I don't mind critical fumbles if (1) they're applied to everyone, monsters included, and (2) the effects are minor (as the Wizard suggested, something like -2 for a round). Actually, I kinda like fumbles...but I can understand why some players hate them. My default rule for when a player rolls absol...
I presupposed that Lago's evil plane was evil in the legitimate, dictionary, malevolent-and-hurtful-and-selfish-and-bad sense, not in the Black T-Shirt Team or Edgy And Cool sense. Likewise, the good plane is (presumably) legitimately benevolent and generous and helpful, not Arrogant Elitist Dicks o...
Initiative is Int-based. Note that I was playing a wizard in this campaign. It was still stupid. Edit: Actually, that whole campaign was made of stupid house rules (the GM was trying to "fix" D&D). A few gems: Pick your own magic items. You can customize precisely what you have with no...
Sigma's talked about cutting the number of modifers available down from approximately 436,423 to about 5-6, which I think is definitely a good idea. What you describe, P_R, is far too arbitrary and ...bland for me, at least as written. Seriously, no mods? None? Maybe some sort of cap on the total yo...
American entitlement gets my vote. The US was founded on some pretty (for the times) revolutionary ideas, among them the concept that every (white male) person is entitled to both liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Unfortunately, over 200+ years of human corruption, a frightening number of people...
I like this, conceptually. I also like the idea that you can deplete your own bars and attack other peoples' bars (warriors can attack a mage's Mana, for example). It could, if done right, allow for an elegant interaction between hackin' people up and searing them with arcane fire. Having never play...
Also they are traditionally supposed to respond with either a smile, a water fight, or an axe depending on how much they like the young man in question. ...giving someone the axe of togetherness is supposed to signify that you want to go have babies. I absolutely love "the axe of togetherness....
But to feel guilty implies fault, and for me to feel like any of the bad things Lago is talking about are even tangentially my fault is just a non-starter. Agreed. The idea basically is to compare what moral traits you have to the villains of the story/event and then determine which of these caused...
Derby (The Kentucky Derby if you're not local). It's a freakin' month-long party here in Lousiville. We've got glowing balloons, racing riverboats, big, colorful explosions, the Golden Antlers, the Great Bed Races, the Chuckwagon...
I'm going to have to disagree with you here, Elennsar - at least a bit. Designing a game is very carrot-and-stick. If you want to encourage a playstyle, make it mechanically viable. If you want to discourage certain paths, make them have a cost. I enjoy playing heroes. However, I also enjoy playing ...
I was toying with a way to differentiate the three weapon categories, based on the idea that what a weapon looks like isn't half as important as what it does, and a hero who wants to fight with a stick (quarterstaff) shouldn't be at an arbitrary disadvantage against someone who fights with a big-ass...
I agree that we need to learn from the mistakes of history, and I agree that we shouldn't lionize racist murdering bastards, even if they're our ancestors. However, I disagree with the idea that learning history should make us feel bad about ourselves. I, personally, had nothing to do with the Europ...
I own the box set, although I never actually played it. It strikes me as a mix of truly cool concepts and frustratingly ill-thought-out ones. First, the cool stuff. The history is awesome - the gods bestrode the land and fought and died in order to defeat their evil brother. They had vast hordes of ...
The players who aren't super engaged with the game and play shitty bards who provide moderate bonuses while dancing or some fucking thing are the ones who suffer most from this sort of thing - because they are actually kind of relieved to foist power onto other characters at the expense of their ac...
Because they're trying to emulate the movies and comic books.
Also, because gamers tend to focus fire on the most dangerous enemy and take steps to ensure that he stays down once he goes down...unlike Batman, they're not staisfied with the ol' Revolving Door Prison Insane Asylum.
It does create the unfortunate message that if you want to have fantastic things in your setting then a lot of people have to suffer horribly. Assuming you're playing any variation of "heroic adventuring," a lot of people are liable to suffer anyway. If it's not magic, it's the nanobot pl...
Define "better." Better than it would have been without magic? In many cases that's an impossible question...magic defines the setting. Better than the real world? In what way? Better than technology? The problem, as Tavish noted, is that there has to be drama. Regardless of the trappings,...
Of course, you all realize that the other sapient species on this plant is Brother Dolphin, who will sing to the crystals in the year 2012 and induce humanity to become pacifistic vegan hippies, don't you? Come on! Share the love, Space Brothers! (Seriously though, dolphins are the only other specie...
Hmm... That sounds like The Place Promised in Our Early Days http://www.animevice.com/the-place-promised-in-our-early-days/13-1229/ http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com/cgi-bin/mag.cgi?do=columns&vol=jenny_rappaport&article=001 Thats it! Muchas gracias, amigo. What an...interesting title.