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From the last page of the current godawful rpg.net motivational poster thread. I post this as a representative of the thread and how terrible 99% of them are.  and one I did last loving year.  Why won't rpg.net let this die already. clockworkjoe fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Mar 16, 2009 |
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Mar 16, 2009 19:21
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actually that was my retarded way of showing how the motivational posters had gone from moderately entertaining images like the gurps one to absolutely stupid ones. The thread now is full of rpg cheesecake, stupid anime references and poo poo that would make even GBS ashamed.
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Mar 16, 2009 20:44
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I'm not talking about a specific case here, just stating the obvious. Exalted, for a great many reasons in a great many places, is broken. I'm also not saying that the game as a whole is unplayable, nor that it's doomed or somehow not worth playing anymore. In this thread, we discuss how, why and where Exalted is broken, that we might fix it. I still enjoy Exalted, I'm even STing a PbP in our very own forum, but it's sadly flawed. If you don't think Exalted is broken somewhere, if you think everything written balances perfectly, this thread is not for you. Just as it's annoying for every drat thread to turn into a debate about Sidereal MA, it'd be really annoying if this turned into an "Exalted is NOT broken!!!111" dogpile. And before I even start: YES, this probably will end in flames - skip it! We'll start with an easy one: Obsidian Shards of Infinity Style Mirror Does Not Lie, Essence 5, MA 5 10m, 1wp, Combo-Basic, Scenelong. Perfect Defense against any attack ANYONE in the fight sees coming, including the user. Air Dragon's Sight, 3m, Combo-Basic, Scenelong, Essence 1, MA 5 Negates all surprise attacks for the Scene. Congratulations, you are utterly invincible, A Solar Essence 5, Melee 5 effect can only prepare a limited number of Perfect Parries, that don't negate most surprise attacks, and the number is only uncapped at Essence 6.
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Mar 16, 2009 23:00
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OK, I'm about to start playing in a new campaign. Looking forward to it, this should be a chance to shake some dice and show off my moves! I can flick my sword across my enemy's cheek, scarring him with my initials - or maybe I should be a great and powerful sorcerer, summoning up elemental spirits to destroy my enemy's lands by night - or maybe I just want to survive the dimly lit backstreets of a violent city, relying on my cunning and my poisoned dagger. Perhaps I'll play a baby dragon, maybe I'll play a pixie, maybe I'll be a lich. Of course, my imagination's going into overdrive at this stage while I think of possible backgrounds for my character, personality quirks, long-term goals, what he looks like and all that stuff and wonder what kind of plot the ref will throw at me. So now I have to work out what character I'm actually going to play. So what am I going to do? Sure, I'm going to leave all that to chance. Why would I want any conscious input into a character concept that I'm only going to be developing over the next 3, 6, maybe 12 months? Hey, if I'm lucky, my buddy might roll all 9s and 10s for his stats, and I might roll 16s and 17s!! That way we can both play the same thing, and he can just suck, and I'll just kick rear end and be the center of attention the whole time and he can just kiss my bum because I'll be so much cooler than him. Whaddya mean, points-buy!?!?!?!? Then I might have to THINK for more than, like, TWO WHOLE minutes while I choose where to put my points. Jeez, are you expecting me to take RESPONSIBLITY for my character concept as well!?!?!?!? I think my brain might explode from actually having to USE my IMAGINATION!!!!!!!!! So give me random rolls, random rolls yee-hah! Hang on, what's that - I get to choose a Profession and a Race and a Clan/Tribe/Kingdom or something? B*****cks, I might actually have to read up on the different choices so that I can make a sensible choice. Maybe I'll just roll a d20 and turn to that page number in the book and there's my race chosen for me! Go forward another 2d20+20 pages and there's my character class! And then I'll be stuck playing a lizardman elementalist, when I actually wanted to play an elven thief. But who am I to argue with the dice? I am inferior to them, because I am human and make mistakes, but they are inanimate objects and do not. And this SAVES me from the PAIN of THINKING!!! Woohoo! Now I can spend the next 12 months playing a character that I'm in NO WAY interested in just because I rolled sh*te, YAY!!! Hang on a mo. Maybe I should just choose my Profession and Race after all. OK so now I'm stuck with choosing my Profession and Race and Clan/Tribe/Kingdom, so I'd better read all the rulebooks to work out which ones do the stuff I like. Dammit I could have mastered a points-buy system in that time. Holy moly Billy just rolled 17s for all his stats and I only got 5s! Not to worry, we'll have different niches. What's that, he wants to play a Gargoyle War-Priest of Shinroth as well, just like mine? With the same choice of Superdupershooters and Polly-Parrot Familiar just like mine? And he just rolled max. Health Bonuses for our freebie level increases and I rolled nearly minimum??? So he can do everything I can do and just do it better than me?? drat. Hey, not to worry, we still have to roll for starting equipment. Oh balls, he got 4,765,241 platinum pieces and I got a used jockstrap. How can I cheer myself up? GOT IT!!! I may be screwed over by the dice having to play a character who's strictly inferior to Billy's but my luck's nothing like as bad as the ref's. He's got to figure out how the two of us Gargoyle War-Priests of Shinroth with Polly-Parrot Familiars have teamed up with Gary's randomly rolled Dragonbred Bird-Eater without Polly 1 and Polly 2 getting their heads bitten off during the two gargoyles' daily naps. OK, with that in mind, now I'm happy with my randomly generated character, YAH!
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Mar 16, 2009 23:39
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This will undoubtedly make some people angry. That is not my intent, but rather it is to express my observations and opinion about something I felt was implied in another thread. If it makes you angry then I am sorry, but my opinion still remains the same. Some will undoubtedly agree with me, some will disagree. C’est la vie. I forked this thread from How Do you Distribute Treasure? It occurred to me from reading that thread that within the game (considering this particular issue) you basically have two ways of looking at the World and milieu in which the characters operate. 1. The World Exists for the sake of the Characters – therefore the players present “Wish Lists” to the DM/GM, and he makes sure that the treasure they receive, assuming magical items are included in such troves, is fit for their desires and “wishes.” I imagine by extension that such a wish list can or maybe will eventually incorporate other aspects of milieu-management, such as arranging events, dungeons, political situations, and a whole host of “goodies” for the benefit of the characters. The point of existing in such a world, I suspect? – to level up of course. To become more, or maybe far more, of what you already are. The point of the game is to a large extent the mechanics of the game. By getting what you want you become what you wish and what you wish is to be stronger, bigger, badder, and more powerful as a game-character. That is to say the point of the game is the nature of the game, the world exists to service the game-character as an expression of “gamism.” In short the various accoutrements and devices and badges of heroism are distributed and “given out” as a tangible reward based upon the wishes and desires of the player. If you want the implements of heroism, those things that will assist you in being heroic, then it is the duty of the world, through the agency of the DM, to give you those things as a reward for the idea that you want to be an imaginary hero. Which leads me to the second basic way of viewing the World in an imaginary gaming universe. 2. The Characters Exist for the sake of the World – therefore the players get whatever they happen to discover and it is up to them to make the best possible use of whatever resources they encounter and can gain in order to earn their heroism. They cannot petition the World, through the agency of the DM to get whatever they “wish for” in order to facilitate their further actions. On the contrary they must gain what they gain, either intentionally, or by accident, being in effect limited to what is, not to what is wished for. This way of looking at the world is far less like a video game full of self-imposed (auto-programmed) Easter Eggs and far more like the real world. Yes, you can create things at your own expense, but there is no Santa-Clause DM/GM to whom one can avail oneself for that special, bright, shiny toy one so desperately longs for in his secret heart of hearts. (And this toy may be an item, object, device, situation, ability, or power – anything that encompasses a possession of some kind.) Because of this the world does not exist for the characters but rather the characters exist for the world, they must make use of what is offered, and they come by that due to the logical demands of what is possible from the environment around them rather than from the environment they wish to exist. This creates an entirely different dynamic of both “heroism” and “power.” Heroism is not something made evident through the “goodies” you possess or even through the power they convey upon you, but rather what you possess is “empowered” by the cleverness by which you employ it. You cannot demand the world give you things or service your needs, so therefore you must service the world in order to make best use of what you can get. The world and the DM will not bow to your demands (though the world and the DM may consider your efforts to achieve some given end or object as noble, worthy, or even of deserving assistance of some kind) and wishes so therefore you must “earn what is possible” given the particular circumstances in which you and your comrades find yourselves. I find this a fascinating contrast in both gaming theory and in the implications of such theories. As a personal matter I should say I find the first method and worldview immensely fascinating and even seductively alluring. I also find it, personally speaking, as a way of approaching the game, any game, or of viewing the world, any world, ugly, repulsive, petty, doomed to eventual self-absorption, and very likely to generate little else in the end than utter apathy. I can find nothing heroic in it as an ideal at all, other than the rather atrophic and shortsighted view that heroism as a game ideal is best created through raw accumulation of power. That is to say the more power you have the more potentially heroic you must naturally become because after all it is power (in the sense of raw force) which is the true measure of heroism. (And there is something at the margins to warrant a serious examination of this assumption, without power it is simply not possible to be heroic, unless of course powerlessness is a form of power, and I suspect very much that given the right conditions that statement is also very, very true. Sometimes powerlessness is the greatest form of power.) Nevertheless the idea of the game-world existing to service the character is as repugnant to me as the idea that the real world exists to service Paris Hilton. As a matter of fact I would call this way of looking at the game as the "Modern Entertainer" View of Heroism. I am a Hero when things go the way I wish and when I get the things I want in order to assure that heroism is worth my while. It is a sort of acting out of heroism, not as an actual thing, but as a sort of stage play in which the actor becomes a shadow or mask (a persona) of the man he is supposed to be truly representing. If on the other hand heroism makes real demands on me, such as that I serve the needs of the World, rather than the other way around, well, that’s either too tough, too demanding, not profitable, or gets in the way of my fun. Or put more simply, “Fun is the point of Heroism, and so Heroism must serve my needs and wishes to be ‘gainful.’” I personally find that an extremely shallow view of the idea of fun, heroism, gain, or profit. To be perfectly honest all I have ever seen of real heroism makes me suspect it is in fact hard, dangerous, demanding, thrilling (at times - being deadly boring at others), patience-testing, taxing, excruciating, and exhausting work. Yes, it can be fun, it can also be incredibly disgusting, disheartening, heart-breaking, lonely, back-breaking, and yet the gains and profits of it are almost immeasurable in comparison to the dearth of “goodies” you ever really receive from your “wish list,” which is usually little more than, “God I hope I survive this,” or “God, I hope they survive this.” (Which to be perfectly honest is why I fully understand the allure of the first World View - who hasn’t been in a really tight or lethal spot and thought to themselves, “if only I had what I really needed I could have saved them,” or “if only I had the power to have prevented this I could have saved them.” That is a common condition when faced with servicing the world while facing the reality of doing so with a lack of sufficient resources and/or power.) Nevertheless you do what you can with what you have and I’ve often wondered that if I possessed every degree of power I demanded or wished in order to solve any problem I faced, if I had every resource I desired to right any wrong or injustice, would then my actions under such conditions be heroic at all? Or those of a man who by being able to bend the world to my will through a wealth of whatever I wanted or wished, more akin to King Midas. Everything I desire turns to gold, but there is no more blood to warm my future, for everything has become through contact with me the more inanimate the more I accumulate. I know why the world exists and it is certainly not for my sake. It is hard for me to imagine a world that exists for the sake of the hero. It is also extremely hard for me to imagine a Hero who asks that the world exists for him. There are men who ask that the world exist for them, who make ceaseless demands upon it, and who seek to have their various wishes fulfilled for their own benefit, but you don’t call such men heroes. They have another name. Another name entirely. (enworld)
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Mar 17, 2009 05:48
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Mikan posted:I love RPGnet. Where else can you get such classic posts as "Valiant Strike is the best at-will", "deva are overpowered because they come back to life automatically" and "catchphrase from three years ago"? You get plus one 'RPG.net culture is 4 tools' point!
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Mar 18, 2009 21:46
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just finished listening to RPPR Actual Play: 4E Dungeons and Dragons - The New World Session 2 *NSFW* and I had a couple opinions about it. Normally I would not critique anyone's gaming etc...because it would be easy to come off as some sort of RP rear end, so let me apologize if this is taken that way. No offense guys, but the descriptions are lack-luster and the character interactions are horrid. It could just be 4th Edition, but a lot of the role playing nowadays has depleted in many games and I know that 4E seems a lot more like World of Warcraft, rather than good ole Dungeon's & Dragons 2E or hell, even 3rd. I apologize if I am coming off as an elitist assclown, but wow… Quoting some of the players, “I kill things…” “Wanna come not die with us?” *yawn* That totally ruins the role playing atmosphere for a fantasy for world me... I understand that you guys have been gaming for a while and may be used to one another, but blah! Again, I am new to this site and group and I am not used to the way you guys play, but I know that I would certainly get bored playing in that session with so many non-enthusiastic characters roaming around hording mechanics over role playing. I have been playing for about 15 years and I dislike LARP, but I try to at least set the mood for the game by having everyone flesh their characters out with detail, a different voice if possible, a good background and leaving words like "dude" away from character dialogue. Advice: Throw in some music: Conan Soundtrack, LoTR, Midnight Syndicate, or something etc... Anyhow, I apologize if this comes off as being an elitist. A lot of your advice is great from what I have heard, but the "in game" is something I wasn't impressed with. I run D&D wrong 
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Mar 18, 2009 21:49
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ManMythLegend posted:Who are you kidding? That kid torrented that book as soon as it hit the street. but he will white knight WOTC if anyone admits to pirating books on rpg.net. the best material are the sigs though. Points: +1 Kansas point, +1 transform & rock out! point, +2 awesome points, +1 "IGNORE ME!" point, +1 Cruel Feline's Thesis point. +1 Hijink point, +1 Ouroburos point, +1 Still true without the squid-faced elder god point, +1 Laugh point, +1 Supermonstar point, +1 "Why yes, I AM a Rocket Wizard!" point, +1 "OUTRAGEOUS!" point. Lets read The Monstrous Compendium Mystara Appendix: Because Good monsters never die, they just get stuck in the epic level handbook. "I WANT MY STEVE DARLINGTON!" - Evil Schemer loses control "Behold this thing of beauty we call SteveD" - Gary Mengle works the crowd I'm a Freelance Writer Looking for Work Gaming. Humour. Poetry. Steve D: The Livejournal RPGs. Reviews. TINS. Steve D: The Website Qetu, the Evil Doer Servant of Set and Apep Bane Mummy and Priestess of Typhoon "The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools." Herbert Spencer 1 Phenomenology point from Shadowjack My Livejournal Though all else has been broken, Our hearts remain Whole.
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Mar 20, 2009 21:22
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Those same assholes made the same arguments in 3E days. I remember some douche who posted a thread talking about how much he hated 3E because it FORCED every character to improve their base attack bonus. He wanted to play an old sage who had no ability to fight in hand to hand combat and the idea that his BAB would improve and that he would be a better fighter than a level 1 NPC warrior proved that D&D was stupid.
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Mar 21, 2009 06:32
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Etherwind posted:Funny thing is, none of these "freelance writers" ever loving pull their thumb out and apply to the many, many places that purchase good fiction. ...Oh, good fiction. Right. [/quote] yes because it's so much easier to get paid and published as a fiction writer. The saddest thing is that the RPG writing pays better than small press fiction for the most part.
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Mar 21, 2009 06:35
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Sorry, but after reading darren maclennan's review of "wraethu", in which he attacks overweight people and commits the crimes of hate speech and incitement to violence against them, I can't be dispassionate towards that place. BTW, here's an excerpt from maclennan's review of wraethu, which would be considered hate speech and incitement to violence if written about any other group. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Actually, the crawling awkwardness starts with the introductory fiction. It’s about an overweight computer nerd with glasses, bad skin, and bad hair – and everybody picks on him! There’s even a pair of pictures with him looking all sad. Aww. -INSERT PICTURE HERE- (Here, there'd be a picture of this really pathetic-looking fat guy with glasses, long hair, and an "I abuse Linux" T-shirt. He's got a really sad face, which you will desperately want to grind your fist into so hard that pieces of his cheekbones will lodge in your knuckles. When we put up the review on our web site, we'll put up the picture then.) Gandhi would have kicked this kid’s rear end. It would be a sudden, spontaneous outbreak of violence, like a prairie wildfire. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm overweight, and consider the above, by a mod on rpg.net, to be hate speech and incitement to violence against me and people like me, so it's not really feasible for me not to hate that site. Sorry if that offends anyone, but to me the place is disgusting, and I only post reviews there to help games I like, like CT. If you want to try seeing how I feel, imagine maclennan's tirade had been written against some group you're a member of. Asking me to not hate that site would be like asking some people not to hate a site that had david dukkke as a mod. Like I say, I'll post reviews there to help games like CT, but I'll have to hold my nose while doing it.
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Mar 24, 2009 01:13
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Father Wendigo posted:You can not post that poo poo and then not post a link. I think I have to create an account now. http://cthulhutech.10.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1622
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Mar 24, 2009 02:04
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RagnarokAngel posted:so I've been homebrewing my own class and while I only got one level planned out theyre gonna have the ability to shoot ki, "power up" their attacks and fly what do you guys think what does the scouter say about his human being levels Just a quick note. DBZ is an inherently passion driven and drama filled setting. Using a complex rule system is bound to create not only huge inconsistencies but also detract from the umph of the game. I would look at some rules-lite RPGs for examples to emulate the game. I almost used Mage (oWoD) to run a DBZ game since the magik rules can do anything (which is more of less what the characters do, almost anything). Regarding Ki and Power level. I sugest you look into martial arts to understand the underlying concepts that created the DBZ mythos. Ki is everywhere, it flows into the person and out of the person. Martial artists concentrate on 'integrating' Ki so that it merges with their bodies and augments, heals and alters them. Sayans are an example of someone who starts out with either more initial Ki or who has a 'larger' flow of Ki going through them. That is important. Essentially, I would have about three or four important attributes like this: Passion(willpower and more) use it to activate powers and push personal abilities Ki ability to control the flow and direction of Ki Power the amount of integrated Ki, it is used as the base speed, strength, etc. You probably want to add descriptors so players can add qualities to their character giving them a bonus if an action fits the descriptor (like strong, fast, cheerful, determined, power-hungry, etc.). From this base, I would provide players a number of options at character creation (like sayan heritage) and abilities (energy balls, superspeed, powerup, etc.) and put the whole thing in a point buy system. A similar experience system can be used to buy new abilities or augment the traits (so you can have even more powers, muhaha!). In this way, the setting comes first, the martial arts are primary (through the abilities) and the whole thing is very dramatic since Passion is used to activate powers (just like in the show!) but Ki is the skill the player has in controling it. Certainly, most of the work in this system would be the creation and definition of powers, requirements (like base power, passion, ki levels) and prerequisite powers. (All the work involved in this was why I thought Mage's magic system would simplify it for me in a one shot game.) If you like making lists of cool powers and organizing them, then this should be much easier for you. __________________ Paul R. DuPont Chronic Thinker and RPG Designer Live life as if enchanted! it's over 9000
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Mar 25, 2009 05:55
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I get it. I really do. The mechanics are a mess. They were various degrees of bad under 1ed, and that tradition continued under 2ed. I get that people don't like the setting. They say it's too "small" now, too heavy on metaplot, too many nipple piercings, too many heroin pissing dinosaurs, too many people focusing on the setting without bitching about the mechanics. I get it. This isn't a thread about that. This is a thread about Exalted hate fucks. This is a minus thread for negativity about Exalted. And it's based on one premise: Just get your hate gently caress and move on. Mechanical hate fuckers: The game isn't going to magically fix all the broken stuff that's come before, and all the new stuff is probably going to be broken too. Quit saying "if book X isn't mechanically sound I'm dropping the game" only to bitch about all the mechanical problems you've found in all the products since X. Quit grandstanding like your opinion means a poo poo, only to backpeddle the second some new shiny thing comes out. It also doesn't change the fact that people having fun playing the game are having fun playing the game. I know it's hard to understand, but you'll just have to trust me on this. If someone says they're playing "by the rules" and having fun, the correct response is not to tell them all the ways that such a statement is contradictory. Setting hate fuckers: You guys are even worse. You're bitching about loving make believe stuff. "The Wyld Hunt killed my pony." "Beasts of Resplendent Liquids are so bad they ruined my memories of playing D&D." "All the detail in 2ed stifles my creativity." "I hate that there's metaplot, and I hate that the metaplot contradicts itself." If you lack the confidence and imagination to ignore stuff you don't like and replace it with something better, don't even bother. Not just with Exalted, but with any game. Seriously, pack it up and take up another hobby like stamp collecting or getting hit in the nuts with a mallet. I don't care. Exalted is an RPG designed around the premise of a huge world with an open background. I'm sorry your feelings got hurt when the 2ed version Gem didn't match with your vision based on a torn paragraph you dreamed you read in badly mangled copy of the 1ed core. Have a wahwie pop. "But we hold out hope that Alchemicals/Infernals will be different!" No, it won't. At best you won't have more fuel to bitch about, at which point you just won't talk about it; you'll continue to bitch about everything else though. Equally likely is that they'll be as bad as all the other products that you told yourself would be "different". See, for you hate fuckers all you have is the hate gently caress. You don't want the game to be perfect, since your fun comes from finding the dog turds in the game. And you have to cram those turds down everyone's throat. Over, and over, and over, and over, and over. In. Every. Single. Exalted. Thread. But you can't quit the game. You don't like it, you don't play it, and the only way you really help anyone is by buying all the products you don't like and keeping the game line going. Well shine on you consumer whore!
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Mar 25, 2009 17:49
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CuddlyZombie posted:Welp I just wantered into TGD after staying in YCS TG threads and drat this is a good thread. So, this week's Weekend Web (http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2436) on SomethingAwful.com features the Megatokyo forums. Now, I'm really not a fan of Megatokyo. The author's incessant bitching and angsting and perverse Japanophilia really doesn't make me like it. But goddamn, making fun of Megatokyo forumites for using l33t-speak? Way to miss the point, guys. ... did you see the stuff on PG-13, and the Bloody Mary boards? some wierd and messed up boards those are. I stopped reading after the Megatokyo stuff. I was looking forward to some good, solid mockery of Fred Gallagher and his ilk, and instead I was treated to mockery of people who use l33t-speak and the author taking what even I could tell was a forum in-joke at face value. It's the equivalent of coming to RPGnet Tangency and mocking us for referring to things in RPG terms ("Tom Cruise made up for his low acting stat by rolling a critical in 'Collateral'") and for having Kumatars. SA constantly refers to Fark.com as the younger brother of the Internet. With the declining quality of Photoshop Phriday and Comedy Goldmine, and the increasingly stupid front pages, SA is fast becoming the younger-brother-who's-just-turned-17-and-discovered-that-he-can-mock-the-highschool geeks-and-the-popular-kids-at-the-same-time-and-still-get-laughs of the internet. http://forum.rpg.net/archive/index.php/t-152431.html
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Mar 26, 2009 02:28
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RagnarokAngel posted:huh so it is. I thought that was too obvious of a thing to miss. Door destroying is a proud D&D tradition
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Mar 27, 2009 18:21
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I also like old-style, but I can't claim nostalgia since I didn't start gaming till I was 17 (am now 22). What I like mostly is more of the focus on descriptions rather than mechanics. Example: Player: "How wide is the ledge?" GM: "Maybe 2 inches.." (New School) Player: *seeing the modifiers of the Balance skill for that short a span* "Oh, nevermind, I better find another way across." (Old School) Player: "Okay ... can I press myself up against the cliff face and side-step across?" GM: "Sure. Since you aren't pressured and can take your time, you don't even have to roll anything." (yes, I am aware that other rules exist in the new-school that can circumvent this situation, but that's just it: they are rules, rather than descriptions) In other words, it's more about player (and GM) creativity. I just feel much more of a sense of magic and wonder from old-school editions. ATM I'm thinking that RC D&D does just what I want old-D&D to do.
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Mar 28, 2009 21:39
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Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide Foreword: you know, I don't think any of us give Mike Carr the credit he's due. This guy's name appears inside almost every single book in the first edition, and he is credited as the "Games & Rules editor." It could be he's responsible for a lot more of first edition AD&D than we realize. Anyway, a brief but well-written essay on whether Dungeon Mastering is an art or a science, concluding that it's both, as well as a labor of love. I agree with that sentiment wholeheartedly. Preface: Ah, here's the Gygaxian prose we all love and hate. Honestly, though, I am not finding the writing nearly as much of a plow as we all seem to remember. It's dry, yes, but these books are, first and foremost, rulebooks not tied to an individual setting. I do love Gygax's continual use of "milieu" and "milieux" to refer to campaign settings. For some reason it makes me crack a little smile every time I see it. There's a common misconception that AD&D was designed to be cohesive, all-encompassing, and used "by the book." Here, right from the beginning Gygax explicitly states that it's impossible to even try to be all-encompassing, and that what this book aims at is presenting a framework, with a "mutable system" (DMG 7). It states that certain commonalities are desirable (the attributes have the same meaning, the races and classes are similar, if not the same) between different campaigns, for the sake of communication and transition between two different games, but stresses that not all of the rules or laws of any two game worlds will, or should, be the same. Credits & Acknowledgments: This reads as good, but grim to those of us who knew what would come later. Dave Arneson is acknowledged and thanked, as are the Blumes. A name that we still associate with D&D all the way into fourth edition are to be found here as well: Skip Williams, who in my opinion should know better given the direction 4e is taking, but that's my bit of snark for this section . Introduction: First thought: good Lord, how many introductory sections do we need?? Second, he states that the format of the book is "simple and straightforward;" I disagree wholeheartedly, but we'll get to that in detail later. For now, suffice it to say that I happen to think a lot of the misconceptions about how complicated AD&D was stem from the poor organization and presentation of systems in the DMG. He discusses a bit more the position of DM as the "final arbiter" of the game, and stresses that the DM should know well the systems herein, not for the purpose of following them to the letter, but for knowing when to apply them by rote, knowing when to cut them entirely, and knowing when to modify them to fit his vision for his game. A bit more evidence against the "My way or the highway" mentality Gygax is unfairly credited for championing. The Game: Here Gygax does state that AD&D is intended to fall more into the "Game" school of thought than the "Realism-Simulationism" school. However, his definitions of these schools of thought seem a bit different than our modern usages. He stresses that AD&D does not endeavor to simulate any kind of hard reality, but that it is a game for enjoyment. Nowhere does immersion enter into his estimation of simulationism vs. gamism, and indeed quite a few times throughout the text he's very explicit that players should become immersed in their characters. Dice: Standard fare breakdown of polyhedral dice, what role they play in the game, and strangely, an explanation of bell-curve results vs. "linear curve" (sic) results. I suppose that in 1978 this wasn't as odd an inclusion as it is now, given that back then odd-shaped dice weren't the commonality that they are today. It's the first thing we see that's a bit anachronistic. Use of Miniature Figures With the Game: Ah, now we get to the root of one of the biggest bones of contention between "grognards" and fans of post-3e D&D. Is AD&D a miniatures game at heart? Has it always been designed for the use of miniatures as an important (if not integral) element of the rules? Does it assume the use of such, and is combat complicated if they are not present? This section reiterates what appears in most AD&D books: miniatures are helpful and add color to the game but are not necessary for play. The rest of the book bears this out: whenever an instance requiring movement, mapping, tactics, etc., arises, the book includes what to do if you are using miniatures, but this always comes as an addition to the basic rules, which do not assume or require miniatures. This is in sharp contrast to the current edition of D&D, which specifically states in the text that miniatures are assumed and that if you don't use them, you're not going to get the "full D&D experience." The rationale for the use of the " sign is explained in the Player's Handbook, and we will address that when we get there, but it suffices to say that hit has little to do with actual scale on the tabletop, though such is taken into account. Aids to Playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Mostly a continuation of the "miniature figures" section above, this talks about official AD&D hex paper, Dungeon Geomorphs, the official TSR catalog, etc. The most amusing impression I got from this section is that it's mostly there as an advertisement for the superiority of official AD&D stuff as opposed to that compatible but produced by competitors. Looks like not much has changed there. More to come later.
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Mar 28, 2009 21:40
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RagnarokAngel posted:...what? When the new edition of D&D enters the game shop, gaming begins to correct itself. Let me use this example: Imagine four different editions of D&D on the edge of a gaming shop shelf. Say a direct copy of the the edition nearest the shelf is sent to the back of the line and takes the place of the first edition. The formerly first edition becomes the second, the second becomes the third, and the fourth falls into the discount bin. Old School D&D works the same way.
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Mar 28, 2009 22:55
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As Spikenard watched, Bronwyn slipped the transparent cloak from her shoulders; it fell with a whisper. She let her hands drop to her sides; she pulled her shoulders back and stood erect, feet apart, legs straight. This is what he saw: Bronwyn standing pale and tall in the nervous light that shimmered through a vibrating canopy of green leaves. The shifting bands of milky light and emerald shadow made her seem luminous, translucent, as though she were a tallow candle glowing beneath its own flame. Like a porcelain lantern. Like a curtain fluttering in a window at dawn. Like a ghost that came and went with the twilight and darkness, that first veiled and then revealed. Her hair had the sheen of the sea beneath an eclipsed moon. It was the color of a leopard's tongue, of oiled mahogany. It was terra cotta, bay and chestnut. Her hair was a helmet, a hood, the cowl of the monk, magician or cobra. Her face had the fragrance of a gibbous moon. The scent of fresh snow. Her eyes were dark birds in fresh snow. They were the birds' shadows, they were mirrors; they were the legends on old charts. They were antique armor and the tears of dragons. Her brows were a raptor's sharp, anxious wings. They were a pair of scythes. Her ears were a puzzle carved in ivory. Her teeth were her only bracelet; she carried them within the red velvet purse of her lips. Her tongue was amber. Her tongue was a ferret, an anemone, a fox caught in the teeth of a tiger. Her shoulders were the clay in a potter's kiln. Her shoulders were fieldstones; they were the white, square stones of which walls are made. They were windows covered with steam. They were porcelain. They were opal and moonstone. Her neck was the foam that curls from the prow of a ship, it was a sheaf of alfalfa or barley, it was the lonely dance of the pearl-grey shark. Her legs were quills. They were bundles of wicker, they were candelabra; the muscles were summer lightning, that flickered like a passing thought; they were captured eels or a cable on a windlass. Her thighs were geese, pythons, schooners. They were cypress or banyan; her thighs were a forge, they were shears; her thighs were sandstone, they were the sandstone buttresses of a cathedral, they were silk or cobwebs. Her calves were sweet with the sap of elders, her feet were bleached bones, her feet were driftwood. Her feet were springs, marmosets or locusts; her toes were snails, they were snails with shells of tears. Her arms were a corral, a fence, an enclosure; they were pennants; they were highways. Her fingers were incense. They were silver fish in clear water; they were the speed of the fish, they were the fish's wake. They were semaphores; they were meteors. Her spine was a snake. It was the track of a snake. It was the groove the water snake makes in the glossy mud of the riverbank. Her spine was a viper, an anaconda. It was the strength of the anaconda. It was the anaconda's unknown hieroglyphic. Her spine was a ladder, a rod; it was a chain, a canal, it was a caravan. Her buttocks were fresh-baked loaves; they were ivory eggs, they were the eggs of the lonely phoenix. They were a fist. Her breasts were citrus, they were soapstone; they were bright cumulus and the smooth fingertips of Musrum. Her breasts were honeycombs and dew-beaded windows, or soft, sweet cheese. They were sweet apples; they were glass, they were cowries. They were the twin moons of the earth. The nipples rose like mecury with her heat. They rose like monuments atop flowered hills, above deserts of hot sand; the nipples were savory morels, with the flavor of the forest. Her ribs were a niche, an alcove, an apse; her stomach was an idol in the niche, alcove or apse, an effigy, a phantom. Her stomach was a beach, a savannah, a flagstone warmed by the sun, a cat asleep on the flagstone, a bleached canvas sail in hot southern winds. Her navel winked like a doll's eye, like the eye of a whale, like the drowsy cat. Her pubes was a field of wheat after the harvest, a field neatly furrowed; it was a nest, a pomegranate, an arrowhead, a rune. It was a shadow. It was moss on a smooth white stone. There was an orchid within the moss. There was a drop of dew upon the orchid. It had the breath of moss-beds, of the deep seas, of the abyss, of scrimshaw and blue glass, of cold iron; she had the sex of rain forests, the ibis and the scarab; she had the sex of mirrors and candles, of the hot, careful winds that stroke the veldt, the winds that taste of clay and seed and blood; the winds that dreamed of tawny, lean animals. "You are quite beautiful, Princess Bronwyn," Spikenard sang, with his sardonic grin and eyes as violet and hard as amethysts. "Your body is halfway between earth and dream, neither magic nor elemental, neither animal nor spirit." His long fingers reached towards her face, brushed her eyelids . . . "Your eyes are the sound of rain." . . . followed the contours of her cheekbones and jaw . . . "Chalkbeds and moonlight." 
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Apr 1, 2009 23:32
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I don’t need to pee any more. Now I just need to get laid. The knight gives me a knowing smile, and jiggles his giant cock in my direction. “You look like a fair maiden in need of a good visit from the codpiece,” he says TG Discussion: You look like a fair maiden in need of a good visit from the codpiece http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2009/03/05/review-knight-moves-by-jamaica-layne/
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Apr 2, 2009 07:35
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one of the players in my D&D group just got out of jail for probation violations. Also, a kid sent a fan email to the RPPR podcast email address and mentioned that his dad was in prison. :\
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Apr 2, 2009 18:45
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But school officials said that was an isolated incident. I'll call bullshit on this. School officials know, they just opt to ignore it under the mantra 'kids will be kids'. If you are being bullied - create a paper trail with the officials of the school and THEIR bosses. (This is the part I did not do) In the case of the crap I got from other students I made sure the school officials knew what they were doing and that if they didn't solve the problem, I would and that they would not like the solution. I let them know it was a 2 stage solution, the 1st and minor one would involve blood. And it did. Under my clothing I taped down some thumbtacks, points out. So when the bully did his arm punch - he got hurt. His dad (a math teacher in the same school) came by to talk to me, I told him that, no, his son would not have been hurt had he not been punching me and if anyone was going to tell someone about how sorry they were it would be him, not me. Then I went back to the officials office, stuck my head in and said "Stage 1" and left. (The verbal trail, the books and then updating 'em as to the status made it look like I was far more in control and had a plan than I really did. Looking like you have a plan and the officials are behind changed the normal dynamic and is what changed it from 'kid squable' to 'oh poo poo, lets fix this') Magically - the problem stopped. It took a few days (my guess is research and meetings) and the bulling did uptick for a day - but as one of the bullies buddies told me 'we were told to back off and not talk to you.' Props are also important. Like a book. A self defense book. And with todays interconnected databases, checking out the 'proper' sets of books from your local library will also help the officials realize that, if they allow the bulling to continue, someone will get hurt bad enough, and they can be sued for not keeping the situation under control. (and today with pens that can record, sub $500 hidden cameras, et la gathering the evidence is within the reach of many) There is always another tool that can be used. Any good self-defense book will tell you about how keys can be held in the hand to bring on da hurt. Same with a pen. Keys and pens strike me as things schools would have a hard time banning. Oh and to those of you who are being bullied in school and reading this - good luck to ya. Remember that in a few years you'll be outta there and can even leave town and leave the bullies behind. Try not to do anything that will get you locked up for too long, m'kay? http://www.metafilter.com/80540/Is-...-Karl-Menninger
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Apr 3, 2009 19:26
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the best part is that he taped thumbtacks on himself and was so goddamn  about it
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Apr 3, 2009 22:39
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Ashenai posted:You're saying that like any part of this story ever actually happened. ok good point
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Apr 3, 2009 23:34
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"Likewise," Wierd Dough said. "I went down through the nine circles of Hell and destroyed all the arch-devils. And a good deal of greater devils to boot. Nothing like a pair of petrification glasses with the lenses put in backwards." Peter Perfect inhaled and exhaled contentedly. "I got my ten levels from one lowly centaur." "WHAT?!" the other two said in unison. "Half the centaurs carry gems, right? This one happened to be carrying a couple million gold pieces worth. I just cut him in half, stole his gems, and got one experience point for every gold piece they were worth." Clerasil quickly hauled out the Book of Infinite Wisdom. "Hey, that's right! A single gem can be worth up to a million gold pieces, if you roll the dice right." "Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Wierd Dough. "Let's go mug a centaur and take his four one-million-gold-piece gems!" "Kill a centaur and take his four 1 000 000 g.p. gems," Peter Perfect corrected them. # Three centaurs later, Clerasil's level went from 28th to 38th, and Wierd Dough's jumped from 18th (just barely arch-mage status) to a whopping 49th. They would have gone farther, but that was maximum spell ability in their campaign. Clerasil could now cast ten of each of the seven levels of clerical spells per day (plus 2 each 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level spells due to his superior strength of will), and Wierd Dough could cast 13 of each of the nine levels of magic-user spells each day (well, 26 actually, thanks to his 5 rings of wizardry). They also had an extra 12 million gold pieces between themselves to spend. Digging up another obscure rule, they found a use for a couple million of them: By using the psychic plane-travel ability, they could not only survive contact with a small black hole but actually destroy it and gain another major psychic power in the process. They each bought about 30 black holes ("Spheres of Annihilation," they were called on the open black market) for some 30 000 gold pieces apiece, ran into each one, and gained every psychic discipline known to man and god alike. These made a fine addition to the spells and potions whose effects had been made permanent upon them, and let them keep pace with Peter Perfect who had already gone through the spheres-of-annihilation bit before they'd even thought of it. The whole group was decked out almost beyond recognition. Enough rings, cloaks, magic armor and shields, bracelets of defense, and sundry magic gadgets to bring their armor classes down to the lowest allowable in the universe, -10; protection scarabs with enough gear to give them a 95% chance of avoiding the effects of magic that is supposed to be unavoidable; three or four different magic helms, all stacked one within the other, with the outer one bearing gems of explosive proportions; rings on each finger, covered by dexterity gloves, covered again by another ring on each finger; and all the wands of automatic missile fire stored inside their portable holes. Ringman peered through the trees carefully at the group. With all their magic items, they must have detected him by now, he figured. They doubtlessly wanted him to see what power they held. It was disgusting. "Do you realize how powerful we are now?" Wierd Dough asked. "We could take on an army and win!" "Ah, from such humble beginnings spring such mighty oaks," Clerasil mused. "Oaks can be cut down," Peter commented, symbolically swinging his Axe of the Dwarvish Lords through the air. "We can't. And as I recall, our beginnings weren't too humble." "I was there, remember?" Clerasil replied. "We were in that dungeon together. The experience point values of the magic items alone was enough to boost us both to ninth level. The Dungeon Master" — his voice quavered in fear as he spoke the words — "would have sealed us off and doomed us in a half-mile-thick concrete prison if you hadn't threatened to kill off the characters he was running in your campaign." "Yeah, and then he got tired of that campaign anyway," Peter noted. "In any event," Wierd Dough continued, "We are positively disgusting in our power level. Holy swords and artifacts are nothing more than furniture to us. Look at that stack of artifacts Clerasil has." Clerasil blushed. "There must be others like us in the world. I know there must, because I've picked up several high-powered dummies on my crystal ball who didn't have the foresight to wear a detection-proof amulet. I say we form a union — a worldwide union. All the disgusting characters from around the globe can come to meet here on the shores of Crysglass lake, on this very spot." He drew Excalibur, his +6 dagger of sharpness. Peter Perfect followed his example and drew Prometheus, as did Clerasil who drew Mjolnir, his sentient hammer of thunderbolts. They raised their weapons together to the sky. "And we shall call it . . . the Intercontinental Union of Disgusting Characters!" First edition AD&D is clearly superior to 4E because it doesn't encourage munchkinism http://members.dslextreme.com/users/rogermw/ADnD/
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Apr 7, 2009 01:56
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RagnarokAngel posted:What...I don't even...? I don't know I just remember it when Mikan mentioned the randomness of old school D&D. The story is pretty loving insane as it takes every loophole in AD&D to its logical extreme.
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Apr 7, 2009 04:27
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you guys should read the sequel too Disgusting Sword reached her first level of Druidicism at age 10 1/2. Again, she was a slow developer, but she could still make it. Sick Sword took her to the edge of a centaurs' lair and pointed inside. "That's a centaur's lair," she told her daughter. "I know," Disgusting Sword replied. "Good. And you know what to do?" "Of course." Disgusting Sword activated her permanent potion of flying at 150% effectiveness and wafted into the shallow cave. One psionic blast and several clatterings of gems later, she emerged as a 15th level druid, a 17th level monk, an 18th level thief, a 21st level paladin, a 31st level illusionist, a 38th level cleric, a 49th level magic-user, and a 58th level weapons mistress. "Well," she said to Sick Sword, making sure all 533 of her hit points were in place, "That was easy. How long before my magic sword becomes an artifact?" Ridiculous Sword was a little smarter. The only reasons Disgusting Sword had taken those particular levels of development was so that each of her classes would be of higher level than the one before it. Reading between the lines on the rules, Ridiculous Sword figured that it didn't matter what order her levels were stacked in, so long as the last class she chose had the highest experience level. As the bard class couldn't be started with a lawful-good alignment, she would need that rules assumption if she were to become both a 20th level paladin and a 23rd level bard without losing her paladinhood. And so, hitting the centaur pits on her tenth birthday (only one day after her sister did), Ridiculous Sword emerged as a 23rd level druid, a 15th level assassin, a 17th level monk, a 17th level ranger, a 17th level thief, a 23rd level bard, a 20th level paladin, a 31st level illusionist, a 38th level cleric, a 49th level magic-user, and a 60th level weapons mistress. She would have gone farther in that last class had not the . . . Dungeon Master . . . set the maximum half-point-per-level damage bonus for weapons masters at +30 points. And she didn't stop at just one artifact weapon like her sister did, either. No sirree. No one "Ridiculous Sword" for Ridiculous Sword. She had the Ridiculous Hand Axe — a +6 holy vorpal defender frost-brand flame-tongue sun luckblade of wounding, dancing, life stealing, disruption, slaying everything (as in the arrows of the same name), throwing, thunderbolts, red blue green black white brass & copper dragon slaying, speed, final word, and nine lives stealing with maximum intelligence, eight special purposes, and enough artifact powers to leave her set for life (including "weapon damage is +2 hit points" taken five times) — sure, Disgusting Sword practically had one of those. But she also had the Ridiculous Broadsword, which did almost everything the Ridiculous Hand Axe did except allow her to cause serious wounds by touch. And she had the nearly-identical Ridiculous Dagger and Ridiculous Longsword, both to boost her weapon damage by 20 points and to serve in melee if she had to fight for more than four minutes and got to loose the other two weapons to dance. And in case she got totally unarmed, she also had the Ridiculous Pair of Gloves, although it seemed kind of strange to combine the gauntlets of ogre power effect with a +6 holy vorpal pair of gloves of wounding and all the rest. And she had the Other Ridiculous Pair of Gloves, in case her first pair got to fight for more than four minutes and could be loosed to dance. And as if that weren't disgusting enough, she topped it off with the granddaddy of all artifacts: the Bracer of Irresistible Damage. No sentience, no ego, just immunity to all forms of mental, psionic, heat-in-a-20-foot-radius, and cold attacks, and the ability to cast first, second, third, and fourth-level spells simultaneously. And the "weapon damage is +2 hit points" major benign power taken 100 times. Then came Gross Sword's turn. The lad was younger than his sisters, a bare nine years old, and Sick Sword had felt uneasy about her third child all along the way. But she felt obliged, and was determined, to prove to herself that she didn't need that old paladin Ringman to bring up her kids as deity-level psionic magical powerhouses that could really take care of themselves in the outside world. And so, when Gross Sword's whack at the centaurs came, he was ready; although not quite the kind of ready that Sick Sword had hoped. He found the cave, jumped in, and hit all the centaurs in the room with a psionic blast just like Sick Sword had told him to. That stunned most of them and put the rest of them in a coma. He collected the sixty million gold pieces worth of million-gold-piece gems just like Sick Sword had told him to. And he systematically killed every centaur in the room without telling Sick Sword or anybody. He emerged into daylight and immediately began spending his experience points just as his sisters had. He progressed until he was a twenty-third level druid, then switched and became a fifteenth level assassin, then a seventeenth level monk, and then on to rangerhood. Well, not quite on to rangerhood, and that made Sick Sword feel really uneasy. What he chose instead was to become an anti-ranger so that he wouldn't once have to shift his alignment away from evil. 'Have I created a monster?' Sick Sword thought. 'No, no, I'm overreacting. Gross Sword knows what he's doing, sure. His alignment doesn't really mean that much, does it? After all, the Intercontinental Union of Disgusting Characters had all sorts of different alignments in it, and they got along just . . . fine. . . .' And up through the 17th level of anti-rangerdom, to the 17th level as a thief, to the 23rd level as a bard, and then . . . and then he became an anti-paladin all the way out to the 20th level. But still, Sick Sword held firm. This was her son, for crying out loud, she couldn't just send him to his room for something so trivial as an alignment choice, now could she? Naw, of course not. And besides, his becoming an anti-paladin would allow him to keep all the benefits of being an anti-ranger. Yeah, that must be why he did it. Yeah, yeah, sure. Gross Sword kept that chaotic-evil alignment of his anti-paladinhood all through his being a 31st level illusionist, a 38th level cleric, a 49th level magic-user, and a 60th level weapons master. It would be stupid to change alignments now; he'd have to sacrifice both his anti-rangerhood and his anti-paladinhood if he did. Sick Sword knew that, and she wasn't about to change him into anything less powerful than he already was. And like Ridiculous Sword, Gross Sword bought four hundred of each type of pearl of power (so that he could cast 426 of each level of magic-user spell every day) and created seven magic artifacts for himself: the Gross Dagger, the Gross Broadsword, the Gross Longsword, the Gross Hand Axe, the Gross Pair of Gloves, the Other Gross Pair of Gloves, and the Other Bracer of Irresistible Damage. It didn't take long for all three of them to probability-travel through a few dozen spheres of annihilation and gain every major and minor psionic discipline, either, but every Disgusting Character had done that at one time or another. 'Every Disgusting Character?' Sick Sword thought in horror. 'No, no, they're not Disgusting Characters. Not my kids. No, they're anti-Disgusting Characters, just like I am. They must be. They have to be.' Ridiculous Sword, on the other hand, was extremely nervous about her kid brother.
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Apr 7, 2009 05:41
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"Buxom": These comely philosophers are physically well-endowed in the specific areas of their respective sexes. With +4 CHA, they engender immediate attraction from those around them, and rarely have to reach for the cookie jar themselves. Their attractiveness comes with a price, however, as those attracted often pay more attention to the buxom philosopher's appearance than to what he or she is talking about, manifested as -4 to CRE. Every time the buxom philosopher convinces a member of the party to do something for him or her, one Treatise is awarded. http://forums.koalawallop.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=931 there is a whole forum about making a dresden codak into a rpg and i am not going to read any more
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Apr 8, 2009 07:29
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Ladies and gentlemen I've traveled over half of the world of Greyhawk to be here tonight. I couldn't get away sooner because my new dungeon crawl was coming in at the Caves of Chaos and I had to see about it. That dungeon is now flowing at two thousand gold pieces and it's paying me an income of five thousand electrum a week. I have two NPCs working and I have sixteen henchmen producing at the Keep on the Borderlands. So... ladies and gentlemen if I say I'm an AD&D man you will agree. Out of all men that beg for a chance to prowl your dungeon, maybe one in twenty *rolls dice* will be AD&D men; the rest will be rules lawyers - that's men trying to get between you and the drama of the game to get some of the enjoyment that ought by rights come to you. Even if you find one that has secondary skills, and means to crawl, he'll maybe know nothing about playing and he'll have to learn from a power gamer, and then you're depending on a gamer who'll play the game through so he can get more magic items and level up just as quick as he can. That is the way that this works. I own my own bec de corbins and the henchmen that work for me work for me; I have an 18 charisma. I make it my business to be there and to see their work. I don’t lose my party in the hole and spend months fishing for the exit. I don’t botch the checking for traps or get into trouble with the thieves guild and ruin the whole adventure. I can load a iron rations onto mules and my henchmen them here in two weeks. I have mage guild connections so I can get the spells for opening -- such things go by friendship in a rush like this. Any sufficiently popular and complex hobby, game or sport will quickly develop its own cant, a mode of discourse that by its nature includes insiders and excludes others. And this is why I can guarantee to start dungeon crawling and to put up the gold pieces to back my word. I assure you ladies and gentlemen, no matter what the others promise to do, when it comes to the showdown, they won’t have the dice. http://www.metafilter.com/81176/Are-all-magocracies-geriocracies-Or-only-most
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Apr 27, 2009 22:23
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Ashenai posted:It's me, I made the point. That was an example of high-level 3.5 Edition combat between two characters (a cleric and a druid,) and of course their mounts, summons, animated Spiritual Weapons... I'm guessing that's from an online player vs player 3.5 game? That's a bad example to pick, as those are basically rules lawyers going overboard. Normal 3.5 games don't get that bad until epic level.
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Apr 29, 2009 06:07
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RagnarokAngel posted:Plus even during the height of crappy 3e splatbooks WotC still hasn't matched TSR in terms of absolute garbage. 3rd party companies really stepped up to the plate for 3E in that respect.
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May 18, 2009 06:03
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GunnerJ posted:You're right, I didn't catch this at all from his latest Master Plan. Seriously? Hahahaha Who games in public places like that anyway? Freaks, that's who. I keep thinking of The Bad Rifts Project and I shudder at what Mr professional DM's games would actually look like if some people actually signed up for it.
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May 19, 2009 19:26
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Hello, in the first days, weeks and even month of 4th Edition D&D we were really excited about the whole new thing. Easy-to-learn rules, clear, understandable and still sorta complex. A system, that is so balanced, that it's fun for everyone...at least for a while. So don't get me wrong, we had a great time with the 4th Edition. We met once a week, despite the huge distance. Some of us suscribed to DDI, hoping that the GameTable would come out soon. These were the hopes of 2008. What's up now ? We're just sick of it. As soon as we reached the mid of paragon tier everything got so incredibly boring. So we started with the PHB2 new characters at mid-heroic. But new classes, same old repetitions. Encounters are either auto-success or so frustrating because you miss 80% of the time. Again: Everything is sooo perfectly balanced. So balanced, that it's no fun anymore. I'm a wizard fanatic. Soon I realized, that Rituals were all but useful with their casting times. And no, its not because of the DM. We switched DM, and all of us played in different games on different tables. So you may still say, it is just us ? I don't want to cry on, so ill keep it rather short: Few weeks ago we switched back to 3.5 And although we had a funny time with 4e for a while, 3.5 is the way to go for us. We feel much better with the good old and still well balanced system. But: Some of us sold our old books. And since theyre out of print, the prices - at least for our german books - are like 120$ (approx. 100€) for the PLAYERS HANDBOOK! Can you imagine that ? Is it just us ? Check this: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=160335619385 No, i don't think its just us. So, WoTC, please tell me. Was it your marketing strategy to throw a bunch of short-time exciting, but long-time very boring stuff onto the market ? If so, why don't you return to 3.5. Or let them run both at the same time. Just check eBay, for how much 3.5 stuff goes. Just check the link above: Nearly every WoTC-4e-Book in there. For the same price as the PHB 3.5!!! Are you afraid, that you cant compete with Pathfinder ? Thats ******** in my eyes. Not enough people even know of Pathfinder. And Pathfinder has not that much material as 3.5. It's time to get back now. I also sold all my 4e stuff and didnt get much more for that. What I want to say is just: Bring back 3.5 At least paralel. You dont need to bring new material, there is plenty. But just keep selling those books. And if its just for the $$$-sake: So many people want to buy 3.5 stuff and pay amazing money for that. Imagine, WoTC, how much you could sell those books for now! Now, that people get fed up with the sterile, over-balanced 4th Edition. Now, that people want to return to the good old system, made by people whom you fired. http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1194010
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May 26, 2009 17:54
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They don't have to be WW rpgs but I spent 5 minutes trying to figure them out and couldn't get anywhere.
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May 27, 2009 22:12
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Etherwind posted:According to D&D, males and females are equally competent and just as likely to be warriors. You mean the cruelties of a feminist egalitarian fantasy world. If those orc women stayed in their caves cooking dinner for their husbands, they wouldn't be dead 
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May 30, 2009 18:54
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more specifically, it's from Repo the genetic opera.
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May 31, 2009 18:37
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http://www.google.com/patents?id=aAuzAAAAEBAJ I don't even loving know
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Jun 1, 2009 22:45
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Salve, citizens! Welcome to Roma, a create your own adventure role playing game. This is the first in the series of Roma games that I have been hatching. However, do not be confused; the sequels and prequels may have absolutely nothing to do with our main characters in our stories and my not link up chronologically. Do not be upset if the next game is actually a few hundred years earlier than this one! This thread will operate like most adventure threads, although in this particular chapter, the main character and starting stats and temperaments will be fixed. We'll start with character info, then an introduction and then we will be rolling like a severed head down the Capitoline. ***DISCLAIMER! BY JUPITER'S STONE, YOU MUST READ THIS*** Some of the events that take place in this game are going to be extremely visceral, grotesque and debauched. I am going to take great pains in being almost over descriptive to capture the reality of life in this place and time. If you are disgusted by the description of a high born noble loving his male slave by his own right, please leave and do not ruin the thread. If you are put off by someone getting strung upside down by a street gang, gelded with a rusty sickle, decapitated and thrown into the Tiber, please leave without complaint. This isn't meant to be an Utopian vision of a mythical past. This will get dirty. Also, part of my over descriptions come from not being an artist. I would love to have some art in this thread, but from myself it will mostly be in the form of mosaics, frescoes, sculptures and potsherds. This is because I want to keep an antiquated feel and because I am no artist. If anyone wants to contribute visually, please do!! Now, with that out of the way, let us begin! http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3111817
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Jun 6, 2009 05:24
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Part One of Three D&D: Discouraged & Disillusioned Previously I spoke of the Origins game fair and how I feel it doesn't quite have the oomph it used to. However it hasn't lost steam in its entirety -- it'll still be a relevant show when it comes to gaming. Still with ten days to go before the con, I wanted to take some time and share my thoughts about the hobby and where it's going. I don't think it's dying -- even if Rome aka Wizards of the Coast may be in danger -- but being the type of market that it is, it needs to keep evolving, or it will die. The latest incarnation of D&D might be a nail in the coffin, it's not the last. The banner of gaming may very well be changing hands in the next few years, and if you're keeping an eye on things, it's actually rather exciting, not unlike that first roll for initiative As this involves my gaming hobby, I'm putting this lengthy post behind a cut. So, it's been a year since the release of 4th Edition D&D, and WotC has released the PHB2, DMG2 and MM2. My guess is they'll continue to do this trend until Hasbro kills it, because they failed to learn from the previous times they've done the exact same thing in the past (the Complete * Books, anyone?). This behavior will continue until the game becomes unplayable. That may happen faster than anticipated because of the general sense of entitlement that the new version conveys. The sad thing is, I look back on the 3.x rules and I can see some of the precedents set that led to this. Classless Classes The first is the homogenization of the class system in D&D. In all previous editions of the game, each character class had it's own rate of advancement. Thieves (as they were known then) rose in level the quickest, while magic-users slogged their way to greater power. By way of comparison, in 1st edition AD&D a magic-user needed twice the XP of a thief to reach second level. This was done as a means of game balance, as MUs could become extremely powerful at higher levels -- caps on damage spells didn't exist in those first edition days, so some spells could do sick amounts of pain. Also, if you just look at the numbers, XP requirements for advancement were much steeper, and the awards for defeating creatures in combat were much less. 1st edition did some number crunching based on the creature's hit dice, special abilities, special defenses, and even total hit points. But you also got XP for treasure -- 1 XP per GP equivalent of cash and gems, and MIs had a value all their own. In 2nd edition, this was rolled into a standard, more simplified chart for monsters, and by 3.X the treasure aspect got rolled in as well in an effort to streamline things further. With the XP/CR system in 3.X came the standardized level progression. Now all character classes advanced at the same rate. Of course, if you take one balancing point away, you need to replace it with something else. Fighters now had access to more feats than an 80s action hero. Rogues got a scaling "sneak attack" to replace the backstab. Clerics got spontaneous healing and Domains. Wizards got bonus metamagic feats. This led to 4e's philosophy of "everybody gets to do cool stuff," which in turn just made the classes variations on a theme. Feats took a second seat to powers, and all classes get the same amount of powers at the same level. The limited pool of powers means that a fighter is a fighter is a fighter, and so on. Some might argue this was how it ran in 1st edition, and they're partly right. Partly. Because the powers are virtually interchangable save for the short flavor text, there's no room for options. However, within even first edition you could try to mix things up a little. How well it worked was up to the player. Greater Expectations It's one thing when players hope to find "neat stuff" in the treasure pile after a hard won adventure. Enchanted arms and armors, potions, wands, all hidden amongst the gold -- it's part and parcel of the game. I mean, what's a dragon's hoard without a magic sword? Unfortunately the interlocking of creature abilities and CR/level put such expectations into the mechanics of 3.X. Characters were expected to have X gear at level Y to face a threat of CR/EL Z. In some cases it also makes the assumption that a PC will be somewhat prepared to deal with the threat. It makes things difficult when trying to run a low/rare magic campaign. That's not because certain creatures in 3.X have special resistance to damage unless you hit them with the proper schanner (although in earlier editions if you didn't have the proper schnanner you were screwed). It's because without an upper limit on defenses, saves and armor classes can ramp up to astronomical levels in short order. Back in the old days, Armor Class (or AC) started at 10 and went down to -10. That was as good as it got. Savings throws also started at a high number and went down, the idea you had to roll above the number to succeed. Like AC, saves would stop improving. In 3.X, on the other hand, AC started at 10 and went up, while saves were just something you added to a die roll in an attempt to beat a target number. The problem is that there's no upper limit, so these numbers can rise very quickly, such that a party's Fighter needs all those extra pluses just to keep up. This gets compounded in fourth edition when they add a character's level into the existing formula, and it leads me to the worst of the lot... Ours Goes to Eleven Power creep and rules bloat are two phenomenons that are a constant threat to role-playing games. Creep is the gradual increase of power over the course of the game. You'll have a certain amount of it by default because that's how these games work. However sometimes character growth takes odd spurts in weird directions. Saavy DMs can handle this and adjust things accordingly. In previous editons, D&D was fairly linear in its escalation of power. And with the way the game balance worked out it was fairly easy to foresee where creep could do it's work. Magic Users were the most obvious (I mean, how can you miss the earth shattering kaboom?), Fighters not so much until you started adding up all those bonuses to attack. In 3.X the creep is more pronounced due to the proliferation of incidental bonuses a character can receive. Seriously, when you have to add descriptors to a modifier and tell players that two mods of the same type aren't cumulative, there's some serious creep. 4e further compounds things by making certain character driven modifiers further enhanced by another character driven factor. For instance, 3.X derives a modifier from ability scores equal to the score minus ten and divided by 2 (rounded down). 4E takes it a step further by not only making sure no character begins the game with an ability score less than ten, but by also adding half the character's level (again, rounded down) to the modifier. Like 3.X, 4e characters have their ability scores increase at certain levels. So where a 1st or 2nd edition Fighter at 20th level might have a Strength modifier of 3 or 4, 3.X takes it up to somewhere around 5 to 8, and 4e amps that up to 15 at the least! Based on that example, power doesn't really creep in later editions. It rushes people to give them wedgies. Rules bloat occurs when supplements start adding more rules and mechanics to a game. Bloat isn't that bad when it conforms to the core of the mechanics -- a new class, for instance -- but it can get out of hand quick if it adds new rules altogether. 1st Edition had some issues with this -- the Barbarian class from Unearthed Arcana, for example. At first he didn't play well with any spell casters, but as he grew in level he got over it. However his ability to earn XP from breaking magic items was a little...well, broken. Bloat was more pronounced in 2nd Edition when then-TSR introduced various "Complete" supplements. These splat books would support a race or class by offering additional rules. One or two in use might have worked well, but the problem was that no one in TSR tested how well all this "Complete" material worked together, if at all. This was further compounded by the development team's drive to make each book cooler than the one before it. In other words, more cowbell. Unfortunately, the rapid decline of quality control nearly led to the death of D&D. The Player's Option era was an interesting time for the game. WotC had to calm fears by starting the forward with "This is not Third Edition," written in large friendly letters. Here you had a moderately bloated rules set in three books, but for the most part they worked together surprisingly well. Skills and Powers gave characters greater flexibility while Combat and Tactics added versatility without bogging fights down. Spells and Magic was a bit iffy in some places -- but combining spell points with the Vancian system of magic always is. Third Edition's d20 mechanic started out strong, but this is where the Open Gaming License worked against itself. A glut of third party producers emerged on the scene, causing an explosion of bloat. It required close customer scrutiny to see if a supplement was too overpowered, complex, or just plain messy to fit in with one's game. Contradictory feats, over powered prestige classes, and variant rules could take the d20 engine in different directions. If you're like me and snagged up a lot of 3.X and d20, you quickly found out that you have way too much material to effectively use in a campaign, regardless of the quality.. When 3.5 saw the re-release of the Complete books, it became clear that WotC had not learned from the mistakes of its past. The worst of these, and the truest sign of things to come, was the Warlock class out of Complete Arcane. This core class had a slightly better hit die than a typical wizard, could wear light armor, and generate a touch attack based blast every round that could match the damage output of a rogue's sneak attack. On top of that, he also gained a rare form of damage resistance, fast healing, and the ability to make magic items without needing the spells required for it. His invocations, his own version of spells, were designed to help him and only him. In other words, the Warlock did not play well with others. This was the primary factor that led to the "every man for himself" and "everybody should have something cool to do all the time" mentality that dominates the class design of 4th edition. Combined with the creed that each successive book has to be "cooler" than the last (which usually means the power needs to be amped up) without any comprehensive playtesting, and you can expect to see a rules induced crash of the game by the time we see the Player's Handbook 4 hit the shelves. When this crash hits, there might not be a Cleric with the venture capital component to raise it from the dead... We'll continue with Part Two on Wednesday. Stay tuned... http://mike-brendan.livejournal.com/123651.html I tried to reason with him lets see how that goes
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Jun 18, 2009 06:29
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