16
RPGs / Re: 4th Edition- Player wants to play as an animal
« on: January 30, 2011, 10:01:01 PM »
Furies can definitely be hell in roleplaying. They can drive you mad! 
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17
RPGs / Re: Your Character Type
« on: January 30, 2011, 04:45:12 PM »
I've found that since I tend to have more roleplaying experience than most of the people I end up playing with, I go for the 'fill the gaps' character. So I wait till I know what everyone else is playing, then fill whatever hole they've left.
So this usually ends up meaning complex characters (eg. OD&D mages or Shadowrun Otaku), social characters (last time I played Heavy Gear all the other players specialised so heavily that I swear all their characters were autistic), rich characters (usually the only person in a modern game with both drive skills and a car), leader types (to help keep the game moving), or plot hook characters (who aren't orphaned verdanced social islands that know nobody and care less).
Sometimes a mix of all.
So this usually ends up meaning complex characters (eg. OD&D mages or Shadowrun Otaku), social characters (last time I played Heavy Gear all the other players specialised so heavily that I swear all their characters were autistic), rich characters (usually the only person in a modern game with both drive skills and a car), leader types (to help keep the game moving), or plot hook characters (who aren't orphaned verdanced social islands that know nobody and care less).
Sometimes a mix of all.
18
RPGs / Re: 4th Edition- Player wants to play as an animal
« on: January 30, 2011, 04:29:07 PM »
My first response was to say to them, "Stop being an ass, just play one of the bajillion choices you have from the books."
But I notice it's a she, so I guess you're boned. In which case, I agree with Tadanori. Make them a leopard, and give ownership of her to another member of the party. Otherwise, why would a group of adventurers have a leopard walking around with them?
But I notice it's a she, so I guess you're boned. In which case, I agree with Tadanori. Make them a leopard, and give ownership of her to another member of the party. Otherwise, why would a group of adventurers have a leopard walking around with them?
19
RPGs / Re: Anecdote Megathread
« on: January 14, 2011, 09:07:13 PM »
Okay, so this didn't happen in a roleplaying game. It happened on the train two days ago.
My wife and I were sitting on the train, heading into the city to work in the morning (we work at the same place), and we were talking about how she needs to make a character for a DC Adventures superheros game that's being run at our gaming club this year. She said she was having trouble coming up with ideas, since she'd used her last idea in another game (a cyborg that could mimic other people, so was like a spy, with a mechanical toe that could explode).
Now, I don't know how it happened, but throughout my nerd life, I've never really fallen into the comic book reading thing, so Marvel, DC, other - it's all really the same to me. But we started talking about that classic argument, the difference between a hero and a superhero, because apparently Batman is DC. Batman, in my opinion, is not a superhero. He's just rich. That's not a superpower. But apparently, my wife says he is super intelligent. Bah. Anyway, we were going through other heroes that don't have special powers (like Iron Man, just another rich boy) and we got to the Phantom. I've never read the Phantom, and I don't think I've even seen the movie. I've only ever seen the occasional 4 panel in a newspaper. My wife doesn't really know much about him either.
So we started talking about whether he's a superhero, and if so, what's his ability? All we really knew about him was he wore purple spandex and a masked, that he solved crime, and he punched people in the face and left a skull motif on them with his ring. Apparently, that skull motif marks someone for life when he punches them in the face (so my wife tells me), so we figured that's not normal, and decided that must be his super power - he has a magic ring that leaves a permanent skull impression when you punch someone. Woo. Talk about scraping the bottom of the superpower barrel. I think he also has a gun, but neither of us had ever seen him shoot anyone, so he must just use it to get people to put their hands up, so he can then punch them in the face.
I said that my wife should think about modelling her new superhero character on the Phantom, since no-one else would have thought of having a superpower like leaving a mark on people when you punch them in the face. But we hit a problem - how would you possibly spend enough character points to create a superhero whose power is "I solve crime, and I punch people in the face and it leaves a mark with a magic ring"? So we embarked on our quest for the trip - to try and work out where all those points could go. By this time, you could tell that several people around us were listening to our conversation - people glancing at us, grinning or snickering a little when we said something particularly funny, or just shaking their heads as if we're crazy.
Then I hit upon a great idea. We had this inkling that the Phantom had passed down his ring through the ages, and so Phantom had been around for hundreds of years, building up a myth that he can't die, or he's a ghost, or something. So we thought, why not expand this idea a little? If there are different Phantoms through time, why can't there be different Phantoms around the world? Think about it. If you shoot one, sure, they die, but if another one lives somewhere else, then it seems like the Phantom never dies. If two Phantoms foil a crime at the same time in different places, then it's like he has super speed. Now, think about what you actually need to be a Phantom: purple spandex, a mask, and the ability to punch someone in the face. Take away the magic ring, and you've got a relatively lax recruitment strategy.
I mean, what would it take? A bunch of people wearing purple spandex, an internet forum (at GhostsWhoWalk.com), and mobile phones with internet access? And of course, for your AGMs you can just meet at comic conventions dressed as the Phantom. When you're talking about real crime and fighting and stuff, people will just think it's a really epic roleplay. My wife brought up the problem of where they all get their crime solving skills. Are they all ex-cops? But that's all a function of the internet forum - not only do you have different regional Phantoms (Barth and Wells Phantom, Greenwich Phantom, Soho Phantom, Sydney Phantom, Mumbai Phantom, Dakkar Phantom), but you also have Phantoms with different skill sets. So East Bromwich Phantom finds some sticky residue at a crime scene. Collecting it in a vial, he puts a message on MyPhantom, "Hey guyz, got sticky goo here. Orange, runny. Ideas?" Then Orange County Phantom says, "I work as a chemist with a gas chromatograph. Send it over." 4-10 days later. for shipping, "It's a glue-type substance with potassium tetobenzoate. Helpful?" Then, "Islington Phantom here. I work retail in a hobby shop. That's Heston Crazy Glue," and so on until crime is solved, criminal is punched in the face, and life goes on.
Of course, my wife pointed out, people would notice that the Phantom didn't look the same - especially when you've got tall Sydney Phantom , short Brisbane Phantom, a dark-skinned Darwin Phantom (no racial discrimination), and a female Victoria Phantomme (they had to let in girl Phantoms since the 70s). But hey, with all these Phantoms running around, people will quickly forget what the 'real' Phantom looks like. If two Phantoms turn up at the same crime scene, they scissors-paper-punch for it. But then, really, Phantoms aren't meant to cross over into each other's territory, unless they're on holiday or something. And for those people who think that Phantoms might be a pushover with all this outsourcing, just remember that you never know which Phantom is a computer programmer, and which is a retired cop, or a boxing champion. And don't think it's so easy for a criminal to dress up like a Phantom and infiltrate the organisation - because Isle of Wight Phantom is a material manufacturer, and is the only one who makes the official purple spandex.
By this time, some people were specifically trying not to look at us, and one specific guy was constantly cracking up laughing as he listened.
We started thinking about how this character would actually work. Can you imagine, in your superhero game, every time you got together to discuss the crime, a different Phantom would be standing there, depending on where you were? Sometimes he's tall, sometimes fat, sometimes with pimples, always one step behind in the conversation and checking the forum backlog on their phone, always with a different voice, never admitting that they are in fact a different Phantom? But also always with a different skill set, able to get expert opinions on almost any subject, and ever-keen to connect clenched fist to criminal face? It would take a fair bit of effort to constantly be playing a different persona every time the action moved to a different area, but it would be a great laugh.
And then, we had to get off the train, and head to work. So this is Westleigh Phantom signing off, ever alert for the call to action when the Phantoms need a court transcriptionist, or local criminals need a punch in the face!
My wife and I were sitting on the train, heading into the city to work in the morning (we work at the same place), and we were talking about how she needs to make a character for a DC Adventures superheros game that's being run at our gaming club this year. She said she was having trouble coming up with ideas, since she'd used her last idea in another game (a cyborg that could mimic other people, so was like a spy, with a mechanical toe that could explode).
Now, I don't know how it happened, but throughout my nerd life, I've never really fallen into the comic book reading thing, so Marvel, DC, other - it's all really the same to me. But we started talking about that classic argument, the difference between a hero and a superhero, because apparently Batman is DC. Batman, in my opinion, is not a superhero. He's just rich. That's not a superpower. But apparently, my wife says he is super intelligent. Bah. Anyway, we were going through other heroes that don't have special powers (like Iron Man, just another rich boy) and we got to the Phantom. I've never read the Phantom, and I don't think I've even seen the movie. I've only ever seen the occasional 4 panel in a newspaper. My wife doesn't really know much about him either.
So we started talking about whether he's a superhero, and if so, what's his ability? All we really knew about him was he wore purple spandex and a masked, that he solved crime, and he punched people in the face and left a skull motif on them with his ring. Apparently, that skull motif marks someone for life when he punches them in the face (so my wife tells me), so we figured that's not normal, and decided that must be his super power - he has a magic ring that leaves a permanent skull impression when you punch someone. Woo. Talk about scraping the bottom of the superpower barrel. I think he also has a gun, but neither of us had ever seen him shoot anyone, so he must just use it to get people to put their hands up, so he can then punch them in the face.
I said that my wife should think about modelling her new superhero character on the Phantom, since no-one else would have thought of having a superpower like leaving a mark on people when you punch them in the face. But we hit a problem - how would you possibly spend enough character points to create a superhero whose power is "I solve crime, and I punch people in the face and it leaves a mark with a magic ring"? So we embarked on our quest for the trip - to try and work out where all those points could go. By this time, you could tell that several people around us were listening to our conversation - people glancing at us, grinning or snickering a little when we said something particularly funny, or just shaking their heads as if we're crazy.
Then I hit upon a great idea. We had this inkling that the Phantom had passed down his ring through the ages, and so Phantom had been around for hundreds of years, building up a myth that he can't die, or he's a ghost, or something. So we thought, why not expand this idea a little? If there are different Phantoms through time, why can't there be different Phantoms around the world? Think about it. If you shoot one, sure, they die, but if another one lives somewhere else, then it seems like the Phantom never dies. If two Phantoms foil a crime at the same time in different places, then it's like he has super speed. Now, think about what you actually need to be a Phantom: purple spandex, a mask, and the ability to punch someone in the face. Take away the magic ring, and you've got a relatively lax recruitment strategy.
I mean, what would it take? A bunch of people wearing purple spandex, an internet forum (at GhostsWhoWalk.com), and mobile phones with internet access? And of course, for your AGMs you can just meet at comic conventions dressed as the Phantom. When you're talking about real crime and fighting and stuff, people will just think it's a really epic roleplay. My wife brought up the problem of where they all get their crime solving skills. Are they all ex-cops? But that's all a function of the internet forum - not only do you have different regional Phantoms (Barth and Wells Phantom, Greenwich Phantom, Soho Phantom, Sydney Phantom, Mumbai Phantom, Dakkar Phantom), but you also have Phantoms with different skill sets. So East Bromwich Phantom finds some sticky residue at a crime scene. Collecting it in a vial, he puts a message on MyPhantom, "Hey guyz, got sticky goo here. Orange, runny. Ideas?" Then Orange County Phantom says, "I work as a chemist with a gas chromatograph. Send it over." 4-10 days later. for shipping, "It's a glue-type substance with potassium tetobenzoate. Helpful?" Then, "Islington Phantom here. I work retail in a hobby shop. That's Heston Crazy Glue," and so on until crime is solved, criminal is punched in the face, and life goes on.
Of course, my wife pointed out, people would notice that the Phantom didn't look the same - especially when you've got tall Sydney Phantom , short Brisbane Phantom, a dark-skinned Darwin Phantom (no racial discrimination), and a female Victoria Phantomme (they had to let in girl Phantoms since the 70s). But hey, with all these Phantoms running around, people will quickly forget what the 'real' Phantom looks like. If two Phantoms turn up at the same crime scene, they scissors-paper-punch for it. But then, really, Phantoms aren't meant to cross over into each other's territory, unless they're on holiday or something. And for those people who think that Phantoms might be a pushover with all this outsourcing, just remember that you never know which Phantom is a computer programmer, and which is a retired cop, or a boxing champion. And don't think it's so easy for a criminal to dress up like a Phantom and infiltrate the organisation - because Isle of Wight Phantom is a material manufacturer, and is the only one who makes the official purple spandex.
By this time, some people were specifically trying not to look at us, and one specific guy was constantly cracking up laughing as he listened.
We started thinking about how this character would actually work. Can you imagine, in your superhero game, every time you got together to discuss the crime, a different Phantom would be standing there, depending on where you were? Sometimes he's tall, sometimes fat, sometimes with pimples, always one step behind in the conversation and checking the forum backlog on their phone, always with a different voice, never admitting that they are in fact a different Phantom? But also always with a different skill set, able to get expert opinions on almost any subject, and ever-keen to connect clenched fist to criminal face? It would take a fair bit of effort to constantly be playing a different persona every time the action moved to a different area, but it would be a great laugh.
And then, we had to get off the train, and head to work. So this is Westleigh Phantom signing off, ever alert for the call to action when the Phantoms need a court transcriptionist, or local criminals need a punch in the face!
20
RPGs / Re: Scenes you'd like to emulate.
« on: January 13, 2011, 01:29:22 AM »
There is nothing in that clip that falls anything short of totally awesome.
The only thing that could have made it better were if the crowd visible at 0:15 had broken into coreographed Indian dance.
The only thing that could have made it better were if the crowd visible at 0:15 had broken into coreographed Indian dance.
21
RPGs / Re: The RPPR Forum Users AD&D Stated Party
« on: January 11, 2011, 09:08:14 PM »
Just for people's curiousity, I had two new people join my game last night. Both rolled their stats at the same time. One rolled 13,13,12,12,12,11, which puts him on about equal rankings with three other characters in the party (he's playing a human cleric of the god of holiness) and the other rolled 17,16,15,14,13,11, which gives him the best stats in the party to date. I was cut that he didn't make a paladin, as he's the only person so far to roll the stats necessary for one!
22
RPGs / Re: Anecdote Megathread
« on: January 11, 2011, 07:30:00 AM »
I figured it was time to add another anectode from history. I enjoy most those anectodes that reflect some sort of maxim of the roleplaying world, so I chose this one to share. Since there was talk in another thread about a character's personality growing through their experiences, I figured I'd tell a story or two about that.
My wife and I had moved to Queensland for my work, and we had no-one to roleplay with. We did play Warhammer 40k though, so we would turn up to the local battle bunker regularly to play and hang out with people of similar nerdy ilk. I was still pretty new to 40k, and I kept referring to victory points (VP) as XP, because of my D&D heritage. One of my opponents picked up on it and said, "Why do you keep saying XP?" and I replied, "Oh, it's just D&D talk, I get them confused." And he replied, "D&D? I've always wanted to play, but never had the chance." Then over my shoulder, a guy from another table replied, "Did you say you're running a D&D game? I want in on that."
The guy I was playing against is Matt. Matt was a young guy, just out of high school, who had a list of problems as long as both arms and legs. If you can have an acronym for it, he had it - ADD, OCD, DPD, Asperger's, the works - and his family situation wasn't great either. He didn't have many friends, but he was loyal to gaming and he was dead keen to make a good run of roleplaying. He made an elf called Lithander, who wanted to be a fire mage. We called him Lith for short.
The guy from the other table was Randal. He was an early 30s guy, thin as a rake, and absolutely affable, would do anything for you. He is always animated and expressive. He made a human fighter character called John the Unhinged, who came from a long list of tribal berserkers (Bert the Vexed, Ken the Unstable etc) going back to Reg the Nutter, whose blade had been handed down through the family.
I'll start with Lithander the 'fire mage'. After the party's first encounter with a scout group of draconians (yes, it's Dragonlance - of sorts) in which they did quite well, they continued to follow a trail in the hope of discovering a mage who had sidetracked a caravan and taken it off into the woods. Unfortunately for the party, this mage had teamed up with a group of hobgoblin slavers, and so when they confronted the mage, they were set upon. It was a balanced fight, but with a few disastrous rolls and some bad decisions (the party members got stuck in a web, and decided to burn their way out) they were all down. It was their second encounter, and they were facing a TPK. what does any DM faced with such a situation do? Turns to the age-old fallback of taking all of the character's belongings and putting them into slavery, of course! And so the party found themselves in the back of a slave cart, being taken up over the mountains. All of a sudden, a dragon attacks the slavers, general hell breaks loose, the hobgoblins flee, and the party finds themselves free - in their undergarments, without shoes, on top of a mountain.
At this point, survival is the first port of call for the party. The mage is so physically weak (good old 2E, his strength and constitution were his dump stats) they had to build fires in holes in the ground at night, and then put the mage in the warmed hole and have one of the fighters sleep on top of him. They were following the hobgoblin tracks, because they had no idea where else to go, and Lith in particular was upset at the loss of his spellbook (making a 1st level mage in 2E absolutely useless). Eventually they came across the hobgoblin encampment in a cave, but the party were outnumbered, had no weapons, no armour, so no chance. They decided to do some recon in the hope of possibly overwhelming a single hobgoblin, taking his gear, and putting themselves in a better position. Sure enough, they saw one of the guards go off into the bushes to take a toilet break, and so stalked him. As they watched him do his business, they saw him then produce a book of some sort, rip out a page, and use it as a bog roll. Lith recognised it as his spellbook, and lost the plot. He charged out of the bushes towards the hobgoblin, who was totally surprised to see a half-naked elf rushing him while he was wiping, grabbed his dagger out of the hobgoblin's belt and stabbed him with it, killing him.
This incident crowned the weak and sickly elf mage as "stabbity death", and even when he did get his spells, sometimes he just couldn't help but charge wildly into battle, stabbing at things with his dagger and causing much less harm than if he'd stuck to his spells, but fantastically in character. He actually only ever learned a single fire spell, flaming sphere, failing his rolls to learn affect normal fires, burning hands, and later flame arrow and fireball, before he died, of all things, from falling out of a tree.
John the Unhinged started off as a fairly typical fighter, who was less of a berserker and more of a fighter with an anger management problem. But it seemed that he was fated to have strike after strike of bad luck, which slowly but surely drove him further and further around the twist. It all started when the party was exploring an old crypt (affectionately remembered as the 'morguealeum', since mausoleum was mispronounced) which had in it, among other things, some skeletal bears. When the old leaking magic of the tombs caused one of Lith's spells to backfire and showered the party with magical lice, the party found themselves hindered by itching and scratching, and their fighting style became a little more desperate and dangerous. John found himself inside the ribcage of an angry skeletal bear, having to parry for his life whilst the other fighter of the party (Gruklen the minotaur) rained down blows from his halberd against the skeleton and John together. With one perilous swing, Gruklen broke John's heirloom sword, sending him into a fit of rage and disbelief. Unfortunately, unarmed, there was little he could do, so he broke off a rib from the skeletal bear and proceeded to beat it to death with its own rib.
At a later stage, whilst involved in ship-to-ship combat, John became the subject of wild magic and had his gender changed. At first this was just a strange minor inconvenience, but slowly over time (with statements like "Ask him, she knows" from other members of the party) John came to fall more and more from his branch of sanity. He began to act in a hypermasculine manner, and carve the number 3 above the door of any room he stayed in. He also started talking to his shield (which would talk back), and asking it advice. Later on, when his sword, newly repaired, was teleported away by a magic trap, he well and truly snapped. The sword was in the hands of some frost giants, and he actually went so far as to accept help from tinker gnomes by way of a machine that launched people over crevasses (this is more insane than it sounds if you know of tinker gnomes) in order to get it back.
I still miss this group. Those were good times.
My wife and I had moved to Queensland for my work, and we had no-one to roleplay with. We did play Warhammer 40k though, so we would turn up to the local battle bunker regularly to play and hang out with people of similar nerdy ilk. I was still pretty new to 40k, and I kept referring to victory points (VP) as XP, because of my D&D heritage. One of my opponents picked up on it and said, "Why do you keep saying XP?" and I replied, "Oh, it's just D&D talk, I get them confused." And he replied, "D&D? I've always wanted to play, but never had the chance." Then over my shoulder, a guy from another table replied, "Did you say you're running a D&D game? I want in on that."
The guy I was playing against is Matt. Matt was a young guy, just out of high school, who had a list of problems as long as both arms and legs. If you can have an acronym for it, he had it - ADD, OCD, DPD, Asperger's, the works - and his family situation wasn't great either. He didn't have many friends, but he was loyal to gaming and he was dead keen to make a good run of roleplaying. He made an elf called Lithander, who wanted to be a fire mage. We called him Lith for short.
The guy from the other table was Randal. He was an early 30s guy, thin as a rake, and absolutely affable, would do anything for you. He is always animated and expressive. He made a human fighter character called John the Unhinged, who came from a long list of tribal berserkers (Bert the Vexed, Ken the Unstable etc) going back to Reg the Nutter, whose blade had been handed down through the family.
I'll start with Lithander the 'fire mage'. After the party's first encounter with a scout group of draconians (yes, it's Dragonlance - of sorts) in which they did quite well, they continued to follow a trail in the hope of discovering a mage who had sidetracked a caravan and taken it off into the woods. Unfortunately for the party, this mage had teamed up with a group of hobgoblin slavers, and so when they confronted the mage, they were set upon. It was a balanced fight, but with a few disastrous rolls and some bad decisions (the party members got stuck in a web, and decided to burn their way out) they were all down. It was their second encounter, and they were facing a TPK. what does any DM faced with such a situation do? Turns to the age-old fallback of taking all of the character's belongings and putting them into slavery, of course! And so the party found themselves in the back of a slave cart, being taken up over the mountains. All of a sudden, a dragon attacks the slavers, general hell breaks loose, the hobgoblins flee, and the party finds themselves free - in their undergarments, without shoes, on top of a mountain.
At this point, survival is the first port of call for the party. The mage is so physically weak (good old 2E, his strength and constitution were his dump stats) they had to build fires in holes in the ground at night, and then put the mage in the warmed hole and have one of the fighters sleep on top of him. They were following the hobgoblin tracks, because they had no idea where else to go, and Lith in particular was upset at the loss of his spellbook (making a 1st level mage in 2E absolutely useless). Eventually they came across the hobgoblin encampment in a cave, but the party were outnumbered, had no weapons, no armour, so no chance. They decided to do some recon in the hope of possibly overwhelming a single hobgoblin, taking his gear, and putting themselves in a better position. Sure enough, they saw one of the guards go off into the bushes to take a toilet break, and so stalked him. As they watched him do his business, they saw him then produce a book of some sort, rip out a page, and use it as a bog roll. Lith recognised it as his spellbook, and lost the plot. He charged out of the bushes towards the hobgoblin, who was totally surprised to see a half-naked elf rushing him while he was wiping, grabbed his dagger out of the hobgoblin's belt and stabbed him with it, killing him.
This incident crowned the weak and sickly elf mage as "stabbity death", and even when he did get his spells, sometimes he just couldn't help but charge wildly into battle, stabbing at things with his dagger and causing much less harm than if he'd stuck to his spells, but fantastically in character. He actually only ever learned a single fire spell, flaming sphere, failing his rolls to learn affect normal fires, burning hands, and later flame arrow and fireball, before he died, of all things, from falling out of a tree.
John the Unhinged started off as a fairly typical fighter, who was less of a berserker and more of a fighter with an anger management problem. But it seemed that he was fated to have strike after strike of bad luck, which slowly but surely drove him further and further around the twist. It all started when the party was exploring an old crypt (affectionately remembered as the 'morguealeum', since mausoleum was mispronounced) which had in it, among other things, some skeletal bears. When the old leaking magic of the tombs caused one of Lith's spells to backfire and showered the party with magical lice, the party found themselves hindered by itching and scratching, and their fighting style became a little more desperate and dangerous. John found himself inside the ribcage of an angry skeletal bear, having to parry for his life whilst the other fighter of the party (Gruklen the minotaur) rained down blows from his halberd against the skeleton and John together. With one perilous swing, Gruklen broke John's heirloom sword, sending him into a fit of rage and disbelief. Unfortunately, unarmed, there was little he could do, so he broke off a rib from the skeletal bear and proceeded to beat it to death with its own rib.
At a later stage, whilst involved in ship-to-ship combat, John became the subject of wild magic and had his gender changed. At first this was just a strange minor inconvenience, but slowly over time (with statements like "Ask him, she knows" from other members of the party) John came to fall more and more from his branch of sanity. He began to act in a hypermasculine manner, and carve the number 3 above the door of any room he stayed in. He also started talking to his shield (which would talk back), and asking it advice. Later on, when his sword, newly repaired, was teleported away by a magic trap, he well and truly snapped. The sword was in the hands of some frost giants, and he actually went so far as to accept help from tinker gnomes by way of a machine that launched people over crevasses (this is more insane than it sounds if you know of tinker gnomes) in order to get it back.
I still miss this group. Those were good times.
23
RPGs / Re: The RPPR Forum Users AD&D Stated Party
« on: January 10, 2011, 08:14:45 PM »Charisma as a dump-stat has always been one of my hot-button topics in Dungeons and Dragons. I look at characters in Fantasy literature, see how they inspire, lead, and generally be awesome and highly charismatic. . . and then at three quarters of the Fighter population, all of whom are apparently as charismatic as the average farmer, which is at odds with the archetype.
Maybe we just play different kinds of D&D, because in my games, charisma is never a dump stat, even if it doesn't add +X to your spell damage or your turn undead rolls. Characters with low charisma in my games have a hell of a time getting quests, making friends, finding out information, inspiring leadership, getting good prices at merchants, hiring henchmen, getting healing at temples - basically any social situation is made more difficult if you are not charismatic.
Sure, you're unlikely to make checks against your charisma in combat (although it's not impossible), but my games have a lot more than combat in them. I don't think you should have to entice people to value one stat over another by making it add a +1 to something. They should be making a well-rounded character, in my opinion anyway.
Perhaps those people who play the more Diablo style game don't need charisma at all - in which case, for sure, drop it off the sheet. Deckard Cain will give you the horadric cube no matter how uggo you are.
24
RPGs / Re: The RPPR Forum Users AD&D Stated Party
« on: January 10, 2011, 03:46:08 AM »Charisma is essentially worthless in 2nd edition unless you just want to be respected. There're no sorcerers or other Charisma-using casting classes, and bards are Fighter-Thief-Druids (the 1st/2nd ed Bard in 3.0 is the Fochluchan Lyrist).
Something else I'm not a fan of in the later editions - that every stat has to be "useful" - ie pertaining to a direct plus to a dice roll for some skill gain. Just how does a sorcerer bend arcane magic to their will using their good looks and personality skills?
I know some people say about D&D that you have three physical stats, two mental stats, and one social stat, and you use them in that order ("fight us or give us a quest" style) but I've never found my D&D games going down that road. Adventurers should not be islands of muscle and spell power. Who would want to live that life of powered isolation?
(PS I know this isn't necessarily your attitude, Moondog, just made me think of it.)
25
RPGs / Re: The RPPR Forum Users AD&D Stated Party
« on: January 09, 2011, 11:05:01 PM »
STR:11
INT:15
WIS:15
DEX:11
CON:7
CHR:15
Considering my link with the church, I think I'll go the cleric route.
I'm surprised at some of the people's stats - you guys must be adonises!
I still run an AD&D 2nd ed game, and I love the fact that things are framed in. AC is from 10 to -10. Stats go up to 25 (I think some books had 30), rather than the upward spiral of stats and AC in 3E. Plus the fact that you have minimum stat requirements makes characters like paladins extremely rare, and so you treasure them. One of the characters in my current game rolled three 14s and three 15s - that's an awesome character. Another rolled a bunch of 8s, 9s and 10s, but a 16, and that's great - you actually get 10% bonus experience for most classes if your prime requisite stat is a 16 or better. Another guy built a character which has pretty much nothing better than 12 - a fighter - and it's still useable.
At the end of the day ,your stats might give you an extra 5-15% benefit on some rolls. What you do with the character RPwise it what makes them great.
INT:15
WIS:15
DEX:11
CON:7
CHR:15
Considering my link with the church, I think I'll go the cleric route.
I'm surprised at some of the people's stats - you guys must be adonises!
I still run an AD&D 2nd ed game, and I love the fact that things are framed in. AC is from 10 to -10. Stats go up to 25 (I think some books had 30), rather than the upward spiral of stats and AC in 3E. Plus the fact that you have minimum stat requirements makes characters like paladins extremely rare, and so you treasure them. One of the characters in my current game rolled three 14s and three 15s - that's an awesome character. Another rolled a bunch of 8s, 9s and 10s, but a 16, and that's great - you actually get 10% bonus experience for most classes if your prime requisite stat is a 16 or better. Another guy built a character which has pretty much nothing better than 12 - a fighter - and it's still useable.
At the end of the day ,your stats might give you an extra 5-15% benefit on some rolls. What you do with the character RPwise it what makes them great.
26
RPGs / Re: EXP Free is the way to be...
« on: January 03, 2011, 05:36:28 PM »
If I were running 3/3.5/4E, with it's crazy complicated encounter level production balance system, I would probably go XPless. But because the game I am currently playing is 2E, I use XP, and I like it too.
About 50% of the xp I award to my players is for keeping the game moving, roleplaying well, innovative ideas and including other players. I publish a little tally online every week so they can see how much xp they got for defeating this monster, solving that riddle, interacting with this NPC, coming up with that cool idea, etc. I think it makes my players feel that the effort they put in to roleplaying is appreciated in some tangible way.
Of course, that means I have to measure their RP, which makes the xp system pretty arbitrary at the end of the day. I try and be fair and make the better RPers work harder for their xp, and the newer players or shy players get more for less, so no-one really falls back too far behind.
Also, since characters in 3/3.5/4 all level at the same XP amount, it makes more sense to me to level them at the same time. Whereas in 2E, different classes level at different XP amounts, so it makes less sense to level everyone at the same time.
About 50% of the xp I award to my players is for keeping the game moving, roleplaying well, innovative ideas and including other players. I publish a little tally online every week so they can see how much xp they got for defeating this monster, solving that riddle, interacting with this NPC, coming up with that cool idea, etc. I think it makes my players feel that the effort they put in to roleplaying is appreciated in some tangible way.
Of course, that means I have to measure their RP, which makes the xp system pretty arbitrary at the end of the day. I try and be fair and make the better RPers work harder for their xp, and the newer players or shy players get more for less, so no-one really falls back too far behind.
Also, since characters in 3/3.5/4 all level at the same XP amount, it makes more sense to me to level them at the same time. Whereas in 2E, different classes level at different XP amounts, so it makes less sense to level everyone at the same time.
27
RPGs / Re: Anecdote Megathread
« on: December 22, 2010, 04:28:34 PM »
Ted's next character should be called Leeeeeeeeeroy Jenkins.
28
RPGs / Re: This is the quest that never ends
« on: December 15, 2010, 09:37:02 PM »
What a shame you can't kill the syphillitic cells without a good dose of penicillin! Looks like you'll be riding this whale to France so you can visit Louis Pasteur. You'd better get 20 doses of penicillin to kill the cells - and perhaps some for your personal stash, you filthy adventurer.
29
General Chaos / Re: Introduction
« on: December 15, 2010, 08:48:29 PM »
I stumbled across the New World actual plays some time ago, and just sort of rediscovered the site when I was looking for some more actual plays to listen to on my 40 minute walk to the train station to commute another hour to work each day. I dowloaded a couple of RPPR episodes, and found the discussions interesting and relevant (although I've got to say the disorganisation of the flow of conversation can make me lose track sometimes).
I turn 31 tomorrow. Been roleplaying for 21 years, ever since a friend at primary school got given the D&D black box for a present, and then photocopied another friend's Monstrous Compendium. I ran a 2E D&D campaign for the last three years of high school, before joining the roleplaying society at my university, where I ran AD&D, Mage, Vampire, and a Superheroes game of my own devising (ripped off a system called Kill Puppies For Satan), as well as a few con games in my time (first one I ever ran was a Matrix prequel just after the Matrix came out, using Mage rules).
After leaving university, I got a job working for a mission agency, and had to move states to Queensland (oh, I'm Australian btw) and there got involved in a gaming group where I ran some 3E D&D, Shadowrun, Mage, and also got into Warhammer 40k. Then some guy I met got me into the card game Shadowfist, as well as Feng Shui, the roleplaying game based on it. Then my car got stolen - with my 40k armies inside. But I was frustrated with GW and their crappy rules support anyway, so I put my energies into Shadowfist instead.
Then I moved back to Sydney to follow a political job opportunity (which went belly up), but I found some people to teach Shadowfist to, ran some D&D, Mage and Feng Shui games, and went back to running games at the gaming convention my university roleplaying group runs. I also started a gaming club called Ministry of Game this year, which exists to help gamers in my local area meet and to encourage more people to run games, as there seems to be a dearth of DMs in the gaming scene where I live.
So, yeah. Hi.
I turn 31 tomorrow. Been roleplaying for 21 years, ever since a friend at primary school got given the D&D black box for a present, and then photocopied another friend's Monstrous Compendium. I ran a 2E D&D campaign for the last three years of high school, before joining the roleplaying society at my university, where I ran AD&D, Mage, Vampire, and a Superheroes game of my own devising (ripped off a system called Kill Puppies For Satan), as well as a few con games in my time (first one I ever ran was a Matrix prequel just after the Matrix came out, using Mage rules).
After leaving university, I got a job working for a mission agency, and had to move states to Queensland (oh, I'm Australian btw) and there got involved in a gaming group where I ran some 3E D&D, Shadowrun, Mage, and also got into Warhammer 40k. Then some guy I met got me into the card game Shadowfist, as well as Feng Shui, the roleplaying game based on it. Then my car got stolen - with my 40k armies inside. But I was frustrated with GW and their crappy rules support anyway, so I put my energies into Shadowfist instead.
Then I moved back to Sydney to follow a political job opportunity (which went belly up), but I found some people to teach Shadowfist to, ran some D&D, Mage and Feng Shui games, and went back to running games at the gaming convention my university roleplaying group runs. I also started a gaming club called Ministry of Game this year, which exists to help gamers in my local area meet and to encourage more people to run games, as there seems to be a dearth of DMs in the gaming scene where I live.
So, yeah. Hi.
30
RPGs / Re: This is the quest that never ends
« on: December 15, 2010, 07:20:45 PM »
Unfortunately, you are allergic to gold, so you need to find an alchemist to turn the gold question mark into a lead question mark.