Game, game, game

[thormagni]

Hey guys. I had a great time on Saturday. It was nice to fight and kill some stuff without feeling totally outclassed. I'm curious as to where we go from here.

And after the prodding from the Bob, I am going to finish Borat this evening. Perhaps my first impressions were unjust, but to reiterate them, I felt more uncomfortable than amused with the part I have watched to this point. We shall see.

 

[Fyrestryke]

I had a blast! Can't wait to play again. As for where we go from here...I'm guessing we take those caverns into the castle.

 

[Grimhelm]

Aye. As far as I am concerned, we use the information we have to get into the castle. My hunch is that if we free this area from the clutches of the witch, we might just have a shot at starting a serious force for change. Enslaved dragons and lizard men might be willing to aid their liberators.

As for Borat. It is supposed to make you uncomfortable, I think. I think it is outstanding black comedy. It makes you squirm and pee your pants with laughter at the same time. And it is great social commentary.

 

[Bob_Probst]

I enjoyed the adventure but still found combat rules to be an exercise in bookkeeping. As yet, I've found no benefit to Runequest over d20. Especially if you remove many of the limits to class skills in d20.

 

[Grimhelm]

I think combat has been improving. I think it is much faster compared to higher level d20 character play, but that has yet to be seen, since we aren't that high a level. One thing I do like is that it seems like a struggle to improve, and though it is frustrating too, I like it more than I dislike it. Combat will smooth out. We probably need to do away with body part hits in mass combat situations, though. This would speed things up. Otherwise I am still open to the system and am enjoying the game as a whole.

 

[chachi]

I think that our next move is to the castle. Dungeon Master revealed our path in a Delphic riddle:

When next the group convenes;
a fortnight hence.
I shall have the castle and the witch drawn up.

Of course that doesn't mean that we need to pursue that course, but it seems to be laid out for us. But the fact that our prisoner had specific information about the layout of the castle, the guards within and the witch's powers aren't really useful if we don't go after her.

 

[thormagni]

I think combat has been improving.

I am starting to believe that combat in RPGs is always slow and time-consuming to some degree or another. I think the key is to a) keep the die rolls to a minimum and b) make the actual physical mechanics of the combat more abstract (i.e. the 5-foot-stepping and charges and retreats and all that.) The more realistic, the less speedy.

Mutants and Masterminds/True 20 from Green Ronin has a pretty fast mechanic. You roll D20 to hit, plus your bonuses, against the target's defense plus bonuses. If you hit, then the target makes a saving throw. Fail the save, they are bruised, fail by five or more and they are stunned, fail by 10 or more you are staggered, 15 or more, you are unconscious. Each time you are hit, you get a negative to your next saving throw.

And Godlike has a pretty fast mechanic, that I probably can't summarize accurately off the top of my head. But you roll a bunch of dice. The highest number you rolled is your "height" and determines whether you were successful or not. The number of matching numbers you rolled (for example two 1s or four 5s) is your breadth and determines how well you succeeded.

 

[BobProbst]

I am starting to believe that combat in RPGs is always slow and time-consuming to some degree or another. I think the key is to a) keep the die rolls to a minimum and b) make the actual physical mechanics of the combat more abstract (i.e. the 5-foot-stepping and charges and retreats and all that.) The more realistic, the less speedy.

Then how's this? Everyone gets a d4 for every point of awesomeness they have and then get to describe their awesomeness for their die roll in seconds. Whatever they can say in that time is what might happen.

Then they flip a coin. If it comes up heads you do it; if it comes up tails you don't; if it falls on the floor, you're prone (clumsy!); if it never falls at all, you've somehow stumbled upon a mysterious new property of money.

Someone with almost no awesomeness can only "attack", "trip", "bluff". Someone with tremendous awesomeness (I won't say who because I'm humble) could "Moonwalk circles around my foes until they're dizzy and then pants them. While they're getting their pants back on, I do that Matrix thing where I run on the walls and do back flips and junk and then finally have sex with their girlfriends and they die of an aneurysm."

Sounds simple to me and not at all realistic.

 

[Grimhelm]

The plain and simple fact is that there is never going to be an ideal fighting system other than everyone dressing up and bashing each other in character in real time. Simulation is never going to live up to reality. The question everyone needs to ask is: Is the battle mechanic fun? I am having fun.

 

[InzeladunMaster]

I enjoyed the adventure but still found combat rules to be an exercise in bookkeeping. As yet, I've found no benefit to Runequest over d20. Especially if you remove many of the limits to class skills in d20.

I don't think it is that bad. It will get faster as we get used to it. I, for one, am glad the feats are gone. That really slowed down combat - once I had the rules figured out, everyone had a feat that broke those rules and figuring out the ramifications of how all the feats interact from character to character just bogged things down, esp. at high levels. I barely used feats for the NPCs for this reason - then throw in magic on top of that, as well as class/prestige class abilities and it just became a slow, slow mess.

For some people, just calculating how much damage they did was horrifically slow - even for some of the NPCs. This game, the damage is simple and hit points are simple and low... it works better than d20 for me.

However, I still have Savage Worlds waiting in the wings, and Tri-Stat, if this ultimately does not please people.