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Kai Tave posted:I don't. My personal experience is that in general games that try to present asymmetric choices to players in the vein of "this option is real simple, while this one is more complex!" invariably gently caress it up somehow. I feel that games ought to establish a targeted baseline level of complexity/interactivity for all choices and design things around that level, and if someone thinks the game is too simplistic or too complex then they can play a different game, of which there are many to choose from. I don't think it actually benefits a game to try and cater to both, to go for the stereotypical example, someone who's really invested in the game and consequently knows how to exploit the hell out of all the tools at their disposal and the guy who shows up just to drink beer and occasionally hit stuff with an axe when he remembers it's his turn. Like in 3.X where the Fighter was the simple class, so all you had to do to play it simply was make sure your stats were exactly right to pick the definitely correct feat choices that you wouldn't have to make til much later in play. Simple!
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Mar 11, 2018 02:33
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That Old Tree posted:Did 3.0 even "mandate" you use a grid? Didn't it just give up the fiction that the rules weren't absolutely built around gridded/mapped combat? I was about to post the screenshot of the "things you'll need" section of the 3e PHB when suddenly I remembered I've changed computers a lot since 2009.
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Mar 11, 2018 05:49
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This is tricky for us because a lot of the games we review are legitimately hard to find anyway. But when they are on DTRPG, we have a link right there on the site and we know people are using it (because we get 5% if they buy something). Really though it wouldn't be hard for me to do some basic legwork to help sell the in print stuff, it'd just compromise my principles to say "this game calls trans people drag queens and treats them like hilarious traps, and you can buy it for a low low price at the following link!" Comrade Gorbash posted:Another thing that's different with actual plays that I've heard talked about : the GM has to be more cognizant of ending at a place that makes for a good episode. Not only does that influence pacing a lot, but it sometimes means the group will push through another half hour to get to an end point when in a home game you'd just call it a night. Running AP is so different from just gaming that it's almost better if the players aren't especially experienced gamers. The ones I've done have all at least had timed breakpoints, like "we should shoot for some sort of climax at the one hour mark, and you two should have the argument that's been brewing." Verité is boring to listen to. theironjef fucked around with this message at 21:06 on Mar 13, 2018 |
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Mar 13, 2018 21:03
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Admiral Joeslop posted:It blows my mind that people would set up false accusations against the One Shot people. Or at least, false in that one case. They're such nice people, I've met them and JPC has liked several of my Tweet responses to him, we're practically best friends. They're honestly medium large for a podcast lacking a celebrity or a McElroy. Big if you factor in the AP angle. Six times our size anyway dang it.
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Mar 16, 2018 04:09
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Just to be clear, that's the anime that made Alexandre Dumas look like a checkerboard-teeth Niles Crane white dude, right? It's like, straight up some racist poo poo?
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May 26, 2018 00:13
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I remember trying to watch it when it was briefly on Netflix. I turned it off a few episodes in, it was definitely going to be one of those shows where the characters never stop explaining the unreasonably complicated and arcane rules to themselves and each other in excruciating detail for the majority of each episode instead of doing anything.
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May 26, 2018 06:36
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Hah eleven nods for Starfinder. Good times.
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Jul 6, 2018 05:51
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No, the article came down. They're busy unfurling the Mission Accomplished banner.
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Jul 11, 2018 04:21
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I am sure that this is just an optics thing, and that the guy is actually fine, but one of my favorite crazy things to come out of White Wolf is that their opening salvo in an attempt to repair relations with their not horrible internet part of their fanbase is to engage a guy who calls himself the Gentleman Gamer.
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Jul 18, 2018 06:56
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MTG would basically need a ground-up redesign to be exciting to watch in play. Right now it's two guys riffle shuffling at each other, asking to see graveyards, durdling around with private information deck control, all manner of poo poo that would bore an ardent fan, all "oh, he's once again using Sensei's Divining Top. This is really heating up." Also there's no personality, the few times I've watched pro magic everyone is dead silent.
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Jul 27, 2018 00:02
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moths posted:It's pretty clearly meant to only mean in physical appearance, and have nothing to do with identity. Basically just another expression of writers not keeping it simple. Why RPG writers feel like they're writing dictionaries I'll never understand. I guess it's because it's normal in writing to get paid by the word? But yeah, this thing is exactly the same as the dozens of old RPGs that specify that Seduction is the art of coercing members of the opposite sex to do what you want them to. They didn't need to go all hetero-normative and they knew that. Even if the book was from the late 70s the author had heard of gay people, 100% of the time. Here we see the author saying "You've got a forgettable and easily disguised face" and thinking "yeah, I can get 100 words out of that."
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Aug 7, 2018 05:13
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I like the random little sympathy tries in there. A priest was mean to me once!
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Nov 18, 2018 06:30
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The ennie podcast nomination thread is going. As always its local favorites Grognard Files and KARTAS walking away with tons of nominations. System Mastery did get a nod so now I'm curious. If we make it past the judges awareness that we think 4e isn't trash, are they going to send us a request for a 15 minute reel? God I hope so.
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Dec 7, 2018 07:39
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15 minute micro episode titled Stormbringer: a Second Chance, but the actual episode is just ripping into it for being pretentious unplayable twaddlecock again.
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Dec 7, 2018 07:55
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clockworkjoe posted:what thread? http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?655415-Taking-nominations-for-best-RPG-Podcasts-of-2018!
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Dec 9, 2018 00:06
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LongDarkNight posted:The darkest timeline. I've always said the problem with Sonic was that he wasn't built like a muscly little baby.
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Dec 10, 2018 16:57
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Nuns with Guns posted:Just thought everyone would like a reminder that the TG Industry has been in a state of active war for 30 years now: Man I wish I could RP good enough to talk like this guy. I love where he can't help himself from diving into alliteration. This reads like it was written by Dr. Smith from Lost in Space.
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Dec 16, 2018 21:30
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Biomute posted:If D&D draws inspiration from LOTR I guess it makes sense for fighters to be kind of poo poo. 
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Dec 21, 2018 06:06
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Biomute posted:I wasn't sure that was even a picture from LOTR, it's just meant to illustrate that swordsmen are plentiful and disposable, while wizards are powerful, to the point of coming back from certain death. Even in the crappiest editions of D&D Fighters are better than the hordes of spear dudes they tend to associate with. The problem mostly stems from there not being a lot of stories with armies of halfway there spellcasters, leaving us with the obvious like "Farmer with a pitchfork -> Man at Arms -> Actual hero of the story Fighter" progression, while wizards just sort of have "Apprentice (still a wizard really) -> Hero Wizard."
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Dec 21, 2018 15:49
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Liquid Communism posted:I'll have to dig into 4e a bit. I somehow skipped from AD&D 2e + Rules Cyclopedia bits direct to 3.5 then PF so I missed on it. Not that I do this especially often often: https://systemmasterypodcast.com/2018/07/03/dungeons-dragons-4th-edition-system-mastery-125/
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Dec 23, 2018 06:07
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I ran Strike! at GenCon this past year and it was basically perfect because I needed a bunch of pregens for a weird custom setting that would be believable for classes that thematically existed in a lot of people's heads but didn't exist in any game yet, and I needed a balanced setting to throw three weird custom encounters at those players, and I knew that all the players wouldn't know how to play the game. So having the two D6 tables for hits and skills was simple, and reskinning the tactical classes to my weird needs was a snap, and the whole thing was a total breeze. I generally like any game that makes building encounters a priority. Didn't use the kits system though, never been a huge fan of it and feel like it kinda butts heads with the tactical part. One thing I did too as a houserule was give every player a skill just named after their (reskinned)class title. That way anything they could reasonably argue was their job was already a skill, which made skills pretty easy.
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Dec 23, 2018 07:27
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Honestly it was really great for what I needed. I made these pregen sheets that basically contained every possible detail the players would need for a short game. We had a few copies of the game around in case anyone really wanted to dig in but time was a factor so I wanted to make it as inclusive as possible from the jump. This guy was built using the Rogue class that's sold separately. Player that got him loved him because of the mobility.  
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Dec 23, 2018 08:17
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Got me there, of the two of us game reviewers in my dumb professional life, only the other guy has an English degree.
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Dec 23, 2018 08:38
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Lemon-Lime posted:I don't agree that Strike tries to present classes with a specific flavour, because it's not actually interested in presenting classes with any kind of narrative theme. I think people are seeing the names and the art and creating a little theme in their heads, yeah. Like this game is about angry child necromancers and robot duelists. It'd maybe help if the classes were just titled like episodes of friends, so everyone saw the mechanical wheels, all like "The One that Interacts with Downed Enemies" and "The Ranged One."
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Dec 24, 2018 04:52
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hyphz posted:I hate to say it but the Archer is one of the worst examples. You’ve got this picture of a dude with a mini gun and then a bunch of abilities that refer specifically to arrows. And moreover, to running out of trick arrows and needing to make more which is kind of difficult to reskin (it’s easy to say power packs or something but then why can you still fire unlimited regular shots? And making a power pack seems to be much riskier and need more specialised equipment or even a factory than making an arrow etc..) But you understand that the picture is just some picture of a ranged weapon guy, right? Like the whole point of the picture is "ranged." Every other element is wholly extraneous. You're not supposed to make that guy.
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Dec 24, 2018 18:36
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He thought they were gonna hire a bunch of old shitbeards he remembered from the old days and then they didn't? Oh I hope those weird old men still get treated like rapey royalty at conventions at the very least.
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Dec 26, 2018 07:54
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I bought Monopoly last week but returned it because it didn't come with a way for me to force people to play it with me. Should have at least had some heavy twine and a cattle prod in there.
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Dec 28, 2018 02:03
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No see it's cool to be a trans or NB character as long as you're a joke I've been hearing since the 80s. "What?" I exclaimed, "That bearded dwarf is ordering a white wine spritzer! That's the drink of a lady!" Then i guffawed like Paul F. Tompkins. Representation!
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Dec 29, 2018 05:02
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It's basically too late to fix now. It'd be like saying "In Greyhawk human being just means 'wise leader.'" Damage is done, players can't be trusted, if anything you're just enabling more old stereotype jokes. Oh, and everyone's going to read it as some sort of half-rear end dodge.
theironjef fucked around with this message at 06:23 on Dec 29, 2018 |
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Dec 29, 2018 06:19
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homullus posted:It's too bad Eberron, Dark Sun, Planescape, and Spelljammer were D&D settings, because now we will never see any of them ever again. They're not popular enough within D&D to get more than cursory treatment, and will never be released in a system-agnostic way until the sweet release of Man I am so glad you said Spelljammer. At first everyone was saying Starjammer and I was like "No man I'm sure that's the X-Team that Cyclops' dad is on." All doubting myself. The thing about Planescape is that it was built with level progression in tiers in mind. Low level characters are supposed to bum around the relatively safe Sigil and do gangland adventure stuff. Minor tasks for the factions and fighting brain rats in the razor hedges. Then when you gain a few levels you're supposed to go play around in the Plane of Concordant Opposition and stop little hamlets from sliding into Hell and stuff. Maybe fight a Cambion. Then all of a sudden you're high level and running around having weird planar adventures same as most parties but now you've got a fun cockney base. It was neat.
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Dec 31, 2018 04:39
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One of my old high school buddies was incensed that 4e Dark Sun existed at all because it didn't have the exact Preserver/Defiler mechanics that 2e did, apparently they were one of the few things he actively liked about D&D at all.
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Jan 1, 2019 03:34
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Pieces of Peace posted:A question I have long pondered. I have a couple of possible ideas that I haven't actually tried myself or technically read the books all the way through - Remnants is an Iron Age/fallen empire setting mecha game, with simplistic mecha that have a couple gimmicks. Double Cross is probably one of the best superhero RPGs out there and Tenno are basically murder-superheroes. Some kind of Godbound + Stars Without Number combo might also get you to it. In my mind you need something fast, powerful, and fluid in gameplay, emphasizing your ability to just wreck hundreds of lesser enemies, but then be challenged by bosses. Something with a good mook system but not too much tactical complexity. You could probably start with a PBTA hack but you'd want to have some idea what your gameplay cycle is going to be - does it emphasize inevitable betrayal between Tenno, being individually powerful but only able to affect the balance of power between massive and kinda jerk-rear end factions? Warframe has a couple of thematic conflicts that could be expanded into a game conflict but without picking a serious theme and some kind of cyclical element, I find PBTA hacks tend to be haphazard and confused. Needs a mechanic where sometimes you have to play alone even though it shows three open squads goddamnit!
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Jan 1, 2019 05:12
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AlphaDog posted:There's roleplay stuff too, but that's the mechanic. It's a no-dumber-than-usual 2nd ed implementation of a very cool thematic idea, but I wouldn't have thought it was anything to get excited about. Yeah, I was real surprised to get such a vociferous response about it. He really liked the thematics of having to choose between lovely spellcasting and destroying the world, I guess.
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Jan 1, 2019 16:06
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Loomer posted:"Soldiers don't try to get hit!" is right, of course. Of course, soldiers do deliberately draw fire from time to time while trying not to get hit but something tells me a grasp of either ancient, medieval, or modern infantry is beyond them. Soldiers also don't hang out with a thief and a wizard and fight an owlbear over a ring. Any argument that starts with "But soldiers" can be countered with "You don't play as soldiers in this game. Sometimes you kill them, though."
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Jan 27, 2019 08:14
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If you really want it there's an RPG that works for both lines anyway. TMNT And Other Strangeness
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Jan 31, 2019 23:26
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Biomute posted:Keeping things moving along seems to be the main priority in most Actual Plays I've listened to, with players treating it more like an improv session to facilitate this. It makes for better listening, but is minimizes the concept of "the table" as a decision-making entity. Decisions are mostly made by the GM, or the person being asked, not explored communally. Likewise, it seems to leave a lot less room for second-guessing, with players rarely having the option of struggling with where they want to take their characters; they are comitted to off the cuff remarks or decisions. There's differences at the GM and the player level, but the most important difference is in editing. APs truncate the long silences, remove the extraneous not-funny crap that people get into at the table, and do second and third takes on things, all the time.
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Feb 2, 2019 17:28
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Rent-a-Bot posted:Honestly I just wish there were more APs took a bit of an instructional tack and off showed off lesser-known systems, though this is probably more my own selfishness of wanting to see the flow of a game before I buy it. If there were more folks who wanted that it'd happen, but since good AP is expensive to make and most of the big shows are D&D, it's not going to happen without a serious shakeup.
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Feb 4, 2019 05:50
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I'll be honest if they could get POD and merch support integration I could make more money and by extension make them more money.
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Feb 7, 2019 17:48
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Elephant Parade posted:It also handles payment processing, doesn't it? Most processors take a much higher cut from independent artists, from what I know. Also as a podcaster I find their RSS feed indispensable. It's customized per donor to give patrons content their donation level unlocks. Since I make three bonus shows to be distributed at various pledge levels among 800 donors my model really relies on that thing. theironjef fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Feb 7, 2019 |
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Feb 7, 2019 21:55
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:A patreon-like service that just did at-cost payment processing and charged the bare minimum to keep the lights on would be a pretty cool charity. Instead of paying creative folks like a patron of the arts, they facilitate thousands of other people paying artists they like, a huge bump in leverage for relatively little initial effort. Great where's that? Where's any competition at all? Drip is invite only still. If it's so easy why are the competitors the aggressively anti porn PayPal, the very slow kickstarter, and fuckin Hatreon? If making a monthly donation farm is an easy profitable job for a few people, why is no one else really doing it? I'm not on Patreons defense team here, but I've looked into alternatives before and there aren't any realistic ones. I'd love to move on to something else. theironjef fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Feb 8, 2019 |
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Feb 8, 2019 02:12
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