Oh, man. Our Dresden FAE alpha had PCs with such messed-up backstories that the campaign started with two of them hunted by a Warden and a third convinced the Warden was after him instead.
I've talked before about how limiting the setting can be in that respect.
We're much more peaceful. Sorta. Two humans, two supernaturals - a winter faerie, and a cursed immortal being who was cursed to turn into an eagle whenever she committed violence against humans.
@BESW Upon some consideration, I decided I rather dislike the sentiment portrayed here. First, it's obviously wrong. Just like there's spontaneous kindness there's petty cruelness. For every random hug there's someone kicking a dog. Just because. But more importantly, it implies that those who lead their lives based on reason and logic are evil, while those who live spontaneously are good.
It doesn't follow from what's being said, but it's implied - and the un-logical spontaneous side is presented as good which only serves to make the implication stronger. It's obviously a riff on the common sentiment of "no one thinks they're evil", everyone believes they have reasons for what they do. But it looses the nuance. And obviously it's 3 panels out of a huge work, and the larger context probably nullifies all of this. But as 3 stand-alone panels, no, dislike.
@Magician It does gloss over thoughtless cruelty, yes. But I'm pretty sure it's not saying that reason and logic are inherently bad and spontaneity is inherently good. And yes... context...
I think what Ed is trying to say (and in context he's responding to someone saying exactly the opposite, that evil is hurting people for no reason) is that when someone does something bad, they usually feel the need to justify it, but that people don't really expect justification for good acts. But that's my reading into it.
(In even wider context, Ed's talking about himself.)
@BESW Actually, that's an interesting topic. How does one run games in an oppressive setting? World of Darkness or Shadowrun or Eclipse Phase or even DF. Where there are well established power structures much greater than the PCs. PCs do something, anything, to stand out, and the powers that be swat them like flies. And PCs tend to do things.
@BESW Our game is set in a fictional city - somewhere between Louisiana and Florida, approximately - that's very colorful and accepting, and so many supernatural entities hang out there as well. It's a relatively free place to be.
We had this problem in EP: PCs want to do all sorts of things, but don't because they know the retaliation will be swift and brutal. EP is tougher than many others in this regard, in that it's almost impossible to not leave recorded evidence.
@Magician I think it's about finding modes of expression for the PC's agency that fit the kind of stories the setting is set up to tell, and finding mechanics to encourage and reflect those modes.
Fate is, I think, an awful choice for the Dresden Files universe.
It makes sense in the way the Fate point economy encourages failure by using it to set up future success.
But the Dresdenverse has absolute caps on competency which Fate balks at, and... I've talked about this before. Let me dig that up.
@Tynam For me, it's that the setting itself is aggressively and violently opposed to anyone trying to change the status quo. Which is kinda what PCs are all about.
A system which is better suited to exploring personal/moral victories might make it more workable.
My Atomic-Robo-ish campaign is poised to rip the veil off the abnormal world, because my players feel they'll have more fun when anything big and dramatic doesn't have to get danced around so that normal folk don't notice it.
@BESW Since we're only ish, we don't feel it limits us.
And none of us care much about system, anyway. We use the fate point economy as a tool to encourage action and to effect narrative change, but that's as far as it goes. Mostly freeform.
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I'm playing an eladrin bladesinger, but I cant figure out what wizard things I can use.
Can an eladrin bladesinger use rituals?
Can an eladrin bladesinger use wizard cantrips?
And can someone tell me what longsword weapon proficiency actually does?
Finally, since everyone online says blade...
Usually the power will say something to the effect of "Target, enemies in the burst." Or "Target: 1 creature in the burst." But I can't look it up while at work. Anyone know?
I think 5e is frustrating, for me at least, because it attempts to go a narritvist route, but ultimately becomes an amalgam of previous edition rules operating primarily on DM fiat.
I haven't DMed 5e yet. The only thing I've done with it is play in a campaign that everyone went into with the express idea that it was going to be VERY loose. The standing rule about lore in the game is "Whatever I said most recently is correct." So a system that relies on Dm fiat actually works really well. It also helps that it's madcap and silly.
@JoshuaAslanSmith So what you're telling me is that they knowingly released a product that wasn't properly edited and charged full price for it. Okay, sweet.
I know we can discuss the strengths and flaws of RPG systems, and how we personally engage with them, without making blanket statements about the objective value of games that other people do have fun playing.
@sillyputty I've heard a lot of bad things about it, but I don't think it can quite match deadEarth's totally ridiculous chargen sequence and the utterly ridiculous world-view implicit in the text.
@sillyputty deadEarth isn't simply broken. It's not just that the creators couldn't decide if its post-apocalyptic wasteland did or did not have global satellite television.
It has all those snippets of failing to understand how stories work, how games work and how people work.
@mawimawi Yes, There's nothing that forbids you from using both feats simultaneously, you'll get a penalty to AC and to hit doing so, but as long as the use of the feats doesn't require an action you can use them together.
@Aaron So, for example the chance of me finding dragon's blood on the edge of a forest in a small barbarian town is unlikely except for the possibility of a strange crippled old man that for some reason shows an interest in me and reveals he's selling dragon's blood? Lol
Hahaha you'd have problems finding dragons blood anywhere, unless you can find a spell that uses it as a component and find it in a component shop
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There's also the distinct possibility that anyone trying to acquire that much dragon blood is going to attract a LOT of unwanted attention, not least from dragons.
If you can find a dragon big enough and evil enough to donate their blood to your cause you can likely convince them that you'll kill one of their rival dragons in return
@doppelgreener Except that the dragons aren't actually rivals, and they manipulated you into this situation so they could kill you together. #don'ttrytofarmdragons
If I were the GM, no amount of wealth would suffice. Since the point of the exercise is to become more dragon-like, any dragon deserving of his creature type would give the PC a set of tasks to "prove his worth" where "worth" is defined by the dragon's agendas.
@Miniman I'm now picturing a heroic-looking dude in battle dress, rushing in and attacking you. It does no damage. He realises he is a goon, breaks down in tears, and leaves to re-evaluate his life.
BTW, 3.5 doppelgängers are a good example of a creature never designed for PC use. All by itself having detect thoughts at will threatened to break my GM.
Not because I was smashing through his plots--this GM didn't have plots--but because coming up with the surface thoughts of every NPC we encountered is silly.
I may start giving my NPCs trains of thought like "I sometimes feel like there's something out there, watching everything I do. And other times I feel like I don't even exist."
I like playing around with the concept of video game NPCs who only say one thing, because it's hard to reconcile that with actual people and not have it turn out hilarious. I think there was an episode of The Hero Yoshihiko that had a town full of NPCs forced to keep it up as a comedy act.
I'm playing an eladrin bladesinger, but I cant figure out what wizard things I can use.
Can an eladrin bladesinger use rituals?
Can an eladrin bladesinger use wizard cantrips?
And can someone tell me what longsword weapon proficiency actually does?
Finally, since everyone online says blade...
