The Gaming Den

I have a problem with saying that it's ok for a 1st level guy to trivialize a mini-game because of a random roll on a loot table. That problem increases when said guy can randomly trivialize all the mini-games just because of random magic item rolls, and while he's got a vorpal sword, dude B has go...

I'm calling this the Inverse Oberoni from now on: A rule isn't wrong because a bad DM can misuse it. Fuck it, I'm making a new fallacy too. The ModelCitizen Fallacy: "Only Bad DMs can make bad rulings." Proponents of player disempowerment like to pretend that there are exactly two types o...

Anyway, about the actual thread topic: I'm concerned that doing max(stat, skill) in D&D would result in all characters looking really similar. If you can't add Str (or Dex or whatever) to grapple checks then either all 10th level grapplers have +10 to grapple, or you have to introduce variance b...

Okay, now you are being a fucking twat. Not agreeing with you is not leaping to Frank's defense, and everyone past Frank responded to you civilly and helpfully. I actually meant that directed just at John Magnum (who wasn't responding civilly and helpfully). Yeah, I realize that sentence reads like...

There's nothing to "understand," dude. Frank remembered the words "one or the other but not both" from some Intro to Logic lecture and that was as far as his reasoning went. Yeah, you can come up with a roundabout explanation after the fact where there's a Boolean value represent...

These things need new names. Stat plus skill isn't any kind of AND operation. Max(stat, skill) isn't XOR. Natural language isn't computer programming. And and xor are conjunctions that have real meaning in the real world outside of computer operations. If you say "Billy and I went to the store...

These things need new names. Stat plus skill isn't any kind of AND operation. Max(stat, skill) isn't XOR.

But 4e standard seems to be their vision: Tim: Yes, we are looking to include many of these features into our close combat system. Specifically, opportunity attacks and flanking are definitely in, as well as charging. We're not sure about reach weapons yet (we need to figure out if that attribute o...

Frankly, I think the best thing to do with the Rogue is to give him full access to arms and armor and the ride skill, call him the Hero, and then get rid of all the other mundane classes (except possibly the Warlord). -Username17 My only reservation would be that I'd want to be able to play a non-c...

One thing that arises when you have insanely persuasive people (whether by spells or just huge skills) is that your more cautious rulers will try to avoid talking to untrusted people directly. When you want to tell the king something, you tell his not-particularly-persuasive secretary, who will the...

Hyzmarca, whether all adventures should be built around time constraints is an entirely separate concern from whether the DM should suddenly have monsters "forget" to focus fire because one of the PCs might die. If you want to talk about Rope Trick may I suggest a separate thread? Preferab...

That said, every major could benefit from introductory discrete math and public speaking. But you've got to change the name "discrete math" to "logic". Linear algebra can be super useful, but it's too difficult for a lot of folks (and useless for others). About public speaking c...

In fairness, some of them mostly want to fondle dragons.

Five posts in an hour whoooo!!!!!

I propose a drinking game. Partially because the grocery store next to my apartment started stocking Lagunitas Little Sumpin', and this shit is delicious.

Shivering Touch makes the list because it bypasses most standard defenses to kill just about anything in a level independent way. It has nothing to do with what the dumbasses at BG think... they call Shock Trooper good, so they can be dismissed out of hand as noobs. Attempting to misdirect the conv...

GC, I was trying to stay out of this but you're a fucking idiot. Shivering Touch is banned from both sides. Because otherwise every encounter would be a Shivering Touch spam initiative fest. Ever heard of the term overcentralizing? Of course not, you couldn't win a competition if you tried. Ever hea...

Long story short, I've gained a huge appreciation for more abstract languages and I kind of resent the implication that programmers who don't know the fiddly under-layers of low-level programming aren't good at their job. When I found out that Java didn't have pointers and had things like generics ...

Fun fact: while shadowrun magicians require line-of-sight, D&D wizards require line-of-effect, which is blocked by clear glass . By that same rule you can't fire a gun at someone on the far side of a window. You have to take a separate action to shoot the glass first. You could probably convinc...

I don't think you even need a word for players who roll up a Monk simply because they don't know any better. But I think the word is "Timmy", if you really care. -Username17 I think a Timmy would be the guy who rolls up a craw wurm spirit lion whirling frenzy barbarian and brags about how...

Well, there are problems with Computer Science (and similar) courses, these days Warning: contains Four Yorkshiremen On the one hand I sort of want to punch this guy for believing that being a better programmer straight out of college will get you work. His claims about his company's hiring practic...

Orion, suppose the PCs are in a combat encounter. During that encounter they move to engage a new enemy that wasn't previously aware of them. For example, they kick in the door on the left (orcs!) then during the fight one of them ducks through the door on the right (spectres!). What happens? Is it ...

Mr. GC wrote:Much like Angel Summoner and BMX Bandit have absolutely nothing to do with D&D.

I still have my suspicions.

Probably not. Your staffing decisions are based on maximizing profits and cutting staff will also cut into those profits. You only cut staff when there is not enough demand to employ those staff (so you might cut hours because no one is showing up at those times of day, but if people would be showi...

Shadowrun has pretty clear objectives and victory conditions (complete the run, get out alive) which player try to achieve by playing optimally at a metagame level (you don't often see Shadowrun players go "well my guy has never been in a gunfight so I just stand there panicking this round"...

If you motherfuckers are going to do that, I want to see (1) a definition of Simulationist that can't be contradicted just by quoting Ron Edwards, and (2) at last one game from 2001 or earlier that actually fits that definition (pure S, not a G/S or N/S "hybrid").