Search results

Our group actually really enjoys playing the parts of NPCs, it allows them to have more freedom as they are less worried about the end result to their character.

I am pretty sure you can do all of those with D&D.

I liked the first one and thought this one was atrocious, worst movie i have seen in a while (and i watch and enjoy some pretty bad movies). Through most of the movie my one feeling was somewhere between annoyance of the characters and complete apathy about why anything was happening.

What i have always found a bit wonky with many social resolution rules like say diplomacy skill is that it rarely works both ways. The guards never use diplomacy to convince the PCs not to bother entering the castle.

I think Umbran's point was that those are nice for the end of the fight but with lots of rounds of combat where you are just nickel and diming the critter to death makes such an approach less appealing.

I am a bit of a SOY fanboy right now. I really like the game. It actually stole the feats idea from D&D (the designer pretty much said so). It takes a bit to get used to, as conflict resolution is universal (for everything) and damaging someone socially can impact them physically. But in some...

Oh absolutely. I am not dissing on D&D by any means. I just mean no game can generally do all things well and that you should use a game that empasizes stuff that is important to you. So sometimes you use the game that gives you what you want most and then you deal with it being subpar on other...

True and I would do that with combat and any other potential conflict (climbing a tree, punching someone in the face etc.) as well. Sometimes you roll sometimes the player (and DM) just states what happens. Sure people have done many things with D&D though that doesn't mean it was a...

Frankly I would do the same for combat. Shadow of Yesterday has a great rule called "bringing down the pain" (this is for all conflicts in the game) The GIST (sp?) of the system is that if there are no real stakes involved don't roll just say "Yes" as the DM to whatever the player wanted (this...

This is not to argue against your point (I pretty much agree with most all you said particuarly about resolution systems that can work outside of combat), but I really think (IMHO) that roleplaying should be broadened past "acting in character".

Absolutely nothing wrong with hamming it up. But usually when I mention rewarding roleplaying people associate it with amateur thespianism and I wanted to make sure that my statement was not misconstrued. My feeling is when people mention roleplaying they really just mean playing in character...

I think looking at the indy games is a good start. Reward roleplaying and by this i dont mean reward thespianism. Make XP tied to the development of character goals or narrative goals. I would have characters get XP for initiating their flaws if the flaws can impact the narrative (flaw...

I can agree with a lot of this, which is why i was a bit vague I admit for the definition of a great story. I don't think most RPGs necessarily break down to killl them and take their stuff (even defining stuff very broadly). I think WoD is actually not a very good story driven game but is...

For me Great Gaming is not possible without a Great Story, it is why I game. Honestly I am not sure what Great Gaming in an RPG really means. Now i use 'Great Story' probably more loosely than others (it could mean great character interactions, great scenes etc.); For me it doesnt mean that we...

That is a very good point. While I kind of like puzzles sometimes, I do think that there can be a definite break of immersion when they happen.

My players really care about story and don't care about Loot unless it makes the story more interesting and minimally about XP. My players fall far more on the story side than game side. We tend to play more narrativist games though (which have lots of metagaming 'gamist' rules but ones that...

Actually magnesium (particularly finely powedered) pretty much lights on contact with oxygen and a little heat. All those elements are very different form each other chemically. Someone already said this...shouldve read the entire thread first. :confused:

I think the question is how far does this extend. Many players want to come up with a cool plan or strategy to solve some obstacle. What if the player since his character is smart just wants to roll for success of the strategy and not come up with one (and some stakes setting RPGs could...

A small tangent: I really like Erickson but House of Chains almost did me in. It is weird how one character you can dislike so much that your desire to finish the book is crushed. I ended up just skimming any section Karsa Orlong was in, hoping i wasn't missing anything important. I wonder if...

I am pretty much as I was. It seems (based on limited information) too different from present D&D versions to make me excited. At the same time it does not really seem revolutionary enough to the underlying basis of the game/system to make me very interested. This might sound paradoxical but...