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Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

moths posted:

But what really does surprise me is just how many people claim to be SHOCKED, SHOCKED by WoTC's attitude here. I've only been telling you people this since day one. They started 4e with a lie. They had said they weren't going to release 4e that year and they did anyways. From that moment on I knew the new policy was "don't give a poo poo about the customer"; it was right back to the good old Lorraine-Williams days of "D&D fans will like what we want them to like".

This is a classic example of Death Spiral. As things go bad, the regressive forces inside the organization (lawyers, commissioned sales people, creative folk who feel stifled by history, precariously tenured executives) are increasingly able to exert their agenda. It always makes a bad situation worse, but there's no magic bullet that would likely make the bad situation better so you get a rapid unbalance in the Corporate Force towards the Dark Side.

edit- yes I remember right as AIG collapsed they were working on that orbital space laser, but luckily the government put Master Liddy at the helm to balance their midichlorians

Fidel Cuckstro fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Apr 14, 2009

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Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Meme Emulator posted:

Wait, am I reading this right? They released 4e earlier than they meant to?

those motherfuckers

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

RagnarokAngel posted:

I just looked this up and I cant copy paste this hard enough
http://rpgpundit.xanga.com/698571559/item/

Kyle: It was MEANT to be abuse. And if you think just calling him a oval office would have been the same, you show a profound ignorance of the art form.
Also, abuse can be a critique. Sometimes the only sane response to something is "how much of a loving idiot are you?". Like, say, when someone is getting rid of PDF sales because of piracy, claiming 10:1 piracy:sales ratio and responding to that by getting rid of the "1", and then going on to claim a bunch of absurd bullshit about how what he's doing is good for gaming, that he only spouts because its clear he has nothing but Williams-esque contempt for gamers.


Ah the art. I remember fondly when Wilde penned the withering "U retarded?"

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

RagnarokAngel posted:

The best part is how he cant even make himself look good in his own fake interview. The actual replies he uses look really bizzarely calm in the face of a string of nonsensical curse words.

I was imagining him sitting in a press group, Leeds at the podium, and pundit-guy just shouting these questions while the other reporters looked at each other uncomfortably like "should we stop him?" Eventually security would show up and drag him out while he screamed "I have first amendment rights! Bush did 9/11!"

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

RagnarokAngel posted:

I know I already said it I just cant get over that he wrote that and think it looks GOOD.

you show a profound ignorance of the art form.

I cannot get over this. He really thinks he's the Mark Twain of...D&D criticism?

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

CoarsestGrate posted:

...

Okay, you've heard me rant about it before and you're going to hear me rant about it again.

Biggest problems, 4E doesn't even know what the roles are supposed to do. They're just blurred all of the time. Classic example is the defender. Trading defense for offense is actually a POOR move. Everyone ignores the super-armored paladin because their mark does jack for damage. And that's the fundamental problem with the role. If your defense is too good then monsters just ignore you unless you have a super-punishing mark feature. Battlerager fighters get away with it because they do 'enormous' amounts of damage for getting ignored. The closest two ideas I've seen to an actual 'defender' class is the Hospitaler Paladin PP and the Shielding Swordmage. And those two classes are saddled with other problems.

Striker is just a worthless role to begin with. They're supposed to be highly mobile DPS vehicles. Well, the idea of being highly mobile is complete crap, considering that every mobility power published so far is inferior to having a ranged weapon. So sucks to your mobility. Furthermore, doing an increased amount of damage is not a role. Everyone in this game does damage. Fighters do more damage than anyone except half-elf avengers and rangers. Warlords do a respectable amount of damage and have a bunch of other advantages to boot. An uptick in DPS is not a role, it's something you write on a character sheet.

Furthermore, the idea of splitting 'controller' and 'striker' completely misses the point. The goal for any adventuring day that involves combat is to reduce the amount of damage you take relative to the enemy. You can either do this by increasing your DPS to reduce the number of rounds an enemy can act or just taking away the ability of an enemy to act at full capacity. So at what point does the 'controller' and 'striker' function differently? I say at no point whatsoever. Even though defender is a vague and worthless role, at least it plays a little differently from how strikers and controllers are supposed to act. But controllers and strikers use fundamentally the same tactics. Target the biggest, strongest monster and wail on them until they go down.

And then there's the healer. Okay, one of 3E's biggest things I enjoyed was that no class was really mandatory at low levels. Yes, they pretended that healers were, but they really weren't. Except for mass heal, in-combat healing was a big joke. All healing was done with godsticks and only parties like an all-fighter group couldn't handle that. But in a stunningly stupid move 4E decided to return to the days of having mandatory classes in the group--which increases the good ol' days of players drawing straws to see who gets to play the cleric. Ugh. At least there's a nice selection of them to pick from at this point in the game; warlord, cleric, bard, and shaman.

But you know what? The idea of all healing being done by one person is worthless. It just increases the 'dogpile on the loser' tactics that this game has. And since healing is generally done as a minor action, it doesn't even matter who does the healing in the first place. Seriously, does it really impact game balance that an inspiring word comes from a rogue instead of a cleric? No, all that matters is that parties only get two minor-action heals per encounter.

Okay, now let's get into the second problem with role protection. The melee vs. ranged interaction. The game seems to suggest that the best party mix is of ranged and melee characters. Except that the game in no way works out like this. 4E correctly realized that melee combat is a fundamentally disadvantaged combat mode so tried to give it some bennies. This didn't work out too well for reasons separate from the thrust of role protection.

But even if it was given bennies to compensate for it, a few problems persist. One is that there are no melee controllers right now. The rogue does a very remarkable job of inflicting punishing status effects at higher levels; only orb wizards do a better job, really. But that's not what the class was designed for. See, the idea of the controller class was to have a person who could disable enemies at any corner of the battlefield. Because if they could only lock up enemies in their melee reach, that would make them a... wait for it... a defender.

But let's take a step back for a second. Except for stuns, blinds, and dominates--which all happen to be pretty rare and carefully rationed--most of what the controller does the melee characters don't really care about. Invokers for example have an at-will that slows in a burst. That's berserkly powerful... if your party isn't already in melee. Slowing or immobilizing a hydra doesn't really help out the poor fighter bastards who have to wade in and wail on the drat thing. Many times, controller powers are just not up to par--especially considering the distances you're supposed to engage enemies. If you're some poor fighter facing down a pair of Zombie Brutes, would you rather have a wizard plinking away with their at-wills/encounters or would you rather have a ranger or another fighter?

I could go on, but overall, there's little synergy between melee and ranged characters. The ideal party in 4E is not a razor paladin/artful dodger rogue/laser cleric/archer ranger/wizard. The ideal party is a team of a tempest fighter, a battlerager fighter, polearm fighter, a brutal scoundrel rogue, and a Battle Captain ... or a combination of wizards, archer rangers, and laser clerics. The idea of roles was to prevent this situation, but it only reinforces it.

what loving game is this guy playing?

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Seftir posted:

for how 'creative' these guys seem to think of themselves, they really can't come up with a few house rules for mounted combat and being a knight? jesus wept

I don't think there has ever been an RPG ever, let alone a D&D edition or suppliment, that made being a mounted knight an interesting or useful option for play.

edit:

play this class if you:
-never want to get off your horse
-want to annoy your fellow players with your insistence that you not get off your horse

Fidel Cuckstro fucked around with this message at 07:01 on Apr 15, 2009

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

I used to play a bard on a horse what now 4e?

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

FirstCongoWar posted:

*points to the cave entrance*

"Ok time to try a little kino"

*rolls for grapple check*

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

heh

rpgpundit posted:

Two of the problems with the hobby today.

Let me say this: I am neither of these things. I am one of those who believe that the hobby is really great, today. Granted, there was a level of overall prosperity in the 80s that we do not have today, and there are certainly problems today, I'm not a pie eyed idealist. But in general, there's been no better time for gaming, either in general or personally for me as a gamer than today.
The Swine are in full retreat, the games that are coming out are some of the best and most interesting in years.

In general, the people who put down the hobby are either the "nostalgics" who dream of what once was (either old-school 80s nostalgics who can't stand to play anything invented after '89, or worse, White-Wolf-Swine nostalgics who pine for the time when they and their ideologies dominated the industry); or they're "futurists", who are concerned not with gaming as it exists today, but with gaming as they would like it to exist in some imaginary future. They want to dream their dreamey dreams about when gaming and gamers are the way they would wish it to be. Where everyone is playing Forge games, or D&D has ceased to exist.
You know, make-believe.

Those are the fuckers who cause the most problems.

The Buddha said: Be in the moment.
That's pretty good advice as far as the gaming hobby is concerned, because the moment is pretty loving sweet.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Mastro De Paja Media Rhodesian + Comoy's English Mixture

I think the hobby is in a wonderful place, hold on I have to post some more about how 4e is for simians

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Well the guy did luck out in that he could keep playing Dark Sun I guess?

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Panzeh posted:

"Okay, we're making an Old West game."

"I want to play a New York banker with polio."

Expert roleplayers.

Every Deadlands game ever

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

The ballad of Jody Butt

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

lastexyle posted:

His "revised" version is rather interesting:

“As you enter the forcably abandoned temple, there are many beautifully crafted tables, benches, and beds scattered about the main hall each of a different style. You find only Dragonborn men and women in this place. They’re clothed in the finest garments of their victims, milling about or lounging on the luxurious beds, as they socialize in seemingly equal status. At the far end of the room, where it seems there was once a statue of Bahamut, is now a stone throne with a heavily built Dragonborn in his scale armour.

On either side of this leader is an ankle of the statue, now serving as a seat for a slippery looking archer, their crossbows trained on you but their eyes cast down at the king, or more precisely the silk-covered and well-muscled bodies of the kings’ concubines. A Dragonborn male larger than the leader writhes at the kings’ feet, nuzzling him while clawing away at the other men of other races all at the great leaders’ legs, as if each begging for attention.

His eyes are trained on you as you continue to approach; he waves away the concubines in a dismissive and uncaring manner. As the attendants slink away only as far as their silk teathers alow, the king smiles at you. ‘Welcome to my humble abode.... heroes.’”

Alright this is the new intro only slightly changed from the previous submission thanks to waterbizkit. I added a few concubines and have decided that for a twist his breathweapon will be an aphrodesic "poison" to explain the overenthusiastic thralls.


I was thinking he had honestly made an effort to improve things until the last bit. The villain's breath weapon is literally gay gas.

Gays have to recruit other gays...or breath on them...to make more gays. This is 100% accurate I saw it on a website.

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Ashenai posted:

(Context is a thread about what to do with unplayable characters in systems that generate characters randomly.)


If it's like Traveller, where a character is playable but nearly 100% useless, I'll have them play until such time as that PC dies, when they can make a new one.

If the character is actually unplayable, then we've got a pickle. You can't rightly have them make another one, since they had their chance, but they also can't really play the character into the grave, so there's no way to get to a satisfactory result.

As hard as it was, the times this result came up for me, I just told the player it was too bad, but there was no rational way I could let them play in that game. They just had to sit that campaign out, and I'd go post a "new player wanted" ad to fill the seat. After 2-3 tries, I usually end up with a full table and some new blood in the group.

The LFest GM

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

IMJack posted:


5. REAL multi-classing. None of this shooting yourself in the foot wasting a feat AND losing a power lame thing they came up with. You multiclass with 2 classes like in 2nd ed. You have a +1 level adjustment (1st level characters use the 2nd level xp chart to level). When it is time to pick powers, you get to pick from both lists. You can wear the worst armor of the two classes, the best weapons of the two, and you get to pick any 3 class features from the two classes. Your Defenses are from the the better of the two. HP is averaged between the two.


I like that he manages to basically describe the hybrid-classes they're working on for PHB3...except add in a retarded XP condition that makes it a pain in the rear end for the DM.

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Fenarisk posted:

To be honest, I don't think anyone would ever complain about 4e if the hybrid class implementation had been in from the start. By the time PHB3 and all the "X Power" books come out, there will be a ton of different options for each class to the point the cookie cutter, non-original character argument won't be useful, although they will complain they needed all the books.

In all honesty I would pay some retarded amount for a hardcover compendium of PHB1/2/3, and all the Power books.

I don't know if it would have stiffled all the complaints, but it is a pretty slick system that would have been great to have early on.

And a hardcover compendium of all those books will weigh 150 lbs and require a special D&D-branded desk to support it. But yeah I'd probably buy it.

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

IMJack posted:

I went digging for grognards predicting 4.5, but it got too depressing

post it.

Post It All.

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

quote:

I'm pretty puzzled by all this. I mean, I'm new to D&D because I always thought older editions were a bit pants and never really got into them. I thought a monk was basically, y'know, a bloke in a brown robe copying out books and devoting his whole life to a quiet contemplation of god? I was curious to see in what way this was not exactly the same thing as a cleric, in the same way I was interested in seeing what made a barbarian not a fighter.

So I figured a class called Monk would be a Divine character of some kind, cos, like, monks are into religion in a big way. But it appears this class is a martial artist rather than a monk, a crazy-rear end Jet Li motherfucker. Which is pretty cool, but totally not what I think of when someone says "monk". I Was thinking Cadfael, not Neo.

Having now done some reading, it appears this is what monks have always been in D&D. Which seems a bit odd but also not at all odd, since playing a dude who spends all his time copying out bibles with a quill in quiet contemplation of god might be a bit dull when all the other players have swords and poo poo.

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

RagnarokAngel posted:

This can't be real...

never doubt rpg.net

Sadly it's really the only post like this in the monk discussion. I'm hoping people can check for no ki power-source meltdowns though today while I'm at work...

edit- there are probably also people who are seriously like 'how will I play a samurai now?" and that is the funniest.

Fidel Cuckstro fucked around with this message at 12:26 on May 11, 2009

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

also the need for a martial controller leads to posts like this

quote:

Out of curiosity, who was it that Uma Therman was defending anyway?

Look, maybe Samurai isn't the answer, but this problem isn't going to go away.

We need a class for people who just want to pick up a sword and KILL ALL.
Some people don't want to 'Tank' or screw around with stupid marking.
Some people don't want sneak behind a guy and stab him with a puny dagger.
Some people don't want spells or prayers or evocations or anything; they just want to stab people. They just want to stab all people! They want to stab all people, and pin them to the ground so they can't get back up!

BAAAURGGHHHAAAARRRR!!!!!! RAAAARUUGHGHGHRIOAEFJioewfgho;regp9rwgio;groi;agviorwgoiargk rgbureoig

this is a serious post

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Contrabassoon posted:

I'm a martial controller irl

post pics

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

clockworkjoe posted:

3rd party companies really stepped up to the plate for 3E in that respect.

Yeah but those guys do it for the love of the hobby and if you don't support themmmmmmuurrghhghgh

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

shotgunbadger posted:

Guys I'm scared, I just read through a thread on RPGnet and found myself going 'yea these guys are right'! I mean yea I hate Pathfinder and all but they weren't comparing it to a videogame or pre-teen boys getting sucked off...I think RPGnet may, at it's core....be normal.

:unsmith:

Just pop in on tangency and pick any thread you'll find a cure.

Also, they're beating the wizard vs. fighter dead-horse arguement like it hasn't been hashed out in a hundred other threads and that's pretty annoying.

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Bieeardo posted:

There's a sort of perfectly non-magical ritual ingredient for each of the four key skills. Residuum can stand in for any of them.

and for most low level rituals you need about 10 gold worth of those ingredients for casting.

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Mikan posted:

The last one is most likely Princess: The Fading. So the others are probably similar creepy RPGnet WoD settings.

a catgirl princess, well I never!

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

RagnarokAngel posted:

His ragging on 4e is precious too:
http://mxyzplk.wordpress.com/2008/05/31/4e-phb-readthrough-chapter-4-classes/

Count how many times he makes comparisons to WoW or complains about stuff that existed in earlier editions. He actually says the "Builds" are ripping off World of Warcraft's talent tree builds despite that they only reccomend level 1 stuff and 3rd edition did the exact same thing.

edit: http://mxyzplk.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/4e-phb-readthrough-chapter-7-equipment/


And they again show they have the economic skills of feces-throwing monkeys in the “Selling Equipment” section – “You cannot sell mundane armor, weapons, or adventuring gear unless your DM allows, in which case you receive one-fifth of an item’s market price.” This kind of rule that is obviously specifically for PCs and not the way the rest of the world works is why 4e justly gets criticized as being a WoW derivative. “I want to sell a dozen swords I just made!” “Sorry, 20% of list.” “But why is that smith selling them for list then?” “He’s an NPC. All NPCs have unlimited amounts of money, and sell things at list.” I would like whichever designer was behind this (and the selling magic items at 20% rule) to step forward so I can publicly humiliate them for their douchebaggery.

When did this work differently other than 3e giving you 50%?

Well you see .5 is halfway between 0 and 1 and hence is a beautiful symmetric number...

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

John Wick posted:

But to answer your question, I did manage to get in some time in a game while in Los Angeles. I found a TT game and asked if I could sit in to watch and perhaps play an NPC or something. The DM looked at me funny--like my question was completely inappropriate--and said I could watch. I watched about an hour of the game and found myself completely bored to tears.

Set aside judging a game based on one hour of watching a random group you don't know...who the gently caress asks to play an NPC in a D&D game? Ever?

Yes I could spend all of 10 minutes rolling up a fighter that runs with the group for a session, but mayhaps you have a rakish prince who will be in all of half a scene I can test my ROLEPLAY mettle against?

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

quote:

I have a similar feeling. The DMG is full of sage advice and mechanical usefulness. The PHB is disorganized, powerless and full of inane flavour text. It's like they wrote the DMG for adults and the PHB for children, or the DMG for Tycho and the PHB for Gabe.

if you can tell different personality traits between PA characters, kill yourself.

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

shotgunbadger posted:

:10bux: says that he has said "IF WE EVOLVED, WHY ARE THERE STILL MONKEYS?!" in a real debate.

A D&D player who doesn't subscribe to the church of Dawkins? Maybe you should just go ahead and put that money in the mail to me so I can buy 2 beers tonight.

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

clockworkjoe posted:

You mean the cruelties of a feminist egalitarian fantasy world. If those orc women stayed in their caves cooking dinner for their husbands, they wouldn't be dead

:goonsay:

e&n&d&d

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

oratiO_obliqua posted:

Some guy made that same argument on another forum just yesterday. WotC destroyed the "rich and loved history of FR" and whatever.

---

This is a goldmine: http://mxyzplk.wordpress.com/2009/05/30/mike-mearls-strangles-realism-in-dd-like-its-an-unruly-hooker/


Ah yes, that sweet sweet 3.x with its gritty realism, 4e is a computer game ripoff etc.

But oh no it doesn't end there, the comments are even better than the yet-another-4e-whine post itself. A sensible DM would of course houserule the residuum to 1/5th of the item's value if the full value is somehow a problem, but with these guys IT'S NOT AN OPTION.


Yeah furthermore you're a loving idiot.

Oh hey look it's NiTessine from the blog a few posts back! How're you doing today?


OK nevermind then.

My group is literally having the most fun its had in a tabletop game in the last, like, 5 years with 4th edition. We are the new monsters.

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Eggplant Ronin posted:

[REDACTED],

During the last session, the group expressed their feelings on your style of play and missing several of the sessions.

Baring Emergencies, Major Holidays, and Important Events (Weddings, Funerals and the like), they wold like to see you every Sunday for the rest of the year.

As for your style of play, it seems to be too incompatible with the majority of the other players. the group as a whole seems to think it slows down the game and makes it harder for the others to accomplish thier goals. If this was a Story Teller style game (Like White Wolf) I think your concept would be more accepted.

The group would like to see the following changes:

Attend the game for the remaining Sundays of the year starting 07/01/07 (Baring the example listed eariler).
Brush up on the Rules in the Player's Handbook and your chracters class abilities.
Play your characters as a more straight laced, useful member of the party.

If you honestly belive you can make thoses changes we will be happy to see you again on 07/01/07.

Also, [REDACTED] has also been given a similar message and I am waiting for his reply.


[REDACTED]

Ahh good I'm giving my players their midyear reviews on Sunday and I needed a template...

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Lurdiak posted:

Are you serious? Anyone with a life is a flakey player. It's not realistic at all to say "every X" when talking about most DnD groups, because hundreds of other things can come up. You just check with everyone about when they're free next.

look motherfucker we're trying to craft an epic tale of here so if you can't be bothered to commit then I guess we know who is next on the character rape train...

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Kemper Boyd posted:

A response to a thread about some jerk at a gaming store:

Maybe he plays with his kidshahaha he'd never let filthy crotchspawn touch his precious chairzard...

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Kemper Boyd posted:

Why am I debating with this guy?

for gold like that. Where are you debating this guy?

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Mikan posted:

It's also worth noting that Curt was a moderator for a while.

Most RPGnet moderators are just as bad, if not worse than everyone else on the board.

I actually vaguely remember when he was, because he started closing/probating a bunch of people for posting boring and redundant threads. I was like "wow, why hasn't anyone done this before?!"

edit: hahaa that thread is like 400 posts and there are people saying they are legit afraid to post in Tangency it's like waking up on Christmas morning

Fidel Cuckstro fucked around with this message at 10:20 on Jun 16, 2009

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

There really isn't anything TG in the Curt thread, but if you don't read it just turn in your grognards.txt badge.

Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Jackard posted:

My major complaint is, that 4th Ed. insults my imagination. When I "put my helmet in my head slot", instead of wearing it on my head, I really don't want to read on.
It's like playing a computer game, but you have an excel sheet instead of a graphic engine.

I don't even know if this is a parody anymore.

Drop the bomb, exterminate the brutes.

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Fidel Cuckstro
Jul 2, 2007

Jackard posted:

What, do we have to put this nonsense in quotes now?

Sorry, I've been laughing at that "Curt is banned" thread on rpg.net all day and haven't even started into that whole mess.