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Yakk
2007-01-18, 08:59 PM
So, I'm about to be playing in a game of Epic, the RPG.

Anyone else here play it?

Crunch wise, it feels very much like a skill-based d20 game.

Your mental stats determine what skills you have talent for (and hence are cheaper to buy up), while your physical stats do physical stat like things (increase HP, increase damage, make you dodge better, etc). The guilds you belong to determine what secret masteries you can learn.

The core resolution mechanic is 2d10 + skill. Most uses of a skill are opposed -- if someone doesn't spend an action defending against an attack, you hit on a 5 (which is nearly automatic -- chance of rolling a 5+ on 2d10 is about the chance of rolling 2+ on a d20).

Feat-like specials are delt with through a "mastery" system. After learning both a skill and a specialization of a skill, you unlock the ability to learn "masteries". These vary from extra defensive actions, to "no cost to casting L 1 spells in this speciality".

The use of four dice on most contests (2 for, 2 against) creates a serious bell curve.

Combat is extremely lethal. Max damage-until-death (total life points) for a human is on the order of 80 -- think L 20 huge legendary barbarian -- with a typical human (including starting characters) having 24 life points.

Long before you reach max damage, you are suffering serious penalties to almost all rolls. (some masteries/spells prevent/mitigate this)

A longsword, wielded by the average human, does 2d10 damage (average 11). A Heavy Crossbow 4d10 (average 22). 6 grunt heavy crossbowmen and point blank range will kill even a legendary hero.

Sneak attacks are very nasty, making stealth powerful. You can't defend against an attack you don't know about (so an unskilled sneak attackonly misses 6% of the time), and all sneak attack hits are auto-crits.

Armor reduces damage, but also weights you down. Combat is very dynamic and full of movement, and the more encumbered you are the slower you move and the weaker your evasive abilities are. A Plate cuirass provides 6 points of armor, enough to mitigate a longsword blow, but a crossbow bolt laughs at it.

Shields are used to Parry. Two handed weapons do more damage and have a longer reach, double-weapons are harder to defend against (but also very hard to learn), and shields are very good at blocking.

Magical items are rare. Magic in the world is rare amoung NPCs, but possible to start with as a PC. Healing magic used on someone renders them immune to further healing magic for the rest of the day, and (usually) takes hours to take effect.

There are 5 kinds of magic stated out:
Shen: Body magic. Think Chi magic.
Path of Conflict/Harmony/Neutrality

Metaphysics: Learn physics, apply theories, warp spacetime.
Calescent/Gravity/Radiant/Submaterial theory

Alchemy: Learn chemistry, apply theories, turn your blood into a healing potion. Or, more practically, your pet dog's blood.
Gas/Liquid/Reaction/Solid theory

Theurgy: Shamanistic/ritual magic. Shoot an arrow into the air and divine the future from where it lands.
Art of channeling/conveyance/divination/imprecation/summoning

Mentalism: Psionics. Melt their minds.
1st/2nd/3rd/4th/aberrant branching

Magic is severly limited in uses/encounter. A legendary spellcaster might have 20 QP (mana), and spells cost from 1 to 10 QP for each use.

Spells (called Varients, as in "varient uses of the magical skill"l) vary from "Smell as the Dog" (L 1 Shen Path of Neutrality), to "Orbital Discharge Law" (L 10 Metaphysics Gravity Theory).

Anyhow, I find it interesting. If other folks are interested, I'll post how the gameplay works out.

Emperor Tippy
2007-01-18, 09:05 PM
where would you recommend one "acquire" this RPG?

mikeejimbo
2007-01-18, 09:39 PM
I haven't heard of it, but it sounds pretty cool. I especially like the magic. It seems like they would fit in a modern setting.

Yakk
2007-01-18, 10:23 PM
The default world seems well built.

There is a medevil region with a buddist-like religion, barbarians to the north that use shamanistic magic. Standard fantasy, except the plant/human hybrids and the lack of elves/dwarves/etc (no psionics, but monks/paladins/wizards/shamans exist).

Another region has an invading army of large (9') psionic beings and a problem with meteor showers (the moon was destroyed ~1000 years ago, leaving a ring. The meteor showers are called "ring showers").

So instead of a monolithic setting, they provided a world with multiple settings.e

The idea is you can start players off in an area they are familiar with (standard Dark Ages Fantasy), and gradually introduce stranger areas. Rather neat trick. :)

URL:
http://www.epicrpg.com/
Guild screen:
http://www.epicrpg.com/downloads/Guides%20Screen.pdf
(includes all skills, basic equipment list, standard combat moves)
More PDFs and downloads:
http://www.epicrpg.com/downloads.htm
including spell lists (but no mechanics for them) and some wallpapers of their world maps.
Here is their products:
http://www.epicrpg.com/products.htm
including 2 sets of sample pages per book. There are 4 books in the basic set (rules book, arcane book, world book, critter book).
Plus two complete adventures that can be downloaded for free (PDF format).

Here is a link to the description of an actual campaign:
http://epicrpg.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=53
(very well written)