I'm about three weeks away from finishing my current course, and I think this Monday my mini-campaign with the group auditioning me as DM/I'm auditioning as players will come to an end. That is, time may start freeing up in the coming weeks.
I'm glad you asked--I'd been thinking of it every once in a while, but wasn't sure if you'd moved on....
Gotta run for a little bit--I'm waaaaay behind on bedtime stuff with the kids. My wife's out of town, so they've got the JV squad (me) running things!
@Polyducks I LOVE it. Please post your ruleset and such logs as exist when you get the chance!
I'm very amused by this, because of how close this gets to Cassandra.
Cassandra: Grumpy scientist who works with BRAC/Amaterasu in part because they helped save her and are good to work with, but also because BRAC/Amaterasu has the leverage to undermine and destroy her family. Levie: Gruff scientist(?) who works with BRAC to get revenge on her enemy.
user61230
2:20 AM
Elves have been entirely driven out of the city because of intense and growing fear and anxiety. "I want to play an elf."
I'm thinking of putting together my first DM's Guild offering. Don't want to use their Word template 'cause... Word. Don't want to use LaTeX 'cause.... Do you suggest a freely-available middle-ground?
True. It's possible we've got available seats through work, but (a) if I'm going to climb a learning curve I'd rather it be on something I know I'll have sustained access to, and (b) it'd be stretching my professional ethics a bit to claim that just 'cause I run an RPG club for students I should get one of the institutional seats for my publishing side-project.
A co-worker asked me and I knew my answer, but I'm curious about yours:
Is the conceit of lucha-libre vs. Death literal and in-world, or is it a two-layer fantasy structure? I.e. are the surgeons literally stepping away from the table to suplex a skeleton in a cloak, or are the surgeons operating while, in the fantastic parallel reality they're in full luchadore garb wrestling with a skeleton?
(Think "Sucker Punch" or... I can't think of another example.)
If surgery were a metaphor for wrestling Death, you'd be able to hold him at bay with a successful surgery check, or you'd be able to stabilise the patient with a wrestling check.
If I expand on the system in the future, there'll be a "success at cost" option that involves drawing blood spatter on your mask which makes it harder to operate because you're less sterile.
@BESW his thought was this could be the metaphor for a surgeon having to spend time handling a complication rather than progressing toward the original objectives.
@BESW unknown? I'm not sure I understand correctly the distinction you're drawing. Not intending to send it off to a publisher, if that's what you mean. But would hopefully produce two .pdf versions, one prettier and one printier.
@BESW I think it'd be good to be printable. I think there are still enough of us who like to put things into a binder or tuck supplements into the back endsheet of a corebook that it's worthwhile.
The majority of the program is focused on content. When you compile to export, you get the layout options for whatever format you've chosen (PDF, epub, HMTL, etc).
I don't think he's really going to. Maybe he just wants to prove her that she shouldn't have sworn to protect the city, because she can't. Maybe he just wants to prove that being evil is better.
For her it's pretty horrible. She doesn't want to PvP.
I think he's trying to go for a Zugzwang. This is probably the easiest Xanathos' gambit ever: would you rather try killing me or let me kill someone else? He must be pretty confident he wouldn't die.
@BESW It's not really intentional--I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but three of my standing games moved to 5e within the last year. So I've become a default expert trying to explain to people at my table(s) that "yes, you can take a five-foot step. It moves you five feet away. Next?"
@Zachiel Part of that is because last semester I had a schedule that made it possible for me to have chat open a lot, which let me know when questions came in, and there are a lot of stupid-simple 5e questions out there.
(The other part is that the Stack has turned me into its slave by telling me that "Epic" is the next thing I should accomplish, so I've been paying way too much attention!)
Since I got a job - and since the IT manager told me that I can't even use the guest wi-fi to connect my laptop during lunchtime - my time here was considerably reduced.
Plus, KRyan, I-Can-Chan and several others are faster and better at writing about 3.5e rules than I am.
If you're comparing yourself to the likes of KRyan and ICanChan then gird yourself against a steady stream of disappointment punctuated by occasional flashes of exultation. (That's why I don't compare myself to Miniman!) OTOH, I find I can pretty-consistently achieve a medium level of satisfaction by comparing myself to my last-month-self.
Seconded, all three. As part of Curating Social Environments are you going to list these all in a google doc and permalink it for all of us on the starboard?
Gotta run. Cross your fingers that the small-town hardware store has 1/2" x 2 1/2" shoulder bolts for the sake of our bell tower. Don't hold your breath, though!
That's because I keep taking months or years to play titles like Dark Souls, while some people just rush at enemies and skillfully kills them #YOLO style
I'm wondering if I'm just been wasting my life while playing Oblivion
@Zachiel everyone has their own preferred gaming style, be it sneaking, magic, heavy armour, whatever. Add long as it's fun it is your choice. That said, sneaking makes you slower, so all in all you would tend to take longer to complete the same content.
@Zachiel I'm just saying that sneaking in skyrim can be marvelously abused, but is in general quite complicated and tedious approach that can give exactly the same result as other approaches BUT all other things equal, it makes the combat last longer, without there being "more" of it.
especially when people plan 10-20 levels ahead at character generation, they tend to say stuff like "I'm taking 1 level of Cleric for those sweet Domains" or "I take at least 4 levels in Druid"
yeah
you can totally multiclass, though it's often as advantageous as it is costly
e.g. you can take a Paladin but add just one level of Cleric. You'll get access to more orisons (lvl0 spells) and grab two Domains immediately. You'll only slow already sluggish Paladin progression by 1.
no, you're a lvl 3 character that has 1 and 2 levels respectively
In D&D 3.5, my catfolk Ranger took his first level in Barbarian, for the speed boost, certain proficiencies, the ability to rage if he was forced into melee, and a bigger hit die on the level you get max HP from it (to compensate for the ECL on the catfolk).
Then he took Ranger levels until he qualified for his desired prestige class.
Another of my PCs took 3 levels in cleric, 3 levels in wizard, and then a prestige class which advanced the spellcasting ability of both each level.
eg, at level 12 he had access to spells as if he were a level 9 wizard AND a level 9 cleric.
d20 System games tend to be filled with "trap" choices that seem good in flavour but are mechanically very poor, and if you want a build which meets your flavour desires AND is mechanically interesting/effective, system mastery becomes pretty vital.
But you're right in that the system is better suited to certain kinds of play.
The d20 System is very good for people who like "individual play," the part of the game that takes place away from the table. Character design has become a minigame of its own in this context.
@gOLOKOPITENKO i'd say there is a certain type of play where system mastery and complicated ways to build your char (an optimise it too!) is the very essenc eof player reward
For years I have been trying to play a game of DnD that's fast paced, with frequent level ups and dire opponents which would test your ability to create a combat beast
@Golokopitenko Back when we had game-recommendation questions, there would occasionally be a big argument over whether d20 System games were good for new players. The general consensus would usually turn out as "Well, a very large number of people successfully played it as their first game."
Stuck with it for many years, and eventually moved to 4e in part because it required less system mastery on the part of everyone involved.
These days I don't touch anything with a D&D-like mechanics set with a ten-foot pole, because it's just not interested in supporting the kind of story I want to tell. But I'm also very much allergic to any game which needs me to read triple digits of pages before I can start playing.
@Golokopitenko I have got into Pathfinder info not too long ago and I say: pick a class you like, read everything about it. Then read stuff you don't understand about that class. Then read stuff about that stuff etc. don't go to deep at first in your link-clicking, as soon you'll be reading options for leveling a pet from a totally different class that's completely unrelated.
@Golokopitenko I'm a fan of recognizing that at a table of n players there are usually at least 2n+1 separate and overlapping games being played; some of those games thrive on complexity, some do not.
So I'm thinking of the game where I play a character, the game where I play a character in a way to try to interact with another player, the game where I try to make the table laugh, the game where I try to achieve more kills than any other player, the game where I try to make the most of some obscure spell, the game where I try to build in in-jokes that only one other at the table will catch, ...
There are, they can be same as Domains for the clerics or there are inquisitorial domains which are slightly more suited to the Inquis progression.
They idea is that you'll be a member of religious police for a god you choose, that god has some "Domains", or areas of rule and can give you access to Domain powers, depending on what you choose.
@eimyr My advice for starting Pathfinder is to find a class that seems interesting to you (and, if you're playing with more experienced folks who know what they want to do, ask what they might need in the party). Read over its options. Then, look for an optimization guide or two for the class.
Do not fret about following the optimization guide by rote; they are the opinion of the author, they can't account for all situations you'll run into, and rarely does your character have to be "perfect" to be successful, if "perfect" even existed. But they can at least tip you off to basic strategies and things that only look good on paper.
Each domain says what it does on what level, as well as it more often than not grants you access to spells you don't have access to (or they can be available, but Domain makes them cost less)
+1 for reading a guide
@Golokopitenko Pathfinder is not about making your character a hugely effective killing machine. It's about making your character a hugely AWESOME killing machine. If you can choose to have -4 to STR, but you can make a goblin die by frowning at it, it's worth it.
Benefit from the experience of others when you have no experience of your own. I've been playing with PF for years, and I still like to scan a guide when I play a class for the first time. xD I just have a better frame of reference for the guide's advice now. And, again, it's not about making your character "the best" whatever-they-are. For me, I just want to know that I'm going to be able to have fun and effectively support my party.
It's a game for modelling adventuring in a dungeon under certain basic assumptions. Those assumptions include the inherent superiority of casters over non-casters.
(One of the big challenges in grasping d20 System games is that the d20 System made claims to universality which it really has difficulty backing up. A lot of games which use that engine try anyway.)
I really like playing casters, but I've honestly started to enjoy it less as gulfs between caster and non-caster classes become apparent. It feels bad when my character usually has cool stuff at their disposal, but my party members are struggling to do anything. This also happens sometimes because I do have a lot more PF experience under my belt than some of the people I play with. If I know how to "work the system" and they don't, they wind up missing out on opportunities.
It all depends on what are HP. HP (except if you consider that some poison needs you to wound your enemy with the weapon it was smeared on and that is "whanever you hit the enemy") is not necessarily damage. It's more like stress. Too much stress and the next hit might connect really badly and kill you.
The simplified narrative is that D&D came about by using wargames props and modified wargames rules to tell the stories of individual heroes rather than of units of troops.
