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Post by hamurai on Jul 15, 2023 13:02:59 GMT -6
We're really enjoying Lion Rampant 2nd edition. It's got some fules for fantasy units, not just historical ones.
It's a pretty easy-to-learn generic game which plays fast and is a lot of fun.
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Post by hamurai on Jul 13, 2023 22:07:54 GMT -6
I've had a house-rule at some point which allowed armour to be sacrificed to prevent the damage from one hit, same as shields in the additional rule that shields can be broken to prevent damage. As a last resort, this worked.
The armour would then need a professional smith to be repaired. If the adventurers were to patch it up, it would protect as one step lower in the "armour ladder", while still slowing down as before.
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Post by hamurai on Jul 9, 2023 1:16:12 GMT -6
Welcome, newcomers!
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Post by hamurai on Jun 11, 2023 15:17:50 GMT -6
I played Blood Bowl yesterday, start of our new local league. I had the worst dice throws of my life in this game. The other player got away with rookie mistakes because he kept rolling perfectly and I, despite re-rolls, kept rolling pure crap.
I lost the first two players on turn one. On turn 5 I had lost 4 players already (for the rest of the game and some for the next game). At the end of the first half I only had 5 players on the field. Enough recovered to field 7 players at the start of the second half. First turn, my Valkyrie gets the ball, runs, everything looked great. The enemy Trained Troll throws a Goblin, perfect throw, the Goblin hits my Valkyrie and against all odds not only succeeds in taking away the ball, but he also kills her outright. At that time my Yeti I fielded for the first time had spend most of his time lying on the grass because I kept rolling 1s when I wanted him to get up and block. When only 2 turns were left to play, I had only 5 players on the field, the other team had lost an Ork (killed by one of my Linemen) and one Goblin was KO. Due to some cunning and my enemy's bloodlust my remaining Valkyrie managed to take the ball and perfectly throw it to a Lineman who scored a touchdown on the next turn. That was one single epic moment in a match dominated by pure dumb luck of the other player, and some pure dumb bad luck on my part.
My Norsca Beerserkers lost 1:3 against the Black Orks.
In the end, we both felt that the game dragged on too long after the first half. It was no longer interesting enough to make us jump up. I was used to failing every important roll (towards the end, I KO'ed my Yeti because he tripped...), while the other player was more interested in trying how many Goblins he'd need to kill my other Valkyrie.
Apart from about 4 turns, I think this match was Blood Bowl at its worst, and the reason why many first-time players don't come back to it.
Still, I'm looking forward towards my next match. Hopefully the Wood Elves will not be so lucky...
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Post by hamurai on May 21, 2023 22:03:44 GMT -6
What parameters did you change? I tried several maps and didn't have any issues. Are you PC? I am using a Mac. Could that be it? Yeah, PC. Your Mac should be able to handle PNGs, though, I'd imagine, but I'm no expert on Macs... Maybe your browser is the issue? We have some Macs at work I know that Safari and other Mac browsers have a couple of problems with several websites.
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Post by hamurai on May 20, 2023 22:53:47 GMT -6
What parameters did you change?
I tried several maps and didn't have any issues.
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Post by hamurai on May 19, 2023 9:29:08 GMT -6
jeffb , thanks for the info! I actually have T&T deluxe at home and if I get to play, we often use that instead of my first edition book.
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Post by hamurai on May 18, 2023 22:14:15 GMT -6
Great artwork!
I'm not familiar with M!M!, but I've been plying T&T a lot. Is there a lot of difference, or could I just ignore the rules and play T&T in this setting?
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Post by hamurai on May 12, 2023 7:45:53 GMT -6
Sure, I get that some people play these scenarios. It just never felt reasonable to me, but that may be my personal taste. I'll check that module, maybe I'll see the appeal.
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Post by hamurai on May 11, 2023 22:01:29 GMT -6
I honestly never understood why folks would need stats for those deities. My approach had always been that they're gods and therefore beyond the stats of mortals. Demigods and heroes, that's another thing.
The fluff part of the gods is far more interesting to me.
I generally don't include RL deities in my games unless I'm trying a "historical" setting. These days I find it more interesting to come up with one or two deities and let the players add in the rest.
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Post by hamurai on May 10, 2023 7:00:00 GMT -6
Is there a reason why they should be included?
I guess they had to draw the line at some point.
Apart from Shiva, they are not in my OD&D D&DG either.
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Post by hamurai on May 5, 2023 12:45:15 GMT -6
You could every FM have their own specialty - an archer could have the chance to fire multiple arrows per round, similar to the multi-attack of the FM against weaker enemies. A barbarian with high dex and no armour might be allowed to use their DEX bonus to lower their AC, a knight might double the shield AC bonus, etc.
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Post by hamurai on May 4, 2023 8:17:47 GMT -6
I honestly never understood the hype. There are some nice ideas in there, but hardly anything that I haven't read someplace else. There are so many rules-light games like Knave out there, free, fitting on a sheet or two; it makes me wonder why I'd want that blown up to the size of a book.
I don't know Knave's second edition and I've never played the first, though. I have other favourites in the niche of rules-light OSR games.
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Post by hamurai on May 2, 2023 22:08:00 GMT -6
I agree, the Fireball is more fun on higher levels, against weak creatures especially. It's no longer the feeling from earlier editions, though.
In 5E, I've come to dislike most direct-damage spells and prefer crowd control and utility spells. I'm having a lot more fun with these.
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Post by hamurai on Apr 30, 2023 13:00:53 GMT -6
All characters have one ability score called "Ability Score" That's close to the Awesomesauce RPG, where you have exactly 1 stat named Awesomesauce: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/107162/Awesomesauce-The-Roleplaying-Game-Troll-Hammer-EditionIt's your generic skill and you can roll as many dice as you have in Awesomesauce, as long as you roll above the enemy's result in combat, you retain your score in Awesomesauce, if you lose, you lose the dice you used.
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Post by hamurai on Apr 29, 2023 23:31:31 GMT -6
Ability Factors A through F. Great for use with Traveller-style short character profile (UPP). DM: "You must roll against F." Player: "Great! My rating in F is C." DM: "Oh, sorry, I meant you have to roll against the enemy's F score in ability A." Player: "Ah, well, at least I got A in A." They're not D&D ability names, but the fact that John Harper's "Lasers & Feelings" rpg actually names the two "stats" (represented by a single number) "Lasers" and "Feelings" was confusing at first. The game played reasonably well when you got the idea what the stats are supposed to do, though.
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Post by hamurai on Apr 29, 2023 23:10:11 GMT -6
Thanks for sharing!
I skimmed it and it looks like there are some nice ideas in there. Will have to take a closer look.
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Post by hamurai on Apr 19, 2023 14:07:25 GMT -6
Thanks for the info, I'll check the rules out!
If you like the more tactical game, Blood Bowl might be right for you. When it's your turn you activate your players one after the other, either until your luck runs out and you botch an action (so it's really important to get the order of activations right for your tactics), or until all your players have activated. What I like is how differently many teams play - you've got the agile teams like elves and Skaven who can mostly outrun the other teams, but they're more fragile too. Other teams rely on "blocking", attempting to take out the other team's players, so they even get a chance to score a touchdown.
Some matches with the wee and squishy teams are a wild and often random match of running after the ball and trying not to hurt yourselves, other matches with the strong and tough teams are more like a mass brawl in the first half and the second half is a mix of tactics and brawling, depending on who came out better in the first.
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Post by hamurai on Apr 18, 2023 8:23:47 GMT -6
I’ve never played Blood Bowl, but I picked up the first edition of Blitz Bowl on clearance about a year ago (or so). Built the models and played out a few rounds solo to learn the game. Interesting system. I gather it’s sort of a “lighter and faster” edition of Blood Bowl— I guess the “Arena League,” as it were. Don’t really think I’ll go farther than this starter set, but I’d like to try it against an opponent. I actually started with Blitz Bowl 2 back when it came out and was happy with it for a long time. I also got the latest ("ultimate") edition, although the changes are rather small apart from the cards. The game was great fun, so I decided to get Blood Bowl, and I really enjoyed it, too. It's a totally different gameplay, though, so both games can exist in their own right. I know several people who like the one, but hate the other. Blitz Bowl is great for really quick plays with sometimes weird tactics to fulfill the card challenges, which is not present in Blood Bowl. If you're looking for something in between Blood Bowl and Blitz Bowl, there's Blood Bowl Sevens (just 7 players per team on a smaller field), Street Bowl, Beach Bowl, and several other ideas involving smaller teams and play fields. Have you ever tried the OOP Hasbro board game, Battle Ball? It’s got some neat concepts (and great miniatures), though it needs…something… to push it further— it’s just a little too simple. (I found an “Advanced Battle Ball” homebrew rules set which is a step in the right direction.) I've never tried Battle Ball and was just vaguely aware it existed. I've never heard anyone mention it where I live. I think some folks here had played some Guild Ball some years ago, but that's abandoned.
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Post by hamurai on Apr 18, 2023 8:05:02 GMT -6
I would love one, but shipping there is huge pain. So put me in the "begrudgingly no" category. Same here, I guess.
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Post by hamurai on Apr 15, 2023 2:19:45 GMT -6
It's sure possible to play a ME campaign with Hârnmaster, just be aware that while magic is rare, some spells are really powerful. "Freezing Cloud" or something like that comes to mind, which could instantly take out even a strong group of enemies. When we played our campaign, once the player had that spell leveled up a bit, it became the standard opening spell for many battles, often enough it was the only action happening in the battle.
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Post by hamurai on Apr 13, 2023 0:11:58 GMT -6
Last weekend we played Blood Bowl. My Norse team had some trouble stopping the jumping and running Skaven at first and they scored 2 touchdowns in the first half, but by the start of the second half I had taken out one of their Blitzers, a Lineman and the Rat Ogre. Since they had no players in reserve (I lost a Lineman, but had 1 in reserve) my full team crushed them in the 2nd half.
Now we're hyped for more, I already ordered some ridiculously cheap Chaos Dwarf and Nurgle teams from Etsy, plus some big ones and star players. Soon(ish), we'll start a local league. I love it!
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Post by hamurai on Apr 9, 2023 22:49:11 GMT -6
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Post by hamurai on Apr 7, 2023 22:57:14 GMT -6
Point of order— In Classic D&D, the answer isn’t clear. The spell description seems to imply that it is cast within a given area, but also provides for a saving throw if cast on a creature. Casting it on an object is not addressed. (X11, RC35) Also interesting in that regard, reading the RC: The saving throw does not negate the spell, but a failed save means that the spell will travel with the creature. A successful save therefore means that the spell stays in pace, but the creature can move out of its range.
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Post by hamurai on Mar 29, 2023 22:52:02 GMT -6
Well, personally I wanted to see what they'd dreamed up for the new D&D, and 4 people sitting at a table with a neoprene battlemat to rest their laptops on, and with dice lying next to their laptops just for decoration... That just was weird. Most of the time they seemed to be looking into the laptop screen to see what the situation was like, even during the pure RP phase in the tavern, because they always shoved their virtual minis around.
So, if the goal has been to make D&D a less social experience, I'd say Success! But that certainly isn't my style of playing.
The necessity that people got to using VTTs during the pandemic is now a virtue to WotC, so even if you are able to meet in person at a table, you will now play just the way you would if you couldn't meet in person. But you'll have eye contact from time to time. Great. Not.
I totally get that these days, apparently most D&D rounds meet online over a VTT and for them, this will be a good thing. If this VTT is well done, why not. But to make us believe that it's better than using real dice and pen and paper and minis? To make us believe that we'd prefer entirely virtual assets over physical ones? You can just hope that there won't be a power failure or some issue with the ISP, or the evening of D&D is canceled.
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Post by hamurai on Mar 28, 2023 22:12:32 GMT -6
Again, I say the creature is forced into the new form, including the body's ability to pump blood and regenerate cells and do whatever else alive bodies do. It's part of the physical abilities the polymorphed creature gets. Its aura or a part of its astral shadow or imprint on the universe (or whatever you'd like to call it) still is the original form and when the spell is dispelled, it returns to that form. I'd say that you can't really determine the age of the creature you polymorph to. So, an old undead will polymorph into a very old living creature, maybe close to dying even. Polymorphing into an immortal body (like an elf's, in some settings) would make the body immortal, but the soul is not made for this. I'd probably house-rule that a human's soul in such a body would be very prone to senility or madness if forced into an undying body. Interesting thought experiments
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Post by hamurai on Mar 27, 2023 22:05:57 GMT -6
Very nice! I never thought I'd see a set of metal dice that appeal to me, but I would have bought these, too. Will check my FLGS today...
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Post by hamurai on Mar 25, 2023 23:46:07 GMT -6
From the spell description in the AD&D 1E PHB: Edit: So the answer to the OP is Yes. Just to be clear
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Post by hamurai on Mar 25, 2023 23:21:33 GMT -6
Yes, I'd absolutely say so, unless the new corporeal form was chosen from among those creatures which cannot be damaged by normal weapons.
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Post by hamurai on Mar 25, 2023 9:52:27 GMT -6
Yeah, just let the players have some bloody fun And you, too, of course! Blood for the Blood God
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