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Halloween Jack posted:However, I do remember there was some apocryphal info about Gygax's house rules floating around here--supposedly he used 4d6 drop lowest, max HP at 1st level, and gave more and better bonuses for high ability scores. These were from games that Gygax ran in the early 00s, so his views on running OD&D had somewhat mellowed
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Oct 5, 2017 18:16
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Bieeardo posted:One of the numerous things I really liked about Gamma World. Small weapon? Deals 1dFoo. Big weapon? Does 1dBar. You decide if that telephone pole you're brandishing works off DEX or STR, yourself. That's how 13th Age does and I like it for that.
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Oct 5, 2017 18:19
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Robindaybird posted:Oh god, if this Renee uses bad welsh, I know of this person. FMguru posted:That also explains why even basic magic weapons were so awesome back then. A weapon that does 1D6+2 damage when it hits is head and shoulders above a weapon that does a 1D6. That's more than a 50% damage boost (even before counting the fact that you're hitting and doing damage more often) If I remember right--and possibly just due to odd phrasing--swords in Brown Box D&D are different from other magic weapons. First, in that they're the only ones that have intelligence and alignment and can grant special powers. But also in that while an Axe +2 gives a bonus to hit and damage, a Sword +2 only gives a bonus to damage if it has a bonus against a specific creature type (like a Sword +1, +3 vs Undead gives +3 to hit and +3 damage against undead, but just +1 to hit against everything else). Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Oct 5, 2017 |
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Oct 5, 2017 18:27
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Halloween Jack posted:Yep, that's the one. I thought it was just, like, they insist that the character sound like some cutesy cartoon sidekick, like how Slimer in the Ghostbusters cartoon sounds like someone doing baby-talk while gargling mouthwash. They latched onto Ianto from Torchwood and kept trying to pepper godawful welsh in their blue space monkey. Honestly I never expect to hear about that person on SA
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Oct 5, 2017 18:33
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I feel like Starfinger is sneaking 4e damage scaling into "the Pathfinder community", and doing it the only way they know how: very poorly. Like seriously, just give each weapon a die type and determine number of dice by character level. They're barely a step or two removed from that.
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Oct 5, 2017 18:53
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Halloween Jack posted:Plus, as expected, equipment is a big part of your character in a game where every 5th level Fighter is almost identical. This was most likely intentional because of Elric. My favorite thing about sword ego's is that their number one goal tends to be to prevent their users from finding a better weapon.
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Oct 5, 2017 19:00
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The most depressing thing about Starfinger is that Paizo is only sort of good at art and it's probably going to sell well anyway.
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Oct 5, 2017 19:25
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wiegieman posted:The most depressing thing about Starfinger is that Paizo is only sort of good at art and it's probably going to sell well anyway. I've seen quite a few "Starfinder is AWESOME" reviews around the webs, so it's going to sell well regardless. It already has a built-in audience of people who want More Pathfinder Forever.
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Oct 5, 2017 19:31
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Warhammer Fantasy: Realm of the Ice Queen They called it Raskolnikov's. Of course. Kislev is not just the heart of Kislev, it is also the center of much of the country's learning and people of letters. Not only does the Tsarina have a great need of clerks and educated bureaucrats, but the city's wealth produces many great temples (some even of foreign Gods) who all require specialists and learned people. The courts would not function without judges, even with the Kislevite disdain for lawyers. The wealth of the city also allows for a larger leisure class, and the cafes and salons of Kislev are full of philosophers and writers in the Grackiziema, the Learned Quarter. The Tsarina's people encourage the salons, because they produce intelligent and able civil servants and also concentrate people who are talking about how things 'should be' in one place so they can be watched. Of all the Gods, the least expected in Kislev is the Temple of Myrmidia. The Goddess is popular with Tilean and Estalian expats, certainly, but Knights of Myrmidia have founded their own order here in Kislev, the Order of the Winter Sun, and as they have always fought in the defense of the city and ridden out with the pulks and rotas when asked they are respected and established. The temple is built in an Estalian style (Tileans would claim it was Tilean, but Tileans claim everything is Tilean) with great spires like a cathedral, and it houses plenty of space for warriors to gather and train together. The Myrmidians respect the resolve of the Kislevites, and the Kislevites the skill of the Myrmidians, and so while it might look out of place, they welcome the Goddess of sunnier lands in their capital. Raskolnikov's is one of the many salons and parlors of debate and discussion throughout Kislev. It was originally just a larger home where learned people and writers came to meet informally, but the owner began to sell fine tobacco, brandy, and other luxuries and expanded his house with the profits, turning it into a large establishment for the literati of the city. Poets and writers come from all over to have their work critiqued, philosophers debate their ideas, and on the days when the current favorites of Kislev's literary scene read their works aloud, it is standing room only. I really appreciate that for all the gloom and war, every single place in Kislev still has artists, poets, writers, and philosophers. It's one of the strengths of Fantasy's setting next to 40k; lots of people do things besides war. Near Raskolnikov's is the Temple of Verena. The Goddess watches over all of the Grackiziema, and her temples also serve as court-houses for official business. After all, business done in the house of the Goddess of Justice will come to a just conclusion, yes? The temple is built entirely of imported Tilean marble, moved in over the centuries at great expense, and it is one of the larger temples of Verena in the Old World. The library here is rivaled only by the massive archives of the Bohka Palaces themselves, and they contain much of the wisdom and literature of Kislev. The Writer's Rooms are a curiosity born of supply and demand. Kislev is the heart of Kislev, and so many people come from all over to make their fortune in the city and to send word and money back to their families. The problem is, most of them are illiterate. As Kislev contains a large number of literate people (relatively), students and aspiring writers began to offer to write letters for the peasants who were settling into the city. A past Tsar, Alexandr, offered a stipend for writers to do this public good, and set aside property for them to live and work in while they did the matters of dictation and read aloud any return letters. Now the Writer's Room has grown into an institution of itself, a perfect place for a young scribe or student to earn their way while they work on their great novel or degree. It also houses an extensive log of past correspondence and journals, making its library invaluable to historians seeking primary sources about life on the steppe or the conditions immigrants have faced over the centuries. Some day, centuries later in Warhammer Modern Roleplay, I imagine Kislevite grad students are going to be absurdly grateful for this place.  The Heckler's Market is notable for three things: First, most of the shops along the square will only sell non-perishable goods. This is because of the second thing: It is a wide open space that is absolutely perfect for demagogues, agitators, storytellers, and public performers. As it is constantly full of people haranguing people about What Is To Be Done, the market stopped selling fruit or vegetables; they'd just end up thrown at the most annoying of the speakers. The third thing is that this square serves as the public execution grounds, so you can often find a speaker speaking in the shadow of someone who went too far and ended up hung for treason. Kislevites find this kind of juxtaposition hilarious. I'll be skipping some of the more non-descript shops, as I doubt anyone cares about a hookless furs store or the various weapon shops they list for some reason. The Gryphon Barracks house the most famous Winged Lancers in Kislev, whenever the Gryphon Legion is in Kislev. The Legion tends to ride out and fight in other conflicts to raise money and recruit additional soldiers whenever Kislev is at 'peace', so they are often away in foreign lands. They have over a hundred riders in their unit, all mounted and proven, and are known for interspersing griffin feathers into their back banners since their founder slew a mighty catbird. Many PCs who want to fight as Winged Lancers might be interested in joining up or gaining a commission from the Legion, and the Tsarina is constantly trying to return them to their original purpose as the ruler's bodyguard (rather than a semi-independent bunch of mercenary hero knights), so there is always space for recruitment or intrigue. Next: Many, many temples.
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Oct 5, 2017 19:34
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I am going to wait for the Fragged Kingdom "traditional fantasy races" web supplement and then I'll just run my own Starfinger with 3d6 and clear rule explanations. Fraggedfinger.
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Oct 5, 2017 19:35
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Evil Mastermind posted:I've seen quite a few "Starfinder is AWESOME" reviews around the webs, so it's going to sell well regardless. It already has a built-in audience of people who want More Pathfinder Forever. What is with these people, though? Are they all just houseruling everything, or playing all caster parties, or do they really like only half the party being important?
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Oct 5, 2017 19:46
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wiegieman posted:What is with these people, though? Are they all just houseruling everything, or playing all caster parties, or do they really like only half the party being important? D&D brain damage.
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Oct 5, 2017 19:47
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open_sketchbook posted:One of the things I'm doing with Enduring Freedom is adding a non-combat elements to it, in that there's the idea that between some missions you actually rotate home for a bit, and you actually resolve between sessions how you're doing back home, how your relationships cope, and so forth. Money is an element, in abstracted form, which you can use to smooth things over, pay off trauma, and try to build a life for yourself. Please tell me Jody is going to be an equivalent threat to the PCs as an ambush.
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Oct 5, 2017 19:49
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wiegieman posted:What is with these people, though? Are they all just houseruling everything, or playing all caster parties, or do they really like only half the party being important? It's the houseruling, usually. I noticed that was what was going on in my 3.5 groups, at least. Remember that a lot of this hobby believes that it's a feature, not a bug, when they buy a broken mess of a game and need to 'fix' it.
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Oct 5, 2017 19:50
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So there's been a bunch of previews of the new Living Land sourcebook for Torg Eternity. The Good: At the end of the first year, Kaah has maintained control of most of his initial territory, has expanded down the east cost so far he's cut off the Gulf of Mexico, and has actually destroyed Seattle. Like, it's gone, and the devastation spread as far as British Columbia. The Bad: He has a stat block. The Good about the Bad: Kaah now personally hunts down Storm Knights who play Glory cards and prep areas to be taken away from him. When he does so, he uses his Darkness Device as a weapon, transforming it into a spear. As much as I dislike it when super-powerful NPCs get stat blocks, I'm glad they're making Kaah a real threat now, as opposed to "the guy who keeps screwing up because metaplot". wiegieman posted:What is with these people, though? Are they all just houseruling everything, or playing all caster parties, or do they really like only half the party being important?
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Oct 5, 2017 19:58
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At least Kaah gets to be a proactive agent of mad divine wrath.
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Oct 5, 2017 20:15
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Also I kind of imagine some players wouldn't mind at least one realm lord they can fight directly.
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Oct 5, 2017 20:16
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Mors Rattus posted:At least Kaah gets to be a proactive agent of mad divine wrath.  Within another year, he loses literally all of his eastern zones and both bridges. This is Kaah's territory at the end of Year One of Torg Eternity:  (Due to some Storm Knights, he lost a few zones around Nashville...but the Knights didn't seed the zones with stories first, so a few million people died when the stelae were uprooted. Oops.) Night10194 posted:Also I kind of imagine some players wouldn't mind at least one realm lord they can fight directly.
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Oct 5, 2017 20:40
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wiegieman posted:What is with these people, though? Are they all just houseruling everything, or playing all caster parties, or do they really like only half the party being important? Plus, based on my group, there's an element of "we don't want to learn another system." As for weapon design, I've come to prefer one of two methods: either make weapons super-generic (a la 13th Age or Gamma World 7E) or do the work to make weapons balanced and mechanically distinct beyond "this one does 1d8, this one does 2d6," so your choice of weapon actually matters and affects how your character plays. 4E does that, although it falls down in some cases (picks have always been worthless); so does BECMI with weapons mastery, or The One Ring, where there are actual trade-offs in choosing whether you want to use a spear, a sword, or an axe. Games like most non-4E D&D and Starfinger fall in the middle: lots of different weapons, but not enough mechanical differentation to make them feel distinct.
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Oct 5, 2017 20:41
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DalaranJ posted:This was most likely intentional because of Elric. Apropos of nothing, I'm trying to compile a list of all the games that are about vampires. This just came about by accident because I was trying to remember a particular indie game I'd seen (turns out it was Blood in Your Mouth). Annalise, a Gothic narrativist game that seems very much in the spirit of My Life with Master. Blood Boys. Speaking of Paul Czege, this is a mod of Nicotine Girls where you play teenage boy vampires instead of teenage girl waitresses. Blood in Your Mouth by Edwin Moriarty. This 7-page game that reminds me of a set of house rules for Vampire I found on the long-lost Internet of like 1999. (I think it was just called something like "Bloodsuckers.") Very much about boiling the mechanics down to bloodlust, madness, manipulation, and violence with a simple dice pool system. Bloodsucker: The Angst is a loving parody of the World of Darkness by noted edgelord James "Cool Nickname I Gave Myself" Desborough. Feed, designed to let you create your own vampire mythos (a "Strain" of vampirism) and then focus on the themes of vampire literature with a set of narrative mechanics. Undying is a diceless PbtA game that's explicitly an homage to Vampire and inspired by Monsterhearts. It doesn't build an intricate mythos in the same way as either version of Vampire, but emphasizes both the personal horror of being a parasitic monster and vampires as an underworld society that's too loose and chaotic to be called organized crime. Vampire Undeath is a notorious ripoff of Vampire: The Masquerade by a guy who is, like, Venger SatanisVenger Satanis when it comes to being crazy. Then you have games that aren't strictly about vampires, but where playing one is a major option, and the game is in the same family as the WoD. There's its predecessor Nightlife, imitator The Everlasting, Monsterhearts is the sexuality-focused PbtA version, and Urban Shadows is the politically-focused PbtA version. I feel like I should mention Night's Black Agents, which is definitely about vampires, but it's about killing them. The only other game I can think of, that's specifically about hunting vampires is the obscure Vampire Hunter$. Oh, and I presume the rare Leading Edge Games adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula would have to be.
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Oct 5, 2017 20:41
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Selachian posted:Plus, based on my group, there's an element of "we don't want to learn another system." If your first system is D&D 3.Pathfinder, this isn't irrational. If that's your standard for what learning a system takes, of course it will be intimidating and annoying.
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Oct 5, 2017 20:46
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I do honestly wonder if people would be so hell-bent on sticking to 3.Path if they didn't have so many supplements. Like, if people didn't feel that they needed to buy 20+ books, would they be more willing to try another game? I mean, yeah I'm sure there's people out there who're full-on sunk cost fallacy into games, but still.
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Oct 5, 2017 20:47
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Halloween Jack posted:Undying is a diceless PbtA game that's explicitly an homage to Vampire and inspired by Monsterhearts. It doesn't build an intricate mythos in the same way as either version of Vampire, but emphasizes both the personal horror of being a parasitic monster and vampires as an underworld society that's too loose and chaotic to be called organized crime. ... quote:diceless PbtA 
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Oct 5, 2017 20:49
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Halloween Jack posted:Apropos of nothing, I'm trying to compile a list of all the games that are about vampires. This just came about by accident because I was trying to remember a particular indie game I'd seen (turns out it was Blood in Your Mouth). AD&D 2E had a Ravenloft supplement that was All About Vampires (Van Richten's Guide to Vampires) that was 96 pages of D&D rules and lore about vampires. The Chill RPG had supplements for Vampires in 1E and 2E. Mayfair's line of semi-official D&D supplements (Role Aides) had lots of sourcebooks about Giants and Demons and Dragons and Lizardmen and Liches, but no standalone book about vampires (presumably they're covered in the Undead supplement). ETA: I'm pretty sure the proto-WoD RPG Nightlife had Vampires as playable monster PCs, plus I'm pretty sure most of the post-WoD Vampire Heartbreakers (Legacy, In Nomine, Everlasting, etc) had vampires in there as well. FMguru fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Oct 5, 2017 |
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Oct 5, 2017 20:54
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wiegieman posted:What is with these people, though? Are they all just houseruling everything, or playing all caster parties, or do they really like only half the party being important? A lot of people don't consume media critically, particularly when they've made a $60 or $100 purchase. Fewer still are willing to read a 500-page rulebook from cover to cover. There are rules that are malfunctional that most people aren't likely to read unless they have to, like the vehicular combat rules, or that appear functional but become nonfunctional only on extended play or close inspection, like the spaceship combat rules. Then you have the crowd that may recognize the flaws but dismiss the importance of systems, such as those who say "a good GM can run anything!" or "it only has problems if you're a min-maxing prick" or "well, it just needs some house rules". None of this is unique to RPGs, it hits all fandoms in one form or another, but RPGs are comparatively young and small as far as a publishing industry goes, and as such haven't ever had the chance to develop much in the way of academic or professional criticism. Which is why most coverage of something like Starfinder is, frankly, thinly-guised marketing.
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Oct 5, 2017 21:01
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I don't know anything about this specific game but one could roll up a token economy resolution like Hillfolk with PBTA. If you choose to fail take one token, if you want full success pay a token, otherwise you get a compromised success. [quote="“Halloween Jack”" post="“477090230”"] Oh, the intelligence and special powers are certainly intentional, it’s the bit about the damage bonus that seems odd. And even though it’s ripped off from Elric, I kinda wish D&D had kept this cult of the magic sword as part of its core conceits—it’s one of the few things that feels like part of a unique D&D theme, and not just a random element from some pulp series tossed in for fun. [/quote] 
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Oct 5, 2017 21:04
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We've run Pathfinder a few times with my playgroup, and we've kept the "Wizard runs away with the game while everyone else watches" in check by making sure the guy who wants to break the game over his knee and minmax isn't the guy behind the reigns of the full caster. Usually by their own volition. The game is more fun when everyone's having fun and we've got a guy who just likes blowing poo poo up with fireballs.
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Oct 5, 2017 21:05
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My understanding is that when you do a Move, your stat simply determines how many options you get to pick. This is less staid than it may sound, since the relevant "stat" is always in flux based on stuff like how much Blood you have/spend, the quality of the Feeding Ground, if the fellow vamp you're dealing with owes you Debts, and so on. There's also a lot of potential for drama because, when feeding, most options are defined in the negative. The victim doesn't scream and attract attention, they don't remember what happened, other vampires don't notice and interfere...
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Oct 5, 2017 21:06
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I will always love the vampires in Chuubo:quote:Greetings, Vampire.
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Oct 5, 2017 21:06
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Then you have the crowd that may recognize the flaws but dismiss the importance of systems, such as those who say "a good GM can run anything!" or "it only has problems if you're a min-maxing prick" or "well, it just needs some house rules".
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Oct 5, 2017 21:12
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IIRC Kill Puppies for Satan had vampires in it, although they weren't a huge part. Dresden Files has three separate kinds of vampire that are pretty active in the setting, and at least the white court is playable. Most of the unisystem games had playable vampires - C. J. Carella's Witchcraft and Armageddon both had "Vampyres". Buffy the Vampire Slayer is about killing vampires and has playable vampires and Angel is set in the same universe. Didn't Mark Rein*Hagen do another vampire game recently, but called them something else?
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Oct 5, 2017 21:39
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Afflicted Red Court were playable but if you gave in you instantly lost all your Refresh and became an NPC. TBF I do like how the Dresden Files games turned Refresh into a humanity meter, the less you have the less capable you are of denying your nature, and the more you have to accept the complications of who you are to get bennies. And yes, MRH Did, i think it was Succubi the something or other.
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Oct 5, 2017 21:42
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Evil Mastermind posted:Hell, that's how Warhammer Fantasy 1e did it. drat near everything falls under "Hand Weapon" and you call it a day. Honestly kind of wish 2e did that too because some of the stuff they picked to elaborate and differentiate isn't really worth it.
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Oct 5, 2017 21:42
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His I, Zombie game, I think it was called? There are a lot of games where you can play vampires--Rifts, WFRP, Unhallowed Metropolis, and InSpectres are a few more I could throw on the pile--but I'm mainly concerned with ones where they're central to the premise. (I admit, it's probably worth mentioning supplements like Night's Dark Masters and Blood Types that are written in large part to let you play vampire PCs.)
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Oct 5, 2017 21:43
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marshmallow creep posted:Honestly kind of wish 2e did that too because some of the stuff they picked to elaborate and differentiate isn't really worth it. Mostly with the ranged weapons. Most of the melee weapons have a reason to exist (beyond the Foil, because Precise absolutely isn't worth -1 damage since it's a conditional +1 damage, but the Rapier's Fast can be worth SB-1), though Cavalry weapons are weird. Lances are just straight better Flails, but Morningstars are better than Demilances. I have no idea what they were thinking with Repeater Crossbows being Damage 2 with poo poo range. At the very least, Great Weapons are totally worth the tradeoff. Goddamn do I love my Virtue of Heroism+Greatsword combo.
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Oct 5, 2017 21:46
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Nah, I Am Zombie was rather explicitly about playing Zombies. He had a game before that called Succubus: The Reborn which was about playing sexy not-vampires.
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Oct 5, 2017 21:47
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Halloween Jack posted:His I, Zombie game, I think it was called? Also thanks for all of those other vampire games I'd never heard of, you've given me a buttload of new reading material to check out.
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Oct 5, 2017 21:59
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If you stretch the definition of 'vampire' far enough then that infamously awful Wraeththu game should count.
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Oct 5, 2017 22:06
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Oh balls, I forgot that the Dhampiri class (it's basically a character class) doesn't even have to drink blood.
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Oct 5, 2017 22:10
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FMguru posted:If you stretch the definition of 'vampire' far enough then that infamously awful Wraeththu game should count. Oh God the memory of it. 
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