What I want out of the druid (and honestly, many other classes) is a person who is magical but not a spellcaster
Yeah, they can talk to the trees and turn into a bear, there's no question that they have some level of supernatural ability
But their magic is not rote magic, it's something else
So D&D 5E-REDUX has two options to go about making a Druid. The first is taking the Green Mage basic archetype for the Mage class, which gives you access to nature spells and a variety of nature-based abilities (talk to animals and later on plants as well). The second is my Primalist class, which instead of having spellcasting uses the Incarnum sub-system from 3.5 (in which you bind the spirits of monsters to grant yourself abilities) and has basic archetypes which have abilities like wildshape, beast companions, and other classic Druid abilities.
Zonugal on
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gavindelThe reason all your softwareis brokenRegistered Userregular
My campaign is close to ending. The players have sabotaged a would-be lich, escaped the Underdark, possibly sparked the start of World War !2, saved the king of !France, "escaped" the Fae Queen, built an airship, and sailed to the New World. One part of ending the campaign is that they're almost to the City of Angels with their package - the fetch quest complete. Another is the fact that I have trouble challenging parties in DND as they reach the higher levels.
Today's encounter was being attack by a helicopter full of Mad Max style Detroit hooligans. Yeet cannon to shoot guys over, dabs and memes, pop culture references...an ambush by (gasp!) Youth Culture!
This worked great for flavor. Mad Max heavy metal, Terry Crews showing up as the pilot, etc. Mechanically? About as challenging as Wisconsin cheese. Frustrating how the fine line between "enough damage to test the party" and "a TPK with a handful of rolls" is so slim in this system.
MrMonroepassed outon the floor nowRegistered Userregular
TIL that my best friend's long time girlfriend, who has been playing board games with us for like two years now, has thought this entire time that when we say, "worker placement", we've been saying, "work replacement"
TIL that my best friend's long time girlfriend, who has been playing board games with us for like two years now, has thought this entire time that when we say, "worker placement", we've been saying, "work replacement"
First, how dare she, and second, ok fair
I confess that's what I heard the first time somebody said it too.
webguy20I spend too much time on the InternetRegistered Userregular
Had my first legitimate player death as a DM. strategically it was probably sound. A player died but they most likely avoided a TPK by focusing on the enemies. They were only level 3 but were still broken up about it a bit.
Had my first legitimate player death as a DM. strategically it was probably sound. A player died but they most likely avoided a TPK by focusing on the enemies. They were only level 3 but were still broken up about it a bit.
It’s tough when a player dies regardless of what level their character is... but I guess it’s good that your group is taking it so well.
So my tiny rules light game is now fable and fairy tale themed, with the following classes, such as they are:
The Knight, The Wise, The Jack, The Beast, The Fairest, The Heir, The Exile, The Cold, The Dancer, The Omen, and The Star.
With the main caveat being you swap classes completely whenever you hit a story beat. So you might start out as the Knight (I have a mission to accomplish) which leads you to become Cold (something awful has filled me up and is spilling out) and end up as the Dancer (I accept myself but avoid consequences).
Aragon from Lord of the Rings in this set up could be Exile as a ranger > Wise to the hobbits > Knight of the fellowship > Heir to the crown of man.
Anyways, on topic, the last character I had die was in my Glamjin’s Tower of Glory game, and it was HELLA RAD. The player @Grog was a skeleton demon prince and they died single handily fending off an army of corrupt fae so their pals could escape.
So my tiny rules light game is now fable and fairy tale themed, with the following classes, such as they are:
The Knight, The Wise, The Jack, The Beast, The Fairest, The Heir, The Exile, The Cold, The Dancer, The Omen, and The Star.
This just makes me think of an RPG designed around a tarot deck.
I mean, that's such an obvious idea that I'm sure it's already been done a dozen times, but still.
Everyone gets a deck to represent their character. The Minor Arcana are your attributes - the suits are your stats, draw or pick a card of each suit and that's your attribute in that stat; make decks from the remaining cards of each suit and draw from those decks whenever you have to test a stat (so you draw through all the values of a suit before you reshuffle the suit's deck). Draw or pick from the Major Arcana, that's your class; the remaining Major Arcana are used to trigger special abilities, as narrative currency, or what have you.
BRB, drawing up the plans for a Kickstarter.
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I've seen it around a bit, yeah. The first example that pops to mind is Royal Blood, a game in which the face card players attempt to heist the magical power away from a member of the major arcana - essentially stealing godhood for themselves.
Ah, of course, it would be a Rowan, Rook and Decard high-concept game.
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
It's... interesting. Like a lot of Grant Howitt's games, I don't think it really provides enough information for the GM. Which for me makes it less of a game and more of a collection of cool ideas, especially given its freeform and high concept nature.
It's... interesting. Like a lot of Grant Howitt's games, I don't think it really provides enough information for the GM. Which for me makes it less of a game and more of a collection of cool ideas, especially given its freeform and high concept nature.
Yeah, I think a lot of his games are like a sprint following a burst of inspiration, without as much supporting framework around that as you'd want.
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I think one of the casting classes in Deadlands uses a real deck of cards
I don't know the current version or anything, but Deadlands has regularly used playing cards throughout the game.
Personally I don't think the mechanic that cards provide really suits the sort of action that they're going for there, but I'm also extremely grouchy about the fact that playing cards are inextricably associated with the Wild West, despite being a core component of western society since the middle ages.
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Huckster is the best and most interesting bit of Deadlands
Hoyle was actually a wizard, and he coded his magic into his book of games, and utilizing magic/hexes involves communicating mentally with spirits and beating them at games of skill or cunning, for which Hoyle preferred Poker
So PC Hucksters have essentially figured out the coded diagrams and spells in Hoyle's Book of Games, and use that with playing cards to manipulate spirits into creating hexes
Really though, I don't have a ton of knowledge of the setting, which makes it a little harder to play around with standard character types the way it would be for me in something like D&D. But I do have...some knowledge of vampire cliches and I, you know, don't really want to play a sexy dracula, or whatever, and I think...someone who makes it his business to know secrets would be an interesting person to turn loose in a world extremely built on secrecy.
The game asks you some interesting questions in character creation, like...trying to figure out what ties this asshole to humanity is definitely a tougher question than I'd anticipated, and is maybe making him a little more noble than I'd anticipated? Like, I went from, "maybe this guy's like Mark Zuckerberg if he got turned into a vampire between when he uploaded that hot or not website and when he actually built facebook, AKA an immoral dweeb asshole," to, "maybe this guy's like...he's definitely the kind of person that would have uploaded Hulk Hogan's sextape because it's got Hulk Hogan saying a bunch of racist shit on it," like, someone with some sort of moral principles who is also kind of an asshole? I think probably it's somewhere in between, but I generally don't have to think of this sort of thing when I'm making, like, a culturally appropriative human noble who loves elf culture too much.
Really though, I don't have a ton of knowledge of the setting, which makes it a little harder to play around with standard character types the way it would be for me in something like D&D. But I do have...some knowledge of vampire cliches and I, you know, don't really want to play a sexy dracula, or whatever, and I think...someone who makes it his business to know secrets would be an interesting person to turn loose in a world extremely built on secrecy.
The game asks you some interesting questions in character creation, like...trying to figure out what ties this asshole to humanity is definitely a tougher question than I'd anticipated, and is maybe making him a little more noble than I'd anticipated? Like, I went from, "maybe this guy's like Mark Zuckerberg if he got turned into a vampire between when he uploaded that hot or not website and when he actually built facebook, AKA an immoral dweeb asshole," to, "maybe this guy's like...he's definitely the kind of person that would have uploaded Hulk Hogan's sextape because it's got Hulk Hogan saying a bunch of racist shit on it," like, someone with some sort of moral principles who is also kind of an asshole? I think probably it's somewhere in between, but I generally don't have to think of this sort of thing when I'm making, like, a culturally appropriative human noble who loves elf culture too much.
Easy answer: Nosferatu
Hard answer: Ventrue
Secret correct answer: Brujah
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
I feel like a nice thing about Vampire (and some of the other World/Chronicles of Darkness games) is that you don't need to invest a lot of energy in coming up with some kind of gimmick if you don't want to. You can jst come up with a regular-ass person from a regular walk of life and go "boom, now you're a vampire/werewoof/whatever. What do you do now?" and you've got an interesting story hook.
Hmm so my next D&D character is going to be a Loxadon Paladin. I have a solid back story set but I have no idea what kind of mount shows up when I cast Summon Steed? Whats even big enough?
I was tasked with making a character for a game of Vampire the Masquerade and I created a gossip blogger named Melvin
Make sure you speak only in clickbait headline form like the worst possible Etrigan the Demon.
"The Prince of town had sent a sext - you won't believe what happened next!"
"We interviewed the Tremere Justicar
in his illustrious New York haven
to get his predictions about the Red Star.
You will be shocked by number seven!"
Hmm so my next D&D character is going to be a Loxadon Paladin. I have a solid back story set but I have no idea what kind of mount shows up when I cast Summon Steed? Whats even big enough?
A regular-sized pony. Find Steed indicates the mount is “unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal” so you could lean into that if you wanted to.
Hmm so my next D&D character is going to be a Loxadon Paladin. I have a solid back story set but I have no idea what kind of mount shows up when I cast Summon Steed? Whats even big enough?
Giant tortoise on roller skates
[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
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DepressperadoI just wanted to see you laughingin the pizza rainRegistered Userregular
I've always played the New Guy in World of Darkness games, because I haven't read much of the lore and stuff, so I can approach everything like it's fresh and new.
also if you're a nerd and have any amount of game, a Vampire LARP is the place to go, I've never been to one around here that wasn't like, 3 to 1 ladies to dudes.
Watching the Mandalorian is giving me a real strong urge to finally try out Edge of the Empire. I assume that's probably the best of the three for emulating the feel of the show?
Watching the Mandalorian is giving me a real strong urge to finally try out Edge of the Empire. I assume that's probably the best of the three for emulating the feel of the show?
There's a video of the PA crew playing Edge of the Empire at a PAX, it seems like a fun system.
Watching the Mandalorian is giving me a real strong urge to finally try out Edge of the Empire. I assume that's probably the best of the three for emulating the feel of the show?
Yup. To really get the show you probably want to leave most of the other stuff out as it feels firmly just in the Edge sphere. (Yes, Boda has force stuff but he really wouldn't be a PC so much as a walking Obligation.)
Watching the Mandalorian is giving me a real strong urge to finally try out Edge of the Empire. I assume that's probably the best of the three for emulating the feel of the show?
Hmm so my next D&D character is going to be a Loxadon Paladin. I have a solid back story set but I have no idea what kind of mount shows up when I cast Summon Steed? Whats even big enough?
Watching the Mandalorian is giving me a real strong urge to finally try out Edge of the Empire. I assume that's probably the best of the three for emulating the feel of the show?
Yeah, Edge of the Empire is for running games of smugglers, bounty hunters, and other folks living on the fringes of galactic society.
Age of Rebellion is Rebels vs Imperials.
Force & Destiny is everyone being Force-users.
If you're new to the system I would recommend nobody start with any Force Rating, because the Force powers are a whole extra chapter of rules and stuff that nobody needs to understand if they stent using the Force powers. Let everyone get used to how the dice system works, how to do personal and ship combat, etc., and then if they want to they can buy into a Force Rating-providing specialization later on.
My group just wrapped up our Tomb of Annihilation campaign
I've proposed that we give Blades in the Dark a shot next instead of going right back to more DnD, and I've offered to run it (and will probably be the only one who'll have read much of the rules). A lot of stuff about DnD frustrates me so I'm excited to try another system. Nervous though because I've never GM'd before or really played an RP heavy game. Don't really know how well I'll do with the needed improvisation and creativity, but gotta just dive right in to get a feel for it.
No idea how it'll go with the group. When I first brought up playing a game other than DnD the response I got was "what, like Pathfinder?", so they definitely don't have much of a sense of what else is out there in tabletop. Not a very character narrative focused group (one is a very min maxer mechanics focused player), so it may end up being a total flop. I'll have to do a lot of focused prodding at people for contributions to hopefully get them in the right mindset.
Watching the Mandalorian is giving me a real strong urge to finally try out Edge of the Empire. I assume that's probably the best of the three for emulating the feel of the show?
Yeah, Edge of the Empire is for running games of smugglers, bounty hunters, and other folks living on the fringes of galactic society.
Age of Rebellion is Rebels vs Imperials.
Force & Destiny is everyone being Force-users.
If you're new to the system I would recommend nobody start with any Force Rating, because the Force powers are a whole extra chapter of rules and stuff that nobody needs to understand if they stent using the Force powers. Let everyone get used to how the dice system works, how to do personal and ship combat, etc., and then if they want to they can buy into a Force Rating-providing specialization later on.
Yeah one of the things I really like about the show is how little Force-use there is. Makes it feel a lot more grounded and makes the Force itself seem much more mystical. Plus after playing D&D 5E up to level 15 (by the time I wrap the campaign), I think it'll be a nice break for my players to not have to deal with a bunch of magic powers for a while.
What's the general consensus on the Edge of the Empire beginner box? That's all I have at this point and I'm hoping it's a decent introduction to see if we'll click with the system.
Posts
So D&D 5E-REDUX has two options to go about making a Druid. The first is taking the Green Mage basic archetype for the Mage class, which gives you access to nature spells and a variety of nature-based abilities (talk to animals and later on plants as well). The second is my Primalist class, which instead of having spellcasting uses the Incarnum sub-system from 3.5 (in which you bind the spirits of monsters to grant yourself abilities) and has basic archetypes which have abilities like wildshape, beast companions, and other classic Druid abilities.
Today's encounter was being attack by a helicopter full of Mad Max style Detroit hooligans. Yeet cannon to shoot guys over, dabs and memes, pop culture references...an ambush by (gasp!) Youth Culture!
This worked great for flavor. Mad Max heavy metal, Terry Crews showing up as the pilot, etc. Mechanically? About as challenging as Wisconsin cheese. Frustrating how the fine line between "enough damage to test the party" and "a TPK with a handful of rolls" is so slim in this system.
First, how dare she, and second, ok fair
I confess that's what I heard the first time somebody said it too.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
It’s tough when a player dies regardless of what level their character is... but I guess it’s good that your group is taking it so well.
The Knight, The Wise, The Jack, The Beast, The Fairest, The Heir, The Exile, The Cold, The Dancer, The Omen, and The Star.
With the main caveat being you swap classes completely whenever you hit a story beat. So you might start out as the Knight (I have a mission to accomplish) which leads you to become Cold (something awful has filled me up and is spilling out) and end up as the Dancer (I accept myself but avoid consequences).
Aragon from Lord of the Rings in this set up could be Exile as a ranger > Wise to the hobbits > Knight of the fellowship > Heir to the crown of man.
Anyways, on topic, the last character I had die was in my Glamjin’s Tower of Glory game, and it was HELLA RAD. The player @Grog was a skeleton demon prince and they died single handily fending off an army of corrupt fae so their pals could escape.
I mean, that's such an obvious idea that I'm sure it's already been done a dozen times, but still.
Everyone gets a deck to represent their character. The Minor Arcana are your attributes - the suits are your stats, draw or pick a card of each suit and that's your attribute in that stat; make decks from the remaining cards of each suit and draw from those decks whenever you have to test a stat (so you draw through all the values of a suit before you reshuffle the suit's deck). Draw or pick from the Major Arcana, that's your class; the remaining Major Arcana are used to trigger special abilities, as narrative currency, or what have you.
BRB, drawing up the plans for a Kickstarter.
I don't know the current version or anything, but Deadlands has regularly used playing cards throughout the game.
Personally I don't think the mechanic that cards provide really suits the sort of action that they're going for there, but I'm also extremely grouchy about the fact that playing cards are inextricably associated with the Wild West, despite being a core component of western society since the middle ages.
Hoyle was actually a wizard, and he coded his magic into his book of games, and utilizing magic/hexes involves communicating mentally with spirits and beating them at games of skill or cunning, for which Hoyle preferred Poker
So PC Hucksters have essentially figured out the coded diagrams and spells in Hoyle's Book of Games, and use that with playing cards to manipulate spirits into creating hexes
The game asks you some interesting questions in character creation, like...trying to figure out what ties this asshole to humanity is definitely a tougher question than I'd anticipated, and is maybe making him a little more noble than I'd anticipated? Like, I went from, "maybe this guy's like Mark Zuckerberg if he got turned into a vampire between when he uploaded that hot or not website and when he actually built facebook, AKA an immoral dweeb asshole," to, "maybe this guy's like...he's definitely the kind of person that would have uploaded Hulk Hogan's sextape because it's got Hulk Hogan saying a bunch of racist shit on it," like, someone with some sort of moral principles who is also kind of an asshole? I think probably it's somewhere in between, but I generally don't have to think of this sort of thing when I'm making, like, a culturally appropriative human noble who loves elf culture too much.
Easy answer: Nosferatu
Hard answer: Ventrue
Secret correct answer: Brujah
Make sure you speak only in clickbait headline form like the worst possible Etrigan the Demon.
Hammer Horror fan who goes all in with the Christopher Lee vibe and can't believe their luck that vampires exist
University astronomy lecturer who teaches at night "so we can look at the stars in their natural environment" and preys on frat houses
Uber driver, uses Mesmerise to get invited to parties and also to get 5* ratings
Ex tax inspector who preys on business owners who avoid taxes (bit of self-insert wish fulfilment there)
either gonna get to play my first session as Milo Beansworth, Boy Detective
or do a session 0 for my new campaign, THE CURSE OF THE NECROMANCER'S DOOM
depending on whether or not my friend prepares
"We interviewed the Tremere Justicar
in his illustrious New York haven
to get his predictions about the Red Star.
You will be shocked by number seven!"
A regular-sized pony. Find Steed indicates the mount is “unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal” so you could lean into that if you wanted to.
Giant tortoise on roller skates
also if you're a nerd and have any amount of game, a Vampire LARP is the place to go, I've never been to one around here that wasn't like, 3 to 1 ladies to dudes.
There's a video of the PA crew playing Edge of the Empire at a PAX, it seems like a fun system.
Yup. To really get the show you probably want to leave most of the other stuff out as it feels firmly just in the Edge sphere. (Yes, Boda has force stuff but he really wouldn't be a PC so much as a walking Obligation.)
Yes indeed. It's great.
An even bigger elephant
Yeah, Edge of the Empire is for running games of smugglers, bounty hunters, and other folks living on the fringes of galactic society.
Age of Rebellion is Rebels vs Imperials.
Force & Destiny is everyone being Force-users.
If you're new to the system I would recommend nobody start with any Force Rating, because the Force powers are a whole extra chapter of rules and stuff that nobody needs to understand if they stent using the Force powers. Let everyone get used to how the dice system works, how to do personal and ship combat, etc., and then if they want to they can buy into a Force Rating-providing specialization later on.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Star Trek RPG, more Infinity RPG, more Ryuutama, Edge of the Empire... whole bunch of other rad stuff
would also love to try Monsterhearts sometime
I've proposed that we give Blades in the Dark a shot next instead of going right back to more DnD, and I've offered to run it (and will probably be the only one who'll have read much of the rules). A lot of stuff about DnD frustrates me so I'm excited to try another system. Nervous though because I've never GM'd before or really played an RP heavy game. Don't really know how well I'll do with the needed improvisation and creativity, but gotta just dive right in to get a feel for it.
No idea how it'll go with the group. When I first brought up playing a game other than DnD the response I got was "what, like Pathfinder?", so they definitely don't have much of a sense of what else is out there in tabletop. Not a very character narrative focused group (one is a very min maxer mechanics focused player), so it may end up being a total flop. I'll have to do a lot of focused prodding at people for contributions to hopefully get them in the right mindset.
PSN: Robo_Wizard1
Yeah one of the things I really like about the show is how little Force-use there is. Makes it feel a lot more grounded and makes the Force itself seem much more mystical. Plus after playing D&D 5E up to level 15 (by the time I wrap the campaign), I think it'll be a nice break for my players to not have to deal with a bunch of magic powers for a while.
What's the general consensus on the Edge of the Empire beginner box? That's all I have at this point and I'm hoping it's a decent introduction to see if we'll click with the system.