The Gaming Den

So, what you're really saying is that when you hit "high levels" in a game, you actually start playing a completely different game. It's not just the scale that changes, the mechanics have to be separate. What works at a tactical scale is not going to matter when you're worrying about Stra...

Seems like a lot of work for something that'll probably be handwaved away by the DM. What level of abstraction do we want?

Also, you keep saying Kingdom Building. Are we talking about creating a Nation or is this a single Castle/Keep/Tree House?

I'm sorry I picked Dogs for the comparison. We can use Hamsters if you want.

DSMatticus wrote:because then you occasionally get dogs that are literally as intelligent as the average peasant

Well, they stop being animals if they somehow hit 3 intelligence (which they shouldn't). It's funky... but familiars start at 6 intelligence and eventually become more intelligent than most people.

This earns you the "fantasy racist" award, because it is ridiculous. Ogres are no dumber than many adult humans or dwarves walking around free...they have an average Int of 6, which is about a -4 penalty...so when an ogre takes 10 on a knowledge check, his result is about 2 points lower t...

It really would depend on the society in question, and the job that slaves are supposed to do. I agree. Which is why I emphasized PROBABLY like I did. I can't say for certain what's going on because there is limited information. -e- Hit Submit way too quickly. Anyhow, Anarchy, on the other hand, is...

Just for the record, you guys actually did reach the level of justifying slavery. Congratulations. Do I win a prize? No, but seriously, I'll admit that I made a ton of assumptions with my reasoning but that's only because there is almost no information about this hypothetical society that we're tal...

(You have no idea how hard it was to make it through this post without using the U.S.'s universal healthcare system, republicans, old people, or economy as examples. And let no more be said about that.) Yeah, the first time I tried addressing the point, I'd typed up this overly long diatribe agains...

In what way was getting the thing he valued most bad for him? Sure, it sucks for everyone else, but that doesn't say anything about his valuations. He's dead? I don't know how much simpler I can say that. Any thoughts on even more human-focused economies, like for parasitic (which should cover vamp...

So the badasses just are completely independent of society when they want to, and position themselves at the top for fun as soon as the muggles are done building said society? That would work, I guess. It has the merit of allowing us to apply real historical development cycles up until the point wh...

Some Dragons are exactly like that, though; they're the extremely dangerous ones.

This is not entirely true. Hard Power is still vital, but a ruler with a lot of Soft Power probably has friends, allies and associates with a lot of Hard Power. Maybe. I guess when I was thinking about this, I made the assumption that someone who has friends who are awesome is probably also awesome...

how can stable fantasy societies come into existence if it is not possible to base a monopoly of force on pure numbers? Does that imply that in such a world, the only stable society is an autocracy or, possibly, a phlebetoniocracy, where only the sufficiently powerful factor in? If this were the ca...

I keep trying to come back to this thread, but I get the feeling that we all think that Alignment is a dumb idea.

Second, while anarchy does indeed give you no guarantees about safety and well-being, neither does slavery. Sure it does. In a society with slavery, slaves will probably be given a constant supply of Food and a Place to sleep. They'll also be provided a nominal amount of protection based on the ide...

I don't think that it's a justification for slavery, merely mentioning that anarchy maybe even worse. In the same way, waterboarding is not justifiable just because being impaled is a worse form of torture. Well, Yeah, you're right... but some people get all uppity about Slavery. -e- Added Quote Tags

Ask the African-Americans of the old South whether no social order would be preferable to one where they can be raped or beaten at will, and what answer do you think you'd get? Well, in the comparison between their current situation of have the social status of furniture and total anarchy, their pr...

Yes, we recognize the difference between Good and Evil as Players and that's because those are labels designed specifically for our benefit... but if we go off of how D&D is intended to work (as in Good is Good and Evil is Evil no matter what), then we're stuck with the idea that Serial Killers ...

I liked this thread when it was about Metal and Rock & Roll.

Guys, really. Take a step back, look inside of your hearts, and ask yourselves, "Does this argument really fucking matter?"

To Smeelbo: A lot of people don't understand what Operational Thinking is because it's in an awkward place between Strategy and Tactics. Also, for something like D&D, a group's strategy might seriously be something silly like, "Get more better." and that's it. So, when people discuss S...

Tzor wrote:Wrathzog, I think you are the one who is "overthinking."

Impossible. That would imply that I think at all.

Look, either way, when you die your soul will drift somewhere that will correspond with your concept of morality. Good and Evil are just labels and that's it.

Unfortunately, it's not even that simple. To take what is "rightfully yours" isn't evil because by definition, you have a right to it. Actually, the correct answer is that it doesn't matter. What I'm trying to get across is that Alignment is completely superficial and it's completely igno...

So trying to apply that to a D&D world will either result in a moral system that is either A) absolute and self-contradicting, and everything explodes in a logical paradox, or B) relative to which god you're worshipping. The latter is probably true, but then we can still morally evaluate the go...

I grow so fucking weary of people going 'alignment is just fucked up, deal with it'. Even if alignment was taken out of the game entirely, the game still without a trace of irony gives you power-ups for killing orcs and drow while at the same time painting orcs who kill humans and elves for powerup...

What surprises me most about that table is how well Dragon Age and the 40K games are doing It's all about the Vidya Games, man. Both Dragon Age and WH40K can pull from the video game market for customers. D&D can't because for some unfathomable reason, they haven't created a game based off of 4...