TG Chat/Cooking Thread 2016

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That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Because my friend makes bad life choices, he traded real adult effort for a copy of Numenera, and then he got us to play the game. Two of the group were ~~glaives~~fighters, I played a ~~jack~~spellsword because I thought we were lowballing things but I still wanted some cool magic powers without waiting on GM handouts, and then the guy who always winds up making characters right before the game made a ~~nano~~wizard. It was a two-session poo poo-show, made all the worse by starting out at tier two and going up to tier three on the second session, so the wizard and I were throwing around telekinesis and mind-reading, and one of the warriors wanted to be "fast and wiry" so he went with a medium weapon, which mostly just meant that he deals less damage full stop.

But at least you get to ~make up your own skills~ and it's all about ~exploration~ because this is the $500k industry titan "indie storytelling" game.

What a loving terrible system.

potatocubed posted:

I listened to that, and as someone who knew exactly what every reference was to it was fantastic. Then I read this interview with the new White Wolf lead storyteller:

http://imagonem.org/2016/02/15/white-wolfs-lead-storyteller-there-will-be-a-release-in-2016/

The way one illuminates the other is magical.

quote:

It�s useful to see the Classic and Anniversary books as highly subjective. The ultimate truth can�t be found in the books, but we can glimpse it through the multiplicity of perspectives presented. For instance Humanity is a mechanic presented from the Camarilla point of view, while Paths of Enlightenment give us the Sabbat perspective on the subject of morality. None of them are True. Both are models and simplifications.

quote:

Where did White Wolf �get it wrong� last time around? What are your least favorite parts of the IP?

Anything that smells of Fantasy. The attempt to create a deep mythology by linking the setting to Exalted was the worst choice ever. That was the last step in WoD�d death-march from being an artistic horror-IP to full on immature, escapist Urban Fantasy. The inability to deal with and integrate real-world events in the setting. If you can write about the Holocaust, you can write about 9/11. Fear is the death of creativity. The game was always best in the hands of storytellers who dared to place the story close to reality, often in their own cities, featuring real places and people.

Well, I guess it's not like I had high hopes anyway. :smith:

# ¿ Feb 16, 2016 07:14

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 19:18

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Kai Tave posted:

To be fair, Planescape Torment's gameplay was also kinda lovely to "just there" but that's not why it's fondly remembered anyway, so.

I guess it's appropriate Cook's lazy/cargo-cult RPG have a video game tie-in that's also lazy/cargo-cult.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2016 07:37

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Zephirum posted:

It feels like a protest against the Satanic Panic even though IIRC it's a relatively recent tradition.

The degree to which no one gives a poo poo about RPGs these days often has no effect on whether or not someone is worried Pat Pulling is about to rise from her grave and join forces with Tipper Gore to destroy teenage fun forever.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2016 10:57

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

KirbyJ posted:

What's the thread I should use to get fresh eyes on a superhero campaign setting I'm working on for a game, get some help worldbuilding and advice on how to transition it from the action horror setting it's first presented as to the supers setting it's supposed to become?

Trying to figure out where best to put my

There's a Game Writing Workshop thread where you might get a bite or two.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2016 12:35

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Brainiac Five posted:

The level of testing necessary for 4e-level errata is not something most games can count on, though.

Most games don't need to be as complex and needful of testing as they are.

We live in a world of despair.

# ¿ Mar 29, 2016 01:27

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Covok posted:

Anyone know how to record a discord/skype call? This doesn't have to be perfect: it won't be a podcast. Just want to record a playtest so I can play it back later to get a better sense of how things went.

It's been a while, but I used MP3 Skype Recorder, which is one of quite a few linked by Skype itself. I liked MP3SR because it was relatively simple and didn't have adware. Be sure to run a few tests, because you might have to overcome some quirks of whatever sound hardware you're using (for instance, laptops in particular can have trouble mixing mic/speakers at the same time into one file).

# ¿ Jul 11, 2016 00:41

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Evil Mastermind posted:

Apparently Channel M, the "force" behind Witch Girl Adventures, attempted to get the license to produce an official Avatar: The Last Airbender RPG.

They sort of succeeded, then the license fell through.

Today, they attempted to put the game up on DriveThru even though they admitted flat-out that they didn't have the right to sell it. So they put it up as PWYW for "donations".

Needless to say DriveThru took that down super goddamn quick but someone managed to snag the description before it vanished:

Man, I bet they get even more ins with licensors after this little display of professional acumen.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2016 19:34

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

gradenko_2000 posted:

How do you guys like Savage Worlds, by the way? I read enough to get the gist of the basic mechanic, but all the different die size switching, and the health mechanic, and the card draw based initiative, and the paucity of "monster stats" in the core book didn't quite sit well with me at the time. Maybe it works better in practice.

It's a very standard traditional system with a few gimmicks layered over top that may or may not be actively worse for you than a slightly more aggressively generic system. They don't do as much as they could with the card draw initiative, it's largely just a different RNG. I also personally dislike multi-die-type systems.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2016 06:32

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Siivola posted:

Didn't all of FFG's Warhammer stuff disappear from Drivethru like last week?

I think it was earlier this week. Without warning, because I guess GW didn't want the guaranteed ducats from the fire sale that could've happened.

There was a really hilariously shilly post over on RPGnet where a Zweihander RPG guy responded to the news with "gee that's too bad; here, have a steaming pile of my WFRP knockoff's ad copy". After being admonished, he couldn't help himself and posted a Trump meme to continue shilling his game.

That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 10:59 on Sep 10, 2016

# ¿ Sep 10, 2016 10:57

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

dwarf74 posted:

Well, in this case it looks like May 6th. Which is ... well, 4-1/2 months, if I'm doing my math right?

Basically, there's no good reason for an enterprise of ENW's scale to suffer such a loss, especially after it happened once before.

# ¿ Sep 21, 2016 20:01

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

quote:

"I have this kind of personal philosophy for managing the product line," Mearls said last month in Renton, Washington. "I don't want to duplicate any product that's come before. I think that if people have seen it, then it's not really new and it's not really exciting."

Edit: This thread is full of loose beef. Watch it.

That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Oct 20, 2016

# ¿ Oct 20, 2016 00:19

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

unseenlibrarian posted:

I am surrounded by Trump supporters in my state. The only thing we have going for us is that at least our attorney general didn't cite Dred Scott in a recent motion. Thanks for lowering the bar, Kansas!

You're welcome! :v:

Burn the KS legislature to the ground, good buddies! :suicide:

# ¿ Oct 20, 2016 20:52

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Helical Nightmares posted:

Best reason for a racial elf-dwarf conflict.

---

Re: Anime

So in general I find anime insipid. I thoroughly enjoyed Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex and the TV sequel however. Watched it with subtitles, rewound for important dialogue, etc.

Given my biases will I enjoy Ergo Proxy (2006)?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergo_Proxy

Mmmmmaybe? Ergo Proxy has some pretty dire lulls, and the final few episodes are honestly a bit weak after all the buildup, but it's in general an okay show. The stereotypical "recap/clip show" that a lot of anime do for some reason shows up and is completely inappropriate to the show's tone and arc, but it's probably one of the more original clip shows I've seen in an anime.

quote:

Any other hard scifi or cyberpunk in anime out there?

I've seen the Cowboy Bebop movie. It was mildly entertaining but not hard SF. It's a space opera like Star Trek.

The actual Cowboy Bebop series is great, though still not "hard sci-fi." I don't think there's very much of that out there.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2016 18:40

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

TheLovablePlutonis posted:

Fine then, Angel Cop, MD Geist, Genocyber, Guyver, Jin-Roh.

MD Geist is legitimately amazing, and the recent-ish Guyver OVA dub has some hilarious voice acting.

Let's all get together and watch Ricki-O.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2016 18:51

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

mango sentinel posted:

Drizzt books

I picked up the Drizzt origin story trilogy when I was a younger idiot, because HOORAY RPGs. I don't remember if it's the first or third book where he just randomly hears about some nearby dragon that just so happens to have a really cool sword he would want, which was the second of his ?iconic? pair. They were pretty light fare, and I tore through them quickly, but it still took more than a day so I think it was the end of the third book. Anyway, that was the first book in my life that I ever gave up on in the middle of reading, and I was seriously like 20-50 pages from the back cover. I was around 15 at the time, so of course I had garbage taste, but I thought "This is horseshit. Nothing worth caring about is happening now, and now that I think about it nothing worth caring about happened since I started reading about this boring character. I give up." I will always hold a special place in my heart for the flagship character of Forgotten Realms because of that.

That's my Drizzt books story!

# ¿ Nov 20, 2016 08:27

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Drone posted:

May be a weird place to ask about it, but it is specifically TG-topic related: if I want to design/customize a character sheet for an RPG, and want something that looks nicer than the raw functionality of Excel, what kind of software would I need to look for? Something like InDesign / Scribus?

You can probably start with MSPaint or something similar. The primary elements of even nice character sheets are still straight lines and text. A step up from that would be Photoshop or Paintshop or GIMP, then if that's still insufficient InDesign or Scribus. In part, it depends on how complex you really want to get and how frequently you think you'll actually be editing. What are you looking to do?

# ¿ Nov 30, 2016 20:12

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Drone posted:

I've never heard this story, and now I sorta need to.

The original post.

As read by King Lou Fernandez.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2016 10:40

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Evil Mastermind posted:

Two. You can make sangria in the terlet.

Of course, it's shank or be shanked.

Of course. :weeps:

# ¿ Dec 21, 2016 06:09

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 19:18

That Old Tree: Jun 24, 2012; nah

Rand Brittain posted:

So, I picked up the Illuminated Eddas by the guys who did Fate of the Norns, and, uh... I was kind of expecting an actual version of the Eddas, but unless this guy has access to completely different Eddas from what Wikipedia describes (which I guess is possible) this doesn't seem very true to the originals at all.

Is anybody else reading these?

Well, the Kickstarter said

quote:

If if you're a veteran and have several translations of the Eddas already, you will find wondrous new epics that bridge all of the gaps and inconsistencies which exist within the originals.

So…

# ¿ Dec 26, 2016 20:22

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > TG Chat/Cooking Thread 2016