06-16-2016, 01:26 AM
Wikipedia, quoting: Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. p. 177.
Overalll, P&P is comparable to Rolemaster, in that character generation takes very long, and that the games' emphasis apparently is more focused on building a narrative frame together, than on the guts and bloods of dungeoneering. That said, the backgrounds are interesting enough, and, for the time, fairly elaborate. Seems to me, though, as if AH was very focused to establish a counter-brand to D&D with P&P, and didn't really understand what the individual strengths of the brand could have been. Tower of the Dead, for example, as written, is not necessarily a good adventure for the P&P ruleset.
Quote:Powers & Perils was an unfortunate failure for Avalon Hill, despite their reputation for their high-quality productions; this failure was indicative of the company's lack of experience in the roleplaying field. Powers & Perils included stolen art traced from fantasy artist Frank Frazetta. Avalon Hill had no previous experience with role-playing games, being primarily a producer of strategy and war games such as Tactics II, Blitzkrieg and Squad Leader, and Powers & Perils died before its time. Overpricing and strong competition from first edition Dungeons & Dragons saw P&P on store shelves at two to three times the price being asked for its contemporaries.
Due to the general failure of Powers & Perils, Avalon Hill allowed the line to die after a few supplements were published in 1984.
Overalll, P&P is comparable to Rolemaster, in that character generation takes very long, and that the games' emphasis apparently is more focused on building a narrative frame together, than on the guts and bloods of dungeoneering. That said, the backgrounds are interesting enough, and, for the time, fairly elaborate. Seems to me, though, as if AH was very focused to establish a counter-brand to D&D with P&P, and didn't really understand what the individual strengths of the brand could have been. Tower of the Dead, for example, as written, is not necessarily a good adventure for the P&P ruleset.