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Post by jcstephens on Oct 9, 2013 14:20:40 GMT -6
Carcosa is a deadly place. Unlike most other settings, instead of a relatively safe multilevel dungeon for beginning characters to start off with they're required to adventure overland right from the beginning. First level characters encountering monsters of the types and numbers found on the Wilderness Encounter Tables tend to die. A lot. The constant stream of replacements begins to strain credulity ("ANOTHER escaped slave? How to the slavers even stay in business?"). The obvious solution of starting characters at higher levels not only makes a mockery of the whole "long road to greatness" theme characteristic of OD&D, it also raises the question of how communities of ordinary men survive. They have to come out of their holes sometime, if they plan on eating regularly.
I'm thinking that improving the role of missile weapons is the way to go here. A barrage of stones, arrows and hurled spears should soften up even the toughest charging beast, either driving it off (if morale rules are being used) or making it die quicker in melee. Increasing the rate of fire for combat turns prior to melee would work, and I'm also considering critical hits for missile weapons only.
Has anyone else tried any of this? How did it work out? And what other solutions to the problem might there be?
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Post by jcstephens on Sept 24, 2013 12:05:07 GMT -6
Has there been lots of wailing about piracy and copyright? I haven't heard anything about that from them in recently. Do you think people are going to pirate the books now that they have to wait an extra month for them? I'm talking about the barn door slamming when they pulled the legitimate PDFs, when anyone who wanted them long since had them legitimately or otherwise. Now they have a chance to actually make money on their 'Intellectual Property' for the first time in DECADES, and they're screwing it up. This amuses me.
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Post by jcstephens on Sept 24, 2013 11:51:08 GMT -6
Latest word from Amazon is that the set will be delayed at least until December. Much I care, I already have a complete set on PDF (don't recall where I got them; must have fell off the back of a packet). But it amuses me that, after all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over "piracy" and "copyright", I'm left standing with a handful of money that they can't be bothered to take.
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Post by jcstephens on Sept 22, 2013 12:08:05 GMT -6
I'd have a Scientist class,as a counterpart to the Magic-user. Since in my world magic is inherently Chaotic, science would be inherently Lawful. Of course, just as there are Lawful Wizards, there are also Chaotic Doctors and Professors. And we all know what THAT means...
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Post by jcstephens on Sept 20, 2013 6:29:42 GMT -6
Isn't this the plot of The World's Largest Dungeon?
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Post by jcstephens on Sept 19, 2013 7:56:08 GMT -6
And of course, there's always Invocation rituals for the really obscure stuff.
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Post by jcstephens on Sept 16, 2013 14:40:49 GMT -6
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Post by jcstephens on Sept 8, 2013 15:43:25 GMT -6
I picked up a copy of Firefight this summer, and I keep meaning to do something with it.
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Post by jcstephens on Aug 20, 2013 10:43:58 GMT -6
DM's choice as to how lethal you want them to be. I'd give the Carrion Crawler a single attack, since 8 chances for paralysis per round would make it a TPK machine and it just looks too goofy for that. A Grell OTOH being a flying brain squid just looks like something that any sane person would run away from screaming, so it's attacks should reflect that. But that's just my opinion.
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Post by jcstephens on Aug 14, 2013 12:26:44 GMT -6
I have to admit to chuckling a bit at the assertion that Geoffrey is a power-gamer. Geoffrey is one of those rare folks who rolls a 3 for intelligence and says "By the Gods, this character is going to be a Magic User!" Haha As I've pointed out before, the stats are the range of NORMAL human ability. Someone with an Int of 3 would be like Forrest Gump: a little slow, but he'd get there eventually. Forrest Gump as a magic-user might not be everyone's idea of a fun character, but played well it would be highly entertaining. And after all, isn't that the whole point of the game?
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Post by jcstephens on Aug 12, 2013 21:28:38 GMT -6
Historically, Metamorphosis Alpha/Gamma World managed to do without both skills and classes. Character abilities were defined more by their gear than anything else. That's probably going too far the other way, but it was done and did work.
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Post by jcstephens on Aug 3, 2013 9:16:03 GMT -6
One problem with that notion is that given Carcosa's billions of years of pre-human history it would be difficult to find a place or object that WASN'T steeped in horror of some sort.
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Post by jcstephens on Jul 29, 2013 14:21:45 GMT -6
Any wilderness survival guide can provide "food" for thought. Two of my favorites from the US Army's manual: "Anything that walks, crawls, swims or creeps is a potential source of protein", and "Bird's eggs remain edible at all stages of development".
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Post by jcstephens on Jul 26, 2013 13:14:25 GMT -6
I'm of the opinion that when the word count of the house rules exceeds the word count of the rules as written, you have a new game. By this definition, when the supplements to the D&D rules exceeded the word count of the original rules themselves, a new game was created which became 1st Edition AD&D.
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Post by jcstephens on Jul 25, 2013 0:23:38 GMT -6
"The "forgotten" planet had been seeded for life, first with microbes and later with plants and insects. A third expedition, intended to complete the seeding with animals, never occurred. Over the millennia the insects and plants grew to gigantic sizes. The action of the novel describes the fight for survival by descendants of a crashed spaceship as they battle wolf-sized ants, flies the size of chickens, and gigantic flying wasps." - from the Wikipedia article. This 1954 science fiction novel has something of a Carcosan flavor, and is in the public domain. www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41637
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Post by jcstephens on Mar 17, 2013 10:55:31 GMT -6
Maybe that 15th level thief read a cursed scroll: "Next time someone casts Summon Monster, YOU'RE IT." Imagine getting something like that, and having to wait for it.
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Post by jcstephens on Mar 15, 2013 12:35:33 GMT -6
Paranoia is made of this.
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Post by jcstephens on Mar 4, 2013 16:21:52 GMT -6
I wonder if I could get away with huge human-powered clockwork devices? I've got monsters and treasures, what I mostly need is spectacle.
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Post by jcstephens on Mar 3, 2013 14:03:43 GMT -6
I'm thinking about starting a Carcosa campaign. While the main thrust is going to be hexcrawling, the players are going to want a dungeon "just because". I got an idea for one based around an underground Snake-Man city, but I need ideas for interesting sights. Right now I've got too many rooms labeled "incomprehensible alien machinery, some of which is still active".
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Post by jcstephens on Mar 3, 2013 13:51:42 GMT -6
Magic/alien tech. It's for a possible Carcosa game. But I'm sure I saw the original idea somewhere on this board, and a search turned up nothing.
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Post by jcstephens on Mar 2, 2013 17:58:22 GMT -6
A light shaft is a shaft going down into the earth with a beam of light running down the center of it. I found the idea in my notebook and I want to use it for a new megadungeon, but I don't remember where it came from. does it ring a bell with anyone else?
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Post by jcstephens on Sept 18, 2012 9:20:59 GMT -6
Make the stated amount the cost of materials if you can find them for sale nearby. Most likely they'll have to be sent for. First Fantasy Campaign has some ideas for making this a challenge. THEN there's the cost of hiring someone to do the work. That can get interesting - and pricy. And what happens when the Dwarf you hired to make a sword decides to run off with it? Magic items should NEVER be a matter of just 'writing a check', one way or another people should have to work for them!
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Post by jcstephens on Sept 2, 2012 10:02:59 GMT -6
Beware: That way lies Runequest!
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Post by jcstephens on Aug 13, 2012 13:47:20 GMT -6
Ken StAndre's bio in Different Worlds #1 relates that he was impressed with what he saw, but he didn't care for polyhedral dice, and he felt he could do better. In a nutshell at any rate as I'm vastly paraphrasing. So yes it is it's own system, but it was inspired by oD&D. So it's the AK-47 of roleplaying games? Mikhail Kalashnikov is reputed to have said much the same thing about the German Sturmgewehr, just before inventing the Avtomat Kalashnikova.
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Post by jcstephens on Aug 9, 2012 2:12:37 GMT -6
One of the themes of my campaign is that mortal men have a greater capacity for both good and evil than any supernatural being. The poster child for the Dark Side is Prince Ivan II of Ruritania. Basically Doctor Doom without the bombast, his reputation is such that the last time the Mongols came through they divided their horde and passed north and south rather than set foot on his territory.
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Post by jcstephens on Aug 5, 2012 9:48:18 GMT -6
If you make a joke and no one laughs, the joke wasn't funny. The proper course of action is to apologize and then remain silent until you can come up with a better one.
I'm just saying, is all.
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Post by jcstephens on Jul 17, 2012 15:55:16 GMT -6
Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I take the passage literally. Clerics may use any non-magic weapon they please, but only non-edged magic weapons. Why? Because it's MAGIC! As long as it's consistent, it doesn't have to make sense. Same thing with magic-users, they can use non-magical weapons and armor but the enchanted stuff doesn't work for them. If they try, the enchantments fail and they get no bonuses nor abilities.
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Post by jcstephens on Feb 5, 2012 14:12:44 GMT -6
The rules as written state: "When using the Man-To Man combat system all preceding rules apply, except where amended below". Mass combat initiative is found in the Turn Sequence section on page 9, where players dice for initiative, winner choosing to move first or last. The rules as commonly interpreted are that the moving unit is the attacker, with ambiguous situations resolved by a referee's decision, or a dice roll if there is no referee. There are provisions for simultaneous movement using written orders, but this DEFINITELY requires a referee to keep things sorted out. More trouble than it's worth, says I.
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Post by jcstephens on Feb 2, 2012 20:54:16 GMT -6
Either situational (one figure's side is charging, the other standing) or roll for initiative.
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Post by jcstephens on Jan 21, 2012 20:39:44 GMT -6
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