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46:16 this is sort of the mind-blowing aspect of it. The sheer amount of campaign settings and novels. Where I lived at the time, I barely met anyone that knew how to run this stuff. If you could find a GM you were lucky. The stuff must have been selling though for them to have churned out so much of it.

Love Dark Sun, and owned every version of it… I have dumped my 4E books many years ago, but still have the 2 boxes and have converted them to Savage Worlds… great setting, glad WoTC is ignoring it honestly!

damn i loved the way you laid this out, thankful i found this channel

You end the first part as "17:30" sprawling mess of options. Its up to the DM to middigate that to use what works and what don't to induce a smooth mechanic within game play and role play.

Brilliant review. Absolutely nails the T5 experience. I agree completely, but I landed in a different place of using primarily M2E with T5 layered on to add crunch to taste. M2E is generic if you want it to be, but the charted space setting is (imo) the single greatest setting in RPGs, so I like to use some of the Mongoose setting content. My particular homebrew recipe also borrows some of the sandbox tools from Stars Without Number.

Not really misogynistic if it’s true. Women are weaker than men. Even when they work out. Pretty sure he was just stating facts and not going down the sexist road. Also, it was the 1970s & 80s. I only met a tiny handful of girls that ever wanted anything to do with a “boy’s game” or a “nerd game”. Still mostly outcasts playing at the dinner table with other outcasts.

T4 has a lot going for it. First ; price. It wasn't on my radar at all ( I've never heard anything good about it) but I grabbed the hardback core book at HPB for $5 and it was a pretty good read. After that I scoured about half of the other books for $6-10 . As for content - Emperor's Arsenal really fleshes out the armor kits - Battledress 9 is just a mass of plates worn only by the big dudes , battledress augmented 10 has power support for the legs only and BDA12 finally is the fully sealed and powered walking tank we all know and love. It's a long way from : "You are on a TL10 planet so CES is all that's available ; yes I know it's a vacuum outside the dome...".

Have you ( or anyone interested ) heard of Maury Castle? ( an adventure module of a Dragon Magazine issue?)

A very interesting take on some popular modules. I ask myself "should I look at these ,in depth,( and spoil it as to wanting to play these as a player) or study them for my personal campaign setting) I am now DMing efforts?" I started on my D&D journey when an older cousin provided a bored 12 year old from the late 70's with a whole new world. Kitteh seems to be playing along with you and your young friend. Endearing! Plus the looks on your faces says it all!

I really like those sheets you made for your game. Thanks for the share!!

Never Played RuneQuest. But it's been around as long as I can remember. Thanks for the share!!

I think in particular I loved 3.x for the extensive Forgotten Realms content. There was so much to explore. I also really loved the Complete series and the Draconomicon. Beyond that I mostly made use of the many monster books, though use may be less appropriate than 'I read them and imagined using them'. The many, many classes were always neat but there was always a lot of planning your character from level 1 but not necessarily getting there.

I honestly think almost all editions of D&D start breaking down at about Level 10, for the simple fact that bonuses start to outweigh the die roll. At a simple +11 to hit, the modifier now means more than average result of a d20 roll, 10.5. Thus you to plan for hyper specialized builds, and it starts making other party members superfluous to tasks. “Search for a trap? Only the rogue could possibly get a DC 35. Hit the Dragon? Hope you have a +20 to reasonably hit a AC 30. Lower level play is more democratic, everyone can contribute, the wizard can bop goblins on the head with his staff, the fighter could find a trap, etc. An outside the box creative solutions could be more effective than one of the wizard’s limited spells.Low level adventures need to live by their wits, not just bonuses stacked on bonuses.

Impressive review what's your background sir

Hey man. Because of your video I got me a copy of Thieve's World box set for a decent price in excellent condition, also got some of the audiobooks off of Audible because I had the credit. Going to try running it in Zweihander, the setting agnostics Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay retroclone, should be fun!

(still early in the video) I feel like there is a lot that happened into the 90s with D&D and into 2001 with the third edition that happened alongside and with the 'corporatization' of the game. The distance between producer and consumer, game maker and player; that did widen. But that happened with the game changing to be able to function in such a way. Moving into third edition it was no longer as necessary for someone in the group to be engaged with the magazines and the game shops to fully know how to use the game. And while I love my game shops, the need for this time and money often involved with being active in such a community did limit who could reasonably play it. Sure, anyone with the core books in theory could figure it out... but realistically you had to be invited in. And as a result, the game was largely being played only by the middle class white men and boys that were welcome in game shops and that were friends or their fellow middle class white friends, still mostly guys. Which wasn't ever the intention... but a systemic problem that was never addressed. Hasbro, of course, has done some pretty bad shit in its time holding on to the IP, but one good thing has been turning the game into something that was way, way easier to get involved with. D&D has expanded greatly into including women and people of color. There are many factors for this, but one is that Hasbro actually considered them as a potential consumer of the game. But along with that, the 'cleaning up' that Hasbro did (for better or worse for the game itself) made it way easier to engage with on its own. Hasbro of course has never actually cared about this- some of the D&D staff has, of course- but they are a corporation. They want money. Which has accidentally lead to some pretty great things. I really don't know why I got so ranty. This is intended mostly as some critical thought on the idea of the 'corporatization' of D&D and isn't really critique of the video as a whole. As the name implies, I'm the Devil's Advocado here... and there isn't much more like the devil than a corporation. (with that, I continue on your video)

Nice! Great topics, please talk more about psions combats. See you

Awesome video!

Mark Miller was an army officer and he was in Vietnam before he entered game industry. He adapted the career system he experienced to the Traveller. And when the same system was adapted in Twilight 2000 a game with characters in Nato branches it became a full circle 😅

We tried a multi-GM parallel campaign set in Sanctuary. Several parties doing their own adventures in the same setting, at the same time, with the possibility of those adventures overlapping. We used Runequest mechanics. I even managed to incorporate the Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man into my thread ...

Wizardry in the feudal age. Terror beneath the city state. Oh, yeah! 🐗

I had the 1st two Thieves World Novels in junior high. What a blast from the past! Thanks for the share!!

Especially interesting episode of a part of gaming history I did not know, thank you. .

The cooperation of all of those game companies is truly mind boggling and only outdone by the Thieves' World authors themselves. It's a series I've read several times now and will go back to in the future. Thank you for making this video. I especially love this series of videos.

I've read the first 3 novels, and I really enjoyed them. I wish I could get my hands on the Chaosium boxset, it looks like a fantastic package all around.

Still got mine, have used it over the years in Runequest, AD&D and will be using it for Mongoose Traveller very soon!

Gah! No idea how the Grreyhawk spelling passed me during edit - grrr...

A great game as you say with a solid system that still has to show up to the world properly

Thanks for the share!!

Motorhead & Moorcock! You, my friend, are a man of taste and culture!!

...and Bob is your uncle. Thanks for the share!!

I don't know why? But every time I watch your reviews, I end up spending money at Drivethu or Feebay. Another solid one! Thank you!!

Loves me some JG! Thanks for the share!!

Pug 2024

Noice!

As Ozzy would say...Keep on smokin' it! And as always, thanks for the share!!

Thank yea kindly!

I must mention Willy that this video made me take a new look at the 5.10 version. After backing the 5.0 edition and being vastly disappointed by it (after trying very hard to make it work) I had given up on T5. Years later I came back to Traveller and initially went for Cepheus Universal, but I found myself often going to T5 for missing things (missing for _me_). After watching your video I decided to give 5.10 a fair test. I must say it's a bit like trying to learn someone else's short hand... But once you do make the initial effort to learn how it's written, and take the time to read it _all_, making sure you cover everything (because some things are defined after they are used), then it starts to make sense. And then it starts to shine! It's not without its shortcomings (what game doesn't have those?), but it's a very elegant system that is not as complicated as it appears. Yes it's crunchy, but most of what you get is either modular (meaning you can opt out) or used outside of the game night (for the GM to work prepping the game). Once you get to a certain amount of understanding, you start to see the beauty of many of its subtle nuances. So, thank you for this video!

For Return... I wish WotC had simply published T2 based on EGG's notes instead of retconning a mess TSR had made (the mice play while the cat is away sort of situation)

Excellent vid! Nitpick- 1:43 "The western portion of Faerûn. From the border of the Hordelands, to the Sea of Swords." That description & the map on the screen (from TM4) is the entirety of Faerûn, not the western portion of it.

Speaking as a Grognard who first picked up CT in 1984 - I approve of this overview....I can and have adapted alien species from more sci-fi properties than I can count, and have a bevy of _IMTU House Rules_ to go along with it. As you point out, unless I am gaming in a _very_ specific IP universe, you can do pretty much whatever you like in Trav (I once ran "Lord of the Rings" in CT...it does work), and especially in CT: _Go where you want. Do what you want. Try not to end up as lunch._ I do buy material from editions other than CT, but I only use those for campaign ideas, deck plans and flavor text....One thing I did not change from the OG version, though, is its lethality: Avoid combat in my games where you can, or have _VERY_ high combat skills and physical stats, or you will find yourself rolling up characters *_very_* frequently.

Quite in impressive but again try CataclysmDDA

Thks & you should really try CataclymDDA

Fun video. You raise a lot of good points about Dungeons and Dragons. I often find myself shaking my head when told about the various homebrew complexities people add into their games. It, more often than not, is not the right sort of game for them. I wholeheartedly agree with Gary Gygax's original sentiment (Runequest bashing aside). However, this said, there is a fairly simple fix to the critical systen used by 5e, as presented by Pathfinder. (I'm not a pathfinder player, this is one of the few rules I'm familiar with.) In Pathfinder, rolling ten above the target number nets you a critical hit. It overcomes the DnD problem of a constant five percent chance to critically hit. It also means that classes will more often score critical hits in areas they're already skilled in. I believe that spells have enhanced effects should you score a critical hit, beyond rolling more damage, but I couldn't tell you any specific examples.

I like dice pool systems - but not with this many dice.