The Gaming Den

Why not to call the equivalent of "Sabbat" traditionally, "The Synagogue of Satan"?

The 0 to 5 range of the level dependent bonuses is only for the abilities which are supposed to be used in combat. Characters can have in addition vestigial abilities which are not supposed to be level adequate. Eg if a wizard is supposed to attack enemies only with magic, his ability to attack them...

While challenges need to stay roughly as challenging for higher level characters as they were for lower level characters, remember that a challenge is not "a monster" it is "the monsters". In a standard fantasy system, the assumption is that as you go up in levels the number of ...

My understanding is that characters should be getting steadily better against level appropriate challenges as they progress. If a character is getting better against level-appropriate challenge, the challenge stops being level appropriate. Your feeling of advancement comes from becoming stronger ag...

There is no reason to separate ability bonuses from level bonuses. A character should have an attack bonus which is a function of level. In addition, the attack bonus, defence etc would depend on certain options selected during character generation: a character can have higher damage and lower attac...

I would say that level advancement is best treated as a way to teach players how to play the game. The game should be playable at all levels, of course, but should be best with all options enabled, at the final level (of each tier, if you use tiers). Alternatively, one can use advancement simply to ...

Here is a simple damage system with fixed hitpoints. It is based on True20, therefore Defense equals more or less AC (but depends on Dexterity and Combat Bonus, not armor), and Toughness depends on size, Constitution and armor. Hit Points Each character has, when uninjured, 16 hit points. The most c...

The problem with RPG games is that they are several things at the same time, and they must be adequate as all of those things: - they are a wargame - a way to imagine yourself a hero in a magical pseudomedieval setting - a way to vicariously gain power. The problem is that in Computer RPG you can ga...

Hmmm... so gods are more like titles or thrones of power or whatever. For example if you have the Trickery domain then you have Coyote, Loki, Olidamarra and Anansi all squabbling over who gets to be the Trickster god. You have Lolth and Anansi both fighting over the Spider domain. Wee Jas, Boccob, ...

I would put an additional Tier between Adventurer and Royal - something like Chieftain/Hero. In the Adventurer tier the party is four to perhaps 20 people with henchmen etc. In the Royal tier, you govern a country and lead 100 thousand strong armies. In the Chieftain tier you command detachments. Eg...

I always thought that Dunsany wrote the best descriptions of Dreamlands. Dunsany, Idle Days on Yann http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/1/4/4/11440/11440-8.txt "Then I entered Perdóndaris and found all the people dancing, clad in brilliant silks, and playing on the tam-bang as they danced. For a fe...

Very good, but I have one suggestion. There is no reason to use the same rules for the different tiers. In the Kingdom tier, you need rules on raising and manouvering armies. The characters fight in pitched battles, leading units of soldiers and attacking other units or gigantic monsters (they can b...

Of course, societies also should give something back to Exalted, even after the best and and the best-buffed mook squads stop mattering (Frank already had some ideas above). More on this latter. Perhaps the classical use? Certain actions of people and society as the whole ensure quicker flow of Ess...

My usual suggestion: you need at least three different rule-sets. - individual scounting and combat - unit combat - realm simulation and divine conflict The rule-sets should be divided by Essence: above a certain level of Essence you CANNOT fight using the individual rules, you can use only the unit...

And why not to go in the opposite direction? An Exalted SHOULD be able to defeat an opponent in one hit without rolling, if he is willing to use his full power. So, why not to have charms working automatically without any rolling? You could get randomness by putting charms on cards. Both sides play ...

All RPG have the dichotomy between the fantasy world in which PCs are supposed to act and the game which is used to partially simulate the world. The important thing is to realise that in a computer game the rules can pretend to simulate the fantasy world. This simulation is of course extermely flaw...

Not quite. People like to get rewards Only 7 rewards over the life of the game could be too little.

Use Mutants&Mastermind Power Level system. Levels should reflect character's combat power, not their experience. That means that what is important is attack bonus, not whether it comes from Strength or BAB. Therefore, characters with higher strength should have simply lower BAB, for the same net...

King Kong loses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merian_C._Cooper

"In the 1933 version of King Kong, Cooper and co-director Ernest B. Schoedsack appear at the end, piloting the plane that finally finishes off Kong. Cooper had reportedly said, "We should kill the sonofabitch ourselves."

Because if your character needs to use an item to be a hero, it's the item that is a hero, not your character. I.E. the Christmas Tree effect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_von_Richthofen Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (2 May 1892 – 21 April 1918), widely known as the Red Baron, wa...

Can someone explain to me the contempt for "equipment" which seems to prevail on this board? I understand that characters must have "build-in" powers. Using tools is forbidden. I do not understand why. I could mention that men differ from animals exactly by using tools. Animals c...

Exalted has a philosophical problem: the world described there really requires Integral Tradition philosophy in the style of baron Evola. And open propaganda for Evola and Integral Tradition can be a slight PR problem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Evola http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditiona...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrick_Gold "For 2008, it produced 7.7 million ounces of gold at a cash cost of US $443/ounce". Net income $0.785 Billion in 2008. http://www.goldprice.org/ Current gold price 1191$ per ounce. result: 5759 million 600 thousand$ per year. It is obviously not pr...

Epic levels are hardly necessary when the high levels are underused. The fundamental error is to use the same game for heroic tier, paragon, epic, etc. You cannot have a game where there are 1st level figures and 20 levels figures on the board - with every 20 level figure worth about 1000 1st level ...

It is actually quite good Protestant theology of the Evangelical/Pietist variety. See eg Bonhoeffer on the distinction between faith and revelation. http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=2737&C=2490 Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Dallas M. Roark "The first chapter is foundational. It...