TG Chat Thread 2017

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Plutonis: Mar 25, 2011

hyphz posted:

So is Starfinder any good? Or bad in any hilarious ways?

It's pathfinder in space so take your own conclusions with that alone

# ? Aug 17, 2017 16:59

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# ? May 13, 2024 22:58

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

Star Wars SAGA was good, and it was just 3.5 in space... soooooooooo...

# ? Aug 17, 2017 17:18

Plutonis: Mar 25, 2011

gradenko_2000 posted:

Star Wars SAGA was good, and it was just 3.5 in space... soooooooooo...

It wasn't by WOTC or Paizo so that's already a huge benefit for it.

# ? Aug 17, 2017 17:19

dwarf74: Sep 2, 2012; Buglord

gradenko_2000 posted:

Star Wars SAGA was good, and it was just 3.5 in space... soooooooooo...

I thought so at the time, but it has not aged well, and the Force math is just about unpardonable.

# ? Aug 17, 2017 17:21

Kai Tave: Jul 2, 2012; Fallen Rib

gradenko_2000 posted:

Death in Freeport was one of the first (possibly the very first) 3rd-party products for D&D 3e, and formed the core for the Freeport setting, which has since been adapted to a bunch of different system.

Evil Mastermind posted:

Death in Freeport was the first 3rd party adventure for 3e, yes. It was released at the same GenCon as 3e.

I believe the very first 3PP supplement for 3E D&D was some kind of bestiary published by White Wolf, I remember that they rushed real, real fast to get it out there so they could be the first to go "yeah, we're making D&D stuff!"

Plutonis posted:

It wasn't by WOTC or Paizo so that's already a huge benefit for it.

Am I missing a joke here? SAGA was published by WotC.

# ? Aug 17, 2017 17:25

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

The first White Wolf Creature Collection came out before the Monster Manual even.

# ? Aug 17, 2017 17:28

drunkencarp: Feb 14, 2012

Death in Freeport & Three Days to Kill were two 3e adventures that premiered at GenCon 2000 alongside the 3.0 PHB. The Creature Collection did precede the 3.0 MM but it missed GenCon by a few weeks. The MM didn't go out until like November IIRC.

# ? Aug 17, 2017 17:54

Haystack: Jan 23, 2005

Angrymog posted:

Another query, apart from the various Pathfinder Adventure Paths, the D&D 5th books, and the Great Pendragon Campaign, what else is there out there in there way of big, ready made campaigns?

There's a whole mess of them set in Glorantha. The most famous is probably Griffin Mountain, which was pretty much the first real sandbox campaign. More recently, there's the Colymar Campaign from Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes, which literally sands the PCs to hell and back. And then even more recently there's the King-of-Dragon-Pass-esque Red Cow campaign, which just got it's second half put out (albeit just as a pdf ahead of printing)

# ? Aug 18, 2017 03:52

Nuns with Guns: Jul 23, 2010; It's fine.
Don't worry about it.

gradenko_2000 posted:

Star Wars SAGA was good, and it was just 3.5 in space... soooooooooo...

Star Wars d20 was D&D 3e in space, and it was a garbage fire. SAGA was a proto 4e before they quite figured out how 4e's math should work (it took them half the edition to do this)

dwarf74 posted:

I thought so at the time, but it has not aged well, and the Force math is just about unpardonable.

It's alright still but some houserules are definitely recommended. I would have loved to see a revised edition after WotC finally found a groove for 4e. I guess it wouldn't be hard to adapt Gamma World...

Kai Tave posted:

Am I missing a joke here? SAGA was published by WotC.

Maybe he's thinking of the Fantasy Flight Star Wars game?

# ? Aug 18, 2017 04:07

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Haystack posted:

There's a whole mess of them set in Glorantha. The most famous is probably Griffin Mountain, which was pretty much the first real sandbox campaign.

I think the first wilderness hexcrawl sandbox campaign was actually Wilderlands of High Fantasy, a 1977 Judges Guild effort. Griffin Mountain was 1981.

JG also did the first detailed fantasy RPG city (The CIty State of the Invincible Overlord), also in 1977.

JG did a lot of very important milestone work in early RPGs. Shame it was all so terrible, even by the low standards of 1970s D&D.

# ? Aug 18, 2017 04:11

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

https://twitter.com/Genesisoflegend/status/898048797837852672

# ? Aug 18, 2017 06:55

Countblanc: Apr 20, 2005; _{Help a hero out!}

but 7 Wonders came out in 2010!!!!!

# ? Aug 18, 2017 06:59

mllaneza: Apr 28, 2007; Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1993-1952

Archive.org has Skyrealms of Jorune in PDF.

https://archive.org/details/SkyrealmsofJoruneArchive

Probably way more legit than that d6 Star Wars archive.

# ? Aug 18, 2017 07:15

Kibner: Oct 21, 2008; Acguy Supremacy

Haystack posted:

There's a whole mess of them set in Glorantha. The most famous is probably Griffin Mountain, which was pretty much the first real sandbox campaign. More recently, there's the Colymar Campaign from Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes, which literally sands the PCs to hell and back. And then even more recently there's the King-of-Dragon-Pass-esque Red Cow campaign, which just got it's second half put out (albeit just as a pdf ahead of printing)

Since it seems like you have some knowledge, what are generally understood to be the best Glorantha campaigns? I have the HeroQuest 2.0 rules and want to run a campaign in that setting. I'm not worried about converting encounters because the HeroQuest rules make it easy to do that as long as I know the relative difficulty an encounter should be.

If it helps. I ran a module with my friends before and we have a vengeance-seeking duck with an invalid to protect, an awkward and shunned dragonnewt searching for his purpose in life, and a cave (I think) troll pursuing his idea of freedom along with his runt troll brother.

# ? Aug 18, 2017 17:57

LongDarkNight: Oct 25, 2010; It's like watching the collapse of Western civilization in fast forward.; Oven Wrangler

gradenko_2000 posted:

https://twitter.com/Genesisoflegend/status/898048797837852672

Awesome, congrats gnome.

# ? Aug 18, 2017 18:00

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

Kibner posted:

Since it seems like you have some knowledge, what are generally understood to be the best Glorantha campaigns? I have the HeroQuest 2.0 rules and want to run a campaign in that setting. I'm not worried about converting encounters because the HeroQuest rules make it easy to do that as long as I know the relative difficulty an encounter should be.

If it helps. I ran a module with my friends before and we have a vengeance-seeking duck with an invalid to protect, an awkward and shunned dragonnewt searching for his purpose in life, and a cave (I think) troll pursuing his idea of freedom along with his runt troll brother.

There are a couple of classic RQ Glorantha campaigns, which have been reprinted (and are available as PDFs) from Chaosium.

1) Griffin Mountain - mentioned above. Probably the best open-ended wilderness hexcrawl campaign ever published, for any system.

2) Borderlands - players accompany an exiled Lunar noble to his new, untamed lands in Prax. Excellent for beginning character and players new to Glorantha.

3) The Cradle - a cradle (the first in 400 years) bearing a Giant baby is spotted in the River of Cradles. The Lunars are desperate to loot it of its secrets. Are you gonna stand by and let that happen? Less a campaign than a long adventure, with lots of action and big metaplot implications.

# ? Aug 18, 2017 18:14

Kibner: Oct 21, 2008; Acguy Supremacy

FMguru posted:

There are a couple of classic RQ Glorantha campaigns, which have been reprinted (and are available as PDFs) from Chaosium.

1) Griffin Mountain - mentioned above. Probably the best open-ended wilderness hexcrawl campaign ever published, for any system.

2) Borderlands - players accompany an exiled Lunar noble to his new, untamed lands in Prax. Excellent for beginning character and players new to Glorantha.

3) The Cradle - a cradle (the first in 400 years) bearing a Giant baby is spotted in the River of Cradles. The Lunars are desperate to loot it of its secrets. Are you gonna stand by and let that happen? Less a campaign than a long adventure, with lots of action and big metaplot implications.

Thanks! I'll check these out and pitch them to my friends to see which one they are most interested in.

# ? Aug 18, 2017 18:16

Plutonis: Mar 25, 2011

Nuns with Guns posted:

Star Wars d20 was D&D 3e in space, and it was a garbage fire. SAGA was a proto 4e before they quite figured out how 4e's math should work (it took them half the edition to do this)

It's alright still but some houserules are definitely recommended. I would have loved to see a revised edition after WotC finally found a groove for 4e. I guess it wouldn't be hard to adapt Gamma World...

Maybe he's thinking of the Fantasy Flight Star Wars game?

Apologies, I thought SAGA was by another company. Still enjoyed it more than the FFG one though.

# ? Aug 18, 2017 18:58

DalaranJ: Apr 15, 2008; Yosuke will now die for you.

Antivehicular posted:

A part of me still wants to play the WLD all the way through, but... "super sucks" really covers it. Hoo boy is there a lotta bad going on there.

For more games that aren't D&D, Unknown Armies 2E has a campaign-length module (To Go), although it has some railroading problems.

I'd love to read a F&F of this, but presumably it would be pretty tedious to write.

# ? Aug 18, 2017 20:03

hyphz: Aug 5, 2003; Number 1 Nerd Tear Farmer 2022.

Keep it up, champ.

Also you're a skeleton warrior now. Kree.; Unlockable Ben

DalaranJ posted:

I'd love to read a F&F of this, but presumably it would be pretty tedious to write.

It wouldn't necessarily be tedious, but I'm not sure it'd be that funny, because apart from the railroading it's actually quite good.

# ? Aug 18, 2017 20:13

Halloween Jack: Sep 12, 2003; Can't post for 50 minutes!

oriongates did one!

If I remember right, the essence is that it approaches its monumental undertaking in the most D20 shovelware method possible: by just magically outlawing everything in 3e that would just circumvent the dungeon, and filling space with a ton of meaningless encounters.

# ? Aug 18, 2017 20:19

hyphz: Aug 5, 2003; Number 1 Nerd Tear Farmer 2022.

Keep it up, champ.

Also you're a skeleton warrior now. Kree.; Unlockable Ben

Halloween Jack posted:

oriongates did one!

If I remember right, the essence is that it approaches its monumental undertaking in the most D20 shovelware method possible: by just magically outlawing everything in 3e that would just circumvent the dungeon, and filling space with a ton of meaningless encounters.

Are we talking about WLD or To Go here?

I tried to run WLD once and it broke down after about the 20th goblin fight.

# ? Aug 18, 2017 20:36

Tendales: Mar 9, 2012

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/8/18/star-wars-legion/

Ohhhhh so that's why they're reprinting the West End star wars books.

# ? Aug 18, 2017 20:48

Kwyndig: Sep 23, 2006; Heeeeeey

I'm wondering how they got the rights to the WEG edition. That mini game looks pretty standard though.

# ? Aug 18, 2017 21:06

Antivehicular: Dec 30, 2011; I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

DalaranJ posted:

I'd love to read a F&F of this, but presumably it would be pretty tedious to write.

To Go wouldn't be tedious, actually; like I said, it's got problems, but a lot of it's quite good, and the length is reasonable.

WLD would be tedious as poo poo but has also already been done, so thanks, oriongates. Looking at this ToC, it looks like it's pretty clear about how completely filler-y big chunks of this dungeon are (including the first section, because they didn't manage to find someone who has anything novel to say about level 1 encounters, shockingly enough).

# ? Aug 19, 2017 01:28

Len: Jan 21, 2008; Pouches, bandages, shoulderpad, cyber-eye...

Bitchin'!

Tendales posted:

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/8/18/star-wars-legion/

Ohhhhh so that's why they're reprinting the West End star wars books.

If it doesn't cost as much as xwing or Armada I'd be interested in trying it

# ? Aug 19, 2017 01:40

S.J.: May 19, 2008; Just who the hell do you think we are?

Len posted:

If it doesn't cost as much as xwing or Armada I'd be interested in trying it

90 dollar starter box

# ? Aug 19, 2017 01:44

Kwyndig: Sep 23, 2006; Heeeeeey

Honestly if it doesn't have rarity then the only issue is how big the vehicles are going to be and how much an AT-ST costs.

# ? Aug 19, 2017 01:48

8one6: May 20, 2012; When in doubt, err on the side of Awesome!

I'm reading through Starfinder right now. I'm not even 25 pages in and there are already design decisions that make me go :psyduck:

.
It has a vitally/wounds system now (called stamina points and hit points). You lose SP first, then HP. Unless it's temporary HP, then you lose those before SP.
Then why not call them temporary SP?
You also have resolve points, which fuel some class abilities and also let you take a 4e short rest. They also let you not die but you have to spend a quarter of your max to do that but it caps the cost at 3 and I can't help feel there could have been a more graceful way of doing that.

Edit: stabilizing from death and staying in a fight are separate things. :psyboom:

8one6 fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Aug 19, 2017

# ? Aug 19, 2017 01:50

Plutonis: Mar 25, 2011

# ? Aug 19, 2017 02:11

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

8one6 posted:

I'm reading through Starfinder right now. I'm not even 25 pages in and there are already design decisions that make me go .
It has a vitally/wounds system now (called stamina points and hit points). You lose SP first, then HP. Unless it's temporary HP, then you lose those before SP.
Then why not call them temporary SP?

If I remember correctly, that was the same system used in d20 Modern.

# ? Aug 19, 2017 02:28

Arivia: Mar 17, 2011

Evil Mastermind posted:

If I remember correctly, that was the same system used in d20 Modern.

Starfinder does reference the Modern and Future SRDs, so that's not a surprise.

# ? Aug 19, 2017 02:31

Kwyndig: Sep 23, 2006; Heeeeeey

Evil Mastermind posted:

If I remember correctly, that was the same system used in d20 Modern.

Not quite. d20 Modern used HP and had a lower instant death threshold.

# ? Aug 19, 2017 02:35

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

8one6 posted:

It has a vitally/wounds system now (called stamina points and hit points). You lose SP first, then HP. Unless it's temporary HP, then you lose those before SP.
Then why not call them temporary SP?

I'm not saying it's a particularly good reason, but because Temporary HP is a stat that existed prior to Starfinder (as a 3.x concept), so they probably didn't want to change the name to retain compatibility.

Like, D&D has HP, and Temp HP. Starfinder splits HP into HP and SP ... but Temp HP is still Temp HP because that's what it's always been called.

8one6 posted:

Edit: stabilizing from death and staying in a fight are separate things.

Yes.

When you hit zero HP, you are Dying.
Dying makes you lose 1 Resolve per turn.
If you're already at zero Resolve and you lose another Resolve for any reason (including the 1/turn from Dying), you die.

If you spend the 1-3 Resolve to Stabilize, then you're no longer Dying, but you're still not able to act.
You still have 0 HP, but at least you're not losing Resolve every turn (which is what kills you).

Staying in the Fight is when you're already Stabilized, and you spend 1 Resolve to heal yourself back to 1 HP, which lets you act again.

# ? Aug 19, 2017 02:37

Vox Valentine: May 31, 2013; Solving all of life's problems through enhanced casting of Occam's Razor. Reward yourself with an imaginary chalice.

Plutonis posted:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ccgkxP-4tVE

# ? Aug 19, 2017 02:45

Len: Jan 21, 2008; Pouches, bandages, shoulderpad, cyber-eye...

Bitchin'!

S.J. posted:

90 dollar starter box

But how much for extra dudes because that's where xwing pricey

# ? Aug 19, 2017 03:04

Covok: May 27, 2013; Yet where is that woman now? Tell me, in what heave does she reside? None of them. Because no God bothered to listen or care. If that is what you think it means to be a God, then you and all your teachings are welcome to do as that poor women did. And vanish from these realms forever.