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  1. Xeriar

    Technicalities of running an online game

    OpenRPG has a few advantages over normal IRC 1: Character sheets. You design or grab your own sheets (I've made a 3e one that people like to adopt) and have your players return them to you, or whatever - inside the program (stored at .xml documents). 2: You can run your own server. Or use a...
  2. Xeriar

    Please don't squeeze the wizard (tactical advice)

    Oooh, a couple of other interesting ones - Wall of Iron and Wall of stone :-)
  3. Xeriar

    Please don't squeeze the wizard (tactical advice)

    My wizard's current bag of 'don't touch me' tricks include: Shield Mirror Image See Invisibility Haste (Now has boots of speed) Nondetection Dimension Door (verbal only! Can cast while grappled!) Improved Invisibility Stoneskin Fire Shield Improved Flight (6th level and speed of 180) I've...
  4. Xeriar

    See Invisability, Cone?

    It's oriented to the caster, presumably on his field of vision (else the spell would be rather silly)
  5. Xeriar

    Which method do you use to determine ability scores?

    It varies depending on the campaign. Anyway, if you roll up millions of people, this is what you get for points (one for one). 1 in a million - 96 point assign 1 in 100,000 - 92 point assign 1 in 10,000 - 88 point assign 1 in 1,000 - 84 point assign 1 in 100 - 80 point assign 1 in 10 - 76...
  6. Xeriar

    NPC Level Demographics

    Typically a 16th-level commoner (my program only gets them to 6th on generous XP gains) is going to have -6 to str, dex and con, and not start out with great scores to begin with. What I hated about the DMG was that, generating a city by sectors or whatnot produced different results than...
  7. Xeriar

    NPC Level Demographics

    By what measure? By standard deviation, ability scores are pretty pathetic - there are about 40 people on Earth who should have 28s, for example. And there are definately more than 8 or so defined grades of skill... in just about everything. Hit points are just about the only thing you could...
  8. Xeriar

    NPC Level Demographics

    I made a program that generates a number of people (a million if you have two gigs of RAM :-), usually using the 3d6 method, and assigning them an age category (randomly, based on a slightly extended Roman distribution with Infant Mortality thrown out). It currently sorts them by ability score...
  9. Xeriar

    Please stop paying full price for rulebooks.

    Re: Re: Re: Please stop paying full price for rulebooks. I generally pay for my GM's books. Helps out a lot :-)
  10. Xeriar

    Please stop paying full price for rulebooks.

    No FLGS can afford to except on preorders - they pay 50-60% of MSRP already, what's the logic in expecting that kind of discount from them?
  11. Xeriar

    Please stop paying full price for rulebooks.

    I'm an old gamer. But, I realize that, by inflation, those $40 books should be costing $45 (ELH) or $50 (FRCS), the original 3 core books should have been $35. No gauging, WotC made a valiant (and a little risky) attempt at seriously expanding the hobby (to a full recovery from its heyday, IMO).
  12. Xeriar

    Please stop paying full price for rulebooks.

    If enough people skip Bob's for Amazon, sure (not like he might not deserve it, but some stores certainly don't). But... In 1998 Amazon lost 124 Million In 1999 Amazon lost 719 Million In 2000 Amazon lost 1,411 Million In 2001 Amazon lost 567 Million In 2002 Amazon lost 149 Million (though...
  13. Xeriar

    Please stop paying full price for rulebooks.

    Noone here is asking you to buy the junk that most companies are putting out, but... Amazon isn't turning much in the way of profits. If people decide to support Amazon instead of their FLGS, then several things happen 1: The FLGS's fold, you can't tell me you read this site with any...
  14. Xeriar

    Please stop paying full price for rulebooks.

    Still mostly goes to the distributor and school store :-/ This is true even for mid-level courses like differential equations. Think I'm gonna remember how to do a nasty spring equation? HA!
  15. Xeriar

    Please stop paying full price for rulebooks.

    Except for college textbooks. $%#% $80 for an 80 page book the size of a 3x5 index card... $180 for some books, even. My first semester at SDSM&T I spent $800 (US) on books. People that whine about the price of gaming books get no respect from me.
  16. Xeriar

    Player Character Accounting

    Heck I even wrote up some 40+ NPCs for my main character's home town. :-)
  17. Xeriar

    Tips and experience running a city campaign

    In Legend of the Five Rings, one of the default gaming styles ended up being the 'magistrate' campaign, where the players would be magistrates and their assistants (yojimbo, hangers on, etc.) This wasn't intentional, it just worked out that way. It's a bit difficult for d20 because the system...
  18. Xeriar

    Please stop paying full price for rulebooks.

    Price increase on gaming books is about 10-20% below inflation, if you start with AD&D 1e. They'll go out of business. Most aren't even making ends meet as is. Many products are actively sold at a loss (AEG has done this a couple times - City of Lies and Otasan Uchi). And kill the hobby...
  19. Xeriar

    New respect for crossbows

    My father had a friend who got to keep a machine gun from Korea or Vietnam (I forget). It had to be mounted in a cement block, in addition to being chained, locked up, and otherwise secured (wasn't mounted in the ground), and had to call the police whenever he transported it to the firing...
  20. Xeriar

    Adult: GUCK Development Forum again

    In early colonial times the marriage was considered unsuccessful if the wife was not pumping out a child a year.
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