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 New year, new chat thread! This is the place to be for:
All goons welcome. Standard TG/grey forum rules apply. You can find the 2018 thread here.
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Jan 3, 2019 14:08
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| # ? May 8, 2024 21:15 |
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And while we're ringing in a new year, why not check out the resolution thread?
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Jan 3, 2019 14:09
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Elminster did everything wrong.
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Jan 3, 2019 14:14
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I want to know what that title is referring to.
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Jan 3, 2019 14:21
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Arivia posted:I want to know what that title is referring to. The fact that Elminister is terrible.
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Jan 3, 2019 14:22
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and death is certain
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Jan 3, 2019 14:47
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Evil Mastermind posted:The fact that Elminister is terrible. If past experience is anything to go on in the TG industry, that's his single best hope for sticking around.
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Jan 3, 2019 15:10
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I threw a dart at a board and settled on this thread for my question. Are there any decent RPG review podcasts? I love System Mastery but they typically don't review modern or good RPGs. Something that goes over the game system as a whole with detailed dives into the rules.
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Jan 3, 2019 15:38
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I hope for Elminster's death because it's more palatable than hoping for Greenwood's overdue passing.
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Jan 3, 2019 15:43
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Admiral Joeslop posted:I threw a dart at a board and settled on this thread for my question. Are there any decent RPG review podcasts? I love System Mastery but they typically don't review modern or good RPGs. Something that goes over the game system as a whole with detailed dives into the rules. This is a good question that I'd also like to hear the answer to. The thing is, reviewing RPGs is really hard because it takes dozens of hours to even be ready to write a review. And I have no interest in listening to a podcast of someone's first impressions on reading the book unless it's just an excuse to riff and roast a bad book like System Mastery. Obviously System Mastery gets to spend less time on the games they review because they are old and their flaws so apparent, but I bet they can confirm that even their process is significantly time-consuming. And sure, for a game like Fiasco you could probably spend maybe 6 hours to play it a couple of times and then review it. But for a full-featured full-length RPG, to do an in-depth review you'd have to spend probably 20 hours reading and playing. What I've liked in the past is stuff like NPC cast where they do RPG discussions most weeks and then occasionally do a review when they've played a game enough to review it.
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Jan 3, 2019 16:09
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Hell, I'd even like a webpage or similar that does reviews of games with nice easy TL;DR bits like a list of the general resolution mechanics (d20 + bonus, d6 + bonus, Genesys dice) and tone of the book. A note in whether the author is a noted shitheel is a bonus.
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Jan 3, 2019 16:12
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Apropos of nothing, I'm putting the finishing touches on a Patreon. Finally make some cash from the weird games in my head. I'm stressing about this more than I have most job interviews...
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Jan 3, 2019 16:19
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We talked about reviewing good current stuff back in the day. Ultimately there's too many criteria and goalposts. Without the comedy veneer we hide behind we'd just be eating poo poo for not having the right bona fides or not playing the game enough or in the right setting or something. There's no stronger detector of true Scotsmen than a fan of a specific RPG.
theironjef fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Jan 3, 2019 |
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Jan 3, 2019 17:38
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One of the things I really like about SM is that you don't playtest it or go into a deep dive about how the mechanics will work out in practice. You read the book and then review it. And that, especially for a lot of the really old stuff you've done, is I think a pretty good window into how someone would approach these texts and what they'd take away from it, back in the dark ages when people didn't have a ton of context for what these games should be. Even then, it's hard to imagine being a child trying to understand all the weird contradictions and tangents in early D&D, since I was never that kid.
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Jan 3, 2019 17:48
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theironjef posted:We talked about reviewing good current stuff back in the day. Ultimately there's too many criteria and goalposts. Without the comedy veneer we hide behind we'd just be eating poo poo for not having the right bona fides or not playing the game enough or in the right setting or something. There's no stronger detector of true Scotsmen than a fan of a specific RPG. For what it's worth, your DnD 4e review motivated me to run it for my current group. Everyone is having fun but I've noticed that real crunchy combat is not something my players have a deep interest in. They're not interacting with the combat rules as well as I'd like and that's ok, everyone has different preferences and next time I'll be looking at another system.
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Jan 3, 2019 17:54
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That's cool. It's not for everyone, no game is. We were more trying to remind folks that it was a good game once and it had potential.
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Jan 3, 2019 18:31
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theironjef posted:That's cool. It's not for everyone, no game is. We were more trying to remind folks that it was a good game once and it had potential. Frankly, I blame the children. The ones with beards.
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Jan 3, 2019 18:40
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somebody really needs to have a terrible rpg session and post about it. I miss when the cat piss thread was more than just people really happy about the fun they had with friends and telling decent stories.
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Jan 6, 2019 00:40
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Wrestlepig posted:somebody really needs to have a terrible rpg session and post about it. I miss when the cat piss thread was more than just people really happy about the fun they had with friends and telling decent stories. Sounds like you should gather some jerks and get playing!
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Jan 6, 2019 00:54
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Wrestlepig posted:somebody really needs to have a terrible rpg session and post about it. I miss when the cat piss thread was more than just people really happy about the fun they had with friends and telling decent stories. I only have stories of mediocre or non-existant gaming right now. I did find out there's some drama behind one of my play goups that helped lead to that gaming dry spell. Not sure if just gossip about adults acting like children in interpersonal junk outside of the games really makes for a good story tho, especially since it never spilled into a game session, was just some people quietly never being free at the same times.
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Jan 6, 2019 09:44
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Wrestlepig posted:somebody really needs to have a terrible rpg session and post about it. I miss when the cat piss thread was more than just people really happy about the fun they had with friends and telling decent stories. Where's 50 Foot Ant when you need him?
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Jan 6, 2019 12:12
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Wrestlepig posted:somebody really needs to have a terrible rpg session and post about it. I miss when the cat piss thread was more than just people really happy about the fun they had with friends and telling decent stories. I have some stories about a local LARP group I was a part of that I'm trying to put together, but I'm trying to curate them to avoid putting too many personal details, the lawsuits still haven't fully resolved yet.
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Jan 6, 2019 20:28
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I'm going to be starting a new Torg Eternity campaign tonight, but I don't think it's going to be terrible. At least I hope not. 
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Jan 6, 2019 20:31
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We played Black Monk and it was really good but we had to quit at hour four so half the group could fly to the other hemisphere. This is my terrible gaming story for the holidays.
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Jan 6, 2019 20:42
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berenzen posted:I have some stories about a local LARP group I was a part of that I'm trying to put together, but I'm trying to curate them to avoid putting too many personal details, the lawsuits still haven't fully resolved yet. You have our attention.
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Jan 6, 2019 20:44
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berenzen posted:I have some stories about a local LARP group I was a part of that I'm trying to put together, but I'm trying to curate them to avoid putting too many personal details, the lawsuits still haven't fully resolved yet. Just tell me the MES was involved.
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Jan 6, 2019 20:58
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Wrestlepig posted:somebody really needs to have a terrible rpg session and post about it. I miss when the cat piss thread was more than just people really happy about the fun they had with friends and telling decent stories. I get on people's nerves when I talk about running games, and yesterday my group tried to play out a mass combat in D&D 5e.
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Jan 6, 2019 21:15
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hyphz posted:I get on people's nerves when I talk about running games, and yesterday my group tried to play out a mass combat in D&D 5e.
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Jan 6, 2019 21:49
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Yawgmoth posted:I'd read the story of how well that went. You’d regret it. With no area casters at our level, it basically went “I shoot it”. Oh, and the orcs we were fighting ran right over the battlements and started killing the peasants behind them because it wasn’t a hard climb check and nothing said they had to stop.
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Jan 6, 2019 22:02
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How has 6 Feats Under been? I haven't heard from them in a while. Either they have disbanded or there is a large backlog to get caught up on.
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Jan 6, 2019 23:17
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More games need a good mass battle system, it's something you'd really want to get right. I guess with old games you just break out the wargame stuff.
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Jan 6, 2019 23:48
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Rogue Trader actually has a weirdly good space fleet/mass battle system, way better than most of the game's other mechanics. It has a decent strategic element but is pretty abstracted and lightweight, but has rules for characters directly intervening to turn the tide.
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Jan 6, 2019 23:55
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Covok posted:How has 6 Feats Under been? I haven't heard from them in a while. Either they have disbanded or there is a large backlog to get caught up on. New episodes every week, alternating between our Fellowship and Mouse Guard campaigns. The host platform of our beloved website just began folding over December, but the episodes themselves are unaffected. https://feats.podbean.com/
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Jan 6, 2019 23:59
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Covok posted:How has 6 Feats Under been? I haven't heard from them in a while. Either they have disbanded or there is a large backlog to get caught up on. mouse guard campaign is v. good, i'm catching up on a year or so of backlog (almost finished with summer) and i'm enjoying it immensely, everyone is cute and entertaining fellowship is probably also good but i wasn't really feeling the first couple of episodes when they were coming out so i'm waiting till i'm caught up on mouse guard to give it another try
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Jan 7, 2019 04:24
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Michael Stackpole resigned from the GAMA board. Highlights:quote:The board is broken when the organization’s membership indicates its will; and then the board commissions a poll to second guess the membership’s will. When that poll comes back confirming what the membership wants, the board hires a lawyer to tell them they can ignore the membership. The second incident there is, specifically, the president of the GAMA board, who got frustrated with some logistics SNAFU with his booth at GenCon and was an rear end to security. According to Brissaud (the president) he was just an rear end to security and "brushed past" them, ignoring their request to see his badge. He almost immediately posted a pretty okay-seeming apology. But there was a delayed assault police report, and photos of what look like bruises from being grabbed very hard on the arms of the security guard. Personally, I'm a big fan of getting the answer I don't want twice from the community and then hiring a lawyer to tell me I can ignore it anyway. I remember seeing GAMA logos in my old Middle-earth RPG books and on some other stuff. Does anyone do that anymore? I also remember Stackpole's Star Wars trilogy, "Black Fleet" or something, being really goddamn boring and sort of a proto-Yuuzhan Vong storyline.
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Jan 7, 2019 05:35
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Wrestlepig posted:More games need a good mass battle system, it's something you'd really want to get right. I guess with old games you just break out the wargame stuff. What do you want it to be like? The players control the whole army - like you stop playing your characters and just play a wargame for a bit? The players fight in the battle like heroes in a MOBA while the NPCs run alongside them being mostly meaningless? The players take on specific actions that can affect the outcome of specific objectives while most of the battle is decided without regard to their actions, either by fiat or by some other system? For the first, you have to make a system that works better than just literally breaking out a wargame at the table and playing that for a bit. For the second, most games with tactical combat just do fine with that by reskinning enemies to be hordes of foes cut down like wheat before the reaper. Games that don't support reskinning have more trouble with this. For the third, you have to answer the question - why aren't we just using the game's basic skills or whatever system to resolve the players' objective? What does an additional system bring? I briefly playtested a system along the lines of the third option to put in Strike! and it was not great so I put it aside. There are cool ideas in it, but unless I can figure out how to fix the problems, I can't see why I'd want to use it over normal skill rolls.
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Jan 7, 2019 06:10
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Yeah I'm kinda of the same opinion I don't think most games need mass battle rules or subsystems for everything, they need good flexible skill and challenge systems that are abstracted enough to make sense for whatever's gonna happen in the game. Like a mass battle is either a set piece for a fight the PCs are a part of, in which case it's terrain and the setting for their encounter. Or it's the narrative stake/cost and complication for the rest of the campaign and story.
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Jan 7, 2019 06:20
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On the subject of mass combat, people want mass combat rules because they feel obliged to keep "playing the game", but it's also not as simple as saying "just do it in Frostgrave / Warhammer / Risk" because learning an entirely new system for a single chapter of your campaign, plus all the associated conversion work, is a lot to ask. Hell, even dedicated mass combat rulesets aren't a good solution, because they still usually involve enough conversion and new rules that you're still going to need an evening of relearning a bunch of stuff. The "real" answer is to continue playing your characters at the same scale as you previously did, but with the challenges and obstacles set around in the context of a marching army, or a pitched battle, but I think a lot of people just get too caught up in the area that once you're commanding a 10,000 soldiers, that the game should "zoom out" and let you actually command them. That Old Tree posted:I also remember Stackpole's Star Wars trilogy, "Black Fleet" or something, being really goddamn boring and sort of a proto-Yuuzhan Vong storyline. The Black Fleet Crisis was by Michael P. Kube-McDowell Michael Stackpole was behind the X-Wing Rogue Squadron series, which in my opinion is probably the best that the EU ever got (not a particularly high bar, but there you go)
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Jan 7, 2019 07:15
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gradenko_2000 posted:The Black Fleet Crisis was by Michael P. Kube-McDowell Aaron Allston's Wraith Squadron books were much better, but other than that I agree with you. It's actually a really good example of how a set of characters with very different backgrounds can work together in a campaign whose theme they shouldn't really integrate well with.
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Jan 7, 2019 08:14
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| # ? May 8, 2024 21:15 |
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Our DM today brought out the Duck of Many Things It turned one of our PCs into a cow
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Jan 7, 2019 08:14
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