Hi folks. Anyone know of any RPGs that manage speed like Final Fantasy X did? That the combination of the character's speed or dex and the action the character took is used to reorder when characters get to move.
@DampeS8N I believe Valkyrie Profile 2 did this, but I'm not 100% after reading up on it shortly, might want to check it out on youtube. to see if I remember correctly, but I'm busy atm :P
For those unaware, FFX uses a mechanic where a character has an "energy" meter that, when full, grants the character a turn. Different actions consume different amounts of energy and thus result in the turn coming sooner.
The energy bar itself is hidden but its workings are fairly easy to infer.
I thought he did, by referring to FF:X, so I responded in kind. But prior to his entry I was talking about table-top, rather than computer rpgs, guess he can't know that, though
@kviiri Interesting assessment. Calling it a meter is probably too dramatic. Each character has a number, the number is derived by their last action minus their speed (or some similar formula) and they just go in order of the number, subtracting the last acting number from each number as it goes. So if you have a rat at 50 and a guy at 75, the rat will go and the guy will then be 25, and the rat's new action might have cost 50 so now the order is guy 25 and rat 50.
Howdy all! Where would be a good place to get started on DnD 3.5. I had a few drinks last night with some friends who are experienced DnDers and they invited me to join a new campaign that they're starting
@AsadaShino Calling it a meter suggests it works like the ATB system in other FF games. But there is no sense of time in FFX so it isn't really a meter that is slowly draining, it is just an ordering.
@JonathanHobbs I believe all the Tactics games were straight turn based with each character going once in each turn. Ordered by speed. FFX would allow the same character to act sometimes twice in a row directly.
@DampeS8N They had a reordering thing too. Or, the one I played did. There were cards lined up a long the bottom of the screen telling you the next dozen or two (can't remember how many) characters to act, and you'd see your current character get repeated there once or twice, probably. And then you'd act, and your character's position in the list would move around depending on what they did.
It was pretty frustrating for me though. I'd plan something based around turn order, then the turn order would change completely because of the thing I did.
@JonathanHobbs Yeah, it has been a very long time for me too. I can't rightly remember.
FFX, however, was really smart about it and when you'd hover over a selection before picking it, it would show you how your action would place you next in the order.
My favourite in this category is Disgaea, though, and that is in no small part because it has a structure that goes like this: It's your turn. It's their turn. It's your turn again.
You can scroll through turn order with L/R. In this screenshot, the person's viewing the person whose turn is next. In the above screenshot, they were scrolled way to the end.
@Ampt Read the character creation rules, get an understanding of combat, find a class you might be interested in. If those people invited you to the game understanding you know very little about playing it, they're prepared to help guide you.
@JonathanHobbs I think that's the idea, I just wanted to try and learn as much as possible jumping into it. Always wanted to play, just never had a chance
wasn't sure if there was a 3rd party resource that was often used
myself, as a newbie, i found D&D 3.5e confusing in a bunch of areas - there were some I understood pretty well, but not others - and I didn't even understand how the people who understood had managed to understand.
Thinking about Dex and Str modifiers in D&D 3.5/Pathfinder - why is it that Str modifies to-hit roll and not Dex? I understand Str modifying damage inflicted, but Dex seems the more intuitive choice for modifying the to-hit roll. Also, shouldn't Str, not Dex, be the attribute of choice for modifying to-hit with ranged weapons like a longbow? Holding a 100 lb draw weight longbow steady while aiming an arrow is a feat of strength, not dexterity.
@DampeS8N ...deadEarth, maybe. My understanding is very rudimentary and I don't actually suggest ever playing it, but deadEarth has a "Moves" stat which determines how many things you can do each round (each action costs X moves), and various effects and actions will temporarily or permanently decrease (or sometimes increase) your number of moves. So part of combat is tactical move attrition.
@RobertF MAD is a thing which makes it noticeably more difficult to create an effective character if you choose a class or build with multiple attribute dependency.
@BESW It's a running joke in the whiteboard that I'm a sock puppet of a couple guy who wanted to get more close votes, so I figured I needed to look the part
So, my experience with learning D&D 3.5: It was my first tabletop RPG system. I was given the 3.0 books to read over a winter break at college, and when I returned for the spring I started my first game--running it as a dungeon master, using the 3.5 books.
Half the players in my group had some small experience with other RPGs, but none of them were experienced with 3.0 or 3.5, so we were all stumbling along together. I mostly ignored the rules I didn't know/understand yet, fudged things during the game and looked them up later.
After that I brought a lot of new players into RPGs and my strategy for heavy systems like 3.5 is to give them a simple pre-built character for the first session or two while I help them with the basic rules, and then I walk them through making their own character.
Many groups will be happy to hold your hand as you learn the game. Some will be more sink-and-swim. The 3.5 Player's Handbook is useful, but can be a little overwhelming, so take it in chunks and ask lots of questions--of your group, in this chat, and do rpg.se site searches.
But I'm living proof you can teach yourself the game from the books and little else, so there's that.
(NB: a lot of RPG groups have house rules and individual conventions/traditions which vary from the rules text. Sometimes it's on purpose, and sometimes it's because they misread or were mistaught.)
(And I'm assuming the first hilt illustrated is for thri-kreen hands.)
(If it's not a hilt, it's gotta be ceremonial; look at the size of the connection to the shaft! The pineapple will just snap off the first time it hits something hard, like a shield or a dwarf.)
Of particular interest are weapons that can be used one-handed, hidden relatively well, and are light, but I'll take a look at everything that's suggested. Weapon proficiency is not a problem for me in this since I don't intend to use it for much else besides Coup de Grace.
Right now I'm lookin...
Of particular interest are weapons that can be used one-handed, hidden relatively well, and are light, but I'll take a look at everything that's suggested. Weapon proficiency is not a problem for me in this since I don't intend to use it for much else besides Coup de Grace.
Right now I'm lookin...
