The Gaming Den

If a short description of how they operate can be written fr each, as well as a description of what is "role protected" and what is not, then a rule system can be line-fit to that list.

Are you suggesting that people here should attempt to write these?

Stretching the scrub archetype to table top gaming is difficult, because the definition is a failure to understand that the only thing that matters is competitive success. I have to disagree. Tabletop games aren't adversarial, but there is a yardstick for being successful. If you aren't meeting tho...

If you haven't, Bill, I suggest checking out sirlin.net. Some of it is kind of annoying and pretentious crap, but the guy who writes the blog and whatever else there is a world Street Fighter championship player who talks about design, game balance, and what it means to "play to win." Here...

Pounds is force. Foot-pounds is energy. A weight is just the force exerted by gravity. Newtons are about 1/5 of a pound. Technically, you have to distinguish between pound-mass and pound-force. The description of the mage hand spell doesn't, and in common parlance, people generally mean pound-mass,...

I mean fuck, test it. Buy a 5 lb weight and lay it on your body anywhere you want. There's just no way that's going to kill anyone. Er, I think it's more like dropping a 5 lb weight on someone out of a window. Also, I think you'd have a great deal of trouble breathing with a 5 lb weight on your thr...

For the specific example of the paladin's mount, the rules explicitly say that the effective spell level of the ability is 1/3 the paladin's level. That's also kind of weird, but at least they tell you. Otherwise, the rules say you're supposed to use the spell. If the Sp ability isn't an actual spel...

What systems intentionally do this? How would you balance Chaos magic? I can't actually think of any off-hand, but it's a common fantasy trope. In those settings, magic is usually depicted as a living and whimsical force that you can petition. It may or may not do what you say. Personally, I don't ...

K wrote:The real problem is that one explanation is as good as another for most things.

And let us not forget that any sufficiently advanced technology is, to those who don't understand it, indistinguishable from magic.

Another problem is that monsters in D2 are all essentially magic trinket-stuffed piñatas, and you end up with tons and tons of magic items that are essentially vendor trash. By some point you're leaving piles of magic swords strewn all across the land because the time it takes to throw them in your ...

Is said it should follow most scientific principles. It should ignore only those that are required for it to be called magic and have semi-realistic explanations as to why it ignores them. Which "scientific principles" are you permitting magic in this system to violate? Conservation of ma...

If magic doesn't break the rules of physics as we understand them, how is it magic and not applied use of science--i.e., "mundane" technology?

It all depends on the game world style you're going for. The problem with D2's magic items is that they do one thing: Give you bigger numbers. Damage, hit rate, maybe resistances to attack. That's not very exciting, especially when having a +3 sword is essentially mandatory for your character to fun...

2) The abilities of non casting classes don't measure up to those of casting classes. For a caster each new spell they receive has great potential and come with a myriad of options that often times scale. And you don't even have to be playing "high-level" D&D for this to be true. When...

Class levels are just a package of abilities. That's it. They're not inexorably tied to their flavor. Sneak attack is just extra damage when you have the upper hand on your opponent as defined by the given tactical/positioning modifiers. It doesn't require you to be a sneaky coward or a dirty fighte...

Alternately, it is a reference to the fact that the show is called Avatar: The Last Airbender...

Perhaps it is intended to suggest that this is the ultimate Avatar RPG, and that no more Avatar RPGs should need to be produced afterward.

In an odd twist of fate, I don't have a 3.5e MM, so I can't cite from there. I'm going to go out on a limb and extrapolate, since I can't find an answer one way or the other in the SRD. I would assume that because primary attacks have a higher attack bonus that they have to be used first. When a cha...

From page 143 of the 3.5e PHB:

Player's Handbook wrote:If you get multiple attacks because your base attack bonus is high enough, you must make the attacks in order from highest bonus to lowest.

Seems clear enough by RAW.

Again, my guess is you're misunderstanding the context...The argument generally goes like so: "4e is teh bestest!" "I disagree. For example, look at this rule and how it works poorly." "No, 4e is still teh bestest game because you can just use some other game (such as MTP) ...

MTP isn't bad. Paying $400 for a stack of hardcovers, and still having to play MTP to decide whether or not, or how, basic concepts like "wall" and "hammer attack" can interact is bad. 4e's designers really dropped the ball on the "target: one creature" bit and not mak...

"Storyteller" is totally not the system you are thinking it is...There are systems which actually do what you are thinking of, and yes they're fine, I just object to your specific example. That's fair. I have limited familiarity with it and am clearly mistaken, having only played with it ...

On this board, which primarily caters to Dungeons and Dragons, the reason why Magic Tea Party is looked down upon so much is that D&D is an authoritarian game which requires a lot of input and has a lot of conflict in it. The problems created by MTP are so intractable for the kind of game D&...

Hello to The Gaming Den! After a few months of solid lurking, I think it's about time I actually posted something. Specifically, I have a question, and a forum search doesn't turn up on any threads answering it the way I'd like, so I apologize if there have been threads about this before and I'm not...