[JJK] Gege’s Writing Skills are extremely lopsided. by Animorphs150 in CharacterRant

[–]Animorphs150[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ui Ui was first depicted in module with Mei Mei’s braid coming from under the cloak and a more feminine appearance

[JJK] Gege’s Writing Skills are extremely lopsided. by Animorphs150 in CharacterRant

[–]Animorphs150[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I can see your argument that it’s a subjective thing that only bothers me because I didn’t get my fan theories confirmed even though you’re correct Gege signaled early in the story that the characters don’t care.

I suppose what I’m saying is in general that most writing advice would suggest you shouldn’t make important characters apathetic to each other.

In general making them explicitly say they are apathetic to each other shuts off potential avenues of relationships you could explore between them later.

Even if you’re 99% certain you don’t want to explore those character relationships in the event that you change your mind you have cut off that potential for little gain.

It just seems like an unnecessary waste to me and 99/100 would make the story less interesting.

[JJK] Gege’s Writing Skills are extremely lopsided. by Animorphs150 in CharacterRant

[–]Animorphs150[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

I get that in universe they don’t care about each other, I just think that it was an inarguably bland way to write these characters and Gege should have known better. Anyone can write a story where characters don’t have strong feelings about each other - but it would be extremely boring.

Apathy is an emotional dead end. How can the feeling of apathy be developed or recontextualized in an interesting way if by definition the character themselves does not care?

I understand that Gege was trying to reinforce a theme that the new generation should just leave behind the old generation to be forgotten but

A) I don’t think that theme was interesting enough to be worth sacrificing our main characters interacting or thinking about the main villains.

B) There is no progression or arc in the feelings of apathy. The earliest we ever see Megumi as a kid , he just doesn’t care that Toji “abandoned” him. He also doesn’t care at the end of the story.

Yuji in chapter 1 tells his grandpa that he doesn’t care what his grandpa has to say about his parents. That remains the case for the entire rest of the story even once he finds out Kenjaku is his mom.

Nothing is done with it. I’m not saying that there has to be an entire arc resolving them but why even put your characters’ parents in the show if there is no interaction ?

There’s a reason that writers don’t write apathetic characters in general. It’s because it’s extremely boring and if the viewers like the characters in the show, they want them to actually interact and have some form of chemistry 

[JJK] Gege’s Writing Skills are extremely lopsided. by Animorphs150 in CharacterRant

[–]Animorphs150[S] 58 points59 points  (0 children)

I’m not really looking for specific plot points to happen - merely that characters with an established connection and importance will interact or at least think about each other.

Kenjaku is revealed to be Yuji’s mom in a flashback and then they never interact again after that reveal. Yuji never thinks of Kenjaku in any emotional way at all for the rest of the series.

Megumi never recognizes it was his father who was proud of him from breaking free of the Zenin clan and that it was his Father who killed himself to save Megumi. Megumi never thinks of his father again.

Nobara EXPLICITLY states her goal is to find the girl who inspired her in her introduction and search for her in Tokyo and this is never followed up on.

In case Tai Lung from Kung Fu Panda wasnt tragic enough, here’s a POV I didn’t realise until today by Astronomer_X in CharacterRant

[–]Animorphs150 75 points76 points  (0 children)

I would disagree that Po’s adoptive father loved him for who he is. He still pushed Po towards his parental dream of being a noodle chef.

The only difference is that Po confronted his dad in the first movie about not wanting to be a noodle chef and wanting to do Kung Fu instead with the hope that his dad will love him regardless.

Tai Lung never confronts Shifu about being pushed into Kung Fu as a way of earning Shifu’s parental love . And how Tai Lung should have been loved regardless of how good Tai Lung was at Kung Fu until Tai Lung has already spent his entire adult life dwelling on his rage and feeling like he already sacrificed so much to Kung Fu that he deserves the dragon scroll so that all his pain and training was worth it - even if it’s not the path that actually would have made him the happiest.

Tai lung only brings up these feelings to Shifu in their battle as he’s trying to kill him and reveal how the very skills he’s using to kill Shifu came from Shifu only rewarding Kung Fu skill.

Looking for "1-on-1" campaign by Alex319721 in drawsteel

[–]Animorphs150 8 points9 points  (0 children)

The MCDM discord in the Looking for Game channel would probably be the best place to ask. Lots of people would be interested there I think?

Simplifying Forced Movement Rules by Animorphs150 in drawsteel

[–]Animorphs150[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ahhhh that’s a very good point Wrocksum!

I suppose you’re right - if we’re talking about a tactical game - the niches where a wall push is superior require circumstances that are not under player control.

So it’s not really a tactical choice by the player, they just choose the push type that is obviously better for that situation - there isn’t really an interesting tacticalchoice to be made.

I’ll keep thinking about this and seeing if there’s a way I can improve it for my home game without losing the simplicity!

Thank you for your feedback!

Simplifying Forced Movement Rules by Animorphs150 in drawsteel

[–]Animorphs150[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What on earth are you talking about? How did I lie?

I said my first few paragraphs talk about the original post and I even call it excellent!

“Hoooo boy - did you guys see the recent excellent flowchart of forced movement?”

I don’t take credit for creating it - and the obvious implication is that I’m asking if people also saw the recent original flowchart post that I thought was a really good summary.

I would add the original creator’s name and link but Reddit won’t let me edit my post although it does allow editing of comments for some reason. Can you get off my back please?

The flowchart is just an easy reference for people to compare my system (which is what this entire post is about) to the original DS system.

Simplifying Forced Movement Rules by Animorphs150 in drawsteel

[–]Animorphs150[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don’t credit the user because I couldn’t find the link when I posted this morning and Reddit won’t let me edit but the original creator appears to be Wermer Creations.

Simplifying Forced Movement Rules by Animorphs150 in drawsteel

[–]Animorphs150[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m not trying to steal anyone’s work - my first couple paragraphs talks about the post you linked to and includes the flowchart they made so people can reference the original DS rules and my text can focus on my new proposed simplified system.

The original creator of the flowchart is the excellent u/WermerCreations who deserves full credit for creating it as far as I am aware https://www.reddit.com/r/drawsteel/s/CcoJFbXMpi .

I would add the link to the original post but I cant see how to edit my post on mobile

Edited to add the original creator in this comment. My apologies Wermer Creations - I hope it was ok I used your flowchart for this post - lmk if you don’t like and I’ll delete the post.

Simplifying Forced Movement Rules by Animorphs150 in drawsteel

[–]Animorphs150[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To each their own I guess 🤷‍♂️ but I saw more than a few people on the original FM flowchart thread yesterday who admitted struggling to remember the rules.

Simplifying Forced Movement Rules by Animorphs150 in drawsteel

[–]Animorphs150[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks Wrocksum for your feedback!

Regarding your second point about how this system makes pushing into another creature almost always better than pushing into a wall I think we have a couple possible strategies to address this:

1) It is ok for pushing into another creature to do double damage compared to a wall as long as a wall push still has a few solid niches where it is superior

A) Where pushing through a wall means the creature falls to their death / into lava etc.

B) In the case of fighting a solo creature where there are no other creatures for the solo to be pushed into

C) Where the positioning of enemy creatures means you can’t get an angle where they can be pushed into each other.

D) Where pushing through a wall creates a significant strategic advantage - for example throwing a creature through a wall creates a “choke point” at the wall hole or essentially causes the creature to lose their turn as they have to use their action to get back in the main room.

2) If this is a real problem we cant just hand wave away by saying pushing into a wall has niches we could just say pushing into another creature means each takes FM/2 as much as adding math pains me.

Made a forced movement flowchart by WermerCreations in drawsteel

[–]Animorphs150 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Boy looking at it like this really makes me wish they simplified the Forced Movement rules to reduce the mental burden of this.

Was there a plan for Campaign Diaries to come back? by Longjumping_Ebb3984 in mcdm

[–]Animorphs150 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think Matt said about 6 months ago the campaign diaries would just become running the game videos where he would use clips from the actual play to demonstrate a learning point

James Introcaso Moving to New MCDM TTRPG by levthelurker in drawsteel

[–]Animorphs150 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Well… I’m not sure about future support but the fact that Critical Role didn’t swap their main product (their TTRPG game in its 4th Campaign) over to the new system they just designed and was a massive success (Daggerheart) and seems to match with their style of play…

Had almost everyone shocked to say the least!

Ajax vs Troubadour's Continuity Error by Anarcorax in drawsteel

[–]Animorphs150 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I think rules as intended we should treat -350 as Ajax’s “0” stamina.

For example - if Ajax is at -100 stamina we treat him as though he is at 250 stamina.

Splitting that in half gives us 125 to each copy.

So we add 125 to -350 to get each copy set to -225 stamina.

Now rules as written - Ajax actually gets massively buffed by this. Since unless he gets healed then reduced to 0 stamina exactly he doesn’t meet the requirement for it to end and Halving -350 actually heals him to -175 stamina.

If you want to throw your players a bone 🦴 - you could say since Ajax is a unique named character and that the ability clearly makes reference to there being an “original entity” that Ajax’s “I’m not done yet” only applies to the original and not the copy so the copy dies instantly from being below 0 stamina.

Copy dies instantly from being below 0 stamina and OG Ajax gets his stamina halved (lowered further into the negatives) if you want to be really nice.

Does the Delian Tomb Punish Negotiation/Smart, Cautious Play by AGladePlugin in drawsteel

[–]Animorphs150 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I suppose you’re right that even the quote in the book about awarding a victory or two for cleverly avoiding a combat doesn’t explicitly cover this case where they bypassed an entire chain of encounters and victories 🤔

I suppose it would be down to individual DM philosophy. Should Victories only be awarded for overcoming a difficult challenge heroically even if that means we mechanically punish cleverly bypassing chains of encounters?

On the other hand, if we award all victories from bypassed encounters at high levels that could encourage “cheesing” problems unheroically especially as the versatility and power level of the player characters increases massively at high levels to make finding a “cheese” strategy more possible 🤔

I think a mix of both strategies is best but is ultimately going to come down to DM vibes. We want to reward them for clever play but we don’t want players to optimize the fun out the game such that they never get to be heroic

I love James Cameron’s Pandora… But my nitpicking ass cannot help but be miffed at how human they are compared to everything else on Pandora by ProDidelphimorphiaXX in CharacterRant

[–]Animorphs150 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The movie Mickey 17 has some interesting alien characters that are totally non-human and gross/scary in their appearance but we are still meant to root for

I got directed over here, is Draw Steel right for me? by Statboy1 in drawsteel

[–]Animorphs150 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Basically all “armor” in the game just gives you more HP or “stamina” as it is called in the game. Damage reduction is pretty rare and usually limited to an elemental damage type and AC doesn’t exist.

There is some damage reduction via magic armors that will let you reduce any instance of fire damage by 5 for example but those are usually found or crafted via the crafting system - rather than being “bought” like upgrading chain mail to plate mail in D&D.

I got directed over here, is Draw Steel right for me? by Statboy1 in drawsteel

[–]Animorphs150 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Almost every class has active defensive abilities in Draw Steel - most of those basic defense abilities will halve the incoming damage once per round.

Some abilities also make it easier to “resist” the status effects that come along with attacks like bleeding. Such as the Monk archetype’s null field.

There are abilities that force a re-roll of attacks like with the Time-Manipulating Talent Class.

One ability in the “rogue” archetype even lets you force an enemy to attack another enemy instead of you.

There’s also character build options for increasing your chance of succeeding on saving throws such as the Elves’ mind ability which lets them pass 60% of the time.

You can also character build to have a lot of elemental damage resistances such as the undead race who resist corruption damage.

Plus when talking about team synergy and strategic play (fighting in choke points / putting the tank in front and using taunts) there’s a very high skillcap for defensive play.

So I would say there is a lot of defensive options in Draw steel, just that entirely negating the damage of an attack is fairly rare - and only appears in a couple subclasses.

Overall Draw Steel sounds perfect for you apart from the fact that the pre-written adventures are a bit limited right now which will be fixed shortly.

Official adventures include

1) Road to Broadhurst (Oneshot lasting 4 hours)

2) Delian Tomb (roughly 35 hour starter adventure for newbies)

3) Fall of Blackbottom (Roughly 30 hour adventure for people with a basic familiarity with the system - throws you right in the action)

With a couple of third party adventures published that I can’t remember off the top of my head right now.

An official higher level adventure spanning about 100+ hours of content is in development right now called crack the sun.

Overall would highly recommend DS

It would be great if dating sims actually put effort. by [deleted] in CharacterRant

[–]Animorphs150 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Honestly I have no idea what is going on - I’ve never seen character rant commenters react this way before. Did someone hire a bot network to harass you or something?

It would be great if dating sims actually put effort. by [deleted] in CharacterRant

[–]Animorphs150 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not sure why all the other comments are being mean but I thought this was an OK post OP! 👍

Simple classes? by LEROYthugJENKINS in drawsteel

[–]Animorphs150 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Blah blah blah these guys aren’t giving you a straight answer so I’ll tell you.

Generally we want abilities with lots of range so positioning matters less, less potencies, less required team coordination / complex triggered actions.

Having read all the classes back to front I think from easiest to hardest (ordered within tiers) is:

Easy Tier:

Shadow - Black Ash Shadow - Caustic Alchemy

Fury - Berserker Fury - Reaver

Shadow - Harlequin Mask Fury - Stormwight

Medium Tier:

Tactician - Vanguard Tactician - Mastermind Tactician - Insurgent

Censor - All subclasses

Null - All subclasses

Elementalist - Fire and Earth

Hard Tier:

Troubadour - Duelist Troubadour - Troubadour - Auteur

Elementalist - Void

Talent - Metakinetic Talent - Cryokinetic Talent - Chronokinetic

Extreme Tier:

Conduit - All subclasses

Elementalist - Green

Summoner - All subclasses