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Post by Plum on Jan 11, 2018 13:33:38 GMT 1
I was poking around the other bits on that document - I especially love the Coin of Kinship! Being able to visit with my halfling friend is such a nice idea and a problem that I'd never really considered (clearly I am subconsciously medium-sizeist).
Edit: oh also the Keep Candle is great. I love the casual uses that people find for small magics in a high fantasy world
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Post by flagrantangles on Feb 2, 2018 16:16:49 GMT 1
I've been participating in a D&D 3.5 game for about 8 months. It has been a bit rocky because our DM was both new to DM'ing and not particularly familiar with D&D 3.5. I was invited to play at a time when I wanted to play more D&D and I enjoyed the people involved so I decided to deal with all the things I was certain would annoy me.
Long story short, my friend, the DM, did things that annoyed me but often asked for criticism to try and improve. I offered her my perspectives and she made some changes. Overall, it was a growing pains kinda thing. I think she still struggles with viewing the DM and the players as direct competitors and I'm hoping that she grows out of this. Anywho, she's my friend and I wanted to play and I just dealt with the things that I thought were bad.
We had a hiatus from mid-October through January due to the holidays and a couple of scheduling snafus. We were slated to start back up tomorrow. The DM contacted me asking me to bring disposable bowls and/or spoons. I am not a proponent of those things and kinda refuse to buy them on principle. Instead of saying that, however, I asked if I could bring regular bowls and spoons and just clean them. I was told that there wasn't enough space. That seemed...odd. I don't know what kind of place has enough space for disposable bowls and spoons, but not regular ones. Eventually she relented if I agree to take the bowls and spoons home and cleaned them there. That's what I'd meant originally, but I didn't convey that super clearly.
After that she asks me to chip in for the food she's making. This is a kind of circumstance that I find really upsetting because I didn't ask or expect to be given food. I can and do bring my own or otherwise go without. I don't like being opted into something like that without being asked/invited. We sorted that out. Then she asked for gas money since she or her boyfriend would be giving me a ride since I don't drive. I think this request was fairly reasonable, albeit a little surprising. They've been giving me rides since June/July of last year and hadn't broached this expectation. I think I'm also partly responsible here since I didn't ask about it either. I've generally been used to a sort of Quentin Crisp arrangement where if you come and get me for an event or something you want me to be part of it, I'll be a goddamned social delight. This is the normal arrangement I have with all of my other friends. They don't ask me for money because I'm poor and they like my company enough to forgo asking for it. Additionally, I try to be very accommodating and limit how often I need rides by taking the bus, walking, or riding a bike.
Anyway, I misled my friend into believing that I couldn't afford to give her gas money as a way to get out of the game gracefully. For the most part, the game was okay but dealing with my friend as the DM was inordinately stressful. It exacerbates her anxiety which is tied to a lot of trauma in her past. It was becoming too exhausting for me to deal with it. So, rather than pay money to play a mediocre game and be emotionally drained, I opted to let her believe that I couldn't come up with the money. I also reassured her that it was truly okay for her to evict me. I didn't want her to feel any kind of negativity or guilt about it. I am fully aware of how my financial limits skew what I'm able to do and participate in. I ultimately didn't want her to feel burdened or resentful and I think I've accomplished that.
Side rant: I totally offered to let everyone play D&D at the community room in my apartment because it has a lot of space, tables, and chairs but my friend shot it down basically because she didn't want to. I don't mind that, but what she told me instead was that people couldn't drink to excess or smoke there. I thought that was strange for her to say since she's never been there and knows nothing about my apartment complex. Furthermore, no one has ever drank to excess while we've played D&D and everyone who smokes has had to go outside anyway.
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Post by Plum on Feb 2, 2018 17:21:25 GMT 1
Oh man that super sucks Maybe your friend is really pressed for cash at the moment and things like the money for gas are actually more important than she's let on in the past? Either way, if the environment and situation was stressing you out then you're better off clear of it. Obviously it's sad that she has social anxiety issues which limits where she is willing to play, but you're not a charity and you don't need to carry someone else's baggage for them, especially if doing so is impacting your own life. I've got to ask though, why on Earth does she want to DM if she finds that it triggers her anxieties that badly? I get that sometimes facing things head-on is a way of dealing with them, but it doesn't sound like she's making any progress with it, and maybe she'd be happier as a player?
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Post by flagrantangles on Feb 2, 2018 17:33:02 GMT 1
Based on what she has shared about her financial situation, I don't think she is pressed for cash, but I certainly don't know her entire situation. Furthermore, I think she might feel like she's being taken advantage of even if she can afford it. I'm very understanding of that kind of dynamic.
Yeah, those are about the conclusions I've come to. I was getting pretty tired of doing my due diligence since I'm playing a wizard/incantatrix and that can get pretty out of hand quickly. Mostly, I would contact her and ask her about different spells and such that I thought could be a problem. Nearly every time it spurred an enormously exhausting argument and I was getting pretty tired of dealing with it, especially since I was asking to be considerate. I can certainly show up at the table with Cloudkill prepared and let you figure out Con damage right then and there but being considerate seems more prudent.
I think she's doing it to kinda prove to herself that she can. I agree that she'd be much happier as a player.
I'm aiming to run Rise of the Runelords for about the same group of people since Pathfinder isn't enormously different from 3.5 and I've always wanted to either run or play in this campaign. I think that if she joins, she will enjoy herself much more.
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Post by Plum on Apr 25, 2018 9:49:44 GMT 1
5e character builder advice!
I'm going to join a friend's D&D 5e campaign for a few sessions as they are low on numbers and am thinking about what to turn up with. They have an Eldritch Knight fighter, a Barbarian and a Paladin. They don't have a main healer or a main spellcaster, so I'm angling towards a Divine Soul Sorcerer (starting at level 7). They get the best of both - able to take and upcast healing spells, bless, guiding bolt and spiritual weapon, along with arcane favourites like haste, counterspell, fly and fireball. I'm also thinking of dipping one level of Life Cleric, to give at least +3 on all heals (so a basic healing word would be 1d4+4+3). The Cleric dip would also gives me access to the entire L1 divine spell list so I can pick and choose three spells daily and always have Cure Wounds and Bless prepared (as well as three more cantrips), buuuuut I'm not 100% on it. I could just play a full ranged blaster who happens to have a heal spell for emergencies.
Has anyone tried this? I'm worried that by splitting down the middle, I'll end up worse off. Not as powerful as a damage focused sorcerer, not as supportive as an actual cleric.
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Post by Zejety on Apr 25, 2018 9:58:34 GMT 1
I have a hard time recommending any type of Sorcerer. I'm feeling very limited in the campaign I'm playing one in, though I guess Divine Soul has a way more interesting niche than Sea Sorc. Twinning healing spells sounds great! Maybe check with your DM if you can employ the common houserule of using the spell points variant in the DMG specifically for sorcerers.
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Post by Plum on Apr 27, 2018 16:20:48 GMT 1
That shouldn't be a problem as I'm just playing a drop-in-drop-out guest character. Given the role the DM wanted me to drop into, it made more sense to switch over to Storm Sorcery, rather than Divine, so that's what I've done. No twinned guiding bolts for me Storm is neat, but the number of storm themed spells is surprisingly light on the ground. Coming in at level 7, I can grab Storm Sphere (4) which is probably the stormiest spell on the roster, so that's ok. Lightning Bolt and Chromatic Orb will be my regular damage sources (I couldn't fit Thunderwave into the spell list, but might swap it in sometime). Thunderstep is a nice damaging two-person teleport, Fly, Hold Person and Invisibility can all be fluffed as tricks with air. And Witch Bolt is largely garbage so I'm completely ignoring it. I might regret not taking Counterspell or Fireball though :/
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Post by Zejety on Apr 27, 2018 17:13:54 GMT 1
My Tuesday group on Roll20 had the DM cancel this week so I offered to run a one-shot in his place (with player's choice of running a doppelganger of their character or making new ones). I've collected a few low-level one-shots from RPGDrivethru with the intention to have material for new players. So it was a good opportunity to try one of them. Nevermind I only had the train ride home and another 1.5 hours to read and prep half the adventure on Roll20. But I think it worked out fine and everyone had fun. Makes me more ocnfident to run it again.
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Post by Plum on Apr 30, 2018 15:00:21 GMT 1
My copy of Four Against Darkness (4AD) turned up on Sunday and I spent a nice few hours playing through my first adventure! It's a nice light solo-party randomly generated dungeon crawl and I'll probably give it some more time this evening. You can run it with a sheet of graph paper, pencil, eraser and a d6. I didn't have any of those handy, so I used sketch.io (which has a graph paper view), notepad.exe and an online dice roller It took a little while to wrap my head around the map building rules but a few hours in I'm now a pro
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Post by Zejety on May 1, 2018 21:48:27 GMT 1
My Tuesday group on Roll20 had the DM cancel this week so I offered to run a one-shot in his place (with player's choice of running a doppelganger of their character or making new ones). I've collected a few low-level one-shots from RPGDrivethru with the intention to have material for new players. So it was a good opportunity to try one of them. Nevermind I only had the train ride home and another 1.5 hours to read and prep half the adventure on Roll20. But I think it worked out fine and everyone had fun. Makes me more ocnfident to run it again. DM wasn't available again, so I finished running this. Or... well, improvising after the party set the dungeon on fire instead of entering. Nevermind them hearing about treasure inside was the whole hook. D&D groups...
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Jude
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Post by Jude on May 1, 2018 21:51:41 GMT 1
Just melt the treasure down and sell off the scrap metal.
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Post by Southpaw Hare on May 4, 2018 14:47:45 GMT 1
I'm going to be running a one-shot of Fight!, an RPG attempting to very closely model Fighting Games, especially of the Street Fighter and Tekken sort of varieties.
In order to help the players come up with character concepts, I've provided them with some setting backstory, which I will share with you all as well:
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Flashback: The year is 2005, the place, New York City. The world is much like the our own[*].
Without warning, aliens invaded! Arriving in flying saucers, they assaulted humanity by hovering solely around Manhattan and dropping small groups of little green men onto the streets to harass citizens and engage humans in one-on-one combat.
It seemed like humanity was doomed to be slowly beat up by these aliens, when a group of vigilante martial artists decided to take them on. These saviors of mankind were: - Professional Wrestler Hulk Hogan - Professional Heavyweight Boxer Mike Tyson - A Wing Chun master, drug addict, and relatively unknown actor named Robert Downey Jr.[**] - Robert Downey Jr.'s pet velociraptor, Robbie the Third, who was bred at a secret dinosaur research facility specializing in cloning prehistoric fauna
Together, these fighters, who came to be known as Hogan's Heroes[***], stopped the alien invasion by punching every individual alien in the face, including the face of the Boss Alien in his UFO Throne Room. The day was saved, but before leaving, the Boss Alien foretold that this was only the beginning of a new age of warfare and danger for humanity.
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Flash-forward. The year is 2015. The world has changed substantially in the last 10 years. Shortly after the invasion, Hulk Hogan was elected mayor of New York City. Then, due to criticisms of the federal government not doing enough to protect citizens from supernatural threats, New York City and the surrounding area seceded from the United States, becoming its own sovereign nation named Hogan City.
Mayor-President Hogan invested heavily in promoting martial arts training among his people. Humanity, inspired by their new heroes and distressed by the warnings of the aliens, underwent a renaissance of hand-to-hand combat. Hogan City became a Mecca for all forms of combat arts, including Wrestling, Kung Fu, Boxing, Ninjitsu, Karate, Dino-Capoeira, and many more.
Due to Robbie the Third becoming a popular mainstream media sensation, Hogan was able to create a more public-facing Dinosaur Cloning facility, dedicating a sizable chunk of Long Island to being a Jurassic Wildlife Preserve. Velociraptors have become publicly adored as intelligent, cute creatures that are capable of sharing strong bonds with humans.
The world seems at peace for now, yet many fighters still train tirelessly, day and night, growing in power and challenging each other for their own personal goals of strength and glory. But for how long... will this peace last? ...
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[*] Marvel, Capcom, Namco, and Bandai products have never been created in this universe. [**] Robert Downey Jr. uses a fighting style similar to Iron Man from Marvel vs Capcom, shooting ki blasts from his hands like Repulsors and emitting energy from his feet to fly. However, since the character of Iron Man and the MvC games don't exist in this timeline (and it is several years before the Iron Man movie would have been created anyway), it is simply coincidental dramatic irony that no one ever notices or points out. [***] Which really confused some old sitcom fans.
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Jude
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Post by Jude on May 4, 2018 22:30:21 GMT 1
That reading the year 2005 sounds futuristic to me just makes me feel old...
I hope it runs smoothly and everyone has a good time. The theme is great.
Tyson needs to bite somebody in this timeline too.
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Post by Plum on May 8, 2018 9:04:18 GMT 1
Oh man that is an awesome world to have built! Related note: I played 16 hours of D&D over the weekend and am now slumped at my desk trying to remember how to human
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Post by Zejety on May 15, 2018 13:44:15 GMT 1
My Sorcerer's campaign will end soon and I'm starting to think about my next character. I have just created the character I've been thinking about for a long time for another game, so I got nothing planned for this one. Not having an idea for a *character* yet, I've looked through a few mechanical options, especially those in XGTE. Celestial Warlock seems inspiring to come up with a character for. But I am a bit afraid of getting bored by the "typical" Eldritch Blast spam of the class. But maybe i'm worrying too much. Looks like Celestial can get away with less EB investment (thanks to bonus radiant damage) and I could pick more utility or once-per-day spell invocations instead of agonizing blast. Or pick up some of the invocations that add battlefield control to EB. The "correct" way to play a support Warlock like this would probably involve Pact of the Tome or Chain, but I've got to admit I really like the mental image of a Celestial warlock using a bow (Pact of the Blade + Improved Pact weapon). But without doing any math, I'm don't have much hope it can outperform EB in my *situation*. Bladelock either requires making Cha the attack stat (via Hexblade, mutually exclusive with Celestial) or favoring Dex over Cha (many Clestial features scale with Cha). Another option is to get Shillelagh and Green Flame Blade (is buffed by Celestial!) but that doesn't work at range. Maybe I've reached my next character concept via the detour of Celestial, but won't end up actually making one... Other classes that look fun from a purely mechanical level: - Monk (maybe with a barb multiclass?)
- Straight forward cleric
- Battlefield control Wizard
- One of the rangers maybe?
Already playing a fighter right now - otherwise I'd consider cavalier or Arcane Archer.
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Post by Plum on May 16, 2018 9:20:49 GMT 1
Warlocks have always felt iffy to me - I don't like the idea of being a servant to some greater power. I get that there's a lot of roleplay potential there, but it would bug me too much (not surprisingly, most of my characters fall into the typical chaotic good box - I struggle to play against type). The character I'm thinking about next is an air-bending monk. Using the community remastered Way of Four Elements, I'm thinking of a pint-sized Air Genasi (i.e., mechanically an air genasi, but with the fluff and flavour of a gnome). Basically, somewhere between Aang and Yoda Having said that, I've also just watched Netflix's new Monkey series and since I love all things Monkey, I was trying to figure out how to make him as a PC (or one of his ancestors, at least). A monk seems ideal but the four-elements spell list is too limited to suit (though it would give flight). Maybe a druid - Shillelagh for staff combat, shapeshifting and solid spell casting (Conjure Woodland Animals could easily be reflavoured as summoning Monkey clones). Or possibly a stone sorcerer - that gives spell casting, smites for melee combat. Mirror Image could be his clones (and ultimately, a refluffed Animate Objects). Maybe multiclass it with Monk to get the martial arts tricks and using dex for staff attacks.
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Post by Zejety on May 16, 2018 9:33:55 GMT 1
Warlock is great for having an everyday person stumble into PC-dom, a single life-changing event (the pact) serving as a call to adventure. I like good aligned patrons who aided the character in a dire need for help (loved one dying sounds perfect for Celestial) and expecting them to now aid others in turn.
And that being said, even evil patron only need to be involved as much as you want (unless your DM disagrees I guess). Contracts can differ in a lot of ways: Maybe you already sold your soul to the Fiend and they are content with getting it after your death. Maybe your pact is mutually beneficial but has an exit clause and your patron doesn't want to risk you bailing out (there's a novel series where the patron is literally just a collector, who wants to have a full "set" of warlocks of historically-relevant bloodlines), or the GOO might not even be aware of your existence (as per the PHB).
It's kind of a shame that the Warlock didn't end up as the Int-based caster it was in the playtest. Allegedly, it was only changed to Charisma because it was that way in previous ditions and the testers didn't like the change. Putting in the work to make contact with a patron and learning to utilize the spells they teach you seems intelligent to me. Nevermind that the game could really use more Int and less Cha classes, and coffeelock could use a nerf too.
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Jude
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Post by Jude on May 21, 2018 21:21:57 GMT 1
For some reason I have an affinity for monks and play them fairly often. Monkey Style is also my favorite feat from all of Pathfinder's style feats. Really what it does is just not penalize you for goofing off and rolling around a bunch in combat. If you like being creative and descriptive about your actions it can be great fun.
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Post by Plum on May 22, 2018 10:05:12 GMT 1
So here's something that struck me as interesting during one of our games over the weekend. Our DM has been cultivating his homebrew setting for maybe 10+ years, and we faced off against two major villains in a kind of end-of-chapter boss battle. The main difficulty with these guys was that they have very powerful mind control, which ended up turning the two halves of the party against each other, they have to be killed at the same time as they can otherwise revive each other (being cursed lovers, bound into demonic service for the Biggest Bad), and they can plane-skip to escape if the battle goes poorly. They are recurring villains who either drive off the heroes, or plane shift away if the heroes get the upper hand. The party is only level seven, so we don't really have the tools to deal with them yet (banishment might be an option, but my sorcerer doesn't know it).
So we find them guarding an ancient tomb on behalf of their master, and despite a promising opening they manage to land a dominate on my sorcerer who immediately starts going ham on the barbarian. Since our party is actually two groups working together and no-one actually heard the dominate spell AND there has already been some shade cast on our half of the party, the immediate assumption is that we've betrayed them. The barbarian also gets mind-jacked and ordered to attack my character, which didn't take much because she was already attacking him. Things are going south quickly. Then the male villain rolls a natural one on his next spell, rolls another natural one on a follow up roll, then vanishes. Our DM gives out penalties for natural ones on attack rolls (usually things like dropping a weapon, or hitting a different target) and in this case, the villain's spell backfired and plane-shifted him out of there, leaving his partner behind. The mental command on the barbarian dropped, and he passed a wisdom check to realise that he'd been under a mental compulsion, and the two halves of the party stopped trying to kill each other. Hold person was cast on my sorcerer to shut her down without killing her, and the remaining party all focused on the female villain in one epic volley of blows, pouring all of their resources into her while she was alone. They manage to drop her before she can teleport out, breaking the dominate on my girl, and if her lover doesn't reappear soon enough, she'll stay dead. He doesn't show in time and when he eventually does, he sees her body now reverted to her original human form and lets our paladin strike him down so he can join her.
And that's it - two of the major antagonists of the world defeated, all because the DM rolled two natural ones in a row.
So, first question, do you use natural one complications. Second question, would you follow through in a major set piece even if it meant the early and unexpected death of a major story character?
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Post by Zejety on May 22, 2018 10:19:44 GMT 1
I dislike fumble rules but I will tolerate them when it means playing or not playing a game. My reasons are nothing special and are common criticisms of the system: - 5% is a pretty high chance for even the most proficient professional to make some critical blunder
- Fumbles punish characters unequally. Those with many attacks per turn have a much higher chance to fumble per turn. This is usually martials
- Fumbles hit players a lot harder than monsters, which are generally intended to be expandable. I'm personally even thinking of removing monster criticals from my own game
- Many (but not all) DMs narrate fumble in ways that make the character appear uncharacteristically clumsy or dumb
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Post by Plum on May 22, 2018 10:39:48 GMT 1
Sigh I did have a long reply about the time our ranger threw his bow off a cliff instead of firing an arrow, but then, ironically enough, I accidentally hit back and lost the reply (stupid apple mice). Suffice to say I agree and that a miss is usually punishment enough, though a one is usually more flavourful. I'm ok with an archer hitting the wrong target if two people are locked in combat, or the barbarian losing his reaction as he regains his balance, but that's about it.
My main point was about the DM's commitment to fumble rules that led to two of his ten year old recurring villains being killed before their time by an under-levelled party
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Post by Southpaw Hare on May 22, 2018 13:17:27 GMT 1
I dislike fumble rules but I will tolerate them when it means playing or not playing a game. My reasons are nothing special and are common criticisms of the system: - 5% is a pretty high chance for even the most proficient professional to make some critical blunder
- Fumbles punish characters unequally. Those with many attacks per turn have a much higher chance to fumble per turn. This is usually martials
- Fumbles hit players a lot harder than monsters, which are generally intended to be expandable. I'm personally even thinking of removing monster criticals from my own game
- Many (but not all) DMs narrate fumble in ways that make the character appear uncharacteristically clumsy or dumb
#4 has always been my biggest gripe. I think that as long as people aren't described randomly throwing their weapon or tripping and falling like some sort of slapstick comedy, and instead just suffer the normal misfortunes of chaotic combat (i.e. simply missing in a dignified way), I become pretty okay with them. But perhaps at that point, they're not really fumbles, they're just "1 always misses". So then again, maybe not.
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Jude
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Post by Jude on May 22, 2018 23:23:46 GMT 1
Yeah, I haven't entirely solidified my thoughts about fumbles. Part of me is just used to having them because they were there while I was growing up. But I definitely agree with the points Zejety made. The percentage is generally very high, at least if you use a D20, but even in a D100 system that only had a 1% chance that is still a lot higher than someone half way competent would shoot their bow off a cliff instead of the arrow (although that is a good story). So part of me agrees that maybe they should just always be an auto miss, but I also feel like messing up should be a non zero chance... But realistically how often in a fight is you making a mistake 100% your own fault and how often is it caused by pressure from your opponent? I know there are systems that get overly complicated combat trying to simulate strong and weak positioning and such. Probably a lot of room for interesting things like +'s or -'s for you or your opponent on crits or fumbles instead of damage or just dropping your weapon. I feel like I was going somewhere when I started this post but not sure where that was so I will just stop now.
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Post by Southpaw Hare on May 23, 2018 13:21:22 GMT 1
So over the last couple weeks, plans for the Fight! RPG have changed a bit. We tried playtesting it, and... the system is actually God Awful. It's just waaaay too complicated, character creation was a herculean effort, and I feel like it's literally unplayable (I feel like everyone who reviews the game online just reads the book and doesn't actually play it). Using that system would have completely ruined all the amusing universe lore stuff that I posted above.
So instead, we've switched to Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game. Yeah, so it turns out, White Wolf and Capcom made an officially licensed Street Fighter White Wolf game back in the 90s, back when there was only 2 and 8/16ths Street Fighter games. And it's actually really good! It's mainly just standard White Wolf, but it also has hex grids and Yomi-style simultaneous cards in the combat. We playtested that, and it's a huge win - absolutely love the system. Now I feel enabled to actually run my ludicrous Hoganverse story!
It's been a ton of work, but I have just about all the material ready for this weekend. I'll let everyone know how it goes.
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Post by Zejety on Jun 1, 2018 23:08:18 GMT 1
Going to DM a 5e one-shot for a few friends tomorrow. At least one new player there. First time I'm DMing in German in a long time, kinda looking forward to that. Have been building mist everyone's chars in advance.
Not sure yet which adventure to run between the two I've recently DMd, but gravitating towards Tower of the Mad Mage, because it's a little easier on a smallee party.
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Post by Zejety on Jun 4, 2018 21:00:05 GMT 1
So I've largely worked out my new character concept but still got the last polish ahead of me and could use some opinion. It involves both narrative and mechanical decisions. This is what I have so far: Mechanics: - I rolled very well, so I can afford a somewhat mad build (Cha+Con+Str/Dex)
- Celestial Warlock
- Supporter
- Durable front-liner
- Liberable use of Green-Flame Blade
- Probably Blade Pact, maybe Tome
- Basically Cleric as a Warlock
Narrative: - Grew up as an orphan/urchin
- Had to do criminal stuff to survive but regrets all of it
- His conscience caused a score to go south, leading to his best friend suffering a life-threatening injury
- Desperately wished for the power to save him; got answered by a Tzitzimitl (in this setting good-aligned, very motherly celestials) and made a warlock pact
- Now very much runs around doing selfless acts now that he has the power to help people, something he always wished for
- Taking on paternal aspects himself, but also kinda living out the "childhood" he never had, craving physical contact (hugs) etc.
- Very protective of children specifically
Stuff I'm not sure about yet. Many of these decisions kind of feed into each other, but I'll list them as bullet points anyway: - Small vs medium race: Small plays up the "child at heart", while a larger character conveysthe paternal role better
- How to get shield and medium or heavy armor proficiencies? The strong options are variant human for moderately armored, or a fighter or cleric dip.
- Regardless of the above point, a cleric dip sounds useful mechanically and narratively. My DM allows me to flavor the mechanics as part of the pact, and I'd get fitting things like Bless, Protection from Evil and the likes, on top of extra spell slots and the great 1st level features of the Life or Forge Domains. However, this would slow down my warlock progression (martial weapons 1 level later...), and I don't get much use out of the Cantrip Clerics.
- I'm not sure whether I should make Dex or Str my combat stat (only with heavy armor proficiency). I'm kinda skirting around taking the whole agonizing blast combo, so Dex as a ranged attack stat is obviously useful. Strength would max out at a slightly higher AC (useful since I'll be tanking) and comes with the flavor of the harmless brute that got strongarmed into the thug life, an interesting alternative to the pickpocketing urchin version.
- All things considered, I'm gravitating between these races: Human, Halfling, Dragonborn, Tiefling
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Post by Plum on Jun 5, 2018 11:39:52 GMT 1
I think if you're looking to play a child-at-heart character, it would be interesting to play a huge and intimidating Dragonborn. For someone that just wants to help the unfortunate, having them be afraid of you at first glance could lead to some fun roleplay. Especially if you're considering a STR based build with heavy armour and shield - imagine a seven foot tall Dragonborn with a dozen kids hanging off his arms and legs and laughing as they try to wrestle him to the ground. A cleric dip sounds solid mechanically and if you can swing serving two masters it would work story wise (maybe your patron also ultimately serves a Life god, or maybe they are at odds, a god and a celestial in friendly competition with you as the playing piece).
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Post by Zejety on Jun 5, 2018 12:16:35 GMT 1
The patron would be serving as my god, yes, or more specifically, I wouldn't be a cleric in-universe, the cleric stuff would be a product of my pact.
My INT would be 7, which is really border-line, but I like the idea as much as you. I think ultimately, I've gotta try and imagine myself roleplaying the two versions of the character and see if I'd want to keep that up for a full campaign.
Edit: Could also put the 7 into Dex and keep Int at 10, for the lovably clumsy guy instead of the lovably slow dude.
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Post by Plum on Jun 5, 2018 13:30:41 GMT 1
Oh ok that sounds cool then!
Seven INT sounds a bit painful, but I guess it depends how you play it. At eight INT I tend to play it that you can figure things out but you're a bit slower (realising that you've been insulted five minutes after the conversation), you can mostly tell right from wrong and can see the consequences of your actions but not more than one step ahead. Basically an eight is about as smart as a commoner who's had a drink or two. You can still work out how much you owe and know not to pick a fight with a town guard. I guess a seven would be as smart as a commoner who's now had three or four drinks?
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Post by Zejety on Jun 5, 2018 13:49:35 GMT 1
Yeah, a 7 is pretty bad, thought keep in mind a 8 isn't much below average. I've checked how much Int some archetypical stupid humanoids have, and Gnolls and Ogres have 6 and 5 respectively. My character would have 13 Wisdom, so at least his he wouldn't be lacking in intuition and some common sense.
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