Some Questions re: Black Company campaign setting

[Rafe]

Howdy.

Just curious if anyone is DM'ing or playing in a table-top Black Company campaign setting game. If so, how is it working out? Do the setting rules work well? Any hiccups or issues? How easy was it for players with magic-using PCs to get a grip on the magic system? Is combat too gritty, or do the alternate rules for damage threshold, surprise, etc., work nicely?

Looking to start a Black Company game (using the rules, though likely not the setting) when I get back to Canada in the near future. I have the book and have read through it and understand it (mostly), but am curious as to what people who have actually played a campaign with it think of it.

Any insights would be helpful. Thanks!

[Portent]

Oh man, BCCS, my favorite system.

If your game group likes grim-and-gritty "realistic" damage (like losing fingers or an eye to a critical hit, so forth), then it's well worth it to use the rules. Combat is more lethal, healing magic far more difficult to get access to, so it certainly encourages non-combat means to resolve a situation (as well as making ambushes that much more lethal; heck, taking damage straight to Constitution for a surprise round is hilariously fatal). I've actually taken this system for more dramatic criticals and lethality to be my "default" for d20 campaigns that I run.

The spellcaster in my group didn't take too long to adjust to the magic system, but one thing that really helps is making a few "example" uses of the various Talents so you don't have to reference all of the Magic Use DC modification tables. If your group isn't used to manipulating the parameters of various spells (such as the L5R's system of Raises), then it will take some getting used to.

The big item of "adjustment" for people used to normal D&D spellcasting is trying to find out how to recreate spells from other sources through the base Talents, but it's not too difficult (in fact, many of the Talents specifically state how to recreate the effects of spells from the PHB and other sources).

I never really got a chance to experiment with the "blending" of spell effects (like the Lime Mist example) because the campaign never got far enough above the ground for players to start wanting to mix and match spell effects.

The base DCs and drain for the spellcasting definitely assumes a level of magic roughly equivalent to the novels, so if you want higher fantasy and more magic, then I recommend lowering the DCs of each magnitude of spellcasting (maybe by 5 or 10 if you really want to encourage spell-slinging) and maybe reducing the drain each spell takes (maybe as much as half).

I highly recommend following the book's advice and making quick reference notecards for the Magic DC stuff.

I never got a chance to use the Squad and Company scale battle rules, so I can't help you there; the only PC who wanted to pursue being a commander never actually took ranks in Command...

In short, great system. I only wish I had the time to play more BCCS.

[Rafe]

Awesome, thanks, Portent! That was what I was hoping to find out. Glad to hear the magic system changes aren't overly cumbersome for [experienced] players. Cheers!

(any other feedback still welcome, of course!)

[Portent]

Always glad to help, heh. I'd love to hear how your campaign eventually pans out. The Green Ronin forums are virtually dead regarding BCCS...

[clarkvalentine]

BCCS is pretty neat. I helped playtest it, and found the version I worked with pretty easy to twink out the wazoo, but they fixed a good bit of that in the final version. Definitely worth a look.