Hyboria's Fiercest
- Thread starter Valsgarde
- Start date
And we are currently looking at reprinting this book!
When you add it to the cart.Yogah of Yag
Mongoose
The "F Series" is great! Fiercest is one of my fave supplements thus far.
OT: I've been in 1st Ed. AD&D the past year or so and am trying to turn some of the old grognards onto Conan RPG, if only for the flavour-text (which, by itself, is well worth it, IMNSHO.) Heck, it might even boost sales a bit to introduce some new blood into the mix! :wink:
Once we get them hooked they're all ours. All they need is a taste... *maniacal laughter* :twisted:
OT: I've been in 1st Ed. AD&D the past year or so and am trying to turn some of the old grognards onto Conan RPG, if only for the flavour-text (which, by itself, is well worth it, IMNSHO.) Heck, it might even boost sales a bit to introduce some new blood into the mix! :wink:
Once we get them hooked they're all ours. All they need is a taste... *maniacal laughter* :twisted:
Yogah of Yag wrote:
My Hyboria's books almost never leave by shelf. They're the books I use the least along with Tito's. So it is really a matter of how you want to play the game. If your players are oriented toward character build or if you're looking for comprehensive terrain rules, new feats and the like, you'll love this serie. If, like me, you're looking more for background material, I'll suggest books like Thunder River, Ruins of Hyboria or any version of Road of Kings.
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My Hyboria's books almost never leave by shelf. They're the books I use the least along with Tito's. So it is really a matter of how you want to play the game. If your players are oriented toward character build or if you're looking for comprehensive terrain rules, new feats and the like, you'll love this serie. If, like me, you're looking more for background material, I'll suggest books like Thunder River, Ruins of Hyboria or any version of Road of Kings.
Yogah of Yag
Mongoose
Style said:
I do, I do! But First Edition AD&D players are a bunch of grumpy sticks-in-the-mud and hate the d20 system (which I sympathise with, BTW). :wink: For those used to the relative simplicity of Old School, the d20 rules are shockingly complicated. :shock: I try to win them over by telling them about the FLAVOUR TEXT of the books which can be used with almost any rules-system a GM would want. 8) That's my "sales strategy."
Clovenhoof
Mongoose
After HFc has been unavailable for months, I finally bought it as PDF from rpgnow. And since the US$ has gone down in a nosedive, it only cost me 11 Euros.
Here's a little review for the undecided:
The first part of the book (one third) is all about how the various races work in the "Fierce" classes, mainly giving fluffy tips on whether a Borderer of a given race is more of a woodsman or a mounted skirmisher and so forth. Nothing that I deem absolutely necessary, but not bad either.
The best part (for my game) about this section are various sidebars offering small variant rules, and a complete page introducing the Iranistani race, which is not included in the Core rules (1st ed at least).
Then comes a crunchy part, "Secrets of the Fierce". Starting off with a few pages about temporarily pushing physical abilities (e.g. if you absolutely have to lift that portcullis _right now_). Not bad, very in-genre.
Then a looong part about Survival, that's what the previous poster is referring to. How to get along in the wild, orient yourself, forage for food and water, build traps, and so on. Also a long list of herbs and their effects. Very good stuff, especially for my game, which is very wilderness-heavy.
On a similar topic, more info on other Skills. An interpretation how Intimidate can be assigned to any attribute. Yet more on camping out in the wild, covering distance, on foot or mounted, down to the advantages of horseshoes.
Next section, "Abroad in Hyboria", which is all about the various terrain types and what's to know about wandering, hiding or hunting there, and the possible perils associated with it. Again, this should prove very useful to my wilderness-heavy game.
(As a former Scout and Alpine Ranger, I know my way out in the wild rather well, but it's good to have some material written specifically for gaming.)
Now we get to the "Fierce Feats" section, the real crunchy bits. First, a bunch of new feats, which are a mixed bag. Most are not worth the bother imho, some seem useful for specialized characters, and a few are very powerful at first sight. Overall, I decided to leave them alone for now and not introduce them in my game (except Two Weapon Strike, which I have long since adopted as combat manoeuvre in my game).
Follows a set of new combat manoeuvres. Good thing, those manoeuvres are always nice to have and make combat more interesting and colourful. I haven't analyzed them for their usefulness yet (some Core manoeuvres have way too many prereqs), but they seem good so far.
Now for a special boon, alternative Borderer Combat Styles. I really like this. A bunch of new styles associated with - but not limited to! - the various regions. Now you aren't reduced to the choice between archery and TWF; there are a bunch of variants for either styles, and new Mounted and even THF styles to choose from. Again, some seem more useful than others, but they all also add colour to your NPC borderers.
All this makes up the middle third of the book. The last third deals with dual multiclassing options for the Fierce classes, also taking the non-fierce ones into account, so you get everything from Barbarian-Borderer to Nomad-Thief. Of course just writing up mixes of existing classes would be rather a waste of space; the beef in this section are the various suggested variant rules for a specific combination, like expanding the list of bonus feats, or reducing the requirements for certain feats.
Downsides: there are a few typos and boo-boos. For example, one Borderer style refers to D&D "Spring Attack" which doesn't exist in the Conan rules. Or the Barbarian-Nomad multiclass lists three times "Improved Mobility" even though the progression should stack up to Greater and Mounted Mobility. But most of these are just minor typos and can be easily corrected.
All in all, I like this book a lot and can heartily recommend it, for example for players who want to spice up their Borderer; and for GMs and players who relish a wilderness-oriented campaign. Great stuff.
Here's a little review for the undecided:
The first part of the book (one third) is all about how the various races work in the "Fierce" classes, mainly giving fluffy tips on whether a Borderer of a given race is more of a woodsman or a mounted skirmisher and so forth. Nothing that I deem absolutely necessary, but not bad either.
The best part (for my game) about this section are various sidebars offering small variant rules, and a complete page introducing the Iranistani race, which is not included in the Core rules (1st ed at least).
Then comes a crunchy part, "Secrets of the Fierce". Starting off with a few pages about temporarily pushing physical abilities (e.g. if you absolutely have to lift that portcullis _right now_). Not bad, very in-genre.
Then a looong part about Survival, that's what the previous poster is referring to. How to get along in the wild, orient yourself, forage for food and water, build traps, and so on. Also a long list of herbs and their effects. Very good stuff, especially for my game, which is very wilderness-heavy.
On a similar topic, more info on other Skills. An interpretation how Intimidate can be assigned to any attribute. Yet more on camping out in the wild, covering distance, on foot or mounted, down to the advantages of horseshoes.
Next section, "Abroad in Hyboria", which is all about the various terrain types and what's to know about wandering, hiding or hunting there, and the possible perils associated with it. Again, this should prove very useful to my wilderness-heavy game.
(As a former Scout and Alpine Ranger, I know my way out in the wild rather well, but it's good to have some material written specifically for gaming.)
Now we get to the "Fierce Feats" section, the real crunchy bits. First, a bunch of new feats, which are a mixed bag. Most are not worth the bother imho, some seem useful for specialized characters, and a few are very powerful at first sight. Overall, I decided to leave them alone for now and not introduce them in my game (except Two Weapon Strike, which I have long since adopted as combat manoeuvre in my game).
Follows a set of new combat manoeuvres. Good thing, those manoeuvres are always nice to have and make combat more interesting and colourful. I haven't analyzed them for their usefulness yet (some Core manoeuvres have way too many prereqs), but they seem good so far.
Now for a special boon, alternative Borderer Combat Styles. I really like this. A bunch of new styles associated with - but not limited to! - the various regions. Now you aren't reduced to the choice between archery and TWF; there are a bunch of variants for either styles, and new Mounted and even THF styles to choose from. Again, some seem more useful than others, but they all also add colour to your NPC borderers.
All this makes up the middle third of the book. The last third deals with dual multiclassing options for the Fierce classes, also taking the non-fierce ones into account, so you get everything from Barbarian-Borderer to Nomad-Thief. Of course just writing up mixes of existing classes would be rather a waste of space; the beef in this section are the various suggested variant rules for a specific combination, like expanding the list of bonus feats, or reducing the requirements for certain feats.
Downsides: there are a few typos and boo-boos. For example, one Borderer style refers to D&D "Spring Attack" which doesn't exist in the Conan rules. Or the Barbarian-Nomad multiclass lists three times "Improved Mobility" even though the progression should stack up to Greater and Mounted Mobility. But most of these are just minor typos and can be easily corrected.
All in all, I like this book a lot and can heartily recommend it, for example for players who want to spice up their Borderer; and for GMs and players who relish a wilderness-oriented campaign. Great stuff.
