The Gaming Den

Your getting backwards. Points of light is trying to say that the world is LIKE 99.9% of movies, thrillers, novels, and most comptuer rpgs. And NOT like the real world. Now then to say that that my defination of advenuture is limited to one thing is also completely stupid because the whole point of ...

Yes fighters probably ought to know heal but should they get an advantage to it? Probably not. Why? I can totally envision a fighter who knows how to stitch up a guy as well as how to cut him open. Why not have 1) class skills = level-appropriate stuff they have by default and 2) a laundry list for...

I find the over analysis of the points of light setting to be almost comical. The idea is straight out of fairy tales. The black forest was at one time a natural barrier, the setting for many scary stories, and a place that was basically lawless. Germania and the black forest was so rugged that even...

Personally, Skills should be one of the things that lets you abstract a character that is less like you. They need to be there to differentiate characters not just from each other but from the players who play them. I think skills need to be fairly broad, unless you want to give out lots of acess to...

Mandrake, TD honestly don't bother to come here and argue. Go to rpg.net or enworld. The interwebs is not like reality. People cannot be convinced of anything here or really in any other forum. The one thing I will say is that I disagree about the value of out of combat powers. If you EVER are force...

Honestly,

Every single complaint about 4e combat and being to combat oriented I heard when 3rd edition came out as well. Infact every complaint I have heard here I heard when 3rd edition came out.

It will probably be said by people when 5th edition comes out.

Unstated Premise: 4e combat is better than 3e combat. Analysis: Wrong. Actually, you need to read. i was talking about converting 2nd ed combat to 3rd edition combat. Although the final thought is one I passed on to all games. Exaclted 2nd edition is better than first because it works better. 4th e...

Why would I play 4e D&D over Mordheim or Necromunda? The combat systems in those games are better and more interesting. The characters have deeper and more interesting "world" powers. I'm dead serious. Mordheim is a tactical miniatures game, and it is more of an RPG than 4e D&D. -...

Eh, I'd say that people want their characters to profoundly impact their world. Maybe not destroy the world, but they certainly don't want to be an insignificant blip on the radar, and they want to matter even if they aren't required to take down Orcus and his doomsday device. There was a time when...

Titanium Dragon: You might as well just stop. You will never convince these guys of any of your points. Frank and the rest want the players to be able to really deconstruct the gameworld. Read his stuff on the wish based economy its still around on the board. Its a very entertaining read. It also a ...

Frank Nice post. I basically agree about the big model. Really this whole thing became less about game design and more about the psychological of gaming long ago. The thing is, the wargamming community is able to use these same terms, from a longer tradition, and actually apply them in a way that gi...

I would say the watchmen is basically the seminal work on what you are talking about.

Considering that GNS is now not considered an indepenant framework for game modeling even by Ron Edwards why is this important. The arguments here are roughtly like trying to argue for or against a reletivistic universe with only newtonian physics. The math says no no but the universe says yes yes. ...

Well, it was true for the last werewolf campaign I was in and several others over the years, so apparently you are just wrong. Or you are trying to apply anecdotal evidence to create a universal truth, and that shit never works out. Every item on the list is an annecdote taken to its logical extrem...

Sell you on warhammer (either one) Ok. Do you want to play a miniatures war game? If yes Then do you want to play in a fantasy world, in wwII or in a sci fi world. Do you want to have opponents? If yes then these are the games you can play Fantasy -> warhammer yeah there are some other ones but warh...

And as much as I like Conan in general, I have to say this: Yep, the racist overtones really do make stereotyping easier. Though honestly, middle earth has the same thing. Rohirrim= Anglo Saxons High Men= Anglo-Saxons who have seen the 'light', ie, Christianized AS. Everybody else in northwestern M...

Or you get the PCs to get the fuck out, because the enemies are behaving as if you are invading their home . Which you in fact are. None of this 'lulz, the MOBs haven't spawned yet, so the enemies in the next room don't attack you until you open the door because they aren't there yet'. You know, li...

Another main issue that really kills 4E for me is that any monster fortress can be impregnible if you train your monsters not to try to be heroes. When heroes show up, don't stand and fight one room at a time. They should just fucking run and warn everybody. You're in fact better off with a bunch o...

Hey, I owned 3.0 on the first day. Played it for years. Got tired of save or suck. I also play wargames, minis games, computer games, even mmos. At one time I really liked to do a lot of the stuff I see on these boards. I still think franks stuff on the wish based based economy is a hell of a write ...

The problem with 4E is that it's impossible to really create a trivial battle. While yes, you can make things easy, you'll never make things actually fast. Even easy battles are a grind. This is somewhat true. unless you go for push over easy all minions dice fest trivial battles are work. It does ...

Eagle: No kidding. I first learned WW by borrowing the books from a guy who had just about all of them. I read up on vamp, and ran it. He then said "wow this is way differnt than when I learned from the rep at the store" me: "Oh, how so" him: "well we never worried about thi...

You didn't try, you know, adding more enemies ? What the fuck dude? -Username17 Cloud kill doesn't care how many enemies there are. Also, who cares about litteraly 100s of bad guys if you can get next to their leader and 1 shot him. Then killing his minions feels like a chore. Its not hard in dnd t...

Did the players actually want the monsters to go down in one round? What the players say they want and what they really want are differnt. What the players say they want is to win as fast and easy as possible. What they really want is to overcome a challenge. 1 shotting is only a challenge of whose...

My point about the upfront thing is its never true. In 18 years of role playing all it has ever meant is that this group thinks its hot stuff and really probably is just the opposite of what they are claiming. IF the gm doesn't say anything, just assumes his style is pretty normal and then is skewed...

But the DCs are set in advance by DM fiat . There isn't even a set of guidelines or sample DCs. And more importantly, the skill challenge system is a giant flaming piece of shit that completely fails to meet all design goals . Actually your wrong on the sample DCs. The skill challenge rules are not...