The Gaming Den

Frank - I agree that Cheney is afraid of prison and is basically daring the gov't to come and get him. Someday someone may have enough stones to actually enforce the law but it won't be an American. "Don't rock the boat" will continue to be a mantra so long as a substantial minority of our...

For the effort required to make WoF work you should just Tag abilities so that the tactical situation provides bonuses and penalties to encourage mixing it up.

As far as torture goes, not everyone thinks it doesn't work. Those people that believe it is effective are stupid and were, for a short while, in charge of policy regarding intelligence gathering. That it produced poor results is self-evident, but the fact that it was implemented because it generate...

Custom spells if you can have access to them.

Seriously, amp up your Invisibility to affect all senses rather than just vision. Make your Heal spell "requires voluntary target". Make your buffs "only affects self". Etc.

Web Golems? I liked 'em. Old temple with lots of spiders and web golems and similar bullshittery. Lots of fun.

I'd say use Caedrus' mechanic without the rolling. It's just one more thing to tack on.

I like it.

I'm aware of PNAC. I simply feel that they truly believed that Iraq had WMDs and it only added fire to their earlier assumptions. Like I said, I don't think that they manufactured evidence so much as Rorschached themselves with the meager intel they managed to acquire. A similar situation exists wit...

I think 9/11 had a very large intertwining with Iraq. I'm aware of the evidence you're citing but I draw a different conclusion from it. I don't think they were fishing for evidence so much as fishing, period, and Rorschaching themselves with what they turned up. I believe that the evidence they bea...

Then what you would end up with is a 'Five Moves Of Doom' thing where players intentionally or unintentionally cycled through the same list over and over for the best attack. So when the enemy had the 'scissors' tag they would use the 'rock' attack. And next round, now that they have the 'rock' tag...

Wow. I never really looked closely, but the MM2 Weirds are even worse.

CR12 creatures with fat statblocks that cast as an 18th level Sorcerer. Ugh.

I actually doubt that they did play out the Iraq war, since the experts that moderate these sorts of games (and were making all the right predictions) would have spelled out how events were going to shake out pretty plainly. That may just be a "no true Scotsman" thing though. Iraq was more...

Within the context of 4e its probably not worth the effort, but simply assigning a Tag to whatever power/maneuver/etc you're using and then having those Tags persist over a round and provide a Paper-Scissors-Rock element (ie, a Reckless attack means you're vulnerable to Precise attacks but more resi...

Oh, I meant the Pentagon-level stuff where they magic tea party shit up. You're given a fat file written by wonks and roleplay out the terrible shit that happens when someone does the kind of populist madness that whips up the troglodytes.

One of my favorite shitty monsters are the Weirds from Frostburn.

CR 15 mondo-stat Elementals with tons of HPs that have a nice set of powers and oh yeah they're also 18th level Sorcerers. Whee!

They're no CR12 Disjunctive Bite spider though.

He's a special brand of crazy they only make in South Carolina.

Wargaming is what made the Prussians great.

I also think that just a few rounds of serious-level wargaming should be a requirement of the primary cabinet positions and every damn Senator.

Every time I hear, "bomb Iran" I want to shit blood.

I think he meant when did the gaming den universally support earthdawn, or for that matter even mention it. I certainly don't remember when this happened. Earthdawn was mentioned briefly as an alternative system in one of the two "Shadowrun Fantasy" threads here. No one voiced any major i...

Fist of Raziel, from the Book of Exalted Deeds.

Eh. I still like the game. The name thing is an egregious turd but I don't speak German or use modules for most of my games. As far as unbalanced is concerned, the numbers aren't that far off with respect to the system. Considering the quote Frank had put up, the comparison was an example that the w...

Isn't this the whole point of the Adventure Paths? Rise of the Runelords, Age of Worms, that sort of thing?

4e eats a bag of dicks. It's a poorly-designed MMO that has shitty updates. It's only saving grace is playing stupid-powerful characters and winning.

Frank - we're you get that from? The most badass Exalted Champion of Chaos profession stat block from Tome of Corruption is strong, but its not stupid. Here's the top-tier warrior and wizard advance schemes for Chaos and norms:

I also think Frank is overstating the capabilities of most villains in the setting. The most devastating mortal-wrought destruction I'm aware of is the Skaven blowing up a city after a long undermining and demolitions prep. I agree that the game doesn't model, say, Nagash very well, but I still feel...

WFRP is Low Fantasy. Fuck you, it is not . The Empire is about the least magical of the factions, and it is still well-represented in magical equipment, fire-bolt hurling, and flying mounts. In any other game, the people who do that stuff, (i.e. the interesting stuff) are the PCs. WHFRP spits on yo...

Attacks generally either target Defense and Toughness, or just one save (Will, Fort, Ref). Given how Toughness saves work, I think you're better off just not getting hit. The most powerful attacks in the game aren't the Toughness ones, its the (possibly Autofire and/or SecondaryEffect) Snares and St...