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Older Activity
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Yesterday, 09:27 PM
They don't random-roll them, either.
They don't have numeric stats, at all. It's numeric stats (and classes &c) in the game that are /trying/ (often unsuccessfully) to model them.
When you're trying to model an archetype with a character class, though, everything that class choice touches comes up. What benefits you get from which stat, and the trade-offs that creates becomes very...
81 replies | 3782 view(s)
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Yesterday, 09:21 PM
Has the virtue of simplicity.
What about 'good' saves? Those could get pretty high if you added proficiency - and, if you don't, there's no progression, at all (rather than just none with bad saves).
34 replies | 742 view(s)
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Yesterday, 08:43 PM
Ignoring the rules (that didn't suit you) /was/ how 1e was played, and is, IMHO, how best to play 5e, sure. ;) It's definitely not how 3.x (RaW! RaW!) and 4e (updates! DDI!) were played.
For you, sure. For me, it's more nostalgia. I played 1e from 1980 through to 2e, and my 2e campaign was really more a hybrid between the two. After a 5 year break I came back to D&D with 3.0. I played...
49 replies | 1250 view(s)
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Yesterday, 08:03 PM
I think he said something more like, /one/ player of each ed, rather than an odd-man-out scenario, but my recall isn't perfect.
They took down the old L&Ls, or I'd link it for you.
It was played pretty differently at each table, as I recall!
When I say 'run 5e like 1e' I mean get the same feel, use an old module just converting on the fly, stuff like that. Not translate all the...
49 replies | 1250 view(s)
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Yesterday, 07:26 PM
Mearls came right out and said it, in a pre-playtest L&L. Not just groups will be able to play 5e (Next) like it was their past-fave ed, but that /different players at the same table/ would be able to play their characters like they were still in their favorite respective past eds!
It was total pie-in-the-sky idealism, and the effort wasn't ever really undertaken to deliver it.
But, /a/...
49 replies | 1250 view(s)
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Yesterday, 07:16 PM
It's not unusual to not stick with a game that doesn't work - unless the game that doesn't work is D&D, then you don't just stick with it, you defend it zealously and re-define what a game is even supposed to be so that the way it doesn't work is exactly the way everything /should/ work, and it's all other games that have problems!
Well, I've played exactly none of those, and only heard of...
16 replies | 456 view(s)
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Yesterday, 06:36 PM
Nothing snaps a h4ter back to full edition war mode like the prospect of someone, somewhere, someday possibly being allowed to play an official 5e D&D Warlord, even if there's only a remote hypothetical possibility that it might not suck.
::shrug::
The net effect that they're also keeping it out of any OGL (and thus in "carefully guarded IP?"), though, seems odd. It must be a...
25 replies | 542 view(s)
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Yesterday, 06:28 PM
I'd never complain about a class being 'only' Tier 2. ;) The 3.x Sorcerer, for instance, Tier 2, but a better class design with more potential for engaging play and covering more potential character concepts than the Wizard, IMHO.
I can't agree. The point of psionics is that it is magic scrubbed of fantasy, religious, mystical or superstitious trappings, and draped with scientific ones,...
88 replies | 2584 view(s)
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Yesterday, 06:10 PM
Yeah, I spun off on a couple of tangents, there, I think.
Sure, but that's nothing unique. Really, /levels/, foundational to all forms of D&D and many of it's imitators, do that - the numbers just give level some mechanical teeth.
Hit points, damage, and number/complexity/power/versatility of powers & feats would still support that arc, though. That's what 5e BA did, relative to 4e. ...
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Yesterday, 05:21 AM
Well, we couldn't let the little buggers invade D&D, with their battlemagic and power crystals and percentile skills and level-less progression! I don't care if you just came looking for a better life, /go home to Glorantha!/ you stunted excuse for a troll! Do you even regenerate?!
136 replies | 5692 view(s)
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Yesterday, 03:32 AM
Charismatic Warrior Hero is a pretty broad archetype. There are /many/ examples.
You're presuming a conclusion.
Archetypes and characters from fiction don't have D&D CHA, and aren't a D&D class - they are what they are - D&D can be used to try to model them by choosing stats, race, class and so forth.
And it can often model them poorly, or inefficiently.
Which means those universal...
81 replies | 3782 view(s)
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Yesterday, 12:44 AM
While I in no way begrudge folks who want them their psionic classes, for me it always seemed the problem with psionics - and the reason game designers kept resorting to novel mechanics for it - is that it's not really that different, in fluff, from magic. A lot of what people who believed in magic would have called magic, is what we'd today call a 'psychic power' (or a temporal lobe seizure, as...
88 replies | 2584 view(s)
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Yesterday, 12:10 AM
Almost. In order to call back psionic power points, they made the encounter powers into power points that enhanced at-wills, the results were not terrible, but the exercises struck me as unnecessary - mechanical difference for the sole sake of being /mechanically/ different.
The GOO Warlock even gets telepathy!
So only Tier 2, then?
88 replies | 2584 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 11:57 PM
Wow. Had WotC over a barrel and Hackmaster is what the went for? Heh.
OK, looking at what they have to say, they went to the effort of teasing out "just the mechanics, ma'am" - I'm a little surprised, at time's I've looked up something in OSRIC and it seemed word-for-word identical.
While mechanics vs 'fluff' are presented more clearly in 4e, a lot of the wording that holds them together -...
25 replies | 542 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 10:33 PM
As I recall Hackmaster and the first OSR (OSRIC?) actually got some sort of permission?
:|
25 replies | 542 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 09:18 PM
I've done both over the years.
The former seems like the standard assumption. It leaves each player free to create his character and give it backstory independent of the others.
I find the latter quite intriguing, but you need to have players into the idea of having history with eachother in the characters' backstories. I like it for starting campaigns with that right kind of player - or...
18 replies | 418 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 09:14 PM
Yeah, that's due to past organization. This used to be PF & Older Editions, the 4e threads were started then and haven't all petered out yet. Now it's just PF. (Dunno why those other threads haven't just been moved.)
Rightly, you should put this thread in the D&D forum, with the 4e tag.
Until they change it again, anyway.
PRD?
13th Age is often called out as similar to 4e, and...
25 replies | 542 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 07:17 PM
Not a 4e a clone, but an OGL that's like 5e D&D but better?
But we already have 13th Age. ;P
I kid, but 13A did hit several of 5e's supposed goals more squarely than 5e did, supporting TotM, for instance, balancing classes with radically different resource mixes, for another, oh, and limiting the Xmass Tree effect, and mooks, and, well, more than a few, I guess.
Well sure, it was...
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 05:47 PM
Roll under runs into some numerical issues, like a stat of 20 being problematic, and modeling varying difficulties being a bit fraught. Open-ended bonuses and DCs leave a lot more room to work with, mechanically.
A simpler, more honest solution to the 'odd stat out problem,' is just to toss them. Replaces stats with their bonuses: PC stats range from -1 to +5, end of story.
I certainly...
34 replies | 742 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 05:02 AM
It resonates with me, a bit. I feel like I run better 4e games, after running 5e for a while. I've reconnected with DMing techniques I'd had less need for in 4e.
Oh yeah, what I love about 3e. I'll still play 3.5 if I get a chance to finally trot out some build-to-concept I never got a chance to play. Last time it was the mad kobold sorcerer with "imaginary friends" - and spells, from...
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 04:24 AM
Want to play Orpheus? Have a 3.0 Commoner with a kazoo.
(You've got a funny hat, too, y'might just pull it off.)
I think it's fair to say the system does that - both have very significant return on CHA, a Bard would conventionally be CHA-primary, a Paladin at worst, CHA secondary.
To be fair, they are both explicitly optional, and not every table may opt in.
Ironically, turning...
81 replies | 3782 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 03:37 AM
Heal? or True Polymorph?
Yeah, a thing called a Lawyer. That kinda shout'n can True Polymorph all sorts of legal entities...
...but...
...certainly not after those legal bills.
49 replies | 1250 view(s)
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Thursday, 23rd May, 2019, 12:04 AM
It's not an idea, it's the GSL. You can't clone 4e, it's not open source. It's not a limitation of the 5e (or other d20) mechanics - you can work from any open source engine, and replace most of the parts, if you want - it's a limitation of the license.
You could create a 4e-ish game using a d20 OGL (any of 'em really), like 13A did, heck, you could take the Pelgrane Press Archmage Engine...
49 replies | 1250 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 10:09 PM
Oh, the classes are very different, even within the same source or role (or in a few cases, Bard v Artificer, frex both) - nothing much to do with the big numbers floating around everyone.
The one thing big numbers do, though, is provide an often-credible illusion of advancement..
The GSL seriously complicates actually publishing (even e-publishing) any of it, though.
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 09:30 PM
Sam sure seemed like he had a high Loyalty Base.
A protagonist in fantasy/myth/legend, that is a) a warrior, and b) not exclusively on a solo quest the whole time, is probably a Charismatic Fighting Hero. He may grow into the charismatic part, especially in more modern fantasy offerings which often have coming-of-age elements, or he may have only occasional, temporary allies rather than a band...
81 replies | 3782 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 09:17 PM
Or Psionics or Artificer fans. Some of us want an Artificer who's basically just a wizard who specializes in making magic items, others want a steampunk engineer, or Johnny Sokko, or to be Q to their party's James Bond. Psionics? Magic or not? Points or slots? Should it even be a class - it wasn't in 1e!
In any group of n on-line fans of x feature in y game, you probably have x^n + n^Y +...
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 08:48 PM
Sorry if I mostly riff off your post for humor purposes....
Any stat or skill could conceivably be rendered moot by the DM's style or choice of setting & challenges, I suppose.
I don't see why not knowing anything isn't a meaningful consequence. I mean, recalling something useful certainly is. Is the idea that you start off not knowing anything, so you might as well try?
...
580 replies | 20926 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 07:19 PM
Options like that go way back. I mean, 3e had 'fighting defensively,' sure, but back in the day DMs would assign all sorts of modifiers. Before there even was a barbarian, one DM I played with would let you 'rage' (I don't think he called it that) getting an attack bonus & taking an AC penalty - something my Druid in his game did on a number of occasions, because Celtic warriors, though not the...
182 replies | 15059 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 06:32 PM
Y'know, some groups have kinda done that, just organically, and it can be fun. Started in one edition and migrated to the next, with or without some in-campaign event (or time passage) marking the rev roll.
My old AD&D campaign spanned 1e & 2e, but as 2e started out so much like 1e I didn't mark it in any way (though I did annoy one player by whip-sawing his exp table around, and kept an...
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 12:53 AM
I converted B1: In Search of the Unknown, it's about as classic a dungeon crawl as it gets. Though more weird than brutal, and it's low-level, but classic with all the crazy D&Disms you could want.
OK, 'converted' is giving me way too much credit, I didn't convert anything up-front, just ran with the 5e versions of what was there... sometimes even just used the old stats, mentally inverting...
22 replies | 805 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 12:48 AM
For my money it's the Circle of Oak in the playtest, I got to play one and it really brought me right back to the 1e Druid, real nostalgic fun - or the "Land" Druid in the 5e PH.
The Moon Druid harkens more to the 3.5/WoW/4e shape-shifting-centric druid. While shape-shifting was a legendary Druid thing, and the 1e Druid did it, it wasn't with quite the same emphasis, not mainly about hulking...
5 replies | 384 view(s)
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Wednesday, 22nd May, 2019, 12:36 AM
I suppose you could make some arguments about leverage and so forth...
…
but, nah "just dumb" sounds 'bout right. If you're gonna cut the gnome some slack 'because fantasy,' you might as well cut the amazon some slack 'because fantasy.'
If you're not, well, "realism kills," as my BBS tagline used to say. ;)
104 replies | 2615 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 10:43 PM
FWIW 1e halflings had a lower max STR than other races.
Though, that's for the benefit if the younger generation out there - I obviously don't need to tell you that, since, as I understand it, you still run 1e by preference?
104 replies | 2615 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 06:32 PM
More like the fallout, the collateral damage - and what made forums blaze in the flames of hell, and gave mods all over the internet ulcers, of course. Not to mention the undiagnosed tragedy of Post Traumatic Edition War Syndrome.
Sure, you do see continuations of the edition war in those threads, it's inevitable when you think about it. The Warlord was introduced in 4e, and it's a valid...
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 07:29 AM
Not a fan of TotM, but, since I don't see how it actually has any bearing, went ahead and voted for da Flavah. Bland bonuses are bland.
Of course, in the olden days you didn't have to choose: your +1 sword most likely glowed (thanks, Tolkien), and your +1 armor was feather-light and needed no maintenance. 5e, likewise, has some cool options for adding extra seasoning to otherwise bland...
31 replies | 797 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 07:22 AM
Superior? Different. Willing to adopt the new can be seen as positive or negative, depending on your PoV, but it's certainly different from defending the old.
Edit: But, hey, if thinking of yourself as superior matters so to you, you can always spin it hard in the negative direction, something like: former 4e fans must be a bunch of uncritical WotC apologists who automatically adopt the...
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 05:58 AM
They're very closely linked topics. The 5MWD is all about timing encounters vs rest for maximum advantage to full casters, and, thus, the PC side of those encounters. It was a very potent strategy in 3.x, when players would plot an attack, execute it, and retire to recover all-important spells. In 1e, it was vital to rest & recover spells frequently, just to survive 1st level.
I've been...
53 replies | 1527 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 05:36 AM
There's always griping, of course, merely not adopting is a live-and-let-live 'rejection' of a new ed, if that's as far as it goes..
But, CoC notwithstanding, there was lots of edition warring here - and it's not exactly entirely gone, either. Look at how quickly 4e leading in even a trivial little poll like this drew the attacks.
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 05:07 AM
Yes, and your argument is proven wrong by the conspicuous lack of an edition war raging against 5e.
I understand that you want to establish an equivalency between the more extreme demands of the playtest, and the extremes of the edition war, but they were fundamentally different: all the demands, posturing and vitriol if the playtest was fans wanting to get what they wanted into the coming...
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 01:42 AM
It's really just peeling another onion-layer off action declaration. Implicit in many action declarations is a reason for the choice of method that goes with the goal. If that reason is predicated on knowledge and the PC having or recalling that knowledge is in doubt, then in calling for the check the DM is just breaking down a declared action into necessary smaller actions. DMs have been...
580 replies | 20926 view(s)
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Tuesday, 21st May, 2019, 01:14 AM
To be fair, I only credit 1e with those qualities. I'd quibble with 2e, since it did pour on a /lot/ of er stuff. ;) But 1e and 5e both have something going on that isn't quantified in the rules or just the sum of the sub-systems or anything quite objective or tangible, it's the DM's freedom to explore way from the system that's a big part of it. 1e had that going for it more or less by...
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Monday, 20th May, 2019, 11:07 PM
Edition warring, in the brief 4e era, during the playtest, and right now, in this thread, has generally been initiated /against/ 4e. This is no exception. 4e is dead, you got to help kill it, you got to dance and spit all over it's grave. But, now, with 4e taking a /slight/ lead, in a trivial little 2nd-favorite-edition-after-5e poll, you're at it again.
Why? What possible threat could...
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Monday, 20th May, 2019, 07:13 PM
Yes. 5e is both easy and hard. It's hard to DM, requiring a lot of skill/talent/experience/gall/whatever to just take up that imaginary absolute power and run with it - but, if you /have/ meet that preq somehow (or you just don't care), it's also /easy/ to just wield that power and have fun with it.
I'm not sure if it's 'conversely' or 'by the same token,' or both, but from the players'...
46 replies | 1788 view(s)
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Monday, 20th May, 2019, 06:48 PM
Not to mention liking 4e and some prior editions (I was a straight-up 4venger, but I'm also one of those old guys for whom nothing will ever match what I had with 1e, for instance - and more on that below, since you bring it up...).
THE biggest reason for preferring one older edition is that it's the edition you started with. It's just a powerful emotional connection, I guess.
The 1e...
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Monday, 20th May, 2019, 05:07 PM
Well, there is a PF forum. I suspect if you put this poll up there you might see the result you'd expect.
BTW, I'm curious why you play 5e rather than 3.5 or PF?
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Monday, 20th May, 2019, 04:01 AM
Selective memory of the present?
There is no edition war being waged against 5e.
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Monday, 20th May, 2019, 01:51 AM
Fans of 4e were necessarily drawn from the segment of the fan base most willing to give a new ed a fair shot. You had to be, to look past the rocky introduction and the vitriol of the edition war, and form an honest impression of the new ed.
5e's introduction was a lot more considerate and measured, there may not have been a lot of enthusiasm for Next, but when season 19 rolled around, we...
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Sunday, 19th May, 2019, 11:33 PM
Consider that this is being asked in 5e forum. The most effusive praise I've heard of 5e has come from 2e fans. 0e/1e/OSR and 3.x/PF fans have their things, so may not drop by here. 4e fans, by definition, were those most willing to give a new ed a chance.
So what you're seeing isn't absolute popularity of editions, but a prevalence of 2e & 4e fans within the 5e community.
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Sunday, 19th May, 2019, 05:34 AM
One set in the alternate universe of Je ne suis pas un homme facile, for instance. Or, for us older fellas who may not have netflix, any of those 70s battle of the sexes spoofs, like Queen Kong or Star Maidens.
104 replies | 2615 view(s)
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Sunday, 19th May, 2019, 05:03 AM
1e AD&D. Every edition since has been better in many ways, but can't compete with those early experiences.
182 replies | 5758 view(s)
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Saturday, 18th May, 2019, 08:41 PM
You could slip in something of the kind in one of two ways that *might* not go over too badly:
1) Have SIZe and BuiLD stats chosen by the player, together they determine your characters weight, and put limits (min & max) on STRength and DEXterity. They're independent of the player's choice of assigned sex, but will probably result in gender-stereotype-conforming PCs.
2) Setting. If a...
104 replies | 2615 view(s)
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Saturday, 18th May, 2019, 08:18 PM
I've heard all sides in such debates way too much to get into it, there's political issues fueling different sides, and it involves autopsy-level detail that'll never be modeled with a hp system.
The takeaway is that lots of things can kill you, where guns stand out is in how easy they make it, regardless of size/strength/skill of either party involved.
'cept for 4e, iff, by 'people' you...
160 replies | 4889 view(s)
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Friday, 17th May, 2019, 09:45 PM
Or what's appealing, sure (I recall harboring some hearty skepticism in the playtest when Mearls started going on about reaching back to early experiences with AD&D to get insight into what would make 5e appeal to new players - being a new player in the 80s or 90s has gotta be very different from being one today!). And the dynamics at the table can have a big impact. But, while 39 years (yeah...
46 replies | 1788 view(s)
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Friday, 17th May, 2019, 07:18 PM
While a 4e approach might have been as or more accessible to new players as 5e's, and might've become more so in the long run, it's failure with established fans and 5e's reversion to type means that a new generation of fans are being indoctrinated into the same expectations as the old generation. D&D as it was in the 80s, and is again today, is how it will remain for the foreseeable future. If...
46 replies | 1788 view(s)
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Thursday, 16th May, 2019, 09:26 PM
Obviously, the guy that made the potion has to concentrate. That's dedication.
… or, no, wait if the potion requires concentration do you have to run it through a high-vacuum evaporator before use? Store it in a freezer?
67 replies | 9430 view(s)
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Thursday, 16th May, 2019, 07:20 PM
I suppose it doesn't have to be conventional black powder (in my 4e pirate game, 'thunderfire rods' used 'alchemical reagents'), and could have different characteristics, like merely smoldering when touched off outside of a gun rather than being a functional low explosive.
160 replies | 4889 view(s)
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Thursday, 16th May, 2019, 07:08 PM
I'm not even so sure it's that big a deal. Why do firearms have to be particularly lethal? They just punch holes in people down range. Spears punch holes in people, arrows & quarrels punch holes in people - a dagger can certainly kill, but only does a d4.
Historically what made firearms so revolutionary wasn't that they were deadlier or longer-ranged than bows but that they required less...
160 replies | 4889 view(s)
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Thursday, 16th May, 2019, 06:08 PM
In a D&D world, the bolded, above, could include: Kings, Emperors, Vassals thereof, Tyrants, humanoid chieftains, Theocracies, Magocracies, Mad Liches*, Demi-gods, Diabolic powers, and, well, Dragons if they really felt like it. I'm guessing the average attitude of governing bodies is not one disinclined to accept rampant poverty among the general populace.
136 replies | 5692 view(s)
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Thursday, 16th May, 2019, 05:47 PM
It's funny how the subject has turned to hps.
The second-earliest, second-most-vicious, second-best-justified criticism of primordial D&D was that characters gaining hps through 'experience' made no sense. (Obviously that's second after 'forgetting' spells upon casting being ridiculous.) EGGs exhaustive defense of the system was a useable rationalization if you were willing to suspend...
182 replies | 15059 view(s)
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Thursday, 16th May, 2019, 12:42 AM
I'd think, if you're working back from the kind of world you want, you would be considering which spells &c to include that would support that vision, and cut those that don't fit. Otherwise you're really back to the same exercise.
136 replies | 5692 view(s)
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Thursday, 16th May, 2019, 12:37 AM
My usual advice for new DMs is play a lot first, if at all play possible with a series of experienced DMs. Playing develops familiarity with the rules, and the informal process of play (and how much both can vary from DM to DM). It lets you see what DMs do that works and doesn't work for you and for other players. And, of course, it sparks ideas, though it sounds like you already have those. ...
12 replies | 465 view(s)
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Wednesday, 15th May, 2019, 11:41 PM
He'll be fine.
… and often to not so good effect and/or for not so good reasons … really, most of the time, said tradition is unexamined.
OK, you deserved XP already, but you're getting it for that reference.
Honestly, back in the day, I recall what we'd now call 'sharing director stance' /just happening/ as part of the GM* & player trying to get through the...
580 replies | 20926 view(s)
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Wednesday, 15th May, 2019, 08:47 PM
What? Like Solipsism?
There's a lot of that still goin' around, even though you'd think in the 5e era there'd be less. Ideally, DMs should just feel free to run their games in their style, using the rules as a toolset & starting point to do so, and leave it to other DMs to do so in their ways, too. (With the obvious exception of organized play, like AL, were some consistency from...
580 replies | 20926 view(s)
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Wednesday, 15th May, 2019, 07:18 PM
Nod, that's all part of 1e's concept of TN, but so's the whole 'maintain the balance' thing.
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Wednesday, 15th May, 2019, 06:58 PM
The key thing 4e minions had that 5e very-low-level monsters lack is the ability to survive /making/ a save. ;) But for that 5e BA delivers: a much-lower-level monster can still hit occasional, the damage it does may be trivial, and your minimum damage may well kill it when you do hit - so easy to deal with, but its inclusion isn't meaningless.
In 4e, minions had a specific rule: a missed...
182 replies | 15059 view(s)
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Wednesday, 15th May, 2019, 05:13 PM
Sure - not an attack with intent to render extinct, though, just shaving off some of the privileges of the DM role. 3.5 presented many more rules that applied across the board - to PCs, NPC, & Monster (& objects and IDK what else) - 'equalizing' the DM & player roles and making Player v DM and PvP modes of play more tenable. And, 3.x did leave wealth/level and magic items in the DMG.
4e...
46 replies | 1788 view(s)
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Wednesday, 15th May, 2019, 04:57 PM
Allowed to attribute without resorting to the rubric of delusion, anyway. That does not sound unreasonable.
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Wednesday, 15th May, 2019, 04:50 PM
He'd at least've been trying.
Or, y'know Bel.
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Wednesday, 15th May, 2019, 04:42 PM
That was one of the things in the back of my mind, yes. Magic is often presented as 'dangerous' or 'exhausting' or otherwise something you wouldn't want to do systematically just because you can - alternately, magic is often presented as something that /can't/ be used any time you want (only at certain times under certain conditions, with the aid/approval of some entity, etc). Vancian, in an...
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Wednesday, 15th May, 2019, 12:29 AM
Vancian, spell points, spontaneous casting - they're all metagame constructs that poorly model magic as seen in fantasy fiction(& myth, etc).
heh. The value of this factor is IM, as in imbalanced. ;P ::sigh:: not as funny as it sounded in my head.
So to help that work you could use some sort of casting-stress system. The more spell points you spend in a short period, the greater the...
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Tuesday, 14th May, 2019, 11:55 PM
It's really not that the wiz can 'only' cast fabricate once/day, it's that he can do so /every day/, so he can approach it systematically. So, he takes orders for things that are customized, to fit, and also offers a more expensive 'on demand' option. On days when no one ponies up for 'on demand,' he reduces his backlog of orders by 1. When his backlog's caught up, and he's closing up shop...
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Tuesday, 14th May, 2019, 11:21 PM
It might even have been preserved on this site somewhere, I know a lot of stuff was...
On the wayback machine, it's a little ugly, but:
http://web.archive.org/web/20150916182511/http://community.wizards.com/content/blog/698936
http://web.archive.org/web/20150917233320/http://community.wizards.com/content/blog/752351...
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Tuesday, 14th May, 2019, 10:54 PM
"It's really, really, really, really, really, far..."
(I'm goin on memory, not sure I ever owned a copy.)
wrecan's SARN-FU was awfully similar, and was up on the old D&D boards before 13A was even an idea.
13A did do a good job of facilitating both TotM and grid play from the ground up, which is more than we can say for any edition of D&D, nor most of it's other imitators, with or...
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Tuesday, 14th May, 2019, 10:18 PM
When I first read the relevant bits of 13A, they didn't look particularly unique or innovative, either. I'm sure I've seen similar mechanics and techniques used long since, back to the 90s (hilariously, an RPG spoof, HoL, stands out in my memory as having some of the same TotM-facilitating tricks), if not in the early days of the hobby.
(Not to take away from 13A: it's a very well-done...
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Tuesday, 14th May, 2019, 10:09 PM
I ran a steampunk game - the system is unimportant, literally, I mostly ignored it - and one of the characters was a Sherlock Holmes type. She didn't get rolls to solve mysteries, rather, when I described things to the player, I threw in details, clues & conclusions that everyone else 'overlooked' (because I didn't tell them). Bit heavy-handed but it generally worked.
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Tuesday, 14th May, 2019, 09:42 PM
That's a slightly different statement, since it makes the leap from speculating about design assumptions - to taking a specific position on game-design theory (which may or may not have informed the assumption).
I do, however, think it's fair to say that no rule can stop the GM from just changing the rules (Rule 0 in 3e wasn't so much a rule, as an acknowledgement of fact).
So, a bad...
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Tuesday, 14th May, 2019, 07:48 PM
So, yes, you imagine that the rules assume perfection on the part of the DM. It's OK. That's how I see it, too. Afterall, if they're not working from that assumption, they'd have to put checks on the DM's role which would set the rules above the DM rather than vice-versa. It's maybe not the best way of saying - like I said 'trusting the DM' is a more tactful way of putting it than 'assuming...
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Tuesday, 14th May, 2019, 06:53 PM
IDK. The rules of the game probably wouldn't function too well without certain assumptions in that social contract. Change the rules or change the contract, so long as you to get them working together at that table.
So you do imagine the rules assume perfection from the DM?
;) That's fair, actually. While the DM won't be perfect, he is presumably good enough for his group.
Rules...
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Tuesday, 14th May, 2019, 12:35 AM
Sustare?
No anagram? Not so much as backwards?
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Monday, 13th May, 2019, 11:34 PM
I think the character really should have those, too, but whatever. ;P
Seriously (the player/character mix-up is a pretty tired joke at this point) though, obviously, any class can sacrifice prime-requisites or/and secondary stats or/and feats to bump up CHA. IIF there's no CHA-primary/secondary characters playing along side it, that may be OK, but if there are, they're going to have more...
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Monday, 13th May, 2019, 10:08 PM
While 5e supposedly defaults to TotM, it really has vanishingly little support for it. You could check out other games that do work well w/o a map, like 13A (which does both nicely) and lift a mechanic or two.
Yep, that's part of DM Empowerment. The thing to do is take it and use it to your advantage. You can use a map, for instance, but keep it behind the screen. You don't /need/ to...
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Monday, 13th May, 2019, 10:01 PM
Which drive down prices, enabling a minor population explosion. Now if the druids ever stop, people starve. Poor farmers, can't win.
Or, I suppose, all those nasty monsters with a taste for people could keep the population down.
Well, you'd need real craftsmen to train those wizards, I suppose. More likely, Fabricate becomes a specialty for commissions that have to be turned around all...
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Monday, 13th May, 2019, 09:37 PM
I think the idea here would be that the GM can insist that they don't smell anything (because there's nothing to smell), but they're free to insist that they do - so they're either hallucinating, deluded, or just teasing the guy. And, really, probably not hallucinating, but deluded, yeah, if the distinction is that hallucinations are /caused/ by something (like the ergot in the rye bread that...
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Monday, 13th May, 2019, 09:12 PM
I thought about mentioning that. If you were a bit nerdy in the A/V sense back in the day, you'd've definitely been familiar with 'additive' primaries (and maybe felt a little smug superiority over it), and/or if you'd paid attention to the popular-science level explanations of color TV back in the 60s (color TV was a big deal for a while).
IDK, I don't recall hearing of purpure (or tunney...
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Sunday, 12th May, 2019, 07:02 PM
Was it a claim of absolute or final authority?
AFAICT, even under the hard-core, don't-tell-me-what-my-character-thinks ethos, the GM can place an environment that's at odds with everything he thinks.
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Sunday, 12th May, 2019, 05:36 PM
May not mean anything, but: B&W, RGB. They're primary colors.
In heraldry you have: argent, gules, sable, azure, vert, and or. With argent pulling double-duty as both white and silver, that covers the cheomatic dragons, with gold as a bonus.
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Sunday, 12th May, 2019, 05:17 PM
Cronenberg had a lot of fans (maybe not a lot of crossover with Jude Law fans), and it piggybacked on the Matrix, a bit.
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Saturday, 11th May, 2019, 09:02 PM
You're not, and I do.
I preferred Dark City to ExistEnZ, though, and still haven't seen The Thirteenth Floor.
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Saturday, 11th May, 2019, 08:52 PM
True, enough - too often they're the ones who just aren't engaged much with the game, but, yeah, I'd left them out.
Then there's also the ones that go to the opposite extreme to prove what realROLEplayers they are.
I mean, lists of dysfunctional, stereotypical, annoying, and/or funny player types have been out there since the early days of The Dragon.
As often, I've seen players learn...
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Saturday, 11th May, 2019, 12:58 AM
Well, yeah.
You say that like DMs and players shouldn't ever have to cope with dysfunction, and games should be designed for players & GMs who are functionally ideal, no dys, at all. The PC's may live in a fantasy world (and resolve their problems with violence & magic), but those playing the game sit at a table in the real one, where relationships and human interactions are complicated and...
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The Charismatic Fighting "Hero" - Which Core Class does it Best? in *Dungeons & Dragons
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