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Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER
CHAPTER I. SPECIAL GAMING MATERIALS

Aside from the common gaming materials used, you must also add more. Extra gaming materials, no matter how cheap the cost, can add significantly to the image of production value. Some can also be used to produce an added dimension to the gaming experience.

A. Game Master's Mask

As the game master, you must create an air of separation between yourself and the players. You are not one of them. You are everyone else in the game world. The game master's screen is a common tool that accomplishes this somewhat. You can take it further.

For my sessions, I planned to wear a mask to hide my face. I chose a mask similar to the one used by the phantom of the opera, except that it covered both sides. White and expressionless to erase my appearance of humanity and partially detach the players from the notion that I am anything but the concept of the storyteller. It also creates an air of mystique, drawing the players' attention further into the story you tell.

It is important that you accompany this mask with a more subtle mask. The "true game master's mask". You must act more confident and add that to your voice when you narrate. Act like you know something that the players don't, especially because you do. You can go so far as to change the accent with which you speak, as if putting on the physical mask also changed your persona into that of "the game master".


B. The Stars of Fortune

In Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition, players can spend "action points" to take an extra action during their turn or activate some other effect depending on their feats, class features, powers, or magic items. These are rare, special moments of glory that the players' characters experience as a stroke of luck, passion, or genius.

I decided to add to the distinction of actions points as being "special" by adding a visual, tactile sensation. I would use bite-size plastic silver stars to represent the action points. It would remind players of the existence of their action points and give them a feel of extravagance as pretty, shiny objects often do. It would also have been fun to toss them into a bowl when they "spent" the points. Two points! (the audience cheers)


C. Capsule Rollers

When rolling dice, they can knock over other things on the table such as miniatures or fall off the table. This creates a disruption that interrupts the flow of a game. Remembering an old board game that had an interesting way of rolling dice by keeping them inside a plastic chamber, I came up with a simple and entertaining solution to this potential problem.

I went to the little toy vending machines at my local supermarket. I purchased a number of toys, some of which I could use as miniatures for combat encounters. The toys come in small plastic capsules made up of two halves that are re-attachable after opening. One half is opaque and the other is relatively clear. One could place a die inside and shake the capsule to roll the die. The opaque half may have a flat end (which my capsules do) so the die lands on that end with the result showing from the clear end. No risk of knocking over minis and no falling off the table. It also prevents some of the methods players use to cheat with their dice rolls.


D. Sticker Bottoms

In a large combat, it can be a hassle to keep track of which miniature is which if you are using a lot of the same miniatures to represent your monsters. That is why I decided to place blank stickers on the bottom ends of my miniatures and label them with a pen or pencil so that when their hit points or conditions are updated, one can simply look at the sticker to see which monster it is. No chance of forgetting or mixing them up. Becoming lost in thought takes away from the appearance of the game master's competence while this sort of preparation adds to the appearance of the game master's experience and foresight.


E. Printed Aids

If you have a printer, take advantage of it. Print out anything that can save time and help the game run smoothly as well as improve the storytelling of the session. Make sure that none of the text you print out requires a magnifying glass to read.

Reference Sheets - There are a number of "cheat sheets" that you can find online that are compiled or summarized versions of game rules. These sheets can greatly ease and quicken the decision making of yourself and the players, especially character skill summaries.

Combat Sheet - A printed, labeled grid that keeps tracking of initiative, hit points, and conditions clean and efficient.

Individual Maps - It helps if every player has a copy of the map being used for the party's travel instead of having to pass it around. Some decisions require mulling over and staring at different locations on the map. This can waste time if multiple players want to mull over the same map and have to wait their turns. A list of summary descriptions of notable locations may be included with each map.

Cinematic Pictures - Sometimes it helps to have pictures instead of words. Pictures can help immerse the players into the story much quicker and more efficiently than words can. They can also supplement the narrative with visual reference. In front of the GM screen I would have a stand where I could place pictures such as that of monsters or wondrous locations being visited by the party. While the players stare at the picture(s) I could voice the NPC speaking or describe the notable history of an ancient castle. It would also have been of great help when speaking as a character of the opposite gender. There's only so much a mask can do to alter one's perceptions.

Pre-Generated Character Sheets - Character death may be inevitable, and rolling up a new character mid-session takes away from a player's participation and can slow down a game session. If the players do not have back up characters, then have back up pre-gens ready to take their place in-game in the event of death or some other inability to play with the characters. Make sure that the players are aware of the pre-gens before the game and that they have a choice of which ones to serve as a back up. If possible, let the players give you an idea of what they might like as pre-gens before making them. Otherwise make sure to have an eclectic selection on hand.

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Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER
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.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER
First of all this all became a lot more complicated than I had ever intended or imagined when I wrote the first post. That's fine, that's good as a matter of fact, but I'm gonna have to think carefully for awhile about some of my replies to some of the things addressed to me to try and avoid misunderstandings on my part. Sadly, as big as this has grown (I did not anticipate that) I'm not sure I'll ever, given time limitations, be able to address all of the interesting points brought up. Even all of the ones brought up directly to me. Don't feel slighted guys if it seems I am ignoring you. I have classes to teach and papers to write and work to do.

Let me just say these things though from my point of view:

I am not against in-game wish-fulfillment - but not all methods are the same, or have the same value.

This debate from my point of view was about the various reasons for the world existing, not whether careful preparation or no preparation were best in world design - situationally I'm agnostic on this point, but I think it is a separate debate at the very least. An interesting one, even a related one, but a different one than the one I intended. (I'm not saying "take it somewhere else guys," I'm saying it wasn't my original intent.)

I am not against world design elements that specifically service the character, anymore than I'm against real world elements that service and help me. I am under no illusions however that this world exists merely to service me, and I think heroism is a to a large degree not a demand made on the world, but a service rendered to it. In real life or in game.

I understand the difference between fun and entertainment as it has been proposed, passive and active for both. I don't think it would be a bad idea though to carefully distinguish between the two concepts in a specific way as regards game function.

I'd be glad to have others (as well as myself) set out to try and define a basic concept of game heroism. I think in this case though it might be bets to start out saying what heroism is not. After all if heroism is a real thing, if the point of the game is to be an heroic character, or to at least have characters who are heroic, then the opposite must be true as well. If there is heroism, then there is villainy and non-heroism. To have some idea of what heroism is then you have to at least have a clear conception of what heroism is not.

Personally I don't think killing Orcs or looting tombs is heroic at all if that is your only motivation. If orcs however are evil and committing crimes and atrocities, or if the tomb is the tomb of a monster who got his goods by theft and killing then killing orcs and raiding tombs can very well be heroic. It depends upon your motivations and those of your enemies. And being willing to risk your own life or face danger regularly is, in and of itself, not a mark of heroism. Even evil men often risk their own lives, especially at the beginnings of their career. Being willing to face danger and risk though is a necessary component of heroism. There are no cowardly heroes, but bravery takes on different forms just as it has different motivations. So when it comes to heroism I think you have to define motivation, possible forms, and even actions to a degree, but every definition must have bravery at the core. It's just that not every act of bravery is sufficient to rise to the standard of being heroic. Some acts of bravery are even outright evil and anti-heroic.

I am however enjoying reading many of these debates and side debates.
Keep it up.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

ManMythLegend posted:

Say what you will, but I think it's pretty funny.

I think it's more that the entire "motivational poster" thing has been beaten into the ground more thoroughly than just about any other element of internet pop culture except for maybe AYB.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER
The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Games > TG Discussion: I am so tsundere for this class.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

Play a yukkuri if you want…

✦ to take it easy

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER
Apparently the moderation policy is to encourage and protect posters with annoying gimmicks, which explains a lot.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

tendrilsfor20 posted:


I don't think you "get" this thread, man

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

Father Wendigo posted:

This has to be a troll, nobody in their right mind could beli-

Oh.

I'm going to suggest very strongly that you do not click on this thread

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER
You'll find lots of gamers who will sing the praises of the Basic Rules published in the early 80s (either 1981's Moldvay version or 1983's Mentzer version) -- and rightly so -- but it's rare to find many who express the same affection for the Expert Rules, whether the Cook/Marsh or Mentzer version. I personally find that a bit odd, because, for me, the Expert Rules are one of those places I can clearly point to and say, "This is what D&D is all about."

I'm certain that strikes at least a few people as odd. The Basic Rules introduce not only the rules of the game, but also its default setting: the dungeon. If anything is "what D&D is all about," it's the dungeon and surely the Basic Rules do a far better job of describing that environment and what it's like to play in it than do the Expert Rules, which muddy the waters with all this talk of wilderness adventuring and building strongholds and creating magic items and the like. Right?

Well, I'm one of those oddballs who takes seriously the notion that Dungeons & Dragons, despite its name, is actually about more than dungeon delving. After all, OD&D devotes a goodly amount of its sparse verbiage to adventuring in the wilderness -- so much so that the term "sandbox" is every bit as significant for old school play as is "megadungeon." Indeed, OD&D makes it pretty clear that, after a certain point, the focus of the game shifts away from the dungeon and toward establishing and maintaining a "barony." If you read reminiscences of the earliest campaigns in the hobby, such as Blackmoor and Greyhawk, you'll see that this was the case.

The Expert Rules present this shift in focus not as an "add-on" or accretion to the Basic Rules but as a natural development of them. Exploring and taming the wilderness, building a castle, and ruling a domain -- these aren't alien to D&D; they're a major part of what the game was intended to be about. This only makes sense, given the origins of the game in wargaming and yet they're topics that got short shrift even in AD&D, never mind later editions. In this sense, I'd say that, for all my issues with the presentation of Cook/Marsh and Mentzer, they're truer to OD&D than were their various descendants.

I can't stress this point enough, because I think it's a vital counter-balance to the tendency to see D&D, especially old school D&D, as solely about acquiring ever more power in the service of venality. Not only do I think that tendency does a disservice to D&D's origins, but I also think it exaggerates the themes of pulp fantasy to ludicrous heights. While not every Picaro will eventually settle down, many will, particularly if their players wish to continue playing that character beyond a certain point. The Expert Rules showed how to do that; they were where D&D's endgame was fleshed out and revealed it as the logical extension of all that had gone before.

I hesitate to say that the Expert Rules are where Dungeons & Dragons "grows up," because that implies a childishness to dungeon delving that I don't think is appropriate. Nevertheless, the Expert Rules are where D&D grapples with the nature of what it means to have reached high level -- to have "grown up" mechanically -- in a fantasy world. Certainly characters could continue to remain aloof from the world around them, remaining outsiders forever on the make, but how satisfying would that be for their players? The Expert Rules offer up new options of play, things that characters could take up in order both to expand the scope of the game and to ensure that beloved characters can continue to be played even after it no longer makes much sense for them to continue adventuring. These are the rules for King Conan of Aquilonia, as opposed to Conan the wandering Cimmerian.

I am ever more convinced that the progressive deformation of the original Gygaxo-Arnesonian vision of the game is due to the loss of D&D's logical endgame and its replacement by vapid alternatives. Only by restoring that endgame can Dungeons & Dragons again become the game it was meant to be.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

LGD posted:

character class companion

The bard has ten dead levels but gains spells per day and spells known during each one of those levels (which can be considered special abilities in their own right). Still, certain prestige classes grant +1 level of arcane spellcasting at every level along with powerful abilities to boot. This means that minor abilities are permissible during each dead level.

Rally Performance (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, a bard hones his skill as a public musician and can reroll a Perform check once per day, but only when attempting to impress audiences for the purpose of earning money. A bard must take the result of the reroll, even if it's worse than the original roll. See Perform on page 79 of the Player's Handbook.

Refine Performance (Ex): At 4th level, a bard learns how to make his performances more appealing to the public of a prosperous city and is considered to have rolled at least a 2 on each d10 or d6 when determining how much money was earned each day from a Perform check. See Perform on page 79 of the Player's Handbook. At 5th, 7th, 10th, 11th, 13th, 16th, and 17th level, a bard is considered to have rolled 1 number higher on each d10 (for example, a least 3 at 5th level, at least 4 at 7th level, etc.). By extension, a bard is considered to have rolled at least 3 on each d6 at 7th level, at least 4 at 11th level, and at least 5 at 16th level. At 19th level, a bard earns the maximum amount of money for his performance.

Designer's Note: Refine performance is largely ineffectual to bards, since adventuring will typically earn more gold than public performances ever will. This ability merely secures their publicly regarded acclaim.

The cleric has nineteen dead levels, but

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER
I'm a martial controller irl

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

Ansob. posted:

The problem is that these people shouldn't really be playing any flavour of D&D. It's not their fault, there are plenty of RPGs out there that support a less invested and more laid-back approach to character building and combat, but D&D has always been combat-focused and since AD&D2 at least making a character build and having an interest in using powers and synergies and combos and whatnot has pretty much been a requisite to really enjoy D&D/play it properly. It's not a system that tolerates players having no interest in system mastery, basically.
Just gonna leave this here because this is the thread where it belongs okay.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

Vanadium posted:

Okay, but, what if, get this, the other players also play warforged?

what then?


Then all the players are the personal property of a sorcerer-king and have their own issues to deal with arising from that.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

Gomi posted:

By not having a combat your GM is literally taking away huge parts of your character sheet, to wit the combat powers. You should rage bitterly, like Ferrinus.

lmao you think this is an example of ferrinus raging bitterly

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER
Do you know how many times he has done this dance?

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER
As a survivor of a 3.5 campaign where half the party got killed in one round by quad-crit scythes, and where an entire encounter was destroyed in a round by a single spell: swinginess is only fun the first time the pendulum swings that way.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

Locus Cosecant posted:

that explanation requires a reversal of causality, it means that the window of opportunity was caused by you exploiting the opportunity, rather than vice versa
A hero makes his own luck :colbert:

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

Drox posted:

Once per day.

Several times every five minutes for the little strokes of luck.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

Riidi WW posted:

Yeah, here's my opinion, feel free to disagree: Cugel's harem of sex slaves was SUPER hot.
My copy of Tales of the Dying Earth developed a spine crack the first time I read it. That's BULLSHIT.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

Cheesepie posted:

The problem with 4e is it is too narrow and restrictive. With DnD games past, you could have all kinds of interesting characters, and they felt deep and interesting. One of my more shallow characters was a fighter who always had an obsene amount of weapons. Ideally it was a piercing, slashing, bashing weapon somewhere, plus a ranged and close. With Quickdraw he was able to pull these as a free action, so in a large fight he was a whirl of metal and damage. With 4e, stuff like this isn't really doable. Sure you can have all those weapons, but there isn't a point. Just take a sword and your set.
You know that they've published numerous options that do their level best to make "golfbag of weapons" fighters viable, right? And you can actually do something with them other than "I hit him".

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER
happyelf classic owns, haters step off

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

crime fighting hog posted:

what's this now

Bracers of mental might. Lets you use any mental stat in place of Strength checks/skills once an encounter.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

demota posted:

Disclaimer: This campaign setting deals with Abortion, politics, war, sexuality and other themes in a fictionalized setting, and is intended for a mature audience.
Secrete Mimetic (Gene feat)
You can excrete a thick, gel from a nipple like organ hidden somewhere on your body. Using short acting RNA transcription, you can encode memories into this honeylike substance; those eating it can sample your memories.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

Turing sex machine posted:

Wait, is that really from the book? If so, do you actually own it?

It's a free download from DTRPG. So I downloaded it for a laugh. It absolutely, literally is cyber-pagans vs. fetus fetishists.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

Cyphoderus posted:

This is just wrong.

I've seen the notion that "Science! :science:" is some sort of entity or force thrown around more often than not, especially in video games. It really bothers me for some reason.

Yeah, well, I didn't even post about the force field that makes you gay. Not even kidding. Whoever wrote Otherverse America has priorities at least as skewed as the FATAL guys.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

"Jonny Nox” posted:

Grampa Happyelf, can you tell us the story of the bad lady who destroyed TSR please? PLEAAAAASE?
It’s one of those triumphs of 1980s predator capitalism. The general gist of it is that Lorraine Williams assumed control over the company in some complicated business drama, then decided that TSR’s real job should be to ruthlessly exploit its intellectual property, not to publish games. So the #1 brand in roleplaying was run straight into the ground.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

listen to this man, he speaks from experience

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

Angry Diplomat posted:

the coolest use of epic level bluff is ignoring mind control and similar by violating its commands while lying to yourself that you aren't, using your amazing skill at deception to fool yourself into sincerely believing that your mind flayer master (praise to him, may he feast upon your unworthy brain) really did just command you to brutally murder him, and you definitely are imagining that voice in your head screaming for you to stop. yeah, you are one hundred percent loyal to your master, yes sir. you couldn't possibly ignore the order to kill him that you are quite sure he just gave. you are proud to serve.

I am absolutely going to need this for epic level so thank you very much.

The only problem is that the character most likely to mind control me is a PC with an even higher bluff score :yum:

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

Pharmaskittle posted:

you could make a not-retarded case for "civilization/science is bad" but it's rpgnet so

Honestly there are a lot of D&D threads, usually with the [philosophy] tag, that read like half-assed cribbing from oWoD material, so I wouldn't be too optimistic about that.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER

Evil Mastermind posted:

Wait, how the hell would that even work?

How wouldn't it work? John Norman would be right behind most of the poo poo Paul wrote about women in the early church.

Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER
This is a thread for posting in. Make posts.

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Contrabassoon
Jan 29, 2002
REALLY SHITTY POSTER
Hail Satan, basically.