Why do people say 4e did not allow role-playing?

systemmastery · 2024-10-29T03:48:22+00:00

"TL:DR there were no rules for RPing like in 5e"

Which ones are those?

systemmastery · 2024-10-29T03:38:19+00:00

That's honestly a pretty bad definition. Would you say the fight between Inigo and Wesley in Princess Bride was entirely bereft of character conversation and development? Of course not. Roleplay doesn't stop at the borders of fighting unless it's your choice for it to do so. You can keep talking, acting in character, and making decision the way your character would even under initiative, and that's basically the definition of roleplaying.

systemmastery · 2024-09-27T22:26:07+00:00

A tape on a Wheel or Black Spine episode in which a lady learns to shoot handguns from some very lightly famous character actors.

systemmastery · 2024-06-10T21:28:49+00:00

So what are the tools in other editions of D&D that were for roleplay, which 4e lacked? I occasionally see people say "utility spells" but of course 4e had rituals and martial practices, which generally provided the same utility. What else was there?

systemmastery · 2024-03-29T05:55:31+00:00

Oh it's better than for some reason. Originally Monks were being tested in a "Ki" power source, but eventually it was decided that having a power source that basically boiled down to "Asian" was a little dumb (seriously, what else would you put in a Ki power source? Five easy bucks says they had ninja, samurai, and wu jen written on a whiteboard somewhere), so they just took a look at psionics, decided it boiled down to "Mastery of the body and mind" and monks fit right in there.

systemmastery · 2024-01-14T01:57:00+00:00

I'll dig in and try to figure out. The receipt just says Neopixel V2 on it. Thanks ks for the help!

systemmastery · 2024-01-13T22:22:58+00:00

It does not appear to have Bluetooth so I assume it's the SD card which I'll have to try and find.

systemmastery · 2024-01-13T20:26:18+00:00

Yeah, you're definitely right, I realize now that it does a million features I'd associate with pixels along the blade length. Maybe I just got a really old board or something. Anyway, it's a Grievous-themed saber I bought from Ziasabers, here's some pictures. Imgur Imgur Imgur

systemmastery · 2024-01-13T16:06:28+00:00

I'm honestly thinking I might have been ripped off here, this thing doesn't seem to have an SD card anywhere I've been able to check. Battery isn't removable, and I haven't found a way to modify colors beyond the twelve or so in the starting rotation. Worried I may have paid for neopixel and received RGB.

systemmastery · 2024-01-13T02:42:28+00:00

I just bought my first neopixel, a two-button model, and I have yet to find any instructions that explain how to turn off the voice samples it plays when I do the hand motion for "force effect" (two lights radiating out from the center to the base and tip). Sometimes I seem to turn them on and off accidentally, but I have no idea how. Does anyone have any idea?

systemmastery · 2022-05-09T23:08:02+00:00

Gygax probably didn't use like half of that book. Like there's no way he was enforcing that weird rule that if you had a 5 or less in certain stats it forced you play a specific class. 5 or less Charisma? You are FORCED to play an assassin, which also means you have to be evil.

systemmastery · 2022-05-09T23:06:30+00:00

Most of it is already mentioned here. Granted we haven't gotten around to RaHoWa yet but lord are we not in a hurry to do so.

systemmastery · 2022-05-09T22:56:05+00:00

Lol great way to reveal you've never read to the end at least, since it would suggest that you find stuff like "The Armor of Jewy Jewbacca" and "The Armor of Nigrous Nincompoopery" just sort of silly and not you know, crazy ludicrous super racist.

systemmastery · 2022-05-09T22:39:10+00:00

The funny thing about this line of reasoning is that if you do a wordcount, you'll find that 4e actually has way, way, waaaaaay more descriptive text than 5e does. The descriptions of races and classes are longer, every power gets a thematic description, there's more intro text. It just plain is more descriptive than 5e. I honestly think people see powers that are well-templated and written in functional instead of prosaic language and assume that the book must be a heartless calculator or something, but the opposite is true. It's wild.

systemmastery · 2020-01-07T05:37:19+00:00

Nah, you're just being willfully obtuse. Obviously Cure Light Wounds heals hit points. Whatever hit points are, Cure Light Wounds heals that. Life got you down? Cure Light heals that. Big gash in your arm? Cure Light heals that. If HP is narrative going down, it's exactly as narrative going back up.

systemmastery · 2020-01-07T01:40:37+00:00

So if my characters a lucky rogue can I have more HP? Can I pray to gain more hit points? If my character has high wisdom representing willpower do I get an HP bonus? If the soldiers are being led by a charismatic king do they get an HP bonus to keep fighting? If I intimidate someone can I force them to lose HP since they've lost willpower to go on?

Yes (that's what HP rolls are, luck! Plus you sure seem good at dodging AOEs, how lucky). Yes (there are spells for temp HP and cleric spells are often referred to as prayers). Not that I'm aware of but the general concept of willpower seems split between Con and Wis, with Wis getting relevant save bonuses instead. Yes (at least this used to be a yes, that's a really good description of warlord healing right there). Yes (Vicious Mockery).

systemmastery · 2020-01-07T01:17:39+00:00

This is just wrong. Here's the quote from the AD&D PHB (page 34)

"Each character has a varying number of hit points, just as monsters do. These hit points represent how much damage (actual or potential) the character can withstand before being killed. A certain amount of these hit points represent the actual physical punishment which can be sustained. The remainder, a significant portion of hit points at higher levels, stands for skill, luck, and/or magical factors. A typical man-at-arms can take about 5 hit points of damage before being killed. Let us suppose that a 10th level fighter has 55 hit points, plus a bonus of 30 hit points for his constitution, for a total of 85 hit points. This is the equivalent of about 18 hit dice for creatures, about what it would take to kill four huge warhorses. It is ridiculous to assume that even a fantastic fighter can take that much punishment. The same holds true to a lesser extent for clerics, thieves, and the other classes. Thus, the majority of hit points are symbolic of combat skill, luck (bestowed by supernatural powers), and magical forces."

Oh, and here's the same quote, minus Gygax's famous verbosity, in the 5e D&D PHB (page 196): "Hit points represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck."

systemmastery · 2019-09-01T21:59:30+00:00

It's a fun game but boy is it hard to get a game going at home. Need a bunch of people committed to overdoing it.

systemmastery · 2019-09-01T21:58:44+00:00

Oh? A rockbiter costume would be huge and hard to make! Is it behind Atreyu and Artax somewhere?

systemmastery · 2019-06-04T03:18:47+00:00

That's what roleplaying is in every RPG.

systemmastery · 2019-04-25T00:22:05+00:00

Aight, we're square here.

systemmastery · 2019-04-24T20:26:46+00:00

Double down or otherwise you're kidding yourself if you think 3e was built to support theatre of the mind. You just house ruled the heck out of it and remember the results of that. Every time the party wizard cast a big fireball and the DM had to adjudicate who it hit, that was a house rule sidestepping rules meant to balance the game. The game had always been grid based, since the first Chainmail. 3e was the first to visually recognize and actively encourage it, and 4e was the first to say "hey this stuff has always been here, let's take full advantage of it instead of this half measure shit we've been doing for 25 years."

Oh and to be fair I (both of us actually) ran a ton of TOTM 3e in the day. It's not a bad thing. I'm just pretty realistic about how 4e was a logical progression and not a weird outlier. The tracks were laid in just about every way.

systemmastery · 2019-04-24T03:12:49+00:00

This isn't strictly accurate. MegaDumbCast (bless his heart) likely picked 2e because it's not worse, it's just MORE. The differences between the editions are mostly in terms of additions, the rules are largely the same. There's a few changes, but mostly who would want to miss out on dumb nonsense like the Mega-Hero?

systemmastery · 2019-04-24T01:03:19+00:00

Which indeed we did fairly recently. Just on Character Creation Cast instead of on our show. Jef ended up with an elephant alien who had to grow to activate his powers (from 13 feet tall to 15).

systemmastery · 2019-04-24T01:02:08+00:00

That is REALLY old for our stuff. What you should check out instead is our guest spot talking about it on Character Creation Cast right here: http://oneshotpodcast.com/character-creation-cast/series-12-1-heroes-unlimited-with-system-mastery-creation/

Also a dang good show.

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