zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Jun 10, 2013 17:52:13 GMT -6
Those Civil War maps are killer. What's the story on scanning and uploading them for use? If I had a scan of it, I'd send it to you. I'm not sure how to scan a large map like that. I only have a normal flatbed scanner/fax thingy. Mighty kind of you, but I guess the only way to do it would be in sections - and certainly this isn't worth cutting up your map over!
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Jun 7, 2013 10:31:10 GMT -6
Those Civil War maps are killer. What's the story on scanning and uploading them for use - legal? feasible?
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on May 21, 2013 13:00:49 GMT -6
I'm perfectly happy in a post-Searchers of the Unknown world in which characters have no mechanical distinctions between one another except level, how many HP they roll, and what equipment they're carrying - no classes, no races, and an infinity of possible backgrounds, nationalities, cultures, fighting styles, deities, etc. However, this way of thinking does little to satisfy that other game of D&D, the one we play by ourselves when we imagine how our next character will navigate the complicated monkey-bars of spells, ability scores, thief skills, and so on.
It's perfectly suited to players who only want to think about D&D when they're sitting at the game table, in other words. If you want to tinker with classes, on the other hand, then by all means - make a bunch of classes. Just be clear about the fact that you're not only feeding your players' in-game behavior but also your own desire to tinker with classes, which after all is your inalienable right.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on May 16, 2013 12:15:14 GMT -6
A related question: Are fighters required to purchase or build strongholds, or is it just something they're supposed to want to do?
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on May 2, 2013 17:28:21 GMT -6
Because I like the description often included in literature (D&D literature, I guess) of such level draining attacks draining life force I am going to use aging in my game. It is a percentage of your natural life span so elves don;t get it easy! I can describe the effect to my players and it shouldn't be too hard to track. It is only going to become relevant if they get hit a lot. As to being able to reverse the effect, Limited Wish will do it as will Raise Dead if you die from it (those are as powerful as PC spells get in my game). I have never like losing levels and I think S&W is deadly enough for my boys without it! I really like this idea - unnaturally accelerated aging. Ultimately, I don't think it makes the game any less deadly, and it's certainly a more flavorful option than the diminishing of a mechanical abstraction.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Apr 30, 2013 13:56:23 GMT -6
When one's level lowers, things like hit points, to-hit, saving throws, spells, special skills/abilities and the like would also lowers with it - the whole point of why this attack is so dreaded! It may not be as taxing as a 3e Level Drain, but even a game effect that adjust most of the stats in a fairly 0e-styled game is still tedious to my players. .... it takes about thirty seconds to adjust the spells and hit points. To hit and defense is done by looking it up on a table anyway. And what stats does it modify in OD&D? None. You're making a mountain out of a single grain of sand. Thirty seconds is enough to interrupt the flow of the game, though, isn't it? (I'd also point out that not everybody uses the chart when determining whether an attack is successful; some prefer to use a simple extrapolated equation.)
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Apr 27, 2013 7:03:32 GMT -6
Draining some number of XP seems like it might be likely to slow down the game while people crunch the appropriate numbers.
It seems that the point of a level drain mechanic is to frighten the players (as opposed to the characters, who are probably frightened a good deal of the time given the crazy stuff they witness on the daily) by raising the stakes of a combat encounter to include some of the effort and time they've already invested in the game. If nobody at your table is bothered by that, why water it down because there aren't any clerics at hand? If people at your table are bothered by that, why hang on to wights and wraiths (or at least to their level-draining ability) in the first place? To my mind, it depends on how much patience your players have for an occasional chute in what's otherwise a straightforward set of ladders.
(For what it's worth, I've never played with anyone who had any patience for that, but maybe I've just been unlucky.)
Edited because I realized I was responding to a post from 5 years ago: miodek, my suggestion is that you decide on a ruling that best suits the social situation of your game table. If the players are going to accept a no-saving-throw ruling with equanimity, I'd go for it; if not, the lasting mechanical impact of capitulation will be minimal, so no harm done.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Apr 26, 2013 6:24:20 GMT -6
MACHAUT!!!!!!! AWESOME.
Worth noting is that during his life Machaut was as famous for his poetry as for his music - poetry which often came to construct its meaning in relation to the other (older, often religious) texts it was set alongside in his motets and chansons. In that respect he kind of reminds me of the OSR.
For my money, the Ensemble Gilles Binchois has the coolest recordings out of Machaut's music, often supplementing it with historically informed percussion - but I'm afraid I don't know the state of medieval music groups well enough to say that there's not a hipper ensemble out there, so it's probably worth snooping around for a couple different recordings.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Apr 15, 2013 21:43:07 GMT -6
Not to speak for anyone else in the thread, but my feeling is that achieving a maximal level of the most strained, twisted interpretation of et cetera is (for one thing) useful insofar as it can suggest new possibilities of how to play the game. As a thought exercise, considering a hypothetical table where the game is played according to a very strict literal interpretation of the rules (that is to say, imagining that the players came to the table with that interpretation in mind rather than 40 years of accreted conventional D&D wisdom) can be very refreshing.
The issue at stake in this thread is a perfect example: Maybe a wizard armed with a sword represents a "strained, twisted interpretation" of the rules; on the other hand, it sounds like a lot of fun, and (as geoffrey pointed out) it's not like there aren't plenty of literary antecedents.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Apr 15, 2013 7:12:26 GMT -6
Let's not forget that a novice player who doesn't read the rules - any version of the rules! - closely might just assume that there's no reason a cleric shouldn't wield a spear. Even recent versions of D&D which present the rules in almost unbearably belabored technical language are played on a regular basis in ways that diverge from the rules by people (often children, one imagines) who just don't care to plow through a tome before jumping into the game. (I had this experience with a game of Pathfinder recently.)
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Apr 14, 2013 7:39:14 GMT -6
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Apr 12, 2013 16:39:40 GMT -6
Myself, I dispense with ability scores entirely; if someone wants to play a paladin, they play a paladin, and we all move on with our lives. You don't use ability scores, or you don't use minimum ability scores? I like to use the basic six attributes, but often don't worry about if characters meet an artificial minimum score. I wasn't sure if this is the way you do it, too, or if you actually got rid of the six attributes alltogether. No, I don't use ability scores at all except when a player needs to come up with a new character on the spot - at that point, the player might find them useful for suggesting what kind of character to play (or not, in which case we don't even use them then). Otherwise, I'm happy to let the player take the wheel in terms of describing who the character is and what he or she's about.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Apr 12, 2013 12:00:39 GMT -6
My (uneducated) guess is that minimum ability score requirements represent an outgrowth of "Gyganxian naturalism": Perhaps a minimum of 8 in CON for a dwarf is meant to prevent an "implausible" situation whereby a dwarf character (who's supposed to be hale, hearty, etc.) has 3 CON. Likewise, maybe the 17 CHA requirement for a paladin reflects what we might call a cultural assumption about the game's world: namely only the most charismatic warriors are qualified to be paladins there.
Myself, I dispense with ability scores entirely; if someone wants to play a paladin, they play a paladin, and we all move on with our lives.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Apr 9, 2013 21:19:23 GMT -6
Jumping in to point out that some players (including quite possibly bestialwarlust's) really enjoy playing a fop, a dandy, or a "pretentious musician stumbling through trouble." I certainly have.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Apr 9, 2013 9:54:31 GMT -6
I'm with Gronan and Koren. If dude wants to be a bard, let him be a bard - it'll be his job to figure out how to make himself useful to the party.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Apr 2, 2013 8:03:14 GMT -6
OK, I see what the issue is. When the term "D&D" is used here, it refers to a way of playing OD&D and similar early editions of the game that cleaves closely to the published rules and requires the players to show a great deal of restraint.
I imagine there was a fair amount of this kind of play taking place in the early 1980s too. But regardless of when people started kicking down doors and killing monsters, that seems to be a widely embraced MO in D&D broadly defined. To put it another way, D&D may be "not a combat game" at your table, or yours or yours or yours, but at many tables it is - and that fact doesn't mean that what they're doing isn't D&D.
Having said that, arguing over what gaming practices fall within the definitional boundaries of "D&D" and which don't is mad tiresome. I'm sorry I hijacked the thread to do so!
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Apr 1, 2013 16:18:58 GMT -6
In my experience, no DM sics 300 orcs (or even 30) on a first-level party. Is this one of those situations where the table-to-table variation in D&D makes it difficult for us to have a meaningful conversation, or am I being obtuse?
People fight monsters in D&D, right? I mean, right?
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Apr 1, 2013 14:46:44 GMT -6
OK, I'll bite.
In what respect is D&D "not a combat game"? Certainly one doesn't have to include combat in all (or even any) sessions of play - but given a) the amount of pages in published materials that deal exclusively with combat and b) the game's lineage in miniatures wargaming, it seems like a rather polemical provocation to assert that D&D is "not a combat game." What's your agenda here?
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Mar 25, 2013 6:25:47 GMT -6
Your comment's not appropiate either. I was pointing out that rules attornies can take any game and wreck it especially with not tested house rulings liek this one. You mistake a cynical observation with rudeness. Lay off the caffeine, dude. It's just a game. No caffeine here, and I came away with the same impression as sirravd. Your comment was rude. And wrong: Not that it's any of your business, but I've been playing for about 20 years and nobody ever told me I was an especially unimaginative person. If indeed it's "just a game," then we shouldn't be so precious with the rules that we hesitate to jump in and try new things. If the scenario you described were to happen, I'd have to stand up and pinch myself, because it would mean that the people at my table are uncool people. That hasn't happened in recent memory. I play with my friends (as I imagine do most of you), and my friends would never wreck the game.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Mar 24, 2013 17:21:11 GMT -6
I say give it a shot. Worst case scenario, the players who choose elf characters have slightly more fun than the other players.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Mar 23, 2013 20:36:11 GMT -6
In my campaigns, fiat has to be earned too! Levels are a reward not only for skillful operations of the mechanisms but also for skillful negotiation of the social field of play - being entertaining, being persuasive, being colorful, being fun to hang out with every week (or however often it is). What we do is not, as has often been pointed out, a computer or video game; it's a game whose successful carrying-out depends on interpersonal interactions. As a strong believer in freeform leveling, I like to reflect those interactions in the game's mechanical progress.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Mar 14, 2013 14:26:34 GMT -6
Some DMs activate a veritable Rube Goldberg machine of rules pertaining to range, hallway width, haft weight, whether or not the character is mounted, etc. that's supposed to compensate (in certain very specific combat situations and if anyone actually remembers) for the spear's low damage. I tend instead to bump up the spear's damage to compete with other two-handed weapons and call it good.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Mar 10, 2013 19:42:53 GMT -6
Thank you. I figured the damage thing out on my own shortly after posting.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Mar 10, 2013 13:51:58 GMT -6
Also, is there supposed to be a D (damage) column on this chart?
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Mar 10, 2013 13:26:46 GMT -6
But how does the number figure into that? "Lair nearby" is a column heading on a chart that lists numbers (most seem to be between 1 and 100, but none have percent signs) for each monster type. Is that the chance that there's a lair nearby? Is it the distance to the nearest lair? Is it something else entirely? I believe it is the % chance that the den is nearby. (in random encounters) In that case, I believe that the next edition of the Monster/Treasure Reference should have a note up in it.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Mar 10, 2013 12:35:13 GMT -6
But how does the number figure into that? "Lair nearby" is a column heading on a chart that lists numbers (most seem to be between 1 and 100, but none have percent signs) for each monster type. Is that the chance that there's a lair nearby? Is it the distance to the nearest lair? Is it something else entirely?
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Mar 10, 2013 10:54:20 GMT -6
I'm sorry if this has already been addressed, but I'm not sure what "Lair Nearby" indicates in the Monster and Treasure Reference. Can somebody clear this up for me? Thanks in advance.
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Mar 7, 2013 13:19:15 GMT -6
All that said, if someone wants to strip D&D of classes and levels and stats, I think it could still make for a good game - it would possibly be an improvement in some ways, though a step back in others.
I'd love to run a campaign that worked in exactly this way. After all, gaining 1d6 hp every so often is a bit of a "kewl power," isn't it?
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Mar 7, 2013 11:50:24 GMT -6
One thing this thread is making clear to me, at least, is that a character who signs up to play a cleric is basically asking for some kind of weird (and hopefully flavorful) restriction on her weapon choice - whether it's blunt weapons, weapons you can find in the woods, or weapons that correspond thematically to the pertinent deity. I kind of like the idea of a campaign in which the pantheon is made up of a bunch of gods of really weird things - like you can worship either the god of plankton, the god of irony, or the god of taxation. What would those clerics have to wield?
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zeraser
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 184
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Post by zeraser on Mar 7, 2013 10:33:30 GMT -6
What if a cleric wielded a very dull sword? What about two swords tied together tip-to-pommel such that instead of cutting someone it would batter them with the upside-down hilt? Do flanged maces with points - not spikes per se, but just little pointed corners that stick out - violate the proscription?
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