I've been playing tabletop roleplaying games since my age was measured in single digits. It's been an integral part of my identity for 75+% of the time I've been alive. Despite all of this, I often feel left out when it comes to people discussing their D&D Epiphanies. Those "this game is so amazing, how did I live my entire life without it" moments that people who took up the game as adults get to experience. That sense of eye-opening wonder that seems to permeate every new player post on Reddit. I never got to feel that, because I found D&D as a child who had just begun to really possess abstract thought. There was no Eureka moment. It's always just been there.
I assume this is how people with famous siblings feel. To those folks, their siblings are just their siblings. For the most part, at least. People making a big deal out of it, like "Oh my G-d, your sister is the lead singer of Muscle Wizard? That's so fucking awesome!". Yeah, I know. She also beat me up when I was 12 for listening to an N*Sync CD, so... not that awesome.
I'm exceptionally envious of people who get to experience this novelty at an age when they can appreciate it. It's actively difficult to not be dismissive when I hear stories about people in their early 30s discovering D&D. Hearing about how it's opened their eyes to a fanciful world of magic and all that. People who got to avoid the social negatives of the game. Folks who get to dodge the worry of getting beat up for carrying a weird book to school. It's self centered and ludicrous and stupid for me to feel this way, but that doesn't make me feel that way any less. The spiteful hipster gene in my blood is far, far too strong.
It's probably the same for anyone who got into a particular fandom early. Those people who watched Firefly religiously while it was live on TV. The folks who were *really* into Euro-style boardgames back in the 80s when the only way to get them was to get someone on Usenet to mail you a copy and (if you were super lucky) provide translations into your native language. Or people who traded bootleg VHS tapes of anime at swap meets and flea markets back in the 90s. Folks who pronounce the initialism of All Terrain Armored Transport "@@", because that's how the Kenner Toys commercial pronounced it back in 1981.
With all that said, I'm overjoyed that people continue to discover tabletop roleplaying games in general and D&D in specific. I'm super happy that they get to have those epiphanies. It's miraculous and wonderful and magicaltastic.
That doesn't make me any less envious, though.
Showing posts with label dice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dice. Show all posts
2017/06/27
2012/05/25
D&D 5e Playtest: Combat 1
Yes, I realize that the working title is *still* D&D Next. Yes, I realize that D&D Next sounds like NewCoke or Crystal Pepsi. That's why I don't use it. And technically, if we're counting all of the editions, we're on D&D 10e or something. Meanwhile, here comes the playtesting. (Obviously, spoilers abound for the playtest adventure.)
So let me set the scene. Five players, me in the DM's chair (well, I stand for the entirety of the game, but I think DM's chair is more a figure of speech anyway). First, a little more about the players.
Vicki - Playing the Elf Wizard. Her experience with D&D amounts to two sessions of Pathfinder.
Adam - Playing the Human Cleric. Adam doesn't generally play spellcasters, but really likes this Cleric.
Heather - Playing the Dwarf Fighter. Usually plays fighters. Refuses to play spellcasters.
Mary - Playing the Dwarf Cleric. Has some experience with meaty, hammer-wielding nonsense.
Joe - Playing the Halfling Rogue for two reasons: 1) Everyone else picked their characters first. 2) Joe somehow always ends up playing Rogues.
The session started out with Our Heroes leaving Castellan Keep for the Caves of Chaos. As the PCs crested a small hill, the full majesty and terror of the Caves of Chaos came into view. The party, having been sent to the caves for several different (but complimentary) reasons, set off for the cave entrances.
Adam, being the voice of Cleric, decided that they should go into the cave at the far West end of this tier of the complex. His rationale was that the path to it was lit by the Undying Light of Pelor and therefor nothing bad could possibly go wrong.
In that cave, the party found an Owlbear. Something bad had gone wrong.
The halfling hid, the dwarves tried to sneak into melee, and the other two stayed outside the entrance hoping to blast the hapless monster with lasers. Initiative was rolled and off we went.
Joe, having advantage over the poor giant magical monstrosity, decided to start pelting it with rocks from his sling. A well placed shot and the monster was injured. Cheers around the table.
Heather charged in, Greataxe in slaughtering mode. She swung and missed. A collective "aww" was uttered. That is, until I reminded her that even on a miss she does damage. Cheers again.
Mary carefully positioned herself to better harm the beastie. She swung and connected with her warhammer.
It was the owlbear's turn. Yay. Claw, Claw, Bite. All directed at Heather. All misses.
Adam cast a Radiant Lance at the owlbear, searing off some of its fur.
Vicki cast Magic Missile, because she'd always wanted to do that.
Joe hid again to regain advantage. Heather swung and hit with her axe. Mary cast Crusader's Strike on her warhammer, turning it into Warhammer 40k. The owlbear hit Heather for a grand total of 6 damage. Adam cast Searing Light on the owlbear, doing significant damage. Vicki tried to cast Ray of Frost, but missed the attack roll.
The combat went on for another three rounds, with the PCs emerging victorious. I let them know that the Owlbear was supposed to be sort of a sub-boss for this complex and they'd gone in a totally different direction than the module designers had planned. Most of the players thought this was bad game design, but Joe and I countered that they probably just used the original Caves of Chaos/Keep on the Borderlands adventure with updated monsters. That means random crap happens. I'm not sure how much I like that, but the point of the playtest isn't to check for story.
High Points/Things We Liked: Overall simplicity, the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic, and at-will spells for the Wizard/Clerics. All of the fire-and-forget spells seemed to really be worth casting. Spell descriptions were to the point and simple enough for a complete newbie to understand on first read-through.
Low Points/Things We Disliked: The fighter seems a bit too simple compared to the other classes. Not enough options for Heather during a round. Also, our dice didn't want to roll well all night. I don't think the playtest will address that particular issue. Monster design is rather basic, hopefully there'll be a fix to that during the next round.
So far, D&D 5e is looking pretty sharp. 4 / 5 d20s. Later today (or possibly tomorrow), I'll have more on our playtest for your reading enjoyment.
So let me set the scene. Five players, me in the DM's chair (well, I stand for the entirety of the game, but I think DM's chair is more a figure of speech anyway). First, a little more about the players.
Vicki - Playing the Elf Wizard. Her experience with D&D amounts to two sessions of Pathfinder.
Adam - Playing the Human Cleric. Adam doesn't generally play spellcasters, but really likes this Cleric.
Heather - Playing the Dwarf Fighter. Usually plays fighters. Refuses to play spellcasters.
Mary - Playing the Dwarf Cleric. Has some experience with meaty, hammer-wielding nonsense.
Joe - Playing the Halfling Rogue for two reasons: 1) Everyone else picked their characters first. 2) Joe somehow always ends up playing Rogues.
The session started out with Our Heroes leaving Castellan Keep for the Caves of Chaos. As the PCs crested a small hill, the full majesty and terror of the Caves of Chaos came into view. The party, having been sent to the caves for several different (but complimentary) reasons, set off for the cave entrances.
Adam, being the voice of Cleric, decided that they should go into the cave at the far West end of this tier of the complex. His rationale was that the path to it was lit by the Undying Light of Pelor and therefor nothing bad could possibly go wrong.
In that cave, the party found an Owlbear. Something bad had gone wrong.
The halfling hid, the dwarves tried to sneak into melee, and the other two stayed outside the entrance hoping to blast the hapless monster with lasers. Initiative was rolled and off we went.
Joe, having advantage over the poor giant magical monstrosity, decided to start pelting it with rocks from his sling. A well placed shot and the monster was injured. Cheers around the table.
Heather charged in, Greataxe in slaughtering mode. She swung and missed. A collective "aww" was uttered. That is, until I reminded her that even on a miss she does damage. Cheers again.
Mary carefully positioned herself to better harm the beastie. She swung and connected with her warhammer.
It was the owlbear's turn. Yay. Claw, Claw, Bite. All directed at Heather. All misses.
Adam cast a Radiant Lance at the owlbear, searing off some of its fur.
Vicki cast Magic Missile, because she'd always wanted to do that.
Joe hid again to regain advantage. Heather swung and hit with her axe. Mary cast Crusader's Strike on her warhammer, turning it into Warhammer 40k. The owlbear hit Heather for a grand total of 6 damage. Adam cast Searing Light on the owlbear, doing significant damage. Vicki tried to cast Ray of Frost, but missed the attack roll.
The combat went on for another three rounds, with the PCs emerging victorious. I let them know that the Owlbear was supposed to be sort of a sub-boss for this complex and they'd gone in a totally different direction than the module designers had planned. Most of the players thought this was bad game design, but Joe and I countered that they probably just used the original Caves of Chaos/Keep on the Borderlands adventure with updated monsters. That means random crap happens. I'm not sure how much I like that, but the point of the playtest isn't to check for story.
High Points/Things We Liked: Overall simplicity, the Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic, and at-will spells for the Wizard/Clerics. All of the fire-and-forget spells seemed to really be worth casting. Spell descriptions were to the point and simple enough for a complete newbie to understand on first read-through.
Low Points/Things We Disliked: The fighter seems a bit too simple compared to the other classes. Not enough options for Heather during a round. Also, our dice didn't want to roll well all night. I don't think the playtest will address that particular issue. Monster design is rather basic, hopefully there'll be a fix to that during the next round.
So far, D&D 5e is looking pretty sharp. 4 / 5 d20s. Later today (or possibly tomorrow), I'll have more on our playtest for your reading enjoyment.
2012/04/11
Reverb Gamers Again
Since it's been a bit since the last time I answered more questions, here we go again.
Prompt 6: Describe your all-time favorite character to play. What was it about him/her/it that you enjoyed so much?
Captain Aratradeon "Trade" Nydal. My group at the time was being run through the Savage Tide Adventure Path and I, being the fifth wheel and latest addition to the group, was left with the leeway to make basically anything at all. The other players were a Dwarf Fighter/Barbarian, a Dragonborn Dragon Shaman, a Catfolk Ranger, and a Human Warmage. I decided to take my love of playing Support Characters to its logical extreme and make the best passive buff character possible. When the campaign came to a screeching halt due to our DM flipping out and having a nervous breakdown, Trade was a Warlock 1 / Marshal 1 / Dragon Shaman 1 / Half-Elf Paragon 3 / Human Paragon 3 . His actions were spent each turn giving the other players Aid Another bonuses or burning his Standard Actions to give everyone else Move actions for better positioning. I also had a bunch of passive auras that gave everyone: +6 Initiative, +6 to all Dexterity based skills, +2 to hit, +4 to damage, DR 1/-, Fast Healing 2 (so long as they were under 50% HP), and some other incidental bonuses. Combine this with wands of Legion's Snake's Swiftness and the various flavors of Celerity and my character basically stood in one place making everyone else impossibly awesome.
Oh, and I had something like a +49 to Diplomacy at level 9. The DM hated that. A lot. There was a bit where we had to try to talk an Ancient Dragon Turtle down so that he wouldn't destroy a small town we'd been trying to set up. The AP had designed it to be nearly impossible. I, being the face of the party, went to greet the Dragon Turtle. The DM called for a Diplomacy check. I rolled, got a 3. My DM got that big rat bastard smirk on his face until I informed him I got a 52; then I proceeded to use my reroll from Sociable Personality, got a 16 + 49 = 65. Out of spite, I used my daily Heroic Destiny +1d6, got a 5 for a total of 70.
Maybe the fact that my favorite character of all time was basically a tool for me to grief a DM who hated playing-by-the-rules says more about my personality than I meant it to.
Prompt 7: How do you pick names for your characters?
First, I write up the character mechanically. Then, I write up a backstory. Sometime during that process, a name flits into my brain. They just kind of emerge as I'm writing. Sorry, I don't really have any other methodology. :S
Prompt 8: What's the one gaming accessory (lucky dice, soundtrack, etc.) you just can't do without? Why?
I don't believe I have one, actually. I'm rather fond of using my smart phone (or tablet) for my character sheet and rules reference. It's a thing that I've wanted since I was a smallish child.
I guess the truest answer would be: some sort of electronic device on which I can store a shittonne of PDFs and character stuff so that I don't have to lug around a billionty books or deal with my abysmal handwriting.
Prompt 9: Have you ever played a character of the opposite sex. Why or why not? If yes, how did the other players react?
As I stated back during Prompt 7, I do mechanics first, then write a story to describe those mechanics. Sometimes, the description comes out female. There's no real ulterior motive. Some characters are male, some are female. I counted up about a year ago and out of the 60ish characters I've played, around 20 have been female.
The other players in my games don't generally care much about my transgender gaming. They do have trouble using the correct pronouns sometimes, but I've never been called out by another player for my portrayal of a female character. And it's not that my fellow gamers wouldn't call me out if I did it wrong. Believe me, I've seen it happen where a guy will play a female character and get nothing but grief about it. For some reason, people either overlook my foibles or I'm doing something right.
Prompt 10: Have you ever played a character originally from a book/TV/movie? How did the character change from the original as you played? If not, who would you most like to play?
As a player? No. As a DM? Oh, yes.
In my L5R game, I often portrayed characters who were part of the established lore. In my Forgotten Realms and Eberron campaign, I did the same thing but in a totally different way.
In L5R, I most often played the part of Kuni Daigo. Daigo was a badass. He wore it on his no-sleeves. He has teeth filed to points so that if he is ever disarmed and out of spells, he can bite his enemies to death. I played him like a combination of Toph (from Avatar: The Legend of Aang) and Urdnot Wrex (from Mass Effect). He's barely described in the fiction, but I don't see this as too radical of a departure as he's a Crab and a Badass.
In the Forgotten Realms, I usually just made fun of Drizzt Do'douchebag. I had him show up with a name tag proclaiming him to be "Mary Sue Do'Urden". I hate that dark elf bastard. Last year at GenCon, I tweeted new names for his swords. They are, now and forever, Twilight Sparkle and Apple Jack. Suck it, you Menzoberranzan-born bastard. (I hate myself for being able to spell that correctly without having to look it up. :S)
In Eberron, one of my recurring NPCs was Baron Merrix d'Cannith. In the lore, he's a Lawful Evil man who's obsessed with constructs and artifice (as befits a man in charge of the Dragonmarked House of Artifice). In my campaign, he was a drooling madman in a rainbow clown wig and an "I <3 Warforged" shirt who babbled about the Mournlands incessantly. His lackeys had to translate his ramblings into something cogent for the PCs to understand.
I think that, if I was to play a character based on a TV/novel/movie character, it'd have to be The Doctor; if only because it wouldn't be that difficult for me to act like him.
Prompt 11: Have you ever played a character that was morally gray, or actually evil? Why or why not? If yes, did you enjoy it?
Hang on a second. Ah-hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaha~!
Okay, composure regained.
Of course. The majority of characters I've played over the years have been morally grey at best. And one of my most memorable PCs was a Lawful Evil wizard.
Being morally grey is so much better than being Good or Evil; they're just so restrictive.
Prompt 12: Do prefer collaborative or competitive games? What do you think that says about you?
Collaborative, definitely.
I think it shows that I'm a leader of men (and women) and not some maladjusted manchild that gets his kicks by humiliating his friends at card/dice games.
I've never been good at Smirk and Dagger style games, because I unfairly pick on the people who I like less in real life.
Prompt 13: Who's the best GM/storyteller/party leader you've ever had? What made him/her so great?
The best GM I ever had the pleasure of playing with was Chris Stone. He had a knowledge of the world, a great grasp of the rules, and was generally a really creative dude. I didn't play with him for as long as I'd've liked, but that was a problem of geography. Driving 60ish miles each way for a game just wasn't financially prudent. I miss that group, even though they aren't gaming together anymore.
Prompt 14: What kinds of adventures do you enjoy most? Dungeon crawls, mysteries, freeform roleplaying, or something else? What do you think that says about you?
I really like Adventure Paths. Most of the ones that Paizo has done are really great, simply because they give you a good mix of Social, Mental, and Combat challenges. I think this says that I'm indecisive.
Prompt 6: Describe your all-time favorite character to play. What was it about him/her/it that you enjoyed so much?
Captain Aratradeon "Trade" Nydal. My group at the time was being run through the Savage Tide Adventure Path and I, being the fifth wheel and latest addition to the group, was left with the leeway to make basically anything at all. The other players were a Dwarf Fighter/Barbarian, a Dragonborn Dragon Shaman, a Catfolk Ranger, and a Human Warmage. I decided to take my love of playing Support Characters to its logical extreme and make the best passive buff character possible. When the campaign came to a screeching halt due to our DM flipping out and having a nervous breakdown, Trade was a Warlock 1 / Marshal 1 / Dragon Shaman 1 / Half-Elf Paragon 3 / Human Paragon 3 . His actions were spent each turn giving the other players Aid Another bonuses or burning his Standard Actions to give everyone else Move actions for better positioning. I also had a bunch of passive auras that gave everyone: +6 Initiative, +6 to all Dexterity based skills, +2 to hit, +4 to damage, DR 1/-, Fast Healing 2 (so long as they were under 50% HP), and some other incidental bonuses. Combine this with wands of Legion's Snake's Swiftness and the various flavors of Celerity and my character basically stood in one place making everyone else impossibly awesome.
Oh, and I had something like a +49 to Diplomacy at level 9. The DM hated that. A lot. There was a bit where we had to try to talk an Ancient Dragon Turtle down so that he wouldn't destroy a small town we'd been trying to set up. The AP had designed it to be nearly impossible. I, being the face of the party, went to greet the Dragon Turtle. The DM called for a Diplomacy check. I rolled, got a 3. My DM got that big rat bastard smirk on his face until I informed him I got a 52; then I proceeded to use my reroll from Sociable Personality, got a 16 + 49 = 65. Out of spite, I used my daily Heroic Destiny +1d6, got a 5 for a total of 70.
Maybe the fact that my favorite character of all time was basically a tool for me to grief a DM who hated playing-by-the-rules says more about my personality than I meant it to.
Prompt 7: How do you pick names for your characters?
First, I write up the character mechanically. Then, I write up a backstory. Sometime during that process, a name flits into my brain. They just kind of emerge as I'm writing. Sorry, I don't really have any other methodology. :S
Prompt 8: What's the one gaming accessory (lucky dice, soundtrack, etc.) you just can't do without? Why?
I don't believe I have one, actually. I'm rather fond of using my smart phone (or tablet) for my character sheet and rules reference. It's a thing that I've wanted since I was a smallish child.
I guess the truest answer would be: some sort of electronic device on which I can store a shittonne of PDFs and character stuff so that I don't have to lug around a billionty books or deal with my abysmal handwriting.
Prompt 9: Have you ever played a character of the opposite sex. Why or why not? If yes, how did the other players react?
As I stated back during Prompt 7, I do mechanics first, then write a story to describe those mechanics. Sometimes, the description comes out female. There's no real ulterior motive. Some characters are male, some are female. I counted up about a year ago and out of the 60ish characters I've played, around 20 have been female.
The other players in my games don't generally care much about my transgender gaming. They do have trouble using the correct pronouns sometimes, but I've never been called out by another player for my portrayal of a female character. And it's not that my fellow gamers wouldn't call me out if I did it wrong. Believe me, I've seen it happen where a guy will play a female character and get nothing but grief about it. For some reason, people either overlook my foibles or I'm doing something right.
Prompt 10: Have you ever played a character originally from a book/TV/movie? How did the character change from the original as you played? If not, who would you most like to play?
As a player? No. As a DM? Oh, yes.
In my L5R game, I often portrayed characters who were part of the established lore. In my Forgotten Realms and Eberron campaign, I did the same thing but in a totally different way.
In L5R, I most often played the part of Kuni Daigo. Daigo was a badass. He wore it on his no-sleeves. He has teeth filed to points so that if he is ever disarmed and out of spells, he can bite his enemies to death. I played him like a combination of Toph (from Avatar: The Legend of Aang) and Urdnot Wrex (from Mass Effect). He's barely described in the fiction, but I don't see this as too radical of a departure as he's a Crab and a Badass.
In the Forgotten Realms, I usually just made fun of Drizzt Do'douchebag. I had him show up with a name tag proclaiming him to be "Mary Sue Do'Urden". I hate that dark elf bastard. Last year at GenCon, I tweeted new names for his swords. They are, now and forever, Twilight Sparkle and Apple Jack. Suck it, you Menzoberranzan-born bastard. (I hate myself for being able to spell that correctly without having to look it up. :S)
In Eberron, one of my recurring NPCs was Baron Merrix d'Cannith. In the lore, he's a Lawful Evil man who's obsessed with constructs and artifice (as befits a man in charge of the Dragonmarked House of Artifice). In my campaign, he was a drooling madman in a rainbow clown wig and an "I <3 Warforged" shirt who babbled about the Mournlands incessantly. His lackeys had to translate his ramblings into something cogent for the PCs to understand.
I think that, if I was to play a character based on a TV/novel/movie character, it'd have to be The Doctor; if only because it wouldn't be that difficult for me to act like him.
Prompt 11: Have you ever played a character that was morally gray, or actually evil? Why or why not? If yes, did you enjoy it?
Hang on a second. Ah-hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaha~!
Okay, composure regained.
Of course. The majority of characters I've played over the years have been morally grey at best. And one of my most memorable PCs was a Lawful Evil wizard.
Being morally grey is so much better than being Good or Evil; they're just so restrictive.
Prompt 12: Do prefer collaborative or competitive games? What do you think that says about you?
Collaborative, definitely.
I think it shows that I'm a leader of men (and women) and not some maladjusted manchild that gets his kicks by humiliating his friends at card/dice games.
I've never been good at Smirk and Dagger style games, because I unfairly pick on the people who I like less in real life.
Prompt 13: Who's the best GM/storyteller/party leader you've ever had? What made him/her so great?
The best GM I ever had the pleasure of playing with was Chris Stone. He had a knowledge of the world, a great grasp of the rules, and was generally a really creative dude. I didn't play with him for as long as I'd've liked, but that was a problem of geography. Driving 60ish miles each way for a game just wasn't financially prudent. I miss that group, even though they aren't gaming together anymore.
Prompt 14: What kinds of adventures do you enjoy most? Dungeon crawls, mysteries, freeform roleplaying, or something else? What do you think that says about you?
I really like Adventure Paths. Most of the ones that Paizo has done are really great, simply because they give you a good mix of Social, Mental, and Combat challenges. I think this says that I'm indecisive.
I generally hate mysteries that rely on Player Skill to solve. If our Barbarian's player doesn't have to learn to properly swing a Greataxe and the Rogue's player doesn't have to physically disarm traps, why the hell do I have to solve riddles out-of-character? My wizard has an intelligence of 24. Mine is 14 at best. He's literally several orders of magnitude more intelligent than I am, so why can't I just roll some dice and move on?
This is equally true of Social Encounters. A lot of the GMs that I've played with over the years have enforced a "what you say is what your character actually says" rule. So my Bard, with 26 Charisma and 18 ranks of Diplomacy doesn't know how to convince people any better than I do in real life? Again I default back to the Rogue/Barbarian example in the previous paragraph. Requiring the player to give a vague idea of what they want to say is one thing, but "I explain that it'd be a good idea for him to help us out" then rolling Diplomacy should be sufficient. Otherwise, the charismatic people might as well just use charisma as a dump stat and roleplay it all out so that they don't have to waste skill points on things that aren't useful.
Prompt 15: People often talk about the divide between what happens "in game" and "in real life." Do you maintain that divide in your own play, or do you tend to take what happens to your character personally? Why?
Things only go from The Game to Real Life (or vice-versa) if someone else instigates it. If someone has out-of-character resentment or anger towards me, and they're too cowardly to bring it up to my face, and brings it up in game by having their character do stuff to inconvenience my character then there may be issues. I'd like to think I'm a better person than that, but I'm not. I've, on more than one occasion, manipulated the group into ousting a player because they were a dick for no reason.
-----
-J
Prompt 15: People often talk about the divide between what happens "in game" and "in real life." Do you maintain that divide in your own play, or do you tend to take what happens to your character personally? Why?
Things only go from The Game to Real Life (or vice-versa) if someone else instigates it. If someone has out-of-character resentment or anger towards me, and they're too cowardly to bring it up to my face, and brings it up in game by having their character do stuff to inconvenience my character then there may be issues. I'd like to think I'm a better person than that, but I'm not. I've, on more than one occasion, manipulated the group into ousting a player because they were a dick for no reason.
-----
-J
2012/04/07
Weapons and Ammo Powers and Upgrades! Woo!
A poster on EN World brought a couple of points to my attention regarding things-not-well-detailed. His post has been reproduced here for completeness.
SilverKeyMan writes:
"This morning I had the idea of writing up Mass Effect using Marvel Heroic, but being lazy and all, I decided on checking to see if anyone else already had.
I must say, it looks amazing. I really like the idea of rescaling the d6-d12 for physical attributes, so even a base human can have a d8 strength.Excellent work! I do have a question about weapons, however. In Mass Effect, part of the character customization (especially in ME3 multiplayer) revolves around weapon customization. Any plans for this, perhaps as additional power sets?
Additionally, how does a Class go about getting additional weapons? For example, it doesn't look like it is possible for an Engineer to use anything except a Shotgun, and the Sentinel doesn't get anything at all.
Cheers! -SKM"
Skill customization could pretty easily be done through adding new SFX to them. For example, someone playing an Engineer may want to upgrade their Drone to one of those Exploding Drones from ME3. I'd probably write the SFX for that like: "SFX: Step up or double Combat Drone (1 PP for both) on your next roll, then shut down Combat Drone. Recover on an Opportunity or during a Transition Scene.". Such an SFX would cost a character 10XP.
As for changing out weapons, if it's a simple matter like "I don't see my Engineer using Shotguns, but she's pretty likely to use a Sniper Rifle instead." then talking to the Storyteller would be the easiest way to go about it. If you're wanting to upgrade, then paying the XP to permanently step up the die related to the weapon or adding an SFX would work well. The Ammo Powers could pretty easily be mirrored with an SFX like: "Custom Ammo: When using (Weapon) in a die pool, you may add another power from the (Class) skill set. Both of these dice are at -1 step for this die pool." I wouldn't recommend using an SFX like that until your non-weapon powers are at a d8 or higher, since adding a d4 is usually more of a liability than a help.
I'll see about writing these things up in a more coherent manner and adding them to the MEHR document after I get off work tonight.
Thanks for the feedback, SKM. And thanks for the feedback from those who've emailed me as well. I'm gonna make this thing playable if it's at all possible.
SilverKeyMan writes:
"This morning I had the idea of writing up Mass Effect using Marvel Heroic, but being lazy and all, I decided on checking to see if anyone else already had.
I must say, it looks amazing. I really like the idea of rescaling the d6-d12 for physical attributes, so even a base human can have a d8 strength.Excellent work! I do have a question about weapons, however. In Mass Effect, part of the character customization (especially in ME3 multiplayer) revolves around weapon customization. Any plans for this, perhaps as additional power sets?
Additionally, how does a Class go about getting additional weapons? For example, it doesn't look like it is possible for an Engineer to use anything except a Shotgun, and the Sentinel doesn't get anything at all.
Cheers! -SKM"
Skill customization could pretty easily be done through adding new SFX to them. For example, someone playing an Engineer may want to upgrade their Drone to one of those Exploding Drones from ME3. I'd probably write the SFX for that like: "SFX: Step up or double Combat Drone (1 PP for both) on your next roll, then shut down Combat Drone. Recover on an Opportunity or during a Transition Scene.". Such an SFX would cost a character 10XP.
As for changing out weapons, if it's a simple matter like "I don't see my Engineer using Shotguns, but she's pretty likely to use a Sniper Rifle instead." then talking to the Storyteller would be the easiest way to go about it. If you're wanting to upgrade, then paying the XP to permanently step up the die related to the weapon or adding an SFX would work well. The Ammo Powers could pretty easily be mirrored with an SFX like: "Custom Ammo: When using (Weapon) in a die pool, you may add another power from the (Class) skill set. Both of these dice are at -1 step for this die pool." I wouldn't recommend using an SFX like that until your non-weapon powers are at a d8 or higher, since adding a d4 is usually more of a liability than a help.
I'll see about writing these things up in a more coherent manner and adding them to the MEHR document after I get off work tonight.
Thanks for the feedback, SKM. And thanks for the feedback from those who've emailed me as well. I'm gonna make this thing playable if it's at all possible.
-J
2012/04/05
Reverb Gamers? Okay, I'll bite.
I had planned on doing this back in January, but as I'm easily distracted by shiny things it got swept up into the ether until now. Q2 is still something resembling the beginning of the year, right?
Anyway, over at Atlas Games, there was a challenge thrown down. You can see the full list of questions HERE. It's my goal to answer a few of these at sporadic intervals before the end of the month. Woo! Progress! (Trigger Warning: There's a fucktonne of cursing in one of my answers.)
Prompt 1: What was your first roleplaying experience? Who introduced you to it? How did that introduction shape the gamer you've become?
The year was... well... I don't rightly remember. 1992, maybe. I was either in fourth or fifth grade. My friend Christian said he found this really cool book in a box in his attic. It had a demon on it and it was full of ridiculous, nonsensical maths. We used both recesses every day for a month trying to puzzle out how the hell this made any sense at all. Finally, during a sleep-over, we explored the attic and found a companion book with a big bronze-y statue with glowing eyes. It still didn't make any sense, but we were closer to figuring things out.
Since we were both completely inexperienced with the game and had no idea what any of this odd notation meant, we just decided to play. Since it was Christian's Dad's book, he decided that he should be DM. I played a Human Thief named Dek. The game started off, like a lot of games did back then, with my character trapped in a prison. I made my way out, and was accosted by guards. This is where things got a bit squiffy.
We had no idea what the crap 1d2 or 1d4 meant. We juggled it back and forth before coming to the obvious conclusion that d must be shorthand for divided-by. So a punch did 1 divided-by 2 damage. A dagger did 1 divided-by 4 damage. Why a fist did twice as much damage as a knife, we had no idea. The bad guys stats said they were armed with a Club (1 - 6 damage). This made even less sense. How did they do negative 5 damage per hit? Were they magical clubs of healing? Dek made it out that dungeon alive after about three weeks of playing five days/week.
Then, as happened a lot in those days, I stayed over at Christian's house again. He'd finally figured it out, with the help of his dad. 1d4 meant a four-sided die. The eureka moment. Everything else basically clicked from there. No wonder those Longswords did so little damage in that prison.
I think those first few months shaped me quite a lot. They made me that-guy-who-figures-out-new-systems. It also left me very naive compared to a lot of my fellow gamers. I had no idea there was a demonic stigma against gamers until I got to High School.
Prompt 2: What is it about gaming that you enjoy the most? Why do you game? Is it the adrenaline rush, the social aspect, or something else?
I enjoy clubbing the rules over the head and taking them home. I enjoy figuring out new ways that rules interact that the designers didn't intend. I'm that guy that every player loves to have on their side, because I can usually help everyone squeeze out that last bit of efficiency.
It's also a good excuse for me to hang out with my friends. Say what you want about shared tragedy or sports camaraderie; people who game together learn more about each other than they'd ever hoped (or ever wanted to, really).
Prompt 3: What kind of gamer are you? Rules Lawyer, Munchkin/Power Gamer, Lurker, Storyteller/Method Actor, or something else? (Search "types of gamer" for more ideas!) How does this affect the kinds of games you play? For example, maybe you prefer crunchy rules-heavy systems to more theatrical rules-light ones.
I'm a Rules Lawyer, through an through. I commit the rules to memory, I roll them around in my head, and I use them to the advantage of my fellow players (as well as the DM; I can't begin to count the number of times that one of my DMs has asked me how a rules subsystem works when they're unsure). Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of Those Guys. I don't beat people over the head with the rules. Never will you hear me utter things like "You can't DO that! The Rules say X!".
What you will hear me say are things like "Oh! Awesome idea! Let's see how we can make that happen. I think I remember a Skill Perk and an Alternate Class Feature that'll let you accomplish that much easier than the build you've currently put together. Hand me that Advanced Player's Guide...". I can make the Rules sing like a virtuoso.
On the other side of the coin, I'm also a Storyteller. I love to make up complicated backstories and improvisational stuff while DMing. Unlike a lot of Storytellers, though, I don't disregard the rules when they become inconvenient. Working my masterpiece story into the rules is part of the fun.
I'll play anything, but I do tend to prefer modular games like the various flavors of d20 System. I've also found a recent liking for more Rules Medium games like Marvel Heroic Roleplay, if only because it gives me a lot of room to stretch my creative muscles while at the same time figuring out which power sets, limits, etc. are best used to describe a particular character.
Prompt 4: Are you a "closet gamer?" Have you ever hidden the fact that you're a gamer from your co-workers, friends, family, or significant other? Why or why not? How did they react if they found out?
Oh, closet gamers. I really am trying to write this paragraph without vitriol, but closet gamers piss me right the hell off. It seems antithetical to the spirit of the hobby in general. I can't think that there's ever been a point in my life (after I started gaming, at least) that I hid my hobby from those around me; especially those I care about. That just... I don't... What kind of irrational thought process is that? "Oh, I'm a gamer, but people will judge me for it. Oh woe! Oh sorrow!" What the fuck, man? Seriously? We're *still* having this conversation?
I hear from a lot of people that they can't out themselves as gamers because of their job or their religion or their whateverbullshitexcuse. I can't abide that. Being a gamer isn't like being a part of the Tea Party or the Young Republicans or some other thing one should be ashamed to belong to. It's like being Agnostic. Anyone who is going to judge me for my choice to be a gamer can fuck right the hell off anyway. I don't need that kind of stress.
It's twenty-fucking-twelve. If people have a problem with you rolling dice in your dining room, then they need to grow the hell up and learn to stay out of your damn business. Maybe they shouldn't spend every Sunday drinking cheap-ass beer and watching grown men have a sissy slap-fight over a piece of pig leather.
Now that my rage has subsided, let's continue.
Prompt 5: Have you ever introduced a child to gaming, or played a game with a young person? How is gaming with kids different than gaming with adults?
A married couple I'm friends with has a son named Brezlin. I first ran a game including him back in 2007. He was 7 years old. I made a rules-light version of D&D 4E based on Star Wars Saga edition and whatever little tid-bits had been released to the public at that point (read: not a lot). He played a Barbarian. Very simple, very visceral, very childlike.
There were four other players. One, Brezlin's mother, was stressed out due to two of the other players. We'll call them Nichelle and Nike. Nichelle hated kids, but generally tolerated their presence. Nike was a curmudgeon. He didn't like a lot of people. The other player was a happy-go-lucky guy who is probably one of the best dad's you'll ever meet.
Anyway, gaming with kids isn't very different from gaming with adults; only that the subject matter shouldn't be quite as dark and the rules should be slightly less archaic. Games with dice pools seem to be a bad idea, but then again kids love rolling a lot of dice. So long as they can do calculations rather speedily, it's all good.
The trick seems to be that, when gaming with kids, make sure that the rest of the people in the group aren't anti-children. If they can adopt a light-hearted mindset like they had at that age, the game goes much smoother.
I've played in games with Brezlin every few years since then. He and his parents are regular players in my Dark Sun game. Now that he's into the Tween years, he's starting to get a better grasp on the slightly more complex rules systems. It's been an interesting journey.
He still likes Barbarians, though. I blame Adventure Time.
Well, that's all for this time, cohorts. Tune in sometime later this week when I'll probably be stream-of-consciousnessing at you some more. Woo!
-J
Anyway, over at Atlas Games, there was a challenge thrown down. You can see the full list of questions HERE. It's my goal to answer a few of these at sporadic intervals before the end of the month. Woo! Progress! (Trigger Warning: There's a fucktonne of cursing in one of my answers.)
Prompt 1: What was your first roleplaying experience? Who introduced you to it? How did that introduction shape the gamer you've become?
The year was... well... I don't rightly remember. 1992, maybe. I was either in fourth or fifth grade. My friend Christian said he found this really cool book in a box in his attic. It had a demon on it and it was full of ridiculous, nonsensical maths. We used both recesses every day for a month trying to puzzle out how the hell this made any sense at all. Finally, during a sleep-over, we explored the attic and found a companion book with a big bronze-y statue with glowing eyes. It still didn't make any sense, but we were closer to figuring things out.
Since we were both completely inexperienced with the game and had no idea what any of this odd notation meant, we just decided to play. Since it was Christian's Dad's book, he decided that he should be DM. I played a Human Thief named Dek. The game started off, like a lot of games did back then, with my character trapped in a prison. I made my way out, and was accosted by guards. This is where things got a bit squiffy.
We had no idea what the crap 1d2 or 1d4 meant. We juggled it back and forth before coming to the obvious conclusion that d must be shorthand for divided-by. So a punch did 1 divided-by 2 damage. A dagger did 1 divided-by 4 damage. Why a fist did twice as much damage as a knife, we had no idea. The bad guys stats said they were armed with a Club (1 - 6 damage). This made even less sense. How did they do negative 5 damage per hit? Were they magical clubs of healing? Dek made it out that dungeon alive after about three weeks of playing five days/week.
Then, as happened a lot in those days, I stayed over at Christian's house again. He'd finally figured it out, with the help of his dad. 1d4 meant a four-sided die. The eureka moment. Everything else basically clicked from there. No wonder those Longswords did so little damage in that prison.
I think those first few months shaped me quite a lot. They made me that-guy-who-figures-out-new-systems. It also left me very naive compared to a lot of my fellow gamers. I had no idea there was a demonic stigma against gamers until I got to High School.
Prompt 2: What is it about gaming that you enjoy the most? Why do you game? Is it the adrenaline rush, the social aspect, or something else?
I enjoy clubbing the rules over the head and taking them home. I enjoy figuring out new ways that rules interact that the designers didn't intend. I'm that guy that every player loves to have on their side, because I can usually help everyone squeeze out that last bit of efficiency.
It's also a good excuse for me to hang out with my friends. Say what you want about shared tragedy or sports camaraderie; people who game together learn more about each other than they'd ever hoped (or ever wanted to, really).
Prompt 3: What kind of gamer are you? Rules Lawyer, Munchkin/Power Gamer, Lurker, Storyteller/Method Actor, or something else? (Search "types of gamer" for more ideas!) How does this affect the kinds of games you play? For example, maybe you prefer crunchy rules-heavy systems to more theatrical rules-light ones.
I'm a Rules Lawyer, through an through. I commit the rules to memory, I roll them around in my head, and I use them to the advantage of my fellow players (as well as the DM; I can't begin to count the number of times that one of my DMs has asked me how a rules subsystem works when they're unsure). Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of Those Guys. I don't beat people over the head with the rules. Never will you hear me utter things like "You can't DO that! The Rules say X!".
What you will hear me say are things like "Oh! Awesome idea! Let's see how we can make that happen. I think I remember a Skill Perk and an Alternate Class Feature that'll let you accomplish that much easier than the build you've currently put together. Hand me that Advanced Player's Guide...". I can make the Rules sing like a virtuoso.
On the other side of the coin, I'm also a Storyteller. I love to make up complicated backstories and improvisational stuff while DMing. Unlike a lot of Storytellers, though, I don't disregard the rules when they become inconvenient. Working my masterpiece story into the rules is part of the fun.
I'll play anything, but I do tend to prefer modular games like the various flavors of d20 System. I've also found a recent liking for more Rules Medium games like Marvel Heroic Roleplay, if only because it gives me a lot of room to stretch my creative muscles while at the same time figuring out which power sets, limits, etc. are best used to describe a particular character.
Prompt 4: Are you a "closet gamer?" Have you ever hidden the fact that you're a gamer from your co-workers, friends, family, or significant other? Why or why not? How did they react if they found out?
Oh, closet gamers. I really am trying to write this paragraph without vitriol, but closet gamers piss me right the hell off. It seems antithetical to the spirit of the hobby in general. I can't think that there's ever been a point in my life (after I started gaming, at least) that I hid my hobby from those around me; especially those I care about. That just... I don't... What kind of irrational thought process is that? "Oh, I'm a gamer, but people will judge me for it. Oh woe! Oh sorrow!" What the fuck, man? Seriously? We're *still* having this conversation?
I hear from a lot of people that they can't out themselves as gamers because of their job or their religion or their whateverbullshitexcuse. I can't abide that. Being a gamer isn't like being a part of the Tea Party or the Young Republicans or some other thing one should be ashamed to belong to. It's like being Agnostic. Anyone who is going to judge me for my choice to be a gamer can fuck right the hell off anyway. I don't need that kind of stress.
It's twenty-fucking-twelve. If people have a problem with you rolling dice in your dining room, then they need to grow the hell up and learn to stay out of your damn business. Maybe they shouldn't spend every Sunday drinking cheap-ass beer and watching grown men have a sissy slap-fight over a piece of pig leather.
Now that my rage has subsided, let's continue.
Prompt 5: Have you ever introduced a child to gaming, or played a game with a young person? How is gaming with kids different than gaming with adults?
A married couple I'm friends with has a son named Brezlin. I first ran a game including him back in 2007. He was 7 years old. I made a rules-light version of D&D 4E based on Star Wars Saga edition and whatever little tid-bits had been released to the public at that point (read: not a lot). He played a Barbarian. Very simple, very visceral, very childlike.
There were four other players. One, Brezlin's mother, was stressed out due to two of the other players. We'll call them Nichelle and Nike. Nichelle hated kids, but generally tolerated their presence. Nike was a curmudgeon. He didn't like a lot of people. The other player was a happy-go-lucky guy who is probably one of the best dad's you'll ever meet.
Anyway, gaming with kids isn't very different from gaming with adults; only that the subject matter shouldn't be quite as dark and the rules should be slightly less archaic. Games with dice pools seem to be a bad idea, but then again kids love rolling a lot of dice. So long as they can do calculations rather speedily, it's all good.
The trick seems to be that, when gaming with kids, make sure that the rest of the people in the group aren't anti-children. If they can adopt a light-hearted mindset like they had at that age, the game goes much smoother.
I've played in games with Brezlin every few years since then. He and his parents are regular players in my Dark Sun game. Now that he's into the Tween years, he's starting to get a better grasp on the slightly more complex rules systems. It's been an interesting journey.
He still likes Barbarians, though. I blame Adventure Time.
Well, that's all for this time, cohorts. Tune in sometime later this week when I'll probably be stream-of-consciousnessing at you some more. Woo!
-J
2011/09/15
Cards & Dice & Beans & Taters
I was told that I need to make sure to update this as frequently as possible, even if I don't have anything specific to write about. Gotta keep the creative nonsense going and all that.
Thinking about the randomization agent I mentioned in my last post has brought up a story about Ye Olde Days and an experiment I ran on my players in those times. In those days, we played D&D 3.5 primarily. I was running a Dragonlance game, because that's the beloved setting that I felt like ruining that week. I was constantly introducing new Rules Chicanery back in those days; each time a new splatbook came out, new optional rules were needlessly shoehorned into the game.
The week in question, it was Prerolling. I don't remember which book this came out in (probably Unearthed Arcana; that's where I got most of my awesomely terribad ideas), but I do remember it seeming like a fantastic idea at the time. Each session, the players would roll 20 times with a d20. They'd record each of these on a sheet and then put away their d20. Any time they'd normally have to roll a d20 for a check, they'd instead choose from their recorded results. When they chose one, they'd cross it off the sheet. When they ran out of listed rolls, they'd have to start the process over again. It was marginally successful, but several players revolted and we never used that method again after that session.
What I learned from that experience is that in a game like D&D 3.5, there are certain expectations which most players take for granted. One of which is that they'll be rolling a d20 for a lot of stuff. I'd infringed on that basic expectation without proper warning. If I'd've announced that rule at the beginning of the campaign, it probably wouldn't've been met with such resistance.
Where is this rambling leading? Well, one thought I'd had about randomization agents were a hand of cards. Each player would draw a hand of 5 cards (with values ranging from 1 to 6) and use those values in place of dice rolling. This puts some of the randomness in the hands of the players, basically allowing them to prioritize their rolls. At any point, a player could "take zero" and proceed with a roll without using a card; thus saving the good cards in their hands from being wasted on a trivial roll.
It might work, it might not. Only playtesting will tell.
-JL
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