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Ratpick posted:Firstly, while listening to System Mastery's episode on Xcrawl yesterday I noticed something I'd completely missed on my first listen; copyrighted spells. I don't know if the setting ever went into that much detail on them, but the idea of casting a spell with a spell component of $100 in royalties to the Wizard who originally created the spell is sweet as heck and opens up so many different ideas: fake bootleg spells with which you obviously don't have to pay the royalty but that are of a shoddier make; Creative Commons spells; spells that have fallen into public domain because the patent has expired; liches and other undead Wizards losing the patents to their spells because they've been declared legally dead (and obviously they are lobbying for a change in copyright law because of this); and nerd Wizard communities making spells as a community and getting into constant online Wizard wars over which branch of the spell is the best one. Monte Cook kind of toyed with this idea a bit in Arcana Unearthed, where some spells were Common (creative commons!) and everyone could learn them, while other spells were Uncommon and could only be learned with dedicated effort (read: having to quest for it, having to pay through the nose to have it taught to you, having to research it). And still other spells were Exotic and you had to spend a feat just to learn that one spell. Blog of Holding also had the idea of "any spell with a proper noun in it may only ever be acquired as a treasure/reward". Any Wizard can learn Magic Missile, but Tenser's Transformation is special.
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Jul 1, 2017 04:04
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a world where the divine right of kings is a verifiable truth would be pretty loving terrifying. "god exists and he says this guy over here is better than you. eat poo poo forever."
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Jul 1, 2017 04:24
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Then the goal of any right-thinking hero is to kill god, quality narrative fare.
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Jul 1, 2017 04:27
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Serf posted:a world where the divine right of kings is a verifiable truth would be pretty loving terrifying. "god exists and he says this guy over here is better than you. eat poo poo forever." If you're a peasant, sure. But if you're an adventurer that's a challenge. That god is mocking you, you gonna let him do that? No, no you are not. You'll reach whatever level you need to to punch that god in his smug face and then seize the kingdom.
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Jul 1, 2017 04:27
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i mean of course, if the setting was critical of the idea of divine right it could be interesting. go kill god
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Jul 1, 2017 04:29
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Divine right need not be hereditary. You could have an election where your local God annoints the three candidates and then the people decide who of those three they actually want. Easy campaign hook is a suspicion that a foreign god is tampering with your annointing process.
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Jul 1, 2017 04:33
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I can only imagine a setting where kings are basically stand users and their stands are avatars of their gods.
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Jul 1, 2017 04:35
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Just use the Mandate of Heaven concept from Chinese history. The ruling dynasty pisses off the Gods too much and then any pretender, no matter if he's a peasant or a stinky steppe foreigner can snatch Divine Right from them.
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Jul 1, 2017 04:40
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rumble in the bunghole posted:Then the goal of any right-thinking hero is to kill god, quality narrative fare. Playing out the October Revolution, except Tsar Nicholas is (backed by) a god, would be really something.
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Jul 1, 2017 04:40
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gradenko_2000 posted:Playing out the October Revolution, except Tsar Nicholas is (backed by) a god, would be really something. It could also turn out like 7th Sea. Which is to say, badly.
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Jul 1, 2017 05:28
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Barudak posted:Divine right need not be hereditary. You could have an election where your local God annoints the three candidates and then the people decide who of those three they actually want. Something similar is how it works in Blue Rose
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Jul 1, 2017 05:29
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Serf posted:a world where the divine right of kings is a verifiable truth would be pretty loving terrifying. "god exists and he says this guy over here is better than you. eat poo poo forever." Wasn't that the goal of Exalted? You know, before everything. Elfgames posted:I can only imagine a setting where kings are basically stand users and their stands are avatars of their gods. Start a Kickstarter. Now!
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Jul 1, 2017 06:25
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Covok posted:Wasn't that the goal of Exalted? You know, before everything. Exalted has always* been in part a critique of Great Man history, by…pitting a relative handful of Great Men against each other in a battle to shape history using their superlative individual might. The only way to stop a bad Qin Shi Huang is with a good Qin Shi Huang. * not always** ** Depending on the developer, the time of day, and the interpretation of their quotes on a 10+ year-old wiki, it's been about a general mistrust of authority, the inevitability of systems breaking down, a critique of Objectivism, or whatever. And it's not like every freelancer who wrote the game understood or cared very much what their developer thought the game was about.
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Jul 1, 2017 07:34
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Ratpick posted:Hey, so, I've been in a weird mood and have been brainstorming a weird fantasy setting with my friends based simply on a couple of disparate ideas from other RPGs that I think would work well together. From my 3.5 homebrew days...
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Jul 1, 2017 07:49
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Otherkinsey Scale posted:Along those lines, when I was trying to come up with a setting like that myself, the main thing was that the next step of corporate personhood was corporate apotheosis. A board of directors is not a god, but the law grants them the powers of one, the domains of which are a matter of branding, their divine strength waning and waxing with the value of their stock. Like every idea thrown around here has been great but I wanted to quote this because holy poo poo this owns. The more I think about this setting the more "punk" it's turning into, so the idea of corporations vying for apotheosis is fully in tune with what I'm going for.
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Jul 1, 2017 09:45
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It does sound kinda in tune with that Unknown Armies already does, doesn´t it? Hell, it reminds me of Black Friday Murders, if anything. Except unlike Apotheosis, there it´s Capitalism is Divine Essence for what is essentially money mages. Hmm...
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Jul 1, 2017 12:34
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Covok posted:Wasn't that the goal of Exalted? You know, before everything. unsurprising that bad ideas become bad games
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Jul 1, 2017 14:32
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Serf posted:unsurprising that bad ideas become bad games Disappear
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Jul 1, 2017 14:33
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Mr.Misfit posted:It does sound kinda in tune with that Unknown Armies already does, doesn´t it? Hell, it reminds me of Black Friday Murders, if anything. Except unlike Apotheosis, there it´s Capitalism is Divine Essence for what is essentially money mages. Hmm... Oh yeah, I'm definitely mining Unknown Armies (and the other UA, Urban Arcana for d20 Modern, a terrible book with some good ideas) for ideas, although I definitely want to keep this explicitly a fantasy setting and not our world plus secret magic.
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Jul 1, 2017 14:45
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Spellbound Kingdoms has a great take on the Divine King idea. Its kings aren't technically divine, but they a) have hoarded all of the (astoundingly dangerous) good magic that allows them to be neigh immortal and near-godlike and b) have used their power and influence to sculpt the collective unconscious to their liking, changing the natural magical landscape. Naturally they're all a bunch of rear end in a top hat tyrants and the PCs are assumed to be gunning for them. The other good take on divine kingship I've seen is Powers' Fault Lines trilogy.
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Jul 1, 2017 15:39
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So I happened upon this news item of a dude that died because they tried to do a youtube stunt where a thick sheaf of papers stops a bullet, only it didn't, and that made me track down a video of the Hero System 5th Edition book actually being thick enough to get the job done (under certain circumstances) and now I'm kinda curious as to what Hero System is actually like as a game. What's the core mechanic, what's character creation like, and what genres would it be suited for?
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Jul 1, 2017 16:48
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Stopping a .50 caliber bullet shot point blank possibly
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Jul 1, 2017 16:51
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gradenko_2000 posted:So I happened upon this news item of a dude that died because they tried to do a youtube stunt where a thick sheaf of papers stops a bullet, only it didn't, and that made me track down a video of the Hero System 5th Edition book actually being thick enough to get the job done (under certain circumstances) and now I'm kinda curious as to what Hero System is actually like as a game. HERO is basically GURPs with a greater combat focus. It's highly crunchy and has rules for creating just about any skill or power imaginable. It's slow to play and unbalanced in the hands of people with serious system mastery. I'd probably only use it for games where you wanted highly detailed superpower combat: comics, shonen anime, ect.
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Jul 1, 2017 16:59
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Hero is probably the prototypical attempt to simulate everything. That's not to say it really has any airs about being an accurate simulation, but it has a knob for just about every aspect of a character as a mathematical equation of their supposed effectiveness / power. Character creation involves a lot of addition and subtraction where everything has a cost (attributes, advantages, skills) or a refund (from disadvantages or lowered attributes) but fiddling with the deeper aspects of the power system gets into actual formulae. It can get very complicated and favors a high degree of system mastery. The base die mechanics (3d6 with mods, rolling under or over a number based on the specific roll being made) are simple but saddled with a lot of bookkeeping like a combat phase system where faster characters get more actions spaced out through phases. There are multiple types of damage to track, and also resource costs for things like powers to track, and no shortage of modifiers. It has very detailed combat that works reasonably well at low power levels (like most fantasy games) but once you start getting into the superhero game it's famous for - Champions - poo poo can bog down real fast. When I played it, we divided sessions into "roleplay sessions" or "combat sessions" because if combat occurred it was going to be four or more hours. Admittedly, this was with a large group, but it was an experienced group. In general these days I'd recommend Mutants & Masterminds 3e more if you're looking for a fiddly, classic-ish superhero system. Hero was a big accomplishment for its time but has aged very badly, I feel.
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Jul 1, 2017 17:35
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I remember being turned off from Hero system when I saw that you couldn't just buy a mundane weapon like a gun; you had to build it as a skill-based Ranged Killing Attack with limited shots and based in an item and etc. I don't know if that's still the case, though.
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Jul 1, 2017 18:02
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My friends dad plays d&d 5e at a game shop and apparently a new guy showed up yesterday and brought a resume to prove his credentials as a player. I can't even imagine taking a tabletop game that seriously.
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Jul 1, 2017 18:02
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Len posted:My friends dad plays d&d 5e at a game shop and apparently a new guy showed up yesterday and brought a resume to prove his credentials as a player. I can't even imagine taking a tabletop game that seriously. Want to see that resume. What would you put on that anyway? Level 20 Wizard, never used a wish?
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Jul 1, 2017 18:04
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Evil Mastermind posted:I remember being turned off from Hero system when I saw that you couldn't just buy a mundane weapon like a gun; you had to build it as a skill-based Ranged Killing Attack with limited shots and based in an item and etc. I don't know if that's still the case, though. I remember in some sell-me-on discussion about Hero some guy doing so by proudly stating that Hero was so precise and detailed that you could use its system to stat out a coffee mug.
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Jul 1, 2017 18:07
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Evil Mastermind posted:I remember being turned off from Hero system when I saw that you couldn't just buy a mundane weapon like a gun; you had to build it as a skill-based Ranged Killing Attack with limited shots and based in an item and etc. I don't know if that's still the case, though.
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Jul 1, 2017 18:12
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Len posted:My friends dad plays d&d 5e at a game shop and apparently a new guy showed up yesterday and brought a resume to prove his credentials as a player. I can't even imagine taking a tabletop game that seriously.
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Jul 1, 2017 18:19
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When I first met up face to face with my current gaming group that was one of the questions we asked each other, but it was less of a "prove you're a Real Gamer" and more "let's pick something to talk about to show we all have basic social skills and aren't loving creepers". Our newest player had never gamed at all but nobody held that against her and she's been a great addition to the group. I can't imagine being the kind of person for whom a "gaming resume" is a thing.
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Jul 1, 2017 18:28
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I can totally imagine wanting to recruit people who have experience with a system or setting you want to run, either because you don't want to slow the game down by explaining things to newbies or you want to tell a story that requires the players have intimate knowledge of the world you're playing in. I can't imagine wanting a loving resume about it.
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Jul 1, 2017 18:32
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So it just came up in our game since we have an airship. Would a fantasy setting airbrush wizards and dragons on an airship or would it be more likely we have like...an office worker slamming some paper into a printer?
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Jul 1, 2017 18:36
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lots of fake gamers outing themselves in this thread
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Jul 1, 2017 18:42
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Lemniscate Blue posted:When I first met up face to face with my current gaming group that was one of the questions we asked each other, but it was less of a "prove you're a Real Gamer" and more "let's pick something to talk about to show we all have basic social skills and aren't loving creepers". Our newest player had never gamed at all but nobody held that against her and she's been a great addition to the group. I had a big long joke about my conditions for accepting people to games but this basically sums up my stance. Can you hold a basic conversation and can you keep your fetishes to yourself? Congrats! You've passed these incredibly low standards and are in! The only way I can see a "resume" being a thing is back in the days when competitive DnD was a thing where you took characters between games so you might need a thing that tracks their history and accomplishments and level ups, but that's not been a thing for forever. Len posted:So it just came up in our game since we have an airship. Would a fantasy setting airbrush wizards and dragons on an airship or would it be more likely we have like...an office worker slamming some paper into a printer? Holy poo poo this is a good question. What's the fantasy equivalent of airbrushing a wizard on your van? What cool icons would go on there? We usually put stuff we find weird but endearing, so maybe things like Modrons or goblins riding snakes. Maybe it'd be some weird sci-fi poo poo like tripods. Maybe it'd be mystic stuff or religious symbols asking the gods to grant a safe journey.
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Jul 1, 2017 18:52
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Len posted:So it just came up in our game since we have an airship. Would a fantasy setting airbrush wizards and dragons on an airship or would it be more likely we have like...an office worker slamming some paper into a printer? Wouldnt it be burned out hippies and failed metal heads?
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Jul 1, 2017 18:55
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The Deleter posted:Holy poo poo this is a good question. What's the fantasy equivalent of airbrushing a wizard on your van? What cool icons would go on there? We usually put stuff we find weird but endearing, so maybe things like Modrons or goblins riding snakes. Maybe it'd be some weird sci-fi poo poo like tripods. Maybe it'd be mystic stuff or religious symbols asking the gods to grant a safe journey. three displacer beasts howling at the moon or the uss missouri
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Jul 1, 2017 19:06
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Serf posted:three displacer beasts howling at the moon
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Jul 1, 2017 19:07
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The magnificent thighs and breasts of an Elven maiden
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Jul 1, 2017 19:08
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Len posted:My friends dad plays d&d 5e at a game shop and apparently a new guy showed up yesterday and brought a resume to prove his credentials as a player. I can't even imagine taking a tabletop game that seriously.
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Jul 1, 2017 20:07
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