Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib

Mors Rattus posted:

I wouldn't say that - I mean, Devil's Tower still exists, and you're never really meant to beat Stone.

gently caress Stone, by the way.

It's possible to beat him, but the GM's guide explicitly encourages using Stone and the Hell Cows to keep players in line.

You might be interested in Pinnacle's next Kickstarter.

New plot point.

The point is to try and kill Stone.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
SF2 was also the first competitive fighting game with combo moves (introduced by accident due to a bugcheck issue).

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib

theironjef posted:

Or maybe spiders are just cool.

This is a world building philosophy I could get behind.

There should be an RPG where everyone plays spider people.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib

Hedningen posted:

Piratey Stuff

I got the goblin and imperial starter sets years ago, and I still need to paint them. Thanks for reminding me.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
I think a bigger problem with a lot of these is less the actual diversity of weapons so much as the options of what you can do with those weapons. Ideally, you have a system where going on guard one turn and full attack the next matters. Where you can throw sand in your enemy's eyes for a bonus the next turn, or else you tangle your enemy's weapon so he can't attack you.

It's like, it's okay if you just pick one weapon and stick with it, so long as you can do interesting things with that weapon. Being able to switch from your sword to your dagger isn't really interesting if all you're going to do is keep rolling a die, adding your bonus, and seeing if you get to roll damage that round. I'd rather have just one weapon that works pretty well and gives you options than a bunch of different weapons that all let you do one thing every single round.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib

LornMarkus posted:

The other problem is it ignores the much more simple answer that adventurers/people that get levels in classes are unique and exceptional individuals.

Bu-but you don't get to choose to be awesome in real life! Muh verisimilitude!

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
Bo9S is good stuff. It's basically the designers saying "Hey, playing a fighter is boring and underpowered. Let's fix that." Naturally, Grogs hated it for being overpowered anime bullshit.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
I'd like it more if that were, like, the guy who had summoned the ancient eldritch evil. As in, evil technocultist thaumo-physicist summons an eldritch entity to try and get it to help him rule the universe. It changes him into an eye-thumb with psychic powers because it isn't really capable of understanding concepts like "rule" or "universe" and it figured that was close enough.

Dude could still be a secret evil, but it would keep the eldritch alien entities alien, while giving this guy a plausible reason to have petty, understandable desires.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib

theironjef posted:

This isn't in the game but just so you know, there's no crude oil on this world because there were no dinosaurs. 65 million years ago there were just elves and dwarves all over the place, and naturally when they die they aren't converted to crude oil over time, but natural gas, leading to a rise in helium availability and pressurized gas as a fuel source.

What I'm picturing here are regular dinosaurs, but some of them have beards and some of them have pointy ears. Tyrannodwarfus Rex. Trifairytops. Elfocoraptor.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib

wdarkk posted:

A dude with a Leopard Seal head is something I ain't fighting. Those things are serious business.

Leopard seal selkie is not something I would have guessed I needed to have in a game. Now I know I do. This thread is so educational.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
That was actually one of the "issues" with 4e, which like most 4e issues came about either through poor presentation or else through people deliberately misreading it so they could hate it. The DCs for skills were based on your level. So crossing a bridge actually would get more difficult the higher your level.

The catch that people kept missing is that the bridge you cross at paragon is not the same bridge you cross at epic. Like, the bridge you're crossing at epic is made of hellfire and constantly sways in hurricane-force winds while demons throw stones down at you.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib

Kavak posted:

The kleptomancer would fit a thousand times better if it was a hoarder adept. Taboo is you can't throw away anything, and cannot knowingly let anyone throw something away for you. Bam, instantly thematic and relevant. The issue is how you measure charges- is it just something you gain over time, so the longer you survive in the more awful the house the more powerful your magic?

I would have kept it as stealing, but made the taboo no stealing anything of significant monetary value. Base the charges on how difficult it is to steal. So, if you want a significant charge, you sneak into the Louvre and steal a velvet rope. A minor charge? You don't steal the lotto tickets from the convenience store. You steal the take-a-penny-leave-a-penny tray--and leave the pennies.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
I could see it in a game that was modeling pulp sword-and-sorcery, to give the baseline at the loincloth-wearing barbarian. But less so in high fantasy pseudo-medieval Europe.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib

Halloween Jack posted:

To be honest, I shy away from even examining the forum-made Wod fangames too closely because I assume they'll be stuffed full of references that I won't get in the first place and that don't serve the game. (The musical references in Princess are pointless, but at least I get most of them.) I've avoided Exalted ever since someone who wrote for the line straight-up admitted that there are nods to Homestuck fandom in there. I can't be bothered to catch up on a decade of anime fandom that I missed in order to be able to enjoy a game.

That seems like a somewhat extreme stance to take. Like, I get it if the references are too thick, it's annoying, but you seem to be saying that any nods to anything that you're not familiar with ruin something for you. Like, I haven't read a whole lot of Doc Savage or the Shadow, but I can still enjoy Spirit of the Century, even though there are a bunch of references I'm not getting.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
One of the guys I know at work is big into Rifts. However, I'm pretty sure it's mostly because he hasn't played any other RPGs. Like, not even D&D. I'm kind of thinking of getting him into my Savage Worlds game when he gets back from deployment.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
As I recall, it was from a third party supplement with a crap ton of templates. I believe the idea was "How many templates can I add onto a single monster? What would be the result?" It's not meant to see the light of game, it's just supposed to be an exercise of "play with the numbers." It's still nerdy and pointless, but it's not a horrible kind. Some people just like to see how far they can push things. So long as they're not actually trying to force it into a real game, I don't see the problem.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
I am slowly catching up on System Mastery. Currently on Nobilis, so I still have a way to go. But one day I shall be upon you!

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
Before initiating the skein of conflict, your smackmaster must make sure that all auspices are leveraged on his base chance distribution module with 5% granularity. This includes his innate ascendancy, the power of his relevant facet, and any other apposite augmentations or abridgements. For example, if the holiman has invoked the weird of ordination, he will also add on a chance distribution module with 25% granularity. Next see if there are any agents granting the eminent chance distribution module or else the chance distribution module of shame (noting that one cannot have both with the roll). Once these matters have all been assayed, the smackmaster must then initiate all relevant chance distribution modules, selecting the most or least auspicious result depending on shame or eminence. The final tally is then correlated to the measure of aspiration, which the Diversion Manager (DM) will use to determine denoument.

Simple.

JackMann fucked around with this message at 23:27 on Dec 8, 2015

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib

Halloween Jack posted:

You missed a chance to rename the word "modifier."


Fixed with alliteration.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
"Coming up next, Kevin Trudolphin with natural sea cures "they" don't want you to know about!"

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
That's the third time we've seen him suggest "Players don't want to play the game you want to run? Promise to run their game, and then force them to play yours anyway, because gently caress them."

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
Flux is also an idea that would be a lot more fun if the group had buy-in with the notion, rather than saying, "Okay! We're playing my game now instead of the stupid baby-games you idiots wanted to play," which is the implication almost every time Wick pulls this poo poo.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib

Alien Rope Burn posted:

The whole "Don't judge a book by its cover." adage has always been pretty silly. We have to have some sort of filters on the media we consume or go mad, really. Most of us aren't independently wealthy enough to read the contents of a library, not that we'd likely remember it all anyway. And so, yes, we need to be able to come up with some criteria of judging, and sometimes it's because something smells like poo poo. Or has a writer we don't like. Or a premise that's offensive. I don't need to read or watch Twilight to confirm I won't like it; I've been sufficiently informed of its premise and nothing is likely to change my opinion in the near future.

What's more, you don't need to read the whole of most games to get a good idea for them; they're not like novels where a shocking twist at the end brings the whole book together. You're not going to read through World > Rules > Chargen > Combat > GM Advice and suddenly once the Monster section comes around, the entire game changes. Or at least, it's so exceedingly unlikely as to not bother. You can read just about any chapter of Orkworld and have a pretty good idea whether or not the whole thing is really your bag.

Reading reviews isn't judging a book by its cover. It's saying, "Hey, that lady read through the whole thing. Maybe I'll ask her what she thought before I buy it." The reviewer is judging it by the content, and you decide how much you trust them.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib
It was just so uncannily Wickish.

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib

Falconier111 posted:

Looking back at my writeup, I may have been so familiar with the book I found it repetitive instead of fascinating. I think it says something that I consider this the most boring chapter of the book (outside the character creation section).

To be fair, you're writing it out in a fairly informal, easy-to-read manner. From what you were saying, the book is considerably denser.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

JackMann
Aug 11, 2010

Secure. Contain. Protect.
Fallen Rib

gradenko_2000 posted:

Just from a quick google, Baba Yaga is a figure from Slavic folklore as a witch/crone figure.

It got involved in D&D because early D&D was a pastiche of whatever random mythology Gygax wanted to pull out of his rear end and throw into the game, and specifically it seems like Gygax homed in on the fact that the hut she lives in is described as being raised on chicken-leg stilts, and that the dimensions of the inside of the hut seem to defy explanation.

He translated this into the hut's leg-stilts being literally large 12-foot long chicken legs that can run really fast over terrain and smack around adventurers with ease, while Baba Yaga herself is a powerful magic-user that's going to hurl all manner of destructive spells at adventurers as she uses the hut to travel across multiple dimensional planes. The insides of the hut are then some sort of labyrinthine construction that's many times larger than what it looks like from the outside.

Which is awesome as hell, and one of the best parts of Gygaxian GMing. The man gave no fucks.

  • Locked thread