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Hobologist posted:Is there any abbreviated combat rules for large groups in the 1st edition? I would think a battle with about 250 participants would wear the edges off your dice. Well, in 1E AD&D generally there were two options. If large enough you could use the somewhat groggy and detailed BATTLESYSTEM(tm) which was published alongside 1E and 2E AD&D. Otherwise some modules, like the execrable Dragonlance series of dogshit productions, occasionally had some light rules that were basically opposed morale checks the PC's could affect with heroic actions and the like. But outside of that, no general large-scale combat rules in general.
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Dec 21, 2019 01:34
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PurpleXVI posted:If large enough you could use the somewhat groggy and detailed BATTLESYSTEM(tm) which was published alongside 1E and 2E AD&D. *Cracks open a PDF with an eye-seering red cover* Wow. No. Just no. I may just be the guy vicariously enjoying this stuff by reading the modules and manuals thirty years after the fact and playing vintage video games, but I refuse to believe that anybody ever actually used this thing. I've never really seen anything present a good solid handle on adapting regular combat rules to mass combat (I had some luck with Malhavoc Press' Cry Havoc, but it doesn't scale well at all, Pathfinder's Ultimate Campaign is... awkward still, but a little better, and doesn't feel like I'm doing math homework at the game table). PurpleXVI posted:Otherwise some modules, like the execrable Dragonlance series of dogshit productions, occasionally had some light rules that were basically opposed morale checks the PC's could affect with heroic actions and the like. I've used this method myself a handful of times. It makes more sense than having the heroes take on entire armies single-handedly, armies of kobolds notwithstanding. The idea at least works out better as one feature among many in future mass-combat alternate rules, such as 3.5e Heroes of Battle and the aforementioned Ultimate Campaign.
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Dec 21, 2019 01:53
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Personally I'd just stat large groups of similar troops as single creatures, it seems like the simple and abstracted way of dealing with it.  (or completely ignore all the large mobs of dudes smashing into each other and choo-choo the players into an epic battle with the enemy general and his cronies/evil summoned whatevers at the center of the battlefield and then the entire battle hinges on whether they slap him down or leg it from the battlefield, with the rest of the battle essentially just as cool background scene setting)
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Dec 21, 2019 01:57
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PurpleXVI posted:Personally I'd just stat large groups of similar troops as single creatures, it seems like the simple and abstracted way of dealing with it.
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Dec 21, 2019 04:21
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I dunno, I kind of like the idea of just having a "mission" after the players have gotten a few levels where they just fight a swarm of weak enemies that used to be a headache, and just let them play with the tools that they may not get to use as regularly as their highest damage-per-round attacks. I mean, just push a giant ball of enemies at the players, and watch the fighters wade into the middle and being doing their best impersonations of Cuisinart blenders while the mages roll to see how many enemies they kill per spell dropped. This isn't something that I think would be run on the tabletop, but it's definitely one that I could see the group laughing and having a good time with just saying "Oh, I charge into the largest group of enemies, grab one and spin like a top" "Okay, roll to see how many you killed with that". A good "This is where you're at now, power wise" before they get smacked back down to earth by everything that isn't a kobold. Just a battle where the enemies are so severely outgunned that you would have to start using arbitrary numbers of enemies to actually pose a threat. I mean, they're kobolds. They're a threat to level 1 characters and that's about it. Even a housecat stands good odds of taking one down.
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Dec 21, 2019 06:35
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Kobolds may be weak, but a DM who really plays up their racial trapmaking and ambush tactics can make fighting an army of kobolds a daunting task. But yeah, sometimes letting the PCs enjoy their rightly-earned power and play Dynasty Warriors for a while isn't the worst thing.
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Dec 21, 2019 07:07
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Commander Keene posted:Kobolds may be weak, but a DM who really plays up their racial trapmaking and ambush tactics can make fighting an army of kobolds a daunting task. "Tucker's Kobolds" is the prime example of a jackass GM, though, not actually a good example of how to run anything, ever. "ah yes no matter what you do these little guys have planned for it and you can't roll to avoid it or do anything to counter it.  clearly they're too genius-level for you to handle."
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Dec 21, 2019 10:00
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I should mention again Dragon Mountain, a D&D adventure that featured several thousand of the buggers. I remember it included rules for mass combat and killing several each round. There were also frequent surprise exceptions to those rules to spook the players. “These kobolds live in swampy tunnels so the mud and foul air will inhibit you but not them- they have adapted.” “The kobold champion is actually a polymorphed giant- he has 150 hit points and hits like a truck.” Stuff like that. And at the end you face a Great Wrym Red Dragon. It was a fun adventure. It didn’t include Tucker’s Kobolds though. I’m not sure if they preceded Dragon Mountain or were inspired by it.
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Dec 21, 2019 10:17
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Chokes McGee posted:For whatever reason, you get a free horse when you leave the city and already know how to ride it. It's unclear if it represents multiple horses in 2D, or if all six of your guys pile onto the back of a single horse.  ...and what I want to know is, how did you wreck and sink the horses ON DRY LAND?!?
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Dec 21, 2019 20:02
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Commander Keene posted:Knowing early ed. D&D, there's probably a chart you roll on where the PCs actions have only a slight effect on the outcome. Or yes, they just flat-out expect you to actually run a combat with 200+ participants. OG D&D had a lot of BS like that. For anyone who has 45 minutes to kill, the Spoiler Warning crew did an amusing one-shot analysis/play session of the original D&D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsVHINXxORU And yes, it's hilariously bad.
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Dec 21, 2019 20:13
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Commander Keene posted:Kobolds may be weak, but a DM who really plays up their racial trapmaking and ambush tactics can make fighting an army of kobolds a daunting task. When did Kobolds become the trap masters anyways? Wasn't that only after 3rd edition came out and made them into lizardpeople instead of dogpeople?
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Dec 21, 2019 23:56
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They were trap masters in Dragon Mountain, and that was 2nd Edition. So they've been trap masters for a while. BTW, I remember another fun gimmick from that dungeon. Narrow as hell corridors where only one PC can advance at a time and can only employ short or piercing weapons. You end up with a huge line of kobolds- or their bodies- blocking your advance in these corridors. And sometimes there are lots of little holes in the walls, floor, or ceiling just the right size for them to poke a spear through. But you can't get a target on the other side. Rushing through such corridors as best you could dodging spear jabs till you reached a more open area was all you could do.
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Dec 22, 2019 00:16
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DGM_2 posted:
 Hey, any horse ride you can walk away from.
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Dec 22, 2019 01:44
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Playing the dw3 switch remake by the way and now Shanna has... pink hair? And is a teenager? I hate these hip new reboots for the kids 
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Dec 22, 2019 01:46
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I can see some GMs and some groups having a blast fighting Tucker's Kobolds -- but only if the GM isn't a jerk and intends for the players to get creative in how they approach getting through kobold territory. I don't know if Shape Stone only came into existence with 3rd ed, but that spell will get the party started, so to speak, on turning the tables on the kobolds.
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Dec 22, 2019 04:28
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Truthkeeper posted:
So the DM just goes "Nomad #67 attacks kobold #113 and misses. Kobold #12 attacks nomad #83 and hits for 2 damage. Kobold #130 is surrounded by other kobolds and can't move..." and the players are just sitting there saying "Wake me up in 10 minutes when it's our turn again."
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Dec 22, 2019 05:58
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Hobologist posted:So the DM just goes "Nomad #67 attacks kobold #113 and misses. Kobold #12 attacks nomad #83 and hits for 2 damage. Kobold #130 is surrounded by other kobolds and can't move..." and the players are just sitting there saying "Wake me up in 10 minutes when it's our turn again." This is a very optimistic estimate of how long it would be between turns.
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Dec 22, 2019 06:01
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Hobologist posted:So the DM just goes "Nomad #67 attacks kobold #113 and misses. Kobold #12 attacks nomad #83 and hits for 2 damage. Kobold #130 is surrounded by other kobolds and can't move..." and the players are just sitting there saying "Wake me up in 10 minutes when it's our turn again." This is a incredibly accurate description of what it’s like to fight large groups on the Amiga version, by the way.
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Dec 22, 2019 08:20
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Enemies that aren't locked in but can't get to you will also sometimes pace back and forth. Which is fine in most situations, actually; it makes them feel like they're impatiently waiting for their shot at you. But in this particular case what it means is that you have to watch thirty different kobolds wander to a new spot, then back to the spot they were in before, over and over again. Kobolds that are asleep or dead don't get a turn, though, so definitely haul out all your AOEs for this.
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Dec 22, 2019 17:15
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I played this back in the day on the, I think it was the Amiga version but it's been so long I'm not actually sure, and went completely mad on the multiclassing. I think pretty much everyone had at least one MU class and I definitley had a few triple classes (Ftr/Mu/Cleric or thief). Level progression was slow, but as I recall it wasn't that hard. The sheer amount of magic (sleep/hold etc) I could throw made up for the lack of early raw hitting power and crucially there's a level cap but no XP cap. So by the time I got to the end of the game everyone was hitting 5-6th in all their classes and I could pretty much annhiliate any encounter in a barrage of Fire and Lighning. Good times.
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Dec 26, 2019 23:14
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Sup thread! An update should be coming out tomorrow night or so, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Have you ever stopped and thought about that phrase? It's pretty horrific. In other news, my offscreen DW3 run ended with Zoma accidentally impaling himself on Jaybird's spiked armor for the killshot. I assume Erika laughed herself stupid the entire way back. I know I did.
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Dec 27, 2019 22:30
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Chokes McGee posted:In other news, my offscreen DW3 run ended with Zoma accidentally impaling himself on Jaybird's spiked armor for the killshot. I assume Erika laughed herself stupid the entire way back. I know I did. Alright, that's it. You are officially no longer allowed to play games without recording them for potential LP purposes. 
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Dec 28, 2019 00:51
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DGM_2 posted:Alright, that's it. You are officially no longer allowed to play games without recording them for potential LP purposes. *two years pass* “Why do I have a 2TB external drive of screenshots of rpg characters named Dongs? Oh well, time for my weekly Azure Bonds update “
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Dec 28, 2019 02:25
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In other news Erika had to have a kid for DW1+2 to happen and while one assumes she would mellow slightly once she’s no longer a hormonal sullen teenager let’s all pause for a moment and reflect on the horror of what a pregnant Erika would be like
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Dec 28, 2019 02:27
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Chokes McGee posted:Sup thread! An update should be coming out tomorrow night or so, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Have you ever stopped and thought about that phrase? It's pretty horrific. ok maybe a little horrific Chokes McGee posted:*two years pass* obviously the superior name is Dongers
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Dec 28, 2019 17:45
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Chokes McGee posted:
Oh boy. The first time I played Pool of Radiance was in the mid-90s, when the Goldbox games were already venerable, and I had the X-Files soundtrack running on repeat in my stereo. So thanks for giving me a really disturbing flashback to '96, I guess.
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Dec 28, 2019 21:03
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Pool of Radiance, Chapter 12: Adolescent Mutant Fighter Lizards Today on the Gold Box adventures, we'll be taking on Valhigan Gr— *presses hand to earpiece* Oh? ... Oh.  Today on the Gold Box adventures, we'll be investigating the Stojanow River. If you remember from an earlier update, we walked along its beautiful banks, saw how polluted it was, and then Justine threw up on Sternn. I assure you this is neither the first nor the last time this will happen. Regardless, one of the current council missions is to figure out who's loving with the river and put an end to it. Or at least, I assume that's what they meant when they started screaming, "Sune protect us, the ghouls are clawing away at our very flesh, do something." I don't know why investigating the river would help with that, but I can't imagine what else they'd want us to do.   A short jaunt up the Stojanow, and we find this ... thing. I'm not sure how it got here or why anyone hasn't noticed the massive amount of garbage it's dumping into the river, but  . Now to get inside and stop it.  Phew wee. Man, that smell. Reminds me of home. I mean, the water's less polluted, but yeah. Where did you say you three were from? "New" Jersey? Yep! Happiest place on Earth. And what about Old Jersey? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Well, I cased the joint. All we've got are these two rooms. Like, that doesn't make sense? Maybe there's a secret passage? I can't tell when you're asking an actual question, you know that? Um, I get that? A lot? Might as well check this one first.  ... *groan*Welcome to Yarash's Pyramid! This'll serve as our mandatory Teleporter Nonsense Maze for the game, because I sure didn't get enough of that doing Wizardry. Love it. Love it, you hear me? More teleporters. Our goal here is to locate the source of the river's pollution and stop it. (Spoilers: It's Yarash.) This is phenominally difficult without a map for a number of reasons, not the least of which is how to join the sections you're mapping after teleports. The Pyramid is one of two absolute bullshit mazes in this game, and as bad as it is, the second maze is even worse. Fortunately, we won't see the second one for a bit. Unfortunately, we have to deal with this one now. And worse, we're not alone in here.   I seriously can't believe this poo poo. Why do evil sorcerers always have teleporters? Where do they even get them from? ...quote:
Damned if I know. Omigod! There's other people down there! Oh, thank God. Maybe they know the way out. If they knew the way out, wouldn't they just, like, take it? ... Did... did you just get owned by Heather? Shut up. You totally did!  Hi! Glad to see a friendly face! I'm telling you, you have no idea how bad it is out there. The Boss' goons are crawling all over the map. You guys look pretty tough. Maybe we can join up and get out of here together! yOU lOOk dElIcIOUs ...beg pardon? Y'know, I'm starting to think there's something seriously wrong with these guys. Gee, you think?Wandering the corridors of the Pyramid with you are various parties of both humans and monsters. Although it's never talked about in the game, they've been lost in here for so long they've gone completely batty and are killing and eating anything they come across. It's a shame they didn't play that up more in the text. Just imagine looking at one of these gibbering lunatics and thinking, holy christ, there's a chance we might end up just like them. It's seriously unnerving.  These three are bad news on the battlefield, too, because they're Level 6 Fighters. Yikes.  Fortunately, our cleric is also level 6. A generous dollop of Hold Person later, and we're back on the road. No magic gear, sadly, but it's not like we're currently lacking in it.   Looks like we got another one. Maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt before we kill him. Is that before or after he's gnawing on our femurs? I'll distract him, Justine. You make with the stabby. Roger that. Will you two just give a minute to talk to him? Hello! If you come in peace, so do we. Thank the gods. A friendly face at last. Alas, the poor souls lost in this maze are beyond saving. We noticed. If there's a chance to save you, we have to try. Also, it gets us out of here faster. Well, hell, I'm all for that. Stand back. *dusts off hands* See? Everything worked out in the end, and no one had to die. WOW LOOK AT ME I'M SO WACKY AND DISTRACTING ... ...we're not doing the stab thing anymore, are we. Nope.This is another example of how this place drives you to absolute madness. After a few encounters with smiling psychopaths who want to gnaw the flesh off your bones, you come across a smiling priest. If you don't have the moral fiber (or lack of pattern recognition) to hear him out, you're going to murder an innocent man who's trying to get out of this hellhole and never know what you did. I really can't stress enough how much wasted potential there was for storytelling on this mission.  Anyhoo, because Chokes Has Played the Game Before™, we have a convenient exit for when the teleporter maze gets too confusing. We can also use the initial hallway as a safe zone to top off our HP and spells. Hooray! Still haven't found Yarash, though, so back in we go.   It bears repeating that this place is a pain to navigate. I literally had the maps right in front of me, and I swear 40% of my recorded video is alt-tabbing between the game and the map with obviously increasing levels of confusion. This makes it even easier to stumble across scripted ambushes before you're ready. For example, check out this bullshit:   GET THEM OFF GET THEM OFF AAAAA *swat* *wave* *flail*These are stirges, which are basically giant magical mosquitos. If one of them hits, they'll not only root your guys in place but start draining a little of their HP every turn. Killing the offending insect will free your party member from both. Stirges have AC 8 and one die of hitpoints, so they're easy enough to swat down. Still, they're about as annoying as you'd expect from mosquitos of any size.    Okay, there's a teleporter up there. Are you sure? ...not really, no. Well, easy enough to check. Watch this. Ta da! Great! So, if we go through this teleporter, we should end up... ...here. Awesome! Let's go!  ... Um... What the hell happened? Where are we? Um... I may have accidentally done something to the teleporter.  Gee, you think? What are you doing up there? The real question is, what are you guys doing down there? Really makes you think. It does? Nah.After you've gone through some of the teleporters, you get the option to throw a rock through it. Which sounds great, right? Yay, we found a way to check for teleporter squares! We're clever people! Except no and gently caress you, the rock actually toggles the destination. Even better, the only way to get to the end of the maze is to toggle a couple of these teleporters from their default setting, and you have no way of knowing what's going without a lot of trial and error. Can you imagine trying to play through this poo poo in the early '90s by your lonesome, with no FAQs and only a pad of graph paper? I'm glad I gave up early on Pool of Radiance and went straight to Azure Bonds when I was young, or this LP may have never existed.   Sooo. Maddening non-euclidean geometry aside, what's up with this place? Why's it poisoning the river? That's probably a good place to start. Yeah, that'd do it. *ping ping* Shh. You guys hear that? Nope. Somebody better put their face right next to it and listen harder. You have a really mean sense of humor sometimes, you know that? Oh, come on. It's not like someone would actually do it. Omigod, you guys! It's getting louder! WAIT NO GET AWAY FROM THAT ack *sighs and casts* That... doesn't seem good. Nope. On it!  At least we know what Yarash is up to now. I hope you've learned something from all this, Rezen. Yup. I learned one of you guys is dumb enough to fall for obvious sarcasm. Is it Justine? I bet it's Justine. Got it in one! ...Looks like Yarash is cooking up an army of mutant lizardmen. Why? Because he's evillllllllllll Since they've been horribly altered, mutant lizardmen don't count as humanoids any more, so Hold Person doesn't work on them. That would be concerning if we were still back in the Slums of Old Phlan, but we're not, so ehn. Anyway, aside from a journal entry that isn't worth mentioning—I mean, it says Yarash wants to raise an army of mutants lizards and lives in a magic maze, both of which are pretty goddamn obvious—there's not much else going on. We eventually hit the final corridor, and it's pretty smooth sailing from here on out.   Finally. I am going to kill this nerd so hard when we finally meet him. Hey, what's that? What's what? The big green giant lizard thing guarding the door. Hmm. *peers* It appears to be some sort of giant lizard door guardian. Well, that's stupid. Why would someone put one of those in front of a door? ...why wouldn't you? I mean, how would you use the door? He'd be in the way. Holy poo poo. Just shut up and give me the password. ... Ah. Yes. The... the password. Well? It's... um... Why don't you give us the password first? That's pretty much the opposite of how that works. Then how do we know you're the right door guard? ...what? For all we know, you could be a spy sent to steal Yarash's secrets. How do we know you're the real door guard if you can't even give us the password? He's got a point. Yeah! Okay, okay. I'll meet you halfway here. That help? Hmm, I suppose you check out. So, it's safe to tell you the password is... *flipping through pages* ...yes, any minute now, we'll tell you the password is... *scribbling frantically* ...and as I was saying, the password, which is definitely something we know, i— Nok-Nok Who's there? ... Ahaha, I'm just fuckin' with you. You guys are all right. Come on in.This is a copyright protection checkpoint. If you fail this translation, a giant lizard will kill everyone in a tremendously showy manner, i.e. dealing 200+ HP damage instantly to the entire party. You can muddle through the rest of the game without a copyright wheel, but you have to finish this quest to unlock the endgame. If you don't have the wheel, your quest ends here. If you aren't a dirty software pirate, though, you'll find this on the other side...    Finally, something we're good at. *cracks knuckles* We've found the secret of the ooze, and destroyed it. gj everyone Not seen here, but you can botch your roll on destroying equipment, and it goes into "this is clearly going to blow up in a hilarious manner" mode. I don't know how we avoided this, but I assume what Justine said is true and our party really are experts in ruining things. I mean, there's a smoldering crater where that Podal Plaza bar used to be, sooo...     Hey, woah! We're with the good guys! Journal Entry 35 posted:Told in halting speech. *thumbs through journal* ...savior? Sss. Yes, that is the word in your tongue. Thank you. We'll be sure to remember it. Now git. Things are about to get a lot more murdery. *scampers away*  I'M HERE TO PUNCH NERDS AND CHEW BUBBLEGUM AND I'M ALL OUT OF BUBBLEGUMWell, here's Yarash. Not a lot of fanfare here, just a magic dude and his slightly stronger than average lizardman bodyguards. If you remember from earlier discussions, job #1 is to do damage to Yarash right loving now to keep him from casting spells. No worries: we've got Rezen!  ZAPPO Heh. Guess that'll shut you up.  ...or not? Hubris, thy name is Rezen.Except gently caress you anyway, because he has a Wand of Paralyzation!  The Wand of Paralyzation is basically a single target Hold Person spell. If it hits, the target is rendered Helpless as usual.  This isn't working! We need an answer right loving now! Oh, you want an answer? I'll give you an answer. KAAAA MEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAA MEEEEEEEE ...? HAAAAAAAAA Woah. When'd you learn to do that? When you've been doing this long enough, you pick up a few things here and there. gkk  Oh. Whoopsie!Oh, didn't I mention? Rezen leveled up when we got back from the Nomad Camp. And now she knows Fireball. Fireball is an absolute necessity if you're going any farther in the Gold Box series than the PoR slums—and for reasons I hope are obvious after that last GIF. Firstly, Fireball does (level)d6 fire damage, which means anything that regenerates (i.e. trolls) aren't coming back afterwards. The really important part, though, is its coverage area. Squeeze one of these off outdoors, and it covers a 3x3 area with the corners sawed off. But wait, there's more! Indoors, you get the benefit of the chunky salsa effect, and the area increases to the entire screen (minus the corners). As Justine learned here, it's very important to know where those safe corners are and use (M)anual to put the fireball in juuuuuust the right place. This is made more difficult by the fact that the battlefield jumps as the cursor moves past its borders, rather than scrolling a line at a time. You'll have to use reference points on the screen and triangulate the exact center of the blast and construct the surrounding area in your head like a military sniper, but you get used to it eventually. The first few times you try it, though, you may lose party members. (Or even after you get the hang of it. I'm not too proud to admit we'll zap more than a few party members before we're done with this.)  Nevertheless, we've cleared the battlefield. Shanna and Heather bandage up the wounded, and Rez puts in the Magic Missle killshot.  And that means it's loot time! The haul is modest: a few potions of healing, a potion of giant strength, and some AC 4 Bracers. We do get Yarash's Wand of Paralyzation, though. It's not a great magical item, but hey, it's free!  ...I have to learn shorthand for situations like this.Journal Entry 27 posted:An impressive announcement. Journal Entry 33 posted:An official looking notice. Journal Entry 49 posted:A letter on clean white paper in a strong hand.  Journal Entry 40 posted:A quick note on an often used piece of paper. Journal Entry 56 posted:An unsent note written on sturdy parchment. For a nerd, he wasn't very organized. Yeah, this guy was a dork. Hey, what's that thingie over there do? I don't think it's a good idea to just— Set it to silver! You got it!  Does anyone ever listen to me? Hmm? What? Oh, never mind. Welcome to my world. Randomly pushing buttons pays off yet again!By fiddling with the dial in Yarash's room and then using the teleporter to the north, you can access his storerooms and clean them out. Altogether, we found:
The loot's randomized, so we got some pretty lovely drops here except for the ointment. That's basically the D&D equivalent of an elixir, so we'll be hanging onto that. You never know when you'll need some sunscreen!  After we've looted the place, setting the dial to blue and then using the teleporter will drop you back at the entrance. You can then leave as normal.  And lo and behold, the river isn't filled with toxic waste anymore! Most major waterways need at least a few years to filter everything out and probably corrupt the groundwater for decades afterwards but nope, everything's great here. Also, we can now cross the Stojanow on horseback without any issues, which saves us a few plat from hiring a boot. Hooray?  At any rate, we saved the river without anyone dying, so we'll consider this mission a resounding success. Tune in next time, where we'll try to maintain our streak of not loving things up beyond repair, and you'll hear Sternn say: Buccaneer? I hardly know her!  Next Time: Same as In Town
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Dec 28, 2019 21:20
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Here's what you asked for. Fresh off the back of a Federation space barge, no questions asked.
(ACME Teleporter Co.)
I'm paying you to keep your mouth shut, not open it.
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[sees update title, imagines the party dressing up as Foot Ninjas with the character of Chokes' choice putting on Shredder gauntlets, then grins] In your defense, Chokes, those who drink the water of the Stojanow River have experienced hallucinations and paralysis. It's remarkably similar to ghoul attack symptoms. Teleport Mazes are a bane on gamers everywhere. Polluting evil wizards are also a stubborn fantasy cliché. I never encountered the priest when I played this dungeon. Then again, I was always heading for the exit quick as possible for obvious reasons. This game is part of why I hate copy protection with a passion. The journal entries say Yarash's particular strain of nerdy obsession is creating a magical hybrid of a lizardman and a sahuagin (nasty fish people). Yeah, I don't see the value to society in it either. Or why you need a polluted river and a teleport maze to accomplish it. Woo hoo! FIREBALL!  The next mission should be a lot of fun.
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Dec 28, 2019 23:21
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Has there ever been a game with a non-poo poo spinner/teleporter maze?
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Dec 28, 2019 23:37
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Teleporter mazes are always crap because the designers never adhere to any sort of logic that allows the player to reason out what the answers are. It always ends up as trial and error garbage. This one sort of goes above and beyond with the rock throwing changing teleportation destinations, at that. I do appreciate the undertone writing with the other groups gone mad at this garbage, at least.
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Dec 28, 2019 23:54
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Keldulas posted:Teleporter mazes are always crap because the designers never adhere to any sort of logic that allows the player to reason out what the answers are. It always ends up as trial and error garbage. This one sort of goes above and beyond with the rock throwing changing teleportation destinations, at that. rumors of people turning to cannibalism after playing through a teleport maze are unfounded and on another note this simmer sauce I bought really brings the flavor out of this, uh, chicken
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Dec 28, 2019 23:57
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Oh fireball. More than one wipe in BG1 caused by a badly aimed fireball or potion of fire
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Dec 29, 2019 00:15
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On C64 the maze was easy: you had to throw exactly one rock into all of them and they only had two states. If you hosed up you got teleported to the pyramid basement which is one of the hardest areas in the game and more than likely die. It's a shame the area doesn't have more descriptions. The pyramid has so much potential to be a great backdrop to some horror crawling among mad denizens, mutated lizardmen and lost parties that entered before.
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Dec 29, 2019 00:17
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I'm not sure about Amiga POR, but at least some versions of certain gold box games have a (C)enter command in battle, which is extremely helpful for positioning area spells like fireball. Those bracers AC 4 are the best armor for a mage in this game. Fighting against the nomads can get you bracers that are called AC 2, but in fact set it to 4 like these ones, at least in the GOG version. Teleporter mazes always suck, for reasons others have already mentioned. While not exactly a maze, Eye of the Beholder has one of the more pettily mean examples of teleporter use I can think of. An early stage has an invisible one-time teleporter that silently takes you to a different position in the same hallway, such that the view is the same in all directions. It seems to exist for the sole purpose of making self-made maps inaccurate.
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Dec 29, 2019 00:17
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I know that years ago I played a D&D game that had an aiming reticule for things like spells, but I can't remember well enough to name it. Needless to say, it's a nice feature. I forgot that in-battle fireballs in this game don't have a simple 3x3 box, which is admittedly easy to aim even if there isn't a silhouette of some sort. Maybe I will think of that game some day. Just yesterday I remembered the name of a song from 1984 by playing a game from 2002 that's set in 1986 and I've been trying to recall that since 2018, so poo poo happens.
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Dec 29, 2019 00:34
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Slaan posted:Oh fireball. More than one wipe in BG1 caused by a badly aimed fireball or potion of fire God, gently caress those games for having nothing that would indicate the blast radius of spells you were about to cast. Such pain.
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Dec 29, 2019 01:21
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PurpleXVI posted:God, gently caress those games for having nothing that would indicate the blast radius of spells you were about to cast. Such pain. I fortunately was exposed to the Gold Box engine through the Buck Rogers games, and you realize real quick the range on grenades, rocket launchers, and plasma casters. It's the same radius that gets used in D&D, although an indoors Fireball is the only one I know of that does Plasma Caster radius.
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Dec 29, 2019 05:17
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Chokes McGee posted:I fortunately was exposed to the Gold Box engine through the Buck Rogers games, and you realize real quick the range on grenades, rocket launchers, and plasma casters. It's the same radius that gets used in D&D, although an indoors Fireball is the only one I know of that does Plasma Caster radius. The Buck Rogers games were fun. At least did the first one on the Genesis, never did the DOS ones.
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Dec 29, 2019 06:44
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wedgekree posted:The Buck Rogers games were fun. At least did the first one on the Genesis, never did the DOS ones. DOS was a thousand percent better, the Genesis version was a pale shadow. learning space combat was a pain in the rear end though.
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Dec 29, 2019 07:19
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PurpleXVI posted:Has there ever been a game with a non-poo poo spinner/teleporter maze? Might and Magic 1 had a dungeon with a teleporter that could be tuned to any location in the dungeon. The trick was to find the one square on your map that you couldn't actually reach and tune it to that coordinate. The prize was garbage, but you got to feel real smug.
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Dec 29, 2019 11:30
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