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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

JCC Amph Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies - The Tabletop RPG Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Community' started by Ender Sai, Aug 13, 2015.

  1. JoinTheSchwarz

    JoinTheSchwarz Former Head Admin star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 21, 2002
    *two months later*

    d20 in general, yes, although some heavily modified versions like M&M are still glorious. And more than dislike is... apathy. I'm usually the DM, and I've realized that number-crunch heavy systems like standard D&D (and Pathfinder) more often than not become obstacles to my game directing style.
     
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  2. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    Then dear god man, get yourself some FFG!
     
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  3. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    GrandAdmiralJello

    Scathing Tirade

    The character may take the Scathing Tirade action; making an [DIFFICULTY][DIFFICULTY] Coercion check. For each [SUCCESS] one enemy within short range suffers one strain. The character can also spend [ADVANTAGE]; for every [ADVANTAGE] one target already …

    Improved Scathing Tirade

    Each enemy affected by Scathing Tirade suffers [SETBACK] on all skill checks for a number of round equal to the character's ranks in Coercion, this does not stack with itself
    Supreme Scathing Tirade

    The Character may voluntarily suffer one strain to perform Scathing Tirade as a maneuver instead of an action.

    If you intend on playing an Imperial court type, this is where you add value. Look at the Politico.

    But I would suggest you talk to GM and players first so that there's synergy in the group.
     
  4. Darth Punk

    Darth Punk JCC Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Nov 25, 2013
    I was at my parent's house this weekend, and punk jr went up in the attic and found this
    [​IMG]

    my nerdy brother in law flipped out. apparently it's worth a few hundy nowadays. It's in mint condition too.

    so, not for punk jr.
     
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  5. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    Yes, that is in fact a classic. You should tell Punk Jr to sod off and earn a living cleaning lobsters out of Jayne Mansfield's bum like her old man did.
     
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  6. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    Punk Jr. can just use a pdf of the old Cyclopedia.

    Or fifth edition like a nerd.
     
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  7. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    *nurd

    I still haven't played 5E yet. I played some world of 4thcraft but it wasn't very good. Right now it's mostly just the FFG Star Wars campaigns, and I'm thinking of trying the d100 based Covert Ops system that I bought earlier this year.
     
  8. Likewater

    Likewater Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 31, 2009
  9. SergeyX2017

    SergeyX2017 Jedi Knight star 3

    Registered:
    Jan 14, 2017
    I thought this thread was about these

    lol
     
  10. JoinTheSchwarz

    JoinTheSchwarz Former Head Admin star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 21, 2002
    So I’ve been a DM/GM/Storyteller/other-trademarkable-term for nearly thirty years now. Scary, right? I’ve realized there is nothing that gives me more joy than running games and planning campaigns.

    It could be worse. I could be a YouTuber.

    Anyway, these past years I’ve been writing a few articles on DMing and campaign-building, so I thought I’d up this thread and see if anyone feels like chatting about it. What’s your secret? What’s your style? Or if always a player, what do you enjoy from DMs you’ve played with?
     
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  11. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    Well what I've definitely learned over the years is that you can't just quickly improvise encounters because reading the stat blocks is "too much work" or else stuff that should be really tough becomes trivial because you forgot about protection from arrows or laser shields or whatever. So maybe the secret real lesson is that I had no business GMing. :p
     
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2019
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  12. JoinTheSchwarz

    JoinTheSchwarz Former Head Admin star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 21, 2002
    I hate systems that make that easy to happen, that make it hard to improvise an encounter or to quickly change things without shattering the game’s balance. A lot of super-crunchy systems are like that, so I tend to avoid them. I don’t want to stop the game and have to read through 40 pages of Pathfinder rules every time the party goes off course—because then they stop going off course and the game becomes a modded wargame. And again, nothing wrong with that, but not my cup of mead.

    So it wasnot your fault, it was simply the wrong system for your strengths. QED
     
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  13. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    Yeah, I think if I were running a game these days I’d be more inclined towards, say, the Dungeon Worlds of the... world. I do like crunchy games, but I have to be on the other side of the screen for them.
     
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2019
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  14. InterestingLurker

    InterestingLurker Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 15, 2011
    Currently set up a Roll20 account, got myself D&D Beyond, and am hoping to play a game of D&D 5e.

    I have several people that I've talked to that need another player or two, but I thought I'd ask if there was anyone here that might be interested in joining me.

    For the record, I know next to nothing about tabletop RPGs except for what I played of Pathfinder (and that was very little). Between setting up my YouTube channel, writing my book, and playing Final Fantasy 14, I'm hoping to also use what time I have to get into tabletop role-playing, which I've always wanted to do. So veterans willing to show me the ropes would be welcome.

    To the mods: If we already have a thread like this, then please close this one and point me to the thread in question or maybe merge this post with that one or what have you.

    Also, if you're interested in playing a game with me or including me in one of yours, you can tell me here or PM me or whatever suits your fancy.

    Thanks in advance, everyone.
     
  15. InterestingLurker

    InterestingLurker Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 15, 2011
  16. InterestingLurker

    InterestingLurker Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 15, 2011
    Folks, meet Rashid al-Abadi, my D&D 5e character for both games that I'm currently in (though they haven't started yet).

    [​IMG]

    Ain't he a beauty...

    He's supposed to be based off of Jesus/Moses/Muhammad/Zhang Jiao/etc. Basically, a bunch of religious populist leaders, kinda like the High Sparrow from A Song of Ice and Fire series. Other than that, he's a Cleric of the Light domain and it helps that I'm reading the Bible (again) and the Quran to get a sense of how a devoutly religious person might view certain things. So yeah, I'm pretty excited and as you can guess I'm taking my upcoming games with my Discord group and the group I found at Roll20 pretty seriously (well, as seriously as I can take what is essentially a new hobby of mine).

    If anyone wants to post their character in this thread, they're free to do so!
     
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  17. Lordban

    Lordban Isildur's Bane star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 9, 2000
    Here's a piece about that. It is indeed a thing. And here's the statement itself.
     
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  18. Jedi Merkurian

    Jedi Merkurian Future Films Rumor Naysayer star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    May 25, 2000
    I, for one, am here for it; although I imagine that The Usual Suspects will wail and gnash their teeth, as if they suddenly can’t run their games however they wish.

    I’m interested in seeing how they’ll do the mechanical changes to the races. In my own campaign, I’ve already been working on “in-universe” reasons why “racial alignments” are starting to go out the window. And as a player, my favorite recent character is a genderfluid (born female, granted the Blessing of Corellon) drow Oath of the Ancients paladin, who’s never so much as seen the Underdark. They come from a family of Eilistraee worshippers who’ve lived on the surface for generations in harmony with high and wood elves, until the peace was damaged by an attack by high elf supremacists.
     
  19. Darth Punk

    Darth Punk JCC Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Nov 25, 2013
    I’m hearing this for the first time. I have no interest in RPG, and don’t want to derail too much. It doesn’t sound too far removed from all the blatant racial stereotypes in Phantom Menace.
     
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  20. Lordban

    Lordban Isildur's Bane star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 9, 2000
    Jotting a few notes on the fly:

    - "Always Evil" in the alignment entry usually came, when the terminology was defined, with a high percentage for what "always represented" (in the 90-99% ranges), and/or a reminder there were exceptions
    - Speaking of which, and talking about Drow in their original setting, they're an excellent example of what the flexibility of "Always Evil" meant is the existence, among Drow, of an entire counter-society based around Eilistraee's worshippers - and a few other marginal groups and cults
    - But, the description of Drow society leaves no uncertainty about just how much free agency it gives to its members; summed up in three words, it's a racist tyrannical matriarchy, one in which refusing to fit in the mold is already grounds for execution - that's before the consequences that come with disobeying orders, and the prevalent internecine strife in a society where backstabbing to get rid of an entire rival family is commonplace
    - Otherwise put, if you could read, you already knew Drow weren't "always" Evil, but that the society the vast majority of them live in is so crappy they had to conform to its evil norms just to stay alive - and they could still get unlucky and be in the way of another ambitious Drow
    - So WTH is it a problem to actually put down in writing Drow aren't "Always Evil"? They already really weren't, even if the average Surfacer party wasn't always going to notice!
    - For that matter, what's the problem with changing Drow culture so that it's a lot more diversified and not just a monolithic racist tyrannical matriarchy with few exceptions? It's entirely fictional work, there are already multiple settings, and there's no bloody law that defines the Drow immutably and for eternity in all settings
    - For that matter, if the usual idiot doesn't like that the manual no longer says "Drow are Always Evil", he and his cohorts are entirely free to ignore it and play as before
    -
    So WTF is their problem?
     
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2020
  21. dp4m

    dp4m Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2001
    I've definitely played Neutral demons before, etc. RP is RP -- and goes along with Rule 0.
     
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  22. Lordban

    Lordban Isildur's Bane star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 9, 2000
    One of the most hilarious characters I DMed was a Chaotic Good Imp :p
     
  23. JoinTheSchwarz

    JoinTheSchwarz Former Head Admin star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 21, 2002
    On one side, considering how WotC is still pretty much an "only white bros allowed" treehouse and looking at how many despicable characters they have in their books' credits, I can't say I'm willing to cheer on them. Screw them: they are doing the bare minimum, they don't deserve any accolades.

    All the changes described are good changes, especially the mechanical variety they are planning to add to the playable species (sorry, I don't use Races just like I don't use Alignment: vitreous humor nor give bonuses to Phrenology.)

    I can't wait to see how they mess it up.
     
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  24. dp4m

    dp4m Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2001
    Stop being such such a slaad -- be more modron!
     
  25. black_saber

    black_saber Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 4, 2002

    Well drizzt is a drow who becomes a hero.