|
Orbs are also the worst possible shape for money that isn't just razor blades. It doesn't stack, it doesn't rest on a table, it doesn't tessellate to fill a space. They have none of the conveniences of actual money
|
#
¿
Sep 10, 2019 05:03
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 21, 2024 06:16 |
|
|
JcDent posted:By the way, is nuVamp so dead and boring that nobody ever talks about them? nuVamp isn't really boring, but there is less content so you're going to see less discussion of them in a review thread. Personally, I vastly prefer nuvamp over oldvamp
|
|
#
¿
Sep 20, 2019 21:03
|
|
|
PurpleXVI posted:Dragonlance is one of those fantasy settings where there's a strong sense, at least from reading the novels, that nothing interesting really happens where the protagonists of the novels aren't. So it's a bit "well what do other main characters do in this setting, then?" Dragonlance was literally a written adaptation of a D&D campaign. Not only are there published adventures that are everything in the (at least early) books, but there's author notes talking about how specific scenes from their home game were directly put into the book (including Raistlin's voice)
|
|
#
¿
Sep 25, 2019 03:16
|
|
|
Ratoslov posted:Yeah, NPCs with verbal tics like that
|
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2019 03:18
|
|
|
Josef bugman posted:"I want to kill God" Or they could talk to the Silver Ladder. "I want to kill God" "What did I ever do to you?"
|
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2019 16:56
|
|
|
I've looked through it. It seems... surprisingly competent at least from a quick read. There are a few issues though: 1) All stats and HP are rolled, 4d4 (every time they mention this, they call it out as a reference to "4 for $4. Nailed it") and there is no point buy 2) Eating a meal gives a bonus that stacks, and if you eat a meal that aligns with your Order (class) you get Advantage on all attacks for the day. This is crazy strong 3) Given how incredibly important meals are, there are no listed costs or ways to acquire said meals I do like FEAST MODE, their equivalent to critical hits. Not only do you do crit damage on a 20, but you also get advantage to your next attack. It's a neat little thing to help keep a lucky streak rolling
|
|
#
¿
Oct 3, 2019 22:06
|
|
|
I Am Just a Box posted:I'm genuinely interested in somebody literate in D&D 5e writing a rundown of this game up with an eye towards how much of this game is just reprinted 5e with minor tweaks, vs. using 5e as a base but actually coming up with some stuff. I have a good eye for D&D 5e and... it's really not just a reprint. It's obviously inspired by D&D 5e, but it very much does its own thing outside of that. This game has more novelty and design than most heartbreakers
|
|
#
¿
Oct 3, 2019 22:07
|
|
|
hyphz posted:But probably the most cringe-inducing is that if you leave the Wi-Fi connection on your taser or shock gloves on, it recharges wirelessly over the Internet. Yes, let's just beam some electricity over the Matrix to them, what could go wrong? Fun fact, this is actually probably possible. There are materials that can convert wifi signal into electricity, but there are problems of scale and how much electricity you can get out of it. It's possible that in real life we won't ever be able to get enough converted electricity to recharge a taser (I genuinely don't know the numbers behind it), but it's still somehow one of the least implausible bits of tech in Shadowrun.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 10, 2019 06:55
|
|
|
The Lone Badger posted:I meant that it was a problem with the game. If you wanted to be a cybered fighter then your choices re backstory would be weirdly distorted and limited. A lot of character concepts wouldn't work because they didn't explain the 'ware, impairing creativity. Who needs a backstory to explain your 'ware when you can get points for having Amnesia! Do less work, get more points!
|
|
#
¿
Oct 10, 2019 06:56
|
|
|
I swear there was a game on kickstarter a while ago that had exercise as the core resolution mechanic. I can't find it right now, anybody know what I'm talking about?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 3, 2019 23:26
|
|
|
Cthulhu Dreams posted:There are two: LIFTS! That was it! Thank you
|
|
#
¿
Dec 4, 2019 01:07
|
|
|
Gave the java client a try as a Warrior. Did pretty well, until I got a mission to cross into a new book and immediately got my rear end kicked. Was fun though, and the first volume is only like 8 bucks, I think I'll try the actual book form
|
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2019 22:02
|
|
|
Libertad! posted:Since I only have a 30 page adventure to review for Legends of the Twins, I'm strongly considering starting another sourcebook review while I still got the Dragonlance bug. My current two choices are either War of the Lance (a 3.5 setting sourcebook detailing Ansalon during the Chronicles-era beyond the classic adventures) or Towers of High Sorcery (which details a variety of mechanics and fluff for the veritable arcane organization of Ansalon). I think the non-Chronicles War of the Lance content would be a neat companion to the current DL review
|
|
#
¿
Dec 9, 2019 23:25
|
|
|
MonsterEnvy posted:In Dragonlance a Dark Elf is just supposed to be an elf that got kicked out of Elvish Society right. Yeah. The most common reason for this is being the priest of a non-good god or joining the wizards as anything other than a white robe (not this includes neutral gods and red robes). Dragonlance elves are literally white supremacists
|
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2019 18:34
|
|
|
MonsterEnvy posted:Lets not forget the terrible movie. Please, please let us forget the terrible movie
|
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2019 21:13
|
|
|
Ronwayne posted:I still think the worse type is shadowrun, where well meaning white nerds try to challenge racism and end up making something that is somehow more racist than the source material. What was the source material and the more racist version?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 16, 2019 05:24
|
|
|
JcDent posted:What's the timeframe of the campaign? Dragonarmies having conquered everything just after you do xar tarkoth seemed like some blitzkrieg bullsjit. There's also the question of what the Dragonarmies actually conquered. Most of the continent (by area) is dotted city-states or nomadic tribes. The Dragonarmies have dragons, and most cities surrender without a fight or with only token resistance, so it's not surprising that they managed to dominate most of the minor powers in a couple months given a half-dozen dragons could show up with a small army and conquer any city they want. The High Clerist's Tower is the first actually hardened military target they're trying to hit in force. The dwarves are largely safe underground still, the elves have been hit by a few minor raids but no large scale invasion. Kender got rolled over instantly, but of course they did. Half a year also sounds about right, given that the entire war takes less than a year. The books follow the pattern of Dragons of <Season> <Time Of Day>, and that seems to literally match up with the season in-universe. Given that we started in Autumn Twilight and are at the climax of Winter Night, 6 months matches expectations. Kaza42 fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Dec 18, 2019 |
|
#
¿
Dec 18, 2019 19:04
|
|
|
PurpleXVI posted:By the end of DL2, Qualinesti is evacuated and the forests are a burning cinder trampled by draconians. Oh man, I mixed up that timeline pretty badly then
|
|
#
¿
Dec 18, 2019 21:38
|
|
|
wdarkk posted:I really want to inflict pegasus archers on someone in D&D. Pretty sure you can outrange almost all spells with a longbow. Composite Longbow has a maximum range of 1100 feet (110 range increment, 10 range increments), but suffer a -20 penalty to hit from there. The longest non-unlimited range spells are Long range, which is 400 feet + 40/level. These spells are pretty commonly available, with one or two per level that a player could grab. In order to match the 1000 range limit on a longbow, you'd need to be level 18 though, at which point flight becomes trivially accessible. If you follow the more reasonable restriction that you can only use a shortbow on horseback, that's a maximum range of 700 (70 range increment on composite shortbow), which still requires level 8. More reasonable, but again Fly is available at level 5
|
|
#
¿
Dec 19, 2019 17:41
|
|
|
Ultiville posted:Of course neither of these really seem to reflect the Mongolian composite bows. Per Wikipedia, back in the day of ol' Temujin, there were at least some archers hitting targets at distances somewhere between 500 yards and 500 meters, so like 1000-1500 feet. Since those are results they bragged about, they're presumably impressive even to the Mongols, but not unbelievably outrageous, so if we're going for the theoretical pegasus Khan, you'd presumably have a new exotic weapon representing their better bows that had range increments of 150-200ish, depending on how high level we think those elite keshiks were. Don't worry, there's a feat that increases the range increment of non-thrown weapons by 50%, with only one prerequisite! (thrown by 100%). So with two feats, your composite longbow has a maximum range of 1650 feet. This is easily accomplished by a level 1 fighter, who is still useless due to the -20 penalty from that long of range. What's weird though, is that Far Shot (the range feat) requires Point Blank Shot. You'd think those were very different abilities And of course, a 5th level wizard can cast Fly
|
|
#
¿
Dec 19, 2019 20:26
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:And no-one ever makes the connection that you're meant to be the guys the mongols are boasting about in D&D because it's always stuck in that weird 'mud peasants for some, Exalted for others' middle space where it doesn't know what it is. And the most frustrating part of it is that they had it working so much better in 1e and 2e. Magic-Users were actually not automatically better than Fighters (everyone was still better than rogues), and Fighters had a bunch of automatic advantages to show off how incredibly good they were at fighting. It was, ironically, the attempt to standardize things that messed it up. Spell DCs and Fort/Ref/Will was the best thing to ever happen to wizards.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 19, 2019 21:08
|
|
|
Oh man, I remember the idiot shitstorm when D&D 5e tried to let the fighter deal tiny bits of damage on a miss. It's a shame they gave up on that, it was a tiny glimmer of a good idea
|
|
#
¿
Dec 19, 2019 22:22
|
|
|
Everyone posted:I kept hearing all kinds of good things about HP and the Methods of Rationality. I tried to get into it, but just could not. It read like, "What If Harry Potter was possessed by the spirit of Richard Dawkins?" I think if I'd read much more I'd have been rooting for Voldemort to slaughter the lot of them. It's a decent fanfic, given the steep grading curve that implies. It has some genuinely good bits, some genuinely bad bits and a lot of mediocre bits. It probably doesn't deserve the heavy scorn it gets from some people, but definitely doesn't deserve the worship its biggest fans give it
|
|
#
¿
Dec 24, 2019 06:10
|
|
|
JcDent posted:The thing is, they're equating the lives of their children to the lives of countless others (even if Takhisis isn't Thanosing it up). Like, literally the world is at stake. Eh, this is believable to me. People are really really bad at the trolley problem. It's important to remember that Takhisis wants to rule the world, not destroy it. Thousands of people will die in the fighting, but after that it's "just" millions trapped in a dystopian dictatorship. People are also bad at judging how many people lifted out of dystopia are worth someone's life. Add on to that that dragons may well value one dragon above one human (or even a hundred humans), and their thought process probably goes "hundred of dragon deaths or thousands of humanoid deaths. Let's take the later". After all, this is Dragonlance Good. Dragonlance Good is rear end in a top hat (and, as the Kingpriest showed, Good is fine with dystopian dictatorships) The Vision thing is kinda an appropriate analogy. Not on the "half the universe" scale, but think of how many Wakandas died in that battle to try and save Vision. Morally speaking, a life is a life and Vision shouldn't be worth more than a single Wakandan. But, in the fascist-leaning weird world of Superheroes (or dragons/fantasy supermen), how much is The Vision worth compared to some random nobodies? That's the same thought process that leads to the Dragons not helping humanity. Kaza42 fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Dec 31, 2019 |
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2019 19:02
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:I will never cease to be amazed at the 'well if you die, just make a character who is terrible next to the leveled up party members' stuff. When I first started playing, I was a kid who joined my dad's group of old college buddies as they taught me D&D. You could introduce a new character at any time, level 1, and even control more than one character at a time. We'd have the low level guys hang out behind the main characters and get XP from loot until they were ready to join the fight. Now, as I was a literal child and this was my first experience with games I didn't realize how dumb this was at first. It took until a fight we had against a green dragon, where the dragon did a breath weapon that instantly killed all our low level guys in the back, for me to think "wait, that doesn't seem right". While my dad and his group kept up the "start at level 1" thing, by the time I started running games I quickly settled on "everyone has the same xp at all times" system
|
|
#
¿
Jan 2, 2020 18:24
|
|
|
hyphz posted:A very experimental F&F... The RPG is just the first game in the book, there are many others further in. The other games use the components a bit better (and support more players), but none of them are any good with the possible exception of the one where you have washers and dryers fight in a battle arena and use the bedsheet as a measuring tool. It's still pretty bad, but is at least bonkers enough to be fun once
|
|
#
¿
Jan 20, 2020 04:53
|
|
|
FoldableHuman posted:From the point where the team splits up at Tarsis in book 2 they're not together again until the epilogue, with each of the splits further splitting (or dying) and some re-joining at the Blood Sea. It's actually Raistlin who dispels the protections around Ariakas but the rest of this seems pretty accurate
|
|
#
¿
Jan 31, 2020 04:04
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:...there's interesting things about the Toughness feat? Examining the muddled design process and identities of feats that lead to a +4 hp feat existing at all.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2020 20:42
|
|
|
Gun Jam posted:Toughness got a use in 1st level wizards, who want to not die from a stray shot. The correct choice there is still Improved Initiative anyway. Dare your DM to kill your level 1 character while staring him/her down for actually starting at level 1.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 4, 2020 21:56
|
|
|
Selachian posted:
This is a parody comic, right?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2020 07:03
|
|
, the game.
|
The Comrade system is actually shaped like something you'd actually want to have in a good Guardsman game. It has plenty of problems that I'm sure night will get into, but it's almost there. Having a nameless guardsman who can take shots for your named guy and also power ability is actually really thematically appropriate for a Guardsman game. Give each player 2 Comrades per mission, and enable a Last Stand special ability once both are dead. So you start off full of teamwork and such, and transition into desperate last stand at the same rate your comrade abilities are turned off. EDIT: And I'd also have it so that any time you score a hit on an enemy, each of your surviving Comrades scores a free lasgun hit too. So your Weapon Specialists with the grenade launcher or plasma gun gets 0-2 small lasgun hits, but your Lasgun Specialist (who may not be able to put one 1-1 as much damage as the heavy, which is fine) still gets to apply their lasgun bonuses to their comrades. Really turn them into a one-player horde force multiplier Kaza42 fucked around with this message at 22:47 on May 19, 2020 |
|
#
¿
May 19, 2020 22:45
|
|
|
Since first circle demons aren't really the yozi who generated them in any real sense, well just count 2nd and 3rd circle souls. Iirc, each level had 5 to 15 branches, so let's call it 100 souls in a yozi. Since humans have 2 souls, that means a yozi is 50 times more morally important than a human (assuming you take the dumb argument at face value) Controlling, limiting or destroying the primordials saved WAY more than 50 lives per primordial. Therefore, it was still the right decision. Yozi supporters didnt even make sense if you granted their premise
|
|
#
¿
Jun 1, 2020 01:45
|
|
|
By the way, I decided to pick up Lancer and am now hooked and planning to run a game of it starting soon. I hope you are happy, you monsters
|
|
#
¿
Jun 19, 2020 22:44
|
|
|
Leraika posted:If I got at least one person to purchase the itch.io bundle with my reviews, they'll have been worth it. I bought the itch.io bundle because of your reviews
|
|
#
¿
Jun 24, 2020 19:21
|
|
|
Falconier111 posted:I’ve never been much of a music listener. I’m more of a podcast person. But in high school I briefly got into symphonic metal and a few similar things, including Abney Park. After starting life as a goth band in the late 90s, they (and by they I mean lead singer, songwriter, and manager Robert Brown) tried to become the auditory version of the growing steampunk movement and mostly succeeded. I grew out of that phase pretty quickly but, when I discovered they’d commissioned an RPG of all things, I went ahead and bought it. And forgot about it. There's also a board game. I actually picked it up years ago when I was an Abney Park fan, I got them to sign their character cards (There's also a Professor Elemental bonus card). The board game has a few cool points (the airship setup and the theory of the combat is cool) but in practice it's pretty lovely
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2020 06:18
|
|
|
Falconier111 posted:FIELD MUSEUM: hell yeah, best museum in the city and the country as far as I’m concerned. I will admit I am heavily biased, having volunteered there, but my opinion on this is still objectively correct. Has exhibits on everything from ancient Egypt to Native American peoples to local wildlife to the Precambrian era, plus a famous T-rex with a twitter account (pronouns are they/them, and that is not a joke). I did most of my docenting in The Greeks: Agamemnon to Alexander the Great, a traveling exhibit on loan from Greece including, among other things, the famous Mask of Agamemnon. I had all sorts of stories I broke out – Asklepios’s transition from inventor of the health regimen to god of medicine, Persephone’s mystery cult, why bathing with olive oil instead of water is a lot better for you than you think – but my favorite part of the exhibit was the curled up skeleton of a man ritually executed around when the Trojan War was supposed to be happening. Whenever I spotted a group of schoolchildren in the room before it, I’d ask them, “you wanna to see a dead body?” The answer was always yes. I also realized it’s a popular date spot for people in their 20s and 30s, which rekindled my faith in humanity a bit. I actually went on several dates to the Field Museum with my current girlfriend. I personally prefer the Museum of Science and Industry, but the Field is a very close second
|
|
#
¿
Aug 28, 2020 23:08
|
|
|
The Magical Industrial Revolution stuff comes just in time, as I'm about to start a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game set after the Storm of Chaos about an industrial/magical revolution in the Empire
|
|
#
¿
Oct 14, 2020 05:43
|
|
|
Most recently: the Hellboy 5e D&D hack. It's just.... such a bad idea
|
|
#
¿
Oct 19, 2020 22:38
|
|
|
Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series is clearly a big influence on Blue Rose, with a lot of 1:1 elements (Valdemar uses magic horses rather than deer). This is especially excellent, because Lackey wrote a bunch of in-universe songs and either sang them herself or had her friends record them, and they're all on youtube. This makes it easy to listen to some music perfectly designed to put you in the right mindset for Romantic Fantasy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cv8jwxgM2Q - Demonsbane: A band of refugees asks for aid, and Herald-Mage Vanyel offers it freely despite them being from a rival kingdom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUjayqeu8SA - Cost of the Crown: A queen reflects on the burdens of leadership. A heavy focus on the importance of love and caring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uMIO7IZcVI - Healer's Dilemma: A sombre song about the pain and burden of being an imperfect healer. But despite the pain, you should still care https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dri6vvAlDCg Kerowyn's Ride: A young woman takes up the sword after raiders attack her village, overcoming the naysayers who think women shouldn't fight These are just a few examples. Most of the discography of Mercedes Lackey is prefect for setting the tone of Blue Rose or other Romantic Fantasy. Demonsbane in particular is great, both for its content and the fact that it's a song about a gay hero sung by a trans man (although the song was recorded before his transition. Heather Alexander became Alexander James Adams. He prefers his pre-transition songs to be credited to the name Heather Alexander, being one of the very few cases where it is acceptable to use a dead name. He even recorded a duet album, recording the feminine voices before hormone therapy and the masculine voices after and crediting it as a duet between Heather Alexander and Alexander Adams. Sorry for the long tangent, he's one of my favorite musicians)
|
|
#
¿
Apr 9, 2021 16:40
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 21, 2024 06:16 |
|
|
Ronwayne posted:The thing is, most fiction of humanity fighting back against an overwhelming force like that tend to come from bullshit HUMANITY gently caress YEAH reactionary poo poo. When you see things about cthulu or angels getting blown up with missles you can almost loving hear the "In this moment, I am euphoric..." coming from the background. I'm the opposite. Whenever I see cthulhu or angels or whatever just shrug off missile barrages and heavy artillery I roll my eyes. If it's established how they are doing it, that's one thing but giant monsters being immune to harm is boring. Sure, most fiction about fighting them tends to be poorly written, but the premise itself is more interesting than yet another "nope, we're helpless against this" depression wank
|
|
#
¿
Apr 19, 2021 17:05
|
|