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Evil Sagan posted:Tables and spell mishaps are like peanut butter and jelly! Oh no doubt, getting your final result should be on a nice, easy to read table. Here, let me provide a helpful flow chart on how to get to the Spell Mishap! Have fun! Also crunchy peanut butter or bust.
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# ? May 8, 2014 17:58 |
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# ? Jun 8, 2024 09:18 |
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Libertad! posted:Can you elaborate on this? 13th Age, to me, appears to derive inspiration from both 3rd and 4th Edition and really does try to balance things out mechanically in regards to monsters and classes. And it doesn't have oodles and oodles of spells.
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# ? May 8, 2014 18:58 |
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Can someone direct me to the table that explains what sandwich my spell failure requires?
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# ? May 8, 2014 19:00 |
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MadScientistWorking posted:13th Age's class balance seems to have been partially informed by the groggy notion that 4th edition ruined magic because of the daily mechanic. On top of that the game also actively calls out the whole "dumb fighter complex wizard" as something that actually exists within the game. As I said before in the post it doesn't wreck the game like it does with Pathfinder and the only time it ever became a glaring design issue was with Tweet's obsession with multiple attribute dependency. The other nice thing with 13th Age is that not all of the non-magical characters are dull as ditchwater. Some are (looking at you, barbarian), but most have a ton more going on than what we've seen of the 5th Ed D&D non-magical characters. That said, all of the magical characters have higher complexity than the non-magical ones, but it's not as bad a balance issue because they don't have a single archetype whose sphere is "all magic" like D&D does.
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# ? May 8, 2014 19:19 |
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Dr. Doji Suave posted:Oh no doubt, getting your final result should be on a nice, easy to read table. Here, let me provide a helpful flow chart on how to get to the Spell Mishap! That is both the most insane and most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I take it Hackmaster is the RPG equivalent of Hastur's The King In Yellow?
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# ? May 8, 2014 20:04 |
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TheSoundNinja posted:That is both the most insane and most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I take it Hackmaster is the RPG equivalent of Hastur's The King In Yellow? It predated the Old School Retrogaming movement by several years, and almost never gets mentioned when people ooh and ahh over things like Dungeon Crawl Classics or Adventurer Conquerer King, which is a shame. I guess it's a little too tongue in cheek for OSRies who take their classic elfgames very very seriously.
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# ? May 8, 2014 20:17 |
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I just spent half an hour throwing together a skeleton for an RPG about dumbass anime delinquents shouting and throwing cars at each other. Hasn't been playtested at all, but I think it might have the makings of a decent beer-and-pretzel game. Bancho Legend Features:
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# ? May 8, 2014 20:43 |
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FMguru posted:HM is that rarest thing, a parody of ridiculously-bloated AD&D variants that happens to be perfectly playable on its own terms. It comes from the Knight of the Dinner Table comic strip, where the titular characters play an RPG that is a ludicriously complicated development that leads to all kinds of plots and jokes about weird rules loopholes and overly-specific random tables and one of the characters has a super-autistic command of the rules and so on and so forth. Eventually, the joke RPG became a real game, essentially a super-detailed version of AD&D 1E with all kinds of barely-compatible mechanics strapped onto the side. 800 pages of rules, an 8 volume Monster Manual series, a series of modules that are overstuffed remakes of classic AD&D modules (Keep on the Borderlands, etc.) - it's an extremely well put together joke that developed a loyal, unironic fanbase. Thanks for that bit of history. I've heard about KotDT, but I didn't know about the connection to HM. Hey, ProfessorProf: would you want to have your game playtested during a recording session of a podcast my comedy troupe does? We wouldn't be recording till next Saturday, if you want to tighten anything up.
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# ? May 8, 2014 21:04 |
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ProfessorProf posted:I just spent half an hour throwing together a skeleton for an RPG about dumbass anime delinquents shouting and throwing cars at each other. Hasn't been playtested at all, but I think it might have the makings of a decent beer-and-pretzel game. I haven't looked at it yet, but I already approve.
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# ? May 8, 2014 21:07 |
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TheSoundNinja posted:Thanks for that bit of history. I've heard about KotDT, but I didn't know about the connection to HM. I would be down with this, but I at least want to test the Hair Combat rules first, because I don't have the faintest idea whether or not they even remotely work.
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# ? May 8, 2014 21:08 |
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FMguru posted:HM is that rarest thing, a parody of ridiculously-bloated AD&D variants that happens to be perfectly playable on its own terms. It comes from the Knight of the Dinner Table comic strip, where the titular characters play an RPG that is a ludicriously complicated development that leads to all kinds of plots and jokes about weird rules loopholes and overly-specific random tables and one of the characters has a super-autistic command of the rules and so on and so forth. Eventually, the joke RPG became a real game, essentially a super-detailed version of AD&D 1E with all kinds of barely-compatible mechanics strapped onto the side. 800 pages of rules, an 8 volume Monster Manual series, a series of modules that are overstuffed remakes of classic AD&D modules (Keep on the Borderlands, etc.) - it's an extremely well put together joke that developed a loyal, unironic fanbase. This sounds amazing. I am slowly reacquiring all of the old 1ed books I had as a kid. Either I was a very smart 14yo or we really had a poor grasp of the rules, cuz this stuff seems insanely complex now. I just reread the joke module "Castle Grayhawk". So so many jokes in there I in no way got as a kid. Is hackmaster actually funny in a non ironic sense?
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# ? May 8, 2014 21:28 |
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ProfessorProf posted:I just spent half an hour throwing together a skeleton for an RPG about dumbass anime delinquents shouting and throwing cars at each other. Hasn't been playtested at all, but I think it might have the makings of a decent beer-and-pretzel game. Oh drat. I totally want to try playing a female bancho (there's such an ex-bancho in Oresama Teacher, and she's hilariously idiotic even in her efforts to 'go straight'). Also, I find myself wanting something for dirty tricks. Basically, cleverness useful only for totally petty things. That's an actual archetype in delinquent manga, there's even a lengthy one (Kyou kara Ore wa) that features such a rotten plotter as a primary lead. But it doesn't necessarily fit into the stat division so neatly. Hmm. Um, can you tell I love delinquent manga too much?
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# ? May 8, 2014 21:47 |
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TheSoundNinja posted:That is both the most insane and most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I take it Hackmaster is the RPG equivalent of Hastur's The King In Yellow? To follow what FMGuru said, a year or so ago they made a new system which is more serious, and completely different than AD&D Hackmaster. While it has some neat ideas, it is riddled with weird design decisions and poor support in terms of getting books out. The monster manual was out in 2011, player's handbook 2012, and still no release date on the GMG, even though it is 2014 and a great deal of the PHB tells you to reference the GMG. You can get Alphas if you preordered but they just drive the point home that they are nowhere near release on it. If anything it has caused me to actually work on my homebrew idea more as I read through each GMG update and cry.
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# ? May 8, 2014 22:27 |
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ProfessorProf posted:
Is it measured on how long is your pompadour because if so this is the TGOTY right there.
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# ? May 8, 2014 22:45 |
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bunnielab posted:Is hackmaster actually funny in a non ironic sense? I read someone describe actually playing it. They said it was this weird all-encompassing player-vs-GM thing where the GM tries to dick over the players while the players look for loopholes to use against the GM, but it all has to be done by the rules. So the game became this all-encompassing effort to find things in the rulebook that let you get out from under whatever stone the other guy just dropped on your (by the rules), and it was a literal battle of system mastery and trying to outwit the other guy by demonstrating greater understanding of all the obscure corners of the rules - which is very much in keeping with the tenor of the original strip. The game itself had an interesting development history. KoDT was a comic strip in a gaming mag called Shadis, then a comic book (still published, more than 200 issues old and going strong), and then TSR/WotC ran a version of it in the back of Dragon magazine. TSR/WotC later reprinted several strips which was in violation of the licensing agreement they made with the KoDT people (did I mention that the KoDT guys mostly had day jobs as lawyers?) and they had TSR/WotC dead to rights, and so as compensation they asked for the rights to use AD&D 1E and its supplements as the basis for their own parody RPG. The game literally is AD&D with a bunch of ridiculous crap bolted onto the side of it. Some of the trademark names stayed with TSR/WotC and got replaced with KoDT/Kenzer/Kalamar equivalents, but there's a lot of stuff packed in there from the original AD&D lines (a Spelljammer clone, a Deities and Demigods book that has stats and rules for Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk and Dragonlance deities, and so on). Here's what I wrote about it a decade ago Me, on RPGnet, in 2003 posted:HM manages the unusual trick of being a parody of particular genre of RPG (in this case, balls-out hack-n-slash old-school dungeonclearing D&D) and a fun and playable exemplar of that particular genre. Worth checking out if you have an interest. Does Kenzer sell PDFs?
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# ? May 8, 2014 23:36 |
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TheLovablePlutonis posted:Is it measured on how long is your pompadour because if so this is the TGOTY right there. It is literally exactly that. Also a measure of how absurd the tales they tell about your delinquency are.
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# ? May 8, 2014 23:37 |
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ProfessorProf posted:I would be down with this, but I at least want to test the Hair Combat rules first, because I don't have the faintest idea whether or not they even remotely work. Just PM me when you feel ready. We record in month blocks, so if a week is cutting it too close, we can get to it when you feel ready. If anyone else has a interesting/weird elf game that they want to have playtested on air, just PM me and let me know! We're kinda excited to experiment with the format since we heard the Retsutalk Dungeon World episodes.
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# ? May 8, 2014 23:48 |
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FMguru posted:The joke is that it's an 800-page (in tiny type) expansion of the AD&D ruleset that started life as a running joke in a comic about the most complicated ridiculous imaginable RPG that would be played by the most stereotypically nerdy gamer caricatures. It's pretty much made of solid alanismorrisetteite, that's how ironic it is. The best part is that it's actually playable and quite fun on its own terms if you're willing to sit down and master an 800-page expansion of the original AD&D rules. KenzerCo has indeed been putting out PDF's of their stuff over the last couple of years (and also finally started using DriveThruRPG instead of just their personal store front).
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# ? May 9, 2014 02:12 |
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NuclearPotato posted:KenzerCo has indeed been putting out PDF's of their stuff over the last couple of years (and also finally started using DriveThruRPG instead of just their personal store front). Even so, the Hackmaster books on Drive-Thru (the 5th Edition PHB and Hacklopedia of Beasts) are insanely expensive: $40 each. Even Dungeon Crawl Classics clocks in at $25, and most "old school" retroclones are either free or around at the most.
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# ? May 9, 2014 02:22 |
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Unless they finally killed it off look for the Hackmaster Basic PDF on the Hackmaster website. Free copy if the core rules and some of the classes which can carry you to level 5.
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# ? May 9, 2014 02:36 |
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Dr. Doji Suave posted:Unless they finally killed it off look for the Hackmaster Basic PDF on the Hackmaster website. Free copy if the core rules and some of the classes which can carry you to level 5.
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# ? May 9, 2014 02:38 |
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FMguru posted:That's for the new designed-from-scratch version of HM, not the old literally-AD&D-with-twenty-years-of-kudzu version, isn't it? It is. I remember downloading it, but never reading it. Considering you know so much about the game, do you mind elaborating which version is better?
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# ? May 9, 2014 02:56 |
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It would have been a few years back, but I remember someone posting a birth order or birth legitimacy table from HM that had an entry for 'product of rape'. When someone asked on the official or close-enough boards if that was really necessary, the explosion of indignant grog was foul enough to be smelled from space. It reminded me of people I knew who played Human Occupied Landfill straight, mashed up with a DM who swore up and down that the Forgotten Realms was the Middle Ages. The jokes kind of lost something when I realized there were people who took them seriously.
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# ? May 9, 2014 03:08 |
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Bieeardo posted:It would have been a few years back, but I remember someone posting a birth order or birth legitimacy table from HM that had an entry for 'product of rape'. When someone asked on the official or close-enough boards if that was really necessary, the explosion of indignant grog was foul enough to be smelled from space. Wait what this is actually true, sorry. What rock did you learn history under?
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# ? May 9, 2014 03:22 |
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Arivia posted:Wait what this is actually true, sorry. What rock did you learn history under? I must have missed the "influence of wizards on the Renaissance" lesson.
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# ? May 9, 2014 03:27 |
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Arivia posted:Wait what this is actually true, sorry. What rock did you learn history under? 'MERICA!
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# ? May 9, 2014 03:31 |
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Arivia posted:Wait what this is actually true, sorry. What rock did you learn history under? I know this story, it's actually the opposite of what you think. In the real world middle ages, obviously there were no women in power so this dude just removed all the ladies. I think some turned into shrieking harpy stereotypes instead?
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# ? May 9, 2014 03:35 |
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Davin Valkri posted:I must have missed the "influence of wizards on the Renaissance" lesson. Here's a start.
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# ? May 9, 2014 03:38 |
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Ah yes, the great renaissance of the 20th century.
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# ? May 9, 2014 03:40 |
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Bieeardo posted:It would have been a few years back, but I remember someone posting a birth order or birth legitimacy table from HM that had an entry for 'product of rape'. When someone asked on the official or close-enough boards if that was really necessary, the explosion of indignant grog was foul enough to be smelled from space. A buddy and I ran HM 5E at Gencon last year and got in an argument with a guy about this very subject. I guess it was all about the realism in a game where you can summon a dude made of fire. He also complained about us cutting the bullshit 'turn into a quivering baby around magic' rule on the Barbarian.
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# ? May 9, 2014 04:03 |
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FMguru posted:(did I mention that the KoDT guys mostly had day jobs as lawyers?) This is quite possibly the least surprising fact about Hackmaster ever.
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# ? May 9, 2014 04:26 |
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Davin Valkri posted:I must have missed the "influence of wizards on the Renaissance" lesson. Much like the so-called 'early middle ages', the Forgotten Realms don't actually exist. That's why they're the same.
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# ? May 9, 2014 04:40 |
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Mr. Maltose posted:I know this story, it's actually the opposite of what you think. In the real world middle ages, obviously there were no women in power so this dude just removed all the ladies. I think some turned into shrieking harpy stereotypes instead? Yeah, that's the one. Dude had a magical relationship with his mother... and every other woman who met him.
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# ? May 9, 2014 04:49 |
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Covok posted:It is. I remember downloading it, but never reading it. Considering you know so much about the game, do you mind elaborating which version is better?
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# ? May 9, 2014 05:00 |
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Covok posted:It is. I remember downloading it, but never reading it. Considering you know so much about the game, do you mind elaborating which version is better? I like the newer one more but ultimately if I had a choice I would run another system but I enjoy more light weight systems for long term campaigns.
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# ? May 9, 2014 05:22 |
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Bieeardo posted:It would have been a few years back, but I remember someone posting a birth order or birth legitimacy table from HM that had an entry for 'product of rape'. When someone asked on the official or close-enough boards if that was really necessary, the explosion of indignant grog was foul enough to be smelled from space. I tried searching for this very thread many months ago, but apparently the thread was deleted or you had to join first or something. Care to elaborate on the specifics, or is it exactly what I imagine it to be?
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# ? May 9, 2014 05:25 |
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TheSoundNinja posted:Just PM me when you feel ready. We record in month blocks, so if a week is cutting it too close, we can get to it when you feel ready. I don't have PMs, but I made this thing Hopefully it makes sense enough that humans can play it, but I wouldn't mind getting some questions I could use to make an FAQ out of, or do some edits more based on.
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# ? May 9, 2014 07:46 |
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Libertad! posted:I tried searching for this very thread many months ago, but apparently the thread was deleted or you had to join first or something. Care to elaborate on the specifics, or is it exactly what I imagine it to be? From what I remember, someone was pointing out a cluster of birth order and legitimacy tables in HM5. Very 1E AD&D, Verisimilitude and Simulation and Wacky Random Rolls are King stuff. I think the legitimacy table had percentile ranges for born in and out of wedlock, straight-up illegitimacy, and down at the bottom there was a narrow range for 'product of rape'. There were racial modifiers, if I'm recalling correctly, which made the mothers of half-orcs rape victims more often than not. While 1E had some goofy systems regarding sexuality, like the (in)famous random harlot table, it was a product of the mid-Seventies, HM's supposedly a satire on the system as a whole, not a slavish reproduction of geeky less-than-sensibilities. Of course, when someone suggested that the 'rape' entry could be excised for taste and sensitivity, and left to the imagination, the official boards exploded. Accusations of political correctness, appeals to 'accuracy', all of that jowl-shaking stuff.
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# ? May 9, 2014 12:50 |
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^^: Part of the problem with the rape table if I remember correctly is that the newest edition isn't a parody.Libertad! posted:I tried searching for this very thread many months ago, but apparently the thread was deleted or you had to join first or something. Care to elaborate on the specifics, or is it exactly what I imagine it to be? MadScientistWorking fucked around with this message at 14:51 on May 9, 2014 |
# ? May 9, 2014 12:55 |
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# ? Jun 8, 2024 09:18 |
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I seem to remember that being a Facebook post as well. I think it was referenced in the Hackmaster 5E thread that showed up here briefly.
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# ? May 9, 2014 14:36 |