Necromatic Arts & Empires

[Antalon]

I wonder whether to get either of these books, and if so, whether to get the book or the pdf. What do you think?

Antalon.

 

[Jujitsudave]

I want Empires myself, for my own nefarious purposes.

Necromantic arts sounds neat-o, but I don't need it.

 

[Ultor]

I got Necromantic Arts in hardcover and found it full of great ideas but irritatingly scattered with bad edit mistakes (eg no map for the encounter area that's detailed) and MRQ1 holdovers. There's a thread somewhere here wherein someone converted the MRQ1 elements to MRQ2.

I just got Empires in PDF and love it - full of excellent mechanics and random tables (great for this old schooler) and will be using it for a small war that will be happening in my campaign soon (my players already know about even if they may have forgotten...)

I'd get necromantic arts if you have a campaign where the undead are going to play a major part - the ideas really shake up the boring old zombies-ghouls-vampires conception of the undead - and you're prepared to do a bit of work yourself.

I would definitely get Empires if you are going to have a campaign in which international politics plays a large part or the players are going to be involved in "fief" management.

 

[sdavies2720]

If you buy Necromatic arts, plan on using it as a toolkit -- you're going to have to check everything to make sure it's consistent with MRQII and not a holdover from MRQI.

I was hoping that Mongoose would get around to errata for it, but if it's been remaindered, I can see now that expecting errata is a forlorn hope.

If NA is at a steep discount (I wasn't for those of us who bought it when published), it has some interesting ideas.

Steve

 

[taxboy]

I wonder whether to get either of these books, and if so, whether to get the book or the pdf. What do you think?

Antalon.

I got na in both PDF and hardcover. I would suggest buying in PDF and then printing off the bits you need to. It is a good read, has insanity and fear rules but I find we only use bits and pieces.

I have printed off all spells from all books and grouped them into giving etc for my players. A single PDF release of all spells from all sources would be cool.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

'Necromantic Arts' has rules and spells mechanics for using "non-personal" MPs for spell and enchantment purposes (via sacrifices).

It's generally good... but flawed... and suffers from the usual Mongoose map issues.

 

[ThatGuy]

I have both.

Empires is great. Lots of good, usable stuff and ideas that allow for a GM to manage a kingdom more realistically, and with more ease. Some of the other stuff is great as well. Factions, guilds and Reknown are great. I would almost call it a must for a detail-oriented GM, or one that wants to add depth to his world.

NA has great ideas, good creatures, and poor editing. I would get it (probably PDF), and cherry pick what I wanted to use, then go back over that and check for inconsistencies system wise. Yeah, a bit of work, but there are at least 3-4 baddies or situations that I am definitely using in my online campaign.

I have a feeling the forth coming Blood Magic may have a better set of ritual sacrifice stuff, but for undead stuff, I think NA is pretty good.

The Moon Hunters are awesome.

 

[Jujitsudave]

Empires is great. Lots of good, usable stuff and ideas that allow for a GM to manage a kingdom more realistically, and with more ease. Some of the other stuff is great as well. Factions, guilds and Reknown are great. I would almost call it a must for a detail-oriented GM, or one that wants to add depth to his world.

Thats what I wanted to hear. Something like this will suit my game nicely.

 

[ThatGuy]

Glad to help!