Inu

Re: D&D 4th

I wouldn't suggest you try that theory out in real life.

I wouldn't suggest you try it out with one sword, eitehr.

Re: D&D 4th

It's consistent all right. It's pretty easy to achieve consistency with a term that is devoid of any and all meaning.

Naturally. As are most RPG's versions of hp. BODY isn't especially realistic or meaningful, either -- it's not like being hit by the third sword is any more likely to kill you than the first two, other than to increase bleeding. STUN, meanwhile, is a similar mishmash of things... and makes about similar sense.

Hit Points give you certainty in combat. If I have 30-odd, I know that, barring some unlikely circumstance, I can't be killed in one hit. This is a good thing for some players, not so good for others. If BODY and STUN are good for you, woot. It hit points work for you, yay. If you can slide between both depending on what game you're in, then you're pretty flexible. But I don't see how either is inherently more realistic/enjoyable/meaningful. =)

Re: D&D 4th

 

Someone on another board described hit points as the amount of plot immunity you have. Thought that funny.

I like to call it 'ablative dodging'. That's cool too, though. =)

Re: D&D 4th

That is a fair summation. It is much more gamist than 3rd or 2nd.

I wouldn't even say it's more gamist; I'd say it's more honest about its gamism. All the past editions were full of '1/day', '3/day', 'unlimited, but only once a fight' abilities. The new edition, it seems to me, is just codifying that stuff... as well as overhauling the healing system so that it actually works with the abstraction of hp all along -- IE, not needing healing spells to recover one's confidence (one of the elements of hp since 1st ed).

D&D has always been gamist over simulationist. If someone's looking for simulationist, like Eosin, then they probably never wanted to play D&D at all. If the new system can be CONSISTENTLY gamist, without totally abandoning any link to simulationism, then I'll probably enjoy it more than ever.

Re: Pistol Damage Class By Caliber

Of course if you follow that line of reasoning too far' date=' you end up playing Role Master. [/quote']

Or Phoenix Command. =D

Re: Pistol Damage Class By Caliber

Dude! That post was three years ago! Give the guy a break!

Dude doesn't even post here any more.

Re: Urban Fantasy dead horses.

To fairy appearances, add the current model of White Wolf: fairies are heartless bastards who simply have no understanding of human morals, emotions, or the fact that other beings matter one bit. They're self-centered and out for their own pleasure and amusement. One of their habits is kidnapping humans (usually children) and taking them to be servants. These humans soak up some of the local magic, and if they ever manage to escape (or are set loose, though this is VERY rare), they return to the world with fairy-like abilities... and are prone to being hunted by their former masters (who fortunately are less powerful in this world than their own; in their own they're gods, here, they're merely major villain quality).

Re: Order of the Stick

The orc shaman is right' date=' though. Sometimes this comic gets a bit wordy. FUNNY! But wordy.[/quote']

Which is a good thing! =) I like words.

Re: Setting a real point limit, instead of AP limit

Personally, I often allow players to breach AP limits, as long as the limitations are, as has been said, real and actually limiting. A once a day power taht you only NEED to use once a day (and costs so much END you'd be unlikely to use it more than once a day) doesn't really count. I'm talking more about powers that have feedback, or might go wrong, or something like that. I like the idea of having an energy-blaster who has his regular array of powers, but has a partially-limited blast that just goes up and up in power with ever greater END costs and Side Effects (damage to user). Sure, it could be used to take out the big bad... but if the big bad has a one-shot ubershield, then you've wasted your blast, and possibly knocked yourself out... best to wait until the bad guy's in a bad way anyway.

Hero's strength is team vs team, anyway, not team vs one big bad. You take out one enemy, you take yourself out... no net gain.

So yeah, I'm with Shrike. It's something you can do, with heavy GM scrutiny. Hero already requires a certain maturity among its players, due to the potential to abuse the system. This is why stop sign powers can exist -- the GM is advised to say no unless it's a good build. Same thing applies here.

Re: TA: Turkarian age campaign level

In a game like Turakian Age, I'd also suggest having other drawbacks to armour. If someone's wearing an 8 PD greathelm, their vision's going to suck, for one. Hearing won't be too great. The effect this has on combat would be variable... they might get penalties to CV in general, or perhaps just to specific moves (like block). Or you could forego CV penalties (the armour's probably giving them enough) and just penalise their PER roll. =)

In addition, wearing heavy armour should have an LTE drain -- most people didn't wear full plate all day, even when endangered; it would leave them unfit for battle when it did start. Wearing plate all day is fine for high fantasy, but in low fantasy where you're worried about armour being too tough, forcing them to not wear it all the time is a nice start. Make it something they put on when combat is expected right now, or if they won't have to go far to where the combat is, but in all other cases, they'll have lighter armour (leather, mail, whatever) instead.

It's one way of balancing armour, anyway. =)

Re: Relativistic Effects of Interstellar War

"Go backwards even faster?" Have you been reading our corporate SOP manuals' date=' Inu?[/quote']

Just a moment, let me pop back and write them.

Re: Relativistic Effects of Interstellar War

I've been running around so fast at work' date=' it seems like this thread just started. Have I fallen behind?[/quote']Just go backwards even faster, it'll all work out in the end!

Re: Order of the Stick

Banjo likes his women with experience... CLASSIC!

 

Is anyone around here reading the other comic on that site? The Battle for Gobwin Knob? It's pretty interesting.

Yeah. The first time I tried to read it, I navigated away pretty quickly. I saw classic fantasy parody elements; oddly-named (and looking) gods, all that kind of stuff. I gave it another try a while ago, and realised it was so much more. The parody elements are all there, but it's bound together into a self-consistent (but still totally crazy) world. Real nice. Just wish it updated more reliably.

Re: Game of Thrones

It doesn't seem that realistic to me. The idea of 'realism' kind of flew out the window when he had several characters talk about how the Lannisters were in such a weak position throughout the second book, then proceeded to have nobody take advantage of it despite knowing about those weaknesses. Oh and the way everybody opposing his precious Lannisters tends to get handed the idiot ball, or some associate of those opposing Lannisters will be handed the villain ball.

 

Anyhow, if I wanted realism in a medival type setting I'd read a history book.

The previous couple of decades were a period of stability. Baratheon moved against anyone who disrupted this stability; he wanted a united kingdom. The Lannisters were, IIRC, also feigning some level of the listlessness, preparing for a takeover bid. They'd been planning this for a long, long time. The 'idiot ball' is a subjective thing; I didn't feel anyone was done over.

Re: Game of Thrones

So the characters are dying and suffering because it's unexpected?

 

IMO, that's metafiction, in a bad way.

They're dying because it fits the story. It's shocking because it denies expectations. There's a certain amount of meta in ANY writing. Even histories and biographies. Certain things happen because it's expected. In Martin, sometimes things happen because it's unexpected... but it's always supported by the story. No foul.

From your previous post, I take it you haven't read the books? Take it from me; they're complete stories that make sense internally and externally.

Re: Game of Thrones

I think my complaint about the series is that it is not larger than life. If I wanted "realistic" I'd read the papers or watch the news. Plenty of people getting killed for no reason there.

I like a range of writing, myself. =) I like pure escapism, I like grittiness, I like anything, really. Well, I like good writing, good stories, good characters, good setting. I don't really care about tone, genre or style.

I usually say that one of the big reasons I read, or watch movies, is for the human experience. There usually has to be some element of it for me to enjoy something, unless the craziness factor is big enough to make up for it. The human experience encompasses fun, happiness, love, fear, tension, sadness, death. Vicarious experience of any of those gives me satisfaction (though I do like a mix). Unrealistically bad or good endings leave me cold. I hate seeing everything twisted around to give an ending that simply doesn't belong, regardless of how much I want that ending.

Re: Game of Thrones

It sounds to me like GRRM set out not to tell a story' date=' but to skewer fantasy. He would have been better off writing an obviously snide parody so that those who don't want to read a book of skewers wouldn't have bothered.[/quote']

He set out to tell a story. HE also wanted to tell a different story, and one of the methods he uses to create drama and involvement is to deny normal expectations. So if he is skewering fantasy, it's not ALL he's doing. So no, he wouldn't be better off doing a straight-up parody. There's a lot more to his books.

Re: Loved at home hated by the world.

When I want real-world politics' date=' I open the newspaper, not a gaming book. When I want to make a statement, I write a letter to my congressman or to the editor, I don't write an adventure. And if my GM starts using his game to try to make a statement about real-world politics or religion, he's going to be looking for a new player.[/quote']

Oh, don't worry, this scenario has NOTHING to do with real-world politics, anyway. ^_- Not of any remotely plausible kind.

Re: Y-Wing Evolution

 

I mean, come on. That's not anywhere near 128-bit encryption strength.

Seriously. No wonder the Enterprise gets hacked every other episode!

Re: Keeping it Real

Should be fine as long as you stick to realistic threats. If they're stopping muggers, fine. If they're stopping the mob running its protection rackets, they're gonna get bullets in the belly. Having ordinary people take on the mob in a gunfight... would probably break genre. And if they did win, well, secret IDs probably won't work too well in real life (the PCs would probably be inevitably caught by cops and unmasked) and then their families start being threatened. Basically, organised crime is probably just too much for ordinary people to take on.

That is, if you're going for a realistic setting as well as characters. If the setting is shooting more for verisimilitude than realism, then I'd say set it in a place where guns aren't too common (try Britain, Australia or Japan), and make organised crime a bit more complacent. They've been winning long enough and with enough stability between the families that they've gotten fat and lazy and slow. Or perhaps there just isn't much big organised crime, but only small-scale gangs.

If you're not dealing with a lot of gunfights, and with gangs that haven't, say, infiltrated the police, or you avoid that level of crime entirely, it could well work. =)

Also: what's the scope for improvement? Characters may start normal. Will they stay normal forever, or as they gain points, will they become Heroic?

Re: Y-Wing Evolution

The Reliant!

16309

I win.

Re: Are YOU a superhero?

It's always weird to click on a thread and go 'whoa, when did he get back?'

Yesterday, I open the 'cafferty's comments' thread, and for a moment, I think it's necromancy, 'cause there's AgentX. Still couldn't shake the feeling that I was reading an old thread!

Re: Space Junk in Earth Orbit

Somebody call the Toy Box?

Re: Game of Thrones

Let him kick off and let a fan writer finish the series.

 

Who would you choose to finish the series though?

Kevin J. Anderson!

*throws self into traffic for even suggesting it*

Re: Game of Thrones

I've read them all, and am now listening to the audio versions (great for long car or airplane trips). Those rock too.

 

And if you can find them, be sure to read his "Dunk & Egg" stories about Ser Duncan the Tall and Egg his squire, set maybe 150 years before the novels. Good stuff.

The first two Dunk and Egg stories have been comicised and published as a trade paperback: The Hedge Knight, vols I and II.

I've read the first, have the second on order (I didn't know it existed until I looked it up just then!) The first is an excellent book. It's not without casualties, but good wins out! More than its fair share of 'F*#$ YEAH!' moments, to borrow a term.