A is for Absorption

[Sean Waters]

Got the books today. Gorgeous. Glossy, slick, weighty, very easy on the eye, and with a lot of (often relatively subtle) differences to 5e, but recognisably, gloriously the same game, only, you now, better. The cover colours work well.

 

Get them. Seriously.

 

First power is Absorption, so let us start there (plenty of interesting stuff before then, but it feels right to start with powers). I'm not going to review every power - but it is interesting to look at the first couple, which demonstrate some pretty fundamental changes of approach.

 

Tighter set of rules than 5e (in terms of length and clarity), but a significant increase in utility: 10 points now nets you 10 points of absorption with a 20 max (if I'm reading this right) as opposed to 7 (average) points of absorption with a 12 max. You don't roll - it is a defined amount.

 

The way of increasing the maximum is changed from (effectively) an adder to an advantage - also significantly cheaper in practice - and rules for using absorption as an actual defence - not sure if it is that point efficient, but it is very neat.

 

Aid comes next: WHOAH!

 

6 points for 1d6. Oh yes: 6 points: the holy 5 is no more - this is completely new territory. There are changes to make the power make more sense (it costs END - always an odd anomaly before) and, again, the rules are tighter - both in clarity and length. Succor is GONE, ladles and jellyspoons, replaced by Boost, which works kinda the same way but is NOT half the price of the parent power. This makes an enormous amount of sense from a balance perspective.

 

So: taster...want some more? There's stuff here I'm not that keen on; there seems to have been a blurring of the barriers between instant and constant powers in several places, which I need to be convinced is a good idea, but this is slick stuff, easier to read not just because of the visual makeover but also because of a content makeover. I'm liking it a lot.

 

Lots of other stuff to talk about but I'll rein it in for the moment: what are your initial impressions?

[Alibear]

Re: A is for Absorption

 

First impression was that the books are heavy. Next impression was I had a mountain of work to do today so I put them and my copy of Dragonypoos straight in the boot of my car.

 

Mountain is now a more managable hillock so I'm going to retire to the throne room with one of said books for a good leaf through.

[dmjalund]

Re: A is for Absorption

 

I was actually hoping there would be rationalization of all Area Affect abilities, reducing the difference between Darkness and powers bought with Area Affect (seems - non including Megascale - you can reduce a city block to ashes for less points than it would to cover it in darkness)

[counterveil]

Re: A is for Absorption

 

I've only bought the PDFs for now but so far, as a HERO GM and player who mostly skipped 5E because my gaming group is lame and wanted to play D&D, I'm very impressed with the changes. There are a lot of things in 4E that I wanted to change back in the day to make the game simpler and it looks like so many of those are now in.

 

Gearing up to be a player in a 6E fantasy game, and I'm very excited!