The Gaming Den

Legends of Anglerre (the FATE implementation of an obscure british comic from the Eighties) knows the Group Combo stunt/feat. It's probably copy-pasted from other instances of FATE 3.0, but I'm not familiar with those. Without the stunt, you can use maneuvres on enemies, attacks that do not deal dam...

I actually liked the Legend (of www.ruleofcool.com heritage) concept of each class having three paths available, and each character being able to switch a path with that of another class. The concept, mind you, not necessarily the execution. In my experience the main reason for multiclassing is gain...

Can I make an illusion so scary that it ends the encounter? MTP . There are no rules, no way to answer any of those questions. As a rule, Illusionist's Intimidation roll (it's what he can think of to be intimidating - 'what the caster has seen before'), plus any social Intimidation modifiers the il...

Can I make an illusion so scary that it ends the encounter? MTP . There are no rules, no way to answer any of those questions. As a rule, Illusionist's Intimidation roll (it's what he can think of to be intimidating - 'what the caster has seen before'), plus any social Intimidation modifiers the il...

MTP tends to be most useful (or least awful, depending on viewpoint) when a ruleset covers the basics well; that is one of the things I tend to look first when reading rules these days. If the simulation of basic tasks is done well, on-the-fly additions can at least use a strong foundation to extrap...

I've never played with an objectively good MC, but quite often with good gaming groups; one shouldn't forget that a good MC can only be as good as the players before him find his performance. There are surely groups that worship the rules and will consider an evening spend in discussion entertaining...

That is a good point about mass appeal. But how can you have a large amount of rules and have DM empowerment unless you include a clause like a DM can overrule any rule when necessary or include a lot of guidelines that require 'mother may I?'. By having PCs and NPCs operate on roughly the same set...

4e is an interesting case, I would argue that there was a lot of space dedicated to rules but they largely where repeating themselves. So it was rules heavy in that there was lots of variation of 'move creature one space, deal it damage' but I don't think there was even rules for breaking down door...

I'm not quite sold on the 'light equals DM power, heavy equals player power' idea. Both in rules heavy and in rules light systems there can be rules that empower either participant, and both types of system can be designed in a way that gives power to any of the two. D&D 4 is a prime example for...

It's quite neat, but requires net affine players to really make sense. It shines when used as a journal, providing campaign and npc information for the forgetful or new player in a convenient way. In the other direction, the PC stats can help MCs to plan the next session, provided the players update...

Then there is The Dark Eye's slightly weird Roll and compensate: 1. Roll a set number of dice, perhaps each die against a different difficulty. 2. Spend skill points to boost failures into successes. 3. If you end up with negative skill points, you fail; otherwise the remaining skill points show the...

Spears are pretty awesome weapons, and it's a shame there aren't any in Elder Scrolls anymore. The range and speed of spears was awesome, especially in combination with stealth, an invisibility potion and a mild acrobatics booster (or a downhill slope). You could charge an enemy, jump over him, dri...

I think both Mistborn and Lago - judging from the way Lago expects people to lie and stab him in back in his social contracts - don't play with friends but assholes. That's of course going to color their views. I think they play often with ad-hoc or fresh groups, or newbies. Well-acquainted groups ...

Out of rule moments can be fun and memorable or jarring and frustrating. And yet, any RPG that dares to simulate a living world will need some of them, because the rules can't cover everything. Knowing this, how should RPG books deal with this problematic but essential part of the simulation, to av...

Also, how got this thread to page 2 without mentioning Transmetropolitan, but Preacher two times already? (I love Preacher, but honestly) It's about a misanthropic journalist returning to a cyberpunked metropolis locked in fast forward, due to old contracts. He is then drawn into the presidential ca...

To be accurate, it is actually a sort of ghostly sociopath with little qualms about killing, the kind that is really good at gaining your trust and getting under your skin.

So you don't build up false expectations.

Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Roudrigez.

After the death of the father, a small family moves into his old ancestral home, and discoveres that it is littered with magic keys - and an undead serial killer trying to gather them all.

I'm not sure what you are getting out of that creation myth that's different from what I said. Well, suggestions and speculations like this: In Dragonlance, they probably hoarded Reorx's treasures, god-granted tools they stole from the first mortals, and gold deposits from the lairs they'd construc...

I do have a soft spot for d6 too, but how does this ...and you generally will want to, since most of us like actually having control over our stats and skill lists... correlate with this ...or assign disadvantages to compensate that you may or may not know about at all, which is totally hilarious...

I'm designing a Legend PC for a game Akula is thinking about running, and tt looks like the Fire Elemental track could have ridiculous synergy if everyone in the party has it. Everyone is on fire and getting healed by it, plus bonus healing from being near flaming creatures. [HP Reduction] attacks ...

The gods created everyone at once and there was no cultural progression. The first sentient races immediately created gold chalices and coins and the dragons hoarded them. No they did not. http://www.dlnexus.com/lexicon/13309.aspx It's basically the core theme of every DnD world that there was a be...

a) The fuck does this have to do with anything? b) This thread is entirely about "why do dragons do this shit that literature has them do". I don't even understand WTF you're talking about at this point. c) Sorry to have to tell you this, but both your idea and your reasoning are stupid. ...

a) Fortresses are designed to keep people *out*, not let them in. b) Literature has dragons sleeping on their piles of stuff. c) Yeah, but they don't necessarily give stupid reasoning to get there. I'm particularly partial to the "superstimulus" explanation given in this thread. a) Are dr...

Not only does this not jive with pretty much any established literature, it's a completely stupid plan. Not that I was that serious, but You're giving people an incentive to walk right into the middle of your fortress where you're weakest a) it isn't a fortress if it is "the place where you're...

Actually, dragons don't care that much about shiny things, and they didn't hoard any of them before humanoid races showed up. But humanoids care about shiny things, and humanoids are the lobster and guinea fowl in a dragon's diet. And if the humanoids know that there is lots of bling in a dragon's c...