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The Hero's Journey Fantasy Roleplaying (First Edition) $4.99
Average Rating:4.5 / 5
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The Hero\'s Journey Fantasy Roleplaying (First Edition)
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The Hero's Journey Fantasy Roleplaying (First Edition)
Publisher: Gallant Knight Games
by Wayne H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/27/2016 19:09:33

James Spahn is the master of OSR games. Coming off the success of his brilliant take on Space Opera, White Star, he takes us back to the origins of the game. The Heroes Journey is an innovative take on Swords & Wizardry, this is James' fantasy heartbreaker. Drawing upon the classic tales, like Tolkien he is practically giving you this game. Well, okay technically he is giving you this game. So get it! Praise it! Love it. Take the journey, the Heroes Journey.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Hero's Journey Fantasy Roleplaying (First Edition)
Publisher: Gallant Knight Games
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/19/2016 23:09:30

The Hero's Journey by James Spahn is an old school, Swords & Wizardry White Box inspired roleplaying game of epic, nostalgia-driven, proportions. The rules are light and simple, leaving the role playing to the imagination and without bogging down gaming sessions. The entire volume evokes images of Lord Of The Rings, Dragonlance, A Wizard of Earthsea, and the Sword of Shannara, all of which were instrumental in my early gaming years. There are nods to early editions of D&D, but options to avoid those nods if one chooses. Speaking of choices, the book is littered with them! Optional additions are found on almost every page, which allows Game Masters and Players to set the level of comfort that they enjoy. The Magic section brings back those classic spells which every old school player knows and loves, but doesn't become overly packed with useless incantations and barely understandable casting rules that some of the most recent games have. Creatures and bad guys abound in the section on monsters, and even includes a short section on creating your own evil minions to populate your home-brewed worlds. My favorite part of this amazing book is the Magic Items section. it is filled with an abundance of classic and new trinkets for your players to get their hands on. But, what really makes this section shine is the way it treats magical weapons and armor. These items do not gain their mystical powers by enchantments placed upon them when forged, but by earning reputations and glory through battle and noteworthy events. This draws my imagination to things like Excalibur in the Arthurian Legend and Naegling, Beowulf's sword. Weapons who were feared and held in awe by those who had heard of their mighty deeds. Which lead me to think about fantastic stories where weapons might fail among enemies which either did not fear them or had not been introduced to their epic pasts. All in all this is a fantastic game that throws back to those fondly remembered gaming days of yore, without jamming it down your throat, and still creates a new and exciting table top experience. You would be a fool for not adding this title to your collection!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Hero's Journey Fantasy Roleplaying (First Edition)
Publisher: Gallant Knight Games
by Joseph E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/19/2016 12:17:18

I really loved the look of the PDF from the layout to the art this is a top notch production that PWYN pricing does not convey.

Within the first few chapters I was getting a very DCC vibe with the addition of luck to attributes and an Occupation table along with wording how most commoners never travel more then a few miles from home their entire lives. Now if you give the player race a d4 dice to start and no classes you could have a 0 level funnel.

The next thing I noticed was the reduction value some races get it like the Half-Orc when you roll damage against them you subtract that reduction value from the damage before applying it to the hit points. Also armor will add to the reduction value. This is a heroic RPG after all and steps are taken to make the heroes stronger. I'll return to reduction value in a moment.

Next up are the Classes all the popular classes are here and some others like Jester. The Demi-Humans have level restrictions and this is where the text fell apart for me and I need to go back a re read but it doesn't really discuss multi-classing or dual-classing which based off some of the restrictions and wording seemed like was an option.

The Spells, Monsters, Equipment and GM advice was all well written and was useful for new GM's and players but if you have run some games most likely you know these things.

Magic weapons was something new, they are not forged or crafted they are made by both deeds and actions. Simply put if you crit with the weapon mark down a myth point. You hit 5 myth points the weapon becomes a plus one. You created the legends and reasons for your world. I love this it seems like something that belongs in DCC where the players action forge them, now the action also forge the legendary weapons of the world. Now here is the kicker and you can tell this was inspired by Tolkien writing specific the Hobbit. If one of the Crits that gained a myth point also resulted in the death of the creature fighting the weapons becomes a bane of those creatures. Like Thorin's Blade Orcist "The Goblin Cleaver" or Gandalf's Glamdring "The Beater" who's legends where made century ago.
Now back to reduction points if your armor Reduction value saves you from going down to 0 HP it gets a myth point and at 5 myth points it will give you a +1 to both AC and reduction values.

This is a very cool little Whitebox hack and if you like Whitebox play and want something more heroic this could be the game for you. I've recently been getting into OD&D and I like some of the ideas in here.
At PWYW it's steal and even at $10 for the PDF it's a good deal. When the print version comes out it will definitely get a place on my shelf with all my OD&D stuff.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Hero's Journey Fantasy Roleplaying (First Edition)
Publisher: Gallant Knight Games
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/16/2016 19:25:25

The layout is clean and readable. Although, It is not hyperlinked. The art is good. Fans of Larry Elmore will enjoy his pieces throughout the beginning of the book. The rest of the art is as good or better. Larry's seeming unwillingness to illustrate feet and his preference for all women being voluminous haired 60's/70's pin-up is not a draw for me, personally. It is however very reminiscent of the re-issued Red Box and effective in garnering a sense of nostalgia.

I've looked over the book only briefly. I noticed that the thief skill subsystem (sneakery and such) use a d6 mechanic where starting characters succeed at tasks with a 1 in 6 chance. This chance improved with experience, but the granularity does not leave room for personal attributes or situational modifiers. All classes with non-combat skills use this same mechanic.

There are some nice bits regarding background professions and legendary weapons.

All the classes are present. My biggest gripe is that Clerics and Druids share the same spell list which contains only 6 spells per level. In fact, there is only the Wizard and Cleric spell list. These two lists are shared by the Bard, Cleric, Druid, Jester, Paladin, Ranger and Wizard.

The equipment, monsters and magic item chapters seem to be well fleshed out and unrushed.

In short, first impressions would have been worth 5 stars if there was a nature spell list for Druids and Rangers (0E be damned!), Jesters were replaced with some type of mountebank or illusionist class - again with their own spell list and again ignoring their history in the annals of The Dragon. Acrobats also need something to make them a conceivable player choice. With the Duelist an existing character option, the Acrobat class is less of a Swashbuckler and more of a cartoon gymnast. Overall, my complaints are typical of many white-box emulators in that enforcing maximum word count for each class sometimes backfires and you end up with options that seem either incomplete or trap choices for inexperienced players.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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The Hero's Journey Fantasy Roleplaying (First Edition)
Publisher: Gallant Knight Games
by Matthew L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/16/2016 14:23:53

I have long been seeking what I would call, my ultimate version of Dungeons & Dragons. I have tried many, many systems ranging from the various editions of D&D (from 2nd to 5th editions) all the way to the indie clones (Dungeon World, White Hack, Torchbearer), the OSR systems (including Swords & Wizardry and Labyrinth Lord) and modern takes on the genre of traditional fantasy (Pathfinder, Fantasy Age, Dungeon Crawl Classics). I can say, with all honesty, that they pale in comparison to this marvellous work by Mr Spahn. The Hero's Journey manages to capture that "feel" of D&D fantasy that other systems have tried to nail but haven't quite managed. The writing is concise, friendly and informal without being bogged down with colloquialisms or excess chatter. The rule system is simple and, once grokked, intuitive enough for old hands and beginners alike. The layout is crisp with some lovely artwork by none other than Mr Larry Elmore (I adore the front cover art; a Tolkien-esque tribute if ever I saw one!). A perfect selection of races and classes is presented along with a profession system which harkens back to secondary skills of earlier editions. I like it. I like it a lot. Alongside this there is an ample bestiary, a modest spell selection and some very spot-on advice for getting a game off the ground applicable to both veterans and rookies alike. James pitches at just the right level; inclusive and useful with no wasted words or dry prose. Moreover this is not a game that attempts to overwhelm readers. It keeps things simple and then enourages readers to journey towards the campaign of their desires; be that epic or modest in scope.

What else can I say? If I had any wishes for this book it would be information on creating specialist clerics, a larger spell list (including magic missile!) and more beasties. Then again, it is already so well packed that I have no complaints, only requests for more! I would love, love to see a companion volume to this along with extra rules options, more spells, beasties & deities.

To summarise: Mr Spahn has knocked this one completely out of the park. A wonderul piece of work, a terrific game; not just an homage to old-school D&D but, dare I say it, something that takes the old torch and re-lights it, paving the way through dungeons anew and then passing it forward for a whole new generation of adventurers to enjoy.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Hero's Journey Fantasy Roleplaying (First Edition)
Publisher: Gallant Knight Games
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/15/2016 20:54:24

I can only say one thing about "The Hero's Journey" and that is "Wow". This game takes me back to 1979 when I was first introduced to role-playing games, specifically the one by TSR, by my cousin. It was like I had discovered that magic was real and I was hooked for the rest of my life. This game did the same thing. I love Swords and Wizardry and as far as I am concerned Mr. Finch made a great contribution to the world of RPG's but Hero's Journey does everything that I have done to Swords and Wizardry and made it look good. There are also quite a few things that I had not thought of or overlooked; kudos by the way for damage reduction. The book itself is set up well and reads easily, and the art by Mr. Elmore is a welcome plus. In my opinion this game is as close as one will get to the "perfect" role-playing game. Buy this game, it will not be a regret.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Hero's Journey Fantasy Roleplaying (First Edition)
Publisher: Gallant Knight Games
by Szymon P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/15/2016 14:08:27

Just damn good...

The Hero's Journey reminds me of my first retro-inspired game. But the big difference is, my game was a heartbreaker disaster, this is a very well-written and polished book with my favourite Swords & Wizardry rules inside.

THJ is basically how my S&W games look - overhauled races and classes, houserules and a few modern ideas to spice up the adventures. The Profession rules are simple,yet cool, since they add some interesting ideas and characteristics to the lvl 1 hero. Adding dice pools makes picking a race a very tough choice for the players.

Classes? We have 14 to choose from, and all have a retro feel to them. Fighters are not useless anymore (thank you!), everyone has a clear and understandable advancement table and simple, yet useful abilities, just like in S&W: Whitebox.

The illustrations look great (the art made by Elmore is just perfect... and sexy). The layout is top-notch.

Right now this has replaced Swords & Wizardry: Complete on my list of favourite tabletop RPG games. While playing Swords & Wizardry, I had to always open my notebook with additional rules. But this has almost everything I need.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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