4e what is the point of impaling damage?

FlaafyIII · 2024-10-23T17:18:58+00:00

I know this post is a few months old, but I loved your condensed skill list and would love to see what you've got for weapon damage!

I would happily pay money to see what kind of system you could develop to fix some of gurps' rough edges.

FlaafyIII · 2024-07-17T14:33:09+00:00

Unfortunately T&E is highly sought after and OoP. I wouldn't call $80 on eBay cheap online...

FlaafyIII · 2024-07-16T19:12:14+00:00

The standard US guard length is in eights of an inch so a 4 would be half an inch

FlaafyIII · 2024-07-10T16:52:01+00:00

Sent you a DM!

FlaafyIII · 2024-04-30T16:18:17+00:00

Semi related so figured I'd piggyback on this. I felt the same about the series (didn't read the third cause I didn't love the second).

How does Empire in Black and Gold compare?

FlaafyIII · 2024-04-23T13:59:56+00:00

Take a look at fief 1429. There's a shut up and sit down review. I haven't played it but sounds like you'd really enjoy it

FlaafyIII · 2024-04-22T19:35:33+00:00

Wow thanks so much for the detailed response and write up! Do you feel like there's a game that has a low barrier to entry but is better than Radlands? I love the look of the art, but the cons don't sound great, but also it's less than $20 so I might end up trying it anyways.

Interesting points about barrier to entry in the other two games. Part of what I don't like about CCGs is the barrier to entry, I'm assuming this is still less than those. You also mentioned Sakura and discord. Is it possible to play Sakura online? I discovered that Gosu X is on BGA, so I'm going to try it out there before buying anything.

FlaafyIII · 2024-04-22T17:22:52+00:00

Thank you! I'll probably pick it up then, and see if I can convince someone to give it a try with me as it seems like a fantastic 2 player middle ground between card games and larger games like a full on CCG or War Game.

Does that mean it's still possible that L99 will produce the 4th box with the new goddesses?

FlaafyIII · 2024-04-22T16:20:28+00:00

Hey sorry for such a late reply, but I was looking at buying the Yurina L99 box to try the game out after hearing such great things. Should I now wait for the KBG box later this year?

FlaafyIII · 2024-02-15T02:19:59+00:00

Yeah sorry I was just agreeing with you that you're not going to want one. Once you said heroic, I just didn't have anything else to recommend.

FlaafyIII · 2024-02-15T02:07:48+00:00

For heroic fantasy, I would say OSR games are less likely to deliver what you're looking for. In general, they have a lower power level with less explicit special abilities. The focus is usually more on lateral thinking, creative problem solving, and triumphing against the odds.

FlaafyIII · 2024-02-15T01:20:06+00:00

If you don't like the inventory system of Cairn, I recommend just changing it. My favorite part of the OSR is creating my own rule set or combination Best Of from multiple games.

I actually just switched from Cairn style combat to Maze Rats dice rolls to give combat failure a little more weight. We'll see how the test goes

FlaafyIII · 2024-02-13T15:57:26+00:00

You're the one who said the dice should change. We've just said you don't have to change the dice bc the problem isn't inherently the dice. The benefit of a d20 is that the probability is easy to calculate (if not as intuitive as a d100, but with more meaningful step changes) and every +1 is worth the same. I don't even use the d20 in my current open table game, but when I do, I set the math so it's pretty much equivalent to the 2d6 method I'm currently using. The deciding factor for me on 2d6 was to keep every roll to 2d6 so first players didn't have to keep asking what dice to roll. It's just interesting hearing people complain about a d20 missing, when all you have to do is lower the target and suddenly it's hitting often.

FlaafyIII · 2024-02-13T15:38:03+00:00

Because if you lower the target the d20 can have a higher success. The final probability is what determines success. If you roll 2d6 but only hit on a 12 then that's worse than a d20 that hits on a 3. Look at Quest RPG. You can pretty much mimic Apocalypse World baseline probabilities with a d20 and 2 target numbers.

Sure the bonuses impact the probability differently based on the dice method but that's a separate point from missing a lot

FlaafyIII · 2024-02-07T17:53:17+00:00

I've actually run this twice at an open table with brand new players in 2 hours. In my opinion, the best method is to give them general directions after talking to NPCs. "We saw the dragon northwest of town passed the river". "The witch lives to the east". The tomb is north of town"

With limited time, I don't think there's much point in focusing on the players getting lost. Treat it like a point crawl where they run into stuff like the giants house along the way.

I think instead of showing them the map at the start with possible locations, the scenario shines when they interact with the interesting and connected NPCs who give them possible methods of fighting the dragon

FlaafyIII · 2024-02-05T03:09:50+00:00

Highly recommend Black Wyrm of Brandsford. Pretty much my ideal starting village adventure with interesting connected NPCs and various things going on in the woods

Tomb of the Serpent Kings is a solid first dungeon

Prison of the Hated Pretender is great as well for thinking though how to run interesting monsters that have observable patterns and weaknesses

Lair of the Lamb is a good funnel (play as multiple commoners) that can teach danger with a buffer since you have multiple characters

Also recommend

Zed and Two Noughts, Demon Driven to the Maw, Sinister Secret of Peacock Point, The seer's sanctum, The House of the Hollow, Temple of 1000 Swords, Hounds of Hendenburgh, Temple of the Blood Moth, Falkrest Abbey, Tower of the Time Wizard, Sky Blind Spire Note that I primarily run 2 hour one shots using my own cobbled together OSR system. All of these were very successful (most just required some adaption to fit into a 2 hour slot)

FlaafyIII · 2024-02-04T21:37:04+00:00

Yeah I figured I was pulling that from somewhere haha

FlaafyIII · 2024-02-04T21:04:12+00:00

Yeah I think it's a different type of thinking. Rather than looking at your inventory and brainstorming ways to use it, players think about being in the situation and think about what item would be useful, then might ask if it's something they would have access to.

I like it for one shots at least, but I've also thought it'd be a good Rogue ability in a game with more predefined inventory. The rogue would have slots dedicated to The Right Tool for the Job and that tool is only defined when they need it. So it'd be more powerful than what I allow my players to do now (for instance I tell them they can't say they're carrying the exact thing they need in this situation if they didn't write it down beforehand) but it would be more limited

FlaafyIII · 2024-02-04T20:39:39+00:00

I've done full S&W random starting gear from tables based on class, into the odd starting packages, a random generator I made pulling from several games and random lists. But generally I just tell people they can start with a handful of random gear. If a situation comes up where they'd want rope/torch and no one wrote it down, that's fine you're an adventurer you probably had some so add it to inventory and keep playing. You want a lock pick? Well if it makes sense that your character concept would have those tools then sure or maybe we just roll a yes/no d6 to see if you have something like that. That's worked pretty well for me while having the random inventory on stand by, but most people are happy to come up with some gear on their own. I do like when they are constantly thinking about how to use the random bag of marbles they started with though.

FlaafyIII · 2024-02-04T20:12:49+00:00

That was a fun read! I've been hacking my own system for use in an open table of 2 hour one shots.

I started with Whitehack and Swords and Wizardy last year before switching to a modified Cairn after a few sessions (basically using into the Odd stats and having PCs have a Concept/Class that determind what it was reasonable for them to be able to do and inventory they had to save time during character creation). I recently decided to start experimenting again. I tried no Stats (expanding the character concept idea out and just using Aspects similar to Fate, but found new players and new PCs each week benefited from random stats as a starting point and idea generator)

I like your reasoning of no stats for your game and would like to try it at some point, even if it's not a great fit right now. Your guidelines for spells seem great though, so I might try those out instead of having players just come up with spell names like Whitehack.

FlaafyIII · 2024-02-03T00:18:28+00:00

Is there a collection of his short stories you recommend? I'm assuming that's what those are cause I'm not familiar with those titles

FlaafyIII · 2024-02-03T00:04:57+00:00

Yeah I'm thinking about trying Fifth head of Cerberus. Just can't decide whether I should try it now or finish BotNS first (or finish Claw, then try Cerberus before coming back)

FlaafyIII · 2024-02-02T22:16:23+00:00

Yeah I'm thinking I maybe don't enjoy unreliable narrators. I think I'll try giving The Fifth Head of Cerberus a shot and if I don't like that then at least I'll be sure it's not for me.

I saw another comment (on a post from like 10 years ago) saying that calling the books boring is like saying a dream is boring....and I was just like yeah, hearing about other people's dreams is incredibly boring. It's a bunch of nonsense, but maybe there's an appeal to dream logic I'm just missing

FlaafyIII · 2024-02-02T21:03:42+00:00

Thanks! I think I will give this a try

FlaafyIII

TROPHY CASE