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food court bailiff posted:This does look cool, although I should've specified I wanted some spacefaring nonsense in there as well. GURPS Lite is free, friend.
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Jan 11, 2018 22:55
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Starship skill checks have entirely broken math that results in high-level characters literally being unable to operate starships at their level. To be fair, they say they'll fix this last one, but... have they? I haven't checked. Yeah, they put out errata on a web page somewhere.... Here, in fact. e: still looks pretty fast scaling for stuff you're supposed to use often but I'm almost as bad at math as Paizo so I'm not sure.
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Jan 11, 2018 23:14
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Serf posted:lightsabers are just magic swords for space sorcerers. the blastersaber is what happens when an apprentice sorcerer thinks to himself "what if my sword could hit people all the way over there?" and set out to make that a reality It's also destroyed by Darth Vader in the moment we're Ezra supposed to realize that actions have consequences, that he can very easily die, and this is very serious business where his friends can be seriously hurt and killed. This is not a coincidence, it's a deliberate storytelling thing where the silliness and happiness vanishes under the iron boot of facsim and war as embodied by the loving Specter of death, Darth Vader.
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Jan 11, 2018 23:26
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So, not knowing anything about the blastersaber I do a quick google... wookiepedia claims the lightsaber part is built "light and swift" to take advantage of his speed....how the hell does that work. The only part of the lightsaber that should have any weight is the actual handle, and he's the only jedi that has an actual gun snapped to the base, meaning his should be the slowest (outside of the weird exotic ones light Maul's extra-long saber-staff). Unless they're somehow claiming that his laser-blade somehow weighs less than other laser blades?
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Jan 11, 2018 23:38
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oriongates posted:So, not knowing anything about the blastersaber I do a quick google... Lightsabers are supposed to have a gyroscopic magnetic field or some bullshit that makes them feel heavy
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Jan 11, 2018 23:59
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I don't know if I can tolerate bad science like that in my world of slapstick robots and bullshit space magic.
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Jan 12, 2018 00:05
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Chat thread, does anyone have a list of "stuff to do to prepare for a casino heist"? The setting is urban fantasy - so basically contemporary but with some magic. (And also, everyone is an anthropomorphic animal like Zootopia) If not a list, feel free to just rattle things off here. I'm looking for things like: Get the timetable for when they move the money Acquire a cool getaway vehicle Disable the alarm system
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Jan 12, 2018 01:57
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Jimbozig posted:Chat thread, does anyone have a list of "stuff to do to prepare for a casino heist"? The setting is urban fantasy - so basically contemporary but with some magic. (And also, everyone is an anthropomorphic animal like Zootopia) You need a way to distract the guards. There needs to be a way to get weapons/explosives(if they are being used) into the casino. Tracks need to be covered. An inside person would be useful, blackmail? There needs to be a way to get into the safe. Distracting everyone might help, creating a chaotic environment so as to make your group unobtrusive.
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Jan 12, 2018 02:02
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Jimbozig posted:Chat thread, does anyone have a list of "stuff to do to prepare for a casino heist"? The setting is urban fantasy - so basically contemporary but with some magic. (And also, everyone is an anthropomorphic animal like Zootopia) Wow, ok, that makes a fair bit of difference. Are there anthro birds/albatross/etc which could trace the gateway vehicle, or insects etc which could hide on it? Is the scope of magic known? Do you need to go in with a ton of dispels?
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Jan 12, 2018 02:06
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Hey Ewen, you were the one who made this game, right? I'm thinking of attending this table since mine isn't happening this week.
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Jan 12, 2018 03:07
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hyphz posted:Wow, ok, that makes a fair bit of difference. I haven't fleshed out the setting at all. I'm working on a PVP scenario where two different groups of PCs decide to rob the same casino on the same day. So the plan is not to make a whole setting but to let the players fill in a lot of that. I have not included too much magic so far - no more than what you see in, say, Stranger Things, with a couple of PCs who have magic powers that are mainly about affecting others mentally. So no, going in with a ton of dispels is not necessary. But it wouldn't go amiss for the team who doesn't have a magic user to invest in some small countermeasures against magical interference as a possible preparation scene. And yep, there are birds who can fly. One of the PCs is a sorcerous assassin named Dr. Crane (who is a crane, obviously).
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Jan 12, 2018 05:05
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gradenko_2000 posted:Starfinder is also exceedingly dross, as it's almost literally Pathfinder In Space, with all of the genericness that that implies. It is Pathfinder in space, with most of the creatures, races, gods, etc picked right out of it. They even had to create an in-universe memory hole to explain why no one remembers Golarion or the canon endings to their adventure paths. It's the most frustrating part to me because magic is real, coexists alongside advanced scifi junk, and is apparently worked into that somehow, but that's barely displayed in the execution of the space culture outside of one group of undead dudes having zombie spaceships.
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Jan 12, 2018 06:28
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Halloween Jack posted:FE is one of the best designed games ever IMO, and it works really well for that classic Traveller genre of game. I've been wanting to get some thoughts on Fragged Empire from those who've got some experience with it. I ran a combat test with two first-level characters against one skilled enemy and one 4-man henchman unit. Within two rounds, the players had taken three crits, about 6 attribute damage total, and could probably have cleaned things up in another round or two. However, it seemed far too easy for enemies to deal out attribute damage even when both characters stayed in heavy cover. Should I advise players to take entrenched cover nearly all of the time, or is there some other way to deal with it? Characters had 1 (+1 vs energy) and 2 armor, enemies had 3-4 crit damage.
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Jan 12, 2018 06:38
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Leraika posted:Yeah, they put out errata on a web page somewhere.... Those are definitely better... but they still run into the same problem as before, just only less so. Your starship DCs will still increase faster than your ability to keep up with the total skill modifiers, it just avoids the issue where it becomes impossible. But the differential will be around +4~5 over a 20-level progression, so it's not inconsequential. It's still bad math, but it at least is no longer a point where the game ceases to function entirely. So, uh, yay? Also the same rules issue Starships had is still hanging around the Computer rules where some computers become effectively unhackable, so either they somehow still don't realize that those rules are goofed up or don't care. But that's our Paizo! 
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Jan 12, 2018 09:17
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Zomborgon posted:I've been wanting to get some thoughts on Fragged Empire from those who've got some experience with it. I ran a combat test with two first-level characters against one skilled enemy and one 4-man henchman unit. Within two rounds, the players had taken three crits, about 6 attribute damage total, and could probably have cleaned things up in another round or two. However, it seemed far too easy for enemies to deal out attribute damage even when both characters stayed in heavy cover. Should I advise players to take entrenched cover nearly all of the time, or is there some other way to deal with it? Were they just getting a lot of strong hits, or? Also, were you giving your henchman group more than one attack- they only get one attack/round per group, not per body, which I know has confused folks before.
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Jan 12, 2018 11:53
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Also the same rules issue Starships had is still hanging around the Computer rules where some computers become effectively unhackable, so either they somehow still don't realize that those rules are goofed up or don't care. But that's our Paizo! Hell, the Computer DCs start pretty high and only get loving ridiculous from there. You effectively cannot have any high-octane "hack the CEO's PC/the company mainframe" until at least level 5-ish because, by the rules, those systems have DCs of 29+ minimum. Sorry if your starting character concept was "cool hacker" because all you're good for at level 1 is getting into thoroughly unsecured iPads.
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Jan 12, 2018 12:35
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Covok posted:The official explanation is there is a line of plasma that surrounds it. Basically, and energy field is generated around the surface. Lightsabers actually have an edged side and a blunt side because of this.
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Jan 12, 2018 13:15
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unseenlibrarian posted:Were they just getting a lot of strong hits, or? Also, were you giving your henchman group more than one attack- they only get one attack/round per group, not per body, which I know has confused folks before. Henchmen were run as drones, yeah. I think I just set up bad conditions. First off, there were lots of strong hits. I ran the numbers and only about 40% of rolls should have one or more 6's, but looking back I think I only had one or two rolls without one. Also, my battlemap is missing at the moment, so I just had to use regular paper. Thus, the combat arena was super small, a 10-by-10 grid or so, and so range penalties didn't apply much and people could flank cover easily. I think only one shot missed. Maybe actual play will be more in line with statistics. E: still, even if only 40% of hits are crits, that would still tend to result in maybe 3 crits before an average character's endurance runs out- that's a lot of attrition, and a lot of room for a hot streak on either side. One good shot with an RoF 2+ gun could cripple someone if their armor isn't great, and NPCs don't generally have to worry about running out of clips (at least mechanically, flavor-wise they wouldn't want to blow it all on the party). I know every shot's meant to be scary, but I don't want to get people unplayably crippled every combat. Zomborgon fucked around with this message at 14:34 on Jan 12, 2018 |
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Jan 12, 2018 14:23
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That Old Tree posted:Hell, the Computer DCs start pretty high and only get loving ridiculous from there. You effectively cannot have any high-octane "hack the CEO's PC/the company mainframe" until at least level 5-ish because, by the rules, those systems have DCs of 29+ minimum. Sorry if your starting character concept was "cool hacker" because all you're good for at level 1 is getting into thoroughly unsecured iPads. To be fair cinematic hacking implemented in a skill system isn't great in sci-fi settings. Inevitably you end up with a setting where realistically no-one would use the technology because it is so easily hacked. If you want to say there are a few rare people with hacking superpowers, which is effectively what most cinematic hacking implies (ie, Batman can just "hack the city camera system" but that's because he's the goddamn Batman, it's not something any random twit with a PC could find and the exploit isn't going to leak to everyone else and then be closed), that could be ok, but the idea that anyone could take a few skill points and hack any machine any time (and security updates have no effect) just creates a setting where anyone who actually uses computers for anything looks like an idiot for doing it. (If you want to talk about "not cyberpunk", the PCs in the Shadowrun campaign used to keep any secret information in paper filofaxes)
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Jan 12, 2018 18:00
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That Old Tree posted:Hell, the Computer DCs start pretty high and only get loving ridiculous from there. You effectively cannot have any high-octane "hack the CEO's PC/the company mainframe" until at least level 5-ish because, by the rules, those systems have DCs of 29+ minimum. Sorry if your starting character concept was "cool hacker" because all you're good for at level 1 is getting into thoroughly unsecured iPads. Yeah, at high levels all you can do is social engineering (or charm magic) to get a root user to grant you access, since getting security access like a password only grants a +5 bonus. Even if it's the same root user's password. It's weird.
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Jan 12, 2018 18:18
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I’m currently reading “The Timeless Way of Building” in hopes that I will glean some sort of design knowledge from it. I’m not that hopeful though because the author spent the first 50 pages describing the Japanese concept of “Wa” as “the quality which cannot be named”.
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Jan 12, 2018 19:09
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DalaranJ posted:I’m not that hopeful though because the author spent the first 50 pages describing the Japanese concept of “Wa” as “the quality which cannot be named”. "The quality which has a name that I will choose not to use" Shadowrun PCs rocking a filofax is hilarious, incidentally. It's substantially outside the intended tone, but I would totally play a decker who's mastered the obsolete arts of the mid-20th-century office.
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Jan 12, 2018 19:31
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Antivehicular posted:Shadowrun PCs rocking a filofax is hilarious, incidentally. It's substantially outside the intended tone, but I would totally play a decker who's mastered the obsolete arts of the mid-20th-century office.
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Jan 12, 2018 19:54
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I mean, there was the "large file transfer incoming" gag from AoS based on this idea so it can be a fun space to play in.
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Jan 12, 2018 19:55
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DalaranJ posted:I’m currently reading “The Timeless Way of Building” in hopes that I will glean some sort of design knowledge from it. 
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Jan 12, 2018 20:04
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DalaranJ posted:I’m currently reading “The Timeless Way of Building” in hopes that I will glean some sort of design knowledge from it. Think of it this way - you basically read the equivalent of a man shoving his head so far up his rear end in a top hat that when he finally came out the other side, he emerged wearing a trenchcoat and wielding a katana.
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Jan 12, 2018 20:09
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I remember that in Shadowrun 2e and 3e, an important article of equipment every PC need was a Pocket Secretary, which was what we now call a tablet.
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Jan 12, 2018 20:10
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Halloween Jack posted:I remember that in Shadowrun 2e and 3e, an important article of equipment every PC need was a Pocket Secretary, which was what we now call a tablet. Yea, 4e introduced the "Commlink" which was basically a mobile phone, but in doing so it completely hosed up its own cyberpunk milieu because nobody was keeping data on centralized mainframes through cyberspace anymore, and the preferential way to do most "hacking" was to hang out in alleyways and mug people for their cellphones. 5e I believe just said "sod it, we don't have to follow real technology" and reintroduced the cyberdeck again.
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Jan 12, 2018 20:25
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gently caress yes.
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Jan 12, 2018 20:49
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I really like the idea that in the cyberpunk future, people are stuck with a fax machine for their life because it's replaced most of their rear end.
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Jan 12, 2018 22:11
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Jimbozig posted:Chat thread, does anyone have a list of "stuff to do to prepare for a casino heist"? The setting is urban fantasy - so basically contemporary but with some magic. (And also, everyone is an anthropomorphic animal like Zootopia) Does "like Zootopia" include all the animals being different sizes, or is it more like Bojack Horseman where everyone is basically human sized? Because in the former scenario I'm picturing a mouse saboteur infiltrating through the pipes and having to evade cockroaches hired as security.
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Jan 12, 2018 23:32
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Otherkinsey Scale posted:Does "like Zootopia" include all the animals being different sizes, or is it more like Bojack Horseman where everyone is basically human sized? Hmm, not as written so far. I've got a spider card dealer and a praying mantis safecracker written up, along with a pair of twin salamanders, and I was assuming they were all more-or-less the same size as the other characters. Much smaller than the grizzly bear, sure, but not small like an actual praying mantis. Having it be like zootopia with actual animal sizes is super tempting in a lot of ways... but then it's weird having a tactical combat with all those sizes in the same fight: a praying mantis, a spider, and twin salamanders on the small end, and a grizzly bear, a cow/bull, and a crane on the large end.
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Jan 13, 2018 03:25
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Yeah, at high levels all you can do is social engineering (or charm magic) to get a root user to grant you access, since getting security access like a password only grants a +5 bonus. Also Rubber-Hose Cryptanalysis
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Jan 13, 2018 03:37
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Yeah. Mind, just getting the password isn't worth too much (and isn't too hard), ironically. Getting them to deliberately grant you access is the only fully effective means, so playing a mystic and using charm person or suggestion to get them to grant you root access is the most effective means of hacking any difficult system. Though you might be able to use Intimidate or the like, the social rules aren't nearly as defined as the magic rules, of course.
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Jan 13, 2018 04:36
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Magic users are the best for all things? Well knock me down with a feather.
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Jan 13, 2018 05:11
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Jimbozig posted:Having it be like zootopia with actual animal sizes is super tempting in a lot of ways... but then it's weird having a tactical combat with all those sizes in the same fight: a praying mantis, a spider, and twin salamanders on the small end, and a grizzly bear, a cow/bull, and a crane on the large end. 
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Jan 13, 2018 14:11
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Jimbozig posted:Hmm, not as written so far. I've got a spider card dealer and a praying mantis safecracker written up, along with a pair of twin salamanders, and I was assuming they were all more-or-less the same size as the other characters. Much smaller than the grizzly bear, sure, but not small like an actual praying mantis. Kung-Fu Panda made it work pretty well.
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Jan 13, 2018 16:42
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Plutonis posted:Hey Ewen, you were the one who made this game, right? I'm thinking of attending this table since mine isn't happening this week. I don't know any Portuguese so even though he showed me the fastplay PDF they're going to release in a few days I know nothing about the actual game, though I liked how Asura Karyu (who was a PC in my original campaign way back when) makes an appearance, plus one of the other sample characters has a connection to a rocketball player named Ewen. Thiago is also the translator for an upcoming Brazilian version of Magical Fury, and he's doing a stretch goal class for the Dragon World kickstarter.
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Jan 13, 2018 16:59
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Ewen Cluney posted:Waaaaay back in the day I made an RPG called Thrash for fighting game style martial arts, and although it wasn't very good design-wise (this was in 1997), enough people really wanted to play an RPG along the lines of Street Fighter and King of Fighters that it was decently popular, including in Latin America (someone even made a Saint Seiya thing for it). A Brazilian guy named Thiago Rosa Shinken took the Karyu Densetsu campaign setting I had barely sketched out and went totally crazy with it, running a huge, epic campaign with his friends, and eventually using that as the basis of an original RPG that's going to come out pretty soon (in Brazilian Portuguese). It was clearly so much his thing now that when he asked me about rights I just asked him to send me a copy of the finished game. That's cool and yeah there's an insanely strong player base for the SF and KOF TRPGs here, I see people bringing out stats for world warriors and campaigns/powers taken from the newest games.
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Jan 13, 2018 17:32
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Mikan had a contest to get free copy of Double Cross by being nice to a developer online. I complimented Mike Mearls on his work for Iron Heroes and how I felt it was under appreciated. I won the free copy. Now, consider everything about what I just said.
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Jan 13, 2018 17:37
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