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tkdguy

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What happened @tkdguy to the party? I find if I run a test Solo, the party fares badly but when ran with other players, it goes good. I do know that the D20 is fickle.

 

My older son talked my wife into picking me up for Christmas the D&D Wilderness Screen. It’s not half bad. Some Dry erase maps and more importantly Condition Cards. My nephew gave me Condition Rings last year for Christmas. (And I use those in other games too.) 

 

I’m just going to use a mash of BF & 5e moving forward.

Edited by Ninja-Bear
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8 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

What happened @tkdguy to the party? I find if I run a test Solo, the party fares badly but when ran with other players, it goes good. I do know that the D20 is fickle.

 

My older son talked my wife into picking me up for Christmas the D&D Wilderness Screen. It’s not half bad. Some Dry erase maps and more importantly Condition Cards. My nephew gave me Condition Rings last year for Christmas. (And I use those in other games too.) 

 

I’m just going to use a mash of BF & 5e moving forward.

 

Long story short, the characters fought off some bandits with minimal damage, then fought some goblins in a different area. Most of them took a bit of damage from the goblins, which led to their deaths when the bandits came back for round 2. I decided to give the bandits another chance because I made a mistake on the morale rules.

 

My biggest issue with the rules I've used is allowing a saving throw on the Sleep spell, which is not allowed on Basic/Advanced D&D. OSR characters are on the whole more vulnerable than d20 characters at level 1*, and a Sleep spell can make the difference in the party's survival. In this case, 2 bandits were hit by the sleep spell, but one made his saving throw. He spent his action waking up his sleeping comrade instead of attacking, which helped the party. But all bandits were awake and combat ready in the next encounter. The previous time I used the sleep spell (different characters), 3 out of 4 orcs made their saving throws, and those characters had to run for their lives. I plan to use the B/X version of the spell in the future.

 

* Remember that in Basic D&D clerics don't get spells until level 2, and hit dice for all character types except for magic-users were lower than those of their AD&D counterparts.

Edited by tkdguy
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9 hours ago, tkdguy said:

 

I'm still using 3rd Edition. Since I don't play very often, I will just stick with that version for now.

I too am staying with 3rd. I just saw it that they had a thread going on about the changes from 3rd to 4th and that one caught my eye.

 

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14 hours ago, tkdguy said:

I wanted to see if it would play without ads here. It actually does.

The only youtube I watch any more is through forum links.  I refuse to turn off adblockers and have them shove deeply offensive idiocy into my viewing (especially in 2024, which will quickly become a Hell Year for that as the election nears), nor will I pay for the "privilege" of not doing so.  Thankfully most of my old favorite channels are mirrored elsewhere already, and some of the other ones have announced they're doing the same soon.  They can have my money directly through Patreon and the like.   

Edited by Rich McGee
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2 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

 

 

Yep.  The ads have gotten so bad that I grab the link and PM them to myself here and watch them later.

 

 

😕

 

 

 

I found a way to get around it, at least for now. I didn't remove Adblock when I downloaded Ublock. My mistake was disallowing ads on both programs. I disabled Adblock on YouTube but kept Ublock active. It works for now. Of course, Youtube is working on updating itself, so it's probably not a permanent solution.

51 minutes ago, Ragitsu said:

 

Technically, that applies to any sort of fiction.

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11 hours ago, tkdguy said:

Of course, Youtube is working on updating itself, so it's probably not a permanent solution.

No, but adblocking services are also updating regularly.  It's going to be an arms race for a while to come.  There are a number of youtube creators who've noticed significant dips in views and are already lobbying to reverse the change, with the quite reasonable threat of leaving the platform if they don't - if their revenue from YT proper becomes a fraction of what they get from direct donations why stay?  Their paying audience will follow them wherever they go.  Between that and folks like myself who are simply boycotting it should be interesting to see where things go.  Youtube probably won't change, but you never know.

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4 hours ago, Rich McGee said:

No, but adblocking services are also updating regularly. 

 

Here's a thing I learned a couple of years ago:  

 

A lot of ad-block software manufacturers-- in particular the free ones found in ap stores-- use their products as test beds for determining the best way to block ads, then after assessing their success, sell that information to Google and other advertisers so they can tailor their software against that type of blocking.

 

 

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On 1/4/2024 at 12:24 PM, tkdguy said:

My sister and someone on Discord recommended UBlock Origins. It works well on YouTube, and you just refresh your cache when YouTube begins cracking down on you.

 

Apparently, YouTube has been able to disable UBlock as well. 👎

 

I'm using uBlock Origin and AdblockPlus on Firefox, on Mac, and the only youtube ads I ever see are the ones that are actually part of the video.  Ymmv.

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15 hours ago, tkdguy said:

The working title for the group is "Murderhobos Inc."

Despite the modern onus that term carries, the "hobo" part is actually a pretty legit description for many adventurers.  Where a tramp travels but only works under duress, and a bum neither travels nor works, a hobo is properly defined as a migratory worker, one who travels from job site to job site as needed.  Adventurers are usually wandering around on a quest with some form of remuneration, even if it's just looting the losers in fight, as military men did for millennia - as expected a benefit as US waitstaff getting a tip to supplement their wages.  That sure sounds like a temporary job that one might travel to and from (and for, even), so "hobo" is a title some might wear with pride - or at least acceptance.  Just don't call them tramps - or worse, bindlestiffs.  Everyone hates a bindlestiff.

 

Now, the "murder" bit is a little harder to stomach unless your quest is an actual assassination, but for some reason most PC groups don't get offered a lot of targeted wetwork even when just putting a crossbow bolt in the evil vizier who usurped the throne really would be the sensible thing to do.  Still, perhaps that's simply due to lack of advertising.  A party that's actively seeking work as vitality reduction experts willing to travel might well choose to call themselves "murderhobos" to make the point abundantly clear.

 

"Inc." is clearly an abbreviation, perhaps of a fitting distinction or boast.  Since the concept of corporate ownership doesn't appear in most fantasy settings, one presumes it's short for "incredible" or "incomparable" or even "incarnadine" if you want to be highbrow about it.

 

A fine name for a band of footloose professional killers indeed.  :) 

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23 hours ago, tkdguy said:

Just for fun here's my ill-fated party.

 

 

Unlovelies.jpg

 

I created a new party, but I haven't decided on a party name. The working title for the group is "Murderhobos Inc."

How about Doom Patrol? Since they’re seeking their Doom? Btw, murderhobos just like fingernail on a chalk board. 
 

Btw, where did you get that sheet from?

Edited by Ninja-Bear
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I can't seem to find the place where I downloaded the sheet. I suspect it was a single character sheet that was shrunk down to a quarter size in order to fit a party of 4 in a single sheet, possibly for solo play. I can find similar sheets in the Basic Fantasy forums. If it's not against the rules, I can post a blank sheet of the one I used, but remember that I am not the creator, and I will take it down if asked.

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2 hours ago, tkdguy said:

I can't seem to find the place where I downloaded the sheet. I suspect it was a single character sheet that was shrunk down to a quarter size in order to fit a party of 4 in a single sheet, possibly for solo play. I can find similar sheets in the Basic Fantasy forums. If it's not against the rules, I can post a blank sheet of the one I used, but remember that I am not the creator, and I will take it down if asked.

It’s no big deal. I just wondered. No use getting in trouble for it. Oh and is there a particular reason why you’re doing a four man party? Besides perhaps that is all that fits on the sheet? I know that it’s assume that that’s the idea party size but really more is better! KotB suggests a minimum of a 6 member party.

 

Edited by Ninja-Bear
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Inspired by @Stanley Teriaca, Heroes in a Hurry, I created a Stretching character named. Mr. Malleable. (Though I kept him at 300 pts.) I just ran a starting adventure where two Robbers try to rob the Andromeda Bar (map from 5th Ed Resource kit). 
 

Question, does it seem cheesy that I declared that when he went to Martial Grab the robber, I stated that Extra Limbs would cancel out the need to use his other arm? The SFX is that he’s hand Stretched big enough to wrap around the robber. 
 

I still took an OCV penalty because of the maneuver.

Edited by Ninja-Bear
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44 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

Question, does it seem cheesy that I declared that when he went to Martial Grab the robber, I stated that Extra Limbs would cancel out the need to use his other arm? The SFX is that he’s hand Stretched big enough to wrap around the robber. 

Seems fine to me, but I have a lifelong bias in favor of stretchy heroes.  Been playing Malleable Man here for over two years now and having fun with the skewed twist on what elasticity actually is.  "It's not me warping, it's the universe."

 

No point in even playing a stretchy if you're not going to do the giant hands thing now and then.  :) 

Edited by Rich McGee
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