BlackSword

Re: Best Graphic Novels to Inspire a Campaign? I enjoyed the first two Tom Strong books (and haven't read any past those). Very four-color with a pulp feel.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I enjoyed Shoot 'em Up, though I felt the last 10 minutes or so was a little weak compared to the previous 70 minutes of high octane action. Still the movie was a lot of fun.

Re: Musings on Random Musings The University of Missouri-St. Louis uses the initials UMSL, not a big deal, excpet when they hang two banners next to each other so all I see is umSLUMsl.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so But that flies in the face or sorcerors who also only get 2 skill points, but it has already been said that they don't study magic. (or even Clerics who are also in the 2 skill poing ghetto and have their spells gifted by the gods).

Re: WTF are you guys doing? And one of those assumptions is how skill points are divided between classes, ie the scholarly wizard gets fewer skills and the 'class skills' are narrowly defined to only be about knowledges or magic, while the rogue has more points to spend on a much broader range skills. We've stated that assumption, now we are discussing the rules to ensure it is a valid assumption.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so Right, sorry, forgot about human.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so Wizards get 2 + (Int Modifier) in skill points, an 18 Int is a 4 modifier, 2 + 4 = 6. Which destroys the entire argument of why they get so few proficienies and so few 'practical' skill points. Barbarians don't 'study' either yet they have higher base skill points than sorcerors. All of which is moot since I noted 'of the same Int.' And this goes back to the weak and frail intellectual (with no practical outdoor/survival skills) mucking it through dungeons.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so And also requires a 20 Int, which is above what most starting players have. Going with the 'game theory' your character had extra skills not because of training, but because of natural talent. The logic of the weak spellcaster is also applied to sorcerors, and since the spellcasting trait for sorcerors is Charisma, they don't get to double dip high Int for spellcasting bonuses and extra skills. Or Barbarian, or Bard, or Ranger of the same Int.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so Part 2, that these weak and frail ivory tower scholars will throw themselves into a difficult life of adventuring, living outdoors, and crawling through dark and dangerous caves. Part 3 (from d20), these scholars, weak and frail from all their hard study, have the least number skill points.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I Am Legend was very good, though I will note it was much more drama than action or zombie movie. They occasionaly went for the big thrill with loud noise. A few times I was a bit bored, but I will also admit I was more in a mood for an action movie at the time. The acting was well done, Will Smith did a phenomenal job as a sole survivor.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I watched the trailer for Dark Knight. And some movie that was tacked on the end of it...I am Legend or some such...it had the Fresh Prince in it...though no cameo by Jazzy Jeff.

Re: Day-to-day life in space Orbit is a continual state of freefall. Between planets you are in microgravity.

Re: Pulp/Steampunk SF Ideas Even though its out in the future because I am working on an ambitious and long term Champs campaign, this thread has inspired me to start taking some notes on a pulpish SF game idea with some similiar themes. I have also started to read AE van Vogt's Transgalactic collection of short stories. The first story includes an invasion of Venus and Mars which have helped to inspire some thoughts of mine. Since its pretty far out I still haven't put much thought into ship design (though it will likely be more art deco than steampunk), and weapons will definitaly be 'ray guns.'

Re: Is Critical Success/Failure on dice mechanics a core rule

Re: Is Critical Success/Failure on dice mechanics a core rule I can (and do) improvise that. In the end though its a toma"toe"/toma"tah" argument, a difference in playstyles. I play fast and loose, it sounds like you track things much more closely. It adds stories, "the man who took down defender in one shot." Defender's hunteds are now going to look for this guy to find out his special technique. It keeps players on their toes. It changes the battle in a split second.

Re: Is Critical Success/Failure on dice mechanics a core rule This is why I don't give mooks recovery. If they recover and cower, then why worry about them recovering. Once they are out of the fight, they are out of the fight, SFX may vary from them being in lala land to finding a nice dark spot to cry in, but once they hit Zero stun they are no longer my concern. I haven't given much thought to crits with regards to mooks. We typically let mooks crit. If it makes mooks a little more dangerous. Its a rare event, so if one mook rolls an 18 his rifle explodes, if another rolls a 3 he gets the chance to take down a hero, or at least get a hero's attention.

Re: Stats And Hero Purity

Re: Pulp/Steampunk SF Ideas

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I watched Casshern last night. It had two pretty good superhero fights, a lot of flashbacks, a lot of stylized coloring and camera work so that at times it was like watching a live action video game. At one point the movie did go black and white for long enough that I thought they had made a mistake in editing. The ending was, well there was confusion and then credits.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so Not all of us.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so By using that line of logic PCs get no choices. The GM writes the story, tells the player what happened, and then everyone goes home. That how the source material works. True, but if Bilbo had failed his PER roll it would have been a much shorter adventure, and LotR would have a very different plot. The random generation tables do remind me of one D&Dism that drives me nuts: n) Loot based economy. The vast majority of wealth is based in magic weapons, armor and equipment. In order to gain wealth you must kill things and take their stuff©.

Re: FRPG Ideas from D&D that ain't necessarily so Yes, what is relevant to this thread is inaccurately protraying a game, calling anyone who points any inaccuracy an 'apologists', broad assumptions, and calling anyone who plays the game guillable.

Re: Order of the Stick

Re: I'm almost insulted...