The Gaming Den

6.) I don't really think that it's impossible to have a Dragonshape spell that would go out of the bounds of mental space. You can have a credible 'Dragonshape' spell if it gave you a helping of Size, Strength, Flight, Resist Elements, and the appropriate Breath. Meaning that it'll either be a high...

Responses. 1. Agreed bar some weird exceptions (like a buff that only affects others and not you that takes concentration to maintain or something; that will help prevent circle-jerking). 2. Depends. Derived stats must be more sane for this to be good. That means no dividing by two and flooring to g...

Again, you seem to think that just because your small ind can only think of 1 thing, that that's the only other option. Heck, go look up the Armor as DR or Wound/Vitality systems in d20srd. Raising HP isn't the most practical choice, in fact raising hp has very stupid consequences which 4e has alre...

When I talk about the 5 minute work day, I'm using it a bit differently than it's normally used, and I apologize for that. I don't want my PCs deciding to rest, or being forced to rest for 5 minutes, or x minutes or whatever after every combat, be it to regain hp, powers or anything else so importa...

I don't want a short rest to heal all my HP. I don't think that's a good thing because it reinforces the 5 minute workday, closes off attrition as a method of building tension, and breaks several types of narration for little if any gain. What? Being able to heal to full after combat encourages a 5...

If you do want a con job to happen, it's probably going to entail a lot of RP based planning, as opposed to just a series of skill checks. The PCs stealing the kingdom is a major plot point and as such the trickery involved in getting it should involve more than "I maxed my bluff skill and cas...

3.x is a videogame were all the strategizing or player input happens before the game proper, like the Total War games or the afformentioned FFT. ??? That's not true. The stronger classes definitely have tactical depth after being built. There is the illusion of lots of choices for any character (an...

That's taking advantage of peoples' poor perceptions and inability to process probability to play on their puerile need to believe on some level that the story is 'real'. That kind of crap leads to A Million Little Pieces. Not exactly what I'd call the basis for an internally consistent game. Most ...

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Ur-Priests are clearly anti-atheist too since they steal power from what atheists worship http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=798.

Yes. The DM can technically give you rituals and plot devices that let you travel the cosmos. If your DM didn't stat out a planar adventure in 3e, that shit still wasn't happening just because you plane-shifted somewhere. Unless you like the DM just randomly pulling whatever the fuck he feels like ...

Seriously, if the idea is to take into account all sorts of possible reasons a particular given NPC might have to behave one way or another or how the PCs walk up, why not just flesh out a full interaction minigame for talking? People need to stop assuming players spam the diplomacy skill against a ...

if they were to attack him at night after he's wasted on beer and prostitutes no one would call BULLSHIT if said five peasants gave him a good fight or even managed to beat him up and sell him into slavery. It had better be enough beer to kill a baby elephant, or I call shenanigans. 4e solved the p...

but then you have to define "useless" ... which is defined by what exactly is the "use" of said object. the "use" of a wall is to separate space in to distinct areas by providing obstruction. definitionally, the only way to really render a wall "useless" is t...

I don't recall 4e catapult stats either, but as per the 4e (pre-essentials) DMG, page 65, a "vault door" that is made of adamantine has an AC/Ref of 4 a Fort of 12 and 200 HP. Went to that page... interesting. It's actually even stranger in some ways than Lago said. From the same page, &q...

s the power scaling curve a result of uneven and slipshod mechanics or an intentional thematic choice though? Children in 4E D&D can punch through walls of solid adamantium even faster than a catapult can. That doesn't mean that the setting is supposed to be post-Exalted level universal badasse...

Now, the question in this thread is whether #3 can be done and how you would do it. This comes with the assumption that actual social mechanics would involve the PCs occasionally doing things "off-script" and hijacking NPCs and the DM having to surrender some authorial control. You can ar...

It wasn't true in first edition either. In D&D, high level characters fight Darkseid. If your character concept cannot conceptually fight Darkseid, it is not a high level D&D concept. QED. I haven't looked at Queen of the Demonweb Pits in a long time, but from what I remember, it's design a...

Sure, I shot surrendering barbarians in the back of the head after I found out they razed an innocent village to the ground, but I didn't kill women and children! At that point you're just getting into 'which is worse, rapist or a purely physical torturer' territory and even if you could find an an...

I only pointed out that your issues with D&D morals are also issues with the USA as a whole. You lament letting kids starve so you can defend the town? Hey, sounds familiar, like the budget debate, defense versus education. Curing the poor as a cleric, or saving the juice to kill evil demons? O...

I have seen no evidence that PDFs and dead trees are substitutes, as opposed to complements. Having more white wolf PDFs makes me want more dead trees; why would pathfinder be different? If you think giving product away for free inherently hurts your sales, you should take it up with Cory Doctrow, ...

Adding in combos might detract from the focus of WoF, but I see what you're doing with this in general. I don't really view WoF as a focus in itself. And the reason I want a combo system that's simple and based on a core half-dozen to dozen terrain effects is because I think it's most interesting w...

Ok, first things to determine. What sort of to-hit percentages do we want to obtain on a flat plane? Since there are only five levels, the RNG won't get very out of control and a d20 system seems really solid. From playing 4e, I'd say a 50% chance of hitting an average defense is too low, so I'm thi...

Ok, so here are my thoughts. We should brainstorm a small WoF style ruleset. Here are some of the choices I'd make for the sake of speed besides using WoF. 1)Use the matrix form of WoF. Have the matrix grow from 4x4 to 6x6. Or even more lazily, from 3x3 to 5x5. When players roll a 4 at early levels ...

A lot of the traditional ways and even some of your proposed methods rely on explicit DM or player input. Meaning that whether you intended it or not, you're blaming the group. Like right here. And Lago moves to admitting he's just setting up a strawman because I clearly meant something besides wha...

Yes, obviously it would be great if this wasn't the case. And you know what? Sometimes you get your wish and it does happen after all. Sometimes the enemy transforms into their Hell Angel form or the initial wave of soldiers retreat only to be backed up by the Elite Magma guard (ttly different set ...