Text taken from the official P&P mailing list.
I haven't played Powers & Perils (or D&D3e for that
matter) in a while, but the new game you discuss seems
to miss target. The single strongest asset of Powers
& Perils was melee combat realism, in my opinion.
This is where games like D&D and the new game you
discuss do not quite match Powers & Perils.
Specificly, Im talking about D&D's "To Hit" vs. Armor
Class, and the new game's "Attack Value" vs. the
opponents Armor value. Further, damage based only on
weapon type seems overly simplistic and doesnt accound
for "critical" hits, although D&D has made some
strides to this end. P&P's melee system is perfect;
the amount of damage is predecated on the quality
strike you inflict. And the odds of a successful
strike are based on the the attackers ability to hit
vs. the defenders ability to avoid, where armor only
absorbs impact.
-------------------------------
(The following are a series of thought in no particlar
order regarding P&P, and to a lesser degree, D&D)
I have been running and/or playing roleplaying games
since about 1984. Now, I know there are those out
there that have been around the games longer than
that, but in the scope of roleplaying games (paper,
pencil and dice), I've been around long enough. I
have done just about every genre there is to play:
fantasy, gothic, modern warfare, and various themed
sci-fi.
At the heart of roleplaying is the fantasy genre, so
flexible in styles. There has never been a question
that when it comes to flat out realism,
Rune"Rule"Quest seemed superior. Unfortunately, it
was difficult to master (at least at the time it was
printed), and never really caught on. Powers and
Perils seemed like the best mix of realism and
playability. Dont like the rule: ignore it. Dont
understand the rule: make it up.
I want to run P&P again, but I am lured to D&D because
of the following reason:
Monster variety & awareness (P&P can overcome this)
Spell variety & awarenss (this one is key)
Class arangements and abilities (not so key)
If only D&D used P&P's combat and experience/expertise
system (which I think is far superior, or more
preferably, P&P used D&D's spell system, I would be on
cloud nine. Its such a pain in the ass to
create/replicate all the D&D spells. I also am not
too keen on Law/Chaos/Balance and
Elder/Kotothi/Sidh/Shaman stuff either. It was good
at first because it was new, but I think it has run
its course. I am considering a non-aligned sytem
where all spells will be available to everyone, and
there is no alignments. Not to say there is no
religion, but no Law/Chaos, etc.
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