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Or you could try and find a copy of Novelty, a collection of three or four stories by Crowley. You would be mainly buying it for his beautiful Great Work Of Time, a story which I think mey be the single best story about time travel I've ever read. It's heartbreaking and beautifully written and the kind of thing that makes other, lesser writers gnash their teeth in grinding envy.
D&D Essentials was apparently quite good, but since my players used it solely to grab better feats I said no Essentials in my game because you're powerful enough as it is goddammit.
In a different sense, not related to D&D 3.5, you could call Essentials 4.5 because it was the beginning of the end for 4e, and therefore the harbinger of 5e. And it shares a lot of the 'simple-retro' approach of 5e.
I was really disappointed in it - while, yes, of course, a different design ethos gives people options, it weakened the unity of the player base and was, I personally think, a rejection of the core design approach of 4e.
You can see this new culture at WOTC continuing in 5e, which is basically D&DNOT4e.
Sarksus, you could, for instance, pick up his entire Aegypt series, recently reprinted by Overlook Press, for much less than £20 a book.
But I wanna read Engine Summmmerrrrrr
Then buy it post haste.
Oh, there is another collection that includes Engine Summer. It also includes The Deep and Beasts. Have you read those? The base cost is cheaper but the shipping makes it almost as expensive.
Sarksus on
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
they thought that a lot of their potential audience for 4e had been alienated more by the original format than the actual content, so they repackaged it in what they hoped would be a more old-school-friendly way
and the "essentials" classes are very easy to build and use, because you make almost no choices. no futzing around with feats or powers selections. every level, you get one pre-ordained new thing and that's it.
and it worked! at least somewhat. essentials was used for the new Red Box and it sold well and several diehard 4e haters I knew online came into the fold (although many of them would run "essentials-only" games, as if letting a regular 4e fighter or warlock in there would somehow contaminate the game, which really speaks to the degree of deep personal lameness they carry with them, but whatever)
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simonwolfi can feel a differencetoday, a differenceRegistered Userregular
This gets released just in time for my arrival in Japan
it is surely a sign of great things to come
Did Inq ever get placed?
Apparently LA is sending out their placement info "by the 30th"
so I have no idea what his sitch is
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
as for what Essentials is, it's just 4e
that's it, Elldren
there is literally almost nothing more to it than that. it is the 4e rules, the 4e monsters, the 4e classes, printed in three books that are smaller and cheaper than the original PHB and DMG and MM. they simply omitted the original versions of the 4e classes and included new, simpler builds for the basic fighter/rogue/cleric/wizard roles. that is literally all it is.
Sarksus, you could, for instance, pick up his entire Aegypt series, recently reprinted by Overlook Press, for much less than £20 a book.
But I wanna read Engine Summmmerrrrrr
Then buy it post haste.
Oh, there is another collection that includes Engine Summer. It also includes The Deep and Beasts. Have you read those? The base cost is cheaper but the shipping makes it almost as expensive.
$20 for all three seems reasonable. I've read both those other books, and can recommend them without reservation. Anything by Crowley deserves to be read and re-read. Like Gene Wolfe, he's a writer that deepens with every re-reading.
Sarksus, you could, for instance, pick up his entire Aegypt series, recently reprinted by Overlook Press, for much less than £20 a book.
But I wanna read Engine Summmmerrrrrr
Then buy it post haste.
Oh, there is another collection that includes Engine Summer. It also includes The Deep and Beasts. Have you read those? The base cost is cheaper but the shipping makes it almost as expensive.
$20 for all three seems reasonable. I've read both those other books, and can recommend them without reservation. Anything by Crowley deserves to be read and re-read. Like Gene Wolfe, he's a writer that deepens with every re-reading.
I'll get it then. The price comes to about $15, so for three stories that's pretty good!
3.5 with Healing Surges and THAC0 houseruled in is the one true edition[/snark]
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
the essentials feats are actually pretty great, bogart! they fix a serious problem with the way the math scales in 4e.
that is actually what really cheeses me about 5e - 4e was not a perfect game. I loved it, but there were plenty of arenas - like the length of combat, the requirement for a grid, the built-in 50% hit/miss ratio, and the way skills and defenses scale over thirty levels - that could have been addressed.
instead they threw a whole orphanage of babies out with the bathwater in a humiliating public mea culpa to the 50-year-old grognards of the world
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ElldrenIs a woman dammitceterum censeoRegistered Userregular
Everyone pretty much just dragged in the Essentials feat that gives them a higher bonus than the equivalent 4E feat, so I said hmm and ahem come off it guys you are powerful enough already. It may be that it solves a problem at higher levels, so I may have to look at it again later, but they're level 15 right now and the years-long campaign I'm running doesn't have long left to go. Once it's done I think I'm out of D&D for the forseeable future, and probably most RPG's except CoC (whose setting I am in love with). I started roleplaying again after more than a decade away, and while I've enjoyed it, and loved 4E, those Tuesday nights are starting to feel like a chore and not a pleasure any more.
Boardgames, however, are another story. Those I am enamoured with again. Nerd cycles, I guess. In three years time I might feel the urge to play a CCG.
the essentials feats are actually pretty great, bogart! they fix a serious problem with the way the math scales in 4e.
that is actually what really cheeses me about 5e - 4e was not a perfect game. I loved it, but there were plenty of arenas - like the length of combat, the requirement for a grid, the built-in 50% hit/miss ratio, and the way skills and defenses scale over thirty levels - that could have been addressed.
instead they threw a whole orphanage of babies out with the bathwater in a humiliating public mea culpa to the 50-year-old grognards of the world
wait wait
50% hit / miss ratio? Could you expand on that?
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simonwolfi can feel a differencetoday, a differenceRegistered Userregular
Watching Adventure Time as a psuedo-adult is making me think back on all the shit I watched as a kid
remembering those shows, it's a wonder that I can think at all
i feel like the day i decided i didn't want to play D&D any more because I had moved on to more advanced and less popular game systems is the day i levelled up in being a nerd
i feel like the day i decided i didn't want to play D&D any more because I had moved on to more advanced and less popular game systems is the day i levelled up in being a nerd
D&D 4E is pretty much my first major foray into D&D. Back when I was a little nerd I was mostly playing MERP, Rolemaster, the Judge Dredd RPG and Traveller. I don't think D&D is less advanced than any of those. It's certainly less complicated than most of them, though.
i feel like the day i decided i didn't want to play D&D any more because I had moved on to more advanced and less popular game systems is the day i levelled up in being a nerd
D&D 4E is pretty much my first major foray into D&D. Back when I was a little nerd I was mostly playing MERP, Rolemaster, the Judge Dredd RPG and Traveller. I don't think D&D is less advanced than any of those. It's certainly less complicated than most of them, though.
well, advanced is a silly term to use. i meant in terms of accessibility.
the essentials feats are actually pretty great, bogart! they fix a serious problem with the way the math scales in 4e.
that is actually what really cheeses me about 5e - 4e was not a perfect game. I loved it, but there were plenty of arenas - like the length of combat, the requirement for a grid, the built-in 50% hit/miss ratio, and the way skills and defenses scale over thirty levels - that could have been addressed.
instead they threw a whole orphanage of babies out with the bathwater in a humiliating public mea culpa to the 50-year-old grognards of the world
wait wait
50% hit / miss ratio? Could you expand on that?
the intended base chance to hit an enemy in combat in 4e is supposed to be 50%
like, all other things being equal, a level 1 guy will probably have about a +4 to hit, and a level 1 monster will have around a 15 Armor Class, so on the roll of 20 the level 1 guy will hit the level 1 monster on the roll of 11 or greater - a 50% chance to hit.
as the hero and the monster go up in level, their respective attack bonuses and armor class both go up, so at level 10 the guy might have a +14 to hit and the monster might have a 25 Armor Class - so he still needs 11 or better.
that is the fundamental idea behind the math in 4e. unfortunately 50% is kind of low and leads to fights that are unnecessarily protracted.
Oh no. I am ill. I'm supposed to meet my psychologist in like... an hour. But I am bent over, groaning, in the bathroom. Will the poop come? Only Yahweh knows.
Man, I must have been a nightmare to play with when I was a nipper. I used to play with my older brothers in their game, and I was about six years younger than everyone else. I was probably the archetypal horrible little brother horning in on their fun, throwing tantrums and the like. I don't really remember too much, but I suspect this to be the case.
Posts
2006?
heh
amateur
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Because then we're nearing infinite [chat]s...
like, wtf is it supposed to do?
do I need to know it?
why did they even make it?
It is so confusing
It does that when the page is full, act like it has one extra page.
Well that's just strange!
Then buy it post haste.
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And then go to work every day just like a normal worker.
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I was really disappointed in it - while, yes, of course, a different design ethos gives people options, it weakened the unity of the player base and was, I personally think, a rejection of the core design approach of 4e.
You can see this new culture at WOTC continuing in 5e, which is basically D&DNOT4e.
Did Inq ever get placed?
Oh, there is another collection that includes Engine Summer. It also includes The Deep and Beasts. Have you read those? The base cost is cheaper but the shipping makes it almost as expensive.
they thought that a lot of their potential audience for 4e had been alienated more by the original format than the actual content, so they repackaged it in what they hoped would be a more old-school-friendly way
and the "essentials" classes are very easy to build and use, because you make almost no choices. no futzing around with feats or powers selections. every level, you get one pre-ordained new thing and that's it.
and it worked! at least somewhat. essentials was used for the new Red Box and it sold well and several diehard 4e haters I knew online came into the fold (although many of them would run "essentials-only" games, as if letting a regular 4e fighter or warlock in there would somehow contaminate the game, which really speaks to the degree of deep personal lameness they carry with them, but whatever)
Apparently LA is sending out their placement info "by the 30th"
so I have no idea what his sitch is
that's it, Elldren
there is literally almost nothing more to it than that. it is the 4e rules, the 4e monsters, the 4e classes, printed in three books that are smaller and cheaper than the original PHB and DMG and MM. they simply omitted the original versions of the 4e classes and included new, simpler builds for the basic fighter/rogue/cleric/wizard roles. that is literally all it is.
$20 for all three seems reasonable. I've read both those other books, and can recommend them without reservation. Anything by Crowley deserves to be read and re-read. Like Gene Wolfe, he's a writer that deepens with every re-reading.
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I'll get it then. The price comes to about $15, so for three stories that's pretty good!
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that is actually what really cheeses me about 5e - 4e was not a perfect game. I loved it, but there were plenty of arenas - like the length of combat, the requirement for a grid, the built-in 50% hit/miss ratio, and the way skills and defenses scale over thirty levels - that could have been addressed.
instead they threw a whole orphanage of babies out with the bathwater in a humiliating public mea culpa to the 50-year-old grognards of the world
I'm now more confused
what specifically confuses you
I don't! Would kind of like to, but the few attempts thus far have ended in flames.
I don't understand why
Boardgames, however, are another story. Those I am enamoured with again. Nerd cycles, I guess. In three years time I might feel the urge to play a CCG.
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wait wait
50% hit / miss ratio? Could you expand on that?
remembering those shows, it's a wonder that I can think at all
They wanted people who didn't like 4e to play 4e, basically.
Yeah, it's a shame but I'm sure D&D will always have d20s and so on.
D&D 4E is pretty much my first major foray into D&D. Back when I was a little nerd I was mostly playing MERP, Rolemaster, the Judge Dredd RPG and Traveller. I don't think D&D is less advanced than any of those. It's certainly less complicated than most of them, though.
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well, advanced is a silly term to use. i meant in terms of accessibility.
is this like, a cartoon-y version of Kodachrome.
yes
yes it is
the intended base chance to hit an enemy in combat in 4e is supposed to be 50%
like, all other things being equal, a level 1 guy will probably have about a +4 to hit, and a level 1 monster will have around a 15 Armor Class, so on the roll of 20 the level 1 guy will hit the level 1 monster on the roll of 11 or greater - a 50% chance to hit.
as the hero and the monster go up in level, their respective attack bonuses and armor class both go up, so at level 10 the guy might have a +14 to hit and the monster might have a 25 Armor Class - so he still needs 11 or better.
that is the fundamental idea behind the math in 4e. unfortunately 50% is kind of low and leads to fights that are unnecessarily protracted.
Hahahahahaha.
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