The Gaming Den

So they just went the extra step and made a 4e board game. I don't know what to think really. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/09/castle-ravenloft-the-fourth-edition-horror-dd-board-game-of-doom.ars?comments=1#comments-bar Honestly I'm kind of surprised it took them this long to just remove t...

I think I read somewhere once that the rogue was supposed to be balanced around always getting the sneak attack.

I play Warmachine/Hordes and can attest that in Mk2 (their second edition) the games mechanics/balance has really improved and now blows GW out of the water. While the story isn't as involving I think the models are better as well. Basically I think Warmachine/Hordes is a better game than Warhammer....

Feng Shui is fantastic for what it sets out to do. As far as that goes I literally have no complaints. It's supposed to do action movie-esque quick oneshots or a little longer than that (1 to 3 sessions).

The only possible complaints about it are not relevant to it's set out purpose.

There are ways to give bonuses without fucking with the rng.

Rerolls are a great example.

The larger problem are spells that shouldn't exist at all. There is no appropriate spell level for Blasphemy for example.

You know, I think the best traps are ones that are on a larger scale and have an actual way to foil them in game as opposed to just rolling a skill.

What did happen to Mike Mearls? Iron Heroes actually showed a lot of promise even if it wasn't finished.

How did he go from churning out decent stuff that was never finished to crap that is never finished?

I have to second that one, it was the first module I ever ran and pretty fun.

Probably the best thing Bruce r. Cordell has written.

I was using the word objectivism in this sense http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivit ... bjectivism.

You'll have to forgive me, I got a bachelors in philosophy and it was analytic (and honestly I have no interest in Ayn Rand).

How the hell are you using the word objectivist?

From what I understand all it means is that there are truths.

Ok, a few things this seems to need. First there needs to be between 1 and 4 powers. Anymore than that and the passive bonuses would be too fiddly to keep up with. (5 might work). Second the passive bonuses have to be unique. There can't be a universal drain penalty, that would be boring. Third is t...

Well, puzzle monsters can be done decently with the right foreshadowing and set up. The problem with them is that they can't be black and white; you have the solution and it's easy town or you don't and it's impossible. Instead you need something like mega-man. If you have the solution it's easier b...

I think one of the biggest answers to this is what kind of game you want to run. If you want high flying fantasy adventure then the open ended stuff is great. Just make sure there aren't any fighters. If you want grim and gritty or lower level adventures then you need to crack down on the open ended...

You know, at first exalted sounded cool. Then I tried playing the system. It has a few features that might be worth salvaging, but most of it is terrible. Honestly the character creation is one of the worst things I have ever seen.

What if we made using tainted spells give you a bad mojo aura. The aura itself doesn't actually do anything. The penalty comes from interaction with the world. Certain classes could detect the aura and have abilities that work on the aura. Basically I'm suggesting that using dark spells makes you ev...

Could you explain why a taint mechanic is a dead end?

Well, I think part of it is to not make the church actually evil. Let them have paladins, let them have good guys and also let them have corrupt bastards as well. That way the church is conflicted, and probably better set up for adventurers. The ptolus one for example has the paladins, which are goo...

The only one that comes to mind is the one in Ptolus. Of course it was intentionally set up to not be good, the god is Lawful but not Lawful Good. So the church has it's good sides and it's bad sides (the leaders can be evil, the paladins are good but not high up in the hierarchy).

It's a question of what ratio of your result is determined by the bonus and the random number generator. Some systems scale better than others. DnD for example scales horribly. When you have no bonus your entire result is the d20. When you have a +10 then about half the result is the d20. With a +20...

Your not the only one who can't read the books. I could only make it through about 2 classes, and even now when I see item pages and look at them they are all unbelievably boring and unimaginative. I mean honestly, of 2 pages of items (just what I saw) only about 3 were anything other than straight ...

To build on some the decisions that would have to be made: There could also be some variation with how to tie the powers to abilities. 1. Powers could specifically be linked to certain passives. While the player might be able to choose the power, the power and passive are a package deal. 2. powers a...

Yah, my example does suck for DnD. For other games though it might work and I think the principle does hold true. Basically situational resistances are worth very little if the resistances are only defending against opponents. When you can start working them to synergize with your party make up, som...

Resistances can have general utilities though if you plan your group around them.

Like everyone grabbing robes of fire resistance so suddenly the heavy AoE damaging Fire Mage no longer has to worry about friendly fire.

Frank, with your deck mechanic how many cards do you think should be in a deck? Would you allow duplicates in the deck as well?