The Gaming Den

The problem with skill checks is that they're just not going to be particularly engaging because skill challenges by their very nature are going to be rather arbitrary and generalized. Now you can very well create a mechanic out of it, where you play some weird board game to win a challenge or what ...

Flesh stone is unchanged though, just to show they didn't have a coherent design goal. Yeah, Removing save or die from 3.5 is pretty much a fools errand. The real way to go is to basically beef up people's saves so they can make them. Tome of Battle did a good job with stuff like Moment of Perfect ...

The bronze league is full of bads anyway (like, amazingly bad), so you will be matched up against similar people. I still don't know what all the units do and I'm in silver and win almost 50% of my matches (including when I get zerg as I don't know what anything does!) Yeah, unlike original SC, SC2...

But you could just as easily say the 3.0 ranger is exactly the same...the 3.5 ranger is "just another build". On the other hand, what are the rules for a knight/thief hybrid? Yeah, but the fact that the class has the same name, means that it's meant to replace the old one. Like how the ne...

The Rogue and Warrior stuff has been a pretty big change, switching the standard 4E power format out for effects you apply to your basic melee attack and no daily powers. In play it's probably doesn't really feel that different, but mechanics wise it is a major shift. The Cleric and Wizard stuff so...

Lago PARANOIA wrote: Essentials, from what we've seen, is a much larger change than 3.0E-3.5E.

How so? I honestly haven't seen anything changed at all in Essentials. The classes all have new names, so they don't replace anything, I haven't seen any mechanics altered in any way.

Essentials is basically just the PHB4.

Right. Arguing points not in evidence, sir. If you're going to complain about something, at least learn the basic mechanics first. Why are you so pepped up about the 'skill' of this game, specifically? Because it's a fun game to play and there are so few RTS games like it. Most of the stuff that's ...

This is why people put you on ignore. Uh... why? Based on what you said you either: A. Don't know how to play the game you're complaining about and are talking out of your ass. B. Don't find the existing options given to you in game to be sufficient and want something that does more for you. I gave...

It's often very useful for your units not to stop in dangerous positions to fire. If your marines are under fire and running across the street - stopping to fire back is stupid . And if your marines are standing in the middle of your base or the middle of their base, they should keep finding and sh...

Other than that, I've fully advocated rolling all other rolls right in front of the players. I think it increases tension in combat because they know I'm not pulling any punches or fudging in either side's favor. If the dice turn ugly, the fight turns ugly. Yeah, in combat, you really don't have to...

But these features are easily added and subtracted from the main game. You don't play a game of Go against a master without a handicap. Actually SC2 allows handicaps in custom games. And being able to tell units to be passive (don't shoot that enemy that's running past you or chewing on your leg!) ...

Starcraft had always required a lot of micro. There were moves to significantly reduce the micro in SC2, but complaints from Korea forced the micro levels to increase again. To some degree that stuff is justified. Part of what made SC1 a good game was that it required a lot of speed and skill. That...

I can't say that SC2 adds much to the gameplay. There's a few things - like repair being automatic - but you still have the trouble of making units aggressive when you need them or less so when you don't. The option just isn't there. I still feel good ol' Myth did it better. They're small subtle ch...

TOZ wrote:Unless you roll random spot checks.

Yeah but that's just a waste of game time and why bother doing that when you can just roll them hidden.

SC2 isn't just flashy lights with no substance? I guess if I had played the first/wasn't jaded by the recent crop of games I would be less surprised. If you liked SC1, you'll like SC2 pretty much, and vice versa. If you haven't really played SC, it's hard to really describe it. It's basically a ver...

Also, Starcraft 2 I'm impressed with so far. Trying the Single Player Campaign again on hard. Yeah SC2 is incredible. The campaign missions all have unique flavor and mechanics, the cutscenes between missions are great. One thing I thought SC1 and Brood war really lacked was good campaigns. the cam...

Hidden rolls are almost mandatory for perception and crap to reduce metagaming. Nothing is worse than saying "Roll a spot check" because it announces there's something to find. By letting them know there's a check they now know there's something to find.

Reflex save? Dude. That's a step forward! I always hated Force Cage because it was a certain shitty DM's favorite trick to bone players. All the abilities which negate it are in the province of Wizards. It's specifically immune to Greater Dispelling, too, so you couldn't get a Dispelling Sword or s...

Selective Spell (Metamagic) Your allies need not fear friendly fire. Prerequisite: Spellcraft 10 ranks. Benefit: When casting a selective spell with an area effect, you can choose a number of targets in the area equal to the ability score modifier used to determine bonus spells of the same type (Ch...

Dungeons and Dragons need to accept the fact that most fights should end in a rout or surrender rather than a death spiral of murder. Not just because it makes the heroes look really, really bad in the fact that they regularly chop up their foes despite the difference in power level, but because th...

People focus on her hotness as the reason she revitalized Voyager, but they always overlook the fact that she provided an opposing viewpoint to Federation ethics and ideas. The fact that she did so while looking wicked hot and being a genius with all forms of tech is just a bonus. The bartender on ...

Just another user wrote: And if I remember correctly (no way I'm reading that trainwreck of thread again) he said that they used that expression on purpose because 'hundred of thousands' sound higher than 'a million'.

If they really wanted to make it sound like a big number, they'd say they sold over NINE THOUSAND.

GURPS is pretty good for realistic scaled games.

FrankTrollman wrote:Mostly, people just don't want to make jump checks.

Yeah, the jump check system is pretty much ass. You can't even make anime-style leaps as a 20th level character.

It'll accomplish one thing. Instead of being able to play the game with 3 or 4 books, it sounds like they're setting up so that you have to buy all 10. I can spend 70 bucks these days on a slipcase with the core 3 4th edition books, or I can buy what seems to be 4 or 5 Essentials products at 20-30 ...