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Tunicate posted:Yeah Bioshock ended up really contradicting its own themes with that. Always taking the option that leads to your greatest personal gain also gives you the best ending. I guess they were just not counting on people sitting down to do the math.
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Nov 8, 2017 18:14
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hyphz posted:Dishonoured, on the other hand, did it much better. I don't care for it, as it seems regardless of what you actually do, killing is the 'worse option', while many of the less-evil options I feel are objectively worse morally
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Nov 8, 2017 19:50
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Samizdata posted:I guess they were just not counting on people sitting down to do the math. objectivism.txt
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Nov 8, 2017 20:11
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Rockopolis posted:Can't say I really cared for the implementation in either Dishonored. I mean, especially in the first game, the moral choices mostly revolved around maintaining plausible deniability when it comes to sending people into exile/torture/rape by creepy goon. Some of the "pacifist" options almost seem worse than just sticking a knife in them. Like, jesus, the fate of the two Pendleton brothers. (Especially because they are absolutely still going to die as a direct result of what you did, just later and with a hell of a lot more suffering in between.) Tuxedo Catfish fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Nov 8, 2017 |
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Nov 8, 2017 21:27
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Mind you if they just put the option out there and didn't tie the outcome of the story to "good guy = good ending" I'd be all for it. Dishonored is not a game about playing a nice person, even in a no-kills run, which makes the moral structure of the game all the more bizarre and out of place.
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Nov 8, 2017 21:28
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Yeah, there's a reason it's low or high Chaos and not good/evil.
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Nov 8, 2017 21:39
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Mr. Maltose posted:Yeah, there's a reason it's low or high Chaos and not good/evil. Yeah but it's kinda flaky around the edges. You get higher chaos for killing zombie-people who go around infecting others instead of knocking them out, for example. Also IIRC Emily's behavior and outlook is tied to the chaos level, because she looks up to Corvo as a role model (which, really, should just mean she ends up ten flavors of screwed up no matter what.  )
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Nov 8, 2017 21:43
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I mean, Dishonored 2 does happen.
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Nov 8, 2017 21:45
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Mr. Maltose posted:I mean, Dishonored 2 does happen. I haven't played it yet!
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Nov 8, 2017 21:45
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Last night we were playing a fate superheroes game. We were fighting a supervillain while also dealing with the media and escorting someone who is super lucky/unlucky. One of our team members had a criminal past so he spent a fate point to declare that the villain's name was actually Jerry Mangloe. Everyone else was busy so my character swung her Battle-Anchor and declared, to everyone's chagrin, I'm on Jerry duty!
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Nov 8, 2017 21:56
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Linking chaos to guard murder can make sense in the first game, if absent moral judgements you accept that the guards are enforcing quarantined and suppressing disorder, but in the second game you'd expect the same logic to mean that that stamping out the coup forces who are busy destabilizing your rule should reduce chaos. It doesn't, because
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Nov 8, 2017 22:03
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So I was looking for some  , searching for D&D 3.5 advenuture module pdfs and came across this beauty:https://www.robsworld.org/3ehsrls.pdf Rob has been running a 3.5 campaign and has a whole mess of house rules! Check out his 63 pages of what basically boils down to "gently caress YOU FIGHTMANS! YOUR LIFE WASN'T HARD ENOUGH ALREADY!"
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Nov 9, 2017 00:27
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Who's Rob?
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Nov 9, 2017 01:26
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JUST MAKING CHILI posted:So I was looking for some Opened the pdf and was greeted by this:   e: "Note: Occasionally, during rules discussions (specifically regarding rule books used) you will see the use of CM; Meaning Campaign Master. In most cases, DM and CM can be used interchangeably. While CM is reserved for management of the overall campaign. The term DM is a term which is reserved for the person running a specific adventure or encounter, and not necessarily the same person as the CM." I wish I had the time to read the whole thing right now. This seems very promising. e2: The experience and leveling sections are insane! You know what I want from my 3.5 game? MORE bookkeeping! cigaw fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Nov 9, 2017 |
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Nov 9, 2017 01:38
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If you're a stellar RPer, he'll let your character level up after just one week x character level you're attaining! And after 8 levels in a class, you can train yourself and don't have to find someone to pay to train you!
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Nov 9, 2017 02:10
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MelvinBison posted:Who's Rob? No idea but his houserules are amazingly bad.
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Nov 9, 2017 02:12
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senrath posted:No idea but his houserules are amazingly bad. Not to mention he is power-hungry and spergy as gently caress! EDIT: Upon reflection, he strikes me as the type of inflexible DM that would lead to a campaign railroadier than if Amtrak and Eurorail had a baby, had it vaccinated, it ended up with the 'tism, and started collecting HO and O scale kit. Samizdata fucked around with this message at 04:51 on Nov 9, 2017 |
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Nov 9, 2017 04:44
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JUST MAKING CHILI posted:So I was looking for some It says the campaign started in Jan of 2003, and that the latest update of this document was from last month. That means this campaign has supposedly been going for over 14 years! The author mentions that he even had to update this from 3.0 to 3.5, since the latter came out some 7 months after the campaign started In the Rule Books Used section, there's a long list of supplements, and almost all of them have the disclaimer that players shouldn't read the book unless the DM tells them to (I guess as an "anti-metagaming thing). There's also a sense of dedication in that he can identify specific feats, skills, races, and rules that he wants to exclude from specific books. Any book that has different religions also gets a disclaimer that they should be adapted to Forgotten Realms religions. Dragon Magic and Draconomicon specifically have these really long explanations that, no, the campaign isn't about dragons so don't bother. In the Classes Allowed section, Psionics and Tome of Battle classes are conspicuously missing, and the Dragon Adept is singled-out as being so powerful that you can only take it if you pass a 25% percentile roll. In the Races Allowed section, you need a similar percentile roll to be able to play the Dragon Magic subraces. As with just about everything spelled out in this work, everything has to be run through the DM before it's allowed. There's a section on the game world's own calendar. The first section so far that hasn't made my eyes glaze over is the one about Heroic Luck, which lets players have a certain number of rerolls per session. There's a section on the DM making their own roll when a player makes a saving throw to obfuscate the results of the save. There's a section on: quote:DM’s PREROGATIVE AND DICE ROLLING RULES: The second section that hasn't made my eyes glaze over is the one where the author specifically calls out that if something's already done, there's no going back and revising the outcome. Oh hey we aren't even at the character creation yet quote:METHOD 3: Roll four six sided dice three times. Take out the lowest die. If that die is three or less you may reroll it a number of times equal to it’s value (i.e. 1, 2, or 3 times). The final result of that roll(s) must be used to replace the value of the second lowest die. Example. Gomar the Barbarian (a Warrior) is rolling for his Strength. He rolls 4d6. The dice come up 3, 4, 6, 6. Gomar takes the die that rolled the three and rerolls it. Hoping to get higher than a 4 to replace the second highest roll. On the first roll Gomar rolls a 2 “Ugh!, That no good”. He rolls again. This time the result is a 5. That’s pretty good. Gomar may stop here and take a 17 (5, 6, 6), or he may roll once more, hoping to get a 6. Gomar chooses to go for the gusto and rolls a 2. “UGH!” Gomar ends up with a 14 (2, 6, 6). Oh well, at least he gets two more chances. You make a roll for handedness There's at least one full page of rules for range of vision On the one hand, there's a system for a player to start at the same level as the rest of the party if their character dies and they need a new one. On the other hand, players gets penalized if they "deliberately" kill off their character. THIS IS NOT AN EVIL CAMPAIGN "Divine Intervention" is a thing that the DM decides when can be rolled for, and results in a 1% chance of happening when you try for it. quote:CHARACTER SHEETS: There's a whole other webpage for buying equipment. You also need to track every piece of equipment in an index card, or it doesn't exist. "characters will not be allowed to purchase magic items". But there is at least one full page of rules on "enchanting" items, which can take weeks of game-time. Cleave and Great Cleave are nerfed to only deal half damage. There's an entire section on "absentee players" and how your character will get played anyway if you cannot attend. I'm only halfway through the document and I'll have to spread this out over two posts because good lord is it ever dense.
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Nov 9, 2017 13:08
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Who the gently caress would even consent to play in a game like that
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Nov 9, 2017 14:29
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JUST MAKING CHILI posted:So I was looking for some
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Nov 9, 2017 14:53
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Drone posted:Who the gently caress would even consent to play in a game like that Someone with few social outlets, and who didn't know any better.
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Nov 9, 2017 15:41
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You also have a scaling chance of your equipment exploding when you try to upgrade that +1.
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Nov 9, 2017 16:22
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MelvinBison posted:Who's Rob? Apparently, this guy:  You can read his bio ! Or check out his family's genealogy! The most recent gaming group info is Sep 2017: https://www.robsworld.org/players.html
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Nov 9, 2017 18:26
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cigaw posted:Apparently, this guy: That's a good case for the DM mask. Got those crazy eyes.
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Nov 9, 2017 18:29
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cigaw posted:Apparently, this guy: There’s gotta be a goon near this guy who is willing to join his “waiting list”.
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Nov 9, 2017 19:16
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Hey, I mean the massive thing of mediocre rules is pretty uh... but it seems like his players stick with him and his world’s been going on for quite a while. So I guess it can’t be too bad?  I guess I just can’t get too upset at this guy and his big heckin homebrew when there’s way grosser games out there.
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Nov 9, 2017 19:29
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Okay but why the big hate on for clear dice? If anything they're known to roll slightly more even because you can see if you're about to buy a d20 with a weird air pocket that throws the weight.
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Nov 9, 2017 19:30
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This is stupid and long-winded but it's not terribly gross. These kinds of long-rear end documents are pretty common among people who feel the need to run the same setting for more than a decade. Every whim and personal peeve becomes encoded in rules-song forever and ever. Couldn't read a friend's die? NO MORE CLEAR DICE. Somebody once used Whirlwind attack to clear out half your encounter? OP, FIX IT AT ONCE. It's like playing a nomic with yourself.
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Nov 9, 2017 19:35
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Drone posted:There’s gotta be a goon near this guy who is willing to join his “waiting list”. Yeah someone go make an eschew materials mailman sorcerer and blow their poo poo up.
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Nov 9, 2017 19:36
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BadSamaritan posted:Hey, I mean the massive thing of mediocre rules is pretty uh... but it seems like his players stick with him and his world’s been going on for quite a while. So I guess it can’t be too bad? Dude reminds me of a guy who ran a D&D club on campus when I went to college; FR game where everyone had to start at lv1 regardless of where the party was, loved to make up cursed items that had some kind of crazy bonus but were loving fatal to anyone except the person they were meant for, hated anyone who tried to come up with any plan or find anything out or prepare for anything at all because then he couldn't ambush us with dragons or wraiths or whatever. He kept getting players because he would book out one of the few decent rooms for gaming a year in advance and then advertise as "the only legitimate D&D group on campus!" vvv holy poo poo  22.5k is more than double the total WBL for a 5th level character, and nearly the entire wealth of of an 8th lv character. 45k is just shy of the entire wealth of a 10th lv character! Either this dude gives out literal millions of gold or his players are probably just hitting level 7 after 14 years of play.
Yawgmoth fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Nov 9, 2017 |
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Nov 9, 2017 20:12
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BadSamaritan posted:Hey, I mean the massive thing of mediocre rules is pretty uh... but it seems like his players stick with him and his world’s been going on for quite a while. So I guess it can’t be too bad? Sure, the dude's put a ton of effort into his campaign and there are some nice ideas here and there, but then there's this kind of poo poo: "Thanghar the brave (A fighter) has completed a year long quest to recover the ‘Chalice of Peace and Hope’ for the church of Ilmater. Afterwards, the player finds that Thanghar has enough experience points to go up a level. Thanghar contracts with the local fighters guild to train him for advancement to the next level. First we must rate the player performance. Although Vincent has played Thanghar in a superior manner, the DM decides to rate his performance as fair since he was absent for several meetings; choosing to go drinking with his buddies, rather than play his character. Hey! Every one else showed up! But playing the game just wasn’t that much of a priority to him. Warren showed up to every meeting even though he doesn’t have a clue as to what role playing is. O.k. We’ve given Thanghar a performance multiplier of 3. He is advancing to 5th level. 5 x 3 = 15 weeks. Training will take 15 weeks. And it will cost 5 (level) x 200 (class cost) x 3 (performance factor) x 15 (number of weeks) = 45,000gp. Luckily the cost and time are divided by 2, due to the fact that the DM has ruled that Thanghar has gone through two adventures. The quest to recover the ‘Chalice of Peace and Hope did take a long time. So: 45,000 / 2 = 22,500gp. At the same time, the number of weeks is reduced to 7.5 Weeks. Thanghar packs his things and prepares for the torture he’ll have to endure at the hands of those merciless mercenaries at the fighter guild." gently caress this noise. I understand that if you are part of a gaming group you make an effort to show up and play, but there's a difference between " your character was't present, so you won't level up this session" and "how dare you have fun with people other than me in a social setting, your character needs to pay an additional 50k gold to level up!" Plus everything that Yawg said.
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Nov 9, 2017 21:35
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Oh, like, I absolutely would not play with that group if they play at all like the document implies. The contents of that pdf has a lot of dumb and bad game/group stuff in it. I guess I was just uncomfortable with how people are linking the pictures of the DM and game group when it seems like they’re just trucking along and don’t appear to be doing nasty shameful catpiss stuff. But lol at that house rules tome.
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Nov 9, 2017 21:46
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Trying to deal with table expectations via in-game rules is some broke-brained poo poo. It never works and just breeds hostility. I know it's not uncommon to try that sort of thing, but it still blows my mind whenever I see it.
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Nov 9, 2017 21:53
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Falstaff posted:Trying to deal with table expectations via in-game rules is some broke-brained poo poo. It never works and just breeds hostility. I know it's not uncommon to try that sort of thing, but it still blows my mind whenever I see it. JUST MAKING CHILI posted:Yeah someone go make an eschew materials mailman sorcerer and blow their poo poo up. ).
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Nov 9, 2017 22:04
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BadSamaritan posted:I guess I was just uncomfortable with how people are linking the pictures of the DM and game group when it seems like they’re just trucking along and don’t appear to be doing nasty shameful catpiss stuff. I can understand your reservation in that regard, but it's not like there was any internet detective action going on. All freely and easily available on his website. Hell, his picture is on the main page's footer. That said, if a mod opposes anything I've linked to, I'll gladly delete the offending info. I will however reserve the right to laugh at a group of grown adults who willingly accepts to play under those stupid rules. Yawgmoth posted:Great player, makes great characters and RPs very well, but when faced with rules that try to force the issue instead of just talking about it like an adult, would offer up the mailman (although personally I'd go for pun-pun since it's FR
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Nov 9, 2017 22:47
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What I wanna know is what everyone else is doing in that time while Thanghar is training. Are they just faffing about in town? Does Thanghar's player have another character he plays while he waits for Thanghar to finish training? I am so morbidly curious.
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Nov 9, 2017 22:58
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cigaw posted:Sure, the dude's put a ton of effort into his campaign and there are some nice ideas here and there, but then there's this kind of poo poo: Who the gently caress even has 50k in gold at 4th level? An entire adventuring party pooling their resources wouldn't have 50k in gold at 4th level unless the GM had some horrifically inflated economy where gold was treated as the setting's copper piece.
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Nov 9, 2017 23:04
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Well there’s no magic items to be bought so all your loot is just carried around in gold coins that you can only buy mundane items or training with.
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Nov 9, 2017 23:09
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How to DM: Do exactly the opposite of what this guy says.
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Nov 9, 2017 23:16
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Yawgmoth posted:What I wanna know is what everyone else is doing in that time while Thanghar is training. Are they just faffing about in town? Does Thanghar's player have another character he plays while he waits for Thanghar to finish training? I am so morbidly curious. Hackmaster 5e uses training time by default and the game I'm in used it for a while, typically everyone was training at once so it didn't really matter. For the times things were desynced the others did their own stuff in town. I should also note that once the plot actually started picking up we stopped caring about training time at all because it was getting in the way of story flow.
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Nov 9, 2017 23:20
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