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PublicOpinion posted:Listened to the new episodes while walking downtown to get a burger. I am excited for Drakkenhall times! I, for one, would play the heck out of a Nav game. I also love the Lich King graffiti on the wall/shields, that's a really nice touch. It's great to see the return of content. It has brought joy back to my morning commute.
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Sep 8, 2013 19:17
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what a wonderful night to inflict ongoing.
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Sep 8, 2013 19:35
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Roach Warehouse posted:Sorry to hear that Palisade. I find the videos a lot easier to engage with than the podcasts, so consider that a vote of support if you ever come to the decision of re-producing them. I agree with this.
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Sep 8, 2013 21:56
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hmm... don't suppose any of our viewers knows enough about NES romhacking to, say, replace sprites and scripts. PublicOpinion posted:Listened to the new episodes while walking downtown to get a burger. I am excited for Drakkenhall times!
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Sep 8, 2013 23:01
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So that's who puts food in the walls!
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Sep 9, 2013 09:01
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Episode 25b In this episode, the Rogue Elements get a load of how messed up the world can be when the Archmage's wards falter and meet a new friend. It's crazy how not-crazy this dragon is.
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Sep 10, 2013 00:38
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Did you all come up with the name Rogue Elements first, and then work it into the podcast, or was that just an off the cuff moment in 25a and the name stuck?
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Sep 10, 2013 02:46
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At long last, Margeret's family gets a reference. I really want to meet her children.
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Sep 10, 2013 03:40
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Wind God Sety posted:Did you all come up with the name Rogue Elements first, and then work it into the podcast, or was that just an off the cuff moment in 25a and the name stuck? It just sort of slipped out and their reaction to it was entirely genuine. I asked about it in the post-game chat and we all decided to keep it.
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Sep 10, 2013 04:18
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So, I'm guessing that Mercury just Wants to Break Free, huh? Going to be honest, wasn't expecting Rip to develop a Stand.
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Sep 10, 2013 06:31
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Dang, running into 403's while trying to download the newest episode. I was hoping to listen to it while going to the gym.
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Sep 11, 2013 17:31
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Our podcasts are hosted on Zorak's website (thanks Zorak!) which we really appreciate. However, right now the site seems to be having difficulties. If it doesn't sort itself out soon, expect it to be fixed by the end of the day. E: It's bandwidth issues which should be resolved sometime tonight. General Ironicus fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Sep 11, 2013 |
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Sep 11, 2013 19:01
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Sorry about the inconvenience. The British gentleman on the telephone indicated it's probably a quick fix, but I can't mess with it until I'm off work. e: Aaaand it's back. Zorak fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Sep 12, 2013 |
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Sep 11, 2013 20:32
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I guess it's worth cross-posting this to throw into the fanart pile if you don't read the D&D thread: Celebrating good threads and good times.
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Sep 14, 2013 06:30
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I've already brought it up on like 3 different occasions but dang that's some good art!
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Sep 14, 2013 07:34
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really fuckin' like that you reimagined and redesigned everyone. phenomenal
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Sep 14, 2013 07:41
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Tetrax's face being covered up is a nice touch. kidcoelacanth posted:I guess it's worth cross-posting this to throw into the fanart pile if you don't read the D&D thread:
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Sep 14, 2013 07:52
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Rhinoceraptor posted:Does this mean the new D&D thread is here? I just looked and couldn't find it! Nope, it was posted in the paragon thread.
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Sep 14, 2013 16:50
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I love how in every single artist's interpretation, we never, ever see Rip's eyes.
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Sep 14, 2013 18:47
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Frocobo posted:I love how in every single artist's interpretation, we never, ever see Rip's eyes. He has a helmet on that is too big, and thus covers his eyes. To do otherwise would be like drawing Joey without hoof hands. That is, wrong.
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Sep 14, 2013 20:06
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Gensuki posted:He has a helmet on that is too big, and thus covers his eyes. To do otherwise would be like drawing Joey without hoof hands. He's probably hiding something horrifying under there. Maybe he's got another beard where his eyes should be.
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Sep 14, 2013 21:48
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Colosmicon posted:He's probably hiding something horrifying under there. Maybe he's got another beard where his eyes should be. Well, that's all dwarves... No reason to hide that... maybe he's actually an anime? 
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Sep 15, 2013 00:37
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To compete with big amazing fanart I bring tiny fanart:  Good thing that there's one design of Mint with a gas mask because I was having a devil of a time trying to fit him into three colors. I think Rip was the trickiest. Scarlet's face may only be recognizable as a face if you already know what she looks like; perspective on snouts is tricky enough when you have actual lines and junk.
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Sep 15, 2013 10:56
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amazing. now we have stages and an overworld. we're halfway to steam!!
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Sep 15, 2013 19:27
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PublicOpinion posted:To compete with big amazing fanart I bring tiny fanart: For Scarlet, it could be full on, with the hat slightly covering her left eye, and some hair hanging down over her the lefter side of her face. And then she's orange and has a tail?
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Sep 17, 2013 04:09
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I've finally caught up, and I love everything about this. Especially the system. I'm working up the nerve to track down some local players and give GMing a shot.
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Sep 22, 2013 13:48
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DrakePegasus posted:I've finally caught up, and I love everything about this. Yeah, the system's really fun and barring a few complaints (some classes being much less complex than others, as Poorweather constantly reminds us) it really does its job very well. Speaking of which, I'm actually trying out a ranger to see if there are more complex ways to play it and I'm finding myself severely limited. With that in mind, I'm going to see if I can take a shot at why we've seen two of them so far in this campaign and neither player has been very satisfied with them, despite having wildly different builds. This is a negative review, but that's only because a lot of the other classes are so good that the wasted potential of the more simplistic ones makes them feel worse to me by comparison. If you aren't playing something very combat heavy or you're new to the system then you might not have these concerns - the simple classes were designed that way for a reason after all. In a lot of ways the ranger crosses the rogue and the fighter, sacrificing those classes versatility for a wide range of build options. This means you can get a lot of different expressions of the class (Nav Classic played quite differently to Margaret), but the diversity primarily comes from their optional class talents. It has a lot of these, but the drawback is many of the best ones require multiple talent slots or feats to use effectively, and those talents are really the only way you get to make the class more complex than basic attacking each round. This means that unlike other flexible-build classes like the Bard it never really forges its own mechanical identity, it just kind of relies on others for that. Note that Bards also have spells, battle cries and songs to help give them more variety. For example: The Fey Queen's Enchantments talent lets them borrow a daily or recharge sorcerer spell, but you need to take a feat to use any ability other than charisma to use it. In a class that utilizes strength (sometimes melee attack rolls and always melee damage*), dexterity (ranged attacks and possibly melee attack rolls) AND wisdom (tracking and hunting background checks) that represents a hefty investment. Note that a melee ranger will also want a decent constitution to take hits, so that's at least two non-charisma stats you want to be pretty high regardless of your build. In practice it means that despite the class' flexibility it's often punished for experimenting or generalizing. It also means that of the two borrow-a-spell talents, the cleric one is much more appealing because most of the cleric's spells key off wisdom, which the ranger will usually want and/or have a bonus to. The annoying thing about this is that the talents have the capacity to play off one another in interesting ways, but because of how limited they are you only really get one or two tricks per combination and most of them are daily (namely the spell options). One cool trick I identified uses the Double Melee Attack talent, which allows you to reduce your damage die by one size in order to make a second attack if you roll a natural even on your first roll. Ordinarily this takes you from a single d8+strength attack to a d6+strength attack, but there's another ranger talent called Ranger Ex Cathedral which can up the damage significantly. You do this by borrowing the daily cleric spell Hammer of Faith, which raises your base damage die to d12s for the rest of the battle, meaning that you can attack with double d10s for an entire fight. It also requires two talents for a single daily move, which is pretty expensive and potentially prohibitive if you aren't building your character around it. That's better than most classes get unassisted, and makes significantly better use of it than the cleric. Also note that one quirk of 13th Age's combat is that when wielding two weapons, on a natural 2 you may re-roll your attack. Double Ranged Attack triggers on any natural even - hit or miss, so you can still get your second attack off this. The only problem is that this power doesn't change how your character plays, it just severely increases its damage - much like a Barbarian's Rage power. There's another ranger Talent called Tracker which is, in theory by far the best talent your ranger can get. Firstly, it gives you a free 5 ranked background in wilderness tracking and other nature related stuff. It also gives you the Terrain Stunt power which is an improvisational effect in which the ranger can use the environment to create a special effect - often inflicting status ailments (for other improvisational effects, check out the Rogue's Swashbuckle which is a similar, resource based effect). Essentially, it's a talent that allows rangers to do things that pretty much all rangers should be able to do anyway. It also requires a feat to Terrain Stunt in urban environments, and another to actually track in urban environments, so if your ranger is going to be going dungeon crawling, tomb raiding or spending time in cities you don't get your cool improvisational stuff. I highly recommend taking a cue from the Favoured Enemy talent and house-ruling Tracker to favour a specific kind of terrain of your choice, and be able to unlock a second using feats, rather than specifying "wilderness only". That way you can start as an urban or desert ranger, then branch out if you go between multiple locations on a regular basis. Overall, rangers seem to be one of those "great in theory" classes that seem like a character builder's dream come true (hence two party members playing them at the start), but due to a lack of class features and over-reliance on talents and feats to get the full effect of any complexity their execution is inherently limited. Compared to the Fighter, it lacks interesting things to do in combat, compared to a Rogue it lacks a strong design direction with interesting improvisational effects and compared to a Bard its build options don't capitalize well on its flexibility. Still, I'd recommend always getting this talent because even though it's a knockoff of Swashbuckle, it's the closest thing your ranger will get to feeling like a ranger in combat and not just an off-brand, low-functionality version of several other classes awkwardly fused. That kind of thing's fine if you want to just try out a bunch of different class skills without committing to them, but if you want your ranger to do ranger things then this is the talent for you. I'll have more to say when I've given my ranger a try**, but the point is, if you ever want to play the game for more than a one-shot, you might want to think carefully before playing a ranger, and not just a wilderness-themed rogue or fighter. My next big effort-post is going to have to be on reflavouring classes, because I have a lot of ideas for making a wilderness themed rogue. *I don't know if this is a typo but although you can use dexterity as your melee attack roll ability there's no option to also use it for damage. This means you have to pump strength regardless so you might as well just ignore dexterity in favour of constitution for the extra hit points if you're going to play a melee ranger. **One Unique thing: He grew from one of the Green dragon's two disembodied hearts at the start of the Half-Orc plague.
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Sep 22, 2013 16:26
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Another thing to remember when building a complicated ranger is race selection and magic items. Something like Dark Elf, High Elf, Gnome, Aasimar, or Dragonspawn will give you an encounter power you actively use (well, the gnome gives you something that you can trigger on an attack roll, but with as many attack rolls as a ranger throws out you'll probably be able to use it on the target of your choice). The Gnome also includes minor illusions for a thing to do out of combat, so that's also a bonus. Other powers are definitely useful (looking at you, Wood Elf) but much like the Ranger the mechanical power comes without options. Magic items with activated powers are good for adding options, but items with selectively active passive abilities are also good for engaging you in the combat and setting up specific scenarios. Boots of Ferocious Charge, Paragon Necklace, Bearclaw Necklace, Scroll of Seven Subtle Serpents (a good reason to use Dex for melee attacks), and a bundle of weapons (Abandon to give incentive to making your first attack really count, Inimical to give you a choice on every attack, Protection to let you last when you run out ahead of all your allies, Vanity for hit-and-run attacks, Vengeance for Danger Mario). EDIT: Since Bards can also make melee attacks with Dex or Strength and have the option of which mod to add to damage, I'm inclined to believe Rangers should get it too.
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Sep 23, 2013 02:40
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I had a free afternoon.
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Sep 25, 2013 00:34
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You should clear out your calendar and have more free afternoons. The perspective, body language, and lighting gives the picture a nice sense of tension.
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Sep 25, 2013 00:43
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John Liver posted:I had a free afternoon. This is cool. Is there art for Beowulf?
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Sep 25, 2013 01:51
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Fully caught up. I love how in the two major tabletop games (this and 4e) done on this board, Poorweather's characters and Plaz's characters are usually in opposition to each other-- only it's at the other extreme with Nav and Margaret than it is with Kod and Minerelle.
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Sep 25, 2013 02:23
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John Liver posted:I had a free afternoon. I had a terrible day at work today and this made it all worth it, thanks so much!!
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Sep 25, 2013 03:39
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Yeah, that picture is absolutely awesome. I love the lighting on Scarlett's arm there. So is this Algernon after Scarlett dragged him on a shopping trip through Horizon so he'd finally have something to wear that wasn't made from recently deceased animals? Because it suits him.
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Sep 25, 2013 04:06
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Pyradox posted:Yeah, that picture is absolutely awesome. I love the lighting on Scarlett's arm there. This is just a thing I have about fantasy fashion, in that I hate it. Kilts and tunics and cloaks and robes, it's boring! Wear some brands, for god's sake!
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Sep 25, 2013 04:14
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John Liver posted:This is just a thing I have about fantasy fashion, in that I hate it. Kilts and tunics and cloaks and robes, it's boring! Wear some brands, for god's sake! If anyone in the campaign would wear those brands it's the Del Flors. Well, Nav would probably have all sorts of brands but each item of clothing would be as expensive as Al's entire outfit.
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Sep 25, 2013 05:06
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All of these things are true. I tend to draw them in modern clothes myself, it looks more right to me.
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Sep 25, 2013 05:16
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Drakkel posted:All of these things are true. I tend to draw them in modern clothes myself, it looks more right to me. Yeah, they never strike me as the kind of characters who would give much stock to traditional garb, especially if it belongs to a society they grew up on the streets of.
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Sep 25, 2013 05:22
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Just caught up with session 25, it definitely feels like the stakes have been raised. I feel bad for Scarlett, it must be a real blow to find out your hero (and the people you'd almost consider family, as fellow wizards) are doing such shady things. Especially considering there's a file on her, too. If they've had their eyes on her for a long time, who's to say they weren't responsible for past events? Some conspiracy to nudge Scarlett towards magic, make her feel indebted to the Archmage? The child of prophecy could be a powerful ally... That would really undermine her whole theme of being more than just some tool of destiny, could be interesting to see how she'd deal with that. If there is such a conspiracy, of course. That sort of thing isn't my decision.
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Sep 25, 2013 16:54
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"Weak excuses from a weaker man" Made my day....
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Sep 28, 2013 04:26
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