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  1. The-Magic-Sword

    Storypath Ultra and Curseborne

    Lately I've been getting more into and excited about the Curseborne RPG and its parent generic system Storypath Ultra. Over the last few months I've played some of it, the core book actually came out, the first major supplement funded and the manuscript dropped, and the manual for the...
  2. The-Magic-Sword

    Let's talk about "plot", "story", and "play to find out."

    Focusing on the OP (to avoid catching up on 34 pages of discussion), I tend to run my games less as plots/stories and more as 'narrative-rich spaces' in the sense that they're full of setting, and character, but rather than a plot, these elements interact in ways that don't conform to...
  3. The-Magic-Sword

    When Player Driven Adventures Don't Pan Out

    In our west marches, we use a structure where players gather leads, and use them to launch voyages (outings, single or multi-session to go follow up on something) to go somewhere in the sandbox and do something. One cute thing we did is that while finding information out in the world is a valid...
  4. The-Magic-Sword

    When Player Driven Adventures Don't Pan Out

    I've successfully been doing player driven stuff, the secret sauce is that players level up by paying with treasure, and gather information on possible locations of more treasure doing anything. So at least when real life isn't interfering, they generally do take the initiative to move on to...
  5. The-Magic-Sword

    What Do You Think Of As "Modern TTRPG Mechanics"?

    I tend to think of Story Now games (e.g. your PBTA and Apocalypse World and so forth) and games like 4e as the "Modern" era, but I also don't think the "Modern" era is current, I think of it as being in the past, or at least there being something newer than modern which is surely still chugging...
  6. The-Magic-Sword

    D&D General The Monsters Know What They're Doing ... Are Unsure on 5e24

    This might be acceptable to me, especially as a reflavor of the tortle statblock, and if you let me be cute about it.
  7. The-Magic-Sword

    D&D General The Monsters Know What They're Doing ... Are Unsure on 5e24

    Hmm, the character wouldn't look the way I wanted them to, and they wouldn't be cold blooded which means their people wouldn't have the same underlying relationship with the sun. I wouldn't be able to wear a shell painted with religious iconography since i wouldn't gave a shell.
  8. The-Magic-Sword

    D&D General The Monsters Know What They're Doing ... Are Unsure on 5e24

    Before we switched to Pathfinder I had a tortle light cleric i wanted to play, i had this idea about tortles meditating in open sky temples on the backs of massive dragon turtles, contemplating the sun as they bask in it, and what it means to them as cold blood creatures. The tortle would have...
  9. The-Magic-Sword

    D&D General The Monsters Know What They're Doing ... Are Unsure on 5e24

    I think what I'm wondering is, how strong do we understand a guard captain to be in the story? What kind of villain is he? How hard is he to deal woth, and for who? As you're presenting it, I'm wondering how the emphasis on story is involved-- how strong a character is, that is who they win...
  10. The-Magic-Sword

    D&D General The Monsters Know What They're Doing ... Are Unsure on 5e24

    Are we discussing whether story or mechanics are coming first? Or are we talking about our mutual understanding of what the story is in the first place?
  11. The-Magic-Sword

    D&D General The Monsters Know What They're Doing ... Are Unsure on 5e24

    Looking back at this thread, I think that one major thing is that this is, in some ways, an outgrowth over how the concept of an abstraction middle man between the world portrayed by the game rules and the world we imagine has played out. I'm seeing an underlying difference in how different...
  12. The-Magic-Sword

    Does Anyone Care? (Cosmere RPG)

    I think there's a kind of inertia working against specific licensed games like this unless the property is stratospherically popular, like Star Wars, and even then there's probably some. I think RPG players are more interested in their own settings and DND-Trope-Land. I think that part of what's...
  13. The-Magic-Sword

    Paizo Ends Pathfinder Adventure Path Softcovers, Switching to Quarterly Model

    But just think with affirm or a similar payment plan service it could be a few dollars of impulse purchase instead ; ) (this is a joke, I find the advent of payment plans for such simple things horrifying, if probably sometimes useful for a host of reasons)
  14. The-Magic-Sword

    Pathfinder 2E I played my first PF2e game this week. Here's why I'm less inclined to play again.

    A lot of the AOE spells do pretty well against single bosses too, strictly speaking single target spells are better but you can't always get them at the perfect level and perfect scaling (since Paizo doesn't grid fill spells that way)-- the line spells are generally pretty close. Chain Lightning...
  15. The-Magic-Sword

    Paizo Ends Pathfinder Adventure Path Softcovers, Switching to Quarterly Model

    If anything I think it'll give each AP a more festival atmosphere, in terms of release hype, just because it won't be a continuous bleed, and people will have more time to digest each thing before the next thing comes out-- whether or not they make it through all three volumes in that time.
  16. The-Magic-Sword

    Pathfinder 2E I played my first PF2e game this week. Here's why I'm less inclined to play again.

    Hmm Primal isn't a huge debuffing list (as opposed to like damage-with-weaker-control-effects and healing) but 5th and 6th does include Grisly Growths, and Wall spells. if used well, the wall spells can, in general, be much stronger than slow (wasting multiple actions for the creature to bust...
  17. The-Magic-Sword

    Pathfinder 2E I played my first PF2e game this week. Here's why I'm less inclined to play again.

    I will say, I disagree, I know they're meta in other similar games, but I find that it's no great loss to skip out on some spells for those targets in favor of non-incap equivalents. Like, yeah, if you could get them on a boss it'd practically end the fight, but that was also the problem they...
  18. The-Magic-Sword

    Pathfinder 2E I played my first PF2e game this week. Here's why I'm less inclined to play again.

    Notably, as you progress along the learning curve, the element of luck they're discussing doesn't persist. Speaking from experience, my players handle the +4 solo bosses fairly consistently, they remain scary but can be finessed. REALLY bad streaks can still get you though. I should also...
  19. The-Magic-Sword

    Pathfinder 2E I played my first PF2e game this week. Here's why I'm less inclined to play again.

    You don't need a mystery or a gm designated investigation to pursue a lead. The strategic strike feature brings you up over a class that doesn't get a damage bonus the same way rogue sneak attack does. The strength of Devise is also that you can guesstimate whether you hit before you commit...
  20. The-Magic-Sword

    D&D General Mike Mearls' blog post about RPG generations

    Yeah, I really value your input whenever I see it too. My contention in general is more about when we're collectively allowed to make an observation about and where the burden of proof for 'well reddit/enworld/etc is just different' arises.
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