksandboards783 Yeah - I think it is really make a new path that other TTRP Books simply are not and I absolutely loved the Print Version. I also got the eBundle. But I loved the Print Book. Again I think it is doing a lot that has not been seen in other books. Thanks again for the video.

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Agree with everything you said here. Runehammer is a talented guy, so I really like seeing his work being accepted so well in the community l!

Cool. First edition of new games are notorious for having poor layout/ editing. Do you think it's just for one-offs/short campaigns? Or is there much about character advancement?

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Jay, especially when it is essentially one guy doing 95% of the work! I don’t hold it against Hankerin, but wanted to make sure to share in case someone is considering purchase (not everyone is as forgiving on that as I am! 😀). To answer your question on campaign play, I didn’t go into it as much in the video, because I haven’t ran a long term game (Yet!), but I have good reason to speculate it would be BETTER for long term play. As the name suggests, a lot of the play is aimed at the choice between Crown & Skull, and those options won’t even open up until you have gained 25 hero points after creation (several sessions), then you can spend infinite time exploring custom spell and item creation (make them quest for the custom spell or item, then pay for it with hero points before it becomes fully realized). There is also the magic paths system, essentially schools of Magic for several different paths, opening similar allegiances to the aforementioned Crown & Skull choice for magic users. The long and short of it, in my opinion there is a lot of potential here. Caveat being, some groups will hate the departure from tried and true, and the setting really seems pretty intertwined with the mechanics. If they are on board with that, GAME on!

So, it's better to get the PDF for now and hold off on a print copy? My guess is there'll be a revised edition to tighten up those editing bugs. Sounds really fun, though. There's a free 'Player Guide' pdf. Nice way to get familiar with the core concepts.

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Definitely would work just fine. I find more and more that running games I prefer to go with a PDF ,or a selection of necessary pages printed combined with a PDF, rather than a physical copy. That said, I’m a book nerd and this is a throwback in terms of construction that is quite nice, so I’m happy I have the print copy (warts and all!).

Great vid, man! 👑💀❤

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

JD, thank you sir! I hadn’t seen many folks making Crown & Skull content. I wanted to help remedy that problem!

The video has some intriguing content, so I just ordered the book. Looking forward to trying this out. I'm mostly turned on by the 'stripped down' nature. Just my opinion, but this latest version of D&D feels so bogged down with 'actions and checks' that it feels like you're fighting a number system, rather than going on an epic adventure. Really looking forward to this!

@booksbricksandboards783

4 ай бұрын

Amen! Sometimes I like some extra crunch in my systems, but anytime the term “character build” is uttered, a little piece of me dies. 😀

@echoradius2299

4 ай бұрын

@@booksbricksandboards783 oh God fucking THIS. Character build... Gross. My biggest complaint from the 5e experience was the blatantly obvious min/maxing that the game practically WANTS you to do, leaving no room for creative story and fun.

@booksbricksandboards783

4 ай бұрын

Echo, you have it brother. When it moves from roleplay to accounting tricks, it lost me. 😂 it’s not even that I don’t like crunchy games. I love Ascendent and it is crunchy as anything, but the crunchiness serves to allow you to emulate character ideas you imagine, not to create an unassailable strategy. I have a buddy that LOVES to munchkin characters, and it has made me happy we never played RPG’s together.

It look great! I see the divided by shunks mechanic of ICRPG. How hard or easy is to change the world using this system?

@booksbricksandboards783

4 ай бұрын

The basic system is pretty easily adapted to other settings. The crown and skull paths and magic systems would need some adjustment. Races don’t really change much so probably just drop frogkin and you’d be set there.

It's a very interesting system. Did you prepare characters for your players? It seems to me the point-buy system needs quite a lot of investment from the players' side. It takes time to make a fully custom character. I wonder how that will work out in a system where PCs are quite likely to die.

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Edwin, I did make pre gens for the players. I created fully custom heroes using the point buy system. I cheated a bit on concept, because I just designed them based off of characters from the Milius Conan movies. To create four heroes, print 2 maps, 4 player aid cards, and find images to put on the character sheets (plus laminate everything) was 2 hours… probably 45 minutes to create 4 heroes. Not too bad. I think one thing that was not intuitive until I played was that creating a balanced hero is much more beneficial than creating an optimized hero. You can also use the pre set archetypes to make it faster.

Great video! Can i ask whats that deck that you used called?

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Thanks! That is the Game Master’s Apprentice. Specifically that is the generic version. There are themed ones for all manner of genres (pirates, sci fi, horror, etc). The generic works for about anything. I have the pirate one as well and it is pretty wonderfully themed.

It all started with the introductory adventure and the question "how DOES Uruhito fight along side the heroes against The Butcher?" This, in my humble opinion, is the achilles heel. NPC's CAN NOT fight in the architecture of the rules as written. The deep asymmetry of the system, where enemy stats are solely the modifiers on player rolls, means the frog that goes rebel and aids the players in combat is totally outside the mechanics. Enemy stats, their hitpoint and damage, don't elegantly mutant into the player character architecture. Can we just have our new NPC ally grant bonuses, or extra attacks? Should we build a facsimile of them as a "companion"? Sure.... but its work and pretty low res, and not easily done on the fly. So hand waving and flat rolls? oof. My players, witnessing the awesome violence of a Yeti are not going to be happy with these options, once they figure out a way to ally with them. I love so much about the stripped down highly moddable hot rod logic of C&S, but the missing component is a catalyst, a little chart or equation, as clean and elegant as the rest of the game that transforms npc and character builds into the other. Anyone else stuck on this?

@booksbricksandboards783

4 ай бұрын

As to the companions, they as written seem to function as players do (not really explained well). They have skills and can hold items so they have the ability to act and take attrition. As far as NPC’s I think that the reason that they are not handled in the rules are because the focus is on the players(which in my opinion is why the enemies have HP instead of attrition damage). If I were to have a significant NPC siding with the players, I believe I would stat him as a player character (probably leveled up according to experience).

@monkeymule1286

4 ай бұрын

​@@booksbricksandboards783 I concur with your read on the whys and wherefore, and really I'm super onboard with the games streamlined player facing equation. But we're one "control other" type spell away from being pushed into mechanically unsupported territory. My players are constantly hiring, blackmailing, persuading npcs to join the fight and if they sense daylight between the ally and the enemy version... they're going be... salty. Lets take Uruhito, he is an excellent red thread to show the players about the potent danger of the frog empire. I want him to be a high res ally so I go about specing a character build to stand in for his enemy stats, how may skill/equipment slots to a HP? how does the DEF stat transform? somehow # of attacks, ATK, and attrition type have to get converted to a Strike/Damage die... We're not gonna crack this in the comment section, but I appreciate the back and forth and am hunting for others who want to build that transformation rubric.

@booksbricksandboards783

4 ай бұрын

Thanks for keeping it positive and civil Mr. Mule! Appreciate having a conversation, even if we didn’t reach a perfect resolution. Good luck in your search! I’m guessing that it is less an issue to me because I convert material to all sorts of systems, and because of that don’t worry a lot about being precise, I just try to get the feel for the characters I am converting over. If I were worried about it being very accurate to the original I would likely feel similarly to yourself. Good luck man!

Where did you get the card holder?

@booksbricksandboards783

4 ай бұрын

Amazon. Just look up magnetic deck boxes (standard size). There are several options and I have a few similar to the one in the video. They run around $20. I use boxes like that one for my Zombicide cards too.

@ravenshadowz2343

4 ай бұрын

@@booksbricksandboards783, thank you I have those cards and that would be awesome to use at the table. :)

@booksbricksandboards783

4 ай бұрын

I really like the setup, with the smaller tray in the middle that can fit short cards or dice. When I used it for Ironsworn I threw dice and a mini in the middle tray and made for a great travel situation.

@ravenshadowz2343

4 ай бұрын

@@booksbricksandboards783, I'm so glad that you showed that in the video. I can be better organized during solo play. :)

@booksbricksandboards783

4 ай бұрын

Organization is important. You are effectively wearing several hats (depending upon how many heroes you run). Last thing you need is to be fumbling to find a critical tool. I tend to make binders for games I solo, and have a kit of tools prepped.

I agree with you about editing and layout. That's always been a serious problem with Runehammer stuff. Brandish/Hank is great at thinking up wild stuff, but not so hot at conveying those thoughts clearly. I love ICRPG, but it's got a ton of poor editing and glaring holes in some of the logic. I haven't looked too much in to C&S yet, my copy has only been cracked open a couple times. I like the idea of AI monsters, but don't care for the attrition system for PCs but HP for monsters.

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Runehammer is too innovative and unique to really have a place at traditional publisher, but as an indy he is going to have some editing woes. I kind of just know that going in, but actually quality overall of the new book is really impressive for how much is on his own shoulders! The AI monster system is very similar to Forbidden Lands and Dragonbane, roll a d6 and they do that. I think that I understand the use of HP for monsters, just speculation, but it feels like that keeps the story focus on the players, ie it matters that they get hurt, but the monsters are more just background characters and red shirts. I also think attrition on monsters would slow the game down. It’s definitely a unique game! Thanks for watching.

@mavfan21

5 ай бұрын

@@booksbricksandboards783 That's a good point about why there's HP for monsters and not attrition. It would still be cool if bosses had some sort of partial attrition, like when he used CHUNKS in ICRPG.

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Good idea!

@monkeymule1286

4 ай бұрын

@@mavfan21 I took this exact tact, dividing HP into thirds and tieing number of attacks or attrition type to relative health tiers. Pretty painless and it makes enemies feel like theyre in the same world as the players. Otherwise that asymmetry can lead to a resentment at the table- "I'm coming apart at the seems but this orc is whole till his last HP?!"

@clinthaig

Ай бұрын

That's a very clever and easy idea to apply attrition to the enemy. At least to do it with bigger monsters or bosses, the tiny mooks can just go when they go. ​@@monkeymule1286

Man, I’ve heard some good things about Crown & Skull, but the the fact that it’s from Rune Hammer just puts me off of it. It’s like, if your “claim to fame” is a confusing, unfinished mess (ICRPG), then I’m gonna be iffy on your newest product.

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Tasty, I’m only familiar with the “Master Edition” of ICRPG, so I got the more polished and production quality edition. I ran a few sessions and it felt like a trimmed down 5e that was cut into a rules lite game. I liked it but didn’t think it was a long term option, more like a “don’t have anything to run, or want to introduce new people to the hobby” option. Crown & Skull is literally about the opposite in every way from ICRPG. It is aimed at a niche (not the masses), it is very non-traditional mechanically(aggressively so), it has a very set in stone setting built into the game, and the book is intended to be a very high production value quality product (like a college textbook, back when they were high quality). ICRPG’s greatest value to me was its many modular mechanics that were easily adaptable to other games. Crown & Skull is like a different way to think about RPG’s. Closest thing I can compare it to was the first time I played Dungeon World, like nothing I’d played before. Crown & Skull is a one of one. It’s worth a shot.

@EdwinSteiner

5 ай бұрын

ICRPG is a mess (even the book itself admits it) and calling it unfinished is probably fair. (It is kind of unfinished by design, as it invites people to hack it.) It is also one of the most fun and thought-provoking systems I have yet used (the room target is a brilliant game changer, for example), it makes me excited to play (almost) all kinds of genres and the ICRPG books have some of the best GM advice that you can find. I don't think there is much to put one off about that. That said, Crown & Skull is the very opposite of ICRPG in most aspects anyway, so Runehammer's track record does not tell you a lot about it.

@tasty_wind4294

5 ай бұрын

@@booksbricksandboards783 thanks for the summary. I’m probably gonna skip Crown and Skull. I’ve gotten to the point that I have plenty of fine, perfectly functional wheels. I don’t need yet another attempt to try and reinvent it.

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Absolutely, everyone has their own taste, that is why there are so many games out there. Good gaming!

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Ed, you and I had a very similar approach to our response. Great minds think alike. 😀

You might point out that Runehammer's background is working for mobile game Companies and his RPG's reflect that inluence.

@booksbricksandboards783

5 ай бұрын

Didn’t know that. Thanks for pointing it out.