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[timg] motherfucker
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Mar 24, 2018 10:20
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My recent posts have inspired me to crack on and actually try to loving finish writing You All Meet In A Tavern, my designed-for-one-shot-games B/X-compatible retroclone! Although is it technically a 'clone' if the core mechanics have completely changed from the original? Anyway, it's progressing pretty well, and I hope to have a pre-alpha version to show the retroclone thread goons soon. Ish. (When I wrote TAAC, I was single and childless. Now I'm married and have a 3-year-old. Endless spare time? What's that, then?) EDIT: Just realised I've got a Ladybug/Ron Paul duet going on...
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Apr 6, 2018 22:06
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Nice! Please share it when you love got something ready for public consumption.
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Apr 6, 2018 23:07
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Payndz posted:My recent posts have inspired me to crack on and actually try to loving finish writing You All Meet In A Tavern, my designed-for-one-shot-games B/X-compatible retroclone! I'd love to try some one-shots with friends, eagerly looking forward to this!
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Apr 6, 2018 23:45
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Oh man deep carbon observatory seems awesome. Has patrick stuart written more adventure modules? I dig his monsters but I really liked the whole atmosphere of that adventure - I've never read a module like that before.
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Apr 12, 2018 19:52
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Hey I just made a Druid for the Rappan Athuk game, purely because it seems kind of neat, but I'm not sure what the niche is for that class. It seems like a less-combat-ready druid with some weird ancillary abilities. I never actually played a druid in a pre-3e edition. What's up with the old-school druid?
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Apr 12, 2018 20:03
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Oh man deep carbon observatory seems awesome. Has patrick stuart written more adventure modules? I dig his monsters but I really liked the whole atmosphere of that adventure - I've never read a module like that before. Check out Veins of the Earth next.
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Apr 12, 2018 20:04
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Oh man deep carbon observatory seems awesome. Has patrick stuart written more adventure modules? I dig his monsters but I really liked the whole atmosphere of that adventure - I've never read a module like that before. He also did Veins of the Earth, Fire on the Velvet Horizon and Maze of the Blue Medusa.
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Apr 12, 2018 20:09
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Arivia posted:Check out Veins of the Earth next.  Veins has a very Patrick beastiary.
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Apr 12, 2018 20:37
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Well holy crap, I actually managed to do it. You All Meet In A Tavern is here, at v0.1 status ready to be examined and poked with sharp sticks. Comments welcome! Quick recap: it's a BX retroclone designed for one-shot play with very quick character creation, no long lists of weapons or armour (AC and damage are all defined by class), magic that scales up by 'tier' rather than adding ever more new spells, and - the part I was most keen to get working - much faster combat, achieved by eliminating to-hit rolls. Took a lot of work, but I think the solution is reasonably elegant. There's a bunch of other changes as well, but you can see them for yourself. However, it's still BX compatible with a small amount of conversion work on monster stats. There are references in the PDF to 'achievements', which are my version of tournament play points, but I haven't finalised how they're going to work yet (and was too lazy to strip them out of the text) so they don't have a section explaining them. Don't worry about 'em. Similarly, the sample adventure mentioned a couple of times still isn't completed, so is missing. I'll hopefully have a final version soon-ish, taking any criticisms and suggestions into account.
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Apr 12, 2018 22:06
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Arivia posted:Check out Veins of the Earth next.
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Apr 13, 2018 02:37
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Okay I bought this and started reading on the train...drat. This is a very different book but also exactly what I didn't know I wanted. I'm often pretty down on "big list of monsters" books but these are great and I'm only on the Cs. This one only has a physical version but I'd recommend Fire On The Velvet Horizon next
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Apr 13, 2018 03:55
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drrockso20 posted:This one only has a physical version but I'd recommend Fire On The Velvet Horizon next I'd thought they did a pdf of that for a humble bundle at some point. Of course, the only way to get that now is  , but I thought it did exist as a non-dead-tree format for a split second.
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Apr 13, 2018 04:56
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Aniodia posted:I'd thought they did a pdf of that for a humble bundle at some point. Of course, the only way to get that now is Well I meant in the here and now
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Apr 13, 2018 05:26
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Aniodia posted:I'd thought they did a pdf of that for a humble bundle at some point. Of course, the only way to get that now is
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Apr 13, 2018 06:06
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Halloween Jack posted:Hey I just made a Druid for the Rappan Athuk game, purely because it seems kind of neat, but I'm not sure what the niche is for that class. It seems like a less-combat-ready druid with some weird ancillary abilities. I never actually played a druid in a pre-3e edition. What's up with the old-school druid? Is it Swords & Wizardry I presume? Because that's what Rappan Athuk was built for and so I am basing my understanding of the class upon that. Druids are kind of like gimmick Clerics in that they are a sort of part-fighter part-mage. However they have more armor and weapon restrictions so they won't be as tanky. Their powers are a bit more situational, focused on outdoors stuff and animals and plants. As I have not read most of Rappan Athuk I cannot attest to how common thorn-bushes, fey, and the like will be in that. They can cure wounds as a cleric but as a 2nd-level spell rather than first. Produce Flame and Call Lightning are their big offensive powers, but the latter is meant to be used outdoors (which most of Rappan Athuk is not). I don't know if this is a one-off game or a long-term campaign, but as Rappan Athuk goes from levels 1 to 20 you want to check with your GM on if he wants to do the whole "fight the next highest druid tournament-style to gain a level." Their shapechange is slightly different: quote:At fifth level, a Druid can change shape into the form of an animal. The animal’s size can range from that of a crow to that of a black bear (but not a huge bear such as a grizzly or polar bear). The druid can change into as many as three different animal forms per day – one from each category of reptile, mammal, and bird – but only once for each form within a single day. When the Druid shapeshifts, 1d6 x10% of any lost hit points are cured in the transformation. Being rules-lite it does not specify how many special abilities you can use, but it's implied that all of the animal's natural abilities you should be able to use. It also does not have a listed duration, so it may be implied to be indefinite. Given that quite a few animals have small sizes, multiple attacks, and different movement speeds, wild shape is going to be your friend. TL;DR In short I'd recommend a druid unless you have a GM who isn't too restrictive on the wild shape and/or your campaign features a lot of woodsy environments.
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Apr 13, 2018 21:20
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My MCC stuff came in. I feel like the humans are definitely not as interesting as DCC, and if I ran an MCC campaign I would allow human players to play classes from DCC. Otherwise it's top notch and you can't beat the value from that kickstarter.
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Apr 20, 2018 02:00
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May be worth checking out Umerica and the classes that come with that - there's a Wasteland version of most of the generic DCC classes in there.
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Apr 20, 2018 02:13
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Okay, here’s another fun D&D existential question for you. If the default setting has a bunch of high level wizards and knights, and the characters are essentially graduated dirt farmers, why are the characters the ones finding unplundered ancient treasure?
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Apr 23, 2018 20:11
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DalaranJ posted:Okay, here’s another fun D&D existential question for you. If the default setting has a bunch of high level wizards and knights, and the characters are essentially graduated dirt farmers, why are the characters the ones finding unplundered ancient treasure? more than likely there was a recent apocalypse or at least a civilization decline that left behind a lot of poo poo to go and grab. high-level wizards and knights are probably too smart or busy to go poking around in every old tomb or crumbling castle for weird poo poo
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Apr 23, 2018 20:17
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Yeah PCs generally take up the role of an adventurer but that doesn't mean that every powerful wizard does so.
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Apr 23, 2018 20:18
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DalaranJ posted:Okay, here’s another fun D&D existential question for you. If the default setting has a bunch of high level wizards and knights, and the characters are essentially graduated dirt farmers, why are the characters the ones finding unplundered ancient treasure? Neither group can be arsed to go into a dungeon and live on iron rations and stale water and risk being gibbed by some gently caress-you trap they forgot to plan for. They're done with that. That's for poor assholes with a 10' pole and a dream. Assholes like you. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Apr 23, 2018 |
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Apr 23, 2018 20:25
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Something that fell away from new editions (let's say 3.5 and beyond) is that there was an expectation you would graduate to more administrative stuff. BECMI largely kept this but even by 2E you were an adventurer from level 1 to 20, just now exploring the planes and fighting gods instead of dungeons and dragons.
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Apr 23, 2018 20:36
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DalaranJ posted:Okay, here’s another fun D&D existential question for you. If the default setting has a bunch of high level wizards and knights, and the characters are essentially graduated dirt farmers, why are the characters the ones finding unplundered ancient treasure? The unplundered (but possibly not ancient) treasures are from wizards and knights who have died and left their holdings abandoned.
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Apr 24, 2018 05:31
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gradenko_2000 posted:The unplundered (but possibly not ancient) treasures are from wizards and knights who have died and left their holdings abandoned. Technically a PC could do this, but then they arent "an adventurer" and arent actually in the cast.
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Apr 24, 2018 07:58
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FRINGE posted:Technically a PC could do this, but then they arent "an adventurer" and arent actually in the cast.
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Apr 24, 2018 14:03
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Halloween Jack posted:This reeks of storygaming! Ya, those safe characters are part of the story, not part of the game
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Apr 24, 2018 16:05
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Halloween Jack posted:Here's the best I can do: Wizards, in accordance with the later Dying Earth stories, are a bunch of rich weirdos with their heads up their own asses. They're playing around in their laboratories, or hanging out at their wizard gentleman's club getting drunk and eating spotted dick, or doing a Wooster & Jeeves schtick with their weird monster servants. Lords and Patriarchs are making income by taxing the peasants, and are busy building castles and fighting each other honor and more money, typical rear end in a top hat knight. I got this impression when I read about OD&D castle hex reactions. Oh, hey let’s visit that castle, we could either get geased or stabbed through with a lance. al-azad posted:Something that fell away from new editions (let's say 3.5 and beyond) is that there was an expectation you would graduate to more administrative stuff. BECMI largely kept this but even by 2E you were an adventurer from level 1 to 20, just now exploring the planes and fighting gods instead of dungeons and dragons. Do you think the abandonment of kingdom management was because the player feedback was bad, or because they wanted to keep with the fiction their authors were writing? Or some other reason?
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Apr 24, 2018 16:41
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IME D&D never had great rules for handling stuff beyond the individual level. Like, IIRC the rules for building your own castle were more focused on literally mapping out all the turrets and staircases and poo poo instead of good rules for mass combat and domain management. It probably got left behind for the same reason that careful tracking of maps, time, and logistics fell by the wayside--the way that D&D modeled it is too fiddly for most people.
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Apr 24, 2018 16:46
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I don't think anyone shows up to a dnd campaign expecting a kingdom management game instead of dungeon crawling/world saving/what have you. If they wanted kingdom management maybe they'd play a game designed for it where you do it from level 1.
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Apr 24, 2018 16:51
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Patrick Stuart reviews Dungeon Dozen's creator's Operation Unfathomable.
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Apr 24, 2018 19:57
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:I don't think anyone shows up to a dnd campaign expecting a kingdom management game instead of dungeon crawling/world saving/what have you. If they wanted kingdom management maybe they'd play a game designed for it where you do it from level 1.
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Apr 24, 2018 20:04
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Halloween Jack posted:IME D&D never had great rules for handling stuff beyond the individual level. Like, IIRC the rules for building your own castle were more focused on literally mapping out all the turrets and staircases and poo poo instead of good rules for mass combat and domain management. The Rules Cyclopedia has rules for mass combat that I recall being at least OK.
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Apr 24, 2018 20:05
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DalaranJ posted:I got this impression when I read about OD&D castle hex reactions. Oh, hey let’s visit that castle, we could either get geased or stabbed through with a lance. I think TSR wanted to distance themselves from the wargame roots, or probably more accurately they wanted the core material to be as simple as possible. There was no shortage of first and third party supplements to expand on kingdom management and Dragon magazine was a dumping ground for simulationist ideas that no new player should be exposed to out of the gates. Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:I don't think anyone shows up to a dnd campaign expecting a kingdom management game instead of dungeon crawling/world saving/what have you. If they wanted kingdom management maybe they'd play a game designed for it where you do it from level 1. I don't know, strongholds are cool. No, it's not fun to spend every session with a spreadsheet in hand as you count every coin in the coffers but making broad decisions about a central spot, a hub location if you will, is fun. It's funny that there are a handful of video games that use RPG "stronghold" concepts like Suikoden, Dragon Quest 5, Baldur's Gate 2, and Dragon Age Inquisition (hell, even Metal Gear Solid 5) yet it's still such a rarity that whenever a game includes one (like the recent Ni no Kuni 2) it ends up becoming front page news.
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Apr 24, 2018 20:52
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Payndz posted:Well holy crap, I actually managed to do it. You All Meet In A Tavern is here, at v0.1 status ready to be examined and poked with sharp sticks. Comments welcome! This is good. The reason I haven't written something up on it is that I fell deathly ill the very day you released it and was wiped out all that weekend. I've read it now but have been distracted, so you'll have to wait a bit longer. Here's my next question. What do you think are the pros and cons of having extremely generic 'classes' as in D&D rather than classes that are more strongly setting themed? (I understand this is a thin line I'm treading since a lot of examples of setting defined 'classes' like AW's Brainer or BITD's Leech are in certain manners archetypal themselves. And Vancian spellcasting is a rather peculiar specificity of D&D casters.) I'm currently digesting the original Tekumel so I may make a brief effortpost about characters in that soon too.
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Apr 27, 2018 05:57
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DnD really runs the gamut of generic to specific with the classes. A fighter or thief is generic, a bard or paladin isn’t. I prefer generic stuff when there’s more customisation.
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Apr 27, 2018 10:36
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Really looking forward to a Tekumel write up. Ever since I read a few Grognardia posts on it ages ago, it's always seemed curious but I've never had the desire to really do a read of it myself.
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Apr 27, 2018 12:57
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I saw a box set of Dungeonesque in the local game store, but looking around online it's apparently not very good. What's the deal?
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Apr 27, 2018 23:17
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Pollyanna posted:I saw a box set of Dungeonesque in the local game store, but looking around online it's apparently not very good. What's the deal? it's my understanding that Dungeonesque is largely based on 5e, despite the OSR spackle. I could be wrong though.
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Apr 28, 2018 01:35
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Pollyanna posted:I saw a box set of Dungeonesque in the local game store, but looking around online it's apparently not very good. What's the deal? It's basically 5e Basic Rules with some new art and house rules and is still in need of editing (there's references to a non-existent druid class in a cantrip entry). It also was double-funded via IndieGogo and KickStarter, and all of its products are overpriced. For example, the publisher's selling 1 page adventure PDFs for the ruleset for five dollars. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Apr 28, 2018 |
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Apr 28, 2018 01:48
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