http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ Role Playing Public Radio Forums: Recent Posts en Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:40:13 +0000 http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=36#post-218 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:57:50 +0000 AmishNinja 218@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>If I remember to ask you again when next year's Gen*Con rolls around, I'll totally team with you. My crew of randoms worked out okay, but I think rolling with people I "know" would be better. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=38#post-217 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:39:47 +0000 arthwollipot 217@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>I've just received what is perhaps the greatest complement a GM can receive.</p> <p>I've linked to my <a href="http://www.arthwollipot.com/games/metascape">Metacape game</a> before. This occurred in the middle of bluebooking between sessions. One of my players sent me a message:</p> <p>"Im torn between anticipation and wanting to hurt you..."</p> <p>This in my opinion is fantastic. It encapsulates everything I love about GMing. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=37#post-216 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:36:37 +0000 arthwollipot 216@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>That's the one. I've resubscribed to the feed, and it seems to be working, so far...</p> <p>Hopefully it will continue to do so. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=22#post-215 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:25:17 +0000 admin 215@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>Hey! Great to see you here Jess. We're going to do our wrap up show tonight and get started on the interviews later this week. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=36#post-214 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:18:41 +0000 admin 214@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>Wow! sounds like a blast. I had no time to check it out unfortunately. Too much other stuff going on. Next year though! </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=37#post-213 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:47:28 +0000 admin 213@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>I subscribe to the feed on google reader as well to make sure it works and it always shows up for me. I just update wordpress so it was offline for a bit (maybe 15 minutes) but that's all I can think of. What feed are you using?</p> <p>Try <a href="http://slangdesign.com/rppr/feed" rel="nofollow">http://slangdesign.com/rppr/feed</a> as it just validated on w3c validator. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=37#post-212 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:13:00 +0000 arthwollipot 212@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>I just realised that I've missed out on the last few episodes becase my RSS feed never updated. I use Google Reader to subscribe and download updates manually. Has there been any problem reported with the feed?</p> <p>(frantically starts downloading last few epidoses) </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=35#post-211 Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:59:30 +0000 arthwollipot 211@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>I would have to say that the best campaign I have ever played in is <a href="http://www.arthwollipot.com/games/metascape-ii">the one I'm running right now</a>. The players are keen and excited, and even though I've been a player short for the last five sessions, everyone has been having a LOT of fun - even to the extend of bluebooking between games on my discussion forum. It rocks, it really does. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=36#post-210 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:01:27 +0000 AmishNinja 210@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>So, after listening to Ross Payton's interview about the DCC Tournament hosted by Goodman Games, I decided to check it out this year at Gen Con. I must say I'm glad I did. I posted this fun anecdote on the Goodman Games boards as well, but thought I'd share it with the rest of you. </p> <p>I don't know how the DCC tournaments were the previous years, but this year's was BRUTAL (Example: Our warlord dropped to 0 in the first encounter, and one of the guards attempted to coup de grace him immediately - luckily he didn't break through the dwarf's armor X_X). It was my first time, and my team made it to round 2, but man was that ever rough. There were just some really devious traps involved that I'm amazed my team even survived. Tack that on to suboptimal characters and you've got yourself a challenge in resource management and tactics. Still, I had an absolute blast and plan on competing next year. Loved it.</p> <p>I'll share a story for my team. It was during the 'vineyard' adventure for round 1. At the third encounter, there was a narrow cave opening covered by a curtain, with an orc staring directly at it. I was playing the rogue (An Eladrin), and originally wanted to use my fey step to get in there unnoticed and sneak up on him. I decided it's too good to use in that manner, though, and that I'd rather keep it for an emergency. So I attempt to sneak past the curtain unnoticed - I rolled a 14 - not awesome, I was spotted. So the fight begins. Our fighter gets initiative first and charges in there after the orc to stop him from alerting others, but he gets caught by the second bear trap in the middle of the cave floor, and is pulled up by a rope to hang 20 feet in the air by his leg while orcs on the ledge next to him swing their greataxes at him with impunity.</p> <p>Or so they thought, at least. After an inspiring word from the warlord, the fighter gets the brilliant idea of using Tide of Iron to shift the orcs off of the ledge, causing them to fall 20 feet. He uses an action point on his turn to attempt this on both of them, and does so successfully. So if you can imagine a half-elf fighter hanging by his leg, cutting at some orcs while upside-down, pulling them off the cliff, that's about what happened. All I can say is that it was awesome, and the turning point of the battle. We were so sure the fighter was toast until that happened. We cleaned up without using any dailies.</p> <p>The only other fun moment I can think of was during the first fight. That cleric was giving us a lot of trouble, so when it came around to my turn, I just breathed hard and said "Alright. I've had enough of this bitch." - and used my daily + action point to get a follow-up sneak attack (2 shurikens). Unfortunately, I rolled a nat 1 on my follow-up attack. Conservation of greatness prevailed at one point, though, and I ended up dropping her a few rounds later with a nat20.</p> <p>We made it to round 2, but the first fight gave us a TPK. We *almost* had it, but there was this fire skeleton that did us in with 3 hp remaining. The initial 9 damage + ongoing damage + starting 5 from being near him on your turn was enough to push us into death. I even found the hidden dagger + potion. So many close calls. Got dropped by 1 hp right before my turn, etc. Just brutal.</p> <p>The DMs did an outstanding job, and I'd recommend this tournament to anyone who digs a good old fashioned dungeon romp with plenty of challenge. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=22#post-209 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:34:32 +0000 JessHartley 209@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>I'm not only a female and a gamer, but I work professionally in the industry. :) Just found this site after being interviewed about my work on Hunter: The Vigil.</p> <p>Nice to meet y'all!</p> <p>~jess<br /> <a href="http://www.jesshartley.com" rel="nofollow">www.jesshartley.com</a> </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=4&page=2#post-208 Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:28:51 +0000 ethan_dawe 208@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>My groups current game is D&#38;D 3.5</p> <p>I'm sure we'll be trying 4E and more 3.5. I also have them interested in GURPS 4E! </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=4&page=2#post-207 Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:14:10 +0000 admin 207@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>I have three fallback games, D&#38;D, CoC and All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Zombie games are fun and easy to run. I used to have the world of darkness as a fallback, but I never got into the new WoD. Recently I've been getting into Gurps 4th ed so that might become a fallback. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=4&page=2#post-206 Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:53:56 +0000 AmishNinja 206@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <blockquote><p>Like you, I've played quite a few games over the years but I keep falling back to two classics: D&#38;D and Call of Cthulhu. D&#38;D because it's the easiest game to run and get a group for and CoC because I am a dedicated Lovecraft fan and players can get into it pretty easily. </p></blockquote> <p>I am this guy. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=35#post-205 Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:30:11 +0000 Jemie 205@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>I am actually in a pretty good campaign right now, it's a national though.</p> <p>As far as home campaigns my sophmore year of college I was in an amazing Vampire the Masquerade campaign. The guy that ran it was a phenomenal ST. Our games always ran long but that's because he spent about an hour and half-2 hours talking with each player privately, doleing out secret info and doing character development stuff...that's always when we'd spend XP, chat, come up with a game plan and brsuh up on the events of the last game (it was a bi-weekly). </p> <p>I was playing a 10th or 11th generation Brujah martial artist that very well could have been mistaken for an Akashic Brotherhood mage. We had all sorts of fun things happen: a revenant SURVIVING a helicopter blowing up on top of him, a special sowrd, a demon getting summoned in Canterbury England,killing massive amounts of infernalists, all sorts of goodness and fun.</p> <p>My character had the merits/flaws: medium, oracular ability, dark fate (which played out in a very cool way), nightmares, </p> <p>The party consisted of:<br /> -brujah martial artist (which I eventually had to give up to play a Tremere)<br /> -lasombra antitrbu occultist<br /> -rutehless setite CEO (path of Power and the Inner Voice)<br /> -a feral gangrel (that was very much like a Black Fury garou)<br /> -a non descript ventrue<br /> -a malkavian ( I really can't remember what James' character's thing was)<br /> -the nigh unkillable gentleman revenant</p> <p>For me it was the first time a ST ever really took interest in the fact that I actually did something different. My Brujah had more presence than potence to start off and had a very calm demenor, I wans't playing the stereotype. This sort of gave me the courage in other games to not play the stereotpye or typical character. I owe Steve a lot in my growth as a gamer. Though some people would argue I take things a little too far now. ;) </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=34#post-204 Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:08:43 +0000 ethan_dawe 204@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>This may count more as an anecdote......</p> <p>Back in the 80s I worked at a game store and was part of the local game club. People were always running one-off games at the store and one Saturday this guy Dave decided to run a big bunch of us through a new module for AD&#38;D. It was Ravenloft, which was excellent. The party was fairly large being about 8 people and things were a lot of fun, except for one guy who played a barbarian. </p> <p>This was a 1st edition barbarian from the original unearthed arcana. At low levels first edition barbarians were supposed to hate and be suspicious of magic and magic users, to the point of trying to destroy magic items. The thing is this guy was around 8th level. He'd been tramping around with wizards and magical items all day and at this level, that was fine. Now we get up near the top of the high tower and Strahd the nasty vampire appears, right there was where we found the hilt of the Sunsword which can destroy the vampire. The hilt merges with the blade of some PCs sword and becomes this ultimate vampire killing sword. Turns out it was my sword that goes flying out of my scabard and merges with the hilt. Our cleric has the vampire rooted to the spot with the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and we just have to beat him a couple of times with the sword to win. But, this couldn't happen. </p> <p>The barbarian suddenly says....I'm a barbarian, I hate magic so I grab the sword and drop it down the 360ft hole in the center of the tower. The vampire escapes and we beat the barbarian to death. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=30#post-203 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:54:22 +0000 ethan_dawe 203@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>Other poor non-combat games I've played and love would have to include AD&#38;D! I played a lot of 1st edition AD&#38;D, some 2nd edition (though I bought a lot of stuff for it,) and now 3/3.5.</p> <p> I'm not trying to knock 4E. It's just not a change that interests me and a business decision that pisses me off. My friends are somwhat excited by it. I'm sure one will run it soon. I'll play, but I wont buy it. It's a personal stance....a vendetta if you will with the current creative directions and the tone/spin WOTC puts on it. I hate spin. Every salesman spins, and every game develper thinks their game is the best. Need I remind anyone of FATAL....the game with the "anal size" stat and the way it's creator defended it against negative reviews?</p> <p>WOTC is trying to make a radical change to D&#38;D to increase their market share and make more money. A good business must always do that. There counting on getting more new buyers, enough to compensate for the old customers they lose. It's a gamble. A bold move. Apparently they've done research. I'm just one guy, but I've played and worked in the game field for 30 years now and I think they may have made a mistake. May have. I've been wrong before! </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=30#post-202 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:41:29 +0000 ethan_dawe 202@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>I find GURPS to be good for non combat type stuff as well as combat. </p> <p>You CAN use a game system however you want. I mean, I've had a lot of fun with terrible game systems.....TSR Marvel Super Heroes comes to mind. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=35#post-201 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:38:18 +0000 ethan_dawe 201@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>That Ars Magica game lasted about a year. My current D&#38;D 3.5 game is on session 18 a year after it started. Most games I played lasted a couple months, a few longer. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=30#post-200 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:21:21 +0000 admin 200@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p><a href="http://www.gregstolze.com/reign/">Reign </a>has the best leadership/organization rules for any rpg I've ever seen. Running an organization, managing internal strife, org vs org conflict, everything. Great for games with political intrigue and epic fantasy campaigns. I ran a Reign game where combat was the least interesting part of the game and it was a full blown fantasy campaign. Every player had better things to do than just kill orcs. </p> <p>GUMSHOE is great for running investigations/mysteries. </p> <p>Little Fears is perfect for placing PCs as children. Every rule in that game helps to reinforce that idea. </p> <p>That's just off the top of my head. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=30#post-199 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:18:10 +0000 AmishNinja 199@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>Well, if you think about it, the combat should be the more complex and balanced part of the system in any game. Otherwise it's just arbitrary storytelling where things happen as the DM wants it to, which takes "story teller" to a more literal meaning. I guess the exception there would be like in the Wushu system you played, which seemed pretty cool; You grant dice pools based on how much panache and descriptiveness the player exhibits. However, I can see how even that might lead to players figuring out what the DM is partial to and tailoring their flavor text to fit that. I'll be careful here because I don't want to wander into a trap where I'm trying to tell everyone what All Games Should Be. Players and DMs make what they want to out of a game, and I recognize that. </p> <p>Anyway, for things that aren't straightforward like non-combat situations, you can always improv it. If you want to make everything consistent and have "challenge" rolls, you can just say "roll some charisma checks to lead this army" - which is an incredibly lame and simplified example, I know. Or you could take the non-combat situations from a Storyteller angle, where you just play your interactions out to the best of your ability and reward the players for good roleplaying. I'd almost prefer that to a set of specific rules that govern how successful one can be in such a situation. A classic example is the Gather Information skill from 3.5 - you could just be like "Yo, check it DM. I'm gonna roll GI - 28. What do I find out about this shady character?" - or you could actually try to promote some good interaction by roleplaying it out. Some DMs will treat a well-played scene as a high roll.</p> <p>At the risk of totally derailing this thread, I'd like to ask: What are some systems you all have played that have good non-combat mechanics? </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=30#post-198 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:05:45 +0000 admin 198@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>I guess it boils down to that in 4E everything boils down to 'combat' or 'skill challenge'. It just seems like a very narrow view of a system. Using the same mechanics (which are basically make a few skill checks or fail the challenge) for debates, chases, disarming traps, navigating the ocean and leading an army seems to be very limiting. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=35#post-197 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:53:42 +0000 admin 197@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>I haven't really played in too many campaigns that lasted more than one or two sessions. The longest game I've played in was a oWoD Mage game where I joined halfway through so I didn't really understand everything plus the GM was creative but took forever to get anything done. </p> <p>I've run an awesome Masks of Nyarlathotep and Iron Heroes campaign, with really memorable scenes and NPCs. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=30#post-196 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:36:07 +0000 ethan_dawe 196@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>Nope, I haven't even played it. I don't have to! For me, the combat system in 3.5 is adequate to the task at hand. If I had issues with it, I'd tweak it. The point for me is that I'm not interested in just better combat, or a better magic system, or neat wiz-bang abilities and powers. If it was a game from someone other than WOTC, I still wouldn't be that interested. The fact that WOTC is going to push this "new" game and print a bazillion books to go along with it, when so many peiple have made major investments in 3.0/3.5 is just silly to me. Note that I said "to me." I have been gaming for a long time, and I have lots of games on my shelf. I'm always open to a new game if it offers me something I can't do with one of my current games. D&#38;D 4E is not for me, because from all the reading and talking I've done with people about it it doesn't offer me anything new. I'm going to spend my money elsewhere for that reason and the fact that WOTC burned a bridge with me by revving up editions so quickly. If there market demands that and they make money at it, that's fine. They are a busniess. I'm just one customer they will lose over this. No big deal, unless there are a lot of people like me. We'll see. If you and your friends love the game, I have no issue with that. I'm merely staing my opinion. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=30#post-195 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:06:21 +0000 AmishNinja 195@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>So you haven't even played it. Honestly, I'm not a WOTC salesman here, but I wonder how many people condemn 4th without having even tried it. The naysayers who have played 4th seem to have a very selective reasoning in why they hate it, to boot. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=35#post-194 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:02:34 +0000 ethan_dawe 194@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>I think the best campaign/game I ever played in from a pure Role Playing standpoint was an Ars Magica campaign run by my old friend Doug. It was my first time playing AM and we were using the 3rd edition, which was new at the time. The game system wasn't perfect, but the magic system is outstanding, as it should be in a game focussed on wizards.</p> <p>There were four players and we spent so much time on individual quests and magical research that we didn't even know each other's characters that well. Doug's game was so good that he was able to keep this up with everyone at the sessions. While not in focus we'd be planning our characters research and making rolls on it. Then planning what you were going to do so when you r character came into focus you were ready to go. There were many overlapping stories and plot lines and you never knew what would happen next. You might not be the center character for most of the night, but the story was so good and our characters were so detailed that we just kept busy with it the whole time. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=30#post-193 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:40:14 +0000 ethan_dawe 193@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>I fully agree that you can do anything with any game if you are willing. I'll also take your word that the 4E combat rules are better. However, better combat rules are not enough to make me buy into a whole new version of the game after just a few years of 3.5. WOTC lost my business on this one. I'll keep playing 3.5 and will play 4E if someone in my group runs it, but I'm not going to buy a single 4E book from them. As I said before, the 3 to 3.5 wack was forgiven, this 4E thing is not. There are a lot of games out there that do combat well, and a lot of games that do RPing well. THere are even games well suited to both. Most of them cost less too and are revised with less frequency. </p> <p>It reamins to be seen if WOTCs buiness move here will pan out for them. TSR sales in the 90s went to hell when they stopped producing good marterial and pissing off there repeat customer base, this may happen again. Time will tell! </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=30#post-192 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:37:06 +0000 AmishNinja 192@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>Okay, that's fair. But the fact still remains that 4th Ed does combat much better than 3rd, so you essentially have the same combat-focused system with the option of making it into whatever game setting you want. Wrench to pound in a nail? I find that to be a rather narrow view of 4th. The game is whatever you make of it, with the added bonus of some rather awesome team-based tactical combat. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=35#post-191 Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:10:53 +0000 ethan_dawe 191@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>It's always fun to talk about the worst experiences in RPG land, but what about the best? What was the best game campaign or one-shot you ever played and why? </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=34#post-190 Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:32:00 +0000 ethan_dawe 190@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>I'll have to think about this one. I will mention a couple of character anecdotes from my old gaming group. </p> <p>One of my friends used silly character names for several years, even though we didn't play "comedy-style" RPGs. We'd be making up our characters (GURPS mostly) and he'd start giggling. Then he'd start laughing. Most times he could barely speak the name when we asked as he would be laughing too hard. It got so bad we actually started getting used to it and looking forward to the next name. The death of one of these characters became a moment of celebration though as the hated name would be retired. There was Woomzowa Boomchugalugga. He died, and we were happy. Then his replacment character was "Woomzowa's cousin" Doomzowa Boomchugaluga. Then there was (forgive me if I cant spell it) Rarshansafi Paragruebel. I still remind my friend of these 20 years later.</p> <p>As I mentioned, we played a lot of GURPs. We'd all be sitting around making up characters at the table, talking about what concept we were doing and especially our choices of disadvantages. Most of us got creative with these. My friend Nick would skip most of the disadvanteges though an head straight for Odious Personal Habits. He had an odious personal habit of doing this, and most of his characters were not the type that were conducive to NPC interactions.</p> <p>If anyone has the GURPS Wild Cards book (based on the Wild Cards super hero novels from the 80s) (HEY and if you haven't read them you should! The first 10 at least!) one of the actual Wild Cards series writers comments in the introduction that the series got started because the series writers were all playing to much super hero RPGs and not making any money writing. He goes on to mention some of the charcters they had in their games that didn't make it into the books. For example:</p> <p>Senility Man, who had the power to grow old at will<br /> Nova Boy, who had the power to make the sun go nova....once.<br /> The Holy Roller, an immensly fat evangelical who'd crush his enemies by rolling on them.<br /> And some unamed character who had the power to make any woman in the world fall out of his bed room ceiling. He couldn't control the after that though. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=34#post-189 Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:28:29 +0000 admin 189@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p><a href="http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=101106">This thread on rpg.net is great </a></p> <p>We should start listing our own PC horror stories. Good fodder for the show if nothing else. </p> <p>One of my favorites: </p> <blockquote><p>Submitted to me by a prospective player in a Champions game I was going to run (but never got off the ground):</p> <p>The Superlative (Invincible, Indestructible, etc.) Hammer-Wheel.</p> <p>The Invincible Hammer-Wheel's power is that he has hammers for hands and wheels for feet. Or it could have been wheels for hands and hammers for feet. The player himself wasn't sure, but my mental picture of the character is a man with monster-truck wheels plugged into where is arms should be, who drives up to villains and kicks them with his sledgehammer feet.</p> <p>Here's basically how the conversation went:</p> <p>Player: I hear you're running a superhero game. Can I play?<br /> Me: Sure. Do you have a character concept in mind?<br /> Player: The Invincible Hammer-Wheel!<br /> Me: Uh... (keep in mind this was to be a "serious" supers game)<br /> Player: He has hammers for hands and wheels for feet! Or, wheels for hands and hammers for feet. I haven't decided.<br /> Me: And how did he come by these "powers?"<br /> Player: He was born that way.<br /> Me: Must have been rough on his folks...<br /> Player: He was raised by farm implements.<br /> Me: And his motivation for doing good?<br /> Player: He lives in the woods.</p> <p>So whenever people bring up their "worst concept" horror-stories, all I have to say is, totally deadpan and monotone, "The Invincible Hammer-Wheel. He has hammers for hands and wheels for feet. He was born that way. He was raised by farm implements. He lives in the woods." </p></blockquote> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=16#post-188 Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:43:12 +0000 ethan_dawe 188@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <blockquote><p>The key to sandbox/open ended campaigns is to create a bunch of plot hooks and let the players decide what they want to do and then let the dice roll where they may.</p></blockquote> <p>I totally agree with Ross on this one. I tossed in a bunch of hooks and stuff while completely adlibbing the first few sessions. From there my players went where they wanted and my bare-bones ideas of a back plot has grwn along with their actions and choices. A year in, we are now following up hooks from their first adventure and I've tied a whole published module into the framework I made up earlier. One important thing I find is to keep good records. I keep an online record of each session plus a list of ever NPC the characters meet or hear about. That way I can refer back to them later and make it seem like I had a full plot planned all along. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=33#post-187 Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:36:17 +0000 ethan_dawe 187@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>I'm not a LARPer but I'd agree with arthwollipot. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=33#post-186 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:49:35 +0000 AmishNinja 186@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>My answer is "None", because nobody should ever LARP. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=29#post-185 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:03:45 +0000 ethan_dawe 185@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>I think my favorite (and so far unproduced) AB3 story is "The Great Gamma World Death March." Why? Deviant Boy's character Doc Cock makes me laugh my ass off every time I read it. </p> http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/topic.php?id=30#post-184 Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:51:55 +0000 ethan_dawe 184@http://slangdesign.com/rppr/bbpress/ <p>In reply to AmishNinja I'll say this:</p> <p>You can use a wrench to pound in a nail, but it doesn't work as well as a hammer. A game's mechanical design makes it particularly suited for something in most cases. The designer's of 4E had something in mind. Sure, we can use it to do other things and come up with new uses for it, but it's primary use is what it was designed for: combat focused crawling. There is nothing wrong with that. That's not my main focus in games and I can get by with games I already have rather than plunking down more cash for this latest effort. </p> <p>I fogave WOTC for the 3 - 3.5 thing because 3.5 is better, but I'm not going to keep buying there stuff when it's gone this far in a direction I don't like. Rather than 4E I'll try to pickup an 80s copy of Talisman like the set I sold off a 10 years ago. That will fill the light weight fun combat game slot nicely. </p>