ThorinTeague
Creative/Father/Professor
When you're at my table, good, evil, min max, heavy RP, doesn't matter, you're on a team. Period. If what your character would do isn't agreeable and fun for everybody, then you need a new character.
Yes, that rings a bell, but I too don't know the source.Well, I'm having a devil of a time finding which Dragon it was in, but I definitely recall (for whatever that's worth) Gygax saying that not letting elves and orcs get raised was at least in part to offset their other powers, because if they could be raised then why would anyone play a human?
I suspect that was the case. I mean hell, this is the guy who wrote Tomb of Horrors!I could, of course, be misremembering, but I'm pretty sure I'm not here. And hey, maybe Gygax ran meatgrinder games where raise dead was common.
Hide in Shadows and Move Silently.HS/MS? What's that?
Ah, gotcha. The context was melee backstriking, so I wondered if the H and M stood for Hit and Miss and the S was something unknown.Hide in Shadows and Move Silently.
Yeah sorry, I'm not sure when I started using those abbreviations to write down my abilities on my character sheet, so I sometimes forget that not everyone might know my shorthand.Ah, gotcha. The context was melee backstriking, so I wondered if the H and M stood for Hit and Miss and the S was something unknown.
I always thought of the Gray Mouser and James Bond and later on ninjas as the archetypes for D&D thieves and so lightly armored effective dirty fighting skirmishers from 3e on worked for me as a mechanical role.Yeah, sneak attack has become pretty common. Then again, for some reason the designers decided to make Rogues into big-time damage-dealers, which isn't exactly where their roots lie.
Characters in GURPS get compensated for disadvantages so it's just part of min/maxing.
M&M 2e, and later Fate, showed me what can be done in this design space: When a disadvantage actually hinders you in a meaningful way, you get a narrative resource. When it's not actually being a disadvantage, it does nothing for you. So now people are encouraged to lean into their flaws, especially when they're low on narrative influence, and story beats just kind of happen!
Now some of you might say that this could all be avoided in Session 0 when everyone makes characters together. But I'm going to be honest; I have never witnessed a Session Zero where that happens. Somewhere beyond "who is going to be melee? Who can heal?" talks always break down and people create the exact character they want to play, without asking for much input.
Ninjas for me are the archetype for Monks more than Thieves.I always thought of the Gray Mouser and James Bond and later on ninjas as the archetypes for D&D thieves
Fair enough, though IMO at very low levels most if not all characters should still be close to "ordinary guy" status. That status falls off later as they gain in levels, powers, etc.I was never really fond of the noncombatant ordinary guy Bilbo Burglar model for thieves.
80s ninja media had a lot of martial arts but also a lot of stealth and climbing and deception and infiltration.Ninjas for me are the archetype for Monks more than Thieves.
Eh? AD&D Monks had the following Thief abilities: Open Locks, Find/Remove Traps, Move Silently, Hide in Shadows, Hear Noise, and Climb Walls, all as a Thief of their Monk level.80s ninja media had a lot of martial arts but also a lot of stealth and climbing and deception and infiltration.
AD&D monks had martial arts but no stealth aspects at all. Bruce Lee much more than Michaelangelo and Rafael for me.