Evil Mastermind posted:

The Escalation Die is a d6 that starts at 1 on the second round of combat, and increases by one each round. It's added to the PC's attack rolls (to represent the spinning-up in combat), and some abilities trigger when the die hits a certain point. Barbarians can rage for free when the Escalation Die is 3+, instead of it coming out of their daily allotment, for instance.

Icons are the major setting NPCs, who the characters have relationships with due to working for or against them. It's a way of having powerful important NPCs that don't make the PCs irrelevant, because the Icons are generally busy doing things like running the world to deal with smaller-level threats, which is what they need PCs for. They're also sources of gear, information, and threats for the characters.

It's a way of solving the Elminster problem; if Elminster is the most powerful wizard in the world and can snap his fingers and solve any problem, then why does he risk having the PCs do it? In 13th Age, it's because the Archmage (the Elminster equivalent) is too busy researching and casting spells that hold reality together or stop mad gods from steamrollering the world to deal with that poo poo.

FactsAreUseless posted:

Lightning Lord posted:

loving literalist, one day you'll goddamn pay you son of a bitch.

TheLovablePlutonis posted:

Enough, worm! Your creepy and unsightly way of shitposting insults the heaven and earth! To prevent you from further sullying the land, my fist shall destroy your flesh and contaminate the very bone within! Messatsu!

Queen Fiona posted:

Well, you're hardly alone there. D&D relies on a bunch of base assumptions of What Roleplaying Should Be that really chafe on...well, lots of people. Including a lot of the people who play it, who seem like they'd be happier playing something else! And this applies even in the case where fantasy, combat-centric murderhobo RPGs are an enjoyed pasttime of the theoretical player!

It's kind of a mess, but it'd be less of a problem if it weren't the RPG, and people weren't so hostile toward trying new systems. Seriously, people are really loving hostile. There's ample evidence of it in the various trials and tribulations people on this board have been through.

Mind you, I try my best to break the mold, so I hope you can still come up with something nice for my campaign

Zarick posted:

D&D is (and always has been) what you make of it. I mean, your game is 13th Age, which is pretty much just fancied up D&D. Mostly the base assumptions of D&D are about What D&D Should Be, which is probably fine for its own thing. I've just never understood the animosity towards it just as I've never understood the animosity within of people who don't want to try new systems. Neither really makes sense. Is it fun? Good. Play it. Is it not fun? Play something else, or mix it up, change things to be fun for your group. Easy.

Davin Valkri posted:

Some of us don't have that option, you realize.

Davin Valkri posted:

Some of us don't have that option, you realize.

FactsAreUseless posted:

Because you're afraid to talk to people like an adult?

FactsAreUseless posted:

Davin if you're being bullied into playing a game you don't like, you can tell us. It's okay. If someone makes you feel pressured into doing something you don't want to do, that person is not really your friend.

Ningyou posted:

YEAH PRETTY MUCH

That loving bugged fog maze thing.

Zarick posted:

D&D is (and always has been) what you make of it. I mean, your game is 13th Age, which is pretty much just fancied up D&D. Mostly the base assumptions of D&D are about What D&D Should Be, which is probably fine for its own thing. I've just never understood the animosity towards it just as I've never understood the animosity within of people who don't want to try new systems. Neither really makes sense. Is it fun? Good. Play it. Is it not fun? Play something else, or mix it up, change things to be fun for your group. Easy.

FactsAreUseless posted:

Because you're afraid to talk to people like an adult?

Lightning Lord posted:

This too. Listen if people in your area just want to play D&D and you don't tell them "No thanks, I'm not a fan" and look for someone who wants to play a game of your choice.

Queen Fiona posted:

It feels like they made a game specifically to make me happy, because Tara Platt always makes me happy (eeeeeeeeee Mitsuru), as does holy poo poo tons of other stuff, but then the gameplay happens.

I feel like I'd enjoy it more than Ningyou, but I wanna play Nier first and ehhhhhhhhhhhhh


All games are defined by their core assumptions, whether one breaks them or not. It's not unhelpful to discuss these assumptions, and where they might cause problems either at the individual game level, or the broader cultural level. It's easy to say 'change things up', and it is indeed a thing people do. But there are people who don't do this, and the framework you create has an effect on every change you make. My own 13th Age campaign, for instance, is seeing characters of substantially higher 'power level' (in terms of uniqueness, flashiness, etc rather than 'they're not dirt farmers ugh') than I originally imagined. Now, it's not bad or anything, and I'm working with it because it's producing a lot of interesting and brilliant apps, but the choice of 13th Age shaped the game's characters in a different way as compared to the other systems I was considering, even when my specific changes are taken into account.

This becomes extremely important when the entire hobby is defined by a single game's brand, so, y'know. Your argument is fine in a context-free vacuum, but we live in a world where things have meanings and connotations past their stated intent. It's an especially poor argument when it's been a go-to answer to shut down any kind of criticism or higher-level analysis of a system, which, surprise surprise, is usually D&D.


Please do not insult my good friends. If your friends don't want to play the games you like, that can be an issue - and people can still be your friends even if you're annoyed that all they play is X system. Confrontation can be difficult, and getting together a game and teaching a new system isn't particularly easy. (I should know!)

Also, don't insult my friends.


Don't insult my friends. This is like the argument of avoiding harassment on Twitter by not using Twitter. I mean, sure, you could probably find a new group in the area, but getting to know new people is hard and full of pitfalls, and those pitfalls only increase with the matter of gender and queerness. The fact that I had a lasting RL group from a pickup game was a loving miracle, and people shouldn't be expected to not be unhappy that their friends don't play the games they want. New friends are hard to make.

I suppose if you treat a game as something completely disposable and interchangeable, that attitude makes more sense, but some of us like to make friends and interact with the people we game with besides Other People Who Play This Game. RPGs aren't like card games or miniature games where the other player doesn't matter so much, or at least I would hope they aren't. Investment in the story is investment in the group, end of line.

FactsAreUseless posted:

You want to see insulting? Well, okay.

*watches old Triumph the Insult Comic Dog sketches and tries to think of something good*

Countblanc posted:

Please do not insult anyone's friends, thank you

Bedlamdan posted:

Can I be yr friend?

FactsAreUseless posted:

Davin if you're being bullied into playing a game you don't like, you can tell us. It's okay. If someone makes you feel pressured into doing something you don't want to do, that person is not really your friend.

FactsAreUseless posted:

I don't know, Lamdan, you might have to get out of bed!

Len posted:

Man you guys are making me want to pick up the 13th Age book because it sounds genuinely interesting. It was goon made wasn't it?

I doubt I will though since it's hard to get people around to play a tabletop RPG and there's already Shadowrun I'm trying to learn.

grassy gnoll posted:

Hey nerd, how about you make some decent posts, like us cool kids.

Len posted:

Man you guys are making me want to pick up the 13th Age book because it sounds genuinely interesting. It was goon made wasn't it?

I doubt I will though since it's hard to get people around to play a tabletop RPG and there's already Shadowrun I'm trying to learn.

Len posted:

Man you guys are making me want to pick up the 13th Age book because it sounds genuinely interesting.

FactsAreUseless posted:

Totally without irony here, 13th Age isn't very good. Tries to do a lot of things and doesn't really manage them. I don't play enough lately to say what's a good tactical combat RPG ala 13th age or D&D, but that's not it.

FactsAreUseless posted:

What's your avatar from?

grassy gnoll posted:

It's the mail cat from Monster Hunter 4.

01011001 posted:

Most of its flaws are the standard D&D stuff that it didn't have the chutzpah to step appreciably away from.

FactsAreUseless posted:

This is what I mean when I say it tries to do too many things. It wants to have its cake and eat it too w/r/t classic D&D mechanics and class design but also having later D&D mechanics and class design and it never meshed well for me.

FactsAreUseless posted:

Same problem with 4e's Essentials, basically.

01011001 posted:

Understandable.


Let's not go too far here.

FactsAreUseless posted:

It's cute, I like it.