Goodman Games

Hey Dancross, I've been pondering the combat mechanics of ERP alot recently. I think the "layers" of defense will certainly make it easy for players and gamemasters to visualize and narrate dynamic battles. I was wondering however, if there were any critical hit style mechanics which igno...

With Basic Skills, Specialties & Masteries all costing (apparently) 2 CP's per level to increase, are their other incentives to drive players away from simply raising their Base Skills first? I understand Concept should be that driving factor. But several players in my group will feel that init...

Dustin R wrote:I can't wait to see more! Any thoughts on when we will see the quickstart?
Dustin

Hopefully by the end of February.

If you have point-based character creation, why did you decide to go with level-based advancement instead of point-based advancement as well? I'm loving the sound of the skill system. I'm pretty excited about this game. I decided on level-based advancement rather than point-based because it makes a...

Zemora wrote:I'm looking forward to checking out this game!

About how many sessions until the characters level does the game expect?

At low levels, once every session or two. At around 8th or 9th level it really slows, until at 11th or so one requires more effort and good role-assumption.

It has been show that the main game mechanic is based on ascending die-ranks, tiered into a basic > specialization > mastery format. How does (superior) equipment and/or environment affect this? There are bonuses or penalites based on equipment or environment. These are based on weapon type, shield...

Designer’s Blog, Entry 2. "Character Generation in the Eldritch Role-Playing System." By Dan Cross with Randy Petras Greetings, and welcome, dear readership, to a new installment of the Eldritch Role-Playing (ERP) game designers blog! The last entry dealt with the combat system in general....

Hey Dancross, So how will monster creation work? Will creatures possess levels? If so, is this how monsters are balanced vs. pcs? Will there be example monsters? Will gms have a "shopping list" of abilities to choose from when generating baddies? Are there minion/mook/popcorn rules in pla...

Coleston the Cavalier wrote:Dan, the more I read about your Eldricth RPG, more excited I'm getting about it!

I hope a quickstart is soon to follow!

Actually, there will be a quickstart (the sample adventure is in playtest right now), and more Designers Blog entries too. Stay tuned...

How does one gain levels (and thus character points). Is this an XP system (e.g., D&D), or do you get better at skills you use (e.g., RuneQuest), or some other combination? ERP bases Advancement on two types of experience point (XP) scores: Victory Points and Role-Playing Points. In order to ad...

Would it be possible (IYO) to use ERP for low-magic, or low-fantasy settings (e.g., ancient Greece, Vikings, etc)? How much work would be needed to achieve this Very little work would be required. You could restrict the Arcanum skill altogether, which would eliminate all magic use, or change the sc...

Thanks for the info. The system sounds pretty flexible both on a personal (character) and global (world building) scale. I really like where this is headed! Thanks! The magic system was very difficult to write, keep it powerful and streamlined with the rest of the rules. One thing I'm proud of it h...

Hi Dan! Having been absent from this forum for some weeks I was all the more surprised to see the announcement of ELDRITCH. After what I have read so far it seems to be a really interesting game/system. But what I ask myself is this: with all the 4E craze going about don't you believe that developi...

Dustin, first I'll reproduce part of an earlier post, just because it fits with your overall question. This should kickstart the conversation ;-) The magic system is simple and fun to use, with combat related spells operating in the same way as melee attacks. Magic is no different in how ability is ...

Are there any limitations on the amount you must deduct from your defense pools? For example, if you are the target of 10 threat points, must you deduct all, some or none of those from your pool? Hello! The core rules state "...a chosen defense pool must absorb all the damage, even if depleted...

From the example above, it shows that attacks and armor are based on die rolls (ranks). But defenses seem to be pools that get depleated (refreshed each encounter)...was there a reason you did this in your game design (instead of, say...using die ranks (roll) for defenses as well)? Yes, there are s...

Interesting so far. I'll keep reading the blogs as they come up. Any chance that you'll be running some demo games at GenCon next year? I'd like to. My wife will be probably giving birth to my second child in late July or early August, so I may have to ask my co-author Randy Petras to step in, but ...

Thanks. Can't wait to see how the magic system. Will it be low, mid, or high-level magic play? Or is the level of magic involvement dependent on the GM? I'd say mid-level magic play if from gut reaction, but that might mean different things to different players. The magic system allows for powerful...

One of the easiest systems I've played that makes sense both from the GM and player side is the "attack & parry" paradigm from Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing. Easy to explain to beginner players and anyone who's ever read/seen hand-to-hand combat. I think explaining "Defense Pool&...

If it isn't OGL, then will it, like True20, be available for licensing? Oh, you meant OGL in a more general sense. Goodman is my sole publisher right now. Of course, partnerships are not uncommon in this industry (for example, Goodman's support of C&C adventures, among others)...but it's really...

Ah, ok. How often do Spell Points & Active Defenses refresh? I'm hoping its rather quickly after an Action Scene is over, since I prefer those type of powers over "per day". 3 A character will find all of his Active Defenses fully refreshed and at 100% after officially escaping or end...

You have me interested. Will the system be OGL or something similar so that publishers/individuals can build their own settings or supplements for the system? This interests me because I am writing up a setting and want to find a ruleset that would most fit its flavor. Wyrmshadows I'll answer this ...

Dancross, thank you very, very much for this information. After enjoying Goodman Games' products so much, I'm really, really looking forward to ERP. I have 3 questions: 1)Is it still on track for February? 2)Any plans to convert over any DCC's? 3)Are Magic points required to cast spells or simply m...

And what can be found inside the corebook? Any example how magic works? How much information does a character consist of? Inside the corebook are rules for character generation (including abilities descriptions, equipment, generic races info, etc.), action resolution (describing the die-rank system...

Can you give some kind of example for the core mechanic? The core mechanic is based on die-ranks. For any single ability, die type corresponds to “rank,.” The more sides on the die, the higher the rank. Ability ranks normally progress from D4 through D12. This is the “die-rank.” Many in-game calcul...