The Gaming Den

You know, it seems like things would be so much better if they just changed the basic RNG to 3d6 or a 1d20.

That example difficulty you gave for the rappelling actually seems pretty reasonable if you do that. But 2d6? Give me a break.

Frank wrote: On the plus side: the riding beasts table has an entry for Llamas and Yaks.

All is forgiven, Drači Doupě Plus.

FrankTrollman wrote: On the plus side: the riding beasts table has an entry for Llamas and Yaks.

Llamas? This game really has everything a person could want.

Heh, they'd actually be decent mounts for hobbits. I could totally see a team of badass armored llama-mounted hobbit outriders.

FrankTrollman wrote:There is seriously an off-the-cuff statement in the appearance section where it talks about a ranger coming in from the forest and cleaning up and shifting her beauty modifier by ten. You know, on 2d6.

Magic Soap +10?

FrankTrollman wrote:The minimum strength on those things is +10, even with the bonus for using them two handed, you ain't pulling that off at chargen.

You can't use a greatsword at 1st level? Is it some uber weapon or something? Is it just overpowered compared to one-handed options?

Being a long-time lurker, I just registered to say thank you for these insights. They are interesting, funny and slightly frightening the same time. Hope you can get hands on the missing handbooks

FrankTrollman wrote:OK, that's just illustrating the numbers. Each of those bars contains the name of a stat you are supposed to write down and the place for writing it down, and the line between the two is curved.

Thats much more boring than I expected.

Classes with this much variance in an MMO would be a good thing, you really need it for replayability. In a PnP game its the road to confusion town.

This is fascinating. Now I wish I hadn't decided my DJ name should be "DJ Falsifier", so it could be "Mister Cavern". Maybe I'll have to name an album that.

All this is well and good, but here's a really important question: What does the Czech Gaming Den look like?

We chase each other around with a switch with some ribbons tied onto it, aiming to give each other a pop on the ass. If the person being ass-switched accepts, they give the Ax of Happiness. If not, they give the Words of Rejection.

If rejected, we go drink the Beer of Consolation (Czech beer is REALLY GOOD at consoling). This -may- be followed by the Disco Dance of Drunk. This is a scary dance.

Then we all go beat ourselves with the Moron Bat.

FrankTrollman wrote:On the plus side: the riding beasts table has an entry for Llamas and Yaks.

-Username17

SOLD!

Frank, any chance to get more insight on this hillarious game? And I agree that Mister Cavern is the new DM title

Yeah I already adopted it.

Xur wrote:Frank, any chance to get more insight on this hillarious game? And I agree that Mister Cavern is the new DM title

Actually yes. You see, I am in Czech Republic. Which means that I can go get another book and try to puzzle out more parts of the game. Would people rather see the wisdom of...

• Bestiař (Monster Manual)
• Příručka pro Pán Jeskyně (DMG)
• Povolání Bojovník (Complete Fighter)
• Povolání Knez (Complete Cleric)
• Povolání Zloděj (Complete Thief)
• Povolání Čaroděj (Complete Wizard)

To give you an idea of what you (and I) are missing, This is a section from the Complete Ranger. Most of it is taken up with "life as a Ranger" but it just starts in on discussing their deal where they wander around the wilderness and get access to "medicine" (in the Witch Doctor sense of the term) that Mr. Cavern feels like having them find.

-Username17

Hmm.....

Monsters. Definitely Monsters. I want to see if there's anything new; or anything that you feel is a Czech folklore/mythology sort of creature that isn't well known by the D&D playing crowd.

I vote for the DMG. I really want to see the kind of advice Czech game designers ripping off Dungeons and Dragons give aspiring Mister Caverns.

FrankTrollman wrote:

Xur wrote:Frank, any chance to get more insight on this hillarious game? And I agree that Mister Cavern is the new DM title

Actually yes. You see, I am in Czech Republic. Which means that I can go get another book and try to puzzle out more parts of the game. Would people rather see the wisdom of...

• Bestiař (Monster Manual)
• Příručka pro Pán Jeskyně (DMG)
• Povolání Bojovník (Complete Fighter)
• Povolání Knez (Complete Cleric)
• Povolání Zloděj (Complete Thief)
• Povolání Čaroděj (Complete Wizard)

How good of a translation are you going to get? If it's going to be good enough, the DMG would be awesome. Otherwise the MM for sure.

JigokuBosatsu wrote:This is fascinating. Now I wish I hadn't decided my DJ name should be "DJ Falsifier", so it could be "Mister Cavern". Maybe I'll have to name an album that.

Lots of DJs have multiple DJ names. Consider Amon Tobin, who also released music as Cujo and Bonobo.

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[Edit] Holy shit, those character sheets are intense. [/Edit]

Yeah, it's a toss-up between Mister Cavern's Book and the Monster Manual. I'm kind of hoping it has weird Chechen folklore monsters that those of us on the other side of the Iron Curtain missed out on.

That said, the DMG must surely have the whole Kafkaesque Nightmare thing going on, which is a sure win.

"If your players want to multiclass, make sure they obtain the multiclassing from form for their current class and the multiclassing to form for their new class. Note that the multiclassing to form is in the book for their new class, which they are not allowed to open until they gain a level in it. They will also need the variant rule permission slip, located in the box marked 'Beware of Leopard'."

I suspect Mister Cavern's Book is fail we've all seen before. I'd like to hear the weirdness of their Monster Manual.

Orca wrote:I suspect Mister Cavern's Book is fail we've all seen before. I'd like to hear the weirdness of their Monster Manual.

Agreed

Either the DMG or MM sound good. The DMG because I expect to see some terrible advice, and the MM because I expect to see a lot of DNS effects.

So I got the Bestiař. It comes in a three ring binder kind of like the 2nd edition Monstrous Compendium. I was wrong about the Povolání Zloděj and Povolání Theurg, in that they are actually one book - you literally flip the Povolání Zloděj upside down and start reading from the other end to get the Povolání Theurg. So it would take half as many actual books to figure out how the classes "really" work as I thought.

Also, there are two, two short book sets of "Pokročili (Advanced)" and "Expert (Expert)" rules, but I am starting in on the Bestiař for now.

-Username17

FrankTrollman wrote:Povolání Zloděj (Complete Thief)

I find it hilarious that the Czech word for thief is literally evil doer.

Oh, also there's a "modern" Czech game that came out last year called Střepy Snů, which seems to run on dice pools and because it's Czech, those dice are all d6s. I have not played it or even found out what he hell it's about, but flipping through a book in the gam store it looks exactly like a White Wolf game in terms of layout and presentation. You seem to have "Fear Points" (Body Strach) or something. I don't even.

-Username17

That game sounds like a Czech Don't Rest Your Head. Any connection?

Koumei wrote:"If your players want to multiclass, make sure they obtain the multiclassing from form for their current class and the multiclassing to form for their new class. Note that the multiclassing to form is in the book for their new class, which they are not allowed to open until they gain a level in it. They will also need the variant rule permission slip, located in the box marked 'Beware of Leopard'."

I see you've played Paranoia.

schpeelah wrote:That game sounds like a Czech Don't Rest Your Head. Any connection?

Not seemingly. Here's how the designer describes it to the best of his ability in English:

Matouš Ježek wrote:In 2009, I have written and published an independent pen and paper RPG called “Strepy snu” (loosely translated as Dream Shards). Focusing on the storytelling aspect of gaming, it puts the players in roles of characters from a fictional film and tells the story of their lives.

The development of this game gave me a great insight into game design, especially concerning the application of film techniques to game mechanics. The 160 pages long book was self-published.

His other credits include no PnP stuff at all, but he apparently worked on Mafia 2 (the computer game reviewed Here), where he did storyboarding.

-Username17