Anyone check out Radiance RPG yet?

VanceMadrox · Oct 15, 2012

AncientSpirits said:
THE DRAGOON CLASS IS NOW UP! I'm taking comments for the next couple months before it goes into the book...

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I fear I may feel the same about this as the Dhampir but I will take a look.

VanceMadrox · Oct 15, 2012

Quickleaf said:
@AncientSpirits
Thanks. You know, using the term "saves" to refer to passive defenses is really confusing. Especially because in all other versions of D&D saves are an active check. Not to mention, it just makes no sense to have 2 competing terms for one concept.

This is pretty much right out of 4E.

And it's one of the few 4E changes I actually like.

AncientSpirits · Oct 15, 2012

NotZenon said:
You know the more i read this thread and your responses the more i like this game.

And to be honest i really like your explanation for why the damphir is a class and not a race! I initially thought the same thing (shouldn't this be a race?) but you are right with multiclassing it allows players to be "as much" or "as little" vampire as they want. Also becoming a vampire doesn't totally unbalance the game. I also appreciate the "shifter" class in this regard. Now i can have vampires and werewolves running around with my regular pc's (i have at least one pc who's really into that sort of thing anyways).

Nice to hear

.
What you described was the goal: "as much" or "as little" without unbalancing, using the same mechanics as everyone else. And the dhampir is definitely fun to play

.

AncientSpirits · Oct 15, 2012

Quickleaf said:
[MENTION=55778]AncientSpirits[/MENTION]
Thanks. You know, using the term "saves" to refer to passive defenses is really confusing. Especially because in all other versions of D&D saves are an active check. Not to mention, it just makes no sense to have 2 competing terms for one concept.

I agree there could be some confusion at first.

I included "saves" as an alternative to "defenses" because it is such an iconic term. In my experience, even people who don't play D&D (but once did) recall "making your saving throw" with fondness. I didn't want to lose it.

I use the term "save" when referring to bonuses that can be applied to one's defenses. You "apply it to your defense", which is something the PC/player actively does during the game. As in: "My dwarf frighter's Fortitude is 20, but with his +2 bonus against poison, I have 22, so I resisted the poison against your 21, hah!" Perhaps a stretch but I hear it used that way in games.

So that's where it remained, as a sort of historical artifact with limited use.

AncientSpirits · Oct 15, 2012

VanceMadrox said:
I agree that Ancient Spirits resposne was well thought out and had some good points. I am still in the camp that doesn't think vampire and werewolf PCs are a good idea, they're monsters for a reason.

So I will continue to respectfully disagree.

Yeah, there's the whole monster creep things:

Funny how, over 3 decades, creatures that were once clearly monsters--vampires, kobolds, half-fiends, doppelgangers, werewolves etc--have become normal character options, and in the process they've been slightly softened and tweaked to be more civilized and acceptable. Eberron kicked off some official transitions with shifters and changelings, and then 4E brought in tieflings and dragonborn as official PC races.

So honestly, if a GM says, let's stay with "human" as humans and their very close relatives, and cut out all the weirdo monster stuff, then I totally get that.

Robyo · Oct 15, 2012

I like 4e saves as "defenses," but I also like to let the players roll their saving throws for important events, like poisoning, charm, etc... I just feel better letting the player's roll decide the fate of his character. So, if I want to convert defenses to "olde school" saving throws, do I just subtract the base 10 and let them use the modifiers to add to the die roll? Does that sound balanced?

AncientSpirits · Oct 16, 2012

Robyo said:
I like 4e saves as "defenses," but I also like to let the players roll their saving throws for important events, like poisoning, charm, etc... I just feel better letting the player's roll decide the fate of his character. So, if I want to convert defenses to "olde school" saving throws, do I just subtract the base 10 and let them use the modifiers to add to the die roll? Does that sound balanced?

Yes, the various modifiers are all equivalent enough to do as you say.

BTW, a number of situations give PCs a 25% or 50% chance to recover for that turn or to shake off the effect, etc, which is sort of like saving throws.

Robyo · Oct 17, 2012

Thanks Dario for providing so much feedback.

BTW, Radiance has the first encumbrance rules I actually like using and enforcing. Usually I tend to hand-wave and use common sense for encumbrance and a lot of resource management stuff, but the slot-point system is easy and quite a bit more interesting than typical "lbs" or "coins." For me, I'd rather get to the adventure, than spend a lot of time doing resource management, but that's just a style/preference.

AncientSpirits · Oct 17, 2012

Robyo said:
Thanks Dario for providing so much feedback.

BTW, Radiance has the first encumbrance rules I actually like using and enforcing. Usually I tend to hand-wave and use common sense for encumbrance and a lot of resource management stuff, but the slot-point system is easy and quite a bit more interesting than typical "lbs" or "gold pieces." For me, I'd rather get to the adventure, then spend a lot of time doing resource management, but that's just a style/preference.

LOL. As for me, 30 years of gaming and not paying much attention to encumbrance. The Radiance rules came out of a brainstorming session between me, the editor, and one of the other GMs. It was the editor's idea, and we tweaked it a little. Voila!

OberonViking · Oct 21, 2012

AncientSpirits said:
Yeah, there's the whole monster creep things:

Funny how, over 3 decades, creatures that were once clearly monsters--vampires, kobolds, half-fiends, doppelgangers, werewolves etc--have become normal character options, and in the process they've been slightly softened and tweaked to be more civilized and acceptable. Eberron kicked off some official transitions with shifters and changelings, and then 4E brought in tieflings and dragonborn as official PC races.

So honestly, if a GM says, let's stay with "human" as humans and their very close relatives, and cut out all the weirdo monster stuff, then I totally get that.

My first reaction to the races in Radiance is "No way am I allowing all of those races." Now I realise that it is great that these options are in the free core book. (I hope WotC is reading this.)

I'm writing notes for my Radiance campaign, and the new Radiance Masters Guide makes that easy. This is not a simple rehash of the many GMGs of the past; it is a great guide to making the creation of adventures so much easier.