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It's telling that when Macris wanted to include a picture of a character sheet, he didn't bother to find one from the edition of the game he was writing about. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/art...als-Interview.7
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Mar 27, 2017 14:02
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gradenko_2000 posted:
Now i'm reminded of how poo poo essentials was, how it and Mearls killed off 4e and the bullshit playtest for 5e which was grognard-centric. Friends are having fun with 5e, but a lot of 'fighter cleans up after the spellcasters win the encounter' comments (though apparently the bard is some kind of overwhelming encounter-breaker) and no one's quite breaking the game a la the undead army TG discussed at length back when it came out.
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Mar 27, 2017 14:18
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I liked the Hexblade. Too bad the character builder really couldn't handle it.Terrible Opinions posted:Funny thing Eoris was 10 bucks on Amazon for a while, until they finally ran out of stock.
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Mar 27, 2017 14:27
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Terrible Opinions posted:Funny thing Eoris was 10 bucks on Amazon for a while, until they finally ran out of stock. I bought a copy when that happened, but I don't think I ever even broke the shrink wrap on it.
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Mar 27, 2017 14:42
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Bought the progressive RPG, should be an interesting read. Flipped through the Moran RPG WTF. Interesting, didn't seem too incomprehensible, but as interesting as the concept of consensus reality is, it always reminds me of 1984. It's just something that always detracts from an otherwise neat concept.
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Mar 27, 2017 16:38
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Did anyone make a Jurassic Park Fiasco playset? Can't find it on fiasco-playsets.com.
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Mar 27, 2017 16:56
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gradenko_2000 posted:Alexander damned the powers mechanics and marking system in 4E because they were not simulating anything that happened in the game world. For example, why could a Rogue only pull off his fancy Daily power once per day? The only answer was because those were the rules of the game, not because that was how combat ought or should work in the fantasy setting. The really crucial thing here is that this is an outright lie on Alexander's part. The "only answer" was that martial exploits represented moves so physically and mentally taxing that you needed a long rest before you could attempt them again, same as every other non-magical per-day ability that's been in D&D. You could have raised the same bullshit objection to stunning fist or barbarian rage back in the day.
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Mar 27, 2017 17:20
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the real answer is simulationism is poop from a butt and designing a game as a game is a good thing in itself
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Mar 27, 2017 17:24
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Actually, mechanics meant to model the actual fantasy world you're playing in are good.
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Mar 27, 2017 17:30
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It's weird because when I started GMing for 4E, it was with a group of totally new people, and they never once asked why certain powers were Daily or Encounter or whatever in a fictional context. No explanation required. Maybe this proves the "videogame" argument about 4E, but it just never came up for me.
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Mar 27, 2017 17:32
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Ferrinus posted:Actually, mechanics meant to model the actual fantasy world you're playing in are good. if you must do this you should probably do it in a game that isn't completely wedded to a wargame framework
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Mar 27, 2017 17:32
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Serf posted:It's weird because when I started GMing for 4E, it was with a group of totally new people, and they never once asked why certain powers were Daily or Encounter or whatever in a fictional context. No explanation required. Maybe this proves the "videogame" argument about 4E, but it just never came up for me. D&D has always been a video game on paper.
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Mar 27, 2017 17:33
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i'm not against flavor and mechanics being in sympathy, but i'm for it only insofar as good flavor is a tool for making mechanics clearer and easier to use; people understand what a fireball or a massive overhead sword swing do, which is easier to remember and use tactically than a mere abstract application "everything on these squares changes this number by this much" so yes, it's good to say "daily powers are too taxing to use more often" but don't put the cart before the horse
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Mar 27, 2017 17:35
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I'm not getting into that argument again, and neither should anyone else, shame on you Ferrinus. Although I will say if people are having trouble reconciling rules and their setting, that's their fault for using a setting and rule set that don't fit together. You're not going to play Fantasy loving Vietnam in 4e, it's not a fit without altering much of it. Just like you're not going to play slapstick goofiness in 5e without tossing a good chunk of rules away.
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Mar 27, 2017 17:36
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Ferrinus posted:The really crucial thing here is that this is an outright lie on Alexander's part. The "only answer" was that martial exploits represented moves so physically and mentally taxing that you needed a long rest before you could attempt them again, same as every other non-magical per-day ability that's been in D&D. You could have raised the same bullshit objection to stunning fist or barbarian rage back in the day. Right? Every time the whole "encounter/daily" thing crops up, I try to point out to people that 3e was using "encounter" as a defined technical term and was using it to limit usage of abilities since right there in the first PHB.
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Mar 27, 2017 17:39
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:if you must do this you should probably do it in a game that isn't completely wedded to a wargame framework But 4E works fine.
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Mar 27, 2017 17:43
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Ferrinus posted:But 4E works fine. I agree, and there's no contradiction in that statement with what I've said.
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Mar 27, 2017 17:43
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My Lovely Horse posted:oh yes, the other thing that made the Escapist stand out, I remember. I love how quickly they started venting talent after that, as most of the people who were doing articles/videos for them had other side projects, or were able to spin off into their own thing relatively easily. So when it came down to "Hey can you keep doing the same things you're doing now but we pay you less for it?" their responses were "No we'll just do something else, also your community is ludicrously toxic." Now it's basically just Yahtzee and I'm sure they pay him whatever they need to so he doesn't leave.
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Mar 27, 2017 17:53
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I've said it before and I'll say it again: 4e doesn't know what a falchion is.
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Mar 27, 2017 17:54
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Halloween Jack posted:I've said it before and I'll say it again: 4e doesn't know what a falchion is. It's like a shamsir but different
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Mar 27, 2017 17:55
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Kurieg posted:I love how quickly they started venting talent after that, as most of the people who were doing articles/videos for them had other side projects, or were able to spin off into their own thing relatively easily. So when it came down to "Hey can you keep doing the same things you're doing now but we pay you less for it?" their responses were "No we'll just do something else, also your community is ludicrously toxic." Now it's basically just Yahtzee and I'm sure they pay him whatever they need to so he doesn't leave. And Yahtzee has been phoning it in for years since he knows his name on that site is worth a good salary.
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Mar 27, 2017 17:58
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I don't know that he's phoning it in, exactly, but he hasn't changed his style ever. And he just flat-out admits he doesn't like whole genres of games.Tuxedo Catfish posted:It's like a shamsir but different Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 18:05 on Mar 27, 2017 |
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Mar 27, 2017 18:03
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Halloween Jack posted:I don't know that he's phoning it in, exactly, but he hasn't changed his style ever. And he just flat-out admits he doesn't like whole genres of games. The thing is that that's completely fair thing to admit, especially as a reviewer. Normally, you get around that by handing a staff to review poo poo and not just one guy.
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Mar 27, 2017 18:09
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Serf posted:It's weird because when I started GMing for 4E, it was with a group of totally new people, and they never once asked why certain powers were Daily or Encounter or whatever in a fictional context. No explanation required. Maybe this proves the "videogame" argument about 4E, but it just never came up for me. The only thing my newbie players really had a problem with was with the minor action ready at the start of combat, which I told them was dumb but I was running with it as part of the wargame aspect. This led to everyone making fun of it for a while, culminating in somone declaring that to really be ready for a fight they needed breakfast first. So they called in a caterer to bring in a full breakfast brunch and everyone, including the zombies they were fighting, sat down to eat. At the end of a multi-hour multi-course feast, the dishes were cleared, everyone returned to their places, and the player says "And with that minor action, I'm Ready." Everyone got a free Ready action off that, because holy poo poo why not.
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Mar 27, 2017 18:09
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Covok posted:The thing is that that's completely fair thing to admit, especially as a reviewer. Normally, you get around that by handing a staff to review poo poo and not just one guy.
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Mar 27, 2017 18:15
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Halloween Jack posted:That's nice, I guess, but then you have to ask why you're listening to somebody wonder aloud why anyone would want to play a game about...fighting. I haven't watched him in years so I don't have to ask such questions.
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Mar 27, 2017 18:17
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bbcisdabomb posted:The only thing my newbie players really had a problem with was with the minor action ready at the start of combat, which I told them was dumb but I was running with it as part of the wargame aspect. This led to everyone making fun of it for a while, culminating in somone declaring that to really be ready for a fight they needed breakfast first. So they called in a caterer to bring in a full breakfast brunch and everyone, including the zombies they were fighting, sat down to eat. At the end of a multi-hour multi-course feast, the dishes were cleared, everyone returned to their places, and the player says "And with that minor action, I'm Ready." I don't remember any minor action to ready at the start of combat, am I forgetting something? IIRC it's an automatic part of rolling initiative that you draw your weapon or whatever.
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Mar 27, 2017 18:29
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Covok posted:I haven't watched him in years so I don't have to ask such questions. it's very clear that he reviews certain genres of game because he hates them and he knows it'll get him views. He's also started another video series where he dryly "reviews" the box art of video games and movie posters trying as hard as he can to be intentionally dense and miss the point of everything. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT2AS-yMmEw Over Pachabel's Canon, so he sounds smart.
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Mar 27, 2017 18:45
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Covok posted:The thing is that that's completely fair thing to admit, especially as a reviewer. Normally, you get around that by handing a staff to review poo poo and not just one guy. The Escapist just exists to create clickbait for ad revenue, so throwing him games that'll spur reactions works just fine for them.
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Mar 27, 2017 19:11
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Halloween Jack posted:That's nice, I guess, but then you have to ask why you're listening to somebody wonder aloud why anyone would want to play a game about...fighting. The same reason anyone listens to any youtube reviewer on the internet, which is the decay of human civilization and intelligence in this Era.
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Mar 27, 2017 20:57
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S.J. posted:D&D has always been a video game on paper. Early editions of D&D were basically just like early videogames. You had lives (Bigby, Digby, Rigby) and frequently died to lava or spikes or whatever in a completely arbitrary fashion because the designer had no idea what they were doing in those frontier times.
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Mar 27, 2017 21:29
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Fuego Fish posted:Early editions of D&D were basically just like early videogames. You had lives (Bigby, Digby, Rigby) and frequently died to lava or spikes or whatever in a completely arbitrary fashion because the designer had no idea what they were doing in those frontier times. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
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Mar 27, 2017 21:35
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Ferrinus posted:I don't remember any minor action to ready at the start of combat, am I forgetting something? IIRC it's an automatic part of rolling initiative that you draw your weapon or whatever. The Rules Compendium says it is a minor action to draw or sheathe a weapon, I guess the people I've played with just made it so you always had to spend the action. The GM who taught me 4e is pretty groggy in terms of realism, that's probably it. I just told my players it was part of the action economy so please don't try to cheese it, and that was accepted.
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Mar 27, 2017 21:54
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Ferrinus posted:The really crucial thing here is that this is an outright lie on Alexander's part. The "only answer" was that martial exploits represented moves so physically and mentally taxing that you needed a long rest before you could attempt them again, same as every other non-magical per-day ability that's been in D&D. You could have raised the same bullshit objection to stunning fist or barbarian rage back in the day. 4E did have some actual problems that needed fixing, but Essentials totally ignored them in favor of failed attempts to placate the kind of people who held 4E book burnings. But then personally, after playing it for a decade or so, I pretty much feel like I've done enough D&D, regardless of the edition.
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Mar 27, 2017 21:54
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Fuego Fish posted:Early editions of D&D were basically just like early videogames.
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Mar 27, 2017 22:10
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Has anyone on here had much experience with Mouse Guard? I want to introduce my girlfriend to an RPG but I don't think she has much interest in D&D, but when we were in the store we saw Mouse Guard and she thought it looked interesting. Any thoughts on it? Thanks!
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Mar 27, 2017 22:13
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Cobaltshift posted:Has anyone on here had much experience with Mouse Guard? I want to introduce my girlfriend to an RPG but I don't think she has much interest in D&D, but when we were in the store we saw Mouse Guard and she thought it looked interesting. Any thoughts on it? Mouse Guard owns. In fact, it owns so much that I spent an enormous amount of time completing a Fatal & Friends writeup for it waaaaay back in the day, which you can find here. It's a wonderful intro RPG for anyone who is down with being a sword-wielding mouse ranger / FEMA agent in a world where natural disasters include " If you have any specific questions, also, feel free to lay 'em on me.
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Mar 27, 2017 22:32
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Halloween Jack posted:That's technically true, but there were already computer games based on D&D before video gaming as we know it even existed. People played dnd on network computers. So it's not like Gygax & Co. were imitating Zork or platformers or whatnot. I just wanted to equate D&D to all those early platformers that were an exercise in futility for 90% of players.
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Mar 27, 2017 22:34
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bbcisdabomb posted:The Rules Compendium says it is a minor action to draw or sheathe a weapon, I guess the people I've played with just made it so you always had to spend the action. The GM who taught me 4e is pretty groggy in terms of realism, that's probably it. I just told my players it was part of the action economy so please don't try to cheese it, and that was accepted. Then those guys were loving up, because while you need to use a minor action to wield something new down the line you don't need to use one in the first turn of combat just to be armed at all. Imposing a minor action tax in the first turn of combat barely affects some characters but really fucks with e.g. rangers and warlocks.
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Mar 27, 2017 22:38
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Ferrinus posted:Then those guys were loving up, because while you need to use a minor action to wield something new down the line you don't need to use one in the first turn of combat just to be armed at all. Imposing a minor action tax in the first turn of combat barely affects some characters but really fucks with e.g. rangers and warlocks.
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