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Brevity - a kind of review
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<blockquote data-quote="Vespucci" data-source="post: 5576567" data-attributes="member: 6675688"><p>Belatedly, I've realized that this is a <em>critique</em> of Trailblazer. Ah, well, hindsight is 20/20.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I think you're right - and that's why I propose the change. This sort of player entitlement is a weight around the neck of the ref. By leaving races out of the core rules, the ref doesn't have to "ban" elves (or whoever) if they're not in his campaign. He just adds campaign rules for those races that do exist. (A good way to empower the ref in this way would be to give an "canonical" example campaign with elf-as-class, orc-as-class, and half-orc-as-feat - no dwarves, gnomes, halflings, or half-elves.)</p><p></p><p>I have in mind that Signature Maneuver replaces Improved Disarm and friends. But alternate signatures are possible. Here's an off-the-cuff example for something different:</p><p></p><p><em>Tera the Mighty is famous for her prodigious strength - her player rolled a natural 18. She has often used a Combat Maneuver which involves easily blocked but tremendously powerful blows - each time Tera succeeds with this Maneuver, the victim is weakened, taking a -2 penalty to attack and AC for a number of rounds equal to Tera's Strength bonus. When Tera reaches 6th level, her player approaches the ref to make this technique a Signature Maneuver, proposing to gain a +4 bonus to the Combat Maneuver and to daze the target when Tera succeeds. The ref laughs this off - a +4 is no problem, but dazed is a bit rich! He suggests that <strong>Tera's Mighty Strike</strong> also stagger the target. The player gives a wry smile and writes that on Tera's character sheet, joking that next time he'll start the bargaining a bit higher...</em></p><p></p><p>(Note that the picture of what's happening is much more important than the actual mechanics for <strong>Tera's Mighty Strike</strong>. The important thing is that the players feel entitled to do flash things in combat and make those an integral part of their character, while understanding that the ref's word is final. Of course, Tera's player could have just said, "Alright, I think I'll take Weapon Focus instead.")</p><p></p><p>In my experience, the main reason that individual initiative mattered is that I don't want to be sitting there waiting for everyone else to finish their turn before I get to do <em>anything</em>. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> OK, that's not entirely true. However, a lot of the "I go first" abilities could be translated into "we go first", translating a jerk character build into a team player.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Vespucci, post: 5576567, member: 6675688"] Belatedly, I've realized that this is a [I]critique[/I] of Trailblazer. Ah, well, hindsight is 20/20. I think you're right - and that's why I propose the change. This sort of player entitlement is a weight around the neck of the ref. By leaving races out of the core rules, the ref doesn't have to "ban" elves (or whoever) if they're not in his campaign. He just adds campaign rules for those races that do exist. (A good way to empower the ref in this way would be to give an "canonical" example campaign with elf-as-class, orc-as-class, and half-orc-as-feat - no dwarves, gnomes, halflings, or half-elves.) I have in mind that Signature Maneuver replaces Improved Disarm and friends. But alternate signatures are possible. Here's an off-the-cuff example for something different: [I]Tera the Mighty is famous for her prodigious strength - her player rolled a natural 18. She has often used a Combat Maneuver which involves easily blocked but tremendously powerful blows - each time Tera succeeds with this Maneuver, the victim is weakened, taking a -2 penalty to attack and AC for a number of rounds equal to Tera's Strength bonus. When Tera reaches 6th level, her player approaches the ref to make this technique a Signature Maneuver, proposing to gain a +4 bonus to the Combat Maneuver and to daze the target when Tera succeeds. The ref laughs this off - a +4 is no problem, but dazed is a bit rich! He suggests that [B]Tera's Mighty Strike[/B] also stagger the target. The player gives a wry smile and writes that on Tera's character sheet, joking that next time he'll start the bargaining a bit higher...[/I] (Note that the picture of what's happening is much more important than the actual mechanics for [B]Tera's Mighty Strike[/B]. The important thing is that the players feel entitled to do flash things in combat and make those an integral part of their character, while understanding that the ref's word is final. Of course, Tera's player could have just said, "Alright, I think I'll take Weapon Focus instead.") In my experience, the main reason that individual initiative mattered is that I don't want to be sitting there waiting for everyone else to finish their turn before I get to do [I]anything[/I]. ;) OK, that's not entirely true. However, a lot of the "I go first" abilities could be translated into "we go first", translating a jerk character build into a team player. [/QUOTE]
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