@BESW Heh. Your coffee stack avatar comes up in like the 13th row of results for a Google image search of shulassakar.
I always find it disheartening when I am searching for a thing and there is so little that myself mentioning the thing is prominently displayed in the results.
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@BESW It is at peace with its giant walrus bat fangs.
The shulassakar crop up in Eberron materials for both 3.5 and 4e, and they have a brief uncited mention in the Wikipedia article on yuan-ti. However, the rainbow serpent folk never seem to get much attention: that Dragonshards article I link above has the most information in one place that I've e...
I was interested to see if it did happen with the sea witch, and amusingly enough, I think I found someone else looking for the same book, and getting the same answer that we eventually found.
In fact, this is creepily similar to the point that I was like, "This wasn't me, right? Nope, that's not me."
> They generally had grey/green tones and I believe they were pretty detailed. I specifically remember a picture of the sea witch sitting on a throne made of skulls, which I'm fairly certain was also the book's cover.
Have I mentioned how I am very frequently told that I look exactly like someone that someone knows? I can't recall. That... is definitely a thing, though. xD
Searching archives, hmm, I'm not sure that I have! So, people are always telling me that I look exactly like someone they know. My friends, my mother, my sister, coworkers, random people I meet in public.
Once I walked up to a drugstore counter and the clerk stared at me briefly, and partway through the transaction, he said, "This is going to sound strange, but you look exactly like my girlfriend. I mean, exactly. This is so weird. I mean, not weird, but..." And this wasn't some weird attempt at hitting on me, either. He was amazed.
It's a little strange since I love strategy and tactical video games and things like that, but only rarely do I play board games, even ones with similar principles.
It's been a while since I did anything with TCGs. I've been meaning to start one of those myriad apps or online games since I have no one to play with IRL.
I remember I spent more time playing the trading card mini game in Digimon World 3 than the rest of the game, which was a lot of time. Maybe I shouldn't. >_>
@Pixie For me it's dangerous because it's a "small" game which doesn't require time commitment like a "proper" one. I could play it for just half an hour... but I'll end up playing for 3.
...I didn't know what I was missing until I introduced a demon into the mix. Writing villains is just more fun. Must be all the years of GMing. Plus the demon gets to be funny.
@Pixie I haven't really had a character go off the rails yet. But I start with a rough idea of where I want things to go, and then let the characters get there, often discovering diversions along the way.
@Shalvenay In my case, part of it (especially with that particular universe) was that there were things about myself I didn't realize yet which were being expressed through my writing. But, in general, I learned not to get too attached to one vision of events. :P
@Pixie -- I think what happens with my RP is I tend to backsolve -- instead of trying to go forward from a certain point, I start with a specific end vision in mind and try to figure out what leads there
Specifically, a) characters have clearly-defined wants; b) character actions rise from their motives rather than from logic; and c) direct observation of real-world phenomena (including people) is superior to observing through the filter of other media.
(Consequences for actions rise from the logic of the context in which they're taken, but the actions themselves derive from desire rather than from reason.)
@BESW -- a-ha -- my problem is that I tend to base character behavior on reason, because otherwise I find myself driving the character's cause far too hard. it also doesn't help that the people I observe IRL are very different to what is expected from RP chars
And.... yeah, part of the issue may be a certain amount of your other players' observing behaviour either of different groups of people, or through only certain media filters.
@Pixie Not sure. Kyle Kallgren links him from time to time, that's how I know him.
We keep accidentally getting this one type of frozen meal that is full of mushrooms, and I don't realize it until I get to work and have heated it up. Even if I take them out, the whole thing tastes like them... it's terrible. xD
As a flavoring agent, they're okay in small amounts. But if it has an actual mushroom in it and the dish has strongly taken on its flavor, I am in trouble, even if I can avoid the mushroom itself.
If the mushroom doesn't color the dish too much though, I can just eat around them. It depends on how it was prepared.
@Sandwich That I'm not sure about yet. I have Exalted after work tomorrow probably. Likely next week sometime, but I'll need to wait to say when because I know my schedule is changing.
One of my coworkers broke her arm and will be out for a long time, so I'm picking up a couple more shifts a week. P:
@DuckTapeAl any particular questions/concerns/issues you have?
SW can be deadly, but really doesn't have to be. I've been running a Deadlands game for a year or so now with a group of 5 PCs and have only had 2 deaths
I could use your brain for a few seconds. If you are not using it.
There is this thing that I want to ask.
And this thing I want to go deeper into.
But I don't even know what to call it or how to phrase it.
I thought you are the most mechanic savvy person around, you would be the best person to tell me if it is really "a thing" or if I am going into uncharted territory..
it kinda reminded me of that thing you blogged about, Goblin dice.
You know in RPGs, when sometimes the roll of the dice is something that determines whether a thing happen, or a thing not happen?
The thing that Fate and * World games try to mitigate with "you do the thing, but..." scenarios?
Do you know if there is a name for this phenomena?
@Althis It's more that he understands the system at all. xD I'm trying pretty hard to learn it, but for some reason, I just can't get there, and we tend to have large gaps between sessions, so everything I manage to figure out I forget again. I sincerely appreciate his doing so, though.
@Wibbs So, one of my group is a melee fighter. He's got a d12 Fighting, d8 Strength, Brawler, and Martial Artist. The other characters regularly cast a +2 Parry spell and a +2 damage spell on him before fights.
He ends up with a Parry of 10 and a damage roll of d8+d4+d6(take the two highest)+4.
So everything he punches crumples up like paper.
Any anything that's statted to handle him can pretty much instantly destroy any of the other party members.
Also, I've run into a circumstance where a lucky shot from a crossbow hit this guy and immediately did 2 wounds in the first round of combat, which seemed like a lot.
Also, it seems like the system might be mechanically weighted towards having character be super-specialized, rather than being more broad?
Like, having a d4 in a skill seems like it's going from a 27% success rate to a 62% success rate, but 62% just isn't high enough for anything important. And adding an extra point to a skill you already have reduces your failure rate by a significant amount each time.
@Althis -- no. create a horizontal vortex adjacent to a downdraft in the dragon's flight path
with a big enough vortex + downdraft combo -- dragon flies in, gets tipped up on a wingtip by the vortex encounter (basically, its artificial wake turbulence :P) and then slammed down groundward by the downdraft while still tipped on its side
