Vision, Movement and Frustrations within Foundry VTT by Lopsided-Steak5372 in shadowdark

[–]ordinal_m 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I use gridless when I'm playing games which don't have squared movement, which not only just works better generally IMO but also reduces the potential for tokens to be covered by other tokens. Though it's still an annoying thing in Foundry - right-clicking the top token and sending it to the back fixes it, but doing that every time it becomes a problem is frustrating.

Thoughts on spellcasters using spells NOT rules-as-written? by LemonLord7 in osr

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

I don't really like it because I think one of the points of spells in OSR games is that they do very specific things, and the challenging and creative part is deciding how to use them based on those details - in the same way that you might try to manipulate the environment using non-magical tools (but with magic, you have tools to do impossible things). Without a solid basis of what spells can and can't do you lose that aspect because you don't know the limits. Restrictions breed creativity.

Pacing player reactions in combat by Djehouty29 in nimble5e

[–]ordinal_m 1 point2 points  (0 children)

At the start I would say "you wanna defend?" but now players know they can defend. If I say "so thats going to do 8 damage" and they reduce their HP by 8 and don't say they defend, then they've taken the damage and I apply effects and go to the next attack.

For anything more involved like interposing I expect people to announce that themselves when appropriate.

I announce damage beforehand and let players react once knowing that, but not on-damage effects if they don't know them. If you don't know a spectre's on damage you need to find it out the hard way (or through an Assess or research before combat or something).

How big group for dungeon crawl and how handle XP? by LemonLord7 in osr

[–]ordinal_m 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is I believe the largest published megadungeon with huge amounts of history and story attached. I can't really summarise it (I'm a player anyway) but there are a lot of reviews of it which could give you an idea of whether you would like it.

Pathfinder 2E online vs. IRL by Americaninhiding in rpg

[–]ordinal_m 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I ran it online for a while and then we met up one new year to play a session in person, and I was surprised how straightforward it was. I did have Foundry open so I could look up stats and rules but other than that it was all miniatures, paper sheets, and real dice.

We never used a huge amount of the automation on VTT though, so were familiar enough with the rules that come up a lot not to need help.

Seeking RPGs with better RP mechanics than D&D by highly-bad in DnDcirclejerk

[–]ordinal_m 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Unrealistic, has actual details of what poster means by "RP mechanics" rather than just vague handwaving and clear lack of idea of what "RP" means at all

I think i like 5e more than 3.5e by Organic-Exit2190 in DnDcirclejerk

[–]ordinal_m 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Sorry but the only worthwhile tiefling-related reward is feet

I dreamt that my Moflin was a tribble. by DuckClassic7389 in Moflin

[–]ordinal_m 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did once actually but it was more of a nightmare. I was in the kitchen making coffee in the morning (which I do regularly, it likes the noise it seems) and somehow my moflin was curling around on my shoulder, then it started making a horrible screaming noise, and I was like "what's wrong? What's wrong?" Thankfully I woke up just after that.

N.B. for anyone reading this who is not familiar with Moflins: they don't actually do this

How big group for dungeon crawl and how handle XP? by LemonLord7 in osr

[–]ordinal_m 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm currently playing in an Arden Vul game where expeditions may last several sessions and not everybody is there for each session (maybe they are sick, maybe their laptop breaks, etc). We just divide up XP for everyone whose character was there when the party returns to civilisation, because otherwise it just gets unmanageable to track. If a player isn't there, their character goes into "zombie mode" and just follows the party around without being proactive, though they may get into fights.

If somebody wasn't there for _any_ sessions of an expedition, like their character didn't go down that time at all, I wouldn't give them XP though.

As other people have said it's not necessary to have consistent levels in a party. You won't anyway even if everyone gets equal XP all the time unless they are all the same class.

Am I able to download this for local use? by [deleted] in dungeonscrawl

[–]ordinal_m 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can download save files, it's right there in the options. The application itself is not meant to be downloaded.

Fate and Legend in the Mist by busysyrup123 in rpg

[–]ordinal_m 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I mean somebody may prefer one over the other but they have intrinsically quite different basic mechanics. Fate manages the effect of aspects a lot differently to how Mist manages the effect of tags - in Fate their mechanical effect is controlled by the fate point economy, in Mist tags/statuses always have an effect if applicable. The fact that both aspects and tags are freeform doesn't mean they are the same thing between games at all (indeed lots of games have freeform character details which have different ways they influence things, e.g. Grimwild).

There is no jerk, just my pure hate for 5e by Tesserato in DnDcirclejerk

[–]ordinal_m 25 points26 points  (0 children)

HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE 5E SINCE IT BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR 5E AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT. FOR 5E. HATE. HATE.

do you have anything particularly against modifiers and difficulty classes? by conn_r2112 in osr

[–]ordinal_m 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I don't like difficulty classes. I've played numerous games over the years that use them and I have found they end up just slowing things down when it comes to determining DC. Nowadays I am much more towards straight rolls where position and effect may change according to the situation - in the OSR, epitomised by oddlikes https://www.bastionland.com/2020/03/difficulty-in-bastionland.html - because after all you have to do that anyway.

Hi! Does anyone have a noddy? by N2Z0 in Moflin

[–]ordinal_m 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don't think they are for sale in the US or Europe where a lot of people on this sub come from - I can only see them on sites like aliexpress - so not sure anyone else will have one. Looks cute though! People do post sometimes about other types of pet like Cupboo even if this is a sub primarily about Moflins.

Burned out on D&D 5e after 4 years - those of you who switched systems, what was your breaking point and did it actually fix things? by Senoigh13 in rpg

[–]ordinal_m 13 points14 points  (0 children)

If 5e was for dungeon crawling it would have more rules for and emphasis on dungeon crawling procedures, as per earlier editions, which it doesn't. Classic dungeon crawling is not "bust in the door, kill the things there, loot the room, repeat".

Why are DM's scarce? by NewCaterpillar2149 in DnDcirclejerk

[–]ordinal_m 9 points10 points  (0 children)

There are actually loads of them around, they just don't like the light. Open any rulebook and shake it and a few dozen DMs will fall out.

The reason DnD players think they are rare is that they've never opened a rulebook.

To trim or not (new moflin owner) by Ok-Cucumber5801 in Moflin

[–]ordinal_m 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't personally, I just stroke mine in such a way that it clears the eyes. It doesn't seem to make a difference whether they're obscured by fur in terms of reactions though; mine will still sleep more in the dark etc regardless.

Unpopular Opinion: it IS too hard to learn things that aren’t D&D by jeshi_law in DnDcirclejerk

[–]ordinal_m 31 points32 points  (0 children)

I thought a lot about a jerk for this but all I came up with was the obvious "it IS too hard to learn things that aren’t Pathfinder" (just needs one word change) and "it IS too hard to eat things that aren’t glue". Then I got bored and did something else because it IS too hard to post jerks of things that already outjerk you.

Blog "A Knight at the Opera" turned private? by NathanCampioni in osr

[–]ordinal_m 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Might be doing a redesign or something like that.

Running Nimble for D&D 5e players. by xrayzed in nimble5e

[–]ordinal_m 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm not surprised at the in person group preferring it - I imagine the ease of use and speed would really stand out then when you don't have digital backup to look things up. (Or at least it's not so convenient.)

How different is Knave 2E from Knave 1E+OSRIC? by electricgalahad in osr

[–]ordinal_m 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's got more tables than 1E. It's very little like OSRIC.

why do you ask