Search results

One thought about the healing church and power balancing: the nobility would probably strive to put some limitations on this church so that it wouldn't overshadow all else. And it would be good to have a built-in way to discourage players from taking the healing domain short of DM fiat. Why...

I suppose that I try to keep it simple. As I've found it difficult to improve on the general maxim "minimize avoidable suffering," I define evil as the purposeful infliction of suffering on another. Where I probably depart from many on the boards is my feeling that such acts are not redeemed by...

As the father of two boys, I wish you much joy on your new son. Get in shape and rest up now. Should be easy, with so little else going on, eh? :D Sons, in my own limited experience, are a lot of fun and not a little bit humbling when they begin imitating all your conversational gambits and...

May you have good luck and lots of energy considering all that you have on your plate. You have my positive thoughts and prayers.

Historically, it was passed at a time when unions had a fair amount of power in the United States. Its timing, however, was designed to defuse the informal celebrations of another "Worker's Holiday," May Day. People didn't want to officially celebrate May Day because of its associations with...

37. As a spin on the standard investigation plot, the PCs discover that the villain is actually heavily politically connected. If they move against the culprit, they will ruin their own reputations (the dastardly fiend has set up a massive frame job on whoever tries to harm him or her). They...

Many of my adventures deal with humans and other intelligent NPCs in urban areas, so I usually pursue a different tack. I usually start with the institutions that are dominant in the area, and think about their goals and agendas. Usually, that will suggest a few NPCs, who I then stat out...

The basic difference between the two systems seems to be where the variability occurs. In your system, the caster can't predict exactly how effective the spell will be (the dmage or number affected depends on the roll); in my system, they determine their outcome, and then make an all-or-nothing...

Here are two sample skills: Compulsion (cha) (requires enchantment feat). These spells use magical force to override the personality of the target. Many of these spells carry a risk of corruption with them, depending on their use. Minor command The caster compels one target to obey one...

I've been playtesting such a system for a while now, and am in the middle of a third set of revisions. The main differences between my system and what is being described in this thread are as follows: 1. There are only eight feats, one for each school of magic, and all skills have...

Usually, when words out of Germanic mythology get thrown about, I think to myself "Nothing good can come out of this." I suppose this is life from the point of view of one of the statues that the silverbacks are trying to destroy. And one of our young heroes has just discovered that he is a...

To sum up so far: There seems to be a real concensus (at least among the respondents) that there needs to be a close balance between revealing game mechanics and the classical standards of good writing. No one so far reads the story hours as merely session transcripts, or merely as fiction...

I was wondering. . . How faithful to the game experience do you, the reader of a story hour, prefer the story hour to be? Do you want simply a plain transcript of a given adventure, enjoying the session vicariously? Do you like a well written story, but still want the game mechanics to be...

Lore (English teacher), Absurdity, and Picking The Slowest Line at the Grocery Store.

I believe the previous thread mentioned something in general about trying to take out the communications mages, but here is tweak of two existing plans: Using scry to find the lower level comm specialists, try to mount several raids whose purpose is to dominate the communicators, then hide...

Plane Sailing: I actually use a VP/WP system, armor providing damage reduction and am writing a feat/skill/VP magic system already, so I don't think I am too scared of changing things. I do want to make sure that I don't make things needlessly complicated. DonAdam: It would make shields very...

You might look at the reputation system such as exists in Star Wars RPG or Wheel of Time rpg. Each class gets a certain number of reputation points per level, which become a bonus for communication skills in certain situations. It might be a better solution for what you're looking for. And it...

It might help to know the sorceror's spells when tailoring a single-person adventure. If the sorc has some good sneak-type spells, you could always have some kind of investigation or "borrowing" of a needed item for the item creation. Or, if divination spells are a strength: sorc needs a...

Hong: the magical bonus stacking is a valid point, but less so for the type of campaign I run (very magic-item poor). I suppose this rule tweak was one way of making the rules work without assuming a huge magical economy. Reapersaurus: what I was saying is that UglyNakedGuy (dex 10) with a...

After reading through some of the threads about relating d20 mechanics to historical infantry tactics, it seems that there is a creeing suspicion that a shield (in the rules) just doesn't do as much for you as it would in real life. So: does anyone have any rules that make shields more...