Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - SageNytell

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 29
1
RPGs / Re: Red Markets at GenCon/Upcoming Beta
« on: August 28, 2015, 03:52:51 PM »
I'm not sure if I was supposed to request here or in the main RPPR thread, but my tax groupies and I would love to playtest the game if you are still accepting applicants. It sounds fun!

2
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Red Markets Alpha Playtest
« on: August 28, 2015, 10:43:50 AM »
I have a new group of players, primarily employed or previously employed by... let's say we all work in the field of taxes. When I described the concept of this game, there were cheers.
If it's not too late, we would love to sign up for a beta playtest!

3
General Chaos / Re: Horrors of War
« on: October 01, 2014, 11:28:42 AM »
I'm in! Cannot wait to die in historically correct fashion or bite it from something from beyond!

4
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Upcoming RPPR One Shot games
« on: September 20, 2014, 09:51:26 AM »
I linked this the other day in the discussion on Google+, but you guys should definitely give Drowns the Sky a shot. Fantastic little dark mapgame about a space colony facing the end of the world.

Here's the easy-reading version,
and here's the game in convenient pocketmod form.


5
General Chaos / Re: Kickstarter: Cool Stuff
« on: August 27, 2014, 09:55:20 AM »
I am assuming the lack of a PDF option is a sore point with ASG and I made a point of not mentioning it to him at GenCon. I would also love one but it sounds like his co-author is dead set against it. My nightmare scenario is that the PDF does not appear and people bail out and defund the project. Hope that does not happen and a PDF is added but I have my concerns.

I want this book to succeed, and I want to continue to purchase products from Pagan Publishing in the future, but that requires them to make reasonable business decisions. :/

Refusal to produce PDFs that have a much larger reach than physical products is lunacy in this day and age. Piracy is a concern, yes, but it's far overblown compared to the potential profits that an established company could be getting off of future sales on DriveThruRPG. It's one of the reasons why Delta Green books were so crazy expensive until they sent some in to be ripped apart and imaged; physical books are becoming more and more of a luxury item.

If they're looking to succeed on the kickstarter, they might do it with just physical books. If they're looking to succeed with future sales with new customers who were unaware of the Kickstarter, they're SOL unless Crowe can be convinced to change his mind.

Edit:
This is something I'm increasingly frustrated by with Kickstarters in general. The Kickstarter is not the be-all-end-all unless you're doing a ransom model, which this most definitively is not. It's to raise funds to create a successful product which can be sold after the campaign ends, not as a store. While a lot of RPG developers use KS as a very successful preorder system, it's much more similar to an early adopter program than a preorder. I can understand a lot of users getting this confused and making ridiculous demands of project runners, but more and more it seems like people are just running Kickstarters for the initial campaign and not planning out future revenue streams. This will only work with a ransom, or if the Kickstarter is just plain old fraud (google Confederate Express for a fun time).

It's me, I'm the cynic.  :(

6
So Tom tends to repeat a certain quote:
"I opened up the box. INSIDE WAS PAIN."

What's the source there? Catchy quote.

7
RPGs / Re: D&D Next
« on: August 13, 2014, 03:48:18 PM »
Magic is inherently broken as we know, so we shall see how it goes.

Here's my problem. Magic is broken in D&D, and really only in D&D, and it doesn't fucking have to be. Unknown Armies has an in-depth magic system, Mage gives all the players the same set of tools, FATE and other modern games allow the emulation of magic within a mechanical framework that's on par with other, non-magical characters. 4th Edition, not to argue edition wars, had magic which was balanced against martial characters and what magical characters could accomplish had reasonable limits on par with other characters.

Only in 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder/Next is a wizard a fucking superhero capable of goddamned anything, with abilities and powers completely different than any martial class in the game. Wizards in stories and folklore had limitations, specific narrow powers, and weaknesses. Wizards in D&D are slowed down by the rest of the party.

Yes, magic in D&D 5e is inherently broken. What frustrates me is that it didn't have to be. The broken state of the magic system in D&D 5e was a deliberate choice, and 'because it is tradition' should not be an excuse.

edit: i am frustrated with elfgames  :(

8
RPGs / Re: D&D Next
« on: August 12, 2014, 08:52:33 PM »
For a variety of reasons I will not be purchasing D&D Next / 5e / 3.5harder.

The information I've seen in the previews and the various playtests does not appeal to me, it's 3.0/.5 all over again. Today they previewed the Spinx, which has a busy statblock and 15 various wizard spells from the PHB, none of which are listed by level but instead alphabetically in the back of the PHB. It's lousy, it's lazy, and it fetishizes the use of 'natural language' to the exclusion of ease of use, and it brings back the old reality that player wizards have the ability to do literally everything magical in the world and monsters can do nothing but cast the same PC spells.

Add in the fact that WotC's being fucking awful outside of the game with some of their recent decisions (which can be found with a cursory google search and should not be further discussed here for fear of bringing something truly... awful here), and it's a clusterfuck that I want nothing to do with.

9
RPGs / Re: THE QUEUE: Whacha got in YOUR gaming pipeline
« on: August 07, 2014, 09:57:01 AM »
"You review the business tax records. ROLL SAN"

^me irl  :-[

10
General Chaos / Re: Kickstarter: Cool Stuff
« on: August 04, 2014, 11:05:23 AM »
"Fall", "get shoved"...
Semantics.  8)

11
General Chaos / Re: Kickstarter: Cool Stuff
« on: August 03, 2014, 05:02:34 PM »
I'm in for a Glancy game too. We'll die terribly in trenches together, it'll be great!

12
General Chaos / Re: GenCon 2014 and the 5th RPPR Fan Meet-up
« on: July 30, 2014, 10:00:24 PM »
You kids have fun now!

...someday.  :'(

13
RPGs / Re: Game Fodder / Story Fodder
« on: July 30, 2014, 09:33:06 PM »
Shades of Eclipse Phase (insofar as existential threats!):
http://io9.com/the-radical-plan-to-eliminate-earths-predatory-species-1613342963

This is, uh... terrifying. I need to write something around it. :D

14
I listen to goddamned everything, but I will sometimes not listen to an episode until a month afterward. I listened to Rick and Morty last week, but I'm just now hitting Part 3 of A Very Thorough Murder.

I'll usually save the last few episodes of a campaign for when I go on vacation, to have something interesting for the drive. Oneshots I'll usually listen to in my office.

I'm probably on the weird side though, since I listen so late and don't usually comment, I just don't feel I have something to contribute most of the time.

15
RPGs / Re: FATE: Let's like talk about it.
« on: June 24, 2014, 07:29:53 PM »
Getting rid of the D&D thinking where everything is built like a PC is important, because it allows you to do some AWESOME stuff.
Someone over on the SA forums (I would credit him but the site is currently down) wrote this gem, and I think it's fantastic.

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love FATE -or- The Treasure Map Battle
Just wanted to share a thought process about something I was working on...

The other day I was putting together a rough outline for a Legends of Anglerre five-encounter one-shot, and one of the "scenes" I wanted to do was the players following a treasure map on a uncharted tropical isle. But when I sat down to actually work out the scene, I realized I didn't want it to be a case of just having the PCs roll their "Figure Out Map" skill until they reached an arbitrary number of successesn because that's boring and pointless.

So I started thinking in terms of the Fate Fractal, and I realize what I really wanted was a challenge to the characters where they were trying to wrest infromation from a map designed to confound anyone besides the original mapper.

In other words, I wanted them to fight the treasure map.

Naturally, there were a few things I had to figure out for this to work. First off, how would the map fight back? It's not like it can grab a sword. What it can do, however, is lead the characters astray. It can trick them into quicksand, accidentally lead them into gator nests, or just get them so turned around they wind up wandering for hours under the hot sun. To simulate this, the map has an effective "attack skill" of +2; it's attacks are things like misdirection and sending the PCs into dangerous locations.

Another thing I had to figure out was how the map could "win" and how it could "lose". The map losing was easy; the PCs find what they were looking for. But how can it win? Well, technically, it can't. But it really doesn't need to. Yeah, if the players roll really poorly and spend too much time screwing around, the map can run them out of Stress. But that's pretty unlikely. This isn't about a win/lose, it's about making the treasure hunt interesting.

So how do the players attack the map? Well, the obvious answer is with skills like Survival or Academics, but there's no reason to prevent players from using other skills. ("I use my sword to cut a path through the jungle to make this easier; can I roll my Melee Weapons skill?")

The map really couldn't take Consequences; it would still have Stress of course. I figure 6 boxes should be enough to keep things interesting but not tedious.

Thinking a bit more on the map's attacks; I realized that since the map is leading the PCs into dangerous situations, "attack" is going to have a broader meaning. I can have the map's attacks be things like "you wander in the hot sun for an hour, take 2 Stress" or "You slip on some rocks crossing a wide stream, take 3 Stress", but what about other hazards? Well, critters can of course be represented by minions, but what about something like quicksand?

Well, if I can represent the map as a creature, I can do the same with quicksand; Again, it has a "Quicksand" skill of, say, +3, and its first attack is always a maneuver to grab the target. If it succeeds, then the target is sinking. If it fails, the PC has an action to get away from it or the quicksand will make the same attack again. When a target starts sinking, it takes one stress per round until someone pulls him out (i.e., removing the "Sinking" Aspect). Of course, if the PCs don't take measures to be cautious, the quicksand can make attacks against them, too.

The thing about these "special attacks" is that they pretty much have to be dealt with before the PCs can continue, so if the PCs are dealing with a special attack, they can't attack the map until the threat is dealt with, and the threat takes over the map's slot in initative until polished off.


So here's the epic enemy and bane of adventurers everywhere: The Treasure Map!

Stress [] [] [] [] [] []
The map has an effective skill of +2 for any skill roll it needs to make.

Special Attacks:
Misdirection
"How many palm trees shaped like W's are there on this bloody island?"
- Turns out that the landmarks the guy who made the map picked aren't as unique as he thought. The map clears out two of its stress boxes. This can only be done once.

When Animals Attack (Because You're In Their Nest) [No attack roll required]
"Uh, Phil...that's not a log..."
- That was a bad place to stand. The map summons some minions that immediately attack the party; the players cannot attack the map again until the minions are dealt with in one form or another. Pick whatever you think would be funniest from the following list:
- Crocodile (Good): Aspects: Jaws Like A Vice, Thick Hide. Skills: Fight +3, Physique +2, Stealth +1, Athletics +1.
- Python (Fair): Aspects: Sharp Fangs, Lightning Fast. Skills: Fight +2, Athletics +1, Stealth +1. Likes to use its Athletics skill to put the “Wrapped Up” aspect on prey.
- Insect Swarms x 5 (Average): Aspect: Small Stinging Insects. Skills: Fight +1. Will form up as a mook group.
- Big Ass Spiders x 3 (Fair) : Aspects: Poisonous bite, Leaper. Skills: Stealth +2, Athletics +1, Fight +1. These are small-dog sized spiders who can jump far to attack their prey. When you get bitten by a Big Ass Spider, you must make a Physique roll or you gain the “Poisoned” aspect.
- Gorillas (Good): Aspects: Lord of the Jungle, Stronger Than Any Man. Skills: Physique +3, Athletics+2, Fight+1, Stealth +1.

Sinkholes
"Hey, why are you all getting taller?"
- That was a really bad place to stand. The map "summons" a sinkhole, a special "creature" that gets an immediate action. The sinkhole has four stress boxes and an effective Fight skill of +2 and a unique stunt “Pull Down” (see below). The sinkhole's first move against a target is always to Create Advantage to place the "Trapped in quicksand" aspect on the target. Following that, the sinkhole will attack the target. If other PCs try to free a trapped friend without taking precautions (grabbing a branch, for example), the sinkhole can make an attack against them on its next action. The sinkhole can make multiple attacks against valid targets in the same zone as itself as one action.
“Pull Down”: When the sinkhole attacks, the result of the attack roll is treated as an Obstacle against moving away from the sinkhole.

Booby Trap
"I guess he really didn't want anyone else finding the treasure, huh?"
-It might be a rope trap that leaves you hanging by one leg from a tree; it might be a pit of sharpened sticks. Either way, the target has to make a Notice roll with Great (+4) difficulty. If the character doesn’t see the trap, then it attacks with an effective Fight of +3. If it’s a deadly trap, it does +2 stress on a hit.

The Roundabout Way
-"Oh...I guess that really was a shortcut we passed two hours ago. Sorry, guys."
Looks like you've been wasting time, energy, and resources as the map leads you around the long way. This attack rolled once, but is applied to everyone in the group."

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 29