TG March Chat Thread: Happy Saint Cuthbert's Day

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > TG March Chat Thread: Happy Saint Cuthbert's Day

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

DalaranJ posted:

Yes, I would like someone to make a 'Monster Hunter' RPG, TIA.

I did this once. I don't remember what system I cobbled it together out of but it consisted of a death priestess, a raptor-riding knight, and the hero of the cat people going on fishing trips and accidentally catching giant monsters that they then had to battle, and other similar shennanigans while trying to make exotic hats.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2015 07:42

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# ¿ May 13, 2024 17:12

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Kai Tave posted:

I didn't even think it was that controversial that AD&D2E was the Bad For Thieves edition, even fans of 2E pretty much agree that playing a straight-class Thief is a sucker's game in that one.

My first ever PC in any RPG ever was a 2e Thief. It's a wonder I got into this hobby at all after that.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2015 22:28

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Plague of Hats posted:

What games have a mechanic similar to 13th Age's escalation die?

Feng Shui drat well should've and would've benefited immensely from it but didn't.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2015 06:24

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Plague of Hats posted:

Now that I think of it, every single game I was ever in that went for "replacement PCs start at level 1" never got to a point that it mattered. Through some combination of GMs giving no fucks about the rules that could get you killed, PCs being too survivable by the time a meaningful level difference would result, rare careful action from the players, or the even rarer "dude quit because he doesn't want to restart at level 1." People kept trying it, but it seems like the natural state even discounting players quitting over it was just total avoidance even from those who seemed excited by the idea. And I haven't even seen somebody go for that poo poo in maybe over a decade.

Any time we've played a game like this in my groups, if someone dies they come back in at the same level as everyone else because gently caress that.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2015 07:33

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Evil Mastermind posted:

I honestly don't think I've ever been in a PbP game that didn't just fade.

I tried running a pair and just came to the conclusion it's not a gaming style that's for me, you know? It just doesn't work for me.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2015 20:24

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I've been gaming with one of my groups since I was still in Undergrad 7 years ago, and we've run multiple long-term campaigns to conclusion. I suppose when that's my normal experience, PBP just seems too slow and death-prone to be especially interesting, especially as I'm used to writing longer plots.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2015 20:31

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I'd say a good third of my campaigns actually see a narrative conclusion. Usually the ones we're enjoying the most, because everyone wants to stick with that game and see where it goes.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2015 00:45

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Kai Tave posted:

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you're willing to sit down and run crunchy, rule-heavy games at the tabletop there really isn't that much appreciable difference in doing it via PbP. You've already committed yourself to playing AD&D2E or FantasyCraft or HERO or whatever, doing it over a computer doesn't magically make it ten times more demanding. All that hard work? You'd be doing that poo poo anyway.

It does. Take WH40KRP: In person, the fact that people are going to miss shots relatively often stretches combat out an extra 20-30 minutes. In PbP it could conceivably do it an extra 3 weeks. One of these is way more likely to cause strain than the other.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2015 02:05

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Evil Sagan posted:

poo poo. I just looked up TORG, and this game looks amazing. What are the issues with it?

Read the F&F review of the mechanics and I think you'll see it.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2015 00:12

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Kai Tave posted:

Basically everything.

The sightly more expanded version is that the rules are about on par with Rifts and the writers seem strangely reluctant to allow anyone to indulge in the sort of hijinks you'd expect from a game of various realities competing for dominance. Don't expect to go riding a dinosaur into Cyber-France to fight the agents of the Cyber-Pope along with your pulp adventure archaeologist buddy, because there are like a million fiddly loving rules in place designed to ruin your day for even thinking about trying to do that poo poo.

Which is funny because, you know, why else would you be playing The Game of Magic Dimension Hopping Action Heroes except to ride a dinosaur into cyber-france?

Feng Shui made a lot of mistakes. Feng Shui still makes a lot of mistakes. But you know what mistake Feng Shui didn't make? "Hey, no, Jim, if you try to play a twisted future cyberdemon you can't ever actually be a cyberdemon alongside Joanna's Chinese Sorcerer or Bob's Everyman Hero or Steve's Kung Fu Dude."

Night10194 fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Mar 11, 2015

# ¿ Mar 11, 2015 00:34

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Loki_XLII posted:

I would love a Feng Shui video game. Like, I don't even care about the mechanics, I just want to run around in the setting.

Agreed, yes. The rules mechanics in FS are garbage and don't look that much better in FS2, but goddamn is the setting fun.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2015 06:45

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

ProfessorCirno posted:

Now I'm just remembering that "review" Ryan Dancey did of Warhammer Fantasy RPG 2e, based on the first edition which came out long before 3e, and called it a poor man's copy of 3e, and listed flaws such as "doesn't use the d20 engine." And made a chunk of his "review" into just rattling on about how Chris Pramas is when he works at WotC, which was unrelated to everything. And yet somehow didn't mention anything about fate points or insanity rolls or anything else unique in WHFRG, but was sure to point out that it was basically just "humans, elves, dwarfs (sic), and halflings who become more powerful over time as they kill monsters, take their stuff, and power up."

I've played a lot of WHFRP2e, and I don't think 'kill monsters, take their stuff, and power up' has ever described a campaign I've been in. It's usually more 'Jesus christ everything in this world is ridiculous dangerous and we're constantly poor and society thinks we're insane for being adventurers but we've got to save Yon Village anyway because no-one else will.'

And then eventually graduating to staking some vampire count or battling a Chaos Lord in the final act and saving way more than Yon Village.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2015 07:02

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

ProfessorCirno posted:

"If you are looking for more "flavor" material to help you understand the Warhammer Fantasy world, then the first half of this book will be helpful. If you can figure out for yourself why demons, orcs, skaven, dragons, ogres, and vampires are evil and should be killed & looted, you may wonder what you're supposed to do with 65 pages of average or below-average quality, stream of conscious, intentionally error-riddled fiction."

The more I read about him the more I'm convinced Ryan Dancey is some kind of ridiculous ancient imp that escaped from a mystic puzzle box and exists as a sort of test of wits for gaming companies: Are you wise enough not to listen to his counsel and invite ruin by his mischief?

# ¿ Mar 11, 2015 07:15

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Blockhouse posted:

I've heard enough horror stories about pathfinder rules to chase me off but on the other hand the dumb throw-everything-in setting sounds exactly like something I'd like. Should I look into it? Make decisions for me, TG chat.

Imagine if every individual element present was executed in the most boring and cliche way possible. Then you have Golarion, world of Shining Paladin God, Angry Devil God, Fantasy America, Fantasy Nazis (Who Are Totally Neutral And Just Misunderstood And Have Cool Uniforms), etc.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2015 17:00

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

FishFood posted:

Who are the Nazzys? I'm haven't looked at a Pathfinder book in like 2 years.

Hellknights.

Also, we've had plenty of union disputes and things in our games, because I believe in Donn Throgg, fighter for the rights of Half Orc and Orcish factory workers and first Half Orc on the Industrial Council of Tarrant. Arcanum showed me ages ago how much fun you can have doing Steampunk-ish stuff from the perspective of the underclass and their struggles against the assholes in top-hats and goggles.

Night10194 fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Mar 11, 2015

# ¿ Mar 11, 2015 19:42

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

While on the subject of weird kitchen sink settings...what IS it people see in Exalted's setting? I always hear 'It's a terrible rules system with an awesome setting and oh man the setting is so cool!' but it always seems kinda bland when described.

Well, when it isn't being terrible with all the creepy sex poo poo.

# ¿ Mar 12, 2015 00:42

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Simian_Prime posted:

The tick mechanic was taken from Feng Shui (a lot of Exalted mechanics were basically a clumsy attempt to graft Feng Shui's innovations onto the Storyteller system). It worked ok for FS because the system didn't really have much in the way of moving parts, but once you started being able to manipulate the battle wheel with extra action Charms and weapon speeds it became a total clusterfuck.

Wait. So Exalted was basically an attempt to remake Feng Shui in Storyteller? That explains a hell of a lot about its reputation.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2015 02:23

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Feng Shui's combat ticks were a terrible mechanic too, mind. They don't work well in a highly freeform narrative heavy fighting system. Nor did most of the other combat rules!

# ¿ Mar 13, 2015 02:30

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

dwarf74 posted:

I love the shot counter. Since there's no complex maps and whatnot, it serves the system very well.

I have the same problem with it I have with any 'One stat lets you take more actions and do more things' system. High Spd is highly overvalued by having an action point system, especially when Ref was linked to every major combat skill, too.

Note: Still talking about FS1. I can't remember if FS2 ported over the shot counter or not, as it's been a long time since I looked at the draft and decided it didn't fix my fundamental issues with the mechanics and I'd rather back Pathologic.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2015 05:08

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I love the setting. I'm not sure what system I'd run it in, but after around 5 FS campaigns, you start to really hate the d6-d6 mechanic.

Night10194 fucked around with this message at 06:10 on Mar 13, 2015

# ¿ Mar 13, 2015 06:07

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Are there any RPGs where people legitimately enjoy the combat mechanics as mechanics? Like, beyond the narrative it creates, actually have fun fighting because of the mechanics?

# ¿ Mar 13, 2015 07:27

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Oh, I'm not asking in a dismissive way; I'm asking because I want to read/study some new systems that 'get it right', so to speak.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2015 07:32

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I'm always kinda sad I basically missed 4e due to doing pretty much all my RPG playing on IRC or with people who were diehard 3.5 champions back during its heyday. I should give it a try some day.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2015 18:13

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Where can I find Legend of Wulin/Weapons of the Gods? It sounds like something I'd enjoy. Is it on Drivethru?

# ¿ Mar 14, 2015 02:28

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Davin Valkri posted:

I don't think I've ever played one of those hyperlethal games before. The idea of rolling to make my character makes me a little confused, to be honest.

It can be fun sometimes to find out if you're gonna be a noble, a rat catcher, or a sad russian.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2015 05:41

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

TheLovablePlutonis posted:

a cool adversarial gming system could be fantasy dark souls where the PCs just spawn back in bonfires

I tried this once, the only problem was when only some of them would survive and thus sorta split the party. It was a bit annoying logistically.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2015 15:32

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

LuiCypher posted:

The Warhams 40k RPGs also suggest that you can not have mooks crit, instead reserving it for special opponents, but then they basically call you a pansy for doing so.

I'm not really sure that counts.

Actually, the original one tells you absolutely do not have mooks crit. It's only Only War that starts calling you a pansy for it and mostly because the crits were modified to be unable to one-shot anyone anymore for that one.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2015 19:18

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

occamsnailfile posted:

For Only War it seems fairly appropriate to get splattered in wildly implausible ways, but all those 40K RPGs had seriously tedious character generation which goes back to the meatgrinder problems mentioned above.

Well, also, Only War starts out sorta-maybe low powered and then rockets into the stratosphere of action herodom as hard as possible, as fast as possible. Except you're still made of balsa wood.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2015 21:51

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

ProfessorCirno posted:

One idea I've had is that everyone - enemy and PC - acts simultaniously (outside of maybe a talent for specific situations). It'd probably work best if it was some kinda card based game so everyone would lay their card down and flip it together to see what went down.

Another interesting idea was how they did it in 1E Ironclaw, where there were Initiative Ranks (1-2-3-4) in a round. You could choose to attack first (going in rank 1) or attack Hard (+1 Damage, which increased the size of every die in your damage pool up 1, which was a big deal), or Sure (+1 to hit, same thing). If you hit an enemy and did damage, there was a chance you staggered them out of their action for the round, but the bonuses for going second-rank were huge, as were the benefits for going 3rd rank to focus or make special attacks. If two people acted on the same rank they still had to work out priority, but it worked pretty well to add some extra strategy to duels.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2015 20:10

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

FactsAreUseless posted:

More tactile, arguably they can give players a greater level of control (having a hand of cards to choose from vs. drawing one card/rolling a die).

Also way harder to use on-line.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2015 23:01

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Evil Mastermind posted:

Who knows. It was part of the Perception skill description.

I mean, this whole thing screams "WE ONLY EVER PLAYED D&D" more loudly than anything I've ever seen. They use "unlike Dungeons & Dragons" three times within four paragraphs on the Items page.

You know, I can never get mad at someone for playing D&D and thinking 'Man, you know, this could be better.' I know it mostly only leads to heartbreakers but it's a perfectly natural instinct.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2015 20:30

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Galaga Galaxian posted:

I don't even know what a Modron is.

Ettin's avatar is a Modron.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2015 06:04

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

SunAndSpring posted:

I feel like Planescape would fit in super nicely into 13th Age, but I might be biased because I really like 13th Age.

I really like 13th age for anything I would've used D&D for in days past, too, and one of the campaigns I'm running in it will be heading to Sigil eventually, so we will FIND OUT.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2015 01:48

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

I'm curious. I found my old collection of Magic cards while going through my stuff to clean out my old room this week. Where would I take them to get them appraised? I know at least a few of the cards I have are valuable and I have no idea how to find out what they're worth or sell them, not having played since high school.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2015 02:43

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Lord Frisk posted:

Go to Coolstuffinc.com and look them up by block. That's low going rate, and you could probably ask 125% of the CSI offer provided the cards are clean and undamaged. Selling individually will get you more money, but also more hassle.

Thanks a lot.

# ¿ Mar 21, 2015 03:10

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Turtlicious posted:

Does anyone use legos or building sets when they're playing games like DnD? I've been looking for a good building block set, (or even like magformers,) for building dungeons, node maps, stuff like that but I'm having issues picking one. Would definitely love some recommendations.

First game I ever played in did this for all combat and it was a lot of fun, actually.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2015 03:09

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Mors Rattus posted:

Continuum is many things but I have never before seen it accused of being boring.

I dunno, I'd think a completely unplayable game was sort of boring.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2015 00:52

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Kai Tave posted:

a nation of reformed villains trying to make good with mixed results

This is always a good time. Reformed supervillains and dark lords who keep slipping into the old habits are great.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2015 06:12

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Cyphoderus posted:

Other heavy-hitters of Brazilian folklore include a headless horse who spits fire through its nose, the eighth son after seven daughters becoming a werewolf (like a Discworld wizard went wrong), "huge snake only it's on fire", that guy with beer bottles for feet which I never got the point of, pipe-smoking half-naked one-legged black child, and a sexy porpoise.

"Huge Snake Only It's On Fire" sounds pretty legit.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2015 21:59

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# ¿ May 13, 2024 17:12

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

The main problem is Step 2 is really easy to get sucked deep into if you're trying to be authentic. Step 2 is a pretty demanding step.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2015 05:53

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