The Gaming Den

Isn't this the basic outline of true blood?

The nice thing about running a pre-packaged campaign is that if you have plenty of prep time you can go through and change things to suit your party better, whereas if you have less time (or effort) available you can run an adventure pretty much straight. In fact, in my experience the amount of rew...

There is no such thing as completely player or GM driven gameplay. Both do not exist in tabletop RPGs. A completely GM driven game would be a final fantasy game. I'm sure there are a load of railroading shit fests out there but the second a player says "hey, my character ask townsfolk about rum...

What? Who lighting bolts their own people? Flanking is better than not flanking, you can agree with that right? A +2 is better than a +0. Being next to allies of artillery discourages AoE because most people avoid friendly fire, unless effort has gone to make it inconsequential. When charging into c...

Well, I'd have to disagree on positioning. D&D battles are typically so static, all Full-action full attacks do is make the action less cinematic. Why does moving around the battlefield a lot lead to more cinematic combat? I never noticed such a thing happening in 4E D&D or MnM d20. Let's s...

There are no rules, just vague hints at rules. Now that works really well for some people, but if I want a system that has no rules I might as well start playing bearworld. Now that's just rude. I'd rather play full-on freeform with no rules than play Vincent Baker's grunge-time sex solicitor who t...

I'm not sure how this suite of rules provides tactical options. Maybe I'm just hung up on the meaning of words here, but I have a hard time seeing this as improving or even providing new choices. My predictions- due to the range of ACs every fight turns into a daisy chain of ally-enemy-ally-enemy, t...

1) On the substance - is 5E a failure *as a game*? This isn't so bad! [snip] So, yeah, no hiding or sneaking rules... okay, yeah, there are no hiding or sneaking rules (other than "Use stealth", and some circular references in chapter 7). Well, that's not *fantastic*, I admit. Fixable, th...

I read the pitch, and watched the video and I still have no idea what they are selling. I mean I get what they are getting at but it seems like vaporware to me. I get the same vibe from them as I do from enthusiastic, but slightly crazy inventors who approach me claiming they broke the conservation...

Here's how you do it. 1- play really loud synth music. Basically get every speaker in your house blaring something from girlfriend records. . 2- everyone wears Ryan Goslings jacket from Drive. 3-all light bulbs in your home need to be black lights or neon lights 4- an eight ball 5- order a pizza, th...

Speaking of Permanency - you can make Invisibility permanent on objects. So do that before animating them, and you arguably have permanently invisible minions. Shouldn't the invisibility still end on an attack? The duration is changed to permanent, but the cavat of "the spell ends if you make ...

Ain't picking up something like the slumber hex better than a metamagic feat? Maybe? It's quite usable, but I don't see how it's better than Dazing/Extend/Quicken/Heighten/etc. spell. I mean, it's not super-good for horde mobs, mindless/sleep-resistant critters, or BBEGs backed up by little guys. Y...

While this is a thinly veiled bearworld thread, I feel the need to point out that I, an adult in my 30s, enjoy systems and character creation. There are two big reasons I like systems, the first is it exteneds gameplay beyond game night. I know my time is at a premium, but it is easy to find an hour...

Would it be too much bookkeeping for a game with a randomized reloading mechanic to have the probability of running out of ammo increase after every shot you take? And maybe it increases faster if you do full-auto instead of burst fire or whatever. You could tie your reload roll to your to-hit roll...

Now we get to see the mental gymnastics the 5mind goes through to rationalize how shitty all these monsters are. When I showed them the Pit Fiend, they said it was great that they don't have interesting abilities because 3e Pit Fiends took a long time to fight. That's just the current mindset of th...

I would love to see magic users have a much more focused scope. As it stands the true strength of casters is everyone can do everything, choices like specializations and deities mean little in the grand scheme of things. I would like it if wizard chose a very narrow school, like lightning, augury or...

Here's my alignment axis Scruffy<--->Dapper Gentleman<--->Hooligan Orcs are an example of Scruffy Hooligans. Aragorn is a Scruffy Gentleman, Sauromon is a Dapper Gentleman, Bilbo was a Dapper Hooligan. This is a good description method, and says a heck of a lot more than Good/law. The only issue is...

MisterDee wrote: (or you can just take Reactionnary and Warrior of Old, to effectively trade your two traits in for Improved Initiative.)

I don't think they stack. They both provide a trait bonus, and normally same named bonuses don't stack.

Actually, no. You have suggested that there is a superficial problem with an assumed implementation of alignment. It's an easy mistake to make, but that's why you need to actually break things down as step one. Occluded Sun has responded by defending a non-conformant solution, which is also unhelpf...

The fundamental issue has not been addressed, and I posit cannot be. Then you've aired your position, and can now be silent, since you have nothing further to contribute. That's not how it works. I have pointed out a fundamental problem with this idea. It has not been addressed. There has been much...

Scrivener, you've misunderstood the point of the discussion. The question 'what is good?' has two different meanings - what is the nature of the conceptual category, and what things belong to that category? The issue at hand is the nature of the label, not to what sorts of things the label should b...

And it deals entirely with concepts predefined within the context of the existing rules. Alignments must be the same. The task is then to define them - which is the point of this thread. Then do so. You seemed to have a belief of a clear and coherent definition of good, you even cited Socrates as t...

Even though you are using a definition of good that bears no resemblance to anything I can find, Try Socrates . Then combine his definition with the practical awareness that people don't agree on what's right, correct, and desirable. So a complete lack of social mobility? (the republic had the reas...

No one ever thinks they are a bad guy. If there was an infallible test to see if a particular idea and it's consequences is evil, no one would choose to be evil. Even people like Hitler and Pol Pot thought they were doing the right thing. No one ever goes "well it's only a little horribly evil...

Morality in the real world can get muddled, but if you can speak to a deity that has the understanding of Good in their portfolio, and you have very real knowledge of how much nicer the upper planes are, the idea of choosing evil goes from a few deeply troubled individuals to three guys that are to...