That would probably in part be the result of our differing sampled audiences. I haven't known too many experienced players IRL... a handful, at best. And they really do instill an appreciation for the finer things.
Ninja edit: A lot of the time the things I like that DMs don't get "just right" end up being fulfilled through fiction.
That would probably in part be the result of our differing sampled audiences. I haven't known too many experienced players IRL... a handful, at best. And they really do instill an appreciation for the finer things.
I've only recently come to appreciate the aspects of less powerful games, a lot of which comes from DMing a d20 Modern game for over a year. With spellcasting limited to a max of level 5, all those little spells no one considers when they play high level, like entangle and hideous laughter suddenly become a real force in combat- and skills become so much more relevant. I really like that, it makes it feel like you are rewarded for doing more than building to damage potential and "doing the impossible." Sometimes it's more fun to be the Batman, the Solid Snake, or the Indiana Jones than it is to be the Gandalf or the Elminster or the Goku.
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[16:23] Alacar Leoricar: maybe if you do it'll make the porn more meaningful
You're definitely right there. All the same, what I really like the most about starting small is appreciating those aspects of lower-level play that are generally neglected, but also participating in a campaign that is long enough that you grow past that point. It makes gaining more powerful abilities all the more exciting.
For me, plot is probably the most important aspect of a game in order for it to be potentially enjoyable. I hate dungeon crawling. And there are a lot of settings that I just don't like at all. The DM that manages to tell a really good story that has a really epic feel is the one that I aim for.
For me, plot is probably the most important aspect of a game in order for it to be potentially enjoyable. I hate dungeon crawling. And there are a lot of settings that I just don't like at all. The DM that manages to tell a really good story that has a really epic feel is the one that I aim for.
I like dungeon crawling, but not in the traditional sense. I like the whole infiltration and puzzle solving aspect. In Mamelon's Blackthorn, we played through one of my favorite sessions ever that was primarily dungeon crawling.
My character, Royce, and Josh's druid character were helping two other characters chase after a couple of children who had been abducted by a Sidhe noble and taken into an old manor. We took a wrong turn, and we were dropped into a series of tunnels beneath the manor's basement, and we had to work our way through, sneaking past all sorts of creatures. I had to really use my powers and skills to get by- stealth to avoid being seen, using Sound Shaping to distract enemies, Light Bending to see in dark areas and to cloak us in areas where sneaking just wouldn't work, sharp-shooting with my pistols to hit a few hard to reach stalactites and drop them down to create a walkway... Josh's character was always busy molding the paths open with earth shaping and reallocating the air in the tunnels to keep us from suffocating, and using his wards to keep away anything worse than a stray fey, and both of us had to use our skills to navigate out. We didn't fight a single time, most of the roleplaying was just single lines of communication ("Alright, keep quiet, I'll cloak us and we'll run through", or "watch my back while I cut open a new tunnel"), but it was awesome. To be fair, the characters had butted heads since they first met, so it was only natural that they be a little cold with each other- and in such a dire situation, conversation was not entirely appropriate, but it was hardly a story-heavy session.
That said, though, the bulk of the campaign is narrativist in nature (very much so, actually, and wonderfully done at that), but the times we've dungeon crawled have been great.
I don't really like the traditional dungeon crawls TOO much, but once in a while they can be a lot of fun. Everyone likes a little low-brow beer and pretzels gaming now and again, so long as I keep get to spinning my grand cosmic soap operas the rest of the time.
And there are a lot of settings that I just don't like at all.
Me too. Let's just say there are some realms I think really should just be forgotten.
But not Ravenloft!
Well, anyway, jerkwads, I need to get packed for work this week, and then get a good night's sleep. I'll be back Thursday night, and hopefully Rook won't be dead when I return!
What the #$*@? How am I just discovering this place? I'd like to join, if possible.
For the race and/or class... How about a Level 25 Neutral Evil Half-Red Dragon Demonic Barbeque Chef? (A refrence to Caex, in case you missed that conversation in the Godslayer War character thread.)
Everything scares me... kitties scare me... squirrels scare me... corpses....corpses bring forth a pletora of confusing feeling which i prefer not to dwell on...:p
Help has come in the form of a bit of basic algebra. I feel that it'll shed some light on your problem here.
Basically:
S + T = W
...S in this case stands for 'spam' and the T stands for 'light trolling'. And the W? That stands for 'Warning'. I love math. -- {mikeyG}
1) Butthead rule for critical failures on attack rolls: Roll 1d12. If it comes up 12, you die... 9-11 you break your weapon... Stuff like that.
2) Called shot -4 to attack roll. Broken as all hell.
3) Complete magic-psionics transparency.
Ya. I hate house rules.
Um, complete psionic-magic transparency is balanced like crazy. Anything else is a nightmare, believe me. Those other rules seem pretty silly and unfair, though.
Those house rules suck, especially the butthead rule. Seriously, who runs that garbage?! Weapons are supposed to be more durable than that....
That last one doesn't- and it's not even a house rule, that's the suggested and default rule for integrating psionics.
Seriously, that's the main reason people freak out about psionics, because at some point some dummy of a DM decided to toss out transparency and a lone psion ended up either sucking to high hell or taking over the world. Being able to work with existing FX rules in the game is a pretty vital thing.
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[16:23] Alacar Leoricar: maybe if you do it'll make the porn more meaningful
I have discovered the badness with not using complete transparency with magic and psionics. As Photon stated, it generally ends up with the psion utterly brokenating the game.
As for some house rules (some might be familiar to some of you)
-Any class may grab Weapon Specialization after 4th level. The reason for this is simple: if a wizard can have Specialization in Ray spells (read the Complete Arcane) the ranger should get it for her bow/whatever! The upper chain of Focus/Specialization is still fighter-only; and Weapon Supremacy is Fighter-only, no matter what your warblade level is. (That last part sucks, IMO. Not mine.)
-Clerics recieve proficiency in their deity's favored weapon. If you have the War domain, you get Specialization for free at 4th level in addition to Focus when you take the domain.
-Sorcerers recieve Eschew Material Components as a bonus feat at 1st level, and bonus metamagic or draconic heritage feat at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level. This keeps people interested in playing a sorcerer.
-Time Stop may be cast ONLY once per round. If anyone's interested in why I decreed this midcampaign, ask...the story's kind of funny.
Those are the good ones, the ones I use. These are some I've had to live with, and some of them make me rather sad.
-Anyone in any campaign may crit with a ray spell except Shalandra. (Okay, this one's understandable....I guess. :D)
-Martial adepts must submit a list of manuevers to the DM before character creation, and anyone who takes such gems as Pearl of Black Doubt, Iron Heart Surge, or White Raven Tactics will probably be told to go back and pick something else. Also, they're trying a spell slot type system because "martial adepts make casters look weak". WTF. No.
-No, you CAN'T play a psion. Psionics are broken because they can augment, when spellcasters cannot. >.< Okay, so I did an independent study on this...if you convert a sorcerer's spell slots into virtual power points, the sorcerer has about twice as many as the psion. The wizard has less than either, but they pay for that in utility. Play an erudite? I'd get kicked out!
-Polar Ray now offers a Fort save for half damage. Okay, so this is related to the epic campaign. Grr, but I hate it when you do it not only midcampaign, but midcombat...
Yeah, houserules. Some good, some bad, and some utterly incomprehensible.
And yes, no incantatrix for you. Or anyone. That class makes puppies cry. Mostly because they are the former Big Bads who have been Baleful Polymorphed into said puppies. By you. Because you're an incantatrix.
Quote from Yukora »
This is Deraxas we're talking about.
Remember, the girl that just killed an aspect of herself before literally consuming her?
Yeah, I don't see her handling a pissing match in any way other than a duel.
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Yes mistress...
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There are only so many epic, psuedonatural barbarian/blackguard half-dragon akutenshai vampire balor paragons they can throw at you, right?
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I suppose it's true. Though the logistics implied in a human/Great Wyrm Prismatic Dragon pairing makes me shudder.
...Something tells me that even should all arcane casters in the world unite, that the Grease spell would NOT be sufficient.
As for new folk games in the P&PI, Tanthalas has one going now but we already have a party established.. but maybe you can talk Tanth into a late addition
As for my favorite RPG.. tough one. I am really enjoying Gaean Guerrillas, when I can figure out what I need to roll/do I love the RPing element of it, really. Half-Life is great too, just a lot more combat oriented
As for regular games... I really enjoyed DQ8 when I was playing it, and Kingdom Hearts.. sadly both those games went down the drain when I lost my memory card... Chronotrigger was fun too.. I need to pick that up again, still have my file on that one.
Anyway, I'm rejoining. It'd look bad if one of the founders didn't come back to join with the clan invigorated like this. Thanks for everything, Alacar, by the way =)
For those of you who don't know me (shame on you), I'm Photon's significant other and a huge nut for console RPGs. Pretty much anything that isn't a Final Fantasy I'll love, and even some of those are alright. As for pen and paper, I highly enjoy 3.5 D&D and am hoping that 4e will live up to the hype. Currently I'm running a game with our playgroup called Bodhisattva Complex, which is ambitious even for me. If anyone is ever interested I can link to the Obsidian Portal page. I know Josh was talking about the Asura system at some point earlier in the thread - that's from Complex.
Anyway, I'm rejoining. It'd look bad if one of the founders didn't come back to join with the clan invigorated like this. Thanks for everything, Alacar, by the way =)
For those of you who don't know me (shame on you), I'm Photon's significant other and a huge nut for console RPGs. Pretty much anything that isn't a Final Fantasy I'll love, and even some of those are alright. As for pen and paper, I highly enjoy 3.5 D&D and am hoping that 4e will live up to the hype. Currently I'm running a game with our playgroup called Bodhisattva Complex, which is ambitious even for me. If anyone is ever interested I can link to the Obsidian Portal page. I know Josh was talking about the Asura system at some point earlier in the thread - that's from Complex.
Anyway, hi.
Yay! ethers back!!! I've been talking to photon in YM lately its nice to see you guys around MTGS more often now, and hey FFIV is getting a DS facelift, you HAVE to at least be happy for that
I gave photon a link to a 4E board, all the news you could ever hope for are there.
4e time: anyone seen the art for the book covers? the MM is kinda ugly, i LOVE the DMG and the PHB just lost all hope but at least hearing people's reaction to the art is hilarious
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Call me old fashioned, but an evil ascension to power just isn't the same without someone chanting faux Latin in the background.
Oreo, Glazing people better than Dunkin' Donuts since 2009
That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange eons even death may die.
Oh, I heard about FF4 DS a while back and it does look great. The decante system is unique and sounds really fun because I always wanted a singing Rydia or something, but I'm still holding out for Dragon Quest 4 DS to come to America. It's about time that series got the attention it deserves here in the states.
The designs for the 4e books don't really move me one way or the other, but I do enjoy the 3.5 book covers a lot.
Nobody's sure whether or not it's actually getting a US release, but I'm pretty certain that Square and their money-grubbing guarantees one.
I just finished Opoona for the Wii a while ago, and I have to say I loved it. A great, quirky RPG with some old school sensibility and a charm that rivals the Mother games. I wonder what Nintendo Power said about that, considering their questionable reviewing practices.
Anyway, I'm rejoining. It'd look bad if one of the founders didn't come back to join with the clan invigorated like this. Thanks for everything, Alacar, by the way =)
For those of you who don't know me (shame on you), I'm Photon's significant other and a huge nut for console RPGs. Pretty much anything that isn't a Final Fantasy I'll love, and even some of those are alright. As for pen and paper, I highly enjoy 3.5 D&D and am hoping that 4e will live up to the hype. Currently I'm running a game with our playgroup called Bodhisattva Complex, which is ambitious even for me. If anyone is ever interested I can link to the Obsidian Portal page. I know Josh was talking about the Asura system at some point earlier in the thread - that's from Complex.
Anyway, hi.
Hey ethersphere! Good to have ya back. I'll add you to the front page right away!
You're very welcome--I've been meaning to revive the clan anyways, but it never really panned out until Photon Eater finally returned. Then it just felt right.
You'll be happy to know that the Pen & Paper Inn has been flourishing.
I'm glad to see the Inn up and running. It saddens me more than a little that I never got a game to "stick" in there, but I guess my DM style isn't for everyone, heh. Thankfully I found a better venue for the Broken Mandala mythos in Bodhisattva Complex =)
Josh told me someone's running a Final Fantasy d20 game in there?
Yes indeed--Yuanti started the game, and we were running just fine, but Yuanti had issues on his IRL side and such, and the game's been put on indefinite hiatus until then.
I think the key for the games to keep rolling is 1) Making sure everyone is willing to devote time to it, and 2) Allowing the DM to DMPC any character that hasn't posted within a reasonable time (especially during combat). This works better when there are a lot of characters, but with a game like Half-Life, where there's only 2, I have to really just wait on them at times--I can only DMPC them so much before I'm just playing by myself.
I did end up having a lot of pacing issues. With such a large pool of potential players to work with it becomes really tough finding just the right party to work with your DMing style, so it can end up getting really frustrating. Josh, Mams and I tend to run really personalized, really tailored campaigns as well, and I find that some players just don't jive to that. I think the next time I run a campaign in there the party size will be four at the most.
EDIT: Hey there Little D! I haven't had time to read back through much because I'm bouncing between this and Romancing SaGa: MInstrel Song right now, but I'll get caught up eventually.
I'm glad to see the Inn up and running. It saddens me more than a little that I never got a game to "stick" in there, but I guess my DM style isn't for everyone, heh. Thankfully I found a better venue for the Broken Mandala mythos in Bodhisattva Complex =)
Josh told me someone's running a Final Fantasy d20 game in there?
Here I am, posting in your thread.
I'm glad to see this place up and running again. Even more so, it's great to see the Joshes and Mamelon return to MTGS.
On to the reason I replied:
I don't think it was your style that did it, I think we just had to figure out how to handle the online aspect of the game better. Several things have been ironed out in your all's absence from the forums, and it tends to make things run at a smoother rate.
What I can remember from your campaign, and what killed it, was initiative. We tried to post everything in initiative order, waiting for each person to post in turn. That simple doesn't work. Now, every just posts their actions, and if something changes before their spot that would change their actions, they submit new ones. In all, it really speeds things up, and keeps the campaign going.
Also, I would like to be a friend of the clan. Big suprise, I'm sure.
I don't think it was your style that did it, I think we just had to figure out how to handle the online aspect of the game better. Several things have been ironed out in your all's absence from the forums, and it tends to make things run at a smoother rate.
That's actually really nice to hear. I was worried that things would slow to such a crawl in the Inn that the place would disappear from the site, but now that things are running more smoothly I feel encouraged.
What I can remember from your campaign, and what killed it, was initiative. We tried to post everything in initiative order, waiting for each person to post in turn. That simple doesn't work. Now, every just posts their actions, and if something changes before their spot that would change their actions, they submit new ones. In all, it really speeds things up, and keeps the campaign going.
Yeah, battle in general was such a hurtle for me because it's very difficult to translate D&D's battle structure from the table to the forums and not lose something or screw something up. I'd spent a lot of time trying to figure out ways to make battle work differently for forum play, but nothing seemed to work well enough. One thing I already love about D&D 4e is that it'll make online play so much easier.
@Little D: I know you'll enjoy Minstrel Song. Its story isn't as grandiose as other RPGs, but it makes up for it with a hell of a lot of charm and some addictive gameplay mechanics.
The nice thing about Minstrel Song and most SaGa games (not SaGa frontier 2, though) is that you can finish a character, save your progress and forget about the game for a long time before coming back to it. I played through Minstrel Song twice before putting it down because it started to get really stale, but picking it up this week to kill time before Baroque came out, I found that everything seemed fresh again with the time off. SaGa games are great for that kind of play.
Minstrel Song is just like that, yeah. I think it has a lot of charm, even among the other SaGa games, because the story unfolds like an epic poem with your character as the figure of legend. The goal of every person's game is the same, but their stories are told differently depending on which quests you take and what personal interest the character has in certain goings-on in Mardias (the game world).
That's actually really nice to hear. I was worried that things would slow to such a crawl in the Inn that the place would disappear from the site, but now that things are running more smoothly I feel encouraged.
The Inn is booming with activity these days. Everyone seems to have worked together to find a system that just works.
Yeah, battle in general was such a hurtle for me because it's very difficult to translate D&D's battle structure from the table to the forums and not lose something or screw something up. I'd spent a lot of time trying to figure out ways to make battle work differently for forum play, but nothing seemed to work well enough. One thing I already love about D&D 4e is that it'll make online play so much easier.
We've pretty much thrown out the grid. The DM will give a basic view of the scene, and players post actions. If there is ever a question of how far something is, or the like, then a player can simply inquire about the situation with the DM. I've found that this technique has removed one of the most annoying transfers to forum play. It allows people to get into what is happening, and not get bogged down with how it fits the table-top aspect of the game.
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Ninja edit: A lot of the time the things I like that DMs don't get "just right" end up being fulfilled through fiction.
I've only recently come to appreciate the aspects of less powerful games, a lot of which comes from DMing a d20 Modern game for over a year. With spellcasting limited to a max of level 5, all those little spells no one considers when they play high level, like entangle and hideous laughter suddenly become a real force in combat- and skills become so much more relevant. I really like that, it makes it feel like you are rewarded for doing more than building to damage potential and "doing the impossible." Sometimes it's more fun to be the Batman, the Solid Snake, or the Indiana Jones than it is to be the Gandalf or the Elminster or the Goku.
For me, plot is probably the most important aspect of a game in order for it to be potentially enjoyable. I hate dungeon crawling. And there are a lot of settings that I just don't like at all. The DM that manages to tell a really good story that has a really epic feel is the one that I aim for.
I like dungeon crawling, but not in the traditional sense. I like the whole infiltration and puzzle solving aspect. In Mamelon's Blackthorn, we played through one of my favorite sessions ever that was primarily dungeon crawling.
My character, Royce, and Josh's druid character were helping two other characters chase after a couple of children who had been abducted by a Sidhe noble and taken into an old manor. We took a wrong turn, and we were dropped into a series of tunnels beneath the manor's basement, and we had to work our way through, sneaking past all sorts of creatures. I had to really use my powers and skills to get by- stealth to avoid being seen, using Sound Shaping to distract enemies, Light Bending to see in dark areas and to cloak us in areas where sneaking just wouldn't work, sharp-shooting with my pistols to hit a few hard to reach stalactites and drop them down to create a walkway... Josh's character was always busy molding the paths open with earth shaping and reallocating the air in the tunnels to keep us from suffocating, and using his wards to keep away anything worse than a stray fey, and both of us had to use our skills to navigate out. We didn't fight a single time, most of the roleplaying was just single lines of communication ("Alright, keep quiet, I'll cloak us and we'll run through", or "watch my back while I cut open a new tunnel"), but it was awesome. To be fair, the characters had butted heads since they first met, so it was only natural that they be a little cold with each other- and in such a dire situation, conversation was not entirely appropriate, but it was hardly a story-heavy session.
That said, though, the bulk of the campaign is narrativist in nature (very much so, actually, and wonderfully done at that), but the times we've dungeon crawled have been great.
I don't really like the traditional dungeon crawls TOO much, but once in a while they can be a lot of fun. Everyone likes a little low-brow beer and pretzels gaming now and again, so long as I keep get to spinning my grand cosmic soap operas the rest of the time.
Me too. Let's just say there are some realms I think really should just be forgotten.
But not Ravenloft!
Well, anyway, jerkwads, I need to get packed for work this week, and then get a good night's sleep. I'll be back Thursday night, and hopefully Rook won't be dead when I return!
For the race and/or class... How about a Level 25 Neutral Evil Half-Red Dragon Demonic Barbeque Chef? (A refrence to Caex, in case you missed that conversation in the Godslayer War character thread.)
{Magic: The RPG}
1) Butthead rule for critical failures on attack rolls: Roll 1d12. If it comes up 12, you die... 9-11 you break your weapon... Stuff like that.
2) Called shot -4 to attack roll. Broken as all hell.
3) Complete magic-psionics transparency.
Ya. I hate house rules.
Help has come in the form of a bit of basic algebra. I feel that it'll shed some light on your problem here.
Basically:
S + T = W
...S in this case stands for 'spam' and the T stands for 'light trolling'. And the W? That stands for 'Warning'. I love math. -- {mikeyG}
Those house rules suck, especially the butthead rule. Seriously, who runs that garbage?! Weapons are supposed to be more durable than that....
Um, complete psionic-magic transparency is balanced like crazy. Anything else is a nightmare, believe me. Those other rules seem pretty silly and unfair, though.
That last one doesn't- and it's not even a house rule, that's the suggested and default rule for integrating psionics.
Seriously, that's the main reason people freak out about psionics, because at some point some dummy of a DM decided to toss out transparency and a lone psion ended up either sucking to high hell or taking over the world. Being able to work with existing FX rules in the game is a pretty vital thing.
As for some house rules (some might be familiar to some of you)
-Any class may grab Weapon Specialization after 4th level. The reason for this is simple: if a wizard can have Specialization in Ray spells (read the Complete Arcane) the ranger should get it for her bow/whatever! The upper chain of Focus/Specialization is still fighter-only; and Weapon Supremacy is Fighter-only, no matter what your warblade level is. (That last part sucks, IMO. Not mine.)
-Clerics recieve proficiency in their deity's favored weapon. If you have the War domain, you get Specialization for free at 4th level in addition to Focus when you take the domain.
-Sorcerers recieve Eschew Material Components as a bonus feat at 1st level, and bonus metamagic or draconic heritage feat at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th level. This keeps people interested in playing a sorcerer.
-Time Stop may be cast ONLY once per round. If anyone's interested in why I decreed this midcampaign, ask...the story's kind of funny.
Those are the good ones, the ones I use. These are some I've had to live with, and some of them make me rather sad.
-Anyone in any campaign may crit with a ray spell except Shalandra. (Okay, this one's understandable....I guess. :D)
-Martial adepts must submit a list of manuevers to the DM before character creation, and anyone who takes such gems as Pearl of Black Doubt, Iron Heart Surge, or White Raven Tactics will probably be told to go back and pick something else. Also, they're trying a spell slot type system because "martial adepts make casters look weak". WTF. No.
-No, you CAN'T play a psion. Psionics are broken because they can augment, when spellcasters cannot. >.< Okay, so I did an independent study on this...if you convert a sorcerer's spell slots into virtual power points, the sorcerer has about twice as many as the psion. The wizard has less than either, but they pay for that in utility. Play an erudite? I'd get kicked out!
-Polar Ray now offers a Fort save for half damage. Okay, so this is related to the epic campaign. Grr, but I hate it when you do it not only midcampaign, but midcombat...
Yeah, houserules. Some good, some bad, and some utterly incomprehensible.
"I am in the arcane, and the arcane is in me."
Official Matron Mother of Clan Planar Chaos
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Deraxas, Dark Maiden of Shimia,, still oddly obsessed with a mindmage.
As for new folk games in the P&PI, Tanthalas has one going now but we already have a party established.. but maybe you can talk Tanth into a late addition
As for my favorite RPG.. tough one. I am really enjoying Gaean Guerrillas, when I can figure out what I need to roll/do
As for regular games... I really enjoyed DQ8 when I was playing it, and Kingdom Hearts.. sadly both those games went down the drain when I lost my memory card... Chronotrigger was fun too.. I need to pick that up again, still have my file on that one.
Magic Coffeehouse!
Come in, sit down, relax, get to know somebody!
Open Three and a Half Years as of October 19, 2009!
Banner by PurpleD and avatar/custom by Tanthalas
Hopefully you and Krash can get back into the swing of things, yeah?
Like freeform roleplaying? Try Darkness Befalls Us
Ryttare Kelasin Luna Orelinalei
Anyway, I'm rejoining. It'd look bad if one of the founders didn't come back to join with the clan invigorated like this. Thanks for everything, Alacar, by the way =)
For those of you who don't know me (shame on you), I'm Photon's significant other and a huge nut for console RPGs. Pretty much anything that isn't a Final Fantasy I'll love, and even some of those are alright. As for pen and paper, I highly enjoy 3.5 D&D and am hoping that 4e will live up to the hype. Currently I'm running a game with our playgroup called Bodhisattva Complex, which is ambitious even for me. If anyone is ever interested I can link to the Obsidian Portal page. I know Josh was talking about the Asura system at some point earlier in the thread - that's from Complex.
Anyway, hi.
Yay! ethers back!!! I've been talking to photon in YM lately its nice to see you guys around MTGS more often now, and hey FFIV is getting a DS facelift, you HAVE to at least be happy for that
I gave photon a link to a 4E board, all the news you could ever hope for are there.
4e time: anyone seen the art for the book covers? the MM is kinda ugly, i LOVE the DMG and the PHB just lost all hope but at least hearing people's reaction to the art is hilarious
The designs for the 4e books don't really move me one way or the other, but I do enjoy the 3.5 book covers a lot.
Magic Coffeehouse!
Come in, sit down, relax, get to know somebody!
Open Three and a Half Years as of October 19, 2009!
Banner by PurpleD and avatar/custom by Tanthalas
I just finished Opoona for the Wii a while ago, and I have to say I loved it. A great, quirky RPG with some old school sensibility and a charm that rivals the Mother games. I wonder what Nintendo Power said about that, considering their questionable reviewing practices.
You're very welcome--I've been meaning to revive the clan anyways, but it never really panned out until Photon Eater finally returned. Then it just felt right.
You'll be happy to know that the Pen & Paper Inn has been flourishing.
Like freeform roleplaying? Try Darkness Befalls Us
Ryttare Kelasin Luna Orelinalei
Josh told me someone's running a Final Fantasy d20 game in there?
I think the key for the games to keep rolling is 1) Making sure everyone is willing to devote time to it, and 2) Allowing the DM to DMPC any character that hasn't posted within a reasonable time (especially during combat). This works better when there are a lot of characters, but with a game like Half-Life, where there's only 2, I have to really just wait on them at times--I can only DMPC them so much before I'm just playing by myself.
Like freeform roleplaying? Try Darkness Befalls Us
Ryttare Kelasin Luna Orelinalei
EDIT: Hey there Little D! I haven't had time to read back through much because I'm bouncing between this and Romancing SaGa: MInstrel Song right now, but I'll get caught up eventually.
Here I am, posting in your thread.
I'm glad to see this place up and running again. Even more so, it's great to see the Joshes and Mamelon return to MTGS.
On to the reason I replied:
I don't think it was your style that did it, I think we just had to figure out how to handle the online aspect of the game better. Several things have been ironed out in your all's absence from the forums, and it tends to make things run at a smoother rate.
What I can remember from your campaign, and what killed it, was initiative. We tried to post everything in initiative order, waiting for each person to post in turn. That simple doesn't work. Now, every just posts their actions, and if something changes before their spot that would change their actions, they submit new ones. In all, it really speeds things up, and keeps the campaign going.
Also, I would like to be a friend of the clan. Big suprise, I'm sure.
That's actually really nice to hear. I was worried that things would slow to such a crawl in the Inn that the place would disappear from the site, but now that things are running more smoothly I feel encouraged.
Yeah, battle in general was such a hurtle for me because it's very difficult to translate D&D's battle structure from the table to the forums and not lose something or screw something up. I'd spent a lot of time trying to figure out ways to make battle work differently for forum play, but nothing seemed to work well enough. One thing I already love about D&D 4e is that it'll make online play so much easier.
@Little D: I know you'll enjoy Minstrel Song. Its story isn't as grandiose as other RPGs, but it makes up for it with a hell of a lot of charm and some addictive gameplay mechanics.
We've pretty much thrown out the grid. The DM will give a basic view of the scene, and players post actions. If there is ever a question of how far something is, or the like, then a player can simply inquire about the situation with the DM. I've found that this technique has removed one of the most annoying transfers to forum play. It allows people to get into what is happening, and not get bogged down with how it fits the table-top aspect of the game.