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[Roleplaying Games] Play Everything, Only GM the Games You Want To

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Posts

  • bssbss Brostoyevsky Madison, WIRegistered User regular
    The 13th Age community on Google+, which is pretty bouncing right now. When I get off my lazy duff after this weekend I'm going to finish up my modern icons and post them up there too.

    3DS: 2466-2307-8384 PSN: bssteph Steam: bsstephan Twitch: bsstephan
    Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
    Occasional words about games: my site
  • OptimusZedOptimusZed Registered User regular
    Ok. It's official.

    I am officially old.

    Because I cannot work this google+ thing AT ALL.

    I'm like a chimpanzee with a calculator on that page.

    We're reading Rifts. You should too. You know you want to. Now With Ninjas!

    They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
  • AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    Sooo jealous of my friends at GenCon. They've promised to stop by the Catalyst booth for me.

    He/Him | "A boat is always safest in the harbor, but that’s not why we build boats." | "If you run, you gain one. If you move forward, you gain two." - Suletta Mercury, G-Witch
  • bssbss Brostoyevsky Madison, WIRegistered User regular
    Gen Con... I'm trying to figure out how to tell the groom at this wedding I'm going to on Saturday that I expect dice and at least one D&D combat during the reception in a "ha ha, no, just joking but seriously roll goddamn initiative" kind of way.

    3DS: 2466-2307-8384 PSN: bssteph Steam: bsstephan Twitch: bsstephan
    Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
    Occasional words about games: my site
  • AegeriAegeri Tiny wee bacteriums Plateau of LengRegistered User regular
  • peacekeeperpeacekeeper AustraliaRegistered User regular
    so is this the generic rp games thread to ask questions in

    i got an email about dnd games day this sat, im thinking of going in the hope there will be other newbies there?

  • jdarksunjdarksun Struggler VARegistered User regular
    OptimusZed wrote: »
    Ok. It's official.

    I am officially old.

    Because I cannot work this google+ thing AT ALL.

    I'm like a chimpanzee with a calculator on that page.
    It's not just you. I cannot figure out where it's getting some stuff. Like, it displays the company I work for on my profile, but I have no idea how it got there or how to remove it. The EotE games I'm recording get posted publicly even though all my posts are supposed to be Friends Only.

    It's a mystery.

  • AegeriAegeri Tiny wee bacteriums Plateau of LengRegistered User regular
    I am really impressed with my initial reading of Trail of Cthulhu. It's definitely in the same ballpark of what Call of Cthulhu does, but does it differently enough that I feel it more than justifies its own existence. I am super excited to compare how a trail game goes compared to my Delta Green games.

    The Roleplayer's Guild: My blog for roleplaying games, advice and adventuring.
  • AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    edited August 2013
    so is this the generic rp games thread to ask questions in

    i got an email about dnd games day this sat, im thinking of going in the hope there will be other newbies there?

    Yes it is.

    And yes, those emails are there specifically to get people into the hobby. D&D is a perfectly acceptable first game, and more importantly that day should have a mix of new and veteran gamers for you to meet. Plus there'll be a ton of hype from GenCon floating around, assuming big announcements are made.

    Athenor on
    He/Him | "A boat is always safest in the harbor, but that’s not why we build boats." | "If you run, you gain one. If you move forward, you gain two." - Suletta Mercury, G-Witch
  • Grunt's GhostsGrunt's Ghosts Registered User regular
    jdarksun wrote: »
    OptimusZed wrote: »
    Ok. It's official.

    I am officially old.

    Because I cannot work this google+ thing AT ALL.

    I'm like a chimpanzee with a calculator on that page.
    It's not just you. I cannot figure out where it's getting some stuff. Like, it displays the company I work for on my profile, but I have no idea how it got there or how to remove it. The EotE games I'm recording get posted publicly even though all my posts are supposed to be Friends Only.

    It's a mystery.

    I'm 23 and I can't work Google+. I'm not sure what it is other than a Facebook wannabe.

    Also, jdarksun, have you ever posted where you work on your Facebook/Myspace/Twitter/ect. pages? If so, it wouldn't be hard for Google to just copy/paste your info to its system.

  • VanguardVanguard But now the dream is over. And the insect is awake.Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    so is this the generic rp games thread to ask questions in

    i got an email about dnd games day this sat, im thinking of going in the hope there will be other newbies there?

    Probably. Don't worry about not knowing the rules or anything. Just show up ready to learn with an active imagination.

  • poshnialloposhniallo Registered User regular
    Aegeri wrote: »
    I am really impressed with my initial reading of Trail of Cthulhu. It's definitely in the same ballpark of what Call of Cthulhu does, but does it differently enough that I feel it more than justifies its own existence. I am super excited to compare how a trail game goes compared to my Delta Green games.

    I haven't played it myself, but my friends say it has utterly replaced CoC for them.

    I figure I could take a bear.
  • poshnialloposhniallo Registered User regular
    13th Age is here!

    Finally!

    I figure I could take a bear.
  • AegeriAegeri Tiny wee bacteriums Plateau of LengRegistered User regular
    poshniallo wrote: »
    Aegeri wrote: »
    I am really impressed with my initial reading of Trail of Cthulhu. It's definitely in the same ballpark of what Call of Cthulhu does, but does it differently enough that I feel it more than justifies its own existence. I am super excited to compare how a trail game goes compared to my Delta Green games.

    I haven't played it myself, but my friends say it has utterly replaced CoC for them.

    If you would like to try, I am running a PBP of it here.

    I am not sure if it will replace CoC for me though, because it has advantages and disadvantages like any system from what I can tell.

    The Roleplayer's Guild: My blog for roleplaying games, advice and adventuring.
  • poshnialloposhniallo Registered User regular
    Aegeri wrote: »
    poshniallo wrote: »
    Aegeri wrote: »
    I am really impressed with my initial reading of Trail of Cthulhu. It's definitely in the same ballpark of what Call of Cthulhu does, but does it differently enough that I feel it more than justifies its own existence. I am super excited to compare how a trail game goes compared to my Delta Green games.

    I haven't played it myself, but my friends say it has utterly replaced CoC for them.

    If you would like to try, I am running a PBP of it here.

    I am not sure if it will replace CoC for me though, because it has advantages and disadvantages like any system from what I can tell.

    Thanks! But I am in a forum game of 13th Age and it's my first ever, so I want to concentrate on that.

    I think what they liked about Trail was really GUMSHOE - it seems great for investigation/mysteries.

    I figure I could take a bear.
  • AegeriAegeri Tiny wee bacteriums Plateau of LengRegistered User regular
    Yeah I quite approve of the way the basic mechanics of GUMSHOE work actually. It's a pretty nicely designed - if slightly unintuitive - system.

    The Roleplayer's Guild: My blog for roleplaying games, advice and adventuring.
  • VanguardVanguard But now the dream is over. And the insect is awake.Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    So I am 50 pages into Fate Core and have pretty mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I really like how straight forward it is and it would be a great way to introduce story games to players. On the other hand, it lacks the flavor of other story games I've played.

  • OptimusZedOptimusZed Registered User regular
    First draft swing through the races for Dark Sun. Still need to do the fluff explanations, especially for the weirder ones.
    Aarakocra
    +2 Dexterity OR +2 Wisdom

    Flutter of Wings (Racial Power)
    Once per battle as a Free action after you are hit with a melee attack, you may make an immediate attempt to disengage from your attacker. If that attempt succeeds, you may take an immediate move action, ignoring terrain.
    Champion Feat: If that attempt succeeds, you take half damage from the attack.

    Avian Anatomy: You gain a +2 Racial bonus to all skill checks made to avoid falling hazards, jump vertically or horizontally or to reduce damage from falling.
    Adventurer Feat: You never take falling damage and ignore rough ground, pits and similar obstacles.


    Dray
    +2 Constitution OR +2 Charisma

    Scales of the Dragon (Racial Power)
    As a Quick action, you gain resistance to a certain type of damage until the end of your next turn. Choose one of the following; Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning or Poison. You gain resistance to that type of damage equal to the value on the Escalation Die + 10.
    Champion Feat: You may choose two damage types. You gain resistance to both.

    Arcane Origins: You gain a +2 Racial bonus to all skill checks to use, identify or interact with magical items or phenomena (including spells and rituals), or to perform rituals that are arcane in nature.
    Adventurer Feat: You intuitively understand magical items, regardless of age or origin. You can sense the source and nature of any major magical disturbance, including the use of defiling magic, out to the distance of a day's walk.


    Dwarf
    +2 Constitution OR +2 Wisdom

    Dwarven Resilience (Racial Power)
    Once per battle, as an Interrupt when an enemy hits you with an effect that targets your Physical Defense or Mental Defense, you may make a normal save (11+). If this save is successful, the effect fails.
    Champion Feat: You may use this ability against an effect that targets AC, as well as PD or MD.

    Single Minded: Choose a goal that will take at least one week to accomplish. That goal becomes your Focus. While pursuing your Focus, you gain a +2 Racial bonus to all skill checks related to completing it. You cannot choose a new Focus until you have completed the previous one.
    Adventurer Feat: You ignore any effect that would coerce, demoralize, exhaust, mind-control or otherwise prevent you from furthering the completion of your focus. This does not allow you to overcome blocks to progress directly, but you can't be turned from your goal by any force on Athas.


    Elf
    +2 Dexterity OR +2 Intelligence

    Sudden Sprint (Racial Power)
    Once per battle as a Move action, you may move from Engaged to Far Away, or vice versa. If you are engaged with an opponent when you Sudden Sprint, you pop free.
    Champion Feat: You gain a +5 bonus to AC against opportunity attacks during the move.

    Fleet Footed: You gain a +2 Racial bonus to all skill checks made to run or move quickly, outrun pursuers on foot, or to avoid fatigue while running long distances.
    Adventurer Feat: You are never fatigued by the act of running, though other factors can still effect you. Characters without some means of boosting their own movement speed, a suitable mount or another elf with this feat can't catch you if you are running.


    Gith
    +2 Dexterity OR +2 Strength

    Springing Escape (Racial Power)
    Once per battle as a Move action, you may move from Engaged to Far Away, or vice versa, ignoring all intervening terrain and opportunity attacks.
    Champion Feat: You may use this power twice per battle.

    Animal Affinity: You gain a +2 Racial bonus to all skill checks made to interact with, detect, handle or avoid the creatures of Athas.
    Adventurer Feat: You have an uncanny sense of how an animal is feeling, and how best to interact with it safely. Any animal that is not a starving predator will give you an opportunity to coexist with it for at least a limited period of time. Any aggressive action by you or your allies ends this effect.


    Half-Elf
    +2 Dexterity OR +2 Constitution

    Against the Odds (Racial Power)
    Once per battle as a minor action, you can gain a bonus to your AC until the end of your next turn. That bonus is equal to the value of the escalation die.
    Champion Feat: You can use this power as an Interrupt if you would be hit by an attack that targets AC.

    Self Reliance: You gain a +2 Racial bonus to all skill checks made to obtain food, water, or other materials to provide for your own immediate survival or needs by whatever means.
    Adventurer Feat: As long as you have at least an hour to spend foraging or scavenging every day, you will never starve or die of thirst. You can support up to one other person or animal through the use of this ability as well.


    Half-Giant
    +2 Strength OR +2 Constitution

    Mountain of Muscle (Racial Power)
    Once per battle as a Quick action you may use a recovery to heal.
    Champion Feat: You gain one additional recovery per day.

    Powerful: You gain a +2 Racial bonus to skill checks made to lift, break, bend or otherwise alter or manipulate things with raw physical might.
    Adventurer Feat: If it is lighter than a mekillot you can lift, push or drag it around. You can break or bend practically anything, given enough time. Your physical might is nearly unmatched among humanoids.


    Halfling
    +2 Dexterity OR +2 Wisdom

    Small: Halflings get a +2 AC bonus against opportunity attacks.

    Elusive (Racial Power)
    Once per battle, as a Reaction when an enemy misses you with an attack or effect, you may remove yourself from play. At the start of your next turn, return yourself to play somewhere nearby to where you were when you disappeared.
    Adventurer Feat: When you reappear, you may do so anywhere up to far away from your starting point.

    Ancient Culture: You gain a +2 Racial bonus to skill checks made to recall ancient history or to understand and operate ancient technology or life-shaped items.
    Adventurer Feat: You are well versed in the history of your race. You understand and can operate all forms of life-shaped items.


    Human
    +2 to any ability

    Bonus Feat: At 1st level, you start with two feats instead of one.

    Impulsive (Racial Power)
    Once per battle, when you are hit by an attack or an effect, you may shift your initiative to the spot just behind the enemy that hit you. In effect, you get the next turn after you are hit.
    Champion Feat: You can use this power when a nearby ally is attacked as well.


    Kreen
    +2 Dexterity OR +2 Strength

    Sudden Leap (Racial Power)
    Once per battle as a Quick action, you may pop free from one enemy and take an immediate Move action (that does not use your Move action for the turn).
    Champion Feat: When you use this power, you may pop free from any number of enemies, not just one.

    Armored Carapace: You are always considered to be wearing light armor. You cannot wear armor or other protective items except for shields.
    Adventurer Feat: You do not take attack penalties for your carapace.

    Insectile Agility: You gain a +2 Racial bonus to skill checks made to climb, jump hurdles or otherwise skitter around your environment.
    Adventurer Feat: You can walk on walls or other similar surfaces as though they were the ground. You can leap higher from a standstill than any member of another race (that can't fly) can with a running start.


    Mul
    +2 Strength OR +2 Constitution

    Unstoppable (Racial Power)
    Once per battle as a Quick action, you may roll a save against one effect a save can end.
    Champion Feat: You may use this power an additional time per battle.

    Half-Breed Endurance: You gain a +5 Racial bonus to all checks made to withstand fatigue from physical exertion, lack of sleep or other types of hardship.
    Adventurer Feat: You do not require sleep, and you can survive on half the food and water you would normally require. You can perform all but the most physically demanding tasks indefinitely without fatiguing.


    Reaver
    +2 Intelligence OR +2 Constitution

    Shifting Sands (Racial Power)
    Once per battle as a Quick action you may pop free from each enemy you are engaged with.
    Adventurer Feat: When you use this power, you may teleport to anywhere nearby.

    Waste Fiend: You gain a +2 Racial bonus to skill checks to avoid or endure the hazards of the wastes, or to recognize or interact with beings of the lower planes.
    Adventurer Feat: You are never negatively effected by sand storms or other waste hazards, and you immediately recognize fiendish individuals or influence when you encounter them.


    Villichi
    +2 Intelligence OR +2 Charisma

    Aversion (Racial Power)
    Once per battle as a Reaction when an enemy moves to engage with you, you may roll a normal (11+) save. If you succeed, the enemy pops free and cannot engage with you until the end of your next turn.
    Champion Feat: If your save succeeds, no enemy may attempt to engage with you until the start of your next turn.

    Psionic Field: You gain a +2 Racial bonus to skill checks made to influence the thoughts or opinions of others, or to intimidate or deceive them.
    Adventurer Feat: Weak willed NPCs will follow any instruction you give them that can be completed in a few seconds, or believe any simple lie that you tell them that is not obviously contradictory to reality, and will not consider their own actions to be odd. This ability cannot be used in combat or against anyone who has rolled initiative.

    We're reading Rifts. You should too. You know you want to. Now With Ninjas!

    They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
  • poshnialloposhniallo Registered User regular
    I agreed with EM earlier about backgrounds, but I have to say those do look interesting.

    I figure I could take a bear.
  • PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    So at the FFG booth case, they have "specialization cards" for Edge of the Empire, trying to get more info.

    persona4celestia.jpg
    COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
  • Grunt's GhostsGrunt's Ghosts Registered User regular
    Vanguard wrote: »
    So I am 50 pages into Fate Core and have pretty mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I really like how straight forward it is and it would be a great way to introduce story games to players. On the other hand, it lacks the flavor of other story games I've played.

    I think that's the point. You create the flavor.

  • OptimusZedOptimusZed Registered User regular
    My Dresden Files (formerly Star Wars Saga) group is having a debate via email on the objective value of "awesomeness" of one of our PCs getting dropped into a coma during the very first scene of the game.

    I have to say, I would hate to be that player. Absolutely hate it. Like, potentially ragequit hate. But it did an excellent job of illustrating the stakes of combat when these particular antagonists are involved, and it very effectively set the tone for a more survivalist style game than the cowboy shoot-em-ups we usually play.

    We're reading Rifts. You should too. You know you want to. Now With Ninjas!

    They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
  • PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    Turns out the specialization cards are reference cards to the abilities the specializations have.

    persona4celestia.jpg
    COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
  • Grunt's GhostsGrunt's Ghosts Registered User regular
    OptimusZed wrote: »
    My Dresden Files (formerly Star Wars Saga) group is having a debate via email on the objective value of "awesomeness" of one of our PCs getting dropped into a coma during the very first scene of the game.

    I have to say, I would hate to be that player. Absolutely hate it. Like, potentially ragequit hate. But it did an excellent job of illustrating the stakes of combat when these particular antagonists are involved, and it very effectively set the tone for a more survivalist style game than the cowboy shoot-em-ups we usually play.

    I played a game once where my character's soul was ripped out of his body because of one of my allies thought that the Rod of Souls needed testing. I didn't get to return to play for three sessions but my DM did a good job making my time locked in the rod a living hell.

  • laservisioncatlaservisioncat Registered User regular
    So I've been on an RPG learing binge lately, and I'm trying to decide which which fantasy roleplaying system fits me best. I keep coming back to the recently released, pay what you want Legend, by Rule of Cool. Problem is, I'm finding it near impossible to find quality reviews of the system. Has anyone had any experiences with it that they'd like to share?

    Specifically, the social combat/interactions interest me a great deal (and no one seems to ever mention them). However, people keep dismissing the system as another 3.5 ripoff, which worries me. From what I've read, it seems to share as much with 3.5 as 13th age, but it's a d20 system and I have limited experience judging these things. While their design philosophy is stated to be substantially different from 3.5, does anyone want to weigh in on how balanced the game is, and the level of tactical fun the combat inspires (compared to say, 4e)?

  • ArdentArdent Down UpsideRegistered User regular
    OptimusZed wrote: »
    My Dresden Files (formerly Star Wars Saga) group is having a debate via email on the objective value of "awesomeness" of one of our PCs getting dropped into a coma during the very first scene of the game.

    I have to say, I would hate to be that player. Absolutely hate it. Like, potentially ragequit hate. But it did an excellent job of illustrating the stakes of combat when these particular antagonists are involved, and it very effectively set the tone for a more survivalist style game than the cowboy shoot-em-ups we usually play.
    Dresden Files isn't quite an L5R-esque "NOBODY WILL GET OUT ALIVE" meatwagon-on-text, but it's pretty unforgiving. A single bad die roll can render a character unplayable, and it's almost never a straight up death so the loss of character can be even more wrenching.

    It's somewhat different from standard FATE that way, but I think it really brings home the "oh shit" nature of the setting that pervades the lives of even the more powerful individuals (i.e. Harry Dresden). There's also the added benefit that if your GM is game, most of those "unplayables" are recoverable if the group works for it (de-railing whatever else was on tap, of course).

    Steam ID | Origin ID: ArdentX | Uplay ID: theardent | Battle.net: Ardent#11476
  • OptimusZedOptimusZed Registered User regular
    Ardent wrote: »
    OptimusZed wrote: »
    My Dresden Files (formerly Star Wars Saga) group is having a debate via email on the objective value of "awesomeness" of one of our PCs getting dropped into a coma during the very first scene of the game.

    I have to say, I would hate to be that player. Absolutely hate it. Like, potentially ragequit hate. But it did an excellent job of illustrating the stakes of combat when these particular antagonists are involved, and it very effectively set the tone for a more survivalist style game than the cowboy shoot-em-ups we usually play.
    Dresden Files isn't quite an L5R-esque "NOBODY WILL GET OUT ALIVE" meatwagon-on-text, but it's pretty unforgiving. A single bad die roll can render a character unplayable, and it's almost never a straight up death so the loss of character can be even more wrenching.

    It's somewhat different from standard FATE that way, but I think it really brings home the "oh shit" nature of the setting that pervades the lives of even the more powerful individuals (i.e. Harry Dresden). There's also the added benefit that if your GM is game, most of those "unplayables" are recoverable if the group works for it (de-railing whatever else was on tap, of course).
    The last game we were playing was Spirit of the Century, so the lethality level was completely different.

    The longer version of the story is that part of our opening scene was the former-cop PI who talks to ghosts alone at his office when he heard (and then saw) a domestic violence incident across the street and ran out to break it up. It should be noted that I had just finished a short sequence where my character finds a runaway on the street and helps him to a shelter run by my ex-wife, so we were all kind of expecting early character development.

    So our guy hits the street and pulls the man off the woman he was preparing to strike only to be assaulted by the woman (revealed to be a black court vampire) and her two cronies that were hiding some distance away. The guy was a dupe to draw out the investigator, and a crowd is gathering that the vamps are threatening to eat unless the investigator "stay(s) and play(s)." A battle ensues that the PC is woefully underpowered to properly participate in and ends with the player offering a concession of "unconscious with his guts hanging out" only to be told that he'll be eaten or turned if he goes out that way. So he instead winds up with "hotwires a car and crashes one of the vamps through a building, car catches fire, she dies he is in a coma."

    I suppose he could have just run like hell, but that wouldn't have been very heroic or remotely in character. So now he's in the hospital and the player is running an (admittedly badass) NPC ex-con priest from the local youth center until we can get the guy back on his feet.

    We're reading Rifts. You should too. You know you want to. Now With Ninjas!

    They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
  • Gandalf_the_CrazedGandalf_the_Crazed Vigilo ConfidoRegistered User regular
    OptimusZed wrote: »
    Ardent wrote: »
    OptimusZed wrote: »
    My Dresden Files (formerly Star Wars Saga) group is having a debate via email on the objective value of "awesomeness" of one of our PCs getting dropped into a coma during the very first scene of the game.

    I have to say, I would hate to be that player. Absolutely hate it. Like, potentially ragequit hate. But it did an excellent job of illustrating the stakes of combat when these particular antagonists are involved, and it very effectively set the tone for a more survivalist style game than the cowboy shoot-em-ups we usually play.
    Dresden Files isn't quite an L5R-esque "NOBODY WILL GET OUT ALIVE" meatwagon-on-text, but it's pretty unforgiving. A single bad die roll can render a character unplayable, and it's almost never a straight up death so the loss of character can be even more wrenching.

    It's somewhat different from standard FATE that way, but I think it really brings home the "oh shit" nature of the setting that pervades the lives of even the more powerful individuals (i.e. Harry Dresden). There's also the added benefit that if your GM is game, most of those "unplayables" are recoverable if the group works for it (de-railing whatever else was on tap, of course).
    The last game we were playing was Spirit of the Century, so the lethality level was completely different.

    The longer version of the story is that part of our opening scene was the former-cop PI who talks to ghosts alone at his office when he heard (and then saw) a domestic violence incident across the street and ran out to break it up. It should be noted that I had just finished a short sequence where my character finds a runaway on the street and helps him to a shelter run by my ex-wife, so we were all kind of expecting early character development.

    So our guy hits the street and pulls the man off the woman he was preparing to strike only to be assaulted by the woman (revealed to be a black court vampire) and her two cronies that were hiding some distance away. The guy was a dupe to draw out the investigator, and a crowd is gathering that the vamps are threatening to eat unless the investigator "stay(s) and play(s)." A battle ensues that the PC is woefully underpowered to properly participate in and ends with the player offering a concession of "unconscious with his guts hanging out" only to be told that he'll be eaten or turned if he goes out that way. So he instead winds up with "hotwires a car and crashes one of the vamps through a building, car catches fire, she dies he is in a coma."

    I suppose he could have just run like hell, but that wouldn't have been very heroic or remotely in character. So now he's in the hospital and the player is running an (admittedly badass) NPC ex-con priest from the local youth center until we can get the guy back on his feet.

    Sounds like the rest of the party needs to go on a risky mission to recruit a wizard willing to break the Laws of Magic, invade the coma victim's mind, and bring him back to the land of the conscious.

    PEUsig_zps56da03ec.jpg
  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    I love the lethality of five rings

    every combat, you dance with death

  • bssbss Brostoyevsky Madison, WIRegistered User regular
    edited August 2013
    Specifically, the social combat/interactions interest me a great deal (and no one seems to ever mention them). However, people keep dismissing the system as another 3.5 ripoff, which worries me. From what I've read, it seems to share as much with 3.5 as 13th age, but it's a d20 system and I have limited experience judging these things. While their design philosophy is stated to be substantially different from 3.5, does anyone want to weigh in on how balanced the game is, and the level of tactical fun the combat inspires (compared to say, 4e)?

    I can't say anything about the balance of the game (despite following it for a while, I never played it), but in terms of comparison to other games, I would say that 13th Age is 4e Essentials that drifted just a bit more towards 3.5, where as RoC's Legend is 3.5 that drifted a bit towards 4e. You see a lot more of 4e's mechanical influence in 13A than you do in Legend.

    Edit: I found an old post I wrote about comparisons, having read both.

    bss on
    3DS: 2466-2307-8384 PSN: bssteph Steam: bsstephan Twitch: bsstephan
    Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
    Occasional words about games: my site
  • InkSplatInkSplat 100%ed Bad Rats. Registered User regular
    edited August 2013
    So, the new Careers/Specs for Age of Rebellion are:

    Ace
    --Pilot (Same as Smuggler)
    --Gunner
    --Driver (Same as the new Explorer Spec coming in Into the Unknown, most likely).

    Commander
    --Commodore (for big ships)
    --Squad Leader (for fighters)
    --Tactician (for troops)

    Diplomat
    --Ambassadors (for making friends)
    --Agitators (for riling people up)
    --Quartermaster (for obtaining supplies and gear)

    Engineer
    --Mechanic (same as Technician)
    --Saboteur (Duh.)
    --Scientist (New developments)

    Soldier
    --Commando (Sounds kind of Special Forces)
    --Medic
    --Sharpshooter

    Spy
    --Infiltrator
    --Scout (Same as Explorer)
    --Slicer (Same as Tech)

    Then there is a special non-force related stand-alone spec called Military Training, which can give any character some basic skills in combat.

    And lastly there is the Force Emergent, which while sharing Move with the Exile, introduces two new Force Powers. Enhance and Foresee. Enhance initially boosts Brawn, but can be upgraded to effect Agility and Intellect, and then further upgraded to boost just about everything else. And Foresee allows you to shuffle around initiative order, and later get the GM to determine an NPCs actions before you decide your own, and then lastly to provide a general, further reacher "bad feeling" about going-ons.

    Star Destroyers, Home One's, and all sorts of frigates and cruisers are statted out as well.


    Now they just need to make the damn book available on their web store. :(

    InkSplat on
    Origin for Dragon Age: Inquisition Shenanigans: Inksplat776
  • peacekeeperpeacekeeper AustraliaRegistered User regular
    i rang up and put my name down for tomorrow, hopefully i get to be a fighter or healer

  • VanguardVanguard But now the dream is over. And the insect is awake.Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    I ran my first session of Torchbearer tonight! Impressions to tomorrow.

  • Grey_ChocolateGrey_Chocolate Registered User regular
    What are the Torchbearer mechanics like, exactly? What kind of dice do you roll, for example? I'm curious about Torchbearer.

    Hitting the broken computer does not fix the broken computer. Fixing the broken computer, fixes the broken computer.
  • AegeriAegeri Tiny wee bacteriums Plateau of LengRegistered User regular
    Hmm, I have to say that Trails mechanics are much more appealing to me than traditional Call of Cthulhu mechanics. The overall logic in how this games system works is making me wonder if I shouldn't consider moving my current two Delta Green games from CoC to ToC. Partly because ToC does things that I want to do more accurately than CoC, but without the punishing failure mechanics built into CoC (So I don't need to Xanatos roulette clues).

    I am really keen to try this out now.

    The Roleplayer's Guild: My blog for roleplaying games, advice and adventuring.
  • VanguardVanguard But now the dream is over. And the insect is awake.Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    edited August 2013
    What are the Torchbearer mechanics like, exactly? What kind of dice do you roll, for example? I'm curious about Torchbearer.

    Torchbearer is basically Mouseguard with a few advanced systems.

    If you're not familiar with that game, let me break it down. Everything in this game falls into a Skill, Ability, or Nature. Skills cover everything from Cook to Fighter to Survivalist. Abilities are the raw physical and mental stats in the game and there are only two: Health and Will. Nature is based in your race. Humans, for example, have a Nature of Boasting, Demanding, and Running. Any time a situation arises where one of those might apply (Tricking someone, running away from a dragon), and you don't have the appropriate skill, roll Nature.

    So what exactly do you roll? Pools of d6s. No other dice get used. If you have a Fighter skill of 4, that means you roll four dice. Other players can also help, adding +1D with an appropriate skill.

    There are other things mechanical things like Traits and Wises (knowledge skills used to gain a +1D benefit), but I won't go into those now.

    The game also used some story game elements. You write beliefs, instincts, and goals. If you play up or against them, you earn fate or persona, which allow you to modify your dice pools.

    The game breaks down conflict into many different categories, like Kill, Capture, Drive-Off, and Convince. Each team scripts actions in volleys of three as does the GM. The conflict system is kind if rock-paper-scissors, but between four different actions: attack, defend, maneuver, and feint. It's up to you to narrate what these look like in the situation (and should reflect the type of conflict), but Attack is a vs. test against Defend. Feint is the sneak attack action, and played against certain tests, denies them if a role, etc.

    The game is also big about conditions. Every four turns, you pick up a condition like Hungry & Thirsty, Exhausted, etc. These affect how many dice you roll, whether or not you can call on wises etc. they can be remedied in the Camp phase (the game breaks down I to three phases: adventure, camp, and town).

    Basically, it is a game about the challenges of dungeon crawling. It uses a very stream-lined, but specific inventory system, and it is about weathering conditions to rise above the life of a murder-hobo.

    Vanguard on
  • ArdentArdent Down UpsideRegistered User regular
    OptimusZed wrote: »
    Ardent wrote: »
    OptimusZed wrote: »
    My Dresden Files (formerly Star Wars Saga) group is having a debate via email on the objective value of "awesomeness" of one of our PCs getting dropped into a coma during the very first scene of the game.

    I have to say, I would hate to be that player. Absolutely hate it. Like, potentially ragequit hate. But it did an excellent job of illustrating the stakes of combat when these particular antagonists are involved, and it very effectively set the tone for a more survivalist style game than the cowboy shoot-em-ups we usually play.
    Dresden Files isn't quite an L5R-esque "NOBODY WILL GET OUT ALIVE" meatwagon-on-text, but it's pretty unforgiving. A single bad die roll can render a character unplayable, and it's almost never a straight up death so the loss of character can be even more wrenching.

    It's somewhat different from standard FATE that way, but I think it really brings home the "oh shit" nature of the setting that pervades the lives of even the more powerful individuals (i.e. Harry Dresden). There's also the added benefit that if your GM is game, most of those "unplayables" are recoverable if the group works for it (de-railing whatever else was on tap, of course).
    The last game we were playing was Spirit of the Century, so the lethality level was completely different.

    The longer version of the story is that part of our opening scene was the former-cop PI who talks to ghosts alone at his office when he heard (and then saw) a domestic violence incident across the street and ran out to break it up. It should be noted that I had just finished a short sequence where my character finds a runaway on the street and helps him to a shelter run by my ex-wife, so we were all kind of expecting early character development.

    So our guy hits the street and pulls the man off the woman he was preparing to strike only to be assaulted by the woman (revealed to be a black court vampire) and her two cronies that were hiding some distance away. The guy was a dupe to draw out the investigator, and a crowd is gathering that the vamps are threatening to eat unless the investigator "stay(s) and play(s)." A battle ensues that the PC is woefully underpowered to properly participate in and ends with the player offering a concession of "unconscious with his guts hanging out" only to be told that he'll be eaten or turned if he goes out that way. So he instead winds up with "hotwires a car and crashes one of the vamps through a building, car catches fire, she dies he is in a coma."

    I suppose he could have just run like hell, but that wouldn't have been very heroic or remotely in character. So now he's in the hospital and the player is running an (admittedly badass) NPC ex-con priest from the local youth center until we can get the guy back on his feet.

    Sounds like the rest of the party needs to go on a risky mission to recruit a wizard willing to break the Laws of Magic, invade the coma victim's mind, and bring him back to the land of the conscious.
    Yep. That's how DFPRPG works and it's fucking great. I also like that your GM didn't waste his time and let him jump right back in with a temp character. That's also good. Keeps anyone from getting bored. Sometimes people like the temps more than the originals, so even if you rescue the original, they just drop to temp status.

    Sort of a crude simulacrum of how Harry has an ally mix-and-match program going.

    Steam ID | Origin ID: ArdentX | Uplay ID: theardent | Battle.net: Ardent#11476
  • Grunt's GhostsGrunt's Ghosts Registered User regular
    Ardent wrote: »
    OptimusZed wrote: »
    Ardent wrote: »
    OptimusZed wrote: »
    My Dresden Files (formerly Star Wars Saga) group is having a debate via email on the objective value of "awesomeness" of one of our PCs getting dropped into a coma during the very first scene of the game.

    I have to say, I would hate to be that player. Absolutely hate it. Like, potentially ragequit hate. But it did an excellent job of illustrating the stakes of combat when these particular antagonists are involved, and it very effectively set the tone for a more survivalist style game than the cowboy shoot-em-ups we usually play.
    Dresden Files isn't quite an L5R-esque "NOBODY WILL GET OUT ALIVE" meatwagon-on-text, but it's pretty unforgiving. A single bad die roll can render a character unplayable, and it's almost never a straight up death so the loss of character can be even more wrenching.

    It's somewhat different from standard FATE that way, but I think it really brings home the "oh shit" nature of the setting that pervades the lives of even the more powerful individuals (i.e. Harry Dresden). There's also the added benefit that if your GM is game, most of those "unplayables" are recoverable if the group works for it (de-railing whatever else was on tap, of course).
    The last game we were playing was Spirit of the Century, so the lethality level was completely different.

    The longer version of the story is that part of our opening scene was the former-cop PI who talks to ghosts alone at his office when he heard (and then saw) a domestic violence incident across the street and ran out to break it up. It should be noted that I had just finished a short sequence where my character finds a runaway on the street and helps him to a shelter run by my ex-wife, so we were all kind of expecting early character development.

    So our guy hits the street and pulls the man off the woman he was preparing to strike only to be assaulted by the woman (revealed to be a black court vampire) and her two cronies that were hiding some distance away. The guy was a dupe to draw out the investigator, and a crowd is gathering that the vamps are threatening to eat unless the investigator "stay(s) and play(s)." A battle ensues that the PC is woefully underpowered to properly participate in and ends with the player offering a concession of "unconscious with his guts hanging out" only to be told that he'll be eaten or turned if he goes out that way. So he instead winds up with "hotwires a car and crashes one of the vamps through a building, car catches fire, she dies he is in a coma."

    I suppose he could have just run like hell, but that wouldn't have been very heroic or remotely in character. So now he's in the hospital and the player is running an (admittedly badass) NPC ex-con priest from the local youth center until we can get the guy back on his feet.

    Sounds like the rest of the party needs to go on a risky mission to recruit a wizard willing to break the Laws of Magic, invade the coma victim's mind, and bring him back to the land of the conscious.
    Yep. That's how DFPRPG works and it's fucking great. I also like that your GM didn't waste his time and let him jump right back in with a temp character. That's also good. Keeps anyone from getting bored. Sometimes people like the temps more than the originals, so even if you rescue the original, they just drop to temp status.

    Sort of a crude simulacrum of how Harry has an ally mix-and-match program going.

    Yeah, reading the newest book, I'm seeing Murphy less and less then in the start of the books. Characters like Toot and Butters is getting more page time this go around, which is... oddly cool. Not that I don't love them, but Murphy is one of my favorite characters in the series. I'm going to have to pick up DFPRPG next paycheck. Too bad the nearest gaming store is an hour and half away.

  • Professor PhobosProfessor Phobos Registered User regular
    Aegeri wrote: »
    Hmm, I have to say that Trails mechanics are much more appealing to me than traditional Call of Cthulhu mechanics. The overall logic in how this games system works is making me wonder if I shouldn't consider moving my current two Delta Green games from CoC to ToC. Partly because ToC does things that I want to do more accurately than CoC, but without the punishing failure mechanics built into CoC (So I don't need to Xanatos roulette clues).

    I am really keen to try this out now.

    If you're using Trail of Delta Green, it might be helpful to pick up one or both of Night's Black Agents and The Esoterrorists, 2nd Edition- they're GUMSHOE in the modern day and have various modern forensic skills, tradecraft, gear, etc, ready for you.

    If you're converting from CoC to ToC (which I endorse; I like both but have grown to prefer Trail for most purposes) just remember Trail is still incredibly deadly; it doesn't look it, but it's easily as lethal as Call of Cthulhu.

  • AegeriAegeri Tiny wee bacteriums Plateau of LengRegistered User regular
    It's really tempting due to getting free PDFs of all of these things when I buy them as well.

    Will certainly be starting a PBP game of it now. Probably put up the thread next week.

    The Roleplayer's Guild: My blog for roleplaying games, advice and adventuring.
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